Solstice!!!

Friday Dec 2007

This week has been very hectic….started off with me realizing I have a lot to study (don’t ask for what ;-))

On Friday while I’m going to Bombay, I’m toying with the idea of not showing up at Solstice….have hardly slept through the week, have been through a few setbacks and illnesses, and I’m not looking forward to all the early morning buses and flights…

Friday turns out to be one mad day in Bombay….went home, unpacked, got ready for a meeting. Almost reached late (The road to Lands End is so screwed up). After an hour of talking finance, my brain is totally fried, and I almost run out of there. From there to Nanavati Hospital to meet a relative, then to buy a perfume, from there to meet my dear friend M and then my sister’s place, by the time I’m home, I can hardly talk to anyone.

Still have to decide if I should not go, but fall asleep while thinking…have a nightmarish dream at 4 am in the morning.

Finally I fell asleep, after coaxing my hazed out mind that it was just a dream, and by the time I finally started drifting asleep, the irritating alarm rings, bugged I put it on snooze…3ce!!!

Saturday Dec 2007 – Pre Solstice

When I’m late, everything that can and cannot go wrong does!!

So after 3 snoozes, I’m up, groggy eyed and cursing myself for taking morning flights…in the strange workings of the sleepy “looking-for-a-reason-to-sleep” mind, I decide I’ll go if I’m meant to go, and I’ve hit the bed again, when my Dad wakes me up…

Finally I’m up, get ready, pack my bag, and I’m off, about 20 minutes left for the check in counter to close. I leave the house and catch an auto, and halfway to the airport (which is thankfully close to my house) I realize I’ve left my cell phone home. I retrace, and now my dad is really worried when I show up.

So a minute before the counter closes I’m standing there out of breath, and out of sheer cheek, shamelessly asked her if she could upgrade me, while she’s giving me a “where do these people come from” look!!! Well, the Gods finally decided to put their heads together and make Solstice happen for me, her manager walks in, and with an irritated flip of her head, not only allows me in, but I also get to fly Business class!!…Finally a good Omen!!!

Checked in and ‘securitied’, where I meet a batchmate, we spend an hour in delay, and I’m glad Ive got company at the airport and afterwards. Noneventful flight, except that I was trying hard to sleep, but the nice airhostess with the fake smile insisted on me eating food.

Finally Hyderabad airport, and for the first time in a few days, I’m happy I came, as I see the familiar Hyderabad airport around me. So we wait (interminably) for the luggage, and then on the way, my thrill increases as I see the familiar roads, and as I remember the places we’ve gone to, and the times we had a year back…

Finally we arrive at the “Indian School of Business” gate, and I feel the same awe and silent pride I felt when I first entered the somber campus a year back…

Saturday Dec 2007 – Solstice!!!!!!!!

Those beautiful lawns, the same SVs, and the stillness of the ISB afternoon feels so good!!! Everything as is, as if we never left!!!

I reach A’s studio…chit chat for a while, he’s trying to convince me to register… I’m too lazy to go. Finally I’m off, and I almost run into a jog, desperate to see that beautiful atrium. Meet so many batchmates there…a million hugs and how are you doings…some contact number swapping. This is where I try calling "kiddo" and he gives me some hogwash of coming in an hour….several hours and phone calls later I’m still at the atrium, chit chatting with batchmates, and he refuses to show up….I give up waiting, go to A’s place again to freshen up. Chit chat there with A’s wife (A is apparently playing some games in “Bind Unwind” planned for the Alums) for a long time. Then in true "kiddo" style, he calls, 4 hours later, then gets impatient, coz I took half an hour to reach the atrium!!!

We all attend the key note function. In the main key note, I’m suddenly hungry. We slip out of the Q-A and reach CCD. Its nice to see another coffee shop there, I didn’t go even go inside the Sarovar coffee shop, I’ve had enough of veg puffs over there to last a lifetime!!

Go wearing casuals to the Dean’s dinner, it’s a bit embarrassing, most people have turned up in formals. “Network” a bit, then sample (read filch) food off people’s plates, and wines off their glasses ;)

To cut a very very long story short, we end up visiting the SV I stayed in, the LRC, the ACs, and the whole year comes flooding back, all the memories, the studying, partying, chai sessions with friends…I just realized how much I miss it now!!

Finally attended the Indian Ocean Rock concert and the party afterwards, which in ISB tradition(though the current batch has time restrictions!!) went on till dawn.

Sunday and after…

Good things get over fast – like that one year at ISB, and Solstice J

Went for one last look of the ISB campus in the morning…even though my legs were really hurting after the partying…Left the campus with a heavy heart.

Now I’m in office, recuperating from the excesses, still thinking of a lot of things, people and memories…missed a few close friends who couldn’t turn up…glad that a few others did :D