Summer of '11

Semester#3 is here now. From tomorrow starts another semester of sleepless nights, endless assignments and loads of work. But somewhere down, I know I am waiting for it. Plus there are quite some things to look forward- our first tech fest, return of the half marathon, SR elections, some courses I have been waiting for, robotics workshops, some family events etc. The semester hasn't even started and I know how busy I am going to be. Work, fun, repeat.

If not something else, one thing I learned this summer was the speed of time. It was neither too fast, nor too slow. I am not complaining that my summer flew away so fast and I am not saying that it bored me to death. I have been extremely lazy and extremely productive. So below is a approximate timeline of how I spent the Summer of '11:

YES+: For the first six days of the summer, I attended an Art of Living workshop in my college aimed at young adults. It was fun and I learnt a thing or two. Didn't followup much though.

Rishikesh: After YES+ ended, we stayed that night at college and left for Rishikesh the next morning at 6. It was legendary. We jumped into any water body in sight and I ended up bathing 9 times in 4 days (my Mom still refuses to believe this). I did rafting for 4 hours, floated aimlessly in the Ganga, separated from my raft by almost a kilometer and jumped from a rock two storeys high into the water. 4 times. We also trekked, did rappelling  and climbed a ton of rocks and slopes. Not to forget the sleep deprivation, endless talks, shouting eeeeee... like crazy and sleeping on the grass under millions of star. Of course, I fell ill. But it was the Best. Trip. Ever. Except for a nickname I got after some small mammal. I don't like it.

Mumbai: After I returned from Rishikesh in the night, I left for Mumbai the next afternoon. As one may guess, I did a lot of convincing for this can't-sit-at-home schedule. And Mumbai was not for 4 days, it was 6 weeks. I went to Mumbai with two of my classmates for community work. You see, IIIT-Delhi requires you to do 80-100 hours of Community Work in 4 years of your BTech. We were planning the trip for a while and worked at an NGO called Parivartan. I'll write more about my Mumbai trip in some later blog posts because there were so many experiences that I can't fit in a paragraph. All I can say is that the whole trip was overwhelming and I learnt a lot. Much more than I had expected and I'll have to say, I had a lot of expectations. It was also a lot of fun. All the work, the managing stuff on your own, the new city, the freedom, the vada pavs, the people, the children. I know it sounds very cliché, but yes, it was life-changing.

Travelling: This summer, I traveled a lot too. Rishikesh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Amritsar. I can pack bags now. I also now have a long travelling wish list.

Movies: I watched a lot of movies too. 9 to be precise. And these are just the ones in theater. I wanted to do 10, but there just weren't any more good movies.

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides
• The Hangover Part II
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Pyaar Ka Punchnama
• Avatar (Finally, that too in IMAX 3D!)
• X-Men: The Last Stand
• Shaitan
• Delhi Belly
• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

30 Days of lazying around: As I mentioned, I had planned for a different, productive last 30 days of my summer after my busy two months. But alas, I spent most of those 30 days just lazying around or hanging out. Which I do not regret because of some flaws in my planning. First, instead of setting new and different goals for 30 days, I set up a long list of regular goals. Second, I again planned much more things than I could have handled. Hence #Fail. But I don't care much, as I enjoyed the last 30 days lazying around and getting up in the afternoon after the hectic time in Mumbai. I did however manage to get a few tasks done in these 30 days, which I am happy about.

So, this is how the Summer of '11 went for me. It was pretty jam-packed yet relaxing. Ah, how much do I love three months of holidays. Also, I did not post about this but around 20 days back, my blog completed its first year. I did not have a separate post about it because, well, I did not blog that much in the last one year to celebrate or something. Nevertheless, expect a series of blog posts on Mumbai 2011 in the coming weeks.