IIT - KGP

Well.... well... well... So I am here finally. Actually I have been here for like about 3 weeks but not bothered to update this blog. Can't blame me. I have had limited access to the internet. Or maybe I just didnt feel like. Tonight I am in the mood for writing something about life here at IIT. The thing is that I hold some kind of post of sorts here so it really restricts my writing. :-)
What would all my fellow batchmates think of me if I wrote about their inane questions in the class or I put up pictures that I have taken with my mobile phone camera while they were sleeping. :-) You never know what you find on peoples mobile phone cameras ;-)
Hence I am going to have to restrict this freedom that I thought I would have by creating this blog. I wish I could..... but then to sound very cliched, If wishes were horses beggars would ride.

Let me begin by telling you a little about some of the day to day activities that happen. I shall leave out the academic stuff because that is what we are supposed to do here. And you all must have gone through some kind of formal education so you all know what I am talking about.
I seem to have written about a million mails to people telling them about life in this place. Hence forth you shall have to check my blog to know what is happening. If you don't then I shall have to resort to other means of persuasion such as death threats, plain threats, cajoling, pleading and then finally begging.

A little about the longest railway station in the world.
IIT Kharagpur is located at Kharagpur. Kharagpur is in West Bengal. OK so what is so interesting? I know that the above lines are boring. So is Kharagpur. There are only two things in Kharagpur. One of them is of course my college better known as IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) is one of the better schools on this side of the world. The second thing here is the railway station. Yeah, the railway station. No I am not trying to show you that other than IIT there is nothing here. Kharagpur is supposed to have the longest railway platform in the world. The length of this world record is 833 m. Apart from these two there is little else in Kharagpur. As one of my professors so tactfully put it in regard to attendance "There are only two things here. One is my class at IIT and the other is the platform. If you are not here then I shall make sure that you are there (Platform)" indicating the dire consequences of abstaining from his lectues.
Ok now just like you, when I heard about this eyesore of a railway platform for the first time I too was ooh-ing and aah-ing about it. Now I would have detested that stupid platform had it not been useful to me. Allow me to elaborate.
A little bit about the geography of this place. Kharagpur is situated about 116 kms from one of India's metropolitian cities Calcutta or today known as Kolkata. Kolkata is thus about 2.5 hours by train from this wart of a platform.
So last Saturday my good friend SM and self headed down to Cal. (Cal = Calcutta=Kolkata). I wanted to get a few things and do some sight-seeing. So we took a cycle rickshaw and went uneventfully down to the sore of a station. Ater purchasing our tickets we headed down onto the platform. Upon alighting from the bridge we enquired and found out that our train was supposed to leave in about 2 minutes. So in about roughly 180 seconds we sprinted about 800 m. Why 800 m you ask?
The beauty of this platform is that 2 trains usually come one after the other on the same platform. And our train was supposed to be in the front. As luck would have it our compartment was in the front of this steel caterpillar on this rotten leaf of a platform. So we did the 800 m dash only to find out that the train had just left. The smartest thing to do next was to find out the time and the place of the next train. That was two platforms away and was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes. The bridge was about 800 m away from our current geographical location. So we upped our skirts and ran to the bridge and arrived on the new platform.
A small deviation: Do you read Calvin and Hobbes? Well it is one of my favourite comics. Calvin looks at his pet imaginary tiger - Hobbes and says "Hobbes, do you believe in God?" Well his alter-ego-tiger says that he doesn't. So Calvin looks skywards in utter confusion and says "Well there must be someone out to get me"
I too felt like that when I realised that the train was at the other end. When I finally arrived at the door of my compartment, all I could do was clamber in, find a seat and nod-off.
So if anyone comments on this railway platform in relation to the world record length, I warn you all hell shall be let loose.

Watch this space for an account of my first time (washing clothes).