They covered the roof!!!!

I have very serious objections to people at Shreya's covering the roof. To clarify things, Shreya's is the primary watering hole for us IIScians. There used to be a place called Ratna's which was just outside the YP market side gate. This joint was apparently a pretty great place where people also got great food apart from, of course ethanol in its various avatars. I have never seen Ratna's. The reason being that a year or two before I had joined, they had very inconsiderately closed the place. If you start a conversation about Ratna's with any Physics Dept. PhD or Intie of that time (upto the early 2001, I believe) they might start crying. This place used to be a depositery of the Institute scholarship (a very substantial part). Now it is an Iyengar Bakery. That is about the most insulting thing I can imagine. The great Borda (one of the all time greats in the annals of the Institute, known as much for his intellect as for his gargantuan abilities to imbibe) before leaving with his doctorate had declared an interdict on the Bakery. To this day, we do not buy anything from there.

Ok, I have been talking about Ratna's without ever having seen the place. So let me talk about Shreya's. This place is almost right at Yesvantpur circle. The roof is the best place to sit. On a Saturday or Friday evening, one can sit there and be surrounded by scientists of all inclinations. One cannot throw the bones of an 'Angel fish' fry in any random direction without hitting an IIScian. It was at this place that I was first introduced to Jaguar, which is a 'winey beer', a unique combination which, if compounded with a couple of shots of 8 pm whiskey removes all pain from life. Things like the experiment not working, the gurle who does not pay the subject any attention, the looming thesis deadline all become less important. The roof was bathed in the rather bilous and jaundiced yellow halogen light of the Yesvantpur traffic circle. This strange illumination grows on you though, and with smoke from some fifty odd Gold Flakes, Navy Cuts, Classics and the ubiquitous beedis, one saw precious little anyway.

Well, you get the picture, if you study Physics, Maths or any such thing, Shreya's is the place to be. Also Ecological Studies, various forms of engg and suchlike. I was a Shreya's a couple of nights ago. We were an old group, much depleted, but still active. Debu-da, Jethu, Jayanta-da, Jontu, Bhantu, Usman Bhai and me. Guess what, they had covered the roof!!!!!!!!!! Every line we spoke reverberated like nothing on earth. It was awful! But we still got sloshed.