Lessons learnt

Lessons learnt this week, in the hard way...

Start *doing* the assignment *on* the day it is given, especially when the assignment involves lab work. 

If I get stressed out, it costs pretty dearly!

I cannot eat cabbage 2 times a day, 5 days a week :(

If midterm week was so dreadful, I cant wait to die during the finals week!

One reading with full concentration can do wonders... (I repent not doing my undergrad here)

Getting good friends is rare, and a blessing. There is as much joy in enjoying moments with good friends as there is void in being with selfish ones.

Finally, be proactive almost always.

DST excitement

It is 7 pm now, but feels like 4 pm. 

In a matter of few hours, nature showed its varied colors! Days started being longer from today and it really was not the case yesterday. I enjoyed the sunset yesterday and dusk creeped in at the normal evening time. 

I am having fun experiencing longer daylight today, unable to believe it is 7pm now!!! Well, knowing about it is one thing, but experiencing gives a lot more excitement.

When I came here, I was excited to have gained a couple of "free hours" in my life ;-) But today I am realising that I might lose all those "free hours" to the DST changes that happen here!!!

New experiences of nature, though all on the same Earth! Life is beautiful.

Grad assignments

So true :P

How to write a paper/assignment

Kids

Kids are sweet :-)

I am part of a research group that is working on figuring out the best strategies for effective development of pre-school children's literacy skills.

As part of my work, I do digitization and compression of some video tapes. Watching the tapes is a refresher for me everyday. They are all kids of age 4 years and below being taught stories, rhymes, numbers and such other pre-school activities. They enjoy every moment of all activities and games, learning things with a lot of mischievous innocence! The teacher-student relationship is very easy and informal. Children talk to their teacher as if it was their own mom! Classroom environment is colorful and lively. With no restrictions, kids can jump, sing, dance and merry. The walls of pre-school classrooms are large crayon boards and children learn new things by scribbling on them. 

It is all so much fun!

I wish I could be a pre-school teacher to be with them most of the time. Anyway, now that I cannot be, I will atleast wish that kids never grow up, and they always remain innocent, mischievous, carefree!

Repeated insanity?

When things do not go the way I expect them to, the only mantra I use is to keep trying again and again until it starts being the way. 

There I go! I did one more trial today, results awaited.

As it is quoted, 

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results."

Am I insane?! I do wonder at times.

I'm sure, I am not :P

Jana Gana Mana ...

Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera ... Swades Hai Tera ... Tujhe Hai Pukara ...

On the evening of January 26th, IGRASP (Indian Graduate Students at Purdue) celebrated Indian Republic Day in Purdue campus. The celebration was very simple but touching. Mood was set by playing 'Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera...' from Swades. This was followed by a couple of videos depicting Indian history, tradition and glimpses of celebrations of Independence and Republic days in India. After this, our tri-color flag was hoisted by one of the senior Indian professors at Purdue. Following flag hoist, when our national anthem was played, for the first time I felt a huge sense of patriotism for my country. I felt so proud being an Indian, and my eyes were filled with tears when our anthem ended. I really missed my home and country.

Is it the power of our Jana Gana Mana?! Or, is it because I am still in 'missing-home' state ;-)

One night at the OHD airport

This happened exactly one month back.

It was around 7 pm on Jan 1st. I was all excited to enter the United States of America. The BA flight I was in was landing at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Sea** coming to an end and the land of Chicago beginning; it was an awesome view outside.

Post landing, I had a successful, hassle free immigration. My next flight to Indianapolis was at 7 am the next day. I headed towards the domestic terminal, confidently catching the airport transit train. All the while I was awestruck seeing the hugeeeeeee airport. Chicago OHD is one the biggest airports in the world. The journey from my arrival to departure terminal took 15 minutes by train :-) At the departure terminal I collected my boarding pass and cleared the security check.

Now I was at the scheduled departure gate, all ready to board the next flight which was at 7 am next day!!!

I went around the terminal, did some window-shopping at the duty free shops and tried to kill time.

It was around 11 pm that I suddenly realised the number of people around me dropped exponentially. There were hardly 10 people to be seen around in such a huge terminal. All shops started closing down except for 2 Starbucks coffee shops.

At this point it struck me! I did a mistake by deciding to stay all alone in a DOMESTIC terminal! OHD may be one of the biggest airports, but why will its domestic terminal be busy during the midnight. There is hardly anyone who flies at that time.

Well, I was already in the cold water and I had to swim through.

I was jetlagged but the situation demanded me to stay wide awake. I went around the terminal thrice again, but had managed to kill just around 2 hours of time. I was tired and couldnt walk anymore with the luggage. I decided to sit in a lounge, near the payphones. I called back home a couple of times assuring them I was safe. I hadnt told them that I was all alone there!

Around 2 am, my fear started mounting up heavily. The coffee shops got closed. There was not even one security officer to be seen around the place. At this point I again called up home, couldnt control my fear, and told them my situation. I took note of some emergency numbers from them. I did not call back home for another hour.

I was still seated at the lounge and I heard a payphone ringing! I didnt know what to do. I picked it up, and hesitantly said a hello. I felt as if my hello resonated back to me! I tried listening carefully and lo!!! it was my sister from Mysore calling me on the payphone!!! Oh my goodness, can you imagine my happiness at that moment?! Getting a call from home on some far away airport's payphone! The telephone number got routed to the payphone behind me, and I, the intended person, picked up the call - so much of a coincidence, ever heard of such fortune before?!

Hats off to my smart little sis!

It was 4 am by then. Every 30 minutes once I kept talking to my parents, husband and sister, in turns. This turned out to be a real confidence booster, for I started feeling secure. Dont ask me how! I know they could have done nothing if something had happened to me. But this is what is called emotion.

Anyway, around 5 am, security officers started coming in and getting set for the routine security checks at the departure gate entrance.

Phew! I had spent one whole night at the huge airport all alone, and managed to swim through safely. I now look back and wonder How did I manage to?!

Now, wasnt this something?!

**It is Lake Michigan, not sea