A very happy Diwali indeed…

Pleasant surprises are always welcome. After spending most of the gloomy, wet thursday studying for the Kinetics mid-term and then finally writing it in the evening, I wanted a break from the monotonous and tedious routine of preparing for exams and studying my ass off. Someone up there did hear my wishes and voila! what followed were two successive days of amazing parties culminating in Diwali celebrations.

After the mid-term, our research group headed to Uncle Julio’s, a mexican grill located quite some distance away. We were celebrating a birthday and two successful PhD thesis defenses. The group was multicultural and multi-ethnic with Turkish, Greek, Korean, American, Indian(me) and Puerto-rican representation. It was so much fun! We(myself and one other member only) started off by hunting for the only vegetarian dishes in a menu full of beef,pork,frog legs and baby octopuses. Photographs were taken, dares were given, new drinks were tried, tubs of nachos were emptied and the conversation just freely flowed. There was exchange of cuisine details ( Paneer Butter Masala, Naans and Butter Chicken are total favourites of everyone around the globe, I discovered). We tested the spice-tolerance of everyone thanks to an awfully spicy pepper included generously in all our dishes. I ate a vegetable Fajita and maybe close to a kilo of nachos. I am never able to do justice to any of the restaurant serving portions here so invariably I packed up half my dinner (which will be my dinner today) and we continued the photo-sessions, the leg pulling, the hand-symbol games and the teasing till the food kinda settled down inside. We then headed to the Italian pastry shop to celebrate a birthday. The pastry shop was one I had seen only in movies. Dimly lit, it had a very pretty and crowded bar and little cute tables with small candles on them. I guess our group of ten was the only non-couple party out there and we headed out to the covered patio which had a fire-grate and logs of wood burning and settled down cosily. There was turkish tea, cinnamon coffee, white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, peanut butter and chocolate cake and so many other varieties ordered by the others. I was asked questions about the caste system of our country, the religion and the festivals and other things which are second nature to us but they look at it with so much curiosity. It was amusing trying to explain the origins of Diwali to everyone. Then there was the whole topic about turkish coffee and the tea-leaves reading which those people are so good at apparently. I tasted it, it was horrid to say the least. No sugar, no milk and the coffee powder is not drained off from the liquid. My facial expressions on drinking that, got everyone rolling in their seats. It was a memorable evening, given many of these people are graduating to take up different professions in different parts of the globe. It was fun,food and frolic at its peak.

The next evening (the day was so sleepy thanks to the sudden chill in all of US with temperatures well in single digits -thankfully positive here) got even better. A couple of guys organized a potluck party on Diwali eve. A friend of mine and I made pulao to contribute to it. The others got curd rice, homemade snacks, gulab jamuns, sabji and the hosts had the drinks, nachos and chips. We had a ball! (Literally all of us kept taking turns bouncing on their gym ball). Jokes apart, it was amazing fun. We played a plethora of games, ranging from a warped version of cricket with a tennis raquet and ball which had rules like if you hit the wall directly, it is out and strict under-shoulder bowling to card games which were so much fun ( all were new to me but I am now in love with them) like Bluff and 5 Carder. We played Uno, Clue and the hosts had a dart board in their living room which we enjoyed playing and distracting the members of the opposite team. I am no good at it since my aim is horribly pathetic. I was happy to even touch the board with my dart! Food was in plenty, so were the desserts and so was the teasing,leg pulling and laughing. A very very memorable diwali party. For once, we all forgot everything about academics or exams and just had fun.

(Long post I know, but this is for me to read later -when I’m old and jobless perhaps! ). Sometimes, no-plans become amazing plans. We all woke up late (the other roomies were in other parties themselves) and there was an impromptu enthusiasm to cook in all of us. We split up the dishes ( I made pulao – Ok, I know I’m becoming some expert in making it or something; Ramya and Pallavi made the Shira barfi and raita ; Richa made chole and Priyanka made kheer) We did a small Lakshmi Puja after my elaborate oil bath and then dug into the food! Awesome it was! A sweet and warm, homely Diwali!

It is freezing outside, close to 4 degrees and the windchill making it 0 and cloudy and windy. I have a midterm on tuesday (sigh!) and one more the week after. Somehow, I’m recharged and raring to go. Festivals do recharge you emotionally!
On that note ( to all those to stuck with me and actually read the entire thing and to everyone else as well)

HAPPY DIWALI!

PS: Some pics are here, more will be added later!

Team efforts of our apartment

Girl Talk: A girl’s computer and a boy’s computer

Faced with the dilemma of buying a new computer (its a tough decision for me given that 1. My old comp is working fine, though battery-less and wifi-less, its perennially on life support and keeps having these multiple organ failures everynow and then which it recovers from after giving some shocks and defragmenting. 2. Mac is actually within reach now.)
So I asked my friends for some help. Invariably I realized some startling cases of gender discrimination crept up even while buying a computer! So here goes:

Person 1: You are a girl, a pink Vaio should be your choice.
Me: Duh! ( I do love the colour ). I am not impressed by the Vaio hardware. It has always conked off for all the people I know.
Person 1: You are a girl, basically any computer should do. Why are you worried about the hardware?
Me: What does that mean? I am a girl so any computer…
Person 1: I dont think girls need computers for anything other than checking mail and playing songs or updating facebook statuses. Anything else you’d invest is plain waste of money.
Me: Blah!

Person 2: Buy a Mac, buy a mac.
Me: The config of the 1000$ one isnt that fab, its just 2GB ram with a 160 GB harddrive and virtually no upgrades.Is it worth it?
Person 2: Oooh, so you know technical stuff eh? But for a girl, 2 GB ram is good enough for the solitaire games and the songs.
Also, I know my friend who is a girl and she is very happy with her 2 GB mac. Though my other guy-friends have a problem.
Me: **Very Sour Expression.**

I wondered what has gender got to do with a computer’s configuration. In many cases, it is true I think. The sexes use their respective computers for totally different things. It surprises me a great deal when I discover how technologically incompetent so many girls around me are, who are more than happy to give their “screwed” up computers to the guys who after a night-out of driver downloads, forum searches and formatting, fix the bugs. Why don’t they do it themselves? It is sad to think that in this era, girls are still not at ease with computers. When I complain of a low RAM or processor speed or how maybe Linux will help me solve issues, people go like “Whoa..so you actually use the computer for all this coding work.” My computer (being a girl’s) is expected to be all clean and devoid of anything except music, photographs and Microsoft Office. But not all girls have pink computers with frilly covers and desktop wallpapers of some bollywood hero.

I dont blame the perception entirely because I know at some level it is true. But hey there are girls who do live stream games on ESPN, watch football matches and tennis matches, use their comps for simulations and photoshop work and even play heavy duty games (apart from attaching external woofers and jamming loud metal music), who can maintain their computers and who can handle computers without “external” support.

And next time one such girl asks/tells you about some computer’s configuration or the lack of it, all you guys, dont let your eyebrows disappear into your hair.

Deja Vu..

Its that time of the year again. Diwali, Dusshera..oh wait, midterms and more exams. A sneak peek into the next few months of my life looks like a long string of exams and exams and classes and more exams. For the first ever time, I’m not in India for the festivities of Navratra or Diwali. I’m not missing it here, simply because, they just don’t let me. I’ve been sitting in my room the whole day trying to get something done but no avail. I feel useless, kinda stupid and unproductive. Every night, I go to bed thinking tomorrow will be THE day of maximum studying, but as usual, that tomorrow never comes.

I’ve not been blogging for a while I know. Its been busy here. Busy as hell. Midterm weeks approach and bring a sense of gloom into everyone’s mind. Then come the qualifiers. Honestly, I’ve been scared to death from whatever I’ve heard so far and the only way to beat it would be to actually start studying for it. I miss the hostel. I miss knowing that everyone is (hopefully) in the same shit as I am and that everyone’s brains are being squeezed to unhealthy levels. At some level, I enjoy the strain but the prospect of “passing” or “failing” adds an additional 1000KPa to the pressure already. (Sad joke )

Loads of things have happened in the last few weeks. I’ve made a great friend at last. So my days are no longer boring. I can go and spend time and talk and do girly stuff and enjoy myself whenever I want to. Secondly, my cooking has improved by leaps and bounds. I can fix a decent meal in less than 15 minutes and it comes rather well! Of course there has been the added academic joy of finally finding your advisor who’ll fund you for the next 4-5 years. The project excites me. Its just these hurdles called exams I’ve to cross to finally start working on it. Aaaah..January..when will it come?!

I miss reading books. Its like the carrot and donkey story. I’ve an absolutely delightful collection of books in the biggest library I’ve been to, sitting 10 minutes away from me and I can’t read any of it. I cant even think of any non-chemical engineering book right now. Even thinking feels like a crime. Bah.

The last few weeks saw a lot of changes: I got my iphone at laast. Got my second pay-check. Decided on the camera and laptop I want to buy. Got an office assigned to myself! Splurged in Bath and Body Works, watched a hindi movie, fell in love with Tamil songs, made Frappucino all by myself at home, spent a night out watching an English movie with popcorn, went to the Coca-cola museum, ate Indian food and found myself amusingly in the same state of mind as I had in BITS just before an exam. Well here, the odds are only higher. Its getting colder here, with the night temperatures well within the 20 degree mark. It rains occasionally. That manages to cheer me up somehow.

Random post. Thats all my brain saddled with tons of saddle points and optimization functions and kinetics can think of right now. I’ll write about something more interesting soon. Till then, godspeed!

And finally, the fun sinks in…

Contrary to most people’s experiences about having fun (i.e its all fun and free time in the beginning and then come the exams which vaporize the tiniest bits of fun that could ever exist), the fun is now beginning to show up in the most unexpected places. No, my course work hasn’t reduced nor have my assignments and mid-terms vanished. We are beginning to have fun in the middle of it all, that is the fascinating part!

There are jokes in the middle of a matlab code, sarcastic comments in the middle of partial differential equations, simultaneous hunt for articles on the net which is immediately mailed to everyone else, detailed explanations of solved homework questions to those who dont understand, plenty of cross-talk, discussion about the running back and the quarterbacks in the middle of a transport theorem, inboxes full of current homework files and most importantly, collaboration. The class diligently troops into the computer lab after every class and after the flurry of printouts to be taken of papers, assignments and lectures, starts their homework. There is doubt asking, clarification, help and lots of laughter and fun. Interspersed between course work is probably the tactics of the last football game or the last match that federer lost or tid-bits of interesting gossip and news about the faculty that goes around. You have discussions about how Indians nod their heads in the exact opposite fashion of Americans or how our vector symbols are so different from their squiggles. There is imitation of teachers, whiffs of free food being detected by someone and the rest zooming in that direction to make the most of it and so much more! Gosh! I’ve never had such fun in my life. It is globally diverse education at its best. Amazing fun, (though might be very geeky superficially, trust me, its the best amalgamation of fun+knowledge that anyone can aspire to have!)

Speaking of different things, (thanks to end of thermodynamics mid-term and final submissions getting over), I decided to swim in the Olympic pool of our recreation center. Of course, facilities are world class with heated showers, sparkling locker rooms, shower gels, absolutely clean pools, plenty of lifeguards and fresh warm towels. The feeling was a class apart. It felt absolutely great to use the same pool that the best in the world once swam in. Though, the temperature of the water,as I discovered the moment I dived into it, is kept such that your body does not sweat once you have warmed up. In short, it is cold as soon as you enter. It takes around 10 laps to warm up. There are 3 pools, diving, competition and family pool and it was packed with people. Awesome experience. I am so making it a habit. Georgia Tech Aquatics – simply godlike!

I’ve had my dinner (rice and peas curry) and am now contemplating if I should open my box of Haagen Das Dule De Leche. Maybe not. I’ll save it for when I’m blue. Ah, that reminds me, Chiggy wiggy seems to be pretty hot in Indian airwaves, though I didnt appreciate it all that much. Let me continue listening to the remaining of the blue songs and yeah, I didnt like Porcupine Tree’s latest at once but I hope it grows on me.

Man, I love weekends .

Sometimes…

There are the good days and there are those you wish you never lived through. Sometimes there comes those days which leave you wanting some more and certain others when despite having everything you crave for something else. Today was the latter.

Things were normal. Submissions, a pop-quiz that went rather normally, assignment, fairing and then a college football game to which I had tickets. Sounds good na? Only thing, I didnt have company to go see the match. Surprising, that in a crowd of so many thousands you still never find that good friend you can drag along, bully, to drop every other commitment and accompany you to some place. Mostly, there is never time to think of such things, (even now the marquee in my head is beeping about the Thermodynamics assignment in queue), but those rare instances that you are forced to think of this, it gets sad. Today as I walked past the Bobby Dodd stadium and the carnival-like atmosphere surrounding it, I felt really alone. For the first time in my existence of twenty odd years, I dont have someone in person to run to, to walk to the store with, to take my mind off homework for a while or to giggle and laugh at silly nothings. Sometimes, I just wish I had someone here.

I’m waiting.

Its time to start my next assignment. All the best Yellow Jackets, hope I get to see the next match at least.

Vacation

Vacation is

…getting first off a plane only to get lost in the luggage concourses, followed by a relieving hug from G-Joo at 1 am!

…cuddling up and sleeping next to mom after 3 whole months.

…giving sis a bear hug after half a year.

…introducing yourself first time to your 2 month nephew and being called a-gooo.

…playing with all his toys and rattles.

…watching the Manhattan skyline from the bed.

…looking at the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island bridge and Hudson from the living room window.

…eating steaming hot idlis and mum-made coconut chutney for breakfast.

…driving in a BMW to the biggest mall and entering every shop possible.

…trying out shoes at Nine West.

…getting locked out of a GAP trial room in the store.

…digging a Mama Sbarro’s pizza and planning the next store to attack.

…not being able to decide between a Donatella or a DKNY jacket for half an hour.

…tasting divinity with Dule De Leche from Haagen Dazs.

…hunting for swimwear in Macy’s and buying something totally unplanned for.

…getting irritated with the full-of-attitude AT&T store people.

… introducing G-joo to twitter \m/

…enjoying the morning breeze on a walk with mom.

…giving nephew first ride on shoulders and making him sleep.

…eating homemade godlike pulao and beans sabji followed by Ben&Jerry’s Imagine Whirled Peace. (yummm)

…finishing the shopping list with visit to the all-familiar Target.

…eating california burgers with coriander chutney and sauce.

…more ice cream.

…showing mom around facebook and all my friends.

…hot mom made dosa with garlic powder from Grand Sweets.

…debating which phone to buy for ages and finally deciding on the iphone.

…thinking of a twitter nick for sister.

…watch nephew sleep and smile in his sleep.

Ladies and gentlemen,now that’s what I call a PERFECT VACATION!

{Thank God for the awesome break, Im all set to hit my books again! \m/ }

When Amnesia strikes..

…and it always strikes at a very wrong time! After nearly a year of my doing core chemical engineering (as I have mentioned umpteen times before), amnesia hits you the hardest when you are subjected to blasts of core thermodynamics, mass transfer , transport and kinetics at an advanced stage wherein your undergrad was a prerequisite.

My classes include the very frequent (almost habitual) narrowing of eyes, brain conjuring up flashes of similar terms and words from the distant past and me going “Aah…I think I’ve heard of it, yes yes…” and by then the professors have already uttered the words “..and all this you should be expert at..”, to the horrified muttering in class with everyone recounting the years it has been since they did all this or some very blatantly sighing with hands pasted on their foreheads. I personally believe the professors just love this reaction and must be smiling victoriously as they turn to the boards and write the next long-forgotten equation. I always wonder how it is that my brain spotlessly wipes out everything about engineering I learnt a year ago but keeps stuff like song lyrics, movie stories and other shit intact!

Fresh graduate students are here to get screwed. It is like putting them through the toughest first so that the years after that seem like a cake-walk. Papers are heaped upon us with material appearing on the course websites faster than you can say the word next. Amidst endless assignments, hurried submissions, red puffy eyes and stifled yawns through classes, there is an amazing bonhomie developing amongst all of us. Its like facing the fire together. You get to know and see a plethora of methods, ideas and there is no dearth of help around. Most importantly, the bonding factor is the feeling of stupidity. It might seem funny but everyone is just amazed as to how they’ve forgotten everything and/or are making stupid mistakes. Then there are always the few who somehow manage to read everything beforehand or are blessed with brilliant memories to aggravate this feeling of stupidity. Almost like telepathy, a professor distributed a paper on “Importance of stupidity in research” to read before class. Believe it or not, it was the most motivating paper I’ve read in recent times.

Yaaaawwwnnn! Its 12 45 in the morning and I still have a paper to finish reading and an early morning class at 8. I guess I should ask myself to shut down wordpress and finish the paper before crashing for the day.

But why am I not doing that ? I think I’ve forgotten the answer…

YAAY! Its FRIDAY!

After a long period of time when the days and dates were long forgotten and lost track of (read: Vacation!), its back to gruelling weeks and even sad-der weekends with three assignments due and two essays on some stupid safety issue the next week. Still, friday brings a ray of hope giving that extra time to sleep in and finally finish those chores you always postpone for the week-end.

Grad-life is not easy. But it is enjoyable. Everything here is an experience in itself. Though the academic part is rather similar in terms of content and competition, the whole experience makes it so much fun. It is fun to grab those free pizzas lying outside the class and then after a couple of burps and downing two Dr.Peppers ask,’What was the food for?’ or the ability to munch a sandwich in class and sip coffee as the professor drones on about Helmholtz energy functions or to go check for boiled peanuts in the vending machines or discuss chinese high-school system with your neighbour in class. Though it is not particularly enjoyable to sit through 8 subjects a semester and brainstorm when 4 people get 4 different answers for the same question, I am liking the fact that my grey cells are being used again and over stretched . Its fun being busy. Though I always tried to keep myself occupied in BITS, the load was never the same. The motivation strangely lies in the opportunity. You want to milk everything that comes your way and that drives you to work hard.

Ah, I started off discussing my weekend and ended up writing about my week. There is a cute little club which drives down Indian students to the Indian grocery shop (located a far 25 miles away) every month to stack up on those frozen parathas and garam masalas. Usually the seats fill up in like 5 minutes after the mails are sent out, and this time I made it in! So I can finally give my Iranian store some time off from me! Food is not a difficult option if you are open to new tastes and are not too fond of the spicy fare you get back home. The world’s cuisines are at your disposal and you can really make the most of it (only if you want to!). Apart from that I’m really really happy that I have nearly 2.5 days ( i’m trying not to think of my workload which can easily swallow that entire time) and I dont need to wake up early tomorrow. Even the gym opens only at 9 on weekends!

PS: I finally found two really amazing professors (totally a.w.e.s.o.me and they leave me mesmerized everytime they teach or talk). Wow, I am back in love with engineering and academia and have never been happier!

Grad Life and Free Food

Three weeks into my grad student life and I know the single most important thing in a graduate student life – free food. Though it might seem odd to people actually not living it, trust me, it definitely is.

Free food is the single biggest lure of any grad student. A notice has no meaning unless food is offered. Offer a buffet, barbecue or even a mixer and wham! the entire grad student community would be there to bless you. We sneak or crash parties of the unsuspecting undergrads who happily dwell on other priorities like speed dating, dancing, finding a date and other trivialities of life. We are the focused lot. We enter the party, pass a few fake smiles, grab the food and head straight back to the lab. Free food surrounds us. The pizzas before seminars, the cookies and coffee before some guest lecture, everything forms a part of it.

First week was full or orientations and welcome parties and we being the diligent ones immediately drew up separate timetables for them. The ‘food timetable’ is of utmost importance and all invite mails to dinners and parties get flagged or starred immediately.
PhD comics makes so much more sense. It is a different life and I am so loving it.
The issue of Grad life and free food is so aptly told by this link

And here we go again…

Classes, homework, assignments, deadlines, presentations and the worst of all exams are all back in the spotlight. After nearly a year of having touched my books (Thanks to the excellent system at BITS where engineering is essentially a 1 year course – the third year), it felt as though I was getting back to studying after eons. I stepped into a beautiful classroom with over-comfortable chairs and a working air conditioning system at 9 am for the first class here and boy, it felt like familiar territory. The same slides, the deadlines, the consulation hours but there were certain things which made me smile and finally realize how deep technology has really seeped in.

No paper and notes systems here. Of course the Indians make notes diligently, forced by habit but everything else is online. You get course urls with downloadable material links, your login and password to access notes and print them if you want to and everything else is only by email, the grades and every other correspondence. After watching American teen and other shitty movies all through the undergrad, it takes quite an effort to appreciate the fact that you also have them talking about Navier Stokes equations and bessel functions (At the risk of sounding very partial and prejudiced, I gaped when a typical blonde raised her hand when the professor asked ‘Who is very confident of their vector calculus skills?’) You usually dont associate them with such things. Anyway, I guess I’ll get used to it.

Books seem to be a major problem. I never really loved my seniors more. I went to the bookstore to check out the price of my one textbook and it was just was 120$!!! Of course, you have ebay and amazon and others to hunt for cheaper versions but the seniors saved me. It has been raining the last couple of days and my severe allergy-cum-insect-bite-rashes have also subsided. So things now working in a good direction. Though, looking at this semester and the 21 hours of classwork that I had to register for, I dont think I can really enjoy myself too much. All my exploits on reader and others just pile up..I logged into reader only to retract when I saw 1000+ articles unread!

Life is settling down. I cooked for myself yesterday. Not bad, as long as I am able to eat whatever I cook, I guess it is fine. But one thing is for sure, cooking is not rocket science, when a newbie like me could cook something decent, it really aint such a big deal at all mostly!
It feels like im back in undergrad, only this time, I’ll have to really study!

PS: Oh man, I’m so much in love with the mac keyboard, I just keep wanna typing!