BITS Pilgrimage - 2 to 4 Dec 2005

As Assistant Dean Prof.Venkat put it, this was indeed a pilgrimage. To travel a long way (fly from Bangalore to Delhi for 2.5 hours; travel in Qualis on the adventurous roads to Pilani for around 200 kms for 5 hours); visit and explore a holy place (read BITS campus), have darshan (read project VIVA), have prasadam (read the hostel food); stay for a while (read hostel); face exciting conditions (0.6 degree celcious min temperature); delight local chai; and finally get some gyan and enlightenment. The most surprising part is that Prof. Nataraj came in to the orientation room held by Prof.Venkat before VIVA and called out my name...I raised my hand...and he said he had been reading this blog. It's surprising because I had mentioned the URL to this blog somewhere in the middle of the Final Project Report. Gosh...they do read some reports!!! :-)

A quick info...we went in Air Deccan on 2nd Dec early morning flight and reached Delhi after 2.5 hours. We had booked a Qualis for the round-trip from Delhi-Pilani-Delhi. On thw way, we had breakfast at Haldirams around Gurgaon which was a huge and neat complex. After reaching Pilani - which is a small village in Rajasthan and a native of the Birlas - we checked in to the VFAST Boys hostel and had lunch. We still had time - so explored the BITS campus. It's a city in itself with all facilities. No one needs to go outside for anything. It was exam time so we didn't see much crowd. Next day - 3rd Dec - was our VIVA. After the orientation, VIVA was over for all 5 of us by around 3.30pm. So, we went around BITS again - this time with the knowledgeable and entertaining company of Siddarth Nini (a cousin of my friend Panda). Then, we went back to a the rooms after dinner at 8 - the Sun sets at 5.15pm and then it starts chilling out rapidly. Next morning we set out to Delhi where we got to spend some time roaming around - with the help of Joshiji (our driver). We returned back to Bangalore on the flight at 10.45pm. Thanks to Venki for dropping and picking me up from the Bangalore Airport!

What I must mention is the chai we get in rady (tea stall) around BITS campus - hot and gingerly, yummy! As Jagadeesh put it - in most places we get tea but this is chai!

As they say, a picture tells you a story of a 100 words...

On Bangalore to Delhi flight - nice sky and amazing texture of clouds all the way


BITS VFAST hostel campus - nice comfortable place to stay and hygienic food as well


BITS campus - neat, clean and cold


The famous and historic Clock Tower - which appears on all BITS magazines


The serene and peaceful Saraswati Mandir - white marbles, peacocks and pigeons all around


The BITS Museum - wide range of models on all subjects


That's me - outisde the Museum


And our group which went from Bangalore together to BITS - Panda's cousin Siddarth (extreme left), Shyamtanu, Jagadeesh, Raj, Kiran and me!


BITS library


And then back to Delhi - where we got to spend a few hours before our flight back to Bangalore
Qutab Minar


India Gate


Rashtrapati Bhavan


The center of Power - Parliament


This pilgrimage to BITS, Pilani for the Dissertation (final project) VIVA completes my last formality for the MS Degree. It was an experience I will always keep close to my heart - now that I'm a BITSian! :-)

All snaps here.... BITS Pilgrimage snaps on Flickr (Updated Dec 2006)
Alternate set on Yahoo Photos