I am a subscriber to this online poetry forum called Minstrels, where I receive a poem by mail almost everyday. The poem I received on 12th November goes like this :
People
No people are uninteresting.
Their fate is like the chronicle of planets.
Nothing in them is not particular,
and planet is dissimilar from planet.
And if a man lived in obscurity
making his friends in that obscurity
obscurity is not uninteresting.
To each his world is private,
and in that world one excellent minute.
And in that world one tragic minute.
These are private.
In any man who dies there dies with him
his first snow and kiss and fight.
It goes with him.
There are left books and bridges
and painted canvas and machinery.
Whose fate is to survive.
But what has gone is also not nothing:
by the rule of the game something has gone.
Not people die but worlds die in them.
-- Yevgeny Yevtushenko
The poem itself if very beautiful and it concurs with my philosophy, but what makes it all the more special is that it mentions "his first snow" . By a strange coincidence, I DID experience my first snow-fall on the same day I got this poem in my mailbox!! There is something magical about "the first snow". Its biting cold, yet you want to venture out and play with the snow flakes. Others around you will have their umbrellas open, but you won't be able to get yourself to open yours. There's an inexplicabe elation. The poet could not have been more correct. I'm now waiting for my first kiss ;-)
Monday, November 15, 2004
Thursday, November 11, 2004
wow...its 3 degrees POSITIVE today
Just a week of cold, and I find myself undergoing a paradigm shift. My defintions of cold and pleasant have changed. I really surprised myself when I looked at weather.com,before leaving my office for home , and when I saw that its 3 degrees, I said to myself, "Wow ! Its pleasant outside today" . Soon I was wondering if it actually went down to 3 in Calcutta, what would the reaction of the city be. The baboo would be convinced that doomsday is here !
The last 2-3 days have been cold. The maimum has been 3-4 degrees and the minimum -4 or -5. And I have been working late at nights, so I invariably end up walking back home at around 3-4 am , when the cold is at its worst. Somehow, I actually enjoy it. Its a new experience. I am just waiting to see snow, and I realise that the wait isn't going to be too long. The past week though cold has been very clear, but by law of averages, it rains at least once a week, so maybe the next time when it gets overcast, it wont rain, but snow!
I also realise that this is Diwali time, but strangely I dont feel the need to be a part of the festivities. I think its good...otherwise I would end up feeling like shit. Whoever is reading this - wish you a happy Diwali.
The last 2-3 days have been cold. The maimum has been 3-4 degrees and the minimum -4 or -5. And I have been working late at nights, so I invariably end up walking back home at around 3-4 am , when the cold is at its worst. Somehow, I actually enjoy it. Its a new experience. I am just waiting to see snow, and I realise that the wait isn't going to be too long. The past week though cold has been very clear, but by law of averages, it rains at least once a week, so maybe the next time when it gets overcast, it wont rain, but snow!
I also realise that this is Diwali time, but strangely I dont feel the need to be a part of the festivities. I think its good...otherwise I would end up feeling like shit. Whoever is reading this - wish you a happy Diwali.
Pather Panchali
Its quite a shame that I end up watching a Bengali masterpiece like Pather Panchali, in the US, surrounded by people who barely understand the society and struggle that this movie portrays, let alone the language. Ironically, I think I enjoyed the movie more here than I would watching it at home.
Well, the movie IS a masterpiece. Some critics might say that it is too slow. Yes, it is slow, but I feel it has deliberately been kept slow. Also, some people are restless. Others, like me, relish it when time moves slowly. So it definitely wasn't too slow for me.
What made the movie special ? The simplicity and ubiquitousness of the theme. It is an ordinary story of ordinary people, just narrated in an extra-ordinary way. This in my opinion is the hallmark of a good story-teller. It is the story of family in a village facing the vicissitudes of fortune. Plenty of movies have been made on this general theme, but what makes this special is (a) the picturization and (b) the ability to to make one empathize without resorting to melodrama.
The picturization is just brilliant. The scenes that will be etched in my mind for some time are the candy-man, durga, apu, and dog scene and the scene where Durga and Apu play hide and sike around a dilapidated wall. See it and you'll know what I'm talking about.
The reason this movie was all the more special to me was because of a feeling of association. Sitting here in the US, there is hardly anything with which you feel an immediate connection. For once, I truly understood the characters, the colloquilisms and the setting. There's something about rural Bengal which is really magical. Rural Andhra or rural Orissa isn't the same. I speak out of my experience on the Howrah-Madras route. I always knew it by the scenery when we entered Bengal.
Finally, the scene of the water bugs darting about in the pond : it made me nostalgic about my IIT days. Actually, I get nostalgic about IIT at the drop of a hat , but this was different. I remeber one fine winter morning in Chennai when Shivaram and I decided to go explore the IIT lake area in order to prepare for the "Nature Lovers' trek" that we were organizing during Saarang. We ended up accidently noticing these same water-bugs on the IIT lake, and were awe-struck by nature's beauty that manifested itself as these timy bugs moving absolutely randomly on the water surface. I dont know what was the purpose of that scene in the movie, but it was definitely a statement about Satyajit Ray's idea of beauty . I wonder how many urbanites have seen these water-bugs ?
Well, the movie IS a masterpiece. Some critics might say that it is too slow. Yes, it is slow, but I feel it has deliberately been kept slow. Also, some people are restless. Others, like me, relish it when time moves slowly. So it definitely wasn't too slow for me.
What made the movie special ? The simplicity and ubiquitousness of the theme. It is an ordinary story of ordinary people, just narrated in an extra-ordinary way. This in my opinion is the hallmark of a good story-teller. It is the story of family in a village facing the vicissitudes of fortune. Plenty of movies have been made on this general theme, but what makes this special is (a) the picturization and (b) the ability to to make one empathize without resorting to melodrama.
The picturization is just brilliant. The scenes that will be etched in my mind for some time are the candy-man, durga, apu, and dog scene and the scene where Durga and Apu play hide and sike around a dilapidated wall. See it and you'll know what I'm talking about.
The reason this movie was all the more special to me was because of a feeling of association. Sitting here in the US, there is hardly anything with which you feel an immediate connection. For once, I truly understood the characters, the colloquilisms and the setting. There's something about rural Bengal which is really magical. Rural Andhra or rural Orissa isn't the same. I speak out of my experience on the Howrah-Madras route. I always knew it by the scenery when we entered Bengal.
Finally, the scene of the water bugs darting about in the pond : it made me nostalgic about my IIT days. Actually, I get nostalgic about IIT at the drop of a hat , but this was different. I remeber one fine winter morning in Chennai when Shivaram and I decided to go explore the IIT lake area in order to prepare for the "Nature Lovers' trek" that we were organizing during Saarang. We ended up accidently noticing these same water-bugs on the IIT lake, and were awe-struck by nature's beauty that manifested itself as these timy bugs moving absolutely randomly on the water surface. I dont know what was the purpose of that scene in the movie, but it was definitely a statement about Satyajit Ray's idea of beauty . I wonder how many urbanites have seen these water-bugs ?
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Week - 9th Oct to 16th Oct
Well, my imagination is not at its best now and thus the very simple and functional title for this entry. (Its just too difficult to come up with interesting names for uninteresting weeks!). The highpoint of this week were - a)the hiking trip and b)the setting up of my room.
On Saturday morning, I met Sheila didi and we had breakfast together. She is a very interesting person and I enjoyed our conversation. I like her field of study and we primarily spoke of things related to it. On my way back I bought my bed frame and lugged it back to my apartment. I then started the day-long process of setting up my room. It took a lot of time to get everything in place, but by the end of it, I was very pleased by the way my room looked. It is a nice, cosy, comfortable room now with a bed, a side table, a study desk, a book shelf and a high back leather chair. In the course of the day I also ended up going to a mall in the suburbs to buy my quilt, chair etc. The drive was quite scenic and I got my first taste of "fall colours". The trees turn uniformly yellow, orange, red, pink, maroon and and all shades in between. Its quite magical.
On Sunday, I went hiking with 3 others.: Soumyajit, a DBPC senior now at MIT, Stuart (who is Soumyajit's friend) and Antara (who is Soumyajit's family friend and now doing a PhD in history at Harvard). We went to Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire which is a 2 hour drive from Boston. Soumyajit owns a car and he drove us there. It was an enjoyable trek - though quite demanding. The ascent is 600m in 2 miles. Most of the trail is very rocky and there is always the danger of getting a twisted ankle if one is not careful enough. There aren't any life threatening dangers like the ones in the Uttaranchal area. It was great fun getting to know these people and we were enjoying our climb. We were about 500 m from the summit when Antara's knee cap dislocated! I don't think it was her carelessness or anything, but she was plain unlucky. For 10 minutes she was in severe pain, but then miraculously it popped back again into its place. But by then the Mountain rangers had arrived and they gave her whatever medical help she required. We abandoned the idea of reaching the summit because there was no way Antara could climb any further. She was still not able to bend her knee and the 2 mountain rangers decided to go all the way to the bottom with her, providing her with expert guidance and support to climb down roughly 3 kms with a bad knee !! We had a pretty leisurely walk the way down because the pace was set by her. It was quite enjoyable (though I cant say the same for her). So finally we reached the base camp and headed back. To speak the truth, I was not very disappointed at not reaching the summit. We all had a nice time and that we actually missed was a good scenic view from the top (and a sense of achievement!) . One of the mountain rangers was actually the Dean at Brown University (which is an internationally reputed university) who did this work as a hobby on weekends ! By the time we reached Cambridge, it was 9 pm and we were all quite tired.
Monday was a holiday and I spent the day recovering from my trip and looking at my assignments for the week. Since I did not go the university and both my room mates were out of town for work, I spent the whole day without actually uttering a word! It was ok for one day, but anymore than that, and I would have gone into depression !! Tuesday, Wenesday and Thursday just whizzzed past and all I did was work. I finally got a breather on Friday evening. I went to see Antara in her hostel to see how her knee was healing. The hostels are quite decent though the rooms are quite small. Maybe I'll try to move into them next year. I like my apartment a lot and it will be a tough decision. I dont know . Its too early to be thinking about it anyways. After that, I went to a "Bollywood" party organized at one of the hostels' common room. I did not enjoy myself too much. At American parties, all you do is make small-talk with others, something that doesn't go down too well with me. They were playing hindi film song videos and I was surprised to see so many "non-Indians" enjoying them. I came back at around 11, walking in the rain (Mummy, I had an umbrella so dont get worried) . Upon reaching home, I made myself a hot cup of Bournvita, made myself cozy in my razai, played some Kishore Kumar songs and read some poetry. It felt so relaxing not to have a impending deadline screaming at you.
Well that was the week. In general my lifestyle here is quite different from my IIT lifestyle and I dont think a change of location has much to do with it. There are suddenly more responsibilities. I make a mental note if I see the stove slightly dirty or paper napkins running out. I guess its the natural process of growing up. I dont know whether I prefer this or the carefree, almost careless Ankur, loitering about in the B2 wing of Alakananda Hostel, IIT Madras.
On Saturday morning, I met Sheila didi and we had breakfast together. She is a very interesting person and I enjoyed our conversation. I like her field of study and we primarily spoke of things related to it. On my way back I bought my bed frame and lugged it back to my apartment. I then started the day-long process of setting up my room. It took a lot of time to get everything in place, but by the end of it, I was very pleased by the way my room looked. It is a nice, cosy, comfortable room now with a bed, a side table, a study desk, a book shelf and a high back leather chair. In the course of the day I also ended up going to a mall in the suburbs to buy my quilt, chair etc. The drive was quite scenic and I got my first taste of "fall colours". The trees turn uniformly yellow, orange, red, pink, maroon and and all shades in between. Its quite magical.
On Sunday, I went hiking with 3 others.: Soumyajit, a DBPC senior now at MIT, Stuart (who is Soumyajit's friend) and Antara (who is Soumyajit's family friend and now doing a PhD in history at Harvard). We went to Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire which is a 2 hour drive from Boston. Soumyajit owns a car and he drove us there. It was an enjoyable trek - though quite demanding. The ascent is 600m in 2 miles. Most of the trail is very rocky and there is always the danger of getting a twisted ankle if one is not careful enough. There aren't any life threatening dangers like the ones in the Uttaranchal area. It was great fun getting to know these people and we were enjoying our climb. We were about 500 m from the summit when Antara's knee cap dislocated! I don't think it was her carelessness or anything, but she was plain unlucky. For 10 minutes she was in severe pain, but then miraculously it popped back again into its place. But by then the Mountain rangers had arrived and they gave her whatever medical help she required. We abandoned the idea of reaching the summit because there was no way Antara could climb any further. She was still not able to bend her knee and the 2 mountain rangers decided to go all the way to the bottom with her, providing her with expert guidance and support to climb down roughly 3 kms with a bad knee !! We had a pretty leisurely walk the way down because the pace was set by her. It was quite enjoyable (though I cant say the same for her). So finally we reached the base camp and headed back. To speak the truth, I was not very disappointed at not reaching the summit. We all had a nice time and that we actually missed was a good scenic view from the top (and a sense of achievement!) . One of the mountain rangers was actually the Dean at Brown University (which is an internationally reputed university) who did this work as a hobby on weekends ! By the time we reached Cambridge, it was 9 pm and we were all quite tired.
Monday was a holiday and I spent the day recovering from my trip and looking at my assignments for the week. Since I did not go the university and both my room mates were out of town for work, I spent the whole day without actually uttering a word! It was ok for one day, but anymore than that, and I would have gone into depression !! Tuesday, Wenesday and Thursday just whizzzed past and all I did was work. I finally got a breather on Friday evening. I went to see Antara in her hostel to see how her knee was healing. The hostels are quite decent though the rooms are quite small. Maybe I'll try to move into them next year. I like my apartment a lot and it will be a tough decision. I dont know . Its too early to be thinking about it anyways. After that, I went to a "Bollywood" party organized at one of the hostels' common room. I did not enjoy myself too much. At American parties, all you do is make small-talk with others, something that doesn't go down too well with me. They were playing hindi film song videos and I was surprised to see so many "non-Indians" enjoying them. I came back at around 11, walking in the rain (Mummy, I had an umbrella so dont get worried) . Upon reaching home, I made myself a hot cup of Bournvita, made myself cozy in my razai, played some Kishore Kumar songs and read some poetry. It felt so relaxing not to have a impending deadline screaming at you.
Well that was the week. In general my lifestyle here is quite different from my IIT lifestyle and I dont think a change of location has much to do with it. There are suddenly more responsibilities. I make a mental note if I see the stove slightly dirty or paper napkins running out. I guess its the natural process of growing up. I dont know whether I prefer this or the carefree, almost careless Ankur, loitering about in the B2 wing of Alakananda Hostel, IIT Madras.
Friday, October 08, 2004
another week
Its been one helluva busy week. After yes-no-maybe-no-yes tinteretto, Ajit (aka Q, my IIT friend, who will be referred to as Q in the rest of this post) , Q finally made it to Boston. No sooner had he sat down on the couch than he received a phone call conveying the saddest news we had heard in some time. Our dear friend Pondie, (Narasimha Rao) met with a fatal accident. It was a big group going in a Tempo traveller to some nearby place, when a lorry hit them. He was the only unlucky person. Others escaped with fractures and sutures. It just reminds us all that we should not take life for granted. Pondie was a real lively guy who always looked forward to a new day. Its very unfair that, of all people, he should meet with such a fate.
Well, our spirits were considerably dampened, but we realised that there was absolutely nothing useful that we could do sitting in this distant country to help matters. Thus we decided to keep this aside as best as we could. I showed Q around Harvard. All along, we had a really nice conversation, meeting as we were after one year. For those of you who dont know, Q Parande and I spent the whole of last summer together. Q and I worked on similar BTP's , both of us were Shaastra events cores in our respective final years and in general we get alog pretty well. Of course, there's a lot more to Q ! So we had plenty to talk about. We watched some street performance at harvard square, browsed through books at the harvard book store. I bombarded him with all the trivia I knew about Harvard. In the evening we went for dinner with some of Q's batchmates who live in the Boston area. We went to a Bengali restaurant where I ate aloo-postu ! We were up till the wee hours discussing various things, but still we got up pretty early on Sunday because we had a long list of things to do. First, we decided to take some snaps of Harvard - for both his sake and mine. I'll be putting them up somewhere, soon . Then, we left for downtown Boston. This was my first time in the city too. The city is quite spectacular. Its a very healthy mix of heritage and modernity. A 70 storied skyscraper stands right next to a 150 yr old town hall. Everywhere its like that. Q, who has seen most other US cities said that he really liked Boston . Since I really cant compare it with anything, I'll merely say that I am happy to be living in this city. We took the famous freedom trail, which a 3 km walk through the city's oldest areas. In the afternoon, we went for a musical play. Q is a big follower of this composer called Stephen Sondheim and this musical was written by Sondheim. Indeed Sondheim creates some lovely songs. After that we went to meet Q's MIT Media lab friend, Vijay. He showed s around the campus and then we went to an Algerian (!!) restaurant for dinner. The food was very different from anything I had eaten before, and it had a very typical taste to it. It was enjoyable. Overr dinner, we got talking about globalization, and its impacts. The discussion got extremely lively and we headed to Vijay's apartment to continue. We spent another couple of hours talking about societies, cultures, genes, insticts and what not. We finally came back home around mid night. Next morning Q had a flight at 8 am. These 2 days I got what I had missing for quite some time. The company of someone who is at the same wavelenght as I am. It had been a long time since I had had stimulating debates about issues. It had been a long time since I had gushed on the almost sensual pleasure of engineering. Long time since I used IIT lingo. It felt really good being Mammo for a couple of days, rather than Ankur.
A weekend of enjoyment implied a tortorous week ahead - and guess what - the week lived up to its expectations. There was one deadline on Wednesday, 2 on Thursday and 1 more on Friday and I was yet to start working on any of them. Thus I pushed myself as hard as I could and tried to tackle them. I was decently successful I think. It just meant not having a full peaceful night's sleep any of the nights. Not that I didnt sleep enough - only that lots of things were going on in my head even when I was sleeping. The only things worth mentioning are - a mini dbpc reunion I had with 2 other dbpc seniors here and my improving sambhar cooking skills.
This weekend I plan to go on a shopping spree and hopefully meet Sheila didi. Somehow we are never able to actually make it
thats all for now
Well, our spirits were considerably dampened, but we realised that there was absolutely nothing useful that we could do sitting in this distant country to help matters. Thus we decided to keep this aside as best as we could. I showed Q around Harvard. All along, we had a really nice conversation, meeting as we were after one year. For those of you who dont know, Q Parande and I spent the whole of last summer together. Q and I worked on similar BTP's , both of us were Shaastra events cores in our respective final years and in general we get alog pretty well. Of course, there's a lot more to Q ! So we had plenty to talk about. We watched some street performance at harvard square, browsed through books at the harvard book store. I bombarded him with all the trivia I knew about Harvard. In the evening we went for dinner with some of Q's batchmates who live in the Boston area. We went to a Bengali restaurant where I ate aloo-postu ! We were up till the wee hours discussing various things, but still we got up pretty early on Sunday because we had a long list of things to do. First, we decided to take some snaps of Harvard - for both his sake and mine. I'll be putting them up somewhere, soon . Then, we left for downtown Boston. This was my first time in the city too. The city is quite spectacular. Its a very healthy mix of heritage and modernity. A 70 storied skyscraper stands right next to a 150 yr old town hall. Everywhere its like that. Q, who has seen most other US cities said that he really liked Boston . Since I really cant compare it with anything, I'll merely say that I am happy to be living in this city. We took the famous freedom trail, which a 3 km walk through the city's oldest areas. In the afternoon, we went for a musical play. Q is a big follower of this composer called Stephen Sondheim and this musical was written by Sondheim. Indeed Sondheim creates some lovely songs. After that we went to meet Q's MIT Media lab friend, Vijay. He showed s around the campus and then we went to an Algerian (!!) restaurant for dinner. The food was very different from anything I had eaten before, and it had a very typical taste to it. It was enjoyable. Overr dinner, we got talking about globalization, and its impacts. The discussion got extremely lively and we headed to Vijay's apartment to continue. We spent another couple of hours talking about societies, cultures, genes, insticts and what not. We finally came back home around mid night. Next morning Q had a flight at 8 am. These 2 days I got what I had missing for quite some time. The company of someone who is at the same wavelenght as I am. It had been a long time since I had had stimulating debates about issues. It had been a long time since I had gushed on the almost sensual pleasure of engineering. Long time since I used IIT lingo. It felt really good being Mammo for a couple of days, rather than Ankur.
A weekend of enjoyment implied a tortorous week ahead - and guess what - the week lived up to its expectations. There was one deadline on Wednesday, 2 on Thursday and 1 more on Friday and I was yet to start working on any of them. Thus I pushed myself as hard as I could and tried to tackle them. I was decently successful I think. It just meant not having a full peaceful night's sleep any of the nights. Not that I didnt sleep enough - only that lots of things were going on in my head even when I was sleeping. The only things worth mentioning are - a mini dbpc reunion I had with 2 other dbpc seniors here and my improving sambhar cooking skills.
This weekend I plan to go on a shopping spree and hopefully meet Sheila didi. Somehow we are never able to actually make it
thats all for now
Friday, October 01, 2004
Falling into a regular pattern
Well, life seems to be falling into a regular pattern now. Just the same old stuff. I dont want to describe what I cooked for dinner last night, because it is not a novelty anymore. Nothing "exciting" happens each and every day, as was the case initially.
I also realise that I complete one month in Boston today. Wow ! I dont believe it...it seems like 10 days ! Life is really hectic now, and days pass by in the wink of an eye. Its nice to be busy for 2 reasons - a) it means I am utilising my time well and b) i dont miss anyone much. Tin, Shreya you people actually miss me more than I miss you. I dont know if I'm being insensitive here.
Last week, I had my first proper project meeting with my professor. We discussed ideas for more than an hour. After that, we had our group meeting. Every Thursday, all the VLSI group people (profs, grad students and undergrad students) get together for an hour and someone talks about his/her research. Last Thursday being the first group meeting, we just introduced ourselves to each other. I also got allocated a corner of my own in the lab - called my office. Its a well equiped cubicle. At some point of time, I'll take some snaps and post them on a website.
On Saturday I went for a Sarod concert by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan at MIT. The concert was very good, though towards the end I got the feeling that its stretching on forever. I also met an old IITM friend who had come down from Brown University for the concert. All these days, I had been doing my "mattress research" too and finally I concluded it by buying one on Sunday. Sunday evening I went to my host student's home for dinner. He had prepared a full 3 course meal! It was a nice enjoyable evening where I got to meet a lot of students. He shares a house with 8 other Harvard grad students. In the course of our conversation, he informed me that while signing the lease, he had noticed that the date of construction of the house was 1892 ! Well, it looks no different from outside or inside than any other house that I know of. This has made me curious about the age of my building. It maybe 100 years old too !! Anyways, I am digressing. I was planning to invite Marcus (my host) for dinner too, but after seeing the effort he had put into the dinner, I decided to wait for a couple of months and hone my cooking skills before I invite him.
The whole of this week has been quite uneventful. There's tons of work to be done and thats where my days go. I realise that graduate student life is basically studying, cooking, eating and sleeping. But I hope to have more time at hand in the future semesters. This semester my choice of courses has made things especially hard. But I'm not complaining. I'm learning a lot of cool stuff, and in a way like never before. In the IIT system, or rather the Indian system, the performance in an examination determined the grade. Here none of the 3 courses have a final exam ! 1 doesnt even have a mid-term. The grading is on the basis of assignments. So the system forces us to be regular in our work. Also the work ethics are different. We discuss the assignments before submitting them, but only after we have genuinely tried them. Its OK to ask someone if you dont know how to do a problem. So there's a lot of real learning happening. At IIT, there was nothing stopping us from learning, but we could always do well in an exam even without learning much. There were certain courses at IIT where I would put in effort to learn the material - in others, I would just work towards getting a good grade. Here one implies the other.
I'm really looking forward to this weekend. One of my IIT friends is coming from Atlanta. I havent met this guy in more than a year now !!
I also realise that I complete one month in Boston today. Wow ! I dont believe it...it seems like 10 days ! Life is really hectic now, and days pass by in the wink of an eye. Its nice to be busy for 2 reasons - a) it means I am utilising my time well and b) i dont miss anyone much. Tin, Shreya you people actually miss me more than I miss you. I dont know if I'm being insensitive here.
Last week, I had my first proper project meeting with my professor. We discussed ideas for more than an hour. After that, we had our group meeting. Every Thursday, all the VLSI group people (profs, grad students and undergrad students) get together for an hour and someone talks about his/her research. Last Thursday being the first group meeting, we just introduced ourselves to each other. I also got allocated a corner of my own in the lab - called my office. Its a well equiped cubicle. At some point of time, I'll take some snaps and post them on a website.
On Saturday I went for a Sarod concert by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan at MIT. The concert was very good, though towards the end I got the feeling that its stretching on forever. I also met an old IITM friend who had come down from Brown University for the concert. All these days, I had been doing my "mattress research" too and finally I concluded it by buying one on Sunday. Sunday evening I went to my host student's home for dinner. He had prepared a full 3 course meal! It was a nice enjoyable evening where I got to meet a lot of students. He shares a house with 8 other Harvard grad students. In the course of our conversation, he informed me that while signing the lease, he had noticed that the date of construction of the house was 1892 ! Well, it looks no different from outside or inside than any other house that I know of. This has made me curious about the age of my building. It maybe 100 years old too !! Anyways, I am digressing. I was planning to invite Marcus (my host) for dinner too, but after seeing the effort he had put into the dinner, I decided to wait for a couple of months and hone my cooking skills before I invite him.
The whole of this week has been quite uneventful. There's tons of work to be done and thats where my days go. I realise that graduate student life is basically studying, cooking, eating and sleeping. But I hope to have more time at hand in the future semesters. This semester my choice of courses has made things especially hard. But I'm not complaining. I'm learning a lot of cool stuff, and in a way like never before. In the IIT system, or rather the Indian system, the performance in an examination determined the grade. Here none of the 3 courses have a final exam ! 1 doesnt even have a mid-term. The grading is on the basis of assignments. So the system forces us to be regular in our work. Also the work ethics are different. We discuss the assignments before submitting them, but only after we have genuinely tried them. Its OK to ask someone if you dont know how to do a problem. So there's a lot of real learning happening. At IIT, there was nothing stopping us from learning, but we could always do well in an exam even without learning much. There were certain courses at IIT where I would put in effort to learn the material - in others, I would just work towards getting a good grade. Here one implies the other.
I'm really looking forward to this weekend. One of my IIT friends is coming from Atlanta. I havent met this guy in more than a year now !!
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
weekly update
Although I didnt want this diary to be a weekly one, my last 3 posts have been on Tuesdays. So here' whats been happening in the last one week.
Wednesday was registration followed by classes. Registration isnt just signing on a few sheets here. A number of student clubs have their stalls set up just outside the registration area, and they try to attract students to join them. Its like a fair. There was also this guy dressed like a lion (like the ones in Disneyland) moving around. The number of brochure, handout, information sheets, handbooks etc. Harvard floods you with , is mindboggling. I actually spent 1 hour on Sunday, just separating the irrelevant ones from the useful stuff!
Thursday was spent doing homework. There was plenty of it and I was bust throughout the day. On Friday I cooked some Sambhar. I was going to be alone for the weekend with plenty of homework, so I cooked enough for 2-3 meals. I am no longer critical of any food. I actually enjoyed all the 3 sambhar-rice-pickle meals.
Saturday again was spent with a problem set, interspersed with many phone calls. I got calls from home, Sangeeta mausi and Ritu Mamiji. I called up Dilip Mama and some friends in Boston. It was raining throughout the day, so it got chilly and wet and I could not go out anywhere in the evening. I had plans to visit Harvard Square with friends but had to cancel it. Harvard square is really lively on Saturdays. There are people playing good music on the pavements just for the fun of it and students all over.
On Sunday, my room-mate who had gone holidaying in Europe returned. He had taken more than 500 pictures, and I saw all of them! Europe indeed is a beautiful holiday destination. I also visited an Indian store and bought some frozen "mixed veg. curry" and methi parathas. I really liked the taste. Yesterday, my laptop arrived and I have been checking mail every 5 minutes since! Manku bhaiya gave me a call and informed me about a desk lying in his office that I could pick up for free. I went to see it today. I liked it. He offered to transport it to my apartment. Indeed, he is a very helpful person. I had to take the local train to get to his office, since his office is in the suburbs. The train journey was just 20 minutes but I enjoyed it. The suburbs of Boston are really beautiful with picture-postcard houses all around. The trains were very comfortable too. They reminded me of the trains in DDLJ.
I also attended a laboratory safety training programme for all students intending to work in the chip fabrication laboratory. These American laws are really strict. We are prohibited from throwing any chemical down the drain, because all sewage goes into the Charles river and there are strict regulations about the permissable chemical content in the sewage. There are many such rules and regulations. For instance we are supposed to put dates on the containers of chemicals we open. In one incident a few months back, someone found a can of ether which did not have a date on it. Now if an opened can of ether is more than 1 yr old, there is a possibility that it might explode on experiencing jerk (mechanical shock). So they called in the bomb disposal squad, who evacuated the building and then wearing all those fancy protective gear removed the can from the building! It costed Harvard $1200!
Thats all for now. I'll write more later. Hopefully before next Tuesday !!
Wednesday was registration followed by classes. Registration isnt just signing on a few sheets here. A number of student clubs have their stalls set up just outside the registration area, and they try to attract students to join them. Its like a fair. There was also this guy dressed like a lion (like the ones in Disneyland) moving around. The number of brochure, handout, information sheets, handbooks etc. Harvard floods you with , is mindboggling. I actually spent 1 hour on Sunday, just separating the irrelevant ones from the useful stuff!
Thursday was spent doing homework. There was plenty of it and I was bust throughout the day. On Friday I cooked some Sambhar. I was going to be alone for the weekend with plenty of homework, so I cooked enough for 2-3 meals. I am no longer critical of any food. I actually enjoyed all the 3 sambhar-rice-pickle meals.
Saturday again was spent with a problem set, interspersed with many phone calls. I got calls from home, Sangeeta mausi and Ritu Mamiji. I called up Dilip Mama and some friends in Boston. It was raining throughout the day, so it got chilly and wet and I could not go out anywhere in the evening. I had plans to visit Harvard Square with friends but had to cancel it. Harvard square is really lively on Saturdays. There are people playing good music on the pavements just for the fun of it and students all over.
On Sunday, my room-mate who had gone holidaying in Europe returned. He had taken more than 500 pictures, and I saw all of them! Europe indeed is a beautiful holiday destination. I also visited an Indian store and bought some frozen "mixed veg. curry" and methi parathas. I really liked the taste. Yesterday, my laptop arrived and I have been checking mail every 5 minutes since! Manku bhaiya gave me a call and informed me about a desk lying in his office that I could pick up for free. I went to see it today. I liked it. He offered to transport it to my apartment. Indeed, he is a very helpful person. I had to take the local train to get to his office, since his office is in the suburbs. The train journey was just 20 minutes but I enjoyed it. The suburbs of Boston are really beautiful with picture-postcard houses all around. The trains were very comfortable too. They reminded me of the trains in DDLJ.
I also attended a laboratory safety training programme for all students intending to work in the chip fabrication laboratory. These American laws are really strict. We are prohibited from throwing any chemical down the drain, because all sewage goes into the Charles river and there are strict regulations about the permissable chemical content in the sewage. There are many such rules and regulations. For instance we are supposed to put dates on the containers of chemicals we open. In one incident a few months back, someone found a can of ether which did not have a date on it. Now if an opened can of ether is more than 1 yr old, there is a possibility that it might explode on experiencing jerk (mechanical shock). So they called in the bomb disposal squad, who evacuated the building and then wearing all those fancy protective gear removed the can from the building! It costed Harvard $1200!
Thats all for now. I'll write more later. Hopefully before next Tuesday !!
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Another long post
It has been so long since I wrote last, that I actually had to go to website to see what all I had written!
Some factual information first : I have returned the sofa-bed. It was too large for my room and the mattress was just too soft for my liking. I will get myself a regular single bed now (will stop looking for deals etc.) By the way, the sofa-beds are easier to buy and less expensive than the regular beds. I have also bought myself a laptop. Its a Dell 600m . I bought it for approximately $1010 as opposed to a listed price of $1399. Its more than a 25% discount and its supposed to be a really good, light-weight computer. It will be delivered early next week. I also opened myself a bank account. Next on the agenda are cell-phone and credit card. I will also get my first paycheck tomorrow :-)
So what has been happening this week ? Plenty ! I met my guide on Thursday. He is a cheerful young guy, but it seems that he is quite demanding. We spoke about the courses I will take this semester, and I am taking 3 super difficult course (2 of them at MIT and 1 at Harvard) I will also be starting on some research work . I identified my project. It is an interdisciplinary project involving Electrical Engg. and Biology. its about designing a Cell Sensor. A cell sensor basically identifies and separates certain cells from a mixture of cells (for eg RBCs from Blood). It has very very crucial applications in Biology . One thing that immediately comes to mind is treatment of Cancer. So it seems to be interesting. This semester, my professor and I will basically try to answer the question that whether we should actually take this project seriously, given our limited knowledge of Biology and chemistry. But, my holidays are coming to an end and I have a really difficult semester ahead.
On Friday, I had the international students orientation. It was like a lecture in Gegraphy. There were students from countries like Cyprux, Luxemburg, and Ghana studying even more fancy stuff like "Philosophy of Genetics" and "Middle east Studies". In the evening, there was a social hour for all international students. I met this Japanese guy there, who works for the Japanese foriegn service. He will be doing a masters in "Middle east studies" before being posted in Iraq !! Later that evening, I went out for dinner with a truly international group of people. There were 2 canadians, 2 danish, 1 australian and 1 englishman besides me. We went to an Indian restaurant here. Some of them ate a samosa with knife and fork! We spoke about various things (including Cricket!) and it was really enjoyable.
The weekend was kind of boring. On saturday evening, I went out with my room-mates to wathc this movie "Hero" . On Sunday, I met an old DBPC friend. Thats about it. Also tried to study a bit over the weekend.
Last evening, it was the Host dinner. It was a sit down dinner, i.e. we were served. We had been assigned specific seats and my host (the soft-spoken English guy) and I were seated besides these 2 snobbish Indian girls. The food was good and there was some nice music at the end.
Today was the official orientation for all students. It was at the historic .Sanders theatre, which is a beautiful wooden auditorium more than 130 yrs old. Nothing too special about the orientation. Thats about it. I have been meeting quite a lot of people, but have not made any good friends till now. I guess that will take some time. There are 2 other guys that my prof has admitted into his group this year - 1 from CMU and the other from Stanford. Both seem to be nice guys.
Today I cooked some amazing Aloo-Dum. It was my second big experiment (after Tamatar sabzi) and it tasted good too (a cook rarely dislikes his own concoctions!!) . Life is moving on fine. I think I will be able to come home toward the middle of August next year.
Good bye!
Some factual information first : I have returned the sofa-bed. It was too large for my room and the mattress was just too soft for my liking. I will get myself a regular single bed now (will stop looking for deals etc.) By the way, the sofa-beds are easier to buy and less expensive than the regular beds. I have also bought myself a laptop. Its a Dell 600m . I bought it for approximately $1010 as opposed to a listed price of $1399. Its more than a 25% discount and its supposed to be a really good, light-weight computer. It will be delivered early next week. I also opened myself a bank account. Next on the agenda are cell-phone and credit card. I will also get my first paycheck tomorrow :-)
So what has been happening this week ? Plenty ! I met my guide on Thursday. He is a cheerful young guy, but it seems that he is quite demanding. We spoke about the courses I will take this semester, and I am taking 3 super difficult course (2 of them at MIT and 1 at Harvard) I will also be starting on some research work . I identified my project. It is an interdisciplinary project involving Electrical Engg. and Biology. its about designing a Cell Sensor. A cell sensor basically identifies and separates certain cells from a mixture of cells (for eg RBCs from Blood). It has very very crucial applications in Biology . One thing that immediately comes to mind is treatment of Cancer. So it seems to be interesting. This semester, my professor and I will basically try to answer the question that whether we should actually take this project seriously, given our limited knowledge of Biology and chemistry. But, my holidays are coming to an end and I have a really difficult semester ahead.
On Friday, I had the international students orientation. It was like a lecture in Gegraphy. There were students from countries like Cyprux, Luxemburg, and Ghana studying even more fancy stuff like "Philosophy of Genetics" and "Middle east Studies". In the evening, there was a social hour for all international students. I met this Japanese guy there, who works for the Japanese foriegn service. He will be doing a masters in "Middle east studies" before being posted in Iraq !! Later that evening, I went out for dinner with a truly international group of people. There were 2 canadians, 2 danish, 1 australian and 1 englishman besides me. We went to an Indian restaurant here. Some of them ate a samosa with knife and fork! We spoke about various things (including Cricket!) and it was really enjoyable.
The weekend was kind of boring. On saturday evening, I went out with my room-mates to wathc this movie "Hero" . On Sunday, I met an old DBPC friend. Thats about it. Also tried to study a bit over the weekend.
Last evening, it was the Host dinner. It was a sit down dinner, i.e. we were served. We had been assigned specific seats and my host (the soft-spoken English guy) and I were seated besides these 2 snobbish Indian girls. The food was good and there was some nice music at the end.
Today was the official orientation for all students. It was at the historic .Sanders theatre, which is a beautiful wooden auditorium more than 130 yrs old. Nothing too special about the orientation. Thats about it. I have been meeting quite a lot of people, but have not made any good friends till now. I guess that will take some time. There are 2 other guys that my prof has admitted into his group this year - 1 from CMU and the other from Stanford. Both seem to be nice guys.
Today I cooked some amazing Aloo-Dum. It was my second big experiment (after Tamatar sabzi) and it tasted good too (a cook rarely dislikes his own concoctions!!) . Life is moving on fine. I think I will be able to come home toward the middle of August next year.
Good bye!
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
clearing the backlog
I realize my enthusiasm for writing these daily diaries has already started fading. But here's the jist of what happened over the last few days.
Let me begin with the Harlalka's. They are a ver y open hearted couple - ne I instantly felt comfortable with. Bhaiya drove down and came to pick me up. He gave me a proper orientation about life here. Explained to me, the way I should spend money, the way I should stay being on a visa. He also brought to my notice a few things that I would like to buy. We chatted about Calcutta etc. Bhabhi was really nice too. I had a proper home lunch. In the evening Bhaiya took me out to show the malls. He took me to the Burlington mall. The place was quite swanky - as all public places here are. He showed me a gadget store - where human creativity just explodes. There was this binoculars with a built in digital moving camera. So one can actually shoot discovery channel type videos. Whats more - it was just $80! There were other very ingenious stuff too - like the stringless guitar and an ice-less ice bucket. Plenty of amazing ways to waste money! Then he showed me an Indian grocery store. This was quite an experience too. You get everything from Parachute naariyal oil to Lux soaps here - even Telephone brand Isabgol. They also kept videotapes of all saas-bahu type serials. So one can feel perfectly at home after a visit to the Indian store. Later that evening, I accompanied them to a party they were going to. After returning we were chatting till late into the night. One thing about the houses here - He lives in the suburbs and there are rules preventing small sized plots there. So every house has to have a garden. All houses have all the material comforts. His house was somewhat like mine when it came to bathroom and kitchen equipment etc. I visited 2 houses that evening and I realized that a middle class family here has a home which is a lot better equiped and a lot better decorated than what we manage in India.
Nothing really interesting happened the next day - except me establishing telephonic contact with my IITM-MIT friends. On Tuesday, I went to my future lab and met a grauate student in my guide's lab. We had lunch together at the Harvard Law School cafeteria and he showed me around the campus. I then went for a "Getting started in the US" session for international students. In the evening I went to MIT. They had planned a nice cooking session. The cooking was mostly done by Mythili and Soumya with me offering my two-pence worth advice here and there, and then rescuing the aloo ka sabzi. It was quite funny - Soumya got Vanilla flavoured curd instead of the normal stuff and the kadhi turned out be very sweet. But never mind. We all loved the food that we had cooked. Since there were 10 people invited to the dinner and cooking for 10 was something no one had ever done before, all sense of proportion was lost and it took the genius of Yours truly to get things back on course ;) . Well we then had our sumptuous feast complete with ice-cream as dessert and baadam halwa as starters. I reached home at around 11 pm and was quite tired.
Today was another busy day. After getting some confidence (and inferiority complex) after seeing those people cook yesterday, I was determined to do the same today. So I cooked rice and tomato curry for lunch. It came out well too. One of my roommates, who was leaving for Europe in the afternoon, and had a lot of last minute stuff to do, was really happy to get a hot meal without any effort.
My sofa-cum-bed arrived ($260 including delivery and fitting) and by the time the guy left, I was already late for my MIT lecture. I rushed and made it to the class just about 5 minutes late. The lecture was stimulating and I could feel the "level" of the professor. It was actually mindboggling - the pace of the lecture, the expectation from the students, everything. I actually answered a couple of questions that were directed to the class - so that made me happy. Couldnt believe that I was sitting in a lecture at MIT, the mecca of technology. I also found out that the EE-CS building in MIT is named after Ray Stata - the person I had felicitated at Shaastra this year (quite flattering). The harvard EE-CS building is named after Bill Gates' parents (just an aside).
In the evening, I went and met my student host. He is from England (studied at Camridge University) and we spoke about how things are in India, how they are in England and how they are in the US. He also reads a lot and we spoke about books too. We had dinner (at 6:30 !) and we enjoyed it thoroughly. He converted to vegetarianism 2 months back - in protest against the cruelty meted out to animals who are bred for the purpose of meat. He was a really soft-spoken guy. One general observation I make here is that people in the university are very very polite and courteous. Its quite a challenge to be equally courteous to them... but I'm trying (and hopefully succeeding).
Thats all for now. I am busy searching for some good cell-phone and lap-top deals. This country is crazy. There's always a way to get something cheaper than the usual price. You should go through the right channels. So information is literally wealth here and my room-mate Arun seems to be having a lot of it.
Let me begin with the Harlalka's. They are a ver y open hearted couple - ne I instantly felt comfortable with. Bhaiya drove down and came to pick me up. He gave me a proper orientation about life here. Explained to me, the way I should spend money, the way I should stay being on a visa. He also brought to my notice a few things that I would like to buy. We chatted about Calcutta etc. Bhabhi was really nice too. I had a proper home lunch. In the evening Bhaiya took me out to show the malls. He took me to the Burlington mall. The place was quite swanky - as all public places here are. He showed me a gadget store - where human creativity just explodes. There was this binoculars with a built in digital moving camera. So one can actually shoot discovery channel type videos. Whats more - it was just $80! There were other very ingenious stuff too - like the stringless guitar and an ice-less ice bucket. Plenty of amazing ways to waste money! Then he showed me an Indian grocery store. This was quite an experience too. You get everything from Parachute naariyal oil to Lux soaps here - even Telephone brand Isabgol. They also kept videotapes of all saas-bahu type serials. So one can feel perfectly at home after a visit to the Indian store. Later that evening, I accompanied them to a party they were going to. After returning we were chatting till late into the night. One thing about the houses here - He lives in the suburbs and there are rules preventing small sized plots there. So every house has to have a garden. All houses have all the material comforts. His house was somewhat like mine when it came to bathroom and kitchen equipment etc. I visited 2 houses that evening and I realized that a middle class family here has a home which is a lot better equiped and a lot better decorated than what we manage in India.
Nothing really interesting happened the next day - except me establishing telephonic contact with my IITM-MIT friends. On Tuesday, I went to my future lab and met a grauate student in my guide's lab. We had lunch together at the Harvard Law School cafeteria and he showed me around the campus. I then went for a "Getting started in the US" session for international students. In the evening I went to MIT. They had planned a nice cooking session. The cooking was mostly done by Mythili and Soumya with me offering my two-pence worth advice here and there, and then rescuing the aloo ka sabzi. It was quite funny - Soumya got Vanilla flavoured curd instead of the normal stuff and the kadhi turned out be very sweet. But never mind. We all loved the food that we had cooked. Since there were 10 people invited to the dinner and cooking for 10 was something no one had ever done before, all sense of proportion was lost and it took the genius of Yours truly to get things back on course ;) . Well we then had our sumptuous feast complete with ice-cream as dessert and baadam halwa as starters. I reached home at around 11 pm and was quite tired.
Today was another busy day. After getting some confidence (and inferiority complex) after seeing those people cook yesterday, I was determined to do the same today. So I cooked rice and tomato curry for lunch. It came out well too. One of my roommates, who was leaving for Europe in the afternoon, and had a lot of last minute stuff to do, was really happy to get a hot meal without any effort.
My sofa-cum-bed arrived ($260 including delivery and fitting) and by the time the guy left, I was already late for my MIT lecture. I rushed and made it to the class just about 5 minutes late. The lecture was stimulating and I could feel the "level" of the professor. It was actually mindboggling - the pace of the lecture, the expectation from the students, everything. I actually answered a couple of questions that were directed to the class - so that made me happy. Couldnt believe that I was sitting in a lecture at MIT, the mecca of technology. I also found out that the EE-CS building in MIT is named after Ray Stata - the person I had felicitated at Shaastra this year (quite flattering). The harvard EE-CS building is named after Bill Gates' parents (just an aside).
In the evening, I went and met my student host. He is from England (studied at Camridge University) and we spoke about how things are in India, how they are in England and how they are in the US. He also reads a lot and we spoke about books too. We had dinner (at 6:30 !) and we enjoyed it thoroughly. He converted to vegetarianism 2 months back - in protest against the cruelty meted out to animals who are bred for the purpose of meat. He was a really soft-spoken guy. One general observation I make here is that people in the university are very very polite and courteous. Its quite a challenge to be equally courteous to them... but I'm trying (and hopefully succeeding).
Thats all for now. I am busy searching for some good cell-phone and lap-top deals. This country is crazy. There's always a way to get something cheaper than the usual price. You should go through the right channels. So information is literally wealth here and my room-mate Arun seems to be having a lot of it.
Saturday, September 04, 2004
adjusting
All said and done, this is a foriegn country and I will have to adapt myself to the ways of these people. I would be lying if I said that I feel perfectly at home here. Once in a while I am not sure as to how I should behave. Americans are friendly people. Whenever you interact with a person, be it a salesman or a taxi-driver, you are greeted with "Hi! hows it goin ? " I am often left wondering as to what is the right amount of friendliness I should show towards them. Sometimes I get the feeling that I am being regarded as rude. We, in India donot say "Hi!" to the doodhwala, or the taxiwala. So I have to make a conscious effort for that. I'll learn the tricks with the passage of time.
Also, the traffic. Its different. Since its left hand drive and cars keep to the right of the road, I often end up looking at the wrong side of the road before crossing the road! Sheila didi understood exactly how I felt, because she went through the same thing in India! The people here are extremely courteous too. If you are crossing the street at a zebra crossing, vehicles actually stop for you to pass by. Sometimes if you are waiting on the footpath for traffic to decrease before you cross the road, vehicles will stop to let you pass by. Can you imagine something like this happening in Calcutta? I often find this very wierd.
My Indian accent is a minor problem too. Sometimes I have to repeat myself to make myself understood. I have realized that the best way to speak is slowly and clearly, and not try to match the locals in their speed and style.
At home I am getting used to an Indo-American lifestyle. These guys keep the apartment really clean so I too feel obliged to put in that extra effort to maintain the cleanliness. I am also watching some baseball, because my room-mates just love watching it.
I have been speaking to a lot of people over the phone. Old IIT friends, Don Bosco friends, family - so that itself is keeping me busy.
Well thats all for now. More later
Also, the traffic. Its different. Since its left hand drive and cars keep to the right of the road, I often end up looking at the wrong side of the road before crossing the road! Sheila didi understood exactly how I felt, because she went through the same thing in India! The people here are extremely courteous too. If you are crossing the street at a zebra crossing, vehicles actually stop for you to pass by. Sometimes if you are waiting on the footpath for traffic to decrease before you cross the road, vehicles will stop to let you pass by. Can you imagine something like this happening in Calcutta? I often find this very wierd.
My Indian accent is a minor problem too. Sometimes I have to repeat myself to make myself understood. I have realized that the best way to speak is slowly and clearly, and not try to match the locals in their speed and style.
At home I am getting used to an Indo-American lifestyle. These guys keep the apartment really clean so I too feel obliged to put in that extra effort to maintain the cleanliness. I am also watching some baseball, because my room-mates just love watching it.
I have been speaking to a lot of people over the phone. Old IIT friends, Don Bosco friends, family - so that itself is keeping me busy.
Well thats all for now. More later
Friday, September 03, 2004
2 walks around town
Yesterday afternoon, I decided to explore Harvard. I walked from my apartment, ate at a Thai restaurant ($11), and then headed to Harvard. The whole town is like an English village. All houses are wooden and painted in bright colours. Even the brick ones have a grand aura around them. This place is very different from what normally America is. There are no skyscrapers, glass structures etc. Only old Victorian houses. There are quaint shops selling eclectic stuff. I didn't realize when I reached Harvard. It merges seamlessly with the city. Only the number of beautiful buildings per square kilometer increases drastically. Harvard is one beautiful place. Walking in Harvard yard, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction and achievement. I really felt happy that I was here and a part of this majestic institution. Somehow, the sights and smells, though very foriegn, seemed familiar. I still can't understand why they seemed familiar, but yes, they did. I saw my department building from outside too. This one was more like America - geometric and modern. It seemed quite out of place among all those 100 yr old buidings. I timed my walk back to my apartment. It took roughly 20 mins.
In the evening I went out for dinner with Sheila didi. It was a pleasure meeting her. We became friends instantly. This time, we walked in the opposite direction (ie away from harvard) . We talked about various things, and walked quite a bit. We ate at a Tibetan restaurant. The weather was fantastic (something like mid-November in Calcutta), and we were together till about 9:30 . By the time I returned to my apartment, I was already calling it "returning home" !!
In the evening I went out for dinner with Sheila didi. It was a pleasure meeting her. We became friends instantly. This time, we walked in the opposite direction (ie away from harvard) . We talked about various things, and walked quite a bit. We ate at a Tibetan restaurant. The weather was fantastic (something like mid-November in Calcutta), and we were together till about 9:30 . By the time I returned to my apartment, I was already calling it "returning home" !!
Boston, apartment etc.
On the way back from the airport, I saw some of downtown Boston. Imagine a city where all roads are like the Red Road of Calcutta - that is Boston. By the time I reached my apartment, it was almost midnight. The apartment is very beautiful. It is completely wooden - walls, floor everything. Thats the way these old houses are in Boston. It was renovated recently though. Thus the floors are shiny, the walls are spotless and it has a very "new" feel to it. It is very well equiped too. The kitchen has a microwave oven, gas oven, electric chimney, oven, dishwasher,blender, toaster, refrigerator and a small table for 2 . There's a bathing tub, and counter top basin in the bathroom. There's running hot and cold water in the kitchen and the bathroom. These guys maintain the place very well too. The kitchen is very well stocked with all kinds of stuff. Both are vegetarians so food will never be a problem. The toilet has a small sideboard with magazines. The living room has a TV and a DVD player and 2 comfortable sofas. So basically I am living in the lap of luxury. I am sure Mummy will love to have a kitchen like the one I have here.
My room is bright and airy. There's sunlight throughout the day. The closet is spacious. I will get myself a bed, table, chair and a small open almirah (like shelves). Then it will be perfect. There are no tubelights here, so it feels like a hotel sometimes. But I guess I will get used to it.
The security system is very decent too.
All in all - A DREAM HOUSE !!
My room is bright and airy. There's sunlight throughout the day. The closet is spacious. I will get myself a bed, table, chair and a small open almirah (like shelves). Then it will be perfect. There are no tubelights here, so it feels like a hotel sometimes. But I guess I will get used to it.
The security system is very decent too.
All in all - A DREAM HOUSE !!
Flight Journey
I was leaving with mixed feelings - definitely sad because I was leaving home again, and also excited by the prospects that lay ahead. It also felt nice to be "On my own" again.
The journey was quite uneventful. Yet it was not boring. They had individual TV screens for everyseat with 16 channels. I watched Shrek2 and and another Jack Nicholson movie. When I reached London, the temperature there was 18 degrees. The airport is really really huge. It is almost like a bigger, more glamorous FORUM with the airport part of it just incidental. I spent time with Aditya and his friend. Also enjoyed observing people from around the globe who had gathered there.
After a long wait at London, I boarded the flight to Boston. Another boring journey. Saw Kill-Bill2 . Towards the end, I was getting butterflies in my stomach. I was anxious about customs, and also excited about finlly reaching my destination. My physical endurance was also reaching its limit. If I would have to take a 3rd domestic flight (as most ppl, who dont live close to an international airport do) I would surely be badly exhausted. 2 were enough !!
At Boston airport, nothing scary happened. No questions asked, I just breezed past customs. I had to wait for sometime for Arun to reach the airport.
I am finally in the United States of America
The journey was quite uneventful. Yet it was not boring. They had individual TV screens for everyseat with 16 channels. I watched Shrek2 and and another Jack Nicholson movie. When I reached London, the temperature there was 18 degrees. The airport is really really huge. It is almost like a bigger, more glamorous FORUM with the airport part of it just incidental. I spent time with Aditya and his friend. Also enjoyed observing people from around the globe who had gathered there.
After a long wait at London, I boarded the flight to Boston. Another boring journey. Saw Kill-Bill2 . Towards the end, I was getting butterflies in my stomach. I was anxious about customs, and also excited about finlly reaching my destination. My physical endurance was also reaching its limit. If I would have to take a 3rd domestic flight (as most ppl, who dont live close to an international airport do) I would surely be badly exhausted. 2 were enough !!
At Boston airport, nothing scary happened. No questions asked, I just breezed past customs. I had to wait for sometime for Arun to reach the airport.
I am finally in the United States of America
Thursday, September 02, 2004
first post
If you are interested in knowing how I am spending my days at Harvard, you might want to check out this blog periodically. I intend (or rather hope) to write a detailed account of my experiences.
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