Dating in Dehradun

Well, it was not actually a date but someone thinks it was. So, the title is to please her/him. But as far as the impression of this so called 'Date' is concerned, it would remain deeply engraved in our ( Hitesh's and me ) minds, more deeply than a 'True' date.

Confused ?? Bewildered ?? I know you are. So let me take you to some of our experiences of the day which have made it unforgettable.

For those of you who don't know, Hitesh and I went to Dehradun for the publicity of E-Summit. The point worth mentioning here is:

• Hitesh and I now hold the record for going out of Roorkee together for EDC work maximum number of times.

So, half asleep, somehow we managed to reach Dehradun at around half past 9 in the morning. And the first college we visited was 'Graphic Era Institute of Technology'. The college campus is too beautiful, I must admit. But apart from that nothing was good there. We had to roam around the campus thrice to take permission to put up the posters. It was here we got an insight about the difficulty we were about to face while going to colleges in Dehradun. Well, Hitesh, for sure, would have enjoyed the visit to Graphic Era. Afterall, he met Mr. K K Jingham, the Sports Incharge of the college , an ex-Ranji player and most importantly, an admirer of Hitesh. Woha!!
Finally, we managed to come out of Graphic Era, safe and secure, at around 12.

Taking Sun-Bath in the Hot and Scroaching sun, we then visited other colleges, everytime cursing the unnecessary formalities we had to face. In DIT, I came to know about 'Nothing for you dear'. It's a book by a DIT student, or I should say a love story by him which was to be released today. So, we have another engineer turned writer with us.

After finishing our college trips, it was the time to return to 'Our Darling Insti'. We were lucky to get a bus very quickly. But were we actually lucky ?? No, not at all. The bus didn't have brakes working properly!! Yes, you read it right. We boarded a bus which could have taken us to the 'Final Destination'. But it stopped somehow, somewhere in the middle of a jungle with the driver and the conductor revealing the truth. And the best( read worst ) part was that both of them knew about the brakes before we left Dehradun. Shouldn't I say like Govinda now "It happens only in INDIA" ?

Well, after the bus stopped, we had to wait in the jungle fighting our thirst and the red-hot sun for about one and a half hour. Thanks again to the false promises of the conductor to get us into another bus.

Finally, we moved from there and got a bus after sometime. But since, it was a day reserved for 'Lady Bad Luck', we had to stand through most of the journey back home. Truly speaking, I kind of enjoyed it as it reminded me of the bus journeys in Bihar and was still better than those. But I could clearly see the frustration and anguish on Hitesh's face. Hitesh, I can understand it was quite an uncomfortable and frightening experience. But it was an Experience, right ?

And aren't Experiences something which matter the most in life ?

Ashish Agrawal
( ashish.iitrk@gmail.com )