Once upon a time....

I miss mugging GRE words. It's so cool to be equipped with that vocabulary. Like WOAH.





P.S. Randomness.

For good or bad, life moves on.

Sometimes I worry. Sometimes I laugh at myself for being an hyperchondriac. Sometimes I scold myself for not taking things seriously. Sometimes I wonder what the grand scheme of things is like? Sometimes I try to decide if coveted things really matter? Sometimes I wonder how one classifies the evil of 'Maya'... and then sometimes, I wonder if I would ever understand why an Almighty REALLY created this world???

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/IBConference/IBC2008/panels.html


No comments about this link here please.. If anything, leave me a comment on my yahoo messenger..

Over the past year, I have become so comfortable sharing my experiences on this site that I almost forgot about the risks of somebody being able to stalk me. Yes, I love sharing my rantings and ravings with my regular blog friends, but the recent stalking incidences that I have heard about are upsetting and alarming. So, I am thinking of migrating to a new blog without my real name or identity, and give the link to only those who I know already.

Alas! I am done with school! :) for now, at least. The happy moment came three weeks back, and I took off on a vacation immediately afterwards. A week spent in D.C. and Virginia without having to worry about finances, GPAs and peer competitiveness felt so blissful that I almost exploded with joy. After eight days of frolicking tours, I was back at home, working on some signal processing codes that were incorrectly assumed to be necessary for my graduation. Thankfully though, I did most of my work on these codes the following weekend while waiting at the airport for eight hours straight to catch my flight to Cleveland. To save cab fare, I got a ride from my dad who dropped me off at 6:30 am before going to work even though my flight wasn't until 3 pm. But hey, it was my time off, and I couldn't care less what I did with it :P The only complaint was not having access to free internet at the airport to post an entry here or do some blog reading.

Anyhow, being in Cleveland was fun, and the fact that it was an all-expenses paid trip added four moons to it ('char chaand lag gaye' haha =D) I was there to check out a grad school that flew me from Chicago to Cleveland, put me in a fancy, upscale hotel for a night, paid for all my meals, introduced me to other prospies, alums, current students and program directors, and also took us on a tour of the city. I have a few pics of my hotel to share: it had a 32 inch wide plasma TV and a king-size bed that literally makes you wanna lie down and watch TV 24/7!





A bird-eye view of Chicago from the plane (captured right before the air hostess scolded me for using an electronic device i.e. my camera while landing)

I have so much to say, very little time to write! :-s

The media maybe saying great things about this thinning woman, but she is one helluva immature person. She blurts out whatever is in her head irrespective of the time, place or company. Take, for example, what she did at the Filmfare awards ceremony (I ended up you-tubing it thanks to a link by RedSoul! :P). She won the best actress award (Filmfare is unjustly skewed towards box office results and Vidya really deserved the award, but anyway..) and was given the mike for her acceptance speech.

So she starts out humbly by thanking the director of JWM, the movie that won her the award, and then moves on to say how she is disappointed at the director for not casting her in his second film!! I really don't understand what she was thinking when she said that! She is definitely not smart enough to think of the consequences. And so, the next day, I was expecting to read media reports filled with headlines of how dumb Bebo was to put the director on spot, and not realize that he had the right to cast whoever he thought was right for his film! But no, this blooper never came out in print or on the web...the media is all gaga over this old, immature, so-called glamsham girl and they nicely edit out all her stupidities while printing stories of her gracious behavior. I just can't imagine how many teenage girls will look upto her as a role model after reading these manipulative articles and want to adopt her qualities! Somebody needs to ammend these issues immediately! Where the heck are the industry critics hiding?

AHMEDABAD: "Dimpled cheeks, chiselled bones, beautiful girl, is that you, Yes, Yes, Yes!"

The age-old nursery rhyme might as well have to be re-written as the youth gift themselves this beauty features.

Anjali, who will turn 20 on March 10, is mesmerised with the deep dimples of her favourite star Shah Rukh Khan.

She gave herself a unique birthday gift on Saturday when she went under the scalpel to stitch up dimples in her plain cheeks.

Anjali works as an accountant with the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange. Though she is quite beautiful, she has always wanted a dimple.

"I have always nursed this dream of my cheeks sinking into exquisite hollows as I smile, just like Shah Rukh Khan."

Finally, she decided to undergo the surgery so that she gets dimpled cheeks in time for her 20th birthday. On Saturday, Anjali came to the plastic surgeon’s clinic directly from her office.

"We put an incision in the cheeks and then simply tag the smile muscle with the dermis of the skin with a suture. It is as simple as that," said plastic surgeon Dr Vijay Bhatia. An hour later, Anjali checked herself in the mirror, smiling ear to ear, her cheeks showing prominent dimples!

Plastic surgeons concede that the dimples of Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta have captured the imagination of young girls who want to flaunt the much-celebrated beauty feature on their faces.

Leading plastic surgeon Dr Hemant Saraiya says many middle aged women too are offering their cheeks for doctors to carve those lovely depressions. For just Rs 10,000, the hole in the cheek does not really leave a hole in the pocket.

When people go out to eat, they usually look at the menu prices and decide what they would like. But they are very often surprised when the bill comes around - b/c it is substantially higher than what they had expected. I would lobby for restaurants putting up their tax inclusive prices on the menu, which would raise all prices by 11-14%. However, this is still not going to be the final price paid by the customers because they would need to pitch in an extra 10-15% for tips, which if added together comes out to be 25% of the meal price!! So in future, I better be ready to pay 25% more than what has been listed on the menu :(

I wonder if one of my TAs is a little partial towards me - I think I got more credit than I deserved on the exam. Getting good marks is good, but I failed miserably at explaining the problem on board when he called out my name! Need to go study more; made myself look like a fool in front of the whole class! :(


Another TA did not realize how late I had turned in the report, and he cut fewer points than I deserved. Yes, this is good news, but till when will I depend on my luck to save me from flunking? Answer: More studying. Only 4 more weeks to school. I can do this.

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.

-Ralph Marstan

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

- Sandra Carey


“Success in any endeavor depends on the degree to which it is an expression of your true self.”

-Ralph Marstan

You disintegrate my differential,

You dislocate my focus.

My pulse goes up like an exponential

whenever you cross my locus.

Without you, sets are null and void --

so won't you be my cardioid?






You are the fairest of your sex,

Let me be your hero,

I love you as one over x,

As x approaches zero.

Not perfect, but I still like it!

I miss those carefree days. Days where you could wake up in the morning and not worry about the innumerable things that had to be done. when I could spend the whole day watching cartoons, playing games, hanging out with friends, eating out, laughing heartily, etc without feeling guilty. I don't like growing up. I don't like taking responsibilities that make life onerous. Give me one day where I and everyone else can take a chill pill. Just one day, and life will be sweet again!

Homeworks, presentations, reports and exams have been going well. I have been good at keeping in touch with the family. Social life has been sweet this quarter. I am taking part in a fashion show and organizing an Indian Open Mic Night and its after-party on campus. It's hectic, but fun nonetheless. Touch wood!