NIMBOOOZ TRIP 2010

Whoooohh! What a weekend!

Here's a story of a Journey I hadn't dreamt of. The story of a four day trip, which has been non-stop experience from the very beginning till the very end. Four days, which gave much-much more than expected (and I know Noul will agree with me on this). And because there so much to write, I will skip more introduction and come straight to 10^th of March, 2010.

This post is for all of my friends, with whom I wished to share my experiences of this trip. I won’t reveal the entire trip plan, and so anyone reading this blog will come to know that as he/she proceeds.

The Nimbooz go travelling

The Nimboooz Trip, as we named it (reason for that will come later) began at 9:00 PM, 10^th march, when I and Mr. Noul Singla, the only two nimbooz of this trip reached Jalandhar Bus Stand to board the bus for “Shri Anandpur Sahib”. It’s a religious place, with numerous Gurudwaras; one of the most sacred places in Punjab and in India. The bus we were in had to take a de-tour through some fields and villages streets due to a diversion, and we both felt adventure already coming our way. We reached there at midnight. We stayed in the beautiful sub-city till morning 7 O'clock.

HIMACHAL: The land of hills.

11 March: The Himachal Express took us from Anandpur Station to Una – the junction for various cities of Himachal Pradesh. The railway station at Una is something out of movies – a low platform on one side, with a small hill adorning the other; and that was the special reason for us going to UNA in train.

After our breakfast there, we took a bus till Nangal, and from where we boarded another bus to BHAKHRA NANGAL DAM – one of the marvels of engineering in the world. As soon as you get the first sight of the mighty dam, you cannot help but wonder how this kind of structure – three times high than the Qutub Minar – could have been constructed back in 1948-63. It took 300 engineers and 13,000 workers to build this huge wonder.

There happened an interesting incident I would like to mention here. On the way to BHAKHRA NANGAL, during a routine police check, I was almost refused to go any further than that check post; the reason being “Jammu” as my permanent address on my DAVIET I-Card. “J&K residents aren't allowed any further, that is the order from GOVERNMENT,” said one of the officers there. “We have threat letters coming, and NAINA DEVI & BHAKHRA NANGAL are over-sensitive areas for a J&K resident to go to,” he added. Our constant requests paid off, and we just managed to convince them that I wasn’t a terrorist. I had to gather my self esteem once again, as the ‘proud' citizen of INDIA.

So, coming back to Nimbooz trip, we had a great time at BHAKHRA. Though we weren't allowed on the Dam itself, (security reasons again) we had a great time boating in the RANJIT SAGAR LAKE – the reservoir for the Dam. The sailor inside us was on a high!

 

BHAKHRA - The Inspiration for the engineers.

One of the very peculiar things that we noticed there; the sides of hills just adjacent to the Dam have numerous iron rods (Saria) thrust deep inside, and their ends are clearly visible protruding out of the hill side. The purpose, as we guessed, was possibly to restrain landslides from occurring. As far as we two think, that probably might not be a part of any text book on engineering. And that’s what true engineering is all about.

 
NIMBOOZ @ NIMBUS

We returned to Nangal, and reached UNA at 1:30 PM. It takes around four hours from UNA to HAMIRPUR. And we were standing at Hamirpur bus stand at 5:30 in the evening. And why we were at Hamirpur - the core reason for the entire trip – the Annual Technical Festival at NIT Hamirpur – NIMBUS (that's reason for namig the trip as nimboooz).

NIT Hamirpur is an altogether different story in this entire trip. It is no less than a heavenly campus, sitting atop the hill. For those who have ever been to Vaishno Devi, it will be a familiar site. No two blocks are on the same level, and this gives the college the feel of a set of a movie. And as is usual with NITs, the campus is huge (around 300 acres), which becomes more profound considering the topography. It’s a college within a mountainous forest.

The students had adorned most of the visible part of the college with amazing art work – promoting various events and NIMBUS on the whole. We registered ourselves and after getting our accommodation in the Neelkanth Boys Hostel (NBH), we came back to the college. It was already 9:00 PM.

Then began the one and half day long process of observation, making friends, interacting with experts, participating in events, qualifying in some, appreciating the work of the students there, and realizing the true potential and capability of a 20 year old engineer in making. The highlight of the time spend there, for me, was talking to Dr. John C. Mather, on a video conferencing call from a NASA centre in America. He is a senior NASA astrophysist, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. Another very memorable time I had there were the 90 minutes I was with one of my schoolmates, who is a student there. I hadn’t met her in a long time, and it felt so good talking to one of my old friends.

MOHALI – THE IPL COMES TO TOWN

We started our journey towards Chandigarh on the morning of 13^th march. By 6 O’clock, we were in Mohali, and by 7:30, we two had ‘arranged’ tickets for the IPL T20 match between KINGS 11 PUNJAB & DELHI DAREDEVILS. Many of our friends had also come down from Jalandhar to see the match, but they already had their tickets. And then, for the first time in my life, I saw more than just the cricketers playing the game. Trust me; there is a lot more when you are actually present in the stadium: There are cheerleaders, thousands of people, the beautiful reporters, the photographers & videographers, the screens, the celebrities (Priety Zinta in our case) and then the cheerleaders again. I hardly saw 20% of the game, but enjoyed 1000% of it.

After the match, we returned to sec 43 Bus stand, had our dinner there among many other young guys & girls (who had come for the game), and took a room at a lodge there only. It was already 2:00 AM by then.

THE MICROSOFT DREAM SPARK YATRA

Next morning, we got up early and reached Law Auditorium, PU Chandigarh, for the Microsoft Technical Symposium titled ‘Microsoft Dream Spark Yatra’. Around 200 students of our college were among the 1000 students who attended the event. Though I myself missed most of the sessions, being one of the coordinators of the event, I had a great time interacting with the various Microsoft Student Partners, and juniors of my college.  We left for Jalandhar around 5 in the evening. Since we couldn’t reach Jalandhar on time for the dinner at the hostel mess we decided to eat at a restaurant and then return to hostel. It was overwhelming to so over a dozen of college mates having dinner together after the normal hostel timings.

NIMBOOOZ Back In DAVIET

It was after eleven when we reached our hostel, and we were dead tired. As I was pouring my luggage out, and getting ready to sleep, thousands of thoughts were hovering inside my head. Four days of numerous anecdotes, various faces, experiences, incidents just sweeping past my head again. And then, I thought, “I maybe in debt after this trip, I may have lost out two working days of college, & two so called ‘rest days’, I may get in trouble tomorrow for coming back to hostel so late (not exactly me, but some of my classmates), but the time I had is undoubtedly one of the best times I ever had.” And with that, I just prayed to God to give more and more such times to me and everyone who asks for them, and dozed off.

I think I already have exceeded the word limit most of you guys would have preferred. I don’t think many of you will read this entire piece. But trust me; I have been merciless in keeping it as short as possible.

Now as I spent one more night putting down all this in the open office document, I cannot keep myself from feeling grateful to God, my friends, and most of all, my parents. They are probably in their train from Haridwar to Jammu right now. I love you mom and dad, it’s because of you and your constant blessing that I can dream of such experiences and trips.

Jai Mata Di.