Cold

Caught cold in the windy city. Fever is okay now. But still having some throat infection. The medicines are of no use. Even the doc said I'll have to endure for 3-5 days. Just sitting idle at home.

End of it

Finally the eleventh semester of life and first at UMN has ended. With only 2 courses at stakes it was not very difficult that way. But I had other things to worry about and those things did not end the way I would have liked them to end. In fact they did not end with me failing to pass the oral qualifying exam. I am taking it again next semester. I seriously don't know what more is left for me to prepare for the content of the exam. May be I will change the subjects this time and study something new instead of repeating old stuff. And may be practice thinking-on-your-feet. Answering on paper and on blackboard in front of people can be very different things.

Anyways that was the end of it. Good or bad. All things must pass. I will do whatever best I can next time. And also I will be TA for two of the courses and no research work next semester as direct repercussion of the above result. But that might be a blessing in disguise. How? I don't know. Just waiting for next semester to end. And let some haze clear out.

Anyways that was it. It has ended. And the next one has not yet begun. Caught between the semester tomorrow is a nice day for roadtrip to Chicago with 4 other guys. Starting in the morning and then coming four days later. I seriously don't know what are we going to do this many days. Chicago might not be worth 3/4 days of visit. But going with a group so let it be. Accidentally I will be in Chicago during Christmas which is a big day in USA. Until I return I will not write so Merry Christmas people. Folks in Minneapolis are disappointed that it is going to be non-white xmas this time. Thankfully it hasn't snowed much yet here.

Last days

It is last few days of the semester. Everybody seems to be looking for the vacations. What have I to look for? An exam on Tuesday and then cookie exchange party with the lab group members. I am not sure what to expect from next semester. Or the coming break. I so desperately wanna nail the final day on Tuesday. But thereafter? Oh and I have a question. Can I bring along cake instead of cookies in the cookie exchange? Cake is a lot easier to make.

Poster & suicides

Today I had a poster presentation and it was not as bad as I thought it would do. Team of 4 we did not start off on time but then slogged a bit in the end to reach there. It was not outstanding but it looked more than over-a-weekend project. As a matter of fact we worked quite more than over-a-weekend.
The results although wrong looked feasible :).

I am reading this report on suicides at IITK. I will post a comment by Director Prof. Dhande: "We are all very concerned about what is happening. Though there are number of factors that are responsible for academically linked suicides at IITs, these can be curbed by systemic reforms. The council is not an insensitive body and I am sure some of these reforms will come up for discussion at the meeting." And now here are some of the suggestions by different fact finding committees setup after each suicides: "replace ceiling fans with pedestal fans in hostel rooms, eliminate single rooms from hostel, jam the cell phones or slow down internet speed."

Suicide rate at IITK is 10 times the average of suicides rate in north India. Also a peculiar thing about the state-wise suicide rate is that the southern supposed more educated and well-off states have much higher suicide rates than norther 'poor' states UP, Bihar. So, statistically speaking, if you want to live DONT STUDY!

Down but not out

Im down but not out. Failing the exam once seems difficult to bear partly because I am not conditioned to handle academic failures. Things have become a little bit complicated but I will sort it out. Only thing that I did not expect was the kind of support from my advisor. It does not help when hours before exam your advisor says that you do not have understanding of subject and (s)he is uncertain of supporting you.
It's just a bad phase which I will get over.

peom

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

Im getting kind of used to the winter way of life. It is not as bad as I thought it to be. Although there is awefull lot of the same is left. Five months of snowy winter ahead!
We already had one snowfall and expecting next one soon. Im using bus instead of bike in the chill. We did our last biking tour on Thanksgiving Thursday. It was fun. Three of us on 23 mile ride. And the bagels with egg. Yumm!

[Updated profile]

Thanksging

Arguably second most celebrated festival in US of A. It's about giving thanks to everybody. So here I go. Thank you Mom and Dad. Thank you God. Thank you all my lovely friends.

We have 2 days in semester holiday (which is scarce in this country) and don't have nothing much to do with them. Although I would have liked to go out somewhere but I didn't. Partly because of the big exams Monday and rest of the week and partly because I don't know how to drive. :)

It is a funny world. You don't know where it is headed but still you have one of your own. I too have a world of my own.

I dont wanna publish this but I will. Just for the fun of it.

In praise of idleness

In the shaky economic conditions around the world, with occupy movements everywhere and wars for power in many nations, it would be nice to reflect on this essay by Bertrand Russell. I read it today. One can only wonder how wonderfully has he argued in favour of idleness. The starting first few paras seem to be on lighter note and take you into hilarious state. And then he starts talking about how, although funny, these things about leisure and work make sense to compare. And just when you are enchanted by the flow of sequentially convincing arguments he will sneakingly pass a statement somewhere that modern machinery after industrial revolution have made it possible for us to do less work, which was something I could not buy. But as he explains his case well to justify the statement if you are flexible on your definition of 'work'. His example of manufacture of pins is presented very well. Although it doesn't work that simple. And the reason is that we haven't let it
The last para concludes that if we learn from idleness then how wars can be prevented because then all of us will have plenty besides the face that lazy people will not be willing to fight :D. He talks about war more than once in the whole essay which is understandable considering the timing of the article; it was published between the two World Wars. All I want to say that it is a very nice read and his discussion of work vs. leisure fits very well in today's society where the 'work' is virtue-ed too much and 'leisure' is considered to be bad for ones life. I can make the above statement with authority because I have worked in corporate for a year and most of my friends are still there. I will quote few lines from the text and hope it serves as a motivation to read the full text. Even if you get bored and dont read full text read the first few pages because they serve as humour and the last few pages because you need it.

'I enjoy manual work because it makes me feel that I am fulfilling man's noblest task, and because I like to think how much man can transform his planet. It is true that my body demands periods of rest, which I have to fill in as best I may, but I am never so happy as when the morning comes and I can return to the toil from which my contentment springs.'

First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.

The notion that the desirable activities are those that bring a profit has made everything topsy-turvy.

Broadly speaking, it is held that getting money is good and spending money is bad. Seeing that they are two sides of one transaction, this is absurd; one might as well maintain that keys are good, but keyholes are bad.

[Find full text: pdf version, html version]

It has been close to a year since I started this whole writing-on-me business. The post in retrospection looks so apt. I how I feel some stuff when I think of what I felt at a later time. Does that happen to most of us? May be if I'm not a unique, endangered human species, which in all probability I am not.

Cometh the winter

The big exams are around the corner and I seem to have dropped back in the preparations it seems. Anyways I have a weekend. Hopefully I can use saturday and then go biking on Sunday. Probably the last biking tour of season before Minnesota gets buried in 'the white'. The wind outside has started to kill. Winter chill is setting in. Forecasts say that 11 Nov will be the first snow. Oh how I hate the winter but now there is no choice. Biking on the snow can be killer. Waiting on bus stops is so damn bad. The bright side is there will be ice for skiing. May be Sunday will change from cycling day to skiing day in the coming months :). Welcome to the infamous Minnesota winter.

On Thursday (was): A birthday treat from a friend and Malaysian cuisine! \m/

Hard way

Some times I like to do it the hard way. There is no reason for it. Is it okay to do it sometimes? I dont know. It really pushes you to the brink sometimes to the limits of frustrations. But somehow it seems ok when you wind up everything and what they call connect-the-dots.

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to all of you. Hope you guys are celebrating this day live-on not video-conf.
Ate a lot of cookies in the department seminar today in the name of Diwali sweets. But to my good I have befriended a very nice guy who knows to cook all kinds of sweets on his own. So I got one full sweet box tonight. I am obliged to him for innumerable times he has offered pineapple halwa, sweets, cakes.

You can get ankle sprain while jogging, running, playing and so on. Did someone ever get ankle sprain while studying? I did yesterday when I was studying for exam and having an apple for breakfast. The trash can was some stairs up and with the book in one hand and apple core in another fell down the stairs somewhat. Slight ankle sprain. Not much

exam

How does it feel when you fall behind in schedule. It feels like not to make scheduled task ever. Whatever. I need heads out of computer and heads-in on books. So much to plan. So little to turn out. How could I change!

I had exam after almost 2 years. Two months shy of two years. But it was good. The exam. Not me in the exam. 2 out of three questions.

Finally after much hunting and speculating I have my advisor and research topic in place. I will be working on thermochemical reactors to produce fuels from Solar energy. I hope we make this technology work some day and make it cheap. I am fed up with oil debate of all kinds.

Bar

Bar in America = Railway platform in India.
Except with a lot of sleaze. Or with a lot of 'freedom' in an another perspective which lot of us would like to have. Interestingly they call them The Library. Best trick for teetotallers that I learnt online and which matches my taste was to ask the bartender for 'non-alcoholic non-carbonated drink'. And the closest I got was lemonade which happened to be carbonated. And it did not match my taste for sure. No mock-tails, no soft-drink in the menu. Heck! Wrong bar for starters!
I liked it for the same reason as I like train journey. It is so rare to see crowded places in USA. When I recall my initial days, it would look like Section 144 in our place. This is the second time I saw this large crowd in this country. (First was in the state fair). After an initial interval T it became more monotonous than lively. So I was kind of bored and enjoying both. And sleepy too. So teetotallers should not go to bars or should not stay after time T.

On an unrelated note Rahul Dravid said in an HT interview: "I try not doing things that I’m not comfortable with."

Very well said

“If you are never scared, embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances”


"If you have embarrassed yourself and are going to laugh about it someday, you might as well start today.”

Busy living

Four weeks pass by quietly since the semester started. Did nothing much really. Attended all the lectures.
I will tell you what. I wrote that previous line last few weeks and then stopped writing. Now again only changed two to three, then four. I didn't mean to change it to four.

Two bike trips, as many movies in theater (at University), a lot many assignments. Suddenly lots of things are happening. It is good to get busy living. Better than having nothing to do. I've also bought a new squash racquet and pair of shoes. Saturday is squash day. Meanwhile studying a lot too. And watched a movie named Dasvidaniya, which reminded me of my own list at 43things.com.

Eleventh one

I had half a score of them already. And it's yet another academic semester of life. This one is towards the so called highest level of education. At the time of writing I feel that I am among the very few opportune people who have a chance to reach this level. What percentage of people back in our country get to go to high school? and then undergrad school? and then grad school? And then another grad school?

Anyways, the point is I am studying it bit too far :D. The semester has only started and I feel like its going to be hectic workload. Professors here have the habit of giving non-copy-able assignments every week. And coming with master's degree I am supposed to take oral pre-Ph.D. exams right in first semester which means November end! So its 3 more subjects for orals.

So far the start seems good. Haven't started studying much :) Place is very campus like. Like the one I had been previously. But unlike in many aspects. Lots of bars and drunkards around. A walk to campus from my home on friday or saturday night tells the tale. A particular Saturday night while returning from university, two un-shyly dressed, drunk girls proceeded towards us and mumbled something. We were waiting for walk signal at lights. Luckily we got the pass just then and started walking hurriedly. Recollecting, they were asking 'Is chilly billy open tonight'? Chilly billy is half blocks from university main entrance. Anyways the point is there are many drunkards around. And they love to throw bear bottles from the cars. So we have punctured tyres following week. So you see being rich doesn't solve the problems. It only changes your problems.

I have met as many people in last 12 days that I haven't met in 12 months! Heard my name pronounced in scores of different accent and ways.

Hanging around the world

Life seems pretty easy and relax at the moment. But I know this is gonna change suddenly when semester begins. In an honest way I dont very much like it this way. And I am eager for it to start all. In spite of the warnings that it gets very hectic and all Im in a way waiting for it to come. Eagerness mixed with a pinch of something cloven fear.

The most active part is the international get togethers. Firstly it was International student orientation. And today again it was a kind of outing organized by M.I.S.A. It is a nice feeling to know people from different nationalities. Like all the world coming to one floor. All of us together represent 35 countries! On Friday I met a Greek dude, a Vietnamese girl couple, of Chinese guys(actually a lot of em later), an Indonesian, Korean, two little Japanese undergrads.Today also met a Sri-Lankan guy - he was a funny man, a Shanghai girl in utter sobriety, two Dutch blondes, a Danish from Copenhagen, a Malaysian, a nice guy from Uganda, a church official from America, many other guys from China.
One thing I got to know out of it. The Chinese people have very high regards for IITs of India. Contrary to all the conspiracy theories running in the market I have found that Chinese are nice people.

ज़िन्दगी

ज़िन्दगी गुज़र गई बस इसी कशमकश में,
प्यार मुमकिन नहीं, ना है मेरे वश में|
मैं नादां चला जाम चाहत का पिने,
था मीठा ज़हर उस रश में!
ना खबर कुछ मुझे, न पता कुछ मुझे,
घिर गया इस तरह यादों की बहस में|

--Unknown

Minneapolis

The first guy I met at airport (after all security checks) here was very helpful. I asked him the way to super shuttle parking and he walked me all the way down to parking and introduced me to shuttle staff for further help. After waiting for about an hour the university van picked me up and dropped to my friend's place. I was surprised to see this undergraduate girl from university driving a big van, quite as big as mini-bus. Is driving that easy. On the way it seemed that city of full of lakes and some waterfall. Aptly it is called city of lakes.

Amsterdam

Last two days were pretty much memorable. a huge family outing dinner. we stayed late night and loads of photos and all. memories-from-childhood thingy. We clicked photos in the same pose as in a long back dated photo.

The day also happened to be my birthday. And I didn't post on my birthday! Okay it was a busy one. It kind of added to the showdown. Then on the next day it was my flight. I was seen off by many of my family members and a friend. I don't know why but the whole time till I got into plane I was sweating like a real pig! So much so that during immigration check at IGI the guy at the desk was inquisitive about the reasons Im sweating. Then he checked my university I20 form and all and asked some lame questions about whens and whys and wheres. I gave him lamest of all lame excuses to him that I used to live in Hyderabad and it was not so hot over there and I could not handle the heat here. I laughed at myself. (Anyways, I do sweat like hell at times.) Like a pig. Like I had never been in this kind of weather. For the record many times my hometown Allahabad is much damp and horrid and hot than Delhi. Talking of weather, weather at Amsterdam is quite nice this day. Lots of clouds, of all types, to be seen in the sky. Temperature is within 20 I guess (since it was still 6 am when I landed). In only a full sleeve I could just feel the little chill but not so chill to need a sweater. Like October morning in Kanpur. Only with lots of clouds in the sky. I really feel like home in this weather. Only with lots of around-the-world people.

Back on the Delhi airport mini incident happened. One of my elephant baggage was over weight by few kilos. I picked 2 high density books and 2 eateries packet out of it and there was nowhere it could be done away with. I asked the airline girl to tell me better ways than dump these in dustbin. I thought I dint want to start my graduate studies by throwing away books :). Although I dont believe a lot in symbolism. Anyways I dint want to throw away anything. So I just stood by the counter with the books like adamant fool. :D. Then the girl said that I could keep the books in my carry-on luggage, in which I still hand some half a kilo limit left, and eventually I did carry those in my cabin luggage. So at the end or it I was carrying the max limit that can be carried. Gave the eateries to an airport worker. Talking of eateries Im starting to feel my stomach. And thirsty too. But I really dont feel like start walking. Not that Im tired or something. I just dont want it. Because I like the view from the place I am sitting and the crowd is coming in. :)

I just now went back in time! By three hours. By my watch. I think I will sacrifice the view and take a stroll.

Amsterdam airport is huge! And lots to spend time with. Only if they had more than one hour of free internet.

Countdown

Counting down from today there are exactly 10 days left in my home country and 8 days at my home. :(

Home

The time to stay-at-home is almost over and there is nothing much to write about it. Only that it was one of the longest nothing-to-do time. There is nothing to glorify because as a friend said vellapa(nothingness) can never be glorified.

But still I loved it because its HOME.

a month

One month into my vacation and it dint feel like a month! Only that I visited 3 cities in between.
I saw Kolkata - city of joy for the first time and wondering what it would have been n century before. (n=1,2,3,4). I think in one day I got the vibe :D. The history of Calcutta gallery in Victoria Memorial was the high point. It is much like a city which is depleting than a developing one. Much like kanpur where I stayed for 5 years.
Then visited Bhopal to see some folks. And then to Delhi to some more folks. And the big fort built be Emperor Mogul Shah Jahan in 17th century. And the famous Delhi market Chandni Chowk. And some eateries. It made me believe people in Delhi have very strong immune system.
Since vellapa cannot be glorified I am also learning something during this time. To swim. I started on to pick up things nicely only to reinstate in initial learning stage by a 2 day break :( Looks like swimming is not an easy exercise. More so at the noon-past timings. When it is laziest time of the day. On a second thought other times of day are lazier too.
Recently enough my eyes started to hurt badly. Not in the way as if something hurts you but like itching and uneasiness. Then for the second time within a year eyesight further depleted. Cylindrical correction in both eyes now. It is very bad to have cylindrical glasses. Spherical ones you can do without glasses on many times but cylindrical is worse. Even bare 0.5 will screw badly.

Home

Reached home easily last week and since then pretty much doing nothing here.

Hyderabad, thou shalt be missed

Last day was also amazing. Got a farewell which I never expected again. In the end it looked as if everything was happening so fast. As if I wished I had more time. But then it has to come one day. Whenever you leave a place you get this kind of feeling. At your last day you will feel like you had one more day. Given that extra day you will again wish same. And by mathematical induction you will stay forever. So it gotta be one day or other.

Right now have to do packing and then sleep for a little while. Following was the Oscar Speech which I sent to my colleagues:

Hi all,
Today on the last day of office at oracle I recollect all the good times that I have spend and all the people I have befriended in past 1 year. This being my first job I learned here what it is to work in a professional environment. I was extremely happy with the team I worked. Honestly speaking if I were to work in corporate-IT job this team would be it. I am thankful to my teammates and managers who were always available for help....
...

Nice day

Today, second last day in Oracle, more or less turned out to be somewhat similar to last day. It started with as usual me hurrying up for getting ready and struggling to find something which can consist of breakfast. Finally a glass of the Real Mango juice made it.
When I reached office as usual there was little which I could call office work. But then there was closing procedure and due to some confusion in submitting exit requests I had to submit the laptop/desktop a day early.

All this done I was invited out for lunch by some office friends. Thereafter in the noon what I experienced was historic. So much so that at one point of time I started doubting if I deserved so much respect or not. But then it is what we call affection. I felt obliged to everyone. Honestly speaking I never expected such farewell. I am not someone used to being cynosure. It felt great to have such good friends, so many of them, in such a short duration. I had a great time in Hyderabad living, making friends, eating, earning, spending. Traveling, fooling around, not working in office and a lot more.

But there are times in life when you feel that you should move on. This was the time. And with this far it is no looking back. Although the places get left behind memories don't. People are left behind but friendship doesn't. As Mr.Harrison says and as Mr.me keeps recalling,

All things must pass,
All things mus pass away.

Now I will sing a song, which I didn't do yesterday, and sign off for last day at office. But it will be in text format. :)

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

Last weekend

The weekend went nice. Mostly ate out on this one. Friday was amazing. On Sunday when I was paying at a coffee bar a little child came to me. She was just above knee level. She came and dint look up and clung around me. Now she gazed up and very next moment was in screams. I took her in arms to allay her but for no use (until her father came to her).
Later in the day I realized it was father's day on that day. :P

Last week

Today is the first day of the last week of my first job which may be last (corporate) job.

Bidar

June is almost here. And so is my last month in Hyderabad. The weather has been benign in the last few days. It is one of the awesome times when clouds shape up nicely in the skies. Just before the monsoons.
In such beautiful ambiance we visited fort of one of the five great empires in Southern India. Bidar. That was pretty much the weekend. This was on last weekend btw. This weekend visited Shirdi.

Saturday

Saturday. Boring as usual.

Say something

Some people say that I don't talk too much. Mostly when I meet new ones they will observe: 'You don't talk much. Say something'. And after hearing that there isn't really much that I can say.

May be I shouldn't give them chance to say that to me. So that I am not in a position where there isn't really much left to say. It is kind of self loop. When I don't talk much, which usually is the case, then people point it out after it there isn't much left and after that it becomes like that. I have to break the loop

So I am reading how to talk to strangers.

Forgetting names

How embarrassing it becomes when we forget someone's name some time. It happens mostly when you are meeting someone after a long time. But for me it is not usually. If I know someone's name I can recall it after long times but problem is to get it right in first trial. When I meet somebody for the first time and (s)he tells name I usually tend to observe that person and not concentrate on what (s)he is saying for name. I will concentrate more on how (s)he is speaking and all. So it is very difficult to get it in first trial. I always require to ask just after few minutes. But there are nice tips and tricks you can use to escape the embarrassment. Following is a list taken from this link.

1. Tell them your name first.
Someone is approaching you – you know the face, but not the name. Try being the first to talk, smile and say “Hello, we’ve met before – I’m Dee”. In most cases the other person will say there name too. This works perfect in situations when you only met someone briefly because there is a change they also have forgotten your name. Using this trick provides the person with your name also, without either of you having to admit you forgot names.

2. The extra sneaky tricks.
Ask the person their name and after they tell you say “No, I ment your last name.” Another option is to ask how they spell their name, now of course this can backfire if their name is something simple (like Dee).

3. Avoid saying names altogether.
There are situations where you do not want to admit you forgot a name. If it is a name you should know and the consequences are too big then starting a conversation without any names is your best bet. For example, “Oh hi, how have you been?” “Good to see you again, I was hoping you would be here”. This also gives you a chance to remember their name as you talk.

4. Use the ‘introduce a friend’ trick.
“Hello, oh have you met my friend Jack?” Jack then says hi and in most situations the person will introduce themselves to Jack. If the person merely says “Hi Jack” then you can still say “I’m sorry, I have forgotten your name”.

5. Darling so good to see you!
This trick is really a twist on avoid saying names altogether. But instead you use a substitute where you would usually say their name. Such as darling, honey, champ, sir, dude etc. Not recommended at business events but can work at parties.

6. Ask someone else what their name is.
If you are attending a party or networking event scan the room for familiar faces. If you can’t place a name to a face then ask a friend who they are. Now you know their name and are ready to greet them later.

7. Be honest (short and simple).
If you are going to ask someone what their name is because you have forgotten add an apologize. “I’m so sorry I can’t remember your name” or “I’m sorry, what was your name again?” A simple apology is all that is needed before launching into a conversation with them. Or you could try something even simplier like “Can you remind me what your name is?”

There are a bunch of sites here and here that have tips on how to remember people’s names so you’ll never have to use the tips in this post.

Mumbai

Terminal is such a good place to blog. :) You have internet, all the time in the world (if u r well before in time) and lots of activities going around you.

Anyways visa interview was just a formality it seemed. Just two min talk. No document check no nothing. Just they kept my passport. People say they trust. So this heck of visa thingy is over. Now I can put my resignation and fix date of my summer vacation. And rest in peace thereafter. For 1 month.

Even though a short one this trip was memorable like anything. Stayed at a friend's at Hiranandani and spent one whole day. Almost relived the college time. One of those days when we did nothing at room except bulla (gossips - intellectual ones). Went out only for lunch, evening snacks and dinner.

Loner

Since I am going to live more or less lonely life for next some (5?) years it would be apt to get some practice from now on.

There's nothing you can say
To make me change my mind
Goodbye

Pasta

I am enjoying self-cooked pasta right now. Thanks to quick pasta recipe.

Pastafarianism

Finally the dilemma is over. Rejected the Purdue offer. Never thought this will happen. That I will get an offer from Purdue and eventually reject it.

When I was a child I had very high regards for this university. It was one of the wow things for me. But then it happened. A little late though but it happened. Then there was fellowship at Minnesota which means I have flexibility in deciding my adviser. And energy research at minnesota looks some what more happening than at Purdue and the prof who was hiring me. Finally sent rejection to him.

I was sitting very relaxed then all of a sudden from everywhere people start telling me to start looking for housing there otherwise it will be late. Or u wont get things and all.

So all of a sudden I started looking the web and this weekend I was onto it only. But it seems that deadline for on campus housing was 15-May. This soon I was not able to find a person to share apartment with me inside univ. I dont know why but many people prefer off-campus housing.

And has been quite customary now I a alone for dinner at weekend again. Most of the people I know will go out to non-veg placed to eat. I am the only home alone left. Loner. It is hard to find company for veg dinner. My be I can cook something in kitchen. It will be a nice practice for univ days ahead. Lets try some pasta. Pastafarianism!

Purdue

Its past April, almost mid May and Purdue has come off its sleep and decided to review my application. Now is a new dilemma between Purdue and Minnesota. Purdue is a big name to reject. So is Minnesota in Mechanical. But I have a better fellowship offer from Minnesota which means I have freedom to choose professor and topic after visiting the university. It looks like flexibility versus better University tag and slightly better location/climate.

Saturday

So its saturday it is getting dull. Somehow I woke up in the morning. very morning I mean. Around 6:30 or 7. It was the maid I think at the door. Anyways it was a dull start for today.

Previously in the week I received my I-20 form from the university and then I told manager in office about the offer and about that I want to leave and go for it. Certainly there was some amount of dejection that I observed. No employer would like their employees to leave within a year. Even I also feel bad about it but thats the way things are. I think we talked at a fair length. More than half hour. But at no point he was infuriated. He looked sad though. One day or the other it had to come. I still have around 1 and half months in hyd.

Parity

There is very unique thing about nature which exists which we dont realize too often. But there are times in our life when we do realize that parity law does exist in nature. That, the things are symmetric in nature. They apply on right-handed and left-handed equally. But very little often do we realize that this parity law is violated nature too! In week interactions there are instances when parity does not hold and there nature stands stripped of its parity! They have different outcomes for up-spins and down-spins. Although nature is strictly fair for strong interactions like gravity, electromagnetic forces and strong nuclear forces.

Feynman effect. :P

Go plus

With each passing day my days in Hyderabad are closing in. In the limited days I went on a paid resort trip from my office in a group of 21 people. It was a very nice junket. It was actually a workshop where we were supposed to learn some business values. The instructor was a third party vendor and he knew the terms of trade very well. I always have respect for these kind of people who have complete control over there conversational style, the way they react and their temper of things. Control over things.

All together there were many activities which were to be performed in a group. Two groups two be exact. Several of them out door. For example the last and final activity was a game similar to rugby but to be played with non-dominant hand. Another was a plank puzzle.
At the end of the two days we became bonded with each other. It was nice to know so many people. Truly speaking I had never befriended this many people to this much extent in this much time. I will specially remember the walk on the first morning.
And the gossips by the pool side on the second night. For the first time I played crappy games like DumbC and it did not look too crappy. It looked too dumb though. :D

Ooooohty

In the last three days I traveled in 3 southern states. Alongwith a friend who agreed to accompany me to ooty we spent two days in there.
We started from Bangalore in a bus. The bus journey started with a nice fresh-after-rain weather in Bangalore. Bangalore is some place which will have this cool breeze kind of weather all round the year. Not that it will not become hot but clouds tend to stick there mostly. Whenever I am there, more often than not I have seen rain. Anyways the bus journey took around whole 12 hrs to reach Ooty, which happens to be 300 km from Bangalore. We clicked a lot of pictures in the way. I was taking the isle seat so it was my friend who did most of the clicking. There was this couple and the kid with them on seat behind us. The kido[photo] was very cute and clicked his (or her) picture after getting kind permission from the parents.
After reaching the Ooty bus stand, two of us tried to find information from local people as to what all we can do/see in there. A guy met us standing in the middle of bus stand who claimed that his 'friend' has a guesthouse logging in the Mudumalai forests. Btw this forest also has forest safaris. So this gentleman immediately wards us off on a bus to this place. But while on the bus we get down at a place in between. As soon as we got down from the bus, we searched for public toilets and started the day with essentials. After that my friend had breakfast and I brushed teeth and had breakfast. Some of us are toothpaste conservationists. :D The weather was at its best when it started to rain. This place called Pykara had two things - 1) something what people there called waterfall[photo] and (2) a boat house where we never got a boat even after waiting 1 hour.
From there we got to the much famous 'shooting point' of the Ooty. It is a famous spot for many Bollywood films. Its more like a large hillock, a very gradual one. But nevertheless a very lively one.

And eventually it turns out such that we hitchhiked around Ooty the whole of this day. More than half our hiking was under umbrella which was our only home for the day! One umbrella covering one person, one backpack and one camera.[photo]

The day ended when we came back hitchhiking in the heavy rain back to Ooty to book a weary old looking hotel room for 1500 bucks. By the time we reached all our cloths including the one on us were drenched. We had no cloths to sleep in and only single blanket. Now we did not want to get cozy in a single blanket in this state but the chill was considerable. Finally my friend sacrificed and took bedsheets instead. :)

The second day was a little less happening. We booked a tour bus for tour of Conoor and ooty which eventually ended up in only Conoor because of time constraints. We enjoyed fulsomely the freshly made chocolates of Ooty, specially the dark chocolates. With an elated joyous feeling and undying memories we came back to Bangalore by a night bus. I had one full day in Bangalore before taking a train in the night. But it was good only for sleeping. :)

Bangalore-Ooty

A nice extended weekend and Im off for Ooty! In bangalore right now. With some old friends from IIT.

Lightening

Today weather was very kind in Hyderabad. We had gentle breeze running all through evening till night. Faint showers and lightening bolts in the night.

I had my first lightening bolt shot. The first one came very quickly and quite descent. It was handheld. Hence some stray light (near the right corner at bottom) can be seen

After then I held the shutter open for long times. Trials after trials but no luck. Lightening struck but was not in my frame. Then I zoomed out to increase the field of view and probability of capturing the bolt. But then it became too small sized. Hence the cropped image below shows too much noise. Even at ISO200!

Some keywords recurring in my brain these days:

The vicious circle
Big fish small fish
Karma
Succeed in life
Drudgery in office
Home
Freezing temperatures
i20

Sunday

Today was talk on the phone day. I called up and got call from may people. Was on phone for long hours. Its a nice way to spend time. Talking on phone and standing in balcony. Seeing people passing by. Relaxing. Nice way to spend your Sunday.

This little child on the first floor in my apartment is a cute one. I love small kids. I always did. Whenever I will see him, either going downstairs or upstairs, or sometimes he will play with his nanny on the ground floor space, I will wave my hands. And he waves back. Children always love that I think. And this is one of the things the learn quite early. Waving as in bye bye, clapping, flying kisses, good morning. They will learn all of them fast.

And today in the noon when I was in balcony talking on phone, this kid was in going in car with his parents I think, though Im not too sure if he was the same kid or not because this one looked much younger, but anyway he was waving from the window and also smiling probably.

And by the way this kid is the only being I know in my apartment. I hate this particular thing about Hyderabad. Or may be it is the case with all big cities. Dont know. But I find it very disgusting. People will not befriend with neighbours. This may be part of one other disgusting thing which is bachelor hysteria. But whatever its not to my liking. People here will look at bachelors with such a loathe. They will be shunned as if fountain of malice. People will literally shut their doors on your face.

There loathing is justified in some sense too when I look around some of the bachelor class people around. They will do not-so-decent things which no one would like to happen in their residential colony. Some few days ago one young couple was involved in something on the road at night which could have brought them close to being booked under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code.

Mr. Feynman!

I remember from the days of second year of my UG education. When I was studying electromagnetism, I went through his book - Feynman lectures on physics. I absolutely loved those lectures and was in awe of the man and his style of writing a physics book. You could understand the deep concept of physics only be reading his text, without involving complex mathematicals. And now Im reading his book 'Surely you're joking Mr.Feynman!' And the timing may not have been more apt. Just before I am going to start phd!

It is just an amazing book. About life of an amazing person. How he becomes someone who he is. One of the excerpts shown below will show what his writing style was like in 'Feynman lectures on physics' and obviously hi-lighten his deep understanding of physics.

"I often liked to play tricks on people when I was at MIT. One time, in mechanical drawing class, some joker picked up a French curve (a piece of plastic for drawing smooth curves--a curly, funny-looking thing) and said, "I wonder if the curves on this thing have some special formula?"

I thought for a moment and said, "Sure they do. The curves are very special curves. Lemme show ya," and I picked up my French curve and began to turn it slowly. "The French curve is made so that at the lowest point on each curve, no matter how you turn it, the tangent is horizontal."

All the guys in the class were holding their French curve up at different angles, holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. They were all excited by t his "discovery"--even though they had already gone through a certain amount of calculus and had already "learned" that the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal).

They didn't put two and two together. They didn't even know what they "knew." I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way--by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!

I did the same kind of trick four years later at Princeton when I was talking with an experienced character, an assistant of Einstein, who was surely working with gravity all the time. I gave him a problem: You blast off in a rocket which has a clock on board, and there's a clock on the ground. The idea is that you have to be back when the clock on the ground says one hour has passed. Now you want it so that when you come back, your clock is as far ahead as possible. According to Einstein, if you go very high, your clock will go faster, because the higher something is in a gravitational field, the faster its clock goes. But if you try to go too high, since you've only got an hour, you have to go so fast to get there that the speed slows your clock down. So you can't go too high. The question is, exactly what program of speed and height should you make so that you get the maximum time on your clock?

This assistant of Einstein worked on it for quite a bit before he realized that the answer is the real motion of matter. If you shoot something up in a normal way, so that the time it takes the shell to go up and come down is an hour, that's the correct motion. It's the fundamental principle of Einstein's gravity--that is, what's called the "proper time" is at a maximum for the actual curve. But when I put it to him, about a rocket with a clock, he didn't recognize it. It was just like the guys in mechanical drawing class, but this time it wasn't dumb freshmen. So this kind of fragility is, in fact, fairly common, even with more learned people."

His knowledge was certainly not fragile in nature.

Party

When someone invites you to his (birthday) party and you are not sure whether it was genuine he really wants you to be there or he invites you because you were present somewhere sometime when and where invitations were being called. Then what do you do? I feel bad at disappointing inviters but it is difficult for me.

Moreover Im not a party guy. I dont drink. I dont dance. I dont date. Im not someone who will engage in conversations with lot of people with furore. I feel out of place in parties. I dont mind eating together with people at some place. But as to so called 'party' I become confused how to 'be'. There is no point go there and stay there and make other people feel that Im not having their kind of fun.

Im having that bad thing in my toe in the nails which happens to everybody at some point or the other. It hurts in walking. Just waiting for it to go.

Boring

Things have been quite boring in last few says. A friend responds to this saying what happened to your blogging? painting?
Then suddenly Im reminded that Im not writing? May be I should write more? read more? and if world permits may be take up colors again?
I have ordered a print copy of 'Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman!'. But to worse I just the day after ordering online I caught hold of pdf copy and cant resist reading it during office hours. :( I will have to resist.

Futile

There are so many futile things in this world. The futility is highlighted by the fact that we tend to forget the futile chase and run behind them like miserable hopeless losers. The whole life the goals are futile, the chase is futile and then everything seems futile.

Road trip

Road trip 2x250km from Hyderabad to Srisalem with colleagues at Oracle. Went in a hired cab. Four of us. Started from my apartment at Hyderabad at 7 am. Came back by 6pm next day. Visited a waterfall on the way. Went to a famous temple at the place. The next day followed: Ropeway->Boating in Krishna river->Small cave. Then back. Nice short trip.

So at least one of the things to do in life is done now.

Im not feeling good today

Things are getting shabby day by day. Getting back to old sleeping habits.

World Cup

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is near. Let us celebrate this cricket festival in spirit. Whoever wins, as Ravi Shastri says, Cricket would be the ultimate winner!

After long many days today in office I had almost no work. Enjoyed cubing at my desk in office. I've pinned up a list of PLL algos on dashboard at the desk. Started with the PLL algos. Doing 4-5 of them fluently. Long way to go for sub30 seconds!

Mr.John Louis will be in Hyderabad in Feb sometime. It will be nice meeting him here. Hope we make something constructive out of this meeting.

UC Davis will declare their results of apping on 15 Feb 8a.m. PST. Does it matter anymore? To certain extent.

And this Saint did something today, I think he was born today. People go gaga over his name and do lots of unbecoming things this day. His name was Valentine. Someone on twitter says "Valentine's day: When men indirectly say to women "I wanna **** you" and women go "awwww"." Follow this funny guy for oneliners.

corporate

I can safely say that at the least I am not enjoying the 'dark corporate world'! I dont want to do this to me. Whatever is happening out here, I dont go to office with a smile.
'Lets put a smile on that face'!

Non-zero success rate

I did not expect it to be so early. The day I came back. The night to be forensically correct. Finally I have secured non-zero success rate in apping. Got the offer from one of the universities. Since the semester starts much further than the result I did not want this to be known like a news so early. More so when I am not particularly sure of actually going for it. More so because these are things not be talked about at your workplace. But honestly cant avoid posting here. This place has everything of me.

Kanpur

Weeks passed and I had been to campus once again. As an alumni we booked 2 rooms in VH, Oh what respect only for passing out from there. Only a phone call to book room in Visitor's Hostel at IITK.
So it has started with Mr.India (nickname). One man down. He got married on 23rd Jan. It was a nice gathering. Around 10 of us old-timers there. Also went down home for a day. It was like touch and go. A flash and Im back in the frame at Hyderabad. And as is quite normal now traveling between home and Hyderabad always turns out to be adventures. I had train ticket from Allahabad to Hyderabad but eventually it went into nothingness. Then with 3 hours left booked another ticket to Delhi and flight to Hyderabad.
Another good thing that I left my specs in the train. I will have to get a new pair now.

Wedding

Traveling again this weekend. A big occasion this Sunday. For one of my friend who is getting a wife in a ceremonious way. We call it a marriage or a wedding ceremony.

It's been awhile

Since I did something new. Seriously considering restarting on canvas. By what I reckon I used to like it while using oil colors and brushes and palette and oil and all painted over. Its been awhile since I took up brush.

Its been awhile since I played squash. It is hard to find courts in Hyderabad where one can play on monthly roll.

May be I should do stuffs other than office more.

Time!

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Cycling

From 2011 lets try to early-to-bed-and-early-to-rise. Not to mention makes-a-man-healthy-wealthy-and-wise. :)

This year in first two days were quite awesome. Got up early both days. 1st Jan got up at 7 and went jogging. Today was awsome-er! Took the cycle ride 35 km to a nearby lake called Osmansagar. And the bikes we rode were just awseme-est! These guys at thebikeaffair.com are doing a fine job. It was the first time I came to know that bicycles can be this fun. And this costly. They sell bicycles costing upto Rs.58k! And the cheapest one was 10k (after sale discount)! But those machines were like god thing in cycling. The one I rode was around 20k! We rode some 35-40 degree slope without getting off the foot.

New year

New year, finally here. And also it a decade is gone. It was an important decade of my life. I traveled to many places. Became wiser. Met many people. Made a lot of friends. And almost none of enemies. Completed my two college degrees. Started earning.

We dint party much last night. In face dint party at all. I dont like partying somewhat. I dont drink. I dont like dancing. I am veggie. So what is much point. May be Im a fun killer. But thats it.

Although I like food. kind of gourmet u can say. Went to this midnight buffet in a nearby restaurant and they serve an extremely lovable food. The ice-cream was much above average of what you will expect in a buffet. Nice start of the year.

And best wishes to all my readers on new year. May all of you enjoy the coming year to the fullest.