Back to school

Getting married in India is a stressful affair. My sisters wedding concluded recently. I played the host to 400 odd people and I was totally drained out arranging everything. Finally it is over. Nothing less than a feat. Good to get done!
I am back in Minneapolis and back to school. Slowly picking up on work. It is no summer in summer here compared to what was in India.
For some reason I feel more lethargic than I was feeling when I left. I wear out running only 2 miles, more mentally than physically. I think Im not doing much at work too. I also don't feel like going out much. Is this a hangover of the holiday time spent back home?

Eurotrip

I met several interesting people throughout the last eight days. A Romanian born college dropout running stock trading firm, small town Austrian dude living and working in Vienna, French-American couple expat in Czech, Polish lady born in communist era small town Poland and living in Krakow, two college kids passionate about studying physical therapy and self-proclaimed yoga-freak.

All this travelling only re-affirmed my belief that people everywhere in the world are same. All of us need love, acceptance and appreciation. And secondly that Polish women are among the most beautiful lot.

I was really haphazard in my planning and it only added more adventure to the trip. I had to run and dash to get to travel Vienna-to-Prague. Half of the journey done in a shabby car ride share and other half in a bus whose ticket I bought in 10 min before departure. For rest of the international travel I booked tickets on the fly. But it concluded well with me watching Polish animated movies in a park with two polkas. A friend of friend bid me farewell in Vienna before my flight. Now I'm in India facing the heat and waiting for monsoons.

Austria is a place which I think did not had much remnants of the forgotten war. Partly because most of it was destroyed in the war. I’m not sure of this but this is my guess. Even though in East Europe this part is quite well developed. There are a lot of other industries than the tourism. It was a busier town much like Delhi but with less people. Unlike US and like many European cities the public transport is excellent. But it doesn’t come really cheap in Vienna. I paid 2.10 euro for a single surface tram ride. The ticket cannot be used even if you get down the next station. Most of the Vienna’s population lives in box flats. I spotted very few houses with frontyard and backyard.

My host in Austria was a Mathematician working in IT field. He was in his own words pure authentic Austrian awesomeness. :) We exchange Indian and Austrian cuisines. I cooked mushroom masala and was served käsespätzle. It was one of the best pasta dish I had had!

Prague was even wonderful. I had a really comfy couch and blanket and I slept well two nights at my hosts. They were a couple and a kitty. The apartment building where I stayed itself had a medieval architecture. The whole of Prague is filled with architecture marvels, Prague castle being the most marvellous in town, and probably in the world too! One morning I was eating breakfast and the kitty was loitering around the house. She was really comfortable around me and accepted me as house member. Then all of a sudden she decided to jump into my lap and sit there :) Cute kitty!
I took a WW2 history tour in Prague by Marek and it was quite good. We learned a lot about Prague history. I also picked up strangers and started talking and hanging out with them. I met a guy from Hong Kong and we were in Prague together for half a day. Then there was this travelling musicians from Dutch and Canada with whom I hung out for a while. They were called Te (Traum-Tânz-Orkester). I took a lot of pictures of them playing on Charles Bridge. I promised to share the pictures with them. I didn't get their email but I finally hunted them down on facebook. They are difficult to find on internet!

Trains are awesome feature of Europe which I miss in US. I took a night train from Prague and Krakow. I befriended a German guy from train and we travelled in Krakow together for a day. Next day I hung out with my host. I tried a lot of polish food and drink with the help of my host. Naleśniki, pierogi and Obwarzanek and Orzechowka. If you get a chance don't miss naleśniki. 

The Auschwiz

I remember the winter when I watched the six part documentary titled “The Holocaust”. To tell you the truth I never watched all six. After fifth one I felt sick, depressed, suicidal. I couldn’t take more of it. Previous week I was there – The Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkinau. Among these two grounds there died more than one million fine young men, women and children. During the whole visit there were two places where which can give you shudders.  First one was a room in Auschwitz I where the hairs of actual victims are kept.

Before I go to the second one here are some facts. Most of Auschwitz was destroyed towards the end of war when Germans were retreating and Red Army was chasing them. In spite of this some parts remain in original and some of it is reconstructed to look like as it were. The hairs of female victims were stored in a room to be sold to German fabric industry at half price for recycling purposes.

Second place was the incinerator in the Auschwitz I which was mostly in its original form. The room looked similar to a bakery I saw once. It was the place where people were rounded up for the ‘shower’. Of course there was no shower, there was cyclone B gas, and there was fire. For once I wanted it believe it was all fabricated. I wanted someone to tell me that the whole thing was a bad bad joke someone was trying to pull on me and nothing of this happened. The entrance gate built by Germans read in German “Work makes you free” which was obviously a pretty bad joke.

It is quite hard to believe that there was a society which allowed this to happen. Like love, hate is also a very strong feeling. It can make people do devilish things.

Auschwitz II Birkenau, built later in the war, was a much bigger ground where Jews from all over the Europe were brought. Originally there were barracks for Polish army in these grounds. Each barrack, built for about 70 horses, was later used to house about 300-400 people in them. In these grounds everything that was in Auschwitz one was at a bigger scale. There were 4 gas chambers. Because of the large amount of population sanitation became a problem and threatened safety of Nazi officers staying there. There were several sterilization facilities built here.
I thought I would write much more about it. I remember most of it. I can create a virtual tour of Auschwitz but I think I better not. I don’t want to write about it and I believe you don’t want to read about it.
May be I will write about jolly days of my ‘holidays’. My flight is about to land in India and I am going to see family after a long long time.

Homeward bound

My nice little Euro trip comes to an end today. I'm in Vienna right now waiting fir my flight to India where I belong. Fir days in Poland and I know more about the place than ever. And so much in love with this country. It ended with me watching short Polish animation movies. And hanging out over beer and soc bananavoa with two sweet little polka with big hearts.

I had gracious hosts in all 4 cities and three countries I travelled. I loved them all. I will write about all of them soon when I'm at ease at home. For now it's bon voyage! I'll see mommy soon!

Poland

One week in Europe about to end. Right now I am in a not so known Polish town of Katowice. It is a town sprawling with college kids and two of them are hosting me. This is my fourth day in Poland and I am feeling really Polish by now :)
Earlier in Krakow I was at a CS party and I could make believe that I know Polish to many people. Just by using some common phrases. I was eating Polish food most of the time. I really like the Pirogis and Naleshniki. I was traveling in local transport like locals all the time. I even tried Polish drink called Orzechowka with a Polka in Krakow.

I really love Poland by now. Staying with Polish hosts only helped. It is like India in some aspects. Some of the photos look much like India. Other thing that I love about Poland, Europe in general, is the trains. They have good train network. They are cheap for domestic transport and they go everywhere. It coated me only 6 PLN ($2) from Oswiecim to Katowice. Funny thing is you can buy ticket only on board train. It took me a while to figure it out. I know more about Poland now than before. I want to come back here if I can. May be live here for a while.
I have so much to write before I forget about it.

In the benefit of hindsight I can say I was so stupid. Well, you can say that anyway. But right now I am talking about going out running and doing speedwork yesterday. I pulled hamstring in left leg. Thankfully it is not too bad but there is this residual annoying kinda pain which stays. Icing on the cake - I leave tomorrow for 3.5 weeks break. Not a nicely timed injury :|

In the next 10 days I will be in 3 different continents; at least 5 different countries; and 9 different cities. I see my folks in Allahabad at my last stop! Life's Good!

Travelling solo

This is my last week in Minneapolis before I take my break. If I remember correctly last time I took more than extended weekend break was 1.5 years ago. So this was much needed. I will be gone for about 3 weeks. Of my three weeks break I will hover in East Europe for about 1 week. In India for 2 weeks. My sister is getting married next month!!!


I will be travelling by myself for most part of the time in Europe. They all seem to be very interesting people. I have travelled alone before but not for this long time. And not in foreign lands where I haven't lived or known anyone. All three countries I'm visiting have different languages, culture and currency. . I think it will be exciting. They have trains everywhere in Europe. That adds to it. I will be staying with Couchsurfing hosts in all places. They all seem to be interesting people. As they say, you have friends everywhere., you just haven't met them yet!

But I must say I will miss Minneapolis somewhat. Because it is summer and summer is the best time to be in Minneapolis! One of the best places to be in summer! But I am not complaining. I will be in Austria, Czech Republic and Poland. Yes Poland. I wanted to go there since a long time. In fact the main reason for stopping in Europe was to go to Oswiecim, which is Polish name for the town in occupied Germany where Germans decimated millions. More familiar name is Auschwitz. I am  going to visit the Auschwitz memorial. That is the main attraction of my stop. When I tell this to people they find it a bit weird. But I guess all of us weird in some sense in our own way and our own place. It is a place which marks nadir in collective human behaviour. A shame that this took place and was done by a leader of mass following. It wasn't war it was genocide. It was an important event in history.

I am somewhat obsessed with WW2 history and want to see trails of war history in East Europe. Also for some unknown reason I like the two countries. Poland and Vietnam. Both of them one thing in common. They were hotbed of two wars and destruction at the behest of foreign invaders (if I may use this word). I wanted to see the Poland and Auschwitz. I'm spending half my time in Poland. When I first told a European friend of mine his first reaction was: Poland? No one goes there! :) I don't blame him. He might be true. But I am no one and I'm going there.

I am learning some Polish for fun. Apparently it is a hard language to pronounce. For english speakers they pronunce much different from what they write. Oswiecim is Aaush-wien-shim. Zywiec is Zuwietch. and some more crazy ones. It seems a week is not enough to see all I want to see. I may have to come back to Poland. And East Europe in general. There is lot of history and culture to be discovered. And Europe in more general. And world in more general.

I will write whenever I have time in between.

Momy's day

May is the month of Momy's day and also my Mom's birthday. I love you and miss you Mom.

Have you done this?

Cry in bathroom and let the water run so that no one can hear you.

Ghazal

I like urdu poetry. They become your friend at times and support your existence.

मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए- मंजिल मगर
लोग साथ आते गए और कारवां बनता गया |

(I set off alone towards the destination but,
People joined by and by and lo! a soon it was a caravan!)

I am either moving too fast or too slow. My caravan is not catching up.

Happiness

Sometime I am saboteur of my own happiness. Whenever I have got something to be happy about I feel like I have something to lose. It is a mixed feeling. I am happy to be happy, just like everyone everywhere is. But I don't like that feeling of having something to lose. So I become tiny bit anxious when I have that. Well, I guess I am not alone. Quote:

"Niki Lauda: Happiness is the enemy. It weakens you. Puts doubts in your mind. Suddenly you have something to lose."

"Niki's wife: When you call happiness an enemy then it's too late. Then you've already lost."

Here is a youtube grab from the movie.

It has been raining Monsoon in Minneapolis since past few days! And rest of this week is going to be the same. I've already got two set of wet cloths. I love to watch the rain. Makes me feel nostalgic. Lovely weather (barring the fact biking becomes difficult.) Come June I will see the Monsoons in the Gangatic plains. :)

Holi

So we had yet another Holi in Minneapolis. Thanks to the three friends who played hosts (although I invited one guest of my own too). They've been doing this since last three years. It has grown into tradition of some sort now. I like that!

We had to wait more than a month from actual Holi date in want of good weather. TBN - It was 12 C outside on a Saturday but good enough for Minnesotans to call it summer time :) And I was thrown in the river in this temperature; all wet chest down. Kinda caught cold but got well quickly.
It was crazy crazy weekend. Here's a memoir of Holi 2014.

There truely are no rules of attraction. Freakin thing!

http://neophytespeaks.blogspot.com/2009/08/rules-of-attraction.html

I am not 31 yet

Freaking funny article about single guys of marriage-able age with poking Moms! (like mine) :)
I can partly relate to it.



Although I am not 31, or have a pseudo-liberal Mom (she is non-conservative liberal), or have a girlfriend but it is still hilarious read. :)

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/31-male-and-not-yet-there/article5929265.ece

Run

I ran in a timed run yesterday after long long time. Minneapolis Hot Chocolate run. At the finish line we were treated with hot chocolate fondue, chocolate drink and sweat treats. Enough motivation to run 5 kilometres!

I couldn't have prepared worse for the race. I didn't run in the week leading to it. Didn't properly do exercises either. The previous night we had a heavy dinner at Egyptian place. I ate all I could. Then bonfire outside by Mississippi until 2. Which meant only 4 hours of sleep before run with stomach full of Egyptian food.When arrived at the race venue I realized I forgot to bring my race bib number. So my run world not be timed. By my watch I think I finished 30-31 minutes.

Anyway the weather in next two weeks looks much better. Hopefully no more snow. I'm planning for a half marathon at the end of summer. August sometime.

:((

Lately I'm being lazy for no reason. I am a lazy person in general. Not to say that I lack motive. Laziness is not same as lack of motive in life. I have a motivation. I want to graduate with PhD :)
"See, laziness as you know is like gravity. All it takes is a little push. Ahhahahah". Dark Knight anyone?

But this week hasn't been so good. I had a not-so-good meeting with advisor where I realized that there is a lot more left to be done. This means at least another 2+ years left. Don't want to put blame on anyone. My adviser is usually more elusive than ninja. I wanted to have this meeting much earlier. But this guy is always travelling. On an earlier occasion when we met my 'objectives' were different than what I have now and I squandered some time figuring that out. All in all it is not that much okay to have a PhD advisor who doesn't see you much one-on-one. I used to think otherwise earlier. Ahh, sigh. But that's life, growing up. Evolution of your thoughts. I am still thankful that I have an advisor like him. (He pays me after all).

I've also been wasting too much time over other things which I thought I will never do. Ahh, sigh. That's the irony of life. We are all still humans and we cannot be programmed (as of yet).

At some point I have to start painting the blank canvas. I cannot just go on ignoring it forever for the fear of spoiling it. I chose a very difficult painting with lot of perfectly worked out details. May be I should just start doing it without much in mind and see where it goes. Like abstract art!

I feel much better after writing all this. Good enough to make me get out of bed and start the day. Have a good day folks.

Being myself

I am stressed out today but swamped with too much work at once to feel anything. Not very often but there actually are moments when I get fed up of being the strong-independent-all-by-myself self. But then I can't afford to do that for long in the fear of falling behind. I have to get back to being that same self. May be I can take one day break from it. Or rather not. What about the deadline tomorrow then? I can't decide what to do today. But I will survive it too to see another fine day tomorrow.

That's called Piled higher and Deeper.

I am a rock

"I am a rock, I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries."
--Simon & Garfunkel

I've played this song like 100 times in last few days. A cool website to do this: https://www.listenonrepeat.com/

Happy Holi

Happy Holi all readers. It's never spring in spring in Minnesota so never felt like Holi. We will probably do our Holi when weather warms a little but more.
April some time.

Grad school

Grad school is the kind of place which can mess up with your inside, if you not keep track of yourself. However much you work often it feels like you are not doing enough. You are not making enough efforts. There is always much more you can do or you could have done. So much to do, so much to learn.
And then there are times when you wonder whether what you are doing really matters. Does anyone care about it? Does it really makes a difference? Why are you doing this? This feeling very aptly summarized bellow by phdcomics.



To take it to extreme some would feel they are not entitled to having fun at all. Any time they catch themselves not working it feels guilty of some sort. Then I discovered it is not a singleton behaviour. There are multitudes of us.

So what is it that helps get around some of such stuffs? You would not guess: thorough literature review. I was reading a lot of previous works related to simulation of flow around marine and hydrokinetic turbines in natural river flows and to be honest I was tiny bit surprised that how little has been done. I came across really crappy published papers in random ass conferences getting 20-30+ citations within an year. There was also a published study about the same topic in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A which looked like a conference paper worth of work. All of which makes what I plan to do (assuming I successfully do it, or plan to attempt) more important than I thought.

SIGH... Back to Work!