Trip to Pilani

I have been bitten by the travel bug. I enjoy travelling more than anything. I love loitering around airports, gazing at people from different communities. Or making on the fly decisions about the commute or a place to stay. There is a kick in all of these.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on a MS distance education with BITS Pilani. Every quarter I would have to slog (ok not slog, I start studying 3 days before the exam). Twelve holidays in a year - gone for exams.. sad. Thankfully, I jumped so many companies, I never had to worry about these holidays.

We booked our tickets about 3 weeks back. Four of us had to travel. Lakshmi, Balaji Riyaz, friends from Sify. We flew to Delhi, with no plans for travel, from Delhi to Pilani. Riyaz had one phone number, Delhi cabs. We called this guy, not knowing what to expect. After a few calls, we rounded on air conditioned WagonR Rs 8 / KM plus bata. Proud of our deal, we told him to come to Indira Gandhi International Airport. We were frying outside Delhi domestic airport while our hero, the driver, was waiting for us in the International airport. The driver deserves a special mention. He does not understand Hindi, English or any other language. In spite of our brilliant effort to converse in Hindi, this guy barely understood it. Apparently he was a tourist guide who helped foreigners in Ninital.. lol..

We had a decent lunch in Haldirams, a hotel on the Gaurgaon highway. The roads in Delhi, I have to say a few words. I am seeing 6-way/8-way lanes for the first time in India. Flyovers that stretch over few kilometers, simply out of the world. Others had a good time ragging me, while I was appreciating the good roads..
I can't imagine travelling in city buses from Delhi to Pilani.. Delhi-Gurgaon-Dharuheda-Riwari-Narnaul-Singhana-Chirawa-Pilani is the best route to Pilani. Except for occasional bad roads, the route was smooth. Rustic country side from an air conditioned car was quite pleasant. We reached the campus around 6.30 PM (five hours drive), checked into vfast hotel within the campus. We expected to see sand dunes, cactus. What we saw was forrested flowering campus. Worn out by the travel, we had an early dinner (as some fellow lady students described and we had to rag her.. awesome food)..

The next day.. the introduction session lasted for around an hour and we were encouraged to take up Phd.. ofcourse none of us were even thinking about a Phd... All our dissertations ended around 4.30 PM. We fried in the burning sun the entire day. The campus is huge and the professors believed in quality of education.. a refreshing difference from my under graduation college. The professors were knowledgeable and pretty interesting.

We celebrated the evening with I eating a Cornetto all by myself. We started back to Delhi, early 6.30 AM. With a few hours to spare, we decided to visit India Gate. A magnificent structure. Only crib should visit these places in winter. On the whole a great trip..