Island Day

A cool, pleasant breeze – indicating that typical North Indian winters are just around the corner and a mildly warm sun – one that just warms up your skin so that it feels amazing when the cool breeze soothes it. A chilled Budweiser and the surroundings green and empty. Four of them sat there, 5 years after having sat there every day for four years. They had just spent half an hour taking a round of each and every nook and corner of the college – the only difference that instead of 4 guys being on 1 black scooter, they were on a black SUV. They sat there for an eternity – talking, remembering. There were cycles of a recalled memory, followed by a homogenous mixture of 4 different types of laughs.
It is important to do silly, stupid things – especially in college life – so that you have memories of it later. Be it a gheri with 5 people on a scooter meant for 2 or 8 people in a car meant for 4, going to a 5 star hotel and ordering the cheapest item on the menu – a fruit ruffle, and sharing it with 2 other fellows or starving on the lake with no money in any of the pockets. Just lying down, staring at the sky, thinking about gastronomy and making some stupid comments about astronomy.
If the afternoon was good, better was to follow. He had once dreamt after watching DCH, that he and his friends with their WAGs are sitting like them in the last scene – a round table and just chilling. He didn’t know that he would see the dream turning into a reality. But before that it was time to go to the 5 star hotel – the new one. Ironically it was owned by a guy with a name which was similar to what they had done to their most loved college lives 5 years ago. 3 of them were there with their W’s. He was the lone exception – not that it mattered much. And this time they didn’t order the cheapest snacks and shared it with everybody. The best part, apart from the company was the ambiance – the best one he had seen till now in the town. And it was here that a degree of completeness was added. Everyone took turns to talk to the one who had woken up when we were getting ready to have dinner. The meaning of long distance calls has completey changed. It used to be a call from 200 kms away and people used to talk loudly on phone. Now its saat samundar paar and we just turn on the loudspeaker. It was time then for the newly added family members (read the Ws) to get introduced to us – they did well!
The party moved on from the latest in town to one of the oldest in town – 5 stars don’t have the flavor of the butter chicken and naan which simple mortals like them aspired for. Here, he saw the round table with chairs around it and he saw the dream unfolding in front of him. Despite suggestions of moving to a comfortable location, he insisted on this table and from then on it was a kind of trance - maybe it was the butter chicken.
Here followed the stories – some short and sweet and some elaborated, complete with dates and venues and yet some where all of them contributed because all were associated it in some way – stories of how singles became doubles. In time, as existences of some living beings were eradicated, the crowd slowly became silent. There was not even a clichéd “Itna sanatta kyu hai bhai” – all deep in thoughts or getting nostalgic or may be everyone was sleepy.
The day was an island. Soon it was time to leave it and sail in the unknown again. After enjoying the comfort of an island, how can the sea look exciting to anyone?

LTA Part VII - Jugads

In our 6^th Semester, we had a manufacturing processes project involving all processes involved in manufacturing a basic tool. Unfortunately, even if one wanted to do something, there were some internal problems always in workshops. We faced the same thing. Chunnu, Thakur and me were together and decided to make a Screw Jack (the one used in heavy vehicles – trucks, jeeps and all). The steps involved making a pattern - outer structure of wood and then use it to cast a metal structure out of it and so on.. (I won’t get into the details).


There was a lot of wood rotting away in the workshop but to get a small amount of it we had to get forms sign from n places, plead to workshop people who had their own inside politics on who owned the wood. None wanted the responsibility. At last we went to the market and bought wood on our at a pocket burning Rs 600 for a small quantity. We brought it back to the workshops and started making a pattern of the screw jack out of it. After successfully doing it, again the struggle started to get the molten iron and other things to cast the jack into a metallic form. After weeks of this struggle, few days before the evaluation, we decided we had enough. We stopped “Engineering” and started the process of “Reverse Engineering”. A ready made Screw Jack was bought (at 1/3^rd the price of the wood!!). By roaming a whole day in the industrial area, we found out some private workshop. We asked the person to machine it and remove the paint on it and do the machining like some naïve person has done it – you know a bit scratch here and there, roughness and irregular cuttings made by the tool etc. In the meantime we worked upon the things we had to say in the viva so that we all have the same version and not bungle up. The machinist had done a good job – literally so we had to roughen up it a bit more in our workshop. At the end what we had was quite exclusive. The wooden pattern which we had reached from normal engineering processes, the screw jack which we had reached through what we called reverse engineering and a story to tell the prof how we had made it. (Though I believe the prof would have known that it was readymade. That kind of stuff was impossible to produce in the age old workshops of the college). But There was a lot of hard work involved in our project, roaming whole days to find wood from some furniture shop, finding shops to get a screw jack and searching for workshops in the industrial area (which we realized is 1 hell of a big place with hundreds of small units). I guess the college was the place where more than fundas of Mech Engineering we learnt how to do jugads… Well, ‘I Guess’ would be the wrong choice of words. If I also consider how we did our Major Project (and in fact a lot of other projects and assignments), I can say for sure that we did learn to do Jugads in college. And if you think Jugad is a negative word, a bad thing – May be you are wrong. It is another way of saying “Nothing is Impossible”. It's a word signifying that there are many ways to reach your destination. You need not take the normal, regular one everytime. ;)

LTA Part VI - Laugh Riot

More and More suggestions are coming from friends to write about ‘that’ incident and ‘that one’ also.. some more of starting a quiz specific to Mechies-04 quizzing about certain incidents. In this 6th part I wanted to write something positive – where we actually studied something in the class, about some good prof’s who made us learn something. But I guess this has to come later as there are some more important issues to be documented first.

This was our group – the group name is hard to disclose here. Let's call it the 'B' group. It included Chunnu, Kunnu, Singal, Thakur and me. In this particular incident Keeda (meaning Bug) was also there – infact not there!!
We had a Subject DI (Seminar and Deptt Instructions) in which we were required to give seminars on some topic – as a group. The B group was scheduled to give it on the 2nd or 3rd lecture only (at the start of a Sem!!!). On the D-Day we hadn’t prepared a thing. I mean not a single line was written which could be spoken. Moreover, Keeda who was also in our seminar group was absent that day.
We bunked the previous lecture and went to the library to discuss the matter. And that half an hour – 45 minutes is hard to forget for any of us. Sitting on the floor in between the racks of books we started discussing it but the discussion which should have been serious slowly turned into laughter. We laughed at our own insolence, at what we were doing or in this case ‘Not Doing’. We laughed without a care in the world, without thinking what would happen a few minutes later. We thought about the ‘bahanas’ we would make and then laughed at how naïve those excuses were. We thought how the teacher could fail us and then laughed about we will be the first in history of mechanical to be failed in DI.
We laughed so hard that our stomach hurt and tears literally rolled down our eyes. We were doubled up and rolling on that cold library floor uncontrollably.
Well, it had to end sometime and it did around 10 minutes from the lecture time. Singal and I were wearing the same dress – black shirt and off white trousers. So it was decided that we would go to the prof and put all blame on Keeda. That he had all the stuff we had prepared – our speeches, the presentation charts etc. Same formal dress would prove that we had come prepared for the seminar but due to Keeda being absent nothing could be done. So both of us went. Singal told, in near tears, that Keeda had got some Liver problem and that he was admitted in Hospital and couldn’t come (Keeda indeed had some ‘minor’ liver problem). The prof also got senti (his son also had some liver problem). He gave us advice about how to drink lots of water and to tell Keeda to meet him when he comes back. He excused us and told to give seminar later. In the class, he publicly told that “members of the group, who was to give the seminar today, were in near tears as one of their friends is ill and hence they will not be able to give the seminar”.
Well, how Singal brought tears in his eyes I don’t know but the ones I had, if they were there, were because of the 45 minutes laugh riot earlier. I don’t think I have laughed more ever again.

LTA Part V - Proxies

Well.. it is difficult to stop me when you start talking of college.
So after getting ‘hints’ of turning this LTA thing into a series and getting positive feedback from everyone.. I can’t help myself from writing more.
The fifth in the series concentrates on the Proxies.

A proxy-friendly class, many students missing and Mr Atul Singal in his true elements. I guess he said yes sir, present sir to roll no. 00601 , 00610 (his own), then 2-3 more roll numbers in 30’s and then Chawla’s(00641) which was just before me. Some were bold and loud..some with covered mouth.. some bending down from almost under the table… and I guess only 1 (his own) with raised hand..(The teacher was not seeing above so it didn’t matter much).
And yes, he was sitting besides me. So when he said “Yes Sir” 4th or 5th time that day.. I couldn’t control it… I laughed out – quite loudly.. the prof called out my roll number.. looked up.. I was still laughing (by now under the table).. and then the prof carried on. Not much of a problem though. At the end I went to him, told him that by mistake I had missed my attendance. Some normal words – “Sote rehte ho kya class mein” etc etc.. and end of a successful class.

Def: Successful Class – The one for which you get attendance.

A new teacher - M.E student who had committed the grave sin of coming to teach 1st Year Mechanical. No white hair/ bald head meant that the Prof was in for a hard time.
So it was Triple E class (Elements of Electrical Engineering). Somehow the prof was able to pass half an hour with everyone on seat. Then started the shouts of “Bas Sir”.. “Sir.. next time”.. “Attendance Sir” ..
Gradually some people got up and started roaming around… the prof was helpless.. he came forward near the benches, kept giving a strange smile and continued teaching to a few who were sitting. Some of us (not me though ;)) went behind to the teachers table, opened the attendance register, picked the pen, marked their attendance and got out of the class. After one did it, many followed. I don’t know how, the prof didn’t come to know that people were marking attendance. He later found out when more than half of the class had marked ‘P’. The rest forced him to fill P for the few blank boxes that remained. The poor prof, never ever came back to teach any class!!

Then there was one Prof. His unmatchable husky voice was legendary.. In the class he was full of energy. With his real life examples he tried hard to teach the finer things of Chemistry. He used to come up to the last bench, sit besides students, telling them how to solve the numericals… That is why whenever you attended his class – there was a rush to sit on the 1st bench – the safest place. But such fights for 1st seat were far and few. Reason – his distinct style of taking attendance. He used to pass on a sheet and tell everyone to write his name and roll no. on it. Once it was tried to write a few absent friends roll no.s also. The ploy succeeded. Slowly it became the norm that 10 – 15 people used to attend the class and there were 60 names on the list.

All said and done, the Professors who had style of taking attendance where proxy was possible must be aware that they are ‘allowing’ it. Doing it they, in a way helped us – not only in completing our attendances but also letting us have so much thrill and fun.. It was thrill – wasn’t it..
Thank you Profs…

LTA Part IV - Turn Outs 2

Presenting the 4th in the Lecture Time Activity (LTA)series
Some more turn outs ..

• The Prof was the same as in LTA part 3. Kunnu and I were short of attendance in this particular subject. We were nearing semester exams and only a few lectures remained. So we were desperate to attend the lecture that day. The lecture before it got mass bunked. So we went to the library to get some books to prepare for the sems. Eventually we spent the time chatting, laughing, cracking jokes – as was the usual case on the Library top floor Reading Area. After a lot of time we suddenly realized that we had the all important lecture to attend and we were late.. well quite late – about 30 minutes!!!!!!!!
  Nevertheless we rushed to L 13, asked permission to get in with around 35 minutes of the class over. The Prof, already with his mind not in good condition after the bike incident some days ago, was shocked again at our audaciousness. He refused.
  
  Kunnu pleaded “Sir.. Attendance short hai.. please let us come”
  
  At this, the volcano erupted. “I will not allow. What will you do?? You will file a case against me in High Court?? Go Do it.. I am not scared. I will not let you come in. I will not complete your attendance”
  
  Before he could ask our names, we ran off from there. I feel for the Prof. because as he was talking about High Court Cases (where did that come from we still don’t know), we were smiling standing on the door. And later while he must have been fuming and taking out his ‘gussa’ at the class, Kunnu and I were having a good laugh in the parking!!!



• Many people must have read this, joked about this but only a few must have experienced this. I was the lucky one to not only have experienced it but being the target.
  I am talking about the famous “Both of You Three. Get Out of the class!”
  
  It was the lecture of ‘Funny English’ ma’am. I sometimes used to note some of her ‘sayings’ to tell it to other friends later. Kunnu, Thakur and I were sitting in the 3rd row and the funny English plus our internal jokes were keeping us happy and smiling. Of course the teacher didn’t like it. And suddenly we were commanded “Both of you three. Stand up”. We (atleast I) was confused while the class was trying to fathom what had been said. Slowly Kunnu and I stood up. The teacher looked at Thakur. “You tooo”. And Kunnu and I smiled – a bit.
  
  After Thakur standing, under the air force of fan, with all class laughter, we were introduced to some more funny English – scolding this time. Now when the whole class around you is laughing, it is hard to control – even though you are standing in the full attention of the teacher. The end result is not hard to guess… Both of us three did get out..

LTA Part III - Turn Outs

On popular demand, trying to continue the LTA series.
In this third part in the series, I try to recall the ‘turn outs’.
The following incident has been written with golden words in the History of Mechanical.
It is such a important one that in part 3 I will cover this only.. rest of the turn outs in part 4.

It was a historic event – which has never happened anywhere. It will not and cannot happen again. This was more adventurous than bungee jumping, more daring than the getting in a lion’s cage. The stars were Trainnn and Jolly’s old rugged bike. Cutting to the scene. It was a humanities class (in 2nd year as far as my memory goes)– the teacher was quite senior and serious one. He was in the class a few minutes early. And of course Trainn didn’t know that. There was some disturbance and noise outside and before anyone knew Mr Vinod Trehan entered the class sitting on Jolly’s bike followed by a bunch of guys holding their tummies and cheering him on. Yes…. Bike in the Lecture room… Try to match that!! It was shock and awe for the Prof. Never in his nearing retirement life would he have witnessed such a spectacle. Train and the outside bunch didn’t realize that Prof was there in the class and the pandemonium carried on for a few seconds. Then sudden silence with muffled laughter in the class. Now comes the ‘bahana’- “Sir. Bike ki Brake fail ho gayi thi”. Considering that I am laughing out while writing this, imagine our condition at that time. Lesson to be learnt - Getting late for the lecture.. and brake fails – head straight for the class with the bike.. hahahahahahaa… Strangely enough the prof allowed Train to sit in class.
Later during the lecture the Prof was just roaming around the class while lecturing. Kunnu and I were busy drawing some graffiti on the register as well as table while Trainn sitting just behind us was busy making notes. Not that he usually made notes but he was under some pressure and limelight after the incident earlier.
The Prof came roaming. Kunnu and I continued drawing thinking he will not come that far (second last bench). We realized a bit late of his continued journey and in the nick of time we turned to the previous page where there was some non sense written. The prof glanced at us and then to Trainnn behind us. Then he asked him to show what he was writing. Train, who was duly writing his notes showed him. The Prof turned to the previous page. Notes there too.. then one more page turned – Now C’mon, how can you find notes on every page???
So the prof turned Trainnn out of the class….
Soon the lecture was over and The Legend was Born
Oh !! And regd Kunnu and me… nothing happened to us.. We managed to say “present sir” a few minutes later!!
And yes, no one tried to maaro proxy for Trainn.. because his name was burned in the prof’s mind… May be for the rest of his life!!!!

LTA Part II - Mobiles

Continuing with some more Lecture Time Activities, here are a few mobile related incidents...

• Teacher ji with all seriousness taking the lecture. I guess he was angry as we had mass bunked last few lectures. So there had been a mild dressing down (not many can afford to give mechies more than a 'mild' dressing down).
  Amongst this slightly tense atmosphere some good fella's mobile rang.. The ringtones were not polyphonic/ mp3 ones in those days... They were shrill and piercing, especially if there is an unordinary silence. So the already incensed lecturer got hotter. The particular fellow was turned out and everyone’s mobile was confiscated and kept on the big table in front of the teacher.
  Now the prof was not going to count the phones on the table, so some of them were still in some pockets. And how in the world is it possible that some idiot has forgotten to turn the phone off before keeping it on the table. I remember it was bhardoo, sitting on the last bench who tried every number in the class. And bingo… soon there was a grrrrrr… on the table followed by a nice hindi song. Few tense seconds, an indication of a slight smile on prof’s face and a big hahahaah from the class..May be it was the fav song of the prof.. or may be he too was reminded of his good ol' college days :)



• This happened a few days back in my cousin’s class. The times have changed and camera phones have come. In our time we used to draw pictures of prof’s. Now they just click it. A student was caught clicking photos of some classmates who had dozed off during the lecture. His phone was confiscated and the teacher asked him to take it from MLG.. now, non-pecobians wont know who MLG is..well, I would just say he is a typical nightmare for students - specially first yearites. The student pleaded “Ma’am you keep the phone, turn me out of class .. anything but don’t give it to MLG. The phone eventually landed in MLG’s hands and I don’t know what happened to the student but the reason of student pleading is interesting. Guess what was the wallpaper in the phone – a photo of MLG’s bald head – daringly taken by the student in one of the lectures... I salute the Dare Devil !!!



• It happened during early days of mobile intrusion. After one Tutorial, Mr Chunnu was busy talking to his ‘friend’ just outside the Tutorial room. The teacher(a relatively new one) came and asked everyone who were standing outside to get in the class. Chunnu ji still on his phone. Teacher who was about to take attendance asked Chunnu... no not asked..but pleaded, “Rahul. Ab to class mein aa jao!!”. Normally a person would have switched off his phone, be a bit embarrassed and return to the seat.
  But apne chunnu ji said, “bas sir 5 minute mein aata hun.. aaap attendance to lo” (sir, I will come in 5 minutes. You start taking the attendance”.


P.S:
These short names can be sometimes very mind stressing. A few days ago, it took a combined effort of 2 Man Days from Tarun and me to recall the real name of “brownie”, who was in our class. And quite often you see asking yourself “what was chunnu’s real name.. or Jolly’s real name…or Jindal’s first name?”
Once Sinha called at my place when I was not there(non mobile days). My mom told that Nipun had called.. For the entire day I kept on thinking who the hell is Nipun..
Trainnn takes 2-3 calls to respond when someone is calling out Vinod..
And if you are thinking these are made up things.. you are wrong.. everything is true..Still don't believe me.. Try calling me 'Sidharth' next time !!!!

Some More LTA's in the part I...
Analysis of LTA - Part 1..

Analysis of LTA

What used to be one of the time pass during boring lectures in college?
For us mechies (and I am sure for many many others), one of the Lecture Time Activities (LTA) was Paper Ball Bombing – done usually by the back benchers. It included:

1. Precision Bombing – Targets were generally of 3 categories:
   
   
   
   • One who got irritated by such things. Of course how in the world can you leave such a target alone
     
     
   • Who had the reputation of hitting back. This was to start world wars- mostly between 3rd and 5th rows. What better ways for a time pass than being involved in a World War.
     
     
   • Teachers – Not exactly Teachers but Teacher’s Area – going beyond the first benches. Sometimes this was to add thrill and excitement to the proceedings.(Yes, even world wars can get boring at times). At other times, it was accidental. It happens during a war – sometimes civilian areas get hit by off target missiles. Once, one such thrilling shot had landed quite close and prompted the ‘not so adept at English’ teacher to say “Who put this paper here??”
     Put???? Some body tell her we are not in Olympics playing Shot Put here. This is a Damn Bloody War going on here!!!
     OK.OK . This Olympic Shot Put thing is a bad PJ..
     
   
   
2. Carpet Bombing - This involved throwing several small paper balls in air which landed all over the class, quite often leading to mayhem as everyone, including the third world countries.. I mean the first benchers.. were armed now.
   One reason for this was to show it to the world (the class) that back benchers are still the super powers.
   Second reason, to start wars between smaller nations.
   And of course world wars were always the favorites.
   Some times some dare devils in front also attempted carpet bombing on the super powers. The response varied.
   
   
   
   • It could be taking out the enemy completely by precision bombing so that he could not raise his head for another 10 lectures.
     
     
   • Or it could be again a start of Big War.
     
   
   An interesting amendment to the carpet bombing once took place during Holi. Half the class had been immersed in the vibrant colors of the festival while many who had shied away were sitting clean. In fact it was due to them that the class had not been mass bunked. So these clean people had to be taken to the cleaners.
   Hence, it was the yellow, blue, green and red colors of life those were used to carpet bomb the whole class. But this unusual warfare had resulted in some big time casualties for the Super Powers - by the teacher of course... but who wants to be sitting all colored up in the class ??
   

What Future may Hold for such LTA's with Technology so rampant in Colleges
Paper balls from the era of vasco-da-gama...
Bas naam le ke fire karo...and it hits the target
(refer Andaz Apna Apna)

Thanks to Fleiger for bringing to my notice an important weapon which I completely missed out - Chalks... They were the Tomahawk missiles - guaranteed accuracy as almost all of the superpowers were also very good cricketers..They were many times the decisive factors in deciding the war and unlike real expensive missiles, came free of cost...

'Photo' Stat

Recently I have written quite a bit on college days and how times have changed now. The main reason has been my cousin brother who has joined my alma mater this year.
So constant interaction with him keeps me updated on the happenings in the college.
From Anuj I came to know about the serious intrusion of Information Technology in the lives of Pecobians.
And recently I also came to know how mobiles are being used to their full potential.
Exam time was quite often socializing time - almost whole of the college was to be found at one place – Photostat shop. A God sent messenger was there in every class. He used to make notes through out the semester and provide his notebook for copying one day before exam. It was a boom time for the owners of those copier machines. But now times are changing. These days with mobile cameras, what is the need to get the notes, go to the shop, wait in the queue, get Photostat, and spend a hefty percentage of your pocket money? This is chill age dude!!
Get the notes, take out the 2 MP camera, click photographs of notes, transfer to your laptop and if needed make an e-book out of it. And maybe go ahead and put this eBook on your website/blog. The rest of the class will be more thankful to you than the poor chap who painstakingly wrote the notes in first place.
If this all sounds far fetched, see the images below. The source for these images and the idea which is mentioned above is my brother who as you can well imagine has sessionals starting soon.

P.S: While I was writing this, many more things came to mind which I had initially included in this post but later realized that they need a separate post so coming soon will be “Analysis of LTA”

Wi Fi'ed

Last evening, I went to my alma mater PEC which has seen unprecedented changes since my graduation. The whole college has got wiFi connectivity now. So you just go, open your laptop and start googling and orkutting and downloading songs or movies or software. As my cousin(who belongs to the present generation of pecobians) sat downloading 1 thing after other, I couldn’t help getting amazed at how far pecobians have come. In the lunch break during winters, you can see people sitting on the grass, in the sun with their cool lappies with DAP (Download Accelerator) working overtime. Hostellers have made separate rooms dedicated to online gaming. In the canteen, movies are floating in the air from 1 table to the other. Guys are just ‘pinging’ their friends in the class to ‘maaro’ their proxy. What a cool, hi-tech life – for all us pass outs to be envy!!!
Our time was different, you see. In the winters, under the sun, we just sat on the scooters in the parking, or on the grass in big groups, chatting and chatting and chatting. Add to it the occasional bursts of boisterous laughs. I struggle to remember what was there about which we could sit and talk whole day.
There was no dedicated room for gaming in the hostels but yes cricket and football used to be carried out in full enthu in the grounds just outside the hostel.
In the canteen, live music used to float around with a cool guy in the center with a guitar entertaining everybody, from KK’s yaaron to Nirvana’s Dive. Or else, drawing sheets were made (those are ideally meant to be made in drawing halls with drafter, scale etc.. but .. well.. ideally) which quite often ended up having oils marks of samosas or red marks of the sauce!
And proxies.. ahh! the proxies. Well ‘generally’, it was not needed to inform friends that they had to maaro proxy. They knew that if some one has not come and the proxy is possible then it has to be done (Sometimes at the expense of one’s own attendance)
Can’t resist to tell an incident when Singal sitting on my left said “Yes sir” and “Present Sir” in 3 different voices to consecutive roll numbers before me. I was laughing so hard that I missed mine!! But what the hell.. have we ever cared??
So, I don’t really envy the generation of today. Need I???

Time Flies...

It was a weekend dedicated to cars. From Tokyo Drift to Gone in 60 Seconds(I hadn’t seen both of these) to NFS Most wanted. It was a strange feeling carrying my laptop to my cousin’s place. It was only a couple of years ago when I used to take my hard disk to their place to give them the latest songs, software, movies etc (of which my college hostel was one of the greatest source).
And this week end I again went to them, this time it was my turn to be the recipient and get some movies and games from them which incidentally are coming from the same hostel rooms, from which it used to come some years ago. It was an experience of coming far away in time. Something which we couldn’t have thought happening some years ago. Desktops and hanging hard disks replaced by sleek laptops and miniscule pen drives. There was a time when one of we five cousins would sit on my Pentium 1, playing PC-MAN, others shouting and cheering away. Yesterday, we connected our lappies with a LAN wire and slammed our cars against each other while racing for the top spot. It was a time to realize that times sure have changed. But one thing, which I guess has not. Having not played NFS for past 2 years, I thought I had gotten over it. But, when it is there on your comp, it is still very difficult to start your computer and resist the Need for Speed. So whereas on one hand I had the feeling of being carried away in time, NFS sort of balanced it out by taking back to the old times.