A perfect day at Cornell

Note: This post is about my experiences today, and has no added charm. Rather, this is how a travelogue ought to be. Please do not feel disappointed after reading the post as you have already been forewarned :P

14th May - this shall be remembered as my most memorable day at Cornell University till now. Today I decided to hold a day long fast and break it only at night (to mark 12 years since my thread ceremony day). I guess this was my first day long fast, and I managed to handle it pretty well. Also I was quite elated that despite my 'lack of nutrition', I managed to beat Zhongtao in TT today, which I believe is an achievement for someone who plays TT like I do :P (I guess I ought to fast more :P)

Anyways, today was Einstein's turn for cooking dinner. As we went shopping today for groceries after 10 full days, Einstein was rather happy to see an overflowing refrigerator and packed cupboard shelves. To our delight, he announced that he would prepare mutter paneer and tandoori roti for dinner tonight. While he was preparing this kingly dinner (read: For bachelors like us here, such foods are delicacies, as the Indian restaurants in the area pretty much suck at cooking Indian dishes - so we have to make these with great efforts on our own :P), Shashikant came over, and we had a nice long chit chat session. Well, we were discussing about the supposed-to-be-today's-thunderstorm as predicted in the news yesterday which was nowhere round the corner. We were a few minutes into the talk, when all of a sudden it started raining briskly, and the temperatures as usual plummeted from a hot 28 C to a pleasant 4 C. Then we were treated to Vivek's special Roti and mutter paneer, which was quite awesome - the dude has a midas touch when it comes to cooking it seems. After a sumptuous dinner, we indulged ourselves in the chocolate fudge and the cherry vanilla ice creams we had bought tonight. Man what a dinner! And all this in the comfort of our home sweet home :P to the sound of the rains outside :)

Then Einstein suggested we go out for a walk - the weather being fantastic, and also the fact that he had suddenly got this urge to watch some 'fodu bandiyaan'. Well, even we felt 'Itne pyaare se mausam mein walk to banta hai' and we set off for College town at 11pm. We chose our usual path along the gorge - where you get to hear the constant roar of the water coming from the nearby falls. Then we bought strong Lattes for each of us and set off for the clock tower beside the slope, to catch the divine view of the clocktower standing out handsomely in the lovely backdrop of downtown Ithaca. Sat there for about an hour or so, chatting in typical IIT style - a conversation starting from 'Kitna mast mausam hai' that switched over to 'Aise sights India mein kahaan dekhne milte hai' to 'Konkan side mein mast scenic places hai yaar' to 'Vivek god artist hai bhai' to 'Kamal Hassan god movies banaata hai' to 'Tamil Nadu ko government ne barbaad kar rakha hai' to 'Bangalore is losing its charm' and finally ending in Krishna's theory on why this week we have the highest probability of getting laid :) The place was so serene and the atmosphere so soothing (I guess the Latte too had a role to play in this) - it was quite a comforting experience; I have now decided to walk over to the clock tower at night quite often (the Latte too :P).

Back home at 1, we were quite fortunate to catch the climax of the Utah-Warriors playoff match. Much to the dismay of my roomies, Utah won what was a do or die game for the Golden state warriors. Frankly speaking, it was quite evident that the better team won. Anyways, it was a perfect end to a perfect day - also got to learn Cadence today, and I have already started respecting it for its amazing utility. The icing on the cake was that Suresh gave me his fan today (read: he bought a new one today since his parents are coming over next week), so now I can sleep in much more peace than what I already have been doing (the joy you experience in sleeping with a fan at full speed in a chilly 4 C is rather amazing).

P.S. Totally forgot about the cam today. Hopefully I'll buy it tomorrow - and pray that I get it before my birthday, which is just a week away :) My roomies are also making some plans for my birthday - from whatever I have over heard, it involves bumps, booze and a pub :P Let's see how I end up celebrating my 21st birthday on the 21st of May :)

~Ta tas.