So I am sitting behind the wheel, one twin sitting next to me on the passenger seat and the other one at the back. We are thinking, and we're thinking, of what to do next.
College has gotten over earlier than expected, and thanks to our wise (ahem) decision of choosing LSR over North Campus, we are isolated from the rest of the campus.
I have started the car and the engine is revving. "Okay, let's just go and meet Sikka in C.P.", I said, resigning to the boring, original plan.
They agreed dully and we started.
But you see, I'm still 18 and still a bit, umm, unaware of the roots around Delhi. And well, laughing and talking, I take any road that appears, taking random turns, as we all exclaim about how we have no clue about where the hell are we going.
I keep driving and I spot; Dyal Singh College, Air Force Bal Bharti School, "Oohh, we're going towards Khan!" I tell them, secretly relieved. C.P. is not so far from Khan. And then on our left I see the beautiful India Habitat Center.
We looked at each other and agreed without even discussing; we were going to India Habitat Center. We went in, and after finally discovering a parking spot, we parked and entered, all geared up.
We decided we'd go to the main hall, look for the notice board which had a list of all the events taking place at IHC at that time, choose something and attend it. Who knows, we might end up learning something new, or maybe come to develop a new interest; anything could happen. As we roamed around, we saw an exhibition going on, called Trucatech or something.
We had no clue what it meant. There were people there, at least twenty years older to us, passionately debating the pros and cons of whatever the agenda was, irrigation or something, and the twins in their pajamas and multicolored attire, and I in my blood red t-shirt and wild curls, could NOT have looked more out of place. We were about to leave when we saw something else, something which made our hearts beat a little faster, which strengthened our resolve to stick it out a little further.
Food.
A huge buffet had been laid out, and we saw several men piling their plates with so much, so much food, that it made our stomachs rumble. The main problem, you see, the main problem that we ended up in IHC in the first place was that the twins were short of money and I didn't have enough to sponsor all three of us, and hence we couldn't go for a nice lunch.
So when we saw all the delicious food being gobbled up by people in front of us, we just couldn't...look away. That's when we hatched the plan- this is the cool thing we will do today; somehow, somehow, we have to have the free food, which was being shamelessly wasted around. This suited all our needs- a sense of thrill, an end to our hunger and doing something new for the day.
We walked around the exhibition, pretending to take notes, telling everybody that we are students of B.Sc. from the University of Delhi and that we are researching for our project, while all the time having no idea what the exhibition was actually about. Some guy asked us if we were there for the exhibition or the conference, I quickly answered with exhibition, in case we were actually expected to attend the conference. But when later we found out that the food was only for the people who were attendees of the conference, it came as a huge blow.
With a heavy heart, we moved further in the Center, suddenly losing all interest in Trucatech and to our utter delight, entered a hall, where four doors opened to rooms from which wafted delicious smells of...more food. Excitedly, we moved to the washroom to fix ourselves when Sikka called and we instructed her to reach IHC. I explained to her that we are hungry, with no money and that we HAD to SOMEHOW have our lunch here. As I was on the phone telling her all this, we heard the sound of a flush, and a lady came out of a stall in the washroom, clearly, somebody who's in one of the conferences, and all that we could think of was, shit, did she just overhear us?
She washed and dried her hands and exited gracefully, and the twins later said that she had a secret little smile on her face, but I never saw it.
But with new-found confidence, we jumped in again.
This time it was Economic Crisis and Peoples Alternatives in Asia and Europe- the 9th Asia Europe Peoples Forum (AEPF), South Asia Preparatory Conference.
Whatever that means.
Ignoring the fact that we were at the LEAST fifteen years younger than any given person in there, that we were dressed for a hookah bar not an international conference, and that we had absolutely no idea about what one is supposed to do there, we marched inside.
It was lunch hour and there were tables and tables, laden with scrumptious food, and that was our catalyst. To be able to eat, we had to have id's for the conference. I confidently strutted towards the sign up desk.
"Hi, " I said smiling widely, as if I have always known her. " We are students from Lady Shri College, the University of Delhi and we study Political Science. We are here has representatives of our college, and we are required to attend the conference and report the event for our magazine. So where can we sign up?" I didn't give her a chance to refuse.
"Ohh," she said, glancing at her colleague, looking for a suitable reply. " Wait, I'll just ask somebody..."
She explained this to her senior who told her to not be silly and help us sign up, so on the registration sheet, she made a separate column for 'STUDENTS' and beneath that, we wrote our names and numbers.
Later, I realized that we should have probably written fake names and numbers to make the experience even better, but well, this is how we learn.
"You know what the agenda is, right?" she asked.
"Yes, of course!" I replied, nonchalantly, well, as nonchalant as one can be in a situation like this, and walked in the conference room. People were arguing and debating, some were eating, so mostly we walked in unnoticed. We got our id cards and it asked for our name and country; quizzically, we stared at each other, trying to think of a country.
I chose Maldives.
Payal chose Sri Lanka.
Nupur, Bhutan.
Straight faces? Oh well.
But most importantly, I learned that not EVERYBODY is a fool, that there are EXTREMELY smart people out there and if you are not CAREFUL, you will be trampled, and the only way to remain in the race is that along with the shrewdness, you need to maintain HUMILITY, which, no kidding, actually is the most essential trait of all.
College has gotten over earlier than expected, and thanks to our wise (ahem) decision of choosing LSR over North Campus, we are isolated from the rest of the campus.
I have started the car and the engine is revving. "Okay, let's just go and meet Sikka in C.P.", I said, resigning to the boring, original plan.
They agreed dully and we started.
But you see, I'm still 18 and still a bit, umm, unaware of the roots around Delhi. And well, laughing and talking, I take any road that appears, taking random turns, as we all exclaim about how we have no clue about where the hell are we going.
I keep driving and I spot; Dyal Singh College, Air Force Bal Bharti School, "Oohh, we're going towards Khan!" I tell them, secretly relieved. C.P. is not so far from Khan. And then on our left I see the beautiful India Habitat Center.
We looked at each other and agreed without even discussing; we were going to India Habitat Center. We went in, and after finally discovering a parking spot, we parked and entered, all geared up.
We decided we'd go to the main hall, look for the notice board which had a list of all the events taking place at IHC at that time, choose something and attend it. Who knows, we might end up learning something new, or maybe come to develop a new interest; anything could happen. As we roamed around, we saw an exhibition going on, called Trucatech or something.
We had no clue what it meant. There were people there, at least twenty years older to us, passionately debating the pros and cons of whatever the agenda was, irrigation or something, and the twins in their pajamas and multicolored attire, and I in my blood red t-shirt and wild curls, could NOT have looked more out of place. We were about to leave when we saw something else, something which made our hearts beat a little faster, which strengthened our resolve to stick it out a little further.
Food.
A huge buffet had been laid out, and we saw several men piling their plates with so much, so much food, that it made our stomachs rumble. The main problem, you see, the main problem that we ended up in IHC in the first place was that the twins were short of money and I didn't have enough to sponsor all three of us, and hence we couldn't go for a nice lunch.
So when we saw all the delicious food being gobbled up by people in front of us, we just couldn't...look away. That's when we hatched the plan- this is the cool thing we will do today; somehow, somehow, we have to have the free food, which was being shamelessly wasted around. This suited all our needs- a sense of thrill, an end to our hunger and doing something new for the day.
We walked around the exhibition, pretending to take notes, telling everybody that we are students of B.Sc. from the University of Delhi and that we are researching for our project, while all the time having no idea what the exhibition was actually about. Some guy asked us if we were there for the exhibition or the conference, I quickly answered with exhibition, in case we were actually expected to attend the conference. But when later we found out that the food was only for the people who were attendees of the conference, it came as a huge blow.
With a heavy heart, we moved further in the Center, suddenly losing all interest in Trucatech and to our utter delight, entered a hall, where four doors opened to rooms from which wafted delicious smells of...more food. Excitedly, we moved to the washroom to fix ourselves when Sikka called and we instructed her to reach IHC. I explained to her that we are hungry, with no money and that we HAD to SOMEHOW have our lunch here. As I was on the phone telling her all this, we heard the sound of a flush, and a lady came out of a stall in the washroom, clearly, somebody who's in one of the conferences, and all that we could think of was, shit, did she just overhear us?
She washed and dried her hands and exited gracefully, and the twins later said that she had a secret little smile on her face, but I never saw it.
But with new-found confidence, we jumped in again.
This time it was Economic Crisis and Peoples Alternatives in Asia and Europe- the 9th Asia Europe Peoples Forum (AEPF), South Asia Preparatory Conference.
Whatever that means.
Ignoring the fact that we were at the LEAST fifteen years younger than any given person in there, that we were dressed for a hookah bar not an international conference, and that we had absolutely no idea about what one is supposed to do there, we marched inside.
It was lunch hour and there were tables and tables, laden with scrumptious food, and that was our catalyst. To be able to eat, we had to have id's for the conference. I confidently strutted towards the sign up desk.
"Hi, " I said smiling widely, as if I have always known her. " We are students from Lady Shri College, the University of Delhi and we study Political Science. We are here has representatives of our college, and we are required to attend the conference and report the event for our magazine. So where can we sign up?" I didn't give her a chance to refuse.
"Ohh," she said, glancing at her colleague, looking for a suitable reply. " Wait, I'll just ask somebody..."
She explained this to her senior who told her to not be silly and help us sign up, so on the registration sheet, she made a separate column for 'STUDENTS' and beneath that, we wrote our names and numbers.
Later, I realized that we should have probably written fake names and numbers to make the experience even better, but well, this is how we learn.
"You know what the agenda is, right?" she asked.
"Yes, of course!" I replied, nonchalantly, well, as nonchalant as one can be in a situation like this, and walked in the conference room. People were arguing and debating, some were eating, so mostly we walked in unnoticed. We got our id cards and it asked for our name and country; quizzically, we stared at each other, trying to think of a country.
I chose Maldives.
Payal chose Sri Lanka.
Nupur, Bhutan.
Straight faces? Oh well.
Finally, when we had our id's, we came out and focused on the food around us. Unfortunately, by the time we had managed all this, the main course was almost finished and we didn't want to draw unnecessary attention towards ourselves, so we went straight for the dessert.
Then, we had the world's most wonderful brownie, mousse and ice-cream and because it was hard-earned, it tasted even better. All the while we were there, we couldn't help giggling, which probably blew our cover. This one serving boy, probably he had an eye on us, went up to his manager and spoke to him, maybe hoping to be praised in return for exposing our true intentions in front of everybody, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. I saw him. They were totally staring at us, more than everybody else, and pointing and nudging; I knew what was about to happen and told the twins so, as they panicked, but I beckoned them to stay there.
I averted my gaze and pretended to be in animated conversation when the manager came to us.
"Are you a part of the event, ma'am?" he asked us politely.
I knew what I had to do, it has always been in my blood; my dad is a superb improviser.
"Yes, obviously!" I said, with feigned confusion, obviousness, amazement at the stupidity of the question with just a hint of being offended, holding up my ID full in his face the whole time, but shaking it, so he wouldn't be able to read what is written.
"Sorry ma'am, " he said apologetically, and walked away, cursing the serving boy under his breath the whole time. He was not convinced though, the serving boy, he was a smart one; he followed all our movements and we realized it was time to leave.
With great difficulty, we managed to dodge him and eventually escaped, gushing about how FANTASTIC it had felt!
So I learned three very important things today
1. People will believe almost anything you say, if only you say it confidently enough.
2. Very often, people are confused and directionless, doubtful and ambiguous about what they are required to do, and what falls under their profile or jurisdiction. All they need is a sure voice, to guide them, and make things just a teensy bit clearer.
But most importantly, I learned that not EVERYBODY is a fool, that there are EXTREMELY smart people out there and if you are not CAREFUL, you will be trampled, and the only way to remain in the race is that along with the shrewdness, you need to maintain HUMILITY, which, no kidding, actually is the most essential trait of all.