Fireball

Last thursday was very ordinary day. We had cycles the next day and the First Convocation the day after. I planned to skip the afternoon classes and start preparing for the cycle tests. As the fore-noon session got over, I left the class where I was called by our Department Assistant. He told “You have a call from CSG(Computer Support Group),go there asap.” I thought it should be some simple problem with our software-project.

Our project was a software project hosted at http://npiu.nitt.edu/(which redirects to an IP which is temporarily not available) for National Project Implementation Unit, NOIDA (NPIU) , which makes a report of the development of all the Technical Colleges in India.

Getting back to the story, I went to CSG, found Parijat over there. The staff there told us to meet Pradeep Sir immediately who is with Director.We found him in Director’s office. As we were waiting outside, he gestured us to get inside. We wished Director and came close to Pradeep Sir. He said, “You are required by NPIU urgently”.

I thought might be we have to go the next weekend. Director spoke,
“Yes boys, they want you to be there tommorrow morning.”
That was a bang in my brain.
“How are we going sir?”
“Your flight tickets are booked. You have to be there in Chennai Domestic Airport by tommorrow morning 6:40.” Director said.
“Sir we have cycles tommorrow” We said
“I’ll ask your HOD’s to conduct separate cycle tests for you!” was the reply.(That was too fast!)

Thats how the surprises began for the day.Me and Parijat were running for the rest of the day till 5:00PM for getting the cash for the trip,getting permissions from the department for postponing the cycle tests for us(where Parijat(ECE) got it & and mine was under consideration(MECH))

Around 6:30PM I went to my room to pack my stuffs. I was thrilled. This was my first flight trip that too was given as a surprise! I found my friends(Krishna & Karthik) and said that I’m leaving for Delhi now. I knew that they won’t believe me and it happened. And finally we left for the KPN bus in BHEL. Pradeep Sir dropped us there. We got down at Kamaraj Terminal at 4:00AM. Kamaraj Terminus was excellent. Since it was my first Air-trip, my jaws were dropped all the time.

We flew in Indian Airlines IC440(Airbus 320). It was excellent. The speed with which the flight took off was a marvel. Luckily we got a window seat and I was looking through it all the time. The most impressive one was flying over clouds.If Parijat hadn’t stopped me, I could have taken a few snaps of that. It reached Delhi at around 10:30AM(2:20 hour journey). I saw all kutti kutti cars and skyscrapers as in Age of Empires II. It was a beauty..

We reached NOIDA(New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) at around 11:00AM.
The capital was too hot (31^oC) but our workplace was Air-Conditioned.Our work started the moment we came there. Faces were new. Dr.Ramachandran, Mr.Duggal, Ms.Shushma(our Co.ord) were there.We were explained the urgency. We managed to install our software with ease.

After a whole day’s work, we were asked to stay at the Guest House at Jamia Millia Islamia University. We found our room and left for dinner in Pizza Hut nearby.

Since all these things happened in an interval of 24 hours, it took time to get relieved of the shock. I’m still worried about my cycles. Jayaram sir will kill me to death.