yet it all seemed like the perfect design....even the date of the event.
a brief prelude..i m a person who has always been the last moment man having a time of life with fate....the list includes the last free seat in engg college, last one to enter mba batch in my college, last day of summer placement, last company, last guy to get placed..and ofcourse so many other last minute happenings in every other walk of life like last minute appearance at major competitive examinations..and i believe i hv devloped a skill ( and more importantly a liking) for such adventures....and i wd hv been really pained if i had not the fortune to get the perfect end to a project life fraught with incorigible planning and hapless execution.
and so it was the fateful friday the 13th which was to be the last of my list of last min happenings..
the scene :
manish, suman and ph to share pain with me. we were given over 3 months to complete a business plan and we ended up finally with just 3 days to successfully submit the same. ofcourse the most of the 3 months was spent rather constructively in making dvd prints of all possible movies and documentaries avaliable on earth. then there was the dozen odd rajni movies and scores of vivek comedies to catch up with notwithstanding the time spent in uncovering telegu movies remade in to tamil, dialogue by dialogue.
the story:
2 pm : we were supposed to be at the presentation hall ready with our reports, ppts and what not.
ph n me still in room. we were not ready with both. i was documenting some changes in the report while he was at the ppt. our life in any yardstick was most miserable.we had done all the report making stuff in our lab and on a system which was nourishing a virus. the pen drive which had the ppt downloaded from one of the biologically challenged computers blew my system seconds after insertion. it looked like some witch craft. we resorted to orther means n tried makingh the ppt again. suman's lappy had drained off. manish had to give his comp. we had no laptops to carry for the presentation. suman n ph had almost competed a brilliant ppt
it was 2 pm as we were still fighting with the report n missed out on our lunch. manish n suman were at the presentation hall n were waiting for us. they called me up n i say we'll be there in an hr and hang up. suman goes crazy n lands up at my room in the next 10 mins. he was to leave for hyderabad by 4 pm and we just cud not delay our presentation any longer..
the other grps had started off their presentations. it was 3.10 when we thought we r done. we leave for the presentation complete the same, masterminded by ph who is famous for his blisterinng ppts with his inimitable style of delivery.
i take a hard look at the report we had made n found there were fatal errors..sorry blunders..and we leave for the lab again to make the changes. and we choose the same virus driven pc and copy the modified file to the drive n to my mail. 3.30 pm it is.
i get the bike key of sudhanshu as me n ph leave for getting the printout. now the bike just does not start..10 mins of non stop kicking n i give up....now i felt like kicking myself.
we take an auto.
if u wd watch the beauty, we r from hostel 13. it was the farthest from som. all of a sudden i begin to hate 13 like anything ( and yeah i happen to be born on 13th in one of these months)
we stop at hostel 8. crowded. hostel 7? we switch on the comp..the comp gets hanged..theguy says we cant do it. so we head to hostel 12. hostel 13 had a crappy xerox guy whom we cud never depend on.
now hostel 12 is packed. it was the btp ( btech project) submission day at 5 pm. n we are there at 4 pm. no wonder we wonder what next. the printer just then goes down. some time is spent in repair. and then finally it is up again. we ask, how long will this take..i get a rude answer....the guy has 150 pages..after that 3-4 guys still wait before the machine like jackals sticking out thier tongue....and getting despo.
we decide to retreat. we go back to hostel 13. yeah we made it. 10 mins of wqait n we got the sysetem. i download the doc from my mail..well not yet....systems blinks..file corrupted....i decide this hostel 13 is always crazy..n run for hostel 9..without a bike it had to be foot on hot day....like dog day afternoon.
i grab a system there in propel my pendrive n it says file corrupted..now the whole cycle is jeering at me. a file modifed n saved in teh virus loaded system will not open anywhere on eartjh. i hv now way now. the last option is to get back to room. remake the cnages all over. n then print it.
i run back to my room. me n ph run thro the doc once again n make all changes. it is well over 5 pm. 5.30 to be exact. the prof ios a visiting prof, n we cant meet him after this..it was the last presentation of the course at the classroom. ph rushed n made a print. as i set arranging them the xerox guy says no binding..ph scampers to hostel 12 again n gets a folder. now i arrange a bike n dash off to som. 5.45 pm..the last of the presentations finishes now....we made it. we submitted the report finally all changes duly made. manish was our time keeper who constantly kept us abreast as to how much time we hv n what best is possible out of the given circumstances..
me and ph then leave for the canteen at close to close time. as i much one of those cutlets we discuss abt the pendrive phenomenon n i jump out..i missed my pendrive..to be sure it was sujay's....u rush to hostel 9 again..GOD'S GRACE it was kept carefully the shop guy..and i heaved a sigh of relief..
i dont know what it felt like....it was not about a submission or a nice grade for whcih we had to slog....
just that the report atleast needed to be okay if not grt....professional if not perfect....
i think we cut a fair deal.
corporate life is not going to be a place for such hanky panky work with all the recklessness we hv sincerley submitted ouself in the course of this course....
only time can tell....anyhow memories r momeories....
and
friday the 13th is the best of them!!!!
