Rendezvous with Grandeur

Event: IRA Fulton Fellow Dinner
Venue: University Club
Time: 5pm-8pm

Formal at its best - so much contrary to the person I am, capable of making me feel uncomfortable and pained for putting up all evening. But on second thought every moment of this refine evening was exclusive and enjoyable.
Late like always, we got to the place, like the normal dash to the 915am class, with the fear of gates being closed. A formal lake blue shirt and a black pant; a formal black shirt and a skirt initially fussed about and assumed over-dressed, turned out perfect. The initial plan was to sit in a corner of a room, eat and get back home for the assignment. It did not work out the way we intended it to. At the entrance we were asked to sit in the “table 1” assigned to us which comprised of three professors (one Indian) and five other “fellows” from different departments.

1. High ceiling with mural paintings.
2. Abstract wall hangings and paintings which seemed “high funda” as we did not know what it was.
3. The ice tea with zero sugar and an abysmal taste that we drank assuming it was a mark of high class.
4. An infinitely bad tasting salad, an exquisite American version of semiya upma, awesome deserts, ornately carved silverware.
5. Crisp introductions and speeches by faculty and students punctuated by subtle wise cracks.( not to forget Dr. Mahajan’s accented speech)
6. Jessica’s (Fulton fellow) admirable energy and histrionics.

If the above are considered elements of closed set, say “magnificent and memorable”, the evening was a linear combination of the elements in this set with the coefficients maximized.

There was predominantly one genre of people- eccentrically intelligent with profound knowledge and expertise in their area of research. The intellectually stimulating conversations about hydrogen cells, optimization problems and issues, game theory, quality management and control, poker and life, waste energy renewal, movement of electron holes, origin of research interests of different people, life in Arizona and impact of the advent of air-conditioned . … It was all memorable.
The evening on the whole was very special in a unique way- from fussing about the outfit to a desperate attempt when back home to take snaps individually and together.

The "A" Mountain.

The A is very misleading. It is a misnomer. I initially thought it was some porn thing. Little did i know of its significance. According to information from relaible sources, when the college was remaned to Arizona State Teachers College, the letter "A" was installed on the butte. Apparently there was a bomb blast in 1925, when the “A” was destroyed. Then again in 1955, they built this "A" using reinforced steel and concrete. Hiking up the A Mountain to paint the “A” white is an annual tradition. Each year, during the week before the ASU vs. U of A football game, the ASU students guard this "A" from the UofAites from painting it in a different colour.

630pm is the apt time to get to the top of the mountain. It is an awesome experience to watch the sunset from an altitude of 500 feet(not very sure of the height). The globe of fire, after its daily stint, is laid to rest, behind the chain of mountains. The size of the sphere gradually decreases as it goes behind these mountains. It seems as thought the sun is swallowed by the mountains like how a deer is slowly eaten by a python as it goes into the snakes mouth. Set in this background, is a series of runways, where planes land and take off at a frequency of 30 s-1. The planes heading towards the runway fly at a 50 feet over you. You tell urself- a jump little higher, must be able to cling on to the plane.

Another remarkable sight is the stream of lights, the silver/whitish one, from the vehicle head light, and the alternating green and red light, from the traffic signals. The roads here form a parallel array and so do these lights. This line of lights looks like a sandwitch with tomato layers(red lights) and lettuce layers(green lights) between the breads(white lights). Here, you learn physics. The red light is seen brighter than the green. This phenomenon is a result of a combination of refraction and scattering. The colour of light is dependant on its wavelength with red light having a longer wavelength than the green. The scattering is inversely proportional to fourth power of the wavelength. And hence the occurrence. From that height the sky seems so much closer. It takes some experience to differentiate between stars and planes flying at a very high altitude. I always get confused. It is funny how you stare at the infinite stars for infinite time and each time the thought process running in you mind is discrete. Adjoining the mountain is the Sundevils stadium. Comfortably perched in a wedge of rocks, is like a balcony seat for a grisly game of football, where most savage combative instincts are aroused and also the sensual dance of cheerleaders during the breaks.

To top it all is a peachy company.

All the while, the blissfulness of this entrancing experience is exceeded only by the fear of the rattle snake that abound in this area.

Fear from the eyes of a mad

I got myself drowned and almost killed in the deep end of the pool. And that I would say, is an understatement. Its a thin line between adventure and stupidity.....That, now makes sense to me.

A brilliant flash of effrontery gave me the conidence to push myself off the wall and use the momentum to swim to the shallow end. But this seemingly flawless scheme of action did not quite turn out the way I intended it to. I pushed myself at a downward incline.Balance was lost and I was drowning. I panicked like mad. The panic made it worse and when it got worse I panicked more.

I was trying to grab the water surface. As this desperate attempt for the surface was going on with little success, my crazy mind was rambling beyond boundaries housing some strangest, funniest and weirdest thoughts. I was cursing myself for the fool that I was. I was reminded of Vasanthi Atha, whose brother passed away as he did not know to swim when he was thrown into the pool during his Navy Training. How it will shatter her, to know that I died in a similar way. She and I shared a very special relation from when I was in my 2nd standard. The bastard that I would be, for doing this to my parents; what they would become. I cursed my roommate sambi, for it was his dream to swim alone, when the others were gone, as a result of which, I was left helpless when I was drowning. I was imagining how it would appear with only my hands above water moving randomly, trying to convey with those movements- “Dudes!!!! It cannot be more obvious…. I am dying”. Else probably that was not it. So I decided to wave only one hand like how they show in the movies. I could feel my legs cycling at a pace that was exponentially proportional to the fear of death mounting inside. As my right hand was gesturing my plight to the world above the water level, the left was hysterically trying all means to pull the 68kgs of mass against the gravity. I was cursing buoyancy for being a weaker force than gravity.

I was loosing hope. I was unsure as to how I have to react to one of the possible eventualities- Death. It was hard to convince myself that if that situation persisted for another couple of minutes, it implies my life is going to end. But at the same time a small portion of me was confident and it assumed that I was going to get out safe and was wondering how interesting the conversation would be with friends and others describing and narrating the incident and the associated stupidity.

And then, all of a sudden, my right hand hits the wall. That catapulted my dieing hope. I thought it was all over. The fear of death was, for a moment, surpassed by the hope that I derived from the touch of the wall. But this ephemeral hope died almost immediately when my hands lost it. The wall was gone. As much high my hopes soared it plummeted by same amounts to abysmal levels. By then I could also feel my body go heavy owing to the shit loads of chlorinated water that went in through the mouth and probably also the nose. The nausea made it worse. The situation was only getting worse. Giving up at this point implies death.

The hands were continuing their dance over the water and all of sudden grabed a rope, which materialised from no where. The hands gripped the rope like a dog to a bone. and determined not to let go of it at any cost.
I pulled myself up and over the water to see shanta holding the rope. I gasped as though I had ran a mile in less than half a minute.
I remember I said- "Thanks.. I thought I am going to die. I am alive." and her reaction- " loosu ".


The incident jolted my system so much so that 3 beers and 7 shots of tequila diluted into bloood like drinking water

Hey shanta.. I owe the world to you.