Making PEBBLE out of mole-hill (Part ONE)

******* add in a part that just informs people that i am just playing devils advocate/ so to speak as a turn-court/ please be aware that i am going to just blow up the few drawbacks in an otherwise internationally recognised and glorious institute that produces engineers respected world over ****************

This is no reality show (though it beats desi girl, big boss, big boss-2, khatron ke khiladi, DARE TO DATE, etc by miles!!), yet its reality…… though the resemblance can confuse even the most ardent fans of these shows, and make the show producers see green!! Hey, how about we torment the latter a little more, lets say this IS a reality show…… It has all the ingredients,so why not!

The venue of this great reality show, highly…………… not-too-populated, busy………… (doing nothing), and well chosen (!) village in Rajasthan, that goes by the name Pilani! It has great connectivity too, having its own private airfield, where you can land and take off at will! (just a small catch is that you need to be close to the authorities to get to do that). But hey, an airfield is an airfield!! What's more is that the city planners did not even think of putting in a railway station! “Ugh, who wants those dirty boxes of steel marching into our peaceful town, providing affordable & semi-luxurious means of transportation to all, when we can FLY in and out!!!” (I guess that is exactly what the authorities thought while planning out the sets for our “show”). The buses, though, were inevitable. This is India! This is where the “common man” can make do without soap in the morning, but not without his 8:00 bus! So the buses…… just happened!

The authorities, apparently, put in a lot of thought while planning for the contestants’ comfort and entertainment (!) With hostels (locally referred to as bhawans) equipped with state of the art technology that keep the heat away. Though its not good to boast, when you are given such pleasures, its hard not too! A first look at these bhawans, and you will notice the result of some mind-blowing designing and extraordinarily out-of-the-box thinking, YELLOW walls, yellow everywhere! My my….. who would have thought that having walls the same colour as the sun would work wonders! Its so simple, yet revolutionary!! Its like the sun totally ignores something that is coloured much like itself!

Moving on down the list of innovations, i come to the next stunning and absolutely ingenious concept of installing “INDIAN-style” toilets in all bhawans. What could possibly be a better way to get us all in touch with our culture, than reminding us of it every morning(!) Talking of these toilets, i might like to add that the designers had an eye for detail, i presume. This is explained by the presence of flush-tanks that have have handles that need to be pumped several times to get the desired result. We could possibly prepare for our mechanics end-terms in the cosy confines of these toilets(!) While on the topic, i wish to add that these toilets instil, in us, a lot of ethics! With an odour so compelling all around, who needs drugs to get high(!) Values, hard to come by in this modern world, virtually grow on trees in this small town. I’m not sure about them growing there, but they certainly drop out of the numerous trees all around the campus. We all have heard stories as to how, when something great happened in the days of the gods, the good-doer would be showered with flowers from the heavens! In our little town, these “blessings” ……uhhh……… DROP out of the trees, instead of the heavens(!) And some of us occasionally get bestowed by their “blessings”(!)

THE FOOD! The organisers of this great reality show took extreme care to provide highly nutritious and healthy food to all. Though, as expected, the taste took a beating in the process. But you can’t have the best of both worlds, and after a while your taste buds get used to the daily beating they receive. The food per se, initially might look a little suspicious, as you really cannot make out the various ingredients, the caterers should have a sign that reads “WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW, CANNOT HURT YOU”, so with that (and with “ALL IZ WELL” on your lips), this makes for a wonderful and adventurous meal. If you sit and try to find out what you are eating, you might surprise yourself with how creative you really can get! The possibilities are endless(!)

In a land where anything is possible, entertainment has no place! This is clearly visible by the non-availability of any form of entertainment all around, except the occasional festivals, that see a major tide of “foreigners”, “aliens”, etc flow in from the so-called urban areas around this cultural & ethical hub in this very-happening place of Pilani. In the absence of any actual hangout spots, students flock to the only two hot-spots on campus that provide a break from the ………… whatever else it is that we do here. Not that we need any break, who doesn't love to jog from one yellow building to another with the matching coloured sun to keep you company on the way, and “blessings” always dropping from the high-skies!

i really don’t like to boast too much in one go, so i guess I’ll do the remaining boasting in a later post………