Todo @Home

Only 6 days left and then I am in the most beautiful place on this earth - Dehradun, which also happens to be where home is. A big YAY for the semester break. Now, since I am going home after nearly a year there are a lot of things that I must do at home. So here is my todo list - things I simply must do when I get home.

Movies

• Rocket Singh
• 3 Idiots
• Avatar

Food

• Dosa, Sambhar, Idli, Utthapam
• KC Momo
• Dulara Chowmein
• Lots of "Haldiram's Chilli Chatak Lachha"
• LAYS MAGIC MASALA - at least one packet a day, if not more
• Bhindi - proper Bhindi
• Gajar Ka Halwa
• Kaju ki Barfi
• Rasmalai
• Mathri with Aachar
• Roti - you only get that at home
• Aloo Ke Paranthe - daily for breakfast with Hing Ka Aachar
  
• Poha - when not having Aloo ke Paranthe for breakfast
• And any and everything that mom make
  

Travel

• Andaman
• Chennai
• Mahavirji 

Watch

• Finally watch cricket matches on TV (maybe even DD with classic Hindi commentary)
  
• Catch snatches of useless Indian TV serials
• Browse through all the useless movie channels which keep showing the same movies for 5 years
• Learn about senseless news such as suspected aliens stealing cows or such on the great circus of Indian news channels
• Tune in to channels which only show trailers of new and upcoming Bollywood movies for 24 hours

Enjoy

• The great Dehradun winter - sunny, fog free and a pleasant 20°C 
• Being at home

Oh, and maybe also studies for my exams in January! :P

A New Beginning

It has been a long time since I have last updated this blog. 7 months to be exact. Phew, that is a long time indeed. Keeping in mind the fact that I do love writing that is a very long absence.  A long abstinence from writing however it has not been. I have been posting articles for my Wordpress Blog, the Mercator College Blog and the Mercator Website. Those posts however deal more with my opinions rather than my day to day activities or events of note that have taken place (in my life) since I last updated my blog.

Sweeping changes, should I say? For a lot has changed, for starters I completed my bachelors at Jacobs University in Computer Science. A picture ... (the only one that I have with me right now - I am still waiting to collect pictures from friends :) )

Then there was the summer. Thinking of doing something constructive, I decided to revamp the Mercator Website (old -> new). Took me the entire summer, but the satisfaction of completing the project was immense. As I explain in the About Section on the website seeing other colleges maintain a superior website to ours was not a pleasing experience, hence the effort. Hopefully the website is at par with the other college websites. ;)

And now? Graduate school - the next step in life. So, here I am, at ETH Zürich for my masters education. Let's see how that goes, it has been quite an experience so far.

Updates probably will be more frequent now - now that I have rediscovered how relaxing writing is.

Roma ...

The walking wounded came, they saw and they so nearly conquered the warriors from across the shores. They were true gladiators, true Romans. What did I expect with half the team on the treatment table, what did I hope for with De Rossi suspended and a limping Totti? Did I expect a crooked Juan, or a struggling Pizzaro to start? What more could have I asked from a hugely unproven and untested defender making his first champions league start? I could go on and on, and if truth be told, I expected them to falter, and yet hoped for the Romans to show up.
But they did not falter. They belied me, they exceeded the faintest of my expectations and continued to do so for over 120 minutes. This was a performance to be proud of, a performance to be recorded in the annals of history, a performance to remember and cherish. This was one of those performances where the result was inconsequential.
Did they deserve more? Yes they did! A kid making his second champions league appearance had his more accomplished counterpart in his back pocket (Motta vs. Clichy). A debutatnt (Diamoutene) had an accomplished champion (Van Persie) shackled. A truly good player was reborn (Riise as centre back), an injured soldier gave us the early goal that we wanted (Juan) and a legend walking on crutches inspired us all (Totti). And a man kicked, pushed and repeatedly fouled just refused to say no, he kept coming back (Pizzaro).
But we had to bow out, because in life there are no happy endings like fairy tales.

HMS Ulysses ...

A very good book, but it was the reference to Ulysses (Tennyson) that still remains fresh even after having read the books nearly 6 years ago...

Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

14 days in hell and fried salad!

Past 14 days = {Assignments, College Office}* U {Eat,Sleep}.
How I have managed to survive the past 14 days, I do not know. Nearly two assignments due each day, quizzes in between, some work here and some work there. And in between all this one has to find some time for sleeping and eating as well, and when the caterers are Aramark, one wishes that survival without food was possible.
And here I must say that I am thankful for the summer that I spent interning in Aachen. Granted, that I wanted to go home and would have loved to be there, but the time I spent alone taught me to how to quickly fix a nice and edible Indian meal in Germany and that has indeed come helpful over the past couple of weeks. One of my innovations that I am really proud of is frying rice and salad. (Mmmm, I can even smell it as I type) It is often the case that there is nothing edible (vegetarian) for dinner, but there is always a lot of Salad. And this is where my recipe comes in, just take some tomatoes, cabbage, onion, paprika and pepperoni. Chop it in small pieces, fry it and add boiled rice to it. Cook for some more time (using Indian spices, of course) and you have a wonderful Indian dinner. Other than that, there is pasta and my new love - Sphagetti. :)
Another saving grace has been that we usually study in groups and I personally find that really effective, it is easier to work at 5 in the morning when you are surrounded by a group of people who are as famished and tired as you are.
What with group work and my innovations with regard to cooking, I have managed to survive these couple of weeks with just a bout of flu. Hoping things improve in the future.

Aachen, Euros, Internship

The city is indeed full of students, and most of them are Chinese. (after Germans, of course). Then there are of course Indians as well. Apparently, the Audi Max at RWTH can house 1500 students. that is indeed a lot. And unlike Jacobs, there are no weekly quizzes or exams at RWTH. Just final exams, which count for 100% of the grade. :)
And yes, it is indeed amazing to watch the soccer fanaticism in Germany. Ponttor is definitely the street to be, full of restaurants and TVs. The scenes after the Germany Austria games were amazing. People blowing horns, jumping up and down in the middle of the street, quite a spectacle. Though the next match (Germany Turkey) might be a bit volatile. Nonetheless, it would be one hell of a game. Rooting for a Germany Russia final now that Italy is out. :(
And the Internship, have a desk and everything. Turns out that all the computers are named after German beers, :P The internship is interesting, though staring at assembly codes all day and checking for data aborts can get quite tedious. Still, the idea of booting linux on a virtual platform is cool enough to keep me interested.
Hoping the weather improves though, it is hot even for an Indian. :D

Internship

So, I reached the office at 9 am in the morning. Not big at all, just about 20 people and three interns including me. Both are masters, so I am the least qualified there. :)
A bit of a deja vu, as they all use Dells! And yeah, it is a Windows free place, every computer runs Linux! Nice to see that in a corporate environment. My supervisor is really cool, he is really chatty, and I feel nice when he comes and talk to me. :) I am terribly talkative myself, so I need someone to talk to.