The day that was - Part II

After having finally finished finals and doing well, Alhamdulillah, I'm getting back to the blog (read as block :P). Well, the holidays here are so boring that, I have been on Facebook for pretty much all of my in-somnolent time. And of course I have started developing this very very serious LaTeX fetish and have decided to do all my Lab reports and other submissions using LaTeX. Refer to my FB status dated May the 13th for my exact views on LaTeX. (And if you really care for that, I suggest you get back to hitting the books, enough of holidays for you.)

Well, no more beating about the bush (isn't that what I'm doing now? :P). OK, we had just paid like 500 bucks to the cops and this part of the episode still has an awesome repercussion which we will get back to. Anyway, and as C was kind enough to remind me in the comments of the last post, B's bike did not have a valid Pollution check on him and thus the hefty fine. Me and C were just standing on the other side of the signal and waiting for the drama at the traffic island to be over so we could be  on our way to having some serious FUN! At this point, I have to agree that we reached Mount Opera in pretty uneventful circumstances (although, I'm a bit surprised at that now...). Well, these things happen, don't they, another group of our friends was there too (no point wondering about the odds, there are only so many days you can avail the offer... :P). Now, remember the "two large soda"s which got us the tickets? Surprise, surprise! The sodas had gotten warm-hot (not even room temperature) thanks to the raging sun and our delays at the police and stuff. And now, we were all in a fix! We had spent so much on the sodas (no, the tickets actually do not count!! You seem to be weak in Hyderabadi math!! :P) and we were not gonna just throw them there! God forbid! I was not so brave though, I had left my two sodas at home see *patting my back*. So, the other group and A and B and I think D actually drank the warm sodas and as an eye witness, I heard things like Kya pinda hai yaaron!! Phenyl ke jaisa hai! and Chee re bhai! Phek dena tha!! Ab kya kya hota ki!?!. For the first expression, I just realized, Dude!! Tu phenyl kab taste kara patthey?? and kaiku tho bi!!! Well, we were through the gates and rode on to the actual fun (or did we walk, I don't remember...). Anyway, the fun was about to begin and it was gonna be legen-wait for it-dary.

We were just walking around the place in the beginning and there were these weird Dinosaur statues all around and we finally made it to a Columbus ride (the one that looks like a ship and swings all through) and thought, what the heck! and got onto riding it. Here, the highlight was D's face. He was so contorted, we were all laughing all through the 15-20 minutes of the ride. We still lament the lack of a camera on the side facing D so we could have captured the moment and make him embarrassed for the rest of his life :P. Well, and after roaming about for another hour or so (if you are wondering what we did "roam"ing, think big park-large expanses of grass-all the weird possibilities for the curious mind. I'll leave it at that. Then came the real fun part, the water rides.

I need a bit of a preamble before I even begin these events. First of all, I cannot swim although this will not matter in the events that transpired, it seems worth a mention. Also, those were the good old days when I used to use contact lens (and due to an idiosyncratic problem, they had to be hard a.k.a. RGP lens, look it up if you care...) and I had been very confident (read cocky) that it wouldn't matter with all the water around. That's pretty much it though. Well, we took up a locker and a couple of briefs for using the water rides (they wouldn't allow us to go in our own underwear, would you believe that!! :P). Well, A and D had brought their own swim-wear which needs a mention but, I shall not go into it. Well, among all of us, we had like, let me see, 5 sets of keys, all the bikes and the locker combined. And A had a pen-drive on him too (although I don't see the point of, in retrospect). Well, first stop was the wave pool!! We left our pants on the shore (can you call it that?) of the pool and dove in. It was fun for quite sometime. And yeah, I did not mention that I had left my bike keys and the locker keys in D's swim-chaddi(?)'s pocket. As luck would have it, the fly of the pocket was broken and could not hold the keys (I don't blame the fly...). Lo and behold! We had lost my bike keys and our locker keys (just imagine going home in just our pants (literally)). The problem of the locker keys was solved easily enough. We had to pay some 300 bucks to break the lock and get our clothes back. But, my bike keys!! Just imagine having to ride 50kms back home to get the spare. Well, I'm not complaining there, either. We found this life-guard guy who we told our case to. He was kind enough to tell us that he would keep an eye open (like he could see under-water). But, somehow, he found my key and we got it back and left it in the locker this time. Then came the log-rides!!

And of course, after a plethora of photographs in swim-chaddis, which if released to the public, none of us will ever get married in the future (just kidding! :P), we headed to the log-rides and well, let's face it me and B were kind of bigger than, you know, *log*s.  One of them was open and pretty straight forward and we went on it just once - you know, they make you take stairs for like 3 floors to reach the actual place to slide from. Well, the rides were fun per se, but the landing - WOW! For one who can't swim, it can be the worst nightmare ever! I was under-water for like 20 seconds before I actually surfaced (although I think my weight was the culprit there... :P). Then there was this innocent-looking ride with just about a floor's worth of convoluted tubes (yes, closed ones) seeing which I thought, eh! I can take this any day. Well, it was when I was actually in the ride that it hit - what if I get stuck in here (like Monica in FRIENDS :P). And of course, the ride was so convoluted that, the turns actually hurt!! And after just hanging around in the pool for another hour or so, we decided to call it a day!! On the way, we might've touched on the rain-dance room about which I will tell you in the next part...

Well, enough for this part...There still is the end and the actual consequences of the trip and finally, the moral of the incident. We did indeed learn a few awesome lessons from this one...

The next post would probably come pretty soon, what with me having so much free time this time around...

I almost forgot...pics!!

Picture of a Picture taker...Just after reaching Mt. Opera
(I'm not even sure we can shorten the Mount...)

I have absolutely no idea what I am trying to do...

B and C on one side of the Columbus ride...

We did have a pic of D on the Columbus, after all...

Two-in-one...D on Columbus and B and C on the other end...

You know who! :P

The weird dinosaurs I was talking about, with A in control!!

A broken(?) elephant

Top of the world - C and B

The wave pool from a distance

At the entrance...

Ahem!?!

Adieu!!

Guest Post: 10 Myths About Introverts

Well, this is a Guest post by a friend of one of my good friends...I did credit it to him at the end...

Enjoy...I don't want to spoil the fun by blabbering about this...

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.

This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.

Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.

Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.

On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.

Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.

Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.

Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.

Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.

Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.

A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

With permission from the author - Sai Sandeep Nandyala on Facebook. Link to the original - here.