A return to Kolkata

In 2021 and 2022, I obtained a masters degree in mathematics from ISI, Kolkata. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic (which is still ongoing, although everyone seems to be tired of it), most of it was held online. My course started late on December of 2020 and it was held online until about March 2021.

March 2021 was the first time I set foot in West Bengal and it was hot and I was anxious about catching the virus. It was a weird time and after 40 days they sent us back home because the decision to call us was premature and over-confident.

The rest of that year was fully online. Did I like the online mode? No. Would I have liked the offline mode? Probably no.

And so another year passed and in February of 2022 they called us again and this time I got to stay there for about 4 months.

So, February 2022, I got on a plane and flew from Bangalore to Kolkata and then took a taxi to the campus, it took about 30 minutes I'd say. Somehow the location I picked happened to be at an earlier gate to the campus and I didn't realise this until after I got out of the taxi, so I had to walk about 15 minutes with some heavy luggage, which was, well, unfortunate.

I then walked into this administrative office that is responsible for giving me my hostel room and I had to wait a bit because there was a line. The time was around noon now. And after some waiting and possibly some document verification I was told to meet someone who would show me the available rooms. Alright then, let's meet him I thought.

I was told I'd find him at the hostel mess, but he wasn't there so I decided to have lunch first. Alas, I forgot my registration number from last time, so I had to register anew and recieved a new number. My previous account still had some money in it, I hoped I would be able to "merge" the two accounts later on. Sometime during lunch the guy shows up and I tell him I need a room and after lunch I caught up with him again.

I believe there were two rooms available and one of them didn't have an internet port, so there was exactly one room available and it was dirty and someone else was squatting there for the time being. Now, the rooms in this building were essentially just a bedroom with a bathroom shared between two rooms, so I had this sort of quasi-roommate. His friend was squatting in my room and they removed their stuff and I left my luggage in there.

The last time I had stayed at ISIK I was given a different room and when we were unexpectedly sent back home for a "few weeks" I had left some stuff behind. So, I went to my old room.

Now, here's something interesting. When I left, I left a broom in the middle of the floor so that when I come back after a "few weeks" I would lift the broom of the floor and there would be this broom shaped hole in a layer of dust on the floor. Pretty neat I thought. However, I go to my room and I notice that the lock was rusted beyond recovery and I remember unlocking it, but I am not sure if the lock was locked in the first place. I go in and panic. The broom is missing. I notice footprints on the dust. I notice that someone else has stolen the broom.

I also notice the broom shaped hole just as I had planned and well, I panic. Because, if someone stole the broom, they could have stolen other stuff too, right? I call the main admin guy and ask him about the broom. But between my broken hindi and his dozing brain there was no clear communication. I look at my other luggage in the cupboard (oh, guess what, I didn't evern recieve the keys for the cupboard locks!) and found everything as I had left it.

Some idiot stole my broom because they wanted to clean their room. Of course, this idiot had to know I had a broom in my room. And if there was a broom shaped hole in the dust in my floor, then the broom must have been there for quite a few days, which means I didn't lend it to anyone before I left, right? So...missing broom.

After that I called a few friends if they'd be available to move my luggage, but they were having lunch, so I decided to do it on my own and I decided to do it all at once. So my arms carried some heavy stuff again, a bucket, some clothes, a pillow, that sort of stuff.

When I was showed the room, I pointed out a loose electric outlet and the main adminstrative guy told that he'll send someone later that day. I cleaned the room a bit and I believe I had a class to attend that evening, so I did.

In the evening I cleaned my room some more. There was a layer of dust on pretty much everything. These electricians show up and do a poor job of tightening the electric socket. Now my room had a barrel bolt type lock and the catch plate was a bit loose. So I asked them if they would tighten it. After all, electricians carry screw drivers, don't they. But they said "It's not our department". I said something along the lines of "look, if you don't do it now, I'll have to submit a form and wait a couple of days before someone else even shows up, just do it, you already have a screwdriver" and they tightened the screw and disappeared.

They really did disappear, because after they tightened it, I couldn't really latch my door because the carpenter who installed the latch didn't take the proper measurements or something and the catch plate was just a few millimeters below where it was supposed to be or it ended up there over time. At least when it was loose I could lock the door, now I couldn't (which would mean mosquitoes and poor sleep because of noise and light). I rushed out of my room and I couldn't find them. In fact, I don't think I had ever seen them again.

Well, what now? I remember the old rusted lock and decided to sacrifice it and used it as a hammer and pushed up the catch plate. It took a lot of effort for someone who rarely uses hammers, even more so when it comes to hammering upwards.

I test the socket and it wasn't even screwed in properly, the threading had worn off or something, so that was hopeless and I didn't touch that socket for the rest of my stay there.

I continue my cleaning and I'm in the bathroom washing the cleaning cloth because it was the colour of mud when my quasi-roommate and his friend show up. They wanted the chair in my room. It wasn't a good chair, so I said ok, but I'd need a replacement first.

I said there's a chair in my previous room (which I liked) and that I could take that and they could have the chair in the room. So, I go back to my old room and well, there's someone else there. I just walk in and say I want my chair back. I may have appeared rude, but I was tired and I explained to him that it was my room and my new room doesn't have a chair and he was kind enough to let me have my chair. I should've found him a replacement, but I'm sure he figured something out.

I then carry this, somewhat heavy, chair back to my room and continue cleaning. Finally I was done and I pick up my phone from my table. But by now my arms were super tired and I dropped my phone. It fell flat on the screen and I just kept it back on the table and went for dinner.

Well, I did a lot of things on my second first day, might as well share that with my parents. So, I lift my phone...and..blank.

It showed green light first and some vertical lines and then blank. Nothing. Just a black screen. There was the gorilla glass protection or something and true to it's name IT wasn't shattered. Not a scratch on the outer protective layer, really strong. But the inner display screen was dead.