We went there, slept, and came back…

The semester had just started. The result was not yet out. The weather was good too. So I and my two friends thought it was a good time to visit Ghulam Ishaque Khan Institute (GIKI). We registered for the (so called) largest technical event of Pakistan, “GIKI Techfest’14.”  There were five different kind of modules of which only one caught our attention. The industrial technovation challenge, in which we, the participants had to solve a real time problem faced in industry, come up with a good solution, present it to a panel of judges and blast our way through the competition!

Day 1:

Well it started with us rushing off to the Daewoo station to catch the bus for GIKI, where they were scheduled to arrive. They arrived at 11. They were punctual. Yes they arrived on time so they were punctual, right? Actually, no. They spent no less than two hours sorting out their lists, confirming payment statuses, ticking off confirmed ones blah blah blah. We stupidly waited for an hour in the hope that the wait would end. But then our hunger got the better of us and we headed off to college (it is next to the station, no worries there) had a nice big lunch and chilled in the hostels, until we got a call from the GIKI representative that buses would depart in 5 minutes. We rushed to the area to find that the last of the four buses was ready to depart waiting for………….us! We got in, the journey to GIKI was uneventful, we were assigned the common room along with ten other students at the liaison desk and we put off our bags in hostel. Now we set out for a tour of the campus. GIKI has a beautiful campus set in the foot of surrounding mountains.

Theme Dinner and Naqsh Mimes:

After strolling for an hour we went to the auditorium for the opening ceremony, which was an hour late and lasted for about twenty minutes. Then there was the theme dinner to attend, where arrangements were made for a disco dance party (floor, lighting, sound system and all) to make the wait for food enjoyable. The dinner ended around 9 pm. We made our way back to the audi and I couldn’t help but notice that the air was filled with the cries of wild animals. It was almost as if we were in a jungle. Once or twice I heard a sound like some person imitating a cat far away, but then realized the sound was made by the jackals wandering in the jungle. We got to the audi to get rocked by Naqsh mimes. The guys presented some really brilliant acts, and the acting was near professional level, the coordination was perfect too plus the perfect synchronization of the sound and lighting system got me all dewy eyed. In short, hats off to Naqsh Arts Society for such a brilliant show.

Scare in the open:

The show ended at 11 pm. As we had to finalize our project we went to the library which is situated at some distance from the other buildings with a vast expanse of jungle in the back. At night it could get pretty scary….as we were to find out. We stayed till 1:30 am until the librarian announced that the library was closing. We dragged out from chairs and out on the main steps of library we got engrossed in photo session. We were busy posing under the light of street lamps when we heard vicious barking. And I nearly wet my pants. Now I would like to establish some facts here.

 It was around 2 am.

There was no building within running distance where we could secure ourselves. The library was locked!

There were no trees I could climb onto.

Not a soul was in sight except us.

In short we were within 100 metres of the jungle where mountain dogs were angry about something, maybe we and I knew for a fact that I could never outrun dogs.

So I got terribly frightened. We all did. With quick steps and daring not even to look back in case the dogs had decided to follow we made our way back to the hostels. It was a real relief when we finally reached the hostels. And I thanked Allah for saving our neck. That is an entirely different thing that we never really saw any dog or any other animal on our way back. *sheepish smile*

GIKI Pizza:

As our work was still remaining we secured positions on the sofa directly in front of the hostel gate and then the fun began. At the liaison desk we were given a map of GIKI, with important phone numbers. The last of the numbers was for GIKI pizza. I had dismissed it as just another number. But now it came back to have a laugh. After about every five minutes, we would hear rushing footsteps, a person would open the door, go outside, come back with a pizza box, leave the door opened and go to his room. Nothing wrong with that right? Only that as were sitting directly in front of the door, one of us had to get up after every five freaking minutes to close the door to keep the freezing wind out. Yeah we were too shy to ask every other guy to close the door. Till when? We stayed up till 5, which was interesting, because the presentations would start at 8:30.

Day 2:

Presentation;

We got up at 730, had breakfast at 8:30 and were preparing our presentation in the Department of Engineering Sciences when we get a message “Those participants who have not reported on time have been disqualified.” Certain it was a tactic to lure us into the hall, we entered the hall at the beautiful time of 1000 am, only to be told that we had been disqualified. We got dumbstruck for a moment, and then counter argued that since when had they been punctual enough. Well, weak as their case was, they let us in and we sat in the hall. Heard team after team give their presentation and leave the hall. Went to inquire when was our turn, only to be told that our name was not on the list. Another session of arguing followed and at last, at long last, with twenty of the hundred-seat hall occupied and judges yawning in their seats, we stepped on the stage to present our case. And lo and behold, the door opens and the media team of GEO TV walks in to cover the event. Was I complaining about anything?

Mushaira:

Once again we find ourselves in the audi, this time to attend a mushaira. The audi is packed, spirits are high and we enjoy some cool shairi by some students and the invited guests. But before all of that there are the hot favourite “Naqsh mimes” once again. The night ended partying and enjoying and we tried out the GIKI pizza at the shop. Looking forward to the hiking trip early in the morning next day.

Day 3:

Morning…..?!!

Now here’s where the fun starts. We come back from audi late at night after mushaira, find our 10 or so common room occupants with whom we are sharing fast asleep, and suddenly we don’t feel like sleeping at all. We open our laptops and relive the presentation, where we went wrong, and our mistakes blah blah blah, had a nice enlightening discussion till 2 am. And then we go to sleep. The hiking trip starts at 7 am next day, mind.

“I am floating in the air, marvelling at the surrounding mountains, the weather is so pleasant and I am a bird, I look down, see people shouting and pointing at me…and then suddenly I am falling. I land with a huge crash and that’s when my open my eyes to see the common room bustling with activity”.

I panic and grab my mobile from which I see the time. 8 30!!!! What the ….! I exclaim loudly as the realization dawns on me that we have missed the hiking trip. Sad, angry, crestfallen, not even bothering to wake up my friends, I turn around and go to sleep again. The rest of the occupants have already dressed and left. My eyes next open at 1030, I get up groggily, wash my face and am getting dressed when, with one arm in the sweater, a team SMEP member comes up to me frowning and asks,  

“Where is your team?”

I point at the two bundles lying on the mattress.

He looks incredulously at me and says, in as civilized a way as possible:

“bhai 10 minute me tayar ho k foran audi pohancho YLSO session start ha or wahan guest speakers pohanche hue hain, 9 30 ka ap logo ko time dia tha or ap log yahan pare so rahe han”.

(“Hurry up and get to the audi quickly, YLSO session has started, we gave you the time of 9 30 and here you are sleeping it out here. They are waiting for you there.”)

Feeling somewhat ashamed, we quickly dressed and left for the audi, but not before two more people had come to badger us to hurry up and then a person even came and stood over our heads until we had left the common room. We were now positively ashamed at what impression we were portraying, sure that we were one of the few who had failed to get up on time. But imagine our surprise on reaching the audi that we find only three rows occupied, out of the 70 or so rows and we are like, seriously? Koi bi ni utha?

Young Leaders Speak Out:

Fast forward to Col Anjum who spoke at length about not losing hope and protecting our dreams and all that good shit blah blah, then came the eccentric Saad Salim, took the mike out of the holder and strutted Haroon- style on the  stage giving his talk. His point was that anyone can do what he dreams about he only has to let go of the centuries old belief drilled into us that we can’t do it.

The tale of two brothers:

He talked about the tale of two brother one small and the other big. The big one falls into a well and the little one pulls him up and the village people refuse to believe them because it is physically impossible. Then a wise man (there always is a wise man) says that the small boy was able to do it because there was no one around to tell him he couldn’t do it. Then we had some fun on the stage in one of Saad Salim’s dream realization tactics. It involved closing our eyes, imagining we had realized our dream, and our reaction on that. That can be really fun if you have a well-defined dream and you are an expressive person, but it gets awkward if you don’t have a clearly defined dream and don’t usually express yourself, I compensated by shouting and hoop-lalla-ling on the stage. That was fun. And it was also stupid. Then Ali Moeen Nawazish came and tried his best to realize us our responsibility to our country. How we are the 0.78 % of population who are studying in university and it is up to us to build this country.

The closing ceremony followed whose chief guest was Dr Samar Mubarakmand and the shields were distributed to the winners. And at long last around 5 pm the GIKI Techfest’14 officially ended. We had our paperwork sorted out, got seated in bus and returned to Rawalpindi. And that’s how the memorable trip to GIKI, Topi, District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa ended.