ETTIMADAI trip!!

11th Aug '09:

It was 4:30 Am and we were all set to leave from hostel.

We got the college people to provide us a bus to drop us at the station. It came at a cost of 750 bucks. Kudos to the college that can’t even provide a free drop to its students. We were stopped at the main gate by the great amritian guards. We were supposed to furnish our gate passes to get ourselves out of this ultra high secure zone. We wasted around 10-15 mins in the wasteful excercise. We reached station by 5:45 AM. Our coach was D4. If it hadn’t been for the 8 point cut off, half off D4 would have been occupied by ECE .But now we were reduced down to a trickle. Luckily we got good seats with huge leg space. The trained chugged off on time. Neha got on at cantonement to make it a perfect ten from ece b . The girls occupied seats of some other passengers and we had to do some reengineering of seats. Myself,sumukh and ananth took the three seats on the other side and swami decided to give company to IT guys(Thankfully).

The weather was perfect for a day journey. The train left the Bangalore by 7 AM. In half an hour we had crossed over to tamil nadu and my cell had to change networks from Vodafone to BPL. Thanks to MSCs and BS, it went off smoothly. Much to my chagrin people started studying for placements. I had no option but to follow suit. After some half an hour of fighting out with the placement stuff, I gave up. I knew this wasn’t my cup of tea.

After three hours of survival on half a litre of water, I got bread omlett for break fast. By the time I finished my breakfast,hosur had arrived. The temperature increased a level and I had to do away with my jacket. Smitha started teaching some data structure stuff . I tried giving it an ear, but it wasn’t of much help. It was time for me to start zapping . I took my place at the door and set de music rolling. The wind gushing through the face was a heavenly feeling and there was no better place to get that then at the door.

Then came the ghat section where the train started curling around like a snake. The view out was wonderful. I tried out taking snaps of the train curling(Ananth’s idea). Met with some success J. It was 10 and a few people dozed off. I got bored at D4. I went for a stroll till S7. It was some 5-6 coa ches away. By 10:30, we had reached Salem. The boys got down for a sip of sprite. The train halted for some 20 minutes over there.

We were in dilemma on how to go to ettimadai from coimbatore. There were two passengers available. One at 2 and other at 4:40. It all depended on when we would reach Coimbatore. We reached Coimbatore by 1:45 PM. I was damn sure we would not be able to catch the 2 pm train as we had to get the tickets and again run back to the platform. However we gave it a try. Fortunately we got the tickets in time(thanks to Nishant-CSE) and we rushed back to platform. The train had still not come to the station. But seeing the crowd on platform , I sensed that our journey to ettimadai won’t be smooth. The train arrived after ten minutes. People started rushing into the bogies. Very soon the bogies near us filled up. Myself and ananth were left out. We got into another bogie which was thankfully far less crowded than the one others got into. We managed to find place for our bags and I got my rightful place near the door. We enquired the people around about ettimadai station. It was a new experience travelling in a packed passenger train. After 45 minutes of journey, we were there at ettimadai. The platform was too short to accommodate our train. We got down and were clueless about where to go. People started finding their own paths and moving forward. I thought people who had been there before(part of cricket teams) would know the route . But I was wrong . We asked an old man and he gave us the right route. Ananth took along a part of class(madhura,shilpa,neha ) and went on a trek to college.We tread along the railway track for around five minutes and we arrived at the main gate. There was a huge hoarding inviting some scholar from US. I was surprised to find the hoarding there as I didn’t expect a person of such high stature to come by a passenger train. Later I realized that the road actually leads to the main road. There was printed list of people who had registered for HP placement at main gate. We signed at the designated place and we were told our hostel names. The girls were allotted mythreyi hostel and boys were allotted nachikethas. Myself and sumukh went on towards our hostel. Enroute we passed through the majestic saraswathi statue and entrance to the main building . The statue was bigger than our micro controller lab!!! There was a small pond and a bridge over it.It was a perfect fairy tale setting. Ananth was still finding his way out along with his followers. We got a room for ourselves and refreshed. We waited for around 15 minutes for ananth. He came after 25 minutes. Luckily he got a single room accommodation.

We regrouped at the cafeteria. The cafeteria was out of stock. We had to wait for half hour to get a ghee roast. The food was not all that great at the café. We left the cafeteria by 6. Sumukh was tired and opted to go back to room for a nap. Swami went off to meet his ettimadai mates. I wanted to go for a stroll. Though ananth was tired after his trek,I forced him to come along. Deepthi and pradeeptha joined us and we went around exploring the scenic campus. Everything was so well planned out over there completely in contrast with the Bangalore campus. The hills overlooking the campus were at its best during the sunset. We walked around till 7 and then got back to our hostels. The food was ready at the mess.

The dinner comprised of kerala parota,some curry and a tasty fruit salad. Post dinner we went for stroll in the main academic block. Though it looked grand and pompous on the outer, the interiors weren’t all that great. Back at hostel,we played UNO till 11. There was news coming in that swine flu had hit amrita Bangalore and college may be shutdown. Shutting down of college seemed a distant thought at that time.

At the girls hostel, ECE galz were robbed off a good night sleep by their CS and IT counterparts. CS and IT were out with all their material and slogging of all night for the battle tomorrow.