Sandwiches are a grad student's best friend. They come cheap, can be made in a jiffy and you can eat them anywhere anytime (ask Joey). They need not be microwaved like most other food, nor be refrigerated lest they get spoiled soon. Also so far I had found them very convenient to eat, primarily because I am clumsy when it comes to eating and everything else either drips or breaks or melts or splashes!
I eyed my sandwich with a savory delight. Filled with lettuce, tomato slices, onion rings, bell peppers, cheese, mayonnaise and one olive. Actually I had put 3 round succulent olives but the other two had gone missing somewhere between my kitchen where I made the sandwich and my lab where I ate it. I munched through my sandwich as the conversation in my lab took on a lighter and jovial turn with my advisor away for a conference. Very soon I had finished all of it save a small piece and I had intentionally left the olive there as I wanted to have it in my last bite.
It happened then. As I dug into the remaining slice, the olive decided to go for a walk. With it it also took along some cheese and lots of mayonnaise. First stop was my new tshirt. It rolled all the way from the round neck collar till my belly button. There it met an obstacle in the form of my belt whence it decided to take a slight jump and continue its journey along my jet black trousers leaving a neat streak along the zipper so that to a casual onlooker in my lab it seemed as if I just got a bit too excited seeing the crow flying outside the window.
Meanwhile the journal paper I was reading with the other hand slipped from my hand as I tried to save the olive. Somehow defying the laws of physics that landed first on ground and the olive on top of it. Not satisfied yet, the olive decided to roll on further under the desk and then went into a dark corner when I finally lost interest in it.
Last week one of my closest friends from IITM was visiting US. 12 months feels like an awfully long time to be away from people with whom you have shared four years of coexistence, so I was delighted when I heard that he was coming to Washington. I had planned to meet him in the weekend(the one that just went by).
I was trying to finish my pending assignments for the next week, working overnights, and sometimes coming back to the apartment only to crash so that I could take the weekend off. Except for booking my tickets, I had planned almost everything and waited in anticipation of the trip.
We were supposed to finalize our plans as soon as he landed, but it was not until 5 days later that I got a call from him. Imagine my disappointment when I learnt that he had a very busy schedule and hence we won't be able to meet.
I guess as we grow up work becomes such a strong point of focus that everything else just blurs into oblivion. And that is sad at times.
------------------------------------**-----------------------------------------
I needed a journal paper urgently today for a pending course project. However I couldn't access any electronic source from the department server today. So, I mailed a few friends with the link hoping that someone should be able to get it and mail me within a day or so.
I was surprised to find several copies of the paper in my inbox within the hour. Every single one of them had tried to download it and sent it to me within an hour!
This again affirms my faith in the fact that however busy we are, friends can always rely on each other, and rightly so.
I saw her on my way to the lab. I walk or cycle nowadys as the weather is simply brilliant. Warm and sunny, albeit a bit too dry for my taste. I saw her as I walked down Neil ave and she was crying.
She pointed towards a kitten lying motionless beside the sidewalk. It was a furry little thing, light brown with tiny little paws. It had succumbed to the carelessness of some reckless driver on the road, and this girl, seeing it lying injured on the road, had stopped to help it. She had taken it to the sidewalk and was looking around for help, but the kitten was already dead by the time I met her.
Then we tried to look for its owner in the neighboring houses; a kitten this small couldn't have gone far from its home. But no one answered to our calls. Everyone seemed to be sleeping tight on a holiday or away somewhere. After a futile search we finally came upon an old couple who promised to bury the cat at their backyard.
-----------------------------------**-------------------------------------
I was on my way back home after a long day at the lab. Its been pretty dry and hot for the last few days though its still nothing compared to the severity of Chennai.
The nights are better though and I love walking back alone from the lab in the cool dark night. The air was heavy with sweet smell of flowers, and it was just beginning to rain. The smell of damp earth mesmerized me, and reminded me of days gone by.
It reminded me of my days in school when I used to walk back all drenched, my bag soaking wet, and my shoes and socks brown and muddy. Mom would scold us for spoiling my school uniform, so I and my sister would try to wash them before she came back home. Now, I am sure she wouldn't scold me for anything. She misses me far too much for that.
The smell reminded me of the days back at IIT when we used to play footer in the rain in our little hostel quadrangle. It reminded me of the walks I used to take sometimes with Setia, just to get drenched, and then go to Gurunath for a cup of steaming hot tea.
It reminded me of the times I spent sharing an umbrella with her, for more than two years. We always used only one umbrella even when we had two. Heavier the rain, better it was. We made ample use of the deserted streets and umbrella, warily looking over each others shoulders in case someone spotted us :P
It also reminded me of the day I had my first flight while coming here to US. I was finally in the clouds, nervous with excitement as the plane swayed and tossed about in the inclement weather.
I am so glad the wet earth smells the same everywhere.
Photo: A footer match in the Godav quadrangle.
They feel weird. I don't know what to do with them anymore.
It was perfectly fine a few months ago. They never asserted their existence, but were always there whenever I needed them. They were there to hold a pen as I screwed yet another exam, to hold a muffin while I ate it, to hold a bat as I got bowled over on the very first ball. Even when seemingly I was doing nothing but walking, they were always there beside me subtly adding to the balance.
They even saved my life that day as I hung outside the door of a female compartment holding on to the bars of the train door for over two hours in the dead of the night.
It all started with the winter. The frigid cold here forces one to keep ones hands inside the pockets. Now, after doing that for over 4 months, with the cold giving way to warm sunshine they simply don't know what to do.
They search for a pocket, but don't find the once familiar jacket. From the perspective of a third person, it must be pretty interesting. Imagine the pair of hands going towards the sides of one's belly, and after a slight hesitation, sliding inwards and downwards, not knowing what to do.
A tshirt or a shirt doesn't have pockets down at the sides where a jacket normally has and hence, I tuck them into the pockets of my trousers. But the weather is warm now, and that is not a very comfortable posture to walk anyway. So out they come. Then suddenly I feel the presence of these two appendages hanging from my shoulders, not kowing where to go, and what to do, still searching for pockets.
I played soccer again after a long long time. It was so long that the football felt weird between my legs. Well there were a lot of things that were different compared to the 6-a-side we used to play at the hostel quadrangle.
The best thing about the match that day was the playground. I had never played on such a lush green field! It took some time getting used to the soft, bouncy feeling with every step I took, but it was just fabulous. There were a few good players too, and it was a pleasure playing with them.
Another interesting fact was the presence of 4 girls in our team. Talking about girls, I was a fairly strong believer of the beauty-is-inversely-proportional-to-footer-skills hypothesis. Not any more. That hypothesis has been proved false and replaced with the hotter=better hypothesis, which apart from being more concise is more versatile in its applications.
All of them played as defenders, and pretty good at that; not all owing to their dribbling skills of course :P. Rather than kick the ball when they got a chance, the strikers of the other team would for some mysterious reason try caressing the ball slowly towards the goal as if they were afraid its the ball that would get hurt otherwise and not the girls!
No wonder, after leading the match 4-0, we finally lost it 7-5 after the girls in our team left.
It says: Yer arrrrrcount has left to fight some scurvy traitorous rogues, but will return. This be not a marooning! Better luck next time ye scurvy sea dog after a few sots o' rum.
Things like these are what scary nightmares are made of! I hope my account hasn't been hacked.
Also I wish I hadn't changed my language settings so that this thing made more sense. :P
I am not a fan the races, but when a few friends invited, for the lack of anything more exciting, I just decided to go and watch the Kentucky Derby. Besides, my friend assured me that there would be good food, and that is reason enough for any grad student to venture out of his lab. There were about 15 of us, and we all contributed 1$ each, and random chits with a horse number allocated to us. Whoever won, was supposed to get all the money. I had a ticket for No 9
The race was intense. No 5 was leading followed by 17. Imagine my surprise when we all discovered that "5" was actually 9! The jockey, the moron that he was was blocking the view partially.
Trifles apart, I was excited; my luck had never been any good, rather lady luck has always punched me in the face, and when I stumbled kicked me from behind. You get the idea. Only a few seconds of the race were left and I was eyeing the cash with glee. The horse was named "Join in the dance" and I did that with full abandon.
Then as people there would testify, lady luck came and did her part again, and I was left with my foot in my mouth. Now you know why I called him a moron in the first place!
After that, we went to short north, and it being the first Saturday of the month again, there was festivity everywhere. Open galleries, music, art, food and beauty; the atmosphere was ripe with such noble things. It was the stuff that made one's heart sing, and induced a spring in ones step. I and my Canadian friend roamed on the crowded streets and admired the beauty: natural, aesthetic as well as feminine. We went to a few art galleries, saw paintings, sculptures budding musicians on the street struggling to attract attention and discussed the trials and tribulations of a grad life.
We finally went to a bar where we had chicken wings and carried on our discussions. But that didn't go very far. After all a bunch of girls were having a bachelor's party beside us and an exciting ice hockey match was on the huge television. One of the girls from the group came to the table for a drink, and I noticed something sticking out of her cleavage! On careful observation, it turned out to be a small plastic replica of what Joey (in FRIENDS) refers to as a soldier or Little Joey.
I am a gentleman and all that, but I just couldn't control bursting into a guffaw. Thankfully she was drunk and just said "Hello."
It was raining, and I decided to open my umbrella; a brand new that I bought only a few weeks ago. It had served me well a couple of times earlier. However as I pushed it out to open, some quirk of fate incited the top part including the rib to just fly away, and I was left with the handle in my hands. One of my profs decided to make an entrance just then, and made her presence felt by the squeal of laughter at my antics. I have seldom felt more foolish as I did that day chasing the flying rib with the handle in my hands. The fact that the prof in question was a beautiful lady was not helping at all.
My morning had not started beautifully either. Last two days had be very warm (after Chennai, hot seems like an overrated adjective here). So I decided to embrace the prevalent cool summer style comprising of shorts, cotton tees and sunglasses. After a last touch to my hair and a few seconds of narcissism in front of the mirror, I stepped out of the house to catch the bus.
It suddenly hit me that I couldn't see anything. It didn't take long to realize that it was due to the overcast sky and it was going to be a cold and wet day. The bus was already at the stop, so I had no time to go back and change. Though I tried to put up a brave face, I shivered the whole day. The only consolation I had was wondering what an inspiration I would have been to the girls** here.
**The hot pant hypothesis: At any spatial point inside the OSU campus, at any point of time, it is possible to spot at least one girl wearing shorts(hot pants) within a time span delta t, where delta t<=5 min. The above statement is valid for all weather and all seasons.
After being used to mom-cooked delicious food at home for over 15 years and mess food at IITM which though of dubious taste and origin is at least served regularly, grad student life hits you hard initially when one has to cook for oneself. With the measly pay, you can't expect us to buy food everyday!
So, it is with considerable eagerness that I look forward to the Friday after seminar coffee and cookies and the occasional grad-prof tea-coffee. In fact free food draws grad students like the opposite ends of a magnet. In fact, after a few days one attains a level of proficiency such that there isn't even a need to scourge noticeboards for the next free coffee hour. Assisted by your nostrils, you just home in to the correct room.
A few weeks ago, as I was walking back from the administrative building, my nostrils caught a faint whiff of warm bagels and muffins in the vicinity. Within seconds, I was able to locate the target inside our fitness center and proceeded thence without delay. There were a few people around looking at pictures and posters displayed around a center table. I smiled my way to the table without paying much attention to what was going on around. Just as I was about to take a plate, someone said "Hi!"
I won't go into the details of what happened next; suffice it to say that it was a health workshop for homosexuals. As I looked around, the posters and pictures started making sense and I optimized my way to the shortest exit with a fake smile pasted on my face.
The only thing I regret is that I forgot the plate of muffins and bagels that I had so assiduously assembled.
My thoughts drifted towards him gradually.
I was waiting for the simulation to end. The flying molecules on the screen reminded me of stars and wistful thoughts about the last 23 years of my life swarmed in my head. Glimpses of time spent with family and friends flooded my thoughts which gradually homed in towards my school days and finally settled on that one face which I saw almost everyday for 12 years.
We weren't the best of friends to begin with. If I had known the definition of a "geek" back then, I might have described him so, but in retrospect the ravages of time have muddled the clarity of his image. He never saw a 2nd (or higher) rank on his report card, and his idea of fun was to sit with a geography book in the games field while I was engaged in a fruitless chase of a football somewhere in the vicinity. I used to rank somewhere in 30's and 40's in a class of 50, and soccer was my primary motivation in life back then.
It all changed when I ended up sharing the same table with him in class 7. I was simply awed by his personality and his academic abilities and as the year went by, I forged a new friendship and realized that he was more human than I had taken for granted, and like me he had his likes (BJP, environment, Agatha Christie.....) and dislikes (drawing class, biology, girls? .....).
We used to read story books together, and by the time I read 5 lines, he would be at the end of the page and wait for me patiently to finish the page before turning. But slowly, I tried to catch up and within a few months I found my reading speed substantially enhanced. This is just one of the many things in my life that changed for the better since then. That year I ranked 3rd.
Coming back to the present, I suddenly felt a strong urge to talk to him. I suddenly wanted to know what he was doing, what did he eat today and where did he go.
I flipped out my mobile, only to realize that I didn't have any of the numbers from India stored there. A search through my gmail resulted in zilch, nor was he online then. I rummaged through old pocked diaries old phone diaries and finally came up with 3 different numbers associated with his name from three different places.
"The Vodafone number you are calling is no reachable." was the response I got from the first number. The second try also resulted in a similar disappointment.
The familiar ringing sound pumped up my spirits a bit as I dialled the third and final number. After a few minutes of ringing, it stopped. "Maybe he is away from his phone," I thought and tried again. I redialled a few more times during the next half an hour, but without any response. Finally, as I was about to succumb to the futility of my endeavor, a voice answered at the other end.
But it wasn't his voice, nor was it in a language familiar to me. It sounded like Tamil. I said sorry to the guy at the other end and hung up. My simulation had ended by now, and once again I was back to chasing molecules.
P.S. I finally talked to him a day later, but I wish I could reach (at least talk/chat) anyone anytime, or rather some people who stir up emotions buried deep in my heart.
was definitely the highest point of the day. The superbowl is the biggest game of the year, and it was a unique experience to watch it with so many people. An American friend had invited me over to watch the game and it was fun to watch it with his friends. It was at a house with many kids around too, and that lent a very homely atmosphere to the whole experience.
The commercials were no less interesting than the game and I hear that many people watch this game just for the crazy commercials!
Today the weather went crazy again! It was about 3 deg above zero today and it felt like spring! But I am sure it'll be back to freezing tomorrow with lots of ice everywhere :(
Tomorrow I have a morning class at 8:30, and that right after a weekend makes it worse. My resolution for the coming week: More badminton!
What I cooked for dinner: Karela (bittergourd) and french omlette(with beans tomatoes and spinach) with rice and dal.
Today morning was spent in the company of about 30 other Indians celebrating Saraswati Puja. That was followed by a lavish(by grad student standards) lunch cooked by my labmates and various other friends. It felt almost like back home and was fun.
The weather turned out to be treacherous. The morning started at -16 deg C and by a late afternoon it was close to -2. The melting ice lead to slippery roads and I narrowly escaped landing on my back more than once. Scarier were the icicles hanging from every nook and corner (see picture).
With not many assignments lined up for next week, I am going to enjoy the rest of the weekend.
