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 !!

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!

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.

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

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" !!

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 !!

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

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.