Living a new life in an old body - kind of seems strange .. but then there are always stranger things in life :)
Let me take you back to the last couple of months in India.
I had a wonderful time. I think I was able to meet most of my friends who I would not be meeting till the next time I went to India. Vacations merging, Spicejet offering cheap fares, Mck holding a timely ISB session, Lufthansa night flight, a timely Kgp trip, Singapore dollars - I was lucky!
The little cooking and driving I picked up haven't been tested yet, but I think I have learnt well :)
And then came the hard part :(
Saying goodbye .. I saw the tears roll out and on one of the rarest occasions, there was nothing I could do about it .. I wished I could cry too ..
3 flights later .. and there was a nice stop in Singapore .. I was in SFO and then in Berkeley!
The last couple of weeks have been a completely different experience. When I was settling into Kharagpur four years back, I never had this sense of independence. Nor was Kharagpur so different from the living standards and environment I have grown up in.
Berkeley, on the other hand, is vastly different. As I said before, 'A new life'.
The settling into process has been a lot different this time. Its always easier to shift into greater luxury - so its been commodity-wise convenient. But knowing that the people who mattered the most to you are physically half a globe away does change the whole dynamics of this process. There have been moments of helplessness (not homesickness yet) ..
And then there is a new-found sense of independence. But the tricky part will be the added responsibility which comes as a free add-on.
So classes start tomorrow :(
Fox Soccer Channel to bring EPL, HBO for movies, Free DVDs from NetFlix (I know that's an overdose), a home-entertainment system (thanks to Shantanu), a HOME (how can I forget that?!?!), great apartment-mates, wonderful food, awesome cereals (they needed special mention!), a Lenovo T61, just one notebook and possibly no pen - I am all set!
Thanks to the wonderful system here, I can just take 2 courses and concentrate on research without any administrative problem :). That should leave me with a decent amount of time to explore the entertainment possibilities both in-house and outside in the next few months :D
The long hibernation from blogging is now over!
For good?
Well .. its still the old, lazy body .. but its a new, invigorating life!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Looking back at 2006
Its been one of the most happening years of my life.
A month-wise meltdown (my blog actually helped out on listing this).
January : A memorable Spring-Fest. Arijit coming over from Canada. Internship blues started.
February : Internship blues intensified, though now had options. Mission Mars bombed. MSR came calling !! :) Chandipur trip.
March : Visa problems. Mostly uneventful.
April : Got my visa :). My second perfect 10 semester. One of my personal favourite posts (this)
May : Travelled outside India for the first time. Loved being in the US and Redmond. First office experience. First paycheck!! Great work and great people to work with.
June : Began enjoying myself. Became good friends with Francisco, Nikita, Tulika and Himanshu. Microsoft's pampering was incredible and it started showing on my waistline ;)
July : Went to Mt. Rainier. Walked on snow for the first time (it was amazing!!). Wrapped up my work. Back to India having gained significant dollars and 'pounds' ;)
August : "How I met your mother" happened. GRE happened. I was stupid enough not to properly see my score. Luckily, 1560 happened !! :)
September : Midsems. Uneventful. Left for Delhi for my TOEFL.
October : Nice Delhi trip. Nice TOEFL. Really loved the metro there. This trip has made Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida my preferred region for working if and when I work in India.
First Pujas away from home and my parents. First of many :(
Last Illumination. The wonderful dept treat !! (thanks to MSR)
November : Typhoid. Gearing up for apps. For jobs (not really). Ran to Kolkata for a day to give CAT. Horrible endsems :( - worst semester performance since my first sem. My work at MSR was published in a tech report :)
December : McKinsey's offer on day 1 of Placements made it a truly memorable birthday. Katoch and Kothari making it on day 1 too was great :)
My MSR work's paper was accepted in TACAS 2007 :), although I did not write a single word of the paper.
Wrapped up my apping work. Messed up my transcript sending dates :(
An eventful year, a wonderful year, a bitter-sweet year, a year leading to 2007 - which will be a pivotal year because I now have to choose what to do ... and the choice is getting more difficult as the day is drawing near.
2007 has begun well though. Pandey getting through TI (and he so deserved it!!). Talking to my favourite cousin after a long time. And a shock CAT percentile (99.99) - reminded me of the day when JEE results came out.
Just hoping that my luck doesn't run out when the crucial application decisions start to come in from mid February. Loads to do before that though, as the trip to the hallowed land now seems possible :)
A month-wise meltdown (my blog actually helped out on listing this).
January : A memorable Spring-Fest. Arijit coming over from Canada. Internship blues started.
February : Internship blues intensified, though now had options. Mission Mars bombed. MSR came calling !! :) Chandipur trip.
March : Visa problems. Mostly uneventful.
April : Got my visa :). My second perfect 10 semester. One of my personal favourite posts (this)
May : Travelled outside India for the first time. Loved being in the US and Redmond. First office experience. First paycheck!! Great work and great people to work with.
June : Began enjoying myself. Became good friends with Francisco, Nikita, Tulika and Himanshu. Microsoft's pampering was incredible and it started showing on my waistline ;)
July : Went to Mt. Rainier. Walked on snow for the first time (it was amazing!!). Wrapped up my work. Back to India having gained significant dollars and 'pounds' ;)
August : "How I met your mother" happened. GRE happened. I was stupid enough not to properly see my score. Luckily, 1560 happened !! :)
September : Midsems. Uneventful. Left for Delhi for my TOEFL.
October : Nice Delhi trip. Nice TOEFL. Really loved the metro there. This trip has made Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida my preferred region for working if and when I work in India.
First Pujas away from home and my parents. First of many :(
Last Illumination. The wonderful dept treat !! (thanks to MSR)
November : Typhoid. Gearing up for apps. For jobs (not really). Ran to Kolkata for a day to give CAT. Horrible endsems :( - worst semester performance since my first sem. My work at MSR was published in a tech report :)
December : McKinsey's offer on day 1 of Placements made it a truly memorable birthday. Katoch and Kothari making it on day 1 too was great :)
My MSR work's paper was accepted in TACAS 2007 :), although I did not write a single word of the paper.
Wrapped up my apping work. Messed up my transcript sending dates :(
An eventful year, a wonderful year, a bitter-sweet year, a year leading to 2007 - which will be a pivotal year because I now have to choose what to do ... and the choice is getting more difficult as the day is drawing near.
2007 has begun well though. Pandey getting through TI (and he so deserved it!!). Talking to my favourite cousin after a long time. And a shock CAT percentile (99.99) - reminded me of the day when JEE results came out.
Just hoping that my luck doesn't run out when the crucial application decisions start to come in from mid February. Loads to do before that though, as the trip to the hallowed land now seems possible :)
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