Snow! We had enough!

It’s over. The craze for snow. I remember the first day it snowed and the excitement in people who had witnessed it for the first time. Yours truly was not that big an enthusiast to play with snowballs, dancing in the snow or taking a snap of the name written on snow and putting it up on the orkut profile, but it’s a fact that he was thrilled to see the snowed neighborhood nonetheless. However the zeal of the desi public has finally subsided and for good reason. Who likes to be out in a weather of -30C with the feet trapped in inches-deep show waiting for the bus which doesn’t show up in time! In addition, if you have ever slipped and fell on your back, while trying to move faster on the snow than you should, the snow-god had to bear the worst swearing ever invented by the people on earth. The welcome exclamations of “Wow! It’s snowing!” has been replaced with the cursing ones “WTF! It’s snowing again!”

Life as we know it

It’s going very normal. Bit of problems here and there but overall cruising through. I received an email from the graduate committee chairman today. Finally, the switching of advisors is officially accepted. Good way to start a Sunday morning. End of an episode in my life, I suppose; I hope. Have two exams next week, one on 14th Feb, one on the day after; what a coincidence. Getting along with a lovely relationship with the profs :D I hate that. Got some work in the lab too, the ‘fun’ days are over as they say it. I have actually heard that term quite a few times in my last job. Thankfully the fun days were never actually over until I, eventually, decided to end it. The qualifiers are in April. We have to take the exams in two areas, I have chosen controls and solid-state. I wish there was something with electrical circuits excluding computer architecture. Unfortunately that is not the case and I have to go by that. It’s a written exam and should not be TOO tough, only thing is that I need to study because I literally know nothing about them. But you know the typical engineering attitude!! No work till the deadline is due tomorrow. All the best to me …

Chilly Figures

This is what weather.com has to say about our area -
"-18°C

Feels Like
-28°C"

This is continuing for quite some time now and no hope of respite in near future.
The weather sucks.

I have heard that the lake has frozen. In summer, I had plans to visit the frozen lake. Now .... no way

Saraswati Puja

It all started with a few extra pounds of mutton. Sounds odd as an introduction to a puja, but that’s what it was. The extra meat led to an invitation for dinner to a few people, who incidentally were on the same shuttle bus. Discussion spurted and led to what was more like an accident than a planned event. Saraswati puja has always been a special event for the students(due to different reasons, priorities are personal), but I didn’t have the slightest idea that it might be at my place itself before mid last week. It took the enthusiastic involvement of quite some people to finally materialize an incredible event. It was really unthinkable how smoothly everything was carried out considering the short planning period and the overwhelming turn out of around 60 people. Not too huge a number for a normal puja in Bengal, but for one like this, it definitely was.

The venue was at my place. It was an occasion, good enough, to finally clean our living room after a long time (may be the first time, I am not sure!) :D A few decorative plants, dupattas, some quick fine arts and it was hard to believe that the same place could look so nice. The most daunting (probably the most important too!) task, cooking for so many people, was shouldered by a number of people and they did a wonderful job. The menu included kichuri, alu bhaja, begun bhaja, alu-fulkopir tarkari, chatni and rasmalai. I feel sorry for those who missed it. While all was set in motion, there was still a key problem, the purohit, whose role was finally played quite ably by arnab(yes, bhalo arnab for those who know him). He was splendid in his work, as close as it can get to being a pro. With pushpanjali and prasad, it was a complete package of satisfaction. I hope we get more events like this.

(Thanks to Prajna, Saugata, Debashis, Ishita, Katha, Nilotpal, Swarnava, Kaustav, Sibendu, Tirtha, Rima, Amlan, Kohinoor, Shubhasish, Arnab, Nakul, Bhushan, Vinayak, Krushna, Joyeeta in no particular order. I thought twice before putting the names because there is always a chance that I miss someone. I am sorry if that is you.)

Ma! bhaloi bhaloi graduation-ta korie dao

etai shera samay!

The Group

Recent Past, Present & Future

It has been some time since this blog saw a new post. Well, before anything else, a very happy new year to all those who are reading these lines (not a whole lot, I am sure). The winter holidays were fantastic. I enjoyed a lot in the one-month-long break. I didn’t go anywhere outside Chciago as most of my friends did but still made the most of it being in the city. I had decided to switch advisor and I was to start working with the new group only in January. So partying, eating out, going around the city, watching movies, visiting friends in near-by universities - it was all fun. This was the first time that I went to a church on Christmas eve. It was primarily because of three Italian guys insisting on going there, and also I must admit I didn’t like all about the long rituals, nonetheless it was a novel experience in the church. The New Year Eve at navy pier was also pretty nice. The festive mood was too hard to ignore. You can see a short video from you-tube here.

Now that the new semester has started, it looks like I got the time to write about all these. Things are again quite messed up, in fact it is messed up more than ever before. The details are just too complicated. It will be both difficult and stupid to put everything on this blog. I just hope that I finally end up getting a PhD.