Once upon a time....

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

..............Robert Frost

Why is it that I have to miss my cousins' weddings in India? Why is it so difficult to make a trip back home? Why is is that what you wish for with all your heart, does not seem to work out? Why?

Nehaldidi, Megha and Tejasbhai are getting married in Jan-February of next year. I missed another cousin_s wedding around the same time last year. Weddings in India are so much fun!! The family gatherings, the practice of ancient customs and traditions, the fuss over getting ready and looking nice, the mad rush to have everything ready in time, the excitement of meeting new people from the other side, and the ability to enjoy despite of everything. I miss it, time and again, despite of scattered events of advising and scolding given by elders, and some trivial back-bitting and jealousy from few mean women. I have also not seen my old grand-parents in four years now, and *touch wood*, but I am terrified at the thought of never being able to see them again.

I can't go for their weddings, because I will be busy with the final quarter of school at that time. I have always been very close to these cousins, and will not have anyone else's marriage to look forward to after them. They cannot have them other than that time for legit reasons, and I cannot go to India for 3 weeks to attend each one of their ceremonies. I guess there is still plenty of time to figure out a way to attend these family events and make myself happy. And I also think that I should sleep now, since I am a wee-bit emotional and have no motivation to study!

Have a good one, people, and 'may the power of family be with you'! =D

I want to get back to writing, but words don't come to mind. I think I am pre-occupied with finals and projects right now. I can't believe that this quarter is going to end in a couple of weeks!! And with nice warm weather and BBQ season around, who would feel like sitting in the room blogging? :D

We are playing this game in the dorm called 'Assasins'. It is an awful lot of fun!!

here is what each player gets:

"You have a new assignment. Your task, should you choose to accept, is to find
and eliminate the target detailed below. This target should be considered extremely
dangerous and armed with all manner of weaponry (such as clean socks and plastic spoons)
and cunning. They are also working on an operation for a rival- should you complete your
mission, you must take on their mission and complete it so as not to arouse suspicion. Be aware-
you may not be safe. Should you die during this operation, please send a message back to base.
Once you have read this information, destroy it as appropriate to keep it confidential."

Also, the rules of the game require that the assassination cannot be seen by anyone else, so technically, you could use your friends as bodygaurds. But, I got killed on a second day by my predator in midst of our hustling cafeteria, where I had least expected to be assassinated without being seen. I also escorted one of the girls on my floor to her room to prevent her assassination, but found out later that she had not survived too long after I left her.

Here are some descriptions of the murder if you have the time to read them. They are extremely hilarious for me anyways :-P... (The name of my dorm is Sargent)

#1.
I am writing to report to you the untimely, tragic assassination of the late Jennifer Berman,
resident of Sargent Hall, Room 329. Jennifer was brutally murdered in a freak laundry drive-
by, however the identity of her assassin remains highly classified information at this time.
Though there were no witnesses to this tragic event, Jennifer's spirit has come back to report
the details of her passing. As Jennifer innocently walked down to the laundry room in
Sargent Hall to gather her freshly dried laundry, she thought to herself how greatful she was
that it was Friday, and how excited she was to find out who her target would be for the dorm-
sponsered game of assasins. Jennifer entered the laundry room humming to herself, thinking
what a great place this would be to catch her target. She turned to begin removing her
laundry from the machine, when a familiar voice called out her name. Jennifer leaped into
the air, as she had thought herself to be the only entity in the room. However, when she
caught her breath again, she turned to see a familiar face, and unsuspectedly began to make
friendly conversation. Jennifer continued to remove her laundry, until BAM!!!! she turned
once again to find herself face to face with her killer. She screamed for help, but it was all in
vain. The clean sock came like a bullet to her chest before she had the chance to save
herself. As she stood in utter shock, her assasin delivered the finals words that Jennifer was
to hear: "You are two hours late." It seems that her killer had stalked her doing laundry
earlier in the day, and had waited two hours at the crime scene for Jennifer to retrieve her
dry clothes. This tragic event serves as a lesson to all residents and guest residents of
Sargent Hall. Your dorm has been transformed from the safe haven that you once called
home to a battlefield, with assasins lurking every corner. Just remember...In the laundry
room, no one can hear you scream.....


#2. Flashing News::

Shreya Trivedi was found assasinated in Sargent dining hall this evening before having her last dinner. She was merrily picking up some fruits when she heard a friendly voice greet her and touch her back. As she turned around and smiled at her friend, he revealed the deadly sock that had touched and killed her. Shreya desperately looked around to find a witness who had seen the killer with his rolled-up sock, but in vain. It was a pity to be terminated in a crowded place like the dining hall, and she lived just long enough to pass on the name of her target.

This breaking news has been brought to you by S.S.A. (Sargent Secret Agents) to alert residents that they will be killed if they don't watch their backs.

P.S. The spirit of Shreya Trivedi will haunt the dorm and not be at peace until she gets justice. Keep the search on!!


#3.
S.S.A (Sargent Secret Agents) has breaking news!

It has come to their attention that the President of Sargent was assassinated on Friday evening.
The autopsy revealed he was stabbed in the abdomen with a very large knife, possibly a butcher
knife. The killer is still at large, though intel suggests he was kept alive long enough to reveal
his next target. President Taylor was 18 years and 17 days old. He will be missed. Stay vigilant.

#4.

I realized that I never got back to the story from the weekend when I got to fly thanks to my brother's interest in aviation. So here it is, with a few interesting anecdotes and pictures. We made a six-hour journey to get to SIU in Carbondale, close to the southern border of Illinois. And guess how brilliant I acted that weekend? First of all, I was supposed to leave for home Friday afternoon after my classes, so that we could all drive up together for this career fair on Saturday. But instead, I got done with classes, and waited, and procastinated, and procrastinated, until I finally got yelled at 11 p.m. to drive back home immediately. I finally left my dorm at midnight, and made it home at 2 a.m., just in time to start the arduous roadtrip to Carbondale. I ended up going without sleep for over 24 hours that day, my second all-nighter in this lifetime. Phew!!... :-P

So we finally made it to our destination at 8:30 a.m., and got my brother registered for flying with the university pilots. I joked about flying with my brother, and they seriously signed me up for the ride too! So leaving out all the minor interesting stories, we basically flew in a glider (seen in the pics below) at over 2300 ft!! And I clicked pics of the bird's eye view while my brother handled the controls as per the pilot's instructions. But it wasn't mind-blowing until the pilot started playing zero-gravity tricks! He dived the glider nose down in a free-fall condition, so that all of us (including the papers on my lap) inside where being pushed away from the earth with equal force, just as Newton's third law of motion would have predicted. But boy, oh boy, that was some scary adventure. For a second, I was afraid that my heart was going to fly off into the space haha....


And once the two-three rounds of zero-gravity were over, I began to feel air-sick. I was glad that it was time to land and get back on the comfortable earth. Soon after landing, my brother and parents went on for a campus tour while I pulled out my books and started solving exercises with a weary head. My family returned after three hours of touring, and decided to head back after having some lunch. It was now time for the dreadfully long reverse road-trip, but we switched drivers and navigators every two hours, and even my brother was permitted to drive on his driver's permit. The confidence of being able to land a glider successfully and weary family members who could not hold up the argument worked to his advantage of taking over the driver's seat.

It was 7 p.m. when our exhausted family finally reached home. We were all glad for a productive day, good family time in the car, and more than anything, coming back to the comfort of home.

OMG! My friends have been so ecstatic ever since they found out that this British Bhangra group (RDB) is performing at the university! I have never been to a concert or a live (famous) band performance before, so this will be exciting, I hope.

I wonder if I will be able to talk to them in person for the radio thing, because then the whole of Chicago can listen to them! :)

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."

Will be back to blogging after Wednesday... :)

I am so brain-dead right now! Have been working on this C++ code for more than 7 hours now. It is the de-bugging that is getting annoying. Small mistakes in the code that I cannot find argghhh... I thought about starting from scratch, but even that seemed like too much work *sigh*

Anyways, I am already late on this assignment, and can hand it in for 10% penalty by tomorrow evening. Also need to get up early tomorrow to study for the physics quiz in the morning and lab in the evening. Have two more exams coming up on Wednesday of next week! And also have a big homework due then hah!

I wish I were more efficient at acads. :-(