When F was less than C

6:45PM 1st FEB 2008,
Ferguson Hall, Univ of Minnesota, TC

Vinod, Abhishek and myself were walking out of Ferguson hall after attending "Intro. to North Indian Music" class that we enrolled for the spring sem

Me:SRGPDS...SDPGRS.... SRGRGPGPDSSS#%$%&^

Vinod(annoyed): Praveen, U know what, please stop this crap.

Abhishek Ravat(Abhi) laughs...
Silence prevailed until we stepped out of Ferguson hall.

Me: (well, yet another day of walking in this freaking winter)(As a cliched way of expressing the fact that one has got used to being in the extremities...) Vinod, I feel we should go for jogging now..It isn't that cold right ?

Vinod: (expressionless... must have thought of the punishment of being my roomie for remaining 18 months) Well, which way shall we go to reach the bus stand ?

Abhi: we shall just walk fast besides Anderson hall

Me: (I just figured out that there is Gopher way, well connected even in the west Bank Campus and so was exited to explore them)How about going throughout the Gopher Way, guys ?

Vinod: Naaa... we are already out and its waste of time to get inside Ferguson hall and then proceed.

And the discussion continued....
Slowly each of us stopped talking. Wondering what happened to each other. Actually none of us were able to talk. We rushed to the Bus stop. Our legs being vulnerable to the chill wind. my cheeks got numb.

I was touching my nose to ensure its still there in my face. But yes, later on I figured out a better way by noticing the air that i exhale turning into vapors. Smart ain't I ?

For a moment, we were just suffering from the chillness like never before. A mark of surprise was seen in all three of our eyes. After a while we got into the bus and came back home...

Avani: Hi buddy...(his usual way of greeting us) Did u know the temperature is -43 F. The lowest ever, encountered during this season.

Vinod and i were stunned hearing this. No words to express what we went through... Later, the night

Vinod: From now on, I ll never worry about going out of the house in winter. I ve seen the worst !!!

I sat back and wondered.. Vinod was right... we faced the extreme winter. Now why worry for the regular winter(-20 and -30 F)...

-43F... Just cant believe this.. Still couldn't believe that I experienced a temperature where Fahrenheit scale was lower than Celsius scale.