I left on a Saturday. Cousin Priscilla and Brother Sangtea dropped me to the airport. And on the way, Prissy, who was driving, ran over a chick (en). Oh wait! According to Prissy, The chicken ran over her! Bro said the chicken was drunk! Well, I say Prissy and the chick share the same boyfriend, so both were fuming hot, and decided to finalize on who gets the guy (hehe). Anyway, poor chick. It flew right in to our track, dashed itself to the front window, and bounced up to the side of the road. We stopped. People started gathering around, and we told them we were really sorry. They said its ok, and told us to go ahead except for one old man who was a bit drunk kept saying “Look what you’ve done!” He had a big knife (Chempui) attached to his waist, so we told him it won’t happen again, and kept mum, or else FLICK!! (brrrr...)
My flight was a bit delayed. But I happen to meet a very nice lady. Her name’s Mary and she was with her husband and one year old son. They were to board the same flight. So she gave me company. We had a good chat. After reaching Guwahati, we exchanged numbers and went on our separate ways. It was a long drive from the airport. Getting stuck in the traffic made me realize one thing I always miss about home. In Mizoram, the drivers are mostly well disciplined. Whereas in other places that I've been to, all drivers have the intention to insert themselves in every gap available. I find this very dangerous. And the honking sounds almost made me sick.
I reached the campus in the evening. I was amazed! The place is awing and beautiful. There are trees and lakes and flowers and buildings and and and... Everything was so clean and well maintained. The guest house is just as beautiful. It reminded me of my hostel in Mysore. It has a hexagonal shape, with a carpet of grass in the middle, and a fountain at the centre. I was the first to arrive among all participants. It was a bit boring, until my new roommate arrived the next day evening. Things started to get better.
The topic was "Application of Molecular Tools for Crop Improvement". Training programme was mostly hearing out presentations from inspiring Scientists in the morning, and laboratory sessions after lunch. We had a “High Tea” on the first day, which me and my new found friends joked about. It was written like that in the programme sheet, our first time coming across such a word, and we were wondering what a high tea would be like (hehe). Well, it was a nice cup of tea with delicious snacks. I could use some of those high teas anytime :-). I got to make friends with many of the participants. We all had good interaction, and by the third day, we started exchanging email addresses and phone numbers. Everything was well organized. And FOOD WAS GOOD! :-)
The most I like about this place is the people working in this Institute. Everyone’s so dedicated to their work. And hats off to our Instructors. They have inspired and enlightened me. They know all the basics of the experiments we were doing, and I kept saying to myself “When you go home, go open your books and start reading!” which I will be doing, soon! *grin*
Lab sessions were interesting, and tiring. There were times when we worked till 7:30 in the evening. And our instructors said, sometimes they used to work till 10 at night! This showed how much dedicated they are, and at the same time showed me how much of effort I should put in my work. A big sorry to all my friends, for not getting you anything, anything including the "thing” you asked (hehe). Seriously, we were busy right from morning till evening, and I didn’t have time to go out and shop. I promise I’ll make it up to you next time :-)
I came back the next Saturday. My flight was delayed (again). I met a nice lady (again) from Kolkata. She was on her way back from Shillong. But she left early, since her flight was earlier then mine. Even though it was just a one week program, I came home inspired, encouraged, enlightened, boosted and tired.
PS: I stayed 7 days without combing my hair! I completely forgot to take my comb *grin*