The Diary of a Mathematician

2017 Week 14

A brilliant week. We had a weekend in the middle of the week. Wednesday was a holiday due to some local festival. On Thursday, both the professors (whose classes we had) were out of town. I managed to waste these two days beautifully with some Bengali classics by Ray, such as Agantuk and Aranyer Din Ratri. On Thursday, B, S, and I went out for lunch. B had seen a new cafe nearby and we decided to go there. Unfortunately P was unable to join us as she had managed to catch a cold.

We managed to reach the cafe at a quarter to three but discovered to our dismay that they were serving vegetarian only. Thankfully, B recalled that Thursday's sub of the day would be Chicken Tikka. We walked a few more minutes to the nearest Subway and ordered three meals of the day (sub of the day + cold drinks + cookie at Rs. 185). As usual, B took no onion, I took extra olives, and S, having no prior experience about subs, let us "construct" his sub. The food was delicious and we loved it. S took a good picture of me that fetched over 150 likes on FB (First time that happened).

We didn't feel like going home yet. Now, B had been staying outside the hostel for some time now. His father had rented a room nearby and it turned out that he was out of station for the week. So we set off for this place. It turned out to be a cute place. One bedroom, one bathroom, and one kitchen on the second floor of a beautiful building (complete with a lovely bhabhi in the adjacent building). We toyed with this plan and that for some time till we came up with a brilliant one: we would cook dinner in B's kitchen. As the Sun started to set, we set off with a shopping bag. We bought some paneer in the nearest hypermarket (B's landlord was vegetarian). I saw a bottle of Wild Stone for the first time in four years and bought one. We also bought some veggies and other necessary stuff before B and I set off for the nearest liquor store. We got two small bottles of UB Strong at MRP (a rare delight here). S had us buy some eggs too, for omelettes. We had a good dinner that night. Aloo-paneer curry, omelettes, and beer. Unfortunately, although bhabhiji made a few appearances, the Sun had set a long time ago.

At 9, we set off for our hostel. B took the beer bottles in a bag, to be disposed somewhere with scant population. On our way, we met a procession near the Temple. Apart from that everyone seemed to be asleep already (of course, the same can't be said of our hostel).

The other important highlight of the week was the Treasure hunt on Friday night. It started with Welcome at the auditorium. It was a horrible movie and I spent the second part outside. The hunt started at 12 midnight (so technically, Saturday morning). Our team had 16-17 members. I have always been a powerful force in this particular event and was readily chosen to be the leader. Our campus was divided into five primary kingdoms - the two hostels, the two big roads, and the auditorium. Afterwards, the main kingdom was the Main Building. After the first two kingdoms, we lost four of our teammates to the ever-present villain of the show - sleep. After the end of the third kingdom, there were only five of us left - J, S2, K, B2 and me. This was sort of unexpected, especially given that the other three teams managed to finish with 9, 12, and 25 members respectively.

However, I had decided to go on playing even if I were alone. So, we went on. Our speed decreased considerably though. It was 1.30 PM when it ended. We managed to finish third, albeit by only five minutes. A sad show by the defending champions but we were proud of managing to finish the hunt on our own with so little man power. I had managed to crack open half the clues and puzzles we had faced singlehandedly. I slept for about 13 hours after the hunt (with a two hour break in the middle).

Last but not the least - Jio has come up with yet another surprise. Apparently the recharge I did will kick in in July. Till that everything is free. Again.

Notice how the week had nothing to do with Mathematics.