That meeting by chance

I was working as an Alumni cell student team member, and it was the initial year of the formation of the cell, and too few committed people. I used to complete its tasks whenever I got some free time during classes. It was one such day, and I had to go to Vfast and pick up a guest list from the last reunion. I went there, and I found a person looking quite different. I took the list, and while I was leaving, I realised he was the same person I have seen in an email about a talk by a Japanese professor in control systems. I don’t know Japanese, nor the control system; he knows just a little of English and yet there I was talking with him about my interests. 

I shared the formula student car I was working on, and he was excited to see it. It was around 3:30 then, and the talk was from 4-5. I had to be there at the lecture and arrange that my workplace was presentable. I run back to Meera to get my team flag, ask the team’s people to be there at the workplace ( we call it boiler ). I go to the talk, wait didn’t I shared there were two talks, I go to another talk since it was made compulsory by my professor to be attended. 

I sneak out of there at 3:40 and I attend the last few minutes of control systems talk, but the Prof was kind enough to agree to come with me to see the car. However, as we approached the door, one Professor who used to think all of this technical club thing superficial takes the Professor along with him. I walk out, and I have a whole of 10-20 people, swiftly preparing for the visit, I sit there at the Rotunda Stairs, in front of clock tower exhausted. 

Just then, I receive a call from the person accompanying the Japanese Professor to meet them. Maybe their scheduled meeting was over or delayed; I don’t remember, but they agreed to visit the boiler. We talked about the car, and they were impressed by the work we had done as an undergraduate student. I walked him to Vfast and spoke about my work, and he asked me to write if I have any queries. 

Fast forward, actually 3-4 days ahead, I decided to write to him about working with him in the upcoming summers. He accepted, but BITS had to select me as one of the two exchange students, and as Professor do most of the time conveniently, they chose to do it based on CGPA. I tried talking, but in vain, just then I talk with one of my Robotics Professor Rout Sir assures, I can go there, but it won’t be funded. So, I sat there and compared the logistics of going on my Practice School -1 ( since it was the summers after my second year where we have a compulsory summer internship via BITS ). I decided to pay the PS fees while looking for funding options, and it was 8 April. It was one of my closest friend’s birthday, and I was there at C’not buying balloons and trying contacting various alums simultaneously. Obviously was getting scolding from my friends about not participating in the decoration. And as it always happens, the best things in my life are around her birthday. I received a positive response from Mr Jai Durjai one of our Alums ( 59-63 ) batch whose one batch mates Mr NC Vaish was willing to bear the whole of the expenses.

(Here is one of the pictures I have with their batch)

However, there was some miscommunication, and they said I cannot come there this way. I waited to talk to Rout sir again and sort this out, and now almost disappointed. 

However, I talk with Rout sir and around 20 April I receive a confirmation of my internship, and I mail Vaish Sir, and he willingly accepts to help me through this. 

Wait, it is already 25 April, the internship starts on 24 May, and I still don’t have a passport! 

I go to the passport office, on Friday, the compre starts from 1 May, and I have a significant test on Monday. I make a mistake with documents, and the person shares my passport couldn’t be made in Tatkaal ( which takes around 4-5 days). Instead, I will have to apply for a passport which would take about 1 month…… I start crying, after all of this, I won’t be able to go there just because of a technicality. 

I stay at the exit of the office crying while my brother hears all of this and he just goes straight to the officer, he is still rude, but the higher official is polite, and my brother asks a way out. The official suggests to reschedule the appointment to Monday and apply with a different, complete set of documents. Wait, but you can only schedule it three times, and I already have done it two times earlier, so maybe will have to retake the appointment and miss the test on Monday. I am confused. I call my Professor, and he expresses his inability to give me any buffers and asks me to go to the Passport office. I am confused, and my brother is worried, I am too naive to strive alone in a government office, how I am going to survive in a wholely new country around strangers. Also, it is not quite sure, the passport office will issue on this again since they already know the technical glitch. I still choose to stay, I go there to the office, and it is finally made. I go back, but I realise in the way that I have nausea, and I vomit half an hour before the bus reaches Pilani. I reach Meera, and my friend advises me to drink Mojito ( I know right I shouldn’t have ). I puke again, and she asks me to sleep, I try to relax and vomit again. I have no one around, everyone is asleep, and my Maa calls me to check if I am alright, and I tell her all of this, and she is worried. She calls one of my friends Sakshi, and she took me to Sarvi, and I am admitted to the hospital overnight. I miss my another test the next day! I am discharged, and my mother is there to see me. I realised a few minutes later, my Papa is somewhere in the way of getting the car repaired, which stopped an hour before Pilani. ( I still regret calling her that night and making them struggle so much, and always consider Sakshi as one of the best people to solve my life’s difficulties ). 

My last exam was three days later, so I went home for Police verification, the previous step for obtaining the passport. While I am coming back from Jaipur, my bus has an accident in the way, and I take a lift for the rest of the way, and I see two other ladies (( one of them had an operation and was returning from the hospital )waiting for a lift but the guy accompanying them was not there. I was willing to get out to allow her to sit in the car, but the car moved fast and I yet another regret. I reached Pilani and went straight after my final exam to home to prepare my visa documents. I went home, my PS would start on 22 May, and it is already 20. I don’t yet know the status of my visa. Should I work on my Japan’s packing or should I look for a house in Pune where I would be doing my internship!!!!!! 

Finally, I received my visa approval on 21 May. I dropped out PS just a day before its stating, thanks to Srini Sir, who understood my situation. And finally, on 23 May, I was there in the flight to Hiroshima…….. ( Later I would come to know about a BITSian alum who would help me survive through lonely life in Hiroshima, maybe I write about her next time! )