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Showing posts from 2010

The Assignment 1

There is a competition called The Assignment. I made through round 1 which was basically situational questions. Round 2 has two parts Round 2 Part 1: Please like this video and help me go to the next round: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150352494270533&oid=123381121063055&comments Will update regarding part 2. For, Now Happy New Year !!! Will come back next Year !!!

Joka and the Times

Back in Joka! With a bunch of changes. Oh! A lot has changed. A lot is changing, A lot will change. I am back on my schedule, up at till 5 am ! chatting talking making friends and wondering if i ever will get a few minutes to myself. Here I am, a few minutes to myself, blogging. Apart from sure travels to Mandarmani, hopeful travels to bangkok and other stuff. Wondering will detours occur in life. Wondering if there ever do. Trying to make them happen. Hoping they do. Unhopeful some don't. Wondering my life is so complicated. Yet answering a question to my definition of complex as simple. I m just leaving my final days at Joka.

Growing Up !

There hasn't been much of a blogpost after I returned from NY, has there ? Except for a few hangover posts ! So much has changed and so much will still. I returned from US to my house in Hyderabad (shall still just call it a house), to spend a few days before I take a detour to my hometown for a friend's wedding. Or should I say my best friend's wedding. We had so much in common and now so little. I was really excited to attend the wedding. I never attended a friend's wedding before. I was really busy every time there was one. Only two days younger to me, she is married now and leading a happily married life. It made me wonder and made me think. Have I really grown up? The moment I saw her all dressed like a bride and nervous and yet smiling at us. I wondered, have we all really grown up ? And then of course, there as another school friend of mine who came to the wedding with her husband and her 11 month old son. She was screaming with him, playing with him, chastising

Lahiri. She Writes.

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When I went to Seattle, I had with me “Unaccustomed Earth” without which the delay at Logan Airport (caused not by Logan but my ill-fated proximity to JFK, the flight being that which needed to arrive from JFK but was delayed as usual. Sometimes it seems to me that nothing goes off or on time in JFK) would have driven me crazy. When I went to Pittsburgh, I had with “Interpreter of Maladies” which made my travel pleasant and enduring (not to mention that I was darn well excited about meeting the qurious quester more than a year later). I like her books, because they are a collection of short stories and not novels with a plot. I like her books, because she talks primarily about people in Boston and mostly about those you came from Calcutta and about those who had a short stay in London. And what else could I relate to more, this year. She writes with a plot simply and characteristic. She writes of second generation Indian Americans. She writes up people trying to grasp anything

VIRUS ATTACK

JIAGUU.EXE If anyone knows what to do about please let me know! IMMEDIATELY!!! Google doesn't seem to have any useful info. :( UPDATE: Looks like I solved it, at least for now !

City Girl!

I fell in love with Bombay in 3 weeks, London in 4 weeks and New York in 3 weekends and half a week. I came back from London all romantic about it which wore off in time but I do still like the city a lot. I am currently still romantic about New York and will have to wait and watch if it will wear off. Boston is cute and nice and peaceful which I like but not at the moment designed for me. But Bombay … My heart leaps up every time I am to land/take off from Bombay at night time. I love it when I am landing in Boston during the day when you feel you are landing on water and just when you thought you would, the runway appears out of nowhere. No such airport stories about London and NY looks nice during the day with the Atlantic and everything but not half as wow-ing. Inspiring! That’s the word for NY though. London shows you memories of empires that stood through thick and thin for generations together. New York shows you empires that were built from scratch over a single lifetime.

New York and beyond: MY 500

My last few days spent in New York were fun, fast and fascinating. I ceased being a tourist and then, I fell in love with New York; its city lights, noisy crowds, dirty streets, obnoxious people and vibrant environment. Walked on the chilly streets of Manhattan, stared at the high rise empires built from scratch for inspiration, visited a Vegan restaurant, saw a few upper end (read, out-of-my-league) cars in real life, stopped by at Hoboken to view NY on the left and NJ on the right over the Hudson, drove past Edison Township, made more friends, submitted a final paper due for a course at Simmons, all in the middle of a ticket fiasco. On Wednesday morning, I left to the airport (without a ticket). A few airlines, few counters and few explanations later I got my ticket and hung around a bit before I got on my 14 hour flight to Delhi. On reaching Delhi, my India phone began to work and I had to make two phone calls and send two emails to let people know that I arrived safely (mind

Diwali in December and Ticket fiasco

If I may call it that! I took a bus on the afternoon of Saturday to reach NY in the evening. Funny, the wifi was working. The last time it worked on a bus for me was when I first arrived at Boston from NY by bus. On arriving at my friends place in Brooklyn they took me to this Diwali party hosted by people from the college that my friends are on exchange with. Well, Diwali is long gone. Yet it was a party and there was Bollywood music and Indian food. It was so long since I had good Indian food. It was a nice party Here is the ticket fiasco part. Err. it's too complicated to explain. Basically I thought I had a ticket but it looks like it is stuck in some pipeline and I can't seem to be able to push it through. But believing that I will come back to India I believe that it will somehow get resolved. Not on it's own though. I need to drop in some offices and refuse to move till I get a ticket. Or fly by some insanely complicated way. Hope it doesn't have to come to that.

Friday, the last Real Day

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Sarah was wonderful. Not only did she pick the card for me, she threw open her place for a party in my honor and a lovely cake that said "We will miss you, Pranava". How sweet can she be and how CAN i not LOVE her!!! I love all the girls who came today and danced Bollywood with me and salsa and Chinese and some random stuff and had like ridiculous fun with me. I love you all !!! So today is the absolute last day of my stay in Boston and it has not hit me yet. I will probably cry on my bus to NY. Love you all from Boston and love you Boston from making it my home for the past few months!!!

Economics and Dancing

The header I made yesterday comes in the middle of a frustrated period when I was trying to finish up my presentation for a class within a few hours. It went well.So did today's morning economics class where we presented about the economies of US and Germany. After that I had a sumptuous meal at Bartol's the canteen for the residential campus which is my latest hangout for cheap good food (great French Vanilla and Ice-cream) along with Ivo. Then we had a stupid session by me for Bollywood dancing, where I made my friends (who were dancing great) for Bole Chudiyaan and I was a pathetic teacher. That's another thing I learnt, I can't break down dance into a 1-2 step process. Following me was a wonderful teacher of Greek dance my one of our classmates who is a second generation Greek. She taught us well and we learnt it well and all in all it was FUN! This is the first session of a set of sessions that are to follow organized by Ivo for our co-herd to share everyone'

Boston Blues

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A new header finally just before I am leaving Boston! Photoshopped obviously.

Expressions!

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From all the lovely ladies at Simmons who I love and shall miss so much, I received:

NY and NJ and Chocolate

I went to New York again. But little I have to say this time. I landed to run around shops on Black Friday. Saturday morning I had hot chocolate with marshmallows melting in them at the Max Brenner with Roomie (my roommate for two years and wingie for the next two years of my IITian life). She was sweet enough to book us a table there where people stand in every inch of space for the smell of chocolate. We then went to Jersey Gardens (New Jersey) for shopping. So I crossed state, bought some stuff and got them all to Boston. Now I need to figure out how to pack everything. And that's all there is for my NY trip. Highlights: 1. I got to meet Roomie 2. I got to have chocolate 3. I got some nice cheap boots that I know will not last but nevertheless I love them 4. We drove and I always thought that traffic sucks in Manhattan when I walked it, but it wasn't bad at all 5. Ivo and I got the same sweater

Beacon Hill and Thanksgiving

After my wonderful teaching experience and a great rating for a presentation in one of my classes the Thanksgiving break was up. Wednesday through Monday was my break. On Wednesday we (Ivo and I) walked again. We walked Beacon Hill. It was so freaking cold that we froze over and had to stop at every starbucks we found. But it was beautiful. Boston is a weird city. It's all college stuff everywhere and like a little town in between the college stuff. We saw places owned by some of the prominent Bostoners of the 1800s. It's all cute and nice. Like living out of the old times. All the architecture was 18th and 19th century. Some houses had so many creepers on them and there were hidden gardens too. Thursday was Thanksgiving. We (my Chinese undergrad friend, Ivo and I) had lunch at the school for Thanksgiving and we have Turkey and corn bread and mash potates with new people. It was all in my Chinese friend's dorm's living room. After that we went with another Chinese fr

I Teach!

MIT conducts every year a little (actually a really huge) event called Splash (and one over the spring called Spark). During Splash, any grad/undergrad student can sign up to teach anything, absolutely anything. And who are the students? Middle school and high school students from all over, anywhere. It is up to the teacher to keep the students engages because there are walk-in seminars happening all the time and one could just walk out of a class into these seminars. So what has it got to do with me? I TAUGHT !!! What? (well it was supposed to come off as "what did I teach?", but if you read it as "waht? I don't believe you!" I won't hold it against you.) so I taught 5 classes of 3 courses. Introduction to Telugu: language and alphabet (2 classes) Incredible India: a crash course on Indian culture (2 classes) Blog Your Way: Blogging 101 (1 class) How was it? AWESOME! What did I learn about myself? That I know more about Telugu than I thought and my handwri

Charlie and his Town

So Ivo got a book from a friend about walking tours in Boston. It had a lot of tours but there was one part of town we have never ever been to: Charles Town. The freedom trail we walked was supposed to end in Charles Town but we stopped at the River Charles that day and we completed the trail now. We started by taking a ferry from Long Wharf to Navy Yard, reading the book all along. Walked around the Navy Yard and the USS Constitution, reading up the history. We then went up to the Bunker Hill Monument (on Beacon Hill, Bunker Hill is somewhere around) with the statue of William Prescott. We saw the Harvard Mall where Harvard and another guy decided to name this place Cambridge and start a great college which later on came into being named Harvard (except he didn't live to see it). We also ran into a little pub where all great leaders met to talk about politics and the Red Coats and somebody's house and somebody else's garden and the City Square and the little Harvard stree

Manhattan

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The whole trip to New York felt like a vacation you take when you are working and not a student, like working-people-taking-vacation. I woke up on Thursday morning to run to a meeting for a project, followed by another meeting for another project followed by a rush to the bus station to catch a bus to NY. See what I mean by working-people-taking-vacation? The journey to and fro sucks. Because Megabus sucks. I took my laptop with me just so I could use the wifi on Megabus to and fro and work on some stuff I needed to get done over the weekend and not really wanting to work during the weekend. Ultimately, I just carried 3 extra kgs of load to and fro with no use for it except a brief half hour to check mails check weather and register for courses at IIMC. But Manhattan rocks. My tour of New York started right from where I got off the bus. Madison Square and Times Square! The next day began with a little walk around the Fina ncial District: The New York Stock Exchange, The Bull and The Wa

New York, New York

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A new header and a new theme! One hand in the air for the big city, Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty, no place in the World that can compare, Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah come on, come, yeah, New York!!!! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There's nothing you can’t do, Now you're in New York!!! These streets will make you feel brand new, the lights will inspire you, Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

To do, To Blog

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After all the blogging I do, I always have more to blog about. I am living life faster, everyday ! Here are a list of things to blog about ... Books: Unaccustomed Earth Interpreter of Maladies Breathless in Bombay (when I finish) Movies: Amelie My Sister's Keeper (already blogged on another site) NY I Love You (But I think I'll get a different perspective after going to NY this weekend :P ) The Day I Became a Woman Rajneeti Tum Milo To Sahi Veronica Mars (it's actually a series) Random things: Like Boston and NY have a lot of rats Like I am not worried about traveling by T after dark anymore because it gets dark by 4.30 now Like how the fact that i finally know what day light savings is and how freaked out I got about it :P Like how I had a discussion with a blogger who believes I am a different "type" and the weekend awakening conversation was not expected out of me and how I reacted very violently to it. (ah well, may be I won't blog about it). Like how I ca

Dream On

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In one of my courses last week, we had a guest lecture. The guest was this wonderful woman who in her 50s decided to start a nonprofit organization to help women to come away from violent homes. During the course of her lecture, she made us write our "Dream Proposal". Your dream proposal consisted of the your biggest dream, steps and goals to reach it and the estimated cost of the first step to reach the dream.The dream could be a picture including your life, you home, your car, the color of your curtains and so on. As I put pen to paper I tried to recollect my dreams. The first time I dreamed of doing something was when I was in class 3. I wanted to be the first Indian woman in space and when I was about 10 years old, Kalpana Chawla beat me to it so I tore up all my newspaper cuttings of articles about space, nasa research, meteor showers, etc and gave up that dream. The first time I put pen on paper and wrote down a pictorial life style dream was about 9 years ago, in cla

Weekend Awakening!

"You'll find it very different." "Excuse me?" "Once you have been here, India will be very different." "Different?" "It won't be like this. Once you get used to this, it's so, so different." "I like it back home!" (stone faced) This was the conversation that ensued after I told someone that I am an exchange student and that I have been here for 2 months and I am going back in a month (precisely a month actually). What kind of a conversation is that? He could have said he likes it here, he could have asked where I feel better, he could have. But how can he tell me I am not going to like my country? Because I have had a "life changing" experience staying here !? Duh! Just to clarify. I did not have a life changing experience here. And I like my country. I like London too. But I like my country more. I know it has limitations. I know it has it's issues. But I like my country. And I don't think that e

Of Picasso, Paneer and Halloween

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Some how, I seemed to have missed the post on Halloween weekend. Oh well because there was nothing to it. I was supposed to go to NY and meet my undergrad friends (one being bard). But it got cancelled in the last minute! After my extremely eventful Thursday, I spent a quite Friday cleaning. This is the first I ever used a vacuum cleaner. :) I always thought vacuum was spelled as vaccuum. Is it not? Is it American vs British or am I plain wrong ? (don't Google it). So, on Saturday, the bard , who's researching in Tufts, and I decided to spend the day around Tufts and Harvard and we did. We went to the Harvard Art Museum and saw so many paintings, I barely remember any at all. In fact, I remember only one. It was a Picasso painting . It was amazing and it stuck in my memory. It was funny actually. I was standing in front of it and I was like what the hell? What's so great about it? And I moved away. I just happened to turn around and then it caught it. It's not beautifu

Socializing, yet not

On September 25th, I killed Orkut! Sorry Google, you got the wrong one in! On November 1st, I started Twitter! Sorry Google, I only Buzz on Gtalk (which the Buzz steals)! I haven't connected my Twitter to the Blogger (yes, I haven't migrated to wordpress yet). Shall do so if it picks up after a while.

The Pitch!

I had a wonderful Thursday! A class in the morning, a pitch contest in the afternoon and a trip MIT in the evening! A pitch is a business pitch. This contest did not require a b-plan in place. I anyway participated, just for the fun of it. I didn't win anything. But I thought I did good and it was fun! I did get goodies for participating. A coffee and a book . The author was one of the judges! And then I went to MIT to get training for Splash (a weekend when anyone can teach anything :) ) So the training happened in a class room which had heat transfer equations all the black board that I had used for my BTech Project I so loved doing , and I felt bad the left my engineering track. It was sad, really sad!

Pittsburgh Header Again

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Here is another one from CMU and I should give credits to Athula for finally giving me the pics!

The Bostonian

The first weekend I was here, I cried. Because I was alone and I didn't know anyone but also because it was so strange that I didn't see many people on the street and I could sit on a bus with a bunch of people who never talk to you at all and your neighbors didn't care that you existed. A couple of months later, I know, Bostonians are chivalrous, smile and nod at strangers, wish a good morning and pat their neighbors dogs and strike up a sentence or two once in a while. Last weekend when I was walking home from Ivo's house to mine, I had a perplexed expression on my face trying to figure out my path (no, I am never lost, I always find my way), when a stranger said to me "Smile, Honey! It isn't that bad". And out of nowhere I burst into a smile. "See. That was easy. Keep it going" he quipped and walked away. A complete stranger he was. Bostonians huh?

Quickest Boston Tour

This weekend was fun as well. Started out on Friday when Ivo wanted to check out Halloween Costumes! We went to the biggest costume shop in Boston. Yet! We found nothing. OK not nothing! I got rainbow socks and she got a moose headband and fake eyelashes. But not costumes. We then went out to join a few girlfriends. And I ended up crashing over at ivo's place. We woke up to a lazy lazy Saturday and we went out for lunch. And when I say out I mena we walked out and kept walking and walking till we did not find any place to have a nice lunch and finally settled for Starbucks ! We then managed to buy out the entirity of Stop and Shop and carried a million bags back to her house. I walked back home and she went to school to study. I had to pick up a friend who was coming from NY. So I cooked and went to pick her up. I picked her up at South Station and showed her Downtown by night. On Sunday, I took her in an ad-hoc manner down the freedom trail. We had lunch at Quincy and sat down by

Weekend, A Class apart

I took a weekend course = the whole course in 2 compressed weekends = 15 hours per weekend. Last weekend was the first of those. I wondered how I would sit in the same class for 15 hours. But it was fun. It was ultra fun. We did lots of hands-on assignments and had a guest lecture and it was pretty cool! One more of those weekends coming up and then I'll be done! On Sunday, which was the 10th day after the Navratri or the Vijaya Dasami back home in India, I decided to go to temple. I looked up Google and realized that the closest temple was an ISKCON temple . The only devi temple was in Ashland and there is no way I could have gone after hours of classes. So I decided to go to ISKCON. I dragged a friend with me. She dragged a roommate with her. And three of us started out. I had been to ISKCON temples before. They are sort of different. But none like this. This had an American Swami give an american talk on how Rama killed Ravan and brought Sita home and people celebrated Navratri.

Harvard!

Finally, finally, finally! I got to go to Harvard University . My nica friend (ivo) and I made friends with this guy we met through our friend from college when we to the beach . He is doing his PhD in elec (will be done soon) at Harvard Faculty of Arts and Science ! So we asked him for a tour and he agreed. But we are all busy people. Busy. Busy. So we finally made it on Thursday (which also happens to be ivo's birthday!!!) We were late by an hour before we turned up at Harvard T stop. And then our tour began when we started walking through the Harvard Yard where all the dorms were. There was this old building ( massachuesettes hall ) that is out of use and then there was the first dorm to have flowing water (before which people had to use the handpump in the yard). And then were was a statue. The plaque says "John Harvard, founder, 1638". But actually it is not John Harvard and it some early grad and John Harvard was a benefactor and not a founder and it was founded i

Unknown Lands

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Have you ever heard of a country called Moldova ? I haven't! And all I can think of it to contact my 8th class friend who used to play hangman of countries names with me and tell him that I have a new country name. Well it is not a new country name. It is relatively new but not new. And I am ashamed at my ignorance. Because it is a country rich in history and culture. How did I suddenly know about it? I was checking out my blogger stats and I came to know that someone from Moldova visited my site a few times. I am surprised. Moldova is a landlocked democratic country in Eastern Europe between Romania and Ukraine, which became a country along with the others when USSR broke up in 1991. It has strong Russian influences in it culture but some of Latin as well. The script of Moldovian is Latin. It has good music and museums. It did have a cinema but that declined after it was declared independent. It also has a self declared country within its territory called " Transnistria "

Five Minute Poem

For one of my courses today, I had to do an assignment called the " Five Minute Poem " which is a idea by Beverly Tatum . It was an interesting exercise and I think you should try it for yourself. Here are the rules: Four Stanzas. Each Stanza Has Four Lines. Each Stanza Begins – “I am from…” First Stanza: Familiar sights, sounds, or smells of your neighborhood Second Stanza: Familiar Foods Third Stanza: Family Sayings Fourth Stanza: Friends And here is mine (since it's not really a poem, I did not put it in my poetry blog ): I am from the rainbows lair Of bright and bold sprinkled everywhere A billion throng loud with laughter Rain soaked earth with a mixed mutter I am from the land of spices Pickles and masala chai form our vices A spread of color on your plate A spread of tastes for your palate I am from a culture rich of hyperbole Praise less subtle in humor relay Of theatre and politics bearing the name For the games that they

Opening Our Doors on Columbus Day

Columbus discovered the New World on October 12th, 1942 and I got a holiday today because it is Columbus Day . It is I guess the closest Monday to Oct 12th. But then my Mondays are off anyway so it should not make much of a difference. But I attended a little bit of the Opening Our Doors by The Fenway Alliance (of which my school is a part). I wanted to do a lot of things, like listening to music concerts or look through art galleries or watch some short films or some plays. But I didn't do most of it. We (by we I mean my freshmen friend from China who watches Bollywood films and my good ol' Nica friend) met up a little later than we thought and spent a good 2 hours having a great lunch with a double helping of ice cream after tasting all the flavors at the Residential Campus cafe. We then decided to check out the cultural festival of sorts and managed to check out only Evan's Way Park that had hands on art work to do like painting of all sorts and pumpkin decoration and

10x10

Beatrice, a student in Kisumu, Kenya (and an aspiring "poetess") from The Documentary Group on Vimeo .

hairstyles and little girls!

Till a few hours ago, I had long hair mostly because I like reasonably long hair and I kind of didn't get around to get a hair cut. I thought I'll get a hair cut just before I left India. But on a random day when I randomly googling, I found the site of this non profit organization called " Locks of Love ". Here is their mission statement: Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need. I decided to keep the length till I reach US and figure out when and where to donate my hair. I finally found this place called Dekwa which cuts off pony tails and they do it so often. Also as an encouragement, they give you a hair cut for $25 by a senior stylist or for $0 by a junior stylist. I tried their phone a

Carnegie Mellon University

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Apart from the fact that CMU is one of the best for CS and of the most sought after univs by most of my IIT friends who decide to go ahead with an MS and/or PhD, I did not know much about it nor about graduate scools in general in the United States. I visited the campus the other day and as my facebook friends already know, I am in love with Carnegie Mellon University . Gates Hillman Complex: It was opened last fall, built by grants from the Gates foundation and Henry J Hillman, hosts the department of computer science (which is where my friend works). It is beautifully built with contemporary architecture. Connecting a 3rd to the 5th floor a helix or a helical staircase with space in between for a couple of classrooms. It has technical art displayed at a few points like the one in my header, art the kind I have never seen. Most of the walls of public seating areas can be used as white boards, so can a few tables. They have vague staircases in between which are called the Hogwarts stai

B-schools and Tech schools

B-schools After moving on to b-schools and having experienced Indian and US b-schools, I feel it is pretty much the same everywhere. Everywhere I feel b-schools are designed to kill you. But that is 'stress' training for the corporate world. Everywhere b-schools seem to focus on entrepreneurship and social ventures (whether or not things happen, they do try). Everywhere b-schools don't need too many facilities and the provided facilities are in good shape (at least most b-schools). Everywhere b-schools are very costly. Everywhere people who pass out of b-schools earn a lot. There are differences. I do feel that people in US feel strongly about their choice of graduation and are motivated to work for it. I do feel that we Indians are not that passionate about education and are not as motivated since it is only looked upon a means to achieve an end which is more attractive than the means itself. Indian b-schools party a lot more than in US since the Indian b-schools have a yo

My Blog My Echo

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My new header those things emit information from the blogs across the world about new technology in computers and are stuck on a hall way in CMU. If you stand between them you can hear what they say because they will be in resonance.

Sunday in Pittsburgh!

Sunday we woke up early morning and left my 2.30pm!!! We went to the popular Pittsburgh Sri Venkateswara Temple. It was beautiful. We had traditional South Indian food and filter coffee as well. We then went to a Catholic Church. And then to a Catholic Cathedral where I paid respects to a good friend who passed away a few weeks ago. We then went to a Scare House and got really really scared! Then we made our way to Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh modelled after the legendary Hofbrauhaus in Munchen (and not Munich). There was also a man dressed in Bavarian clothes who played nice Bavarian music who looked to me like a German version of Santa Claus. A lot for a single day!

Niagara Falls!

Niagara literally means "split in the land" according to native americans (though I have not been able to find a link saying so on the internet; I read it Niagara) and is made of the American Falls and the Horse Shoe Falls (and even the Bridal Veil Falls I think). This is where we went on Saturday. We went to the Cave of the Winds tour where you walk past the gushing American Falls which can seem adventurous. It was fun. But sadly I wore leggings with sole and my wet were soaked in water that must be about 5deg C. We then went to the Maid of the Mist boat tour where we were taken on a boat to the center part of the Horse Shoe Falls . The cold wind and mist were in my face and I was surrounded on three sides by the falls. You cannot feel anything due to the cold and you cannot hear anything due to the gush of the wind. This moment was miraculous, almost divine! A moment that makes you feel so small in front of nature. The major part of the area was connected by trolley whos

Early Weekend!

My Weekend began on Thursday morning when I woke up at 5.30! I have a flight to Pittsburgh early to spend it with one of my closest friends ever from IIT. We spent Thursday having lunch at Cheescake Factory, shopping for a while and dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant whose name I forget. Friday was a fun trip around Pittsburgh. I didn't know that Pittsburgh was so beautiful. Down town Pittsburgh has two rivers on either side, Allegheny (fair waters or beautiful waters) and Monongahela (falling deep banks) and they meet up at the edge of downtown to form Ohio river. And all this can be seen if you go on the hillside through inclines. Beautiful pictures to take! There was this hangout place where old equipment from steel plants was put on display. Apparently, Pittsburgh was a steel city once and hence the name Steelers for their football team. And the night rested with a dinner cruise on the three rivers which celebrated a little girl's birthday party, a young lady's bachelore

Back in Boston

Twilight Fairy is back in Boston and likes it. Twilight Fairy likes circular reference . Twilight Fairy did not like leaving Seattle . Twilight Fairy likes to talk about herself in third person . Twilight Fairy likes to call herself Twilight Fairy . Twilight Fairy likes linking .

Falls in the Fall

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Sunday was a day! We left early in the morning at about 12.30pm to Snoqualmie Falls which is about 45 mins from home. It was beautiful and it was raining and drizzling but yet it was beautiful and on the way I saw that fall has begun! Snoqualmie Falls: The Fall: And then we headed to Macy's. My sister bought me shoes and tops :) Finally we had a scrumptious meal at my cousin's house playing with his little son who calls me auntie :) Monday was a boring day spent writing a case analysis for my class tomorrow and watching a romantic comedy on netflix. (will blog about it once I am done) And then later tonight I will take my plane back to Boston with my backpack, my new shoes and my Unaccustomed Earth and life goes on...

Saturday in Seattle

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On Friday a junior from undergrad asked if I was really in Seattle! I thought probably she was in Seattle and was finding it hard to believe that so was I. But as it turns out she thought it must have been a status to signify that I was taken high on music by Kurt Cobain because Seattle is where he is from. Now I was surprised. Because though Nirvana songs are American I thought Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen, Scotland . Buuuuuut! Kurt Cobain is from Aberdeen, WA , 2 hours from Seattle!!! So we took off early morning (11.30am) to Aberdeen! Why? To take a picture of this (and myself with this): And then we went all the way to Ocean Shores. No sorry, to Westport to see the Pacific on a rainy day. Bad for the camera because all I caught was grey sand against grey water against a grey sky whenever I could take a picture without the grey haze of rain! After driving all day we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over pizza at home

Weekends that Aren't lOOng

A weekend after a long weekend is always short. Because it is not long. So the last weekend was short. When i think about it now I feel I did nothing. May be I did not do anything! Friday I actually did nothing! I woke up late, cooked lunch, had lunched, watched some TV. I was supposed to meet an old friend who was on an official trip, but it turns out that I also attended his dinner meeting! Saturday I actually did nothing! I kinda ran into a few people, walked about Downtown. Sunday I actually did nothing! I went to the College Fest at Hynnes Convection Centre and it turned out to be like Saarang spons stalls and informals. Also I am not in undergrad school anymore :( And there you go, the laziest weekend eva! (I hope it is!) This weekend starts tonight! And I am off to Seattle to visit my sister and will be there, extending my weekend a bit. So anyone in Seattle wanna catch up over a cup of coffee, catch me if you can! (cell/blog)

Hats Off!

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To Topi And to coincidence that can't just be coincidence. This is a screen shot of when I shared this video in my FB:

Smile for all those Smiles

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The funny guy in school Past the graduation day Out of mind out of sight A social network rebirth A reconnect to remember Many years passed by Rediscover or discover? New people new worries New people new talents Many many miles apart But destiny reduces the gap New on the other side Cross over to prospect Is the other side dark? Destiny is still the same Yet the gap increases Way more that it can ever be All there is left is a tear but replace it with a smile So for one last time Look up and smile For the funny guy at school Rest in Peace, Smiles!

The Crane

So late Saturday night, my Nica friend calls me up to let me know that I can join her and our classmate and her friend to the beach. So I got up early Sunday, joined her and went to our friend's place only to find out that it was not 4 but 8 people. It was a lot of fun! We drove down to Crane beach, Ipswich. We drove past the lovely suburb with nice houses and basket-ball courts for kids. The water was cold and the ocean did not have many waves. We had a nice picnic. We had lunch, played frisbee and American "football" (I have no idea why it's called football. apparently no one does :P ). We finished our trip at a Peruvian restaurant where I had some Peruvian rice with chicken and potato wedges. Monday we did not have much of a plan but my Nica friend (by now people think we are attached at the hip) went shopping with her cousin to a shopping mall in the outskirts of the city and bought lots of stuff for her new home. I got myself a Nike pair off the clearance sale. I

Freedom!

This is my 2nd weekend in Boston. Sadly, the first weekend was so lonely that all I got to say was this . Anyway, the weekend began brilliantly with the International Student Orientation, all of Friday. It was an awesome mix of people and cultures. I actually found a Chinese girl who loves Shah Rukh Khan and has watched more Bollywood movies than I have! The only downside was that the dinner cruise over Charles River had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Earl and it was rescheduled to day that I am not free :( So today morning, I did not have a great plan in mind. I was thinking I should either go around Boston or go shopping. But then I heard on the FM that this was the last official weekend of Summer and it was decided. " Boston Freedom Trail " !!! We got a map and we began walking along the red brick/ paint on the pavement that marks out the Freedom Trail. The main reason we didn't take a tour is because we didn't intend on making the entire 4kms. Just as far as we

Home and Away

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We don't begin to love home till you leave it. But we always get by. But more importantly, the little things go unnoticed. I had never really noticed or enjoyed any of the little things. The sounds, the smells and the colors of my country. I miss it all so much. I didn't miss it so much in London. That way I don't thing London is very different. But here, I walk out that door. I don't see bright colors anywhere, not even people. I don't hear conversation anywhere on the streets. I don't hear any honks from the vehicles. I don't see traffic. I don't see stuff on the side streets. I don't run into annoying people in transit. I don't smell the roadside food. I don't smell the petrol at the parking lot. In fact I don't smell anything. It's lonely and weird and I am home sick! But the school is wonderful though. I got my new ID and borrowed a book from the library.

Simmons Women

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I didn't hear about Simmons before my STEP idea. I wanted to go to France. But I couldn't and then decided to go to Simmons because it is in the USA. But I am glad I did. Simmons College: Graduate School of Management is where I am doing my exchange program. It's an all girls school (not the entire college, just GSM). And everyone at Simmons is here because they want to be here. The students know why they are doing an MBA and it matters a lot to the faculty and staff that they work for Simmons and the cause of empowering women. It's interesting the people in Simmons, both students and faculty, have chosen it over other well perceived brilliant schools. In school we had a sizable amount of girls in class, about 30%. In junior college it was about 15%. In my undergraduation it was about 10% in the batch and 6% in my class. In post graduation, it's about 12%. It's fascinating to be sitting in a room full of women teaching, learning and sharing. It's a very diff

JFK!

While I was enjoying the beauty of the rain at JFK, I did not realize bad weather meant flight delays. I did for a fraction of a second wonder how the flight would take off but did not spend much time on it. I should have. My flight got cancelled. I was stranded in JFK with no phone, no wifi, no flight on my first trip to the USA. I tried to get on the next flight but only ended up sending my luggage to Boston. I tried to get on the next one but it got even more delayed. All this while I was in touch with the world through a pay phone to my sister who was in touch with the rest of the world for me. Luckily I ran into an old friend from IIT who was also waiting at JFK for her flight to Ohio. At least I was then reachable. Finally, I left the airport, left my confirmed ticket for a flight that is to take take of late at night and reached a family friends’ place. It was a pleasant feeling to stop worrying. We had dinner and I got a phone and slept like a baby till the next mornin

Perceptions

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Perceptions! They are so important. If I had read ‘Keep Off the Grass’ at any other point of time in my life I might not have appreciated it as much. It would have seemed to me like any other of those IIT or IIM books written by people from IIT or IIM leveraging the ‘mediocrity’ and praising it like almighty because mediocrity is ‘considered’ a sin at these places when they attended it. It’s funny that they pass out of these institutes and publish a book that contains nothing but stories of how crazy students can be or how crazy the system is or how it pushes people to commit suicide or how people drink, smoke, stone and waster their lives and literally do anything and everything to strip the institute of all its glory and yet this book will sell only because it is written by the guy/girl who passed out of those portals in the first place. But then I don’t know because this book is genuinely not about the life and times of students in IIMs or about some love story in the times of c