Okay now its official, I have attended the best fest of ANY college ever! And that “event” was Incident 09.

When I had gone to met my friend Sai who studies in NIT Suratkal, he mentioned his fest which was coming up in Feb..I knew I HAD to attend it just because of the fact that it went on for a week and 200 colleges participated in it (that’s like a million people)..
In the beginning of Feb, my friend and me decided to bunk college at attend the fest (deciding to bunk college was a hard decision).. We booked the train tickets while Sai booked the hotel room.We left on 26^th evening , all excited to experience the legendary fest (I mean…legendary)..

Since we couldn’t miss too many days of college, I decided we will attend the last three days of the fest, so while the fest began on 25^th, we arrived on 27^th at Mangalore. From Mangalore we took a 35 minute bus to Suratkal where our Hotel was located. We checked into our hotel room at 10am, freshened up and had breakfast. From Suratkal, we had to take another 3 minute bus to the NITK college.

Day1:

Sai told us about solo singing being held at the Silver Jubilee Auditorium. While we sat there we experienced such horror, as girls were singing like sheep. I decided to play “Hey there Delilah”, I thought might as well give it a shot. Gave my name for registration at the last moment, and performed (while borrowing a guitar from Sai’s room mate.), the crowd liked it but the judges didn’t. (Dammit) After that, we went to the beach for “Sandimonium” a beach obstacle course (It was fun, we won the first round, but came last in the second…Dammit)..

After the beach events, everyone in the college ( I mean the guys) were looking forward for the fashion show being held at the Students Activity Center.

We arrived (around 7 30 pm) and the show started really late. The show was a big flop, I mean really boring because the girls being shown to us were very bad (some were good..some might have been guys dressing up as girls or something..)..and they were taking too much time in between..So my friend and me decided to leave at 10 30 and fell asleep by 11 30 at the hotel.

Day 2:

We reached the college at 11 am , and realized that Sai and his friend Bala had given their names for step up, A Hip Hop workshop. We also gave our names. Man, did we have fun at the workshop..We learned new dance steps and at the end performed all the steps together while the “Low” by Flo Rida.. As you might know, Suratkal is damn hot, so we were completely drenched with sweat at the end of it..

Next, we decided to freshen up in the boys block (while I was talking a bath , the bloody electricity went off, and the constant urine smell coming from the shower area wasn’t helping either).

I borrowed a shirt from Sai, and we got ready to go for the “Slam Dunk” competition being held at the basketball court. Holy crap, I am so glad that god gave me eyes to see such fantastic and creative slam dunks ever! From there, there was the ProNite event at the SAC, where Nikhil Chinaappa was supposed to play, along with two other DJ’s.The event was 2 hours late, it started at 9 30pm..the music was very disappointing, but we danced nonetheless (along people who haven’t seen or heard of any modern civilization in their whole lives..). Again, we kept hoping that Nikhil would come, and he finally did at 10 30, and he sucked even more than the losers on stage. He didn’t even know how to use the equipment! We already knew it was too late to go back to the hotel and decided to stay with Sai in his dormitory. But we were all hungry, so we decided to have dinner at the PCO (the guy running the PCO has a side business of selling Maggie noodles and fried eggs). We sat together ( I was wearing a screwed up vest , since the shirt I borrowed from sai was also soaking with sweat)., and had a relaxing dinner under the stars.

We then went to Sai’s room , where Sai and me imitated our School teachers and students and made everyone laugh (even cry..). Then we all sat together in front of Sai’s laptop and watched Iron Man till 4 am.

Day 3:

We got up at 7 am (after 3 hours to sleep) and checked back into our hotel room in Suratkal. We had to check out by 10 am and came back to the college by 11am.

From there we went straight for the Visual Effects Workshop being held at the main building (by now you would have realized that this campus is HUGE and involves a LOT of walking). The workshop was hell boring, mainly because the guy talking claimed that he was responsible for animation you see in Max Payne, Spiderman 3, Devil May Cry, Happy Dent..etc…and his English sucked. It wasn’t really helpful in any way.

After the workshop we headed for the room, and played Call of Duty 4 in Sai’s laptop. We then realized that our train was to departure at 7 45 and we just had 2 hours. Kunal Ganjawala was going to perform at the Encore event but we couldn’t attend it as we had the train at the same time. We obviously waisted another hour in the room and then headed to the beach. My friend wanted to take pictures, so we posed a lot at the beach, and finally couldn’t help ourselves and jumped into the beach fully dressed. After that we hurried to the Sai’s room,i tried to freshen up while everyone panicked (well, that usually happens a lot at home too, even in my college…hmm..actually everywhere.).

We ran to the Bus stop (ran for 10 meters and then crawled), caught a express bus to Mangalore, and just made it in time for the train.

So what did I learn from this trip?

That NITK isn’t just a college, its actually a way of living. A student here eats,sleeps,plays,laughs and occasionally studies in this one place. I took bath at the boys bathroom while people there just got used to the constant power cuts , less water and the urine stink. I had food at the Mess (with the horrible but free food), at the “FC” (food court..cough..would recommend it since no other place is good) and at the PCO (food is okay, but the atmosphere is fantastic).

I went to the beach and saw guys n girls just enjoying the view (about two of them), went to the various tea shops (the famous Amul Parlor that Sai claims is the most succesful Amul Parlour in Asia..but I think it is the ONLY Amul Parlor in Asia..maybe even in the known Universe) and saw where the students met up for juice and gossip…

And at the end of it, these last 3 days, I dint live how I usually lived, I lived like an NITian..which is fantastic by the way…

Ps: Next year, I am gonna drive to Suratkal on a bike with my chick..all of you (Friends, Girls come with your BF’s (You need a guy around you all the time in such places) and if your someone I have not met…go yourself!) are more than welcome to come..