New Crush

The foreign university gives one big benefit to its students. The sports facilities are excellent. It took me a semester to figure that out. Big gyms, lots of courts, lots of tables. Most of them indoor with good lighting and of course heating.

So the new crush is Badminton. Not that I played the sport a lot in India. Sonu would know better. But the courts are great and the fee is also modest around 20 $ a semester. And not a bad workout for three days a week.

So on sunday I decided to hit the court. Surprisingly only five us turned up. I was the unlucky one to be left standing with my new racket. Half an hour. At last a chapti turned up. I lost all hopes now. But she is a nice girl. She approaches me to play. And mahoorat nikle aaya.

At first I thought I should play softly but soon found that she knew where to place the shuttle on the court. I realized its all about placing the shuttle on the court. Soon a Desi arrived. Looks an undergrad. The chapti retires to a phone call. The Desi looked a good player. He just kept smashing my serves back into my body. Sometimes his tricky play forced me to fetch the shuttle and serve again. I was really pissed the way he played, looking to win every point. But then good players treat every opportunity of practice to prepare themselves for the game situation. And had he been feeding me with easier strokes, may be I would not have learnt anything at all.

Soon we were joined by an amro couple for a doubles match. No problems with them. Though I am new to the doubles thing but I won a couple of points on my own. The couple looked a good pair, but our Desi hero was too good for them. 

Finally one and half hours of fun finally ended. I had my right thumb's skin peeled of badly. The aggreso Desi seems to be a nice guy. He offers me a ride home. With a little bit of social engineering I came to know that he is a Phd i mechanical and has been working here for last three years. Surely, he looks a real nerd like Balaji. 

During the ride back home in night we seemed to lost our way. On one crossing we went in all the directions except from the one we actually came to that crossing. His name is Sudarshan and he is from Madras. 'Madras' I thought. Most of them reply 'Chennai'. Surely he has been around long enough. We finally reached our apartment with a little bit of hit and try.

Let's see how long the crush lasts!

 

May it be Fedrer vs Nadal

I missed all the action in the Australian Open this time. The channels would not relay the telecast here. The news is that both, Fedrer and Nadal have made to the semis. Hoping that they make it to the final. And an honest prayer. May the final never end. May both play the way they played in Wimbledon last year. May they again match each other for each set, game and shot. May their shots be deep in other's court. May each set go in tie-breakers.

Such is the impact of their previous showdown at Wimbledon. Fedrer's game got better as Nadal tightened the screws. Probably the greatest game of tennis I ever saw.

I guess the only arrangement I have to make for the Sunday's game is the knowledge of the timings and the channel.    

The TA hours

Well some talk about the work. So today I had my 'boney'. This is the Indian word for the first business of the day. So I had someone come up with their doubts on the assignment. Its real fun to see those confused ungerdgrads come up with their sometimes trivial doubts. My first for this course was a bearded amro, though I would have preferred an amro girl, but that's fine with me. As long as they appear to go contented and the professor for the course does not bug me, its an aish time for me with all those $s.  

The early morning Sun

So every morning there is a race. A race to occupy the bathroom between me and Jagdish. I should use 'Sir'. He is at least ten years older to me. A really nice guy. That I broke his bowl, but he was at his own calm self. Just told to get another bowl from 'Walmart'.  

So Jagdish and me are early morning people. We look to leave as early as possible. I do not know why a guy who is completing his Phd needs to leave so early. Its understandable for someone like me, who is really struggling with graduate career, to be up and running early morning. Nevertheless when one occupies the bathroom the other has to wait for at least 40 minutes. Longer for me as Jagdish applies a lot of creams to keep those wrinkles under wraps.

But I have another motivation to rush to department so early. The Sun Rise. So my office room was changed by my advicer at the beggining of the semester. That place really sucked with a lot of people in the cooridor and a very big room with a lot of chinese clatter. But I never expected to have the sun staring right in my face. Its an amazing feeling to see the sun rise at around 7 in the morning. Although I never liked my mamma's repeated requests for getting some Vitamin D in winter's., but the morning sun is something I missed since my school days ended. College was all about late classes. The whole picture of the sun coming out from behind the mountains is something everyone wants to see. And I get to see that everyday.

I do not know when my honeymoon with the early sun would end. But for now I am enjoying it.

Some racialism

The important question here is not that there is racialism in world, but how do you really define it. People may not mean anything by the words they use, but then the situation and the context becomes important.

So today an old lady, who handles logistics of our department, came into my office room and enquired my fellow lab member about the people sitting in the lab. So we were four of the five who normally sit in the lab. So the situation is that we four do not know the name of the fifth person. So my collegue has a hard time explaining her who the person is. He tries hard but cannot come up with an adequate description that could help this lady. I tried to say the black guy but kept quite. I guess for the same reason my collegue was not mentioning the 'B' word. Or maybe because I was there.

But the poor lady helped us by mentioning the 'B' word. What a relief! But the important thing is when we do not put names to faces we start to associate other things such as height, clothes, status and finally color with the person. That's when pundits like me bring the racial stuff in the picture.

But then people here call Obama the first black president. That's also racial. When we say chapte, desi or amro, that's also racial. I guess we all use some racial terms at least once a day. Then perhaps the lady was just fine. We were unnecssarily bothered.

Its Ridiculously Cold

Past five days have been the worst in terms of the temperature in State College. Just imagine, Wednesday 6 F, Thursday 9 F, Friday 0 F, Saturday 13 F and Sunday 21 F. Please do calculations for converting to Celsius. Its like even with 5 layers of clothing on top you still feel chillness getting inside.

There plenty of snow around. Snowfall is fun. Soft flakes feel so nice the when they touch your cheeks. And walking on the snow is the most dangerous thing. You can slip and fall anytime. You have to be careful at all times. One lapse is enough for a plaster.

But what you can't do is stay inside at all time. You have to get stuff to eat and then attend classes. But for first timers these things are fun.

Haule Haule aayegi garmi!!!

  

Biggest Fear in my life

Everybody fears something more than anything else. I fear of not returning to India after my studies. Not that job prospect is any rosier in India than here, but I fear for my father and my mother. My father calls me twice everyday since I have returned back. Maybe he misses me even more now. Now that Sonu will also be coming here in internship he would be all alone. Mummy does tell much, but I know what she feels.

I am not happy here. More than the job situation, it is the separation from that bothers me the most. I do not know when the crying phase will be over. All this is getting pent up and I don't know where this would take me. 

But always talking to that oxymoron Balaji is a worrying thing to me. He just not seem to be bothered about his parents at all. Jagdish is another example having been in this country for over ten years now. This really scares me no bounds. What's more depressing seeing hundreds of Indians during my journey in New York. 

Jag Soona soona lage re.

Got me Big Time

It was a very obvious thing that went through my eyes and my mind. The day after I arrived in State College, I went to IST to check my mails. I found a very familiar mail addressed from SIIS LAB, requiring my ID and password for up-gradation of the mail system. Well some break from security was enough for me to commit that mistake. I sent my ID and password in clear in reply. Soon my email was hacked and started being used to send some malicious emails.

Next day I was not able to log in and I called up the maintenance guys. They told me not to repeat that cardinal mistake again and allowed me to change my password. I told my mama about this and she said that its phishing and I had done something very cardinal. I think when My advicer, who is a top professor in security, comes to know of this he would hang me up.

Please do not tell him this readers!!!

Those Sleepless Nights

This is not any love story as the title of the post may suggest. So its about when you make a transition from one place to another having a time difference of 12 Hours.

So after two days of traveling I finally reached home. I wasn't very happy but I was relived to see everybody in the family hail and hearty. Although I do not like Dadi's unnecessary and meaningless clatter, it pleases me that she still has the same spunk.

But the biggest bottleneck in the way of spending quality time with your family is your sleep cycle. Come 4 p.m. in the evening and my eyes would begin to droop and my mouth would start yawning. And then I would go to sleep. Then a hazy dinner. And come 12 in the night and I am fresh and kicking. I would see T.V, surf net(gosh speed is so slow) and play Age of Empires. Papa would tell me change Good Night(Absolutely hate that). Sonu sure had a hard time for that week.

But after a week things begin to improve. Sleep cycle was getting normal by the day according to India. And then came the day of departing from the family once again. Wasn't that painful this time around. Next trip perhaps in next December. But there is another twist in tale. Back in State College, the sleep cycle is like 6 pm - 1am. Poor Balaji. He comes in around 2 am.

So now a days I am getting up earlier than normal, around 5 am in the morning. Then I have my breakfast and come to IST. Probably the first person in at around 7 in the morning. This has sparked some jealousy among some persons in my group. But I am sure I won't be able to trouble them for long. 

Some Desi Qualities

So the same old Heathrow, London. But this time I am happy to be in comfortable situation. Change time 8 hrs, lots of shops to eat, news on big TFTs and of course girls to ogle. A computer science graduate student could not have asked for more.

Heathrow is one place where a lot of Indians and people from subcontinent work. This shows that the number of people from subcontinent in London is huge. Stories about London being second India are sadly but true. I can't say brain drain, now that I am also a part of it, but it directly emphasizes on the inability of our country to provide opportunities to people from all walks of life.

So what are the qualities of Desi people. So the story goes like this. I am waiting for my flight to Delhi at Heathrow. Papa gave me strict instructions to check for the check-in baggage. These airlines can be very unpredictable when it comes to transferring of check-in baggages. I approached the gori lady and asked if my only bag had been put on the plane. She confirmed and I was at peace. Then I began to stroll near the boarding gate. A Desi man in his late 50s approached me and asked why I was talking to the lady. You girl friend uh? I thought. I told him why and he quietly went back to his seat. But then after five minutes he appears with his wrinkled face and asks me if he should also verify his bag. Pooch aayo Uncleji, par mera sir mat khayo. This was my reply of course not the sentence after par. If this wasn't enough. Another Desi London, who was overhearing our conversation, comes and asks me what was I telling the old man. I painfully had to repeat the story. He then shot back and asked whether he should also do the same. I asked him where did he checked his bags. He said from Heathrow. God save me from these Desi Londons. Such an oxymoron. Go and be damned. The bottom line is that all Desis are very watchful and observe everything you do and they are insane enough to actually do that themselves if an opportunity exists.

The second incident is even more funnier and my father just couldn't stop himself from laughing uncontrollably. Joking. But this one amused me no bounds. After tackling the two I was strolling around to find a place to sit. As there are too many Desis in London, so there is no place to sit. So I decided to stand in front of the boarding counter. Well, middle aged Goris are decent enough to ogle at. Soon I am joined by another Desi London and an Uncleji. Sooner One by one people begin to approach me ask if there is queue. To the first four enquirers, I said no. But soon I turned back to see a very long queue of only Desis behind me. Thereafter whoever came and enquired me I just sent them to the back of the queue. Bottom line Desis assume things very fast.

Two days at Heathrow have made me fall in love with the place. Its one of the busiest airports but more importantly it feels like a small town similar to the ones in India. With so many Desis around it feels like your own place. I want to see London some day and know is London also similar to Heathrow.

May my wish come true some day.