The third semester has come to an end for me today (though officially it ends the end of this week), it has been a rewarding semester, bits of sweat, some long nights and occasionally some interesting problems to solve. The annoying part was that my office this semester was in a different building from where I have my classes. Biking uphill in the cold was no fun, so I would end up TS-ing from home most of the days. This would mean sometimes spending days within the walls of my apartment and finding a short-lived blissful state when I stepped outside. Unlike India, sitting in my apartment here gives me absolutely no idea as to what it is like outside. Probably due to things like lack of ventilation and constant temperature inside.

I look forward to a break back in the midst of palm trees, family, *real* food, old friends, sea, the traffic noises, the vegetable market and speaking in hindi and malayalam. And for the unfortunate souls who decided to stay behind, I promise to come back with stories, many!

PS. Kochi has internet, and I can blog. So don't even think about LOTA!

Not sure if it is lack of sleep, too much data and a small buffer, ageing, retardation, maturity or something else… But there are enough mishaps to constitue a (blog) enumeration. So here it goes

• I realized that I never gained 15 kgs. It was a wrong pound-kilogram conversion. (Somebody calculated 100 lbs as 55 kgs & I believed it, grrr)
• Today I put clothes for laundry & the detergent in the laundry basket and the laundry card over the clothes. I went to the laundry room opposite to my apartment and started loading the clothes after pouring some detergent. At the end I had to swipe my card to start the cycle and realized I hadn’t taken the card out of the basket. I didn’t see it in the basket and took the clothes out thinking it probably fell in the washer with the clothes. But no, it wasn’t in.  I looked around thinking if it had fallen out somewhere & traced my way back carefully till my door but no luck. Now the card was missing, I had loaded two washers, clothes were in detergent, so there was no *no washing* – I had no time to waste and I was frustrated. The leasing office was open, I could take a walk and perhaps explain the story and get a new card. Sigh, anything that involves me talking to the *polite* staff in my leasing office sends this electrifying sensation in my veins. You have to be in a certain mode with all the shield of thick skin you can muster to talk to the women there. I carried the basket back to my house and was trying to get into a different mode. When I put the basket down I noticed the laundry card sticking to the vertical side! Blue card against blue basket standing up…and I had missed seeing it. Uggh. Hurray, no visit to the dreaded place.
• Few weeks back, I was cycling back home in the night. I had just begun to pedal and thought something was wrong with my back tyre. I turned behind, all looked good and I turned back to see that I was headed straight for a post. Next, I was on the grass next to the post and all I felt was embarrassment. There were probably some house parties going on in the neighbourhood, I could hear some girls in the distance discuss “Oh my God Oh my God…Look…..Oh she is moving…oh she is getting up….”, I got up and lifted my bike and pedaled away telling myself that I was wearing a helmet & a light jacket and it will all be forgotten tomorrow when the world sobered up.
• Now, I do not recall this, my sister cited the whole story to me. Apparently she called me, I took the phone and she asked if I recognized the voice. I said “no”, she then said she was Neha. There were some question answer series and my sister got upset and hung up. Apparently she waited for me to call her back and apologize. My second sister cited the story to me (& the phone records validate the story :-( )and I had to call up Neha and justify.
• In the beginning of the semester, I mailed by broadband cheque with the to and from addresses interchanged. And when I found it in my mailbox after a week+, I told myself I am not desperate to mail cheques to myself. This resulted in my broadband connection getting disconnected for 2 weeks. Life was bad then.
• I finally got an old car last weekend. I am yet to affix the license plates but I have been driving a bit. All the 3 people who have sat next to me while I was driving have been slightly uncomfortable. I know that I need to brake when they stretch out their legs involuntarily. I am having a lot of fun driving though.
• I showed some pictures of my car to my brother and he very politely said (in hindi) "Car thodi khataara nahi hai"!(I am not sure how to translate that). I laughed and replied "Thodi nahi, kaafi khataara hai".  
• I can’t help smiling when I see a stop sign, especially a 2-way, 3-way or 4-way stop sign. For those of you who don’t know, if there is a 4 way stop sign at an intersection where 4 roads meet then all vehicles stop completely at the stop sign and proceed in the order they arrived. Now, I smile when I see this because I think how this would be if it were in India. The day we follow this rule in India, lot of things would have changed. It would be very very interesting.

Thats me these days

Yes, I need a car.

Aug 2005 – Sept 2006

The most

1. I saw the most no of english & foreign movies [french, spanish, italian, israeli] in the last one year compared to the movies seen in the rest of my life put together. Same goes for television series
2. I thought and thought. I probably did the most amount of constructive thinking and retrospection in the last 1 yr
3. I spent the maximum amount of money out of my pocket in the last one year – tickets to US in aug 2005, laptop in sept 2005, travel to Europe & back in aug 2006, round trip tickets to India and back
4. I gained 15 kgs (~33 pounds) of weight.
5. I missed Indian food the most in the last one yr. Also home & Diwali.
6. I cooked more than ever
7. I ate the most amount of junk food, skipping breakfast
8. Some would probably say I am very independent now, I paid an electricity bill for the first time myself last year. By mailing a check :P

The least

1. Watched the least no. of hindi movies compared to the no. every other year
2. Least amount of physical labour. No laundry, no sweeping, mopping. That explains point 4 above. way too sedentary

Achievements

1. I quit Microsoft and rejoined Microsoft as an intern last summer
2. I joined IU
3. I got a drivers license last summer
4. I cook non-veg. Chicken & pork. Tried fish & prawns once and may be the last time for a while.
5. I ate seafood. Shrimps, mussels, clams & crabs cooked in sauce. An year ago, if somebody told my future as me wearing an apron to eat steamed seafood in its shell using tools, I would have never believed it.

Realizations

1. I should have learnt Haskell or scheme as my first programming language
2. I work great as long as I stay excited. The excitement rarely lingers
3. I have a long initial warm up time. It took me 2.5 semesters in undergrad and 1^st semester in grad school.
4. I never wanted a million dollars before. In other words, I started wanting to be a millionaire starting last year.
5. I had the best summer. Seattle was great, made some new friends, kept all the old ones.
6. I feel more mature & cynical. I also get occasional pangs of “what is left in life to do”, I called it enlightenment once but Anil pointed that then in the same breath I wouldn’t crib about how life in most parts of US is built around the assumption that you have a car. Oh well, I am growing old.
7. Life in Bloomington is a lot fun-ner with a vehicle. Bike can get me to places foot won’t, but cannot get me to several places. I need a car.
8. I need to see a lot of the US – Manhattan, other parts of NY, museums of DC, the Niagra  falls(sounds so absolutely desi, J), at least I have photos at universal studios & Disney world to add to my desi profile ;)
9. I know more about the world, I understand that I don’t understand American politics very well yet. I don’t particularly want to either.
10. I always believed in multiverse, now I hope that I would either be able to go into outer space or have an alien encounter in this lifetime. No, I don’t want to do anything in this direction to make it happen. Its one of those things you just want to happen somehow. Wishful thinking huh.

Things I hope to say next year

1. I go to the gym
2. I am back into sports – play something regularly – Frisbee, squash, badminton – something
3. I am eating healthier food
4. I am thinking about getting married
5. I blog
6. Travel in India (I want to go back and see Rajasthan)
7. I have the digital photo frame among other gadgets
8. I am enjoying work
9. I have a car
10. I tried sushi [read as sashimi]

[Update: Added links to seafood]

Talking to Roshan some weeks back got us started talking about DD programs and then about some of those national intergrity songs/promos that they often played on television. Most people around my age who grew up in India will be able to relate to this. Since we couldn't switch channels then, there is no way you could watch TV and not see these. Starting from the vande mataram song in the morning to the weekly chitrahaars and 9.00 o' clock serials.

I felt very good discovering & watching mile sur mera tumhara and ek chidiya. I also stumbled upon an MIT version of mile sur mera tumhara. My favorite bit is the firang on the bike singing the part that a keralite sings on an elephant in the original song. I cannot find a video of "sun sun sun mere munne sun.." on the internet but do recall chiranjeevi, mammooty, and some bollywood folk singing supposedly to kids.

On my flight from London to Cincinatti [US], I went through the usual screening. Just before boarding the flight there was another check. I just carried a purse with my passport, I-20, pencils, wallet, cell phone & keys. The officer asked me if I carried any liquids or any pens or pencils. I said yes to pencils and he asked me to leave them with him. I did that and wondered as to how on earth I could take a flight down with a pencil. [Yeah later Michel argued that one could kill using a pen]. Once the flight took off the airhostess passed landing cards to the passengers and asked us to fill them up. Since we didnt have anything to write with, they provided pens.