In retrospect .... the summer experience


it was mid-april when i finally accepted the painful fact that i would have to stay in kgp for yet another summer !! and i was still undecided about what i would be doing ... (and even now , i cant really tell you what work i actually did this summer ! )

end-sems over and i ran to catch my train to puri .. 3 days of fun and comfort with my parents .. and then back to the grind .. wanted to do something in AI but the prof was too busy .. so it was back to SS (sudeshna sarkar) for the second summer in a row . However the work this time was better and more challenging (statistical machine translation) . And that should have got me working ??!! Oh ! you really dont know me ...

Then the surprises started to pop up ....
an Ex in prob/stats .. now i actually got full marks for a wrong solution coz the profs also thought in the same wrong track as me .. and my total was 89 . So i guess i was enjoying my golden luck with grades yet again !!! and this time it saw me through .. my first(and definitely last) perfect 10 .

The mercury was rising ..

So i was running home every weekend and often extending my stay by a day or two ... and finally i realized i should be working a little more ... so no more home-going for the next fornight (that got extended for a week more .. coz i was going to ahmedabad after that) ..

little did i know that i was going to have one of the most memorable and eventful three weeks of my life .......

enter udit sajjanhar .
linux funde and downloading songs on the dept server .. thats what got us started (we werent really close before this summer) , then the really long hours we spent in the lab working [;)] developed the friendship .... and then the joys and the sorrows we "shared" (better put as 'endured together') made him a special friend ... hope the friendship remains beyond those scorching days .

enter ashutosh parkhi , subin paul .
ashutosh struck me as a very focussed individual with aspirations of doing "kuchh aur,kuchh aur,kuchh aur ..." (further studies .. that is) . was studying almost all the time i saw him . thank goodness MS W1-206 finally had a studious inhabitant .
the most impressive human i have met in sometime .. subin paul !! i interacted with him for hardly a couple of hours and yet his sincerity and simplicity was wonderful . though i never saw him sipping at his favourite Fanta !!

enter ankita mukherjee .
i have to learn to recognize bengalis better !!!
and true to bengali tradition (i am a sorry exception), talent is aplenty in this poetess . was initially scared of her (her orkut profile isnt the most amiable i have ever seen) and our first conversation wasnt under the most favourable conditions . however , from the little that i got to know of her , i guess she can be selectively stupid (and otherwise so wise) , extremely reflective (hallmark of all poets) and can run away from "trouble" whenever required .
and thats exactly what she did before i managed to get back to kgp .

enter shubhra chandra .
miss tenacity !!!!! i must reiterate "the most hard-working female" i have ever seen . thought she was the most reticent yet the most approachable in the group (now thats a wonderful combination) ... in fact had initially thought of talking only to her on the sunday (shubhra, if you can figure out) . always thought that she held back more than what she actually said (early signs of mature wisdom .. hmmm ) . a dormant poet, great sensitivity , pretty sentimental ( as apparent from her blogs ) ....
"is the server running ?" -- first question she asked me (still remember our first extremely brief conversation .. somehow my short-term memory surprises me !!! ) . hope this friendship "runs" for a long time to come .

enter shaunak chatterjee .
surprised ???!!!
me too !!! because this summer the most surprising discoveries i made were mostly about me . i discovered some new facets of my otherwise ordinary character .
i have always believed in standing up for what i think is right .. this summer i did exactly that . i experienced the joy and the pains of trying to be selfless . the ecstasy and agony of the heart . the tribulation of sending marathon, scary, first mails (dont think too much if you cant figure out any of these .. coz then you were not close enough to the action) .
this summer i learnt a few important lessons (some that will remain with me for life i guess .. unless my short-term memory poses some problems) . one thing that i learnt and wouldn't mind sharing ...
"Always speak out your mind in full earnest and be absolutely honest . Honesty always helps and you will never regret wondering what could have happened . Give it your best shot while you are in the moment .... "

enter priya gupta .
after my initial orkut research , i had only managed to get her surname right !! even then , she lauded my research capabilities ...
a charming and infectious smile , enigmatically amiable (strange as that might sound) and the capability to bring a smile to any face (after all , what are PJs for ?? but honestly , the most wonderful virtue a person can possibly have) , taught me something really important about life (and this i will surely remember for a long time) .
the person with whom i share a few similarities.. - moderately lazy (sleeping in afternoons .. working a little otherwise) , GRE aspirants (another "kuchh aur, kuchh aur, kuchh aur" type) , not working in the lab (excessive orkutting for her , unlimited crosswords & extra-curricular research [;)] for me) .
But she loves horror movies ( oh my god !!!) she actually loves them (thats scary !!!! it really is !! ) ... and she can cook !!
hoping you can transform the "innocent and fearful kid" in me into a horror movie buff someday..

... and i somehow resemble her elder brother in looks and personality !!! hey not bad .. considering he has a job in the US !!! hope some of his nicety rubs off on me .


a little mention for all my friends here in kgp , who helped me through all the ups and downs ... being there by my side ( when i really needed them ) , once again reaffirming my pride in having really good friends . and hoping that i have made some invaluable additions to that list ...

And the "curse" of 2 continues to haunt me !!!
always the second-best in school(overall) , second in the dep(after 1st sem) , second among all B.techs (after 2nd sem) , second overall (for the last two semesters) ....
and my good fortune with the second most precious thing in life ... FRIENDS ( now thats not really a curse ) ...
all this somehow eats up my luck when it comes to the best thing . alas !!

for once , i yearned for the greatest thing in life (subjective opinion) .. and i gave it my best shot . please dont blame me for trying .
and of course you know ....
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to ....."
If you dont , then i guess you never saw MOULIN ROUGE .

now that i look back at the last two months .. i guess it was just destiny ...
that i had to stay back in kgp this summer , our trip to ahmedabad was delayed by a month and the scorching heat forced me to take shelter in the AC labs (where i met all these wonderful people) ... truly a summer to remember because its these relationships that you build along the path of life that you fondly remember and fall back upon when you stumble on the way ....

as for my project .. well ....... when was i concerned about that ?
my priorities were , are and probably will forever be ..
" kuchh aur , kuchh aur , kuchh aur " .