The Return and The Re-return

Its been a while since I even visited my blog. Almost 3 months I guess. I believe the title is aptly given. Finally I come up with a title other than "random", "very very random", "Utter-nonsense" and all the other weird names that I have come up with till date, which barely has any connection with whatever is beneath it. 

Barely 4 or 5 months into Masters life and I got the chance to return back to Home Sweet Home. Not many people get such a sweet opportunity to go back home immediately after the first semester. I did though and all thanks to my father. Phew!!! what a relief it was to be back home atleast for a few weeks. None of my friends expected me to come back and every body was in for a surprise or more appropriately a shock. I bet some of them might have wondered that I had given up on Masters and returned back home. Ok that is a little too much to think. 

Anyways that was the return. I had never felt so much better to be back home and to see my family. I wanted time to stop still, but as it happens time flies fast. This is in accordance with the theory of relativity as described by some great person which is anologous to Einstien's. ( P.S- I assume you do know this theory ). The time to come back to Tempe arrived faster than I could have imagined.

The re-return was not too bad actually. Well apart from the fact that I would miss my near and dear ones the journey back to the university was not bad at all. I was scheduled to arrive at Phoenix from Denver. The baggage carts at the airport in Denver was as horrible and bad as one could imagine it to be. The cart kept turning right for who knows what god forsaken reason. It was as if the cart was rigged to turn right even though I was pushing it to go straight. Before that I want to mention something really funny. I was checked at the airport for bringing in cummin seeds ( jeera ). The funny part was only one packet was checked. The remaining packets went un-noticed. Strange reasoning i felt. Ok here comes the funnier part. I was supposed to come to Phoenix by US airways. Because of the dumb trolley that I was pushing I checked into the first counter that I could lay my eyes upon. But then when I enquired about the boarding pass I was told that I had checked into the United Airways counter. I was assured that I would get my luggage in Phoenix. What I assumed was that they would route the luggage to my aircraft as it was tagged all the way from Bangalore. I waited for about 20 minutes at Phoenix airport only to realise that my luggage was not on that flight. Finally after enquiry I was told that my luggage was in another terminal and had come by another aircraft. The tension surrounding me and my luggage which housed a variety of food and snacks. As they say all is well that ends well.

P.S- I guess my standards in blogging has gone plummeting down just like Satyam's market value. Need to improve and need to continue blogging as much as possible.

I take back what I said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did I say that I do not like my computer?
I must have been possessed. I probably was in a drunken stupor to have made such a statement.
Well you must have guessed it correct. Things are normal now and I do take back my statement. I very much love my computer. It is my best companion. How I wish there were some artificial intelligence built into this machine. Well, I do want it all dont I ??

It is probably a human psychology. I got the spelling correct I presume.
When things go bad there is no remedy to come out of the dismal feeling unless there is something of the opposite polarity that could negate the bad effect. In other words there is nothing like a good news to cheer you up and boost your morale to god knows what limits. Just a few days back I was in this horrible state of not wanting to do anything and feeling totally screwed up. There were a ton of assignments due and project deadlines were fast approaching.
Things have changed now. Assignments are overdue, and project deadlines are almost banging on the door.
But amongst all this there is this fresh change that has come in like a real life saver.
I got through into the main campus for the next semester. From now on I will not be attending the Polytechnic campus for a degree. Its no longer a Masters degree in Computing Studies, but now it is going to be a Master's degree in Computer Science itself. Now that really does clear off a major chunk of the bad feeling. So as they say things are not as bad as they seem to be. After a span of bad days comes the good days. After every thing bad comes something good. It is a cycle.
Phew!!!!!!!
Look who is talking philosophy now.
Naah thats not my area of interest anyways. My area of expertise is to write crap just like I have been doing all along.

Gggggrrrrrrr

At the moment all I have to say is that I hate computers
Just for the basic reason that there is too much of complications involved as compared to the ease of work and life. Well anyways. This is my shortest post ever. May as well play frisbee with my laptop now!!!!!
Hhhhhmmmmmnnnnn, will keep that thought in mind.

Very Very Very Very Random

Its almost a month since I posted anything, and finally here is something. As suggested by the title, this is totally random. I could as well say that this is just for the sake of writing.

First of all, a few days back I met a friend's friend. After the introduction the first thing that the guy said to me was that he read my blog. To be frank it was like a bolt in the blue for me. Then reality dawned on me that people do read this. So first of all a very big "WELCOME" to all those visiting. Secondly a big "THANK YOU" for taking the time out to read this, which obviously will be of no use to you. Thirdly a small request, in case you are visiting, please leave a comment. Any kind of comment will suffice.

University life is so much different and so much more fun as compared to back home. For one nobody in the right state of mind in India will venture out at 12 in the night to the library like me. It is an altogether different story that I am blogging instead of burying my nose in some voluminous book with a specs clinging on to the end of my nose for dear life. Anyways as one of my Prof says "I digress". So here I am not at home in the middle of the night trying to study.

Cricket is a crazy game back home. As correctly quoted " Cricket is a game played by 11 fools and followed by a 11,000 other fools". How much ever the truth this particular quote carries the game is still ingrained in our blood. The best part of life here at ASU is that I have been playing more cricket than I played back at home. Playing cricket in the birth-place of baseball gives you a strange sense of satisfaction, especially when the natives question about the game and its rules. So here I am playing cricket half way across the world that too under lights at 11 in the night. That, I would definitely call it an interesting improvement coming here.

A very interesting and encouraging trend or rather program I would say is the International friend program. This is a program where international students sign up and are assigned foster families based on their likes and interests. I had been to a family's place through this program for dinner one evening. Their hospitality is to die for. The guy actually came all the way to our apartment to pick us up and promptly dropped us off after dinner and a light conversation. There is seriously a huge difference between the way they speak at home compared to the way our families speak back in India. Here is a small example :-

Mr M :- "Honey, where is the photographs that we took when we went for the hike ? "
Mrs M :-" Oh yeeaah!! They are right over there on the book shelf."
Mr M :-" Oh noo. Its not over there I just looked for it. You must have moved them some place"
Mrs M :-"Are you sure? I kept it there the last time I looked at them".
Mr M :-"Yeah I just looked for it and it is not there."
Mrs M :-"Hhhmmnnn oh okay gimme a minute I will take a look, it is probably there in the other shelf inside the room."
Mr M :-"Oh okaay!! I will go get it then, no problem."
Mrs M :-"Okaaay!!"

Eight lines of conversation. Keep in mind that these people speak very very slowly and they talk in a sing-song voice almost dragging and elongating each word. So all in all I would say that the above conversation would last probably for 6-7 minutes.

Here is a typical translation of the conversation back in India.

Mr : "ley aa tripige hogiddu photos yelle? " [ Hey where are the photos of the trip ? ]
Mrs ( in an irritated tone ): "nanige yenri gottu neeve ittiddu, neeve huddukoli" [ How am I supposed to know, you have only kept it, you only search for it. ]
Mr ( in an even more irritated tone ) : " ee maneli yenu timeige correct aagi sigalla " [ you dont find anything on time in this house ]

Three lines of conversation, keeping in mind that they speak fast and the appropriate time of the conversation would be 6-7 seconds.

It is not a very exact translation, as the situation varies from house to house and from person to person. I would say that 50% of the conversation would probably end here and there is a high probability that this conversation could lead to a nasty fight over some trivial matter which would have no connection to the first question.

Off course there is also a high probability that the conversation might take place in exactly opposite sense without any hint of irritation and full of sugary tones. As I said differs from family to family.

Okay there are so many things more that I would like to tell, but as of now I am blank. Will come up with more as soon as I find time, { which is actually just a plain old excuse, as usual } .

Grumblings and Ramblings

Often I allow my mind to wander

Into the realms of engineering which lies yonder

Cursing myself for the time which I did squander

Repenting for having treated my courses like a philander.

Sitting in the hall I begin to go adrift

Causing my engineering academia to rift

Now I wish I had been a bit more time thrift

Having realised that my standards badly need an uplift.

I did expect a rude awakening

But its never easy to accept ones short-coming

Its high time I put an end to my rambling

Its going to be an arduous battle before Homecoming.

Utter Non-sense

Basically this post has no title. Just a random headed post which might probably contain a wee bit of cribbing. So that could serve as a statutory warning, and this is your cue to bail out of this blog.

Cribbing in the sense, life is not all that bad here. But there are certain things that do not go as you expect it to. Well for instance there is this new season starting of the series Prison Break. I being in US have not yet seen it but my friends back in India must have already seen it. Reason downloading is a crime here. I have heard from people that some guys ended up paying a fine of roughly 20k dollars for downloading stuff. So there is this strange fear as to what I can download and what I cannot. Ironically the internet speed is way too fast. Come on people I have a 15mbps connection at home and I am not able to download anything.
Okay i agree that is not too big a reason to crib about. But sometimes being so far away from home does get to you. No home food, no pampering from parents and relatives, no friends. Okay that does not seem as it looks like. { LOL!! funny usage of the words there }.
Anyways talking about friends, people are way too cool here. For example my roomies are wonderful guys. I seriously could not have asked for more better people as room-mates. Though one of them is always on the phone [ hehehe no offence mate i.e in case you read it ]. Both of them are pretty good cooks. Actually one of them cooks quite well. Imagine its almost been two weeks since I landed here and I have cooked only about 3 or 4 times at the max. Where do you get such people for room-mates? [ lucky me :-D ]

The other guy is also way too cool. [ noticed the usage of the words way too cool??...That tells you just how cool these guys are :-D ]. To be frank initially I thought that how am I going to stay under one roof with two people who have a work experience of 5 years among themselves. But from the day I landed in Phoenix, these guys have never made me feel that they are seniors and I am a junior. Believe it or not I fool around and pull their legs as if we were from the same batch.

Sometime back while doing my bachelors I realized the importance of building up contacts. Once you are out of your home town and living in a totally new place all together, the contacts come automatically. That is provided if you go around talking to people. Fortunately I do have a big mouth and have spoken to quite a lot of people around here. It is all together a different story that I find it difficult to remember half their names. My room-mate has a friend here who has finished his graduation and is currently working. We hang out quite often. So basically everybody is friendly. Even my senior about whom I mentioned in my previous post. Her room-mates are also very friendly. Some what like angels. [ hehehe sounds quite funny when somebody reads it, but thats the way it is :-D ].

Alright guess there is not too much of cribbing going on in this post to be frank. There are a few things that really does get on my nerves at times. For example there is this guy in two of my classes. Decent looking chap I would say. That comment lasts only till his mouth is shut. The moment he opens his mouth to talk to the professors or any other american I get irritated. Come on man!!!!!! Why the fake accent? These people do understand the normal accent that we speak. I am pretty sure they must think that why is the guy putting on such a fake accent. Well I could so totally be wrong about this, but its my blog so its my feelings and thoughts. US is a free country with total freedom of speech anyways. :-D

The gowri-ganesha habba ( festival ) is quite a big one back home. Yeah we all missed it. But can you beat the advancement in technology?...Me and my room-mate saw the ganesh puja going on at his place through the web-cam. It was pretty weird to see a live puje on the the cam, but it was worth it. We even bowed and payed homage to the idol through the screen. LOL!!!! [ some things are really worth mentioning ;-) ] Thanks to Nik we did not miss the entire ganesh puja. I did find a little funny even though it was a super experience watching it through the web-cam.

Ok more about my life in the states sometime later. Right now I got to go and get my assignment done. Bye for now!!!!

America America

Finally I have landed in the place that people prefer to call as the land of dreams and land of hope. Makes me remember how people throng the city of Mumbai in search for a job or with hopes of becoming an actor. Funny how the analogy works. Makes me think that even I come under almost the same category. Except that I have no Hollywood dreams. Life in Arizona especially at Tempe is not all that bad I must say. Living in an apartment that is situated in the heart of the major Indian community does not make you feel so out of place. So basically you do not require too much time to get acclimatized to the surroundings. The first thing that I did learn after coming to Tempe is that Arizona is HOT. Lets just say that it is a direct reference to the weather and to the incredibly amazing population of the opposite gender species a.k.a Chicks. Well that is the first couple of things a normal guy would notice upon landing here. Life here is not all that bad at all. Once the initial hiccups are overcome I could say that it is a pretty smooth sailing routine. Sometimes it might just become routine and mechanical. But the degree that comes after 2 years is worth its weight in gold. Here are some of the interesting observations that I have made during my brief tenure so far.

* Pedestrians are GOD. Literally speaking they are gods, and get the first preference on road. But on the flip side they are not invincible. Get it right? You still have to look both ways to cross the roads.
* Every third person on the road greets you with a “Howdy”. It does not matter whether you know the person or not, you just say “howdy” and carry on with your work. ( I do not think that it is a greeting which says that you are openly accepted. Maybe it is just a courteous greeting. You never know maybe I am mistaken. ) There are always exceptions to everything. In fact some of them are genuinely nice people. [Honest observation and not being diplomatic. ]
* Every other guy has a very helping nature. You get all the facilities to make sure that you are not lost. As in you get maps and all. But if u are portraying an image with even the slightest bit of confusion or “ I am lost” look then trust me you will find atleast two people willing to help you out without you asking for their help.
* Most of the Americans love to talk. I have atleast spoken to more than half a dozen strangers in a span of 3 or 4 days. Spoken means having a literal conversation.
* Most of the people here have a dream of visiting India. That was really nice to hear. And guess what most of them have heard about cricket. Though half of them do not know how to play.
* Believe it or not, I play cricket nowadays. With a small guy who hails from Bangladesh, is not a fan of Tendulkar and loves Australia. I do not have a choice, since not many guys around here play cricket. A couple of Americans have tried their hand at the game and trust me they are yet to differentiate between cricket and baseball. They do try to learn the game though and thats an encouraging sign.
* The internet speed is faster than the damn auto-rickshwas back home. Beat this. In India BSNL offers 2 Mbps speeds for a net connection and we say wow thats pretty fast. Believe it or not at this very moment I am using a net connection that is offering speed 7.5 times that BSNL offers. Online streaming was never so fast. I watch movies online rather than downloading them ( which is a crime here by the way....crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )
* The punctuality of the people here is amazing. People will keep up their time no matter what.
* Some of the kids think that we are here to kill them. Have heard kids screaming not to kill them. Sounds funny when you experience it.

Well there are so many more things that I would like to tell but at the moment mind has gone blank. I guess its time to hit the sack. Its almost 2.45 in the night here. I guess its back to square one for me. The late nights never die do they??