That night- I will remember for my entire life! It wouldn't have been different frm a typical night if God hadn't decided to make that one wish come true.... Hmm.. among all those that I asked Him.. that had to be the one to be granted.!
Last semsester@IIT, few days from submission day of final thesis..
No, I didn't ask God for results, even though that was what I should have asked for! Sigh! How much I regret!... All those colourful graphs illustrating that the algo I devised is 200%-500% better than all the existing algos devised by all those nerds frm all over the world..! That was exactly what I should have asked for! That was not.
Frustration which used to sit in my head took control of my central and peripheral nervous systems. Same was the story wid the lady who stayed in the room opposite to mine.. This madam who was frm structural engineering, also happened to be the maintenance secy for the most ancient and historic monument in IIT -- our hostel which is more than 60yrs old. She was doing a project on designing some earthquake resistant structures. (Infact her neighbor's project is far more interesting.. involves collection of samples (leachate) from landfills and analyzing them. But it doesn't fall under the scope of our story. Lets discuss this later) Same situation, same story for all... no results.
@3.AM I returned from the lab to the hostel (topmost floor).. as usual.. to find something unusual. Light was still on in this lady's room and she was struggling hard to keep her eyes open, cursing everything on earth she can spell, trying to arrive at some design which can stand earthquakes. I tried to figure out what she was doing. She seemed to have put some roller skates under the building's legs (oh sorry.. pillars) so that the building only dances to the rythm of the quake and does not fall. She was simulating earthquakes on her PC and her structure was dancing always at some awkward angle. She was fighting to get those angles right. I found it amusing rather. I suppressed a laugh. He he.. she had to be our maintenance secy! She flared her nostrils in defence and argued about how the structure entirely moves with the earthquake due to the roller skates rather than bending unevenly and breaking. She later lectured abt the precision required in the design and how efficient, the design would then be! It was 3.30AM. We had no energy left in us. We were both struggling to keep our eyes open, to manage to get some performance curves (or angles.. whatever) and we were both in deep frustration. So peace had to prevail. We pitied each other and patted each other's backs.
Then it all began.. We started with cursing... everthing on earth we know. Then we were trying to figure out what to do. There was nothing that could be done. It was 4 AM and we decided to sleep. I went to my room and was hoping to wake up early.. to put in some worthless effort.. and wish for some miracles to happen. Miracles don't happen... atleast in our lives. If we were so unlucky.. so be it! I wished I had vanished frm the earth before I had to face the day.. I wished maybe some earthquake destroys the whole of IIT and I get saved frm the day... The thought was soothing. My burning eyes fought the resistance and won. It was 4.12AM
(@4.40AM roughly) Someone was banging the door. I hated that. 'Its Radhika and Neelima' .. those girls were yelling. 'Open the door! Immediately!'.
(I hate you guys) 'Pl let me sleep.. I hardly slept!'
'Come on! open the door! Now!'
'What is it? I want to sleep!'
(some internal discussion happened outside and they yelled together) 'Its XXXX's bday and we should go down and wish her.. Common fast! FAST! Just open the door!'
'(Kill me! I give a damn!) Hey pl.. I need to sleep. Will join u guys in few min'
Those girls were angry outside. 'OPEN THE DOOOR NOWWWWWW!!!'
I had to wake up and unlatch the door. Those girls pulled me out and took me down. N started..
'There was an earthquake now! Didnt you even know? We all got up frm bed. It was so severe. Mud was falling from the walls, the bed moved, everything fell off my desk. I was shocked. Didn't you even know'
'WHATT??? My sleep was then gone!'
I looked around. The entire hostel was there. Even the lady who was designing the earthquake resistant structures was there.. completely lost! .. She found everything vibrating, things falling off her cupboard.. and it took 15 minutes for her to realize it was an earthquake!. This madam who was simulating earthquakes for the last few months, apparently felt the first earthquake in her life!
N my situation... I was under heavy doses of frustration and sleeplessness. The earth and my hostel were all shaking under me and I had no clue! N that was exactly what I asked for about an hour ago! Oh my God! Did the earthquake occur in AP too? Are my parents and sister fine? I called them and checked.
Later, Radhi and neelima started describing.. the earthquake, how mud fell off frm the walls of the building and how they felt it might collapse and decided to run outside the building.. found that I was still sleeping and decided to take me along at that time! (Cant appreciate them enough) They decided not to tell me about the quake coz they thought I would panic (Did they think that it would give me a heart attack? Most likely. They don't know how earthquake resistant my sleep is :p) and decided to tell that it was a frens' bday and take me down!! I love u guys!
Most unbelievable thing was.. I wished for an earthquake at @4AM and it came true in less than an hr! I cant tell you what my reactions were. Just imagine and have a laugh!
(we later had tea and examined how earthquake non-resistant our hostel was!)
