Exams...

Exam Season again..Just finished my first final in VT today morning. It was at a quarter to eight in the morning. Left at seven, by the first bus. Haven't slept much last night. Am studying DigComm for tomorrow's exam now, sitting in Torgersen. My iPod just died, so I'm not able to concentrate. Just thought all of these facts MUST be preserved for posterity.

PS: P,R,M&H - we should play the game more often. It was fun.

Enchanted

Yesterday, I went to watch a movie for the first time after coming here. In the theater, that is. My friends and I picked the Amy Adams-Patrick Dempsey starrer - "Enchanted". We went to the Regal Cinemas in Christiansburg, which is about 5 miles from my home.

I absolutely ADORED the movie. Its the ultimate chick flick - targeting chicks from age 5 to 55. Every fairy tale is represented, and there's an adorable chipmunk to boot. The icing on the cake is the delicious Dr. Shepherd, and his cute daughter. The cherry on top of the icing is Amy Adams. I haven't seen any of her films before, and I was "enchanted" by her. Pun not intended. The comic timing is impeccable, and I was giggling throughout the movie. I loved the tongue-in-cheek humor.

Verdict - go watch this movie just for the sake of the mood lift that you end up with.

Arthur Ashe

During his battle with AIDS, one of his fans asked: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease"? To this Arthur replied: The world over -- 50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semi-finals, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked God "Why me?" And today in pain I should not be asking God, "Why me?".

For more, go here.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous

One of the first things I did after coming to Blacksburg was becoming a member of the Montgomery - Floyd Regional Library. Totally love the place. I pick up about twenty-five books every couple of weeks and savor every one of them. I think I've taken every one of my friends there, willing or unwilling.

Last week, I picked up Shoe Addicts Anonymous, by Beth Harbison. Totally love the book. [This is the phrase of the blog]. All you guys out there won't enjoy it. At least, I don't think you will. But for all gals who love shopping, and can't stop, this is a good read. Had a lot of fun. I've read a lot of books over the last year, and I intended to blog about each and every one of them. But somehow, it rarely happened. So this time, I wanted to do it before I forgot.

Gotta go now. Leon-Garcia beckons......

To sleep or not to sleep.

You know, Hamlet got it right. Everything boils down to - "To ________ or not to __________". If you can answer this, then you've got it made. My current quandary is the subject line of this blog. I see my room-mates up all hours of the night, almost always studying, and every single day before I sleep, I have this debate with myself. So many decisions to make - what time to sleep, what time to wake up, how many alarms to set, where to sleep, is it too hot for a comforter, does the heat need to be turned up - and all these just related to sleeping. Boy, I lead a busy life.

Before I forget, it appears that Meh was the only person who missed my blogs, so Meh, shoutouts to you. Santa Barbara will never be the same again.

I've been in Blacksburg for a while now. Its a beautiful place. Everytime I've spoken to someone on the phone the last month, the first question they ask me is "Have the leaves turned/changed colour/some equivalent?" I didn't really get it. How different could it be? But in the matter of one week, I see greens, golds, russets, reds, oranges, yellows, pinks and maroons, all in the space of a couple of hundred feet, and I realize, you've got to see it to believe it. Will post some pics soon in here.

Its half past four in the afternoon here, and I've finally decided that I deserve a nap. The consequence of this decision is that this blog is not going to be as long as I had imagined. I'm off no, to sleep. Maybe........................................

Fantastic Indeed...

Ranj and I went to watch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer today. Both of us were absolutely tired of doing nothing these hols, and we made up our minds that we are going to be watching a whole bunch of movies, and shopping a whole lot before we go our separate ways.

Back to the point..We went to watch the movie, at Inox. My recommendation: Go and watch it if you can. For the 100 odd bucks that you pay, its real paisa vasooli. Very funny, and not at all long, actually just about 100 minutes.

Also saw a trailer of HP5. It looks good. The actress playing Umbridge looks exactly like I pictured her. And finally Gary Oldman has something to say outside the fireplace. Looks good. Can't wait to see it and to read the final installment.

That's all I have time for now, folks. As Johnny says, Flame On....

Good Going...

This year, I couldn't watch much of the French Open. Somehow, it just didn't work out. But I finally managed to catch a couple of glimpses of the final (pun intended..).

I'm a huge Nadal fan. His matches are so immensely entertaining. I don't deny that Fed-Ex is the king, or whatever else my manic Federer fan-friends call him, but he's just too perfect for words. He doesn't need my support to win. When you yell yourself hoarse supporting people like Nadal and Hewitt, you feel like you've played a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny role in their win. At least, I do.

Anyway, Nadal is still the defending champion at Roland Garros, and Roger has to wait another year for a shot at the grand slam. Congratulations, Rafa, and Good Luck, Roger. Please continue to give us several more years of entertaining and mesmerizing tennis.

Au Revoir..

Entranced...

I couldn't think of any title for this post. Then my eyes fell upon a Nora Roberts book lying on my desk, called "Entranced", so....That's the story behind the title. And speaking of Nora Roberts, a small aside: Ranj, you must be dreaming if you think that I'll give you my collection:-D

We finished our final project demo yesterday. It was ok. Bit of an anticlimax, really. I wonder if everyone felt the same. I had dinner at Dakshin, in Windsor Manor with friends. If you like South Indian food, you should really visit Dakshin. The food's just marvelous.

I'll be heading to Virginia Tech, (hopefully), in a couple of months. If you read this blog, please suggest one thing I should compulsorily carry with me. We shall see who can be the most original..

Going upstairs to watch Mozhi now. Its a Tamil movie. Will review it in my next post.

10 things I want to do before I'm 30

1. Go to Ireland, England, France and New Zealand.
2. Read War and Peace, the entire John Steinbeck and Irwin Shaw collection.
3. Attend at least 3 Formula 1 races, [more, if I can pull it off], and one match at each Grand Slam (the tennis one, not the golf one).
4. Buy a Mercedes Benz for my mum (Actually, this is on the top of my list).
5. With my family, buy a cottage in Ooty. This has been a long-time dream for us, and hopefully we can make it come true.
6. Sponsor one kid's education from primary school to a graduate degree.
7. Learn at least three foreign languages.
8. Visit an auction at Christie's/Sotheby's.
9. Investigate my family history, and build a family tree that goes as far back as possible.
10. Colour my hair violet.

And to fulfil these ten wishes, my eleventh wish is that I make enough money.....Hehehehe!!!

Disclaimer: The ten things listed above are in no particular order, except for the fourth one. That's on top. So I should say, the other nine are in no particular order...

In the blink of an eye

Its been a long time since I blogged...
Several things have happened since then. They are:

1. I've decided that I'm going to pursue my graduate education in Virginia Tech.
2. My eighth semester exams just got over yesterday. I couldn't be more relieved.
3. God willing, I'll be leaving on the third of August. Dad's really efficient.
4. I feel kind of depressed that the PESIT chapter is nearing its end. For all its ups and downs, it was the best four years of my life..And I do realize that things will never be the same again..
5. Can't find a number 5..so I guess that's it..
6. Not really, ppl who read this, pls wish me luck for my project demo next week.

Joy to the world...
Pooja

Numbness...

I woke up this morning, thinking that it was going to be just one more day, among the thousands of days that pass me by, which I wouldn't remember three months from now. I walked out of my bedroom, to Larry King Live, talking about this massacre at Virginia Tech. How I wish it was one of those non-eventful days I could easily forget.

For me, Virginia Tech is the school where my uncle studied, it's the school which gave me an admit last week and it's the school I hope to attend some day. My first reaction was, rather selfishly, "How is this going to affect Appa's feelings about the university?" Then, as the details sunk in, I was stunned. A feeling of utter numbness crept over me. Such a horror could happen anywhere, anytime, any place. You cannot hope to police all the people, all the time. You ought to be able to trust in the basic decency of human nature. You deserve to be able to look at another person with trust. I think that all of us have to wake up and smell the gunpowder. There's something dangerously wrong with the society we live in. Everyone's always angry, always on edge. It is imperative that we take a step back and see what we have become. How on earth can we justify somebody walking into a room and killing dozens of people?

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.

Miles to Go

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

This was one of the very first poems that I studied in school, or at least part of it. For the interested, it is called Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This picture was taken during a trip to Nagarhole last year. I was just looking at the album, and suddenly this verse flashed into my head, so thought I'd share..

Little Miss Sunshine

I saw this film a couple of weeks ago, on a very hot Sunday afternoon, with a couple of friends, on DVD, at home. It absolutely made my day.

For all you people out there with utterly dysfunctional families, rest assured, there's someone out there with worse problems. LMS is non-preachy, and yet manages to convince you that family is the most important thing there is. Abigail Breslin glitters as Olive. Steve Carrell is magnificent, so are Alan Arkin, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear. But for me, the star of the show, after Abigail, was Paul Dano, who actually does not speak a single word for the first half of the movie. You've got to watch the film, if only to see the scene in which he first talks. Guess what his first word is!!!

Watch it, watch it, watch it..I assure you, you'll walk out of the theater/switch off the TV with a wide grin, and a happy heart.

Photo: Courtesy Fox Searchlight

Wishin' n Hopin'

The title is the name of a song that is featured in My Best Friend's Wedding. (Which is a pretty decent film, by the way). It’s also the name of one of the episodes in Grey's Anatomy Season 3, which I haven't got to see, yet.

I was just thinking... There are so many hopes that you don't have the courage to wish for, and so many wishes that you make, after working up enough courage, that you know just won't come true. For me, one such hope was that I would become a doctor. After long, intense conversations with myself, my parents, and a couple of cousins already studying medicine, I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, my rank was just not good enough. I got a place in a college that my family wasn't really keen on, and for various reasons, I gave up that seat and decided to become, or rather, try to become an Electronics & Communication Engineer.

Every couple of days, I am overcome with this tremendous feeling of regret, that I'll never get a chance to fulfill my dream. I don't know what my career as an engineer will be like, but I do know that I would like to have access to an "Alternative Reality" machine, which would let me see myself as a doctor. Various people asking my mum, how my medical studies are progressing, just doesn't help, at all.

Well, in life, you gotta take the cards you're dealt. It’s probably the one casino in which cheating doesn't work, and even if it does, it carries a tremendously heavy price. Being an engineer isn't so bad, especially when you have a great set of friends, who make life so much fun with all their ridiculousness (if such a word exists), and weirdness. Here's to you all....

This is probably the most serious entry in my blog. Well, it had to happen some day. Also, Happy Birthday Hamsa...Hope our party rocks...

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Schumi

I'm just watching the first race of this year - the Australian GP. It really struck me now, seeing the list of race drivers - there was no MSC or M Schumacher to be seen. I got hooked on to F1 in high school, because of a friend of mine. Every Sunday, at 4:30 in the evening, my TV would switch on, my assignments would come out, and for two hours, it would be me, driving at impossible speeds, around a beautiful circuit. The car of choice, what else but a Ferrari? My hero - Schumi. He's given me afternoons of great fun - I have friends who are McLaren devotees, and slanging matches were the norm. Now that Schumi's moved on, I have to really work up an interest. I don't know how Raikonnen and Massa will do, I certainly wish them the very best. Adieu, Schumi!

Please Squeeze The Toothpaste!!!

Statutory Warning : The blog title has nothing to do with its contents...(Just one of Meh's famous quotes)

Life has been very hectic the past couple of weeks. Seminar, project, internals, fest - its all just too simultaneous for me. I don't think God studied engineering. If He had, He would have taken care that there were about 72 hours in a day!

I'm anxiously/eagerly/matter-of-fact-ly/bated breath-ly waiting for the admits/rejects to arrive from the universities. The fact that I got into EPFL has made the wait slightly easier on my nerves. To all my friends, who are waiting for GATE results, or uni admits, or interview calls - the very best of luck. May you all get what you deserve. I know that it sounds like a back-handed compliment, but its not. After slogging for 4+2 years, all of us deserve a place in Heaven, at the very least!

I've been accused of being a Reader's Digest fanatic in the past. Well, what can I say? Its a family trait. Anyway, in the latest issue, there's an article about Albert Einstein. Read it, read it, read it. Its amazing. Happy Birthday, A.E!Love your hair!

I watch soaps and I'm proud of it!!!

I first heard the phrase 'soap opera' when we got cable tv at home, way, way back in 1993/94. Star Plus was still an English channel and B&B and Santa Barbara used to be THE programs to watch. For the interested, B&B is still on, Star World, I don't know what time. After the initial craze, my interest in TV died down drastically, and for almost 10 years, I hardly watched any.

Coincidentally, I started watching TV again in 2003 because of 2 other soaps, this time, desi ones. It was a year which was a "turning point" for me (hehe), because of the II PUC exams. My brother and his wife had come over to B'lore for a vacation, and she was a huge fan of the two new Kids on the block - Kahaani and Kyunki. Slowly, Mum got hooked, and her devoted daughter soon followed. I used to come home at half past ten in the night, and dinner was usually accompanied with the unbelievably entertaining antics of Ba, Tulsi, Mihir, Parvathi and Om. I know that its not considered to be 'cool' to watch any show belonging to the K-Brigade, but, I'm not an artistic snob. I don't demand that my cinema/TV be intellectually stimulating always. Sometimes, a little dip into the surreal really helps.

For almost a year, I followed the storyline faithfully. And then, engineering happened. Lost track of TV again. When I say I lost track, I don't mean I stopped watching TV entirely. I have my old faithfuls - JAG, Charmed and Idol. But 3-4 hours of TV a week is not a lot. That's excluding all the other movies aired on other channels. Turn a blind eye to that!!

Then Grey's Anatomy started. I was hooked when the first season started on Star World. I did my best to convince my friends to watch it, but none of them did. And now, they're worse than me. McDreamy, McSteamy, McVet, God, its the best McShow I've seen in a long time. Since my Dad got the second season on DVD for me, I have stopped watching it on TV. Replaced it with Heroes. People, you already didn't listen to me about GA. Don't make the same mistake again. Heroes is great, especially Hiro. Watch it...

How can such a long blog not have anything about Megha in it? She looooooovvves this show called Kulvaddhu. (I hope I've got the spelling right, don't want to offend anyone numerologically.) Anyone wants to know anything about the show, contact her:-)

Give an apt title to this blog!

I’m a very interested viewer of American Idol. For the last few weeks the auditions have seen some fabulous singers and more importantly some other singers, who are diametrically opposite to fabulous. They were so bad, that I was amazed that they actually had the confidence that they were “the next American Idol”. Couldn’t they hear themselves sing?

But then, last week, a group of us got together and had a four hour 3 hour singing session. It was great fun. There was a guitar, and well, it was very relaxing. Music therapy, you could say. We recorded one of the songs on a mobile phone. A couple of days later, I happened to listen to the recording. God, I sound a whole lot different on playback. I know I’m not a phenomenal singer, or anything like that, but I thought that I would at least be in tune. But like I said, I just sounded awful. So now, I’ve realized, you sound a lot different in your head, than how others can hear you. Maybe, so did those contestants.

Can’t think of a punchy ending to this blog, so it’s just going to stop abruptly. Ciao!

Highlights!!!

Today is the last day of the last inter-semester vacation of my engineering career. Feeling really nostalgic right now. So I thought I could get rid of this annoying feeling by listing out some memorable moments of my undergrad days....

The first day of college. Such a long time ago. I wore a green outfit, which was woefully uncomfortable. As luck would have it, my batch had the afternoon off, so Prema and I spent the free time exploring the college. I read an unbelievably boring article about some new technology in the library. I really do have a good memory for all trivial details. The whole first semester was pretty unremarkable. Can't really remember much. Exams were tough.

The second semester was when the great partnership began. Meh and I started studying calculus together, and look where we landed up. It was also the beginning of another great team - Justforkix. We had graphics and workshop then. Totally detested both the subjects. Nasty, nasty. Two things I remember vividly. Sai Mama passed away. I had to attend workshop that day, and it was horrible, trying to stay in control, when all I wanted to do was to go home. Another thing was this terrible stomach bug that I had on the day of my Math exam. I had an excruciating time in the exam hall, could hardly sit still. Just attempted five questions and walked out. Thanks to all the hours that we had put in, I did pretty well. (This is my blog, after all, so why be humble? I MAXED IT!!!!!)

The day after the exam, we all went to Fun World, and I ended up with bad sunburn. Decided to avoid amusement parks in the future. Meh still bugs me periodically about going to WonderLa, have managed to resist so far! I remember, Meh and I got there early, and I told her the story of Troy to while away the time. She doesn't remember watching the movie (which she, Nik and I saw together, late one night, while completing records), but she does remember me narrating the story. Boy, I must be a good story-teller. Feel free to contradict me!

This blog is going to get tremendously huge if I cover 3.5 years at one go. My hands are tired. Moreover, that feeling of nostalgia seems to have passed. Semesters 3-7 will be covered in subsequent posts. There's loads more to tell. So long!

Traffic

I've never seen the movie. I really enjoyed Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich, but somehow Traffic never happened. Maybe I'll catch it this weekend.

But the subject of this blog is a different traffic, actually. I've recently started my project, as a part of my final semester. The commute is long, to say the least. Its bearable in the morning, but in the evenings, its a smog-filled maze. I'm totally exhausted by the time I get home. But that apart, I'm having a total blast. Its a completely new experience, being in an office, a very good one.

Thinking of another kind of traffic takes me back to T&S, and more recently CCN. No, no, no! I'd better logout, or this blog will morph into an essay about engineering.

Ciao!

Reflections.snoitcelfeR

I went to see Guru last Sunday. Its a good watch. Could have been better. Aishwarya was good, so was Abhishek. Now, they're engaged. I guess congratulations are in order.

I have holidays going on now. Starting my project next Monday, so I'm fairly free till then. I have no idea what to do with the time. Studying is an option, but I can't study 24/7 now, can I? I'm reading Bill Bryson's 'Made In America'. Its great entertainment, but personally, the pace at which I read non-fiction is about a hundred times lesser than my "fictional" pace. Good pun, don't you think? (Even if I do say so myself:-))

I was reading Wilbur Smith's 'Eagle in the Sky'. Its a beautiful love story. David and Debra really touched a chord in my heart. The first time I read it was about eight years ago. I had, and still have an intense desire to visit Israel because of this book. To all the people who read this blog, please try to get your hands on this book. Read it. I promise, you'll enjoy it.

I spoke to a friend of mine, last night, for close to an hour and a half. These days, I get to meet my school and PU college friends only about once a year. Its a weird feeling. For two years, we literally spent close to fifteen hours in each others' company, what with college and tuition. And then, once you get into that much desired professional course, despite all good intentions, meeting up just becomes an impossibility. Schedules are totally hectic, and the intersection of everybody's free time is a null set. I wish everyone could slow down a bit, and just take a break. It would be real fun to just meet up all my friends and hang out. Well, I can still hope that it happens.

Movie recommendation for today : International Velvet (A good watch for horse lovers)
Book recommendation for today : The Grand Sophy, by Georgette Heyer
Song for today : Walk of Life, by Dire Straits
TV Show for today : Grey's Anatomy (but naturally!!!)
Colour for today : Grey (hahaha)

All these recos show how totally bored I am. I solemnly vow, I shall rack my brains for more witty and embarrassing(for them) anecdotes about my friends, and faithfully inform the world. As a young friend of mine would say, toodles..............

Obsession

Well, the exams are finally over, after a great deal of sweat and tears, not to mention sleep. Nothing more shall be said about them, till the results are here.

Ranj, Meh and I were studying together four days before the first theory exam. We had the bright idea of making corn bhujia (Meh's specialty), at ten in the night. And naturally, we needed some entertainment on TV. I decided that it was a great time to introduce them to the fascinating world of Seattle Grace. To the uninitiated, I mean Grey's Anatomy, a drama series currently showing on Star World.

I started watching this show from the first episode of the first season. After I got the first season on DVD, I watched all the nine episodes again. Third time was with R n M. It took us two episodes to work our way through the food. Since we were too stuffed, and sleepy, to continue studying, we decided to call it a day (actually, an early morning), and continue studying the next day.

Come the next morning, both madams are totally uninterested in the mysteries of radial basis functions. Instead, they're busy drooling over McDreamy. The only neurons they were interested in were the ones in the brains being operated upon by Dr Derek Shepherd, the oh-so-handsome surgeon, with the complicated life. They finished watching seven episodes in seven hours. I might have expected this from Meh, but definitely not from Ranj! They wouldn't even let me sleep, since they needed me to fill in the blanks!

Fast forward five exams. After the second elective, six of the eight of us were here to party a bit before settling down to slog for CIPE. We had to decide on a movie to watch. Omkara, Arsenic & Old Lace, and some others were suggested. After Nik and Zee made us sit through an excrutiatingly shrill episode of Roadies, you know who suggested that the others watch Grey's (again!).

To cut a long story short, now everyone is hooked, and I have a nasty feeling that I'm going to end up watching the first season about six times more. I've also got very, very vocal demands for the second season DVD. Would this qualify as obsession???