After-Grad.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 5:33 pm by Pratik Shah.

The stage is set for the grand finale of the Twenty20 cricket world cup. India faces Pakistan in the decider.

Date: 24th September 2007
Time: 7:00 am Midwest Time

Problem: Important lecture from 8:00 - 9:00 where attendance is a must.

Solution: Attendance is a must (but not paying attention). The whole desi gang changes position and sits in one corner of the class with 2 laptops to watch the match streamed live on the internet (Thanks to wi-fi and my friend who got a laptop from India). We reached class at 6:45 a.m. when there were only cleaners in the university. Settled into our positions and were all set after having engineered the angles and positions so that everyone could see the match. We went one level higher from listening to radio commentary during class in Mumbai to watching the match live during class in US. Technology rules!!!

 The best moment of the match came when Gautam Gambhir hit a six in the final overs and I wanted to inform the rest of the class about it. So I raised my hand in excitement only to realize that the professor is staring at me. I don’t know how, but I managed to ask him a question(I had to, since I had raised my hand) and unexpectedly, the question turned out to be a real good one. Sometimes these lightening flashes in your brains are super saviours. The class was over and then we had to find a place where we could continue watching the rest of the match. We went to our lab where there were 2 Chinese students working. The Motivated Indians that we are, we managed to pull them in to watch the match as well.

Anti-Climax:When Pakistan were 4 wickets down, the streaming site gave up. We were desperately searching for alternatives but couldn’t't find any. Finally we started reading scores on cricinfo and realized that Irfan Pathan had struck twice. We had no other option but….. to rush back to our apartments where people were still enjoying the match. That’s where we saw the rest of the match and eventually had a desi style celebration, including screaming on top of our voices.

Climax:Class at 11:00 where we went without any preparation, without notes and our minds still thinking of the whole scene and our first achievement at bending the rules!!!

Moral of the Story:Life is fun even when you are thousands of miles away from your country. The ones you hated the most become your closest friends. Its not only studies, assignments, research and projects. These amount to just a fraction of the entire experience. There’s much more like cooking, kabaddi, kho-kho, cricket, chori, night-outs and a lot more….. You gotta be here to experience it!!!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Random Posts: