Meeting NS - Premier show @ FTCR

November 1997
Mysore

Tomorrow was going to be the first day of engineering. A dream I had seen since passing out of my tenth standard. Doing my graduation at Mysore with all my friends. Coincidentally, most of my friends had found their way to NIE Vivek, Goddi, Raj, Harsha and Sutti. Rohith was in the nearby SJCE. It was the college I had chosen in my first round of counseling.

I was sitting in my hostel room and matching dreams with reality watching the beautiful network of cobwebs woven by the extra-active spiders on the roof. Then walked in NS. We started speaking on some topic, and both of us felt claustrophobic.

What else do you expect?

It was a 10' x 13' room with walls that were last painted when the Wodeyars were ruling Mysore. The walls, probably, were built much before that. It is said that Tipu Sultan supervised the construction! Four of us were supposed to live in that monument of a room. Till I came in, my roomie was the only one to have been staying there. And he was what we called, "Doctorate in Engineering". It was his fifth year at engineering! Anyway, more about him later.

NS and I stepped out of the room into the corridor. The corridor of this monument overlooked the road to our college. Manantody road. The hostel was just off the road. Nobody would even notice the hostel unless someone they knew stayed in the hostel. From the outside it looked like a neglected Government project of lined up houses for the slum-dwellers. Not that it was a palace from inside, but still!!

NS said, "Ninge bere yaava hostel siglillva?" [Didn't you find any other hostel?]
I answered, "Sikktu. KSS hostel nalli sikkittu. But alli nange munche inda 6 jana iro room kottru. Nanu hogididdre 7th man aagtidde!" [Yeah, I was offered accommodation in a room where 6 people were already staying as the 7th man!]

NS said, "Sari bidu. Olledu aytu. Illige bandyalla" [Good in a way. You ended up here.]
I said, "Haudu" [Yeah]

NS asked, "Estu ittu ninna CET rank?" [What was your CET rank?]
I said, "2930, nindu?" [2930, what was yours?]

NS said, "1068" [It was around that number! I don't remember properly!]
I exclaimed, "Enu?! NIE Mech enakke togonde?" [What?! And you landed up in NIE Mech?]

NS said, "Hun. Nange mech ee bekittu. NIE gintha na Mech bekaadre. E&C, CS ella madakke ista illa nange. Adanna elladru kalibahudu" [Yeah. I wanted Mech only. And NIE is the best in Mech. I didn't want to take up E&C and CS]
I said, "Nandu ade idea iddiddu. But NIE mech sikkidu punya ne anko" [Even I belong to the same school of thought. But getting NIE Mech was a matter of pure luck!]

NS said, "Illa. Hangenu illa kano. Ninna rank ge general aagi sigutte NIE Mech. Olle rank ee nindu. [Nothing like luck. You had a good rank. You got the seat you deserved]
I said, "Nanganthu counseling time nalli full tension. Bari onde seat ulidittu nanu togonda mele" [I was very tense during my counseling. After my chance, only one seat was left]

NS said, "Nanu togondaaga, ade second seat. Naanu first inda second seat togonde. Neenu last inda second seat togondidya! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" [I picked the second seat from the top and you picked the second seat from the bottom! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!]

I joined in the laughter.

By the time we ended laughing we had settled ourselves comfortably on the bench under the Neem tree within the hostel compound. The weather during November in Mysore is just amazing. The birds migrating from Ranganathittu to their winter capitals. The "V" shape that they formed against the backdrop of the clear blue sky gave me a metaphor to think about. V stood for victory and the sky for the amount of potential we had to achieve the victory. Also, at times it gave me the feeling that our playground is like the sky. Unbounded & limitless but you will encounter clouds as you come down on your value system if you are blinded by that "V" for Victory.

Mysore gave me unlimited metaphors to life with its easy-going nature. The town would be called sleepy by those who had lived in the so-called big (and hence considered as better) cities. If you were not materialistic in nature, then Mysore is a place you would have loved during those times!

On the bench, I couldn't resist sharing these metaphors with NS. Instantly he agreed! He started sharing how much he loved Mysore. And I was agreeing to each and everything he had to say. It was like he would say something and I would build on it. And later, we would build on it. We enjoyed the conversation immensely.

It was like we were finding our wavelength. And it was being so easy. We felt like we were destined to meet each other this way at this time. Also, both of us were feeling homesick. It was the first time we were away from home. I remember both of us taking an oath that we would stay together throughout engineering. We had struck an emotional bond!

NS is what he signs at his office. Called "Harsha" by family and "Shastri" by friends. Narasimha Shastri and I went on to endure the hostel during the first year. Later on, we moved into a room at Kuvempunagar during the second year. And stayed as PGs at Jayanagar during our pre-final and final years.

Shastri graduated from NIE (Mechanical Engineering) in 2001. Got through Mico Bosch on campus and stayed with them till 2002. Secured an MS in CFD from NUS, Singapore and flew back to India. Has been working for GE JFWTC, Bangalore, as a scientist ever since. He insists on being called a technologist. Has his own blog too.

Shastri tied the knot this year in February to a very cute, sweet and strong-willed girl who goes by the name "Shrivalli". Shrivalli is an M.Sc graduate from Karnataka University and was with I.I.Sc as a Research Associate. She also has a paper published to her credit while at I.I.Sc. A girl with a clear determination to do her Ph.D in Glass Transition, Shrivalli and Shastri are colleagues at GE JFWTC presently! And it was all arranged!