Today , at night, I couldn’t sleep again, and so I started going through some of my old stuff. And look what I found :
In 1998, I was in Nairobi , Kenya. And the school took us on a trip to Mombasa (a coastal town in Kenya with a similar history to Mumbai) for the International Academic Olympics….a picture of us as we were leaving the hotel. I must say we were put up rather well ..the hotel was a 4-star place and had a private beach. And we arrived a couple of days before the Olympics…the train from Nairobi to Mombasa travels through a vast region called the “Tsaavo”, which is also a nature reserve…and that was an experience in itself. Although Kenya has only 4 major railway stations, the train service is much like it was when the British were here. So you have to go to dining coachs for breakfast, lunch and dinner and your bed is made when you come back….Anyhow, at the hotel we spent all day long alternating in the swimming pool and the sea…playing and drinking and eating….we were really having a great time. I got to know those chaps rather well …. even though they were much older than me … here is my team

From left to right : Front : John, Me, Nupur, Aliyah, Tamaswati, Raj, Mrs. Ndirangu, Dr.Cook, Mr. Mbete, Mr. Chadri (crouching). Back : Back row, I don’t remember any of their names…man o man. But then , I had met them only those few days.

By the way , this Dr.Cook was a linguist , he could speak 11 languages…European and African. And Mr. Chadri…he is the only person who could make chemistry interesting to me.

And what about the Academic Olympics? Well, we came in second. My job was to make a small car that was as frictionless as possible and would go furthest when released on a 1 metre 45deg incline. We won that event :). But over all, we came second…cause our carbide-powered rocket blew up instead of going up like itwas supposed too…lol…

Beautiful memories!