Once upon a time....

I do not like the end of Daylight Savings Timings! It is only 5:30 pm but it is pitch-black outside! *sigh* So depressing....

Have you ever had times when you have to act like a parent to your parents while they unknowingly act like an innocent kid? I have, and in fact, today was one of those days. I played along with them in the same ebullient spirit about something significant, even though I could foresee the lurking of unwholesome news. I acted the way I did simply because it seemed mean to bog them with harsh truths while they were having one happy moment in life. And so like every other parent who knows their child will learn by herself with time, I belied my fears and balked short of warning them. Now with all that in hindsight, the only question that I am pondering about is, "God, when will I become a child again?"

I watched Bhool-Bhulaiya today by myself. How appropriate for Halloween! :D

Also, here is my roomie all-dressed up as a vampire and ready to get to work.. Please ignore the junk in the room (that's her side of the room hehe..):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7065061.stm

Check out this list of common mispronounced words: I burst out laughing as I remembered how I had witnessed many of these in the past, and am now worried that I am going to confuse the wrong and the right terminology *tongue-in-cheek*:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html


This is my post#2 after I said I was going to quit blogging. wah!

Yes, consider this my encore entry! I am not officially back to blogging, but here is briefing of what I have been upto lately:

Classes are in full swing, and in fact, we are half way done with the quarter! It is midterm week at the university currently. I had 'Macro-economics' and 'Signals and Systems' midterms last Monday and have 'Medical Imaging' exam this coming Wednesday. Bah, I am even late on a homework submission for the Imaging class which is going to cost me 5% penalty. :(

Being a senior in college has many perks, such as having a sense of security about friends and knowing where to find the required resources. I see freshmen and sophomores in the dining halls and it reminds me of days when I was new to the college and looking for friendly faces, innocent souls and astute minds. Despite of all alacrity, it was an onerous task for a transfer student like me to find the group of friends whom I could easily gel with. But after being here for 3 years, I have become a lot more comfortable with the university setting and college life in general. I am sad to leave my security blanket at the present college and move on to a new place to find my niche with new people, but then again, what fun is a life without challenges, right?

And so talking about moving to a new place, I should mention that I have been spending significant time deciding what I want to do upon graduation with a Bachelors in Engineering. I have interviews with two companies (the only two that I applied to, whole-heartedly :P) next Friday. One of the companies is also offering a free overnight stay in a four-star hotel to attend their Thursday evening social and friday interview sessions. However, I will have to pass up their offer in lieu of my other interview, classes and quiz on Friday. You can't have it all, can you now? However, I am not too worried about landing into a job anyway, because my first priority is getting into grad school. Applications are due mid-november, and I am way behind on writing my personal statements.

Well, I have spilled enough beans about myself for now because I did not know what else to write. All those philosophical/analytical thoughts have been entered into my personal diary in a manner so incoherent that they sound like secret codes, therefore I am going to spare you the trouble of reading my fancy writing.

Alright, I want to get an assignment out of my way and then practice twirling the dandiya :D. I am apparently not over the Navratri fever, and being a Gujarati, it is totally unacceptable to not know how to twirl dandiya between my finger-phalanges. Got to go now, Toodles! \m/

I have decided to officially shut down this blog, especially since I have not been blogging much in a long time. The scattered few entries that I have written in the last month or two make me feel inadequate and empty of creativity. So after some contemplation, I have decided to do myself a favor and move on from this blog. I will still be making rounds of your bloggerings and drop by to say 'hi', but there will be no new entries on this page anymore.

I shall return to the blogging circuit under a new name and new webspace if I miss it enough to start writing again. I just wanted to say that all of you who dropped by my blog regularly have been great friends, especially when it came down to receiving motivation, understanding different perspectives and strengthening my beliefs. Thank you for being there through my ranting and raving; I really appreciate it. Take care, fellas!

Regards,
Shreya

Todna hota to rishta hum na banate,
Umeed nahi hoti to hum sapney na sajaate,
aitbaar kiye hum apke wafa pe,
bharosa na hota to dil apke haath me na thamatey

Every morning I wake up to shayaris like this received through email or IM from a somebody that I do not know. I tried asking this person how he had my email address and who he was, but the only thing I got in reply each time is a generic ' Hi Shreya, h r u? I miss u' followed by some skimpy shayari. Makes me think that he is one of those time-pass people who does not know me and cannot write or talk much in English whatsoever. Well, Mr. rahul_raz25@yahoo.com, in case you are reading this, you might soon be blocked off or be bombarded with tons of spam email if I lose my head. Jerk!

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.
-Jack Welch

In other words, if you really want to compete for something, get a competitive advantage first!

I think I am going to play Intramural Dodgeball tonight with my hostel kids. But before that, I need to finish 1 homework, study a chapter for my Economics quiz tomorrow and go work out for at least an hour to save my recent routine. So far, school has been tolerable because I have finished all my assignments before time, and my research assignment on Atrial Fibrillation has not been handed out yet. I have got more interesting things to talk about, but have no spare time to articulate those thoughts for a sensible post. My To-do list is long enough to devour all of my time! Oh well, so be it....

There is a centipede invasion on my floor! My room-mate killed one on my bed last night when I was half-asleep! Gawd, now I am scared of sleeping in my room :-s

Wow! Things are going a little haywire for me these days. I am being this rebellious kid who does not want to do what she needs to do, but instead lives in the moment and follows her whim to guide her actions. Examples would be not being serious about making and marketing my resume like my other friends; not having the mood to finish up whatever task I took to hand; not finishing my grad school apps; not calling home regularly to keep in touch with family, etc etc....

So my apologies for not finishing the GRE post. I think I will not have the motivation to write it until and unless I make significant progress on my pending work.

I took my GREs two days back. I walked into the center at 3 pm even though my exam was scheduled for 4:30 pm. This would be the first time in my life that I was so early for a appointment. But anyhow, the exam center happened to have open computers and the proxies offered me the option of starting early. It would have been nice to get it over with early, but I still wanted to look over my word-list for one last time and maybe prep myself for issue writing task by reading one of those samples essays or a magazine article. So I sat there for another hour doing last-minute preparations. I wasn't nervous or anxious at that time; I was confident, but just needed some brushing up of my acquired knowledge.

So I finally closed my books at 4:00 pm and secured my stuff in a locker after eating two 'Tiger' glucose biscuits. The proxy was very affable and he quickly signed me in and gave me general instructions about the test. I walked into the room with sound-proof glass windows and sat down at the table pointed to me at by the proxy.

The first five minutes were all general instructions on how to use the mouse and scroll-bar and how to select the answers. Next was choosing any undergrad institutions that I wished to send my GRE scores to. That made no sense whatsoever to me! I thought GRE was for grad schools only, but whatever.... I rolled my eyes and moved on...

So I came to the essay writing part 15 mins after I had sat down at the computer. I took a long breath, released it and clicked the 'Proceed' button. The essay I chose to write about was: "People who are most committed to a policy or an idea are usually the ones most critical of it'" I refuted the statement and finished writing and proof-reading the essay just in time. *phew*

Oh time for class now... will blog later if I find time!

Threats to music sharing... An email I received earlier this month from my university read:

The Recording Industry Association of America (the “RIAA”) continues its efforts to curtail unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing of music over the Internet. Earlier this year, approximately 16 students were contacted by the RIAA and requested to resolve claims of copyright violations through out-of-court settlements. According to the RIAA, the vast majority agreed to settle. Based on information received from those individuals who agreed to settle, the average settlement amount has been approximately $3,000.

Using its own process of monitoring peer-to-peer traffic, the RIAA identified IP addresses for members of the University student body alleged to have violated copyright laws. The RIAA then notifies the University that it intends to issue pre-litigation settlement letters for these students, outlining the details of the settlement process and threatening to initiate legal proceedings against these students, should they elect not to participate in the settlement process. Upon receiving such settlement letters, the University promptly takes steps to identify and notify the students at issue. The University does not share information about the identities of individuals with the RIAA unless required to do so by law (e.g., in response to a lawful subpoena).

One day and 16 hours remaining to the start of exam...

One day and 21 hours remaining to the celebrations afterwards...

I have got a lot of things on my schedule for tomorrow - incl. moving back to the dorm, exam review, getting directions and general prepping for the exam - Just wish me luck: I will need all that I can get!

With due credit to.... http://asma.eomag.com/category/lifes-funny/ whom I stumbled upon for some GRE entertainment :P

A NORMAL PERSON : People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
GRE STUDENT : Individuals who make their abodes in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting perilous projectiles.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Twinkle, twinkle, little star
GRE STUDENT : Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minim.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : All that glitters is not gold.
GRE STUDENT: All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beggars are not choosers
GRE STUDENT : Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Dead men tell no tales
GRE STUDENT : Male cadavers are incapable of rendering any testimony.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beginner’s luck
GRE STUDENT : Neophyte’s serendipity.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : A rolling stone gathers no moss
GRE STUDENT : A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of small, green, biophytic plant.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Birds of a feather flock together
GRE STUDENT: Members of an avian species of identical plumage tend to congregate.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beauty is only skin deep
GRE STUDENT : Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Cleanliness is godliness
GRE STUDENT : Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : There’s no use crying over spilt milk
GRE STUDENT : It is fruitless to become lachrymose of precipitately departed lactile fluid.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : You can’t try to teach an old dog new tricks
GRE STUDENT : It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Look before you leap
GRE STUDENT : Surveillance should precede saltation.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : He who laughs last, laughs best
GRE STUDENT : The person presenting the ultimate cachinnation possesses thereby the optimal cachinnation.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
GRE STUDENT : Exclusive dedication to necessitous chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion renders Jack a hebetudinous fellow.

*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!
GRE STUDENT : Where there are visible vapours having their provenance in ignited carbonaceous materials, there is conflagration.

My co-op assignment culminated last friday and I finally bid adios to all my co-workers and the cat-house for good. I was in a state of baffled ambivalence- torn between the grief of not seeing those friendly co-workers regularly and the excitement of finally graduating and entering into a new phase of life. I was amazed at the comments and compliments I received over my last week of work; I could not bring myself to believe that my colleagues had actually confessed to me that they found me so transparently pristine and morally strong! On a funny note though, one Mr. Patel who happens to be from the same district in Gujarat as me sent me the following email:

"You are a good girl, so here are some tips that may help you for your bright future.

1.Work hard.
2.Be honest.
3.Learn new things.
4.Take more responsibility.
5.Never get married until you are 100 % sure with your partner. Trust your partner.
6.Manage/control your weight.
7.Nothing is too late to do something new in the life. Never say “It is too late”.
8.Think everyday is new day of the life. Keep your mind fresh.
9.Never say “I am old now”. Be active. Be open minded, and talk with others.
10.Have a good night sleep. Never sleep with sleep with family issue. Trust god.

I wish you all the best for your school and bright future.
God bless you…."

I did not know how to react to this one either - laugh it off because I already knew all the above, or respect the advice because it was given by an elderly person. My ultimate reaction was an amalgamation of these two ambivalent feelings.

Anyway, work is done, and so is everything else except for some formalities for the 'co-op of the year' award that my supervisor nominated me for. Ok well, back to GRE marathons for now; I will get the paperwork done later.

Never did I imagine even in my wildest dreams that I would be inundated by such self-created eccentricities and outlandish incidents! These past few weeks have seen me go from morose in worries to exhilarated in ebullience, and from debilitating in mettle to glowing with ambitions. It has been a roller-coaster ride that I have thoroughly lived and remembered. Despite of everything, I feel bubblier; more effervescent than ever and satiated with optimism! And as you can tell, the GRE study is on, albeit not as efficiently as I would like it to be, but also not bad enough for anyone to disparage.

And lastly, I am beaming with joy for coercing myself into watching 'Chak De India'! I loved the fact that YRF were thoughtful enough to represent the eastern states of Mizoram and Manipur. No wonder the populace of those states have lacked patriotism so far! We have ostracized them for being Chinese or Nepalis indeed!! And SRK has perfected the role of 'the' coach - he is middle-aged, charismatic and diligent- qualities felicitous for an experienced captain who was extradited for seven years! Despite of all the current ardor surrounding the film, I wonder if it will have any impact beyond an ephemeral celebration as witnessed by other reformatory films such as Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho Munnabhai?

I finally registered to take the GRE on 24th of Sept, right before school starts! Wish me luck and let me know if you have any suitable practice tests.