"Home is where the heart is" so they say. I've had three "homes" now - Mumbai, Goa and Los Angeles (maybe Bangalore is another.... but no.... not so much)
Every home has been a new step is learning - about myself, about the world.
Mumbai - with my family and the earliest of friends and classmates, most of whom are no longer in Mumbai any more... just like me...
Goa - my undergrad, the second rung. My first home away from home, new directions, new ideas, complete independence without the strain of daily chores... A place to discover yourself and where you want to go...
And finally, Los Angeles - A new place, a new country. I've been here for the longest away from Mumbai - one year today, having not been home. Getting a little homesick, but I'll be traveling back soon enough! Los Angeles - responsibility for all of yourself - not just living in a hostel, but an apartment, taking care of EVERYTHING yourself, from your food to your academics.
I long to be in Mumbai - my first and dearest home, for just a little bit. To re-live the sights, sounds and smells of the place I grew up...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Retro Music Videos
End of another exhausting quarter.
I'm in retro mode today, so no gyaan or introspection, just YouTube links of old videos.
Enjoy!
Woh Chali Woh Chali - Bombay Vikings
Mona Re - Bombay Vikings
Channa Vey - Kunal Ganjawala
Kya Soorat Hai - Bombay Vikings
Aashiq Banaya Aapne - Himesh Reshammiya
Calcutta (Taxi, Taxi, Taxi) - Dr. Bombay
Sayonee - Junoon
Aankhon Mein Tera Hi Chehra - Aryans
I'm in retro mode today, so no gyaan or introspection, just YouTube links of old videos.
Enjoy!
Woh Chali Woh Chali - Bombay Vikings
Mona Re - Bombay Vikings
Channa Vey - Kunal Ganjawala
Kya Soorat Hai - Bombay Vikings
Aashiq Banaya Aapne - Himesh Reshammiya
Calcutta (Taxi, Taxi, Taxi) - Dr. Bombay
Sayonee - Junoon
Aankhon Mein Tera Hi Chehra - Aryans
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Just Around the Corner
And as the quarter approaches its end, only the last leg is left. The last couple of assignments and exams and submissions. The last two days have been quite interesting. Yesterday was the submission deadline for the third homework of Algorithmic Game Theory. I was clueless as usual, offering my 20 cent worth ideas wherever I could. My group has a couple of really talented individuals who just concoct solutions for the homework problems out of nowhere. Really admirable.
I also played a lot of foosball yesterday during the assignment. I was surprisingly good at it, more so than usual. I was basically on a foosball high, beating everyone left, right and center. Today, is unfortunately different. Just lost a game 1v1 with a person I would probably defeat on any given day.
But today is special. Not because I wrote a lot in the seminar course, so that making a summary for submission would be easy, not because a fire alarm rang during class today and that we had to evacuate the building, but because I got my first dollar value paycheck today. Just made a scan of it as a souvenir and then deposited it into my checking account. Probably, this would be the first and only paycheck, and I've set up direct deposit, which will take effect as soon as I receive my SSN.
Also, I went shooting with a friend yesterday to the botanical garden. I was pleasantly surprised to find it a nice quiet environment for introspection. I think I'll be using it in the future, the only downside being that it is open only during working hours. Anyway, back to the point, the photography assignment this week of nature, and I got quite a number of good shots. I've been slacking off on the assignments lately due to a lack of time and motivation, and it felt good to hold my camera in my hands again.
The class is in half an hour, I have a lot of work to do, but I wanted a good break, so I thought I should update my blog as I haven't done so in a while. Kind of a random post, this one.
Time to decide what to spend my pay on!
Later then.
I also played a lot of foosball yesterday during the assignment. I was surprisingly good at it, more so than usual. I was basically on a foosball high, beating everyone left, right and center. Today, is unfortunately different. Just lost a game 1v1 with a person I would probably defeat on any given day.
But today is special. Not because I wrote a lot in the seminar course, so that making a summary for submission would be easy, not because a fire alarm rang during class today and that we had to evacuate the building, but because I got my first dollar value paycheck today. Just made a scan of it as a souvenir and then deposited it into my checking account. Probably, this would be the first and only paycheck, and I've set up direct deposit, which will take effect as soon as I receive my SSN.
Also, I went shooting with a friend yesterday to the botanical garden. I was pleasantly surprised to find it a nice quiet environment for introspection. I think I'll be using it in the future, the only downside being that it is open only during working hours. Anyway, back to the point, the photography assignment this week of nature, and I got quite a number of good shots. I've been slacking off on the assignments lately due to a lack of time and motivation, and it felt good to hold my camera in my hands again.
The class is in half an hour, I have a lot of work to do, but I wanted a good break, so I thought I should update my blog as I haven't done so in a while. Kind of a random post, this one.
Time to decide what to spend my pay on!
Later then.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Pushing the Limits
It's been a busy busy quarter. I've taken 3 courses, one of them is really difficult. Add to that, a friend convinced me to join a Digital Photography course, which I really wanted to since a long time (extra curricular, of course) and I've been trying to play Racquetball as much as possible (try to make it everyday)
More recently, I got an on-campus job, which is great, but it seems to be pretty intense (and fun!) It started just yesterday, but as it turns out, it's cutting into my study/fun time and has begun to affect my humor even before becoming a full-swing part of my schedule.
I think I'm doing too much, but as it turns out I have been very complacent lately, and haven't been challenging myself enough. I take this as an opportunity to push my limits to see if and when I reach breaking point. It's really difficult, and I've not even been getting enough sleep (and food?). I can't believe I overslept, and almost missed my 8am class today. That's almost never happened before.
I intend to keep up this charade, until the quarter is over or I break, whichever comes first. It'll be a miracle if I'm able to sustain myself with all these till the end of the quarter, and I'll come out as a really strong, albeit crazy person. If not, I don't think there's any shame dropping an activity or two from the above.
People around me have been challenging themselves continuously and I need to do the same to find my limits. I think I'll know when to stop as soon as I see bright spots before my eyes and feel the fatigue that I haven't felt since a really long time.
Later then!
More recently, I got an on-campus job, which is great, but it seems to be pretty intense (and fun!) It started just yesterday, but as it turns out, it's cutting into my study/fun time and has begun to affect my humor even before becoming a full-swing part of my schedule.
I think I'm doing too much, but as it turns out I have been very complacent lately, and haven't been challenging myself enough. I take this as an opportunity to push my limits to see if and when I reach breaking point. It's really difficult, and I've not even been getting enough sleep (and food?). I can't believe I overslept, and almost missed my 8am class today. That's almost never happened before.
I intend to keep up this charade, until the quarter is over or I break, whichever comes first. It'll be a miracle if I'm able to sustain myself with all these till the end of the quarter, and I'll come out as a really strong, albeit crazy person. If not, I don't think there's any shame dropping an activity or two from the above.
People around me have been challenging themselves continuously and I need to do the same to find my limits. I think I'll know when to stop as soon as I see bright spots before my eyes and feel the fatigue that I haven't felt since a really long time.
Later then!
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Magical Class
Finally, something happy to write, after all the droning I've been doing for the past few posts...
So... most of my days are spent wondering what the #$%@ am I doing here. The classes are dull, there are way too many papers to read, and there is actually not enough time to digest all the material that we read. I think it would be better if there were fewer papers, but they were discussing in depth. However, such is grad school...
Anyway, so after a couple of weeks of classes where nothing special happened, and I was very unmotivated, something really interesting happened today. In the CS219 class, someone thought that the professor was out of town, attending a conference, so he spread the news that the class was going to be conducted by a TA. Result: half the class was absent. However, this was a very nice thing to happen.
As usual, the class started with a student volunteer presenting a paper. The professor seems to be in a really good mood, and was asking him a lot of questions about the paper. The student was trying his best to answer. The discussion was quite animated, and even some of the students, including me, chipped in discussing various extensions and applications of the paper, the drawbacks, advantages, etc. sometimes questioning the student, and sometimes helping him...
Then, we had a quick break, which I and a fellow student spent discussing some more with the professor, which was cool!
Finally, the professor presented a couple of new concepts and discussed another paper. Surprisingly, he was asking some simple fundamental questions to random students in the class. A couple of times he asked me too. Thankfully, I could answer them successfully. At some points of time, I even got the feeling that I was actually conversing with him in front of all the students. This feeling was exhilarating, and I felt like I connected with the professor on a completely new level! Something this profound normally doesn't happen, and I was delighted that it happened with me...
The class was perfect simply perfect, there were a lot of discussions, a lot of ideas thrown around. It was fulfilling.... and it is such classes that get me through the quarter, making my life feel worth something.
I yearn for many more magical classes like this.
So... most of my days are spent wondering what the #$%@ am I doing here. The classes are dull, there are way too many papers to read, and there is actually not enough time to digest all the material that we read. I think it would be better if there were fewer papers, but they were discussing in depth. However, such is grad school...
Anyway, so after a couple of weeks of classes where nothing special happened, and I was very unmotivated, something really interesting happened today. In the CS219 class, someone thought that the professor was out of town, attending a conference, so he spread the news that the class was going to be conducted by a TA. Result: half the class was absent. However, this was a very nice thing to happen.
As usual, the class started with a student volunteer presenting a paper. The professor seems to be in a really good mood, and was asking him a lot of questions about the paper. The student was trying his best to answer. The discussion was quite animated, and even some of the students, including me, chipped in discussing various extensions and applications of the paper, the drawbacks, advantages, etc. sometimes questioning the student, and sometimes helping him...
Then, we had a quick break, which I and a fellow student spent discussing some more with the professor, which was cool!
Finally, the professor presented a couple of new concepts and discussed another paper. Surprisingly, he was asking some simple fundamental questions to random students in the class. A couple of times he asked me too. Thankfully, I could answer them successfully. At some points of time, I even got the feeling that I was actually conversing with him in front of all the students. This feeling was exhilarating, and I felt like I connected with the professor on a completely new level! Something this profound normally doesn't happen, and I was delighted that it happened with me...
The class was perfect simply perfect, there were a lot of discussions, a lot of ideas thrown around. It was fulfilling.... and it is such classes that get me through the quarter, making my life feel worth something.
I yearn for many more magical classes like this.
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