Since a long time I wanted to channel my creative dabbling into something more productive. A discussion with Vamsi led to an idea of making and selling greeting cards. This led to my holiday project.
I plan to make 25 cards by Jan 14 then sell them and give the amount raised to Asha (http://www.ashanet.org/), adding some more of my own and getting it matched as well.
The challenge is to make each card unique and different. I will try to use all of the card-making techniques I have learnt so far for this. Keep track of my progress on this post or on my site http://sites.narla.net/handmade-cards
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Great Indian Wedding - Part 1
I'm getting married!
Its definitely a memorable time for every bride-to-be. And most brides-to-be would start planning for their wedding trousseau and/or their wedding venue.
Not me! Being a geek myself and having landed with an equally geeky guy, our first thought was "we need a wedding website!"
Since this was planned to be a typical Indian wedding anyways, we weren't much help with any other planning, being literally halfway across the globe from Mumbai (our wedding venue). So while our parents took care of the day-time, venue, decorations and other such logistics, we focused on the wedding website :)
So what should a wedding website be like? It must be scalable, sleek and completely built using everything open-source and free. After some research, we settled on using Google AppEngine to host the app since it provided everything including database access, running server-side scripts and a web server all for free! Anyone who has struggled with setting up and using Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL knows what a lot of trouble it is to get a simple web server setup. AppEngine took away all that headache!
Then there was the part that the site should look pretty. After some more Googling, we came upon Flashmo, a site that offers free flash templates. This triggered off a learning spree for Flash CS5 for both of us!
After numerous Flash and AppEngine tutorials, lots of weekends spent coding and debugging and some debates over the site content; our website was ready! It has a photo gallery, a guestbook, a wedding countdown and lots of sleek touches. More importantly, it is a reflection of who we are as a couple and everything that brings us together. It is now proudly hosted at http://chaitaliandvamsi.appspot.com!
However, I must admit that the power of the human sub-conscious mind is immense. How else can you explain our use of Flash that meant our site wouldn't open on iPhones and iPod Touches? And our mistake of unknowingly generating an HTML that didn't work in IE? Yes, the human mind is very mysterious indeed... ;)
Its definitely a memorable time for every bride-to-be. And most brides-to-be would start planning for their wedding trousseau and/or their wedding venue.
Not me! Being a geek myself and having landed with an equally geeky guy, our first thought was "we need a wedding website!"
Since this was planned to be a typical Indian wedding anyways, we weren't much help with any other planning, being literally halfway across the globe from Mumbai (our wedding venue). So while our parents took care of the day-time, venue, decorations and other such logistics, we focused on the wedding website :)
So what should a wedding website be like? It must be scalable, sleek and completely built using everything open-source and free. After some research, we settled on using Google AppEngine to host the app since it provided everything including database access, running server-side scripts and a web server all for free! Anyone who has struggled with setting up and using Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL knows what a lot of trouble it is to get a simple web server setup. AppEngine took away all that headache!
Then there was the part that the site should look pretty. After some more Googling, we came upon Flashmo, a site that offers free flash templates. This triggered off a learning spree for Flash CS5 for both of us!
After numerous Flash and AppEngine tutorials, lots of weekends spent coding and debugging and some debates over the site content; our website was ready! It has a photo gallery, a guestbook, a wedding countdown and lots of sleek touches. More importantly, it is a reflection of who we are as a couple and everything that brings us together. It is now proudly hosted at http://chaitaliandvamsi.appspot.com!
However, I must admit that the power of the human sub-conscious mind is immense. How else can you explain our use of Flash that meant our site wouldn't open on iPhones and iPod Touches? And our mistake of unknowingly generating an HTML that didn't work in IE? Yes, the human mind is very mysterious indeed... ;)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
To cut a long story short...
Have you ever set out on an adventure and then had a feeling towards the end of it that you should have documented it better? Thats exactly the feeling I have now. Which is why this blog post is a documentation of my long adventure towards becoming a Master of Science in Computer Engineering.
It all started 3 years ago with V persuading me to drop joining Infy and do my Masters. So began a long cramming session for GRE that I spoke about here and some more practice sessions for TOEFL. Then I went through the pipeline (excuse my comp. arch terminology) with the SOP-Recos-Applications stage and the Visa stage again blogged about here.
As an MS student I blogged a lot about my initial experience here and here. Somewhere in the second and third sems I got more engrossed in enjoying the experience rather than documenting it. Nevertheless I still managed to squeeze in a post on a unique exam experience here. But I didn't write a word about the hunt that occupied the largest part of my MS time - JOB SEARCH! I intend to blog about it soon but not in this post :)
If you are wondering whether this post is over yet, I'll say it isn't. Like I mentioned before, I wished I'd documented my MS experiences better. Fortunately I had this realization at the beginning of my last sem here. So the purpose of this post is to give you a link to my experiences in my last sem at UFL.
It all started 3 years ago with V persuading me to drop joining Infy and do my Masters. So began a long cramming session for GRE that I spoke about here and some more practice sessions for TOEFL. Then I went through the pipeline (excuse my comp. arch terminology) with the SOP-Recos-Applications stage and the Visa stage again blogged about here.
As an MS student I blogged a lot about my initial experience here and here. Somewhere in the second and third sems I got more engrossed in enjoying the experience rather than documenting it. Nevertheless I still managed to squeeze in a post on a unique exam experience here. But I didn't write a word about the hunt that occupied the largest part of my MS time - JOB SEARCH! I intend to blog about it soon but not in this post :)
If you are wondering whether this post is over yet, I'll say it isn't. Like I mentioned before, I wished I'd documented my MS experiences better. Fortunately I had this realization at the beginning of my last sem here. So the purpose of this post is to give you a link to my experiences in my last sem at UFL.
...and make it long again
So Fall 09 began with DSNEP. You need to refer to its definition and inauguration here. But I soon discovered that I was good at keeping up with the plan but bad at regularly blogging about it. So my solution to this? Make a folder on your laptop and keep dumping stuff in it to record DSNEP experiences. Then blog about it (like I'm doing now) all at once!
Here is then a list of things inspired by DSNEP that I did in Fall 09.
Baby Gator
I like babies. I mean everyone does but I reallyy think they are "cho chweet!" So when I found out about Baby Gator last summer while hunting for an oncampus job I put it down in my to-do list. No better time than this Fall to volunteer for it.
After a background check letter from the Gainesville Sheriff's office, 3 recos - from Vamsi, Girish and Nikhil (well they wanted from some ppl who could vouch for my baby-sitting skills) and a bunch of paperwork later, I started as a volunteer for kids less than a year of age codenamed the Pompanos :) It was fun playing with the kids, feeding them and doing some playschool activities with them.
I won't go into the details but one particular incident I remember well. The toddlers were doing a project where they had to stick cotton balls on a drawing to make sheep. One of the kids got some glue on his hand and a cotton ball stuck to it. He tried shaking his hand to get it off - no luck. Then tried wiping it down the front of his t-shirt - still no luck. Then tried pulling it off with his other hand (which also had glue) - uh oh now the cotton is on both hands. Then he got scared of the fluffy white thing on his hands and out come the tears! I helped him get it off with a wet cloth but it was fun to watch his efforts first :P
Pottery
Another thing on my to-do list inspired by Swati was the pottery leisure course. UF offers Leisure Courses for completely vellah, semi vellah and busy ppl. Me falling in the second category this sem opted for the pottery course.
It was fun to make pots of various shapes from wet clay and paint them. Most looked like they were remains from an archeological excavation but there were some good ones too!
Google Ambassador
After an internship in Google and becoming a fulltime Googler, I wanted to do something to bring Google at UF. Google's Campus Ambassador Program was a great way to do that! So teaming up with Laura and Jocelyn, I set out to promote Google to fellow Gators!
We had an event to introduce ppl to Wave and gave out Wave invites to the attendees.
We had a Wave Hackathon as well where participants got to design their own Wave Robots. Check out the cool entries we received here and here if you have a Wave account. If you don't - well post a comment here asking for one and I'll send you an invite :)
And then there was the big Docs survey and give-away! (Its still live if you wanna win a bottle :) ) Some lucky souls who filled out our survey got Docs bottles. Publicizing it by mailing tons of mailing lists was fun! And oh yes... while we are at the publicity part - don't forget to join out Facebook Group (Google Gators) and our Google Group if you are a Gator and want free Google stuff!
Some Trips
Then I had 2 long trips this sem. One that I took to NY filled with Diwali celebrations, shopping, lots of delicious Indian food and studies!
And another that V took to Gainesville filled with a visit to KSC, a Gator Nite to remember and an awesome day at Lake Wauburg! And oh yes a great Halloween night with a costume that scare my roomie into locking herself in the bathroom :P
An Enjoyable Course
I also took a fun course this sem - Computer Graphics. Totally unexpected and not what I had planned to study, the best part of this course was that it was interesting to non-CS people as well. You don't have to be a geek to enjoy playing around with my homeworks. Here are some videos I took of my homeworks in action! Each was an interactive graphics application.
Video1 Video 2 and Video 3
And some more activities...
If all of the above didn't convince you that I had a great sem, then here is some more. There was the Noogler treat I gave for getting a fulltime at Google. And then there was the Thanksgiving potluck we had with lots of delicious food and many friends! And lastly an idle lazy rainy day with no work to do and lots of movies to watch.
This space reserved for Graduation!
Like they say "its not over until you say so!" The sem isn't over yet and there is one last event left to celebrate before I conclude my adventures in Gainesville. Will fill the details in here after Dec. 18! Till then preparing for yet another series of adventures......
Here is then a list of things inspired by DSNEP that I did in Fall 09.
Baby Gator
I like babies. I mean everyone does but I reallyy think they are "cho chweet!" So when I found out about Baby Gator last summer while hunting for an oncampus job I put it down in my to-do list. No better time than this Fall to volunteer for it.
After a background check letter from the Gainesville Sheriff's office, 3 recos - from Vamsi, Girish and Nikhil (well they wanted from some ppl who could vouch for my baby-sitting skills) and a bunch of paperwork later, I started as a volunteer for kids less than a year of age codenamed the Pompanos :) It was fun playing with the kids, feeding them and doing some playschool activities with them.
I won't go into the details but one particular incident I remember well. The toddlers were doing a project where they had to stick cotton balls on a drawing to make sheep. One of the kids got some glue on his hand and a cotton ball stuck to it. He tried shaking his hand to get it off - no luck. Then tried wiping it down the front of his t-shirt - still no luck. Then tried pulling it off with his other hand (which also had glue) - uh oh now the cotton is on both hands. Then he got scared of the fluffy white thing on his hands and out come the tears! I helped him get it off with a wet cloth but it was fun to watch his efforts first :P
Pottery
Another thing on my to-do list inspired by Swati was the pottery leisure course. UF offers Leisure Courses for completely vellah, semi vellah and busy ppl. Me falling in the second category this sem opted for the pottery course.It was fun to make pots of various shapes from wet clay and paint them. Most looked like they were remains from an archeological excavation but there were some good ones too!
Google Ambassador
After an internship in Google and becoming a fulltime Googler, I wanted to do something to bring Google at UF. Google's Campus Ambassador Program was a great way to do that! So teaming up with Laura and Jocelyn, I set out to promote Google to fellow Gators!
We had an event to introduce ppl to Wave and gave out Wave invites to the attendees.
We had a Wave Hackathon as well where participants got to design their own Wave Robots. Check out the cool entries we received here and here if you have a Wave account. If you don't - well post a comment here asking for one and I'll send you an invite :)
And then there was the big Docs survey and give-away! (Its still live if you wanna win a bottle :) ) Some lucky souls who filled out our survey got Docs bottles. Publicizing it by mailing tons of mailing lists was fun! And oh yes... while we are at the publicity part - don't forget to join out Facebook Group (Google Gators) and our Google Group if you are a Gator and want free Google stuff!
Some Trips
Then I had 2 long trips this sem. One that I took to NY filled with Diwali celebrations, shopping, lots of delicious Indian food and studies!
And another that V took to Gainesville filled with a visit to KSC, a Gator Nite to remember and an awesome day at Lake Wauburg! And oh yes a great Halloween night with a costume that scare my roomie into locking herself in the bathroom :P
An Enjoyable Course
I also took a fun course this sem - Computer Graphics. Totally unexpected and not what I had planned to study, the best part of this course was that it was interesting to non-CS people as well. You don't have to be a geek to enjoy playing around with my homeworks. Here are some videos I took of my homeworks in action! Each was an interactive graphics application.
Video1 Video 2 and Video 3
And some more activities...
This space reserved for Graduation!
Like they say "its not over until you say so!" The sem isn't over yet and there is one last event left to celebrate before I conclude my adventures in Gainesville. Will fill the details in here after Dec. 18! Till then preparing for yet another series of adventures......
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Embedding a Wave
This blog is merely to test if embedded waves work!
Update : Turns out you must be logged into wave to read it. Also, if you have visited this page, the wave will show up in your account. Just don't freak out when you see the wave in your inbox.
Update : Turns out you must be logged into wave to read it. Also, if you have visited this page, the wave will show up in your account. Just don't freak out when you see the wave in your inbox.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Do-Something-New-Everyday Project
So I'm back in Gainesville and settled in the new apartment. As decided earlier I wanted to start a time bound project for 4 months to enjoy the Fall sem to the fullest. After a lot of brainstorming and soul searching (well not really) I came up with the Do-Something-New-Everyday project - the DSNEP
So I'm gonna start with yesterday's activity since DSNEP started yesterday (not a very good start for the project to blog late about it but always look ahead :D )
Yesterday I assembled a chair by myself!
What is so great about this you ask? Well firstly for a Mumbai gal like me, furniture shopping means going to the store and picking out what I need, paying for it then coming home to wait for the shop people to deliver it home either all assembled and ready-to-use or assembled by them when it is delivered.
The Workshop course in engineering was pretty much a joke because by the end of it I learnt 3 things -
So taking all of the above in consideration I didn't know how to put together anything except perhaps jigsaw puzzles and source code.
My chair however came from Walmart in a million pieces... well ok I won't exaggerate but about 10-12 pieces. It was fun screwing together the various parts and slowly building the whole chair. I built the seat portion and backrest portion separately so when the seat was done I was thrilled to sit on it and spin around! Ofcourse I tested it first by putting all my soft toys on the seat before I myself sat on it :)
Even more exciting was sitting on the chair when the whole thing was ready. The smell of a new chair and the thrill of having assembled it myself was a new and nice experience!
I have to give out a few credits here though.
First a large credit to Nikhil for helping me get my study table and chair home. Then again to Nikhil for helping me build the study table on Sunday. He did about 80% of the work on it and I learnt about assembling stuff by watching him. The table literally was in a million parts with so many screws and bolts but Nikhil pieced it together very fast! Hooray for mech. engineers!
Also credit to Divya for helping out with the table. She started the initial struggle with me before Nikhil came and took over the assembly job.
But credit for assembling the chair I can claim all for myself! Lesson learnt from this: Scissors can replace a screwdriver if one isn't available!
Another DSNEP for tomorrow coming up soon...
So I'm gonna start with yesterday's activity since DSNEP started yesterday (not a very good start for the project to blog late about it but always look ahead :D )
Yesterday I assembled a chair by myself!
What is so great about this you ask? Well firstly for a Mumbai gal like me, furniture shopping means going to the store and picking out what I need, paying for it then coming home to wait for the shop people to deliver it home either all assembled and ready-to-use or assembled by them when it is delivered.
The Workshop course in engineering was pretty much a joke because by the end of it I learnt 3 things -
- Crying sometimes helps you get your way - I got out of having to do a lot of metalwork that way.
- Rats like living in wood shavings - I remember screaming a lot in this class for this particular reason.
- Pretty journals earn lots of marks - We wrote a huge file for workshop with lots of hand-drawn pictures of tools we never saw and the neat and pretty files got high marks in workshop (not the neat and pretty workshop artifacts!).
So taking all of the above in consideration I didn't know how to put together anything except perhaps jigsaw puzzles and source code.
My chair however came from Walmart in a million pieces... well ok I won't exaggerate but about 10-12 pieces. It was fun screwing together the various parts and slowly building the whole chair. I built the seat portion and backrest portion separately so when the seat was done I was thrilled to sit on it and spin around! Ofcourse I tested it first by putting all my soft toys on the seat before I myself sat on it :)
Even more exciting was sitting on the chair when the whole thing was ready. The smell of a new chair and the thrill of having assembled it myself was a new and nice experience!
I have to give out a few credits here though.
First a large credit to Nikhil for helping me get my study table and chair home. Then again to Nikhil for helping me build the study table on Sunday. He did about 80% of the work on it and I learnt about assembling stuff by watching him. The table literally was in a million parts with so many screws and bolts but Nikhil pieced it together very fast! Hooray for mech. engineers!
Also credit to Divya for helping out with the table. She started the initial struggle with me before Nikhil came and took over the assembly job.
But credit for assembling the chair I can claim all for myself! Lesson learnt from this: Scissors can replace a screwdriver if one isn't available!
Another DSNEP for tomorrow coming up soon...
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Chaitali/??? Project
So its "haven't blogged in a long time" time again. This time I won't bother explaining why but I will certainly mention 2 internships in 2 biggies (Intel, Google), shifting from coast to coast then state to state, a trip to India and several power vacations to great places!
Sadly Twitter and FB didn't work very well. I guess I ain't the micro-blogging kind of person. But I'm back! And hopefully will be around for longer this time.
So this post is an inspiration from Julia and Julie (or was it Julie and Julia?) - a movie I saw recently. The Julie/Julia project got me thinking that perhaps I should also start a time-bound project for something apart my normal work. It'd give me a higher purpose in life (now wasn't that a good dialog?) and probably lead me to fame like it did for Julie Powell. Ofcourse I have a shortened timeline of 4 months or 120 days in the Fall sem and this is after counting in the vacations or exam days!
But what am I good at?
Cooking? I like Indian food but not enough to work my way through Sanjeev Kapoor's book and blog about it. Besides the thought of trips to Gainesville's Indian store everyday and lugging back groceries in the bus is dizzying. Maybe we could have the Megha / Chaitali Project since I know Megs' recipes better!
Then ambigrams? There isn't really a countdown here when making ambigrams. Perhaps using Facebook as a base might help. 196 ambigrams 120 days to go! Boy am I glad I got off Orkut. 400 friends 120 days to go... I might as well become a fulltime ambigrammar!
Coding? That is my main occupation but I enjoy it so maybe it qualifies for this project! Julie picked up one of the most popular books as aid for her project. What would I pick here? Cormen? 120 days, god-knows-how-many exercises to go! Well it'd be a very popular blog for sure since it'd show up in every Google search for "Cormen solutions". I'm sure that is searched very often! (considering I've done that search myself so many times :| )
There is actually another thing I've gotten good at recently. Moving! I've been shifting houses every sem since coming to US a year and half ago. Regency Oaks, Tuscan Bend, Elan Village, Bowe Avenue, Pacific Inn and Tuscan Bend again!
I've become extremely fast at packing and unpacking. I know all the best deals and tricks to shipping stuff. I know all about U-Haul services. I can make an exact list of initial groceries and household things to setup a new place. Basically I can get a house up and running in just about 2 days of shifting into it!
Unfortunately it isn't something I can countdown to for this project. So I suppose I'm out of ideas for now. Any ideas for the Chaitali / ??? Project? Hopefully I'll come up with something soon!
Sadly Twitter and FB didn't work very well. I guess I ain't the micro-blogging kind of person. But I'm back! And hopefully will be around for longer this time.
So this post is an inspiration from Julia and Julie (or was it Julie and Julia?) - a movie I saw recently. The Julie/Julia project got me thinking that perhaps I should also start a time-bound project for something apart my normal work. It'd give me a higher purpose in life (now wasn't that a good dialog?) and probably lead me to fame like it did for Julie Powell. Ofcourse I have a shortened timeline of 4 months or 120 days in the Fall sem and this is after counting in the vacations or exam days!
But what am I good at?
Cooking? I like Indian food but not enough to work my way through Sanjeev Kapoor's book and blog about it. Besides the thought of trips to Gainesville's Indian store everyday and lugging back groceries in the bus is dizzying. Maybe we could have the Megha / Chaitali Project since I know Megs' recipes better!
Then ambigrams? There isn't really a countdown here when making ambigrams. Perhaps using Facebook as a base might help. 196 ambigrams 120 days to go! Boy am I glad I got off Orkut. 400 friends 120 days to go... I might as well become a fulltime ambigrammar!
Coding? That is my main occupation but I enjoy it so maybe it qualifies for this project! Julie picked up one of the most popular books as aid for her project. What would I pick here? Cormen? 120 days, god-knows-how-many exercises to go! Well it'd be a very popular blog for sure since it'd show up in every Google search for "Cormen solutions". I'm sure that is searched very often! (considering I've done that search myself so many times :| )
There is actually another thing I've gotten good at recently. Moving! I've been shifting houses every sem since coming to US a year and half ago. Regency Oaks, Tuscan Bend, Elan Village, Bowe Avenue, Pacific Inn and Tuscan Bend again!
I've become extremely fast at packing and unpacking. I know all the best deals and tricks to shipping stuff. I know all about U-Haul services. I can make an exact list of initial groceries and household things to setup a new place. Basically I can get a house up and running in just about 2 days of shifting into it!
Unfortunately it isn't something I can countdown to for this project. So I suppose I'm out of ideas for now. Any ideas for the Chaitali /
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tomatochi Bhaji
I haven't blogged in a long long time now. But then I haven't been cooking much too these days. What do the two have in common you ask? The answer is Megha Kokane.
For the curious full of who? what? why? and where? I met Megs (or rather Googled her out) about a year and half back when I was searching for someone to ask about the DBI course at UF. Then the first time I met her face-to-face was at Krishna Lunch. Coming here fresh from India then, I found KL bland and tasteless. But I had never seen anyone enjoy that lunch and all other KL as much as Megs!
Now before you start thinking Megs is someone who likes eating let me correct you! Megs doesn't like eating, she likes food! To give you a comparison, shes Anton Ego and Remy and Sanjeev Kapoor all rolled in one. Her one favourite hobby is trying different cuisines and by different I mean DIFFERENT! As far as I know she's tried Indian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and probably some more I don't know of alongwith the different variations in each! Trust Megs to be the RestaurantRank for the best eatouts in town.
But this blog isn't about Megs being a connoisseur of food. Its about me missing her cooking. To know why lets flashback 6 months to a time when last summer just ended and it was almost a year since I had had any food with fresh vegetables in it. But life in Tuscan Bend K2 was like staying in the gingerbread house. Always full of spicy aromas, always well stocked with fresh vegetables. We had frozen coconut! And fresh garlic! And curry leaves! And mango pulp!! To give you an estimate, between me, Megs and Av we consumed 2 dozen tomatoes a week :)
With Megs I learnt to cook onions till they are just translucent enough. To cut garlic into really tiny pieces. To NEVER eat frozen food. To use a wooden spatula on non-stick vessels. To plan meals and think over what you want to eat next. And to just enjoy your meal or snack.
For someone who never stepped in the kitchen back in India, I came a long way in the last 1 year. All of the recipes I know to make and like now, most are Megs originals including Masala Dahi, Papadachi Bhaji, Watanyachi Usal, Pithla and Tomatochi Bhaji!
And this blog although it looks like is dedicated to Megs, its actually to everyone here who has taught me to cook and like food. Adding to that list of recipes above are Swati's chicken pulav, fish cutlets and aloo matar, Av's kolombo (I hope I got that right), Nikhil's Ragda and Tilache Laddu, Mandar's sabudana khichadi (which I never tasted) and Vamsi's Sambar, Upma and Poha.
Hopefully this delicious blog is a good first blog of 2009. Meanwhile I'll just go and enjoy my freshly cooked Tomatochi Bhaji :D
EDIT: Addition on request from Sumeet (Maru) that Tomatochi Bhaji and some other recipes here were originally his. I know only Megs versions of these but acknowledge here that Maru falls in good cooks category too! (He cooked while 3 gals watched on when he visited GNV last fall!)
For the curious full of who? what? why? and where? I met Megs (or rather Googled her out) about a year and half back when I was searching for someone to ask about the DBI course at UF. Then the first time I met her face-to-face was at Krishna Lunch. Coming here fresh from India then, I found KL bland and tasteless. But I had never seen anyone enjoy that lunch and all other KL as much as Megs!
Now before you start thinking Megs is someone who likes eating let me correct you! Megs doesn't like eating, she likes food! To give you a comparison, shes Anton Ego and Remy and Sanjeev Kapoor all rolled in one. Her one favourite hobby is trying different cuisines and by different I mean DIFFERENT! As far as I know she's tried Indian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and probably some more I don't know of alongwith the different variations in each! Trust Megs to be the RestaurantRank for the best eatouts in town.
But this blog isn't about Megs being a connoisseur of food. Its about me missing her cooking. To know why lets flashback 6 months to a time when last summer just ended and it was almost a year since I had had any food with fresh vegetables in it. But life in Tuscan Bend K2 was like staying in the gingerbread house. Always full of spicy aromas, always well stocked with fresh vegetables. We had frozen coconut! And fresh garlic! And curry leaves! And mango pulp!! To give you an estimate, between me, Megs and Av we consumed 2 dozen tomatoes a week :)
With Megs I learnt to cook onions till they are just translucent enough. To cut garlic into really tiny pieces. To NEVER eat frozen food. To use a wooden spatula on non-stick vessels. To plan meals and think over what you want to eat next. And to just enjoy your meal or snack.
For someone who never stepped in the kitchen back in India, I came a long way in the last 1 year. All of the recipes I know to make and like now, most are Megs originals including Masala Dahi, Papadachi Bhaji, Watanyachi Usal, Pithla and Tomatochi Bhaji!
And this blog although it looks like is dedicated to Megs, its actually to everyone here who has taught me to cook and like food. Adding to that list of recipes above are Swati's chicken pulav, fish cutlets and aloo matar, Av's kolombo (I hope I got that right), Nikhil's Ragda and Tilache Laddu, Mandar's sabudana khichadi (which I never tasted) and Vamsi's Sambar, Upma and Poha.
Hopefully this delicious blog is a good first blog of 2009. Meanwhile I'll just go and enjoy my freshly cooked Tomatochi Bhaji :D
EDIT: Addition on request from Sumeet (Maru) that Tomatochi Bhaji and some other recipes here were originally his. I know only Megs versions of these but acknowledge here that Maru falls in good cooks category too! (He cooked while 3 gals watched on when he visited GNV last fall!)
Friday, December 05, 2008
Indomitable Spirit or Incapacited Soul??
In the wake of the recent terror strikes in Mumbai, I have been asked by quite a few friends here about life in Mumbai. So here is a reference to one of my earlier posts about Mumbai written in response to a Readers Digest survey labeling us rudest city.
Perhaps after reading the post, you too will like to join in the crowd praising and applauding Mumbai for its spirit now. I am usually part of that brigade, but not this time. It seems to me now that Mumbai's famed spirit is not courage any longer, it is helplessness. It is not brought about by people standing up to terrorism but by people who cannot do anything but get on with life after terror strikes.
Everytime the headline screams "Mumbai survives again", it makes me wonder how much is too much? Is that day very near when "again" turns to "no more"??
Perhaps after reading the post, you too will like to join in the crowd praising and applauding Mumbai for its spirit now. I am usually part of that brigade, but not this time. It seems to me now that Mumbai's famed spirit is not courage any longer, it is helplessness. It is not brought about by people standing up to terrorism but by people who cannot do anything but get on with life after terror strikes.
Everytime the headline screams "Mumbai survives again", it makes me wonder how much is too much? Is that day very near when "again" turns to "no more"??
Sunday, November 23, 2008
An exam to remember!
I have been putting off writing this for a long time. First because I was busy vacationing in NY then because I was waiting for the exam results and now simply because there were better things to do. So I have finally got down to writing about this very unique exam and here are the details.
For as long as I can remember, ever since I first learnt the word 'EXAMS', the day before any of those was spent studying, studying and studying. It was either memorizing for exams of history/geography types or solving and revising formulae for maths types. Sometimes it was both!
But I had never faced an exam where I didn't have to study atall. Maybe study less because the exam was not important or I knew the stuff well but never zero studies. And same applied to the nervousness before exams. Maybe it was less sometimes and more at other times, but never zero.
Thanks to Dr. Dankel's AI course, I finally found an exam where I could show what I knew without being nervous and without studying atall the day before. The reason? It was a Take-Home exam!!
So then the day before the AI mid-term, I chat and complete some job work tasks in the afternoon. In the evening, I am off to Momoyaki (a chinese eatery) for dinner with Megs. A sumptuous dinner of noodles and sushi later we go to Kohl's for some after-dinner shopping. Browsing thru lots of clothes, accessories takes up most of the evening. Back home at night and still no studies to do. It makes me feel a little creepy but watching "What happens in Vegas" sets everything right :) Also thrown in is an episode of Star Trek Voyager and a midnight snack.
Next day D-day of an exam I haven't remotely studied for. A small voice at the back of my head asks me "what if you were mistaken and its not a take-home". Dr. Dankel enters class...voice dismissed...receive paper to take home :) The rest of the day spent giving the longest exam I ever gave. 8 hours of straight work consulting notes, books...writing code and other answers...thinking and more thinking. Finally the morning after I push the exam under Dr. Dankel's office door and heave a sigh of relief!!
Perhaps I should have tried this on my students back at Atharva. The challenge is not to the student giving the exam but to the professor designing it. No matter what notes or books or other resources you consult, you will still need to be very very good at the subject to do well in the exam!
The results of this extraordinary and unforgettable exam? A 96/100. Not bad for a grad student eh?
For as long as I can remember, ever since I first learnt the word 'EXAMS', the day before any of those was spent studying, studying and studying. It was either memorizing for exams of history/geography types or solving and revising formulae for maths types. Sometimes it was both!
But I had never faced an exam where I didn't have to study atall. Maybe study less because the exam was not important or I knew the stuff well but never zero studies. And same applied to the nervousness before exams. Maybe it was less sometimes and more at other times, but never zero.
Thanks to Dr. Dankel's AI course, I finally found an exam where I could show what I knew without being nervous and without studying atall the day before. The reason? It was a Take-Home exam!!
So then the day before the AI mid-term, I chat and complete some job work tasks in the afternoon. In the evening, I am off to Momoyaki (a chinese eatery) for dinner with Megs. A sumptuous dinner of noodles and sushi later we go to Kohl's for some after-dinner shopping. Browsing thru lots of clothes, accessories takes up most of the evening. Back home at night and still no studies to do. It makes me feel a little creepy but watching "What happens in Vegas" sets everything right :) Also thrown in is an episode of Star Trek Voyager and a midnight snack.
Next day D-day of an exam I haven't remotely studied for. A small voice at the back of my head asks me "what if you were mistaken and its not a take-home". Dr. Dankel enters class...voice dismissed...receive paper to take home :) The rest of the day spent giving the longest exam I ever gave. 8 hours of straight work consulting notes, books...writing code and other answers...thinking and more thinking. Finally the morning after I push the exam under Dr. Dankel's office door and heave a sigh of relief!!
Perhaps I should have tried this on my students back at Atharva. The challenge is not to the student giving the exam but to the professor designing it. No matter what notes or books or other resources you consult, you will still need to be very very good at the subject to do well in the exam!
The results of this extraordinary and unforgettable exam? A 96/100. Not bad for a grad student eh?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Childhood Dreams
I usually stay away from books I categorize as 'self-improvement'. Reason being its not reading the book that is the hard part, its implementing what you read. But last Wednesday was one of those days when I came back really hungry from the univ. Even with the microwave promising me that the rice will be done in 15 minutes, I couldn't stop loitering around it watching the countdown.
Well anything is better than watching the microwave clock countdown, so I picked this book off our bookshelf (yes even as desi grads we have one of those in our house!), it turned out to be Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" (here is a video of the same). I cannot say when I crossed the line between idly flipping its pages and becoming engrossed in reading it but when I went back to check on the rice, the microwave had zeroed its countdown half an hour ago.
So taking Randy Pausch's advice I tried building myself a list of childhood dreams I want to achieve too. Some are really from childhood, some are current (but still very much akin to childhood dreams). I hope to add more to this list and tick some off along the way.
5. Buying loads of stuff at some mall in Mumbai
As a child I was always struck by the glitter and glamour of malls in Mumbai. Their colourful displays caught and held my attention easily and I wished I could buy all those pretty things on display. I realise now that I was more taken by the idea of carrying out loads of shopping bags than by the idea of the actual stuff contained in them. Why Mumbai malls only? Well for one they are full of people doing window shopping so if you have many many shopping bags on you, you manage to turn some heads! Talk about being the center of attention! I more or less achieved this on my shopping spree before coming to US and will hopefully continue such shopping sprees whenever I go to India.
4. Being a really good thinker
Now whats a "thinker" for me you may ask. Well I have many smart friends around me. They are smart in many incredible ways... one can code fast....one can solve puzzles fast...one can design well...one draws well...one writes well...one can calculate fast...so on and so on. I always wanted to be really very good at one such mental ability. From my own experiences and as Randy Pausch pointed out, its not the end but the means that count. My struggles to try and achieve this goal have given me their own benefits.
3. Watching several American TV shows
Back in India I loved watching Sabrina, Bewitched, Small Wonder, The Real Ghostbusters to name a few. My problem was they never showed all episodes in sequence and they never even showed all the episodes! I enjoyed watching Disney movies like Twitches, Halloweentown but sometimes couldn't because the cable providers didn't think the Disney Channel was important enough to be aired always. Coming to US, Netflix and Youtube helped me fulfill most of this wish of mine and let me watch some other good TV shows too.
2. Meeting (strike that out and replace with Building) Data
Randy Pausch wanted to "be" Captain Kirk. He struck that out and replaced it with "meeting" Captain Kirk. Me being from The Next Generation and having seen his Last Lecture started with keeping the goal as Meeting Data. But the day after I saw Randy Pausch's lecture, I also happened to see Brent Spiner's interview (he is the actor who plays Data in Star Trek TNG). Did I want to meet him? Certainly not! I wanted to meet an android who calculates fast, has super speed and strength but still tries to be human. But did I want to meet such a robot created by someone else? After an AI class this sem, I can define this goal more accurately. I want to build a robot like Data. Perhaps I will someday...
1. Being a Professor
There are two sub-goals to this dream. The first being my liking for teaching which I partially fulfilled at Atharva but would love to make it my fulltime occupation. The second sub-goal being getting the Ph D required for being a good professor. Dr. Chaitali has a nice ring to it don't you think? :P Again, perhaps someday....
So that concludes my dreams list for now. Unlike Randy Pausch's list, I am glad its not absolute. Hope to continue revising and changing it!
Well anything is better than watching the microwave clock countdown, so I picked this book off our bookshelf (yes even as desi grads we have one of those in our house!), it turned out to be Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" (here is a video of the same). I cannot say when I crossed the line between idly flipping its pages and becoming engrossed in reading it but when I went back to check on the rice, the microwave had zeroed its countdown half an hour ago.
So taking Randy Pausch's advice I tried building myself a list of childhood dreams I want to achieve too. Some are really from childhood, some are current (but still very much akin to childhood dreams). I hope to add more to this list and tick some off along the way.
5. Buying loads of stuff at some mall in Mumbai
As a child I was always struck by the glitter and glamour of malls in Mumbai. Their colourful displays caught and held my attention easily and I wished I could buy all those pretty things on display. I realise now that I was more taken by the idea of carrying out loads of shopping bags than by the idea of the actual stuff contained in them. Why Mumbai malls only? Well for one they are full of people doing window shopping so if you have many many shopping bags on you, you manage to turn some heads! Talk about being the center of attention! I more or less achieved this on my shopping spree before coming to US and will hopefully continue such shopping sprees whenever I go to India.
4. Being a really good thinker
Now whats a "thinker" for me you may ask. Well I have many smart friends around me. They are smart in many incredible ways... one can code fast....one can solve puzzles fast...one can design well...one draws well...one writes well...one can calculate fast...so on and so on. I always wanted to be really very good at one such mental ability. From my own experiences and as Randy Pausch pointed out, its not the end but the means that count. My struggles to try and achieve this goal have given me their own benefits.
3. Watching several American TV shows
Back in India I loved watching Sabrina, Bewitched, Small Wonder, The Real Ghostbusters to name a few. My problem was they never showed all episodes in sequence and they never even showed all the episodes! I enjoyed watching Disney movies like Twitches, Halloweentown but sometimes couldn't because the cable providers didn't think the Disney Channel was important enough to be aired always. Coming to US, Netflix and Youtube helped me fulfill most of this wish of mine and let me watch some other good TV shows too.
2. Meeting (strike that out and replace with Building) Data
Randy Pausch wanted to "be" Captain Kirk. He struck that out and replaced it with "meeting" Captain Kirk. Me being from The Next Generation and having seen his Last Lecture started with keeping the goal as Meeting Data. But the day after I saw Randy Pausch's lecture, I also happened to see Brent Spiner's interview (he is the actor who plays Data in Star Trek TNG). Did I want to meet him? Certainly not! I wanted to meet an android who calculates fast, has super speed and strength but still tries to be human. But did I want to meet such a robot created by someone else? After an AI class this sem, I can define this goal more accurately. I want to build a robot like Data. Perhaps I will someday...
1. Being a Professor
There are two sub-goals to this dream. The first being my liking for teaching which I partially fulfilled at Atharva but would love to make it my fulltime occupation. The second sub-goal being getting the Ph D required for being a good professor. Dr. Chaitali has a nice ring to it don't you think? :P Again, perhaps someday....
So that concludes my dreams list for now. Unlike Randy Pausch's list, I am glad its not absolute. Hope to continue revising and changing it!
Friday, July 04, 2008
Mi Marathi
After an hour of unsuccessful search for some way to write the title of this post in Devnagri script, I had to revert back to plain old English alphabet. Perhaps that script would have captured instantly and exactly, the essence of what it means to me...the words more familiar and the feel more homely. But I will try my best with this post to do the same.
Browsing on YouTube at lunch and dinner times has become a hobby of sorts with me these days (owing to lack of TV here). So tonight on my routine browsing, I came across this video. Watching it made me realize the extent to which I had taken my Marathi existence for granted. I never really thought, till I came to US and even till I watched this video today, that one day I would miss those Marathi songs that Dad played on CDs at home or watched on TV.
My Marathi connection is not restricted to calling it my 'mother tongue'...the language Mom taught me to express myself in. It expands to many other small incidents and happenings such as the plays of Shivaji that Ms. Hyacinth had us acting in every week, to those times when I opened my tiffin to find "poli-sakhar", to Ranjit Desai's book Shreeman Yogi - the first Marathi book I read on my own not because I had to but because I wanted to.
This same connection stretches on to the times in school when a request to "organize a marathi dance" instinctively manifested itself into a koli dance or a lavani, to a class in 10th where a copper wire was "tambyachi taar" and gravity was "gurutvakarshan" and even to panicky times before exams when quick revisions for "how to convert decimal to binary?" resulted in "tyala don ne divide kar remainder ek yeyi paryant".
This may not be the language I think in, but it is the language I react in...when burnt, when hurt, when happy, when angry, when panicky...and so on. Even more than connecting to the language, I connect to the essence of what it is to be Marathi and the connection is evident in my nostalgia in remembering visits to watch "jaadugar aani chetkin" at Maratha Mandir and in my laughter while watching "rashi chakra" at Prabhodankar. Perhaps staying in Mumbai all my life has strengthened this connection or perhaps the fact that my most toured region of India is Maharashtra has done the same...whatever it is, I enjoyed watching the video and smiling to myself.
I will end my post with yet another video. Something for all my friends who at some time or the other have stayed in Maharashtra. Take a look at
this video and then come back to the video I posted at the beginning. If you have ever stayed in Maharashtra for long enough, I'm sure u'll want to say the same thing that I said throughout my post..."Mi Marathi"!
Browsing on YouTube at lunch and dinner times has become a hobby of sorts with me these days (owing to lack of TV here). So tonight on my routine browsing, I came across this video. Watching it made me realize the extent to which I had taken my Marathi existence for granted. I never really thought, till I came to US and even till I watched this video today, that one day I would miss those Marathi songs that Dad played on CDs at home or watched on TV.
My Marathi connection is not restricted to calling it my 'mother tongue'...the language Mom taught me to express myself in. It expands to many other small incidents and happenings such as the plays of Shivaji that Ms. Hyacinth had us acting in every week, to those times when I opened my tiffin to find "poli-sakhar", to Ranjit Desai's book Shreeman Yogi - the first Marathi book I read on my own not because I had to but because I wanted to.
This same connection stretches on to the times in school when a request to "organize a marathi dance" instinctively manifested itself into a koli dance or a lavani, to a class in 10th where a copper wire was "tambyachi taar" and gravity was "gurutvakarshan" and even to panicky times before exams when quick revisions for "how to convert decimal to binary?" resulted in "tyala don ne divide kar remainder ek yeyi paryant".
This may not be the language I think in, but it is the language I react in...when burnt, when hurt, when happy, when angry, when panicky...and so on. Even more than connecting to the language, I connect to the essence of what it is to be Marathi and the connection is evident in my nostalgia in remembering visits to watch "jaadugar aani chetkin" at Maratha Mandir and in my laughter while watching "rashi chakra" at Prabhodankar. Perhaps staying in Mumbai all my life has strengthened this connection or perhaps the fact that my most toured region of India is Maharashtra has done the same...whatever it is, I enjoyed watching the video and smiling to myself.
I will end my post with yet another video. Something for all my friends who at some time or the other have stayed in Maharashtra. Take a look at
this video and then come back to the video I posted at the beginning. If you have ever stayed in Maharashtra for long enough, I'm sure u'll want to say the same thing that I said throughout my post..."Mi Marathi"!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Bedazzled by Blogs
The summer term can get pretty boring if all you do is keep to yourself and your routine. So after a boring day with lecture videos, books and nothing-to-do times, I decided its time to take a look at news back home. Logging on to Times of India website, the very first thing that caught my eye was a headline "Panchvi Fail".
Extremely curious since I do like Bollywood masala once in a while, I followed the link to Amitji's Blog. Its nice to know that our Bollywood biggies are turning tech-savvy. As a small-time representative of the blogging community, I was all set to read up his blogs and give a comment or two on some. But perhaps it was just my perception of blogging or perhaps I had much too different expectations from one of Bollywood's legendary icon's blog, I just didn't like it!
Blogging as I know it is NOT a place on the web to get your 15-minutes of fame. Its not even a place to add 15 more minutes to an already filled-to-brim fame. Its a place to talk about things that you otherwise don't get a chance to talk because there is no time or place relevant enough to talk about them. I had a post sometime back about board games vs. e-games. There just wasn't any time or place appropriate enough to talk about this hence the blog. Blogging is about letting others know your opinions on issues you feel deeply about such as Reservations.
What blogging is not, according to me, is pulling others down or using blogs as a publicity tool. Perhaps the second is justified for someone of Amitji's stature. If he writes a blog its bound to attract its share of fans dying to write a comment and hoping for a personal e-mail as an answer. But browsing thru the posts on his blog, I am yet to come across one that is different from the numerous interviews he gives and the scores of speeches we have seen him deliver.
Commenting on others work and not-so-subtly implying your own greatness everywhere is however a big no-no for blogs I think. Blogging if after all a type of journalism and it must adhere to the tenets of good journalism. Generating controversy after controversy on your blog is not a very good way to keep yourself in public eye! To summarize, this was one blog visit when the only comment I'd have liked to leave was a link to my "Blogs I like" section.
On a smaller note, this encounter got me Googling for more celebrity blogs which in turn led me to Aamir Khan's blog. Now its perfectly alright to vent out your "truest" feelings on a blog like I'm doing on this post and have done on many before. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and it doesn't befit a person of Aamirji's fame to get into petty blog battles. I will stop at that and add no more to my thoughts on this latest hot news of Bollywood.
As a concluding remark, blogging is a "personal" thing! Its a way to express yourself with the keyboard instead of pen-and-paper. and if you think its gonna hurt someone make it private! Mandar's latest post expresses this view very succinctly! Perhaps the above was a pretty explicit and long post but I just couldn't resist striking out in defence of that one activity that gives me creative satisfaction and led me to nice things in life!!!
Extremely curious since I do like Bollywood masala once in a while, I followed the link to Amitji's Blog. Its nice to know that our Bollywood biggies are turning tech-savvy. As a small-time representative of the blogging community, I was all set to read up his blogs and give a comment or two on some. But perhaps it was just my perception of blogging or perhaps I had much too different expectations from one of Bollywood's legendary icon's blog, I just didn't like it!
Blogging as I know it is NOT a place on the web to get your 15-minutes of fame. Its not even a place to add 15 more minutes to an already filled-to-brim fame. Its a place to talk about things that you otherwise don't get a chance to talk because there is no time or place relevant enough to talk about them. I had a post sometime back about board games vs. e-games. There just wasn't any time or place appropriate enough to talk about this hence the blog. Blogging is about letting others know your opinions on issues you feel deeply about such as Reservations.
What blogging is not, according to me, is pulling others down or using blogs as a publicity tool. Perhaps the second is justified for someone of Amitji's stature. If he writes a blog its bound to attract its share of fans dying to write a comment and hoping for a personal e-mail as an answer. But browsing thru the posts on his blog, I am yet to come across one that is different from the numerous interviews he gives and the scores of speeches we have seen him deliver.
Commenting on others work and not-so-subtly implying your own greatness everywhere is however a big no-no for blogs I think. Blogging if after all a type of journalism and it must adhere to the tenets of good journalism. Generating controversy after controversy on your blog is not a very good way to keep yourself in public eye! To summarize, this was one blog visit when the only comment I'd have liked to leave was a link to my "Blogs I like" section.
On a smaller note, this encounter got me Googling for more celebrity blogs which in turn led me to Aamir Khan's blog. Now its perfectly alright to vent out your "truest" feelings on a blog like I'm doing on this post and have done on many before. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and it doesn't befit a person of Aamirji's fame to get into petty blog battles. I will stop at that and add no more to my thoughts on this latest hot news of Bollywood.
As a concluding remark, blogging is a "personal" thing! Its a way to express yourself with the keyboard instead of pen-and-paper. and if you think its gonna hurt someone make it private! Mandar's latest post expresses this view very succinctly! Perhaps the above was a pretty explicit and long post but I just couldn't resist striking out in defence of that one activity that gives me creative satisfaction and led me to nice things in life!!!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I'm Home!
The first day or rather first evening in Gainesville. Me standing with Deepika and Vineesha outside Gainesville Regional Airport. Hardly had the chance to speak to anyone in Hindi except among the 3 of us. As I stared at the unfamiliar coins in my hand, on the brink of making a phone call, I suppressed a chilling, depressing thought "I'm too far from home!"
Then Varun and the ISA ppl show up to pick us up. Its my first conversation in Hindi in Gainesville. On reaching A103 Regency Oaks, Ananya's friendliness and helpfulness disarms me. Those were the days of "first" everything. First visit to Butler Plaza, first courier arrives home, first phone call from new phone, first day at university, first visit to CISE... and the list is just too long to put down here though I will certainly describe a few memorable firsts!
There was that first DBI project when we stared at the computer screen for an hour not knowing what to do. Thanks to Nikhil's generous donation in terms of time and brain-power, we got thru it and how! The first Algos assignment where "regrade" was a frightening concept given that for Mumbai Univ regrade means waiting till your next sem exam gets over! But here ofcourse "regrade" means a chance to justify urself and on some occasions redo your work for more marks!
Another notable first would be my visit to food-joints here. Cici's was the privileged first but now endless visits to Starbucks, Subway, Noodle Bar, etc. have made me lost track of the chronological order in which I discovered the delights of American Fast Food.
There are surely those major firsts like the first Gator Night and first day at the University but those are probably well documented and reported on blogs elsewhere. I won't strain my fingers typing them out here or risk boring u with them!
From those first moments I slowly set into a routine. The visits to Publix and gigglingly cursing the cart as we dragged it back full of groceries. Finding out just why Betty and Veronica drool over yet try not to give in to having a Banana Split. Studies and more studies at Library West. Long trips in search of a campus job. Exams and assignments.
Taking an account of the things I believe counts me in as part of the desi grad students population here...I have a job, an SSN, an address that I put in at countless places, a cell-phone, a UFID and a Gator1 card, a BOA account and its debit card. I stay up late-night doing assignments or doing timepass. I get spam mails in my name in the mailbox. I have a UFL mail and a CISE mail account as well. I don't think Krishna Lunch's food is bland anymore, infact I enjoy it as "tasty food". I don't need a map to walk around the campus now.
Even more than these small things, I have lots of friends here who will always help me, be it a difficult assignment, falling ill, getting upset or just generally feeling moody. Thanks to Swati and Megha, there are memories of good cooking (yumm) made with them, outings to Lake Wauburg, Oaks Mall and various small-time places with them, gossip sessions late night and movies watched with them. Interesting coffee sessions and depressing assignment sessions...we have seen them all. Its time to start a memory book here too!
And that one thing that qualified me to type out this post is Janki's visit to UF today. Showing her the bus routes, helping her get her Gator1 card, seeing that she needs a map to find her way about, telling her about various facts and figures she'll need...all those very same things happened to us when it was the 'first' phase of life in Gainesville.
Today after 40 lectures * 3, 10 + 5 + 3 = 18 assignments/projects, countless moments as described above and the realisation that its a few short months before we are "seniors", I can confidently and happily say "I'm in Gainesville...but I'm home!!"
Then Varun and the ISA ppl show up to pick us up. Its my first conversation in Hindi in Gainesville. On reaching A103 Regency Oaks, Ananya's friendliness and helpfulness disarms me. Those were the days of "first" everything. First visit to Butler Plaza, first courier arrives home, first phone call from new phone, first day at university, first visit to CISE... and the list is just too long to put down here though I will certainly describe a few memorable firsts!
There was that first DBI project when we stared at the computer screen for an hour not knowing what to do. Thanks to Nikhil's generous donation in terms of time and brain-power, we got thru it and how! The first Algos assignment where "regrade" was a frightening concept given that for Mumbai Univ regrade means waiting till your next sem exam gets over! But here ofcourse "regrade" means a chance to justify urself and on some occasions redo your work for more marks!
Another notable first would be my visit to food-joints here. Cici's was the privileged first but now endless visits to Starbucks, Subway, Noodle Bar, etc. have made me lost track of the chronological order in which I discovered the delights of American Fast Food.
There are surely those major firsts like the first Gator Night and first day at the University but those are probably well documented and reported on blogs elsewhere. I won't strain my fingers typing them out here or risk boring u with them!
From those first moments I slowly set into a routine. The visits to Publix and gigglingly cursing the cart as we dragged it back full of groceries. Finding out just why Betty and Veronica drool over yet try not to give in to having a Banana Split. Studies and more studies at Library West. Long trips in search of a campus job. Exams and assignments.
Taking an account of the things I believe counts me in as part of the desi grad students population here...I have a job, an SSN, an address that I put in at countless places, a cell-phone, a UFID and a Gator1 card, a BOA account and its debit card. I stay up late-night doing assignments or doing timepass. I get spam mails in my name in the mailbox. I have a UFL mail and a CISE mail account as well. I don't think Krishna Lunch's food is bland anymore, infact I enjoy it as "tasty food". I don't need a map to walk around the campus now.
Even more than these small things, I have lots of friends here who will always help me, be it a difficult assignment, falling ill, getting upset or just generally feeling moody. Thanks to Swati and Megha, there are memories of good cooking (yumm) made with them, outings to Lake Wauburg, Oaks Mall and various small-time places with them, gossip sessions late night and movies watched with them. Interesting coffee sessions and depressing assignment sessions...we have seen them all. Its time to start a memory book here too!
And that one thing that qualified me to type out this post is Janki's visit to UF today. Showing her the bus routes, helping her get her Gator1 card, seeing that she needs a map to find her way about, telling her about various facts and figures she'll need...all those very same things happened to us when it was the 'first' phase of life in Gainesville.
Today after 40 lectures * 3, 10 + 5 + 3 = 18 assignments/projects, countless moments as described above and the realisation that its a few short months before we are "seniors", I can confidently and happily say "I'm in Gainesville...but I'm home!!"
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Making of a Grad Course Project
Projects are an inseparable, typical, all-encompassing, essential, fundamental, constitutional... (alrite alrite I agree I Googled those synonyms!) of a graduate CS student's life! So here is how they are begun, made and ended!You get up one fine sunny day and try to deceive urself into thinking that you have many more hrs of peaceful sleep left when actually u hav just a few mins. The cell-phone alarm you set yesterday night at 4.30 a.m. rings and u realise its 9.30 a.m. U curse urself and the alarm and put it on snooze and try to get back to that dream u wer having (abt a maal ladki/ladka??)
The phone starts ringing again! U are nt one bit surprised tht ur internal clock is so jumbled up it can't count the minutes right and snooze time is over! But surprises, its a phone frm ur project partner (the one who got up early and attended the lecture u intend to watch on video!). "The next assignment is out! And due in a week!"
Gayi waapis raaton ki neend and gaya waapis din ka chain! So then it begins this way :-
- First 2 days, do nothing abt the project bcos u already hav other imp tasks and a week is like an eon to some1 used to working at the speed of light b4 submissions.
- Next 3 days, try getting something done but mostly gossip around in the lab. Atleast the framework is ready.
- 4th day, panic bcos u cudnt understand nething in the lecture abt the project. Finish ur coding as fast as u can without a damn to whether it will run or not.
- 5th day, its a Friday and the prof. tells u in class tht the deadline is postponed to Wed bcos the test driver is nt yet up :)
- 6, 7th day, wait around for the test driver. Heck, its ur weekend neway. U can spend it watching Race or lecture videos. Something at the back of ur mind tells u "Coding khatam hui is statement mein koi information nahi hai"
- 8th day, the test driver is out. Start testing ur project.
Then u rush thru the debugging with GDB and lots of couts and more frustration and more Gatorade and more curses at PuTTY, WinSCP, ur proj partner (he/she curses u too :) ). Then is the "Bachao!" time when you start calling and buzzing other teams on GTalk abt doubts and more doubts. So in the hope of getting ur project up and running u rush on Sunday aftnoon to college but don't understand any of the explanation tht others giv neways.
Then u find out there r no buses to come bak (those with a car or a cycle ignore this!) so u curse RTS (ur delighted to find a live target for ur frustration...not a little black & white window for a change!)So after a lot of exhaustive (for u) testing, the project is up and running just fine! Then u discover another bug 1 hr b4 submitting! After some high BP, frantic calls and frantic buzzes on GTalk, u discover its a bug with the test driver. "Bewakoof" TA...cursing him/her for almost giving u a heart-attack u fix it. Nw the proj is surely up and running and u submit it!
U forget abt this after a while till u receive a 0 in the proj and are called by the TA for a demo! A prog tht works just fine and is running in top shape receiving 0??!! U confront the TA incredulously! On running the TA's test cases u find a bug in ur previous assignment's code.
Oops! Hehe!! "I'll jus fix it and show u a demo again." Thank God for nice TAs, ur marks r increased to 100 and there ends the story of ur project. By the time u fixed the bug and re-submitted the project and sent a mail to the TA, its 4.30 a.m. U set the alarm for 9.30 a.m. and try to get back to that dream u wer having (abt a maal ladki/ladka??).....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Satyameva Jayate!
Some days back, while explaining our National Emblem to students of Hawthorne Middle School, I stressed on these words as being an integral part of our emblem. Literally translated, they mean "Truth alone triumphs." Morally they mean a lot more.
We are awarded a wealth of knowledge through this simple quote. It stands not only for the end that is always achieved by the righteous but it also stands for the battle that we must fight for achieving that end.
India's history teems with sacrifices, wars and broken hopes to achieve this message. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata all describe the fight for truth. Our stories from the Panchatantra and plays like Bhasa's Swapna-Vasavadutta all describe this very ambition at their core. The beauty of this phrase is reflected in world-wide literature with Romeo-Juliet, Illiad and Odyssey and even If Tomorrow Comes.
Why am I quoting a mixture of love stories, thrillers, mythology and history to illustrate this straight-forward term? Because I believe that "truth" has a different meaning to each person, each situation. For Ram it may be defeating Ravan, for Udayana it was a refusal to teach Pradyota, for Tracy Whitney it was getting back at an unjust system. Depending on the way you look at it, "Saytameva Jayate" translates to a picture of bloodshed and misery or to a rosy picture of flowers and love.
There have been numerous occasions in my life when I was faced with a battle, however insignificant, to uphold this ideal I firmly believe in. 'If you are right, make sure everyone knows it, no matter how long it takes and how high its price.' Perhaps I should change that to everyone who matters. Sometimes it just close friends and people and at other times its everyone I know.
This very principle has of course been applied numerous times in my academics since that's where you can be reasonable and logical yet the grader isn't always so. Maybe 4 years with Mumbai University and a spate of its depressing results led me away from believing in this adage and trying to achieve it my way but it was my continuous effort to try and enforce this.
No amount of deterrent has ever stopped me from pursuing what I believe is right, whether it is to more marks, a better project or no material gains atall! So comeon folks, get up and follow me, to make "Satyameva Jayate"!
We are awarded a wealth of knowledge through this simple quote. It stands not only for the end that is always achieved by the righteous but it also stands for the battle that we must fight for achieving that end.
India's history teems with sacrifices, wars and broken hopes to achieve this message. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata all describe the fight for truth. Our stories from the Panchatantra and plays like Bhasa's Swapna-Vasavadutta all describe this very ambition at their core. The beauty of this phrase is reflected in world-wide literature with Romeo-Juliet, Illiad and Odyssey and even If Tomorrow Comes.
Why am I quoting a mixture of love stories, thrillers, mythology and history to illustrate this straight-forward term? Because I believe that "truth" has a different meaning to each person, each situation. For Ram it may be defeating Ravan, for Udayana it was a refusal to teach Pradyota, for Tracy Whitney it was getting back at an unjust system. Depending on the way you look at it, "Saytameva Jayate" translates to a picture of bloodshed and misery or to a rosy picture of flowers and love.
There have been numerous occasions in my life when I was faced with a battle, however insignificant, to uphold this ideal I firmly believe in. 'If you are right, make sure everyone knows it, no matter how long it takes and how high its price.' Perhaps I should change that to everyone who matters. Sometimes it just close friends and people and at other times its everyone I know.
This very principle has of course been applied numerous times in my academics since that's where you can be reasonable and logical yet the grader isn't always so. Maybe 4 years with Mumbai University and a spate of its depressing results led me away from believing in this adage and trying to achieve it my way but it was my continuous effort to try and enforce this.
No amount of deterrent has ever stopped me from pursuing what I believe is right, whether it is to more marks, a better project or no material gains atall! So comeon folks, get up and follow me, to make "Satyameva Jayate"!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Daylight Robbery!
Daylight Saving Time started last Sunday here, pushing me to being 9.30 hours behind India than 10.30. This time shift was much more worst than the Big Shift that I had coming here from India. Did DST cause disruptions to my schedule? Yes and No!
Sunday Morning Troubles
I had to go to volunteer for Asha's event (will post more about Asha soon!) and had accordingly set the alarm for 9.00 a.m. I wake up in fright at 8.00 a.m. according to my cell watch and think bcos of DST it is actually 9.00 a.m. and my alarm didn't ring! I check on the net and realize that my cell had adjusted itself and it was actually 8.00 a.m. according to DSt and 7.00 a.m. otherwise!! Did you understand wht I said?? Well bottomline is I missed on 2 hours of sleep! For a grad student its a lot to miss on!
The Spooky House
I sure stay in a hi-tech house. When I woke up on DST Sunday, my cell, laptop had all adjusted themselves. My internal clock was the only one out of sync with the time change! Infact WinSCP adjusted itself to 2 hours ahead. I spend many frustrating hours on my Makefile before being enlightened that WinSCP set itself wrong after DST!!! For my friends not yet corrupted by the language of coding, WinSCP is an application and it played havoc with my program that depends on time!
So then what do you do when a phenomenon puzzles, amuses, frustrates, intrigues, etc. etc. you?? Geeks got it right! GOOGLE ye!!
Turns out there is actually a book on DST. I wont waste more energy typing out all that I read about DST. Here it is...
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/k.html
And as David Prerau puts it, changing clocks causes a lot of anecdotes as we Spring Ahead and Fall Back!
Sunday Morning Troubles
I had to go to volunteer for Asha's event (will post more about Asha soon!) and had accordingly set the alarm for 9.00 a.m. I wake up in fright at 8.00 a.m. according to my cell watch and think bcos of DST it is actually 9.00 a.m. and my alarm didn't ring! I check on the net and realize that my cell had adjusted itself and it was actually 8.00 a.m. according to DSt and 7.00 a.m. otherwise!! Did you understand wht I said?? Well bottomline is I missed on 2 hours of sleep! For a grad student its a lot to miss on!
The Spooky House
I sure stay in a hi-tech house. When I woke up on DST Sunday, my cell, laptop had all adjusted themselves. My internal clock was the only one out of sync with the time change! Infact WinSCP adjusted itself to 2 hours ahead. I spend many frustrating hours on my Makefile before being enlightened that WinSCP set itself wrong after DST!!! For my friends not yet corrupted by the language of coding, WinSCP is an application and it played havoc with my program that depends on time!
So then what do you do when a phenomenon puzzles, amuses, frustrates, intrigues, etc. etc. you?? Geeks got it right! GOOGLE ye!!
Turns out there is actually a book on DST. I wont waste more energy typing out all that I read about DST. Here it is...
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/k.html
And as David Prerau puts it, changing clocks causes a lot of anecdotes as we Spring Ahead and Fall Back!
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Uni-error code!
Its ironic for someone who taught Computer Programming and that too C++ to be struggling with errors in a C++ code, but that's my fate now in MS! Wait a minute!! Did I say errors?? Oh no not atall! Our DBI code gives just one error...SEGMENTATION FAULT!
Programs I seriously think are like two year olds. You have to coax them into getting up and working. Even then they may do just what they want instead of doing what you want them to do. If you persuade them too much then they will sulk and refuse to compile. And as I just said before, if you really get them mad at you, they might just compile but when they run they'll give you the dreaded segmentation fault!!
For those who haven't yet entered the murky catacombs of C++, segmentation fault is that universal name given to all sorts of pointer problems. Perhaps ye gods who made the computer and its systems didn't want us mortals to understand all its secrets! But to get back to our uni-error, it crops up at unexpected places, it may show up on some systems and may not on others. It might come up once in a blue moon or once in a day or even once in a year. Sometimes it reveals itself to the customer but never graces the developer with its divine presence. So to all cricket enthusiasts, ha! You may have a lot of ways to get out in your game but we coders have a lot more ways to generate a segmentation fault in ours!!
Coming back to our code, like I described before, theres only one way to understand a two year old. Make friends with it. Give it candies and chocolates. Talk to it in its baby-language. And perhaps it will warm up to you and begin following your instructions. Same goes for programs. You have to give it a debugger like GDB (or give it to the debugger rather!), talk to it in terms of memory leaks and uninitialized pointers, make friends with it with debugging cout statements and comments and it will warm up to you unless it really hates you and absolutely refuses to run!
Thats what we tried with out DBI code and its up and running for now. but again, all this is just to understand one two-year old (or code) and when the next one comes along, we are compelled to agree "Oh segmentation fault, thou shalt rule the minds of programmers forever!!"
Just b4 I sign off here's something to cheer all you coders trapped in segmentation faults... http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/haiku.htm
Programs I seriously think are like two year olds. You have to coax them into getting up and working. Even then they may do just what they want instead of doing what you want them to do. If you persuade them too much then they will sulk and refuse to compile. And as I just said before, if you really get them mad at you, they might just compile but when they run they'll give you the dreaded segmentation fault!!
For those who haven't yet entered the murky catacombs of C++, segmentation fault is that universal name given to all sorts of pointer problems. Perhaps ye gods who made the computer and its systems didn't want us mortals to understand all its secrets! But to get back to our uni-error, it crops up at unexpected places, it may show up on some systems and may not on others. It might come up once in a blue moon or once in a day or even once in a year. Sometimes it reveals itself to the customer but never graces the developer with its divine presence. So to all cricket enthusiasts, ha! You may have a lot of ways to get out in your game but we coders have a lot more ways to generate a segmentation fault in ours!!
Coming back to our code, like I described before, theres only one way to understand a two year old. Make friends with it. Give it candies and chocolates. Talk to it in its baby-language. And perhaps it will warm up to you and begin following your instructions. Same goes for programs. You have to give it a debugger like GDB (or give it to the debugger rather!), talk to it in terms of memory leaks and uninitialized pointers, make friends with it with debugging cout statements and comments and it will warm up to you unless it really hates you and absolutely refuses to run!
Thats what we tried with out DBI code and its up and running for now. but again, all this is just to understand one two-year old (or code) and when the next one comes along, we are compelled to agree "Oh segmentation fault, thou shalt rule the minds of programmers forever!!"
Just b4 I sign off here's something to cheer all you coders trapped in segmentation faults... http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/haiku.htm
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Melting Moments!
Since cmng here to Gainesville life's been pretty calm (except for some bothersome issue that crops up everyday :D). One of the problems of learning to live by urself tho is gathering the wealth of experience in the kitchen tht only moms hav usually! The problem lies in gathering tht experience by trial and error and not by the more sophisticated way of lectures!!
Come beginning of sem and one course bothering me is Algorithms! Resorting to my tried and tested way of learning I decide to apply it to real life situations. But what do I pick on that will adequately test my Algo fundas?? Why some daunting household task ofcourse!!
So then one of the household tasks I wage a daily battle with is breakfast! Oh and also evening tea-time. Actually anytime I need butter!! Sounds strange?? Well thts one product thts been a tough nut to crack for me here! Talk about being as soft as butter! :O
What's it thts actually bothering me? Melting tht butter enough to put it on bread smoothly! The systems analyst that I am, I realised after 1-2 days that:
(a) the butter has to be stored in our freezer bcos theres simply no space in the normal portion of the refridgerator.
(b) I need to devise an algorithm for getting the butter to melt enough to put on bread.
(c) The worst case complexity of the algorithm shud be such tht the butter melts in time for me to have breakfast and rush to college.
I began by point (b). Tried out various algorithms for the butter melting.
--> Keeping it outside on the kitchen counter...takes too long.
--> Putting it in the micro and heating...I'd a river of butter and all totally liquid freely flowing...hardly any use and so much wastage!
--> Patting it on a hot pan...one side drips while the other is still rock solid!
--> Holding it under hot water...watery butter or buttery water for breakfast anyone?
So then due to lack of a good algorithm I'm unable to perform any analysis on it and am currently accepting proposals for a good algorithm to melt butter. Criteria...make it as fast as possible!!
On second thoughts, perhaps its one of those computationally infeasible problems??!!
Come beginning of sem and one course bothering me is Algorithms! Resorting to my tried and tested way of learning I decide to apply it to real life situations. But what do I pick on that will adequately test my Algo fundas?? Why some daunting household task ofcourse!!
So then one of the household tasks I wage a daily battle with is breakfast! Oh and also evening tea-time. Actually anytime I need butter!! Sounds strange?? Well thts one product thts been a tough nut to crack for me here! Talk about being as soft as butter! :O
What's it thts actually bothering me? Melting tht butter enough to put it on bread smoothly! The systems analyst that I am, I realised after 1-2 days that:
(a) the butter has to be stored in our freezer bcos theres simply no space in the normal portion of the refridgerator.
(b) I need to devise an algorithm for getting the butter to melt enough to put on bread.
(c) The worst case complexity of the algorithm shud be such tht the butter melts in time for me to have breakfast and rush to college.
I began by point (b). Tried out various algorithms for the butter melting.
--> Keeping it outside on the kitchen counter...takes too long.
--> Putting it in the micro and heating...I'd a river of butter and all totally liquid freely flowing...hardly any use and so much wastage!
--> Patting it on a hot pan...one side drips while the other is still rock solid!
--> Holding it under hot water...watery butter or buttery water for breakfast anyone?
So then due to lack of a good algorithm I'm unable to perform any analysis on it and am currently accepting proposals for a good algorithm to melt butter. Criteria...make it as fast as possible!!
On second thoughts, perhaps its one of those computationally infeasible problems??!!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Ticket to Gainesville
My ticket to Gainsville/FL/USA came in many parts...the UFL admit, the visa and ofcourse the Delta Airlines flight ticket. So it was on 20 Dec at 8.00 p.m. IST tht I set out on the long journey from home.
We'd booked a Qualis to carry my three huge bags and me, mom and dad. We reached Mumbai's international airport at abt 9.00 p.m. IST and I'd a pleasant surprise waiting for me. Amu and Sumit had come to see me off!! Tht felt reallyyy gr8! Check in was a breeze with uncle being in airport security. Infact it happened so fast tht I doubt I can recount what it consisted of.
I took a trolley and wheeled in my bags...passport and flight e-ticket in hand. At the check-in counter they asked me sme questions like "is there any liquid in ur bags", "did u pack them urself", "any electronic/electric items?", etc. and all. Answered them all then got 3 boarding passes - one frm mumbai to JFK/NY, the other to reboard at NY after customs and immigration for onward flight to Atlanta and third for Atlanta to Gainesville. Checked in baggage without any extra charge...Delta was in holiday spirit and kind towards students :)
A quick meet and a round of hugs with parents...handshakes with sumit and amu and a heavy goodbye to everyone and i was back inside filling the immigration form. Yea u need to do it in India too! Submitted it at the immigration counter and got a red stamp on my passport for it.
Then came the very trying task of finding Deepika and Vineesha, my travel mates. They'd already checked in since Uncle to the rescue again...after extensive searching he found them at the immigration counter and we finally met in person. The security check for our flight hadn't opened yet so we'd to wait in the lounge. Had a paneer sandwich and some iced tea while we waited...the last meal paid for in Rupees for a long time!
Security check opened at abt 11.30 p.m. IST and we wer let in after frisking and scanning of cabin bags. Once in there was a wait again till abt 12.45 wen we wer allowed to proceed to the aircraft. Here again Delta personnel screened us for liquids, gels, etc. We'd to even take off our shoes, belts and jackets to be frisked!!! Took off half an hr late at 1.30 a.m. IST.
The 14 hour journey in the aircraft was tiring to say the least. Service was OK...either good nor bad. Had dinner, light meal and breakfast on time, could order juice, cookies, tea, coffee on demand. Slept fitfully in the flight for the seat didn't go too far back. Were provided with pillow and blanket for the flight, also headphones for the TV set at the back of the seat before us and toothbrush, toothpaste. Best part abt the TV set was it allowed us to track the current destination of the flight and gave the time to reach destination.
Landed at JFK at 6.50 a.m. US time referred to as EST here. We wer given priority for immigration since we'd to catch the same flight to Atlanta. Immigration was simple no hassles, I-20 stamped, fingerprints taken, photo taken and passport stamped too. Got the I94 form and we wer done with immigration. In customs form we listed total value of goods with us to less than $500 and customs were done in a flash. The trolley at JFK however cost $3!!! Another thing to miss frm back home as Mumbai airport has free trolleys!
Another round of strict frisking with removing belts,shoes, jacket, etc. Thankfully this time no opening of bags. And we were back in the flight to go to Atlanta. The take off was thankfully quick and the flight was even quicker! We reached Atlanta at 11.30 a.m. EST. Took the train to Concourse D from Concourse E...talk abt hugee airports!! Felt like travelling from Borivali to Kandivali or rather from Rajiv Chowk to Chandni Chowk since the train at Atlanta was like the metro. Spent a longg time at the airport doing nothing. Had a bad headache by then so had to skip reading the book I'd picked. Wasted 2 $...one on coffee and one on phone call...coffee turned out yuck and phone didn't get thru tho the machine swallowed our quarters!!
Then the flight to Gainesville, delayed but not cancelled, left at 3.15 p.m. IST. Such a small plane with hardly any room to sit! I can't describe much abt it bcos I slept for the entire hour of the flight. Gainesville Regional Airport...reached here at 4.30 p.m. IST. From the hugeness of Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson to the smallness of GNV Regional. No trolleys to waste 3$ on here :) Dragged our baggage out ourselves!
Surprises dont end!! Nobody atallll to receive us!! Some waiting, again searching for change, more waiting, more puzzling over local phones and finally few frantic calls to contacts here. Then there came the ISA ppl to pick us up. Crammed suitcases in cars and we wer off to our apartments.
Regency Oaks is a beauuuutifulll place and loved it the moment we arrived. Roomies were those arrived in fall so were very helpful and nice. Dropped bags in a corner, had a shower, changed and chatted home on GTalk. Exhausted from the long journey I slept and how!! from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.!! Thankfully no sickness except bodyache and no jetlag!
Watch this space for more adventures in Gainesville...till then Toodles!!
We'd booked a Qualis to carry my three huge bags and me, mom and dad. We reached Mumbai's international airport at abt 9.00 p.m. IST and I'd a pleasant surprise waiting for me. Amu and Sumit had come to see me off!! Tht felt reallyyy gr8! Check in was a breeze with uncle being in airport security. Infact it happened so fast tht I doubt I can recount what it consisted of.
I took a trolley and wheeled in my bags...passport and flight e-ticket in hand. At the check-in counter they asked me sme questions like "is there any liquid in ur bags", "did u pack them urself", "any electronic/electric items?", etc. and all. Answered them all then got 3 boarding passes - one frm mumbai to JFK/NY, the other to reboard at NY after customs and immigration for onward flight to Atlanta and third for Atlanta to Gainesville. Checked in baggage without any extra charge...Delta was in holiday spirit and kind towards students :)
A quick meet and a round of hugs with parents...handshakes with sumit and amu and a heavy goodbye to everyone and i was back inside filling the immigration form. Yea u need to do it in India too! Submitted it at the immigration counter and got a red stamp on my passport for it.
Then came the very trying task of finding Deepika and Vineesha, my travel mates. They'd already checked in since Uncle to the rescue again...after extensive searching he found them at the immigration counter and we finally met in person. The security check for our flight hadn't opened yet so we'd to wait in the lounge. Had a paneer sandwich and some iced tea while we waited...the last meal paid for in Rupees for a long time!
Security check opened at abt 11.30 p.m. IST and we wer let in after frisking and scanning of cabin bags. Once in there was a wait again till abt 12.45 wen we wer allowed to proceed to the aircraft. Here again Delta personnel screened us for liquids, gels, etc. We'd to even take off our shoes, belts and jackets to be frisked!!! Took off half an hr late at 1.30 a.m. IST.
The 14 hour journey in the aircraft was tiring to say the least. Service was OK...either good nor bad. Had dinner, light meal and breakfast on time, could order juice, cookies, tea, coffee on demand. Slept fitfully in the flight for the seat didn't go too far back. Were provided with pillow and blanket for the flight, also headphones for the TV set at the back of the seat before us and toothbrush, toothpaste. Best part abt the TV set was it allowed us to track the current destination of the flight and gave the time to reach destination.
Landed at JFK at 6.50 a.m. US time referred to as EST here. We wer given priority for immigration since we'd to catch the same flight to Atlanta. Immigration was simple no hassles, I-20 stamped, fingerprints taken, photo taken and passport stamped too. Got the I94 form and we wer done with immigration. In customs form we listed total value of goods with us to less than $500 and customs were done in a flash. The trolley at JFK however cost $3!!! Another thing to miss frm back home as Mumbai airport has free trolleys!
Another round of strict frisking with removing belts,shoes, jacket, etc. Thankfully this time no opening of bags. And we were back in the flight to go to Atlanta. The take off was thankfully quick and the flight was even quicker! We reached Atlanta at 11.30 a.m. EST. Took the train to Concourse D from Concourse E...talk abt hugee airports!! Felt like travelling from Borivali to Kandivali or rather from Rajiv Chowk to Chandni Chowk since the train at Atlanta was like the metro. Spent a longg time at the airport doing nothing. Had a bad headache by then so had to skip reading the book I'd picked. Wasted 2 $...one on coffee and one on phone call...coffee turned out yuck and phone didn't get thru tho the machine swallowed our quarters!!
Then the flight to Gainesville, delayed but not cancelled, left at 3.15 p.m. IST. Such a small plane with hardly any room to sit! I can't describe much abt it bcos I slept for the entire hour of the flight. Gainesville Regional Airport...reached here at 4.30 p.m. IST. From the hugeness of Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson to the smallness of GNV Regional. No trolleys to waste 3$ on here :) Dragged our baggage out ourselves!
Surprises dont end!! Nobody atallll to receive us!! Some waiting, again searching for change, more waiting, more puzzling over local phones and finally few frantic calls to contacts here. Then there came the ISA ppl to pick us up. Crammed suitcases in cars and we wer off to our apartments.
Regency Oaks is a beauuuutifulll place and loved it the moment we arrived. Roomies were those arrived in fall so were very helpful and nice. Dropped bags in a corner, had a shower, changed and chatted home on GTalk. Exhausted from the long journey I slept and how!! from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.!! Thankfully no sickness except bodyache and no jetlag!
Watch this space for more adventures in Gainesville...till then Toodles!!
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