Colours

As God gave Aftab Sivadasani to bollywood, BITS gave us PS-1. For some it’s a efficient utilisation of summers. And for the rest of the crowd it’s nothing more than a crap. Bizarre comparison, huh???

Happily, for the initial 30-35 days, I was in the earlier category. I had more than I asked for. We got leave for initial one week as they didn’t have enough projects for us. Then we were handled over to one equity research consultant, who pinned a lot of hope on us as we were from “an esteemed institution”(At least he knew it...otherwise in Bangalore, BITS Pilani is an alien term). We “young brilliant minds with lots of innovative ideas”- were supposed to analyse investment opportunities in different sectors. I knew it would be a cakewalk for us. Relaxed... The icing on the cake was, we ha unlimited download wi-fi connection. And there were no timing restrictions for us. We couldn’t have asked for more. Other than these happy “working” hours, my non-working hours were going great.We had so much fun. We went to WonderLa (amusement park Hogenakkal Falls, roamed through the city, ate delicious food, visited malls, watched movies and did other “guyish things” as well.

Everything went on fine till that fateful day, when we were asked to shift to a flat. Flat in itself was perfectly fine for five for us. It had all the basic and even luxurious amenities. But I believe there was some curse attached with it. Slowly, I started falling into the “PS-1 is crap” category. I was fed up with the food and couldn’t think of anything else than simple Ghar ka Khana. Then our Mysore and Coorg trip got cancelled at the last moment. Report submission date was nearing by and I was yet to start it (Damn!!!our report wasn’t as easy as I thought it to be). The clouds of pessimism and desperation were all over me. To put in sukki’s words-“Mera to give up ho raha tha”. We started by counting the number of days left, moved on to abusing the food, smearing the local people, proceeded onwards by smudging BITS and suddenly, whole world seemed to be conspiring against us. Adjectives and abuses were falling short to come our way. We were drenched in “Bangalore Blues”. But, then came the silver lining. After lying low for two weeks, enthu seemed to creep in our mind, body and soul. First, we resumed our planning for Mysore trip(only the day before). But we did it and did it with élan. It was a perfect jaunt to shrug off all the frustrations piled up in our minds. Then I embarked on with my project, which was a nice learning experience. On our last weekend, we went out for the shopping spree. From the beginning only, I had made up my mind that I’ll get something for everyone in my family, right from my Papa, Mummy, Dada, Nana, Nani, Mama, Mami, Didi to my sweet little cousins, to prove that- “bachcha ab bara ho gaya hai”. My budget was pretty big. My main headache was to buy the Mysore silk sarees, as it was my first time buying something other than my clothes. But, after purchasing the sarees, I was the most satisfied person on this earth.

Finally, everything ended on a brighter note. Right from my project, seminar, my last day at Bangalore....... everything. I regard my whole PS-1 stint as a perfect learning experience and a perfect example of “balancing out” nature of life. PS-1 would have been very normal if everything would have been hunky dory. Those two weeks of depression and relinquishment was an essential ingredient for a perfect Bangalore summer. Call it a compromise or avidness.....but that is the way it was. In a “Scrubs” style ending- In the end, the most important thing is to learn a lesson from whatever comes by your way. Whether it’s good or bad, will be decided in course of time....