New day, new year

Last night’s New Year party at IMTECH was FUN. When I reached, the program was nearing the end of its first hour. There were titles to be given out and I wasn’t really sure if I was gonna win anything. I presumed if I’d win any, it’d probably be the “colgate smile of IMTECH”. However I didn’t, I won the title “Jack Of All Trades”. Thankfully it didn’t mention the rest of the adage “…and master of none”. After they handed down the title, the host asked me to reveal anyone of my ‘traits’, I chose to sing (I was mentally prepared for that). I sang the famous Hindi song “papa kehete hain”. I started from the second stanza, pointing to the audience I started off “baithe hain mil ke, sab yaar apne….” and the crowd cheered and started singing along from the very next line “koi engineer ka kaam karega…” and then the chorus and I stopped and did not sing the next stanza (my favorite) “mera to sapna…”. I took my prize and walked off to a cheering, whistling crowd; I was elated. Then came another call on the stage, this time I was paired with Anuj (my senior) along with two other pairs and we were asked to act like two components of the instruments we use in our regular work. I was asked to act like a centrifuge talking to a centrifuge tube (Anuj). From the others, one pair was asked to be pipette and pipette tip and the other, a spectrophotometer and a cuvette. Of course Anuj and I were the quickest to start (~5seconds from the time we were given instructions) and the best of the rest (hee haa haa haa). I started off by shouting dus hazaar, dus hazaar, dus hazaar (ten thousand, ten thousand, ten thousand) mentioning the rotation speed of the centrifuge, like a conductor shouts the destination of a long route bus. Then I shouted at anuj “kitni savaari hai bhai?” (how many passengers?) hinting to the number of tubes to be placed in the centrifuge. Anuj shouted back “battees, bhai sahib” (thirty two brother). I shouted back “chalo charah do saari jaldi jaldi” (ok load em up quickly). Then Anuj shouted “bhaiya thodi dheere chalana, cell pellet karne hai, DNA nahi.” (bro move slowly, we need to pellet cells, not DNA). I replied “fikar not” (don’t worry) and then Anuj and I held each other hands and started running in circles, implying that the centrifuge had started. The crowd howled and cheered on.
Anuj won the title of Mr. Charming and Akesh and Rajni (also from my lab), won the Mr. and Ms. Workaholic titles. So out of all the labs in IMTECH, our lab bagged the maximum prizes and we dominated the dance floor too. At 12:00 midnight we paused the dancing to cut the New Year cake and wish each other. Then there was another round of maddening dancing. Only that by 1:00 am, I had no energy left and could barely stand. It was freezing cold outside, I was drenched in sweat and I was supposed to ride back home on my motorcycle; I did. Today I spent the day hiding from the boss and sleeping anywhere I could, out of his sight. Shit! My body is totally stiff and my neck feels like a piece of brittle wood.
When I went to the toilet in the evening, Dr. Kumaran was peeing. He asked me in a hushed tone “did you get drunk last night?”
I replied “No, not really. Two pegs just get me mildly high. It wasn’t even enough to keep my warm. I had to dance for the warmth but I had a great time.”
He said “Well I did. Dr. Ganguli, I and a few others got totally whacked out last night. I got that drunk after a long time.”
I laughed and said “Oh so that’s why Dr. Ganguli looked the way he did today morning.”
“Oh yeah! Surely” he said giggling.
It’s nice to interact with these cool scientists who’ve returned very recently from the US. I hear most of them are cool for a few years till the Indian system shoves the fake pride into them and they all walk with their noses lifted high in the air. But I doubt that Dr. Kumaran and Dr. Ganguli will become like that.