To Ends, and new Beginnings

To Vikrant, Mansi, Sudeep, Shashwat, Abha, Nidhi, Tanaya, Sritulasi, Sowmya, Parul, Sumedh, Shashank, Karan, Tanvi, Sourabh, Smiti, Raghu, Mohan, Rohit, Jitin, Madhuri, Vybava, Divya, Priya, Hema, Madhuree, Viraj, Ameya, Rahul, Gauresh, Nikhilesh, Palash, Prerna, Niranjan, Pushkar, Niyati, Aviral, Tarun, Madhavi, Vanishree, Joshi, Simran, Pralav, Modi, Sharan, Henish, Hitesh, Shilpi, Inchara, Fabio, Zafeiria and last but definitely not the least, Ritika.

To Mario, Eddie, Songwu, Lixia, Paul, Adam, Mani, Deborah, Yuval, Miodrag and Eliezer.

To many others I may have missed to mention.

To UCLA.

Go Bruins!

Peace.

The Meaning of Lite

Yes! You read it correctly. The title reads 'Lite' and not 'Life'. Well, the the latter would have made a very good philosophical discussion, some of which is dealt with here, but today is the time for the former. Chatting with a friend just today, I was being told how her non-bitsian friends were having trouble understanding the numerous contexts in which she used the word 'lite' and what it meant. We decided to mutually publish a blogpost which clarified the use of "lite" for all the unenlightened folks out there.

Let's explore the use of 'lite' in various scenarios.

After a test, I met a friend outside the classroom. He asked me how my test was. I replied, "Liiiiite." Note how the 'i' was long and exaggerated. This basically means that the test was very simple and straight-forward. "It was very lite," would also mean the same thing.

The next day we had another test. (This was a particularly annoying week) Again, I met the same friend and asked how he did. He replied, "Lite only." In this context, he meant that it was pretty difficult and he could do nothing but take lite.

Which brings us to the third use of the word, as I used it in the previous sentence. "Take lite," means to not give something too much importance. So in the above context, since the test was hard, all my friend could do was to take lite, which would be to not give it too much thought.

Another similar use is when you ask someone to not fret about something, or to let go. For example, suppose you get into a fight and are about to punch the daylight out of somebody. One of your friends might come up to you and say. "Take lite, man. It's not worth it."

So here's four usages, and this is how the word is used a majority of the time. If other bitsians would like to add more to the list, please leave a comment, and I'll add to the post.

The End of House

I just heard that this would be the last season of House MD. I've been a fan of a lot of TV series for quite a long time now. House MD was one of the early series I began following. I remember watching it as long ago as my second year at BITS, probably even before I had watched even a single episode of FRIENDS. Gregory House was very well portrayed by Hugh Laurie, and I had great difficulty accepting he had been a stand up comedian before stepping into the role of the enigmatic and brilliant diagnostician. I had to actually see him act in "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" to believe it!

I can (proudly) say that I've watched every single episode of the series, starting right from the mysterious doctor who never saw his patients, yet diagnosing them correctly with his team of excellent multi-disciplinary doctors to accepting his Vicodin addiction and checking himself in to get better, to getting into a relationship with Cuddy (only avid fans know how long they had to wait to see it happen) and finally crashing a car into her apartment as an outburst of emotion and thereafter serving jail time.

The makers of House were successfully able to keep the audience hooked to the series with offering insight into new aspects of House's life with every new season, but that could last for only so long. After Cuddy left the series, it just wasn't the same anymore, with the new team not bringing enough to the table as Cuddy and Cameron did, and House running out of facets of his life to enthrall the audience with.

As with many other things, sometimes the best way to show that one cares is by ending something at the correct time, when things are still good, than wait unnecessarily and impose oneself till things turn sour. I'm glad that the makers of House hit a sweet spot with respect to when to end the series. It was about time when the series was growing quite repetitive and monotonous, with no real character development to speak of. Ardent fans still followed it, but there really was nothing new or interesting happening. It was nice to see that they cared enough to end it before it became a drag like some of the series that started around the same time.

I'll always remember House MD as one of the most inspiring series I've watched, with interesting, well thought out characters and an amazing storyline, right till the end. A big thanks to everybody who contributed to the making of this series.

Home

"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...

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

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.

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!