202 Changing seasons

2012-01-13T19:59:00.002+04:00

So these last few days back home in the Dxb have been nice. Too nice. Nice to the extent that my restlessness to go back to Amherst is competing with the sheer comfort and wonderfulness of being at home. Had I left a little earlier, it might have been the perfect balance of rest, re-invigoration and eagerness to return.

With three days left to go to school, I'm kind of enjoying it too much here. Adding on the fact that it's my last semester, and all I really want to do is delay it a little bit.

Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles, and things are slowly moving faster and faster as I approach game time at the Fairest College. Shopping for stuff (including stuff for my potential new apartment, yikes!), last minute visits to people in the city. Last minute eating of all the necessary foodstuffs.

And now I guess I can finally say, Dubai, you're not too bad, at least not in the winter. Sure there are plenty of things I have a little trouble with, but for better or for worse, this is home, so might as well make it better.

Moving Along

2012-01-07T13:43:00.002+04:00

It's amazing how quickly things can turn around.

About 5 days ago, I was basking in the all the glory of being at home, and away from what turned out to be the truest burnout of a semester possible. Amherst, while forever in my heart, really was a place I could never be too far away from.

And yet, suddenly, this morning strikes and all I really want to do is head back, and start another semester. It's all a bit poetic actually.

Perhaps it's just the fact that an impending test - even when I'm not actually studying for it - prevents me from spending endless hours gallivanting around the city with fellows from yesteryear. It may be that after the 9th, I suddenly feel a little more alive to the world.

But for now, I can say, with greater - but still, more tempered - confidence that the semester's gonna be a riot.

Let There Be Light (in Dubai Mall)

2012-01-04T11:42:00.002+04:00

Imagine my surprise (about a year ago) when I walked into Starbucks and found out that there is, in fact, no free wifi.

Clearly, I have been spoiled by North American internet access.

A quick google search informed me that Dubai actually has very few public internet access spaces. Oh well, I guess that's how the cookie crumbles (grumble... grumble).

Luckily enough, the crown jewel of Dubai's mall scene (which is already a pretty large, ornate crown, mind you) - the Dubai Mall (original name, yes?) - actually has free wifi throughout it's 440,000 square feet (!).

And so, in an effort to both leave the house (as wonderful as it is), and to find the motivation/atmosphere to write about 3000 words in the span of 4 days, I was conveniently dropped off here and left to my own devices. And by devices I mean my handy dandy computer-in-law and sufficient caffeination.

So far, it's been pretty fruitful, hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera next time.

Onwards!

Sleep Cycles

2012-01-03T15:16:00.002+04:00

You know it's a problem when you wake up at 6 in the morning and you cry out in exalted splendour: "Yes, I'm finally waking up late!"

In an effort to keep some hold of regularity in the undulating, lazy cycles of being home in the wintertime, I will continue to post regularly here, even if it ends up as rambles that even I won't read ex post facto.

In other somewhat-but-actually-entirely-unrelated news, turns out my GMAT test date is three days earlier than I expected. Huh...

[Insert shout out to Hannah Greenwald for being a true blogger, and my most recent inspiration thereto.]

What is life in the good ol' dxb without some mall therapy. This time, courtesy of the adopted parent (read: Minie Kapila), I found myself with a new winter jacket. It's rather fashionable, given my usual wear, and it probably won't take any guessing that I could never have picked it out. (In response to my first choice, she responded with the nonchalance of an experienced pest exterminator "Wow, that's really bad, makes you look like an old uncle (i.e. generic term for aged men who tend to be well past their physical prime), I think you should get rid of it.")

Yes, I did just use the double parentheses.

I wish I could do the whole facebook-tagging thing with blogs. It would make life so much easier.

Holy crap, it's 2012

2012-01-01T03:41:00.002+04:00

If there's ever time that blogs should be used, I would imagine it's a night like this (morning like this? meh). And if there's anything to kick start a litany of New Year's Resolutions, might as well be more frequent blog postings.

The Celebration itself: New Year's Eve is usually a low-key shindig with just the fam. We take a night at some far-off hotel and generally pass the night doing some particularly non-revelrous activities (the 4th HP movie is a good example). This year, in a slight break from tradition, we headed on over to Abu Dhabi to watch Coldplay in concert. Good decision. The concert is worth a post in and of itself (bottom line: best live performance of any group I've heard live, ever).

And now I sit here after we've trudged through new year's eve traffic on the way back. Phew.

On the previous note of resolutions, I'm struggling not to have any. It seems like one of those to-do's, a necessary goal plan for life in the new year. Well, the 1st of January seems a pretty arbitrary date on which to suddenly resolve upon hitherto unfulfilled aspirations, so knowing my average success rate with these things (0, sometimes negative depending on the nature of said resolutions) I'm going to trying and skip over that step for now. Maybe I'll draw up something on March 4th to rein in my unaccomplished self.

Sleep beckons presently, but may all you lovely folk have a fantabulous 2012 (barring the end of the world and all that), and pester me to post more stuff up here!

It's Wintertime... in Dxb...

2011-12-29T06:13:00.003+04:00

It has to have been less than a year since I last came home. Figuratively speaking of course (because it actually has been a year).

The weather is definitely not disappointing, except I forget that the inside of the house can actually get a little chilly on account of no indoor heating.

And fam time is about the best thing that can happen, in general, and so having a little bit of that nowadays is nice. I probably should get out of the house a little more, though, cabin fever starting to hit in the somewhat 4 or so days that I've been here.

Seeing cricket after this long is definitely one of the highlights, along with constant indian food, good tea, having a piano within 15 feet, and even the morning call for prayer. Hopefully there'll be more to come by way of excitement in the near future, but for now, I'm basking in the glory of laziness and lack of activity.

If only I could get over the damn jet lag.

The Thanksgiving Edition

2011-11-26T05:51:00.001+04:00

It's not usually this eventful during the week long break that Amherst indulges us with at the end of November. And although, as usual at the end of breaks, I could always use a little more, I have the feeling that Amherst is just going to be just a little different going back in for the remaining hell weeks.

Primary news, naturally, would be that of successfully having gained employment post-graduation. While there comes along with it the relief of having some certainty, it does bring up the eventual - or at least, eventually for me - questions of where life leads me from here on. Combined with what has already been a significant period of self reflection, it's turning out to be quite the semester.

Spending time at the fam's in St. Louis, MO has been the expected combination of sufficient sleep, overfeeding, 5 cups of tea daily, and more time spent in a mall than the entire year. But nothing really beats it on the R&R front.

While I'm expecting the coming week to absolute annihilate the store of rest that I've accumulated over the week, there's definitely a lot to look forward to: route 9, dance, a rather interesting senate meeting, an Econ midterm (?!), and other end of year madness.

Also, this is the first post I'm constructing entirely on my phone. What I'm hoping that means is that I will be updating this space far more often.

OcSnowberfest 2011 a.k.a. the Fall ClusterF***

2011-10-31T06:23:00.002+04:00

Trust one of the most memorable (read: crazy) occurrences on the Amherst Campus to knock me out of my blog-stupor.

The back-story: It's Halloween weekend. There is to be Marsh Haunted Haus, a party on the Hill (called Hilloween, no less) and much goings on this weekend. I was hoping for it to be fairly uneventful, having arrived Saturday morning after an extremely exhausting (but super fun) gig at Wellesley College out East. It turned out to be everything but.

After taking a much needed nap starting at 2 on Saturday afternoon, I proceed to wake up two hours later, and there's snow covering the campus.

In October.

By comparison, we received our first major snow last year close to Christmas.

Not only was there a fairly thick layer of snow across campus, there was a warning out to all of Massachusetts (and Southern New England) to prepare for an impending snow storm.

And so occurred the storm that Irene should have been.

Everything is so much less fun when you're sick, which I happened to be this entire time.

Not having the energy to go out or do much beyond read in my room, I return to King early in the evening and begin laundry at around 9. The storm has very much begun by this point, and every now and then I see blue lightning flash through the sky. Very cool.

Important: Because of weather concerns, by this point Hilloween had been moved to Davis down in the socials. This is relevant, I promise you.

A little after 11, I move down to change over my laundry and to do another load. Upon my return to my room my reading/goofing around continues.

Fifteen minutes later, and the lights go out. For real, permanently.

Oh, that's nice.

One hour, many text messages, and a few realizations later, turns out that much of Western Mass, Western CT, New York and New Jersey have lost power. Great.

I continue to be on the phone trying to acquire info/check up on people I know. My RC buddy makes it back in one piece after traversing campus, including the social quad.

About the party in Davis? Well, while King and a lot of the buildings on the central campus had emergency power lighting the hallways and the access points, the socials had none of those. So all the would-be party goers found themselves in absolute darkness. Sucks for them.

Sunday morning, and the power is still out. Word going around that it could be a few days before it's fully restored.

Amazingly, the dining hall remains open and functional. With the only building with power on the campus, it quickly become a refugee camp, with the whole campus clamoring for outlet space to plug in their laptops and phone chargers.

Kudos to Dining Services. And facilities.

RC meeting at 1 o'clock informs us that a decision regarding the campus will be made by 6:30.

At 5:30, power is returned to the central buildings on the campus. Ones on the periphery? Too bad apparently.

At 6:30, the admins and RC's reconvene and we are officially informed that there will be no classes on Monday. And so, for the first time since 1972, Amherst officially does not have classes on a regular working day. Incredible. But with 8 buildings on the periphery of campus with absolutely no heating or electricity, a sizeable chunk of the student body are made refugees and made to live with friends or in Lewis-Sebring.

So the worst has been averted, now only to clear up the massive amount of debris all over campus. Woot woot!!

Commencement Week 2011

2011-05-24T05:03:00.002+04:00

Squat city. Amherst w/out classes. Down 'n dirty work (hey, it's money). Lots of partying (because I'm so into that). Commencement week after the end of the spring semester is all of the above. With the bulk of campus gone, only seniors and a selection of student workers remain on our beloved alma mater's grounds.

The short: In order to stay in campus housing for Commencement and Reunion weeks (the 2 weeks post-semester), one has to secure a job with facilities or dining services full time. As part of the Choral Society, I was required to stay till Commencement Day, and so procured a job to hang around in the meantime.

This year, I decided to sign up for grounds crew. Now, usually being outside in the spring time sounds absolutely wonderful, especially given the alternative is to be scrubbing walls inside dormitories. Even if it would involve heavy lifting and shorter breaks. Well, mother nature seemed very intent on giving us the finger this time around, with it raining constantly beginning on the last day of exam period, through the entire week till Commencement Day. Yeah, thankyouverymuch rain Gods. So what was to be a fun, tough job became a miserable, cold, tough job. At least the work let up after day 3, since we were running through our tasks fast enough for them to not have much else for us to do.

Of course, life after 3 in the afternoon (because we were lucky enough to have to report to work at 7 a.m.) was a blast. Halo in Merrill 3, cooking for a ton of people, movie nights, jam sessions, Northampton runs and - naturally - tent parties definitely kept me occupied beyond those hours. Val continues to disappoint (heck, it's closed now and that's even more disappointing) but there's been plenty to snack on otherwise.

Still running the sleep deficit though, so excuse me while I attempt to recuperate on that front.

Lacking a title

2011-04-17T10:10:00.002+04:00

I'm not going to promise that I'm getting back to regular blogging, because such a venture is likely to fall through. But, after being accosted considerably by Ms. Greenwald to the effect, I shall indulge in a little life recap.

I think I could put down the post-spring break month as life-changing. As a number of forces in my life came to a head, it was filled with excitement, doubt, elation, disappointment, victories and - perhaps most importantly - reflection. Although dominated by a presidency run, there were plenty of little moments that forced me to stop and think.

I'm going to try this in bite-sized chunks, starting with this week. With the election over, I could turn back over into academic mode, and was conveniently delivered a quantum take home exam. Now if it weren't for the fact that I haven't been awake in class for the last three weeks...

There were brighter moments definitely, like the weather changing for long enough to consider spending time outside. And finally being able to play music.

Transience

2011-02-08T08:29:00.002+04:00

Have you ever thought about the number of people we meet, and subsequently forget? A stranger on the street, at meals, at friends' parties, sitting in a crowded space, in airplanes, concerts, in a class.

I wish I could hold it all in my head. It seems a shame that we are destined to interact with, and soon forget, so much of humanity. I guess a part of our shifting worlds comes from shifting people.

Maybe that's our mind - perhaps the soul, if you believe in it - telling us to focus on those most present in our lives.

I don't think I mind that.

Note: Sorry for the philosophical digression; given its mostly commentary nature I see it fitting in my narrative-focused writings.

And If there could be more snow

2011-02-07T00:44:00.005+04:00

For those not in Western Massachusetts, we've been having some record snow here this winter.

Enough to get Amherst College to shut their administrative offices. Classes? Never, that's the point of a 'residential' college! Oh well...

What that has meant is that now, as the snow melts and freezes over through the night, Amherst's paths have turned into treacherous traps, ready to punish any who do not tread carefully. As the entire campus learns how to do the slow shuffle, sitting in the front room of Val next to the window is bound to provide entertainment for the sadists among our student population.

In other news, there's been no campus-wide scandals or exciting informational tidbits recently. How interesting. Come on Amherst, is the cold discouraging any sudden movements?

In my little world, RC applications have been submitted, with my RCsoul caught between the joy of remaining on the FYQuad, and the... well... joy of living amongst classmates and friends as we struggle under theses together. Check this space soon for more on the RCdrama. Notice how attaching RC- to any word suddenly catapults it to a whole new level of soap-opera-ness.

Picture: Snowman construction underway in the Mead Quad behind James & Stearns with residents.

Amherst: Spring 2011

2011-01-22T09:31:00.003+04:00

It's always exciting to return to Amherst after a period away, even if it is covered in mountains of snow. However, it's a bit strange this time around. Perhaps it's the recent realization that the end has begun. With one and half years left, it's likely that I'll be out of here before I can actually grasp that reality. But I think it has more to do with an overall renewal. A rejuvenation, an increased passion for life and what I do.

Strangely enough, I really enjoyed my time back in Dubai over this winter. It seems a good way to have left it - given that it may be the last time I'm there while considering it 'home'. More than anything, it was restful - physically, emotionally and spiritually.

The next year and a half are gonna be great. And this Spring is going to defy its usual yuckiness and be absolutely glorious.

The New Week

2011-01-04T14:26:00.006+04:00

It's not often that I concede a victory to Dubai, but New Year's Eve was one of those times. As much as I may gripe about its issues, the place does know how to put on a show. And if lighting the world's tallest building on fire, in a magnificent display of light on glass, wasn't fancy, I'm not sure what is.

But it was sheer madness on the ground.

New Year's is usually a quiet affair for the Mazumdars. Whether we're out of town on a one-night retreat or not, mom is usually asleep when midnight rolls around, and the rest of us are in the process of watching a Harry Potter re-run. With the few necessary calls and messages performed, an early night in is all that is called for.

This year, Dubai invited its entire population (by means of its lovely, efficient, highly motivated telecommunications providers Etisalat and du) to a special New Year's Eve celebration at the foot of its crown jewel, the Burj Khalifa. We decided it would be a good idea, since spending over $150 to go to some DJ'ed New Year's Bash didn't really sound like fun. With that, we set out to Dubai Mall.

For my non-Dubaiian (Dubaiite? Dubinese?) friends: The Burj stands at one corner of an area known as Business Bay. Adjacent to it is the Dubai Mall - which, given that this is a city of malls, must be pretty damn special to get its name - a very large institution, with numerous entrances out onto the Bay.

Clearly, with the entire city invited, it would get crowded.

After struggling through traffic for a good 45 minutes, we make little headway, and resign ourselves to parking close to a kilometre away from the mall. Eventually, we get into it, and are greeted by the most massive crowd that could have ever been amassed at the place. Our plans to have dinner at the mall essentially vapourized within seconds of walking in, as many of the restaurants we approached actually admitted to running out of food. The multiple exits out on to the Fountain were more reminiscent of a Mumbai local train at rush hour, than entryways to the centre of Dubai. We actually didn't make it out onto the large Fountain-front, so we made our way out of the mall, and followed it around to a corner which was a convenient point to look at the Burj from. After about 40 minutes in the (relative) cold, the firework began. And it was quite worth it, seeing a structure like the Khalifa light up like that.

A short walk back to the car, and home we were by 12:30 p.m. With a post-midnight dinner of macaroni and cheese, the Mazumdars retired for the first time in 2011.

Day 5

2010-12-31T11:15:00.002+04:00

Ok, let's get back on track here.

Back in Dxb for the winter break, and for a considerable period, given that the likelihood of my returning during 2011 is close to nil. So far it's been fairly eventful, coupled with sleep and home food, and all in all, exactly as hoped for.

As soon as I find that damn cable, pictures shall soon accompany my posts. With clear skies and bright sunshine illuminating the fair sandlands, I'm sure snaps would be appreciated.

Brief word of advice: Do not go to Ferrari World, unless you're dying to go on the 'fastest roller coaster in the world'. Other than the Formula Rossa, there is little to excite those who have experienced other theme parks. With long lines for lame rides, there are better places to spend your time and money.

Unlike the summer, it seems much of Modern has converged upon the city this time around, which makes for many catchings-up and how's-it-beens. Which is fantastic and all, but maybe I shouldn't have signed up to do that GMAT thing in that case. Oh well...

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a sandwich waiting.

Fall Begins

2010-09-29T01:25:00.003+04:00

With rain lashing the Amherst Campus incessantly, I've finally found footing into the academic year. It's amazing how it takes so long to get going in the groove of things.

I'm also going to try and sleep more. Yes I am.

Wrapping Up

2010-08-15T13:59:00.002+04:00

It seems like I've been in Dubai way longer than I actually have. Perhaps it was the slow days.

Regardless, here I am, with a little over a day to go, ready to embark on another year at Amherst. People are going to be abroad next year, but at least there's a whole new freshman class to terrorize and, potentially, meet. And then there are the upcoming worries of grad school, job, thesis, that will have to be prepared for.

Anyways, I feel good right now. Inexplicably so. One of those zen moments perhaps, with the feeling that at some basic level, people, life and the world are good. I'm going to resist the temptation to paint mankind as inherently cynical and destructive, because I can't get over the fact that there's just too much awesomeness in everyday people.

I'll leave that there.

Downtime

2010-07-31T14:21:00.002+04:00

I blame it on the heat.

Of late, spending time at home has become synonymous with lazy days, the year's worth of television, and, of course, a subtle feeling of insanity brought on by the mind-numbing boredom of summer time in Dubai. It starts with a constant twitching, followed by a swift deliberate pacing to nowhere, and strikes its full blow when I realize I'm up at 3 in the morning reading the Entertainment Plus.

It is a struggle, I must admit. I returned with a focused agenda, a battle plan for holding off its vicious attack. My Things-To-Do list has become the RAF to Boredom's Luftwaffe. And I shall go unto the end... or until I give into the fact that I'm trying to stay sane and alert while I really should be experiencing downtime.

It's amazing really, maybe I'm trying too hard. Maybe I should give in to the universe telling me that I'm bound to be an unproductive couch potato.

....

In other news, the wisdom teeth are out! Woot. In a flawless operation, involving only a short duration of intense pain, Dr. GNRFan successfully extracted my two left teeth, leaving my free to worry about all the other dental problems I seem to be facing. Post-op hasn't been nearly as horrific as people have made it out to be, and even oral stitches haven't held me back from indulging in my foremost passion - eating.

Research et al.

2010-06-30T06:33:00.003+04:00

Yes, second one in one week, I'm on a roll here.

To be more descriptive on my summer here at Amherst, here are some (perhaps excruciating) details about what's been on the plate so far:

1) Machine Shop - A three-week long course to teach the basics of using shop tools like mills and lathes. Led by the ever-charming Bob Cann, it involved getting up in the morning - much earlier than I'm used to - and spending three hours listening to lecture and then making various parts. Ultimate purpose: Steam engine. On the final test day, mine spluttered and worked in phases, but hats really went off to dear Saugat Kandel. This wonderful Nepali is usually the butt of all the physics majors' jokes, but he turned out an absolutely perfect engine that ran smooth as butter.

2) Programming the Raeguard - Outside of the Friedman lab is a little device that measures the amount of organic particles in the air of 1st floor Merrill. My first task - that continues to remain a task - was to program code in LabView (more on that later) to accept the output of this device and upload it in convenient format to the internet. Sigh, I wish it was as easy as it sounded. Ultimate objective: Have something that looks like the Lite version of Merrill Energy Tower.

3) Observing the interference of flux-tunneling paths in Cooper pairs - yeah, WTF? This is the main experiment I'm working on this summer, one with some history behind it. 4 years after work on it began, it finally looks like the experiment will actually be performed! Poor Vikyath Rao (Class of 2010) wrote his entire honors thesis on an experiment that never ran. Well, this summer it finally looks like something will come of it. Joy. Unfortunately, in spite of reading that thesis and helping out on certain tasks that need doing, I have yet to understand much of what's going on behind the experimental theory. Ultimate objective: Figure out what the hell it's about - and what those God damn Shapiro Steps are.

In non-internship related doings:

i) Football (a.k.a. soccer) - what with World Cup fever around, it's only natural that the more intrepid of us make efforts to emulate the Football Gods. Often badly, but valiant attempts nonetheless. If only the matches weren't during the day, we could actually get some work done.

ii) Halo - summer = video games. 'Nuff said.

iii) Pulao - the only thing I've successfully cooked so far, but made enough to feed an army (or me for 2 days).

Other things include music, hiking the Notch, watching Toy Story 3 (perhaps the most surprisingly good movie I've seen) and complaining about how hot Hitchcock gets.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of having this experience is that it's becoming incredibly clear that research isn't my cup of tea. While I'm learning things very quickly and acquiring some handy skills, I can't help but feel like sitting in a room with no windows, doing activities that don't often involve people and staring at a book or a screen for hours on end, is something that I really cannot see myself doing much longer than a few weeks. It's not that I didn't expect this to be as previously described, but I guess Amherst's taught me to never take anything for granted. At least I'm more sure of what I would want to do with myself, in that I've scratched out something. But in the meantime, 4 more weeks left...

New Looks

2010-06-25T10:26:00.002+04:00

It's suddenly hit me that my Amherst-semester-induced insomnia can actually be put to semi-productive use by my writing decent length posts here. As I attempt to find a normal sleeping schedule, I might as well spend the wee hours doing various things that I neglect during the day.

For the uninitiated, I just lived through the semester from hell. If there was a combination of 4 courses on the Amherst campus that could have been harder than the ones I took this spring, it would probably not be approved by the Deans. It's probably all my fault, taking the hardest course on campus, the hardest course in the economics major without the prerequisites, along with two reading and writing intensive ones.

Intermediate Lab (Physics 26) has always had the reputation of giving the Physics major the aura it does - that intense, bordering-on-insanity aura. And, as experience now informs me, it deserves every shred of it. I have yet to find another undergraduate course requiring a constant 20-30 hours a week of work, hopefully there are none - Amherst students should be kept safe. But the important thing is that it's over. Nyaha.

On to happier moments - Summer's here! 9-5 mode is on, with plenty of time for futbol, Halo, drives to Noho and lying awake at night wondering about the Gulf of Mexico. If it weren't so damn hot in Hitchcock! I guess you can't have everything.

That everything includes good dental care. So turns out that Amherst College Student Insurance doesn't have dental insurance, and the dentist I recently visited says I need all my wisdom teeth removed, along with two root canals and 6 fillings. Total Cost? $5300+. WTF?!! So not only was I experiencing considerable pain, but the dentist's prognosis gave me my first ever bill-related heart attack (I suddenly have so much empathy for my parents over my tuition bill). End result: I'm abridging my internship to go home for the necessary work. 8 weeks at Amherst it is then.

Note to self: Get a camera cable soon to upload pictures.
Note to everyone else: If you have a Sony compatible camera link cable, I would love to borrow it.

Need to sleep. Need to sleep. Need to sle...

Spring Break Happenings

2010-03-16T22:20:00.002+04:00

Wow, it's incredible out after a stormy four days.

Lab, history, video games, cycling and cooking have dominated life since the start of spring break.

Time to sit on the quad.

Week 4

2010-02-18T03:08:00.002+04:00

Physics 26 is well underway, yet that's not what seems to be dominating my life, it's the God damn econometrics.

Enough about work.

Snow, wonderful snow, it's great when it's relatively warm and there's snow on the ground. Pictures may be in order soon.

Setting up 3 friends at Valentine's Day Screw Your Roommate TAP was awesome, although one will use any means necessary to get back at me for it.

Sweeney got over ages ago, but wait, it's only been two weeks and 4 days! Argh, that describes the semester so far in a nutshell. Not to say that that's bad, I wouldn't haven't any other way. Although sleep is at a premium.

Ok, nap time.

Interterm

2010-01-19T18:39:00.002+04:00

It's been 21 days since returning to the Amherst Campus, and it's been surprisingly warm. Not in the Dubai-wonderful-thirty-degree style warm, but rather just above zero. Which is incredible for January.

Sweeney Todd continues to make progress, in fact the final stages of production have begun. Showtime in a couple of days.

And it's been a good few days. Not necessarily the smoothest, but certainly the most enlightening and growth-inducing in a while.

It's funny how I'm writing this sitting on stage with music happening around me. Mark is on a warpath with the orchestra, with his tight black T-shirt et al. We're not going to get out of here in a while. Great.

And the first moment of classes haven't even started and I'm already choc-a-bloc.

I love it.

Re-Take!

2009-12-31T19:30:00.002+04:00

Ok, let's start this thing again, just because I feel momentous right now. C'mon, it's New Year's Eve, possibly the best time to start anything afresh. I honestly feel like it's a new beginning, I'm getting this tingling sensation (...I gotta feeling...).

2009 was some year. I wouldn't say it was personally the worst, although it could certainly have been one of the worst years in the overall state of mankind. But then again, personally, it wasn't the best either. Lots of good things, lots of pretty sucky things, a true mixed bag. It's been enlightening and confusing, successful and heartbreaking, morale-boosting and confidence-shattering all at once.

Maybe my feelings for the upcoming year are indicative of that. I'm not desperately pleading for a new year like I've sometimes done in times past, but I'm also pretty eager to see the back of '09.

Wow, could I be more ambivalent and vague?

Yes!

But not now, because I have to go eat Italian food right now. Mmm...

How apt is it, that I'm reaching 100 today. It seems like my last Teachers' day was ages ago, but it really has been only 2 years. The sheer excitement, eventfulness and enormity of the last 24-36 months have been just incredible.

Ha, feels good.

So now what?

2009-11-26T11:47:00.003+04:00

It started with a numbness. It most certainly wasn't sorrow - that would come later. It was an inability to think, to take in anything. It took me a while to realize I was gasping for breath. I also lost control of my limbs, the first to go were the knees, then came a tumble onto my elbows, and eventually those gave way as well. And lying there on the floor, with my eyes rolling up and down the carpet without really seeing anything, the numbness continued for a while.

In my head I was thinking, "Hey, it seems like I'll be fine from here on, I'm not bawling all over the floor!"

Only problem was I lay paralyzed in that position. A couple of minutes later (although I completely lost track of time by that point), and the tears came.

...

This semester's been long. This year's been long. In fact it seems that ever since I acquired the specific sense of consciousness that comes with maturity, that life's been stretched out. Am I still 19?

...

Conversations have happened, some longer than others. It's clear that there's really only one message to be taken away from it all, to live like he would have wanted us to. How? When I can hear his voice ringing in my head, when every memory flashes back to me with an amplified retrospective awareness.

The moving on will happen. Just not yet.

It's A Beautiful Day

2009-11-04T09:28:00.001+04:00

Indeed, it is.

P.S. Singing is great.

Homecoming 2009

2009-10-26T21:28:00.002+04:00

This weekend was definitely my favourite time last year. The constant activity, all the old alumni on campus, the simply gorgeous amount of food available all over the place, and the fact that the whole day I've been doing music is just awesome.

For those who don't know, Homecoming weekend is when many of the alumni come back to campus (the one time other than Reunion at the end of spring), and in conjunction with that is a football game. Now, at the game itself, there are usually loads of tents set up for the different classes, and Social Council and other groups on campus also set up there. The Amherst colours are also prominent, and the overall feel there is also incredible. Of course, it was really rainy this time, that might have diminished the turnout, but it was still really happening.

This year, we played Wesleyan, and trashed them 23-0. That came as a relief, given that we normally play Williams and lose at Homecoming.

However, it's not just the game - at least for me. The weekend involved many concerts - choir, jazz and orchestra - all over the place. It was sick.

This was a very boring write up. Whatever.

Break Plus Stuff

2009-10-12T08:20:00.002+04:00

Being sick over a break is pretty sad, but it's better than being sick while classes are on.

The quiet over Amherst this Sunday evening of Fall Break is pretty unnerving, but it could just be that my feeling really drained on account of flu-like symptoms is compounding that situation. Hopefully, it'll pass by Tuesday morning.

Ah, so I'm well into the term. And it's been a roller-coaster so far, I'm hoping that things will have settled down by this point, although I'm not counting on it.

I'm also ranting, partly because of the effects of the Nyquil are hitting, partly because I really have nothing interesting to say.

I should get some pictures of the fall colours though. It's beautiful.

Gah!

2009-10-05T03:30:00.001+04:00

I'm not going to complain about the amount of stuff I have to do.

I'm not going to complain about the amount of stuff I have to do.

I'm not....

Ah, fine, yes the pressure's on.

At least the constant rain has kept the distraction of sunny days on the quad out of the picture.

Turns

2009-09-19T23:49:00.002+04:00

I've felt pretty tired this week. Under a relentless barrage of initial problem sets, extracurricular forays and countless tiny things-to-do that keep my life running, it gets to the point where I wonder why I do this to myself. And then I'm reminded, like a flash of lightning, that it's because I can.

I can and so I must.

Who knows what tomorrow brings? It seems the only way to live a life is to lead one without regrets - that's when it becomes about quality over quantity.

Heh, time's a funny thing. Sure, it'd be nice if there was more of it to go around, but in the meanwhile, I'd like to give it the respect it deserves.

Sigh.

Classes and stuff

2009-09-09T03:22:00.002+04:00

The first day of classes, and the fact that I'm actually writing a blog post means that I don't have enough work to do. Actually I do, but again my college student instincts kick in as I try to procrastinate to the best of my ability.

For the first time, I'm actually experiencing the add/drop facility at Amherst (which is also present at most other colleges, but I can only speak of mine own alma). It pains me that there are so many useful, interesting and engaging courses that I can take, but not enough time slots in the day to do justice to them. Sigh. And the fact that Amherst doesn't have summer school doesn't help. Anyways, we live and we learn.

Econ, plenty of physics and music. Yup, looks a'ight.

Back here

2009-09-06T22:53:00.002+04:00

I was planning on writing a huge post elucidating all the incredible cool things that have been happening since the 20th, which was when I arrived back at Amherst. But I've nearly forgotten the important details. So I'm not going to try.

I'm a Resident Counselor in a first year dorm now, Stearns to be specific. And the training programme was intense, long but among the most fun things I've ever done.

I'm beginning to think I should have written a day to day account. Anyways.

It's exactly one a half days till classes start, should be good. I didn't realize how much I missed Amherst until I got back.

Was in Northampton for the first time last night, and in a fortunate turn of events there was an amazing jazz quartet playing in one of the coffee shops on the main street. Two of the members also happened to have played at college on multiple occasions. Sweetness was high.

I get the feeling I should be doing something. I think I'll go do that now.

Two months down

2009-07-25T22:13:00.002+04:00

I've come to a pretty definite conclusion.

I'm a bit bored.

Now, I know that technically there is plenty I could be doing, but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it. It's not laziness in the true sense of the word, more a lack of inspiration and impetus.

It seems that when I have a lot of time on my hands, I never end up getting anything done, whereas when I'm hard pressed, my efficiency levels are at their peak. Kind of an all-or-nothing situation, I would call it. Maybe it's the fast-paced life at college that has made me prone to immediate itchy-fingers the minute that all that's there to do is stare at the walls.

I should really stop staring at walls.

And I think I should stop staring at computer screens too. If only I could find something fun/exciting enough to fill the interim.

Sigh, I guess I should go hunting for some such thing right now.

Note to self: Reading people is not your thing.

Unearthing

2009-07-19T11:41:00.002+04:00

There happens to be house cleaning going on right now, as mom takes full advantage of my presence in clearing my room of unwanted junk. In the process, as usually happens when such endeavours are undertaken, things pop up which were believed to have been lost forever. USB's from when 128mb was a massive amount of space, wedding invitations from people who have grown up kids, my first real toy (a police motorcycle) that gave off a massive siren when you pressed a button. Or at least massive to a three year old's sensitive year.

And it continues around me, as I shift in my chair to make room for a box being provided a new position in the house.

Fujeirah

2009-07-13T20:24:00.003+04:00

In celebration of the male half of my parenting unit turning 50 years old (gasp!), the family decided to take a mini-vacation. It was decided that we go to a nearby resort/hotel/fun place for a night, and so we began the task of hunting down cheap stays. The recession definitely seems to have taken a toll on the tourism industry, as we were in the enviable position of having a good range of choices. It was finally settled that we take the drive to Al Aqah beach in fujeirah.

The morning of the 11th (which was actually the day after the aforementioned birthday), we hopped into the car at around 8 and promptly spent the next hour and a half trying to get out of Dubai in the right direction. The map provided by the hotel didn't want us to take the normal route one would take to get to Fujeirah, and so some confusion was expected. Eventually we made it out alive and hit the open road. Along the way we passed little towns, which actually reminded me of what Dubai was just 10-12 years back, and open patches of rocky desert. When we hit the brownish, metallic mountains we knew we were in Fujeirah territory. 50 kilometres from the resort we began seeing signs giving directions to the hotel. Given that the entire journey - one way - is only about 130 km, you could say that they were a bit premature, but looking at the barren, open surroundings, a little reinforcement about our navigational capabilities was good to see. 11:30 a.m. and we had arrived at the 'Le Meridien' (yes, yes, the 'Le' is redundant).

We had a couple of hours before we were allowed to check into our rooms, so we explored the hotel. There was a prominent diving centre there so I signed up for a snorkeling trip, and dad, sis and I played pool for the hour before lunch. The rooms were really spacious, surprisingly so, and at that point in time it reminded me that recessions are pretty serious. Lunch was mainly sandwiches from the restaurant, and I hurried to the diving centre to catch the boat out. Turns out I didn't have to run, because the trip was delayed by an hour. Apparently, someone had had a heart attack on the previous excursion. Anyways, a speedy, enjoyable 20-minute boat ride later and I was in the water attempting to catch fish from the huge shoals that were tickling my feet. It would have been nicer if my snorkel wasn't that defective, I don't think it's supposed to let in water every time I breathe in. We, i.e. the group, were on the lookout for a turtle which was supposed to make its home in the reef below us. We couldn't find it, although the group leader had seen a shark prowling around some where. Sweetness.

In the meantime, mom and dad were chilling on the beach and sissy was playing beach volleyball with old people. I'm not sure whether they were really 'old' people because she seems to think anyone older than her fits into that category. After my return, we went swimming in the pool, followed by me teaching her squash. Now that didn't last very long. Dinner that day was Italian themed, and that was very exciting. The day ended quickly after that, given our exhaustion from the myriad of activities partaken.

The morning came, and although we had anticipated a boat ride as the first item on the agenda, choppy seas prevented that from happening. Additionally, hitting the beach was out of the question for the same reason, and it was too hot for putt-putt golf. So we decided to head back to the homeland, and this time the trip was much shorter on account of our actually knowing how to get there.

And that was that.

Eating = Life. Eating Way Too Much = Deeeeaaaath

2009-07-03T22:55:00.002+04:00

It's pretty obvious that greed is bad, *cough* recession *cough*, but when it comes to matters of food there is a blurry line between 'complete enjoyment of life' and 'you are so on the way to a heart attack'. I'm a self-defined foodie, but I think there are times when I let myself go to the point of callousness, and the results are a bit unsettling (literally, as I came to know the hard way). Forget the obesity argument, I mean, as a young, active person I know one day's not going to kill me. But there happen to be immediate ramifications of treating your food tract as a dustbin.

Man, did it hurt.

So I had gone for a friend's birthday party at a chinese restaurant. The friend shall remain anonymous as I would not like to force culpability on anyone, especially considering that I suggested the joint in the first place. What I will not hesitate in saying is that there was too much food kept at the table. It called out to me, it made me desire for more even after I was satiated by normal human standards. While I am at trying to vindicate myself, I may as well say that a magic butterfly fluttered in through an open window, and with a mighty heave of its wings tunneled entire bowls of food into my mouth. Bottom line is that I ate like there was no tomorrow. And then there was cake. Rich, chocolaty, awesome delights. The perfect storm of bad digestion was brewing, and I continued to deliver punishment to my gastrointestinal system. It was great while it lasted. But the tale of woe and tragedy begins the morning after...

I woke up in real pain, and I knew immediately that my incessant shoveling of the spicy, indescribably strange flavours of the previous evening had taken their toll.

I would rather not describe in detail the actual ordeal of cleansing my system, but it would be apt to say that I spent the day moaning, groaning, twisting, turning, sucking on sour things, eating like a sadhu, and spending inordinate amounts of quality time with my bathroom. As I write this all that's left is a slight soreness, although sudden movements still produce enough discomfort to make me not want to move. But thinking about eating (which I guess I am right now, since that's what this post is about) is not a very pleasant topic at the moment, let's see how long it remains that way.

I'd give it 24 hours.

Tutti Frutti

2009-06-26T01:21:00.002+04:00

I'm beginning to wish I had realized that summer is going to whoosh by earlier. It's been a month since I've been in Dubai, and my productivity level in any sense is way behind what I thought it was going to be. But then again, I guess that's how it always pans out. Much planning, little fruition.

Speaking of fruition, mom went crazy the other day (the 24th of June, to be exact) as we took a round (my very first) of the fruit and vegetable market.

We set out that morning to visit school for my sis' PTM meeting. After spending many hours searching frantically around the school for her teachers, and subsequently spending much time in lines and very little actually meeting the teachers, we were finally done by 1:30 or so. Our school is now located in Nad Al Sheba (a.k.a. middle of nowhere), where 16-wheelers abound, and which is also the home of the aforementioned market.

We hadn't even gotten out of the car completely on parking there, when a peddler holding multiple boxes of mangoes begins his duty of assuring us of the fine quality of his goods.

"Madam, madam, bees rupay ek peti. Bauhaut hi swaad hein. Me batharaoon madam, asay nahi milenge, market mein." He brims with confidence, but mom - only 5 seconds in - swings into full form.

She haggles... and haggles... and haggles.

Eventually the asking price comes down to 20 bucks for 24 mangoes. I'm in heaven.

And so the rest of the hour went in similar fashion. Given my penchant for most fruits, I wholeheartedly supported my mother in her effort to secure the maximum value for money. Although, every now and then I would wonder whether by doing so, we were depriving these men (who looked as if they could use some extra money) of their livelihood. Sigh.

With the car boot full, off it was to IKEA at Festival Centre to get sis a bookcase. A very tall bookcase. I don't really like furniture shopping, primarily because it's deadly boring, and by the time we were done I was falling asleep while simultaneously being really hungry. I hadn't had lunch yet (Gasp! Blasphemy!), and it was getting to 5 o'clock, so off to fill ourselves with food court fare.

And by the time this is being written, the King of Pop has left us. Sigh again. I would never proclaim myself to be his biggest fan, but I will always be indebted to the kind of musical influence he was, and I'm sure that sentiment is shared by millions around the world.

A Big Banana Split

2009-06-05T22:25:00.002+04:00

This post has nothing to do with ice-cream, really. The title is more of the outcome of having no particular theme in mind.

Most of all, I have to fight the urge to go into 'higher-reflection-introspection-plane' mode, because it seems one of those moments in time to do so. It happens every now and then, an event that is important enough to reserve a space in memory forever. A little bittersweet: tough because of its nature, but sweet because it allows me to recollect everything wonderful associated with it. And I don't think it was anything but wonderful.

All good things must come to an end, it seems.

*shake, shake*

Woah, sorry 'bout that. In other news, B.H.Obama delivers historic address at Cairo University at the brink of his tour of the middle east. I have yet to finish seeing the entire address, but the reactions in the press are interesting to watch. Especially comparing the American and Arab writers on the same speech and ideals. So the Yanks are saying that Obama needs to call on the Arabs to really do more, instead of just complaining. The Arabs are saying Obama should stop talking and start doing. Ok, maybe that's a very frank and slightly extreme version, but that's essentially what the mood is. Funny stuff.

Yes, that's enough I think.

2 Days to Go

2009-05-23T04:28:00.002+04:00

It's a bit sad that this post comes only a couple of days before I depart from Amherst for the summer vacation, due to arrive back in the sandlands.

First off, I'm not as excited to get back as I should be, I think 4 months is not long enough for a semester, it takes that long for things to get really rolling! But I may as well enjoy it because it'll probably be the longest period of time I spend at home in a while.

I guess I could start off with Friday/Saturday/Sunday at the end of exam week, however, it seems a bit irrelevant right now. Just a brief mention that it was a very long three days should be enough to jog my memory.

The last week on campus was spent being a janitor! Yes, in order to stay on campus before our seniors' commencement, we had to work for 40 hours over the week. While there are many kinds of jobs available, the good ones usually go to upperclassmen, hence I ended up as part of the custodial staff for the week. Actually, the work wasn't too bad - we got lots and lots of breaks. I would estimate that although we got paid (yes, paid) for 8 hours a day, we worked maybe for 4 -5 in reality. The last day was the best, as it ultimately ended up being only 3.
Work was usually followed by hanging around campus for a couple of hours, then heading back to Tyler on the hill (which is where I got put up for the week) and then playing board games with fellow Tyler-ers. Sleep early, get up early, repeat process.

And now it's the weekend of commencement, I'm sure things are going to get pretty wild, let's wait and see what happens.

April Fools Day

2009-04-14T02:21:00.002+04:00

It started when Dana walked into our room at 11:30 p.m. on the 31st of March, conspiring with Zach on how to April Fool Tim. Me, in my half-sleep, caught a few snatches of it, but did not think about it too much. I go off to sleep and the next morning I continue as normal.

During french, our teacher, towards the end of the class, hands out an exam. "Ok, you have about 15 minutes". WTF? We begin, but within 20 seconds, someone yells out, "Oh!" Turns out, as we were writing the date, we realized it was the 1st of April. Haha, Madame Uhden.

The day goes on, I have a physics midterm at 7 p.m. I get back to James at 6, and the main entrance to the building has a sign on it that says "Happy April Fools' Day Rohan!"

Uh oh.

Get upstairs, get into my room, and notice that my bed's been made. Ok, that's really weird, I've never ever made my bed. But my worst fears are realized when I turn around, and face a sorry sight.

All my clothes are gone. Every single, last one. The ones in the dresser, on top, hanging, everything. And there are little notes all over the place saying "Where have your clothes gone?", etc. In a fit of rage, I immediately jump to conclusions, and am certain that Dana is behind all this. I run over to her room, she's not there, but there's a sign on her door "Dear Rohan, in order to find the room in which your clothes are, solve this physics problem..." and the sign goes on to specify this key to my wardrobe.

Now, I'm pissed. Alison, who's in the study nook, comes over to see what's up. I tell her, and go on to say that I'm going to retaliate. So I take Dana's computer... and her printer... and literally remove her mattress and all the bedding and throw it into the common room. Ha, that'll show her. All Alison said was, "Man, you're crazy."

I get back from the exam to find my mattress in the study nook. My chair, my comforter and two pillows are in the stairwell. My food's gone. My guitar's gone.

Dana by this time has returned, and we get into an arguing match. "Why'd you take all my stuff?" "You took my computer, and my bed!" "But you started it by taking my clothes" "I didn't take your clothes!"

"Wait... you didn't?"

"No man."

Then Zach connects the dots.

"Did anyone notice how Alison's been the only constant throughout this?"

All eyes turn to the culprit, and if you thought I was mad earlier, ho ho.

I chase her down, grab her, drag her to our room and pin her to a corner. All the while, she insists on my solving the physics problem. The situation, truth be told, was hilarious. Not to mention incredibly smart; she successfully pit me and Dana against each other.

Finally, the problem is solved, and it turns out she stored my clothes (all of them!) in Brooks' room. Stomp down, and get everything back.

In the mean time, Dana and the gang help restore order to the universe, a.k.a. floor and our rooms.

Man, that was fun, but pretty indicative of my behaviour. Or maybe people in general. It was so easy, just a little nuances here and there, and it was a perfect prank.

It's Over! (Re-lived)

2009-03-19T21:35:00.002+04:00

Sitting in the family room, I've just realized that it's been a year since the end of the board examinations. Wow. And I have the strange feeling that the interim from then to now has been both quick and agonizingly slow. The sheer number of events and happenings that have dotted the last year make it seem like ages ago since EVS wrapped up the end of our schooling lives. But it's been a year.

Man, a year isn't very long at all.

It's safe to say that it's been incredible, ranking up there with 2005-2006 as the best time ever. Yet right now I can't help but think that I want to get a move on. Come on. Something happen. Meh. That's probably just me in my present state. Means it's nap time.

Aahhh

2009-03-17T05:55:00.002+04:00

It's spring break, and I'm sitting in my cousin's house in Florida. I have eaten enough to last me the next three days, and I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to do anything with myself (for now). After a hectic last week before break, being in the warmth is quite comforting.

Nothing much otherwise.

Except Varun Gandhi. Sometimes I fear for my country, and this is one of those times. Read the article here:

Varun Gandhi's communal remarks.

It's a good thing he's being dealt with. But my gut feeling is that he'll be let off fairly easy, and then the hate-mongering will continue.

Whine Whine

2009-03-07T03:53:00.003+04:00

Yes, that is what I intend to do.

Maybe I shouldn't.

Ok, I won't.

But once again, the desire to feed my homework to the dogs, sit on my bed and gaze at the corner of my ceiling where little cracks have created funny patterns - a natural avant-garde expression - is surfacing. I won't do that either.

Instead, I'm going to stop talking ... writing ... umm... talking in my head.

Harlem Gospel Choir + Dave Pietro + Death

2009-03-01T09:52:00.002+04:00

Yes, all of those things. Before another crazy list of events is relegated to the insignificance of my forgotten past, let me put down the events over the past couple of days. This is leading to the climax of what has been a crazy and very stressful (and not completely fun) week.

Friday the 27th, The Harlem Gospel Choir came to Amherst. They were incredible. And a few of us from the Choral Society and Amherst Gospel Choir got to attend a workshop conducted by them, which ended with us singing on stage with them for a couple of songs! And even when I was not on stage, I was standing for most of the concert. The energy was amazing, exactly what I had imagined it to be in the run up.

Saturday the 28th, Dave Pietro, a very renowned alto saxophonist came with his group. Not only did they play, but they also conducted a workshop with each of the combo's, and we got to play with them on stage (again). Now that had two sides to it. The workshop went terribly for me. To provide some background, I'm actually a guitar player, but due to the resignation of our drummer a few weeks before the gig, someone had to fill in. And I did, although it was kind of like jumping into the deep end. And I did screw up plenty during the workshop. Dave and his piano player were pretty tough on the other groups, but I think they got the gist pretty quickly that I sucked at drumming, and that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. So they gave out some simple pointers. The concert itself was great. I didn't completely screw up anywhere, which I would consider a success. Also, the group itself was unbelievable. And the guitar player! Aaahhh.

And here's why the week is really crazy. It's because all the work for my courses came to a head this week. Physics mid term. Econ mid term. A super irritating computer program. And my french teacher went berserk and gave possibly all the work she could over the span of two weeks.

Sigh. What to do?

24 hours, maybe it'll be a bit better.

I Think Getting Sugar Rushes Is a Bad Thing

2009-02-23T11:01:00.002+04:00

Because, I always seem to get them after midnight, when I eat some chewy bars, and I don't fall asleep for a good 3 more hours. At least in that case I feel awake enough to do work, so it's not a complete loss.

Udai's gone back to Toronto, and my room feels strangely spacious all of a sudden. But I'd rather it be full and he still stick around, it was a cool time.

And now my mind must turn back to tickings of everyday life, and this week looks to be exciting.

I'm still waiting for it to get a bit warmer though. But I think it will be another month before that happens. In the meantime, I'll have to continue to enjoy the snow.

I get the feeling I should be doing something...

Man, I Hate Waster Friday's

2009-02-21T10:14:00.003+04:00

Ok, so maybe it wasn't completely wasted. But I got almost no work done. A large chunk of the day after classes was spent doing sound for the Firebird Ensemble concert at Buckley. For you who don't know (and there'll be a lot of don't-knows), this group is a 'New Music' gig, basically a cross between classical and new stuff. For example, they did a bunch of old (a.k.a. time-to-fall-asleep) numbers, and then they had the string quartet + electric guitar + drums + keyboard doing rock songs! Stuff like Frank Zappa, and Metallica (they performed Master of Puppets!).

Before the soundcheck, Udai and I went into town to grocery,etc. and had Antonio's. In between was a visit to the gym. And later in the evening, we (Udai, Aftaab, Tim, Dana and I) went over to Antonio's, again (makes you wonder about the choice of quality dining at Amherst ((quality = $3))). Then some keefing, pooling.

Now I write stuff at two in the morning.

Reading the Times

2009-02-14T06:41:00.002+04:00

An interesting article in the 11th's New York Times.

Transparency is less.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/middleeast/12dubai.html?em

Trying a different approach.

2009-02-13T03:14:00.002+04:00

Oops. I accidently pressed the enter key before I had even started writing anything.

Anyway.

I realized that I write very scarcely up here, but when I do, the posts - more often than not - are really long. I'm going to make an effort to change that. Because, as we all know, it's regularity in small amounts which does more good than a wollop once in an era.

But what the hell do I write about?

Ok, so I'm doing something called an Amherst Academic Internship with professor Jason Robinson. For those of you who don't know him, (and many of you reading this would not) he's the visiting professor of Jazz at Amherst this year. And he's so cool! It's a shame I wasn't able to take any of his classes, but I'm working with him on some of his research. Nothing terribly exciting as of yet, mostly documentation and paperwork. But I get to read what he's working on, which can never be a bad thing.

And at this time next week, will be the run up to the regular death week for this part of the semester. Looking forward to it.

Yesterday, there was an interesting talk given by a lecturer from Harvard, Ronald Ferguson. The subject was about the achievement gap between blacks and hispanics in the U.S. vs. the other ethnic groups. And how that related to culture and peer pressure, etc. etc. It was interesting, but a bit predictable. One thing he did stress was the urgency of the matter. And the latest results of the education policies in the U.S. are due at the end of this quarter, so it'll be interesting to see whether institutions like the AGI (Achievement Gap Initiative started by him at Harvard) will see some fruition for their efforts. Another point he brought up was the difference in levels of education and progress between the U.S. currently and other OECD countries. It seems this country is lagging behind a bit. In a (slightly) related note, Thomas Friedman came out with an article in yesterday's New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html

The article essentially criticizes (again) the U.S.' policy of trying to kick out international students once they're done, even kids who could provide immense value to the workforce. Considering that we (speaking personally as an Indian) and other professionally-driven races are not completely reliant on getting a job outside of India or (insert country here) anymore, that may perpetuate America's brain drain problem.

I think I've written enough.

Update

2009-02-11T11:09:00.002+04:00

Telling the world about the excitement transpiring in my little corner.

It's about as regular as can be. Although, very soon things ought to be speeding up (I'm sure I'm going to wish for things to be slow again).

Also, I realize I love Michael Buble.

And the economy is having its toll on our lovely college campus. They stopped the cereal stand at dinner! Haw! And Val stopped having paper cups for taking coffee and tea away. Of course, they promptly had a huge case of 'borrowed' china, as students did what they had to to get their morning cuppa joe.

Speaking of economy, GEMS caught all the parents of Modern High off guard with a massive fee increase. Now, given our shift to the new campus next year, there was no doubt that the fees were going to be increased. But I think the main contention point, and one I might agree with, is the manner in which the news was given. With only 3 months in the academic year left, the super-smart management of the Varkey Group decide to pounce and increase fees by 90 %. Of course, initially it was 45% one year and another 45% the next (which actually amounts to 110%). After protests by parents, the latest is that the fee increase will actually be 90% over two years. Wait a sec. Protests by parents. Yup. That's a bit weird. But highly convenient for the parents, given Gulf News' proximity to school.
Sigh, what do you say in such cases? It's not fair, but that's Dubai for you. It would be great if quality and value trumped fancy lobbies, but that's only in a perfect world.

And it's two thirty in the morning. I really should be getting to bed.

Back

2009-01-25T08:34:00.002+04:00

And so the post count slowly chugs on.

I haven't written a single thing about my time back in Dubai, and come to think of it, I really should. It was a good mix of normalcy, fun, (a little bit of) work and a good period of personal growth. I don't think I will put down what exactly happened, but all in all, it was a good break.

Back to Amherst, and as I thought it's been non-stop since getting here. After a much more reasonable 30 hours of travelling (compared to the 72 going to Dubai), I set to work re-starting. I had about a day before my first set of activities began, and that was the Pre-Business Seminar.

Class was high on that one. 3 long days of Alumni and people associated with Alumni from the Business world giving presentations and helpful insight for those who wanted to do something along those lines. Enlightening to say the least.

Simultaneously was Choral Society practice for Carmina Burana. Now that is some cool stuff! Excitement! Intrigue! Passion!

Ok maybe not all of that.

And one day more for classes.

Yay.

The Process of Adjusting to a New Life: Epilogue

2008-12-19T22:12:00.002+04:00

The truth in the heading to this post would essentially mean I've grown comfortable with Amherst over the course of 4 months. I'd like to take it a step further, it's more than just settling down into a new environment, it's that I've felt absolutely alive in it. That's why, much to my mother's chagrin, I don't feel as excited about going home as I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong, now that my departure is imminent I am definitely looking forward to it. In essence, it's not that I don't want to go home, it's just that I want to be here more. Sure, I've had the benefit of visiting family in the US during the holidays, which was as good as being in Dubai, but my lack of homesickness is something I didn't anticipate at all.

My last post was a while back, and I have to cover a fair distance in this post (if I decide to cover any at all). The second to third weeks of November were the usual intense periods, physics mid terms (2 of them!), music practicals (which was actually enjoyable rather than tedious, although it did involve preparation). And Homecoming! That was a sweet day; the Glee Club opened the game with the national anthem, and my jazz combo played during Lunch. The gig was fairly average, but it was a start. The choral society also had a concert, and this time, our version of Nkosi Sikele Afrika was far better than the one at Family Weekend. There are more details about that month, but time and the presence of other events relegates that to history. On the 22nd of November I went over to my aunt's house in St. Louis, Missouri. That was rejuvenating, for multiple reasons a) I did almost no work. b) I got Indian food everyday. c) I got clothes actually meant for a cold climate. d) My aunt and uncle are generally just awesome. e) Eeshaan also came, which meant boredom was negative. The vacation went by all too quickly, with 8 days ending in no time. Then back to school for (as if you didn't know it already) a hectic 18 days. A Math mid-term, then finals period with all my courses having something (that's a total of 2 final exams, 1 final paper and a final project). I also had another gig with the jazz combo, which went better than our first. The choral society had a Christmas service called Vespers, which was a lot of fun, but took a whole day. I also helped out Habitat for Humanity at a 'gingerbread house build' which happened on the last day of classes. A bunch of necessary things to do in between, and then finals week. That was really killer, but the satisfaction when it was all over was incredible. By the way, that moment of satisfaction was at five in the morning as I completed the last sentence of my paper.

And so it ended.

My bus to Boston is leaving in about an hour. Then a night before I take the plane back to sand lands. There's supposed to be a snow storm right now, and through the window I can see it playing out. Should be a fun trip.

Now THAT's something I'm undeniably glad about. Sun and positive celsius temperatures.

The Process of Adjusting to a New Life IV : Ultimate & Autumn Leaves

2008-11-06T07:19:00.003+04:00

The weekend of 17-18-19th october was really happening for me, and it involved two of the things which I've come to love since arriving at Amherst, Ultimate Frisbee, and the Glee Club.

The Glee Club is Amherst's all-male choir group, and we had our first concert of the semester on the 17th at what is known as 'Merrill Beach'. It's not really a beach, it's an open space of gravel on the roof of our Science building. The concert is called Autumn Leaves, for obvious reasons (It happens every year in Fall), and is always accompanied by Antonio's pizza and hot cocoa. This time, we did a lot of publicizing before hand, with the result that a huge number of people showed up, and the pizza was wolfed down in a matter of seconds. The drinks didn't last even till when we began the concert. As far as our playlist goes, the songs were from all over the place; a Georgian song, some Negro Spiritual (that is not politically un correct to say), a Czech song, stuff like that. All in all, it was very well received, and despite the cold, we gave it a pretty good shot.

Next day was equally exciting. Ultimate!

For the un-initiated. Ultimate frisbee is an actual sport. It is very intense. It's not frolicking around on the grass (ok, maybe it is, but it's tough frolicking then). The object is to get the disc to the other side of the field. But no running with it. That's the basic objective.

A big thing about Ultimate is the spirit of the game. There are no referees, and when you begin to play you are expected to understand this. If a player feels he's been fouled, he has to call it, and the opponent can either agree or contest it. You can imagine how hard this game would be to organize in some cases. But as far as I've seen, never has this been a hindrance to the flow of the game.

So the tournament was for two days, the 18th and the 19th, but I only went for the first day. It was held at Williams College (hisss!) and that particular day was really cold! That's one thing, the weather has been really weird here. As I write this on the 5th of November at 11 p.m. it is 10 degrees warmer than it was in the middle of the day on the 18th. Daymn.

Our first match was against Yale, trounced them. They sang a really nice song for us after that (another tradition to uphold spirit), saying "We love you... Amherst".

Next was against Cornell. Ok, given their passes were very crisp and precise, and they played a tight game, but like I said, because there are no refs, one is expected to play cleanly. Cornell did not play cleanly at all. I have to give them their dues, in that they went all out, but there were plenty of times when intensity rolled over into aggression. Maybe I'm saying this because we lost, but it was apparent even as the game was going. Then came the Williams Alumni team. They were really fun to play with, chilled, hilarious, good game. But we still lost. In part, it was due to our seniors being tired out from a long season of games.

I didn't go the next day, but I believe we beat Middlebury and lost to Harvard by one or two points.

I'm really being stingy with this post, maybe because it happened a while back. Plus I've got work to do now.

The Process of Adjusting to a New Life III : New York

2008-10-14T19:02:00.003+04:00

The Columbus Day weekend of 2008, a.k.a October 11-14, I decided to get out of tiny little Amherst (which I hadn't gotten out of since getting here) and take a bus ride down to New York City. I had decided to stay with Karishma, and for those who don't know, she's staying at NYU. What exponentially added to the prospect of a great trip was the fact that Arjun and Neil had gotten an awesome deal to get flights up from Georgia. So they came. But let's start at my beginning.

10th of October was a mad day. I was scheduled to leave, but I had loads of work to submit as well, and pack and do all that stuff. The bus was scheduled to leave at 3 in the afternoon, which didn't give me much time to wrap up things for the week. A lot of running and a few stressful moments later, I was with my bags at the bus stop. Taking my sleeping bag along with me, I got the feeling I really looked like a student traveler. In any case, the bus was late. No, actually it was not really late. It's just that, being the start of the long weekend there were a LOT of people going to New York. The bus company just hadn't realized that, and so they needed to call supplementary buses because the one that was scheduled didn't have enough space. One hour later, we were on the bus to our destination. Only to be confronted by a traffic jam for people leaving town then.

Long story short, it took 7 hours to get to New York, where as by Google Maps' standards it should take around 2 hours and 45 minutes. I arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Manhattan island. Much to my great surprise earlier in the week, Karishma told me that she'd come to get me from the terminal. She doesn't realize why that would come as such a shock to me, but other third-persons would agree with me on that. I met her, and we took the subway back to Third North Avenue, at the corner of 11th street and 3rd avenue, which is where she stays. There is a system in place in all the dorms at NYU that requires any non-NYU person entering the building or staying with the students to be registered by that students. So yes, mom, I was allowed to stay so long as I followed the regulations governing it. Dropped my bags upstairs and I realized I was pretty hungry. So Karishma took me to a nearby street where I had a shawarma. Not the same as in Dubai, but not bad at all. Got back and just chilled, skyped with Charan (no surprise there!). Crashed after a long day.

Woke up in the morning pretty early (compared to Karishma that is), woke her up as well to let me out of the building (which she has to do if I wanted my ID back, they keep it as collateral when I enter the building) and took the subway up to Columbia. Just thought I'd visit it since I was in New York. The campus was really nice, although I have to say I'm biased towards Amherst. By the time I was done with that, it was lunch time, so I went back and woke up Karishma again (who had fallen asleep again). I had told her about a very famous dosa guy in Washington Square Park, and she was really excited about eating a dosa, so we thought we'd go check it out. But he didn't seem to be there on Saturday, which was kind of sad, but we just found another cafeteria/eating place/thing and had a bite. Then, off to La Guardia airport to pick up Arjun and Neil.

On this note let me say, Karishma is/was a pretty sad New Yorker. Ok, maybe I'm not being that serious over here, but by her own admission she's not gotten out that much. So I'm going to take some amount of credit in that during the three days I was there she learnt considerably more about the city because I dragged her along.

So we got to the airport and met the two GTech fellows, a reunion of long lost friends (long = 2 months). And back the same way that we came. They also dropped their bags and had shawarmas. They weren't interested in going out that much either, so it was a continuation of chill time.

Next morning, I don't recall what we did in the morning. Oh yeah, we met Nikhil Krishnan, ex-modernite, for lunch. Actually I didn't stick around for lunch, because I had to go into the suburbs to meet some family.

That's a short story, turns out I have family in New York, and New Haven, CT. Vinita Mausi told me to call them when I come down. So I did. Conversation as follows:

"Hello? Hi, Mausi? This is Rohan speaking, Amita's son?"
"Ha, beta. Kaise ho?"
"Mein t(h)eek hoon mausi, Vinita Mausi said that I should call you when I'm down."
"Ok, so when are you going to be here."

Huh? What, I thought I was just going to call?

"umm... I'm not sure..."
"There's a train which comes here, the nearest station is Ossining"
"ummm... (check the internet, turns out its pretty far away) there's a train that leaves at 1."
" Ok, so just take that train, it's the Metro-North railroad. How long will you be staying for?"
" I just thought I'd come for a few hours, because I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Oh, I thought you'd be staying for longer, at least the night."

Ok, however awkward I felt the first conversation to be, they were in reality wonderful people. My cousins are grown up now, so it was just my aunt and uncle when I visited. One of my cousins is actually working in town, it was unfortunate that he was working the next day, or I could have visited him as well. I watched Taare Zameen Par, had some ice-cream and home cooked indian food (!!!), which was awesome. At around nine thirty, my uncle dropped me back at the station and I made my way back into town.

Those bums, Arjun, Karishma and Neil! They didn't do anything while I was gone (approx. 8 hours)! I mean, how sad is that, being in New York a whole day on a visit and sitting in the apartment the whole time. Bleh! Anyways, I was full from my ghar-ka-khanna and I think they had eaten (don't remember now). But we did go out to get stuff to make cake with. And so, we made a cake. It was good. And, we watched Dr. Horrible's Blog. I recommend it to everyone! It's musical comedy.

The next morning, Arjun and Neil were departing for New Jersey to visit Neil's uncle. Karishma, the dodo, was still sleeping, and so we forced her downstairs to check them out. And I took them to Penn Station and got them to the train bound for New Jersey. I love New York, by the way, it's so easy to navigate the city. I took the scenic route back to Kari's place. Got off a few stations early. Took a walk around for a couple of hours, just acquaint myself with New York better. Back to wake her up, and then we went on another quest to find the famous dosa-man. And find him we did! She was ecstatic, the true south Indian in her came out completely as she smiled all the way while hogging her precious dosa. Picked up my stuff from her pad, and took the final walk to the subway, took leave of my gracious, yet oblivious-in-general host and got to the Port Authority again. Hopped on the bus leaving at 2:45.

Got back to Amherst 5 and a half hours later. Not bad at all.

As I was saying to Karishma towards the end, I think the trip did me a whole lot of good. I thought, going back to a big city, seeing my friends, would make me miss home more. Instead, I feel (as my floormate Sebastian would say) pumped! On the bus back, I was actually thinking to myself, "I'm going home". Maybe it's a bit premature, but I don't feel the homesickness which I thought would settle in for this semester. Maybe it's 'cause there's not much time in general to think, let alone dwell on the distant land of Dubai. However, more than just the distraction of busy life at Amherst, I actually feel incredibly comfortable here, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the terms going to go by very fast.

As Mid-terms approach

2008-09-27T20:36:00.002+04:00

It's been how long? A month and week since getting here. And mid terms are around the corner. And I'm not prepared.

Ok, so maybe I'm not that badly prepared. But that's only because I've had to do homework and regular assignments (which in living memory I've never done before). And today being saturday, I'm going to while it away as far as possible. But there's intramural soccer, which by some fortunate chance I get to be referee for. No, I'm not very good at all compared to a lot of the football (by that I mean soccer) players over here. But it's amazing how far simply asking for something can get you. And having made the trip to the Social security office recently, means I can actually get paid for it. I love the fact that I can do something I love doing and get fiscal incentive to do it!

And in case you haven't heard, I'm drowning in academic work. I really want to make this post more interesting but I've got stuff to do.

The Process of Adjusting to a New Life II : Amherst

2008-09-21T02:07:00.003+04:00

The following is a mail I wrote to a number of people one month after arriving at Amherst. It's very long and it does a good job of summarizing my life since the 21st of August. After this, it's back to regular length posts.

"
Hey Guys,

I've been putting off writing this mail for a very long time now. And that's not because I have nothing particularly exciting to say. I've been killerly busy of late, and the workload from the first day has been immense. It's approaching midnight on Friday Night and I know I'm going to be up for at least the next 2-3 hours writing this mail. This is the exact same thing that will be going on my blog as well. I haven't updated it in a long time, primarily because everyday adds on new happenings and I'm not able to keep up with the pace. But I promise after this mail, I'll be regular, since it'll only be day to day experiences, not the whole grand issue of life changing stuff.

Eeshaan beat me to the chase in writing about all the wonderful things happening to him, but for all those who thought that his mail was long, I have to warn you - in all likelihood this one will be far longer. If it were upto me, I could write a novel about my life restarting at Amherst. I haven't yet written down what all I'm going to say, but just recalling the last ten days and their immense impact on me, I have no doubt it's going to be a while before you reach the end of this e-mail.

Where to begin?

For those who didn't read my latest blog post (which was actually quite old), I arrived in the U.S. on the 14th of August, at Jackson Hartfield Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. A short lay over there and I took a flight to Orlando, Florida to stay with my family. The journey was actually a bit hard, in the flight itself, because the entire weight of departing was hitting me. I'm much better now, as you will read later on, but at that moment, over a month ago, it was tough.

On arrival in Florida, there was pretty much a family reunion, with around 15-16 people in the house, so there was a lot of excitement and I wasn't feeling as disoriented. We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks. I saw Blue Man Group! OMG, they rock! Mr. R, the way they improved on stage and interacted with the crowd was amazing, given that even the stuff before hand they came up with was fantastic. Details are on my blog (I think). Fun time with cousins, and soon it came time to leave there. 20th was the flight to Boston. Arrived around noon, and after dropping our bags at the hotel, we went around the town. What a city! I saw at least 6 live acts just passing through the place. Went to look at MIT and Harvard square (stuck my tongue out!), so even my sis could see them. Then spent the night in Boston, and got up in the morning to make way for Amherst.

Now, where do I really begin? Having been a month since the 21st (and a lot has happened since then) I have to pause to think for a bit.

...

Ok, I first when to the Campus Police building to pick up my keys and ID card. And then found my way to James Dormitory.

At this point it would be helpful to note 2 things.

a) International students were allowed to come 3 days earlier than regular American students. So the campus was pretty empty for these 3 days, as since it's a very small college (only 400 undergraduates per year, and no graduate students) and there are only about 30 international students.

b) I was freaking uncomfortable! Not scared, but generally uneasy, and to all my classmates reading this, you probably understand what I'm saying. But the proximity of interaction between people due to the small size made it a bit more nerve-wracking.

But, continuing with the narration.

I arrive in front of my dormitory with my parents, and coming up walking just to the same door is a guy named Roman Gautam. Turns out he's a Residence Counselor in the same building, and he's also the head of the ISA (International Students Association). He's half-Nepali, half-Russian, and he speaks English, Nepali, Hindi, Russian and Portugese, all fluently (this I have come to know only recently). More importantly he's also really cool, and he introduced himself and showed me where to go.

The first three days were pretty interesting. We (the internationals) were taken on a tour around campus, we played some football (Soccer, we are the international students after all), and random stuff here or there. But I have to say, those 3 days were unique, in the sense that, because there weren't that many of us, and we were all placed in an un-easy setting, and experienced it together, the international students all share quite a bond (although we have been diluted by the American students coming in, but that's for later in this story).

The same day I arrived, there was a pizza party in my dorm for all of us. Now that was weird and awkward! A bit of forced conversation, but like I said, some of the people I talked to that day are unique friends now. Another aspect of those 3 days was the time I spent with my parents. It was a bit weird as well, because on one hand, I needed to get shopping done for settling in, and on the other, I wanted to spend more time on campus, getting to know more people, acquainting myself more to the place. And there was sometimes tension-filled moments when I found my parents more involved in setting up my space then I was. But all that passed eventually, and my parents were chilled out. Not that I blame them from wanting to help though, guess that's how family is. Surprisingly, I haven't missed home that much since coming here, but I guess that's only because I'm buried in work most of the time.

Coming back to the beginning. So the first three days actually passed pretty slowly, as there was much to be done. Things like Bank Account and computer and clothes and stationary and stuff. and more, but can't remember. Then true Orientation began.

I'm actually referring to my orientation booklet to recall the things we did in it. Morning of the 24th was when everyone was moving in, so I just went around my floor to introduce myself, while trying not to be too bothersome since they were all involved in heavy work. We met all the RC's (Residence Counselors), and we had an address delivered by the President of the College and the Deans. Again, in reference to that address, I have to pause and say some things.

Amherst is not normal.
I know college in general is an amazing experience wherever you go, and by no means do I mean to compare or compete with anyone or any institution here, but I just need to write this down to believe it myself.
I repeat Amherst is not normal.
How so? It was impressed upon me during the President's speech, as well as that of the Director of Admission's, because together they outlined how crazily diverse this place is. When they mean they emphasize diversity, they mean it. There are only 439 of us. That means the admissions committee has the opportunity to literally handcraft the batch out of the 7700 applicants. There is not one singly like person in this whole place! Sure, in many universities and colleges of this standard they will have amazing people, like super-talented (I realize how lacking I am in that department after coming here, I will explain), super-smart (that, even MORE lacking!) guys and girls. But that's not what I'm emphasizing. I'm talking about how unbelievably unique this place is.
The director of admission said something very telling, " Every batch usually has some anomaly, where a disproportionate number of people have similar interests, one year martial arts, one year dancing, etc. In your batch however, there are NO anomalies, that is the anomaly." And the amount that I have already learnt, and stand to learn from this environment, is mind boggling. Some examples,

A friend of mine has come from Vietnam. He's never been out of Vietnam before.
The africans! Oh man, the african international students. They've also never been out of Africa before. But here's the deal. They don't pay anything. Yup, at a school which normally costs 50000 dollars a year for room, board, tuition and personal expenses, they pay about 500 dollars a year, that too, only for their personal things. The school pays tuition, their meal plan and accomodation, the money for their books and stuff, almost everything. I think about what it means for them to be here. The place is changing their lives.
A girl from Palestine, first student ever from Palestine to be here.
My roommate spent the last one year in Japan.

Coming back to narration (there's still a long way to go, mind you, I told you this would be long). The same day (we're on the 24th by the way) in the evening was the musical showcase by the choral societies over here (not including acapella groups, that was later). It was really good, but music is for later as well.

On the 25th, it was a lot about academics, there were academic orientation meetings, where we got to know about the academic expectations from students, and we met with our advisors in selecting our courses. My advisor was in the music department. I chose Math, Physics, My first year seminar (which is pre-decided for you, and is an interdisciplinary course expected of all first year students) is 'Citizenship and National Identity' (I have a LOT to say about that), and finally French (but that would change).

Then came the first of the squad meetings. Basically, before orientation we were divided into squads where we would do all the discussions related to orientation (and there were 4 of them). The first was on the 25th, and it was based on the summer reading we had been assigned. All of us admitted to not having finished the reading, but it was nice anyway, we played some ice breaker games, and had some discussion on the reading. The purpose of that was to have some context to the next item on the agenda, a speech by the Governor of Wyoming (an amherst alumnus) who had selected the reading. The speech was actually very good.

The next morning was quite interesting. We had a new student breakfast, in which the dean of new students talked to us about general issues and we were made to sign an honour pledge. After that, oh yeah, after that was something... well... different. The student health educators came up and performed skits. Oh man, it was about sex education. I couldn't stop laughing. Now you expect Dubai not to have this stuff cause, it is after all a muslim country. But man oh man, sheesh. I can't begin to describe it. Daymn. Hilarious! but something I've never imagined seeing before.
Then we saw a movie about Social Classes and stuff, and then back to our groups to discuss it.
Same day was the Voices of the Class show. That was cool. The upperclassmen actors basically take the essays of certain member of our class and make them sound completely funny, out of place and awesome. The same college admit essays which are supposed to be serious and meaningful become fodder for them!
Next Day, the 27th, I take a day hiking trip to the tallest mountain in Massachusetts (which isn't very tall actually, but it was a good 7 hour hike). Here's something cool. I met a guy on the trip, his name is Chris Anderson. I told him I lived in Dubai. He said he knew only ONE person from Dubai. Guess...

TARUN MONI!!!!!

Wtf? What are the chances? Turns out they went to the same gifted youth program (you know, when Tarun went to Stanford last summer?) So that was quite a coincidence. And yes, he said he (Tarun) used to have amazing discourses with the profs and stuff. No surprise there!

Anyways, that was a long 10 mile hike. The same day I watched an improv group perform for the freshman, that was reallly good man. wow.

Next few days were not that much, still getting acquainted with more people and general chilling. Then 30th was again some squad discussions. One was on the whole gay-lesbian issue. The other was on sexual assault and respect for persons and stuff like that.
31st was department meetings, I went for all the ones that I was interested in taking. In the evening there was a separate music department meeting. That was cool. I saw the different directors, including the professor of Jazz (more about him later, he's damn cool).

In fact, more about him now. The same day at 9:30 p.m. was the Jazz Jam Session! OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's love at first sight. It's kind of odd, I only realized sitting there that I've never seen a jazz band live before that. (In fact, while writing this right now, I have Miles Davis playing on my computer). And I was so enthralled by it all. I was the only person in the room who did NOT play jazz and I was just amazed by it all. Even the freshman who showed up were Soooooo good (again, later). I was completely digging it, and the Jazz director (Bruce Diehl) noticed. After it was all over, I was literally jumping and I went over to him, told him that I had not jazz experience but that I wanted to. I can't even read music on the guitar (unless you give me an hour for 8 notes), but he was so supportive, he said to just come for auditions anyways, and he'll put me in one of the combos. So that's that. As of this moment, I'm in a jazz combo!

2nd of September classes begin. We have this thing called add/drop period in which you can walk into any class you want and take it for a short while (untill the 12th). If you want to drop another class youve registered for and take the one you're more interested in, you can do that. It's known as shopping period by the students. So I shopped Music-12, intermediate music theory. And guess what, I'm taking it. It's soooo cool. I love it. It's hard (just like all the other courses here) but it's very worth it. Plus, now that I've taken one course in music, I can get private lessons from the music department for free, since I'm on financial aid. That's really cool.

My other courses, like I said are Math, Physics and First Year Seminar.

My seminar... hmm... it's not exactly my cup of tea. It's a combination of heavy political science and theory, history and philosophy, as antagonistic to me as can possibly be. And it's also reputed to be the hardest FYS of all (There are 15 different types), and I obviously didn't know what I was signing up for. But it's also known to be one of those 'life-changing' things, so I'm still holding out. I had to write a paper for it. Even the counselor in the Writing Center (who I went to for help on it) said it was a hard one, especially for a freshman. And considering my love for all the topics in the course, you can guess how much fun I had writing this particularly hard paper. But after finishing it, I've realized that I actually have learned something more from it, and I feel better about having to go through that painful process.

Music, lemme talk more about music in general over here. Amherst is know as the Singing College. Don't know why, cause there's a whole lot more than singing. But the people who do music here are sooooooo goood (I think I've said that a lot already). The people in my freshman class included. People here have done soo much background in music and stuff, it's amazing. A guy in my dorm whom I'm good friends with plays cello and violin. He's really big on classical, he spent the last summer before college in a five-week intensive music training program (After having done significant study in it anyways). Another guy, who I hang out with a lot, I share 3 classes with him, has got to be one of the best piano players I know. He plays Jazz piano. I don't know how to describe him. He does the 'Axel'. He can just hum a tune or hear it, and play it straight onto the piano. He hears music and knows everything in terms of the chord structures, inversions, everything. He constructs melodies and chord changes and everything out of nothing. Man, he's good. As is everyone else here. I feel so not knowing of anything! I also joined the men's choir, and same there, they can just look at the notes and sing them in perfect pitch.... blah! sheesh man. I tried for one of the a capella group, but didn't get in, but it's cool I realize how little time I have anyways. Ok, so that's the music scene, really overwhelming, but a great learning opportunity nonetheless. And my music course? It's going really welll. I looooveeeee it. And supplementing it are the Jazz combo and Mens's Glee Club (Choir) so it's like one big musical education.

In terms of sport, I'm doing Ultimate Frisbee!!!! It's awesome! To those back in Dubai, it'll be a bit of a surprise, but it's not what you first imagine it to be. Youtube some videos, you'll see what its like. But the game is awesome fun. Also do some football now and then (soccer).

What else? There's a lot of gaps I could fill. But I think it would take too much time to write and read. So lemme sum up.

This place is awesome.
Ultimately, what makes this place awesome though are the people. They're great, the upperclassmen, the professors, the deans, my fellow classmates, it's something I never imagined before coming here. Amherst was nowhere near being my 1st choice uni. But after coming, I would never want to go somewhere else. Yes the work is hard, but its also fulfilling. I'm outmatched in all the departments where I considered myself reasonably good by people my own age, but that makes me work harder at them.

I'm really glad I'm here.

And that's all for now. ('that's all...')

Mazum

"

The Process of Adjusting to a New Life : Part 1

2008-08-15T22:56:00.004+04:00

Excuse the title, it accurately describes what I'm going to be ranting about for the next few weeks/days/years (not necessarily in that order). I also think that the whole long title thing is very popular nowadays (No Country for Old Men, or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for example).

I'm in the United States of America, and I will be here for at least the next four years of my life. Naturally, there will be breaks here and there which I can use to either go back home to Dubai, or whatever God Forsaken place that is unfortunate enough to take my fancy. The pretext of me being at my current position is simple enough: college. I am about to join Amherst College, Massachusetts starting the 21st of August, 2008 and for that I have made my way here.

Leaving Dubai was harder than I expected it to be. In fact, it was completely the opposite of how I expected to feel getting out of there. Just a short while ago, I would have been scrambling at the gates, just dying to leave the place, but as things panned out, I found more and more reasons to want to stay. However, as a friend of mine very rightly said a bit later "You're lucky to have had so much that it hurts to leave it all behind".

Anyway, my journey began on the 13th of August, one day after my 18th birthday, which I have to say, was the best in my entire life. Packing was not really an issue, since I expected to buy a lot of my stuff from here, and just a few things that I wanted to take along with me were already inside. Left for the airport around 8 p.m. on the 13th, Dubai time. After a decent wait at the check-in counter, along with being asked some questions which I'm sure are only for passengers to the U.S., we were cleared through to passport control, and ultimately the duty free. Here we hung around, ate chicken biryani, parantha and Round Table Pizza. Gudiya took along a pack of chicken nuggets for the flight and we basically passed time until it was time to go to the gate. At the gate, after getting into the line, I was pulled out because of my guitar, and they made me open it up almost completely before telling me that there was no problem.

Onto the flight, and it left on time.

And then came the wait. Honestly speaking, it wasn't that bad, because most of the time I was just sleeping. Watched 21 as well, and listened to music, but that was about it. At the end of 14 and a half hours, we were at Hartfield-Jackson Airport, Atlanta. We passed through the immigration and everything with no hassle, I didn't get stopped and asked weird pointed questions. We had about a 4 hour wait before we could catch our flight to Orlando, Florida, where my cousins are staying. So we sat in the food court in Concourse A of the airport where there was wi-fi available. So dad and mom did their email stuff over there and we had Caribou Coffee, along with muffins and bagels.

That wait was actually more irritating than the flight. So far we had been out for 22 hours from leaving home and then we caught our flight to Orlando. By the time we were out of the airport over there, and into our cousins (humongous) house, it had been a considerable 25 hours of traveling. Thanks to our planned sleep patterns in the flight, we weren't that jet lagged once we got there. Managed to get through most of the day without feeling dead sleepy. Had a lunch of daal, subzi and rice (I had already started missing Indian food :P). Then it was general gup shup for a while, along with table tennis (they have one upstairs!) and general hanging around. In the evening went out with my cousin (who's younger than me, but drives) to get some vegetables for the pasta in the evening. And before I knew it, the day was over and it was time to sleep. And slept I did.

So much so, that the next morning (it's the 15th by now, by the way) I still felt sleepy for much of the day. I was able to do a lot of regular day stuff, though. Went out for a good hour long jog in the morning (the weather is soooo much better than Dubai), and also took a trip to the mall with the family. Family, mind you, at this moment comprises of around 12-13 people with all cousins, aunts and uncles combined. I was actually supposed to buy a number of clothes for going to college, but just bought a pair of jeans. In my defence, they were good.

And coming home, it's the same as back in Dubai, do the same things as normal.

Yup. All quiet on the western (literally) front. But going to college itself should be far more interesting.

That's it.

2008-08-13T19:34:00.002+04:00

There's time for one last short post from me, writing from my childhood home of Dubai.

It's hard to summarise a lifetime of happenings into this small space.

Next time I'm back, I'll be a visitor. I no longer belong to here.

It's a bit tough, but there is somewhere I'm going to. I just hope that, in my efforts to move on into my new phase of life, I don't forget what's been left behind here.

It's ironic that it was my 18th birthday yesterday.

In the 24 hours that led me into existence, as I reach the official adult age, I'm being recreated into a new image, to fit into a new life.

I'm gonna miss this place, all the people I've ever known, and all the beautiful memories associated with them all.

I'm gone, people.

The Fake Budday

2008-08-06T20:30:00.002+04:00

Some of you may have read my beleaguered post a month back, with me moaning about how hardly anyone's gonna be around for my birthday. Well on the 5th of August, I had some celebrations in lieu of that one, so that a max number of people could attend. It turned out great, it really felt like my birthday, but it wasn't. It was the fake budday, albeit a really good one.

So the plan was to go to Magic Planet in City Centre, Deira to play arcade games. Sound lame? It was not, and everyone present agreed! We landed up in Bur Juman to catch a cab there. I got my gifts. Illika gave me some cool Feng Shui stuff and all. Everybody else pitched in to get me an iPod nano (!!!!). Thanks guys, it was awesome!

Wait in the line for a while, eventually some cabs come along and we are off to the city centre. Get there and straight to the game area where I load up the card. And then started one of the most awesomest times ever. Daytona racing, Time Crisis and all those kind of video games galore. And with 10 odd people around, it became even more fun. The money finished pretty quickly actually, considering the amount that was on it to begin with. And then across the mall, onto the bus shuttle home, how convenient is it that it stops right in front of me building?

Upstairs, and there's a cake waiting, along with pasta, and then the pizza arrives. I get sung to, and blew the candles, and got cake splattered all over my face (Eeshaan will probably Facebook the photos pretty soon). All in a day's celebrations. With the formalities over, it's eating time, which is the best part. Eventually everyone has to start leaving, but Charan brings over his Xbox and we play fifa till the wee hours of the morning.

And in a matter of no time, the day is up. Not a bad way to celebrate 18th.

The Finale

2008-08-06T12:25:00.002+04:00

Following up on last year, I went back to the SNF (Special Needs Families) summer camp to help out as a volunteer this time around, and the finale happened on the 1st of August, 2008. It was held at Al Murjan Ballroom in Madinat Jumeirah, and I actually felt that the quality of the finale improved from last year.

The camp itself was held in the Indian High School, every Saturday and Wednesday. Mondays were reserved for outings, and we went to Magic Planet, Adventure Land, Wild Wadi, Children's City and Snow Park. I'm not going to concentrate on the camp itself in this post, I think it warrants one of its own.

Got there at 10 in the morning first to help set up the stage and all that kind of stuff. It was exactly like the last time around, only without the Big SNF banner. We finished collecting the kids' hampers and within a couple of hours, it was over. I went home and completed my speech - yes, I was asked to say a few words about my experiences with the organisation, etc. By 2:45 I was in Kayo's car and we were off to the Madinat. Got there, and saw lots of food being carried in, mostly samosas and kachoris. They were apparently from the Indian High School canteen, but they tasted really good. A few minutes before the show was due to start, it turned out that we had forgot to bring juices for the kids. So Kayo and I ran to Lulu Hypermarket across the Sheikh Zayed Road and rushed back with it. We didn't have to hurry so much, the chief guest hadn't arrived yet (and wouldn't arrive for a while).

In the mean time, a Tabloid guy tried to take a photo of some of us. Given my dislike for the content, or should I say, lack of content, prevalent within such forms of media, I refused, and made very clear that I didn't like such things. Of course, I was dragged into the photo, and the guy decided to lecture me on various things, which I wasn't really paying attention to. I just smiled and nodded, while he delivered his bhasha.

The chief guest arrived, someone from the new Community Development Authority, and also the managing director of Damas, and it began. It mostly comprised of the kids doing their thing on stage - dancing, singing, etc. Some parents said some things in between, I did what I was asked to, and even Glenn Perry came along to do a number with them. All in all, it went of smooth (which is quite an achievement given the context). We ended with a group song, and after that it was outside to hand the kids their respective hampers and to chow down. Wind up began, and I said goodbye to all the people at the group, until next year.

The US Visa

2008-07-30T12:00:00.002+04:00

I'm going to be a bit cautious with this one. For all you know, the US government might frown upon descriptions of its consulates out of security fears. Some of you might have guessed by now, that up ahead is my experience with the US Visa process.

As part of the application for studying in the US, every applicant has to give an interview with a consular officer who can certify the "non-immigrant intent" of the applicant. Simply put, they want to make sure that you don't stick around in the US after your studying period is over. Most of the time, people's applications are rejected because they aren't able to prove to the officer this aforementioned intent.

I got one of the last appointments (before I was scheduled to go) on the 20th of July. This meant that it was essentially my one shot to get it. I could have possibly arranged for a faster interview if my first try got rejected, but that would be cutting it extremely fine, which put some pressure on me. Considering that just a few days before my interview I heard of some of my classmates whose applications had been rejected, I was much more nervous than I had been until the time of reckoning arrived. I prepared for every possible question they could ask, checked and re-checked that all my papers and documents were in order. I even agreed to my parents' insistence that I cut my hair (although Arjun went for his interview looking as scruffy as anybody can possibly be, and he didn't have any trouble), and I wore a dry-cleaned suit to the embassy.

The embassy is in the world trade centre on Sheikh Zayed Road, and after suggestions that I arrive early, I reached at 5:40 a.m. to the little portacabins outside the trade centre. I was not the first one there, more like 7th, but in a matter of fifteen minutes, the line behind me had stretched out quite a bit. At 6:40, when they start letting us in to the cabin, the lines had already started circling around the area.

From there, it was a pretty smooth ride. Got inside the cabin and was then led into the trade centre. Up to a security check in and a counter to give my papers to be arranged correctly. Of course, in between all this, I was frisked about 3 times. Then finally up to the actual embassy, where I handed in the papers and took my number for the interview. People keep saying that your number won't be called in exactly the order that it should. Luckily, mine was, and I was the 4th person to be interviewed. I got the young spiky-haired american guy, the one everyone says never rejects anyone. It was all smooth, luckily I had gotten all my papers, and even some separate questions which I had not expected I was able to answer. And in a matter of a couple of minutes, I was done and it was approved.

Over to the last counter to hand over my passport (met a guy going to U of Mich, Ann Arbor over there) and then straight out of the building. The time was 8:15 a.m.

That was quick, and way easier than what I expected it to be.

Sessions

2008-07-16T00:27:00.002+04:00

Considering the fact that an integral part of my life involves music, I've surprisingly never gone into depth of what it means to have it so. That has, to a large extent, been due to my fear of being self-indulgent. Whenever I have heard other people putting in writing how much their art form (whatever the medium might be) forms an extension of their being, I've found it somewhat difficult to relate to. I am in danger of being one of those people right now. Nevertheless, here is my experience with what is considered the most expressive language in the history of mankind.

They say that the mark of true friendship is that you're never judged, that you are accepted for who you are, for what you do naturally and that you are supported unconditionally. If that be true, my guitar and I have long since satisfied this universal condition. People might find comfort and warmth in many seemingly inanimate objects that they can reach out to, but an instrument is something different. It interacts, it behaves in a certain manner, it takes your own vitality to drive it, and in return it reflects your innermost thoughts, the ultimate sounding board (that metaphor was on the verge of being a Dr. Khan joke).

For the occasionally frustrating periods, just turn up the volume and let 'er rip. For the twilight moments when you just want to think, the modes and melodies will lead you in multiple directions. For a case of downright blues, there's... well... the blues, along with every other musical cranny for a swollen heart. For the joyful happy moments, there are all the wonderfully rich choruses in between; full, energetic and brimming with life.

The uncanniness of the relationship between player and instrument is something which remains a foreign idea to many. Yes, everyone can feel the vibrations of the final music produced, and react to various types in equally varied ways, but all these reactions are at the mercy of the performer (in another context, the skill of the performer is therefore judged by his or her ability to coax the right emotion out of their listeners at the right time). What is incomprehensible to those on the outside is the intimate bond, even some musicians fail to grasp what it means to be in love with their craft.

People search for a lot of things over the course of their lives. It could be fulfillment, inner peace, enjoyment, love, growth or security, but in some way or the other I've found all the aforementioned in the execution of my passion. Don't get me wrong, life's not always been sunshine and pretty flowers even with music around. However, thus far, not once have I ever put down my guitar or left the piano - after having approached them feeling despondent, angry or in despair - without feeling better than when I started. It works almost as good as a fat tub of ice-cream, and unlike the dessert the only health hazard from excessive consumption of musical therapy is unintentionally becoming very good at it.

I could not go on and on (bet you didn't see that coming). The less said the better, those who have felt the sensations I have would agree, and hopefully those who haven't might - out of curiosity - attempt to achieve a similar level of intimacy with what they deem important in their lives. In either case, my purpose is served.

One last point, which has only an oblique connection to the main theme of this post. The most valuable gift that playing music has bestowed upon me, above and over the daily gratitudes, my most prized possession is:

The ability to dream. Dream.

Un-readiness

2008-06-30T22:56:00.002+04:00

I'm in the process of creating a long post about my three days in Bombay, but something struck me very recently, and I get the feeling it's worth it trying to put it up here. It's not an incident that has occurred, per se, more like a series of them (not The Lemony Snickets kind) which have pounced upon me without warning.

There are a lot of times I wonder where yesterday went. I don't particularly remember it being there. I'll think about how I spent it, who all I met, what all I did, but - more often than not - it simply evades my notice. This is not necessarily a bad thing, au contraire, very often it's a sign that life is running smoothly and sweetly, with nothing taxing or stressful to make the days seem longer. Except when you realize it's over.

At this point in time, the exodus has begun. The people who are to attend college in India have long since gone. Whoever isn't has gone there for a holiday. Those same people will return only after I've gone. Not to mention the continuous leaving of the few survivors who remain in Dubai.

This really sucks.

My birthday is on the 12th of August. Only a couple of the people I know were going to India, so I assumed I'd have a good number present to be around, seeing as how North America colleges start mostly in the end of August.

I forgot to take into account the universe doesn't revolve around me. I had planned to leave the day after, on the 13th of August, I thought I'd be among the first to leave. Turns out my two best friends are both leaving on the 1st of August, thereabouts. Nearly all the Canada folk are in India, only to return on the 14th/15th (!) of August.

I had expected things to go out with a bang, not fade into oblivion. Maybe I'm being pessimistic over here, I'll see all these guys again, I'll make new, amazing friends at college, maybe I'm just over reacting. But will it be the same after six months?

Sigh, it had to happen someday.

But it doesn't make me feel any better.

The Party at Traders' Hotel

2008-06-27T19:10:00.002+04:00

Forget the ongoing description of my trip my motherland, I'm going to have to recall one of the incidents that occurred prior to my departure.

On the 4th of June, Udit and Suraj organised a party at the Traders' Hotel in Deira. The bill came to about 55 bucks a person, which made me a bit suspicious about how good the DJ would be, because frankly speaking, that's cheap as hell considering what we were getting for it.

The details are fuzzy right now, I'm writing about it 23 days after it happened, not to mention all the stuff the happened in between. Hmm...

Deva, Shreyass, Apoorva and I decided to get a cab from Bur Dubai to take us to the hotel. It was rush hour, somewhat, and the cabbies were pretty reluctant to take us. After a couple of them stopped and asked us where we wanted to go, they promptly refused the prospect of going into deira at that time. Curses flew in their direction, most of the emanating from my mouth. I decided to call a cab, which took another good deal of time, but it arrived eventually. The roads actually turn out to be pretty clear, which made me curse the previous taxis even more. Nothing like some good old spite to make you feel fresh and alive.

I remember we got there relatively early (or was it late), doesn't really matter, I suppose. There were quite a few people there, maybe 30+ in all, and eventually the DJ started playing. There was nothing much from that point on which wasn't there in other parties, not that I minded of course, it was definitely entertaining. Udai was being a 'sadu' and didn't come until 11 o'clock when his mom convinced him to do so. Turns out he thought the party was a smash, idiot. But smash it was, and the DJ was so good that for the first time in my life, I actually realized how much of an art form DJing is, just as much as 'pure' music is. And so the dancing went on, until about 12:30, probably longer. We cut a cake for Arjun and Santosh, you could guess that it was their birthday. That having been completed, we make our way to the front of the hotel, where the thought is upon the next leg of our merrymaking.

The idea had been floating around that we should have an all-nighter on the beach. So slowly, we started taking cabs to the open beach in Jumeirah. Deva, Apoorva, Eeshaan, Illika, Charan, Karishma, Udai and myself landed up there, whereas the rest seem to have hit some other end of the beach. Moving on, went down the long jogging track on the beach towards less populated areas (who would have thought it was 2:00 in the morning). On the way we were stopped by some guy who saw the guitar in my hand, and asked us to play an Atif Aslam song. Charan and I did some rubbish, which the guy (apparently) really appreciated and we continued along our way. We reached the spot where we decided to sit, and for a while we just watched the waves crash lightly upon the shore (yeck, poetism). Then we started with dumb charades, and that went on for a long time. Some of us make for the rocky breakers at the edge of the beach, and there is actually a well built path on them, so we walk all along and jump a barrier so that we can see most of the shore. Very cool it was. It's close to 5:30 and I'm wondering what mom is doing, so Udai and I head home.

Got out onto bank street at 6:00 a.m. and knock on the door to have my didi open it. Sneak inside and take baths without anyone realizing, get to sleep. I had come home that early cause I thought mom would freak at my all-nighter. Some of the guys were planning to go to starbucks after the beach. I recounted the story to mother dearest, and at the end of it all, do you know what she said?

"Why didn't you go to Starbucks with them?"

Bombay

2008-06-21T12:42:00.002+04:00

Again, I'm becoming victim to the lagged-post disease, and even having decided to ignore the eventful days of my long gone (viz. two weeks) past, I find myself writing about my first ever trip to Mumbai after nearly all the freshness of remembrance has slipped out of my tiny head.

I woke up on the 14th morning early. As in 4 in the morning early, after procuring only 2 hours of sleep due to my adamancy on watching the Euro Cup group match. Our flight was to leave from Delhi at 6 o'clock, so Udai had stayed over and we managed to catch it without much difficulty. This was my first domestic flight, and the ease with which it happened is still a bit confusing. International flights require llooooong preparations, immigration, loooonnnng check ins, etc. Anyways, the flight was pretty comfortable, we travelled by Spice Jet. It was a budjet carrier, so there were no frills, we had to buy our own food and stuff. Udai soundly slept for the two hours of the flight. I wasn't able to sleep so contented myself to listening to my mp3 and twiddling my thumbs.

A friend of ours had booked us into a guest house in Andheri East, and it took the cabbie from the airport a while to find it, but eventually he did, and we took the liberty of simply dropping our luggage there, and then we moved on. We had breakfast at a place called Candies, where the food was pretty good, as was the cappuccino. We took the same guy into town, towards the Churchgate station, where Ritesh (Matlani) said he would meet us. So an hour or so later we arrived there, walked along that road and eventually we found his college Jai Hind. He was still busy by the time we arrived so we walked a bit to reach Marine Drive, which is the constructed walkway along the coast. It started to rain as we walked along the beautiful path, and soon we were absolutely drenched, but the place looked spectacular in the rain. We ultimately took sanctuary in the station where we waited for him to show, in the mean time we looked in the local book store and Udai bought a number of books, which were very much up his street. Soon, Ritesh showed up and we took a taxi to Colaba Causeway were we ate lunch at the famous Leopold's cafe (from the book Shantaram). After that we walked along Colaba where all the fake merchandise was being sold, Udai bought a pair of fake Ray Ban's (called Ra-Design) which he was very reluctant to take off later. Having been soaked in the rain, we wanted to change from our shoes into chappals, so we picked up two pairs off the street, along with some other stuff. We also had brownies at... damn, I forgot the name of the shop, it's along the same street starting with the letter 'T'... oh well, maybe I'll catch the name later.

We walked towards Gateway of India on the coast, saw it under renovation, then we moved onto by train (for the first time) to a place called Dadar Station, where we met up, after a long time, with Harry and Tejas. We sat down at a nearby Cafe Coffee Day (they're everywhere in India, holy crap!) and basically we just gup-shupped for a couple of hours. Tejas, who had come down from Pune, we wouldn't see again, but Harry we would a number of times. After that, we made our way by train to Santa Cruz, back to Ritesh's place, where we chilled for a while, I took a nap 'cause I wasn't feeling to good, and then set off to the Bandra PVR Cinema. This was at about 11 p.m., so my day is already 17 hours long after two hours of sleep. Then on top of that, we watched 'Sex and the City', which has to be the WORST movie I have ever seen in my entire life. The only reason we agreed is because some of our friends were going off to see it, so we tagged along. Udai was wearing his shades on inside the movie hall, in the refreshment area, everywhere, not only was it indoors, but also midnight. At around 2:30, when the torture was complete, turns out we had dropped the tag to reclaim our bags from the security. They were making a real fuss about it, finally Udai rushed back and managed to find it on the floor of the cinema. At around 3:00 in the morning we made it back to the guest house. The guy there was real nice, woke up to open the door. We crashed almost immediately.

Next morning woke up real late, so late that the breakfast menu was no longer valid, and we ordered french fries and some sandwiches. At that point, we started taking stock of the room we were sitting in, it turns out that it was actually very, very nice. Simple, yes, but extremely clean and well kept. And after some interaction with the keepers, we realized that the hospitality and service was also amazing. In this run down, out of the way village, here was an awesome small little gem. We got ready, much better prepared for the rain, in shorts and chappals (turns out it didn't rain throughout the rest of our stay except our last one hour in Mumbai).

Having gotten prepared, we took an auto to the station, where we met Ritesh and together we headed off to Powai, which was much further north. We arrived at the station, and I was quite skeptical at Ritesh's claim that "Powai has amazing developments going on right now", cause where we arrived had definitely none of that sort. But as we were in the auto, and we came to the cusp of a hill, there it was, a whole mini-city of tall pink buildings, brilliantly constructed, with nice wide roads, and shopping districts, the whole works. We got off at one of them, and went into a shop called Mocha, supposedly one of the most famous coffee shops in Mumbai. We learnt why, because the stuff we ordered was superb. This was followed by a short excursion around the area and we even saw the local entertainment area with a built in Golf course. We went down to the lake, walked around it, went into a natural park and climbed some hills. Being satisfied by that short expedition, we caught a cab to go back, we went to Bandra. Specifically we went to Carter Road to have dinner. Ironically, while we were waiting for food, we saw Harry walking along. A quick hi, as we were scheduled to meet him the next day anyways. Then, much to our surprise, we had a surprise guest join us, Mrs. Natasia Rego, who used to teach art at Modern, and had come back to Mumbai. We chatted over pasta, and after we were done, walked along Banstand and into the residential area, where we dropped ma'am off and then went back to the guest house. So ended the second day of Mumbai trip. This is a highly abridged version, the details simply evade me at the moment.

Having slept much earlier the previous night, we woke up on the third day much more refreshed. So much so that we were capable of taking the train by ourselves into town, even though it was the most crowded it had been since we arrived in the city. All we had to do was wait near the entrance and the crowd dragged us in, similarly, when the stop came, which in this case was Churchgate again, we simply planted ourselves near the door and we were taken along with the crowd outside. Getting off was easier though, since Churchgate was pretty much the end of the line. We then proceeded to the Victoria Terminus station, just to see it, it looked real nice, very old and grand types. There was a shopping boulevard there, so we took a look. Lots of books, electronics, and even a musical instruments shop. Bought some picks and connectors, and asked the prices of random stuff, just to grasp the difference between there and Dubai, nearly the same, a little more expensive. Also went to Chowpatty beach, which happened to be right across from Wilson College, where Harry's studying, so we caught up with him there and saw the very dirty water, which surprisingly many people choose to bathe in. They're wish, I guess. Had lunch on Marine Drive at The Pizzeria, ordered the Mumbai special, which was real cool, as in hot, as in very tasty. All the events that I've just described are not in order, I'm just writing them as they pop in my head, just to make sure I have all the important parts. We have dinner at an North Indian restaurant, the Aloo Chole is good, as is the paneer, and we reach our guest house the earliest of all three days, at around 10:30 p.m.

The next day was our (supposed) train, so we have a light lunch at the guest house itself and have some nice naps, then make sure we're all packed and ready, take a last look at the very comfortable room that we spent a pleasant three nights in, and check out. We catch a cab to the train station where we meet Ritesh (for the last time), and after an hour or so, we come to know that our train is cancelled, and has been cancelled for weeks now, due to the Gujur riots and them screwing up the train lines. Thinking about a possible solution, we rush to get our bookings cancelled and our money refunded. Call my uncle simultaneously to see what we can do. He managed to get the refund online, since we had booked an online ticket, and tells us to go to the domestic airport and catch the closest flight back to Delhi. Now that was real cool, we get to the airport (which, in case I haven't stated before, is amazing! And only the domestic airport, eh) and look around the various airlines for the cheapest and closest flight there. 'Go' airways is the cheapest flight there (4000 rupees) and the earliest one leaving, although it's longer due to a stop at Ahmedabad. We take them anyways, and the plane is set to leave in 2 hours or so. Check in takes less than a minute, so we spend some time chatting with Ritesh. Finally we say our goodbyes, go inside, have a cup at Cafe Coffee Day (yes, it was there) and then board our flight.

Three and a half hours later, we're back in Delhi. At that point in time, mom and gudiya were about to arrive in a day's time, and Udai went to his grandmom's place. Thus ended the unique traveling cool holiday, replaced by a normal one. But those three and a half days in Bombay were something different, made special by the fact that I had never seen it before, and also that I did so only with a friend, in complete free roam style. That, in my opinion, was the epitome of coolness.

India!!!

2008-06-11T23:15:00.004+04:00

Ok, I'm skipping two awesome days in between my stuff-to-write-about list, as since the details about them are already fuzzy in my mind, I think it would make more sense to write about the latest event in my life, which also is very high on the exciting factor scale.

I'm in India!

Without parents! and sis (for the while)!

So me and Udai (screw the grammar) decided to go on a trip to India together, which would include visiting Delhi (where most of our families live) and Bombay (where hardly any family live). Just the prospect of it got us hyped up, now that we're actually here, although we've been here hardly a day, it's awesome man!

Our flight was 3:40 in the afternoon, dubai time on the 10th of June, Emirates. The flight was actually cool, we picked up some stuff for family in India at the duty free, and had a bite to eat from the food court. We arrived at the boarding gate at a good time, not to early, but not late. We got into the plane and realized that our seats were way at the back. This, at first, concerned me as usually these are close to the toilet, and therefore smell considerably. Actually, the flight was not full at all, and the back was practically empty. There were many seats empty, in fact at least 8-9 centre rows were free. This meant that Udai, who had slept for 0 hours the previous night could lie down nicely and sleep the whole flight, which is exactly what he did. I watched Vantage Point and half an episode of Boston Legal. I also ate the plane food, which was definitely the best plane food I have had in many, many years! Respect to Emirates.

After a comfortable flight, we arrived at Delhi Airport where, after a long wait at immigration, we picked up our bags and got to the exit, where we met my uncle and Udai's cousins, Nikhil and Nidhi. Udai decides to go back to their place, and I make way with my uncle.

Get home, quite excited about the trip ahead. Sleep after watching Spain taking Russia to the cleaners in their Euro Group stage match.

We were supposed to give in our applications for St. Stephens the next morning, on the 11th, so Udai came over in the morning. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how much we had yet to do before we could submit them. So we filled out the forms at home, but by the time we were done and had finished (what we thought were) the formalities, it was pretty late in the day. Taking into account the time it would take to reach DU, we decided to go the next day. Instead we hung out at home for a bit, then we made head way for Udai's aunt's place in Gurgaon.

After some hunting and searching, we reach their house and I meet Udai's aunt for the first time. We're fed sandwiches and niboo pani and I pick up the guitar that's lying around. Then Nikhil and Nidhi arrive and we chill with them for a while. We also go to meet Udai's dadima (for the uninformed, that's grand mom on his dad's side) who lives nearby. We spend some time there, and have food. That's one thing about being in India, there's always food.

Once we're back, we begin Texas Hold 'em Poker. I'm not a big fan of card games, and this was the first time I've played. We were using fake chips, of course, and I went bust very early in the game. The game itself took ages, and we had dinner before that (that dinner confirmed to me that food in India is unmatched, and it supposedly gets even better). I also had fun getting all the mosquitoes and flies in the vicinity using the electric racket. By the time the game was done it was about 1 in the morning. Then, movie time, we watched The Life of David Gale. Not exactly a comedy, but Kevin Spacey's and Kate Winslet's performances were really good. By this time, I'm dead tired, and decide to go to bed, in order to wake up to leave for Delhi University.

Wake up, luckily, in time the next morning. Have a bath, another hearty breakfast and wait for the driver to show up. He does in due course and we hop in for the long journey to the campus. It took us some time to get there, my backside had fallen asleep by then, and we were also lost inside the campus. We get out of the car and search the area by foot. It took quite a while, but we finally reached St. Stephen's gates. We get inside to realize the office is closed until two, it was one at the time. We also get to know that we need self addressed envelopes with our application. Apparently there was no post office nearby, so I ask the driver to search around for one, I tell him we'll meet him where we started. Big mistake. I took a wrong turn, so we practically took a tour of the whole Delhi university campus before finally making it back where we started. In between, driver calls back to say the place he went to didn't have stamps so he's gonna hunt for another one. As we were still lost in the DU jungle, I tell him to go ahead. Finally back at starting point and Udai reads in our newly acquired prospectus that we in fact, do NOT need the envelopes. Back to Stephens it is. Get there, with the office now open and we go inside to give in our applications. The guy there says that we DO need the envelopes. Great. But then, now he tells us that the office next door has stamps.

Frustrating.

So we walked a good four to five kilometres on a wild goose chase. Actually, it was quite fun.

In the end, the needful was completed, and we could go home. The ride back to my place, although it was closer than Gurgaon took longer due to the traffic on the way. I slept the whole ride.

Got back, Udai immediately left for his place, and I have lunch and go to sleep. A long sleep, get up four hours later.

Tomorrow's plan is still undecided, it's our last day before we leave for Bombay, should be interesting.

The Prize Days

2008-06-08T13:32:00.002+04:00

The 31st of May and 1st of June were scheduled to be Prize Days at school, one for primary and the other for the senior school. Anyone who's been reading this blog will know that, as part of this time's ceremony, there would also be songs from musicals that Modern's done in the past.

Saturday the 31st, I reached school a bit early, but the techies were there even before that. The primary show was not the real thing, as far as we were concerned, it was more of a practice run than anything else. The details of the show are a bit fuzzy to me now, but I do remember that there were quite a few small hitches. But we all got through the show eventually.

It also happened to be Udai's birthday, so mom picked me and sis up and we went to TGI friday's for dinner. Arjun, Kanishka, Jithin were already there, and the food was awesome.

Next day, woke up early in the morning because we had a day show for the school. This was without the prize distribution in between, which made matters simpler.

After giving that show, I stuck around with the sound and lights guys, we did some amount of work and cleared out what we could before the final show that evening. Ordered pizza hut and then waited for the time to arrive.

I'm struggling to remember the details, this doesn't sound like very good commentary at all. I do remember running around frantically about my uniform, because I had gotten the wrong shirt, I had also gotten the wrong blazer. So scrambling here and there to borrow one, and asking mom to bring the shirt with her. Luckily that eventually got sorted out. All that was left was to wait for the show to start.

The special guest was Shashi Tharoor, which was pretty cool, and the show was much better than the previous day's, not to say that it was near perfect, though, just that we did the best we could. There were the regular's like the principal's annual report, the two prize distribution phases, the special awards, which also included Shreyass getting a bravery award. Shashi Tharoor's speech at the end was also pretty cool. After the ceremony was over, there was food and packing up. Then went home, dead tired from four days of non stop stuff to do, and slept almost immediately.

Excuse my scant descriptions for now.

Picking up... The Wanderers Gig

2008-06-06T09:48:00.002+04:00

Geez, I feel like crap right now. Mainly because the last one week has provided enough material for me to write like crazy. I really want to just sit and sketch out the details of everything that has happened. In fact, I want to even go beyond that, try and (quite unlike previous posts) even insert some comments (not against/judgmental of anyone hopefully) and to try and convey a sense of atmosphere in what I've experienced, because all of them have been awesome enough to count amongst my "days-that-I-will-remember" playlist. Problem is that I'm lagging so far behind in updating them that I can't say anything but simple details of the events themselves.
Let's try again.

Friday the 30th of May, 2008 was a day for two main things. The first was the Tech rehearsal for the Prize Day Musical Extravaganza. Second was our next gig with the band, which took place at the Sharjah Wanderers' Club.

The rehearsal was like other rehearsal's, only with lights et al. Usual abuse and shouts from our beloved director, but it was also the first time when things actual seemed relatively tight in the performance. A good sign, at least that things weren't falling apart, plus got some food. However, it was after that that things started getting interesting.

Got home and started getting ready to get to the Club. This time, we didn't have to take anything except our guitars. So off we went and reached the place at around 10:30. We were scheduled to go on at 10:40, but the show was running late, so it was no problem. It was called the 15 minutes of fame, so you had a lot of local bands and artists playing it out there. There was a hitch that there was no sound man. So drummer and I had to fill in and there were some pretty cheesed off people both among the crows and performers.

But overall, the atmosphere was really nice. Courtesy of Ali, some ex-12thers had come to cheer us on, and the club was pretty full for most of the night. However, we were the last band on. Before us there was a DJ, who wasn't really appreciated, because this was more for live music, and a really, really loud punk rock band. This ended up driving out most of the crowd. So when we finally hit the stage at around 1 in the morning, the strength had dwindled from about 100 to maybe 20 or so. Still, the show must go on, and so we did. It was not any less fun, though, and we played our whole set with those who were left hooting, jigging and singing along.

Like I said, we were the last ones on, and the drum set and most of the amps were taken away. Our drummer was drunk again, as were many of those left. So he and the barman, along with the scary looking guitarist from the punk rock band kept jamming on the remaining guitars and mics. The barman was actually a very accomplished guitar player, guess talent can spring up anywhere. I had a small problem of getting home, considering that alcohol levels in those who could drive were slightly above normal, and that the Wanderers' Club was in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, I had a guardian angel in the form of Minie Aunty, who, along with Samita aunty, picked me up at 3:00 in the morning and dropped me home.

Sure, the crowd wasn't the greatest, but I still loved the whole experience of being there. A good kickoff to an awesome week.

Prize day's up next.

A Gig at Four Points

2008-05-30T11:25:00.003+04:00

So there was this show at the Four Point Sheraton.

I didn't know what it was about until I got there, but then again, all I needed to know was that I was playing. Therefore for a few days before that I got together with some dudes, including Ali, and we were scheduled to play at the aforementioned hitherto-unknown-to-me show.

It was a bit of a worry getting there, cause I had practice at school, but luckily, sir let me off, and scrambled back to my place, where we picked up the instruments and packed it off to the hotel, which was actually 300 metres from my building. Got there and finished setting up, after some initial hiccups, the soundman and us had everything up and running.

Went back home to change and pick up some more stuff, reached the hotel again and waited for the event to start. It did in due course, but the start was mainly filled with speeches, which I was quite happy to skip, so I went with Ali to Starbucks to have cold coffee. His parents had also come, so while he went to hang out with them for a while, I decided to take another walk. This time, I met Eamonn and Illika, and we make our way back to the hall together.

At this time, I finally begin to understand the purpose of the event. It was actually to set up an Alumni association of a St. Joseph's college at North Point (not sure where that is actually), and simultaneously the organizers were raising funds for a school near there. Not that the occasion particularly affected me, but it was nice to know. There was Bingo and American-style auction, some other games, and eventually it was our turn to play.

The actual performance was pretty good, our drummer was kind of drunk, which didn't help, but we managed to get on and off stage with some amount of appreciation and dignity. Much better than the last gig I played at (the one where one and a half people clapped). There was another Nepali band after us, who actually showed up unexpectedly, which hit a few sensitive nerves. That aside, it was really enjoyable, made more so by the fact that I got good food from Four Points' Indian restaurant.

So ended the first day of a very long set of four.

ISC Board Examinations : The Final Report

2008-05-27T16:56:00.003+04:00

For a while, I was hesitant to write about this, mainly because of certain developments which would make this post seem rather self-indulgent. Simply put, it would appear as if I was blowing my own trumpet. Since I had decided from the very beginning that I would prefer this blog to be more of a third-person narrative of the events around me rather than a personal rant/gloat/blah space, I will make all attempts to recreate a neutral setting to the final Act in our batch's ISC Board Examination Saga.

The Results.

It was frustrating to begin with, because the Council decided to keep us waiting forever to even announce a date for the results. Eventually, though, the moment of unveiling was decided to be the 20th of May, 3:00 p.m. IST, which meant around 1:30 p.m. at Dubai Modern High School. So, that was when the serious tension started. Since I had to be in school for Prize Day practice, I knew that the wait would not be any less tense.

The morning went by pretty smoothly, occupied myself in some odd jobs so as to pass the time. Lunch arrives and the moments slowly begin becoming agonizingly slow. I meet Charan and Akash, and we have our lunch. We then walk around school looking for a good place to be when the results are announced. We decide to be at the base of the stairs to the boys wing, outside the labs. And so we wait.

1:00

1:10

1:20

1:25

Still no word

1:29

Nothing yet.

Bell rings at 1:30. We're wondering what's taking so long. All the internet has been cut from the comps in school to maximize the internet connection in Mr. Dhanak's room. But we're still wondering why the SMT hasn't sent over our results yet.

As this happens, Udai calls. He's gone mad, he tells me his marks. I don't believe it. He tells me my marks, I don't believe it even more. Just then Charan gets a call simultaneously from his dad. 95.5%, wtf?! And just at that moment, Deva, Dhruv, Udit, and Shreyass (sorry, I'm writing this a while after the results, don't remember all the details). We all pack into the IT centre and throw everyone out of there. Lots of calls are being made around, we try and gather news from everywhere. Who got what, and slowly we learn of news about the ICSE as well. Apparently Shoumo Banerjee got 98.8%. That turned out to be a rumour, go figure.

Finally, we begin getting a clear picture of what the scenario is like, and having been satiated with news, we start moving around the school, meeting different people. At the end of that eventful day, move into the admin block, get called to the Big B's office, where he congratulates me. Yes, there are certain words that come to mind, but I shall refrain, hehe.

That pretty much sums it up. More later.

A long day, with a fabulous beginning, middle and end

2008-05-23T02:12:00.003+04:00

Damnit, where do I start? Ok, morning I have to get up relatively early (round 8:30 a.m.) to reach school in time for a photo shoot. Get into the uniform which I haven't worn for quite a while (to say that I missed it, though, is definitely not true!). After a little bit of scurrying around, I hop into the car with mom, and get to Shreyass' place to pick him up, turns out he is also being given an award, that's cool. But I realize that I forgot my contacts, and mom forgot her cell, so back home to pick them up, then Deva is picked up and we make our way towards school. We're the first ones among our batches' prize winners, and MJ is in a downright wonderful mood (wonderful in the absolutely demonic, sadistic and ready-to-burst-at-any-time sort of way). He promptly tells us to shove all our bags outside, and since I was having my face sheened up (yes, that's make up) by Sharon ma'am, I didn't know where they put the stuff.

The shoot, well I had to redo it plenty of times, not at my request, but at different peoples' due to some fault with my uniform or the other. Of course, everyone thought I was just unhappy with the way I looked in them, but that's expected. Srishti made the remark that nothing could make my ugliness disappear. Poor girl, if only someone showed her a mirror. But eventually, it got done, so me and Shreyass went out to fetch our bags. Only one problem, it wasn't there.

So here's the deal, the guitar which I got was there. So was a coat hanger with shirts hung on it. But my actual bag wasn't. Highly weird. A little bit of tension, go around the whole school frantically searching for it, alert the administrative officer, and even some peons get involved in the search. An hour passes, and both of us are ticked off. Finally, like magic, Sunita pops up with it, and apparently my sister took it. She's pretty lucky that I got home late today, otherwise she'd have had it from me.

That having been settled, I change into more comfortable attire, and wait for afternoon practice to start. Goes off relatively ok, plenty of waiting around, but waayyyy better than the day before. Had to stay back till around 7 to work on the soloists.

Work on the soloists, mostly macavity, and got some pizza for food, thank God for that, I was starving. Irritate Rupal a bit, scratch Darien and make him bleed from his neck, watch Nishant and Mr. Rodericks dance to Lion King, and watch MJ try to imitate Eeshaan. Practice gets over, Eeshaan and I hop into the Sharjah bus to try and get to Festival city, for the SCORPIONS CONCERT!

The driver drops us near the police officers' club and we decide to call a cab. As usual, it takes a while to get through, but finally Eeshaan does. After waiting again, the guy calls, but promptly disappears when we reach where he's supposed to be. So we're a bit stuck, but luckily a free cabbie (what a sight that was!) comes along and we just get in. Within ten minutes we're at DFC and another five, after passing through the venue gate, meet Zeba and go in to see Akash, Vishal and Udit. The two deira boys had been there from 2 in the afternoon, but even when we arrived (one and a half hours before the scheduled start), there was hardly anyone there, which was surprising. So we just pass some time, while holding steadily onto the places we had secured, which happened to be centre and right in front of our designated area. And very soon the show starts.

It would be very difficult for me to describe the show. In fact, to even convey what it meant to us in particular would be even harder. It was very (x10000) good. The band played really tight, the drummer was a maniac (but was still always on time), they started the show real solidly. But it was after the encore that the six of us who were there became true fans of the Scorpions. Still loving you, Winds of Change, Humanity and Rock you like a hurricane. The last one (which was the finishing song), was on another planet. Having spent the last two years listening to it during every free moment in class, it's become out true anthem. And to hear it live, what an experience. Again, without even attempting to put down words which would not do justice to it, this is just for the six of us to recall what happened that day.

We part with Akash and Vishal, and move towards Khaleej Centre where we grab some Mcdonald's and then slowly make our way home.

With regards to the title, while I've made it apparent why the end is justifiably awesome, don't ask me about the earlier two parts, I just felt them to be so.

Practice, walking, BBQ's, Banding

2008-05-17T22:16:00.002+04:00

Friday meant practice for Prize Day, which subsequently meant I was in school again. Having got there early, I decided to pretend to be busy and set up what was needed, yada yada. Once people started getting in, it went on like any other practice, although Mr. Rodericks' bus was caught in an accident, so he was late and he looked quite hassled when he walked into the hall. Everything happened pretty smoothly, and we ended up having quite a successful practice. That was that.

We had to go for Mr. Debroy's barbecue after that, so we (i.e. Eeshaan, Karishma and myself) decided to walk it since there was no bus going to Jumeirah. Unfortunately, my normally (with all possible humility) keen sense of direction did not factor into account how far into Jumeirah we already where so I assumed if we walked diagonally towards beach road and marina side simultaneously, we would reach pretty close to beach park. That was a mistake, and we were on beach road for quite a while when we decided to make a pit stop at one of the new air conditioned bus stops. That was when...oops... the map showed us that were had overshot the park. So back we went and, a tired lot by the end of it, ultimately reached the park 2 & 1/2 hours from when we started from school, in what has been officially recorded as the hottest May ever (source: Gulf News. Yes, you can start laughing now).

It didn't help that it was quite hot and very humid at the park. But there were loads of people there, so it was fun. Jithin, after much coaxing, produced a guitar and started playing a few numbers. Some of the guys got chased off the beach by one of the park personnel. There was dunkin donuts and munchkins(!), but all props went to the actual barbecued stuff (wow!), congrats to Mr. D, Deb, Udit, Jiten and all the guys who were at it. Jithin, after being coaxed again, did a round of impersonations for all of us, including MJ (who was sitting right there laughing his ass off at it). And we were so caught up in what we were doing that we didn't realize when the park had closed, so we ended up being locked inside and so, like the wandering herds on the plains of the Serengeti, we flocked from gate to gate trying to see which one was open until the same park personnel, after being considerably treated to our distress and enjoying himself thoroughly at it, decides to have the guard open up one of them. Yay.

So that was it. Into the cabs and off home. It definitely took longer than those lines, but nothing particularly interesting happened within that time frame.

Next day was a band practice, I'm really bored now so I'm not going to bother going into details, maybe next time.

Oh yes, it's been confirmed that the results are due on the 20th of May, 1:30 Dubai time.

Must go write my will now.

Day to day

2008-05-12T18:01:00.002+04:00

It's been more than two weeks since the last blog post, and no excuses this time. I'm not even sure what I'm going to write about, just ramble on as I think of stuff.

Yes, there were exams. Which were shortened to just one exam after I realized that I'm never going to do Physics and Chemistry ever again. After having experienced a calculus AP exam, I decided to heed my dad's advice (which went to the effect of don't care the exams, and don't take the credit I'd get from them), and not do the exams at all. Thank God for that, because it turns out physics, at least, was about as horrendous as Calculus BC.

So, that pretty much ends my studying for the next few months, I hope I can say that with some measure of truth, because I really don't want to touch those books very soon.

I'm having a bit of trouble recalling what exactly happened, the days just seem to be whizzing by, hmm...

There was a DQA party at school in celebration of Modern having won the DQA Appreciation Award and all that, so some (i.e. quite a few) of us, decided to show up for the free food and dancing. I decided to set aside my resolve not to go to school again, for this one event only. This one event ended up in me going back to school again to help for prize day and stuff, and I might just end up doing more than what I'd ever expected to do. Sigh...

So the last few days have been dominated by Musicals practice and KO's alternating cycles of niceness and horridity (is that even a word?). It's been pretty fun, at least I've definitely not been bored over the last few days, so I'm not complaining.
Of course, I haven't got my I-20 yet, so I'm beginning to get a bit worried. (for the uninformed, an I-20 is a form you get from the US universities in order to get a visa).

Oh, and the results. The days, as I've stated earlier, just seem to be rolling on right now, a bit like auto-pilot, which means that it's suddenly dawned on us that the results of our ISC exams are within striking range. At this point, all info is placing the 'day' as the 19th of May (3 days from now), and this fact is evoking different reactions from different people. Some want it to be delayed as long as possible cause they never want it. Some want to get it over with fast so as to forgo the massive suspense involved. And some just can't wait to get it cause they know they're doing awesome (*cough*Ankit*cough*Rajiv*cough*Rohit, Deva, Apoorva, Zeba, Izaan, Karishma, Ugly (Srishti)...*cough*).

And there's a barbecue tomorrow, woohoo, fun time on the beach, it's a welcome break from all the doing nothing and having no responsibilities (that's hard work, you know). It's good that the results got postponed away from tomorrow, cause otherwise you'd have half the grade down in the dumps (hopefully not, though).

I think that's enough for now, satisfied my blogstipation, but I really should update more often, I keep missing the finer details when I don't.

PALME (and a weird lunch)

2008-04-30T18:31:00.002+04:00

Recently, there was a large exhibition at the World Trade Centre, dealing with Audio/Visual solutions and music and stuff called PALME (don't ask me what it stands for, I still don't know). I had expected it to be big, but it was MASSIVE. I had expected to be pretty swamped in information, but instead I was intimidated out of my mind.

It took up 5 Halls of the exhibition centres, and the first day I went, I was just walking around trying to absorb some of the stuff that was there. Loads of professional stuff around, so at least I got to see what it's like at the top. The next day, Mr. Rodericks and Sonu were there, so I learnt a bit more than the previous day, and having a freelancer (which Sonu was) already working here, meant that we were actually shown stuff which normally we wouldn't, very sweet.

Laser Shows, a live band, lots of big ass speakers, lights that were bigger than me, yata yata.

It made me realize how much I don't know, there's a whole world that I don't know about, time to get cracking on it.

Oh, and today I went for lunch to a place that was giving a special offer. It was so full I was seated at a table with 4 other strangers, quite interesting. Not the other people, they were boring as hell, but just the fact that that's never really happened before.

Time to go do maths.

Practice, study, IPL

2008-04-25T22:03:00.002+04:00

Perhaps the reason for the considerable gap between the last post and this one would be the lack of fodder for my literary senses. Sure, there's been at least one exciting, worthwhile incident, but 'nuff said about that anyway.

Mornings over the last week have been dominated by band practice. It still amazes me how much better rehearsed we are for this gig (at Udai's place no less) than we were for our previous ones. Yet, as Udai very rightly said, we'll probably end up sounding the same as we always do... Hmm... have to find a way around that.

Evenings would involve the IPL (Indian Premier League, to the uninformed) which is definitely worth watching. Problem is it's really addictive, which puts a damper on my third to-do-thing right now, which is studying for the AP (Advanced Placement) examinations which I have to appear for starting the 6th of May. Not to far away they are, and obviously I would need that Yoda-like wisdom to do something about them soon.

Sister's birthday also happened recently, and the best part about it would be the cake. Hey, what else, considering that I didn't exactly get to do anything there. I was mostly busy trying to fix my guitar. Poor thing, it's really temperamental these days, must take it to the hospital.

It's truly been just one day after another. Not particularly exciting, but not filled with boredom either. However, the last one week has definitely passed by a bit too quickly, I'll try to not let it happen too often.

Oh, and as it turns out, this blog is now 50 posts old. Yay.

A School Day

2008-04-18T10:37:00.003+04:00

Yeah, yeah, laugh as much as you want, I'm going back to the sanctum sanctorum for a while.

I had actually gone for a football match in the morning (woke up at 5:30 a.m., no less) and after playing got put to some work by the P.E. Department. There was also carrom being played in the games room, but we were just waiting for the 9:30 bus to the Young Entrepreneurs Competition at the World Trade Centre. Waiting a bit, we (i.e. Udai, Sunita and me) decide to move to catch the buses. We missed them by a second, so onto the public transport bus which goes to Satwa, got off at the Diyafah Roundabout, and walked to the Trade Centre Convention Halls.

It was quite interesting. Having been to a YEC last year, I knew that, were I not careful about what I bought, I would end up losing all the money I had. True, all the money would go into helping our own guys, but when, at the end of the competition they end up earning close to 500 bucks apiece, it would kind of suck if I didn't have money to get home.

I was helped by the fact that the girls' stalls were quite...umm... girly. I didn't intend on not buying anything from the girls, but it so happened that I didn't, because I didn't find anything to buy. Even at Tarun, Navin and Shamu's stall, it was kinda out of my budget, so I ended up buying a plain T-Shirt from them (which wasn't bad at all!). Achint, Avneeth, Adnan and Shekhar had a nice stall, football and assorted stuff, and guitar hero! Achint and I sang a couple of numbers. The neighbouring stall on the right loved it, the ones on the left were pissed off. Hey, that's the world for you.

Having bought a key chain from their stall, I was directed to the last of the guys' stalls, Raib and Deepak. Poor guys, their stall had to have had the worst location possible. But as I bought an Adidas wrist band from them, they broke even, so I wasn't too concerned.

But I have to say, the business that had the most crowd had to have been the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Even our school chums were all hanging around there, and they were scrambling to get something as the buses were about to leave. We hung around for some more time, and got on a supplementary bus which was going later. Reached school just in time for lunch, and ate the Abela Food. Nothing happened until 1:30, then we entered Mr. Rodericks' room, no change there.

Learnt some songs from sir for the musicals, they're already out of my head now, will have to learn them again. Sunday's and Tuesday's are practices, shall see then.

And that was that.

The IITJEE

2008-04-14T16:03:00.003+04:00

The name itself sends shudders among many students attempting to get into the most prestigious college in India. Luckily for me, I didn't really care. It was simply because I had already registered for it, and so I was morally bound to at least attend.

Got there quite auspiciously, later than everyone and was the last one in. Got to my seat, and waited for the papers to be distributed. They checked our identities repeatedly, and even made us put our thumb prints on some paper. The papers were handed out and we broke the seal. The papers were opened, and the questions were as I expected them to be; completely and utterly unreadable. Forget about being able to answer them, I couldn't even understand most of the questions. Sheesh! They say that the difficulty with IIT papers is how the twist the questions. I'm sure even if they had given straightforward ones, I wouldn't be able to do them, cause I had come in not having touched an IIT book, hehe.

The first half (paper 1, lasting three hours) wasn't too bad (as far as boredom was concerned, the questions were a different matter completely). Then we had a break, the second paper was supposed to start after two hours, at 12:30, but we were told to come back at 11:40. Went out and found a lot of CL people, along with the guys from class. Jithin was "certain" that he was getting in, and we were all laughing at how inconceivably awesome the entire thing was. I went with Jiths to Jabal Al Noor and for the first time, ate at the fabled restaurant, which wasn't too bad. Eeshaan called and was amused by the wonderful reviews we gave of the first half. Then time came to enter for the second.

This time was really bad, because as afternoon approached I was getting really sleepy, and I'm sure I could have dozed off right in the middle of the exam (not that it would have made much of a difference, I didn't know anything anyway). After the first hour, out of three, I had finished what I could guess from the paper, and sat around the next two getting extremely bored.

Oh yeah! Just before we began writing, at 12:30, over the PA system comes a loud noise, followed by " Hey all, and welcome to another day of 'Recess Radio'!..." Apparently, no one informed the excited RJ's that the IITJEE was being held in their school. And then they started playing the latest song from 'Crazy 4', the volume kept getting louder and louder, the room I was in burst out in laughter. Or as much laughter as you'd expect from students bottled up for two years to study for a science exam.

Then the exam ended (thank God!). Got out and saw the teachers from CL taking a couple of interviews (with a camera) from certain students. Good thing they didn't ask me, I would have told them what I thought of that place! Decided to walk back home, and that was the end of that.

If you ask me, I would recommend everyone to take this exam. It costs 180 bucks, but even to the commerce guys reading this, it's worth a try, cause (reckoning from what I saw in the paper) you have as much chance as getting in as the science peeps.

I wouldn't do it again though, I've had my fill of unreadable symbols.

It's a long way to go, it's a whole road ahead.

2008-04-11T09:47:00.002+04:00

I'm struggling to even start on this one. Where do I even begin?

I'll have to start with yesterday, 'twas awesome. First, we all made our way to Venus, where 11 of us had a hearty breakfast, which would actually be considered brunch, and then made a slow walk to Lamcy. After sitting around for a while, we landed up in the arcade. Eventually we decided to push, and stood in the long taxi line. Eventually our turn came and we headed back to Bur Dubai. Battlefield and CS were on the cards, and with the number of people that came, it was definitely the funnest session we've had. Then onto Al Ain centre, where Bala had to buy a hard drive to transfer Deva's stash of heroes, 24 and prison break. This was when Udit called about Bala's gifts, and I got myself and Deva out of Al Ain through some acting. I reached Bur Juman and met Jithin, Udit and Vishal. After some hunting around, we settled on the gifts and I realized I had to drop my dad at the airport. Promising to get to Creek Park after that, I went home. Dropped my dad off, and I reached the park where a considerable number of people had gathered. Scrounging through the leftovers of pizza, I joined the group where, as usual, Bala was attracting the most attention. We presented him with the gifts and as the park began to close, we went and sat outside in the lawn, which was duly followed by a pileup session. Finally, we begin a long trudge back to Bur Dubai. Mom calls when we're not even a tenth of the way through, and I have to make an early exit.

There was something particularly special about Bala's departure. Sure, we knew that, of all people leaving, he was least likely to come back, seeing as how his family no longer lives here. It could be that - because he's the first one to leave - he is the harbinger of much to come. Now everyone will start leaving pretty quickly, and I'm not sure how ready we'll be for it.

I hate being a hypocrite, but I might be tempted to take back the thoughts I put down not even a couple of months ago. All of us were rearing to get out of school, to experience freedom. I guessed that I would miss school, but at the same time be very happy to have left it. One month on from the end of the board examinations, and I'm beginning to feel withdrawal pains (I know that's not the exact usage, but it puts the point across).

I'm in the mood for a bit of retrospective, and nostalgia. I doubt I'll be able to put it up here, but I do wonder if others are feeling this way. I'm excited about what's next, but I think while school was on, I was too busy and tired to care about leaving. It's a bit different now.

Balaji Raman brought life into our class. His words of... wisdom... are unforgettable, he has left a lasting impression on anyone, everyone, and definitely me. He's the kind of guy you hear about in the stories, the memorable characters who you keep hoping to read more about, but then the author, in a wicked twist of events removes them from the happy tale. Maybe that's how it's meant to be. By pulling him away, the scriptwriter of our lives has not made him vanish off the face of the earth. Rather, he has immortalized him, ensuring we never forget him beating up Rajiv in class, or blowing out Jithin's ear drums, or doing his "walk" in Priyank's video.

I'll miss you man.

Battlefield, more wars, Prefects investiture, "screw the recording"

2008-04-09T22:05:00.004+04:00

First off, I'm in love with Battlefield 1942! Introduced to it by MSers, I've definitely gotten addicted to it. To all those who have yet to be introduced to it, oh you deprived souls...

Speaking of wars and fighting, there was some rumblings happening around, it was really funny how the whole situation became what it was. We all had a good laugh at the way things transpired, but possibly it was because we're all so disappointed at how un-gangsterlike we are compared to previous batches that we got really excited at the prospect of a fight!

Oh, and Bala leaves in a day. We had tried to get a recording session organized but shortage of money and time prevented it, and so tomorrow will be spent with Bala, celebrating our times together and playing more Battlefield. Today was supposed to have been a hard day of practice but it turned out to be a mock-WWE match with all of us landing on top of one another and trying to lift each other. Of course, this was duly captured on camera (and for our dignity, will never fall into the wrong hands).

Today was also the Prefects Investiture for the Batch of '08-'09, where we, taking into account the solemnity of the occasion, were dressed in formals while the girls, being their usual useless selves came dressed in whatever they felt like! (considering how much the written word can be mistrued these days, I had best be careful when I speak in such a manner about other people...shhh, controversy!... should I really?... NAAAAAAA!)

I didn't agree, personally, with some of the things that went on, but I guess I have to accept it anyway. In case, a hundred years down the road (although I doubt this will be around when that time comes), people wonder who these chaps were; Head Boy - Avneeth Fernandes, Pegasus House Cap: Amal Shine, Orion House Cap: Nishant Mishra, Aquila House Cap: Shamveel Mohammed, Cygnus House Cap: Aditya Murthy.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

2008-04-07T12:05:00.003+04:00

About a week ago, I got all the results of the much-talked-about college admissions process. In short, as far as I was concerned, it sucked big time, but I was still left with enough choices to make my life for a while difficult. So much so, that even at this moment, I'm unsure of where I want to go, in spite of having already decided "technically". Thing is, just when you least expect it, developments pop up which change situations, and by now I'm a bit tired of these surprises.

Part of it could be due to the fact that I didn't get into any of my top five choices of colleges, but (as many aged, wise parents/adults would say) I have to live with what I have. Not that my remaining choices are particularly bad, but the grass always seems greener on the other side.

Anyways, out of my disappointment-induced rant, and more of the present. Modern Symphony is full steam ahead, however the steam boat seems to have a max speed of 5 knots. Yet, if fun was the ultimate objective (and it is, mind you) we're definitely achieving a lot!

The novelty of the Board exams being over and us being complete vagabonds has faded slightly, but I still haven't thought of getting up and doing anything useful. There's truth in the statement, that the more you sleep, the more you feel like sleeping.

I'm so lazy that even writing up here has become a rare occurence, although I could attribute it to lack of interesting events.

Food. Sleep. Fun. I love this life!

MS, laziness and results

2008-03-31T21:37:00.002+04:00

How ironic is it that my most frequent posting period had been during my all-important Board Examination period? Either it means that I'm so occupied in all the post-boards activities which I have undertaken, or (the more plausible explanation) the sheer inactivity stemming from the lack of responsibility has spilled over into writing time. Let me try and correct that.

Modern Symphony practice is definitely underway, although the absence of Bala, Udit and Rajiv is certainly a factor. Nonetheless, we've made considerable progress, and have nearly finished a home recording of "Aankhon Mein Tu Hai". Tomorrow's a break day, as the U of T and Waterloo interactive sessions are happening, and I will have time to review my admits. Speaking of which, as of the time of writing this, there are 3 hours and 15 minutes to go for Ivy League admissions results. Talk about the future hanging in the balance.

Coming to the most important aspect of this post. I shall attempt to describe the current situation that, along with my batch mates, I am in. Reason being because, simply put, it is singularly the most amazing time I have ever had in my life. "Attempt" is the word as you would really have to have experienced this in order to understand its magnitude.

I've never woken up at twelve noon for 4 days straight. I have now. I've never been able to ignore the voice at the back of my head telling me I ought to be doing something constructive. I can now. I've never been out of the house NOT wondering when my mom is going to call, or that I've something to do after coming back, until now. It's been 14 days since the end of the Board examinations, and I can honestly say that each has been spent in a way which I would most have want to spend them. It has come to a stage where I have begun worrying about when it will end. Good times don't last forever, the old cliche, but I hope the days go by slowwwllly.

The Champ is here!

2008-03-29T00:17:00.002+04:00

It was only a matter of time, were there ever any doubters.

As another event which is adding to the wonderful time that is the post-boards period, Shreyass arrived in Dubai after a long, arduous treatment in India. Agreed, we were anxious to see him, but for a second imagine his feelings of deprivation stuck there for so long, and analogously, his excitement on coming home. Daymn, it was good to see him.

First thing, we gathered at my place for everyone to show up, and then we went along to his place. Armed with a cake and music CD's, we approached his house with Deva delivering the opening to "Aankhon". The door was opened, and there he was, the man himself, pretty unchanged, and looking way healthier than when he left (duh!).

So it was general chitchat for a while as we caught up, Bala, Izaan, and later Udit had to leave (because they still have an exam, hehe). We (Charan, Jithin, Deva, Eeshaan and me) stayed for a while, had the cake, which was awesome (nice taste, Rajiv), and we actually wanted to go out with him for a while. But his dad, naturally being cautious, instructed not to do that, so we said our goodbyes, and landed up in Al Ain centre. It was at that point I realized how much fun I was having. Never having been able to be so absolutely guilt free, the current phase makes me fear the day it's going to end. Hopefully, that day is very far off.

In other news, got into Amherst! As I write this Stanford decision is two and a half hours away. More on that later.

Must go pass some time for a couple of hours.

Shweta's Party

2008-03-25T01:20:00.003+04:00

Today (well, yesterday technically), Shweta hosted (one of) the post-boards celebration parties, and it was particularly momentous for us (the band) as it was our first gig in what we hope will be a long series to come. It was among the best I've been to, in large part because it was pretty atypical.

Had to get there early, to set up and all. The whole morning was spent getting ready and organizing transport, etc. Got to Shweta's place at 4 started unpacking and getting ready. Lots of little problems to deal with (expected, when it's the first gig). Run to the local supermarket to get supplies. People started showing up, and we were still practicing. Then we decide it's time to move, we go up to change. By the time we're done, everyone's there and it's dark. Oh yeah, my guitar string broke, so panic as I didn't have a spare, calls, and finally I destring Deb's guitar to get one. After a little hurried repair work, finally up and running, and we begin.

It wasn't an extremely long set, Jithin had just gotten off from studying, and for one day's practice, it went off pretty well (that's purely my opinion though). Got some sort of clapping and hooting. But even after we were done, I really enjoyed myself. Arjun was around, so you can imagine the fun we were all having. Not much loud music and dancing, which enabled us to all just sit and talk. And the food was pretty good, what else'd you expect at Shweta Wahi's house. And the dessert!! oh the dessert...

That was that day, just got home. A relatively short post, cause I'm a bit lazy right now.

1st major college decision in 24 hours. Damn.

A Sindhi Family Affair

2008-03-21T11:50:00.003+04:00

As a favour for Minie Aunty, yesterday I landed up at the Sheraton Deira to help out the BCDC guys as they set up for an event over there. I wasn't exactly sure what it was for, but I just went to do my bit. Udai and me got there and were immediately set the highly difficult and strenous task of moving a cardboard car across the stage as part of an act. So difficult.

Then, once that was settled, we were just hanging around here and there, not sure of what to do, because almost everyone had left. We were supposed to be helping a guy called Suresh, however, I don't think he had much clue of what was going on either (or so it seemed). Finally, it came down to stringing up balloons onto the ceiling and decorating some large plastic hearts. By the time the "management" had decided on what to do and we did it, there were already some guests in the hall.

With that done, Udai and I went outside to get something to eat and check some of his college decisions. He had already got into UCLA (and made sure he reminded me every few minutes) and once we opened the page at the internet cafe, he had gotten into UCSD as well. I had a shawarma, he didn't have anything.

Got back and went back stage, while away some more time, how exciting. Gradually, the realization dawned on me. This was a private thing, some rich Sindhi dude had got together the whole "khandan" to celebrate the something of his son, Yash. It was a real expensive party for something like that. He had flown in dancers from Spain/Brazil/similar place, DJ Benson (I don't know him either) was playing tunes, there were a couple of comedians, and BCDC had trained the dozen or so kids in the family to do a small performance.

Oh, and Salman Khan was there. Someone in the family apparently knew him, so he came and danced on stage with Yash and generally made the kid feel happy and drew a lot of attention. Considering how much I love this kind of stuff, I was absolutely enthralled, captivated and mesmerized (at how normally respectable people could turn gaga at the sight of a movie star).

If there was one lesson I learnt from yesterday, it's that I should be thankful for the school I went to (went to, wow I can actually say that). Modern High somehow manages to instill a sense of professionalism into you. As I was watching things setting up before hand, I realized how haphazard things can be, and the value of proactivity and perfectionism hit home yesterday.

To any sindhis reading this, no offence meant whatsoever. These are merely my observations.

The Day

2008-03-18T02:59:00.003+04:00

Rajiv decided to remain in the background for this picture because according to him, his brilliance and good looks would outshine everyone. Udai was too busy watching the bugs crawl around at the back of Ankit's head. But a little history...

Got home after the last exam, which I'm hoping you'd have guessed by now was EVS. Got home and had some lovely chicken sandwich (my current favourite) and took some speakers down to the basement as a first step towards acquiring the space for band practice. Ran into some problems which will require further thought and action, but now we seem to have time to do pretty much everything. Then went back and were wondering what to. Idea strikes.

So me and Udai (screw you, you proper englishers) walk down to the Starbucks in Musalla tower, order two hot caramel coffees (or some such things)and two caramel waffles, and just sit. Yeah baby, just sit, it has to be the coolest thing in the whole world. The coffee and waffles tasted like heaven, and just sitting there guilt-free and lazing was worth the long wait. After one and a half hours, we get up and decide to walk to the creek, passing through Meena Bazaar area. Just as we are about to reach, we get a call from Udit asking us to come to Bala's building to celebrate Deva's birthday. So about turn, and we even meet Rohit Joshi along the way, and take him with us.

Arrive at Bala's place, and wait for the B'day Boy to arrive. He does so and after some problems with candle-lighting (we ultimately did away with it) the birthday song and feeding begins, with cake-mashing, etc. Then it's just cake consumption (Damn, Evs still haunts me) and laughter and banter. Continues for a couple of hours, and then we decide to make a move to actually eat something. We walk slowly and aimlessly for a while, then stop and try and make a decisive move. Finally Nawab (Indian cuisine) is decided and we move to Al Ain centre to implement it (Evs...).

Got there, and we have to help the guy shift around tables to accommodate all of us. A continuation of the banter from Bala's rooftop, Kanishka comes to say high in between. Order food and the main discussion is that of movies and TV shows. The meal ends and we got outside to sit at the steps of Al Ain and more general talk. Eeshaan, Udai and I (alas, I revert) get ourselves some ice cream, and slowly people start moving off. Ultimately I leave too, and plans of movie watching are floating.

But that was not the end. I reached home at eleven, and realize I'm not sleepy at all. Mom had been constantly reminding me of how I have lot of work around the house after the Boards are done in shifting around furniture and sorting out my room. So for the next three hours, in the middle of the night, I went about cleaning up, sorting out and fixing up more than two years of papers and junk. It didn't take that long, maybe because I only worked on one part of my room. But that was all required, and I felt quite good at the end of it.

Then I actually started feeling sleepy, but then again, I had to put up this post.

So ends the 19-hour last day of school. (ever)

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Conclusion

2008-03-18T02:52:00.002+04:00

So it ends.

Truly it does, and it signals the final severing of our umbilical cord to school. Consider us independents now.

Truth be told, I quite enjoyed it. Perhaps the lack of real pressure, stemming from the lack of influence of these exams on my future allowed me to fully absorb all the vibe and excitement that comes with them. Once in a lifetime opportunity. And although we did the same ones in tenth, having gone through the vast emotional and mental changes in the past two years, coupled with our unique circumstances at the present moment, made us approach this set in a different way.

We were definitely more prepared in tenth, undoubtedly, and the motivation to perform was also much higher. But, it's all over now, and we did the best we could. Oh yeah, but it's not all over as I write this, not for the Bio and Eco guys (I love rubbing it in).

Maths, English and Chemistry were good. Physics was a personal torment. Computer science was bad for those wanting good marks in it, and EVS was an overall pain. Good mix, you can't have everything good, can you? And thus to conclude, it has been an eventful, sometimes frustrating, sometimes joyful time.

Momentous? Yes.

Unforgettable? Hell ya!

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Environmental Education

2008-03-18T02:36:00.003+04:00

The subject has been known for reiterating the importance of "bullshit" in our lives. More than English Language, it has been EVS which has truly extended our imaginations in the creative writing department. It doesn't help that the text book is possibly the source of information you could ever hope to get. On top of that, the question paper that was set this time was horrible.

Got there early (again!), geared up to give my last school exam, and as people started to pour in (again!), I didn't feel particularly nervous, partly because I knew that nothing could help me in EVS further, and partly because it was the last exam.

Got into the hall and had a brief scare as I had forgotten my admit card. Placated by MJ that I didn't need it, I continued into the hall. One look at the paper and I knew I was gone. The objective type questions themselves were scary enough, the long answer ones pure hell. Could they have made it anymore vague?
I trudged through all the questions, writing as much as I could, while keeping a constant eye on the clock, for two reasons: a) To see how much writing time I had left, because I knew I would be hard pressed considering the paper length, b) To see how much writing time left, because at the end of it there would be no more writing time for me ever.

Finally, it got over. And what a feeling. I could not help but not feel bad at the end of it, although I know that EVS, the superscoring subject is definitely not in my average.

We all got out of the hall, and the computer science guys were just thankful that it was over. We started laughing at Bio and especially Eco students, considering that they have so much time left for their boards to get over.

Went outside, both mom and Minie aunty were there, we got in and drove home, after tormenting the commerce guys first of course.

There was a long day after that, but I've saved that for a later post.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Chemistry

2008-03-14T17:05:00.002+04:00

While waiting for the pictures that you see above to upload, I did some cleaning up. Chemistry studying is done pretty much solely from the notes we've been given, and there was a lot of paper all over my bed, desk and elsewhere, so I started collecting it from everywhere and putting it all together. And while doing so, I actually felt, well, relieved of course, but more disbelief more than anything. As I began to collect these papers and put them into one big pile to put them in a corner, it really struck me.

My school life is over. The boards are as good as gone. One more exam, EVS, but that requires only one textbook and not much else. It's as if, with each batch of books and papers I put away, the more the gravity of the situation strikes me.

It's only a matter of time.

Coming back to reality, and the chem exam. Got there early again, met Mr. D, he told me something about Kanishka having a good EVS book. Got on the phone with his friend to tell him the directions to school. Yes, a chemistry exam is looming.
The portion is do crazily huge that we were all certain that we were going to flunk. People started flowing in, and the atmosphere was growing more morose as we feared what they were going to ask us. There was just too much, and more frighteningly, there was just too much we didn't understand. But nonetheless, we had to keep on going.

Lined up outside the hall, Dr. Khan gave us some last-minute words of wisdom. Then into the hall. I have to say again though, while I knew that I wasn't as prepared as I would liked to have been (only because there was so much to learn, not lack of effort, hehe), I still was pretty calm, because after all, it was the last "death" exam. Papers were distributed, and it was pretty simple actually, especially the first section. Went through the paper, and while there were a few questions I wasn't completely comfortable with, I still knew it was the best possible paper we could have gotten. It was short to boot, so despite me going slowly, and doing an extra question, and taking my time drawing lines, I still had time at the end.

So a slow end to a frenetic preparation.

That was chem, good one. Now only Environmental education left, wonder how that'll go. Repeating, one more.

One more.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Computer Science

2008-03-12T18:26:00.002+04:00

I hope you notice Eeshaan's morbid expression in the last photo. This was taken after the exam.

In a nutshell, it was probably the worst paper that the Board could possibly set ever, for any exam ever. It's the kind of paper that you expect to get only 15 years ago; the kind which you might read in sample paper books somewhere and hope you never get. It was bad.

What aggravates the situation is that Comp is expected to be in our average, it's a scoring subject. This paper was not scoring at all, and in spite of the whole cutting into half thing (theory and pracs out of 100, divided by 2 then add) we're still gonna have a hard time including it in our averages. What we are relying on is that the whole of India has really screwed up in it as well, with the results that standardization seriously comes into play. Hoping.

In effect, they asked the toughest possible variations of every single question that could be asked. A couple of things we didn't know, hadn't come across, but turns out was in the portion, so screwed on that front as well.

There was some tension before the exam exactly for this reason, because we don't know what to expect from a comp exam. Last few years papers were pretty simple, but we were still hesitant as to whether this year's would be. It wasn't.

There's nothing much to say about a bad paper, except that I hope it doesn't happen for the remaining.

Speaking of which, I don't really feel all that bad about the paper, perhaps because it was actually difficult, and not only myself found it bad (misery loves company). But mostly it's because now there's not much time left. Just have to work my butt off for chem, and then EVS, all within a span of 4 1/2 days.

The time approaches...

Interval IV : Waiting...Waiting...

2008-03-09T19:03:00.004+04:00

It's only a matter of time now. Yes, there are the three examinations left, two of which definitely have to be in my average, but I'm still bouncing around my room just waiting for it to be all over and done with. So much to do, so many places to go, but I'm certain the first thing I'll do once home after the EVS exam will be to sleep for about 14 hours. Not that I'm particularly sleep deprived right now, but there's a kick in being able to laze around guilt-free.

This post is pretty pointless, no interesting happening in my life. That's what it's come to right now, the only things worth writing about are exams, blech. But not for long, folks, 8 Days!! Yes!! EIGHT!!!

Come on baby, light my fire, fuel my dreams, make me happy, and all that rubbish.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Mathematics

2008-03-07T16:44:00.003+04:00

The first two up there are from before the exam. The next one, after the paper, with loads of people discussing (personally, I hate that, and will express why later).

Got to school fairly early, Ashwath reached before me this time. Didn't really know what to do, so just walked around, read some formula sheets and generally waited for the moment. I was pretty tense about this one, because maths is something you know will be relatively easy, which puts even more pressure to perform. I mean, 11 people got 100 last year, and generally the results were so good. I'd be kicking myself if I lose out due to lack of effort.

People starting pouring in, and as the number of people in the quad began to increase, so did the number of questions flying around. Mr. Mudassir came too, along with MJ and Mr. D. So we were asking random doubts, while some people were prepping to take the last maths exam of their lives. Soon, the call from Dr. Khan, and we line up outside the hall. A few words of wisdom from the maths teachers, and we're in. AJ does a sort of relaxing exercise with us and then says the prayer. The sheets and question papers are handed out. Reading time begins.

And it's not bad. Not bad at all... all the questions are pretty straightforward, and the choice seems easy. Mr. Hilal (the chief invigilator) gives the go, and we begin writing. The writing took longer than I expected, in fact I was struggling to balance between moving quickly, and making sure my answers didn't have any silly mistakes. It's pretty smooth going (Section B, which I was afraid off, was actually simple) but then as the paper progressed I was hard pressed to make my final answer choices. Most of all, I was scared of my tendency to make careless mistakes. I end with the moving average question, and rush to check through my paper. Thank God for that, cause I found some mistakes, but unfortunately I wasn't able to check my MA one. Anyways, fate will decide.

Got out of the hall, and had to close my ears immediately to prevent the answers from entering. I really hate this, because the minute I realize that I've made a mistake, it feels so frustrating, and it will in all likelihood affect my other exams. So I closed my ears and started to hum. My point was proved when I found Izaan looking pretty morbid after the exam. He has a habit of discussing post-paper, and he found more than one wrong for this exam, resulting in his hair-tearing expression today.

As for me, I was quite happy with how it went, so I did all I could to prevent me from revoking that feeling. This involved doing my ritual avoid-hearing-the-answers-at-all-costs during the entire car ride, as Bala, Ankit, Deva, and especially Dhruv were going all out. And it seemed they were not doing it as much as they would normally in order to not hurt my sensibilities. Bleh.

Got home, kind of wondering about all those people who claim to never have to do maths again. How is that possible? Sure, they aren't very fond of the subject, and they won't take the course in college, but after so many years of doing it, can you just disconnect? That's probably just me, but thinking about it, although I'm doing engineering for undergrad, I know the minute I'm out of college I'm not going to be an engineer per se. That doesn't mean it's never gonna be there. I'll need it everywhere, all the time.

Bloody Hell! I'm having withdrawal symptoms over maths!

Long post, for an eventful (and fairly happier) exam.

B.T.W. Udai wants to share credit for this post, as he was too lazy to update.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Physics

2008-03-05T17:27:00.002+04:00

No photo again, Dhruv was pretty eager to get put up here, but I guess my mood after the exam made me forget about the whole thing.

Got to school early again, found RM, asked him some doubts then sat and waited for it to begin. This paper was pretty serious for me, cause it's a no-brainer for being in my average, the only other options being chem and english (shudder). Was afraid that there'd be something I didn't know, and turns out there was.

Once inside, a prayer courtesy MJ, then got down to the business of reading the paper, and just looking at it I felt nauseous. I was wondering whether everyone else was feeling the same way about it. Nobody was. In fact, the word around was that it was the easiest physics paper in many, many years. Lucky me. Got through it, completely unsure of what I had put down, knowing that apart from what I didn't know, there'd be careless and stupid mistakes all over. Guess it can't be all good.

Got out, and tried to shut out all the noise and discussions of the paper. The last thing I needed to know was that I made more mistakes. Got to Deva, who was my ride again. Got home, consoled myself with food, and slept a bit. Now, having gotten up, I guess maths is on the agenda, although I don't really feel that motivated right now to do it. Gonna try anyway.

Till the next horror.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : English Literature

2008-03-03T18:21:00.002+04:00

The first substantial exam, English lit was still less pressurizing enough to ease us into the 'death' time of our exam-writing. Arrived at school before anyone else, as mom was leaving only at that time, walked around a bit, realized no one had come yet, and started revision of Macbeth. Slowly, the quad started filling up and as the number of my classmates grew, for some reason, so did my nervousness. I wasn't nervous at all for the exam before, but I kept wanting to learn one last thing, one more line before entering the hall.

Lined up outside, got in order, went into the hall. No long drawn instructions from the chief invigilator, just two reminders for us, and AJ said the prayer. Sat down, and got our papers, 15 minutes before last time. So the papers starting early from now on. I think it's the unpredictability of the questions, and the fact that in English you're never really sure of what the examiners might throw at you. Anyways, there was no cause for alarm; the reference to context was about normal, the essays extremely long but straightforward, and the poems, a very good selection, A Hot Noon in Malabar, Flute Music and Kubla Khan. Of course, only the drugged, high and insane would attempt the last one (*cough*Udai*cough*)but it still provided for two good poems.
Finished just in the nick of time, but nothing can be said about my handwriting. Yeesh. Got out, and as usual there was much discussion of the paper, although, because it was lit, it was restricted to "what questions did you do?", "It was soooo long maaaan..." and the like. Was going home with Deva, but because the exam ended early, we had to wait for his mom to arrive. Once she did, hopped in, and topic switched to the next exam, Physics, and how screwed we are in preparations for that. I should be studying, what am I doing writing this post anyway? Deva pointed a "Haripada" on the road, which cause a roar of laughter in the car.

His mom dropped me straight home, real nice of her. Got up, ate lots, including two ice-creams. That heavy meal really made me sleepy, so took an hour long nap. Now I'm up writing this, and I think it's about time I got down to some work.

Cheers.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : English Language

2008-02-29T16:38:00.003+04:00

Time to write, and I'd say a fairly good start to the theory part of our exams, the real deal. The difference this time round is that they're in the afternoon. I'd thought I'd be sleepy at that time of day, but turns out there are no problems as far as that is concerned. Arrived at 11:30 a.m. to find some of the guys in the foyer next to Ms. Ribeiro's office. General chit-chat and go out to see some more there, and a whole bunch of parents standing at the steps of the admin block, I didn't know the 10thers hadn't finished yet. More batchmates started coming in one by one, and soon we were all waiting for the moment to enter the auditorium. Rajiv had brought a large dice to school (don't ask) and we were playing around with it, trying to guess on which face it would land. Yes, ladies, we had a board exam in 15 minutes.

The 10thers emerge, followed by a cheer from the bunch of parents that had gathered (Arjun was right, they were the cheering squad). Went around asking about their first board exam ever, and seems they did alright. The picture for their composition is in colour! Well, it was for ours also, but it's still thrilling all the same (*where has this guy been living?*).

Another 5 mins, and Dr. K calls us all to line up at the steps of the auditorium. We get into the order of our roll numbers (which would be how we're sitting), and MJ gives us some instructions on being calm and collected during the exam. Having gotten ready to enter, we do, leaving our bags in the foyer. A quick hunt for my desk and down I go, seems I'm sitting in the same place as Raaj. We all settle down, and the Big B gives the required prayer, and introduction of the invigilators. The chief examiner gives some info about the exam and what we're expected to do. The papers are handed out, and so it begins.

Grammar was pretty simple, and finish in less than 10 mins. The comprehension is pretty nice, it does take a bit of a read, but the questions themselves aren't too difficult. The report was also standard, about a historical monument we visited, and the essay, I wrote about 'Ambition' and given that I had time, it was about as good as it could have been.

And that was that, got out and MJ confirmed some answers with us, but pretty uneventful. Now I'm home, and prepping for the next one, E. Lit.

Till later.

Interval III : Just Before

2008-02-29T09:01:00.002+04:00

It's the morning of the first theory board paper. English Language, maybe I can use this for a little warm up before the real thing. Continuing in the series of 'lasts' that has come to define this year, I think the next few exams will go by quickly. The week until the 7th of March is definitely as bad as it can get, with only a day's leave for maths and physics, but I guess there's nothing we can do about it.

I wanted to write something up here, forgot what...

17 days is not a very long time, or on the flip side, it's too long, and what happens in those 17 might make quite a difference to what happens on the 16th of May. So, should I be here, writing this, wasting my time? Yes! Sure, by spending these 10-15 minutes writing this post I might find a nugget of information in some book which might gain me a mark in the exam, but think about 5, 10, 50 years from now. Never again am I going to experience the singular time that are my school leaving exams, and perhaps I'm writing this for no one except my future self, to remind me of what I was, what I was thinking, where I was going.

Self-rationalization is definitely the way to go.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Computer Practicals

2008-02-27T11:53:00.002+04:00

Sorry, guys no picture this time, forgot to take my camera.

Computer practicals have a reputation of being easy, but we were all worried about the newest component in our examination, the Viva Voce, essentially an oral quiz on random stuff in comp. So, much of the time spent preparing was in the list of questions Mrs. Murali had set to prepare for it.

Arrived there in the morning (again), and immediately talk was of the various questions that could come, not so much the program (although the word mobius was bandied about a lot) as the oral section. Ma'am arrives and many of us get our practical files signed (worth 20 marks! Gasp!). Then, the usual procedure: line up at the steps, say a prayer and move in. Tarun, of course, took the bus so he was a bit late.

Reading time starts, and I breathe a sigh of relief as it turns out the questions are easy. Also, we don't have to wait for one hour to finish to begin typing. The freaks (a.k.a. Tarun and Karishma) finish within a few minuted of typing time start. I take it slow, and only when I'm sure completely do I show the external examiner. Then the writing, trying to write as legibly as possible (which is a real effort), and end up taking an extra sheet. Only because I spaced everything out so much!

The Viva starts, and one by one we're called to do the needful. Mine went pretty ok, it turns out I was one of the lucky ones. Go back to my place, end up writing to 5 minutes before writing time ends. Yes, but then it's not over. Just as the examiner says "put your pens down" I notice something in the output of the program I created. It was written 'in' in stead of 'is', trivial, I know, but it would be really stupid if I lost a mark for a spelling error, and such a small one that too. Anyways, now it's in the hands of the examiner. Let's hope she doesn't see it, or ignores it.

Came home courtesy Rohit, with Eeshaan, Ankit and me at the back discussing how freaking tough the competition in our batch is.

And now I'm at home. Theory papers start day after.

Interval II : The Hidden Gem in the Basement

2008-02-22T23:17:00.002+04:00

They say music is universal, that it transcends the boundaries of race, language, culture and appeals to people from every corner of the globe. It wasn't in the exotic lands of Timbuktu or Easter Island where I found proof of this axiom, but in my building's basement.

Utsab had come over for me to teach him regression lines. Towards the end of the little tutoring session, mom comes into the house saying, "you know there's music coming from the basement?"

What?!

"Yeah, in the store room right in front of our car on B(basement)3."

Quickly put on some slippers, almost knock Utsab over in excitement. Run down, make Utsab lose a little weight. On reaching the basement, just look around for a bit find the source of the noise. See the double doors, don't really know what to expect, but still extremely excited nonetheless. Pull the handle, takes a bit of an effort to push and emerge on the other side.

Well, waddya know... my security guard has his own band! Very, very cool. The place was pretty neat, nice and open, and come to think of it, perfect for a band set up, considering how it doesn't disturb anyone. They didn't have a drummer, so I finally did what I've wanted to do in a band for tres long temps, whack the drum kit.

My security guard is really talented, man. Yeah, he plays guitar and all, but it's his singing which had me very impressed. The band itself reminded me of us (viz. Jithin, Udai, me, etc.) in eighth grade. We didn't have much by the way of equipment, Udai had just got his drum set, I still had my acoustic, Jithin on the revered electric, and much of what came out of us was actually only noise. But we had awesome fun doing it. Just jamming along with these guys (i.e. my guard's band) reminded me of why I picked up music in the first place, it's so bloody fun!

On new year's eve, we were all in Sharath's House, 2003/2004 I think. Udai got his new drum set (which we also discovered in the classifieds while at Sharath's House), and much of the night was spent irritating people in the other apartments. We would dim the lights, and I would play Enter Sandman, then we'd bring it back into Smells like Teen Spirit, Save Tonight, Fade to Black. *Sigh*. I get the feeling those days are just around the corner though. Come on, 24 days (not hours, like the series). But definitely one day, I should put up the history of our band, but first I must do a little background myself.

Can't wait. Come on, time speed up already.

Interval I : Carrying on Conversation

2008-02-21T15:50:00.002+04:00

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be writing about this. It's perhaps the most cliched subject of discussion and possibly the starting point of every casual conversation that has ever occurred during man's short history.

The weather.

Yes, the atmosphere and surroundings which we live in. Why? Because it's so damn good right now! I am of course, only talking about Dubai (no, no 'jumper' shenanigans for me). We had a really chilly winter this, chilly as in temperatures dropping to 6-7 degrees Celsius, which in other places would be bordering on boiling. So, as things have started to heat up a bit, there has also been some haze and dust stirred up, and visibility was pretty negative last couple of days.

Cutting to the chase...

I woke up today morning, went into the balcony, and wow, I think for the first time in memory I could say, it was the perfect day. The sun was bright, and if you hadn't been outside you would have sworn it was steaming, but there was a cool breeze and the air felt just right, not stinging your skin, yet feeling comfortable.

It reminded me of cricket.

The tradition started in 10th, on the Golden Sands 10 parking lot. Come winter time, and the Eid holidays, winter break and any other time we could find was spent in 10A vs. 10B matches. We would start early, because by 1:00 p.m., it would get real hot. Then over to Spinneys, drinks, Mcdonalds, and waiting for the bus back to Sheikh Zayed Rd. One match day, during Eid, we were waiting outside Spinneys for the bus, and it was so hot we had to ask the Mcdonald's guys for a glass filled with ice. As Udai was popping one into his mouth, it felt out and landed on the road. And in less than one second (no exaggeration!) it was gone; melted like nothing I've ever seen. Crazy we were to play in that kind of heat.

I really wish I could catch a little bit of the weather, somehow preserve just a small bit of it, so I could momentarily feel it when the summer comes around. Or, I could wait for another year.

Studying? Less.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Chemistry Practicals

2008-02-20T12:41:00.002+04:00

This was it. Two years of torture, frustration and overall dislike finally came to a head, in what was to be my last chemistry practicals ever. Till now, I have never understood why I found it so difficult. It's as if I had magic fingers, which by their devious enchantment, decided to snare me in. People get white precipitate, I get blue solution. People get yellow spangles, I get water.
Anyways...

Similar to Physics, I arrived in the morning, everyone was pretty much there. We were all asking Mrs. Shajan doubts, Mr. Mehrotra also came along, we got ready, and into the lab without much fuss. Inorganic first, it went off pretty smoothly actually, and I got some good confirmatory tests. Cations, however, I was struggling with, really. It's like it all just flew out the window, and I started panicking a bit. At this point in time is where the "..." kicks in. Doesn't feel to good, but considering I do these practicals only because I'm forced to, might as well have. I'm actually glad someone in the ISC screwed up the spelling and put Rohit in between Rajiv and me.

Titration was actually perfect. I got concordant values almost immediately, and it came to a nice figure (at least my percentage purity didn't come to more than 100:P). Organic was also not too bad, just looking at the tests, you know what compound it is.

And before I knew it, time was up. I walked out of the lab, not completely satisfied, but thankful nonetheless that it was all over. The real practicals were finally up. Now comp pracs is next, but studying for that is just like studying for the theory paper. 7 days break too, and I get the feeling that what happens during these 7 days might just determine my results in May. I wish that could motivate me to study though...

In all probability (not the maths chapter), there will be a post after these 7 days, but who knows, a lot of interesting stuff might happen in between.

In the meantime, be sure to admire the portrait of our dear Supervisor gracing the top of this post.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : Physics Practicals

2008-02-18T23:50:00.002+04:00

And so it began... finally! I think the only real long wait was the one for these things to begin, hopefully now they'll just roll on by quickly. We started off with Phy Prac, which is actually a good one, because it's relatively less pressurizing. And as it turns out, the Physics Department has to be the cooolest people on earth.

Note to all Modernites: For the purpose of this post (and all other posts about the practicals), I will often be inserting something like "...". To an outsider or someone unaware of the 'process' it would mean nothing, but let's just say it's a representation of something that we are all very grateful for.

Got up at 5:45 a.m. (the practicals do start pretty early), and got into the car by 6:30. So far things going smoothly, no traffic jams or such, reach school by 6:50, and I'm one of the last people to arrive actually. Slowly everyone reaches, and last of all, the man of the hour, RM (and I'm definitely not referring to myself). We all gather in a huddle around him, and he pacifies us, saying how we should not worry because, after all "...".

Then all 50 or so science students are lined up at the base of the stairs to the labs, with all the supervisors eagerly awaiting the moment of reckoning. The examiners arrive, handshakes here and there. Mr. Joseph leads us in prayer, says a few words, the Big B also walks in and says what he's supposed to say. Into the lab.
Electricity for me first, arrive at my seat, the papers are distributed. And we don't even need half the apparatus given to us, what losers. "You may begin...", and I pen down the first words of my 12th Grade Board Exams, "Question 2". I was a bit slow in setting up my apparatus, but after that was done, it was pretty smooth sailing. The graph came pretty awesome, with almost all my points on the line. However, I didn't notice much of the "..." which I had heard so many stories about. That perception of mine altered when we were changing over, as Mr. Mehrotra was leading us into the other lab, "...", wow man, frickin' awesome!

The optical bench was realllllyy easy, I don't think we needed anything, but still, Ramakrishna (the lab attendant) and Mrs. Reshmi Menon were very good to us. In fact, the entire practical setting was very chilled, and good for that. Write opposite me was Sudhanshu, poor guy, he was really struggling, but then Mrs. Menon "...".

And... that was it. No, not exactly, after coming out I came to know that one of my answers was not in range. Panic. But at the same time, wondering how it happened, because my procedure went super smooth, perfect graph et al. Again, it was the Physics dept. to the rescue, with Mrs. Menon saying "don't worry about a thing"

"..."

God, I love practicals.

ISC Board Examinations 2008 : An Introduction

2008-02-18T12:42:00.000+04:00

Being the momentous and life defining period that this is about to be, I assumed that it warranted a special beginning. Yes, Ladies, it's that time of year, the one that 100 of us in Grade 12 (not forgetting the 100 in 10) have been dying to arrive, so that they may pass by quickly as well. Taking a major leaf out of Anish Malpani's book (if you're reading this Anish, please remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery), I've decided to be a chronicler of sorts for the next one month. If you're one of the few (read: 2) people who read this blog regularly, you can rest assured that I'll be posting on the scheduled exam days (after the exam is over, duh!). Whether or not I post in between those days remains to be seen. However, for the purpose of differentiation (not d/dx!), all "Board" posts will have the above title, followed by the exam name. All non-board posts will have "interval" written instead.

Take a deep breath, let's take the plunge.