Today morning was not the best of all mornings. We had managed to get the bathroom door locked from inside and we had to use the other rest-room, which does not have a bath. I just dwiddled away some time in the office and then came back....... and after walking in the scorching sun , the only thing I could think of was I have to get a nap. After coming home and cooking for my turn, Niyanta and Nigel, the two under-grad freshmen who have joined this year came over. We all went over to my department where we had our grad tea. The feasting was on ice-creams and cakes. Soon after was the meeting for WICS, or women in Computer Science. I had three slices of pizza with coke. Then in the night we had a reception in the Arizona state museum for International Friends. The spread was awesome, with cookies, brownies, salads , dips, ........ but I was already too full to even think of another round.
Just sometime in the afternoon, I was telling myself how good life seemed. This seemed to be exactly what I had wanted to do always. The exchange of ideas, the freedom of expression, the teacher's love for what he was teaching ....and this automatically followed from his work in the area, the open debates and discussions and finding faults and criticising what we knew as facts, questioning the grounds, assumptions, validity , weaknesses..... it was a whole new experience, and something which I couldn't enjoy more.
:) It turned out in the afternoon that I got less for a slipshod assignment I had turned in. That was ofcourse enough to turn my smile to a frown. It doesn't matter but anyways.
The other thing I noticed was my english is totally going to the dogs. I am always out of proper expressions these days, searching for an appropriate word to phrase my thoughts in. When I re-read my last post , I realised how badly my english is decaying.
Thoughts for the day ....hmmm...... look at the flip side of the coin. :) and you'll find a reason to smile.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Something in the air....
Something is definitely in the air, life has been great for sometime. What this has done is given me some time to look around myself and appreciate the little things ....which would usually be clouded by worries on next paper submission, programming assignment , which data structure to use....and Tucson would be this hot scorching desert , nothing even close to California.....
But then when you actually see from that third eye, there is a clock tower which chimes every quarter of an hour. The ground in front of old main stretched green and provides ideal pastures for playing frisbee.....
On Sunday last, even though I had not finished the reading report for Monday , and I had a presentation lined up on Oracle's support for XML data, I went out with LuAnn to a pop concert. It was arranged on a grassy knoll sloping down to a stage. Only the stage had a half pod like covering...we were out in the open , under the stars and a full-moon night.
There were all these people, old couples, families with little children, everyone had spread out tehir folding chairs and spread out a picnic and were waiting for the concert to start and the full moon to rise.
The best piece of orchestra, that I loved.... was by Brahms. Why ! If you ever listen to Brahms and close your eyes, you'll see flitting images. I saw dancing ballerinas, one among whom was very beautiful. And she seemed to be flaoting across the stage on her tiptoes, in the spotlight, wearing the ballerina's white dress. And she seemed to be playing and teasing her lover...arguing , breaking up and finally having to leave him.....
well that was my imagination at play. But music does conjure pictures.......
But then when you actually see from that third eye, there is a clock tower which chimes every quarter of an hour. The ground in front of old main stretched green and provides ideal pastures for playing frisbee.....
On Sunday last, even though I had not finished the reading report for Monday , and I had a presentation lined up on Oracle's support for XML data, I went out with LuAnn to a pop concert. It was arranged on a grassy knoll sloping down to a stage. Only the stage had a half pod like covering...we were out in the open , under the stars and a full-moon night.
There were all these people, old couples, families with little children, everyone had spread out tehir folding chairs and spread out a picnic and were waiting for the concert to start and the full moon to rise.
The best piece of orchestra, that I loved.... was by Brahms. Why ! If you ever listen to Brahms and close your eyes, you'll see flitting images. I saw dancing ballerinas, one among whom was very beautiful. And she seemed to be flaoting across the stage on her tiptoes, in the spotlight, wearing the ballerina's white dress. And she seemed to be playing and teasing her lover...arguing , breaking up and finally having to leave him.....
well that was my imagination at play. But music does conjure pictures.......
Saturday, September 10, 2005
My first champagne ...
I remember the first time my mother asked me "how is the college?", I had replied that "my department has an amazing view". My department building is the tallest in campus with ten floors. It commands a view in the northern side stretching right over the UofA campus , across to the Catalinas. The Catalinas rise up and stare back at you , solemn and grave. But the play of sun and shade is amazing. The clouds are usually low enough to either touch the peaks or cast their shadow on them. So the mountains are always alternate dark and light. And you can make out when its raining there .... becoz it will be a haze of dark misty clouds covering that part of the mountain. The picture below is a more distant view than from the ninth floor of Gould-Simpson building which houses my department.
What follows is a view of the Old Main, the oldest building on campus. The college was started with this one building, founded by two gamblers .....:)
Yesterday I had my first sip of champagne. I remember Vishal had told me as if he could predict it, that I would start drinking and had given me a list of advice in this regard. I knew I wouldn't.....there are very few things in which I trust myself completely but this was one of those exceptions. Champagne is different :) or maybe I am saying so to excuse myself ;). And I had heard so much about it that given the chance, I did not feel like letting it go. So, I has a sip...one sip. How does it feel .....like something hot stuck in your throat...just at the point where you swallow.
The occassion happened to be the birthday of my room-mate Savitha. And we made it to be a surorise pot-luck. Pot-luck is where each one cooks something and brings and it ultimately is a picnic of sorts. Our menu comprised of pakodas/bhajjis, tortilla chips, coke, sprite, chole, jeera rice, pudina rice, pao-bhaji, cake and custard with fruits. The last was prepared by Shalini and me and unexpectedly turned out to be quite a hit :). Later we (Subha, Shalini and myself) watched "Scent of a woman" in Subha's house. Al Pacino was marvellous....you simply get floored by his acting and frustrations and power in the movie. Chris O Donnell was very sweet. But my favorite part of the movie was the tango that Al Pacino dances with a beautiful girl. He plays a blind man.....but the way he leads the girl across the floor ...twirling her and stepping to the beats....well, why don't I just let you all watch the movie! :)
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Can you imagine.....
Imagine steep mountains, a dark brown in color ....(a brown not like the one you get in camel water colors, a shade darker and a bit redder......) imagine green interspersed cactii or saguaro (pronounced "suaro") dotting the mountains, each saguaro a tall green post with an arm or two jutting out . From a distance they look like sentinels standing at guard .... Imagine two mountains racing each other down to a valley and then try and see the green plan land stretching out to the distant horizon where they are encircled by a range of blue mountains. A blue sky covering the scene and some white and grey clouds ...a briliiantly yellow sun rapidly disappeariing behind the clouds and then emerging again from below only to quickly drop behind the next layer of clouds in a magnificient display of orange, red and mauve.
Well , I didn't have to imagine all that bcoz I saw the sunset at a place called Gates Pass and I have tried to recollect it exactly as it happened. We were sitting on the mountain sides, perched on some white rocks and commanding a view over the valley. The best thing was just sitting with your face cupped in your hands and pondering in silence about nothing and everything ....as for just those moments you felt alone and not quite alone but part of a bigger universe. I know what I was wishing for ...to have all of you reading this sharing it there with me. But if wishes were reality then pigs would definitely fly .......:)
Now imagine a road which curves back from some height , and you have parked your car at the heighest place as far as you could have driven (beyond is a private house and you would feel jealous of the view they command but nevertheless.....). You stand there, your arms folded and look back over the road you came on ..... the road winds away into the darkness of the night but there at the place the road disappears lies the entire city of Tucson...(pronounced "two-saan" probably bcoz its too sunny :) ) .....glittering and shimmering in golden city lights. It forms an auditorium ...one of those roman colloseums, surrounding you and drawing you into it.
That was Campbell point.....
We also spent the weekend with LuAnn, in the botanical gardens ...feasting on a picnic of chicken salad and chips in a creamy cheese sauce, and home-made cakes. The botanical gardens had all variety of cactii also called "aguvae" I think. And the butterflies had just started flying in .... the pictures they formed seemed to be right out of an Enid Blyton story book.
Did I tell you about the story of my name ... well the story starts in Trichy when I put my entire name as my first name in the passport ...so it read Firstname Surname (obscured since people scared me about privacy) in the first name with no last name. I followed the same thing for applying for i20 , visa etc. When I landed here , it seemed my name had been entered into the system as FirstName surname NoLastName. Well they corrected that but they needed to have a last name and so put my entire name in the last name......which means my name is essentially now Blank FirstName Surname...that is no first name. I cannot think of any other permutation combinations that they could do with my name now ...and I am practically ok with anything as long as they have my firstname and my lastname in it somewhere. So there goes...is an identity crisis valid for me or what !!! :)
Well , I didn't have to imagine all that bcoz I saw the sunset at a place called Gates Pass and I have tried to recollect it exactly as it happened. We were sitting on the mountain sides, perched on some white rocks and commanding a view over the valley. The best thing was just sitting with your face cupped in your hands and pondering in silence about nothing and everything ....as for just those moments you felt alone and not quite alone but part of a bigger universe. I know what I was wishing for ...to have all of you reading this sharing it there with me. But if wishes were reality then pigs would definitely fly .......:)
Now imagine a road which curves back from some height , and you have parked your car at the heighest place as far as you could have driven (beyond is a private house and you would feel jealous of the view they command but nevertheless.....). You stand there, your arms folded and look back over the road you came on ..... the road winds away into the darkness of the night but there at the place the road disappears lies the entire city of Tucson...(pronounced "two-saan" probably bcoz its too sunny :) ) .....glittering and shimmering in golden city lights. It forms an auditorium ...one of those roman colloseums, surrounding you and drawing you into it.
That was Campbell point.....
We also spent the weekend with LuAnn, in the botanical gardens ...feasting on a picnic of chicken salad and chips in a creamy cheese sauce, and home-made cakes. The botanical gardens had all variety of cactii also called "aguvae" I think. And the butterflies had just started flying in .... the pictures they formed seemed to be right out of an Enid Blyton story book.
Did I tell you about the story of my name ... well the story starts in Trichy when I put my entire name as my first name in the passport ...so it read Firstname Surname (obscured since people scared me about privacy) in the first name with no last name. I followed the same thing for applying for i20 , visa etc. When I landed here , it seemed my name had been entered into the system as FirstName surname NoLastName. Well they corrected that but they needed to have a last name and so put my entire name in the last name......which means my name is essentially now Blank FirstName Surname...that is no first name. I cannot think of any other permutation combinations that they could do with my name now ...and I am practically ok with anything as long as they have my firstname and my lastname in it somewhere. So there goes...is an identity crisis valid for me or what !!! :)
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