Eleventh/Twelth

Last two weeks have been absolutely amazing. In many ways, overwhelming. It all started with a wing trip to Kasol and around the same time, Kanpur's aquatics team won laurels at the 50th Inter-IIT Sports Meet. And that was followed by Antaragni'14 - my last one as a student (Now don't give me that expression for being all senti. It was my LAST Antaragni. I am allowed to be senti.)

I would start with the Kasol trip. On the first day of October, six of us embarked on an autumn break trip for a wanderlust in the Himalayas. After a day's stop-over in Delhi (which actually timed perfectly. We roamed around Rajghat, India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan for full 'Gandhi Jayanti feels') and a 14 hour bliss on road, we reached a small village sandwiched between Himalayas with Parvati river acting as a cheese-slice (Okay I know that's a lame extension.) But given the extended weekend, Kasol was crowded. So much that we had to travel 10 kilometers to find an ATM filled with cash. We din't complain though. For the crowd was hip, young and beautiful. Lazying about the riverside, we made a late evening plan to go for the Kheerganga trek the following morning. Next morning, things were going perfect till we realized we took a wrong route and had reached Tosh, another pretty village in the upper reaches. We were 6 kilometers and about 2 hours behind our schedule. We had a decision to make and some folks around discouraged us from making the actual ascend as it would be difficult to return by night-fall. That's when the big-man Rahul made a big decision of returning to base which would exponentially increase our speed. We started on a 25 kilometer trek with 7 hours of sunlight in our hand with intentions to spend about an hour at the top. We proceeded smoothly and witnessed some of the most spectacular sights nature could offer.

Pit-Stop 2

Crossing a village towards Kheerganga

Place where apples were growing like leaves

The hot water spring bath at Kheerganga - Bliss

We reached Kheerganga in around 3 hours and followed it up with a relaxing lazy bath in the warm spring water. Bathing out in the open, 3000 meters above sea-level, surrounded by mighty Himalayas was indeed a specially refreshing feeling. You don't get such opportunities everyday after all. We started our descend some 90 minutes after we first set feet on the Kheerganga meadows and finished our trek with last rays of sunlight.

The following day, we lazed around in a completely different state. We hopped around cafes, hanged out by the river...basically chilled out like hippie locals of the place. On the last day, we were on the road back to Delhi but not before white-water rafting on Beas. It was different from rafting in Rishikesh in the sense that we were not required to paddle our way on the 7 kilometer route. The river current was fast enough to keep the raft moving. Gave us enough bang for the buck.

I originally planned to write about the Inter-IIT gold too but recent developments have led to re-positioning that piece into Vox Populi. Yes, I will edit and add its link soon.

Coming to the final topic - Antaragni. First two days went by as every other Antaragni. I attended Prima Nocte and Synchronicity, checked out the crowd food-stalls and finished off trivial academic works to free me for the weekend. I wake up on day 3 afternoon and the emotion of last Antaragni suddenly hits me. I go to Samarth's room to discuss possible dramebaazi we could carry out. He was watching random videos on YouTube to prepare for his Mridaksh prelims. The Aamir Khan's proposal to Priety Zinta from the iconic Dil Chahta Hai comes up and I sealed it for the chutzpah of the day. The only rider - she just had to be way out of my league. So, after enjoying Sunburn (As dancing would be too poetic a word. I actually look like a lunatic on a jumping jack when I attempt to 'dance') we gathered back in the Old SAC. And by 'we', I mean a crowd of around 15 folks, mostly from my Hall. We roamed about for good 20 minutes rejecting chick after chick in search of the one way out of my league. Finally we came across a group of 12-15 ladies and most of them seemed out of my league. I partially developed cold feet but somehow went ahead and knelt down before one of them. Others formed a circle around us, clicking snaps and partially cheering me. I obliged and somehow motivated by their reaction confidently phonated the dialogue I had painstakingly memorized. Claps followed and I thanked them for being a sport. And that also marked the end of Day 3.

Day 4 had no special plans. But after the Vishal-Shekhar concert, I somehow wasn't ready to end Antaragni. Ball Dance was the only event left and we (Samarth, I and others) gave it a shot. Asked a few people around but with no success. We were a tad dissapointed and decided to call it a day after a pizza. Bhanu and Pushp joined us. On our way back, Deepak (near Old SAC gate) and Pranay (near Hall 1) bumped into us. We started talking about the end of an era and our previous Antaragni adventures. Something in our conversation fired us up and all of us made a U-turn to Old SAC. We spent some time planning our moves but eventually I pull Pushp and Pranay to join me in an endeavor to convey all those pretty people how much will we miss them and how monotonous the campus will be next day onward. We were a bit apprehensive at first but after a couple of 'Awws' and 'We'll miss you toos' later, we stepped up our game. Spent a good part of the next hour and half at it. And then at 4, called it a day.

And that's how my friends, I spent my last Antaragni. I may have intentionally left out some parts, mainly because I am now getting a little bored by this post. But I am sure there are enough pointers in this post that will remind me of those parts. Hang in there for the post on Aquatics Gold!