A Crazy Crazy Ride!!

                ‘Who on this earth is calling me at this forbidden time?’ I muttered in half sleep. The phone was vibrating for a long time. I tried to ignore but finally those vibrations succeeded in shaking my conviction to ignore the incoming call. Eyes half open and spectacles out of my reach, I tried to read the blinking letters. ‘PROF SINGH HOME Calling…’ it said. For a second or so, I just stared blankly at the screen. Then suddenly a shiver went through my spine. It was my project guide! In a flash I stood up. Morning can’t be good when your project guide calls you at 6.40 am. Still I gathered courage to pick up and said “Good morning Sir…” “Oye Abhijitt, oye you are still sleeping? Inne der takk? I am trying your phone kinne waari ” Prof. Singh asked in his Punjabified English. “Yes Sir. Matlab No Sir. I woke up. Was in bathroom,” was my lame reply. “Oye good good. Now get ready in 10 min. You have to go to Ludhiana. We got good samples yesterday. You have to test them and feed the data in Matchmaker software. I want the final result tomorrow. Tell your partner too.” Thud! Down went the phone.

                I came out in balcony, feeling dismayed. My neighbours in Azad Bhawan were done with Counterstrike and were ready to go to sleep, like true blue nocturnal IITians. Lucky guys! And what was I doing? I was still trying to gather what he said. ‘Go to Ludhiana and fetch me results. Now.’ What’s this yaar? It’s not as easy as going to fridge and getting ice. I was under impression that my lab work was done. I wanted no snafu like this. But you know, there is no option other than to follow the order, when your project is at stake. It was time to get in action. Something had to be done. I got ready and started the mission.

                “Partner” I knocked for the umpteenth time on Rohit’s door. After some efforts, he came out. Before he could open his mouth and welcome me with choicest of abuses, I intervened.”Singh Sir called. We have to go to Ludhiana.” I explained the scene. Rohit was dumbfounded, standing like a statue. “Hurry up… Ten minutes.” I turned back as he said “Only two of us? Not possible to finish such huge work in two days.” “But what choice do we have? 26^th evening we’ve to submit final report.” I replied. “Ask Raghu. He’ll come.”

                What an idea bhaisaab! Raghavan was the sincerest of our batch. Already done with his work, Raghu was planning to drown in his favourite task now: Watching movies. But we had some other plans for him. We literally dragged him with us. His only condition was: “I don’t want to miss tomorrow’s IPL Final. Its Sachin’s birthday today and Mumbai has to win.” We accepted that, but knowing that it was tough to achieve. We immediately went to lab, collected DNA sample with ice boxes and marched towards bus adda. It was already 8.00 and it was getting warm. This meant we had to take precaution of the samples and the ice, which get degraded and become useless at warm temperature. We boarded a bus for Ambala and the journey started.

                But it wasn’t that easy journey. In a bus fully loaded with passengers, we could hardly find place to stand. Somehow we managed to catch hold of people’s attention, standing with bags on our back and big thermocol boxes with samples in hands. We were waiting for Ambala to come so that we could get a place to sit. Suddenly, a small kid shouted, “Mumy ice-candy wala… Muzhe ice-candy chahiye”, pointing his fingers towards the thermocol box in my hand. Everybody started laughing. I too gave a sheepish smile. The box really resembled the ice-candy box. Adding salt on the wounds, on the Ambala stop a person with similar box entered the bus and shouted “Ice candy wala….” All the passengers started laughing like anything. And we three kept looking at each other.

                Finally we got sitting place at Ambala. It was noon. The temperature was soaring. We were hoping to reach Ludhiana soon before the sample gets degraded. About 50 km from Ludhiana, I just decided to take a nap for some rest. Before I could even close my eyes, the bus stopped suddenly. And then came the information which made my heart skip a beat: “Ohjee engine garam ho gaya jee. Kuchh deri rukna padega”, said the driver. “Kitni der?” inquired Rohit. “Ohjee ik ghanta to lagna hi lagana hai.” One hour delay? Mannn!!! So close yet so far… We decided to get down and look for other vehicle to reach Ludhiana. But alas, we were stranded away from habitations. We tried stopping other buses, trucks going towards Ludhiana but no use. Raghu started panicking, “That’s it guys. Let’s wind it up. Sample will be useless now. The ice has already melted.” I dejectedly looked at the bus, still trying to figure out if there is some way-out.

                Suddenly I spotted a person sleeping on a window seat. He was that same ice candy wala. Apparently he was travelling to Ludhiana as well. We rushed inside and woke him up. Annoyed with the disturbance, he almost shouted, “Kya hai?” We explained him the situation and requested to keep the samples in his ice box. We also offered him to purchase all the remaining ice candies to create space in the box. But he told that all his candies were sold and allowed us to use the box. He also told clearly that he is helping us for his own happiness and he doesn’t want any kind of reward for this help. A man who made us a subject of laughter few hours earlier was not turning out to be our savior. Thy name destiny!

                The bus finally started after one hour. We reached Ludhiana by 7 in the evening. We took the autorickshaw for University. We reached the lab and called the person who was going to help us there- Vikas. And he told us another bad news on phone: “Yaar whole day there was no power here. So we don’t have any ice to conduct your experiments. I hope the samples are good. I will join you soon.” This was frustrating now! We were already pissed off with the recent happenings. Vikas didn’t know that the samples were not really in a good state. There was no chance to get ice within the University campus. We sat down in the lab, tired and trying to find some way out. Suddenly a sober voice interrupted, “Sirjee Sat Shri Akal. Main baraf laa du?” The old sweeper was offering us help. We were more than happy to accept. He went on his bicycle to find ice. Feeling better we started designing the experiment. The sweeper returned in some time with ice. He smiled when we asked from where he got it. Later on we came to know that he went 5 km away to fetch ice.

                Vikas came after some time. He doubted the utility of samples. “The sample is in a bad shape. We will run two sets to get at least some result. You understand, your work is doubled.” Raghu sat down immediately in despair. “Why did I listen to you? You guys have dragged me in a real mess.” Yes. Both of us agreed. We were certainly in a mess. And that reminded us of our Azad Bhawan mess. We were hungry like anything. We didn’t have breakfast, the lunch was pathetic at a bus stop and had no idea what to do of dinner. It was first time in my IIT life (and the last time too!) that I started missing the mess food. Thankfully Vikas understood our situation and arranged for food.

                Then entered a serious looking man. He silently observed us and after 5 odd minutes, he finally uttered these golden words: “Roorkee se aaye ho na?” Vikas introduced him, “Joginder, the lab assistant”. Seriousness oozed out of his personality. It seemed that he has not smiled since his birth. We started our experiment, amused by this unique character. He was simply standing there and observing with zero expressions. As Vikas told us, he was there to assist us in our work. My tension doubled whenever I looked at Joginder. Hushhh…. How worse it was going to be?

                First few hours in the lab were really tense. After such a crazy day, we needed something to go our way. First few samples turned out to be damaged, but good enough to give results. The stress was now reducing. As a result, Raghu decided to get entertained and started playing songs on his laptop. ‘Dil to bachcha hai jee’ it was. Joginder did not like this, but kept mum. And then I also joined Rahat saab in singing. Now this visibly irritated everybody there. And finally Jogi bhaiyya spoke, “Sir ya to aap gao ya fir gaana chalne do.” I was awestruck. Rohit couldn’t control laughter. But Jogi was straight-faced. Seeing that Rohit asked, “Jogi bhai, why so serious?” “Ye kya sawal hua?” was Jogi’s curt reply. Rohit answered “Batman nahi dekhi kya?” Jogi thought for a second, and said, “Na ji. Main Cricket nahi dekhta.” Now it was my turn to laugh hard at Rohit. The revenge of a wounded man it was. These moments of laughter kept us going even after the midnight. Meanwhile Vikas kept on calling to keep a track of the proceedings.

                “Let’s finish it in 2-3 hours and then we’ll sleep”, Raghu said controlling his sleep. He was very particular in his timings. Exactly opposite was the case of Rohit and me. We never had any schedule. But a tiresome day made us crave for rest too. We hoped to wrap it up by 3 am, but there was yet another twist! Vikas called up at 2 o’clock. “Listen carefully, I have observed your result patterns for germination capacity. I found it close to height character too. If you repeat same experiment with height, you can get a correlation in both.” I did not understand how to react. I remembered the very first day of project when Prof.Singh told me that this height- germination correlation was possible. In fact he was looking for this. It was a great chance to explore this serendipity. Our bodies were too tired to continue. But we finally decided to continue. This new experiment meant the night was gone. But we were ready for it. In came the supply of coffee and we started again.

                It turned out to be true. Morning 9 o’clock we had results in our hands and prima facie we were quite confident about getting the height-germination correlation. Our sleepless night had been successful. Now we just needed to process the data in Mapmaker software to get a map to clearly show correlation. Here came in the prowess of Rohit. This guy was a genius in handling and processing data. But when destiny finally appeared to be in a mood to forgive us, the internet connection started playing games with us.

                Even in the pre-3G era, it was really tough to work in that pathetic net speed. We always cribbed about the Wi-Fi facilities in Azad Bhawan. But this speed was really a torture. Poor Rohit used to feed data and look with his tired eyes towards the laptop screen, only to find the process interrupted by slow net speed. This was followed by a series of abuses, and another try. Sometimes the process would get stuck at 97% and we would look at the screen as if we were saying ‘Come on! You can do it…’ to the software. Finally we got the job done by 2 in the afternoon.

                Vikas saw the results and his eyes lit up. He clearly sensed that we were close to achieve our goal. We all could finally smile. The sleepless night and the ordeal finally yielded some result. We had done the task to our satisfaction. But some expert needed to analyze and confirm the findings. And there was only one expert in this subject: Prof. Singh. We immediately informed him about results. He was very keen to see them. We decided to start soon for Roorkee and to finish this exciting chapter.

                But more twists were waiting for us in the journey back to IIT. It was 4 o’clock when we started from University for Ludhiana bus adda. We desperately wanted to board the first bus available for Ambala, in order to catch the last bus from Ambala to Roorkee. We waited in University gate for 20 minutes but could not find autorickshaw. Our time and patience were running out. Finally we saw a 6-seater autorickshaw coming. We made him stop but found out that the poor vehicle was already loaded with 10 people. But salute to the optimism of driver- “Are baitho saab. Aur dus log bitha lenge.” With no other option we somehow fitted in the poor vehicle. 13 people in a 6-seater! The ride started.

                “I just hope traffic police doesn’t stop us,” Raghu managed to say few words in that overpopulated environment. And those ominous words turned out to be true… Soon we heard a whistle and the vehicle stopped, making a screeching sound. “Oh Prarjee kinne log thuse hai,” asked the trafiic cop. Poor driver had no words to speak, no face to hide. Policeman came near and ordered us to get down. 1,2,3,4… He counted the passengers getting down and with each passenger he was more and more astonished. 13! He was simple aghast, never seen this feat before. We all were requesting him, “Fine leke chhod dijiye na… Late ho raha hai.” But he was still not ready to change his expressions. Finally he managed to come back to normalcy, and said, “Jaise bithaye the waise hi firse bithaake dikha. Jaane dunga.” Simple! He wanted to witness the miracle of squeezing 13 ill-fated passengers in that auto. Autowala took up the challenge and made us all sit inside, like poultry birds packed in cages. Policeman simply let him go, with a sarcastic Namaste gesture!

                Finally we reached bus stop but only to realize that 4.30 bus had already left. Next bus was at 5, which meant we were to miss last bus to Roorkee. Raghu suggested that we could have stayed back. But Rohit was in no mood to spend even one minute extra there. Finally we boarded the bus and started for Ambala, taking on our destiny one more time.

                We reached Ambala at 9.45. As we feared, the last bus had left. Only option was to go by train, with no guarantee to get space even to sit. But before that we needed to satiate our hunger. Only one desi dhaba was open. We asked for food but the owner, a slim, dark gentleman politely said, “Bhaiyya band karne ka time ho gaya,” pointing towards a board. Looking at the board, Rohit suddenly erupted-“Waha 10 baje likha hai. 5 minute hai abhi baki.”And then he gave a sermon on how Indians do not follow time and how this has led to different problems. It was good to hear these things from a person who never came on time to any class. He ended his sermon in a grand way saying, “Those who do not care for time, Time does not care for them.” Raghu was impressed, clapping cheerfully. The dhabawala thought for a minute, and asked us to sit. He went out and came back in 20 minutes with Paranthas. We literally feasted on those oily Paranthas. When we asked from where he brought them, he showed a big, costly looking hotel which was closed from the outside. But when we made payment, he charged us as per his dhaba’s rates, which were obviously lower than the big hotel’s. We insisted on paying the amount as per hotel rates but the dhabawala refused, saying that it was his moral duty to arrange food for us. After a lot of insistence, finally he took extra money. We were a little embarrassed about all the sermons we gave to him.

                Finally the train arrived at 11.30 and we somehow managed to reach Roorkee at 4 in the morning. Totally drained, we were in no position to walk even few metres. So we decided to wait for a rickshaw. Suddenly my phone rang. It was Prof. Singh. “Oye pahunche ke nahi?” he asked. It was a great surprise that a person of his stature calls us at 4 am. He was worried about our delay. When we told him that we were waiting on station, he himself came to pick us up, and took us to his home. There we discussed the findings. Finally it was confirmed. Our experiment was successful. We had established the height and germination correlation. Our efforts in this adventurous trip were worth. Prof. Singh gave his trademark broad smile to declare, “Oye chak de fattey!! Ho gaya jee kaam. Very good job my boys!” This appreciation was enough to bring a smile on our tired, sleep-deprived faces.

                We went back to Azad Bhawan. The sun had already come up. We three sat in the canteen, without uttering even a single word. Even after two sleepless nights, somehow all the tiredness had gone away magically. It felt great sitting quiet, sipping tea. I remembered all the helping hands which made this quest successful- Rohit, Raghavan, Vikas, Jogi, the sweeper, the ice candy wala, the traffic policeman, the dhabawala. All had reaffirmed my faith in the immense potential of human being. They made this experience a memoir worth cherishing. I was just mesmerized by this feeling of goodness, in a totally silent environment. Finally Raghu said, “We need some sleep guys.” I looked at the watch. It was 26^th April, 6.40 a.m. Exactly 48 hours. Life had come full circle in these 48 crazy hours. We witnessed so many problems, so many obstacles. But we kept moving. And we succeeded. Three of us went back to rooms content, and enriched with a unique experience of life.

                Project was submitted, semester ended. I passed out. I changed the career track to enter Civil Services. But even today when I feel low, I think of those 48 hours to motivate myself. I often tell people that IIT is not about only a degree and some glamour. IIT is all about such glorious experiences. IIT teaches lot more than academics, and makes you able to face such tough situations. I honestly feel this incident tested everything that IIT taught me: grit, mettle, stubbornness, optimism. I could not have pulled off this feat before IIT. These are the practical life lessons which I learnt in IIT, inside and outside the campus, which have truly enriched my personality, my life…