The Big News

It all began with a phone call. I was enjoying the Basant fest of my college.
Suddenly, my friend called me.
The first thing I heard him saying was

"GUWAHATI aja phata phat. Teri internship confirm ho gayi hai. Kab tak aa sakta h ye bata de aur phata phat nikal le" (exact yahi words thay uske).

Maine pehle toh laptop band kiya (I was coding while sitting on the stairs at the Mechanical Block, BKBIET).

Then I asked him

"Abe hua kya. Aaram se thoda. Dheere dheere bata kya baat h aur kaha ana h exactly.".

He took his time explaining the internship and wanted to know if I can join ASAP or not. (ASAP means ki abhi maine tujhe phone kiya h toh tu aaj ya kal me nikal lena.)

My reaction was

"Kahey toh aaj raat ko hi nikal jau".

And I really meant that. Because I always wanted to work in a company with real projects, gain some knowledge, interact with people and explore new places. And also because m college life se tang aa gaya tha. Mujhe faltu ke boring lecture ki vajai kuch accha build karna tha. (Build toh m pehle bhi kar hi raha tha but not the products that people actually neeed.)

Then he told me to send an EMAIL to the CTO.

He was like ki abhi mail kar de. Late mat kar. 5 bajne se pehle kar dena. So I immediately opened my college email and copy pasted a formal email with my details.

I went home, tried to book ticket from ANAND VIHAR to KAMAKHYA but ye itni dur ke safar ke liye kuch hafto pehle book karni padti hai. So, I tried booking a ticket for the next day and unfortunately that didn't work out as well. I somehow booked a ticket which remained in WAITING. After a few hours later, I explained everything to my mother. But mujhe bhi bss itna hi pata tha ki GUWAHATI jana h aur jitna jaldi ho paye utna jaldi jana hai. Nothing more than that.

So I again called my friend and asked him to properly explain the weather, the environment of the job, their expectations from me, etc....

The New Family

And one thing which caught my attention was, that everyone calls the CTO as "Bhaiya". Now that is something interesting. I am not saying that it's impossible. I am just saying that he must be really respectable or like a family. Kyuki "Sir" wali respect kaam dekh ke aati h aur "Bhaiya" wali respect insaan ke nature ko dekh ke.

The person I am talking about is "Mr. Anurag Tiwari, The CTO of TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION HUB at INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, GUWAHATI (TIH IITG)" (Makkhan nahi laga raha hu. Waise bhi internship lagne ke baad kon makkhan lagata hai. He's genuinely a nice person. Meri website ka SEO accha ho rakha h, toh aab bhaiya ka SEO bhi m hi kar dunga)

To be honest, I don't care about the IIT tag. Mujhe bss sikhna h. Jitna bhi ho paye, jaha se bhi ho paye. Bss sikhte hi rahna hai. And jaisa maine socha tha ushse bhi jyada accha environment mila mujhe yaha. Aab toh yaha ke sabhi log Family hi h. M toh wapas ghar bhi nahi aana chahta tha. Par college wale exam ke bahane bula hi lete hai.

Continue reading about my new family and the exciting characters in Part 2: A New Family.

The Train Journey

Back to the story!
I somehow boarded the train even though I was running late. Train chal padi thi and maine chalti train me pehle toh bag andar pheka aur fir maine kudhne chalang maari. And mujhe us time nahi pata tha but wo EID ka time tha. That's the reason why the train was so crowded. And mere pass toh CONFIRMED TICKET bhi nahi thi. The train journey was for 2 days and let me tell you that you should avoid travelling during festivals. Bohot bheed hoti h bhai. EK toh m hu bhi 6'4" height ka. Na baith pa raha tha aur na hi khada ho paya. Kaise taise Katiyar tak ka safar pura kiya and then train khali ho gayi puri.

Now I wanted to know ki mujhe utarna kaha hai. Toh maine fir phone milaya and uske jawab me ek hi word aya "AGTHORI". Now the problem is ki wo kah raha tha ki train station par rukegi. At least 1-2 min toh rukegi hi. Par train app me wo station par rukegi aisa kuch dikha hi nahi mujhe. Toh jaise hi train station ke kareeb aai, m sidha kood gaya. Thoda dur chalne par dikha ki train ki speed slow ho gayi h aur wo exactly 1 min ke liye ruk bhi gayi. Waha mujhe jo betrayal feel hua us APP se, wo bata nahi sakta. 2 bag leke jo m kuda tha and wo bhi railway track par. The train was on the PLATFORM 2. Mujhe PLATFORM 1 par jana tha.

GATE 2026 announced the results on the same day. Toh jab tak mujhe koi station par lene aata tab tak maine mere SIH TEAM wale WHATSAPP GROUP me thodi baate kari.
And then that moment came, when all 4 of the CODE CAFFEINE members re-united once again.

AGTHORI RAILWAY STATION se IIT GUWAHATI hardly 1 KM hi h bss. Yaha ASSAM me EV rikshaw ko TERRE bolte hai (iski exact spelling toh nahi pata. bss pronounce kaise karte hai wahi ata hai). Aur yaha Males ko DADA kah ke bulate hai. It's been one and a half month and I still don't know what they call FEMALES. M toh MAAM hi bolta hu.