Uttar Pradesh - Kanpur Capers

"Gorakhpur maybe a BJP stronghold, but is Uttar Pradesh?" the lady beside me explained.
"Rae Bareli and Amethi aside, the rest of UP is not at all inclined towards the Congress", I put in my two cents.
The gentleman beside me eagerly jumped in, "NOOO! Priyanka Vadra rocks! We love Raju Gandhi and his family." We all looked at him and sighed, none bothering to point out that our erstwhile PM carried the name of Rajiv not Raju.

Uttar Pradesh in the summer? Not a good idea.
Uttar Pradesh during national elections? Great idea! We get to experience first hand how the largest constituency of India feels about the nation. So I was more than okay to visit IIT Kanpur for some work, right before the elections. Kanpur opened it's own airport 5 months back from today. Though only SpiceJet operates on it and there being only a single building, I'm grateful it's better than nothing.
When I finally landed in Kanpur after a 7 hour journey from Hyderabad (with stops in Delhi), I had taken part in oh so many discussions centred around the incumbent government and its opposition.
Amidst all the work, I only had the time to visit the Kanpur airport, RZ mall, IIT Kanpur and the Kanpur railway station. IIT Kanpur being a small town in its own right. From amphitheatres to observatories to horse racing fields, the highlight of the place is it's own airfield where the aerospace club was in charge. I was lucky to be shown around the place by a design student Ashwin who took me to the nooks and corners of the place. No mean feat, considering that walking from one corner to the other takes over an hour. Everyone has his/her own cycle there. From hall night parities to stories of the engineering kids to attending lectures at the DME building, it's not an experience that I'll forget any time soon.. Kanpur as a town? Maybe not so much. But I can't wait to come back to IIT Kanpur again.Read more