yahaan ke taare

14 December 2006

I had been an IISc campus bird for about six years. To live in IISc means to fall in love with it. It’s an absolutely wonderful place – perhaps the best that one can get to live in, in Bangalore. IISc is an addiction – for everyone who lives there. Doubly so, for me given that I had lived there for six years. Like many others, the IISc chapter of my life too is filled with myriads of cheerful faces; faces of friends – friends in mess, in gymkhana, in tea board, in classes, in TV room, in lab, the juice center and so many other places. I’d walk on any street in IISc and I’d know at least half of the people walking on it. Hi Chandra, Hey Chash, howdy Chash, hey dude, enappa, eno loafer, ley eno bowshy, namaskara sir, eppadi irrukaenga, namaste anna, baasu enti sangathulu, guru garu baagunnara, hello boss – kaise ho, kemon aacho dada! – a reflection of the diversity of India packed into one sweet capsule called IISc. Alas! All of that is replaced by a monotonous `Bonjour’, from the known and the unknown alike. Kisi ko jaantha nahee, phir bhi Bonjour bonjour karta hoon. Woh bhi karte hain. Lekin IISc mein desi Bonjour ka maza alag tha.

IISc was an addiction. Now, it is nostalgia. Starting from the C-mess breakfast table, to lab experiments, to papers, to discussions and arguments over mean square error curves, to tea board, to campus politics in coffee board, to gymkhana, to Great Indian Laughter Challenges in hostel TV room – every moment was a cherished one. 11-11.30 in the night was the regular coffee time for Pramod and me. Pramod’s Pulsar was a regular companion in our coffee/tea visits and was party to all our gossips while on the ride. Sometimes, he’d ride and sometimes I would. In case one of us delayed or forgot about our appointment with coffee, the other would call up and say `le, maadiddu kelsa saaku… baaro’. And at 11 in the night, standing in the ECE parking lot, and gazing at the sky, I’d show this constellation in the December skies, right above us, to Pramod: `Nodo aa constellation na. That is Orion. Those three stars in a line – that’s the belt. This one is the dagger…’ And I’d go on and on. Orion is my favourite constellation, a fond memory of my fascinating night-sky observation trip while I was at TIFR Mumbai. Orion is also perhaps the only constellation that I remember clearly. He was always there right above us, at that time in the night. I told the Orion thing to Pramod almost every day, night rather, in my last few months at IISc; and whenever I forgot, he’d show it to me and say in typical Kannada `Adhu Orion alvaa?’ and we’d both burst laughing, breaking the silence of the night. Orion had become an integral part of our coffee rides. And whenever the skies weren’t clear and we couldn’t sight Orion, we were disappointed! Pramod would say, `Ilvallo, ello hoythu?’ We’d smile and move on.

I’m miles away from IISc, now, in the freezing Switzer lands… As I walked after dinner yesterday night, looking up at the swiss skies, I found no constellations there. -3 degrees centigrade, mostly foggy skies. Even when the skies are clear, I couldn’t form any patterns. Why are there no patterns in this part of the world? Or am I unable to figure them out?

I looked up at the sky, smiled and said to myself, `Yahaan ke taare bhi ajeeb hai, ajnabee hai.’

My Orion remained in IISc while I moved out!

Ack:
The nice picture of Orion was taken from:
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Orion.html
An e-visit to IISc at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofd1RWm69U4

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