The call..

(For the backstreet boys fans out there, let me tell you. They suck...royally. And this post has nothing to do with their stupid song of the same name. But yes sapo, i still like westlife a bit)

This is going to be a slicha long post written in a narrative way. Unless you have lot of time (to waste), please try listening to the podcast or move over. :)

Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Time: 7:25PM
Place: Me in my room as usual doing some fart on my comp

Situation:

Siddesh (for those who dont know and those who think they know, he is a 3rd yr comp sci guy in the thick of election 2006 matters) calls up. Asks me to install linux on dean's office comps for the elections on friday. Ok, I pack grub and go. The deans PA guy (hereafter referred to as the guy) there is slicha pained and wants to leave. And siddesh too has work in some hostel. So, me is left alone there and the guy says, "I am leaving. just bolting the door, not locking. Call me when you are done". Set down to work. Pretty painful in the beginning as all 3 comps have been stripped (a)part by part. And only one of the mice is PS2. rest dont work. pain :(

setup one comp and start the process. the comp bulbs and i need to start the install process atleast two times over. Time flies. the clock ticks to 8:30. Now, there is a knock on the door. Look up. Some non-insti guy standing there. Tries to open door. Fails. I go near the door and try to open from inside. No luck. but clearly, the lock wasnt put. both try again to open but to no avail. give up on it. he claims to be from tata indicom and has come to take one of their instruments to put in the hostels. (Now, whose idea was it to put them? Absolutely no need when 99% of us have cell phones. the rest 1% better get one soon. and no privacy at all. whats the use?!?) We again try opening. pushing, pulling..no use. i decide to call the guy..Take cell. Zuk signal. Wtf?!? shake it like its one of those centrifuge tubes. some sign of signal. one bar. good, now call. Ring ring, ring ring. full ring goes but the idiot doesnt pick up. try again. again, doesnt pick up. after that, its time for hutch to not let me try any more and bore me with stupid messages like Network busy, Number not reachable, try again later.. things that make me go arghhhh. Then suddenly a brainwave strikes me. This is deans office. There must be a landline somewhere around here.....and there was one. So, pick it up and dial the number. Again, the idiot doesnt pick up. try again. god knows what he was doing. he just doesnt want to pick up no matter what. ok, once more. no luck. full ring and then the engaged tone. i decide this guy is mad and keep the receiver down. and lo and behold, the phone rings once i keep it down. thinking ok, good. this guy has atleast some sense and is calling back, i pick up the phone and say hello expecting to hear a familiar voice. a coarse male voice replies back, rather retorts back..Is this 8051???..taken aback, i ask, sir.....reply comes faster than i expect..Is this 8051?!? Who are you?..being alone in the 2nd floor of some arbit building at night when normally you expect to be cooling your heels off in your room, the situation gets to my head. something shady going on here i realise and reply..sir, i am ganesh, a second year student....
Voice at other end:Is this deans office? Is this 8051???..
Me:sir, i am working on the computers here sir. For the elections. installing linux. And i am not sure if this is 8051 sir. Its just one of the landlines here sir
Voice:What are you doing there now?!?
Me:sir, the person here had told me to call back once i was done..a guy has come asking...
the voice starts speaking even as i try to explain my situation..
Voice:Look, i am...i am..*long pause*...i am the head of the mechanical department.
Me:(trying to sound very apolegitic)Sorry sir...am very sorry sir..
Voice:This is my number. 94444*****..dial the number carefully next time.
Me:yes sir..sorry sir for...

As i speak, the line is cut. Phew, i heave a sigh of relief. Life can get exciting at times in all the wrong ways for sure!!

PS:it later turned out that the guy had infact only closed the door and not locked it. it was just stuck a bit. :-/ and for all the time that i was there, i searched as much i could but deans office is gib...there just wasnt anything worthy of culting ;)

PS2: i was very relieved when on friday at the meeting of all hostel wardens at CC after elections were over to tally the results that the mech HOD was thankfully not one of the wardens :) i only hope he doesnt bump into me anywhere in the near future though its quite impossible that he will recognise my voice :D

Of elections and work..

One will admit without any semblance of doubt that this year's elections were far far more subdued in all ways than last years..The excitement (and lots of other crap) that was there in the air in the days leading to the big day...the intense campaigning, deal striking, running around..nothing of that this year..in fact, not more than one guy came campaigning to my hostel...atleast when i was around. And i guess it was more of a want to try to defeat the other contestant who was widely claimed to be the better one and in the end, the former lost by a decent margin..

my experiences with both elections have been very different...actively involved in campaigning last year and this year in getting things working...an unofficial worker last year, officially a worker this year. both equally taxing i must admit though the later was more enjoyable in a few ways as it had to do with working with computers, my first love :) running various tests to ascertain everything is working right, helping in debugging the program, setting up firewalls on the servers, installing linux on the clients...i do enjoy doing all these as most already know. :D and yes, the latter is advantageous over the former in the sense that there is a treat for the taking come what may unlike the former, where you might get a treat if the guy wins, which in my case last year wasnt to be. He came excruciatingly close to winning only to lose by the lowest margin ever in insti elections...25 votes :(

the experience last year taught me that IITians neednt always think rationally and can go to any extreme to get their work done and bring down the other. it brought to the fore the hate that had been there between northis and gults most of the time, atleast as far as i know. the soap box and the eboard were classic examples of this. thankfully, such scenes were nowhere to be seen this year. no whole evenings wasted running around hostels disturbing people who are seriously doing something with all about the candidate's credentials and his promises (and most of the times, they remain just that).

Now, with 5 IITians having started their own party, looks like politics is getting into the IITians blood in a big way now...I wish the guys all the best in their endaevour and hope it doesnt loose steam and fade away..I still havent been able to make up my mind on whether what they are doing is quite right or not..Because in today's sh*tty indian political arena, its quite tough to bring about a change without giving in to some bad tactics but then a start has to be made some day or the other..in that sense, this is a great start :) lets all support them and hope they bring about the much needed change that we have all been looking forward to all these days!!