whoozline is it anywayz

May 15, 2006

2006-05-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

A day I shall remember for the rest of my life. Defended my PhD dissertation. An immense sense of satisfaction. The three years of hard work have finally paid off. I am feeling happy today. Hope to be back and chronicle my journey over the past 5 months, I am sure I can learn many things by documenting those experiences.

Another day another dime...

2006-01-19T18:46:00.000-06:00

It has been a long day today. Really long, have been at work since the past 11 hours or so with no break, I have not stepped out today. It was a beautiful day apprently since everyone around me has been commenting on how unseasonable warm it has become again.

I was helping our Product Development Team. We were making our "New" product that will hopefully revolutionize coffee drinkers around the world and probably make them a little healthier! Cannot give away too many details here for obvious reasons, I am not sure we can patent our product yet, there are too many details that need to be worked out. Let us see how it shapes out.

I was also trying to check out all the job search sites whenever I got a spare second. Job search often seems very tedious but I often enjoy it, I like to present myself and write to people. I only feel bad when not all of them respond, but that is the way of the world. If only people found whatever they wanted in an instant, how would you savor the sweet taste of victory at the end.

Another important event occured today, D and I bought tickets to visit India this Summer. It has already been 1.5 years since our last visit. More on this later. Had been working on getting the best possible dates, times and price of course. Was happy at the end of it although not so happy about the 'financial adjustments' I will have to make to take on a debt of this magnitude, given my frugal assistantship.

Life keeps happening to me and I "keep walking".

The Struggle

2006-01-18T20:45:00.000-06:00

Another Beginning...

2006-01-18T20:33:00.000-06:00

Ok... here is my attempt to make another beginning at being able to post regularly. I really want to do it, recording my thoughts, my feelings and emotions. I wish I could capture all these highs and lows. However, sometimes I conveniently forget to do it and at other times, opening up "Blogger" and publishing itself seems like an unecessary chore. On my list of things to do everyday, blogging is not even on the "To Do List". I think I need to set a time and place to blog. Let's see how long this effort will last.

I have edited the previous post on my blog to reflect the 1st of January. It was more for posteirity and to maintain the continuit of the blog.

Many things happening these days... will carefully document them in the next few days here.

Gute Nacht!

Happy New Year-2006

2006-01-01T20:26:00.000-06:00

May this New Year bring prosperity and happiness to everyone!

This will be another eventful year of my life, I am scheduled to graduate this Summer, search and hopefully start a new job, and a new life at another destination in my life.

May this year be good to me, my family, my friends, and the world.

Fighter Hamesha Jeet-ta Hain

2005-12-10T18:54:00.000-06:00

Zidagi Hai To Khwab Hain,
Khwab Hai To Manzilain Hain,

Manzilain Hai To Faasle Hain,
Faasle Hai To Raaste Hain,
Raaste Hai To Mushkilain Hain,
Mushkilain Hain To Hausla Hain,

Hausla Hai To Vishwas Hai,

Kyonki Fighter Hamesha Jeet-ta Hai.

These words were penned by Javed Akhtar for an advertisement for a brand called Rotomac Fighter. I loved these lyrics back in the day when they used to air these advertisement (pre-2000). In fact the words were a source of inspiration for me during a trying phase in my life (read applications to Grad school). I still sometimes mumble to myself, "Fighter Hamesha Jeet-ta Hain" occassionaly. I chanced upon the full lyrics on a blog about 6 months ago, I cannot recollect the exact source, but I remember he was an MBA student from MDI, Gurgaon. Anyway, I took the lyrics from the blog and I look at them once in a while. Today, I decided to post them online in my blog. I am currently going through a phase where I sure can use the inspiration from these words. To me these words are nothing short of "brilliant".

Good night.

For Whom the Blog Tolls?

2005-11-15T21:20:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog. Life has been very busy, as I might have expected. I am into the penultimate semester of my Grad school life. All the final experiments and research is taking its toll. However, I cant complain, I might as well struggle now and get my work over with. I have always wanted this blog to be my online journal capturing important events in the different phases of my career, so this blog tolls for me and I need to do a better job of helping myself.

There have been several events that have occured in the past two months in my life that have been quite important. So for posterity, I am going to try and capture them here:

1. I learnt Macromedia Dreamweaver MX etc...(I re-designed my Professional homepage)
2. I successfully completed a Graduate Teacher Technology Certification class, which means I am a certified TA to design undergraduate classes both in class and online.
3. I am currently a TA for an undergraduate class of about 80 students here in my Department. This is a lab class but it is taught in 4 sections and it involves a lot of advance preparation so this lab zaps up about 1/3rd of my time.
This class has also been a personal reveleation of sorts, I have come to realize I do enjoy teaching. However, I could use a break once in a while from teaching the same lab 4 times!
4. I was able to meet a lot of potential employers at job fairs on the campus, in fact I got a callback from one of my "Fab 5 companies to work for" so watch out Minneapolis, here I come once again! I still need to clear the second round of Technical Interviews etc so I am going to be busy this 'Thanksgiving Week' prepping for that.
5. I was able to write 4 abstracts for a one day conference here at the University with my funding agency ( I cannot believe I completed the Abstracts and the posters in the space of 72 hours... phew!)
6. Enjoyed all my Saturdays (alternate weeks) at the Football games... It was fun! Cheered for our University team though they were not having their best season (ouch)
7. Enjoyed most Sunday's watching the NFL action on TV, an old friend signed me up for a NFL Fantasy league and I sure was hooked onto it for sometime.
8. Currently trying to work on my second research paper and its making slow but steady progress.
9. Also trying to get an outline approved for my PhD dissertation, I cannot believe I am going to graduate in May!

So all in an eventful Fall, 2005. There have been so many other happenings mostly good stuff that has kept me going, I hope I carry the momentum into my final semester beginning next January.

Adios....

Cycle of Seasons

2005-08-15T18:18:00.000-05:00

“Nothing is permanent except change”, but in a way I feel change is cyclical. Just like the cycle of seasons. So if we are ever feeling down, an optimist’s view would be to not despair because “good times” are right around the corner just as you look forward to the Fall after the heat of the Summer or the Spring after the bitter cold of the Winter.

Taking the ‘cycle of seasons’ analogy further, I feel the best part of living in the US thus far has been experiencing the four seasons in all their glory. The Summers are great given the extra hours of daylight, the good weather (just perfect to wear shorts!), the road trips and not to mention the peace and quite on campus. Summers are the best time to get research done since everything is quite, people are relaxed and everyone is free from the pressures of class work. Of course by the time you have your fill of the Summers, Fall rolls in. Fall is another one of those beautiful times when the surroundings turn into a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors! Nothing can be more scenic than the foliage around you. Fall to me also symbolizes the sense of excitement on campus with new faces, a new sense of purpose and the beginning of the academic calendar. As Winter rolls in during December, the snow seems to put a damper on the spirits but it’s a great time to enjoy the powdery, misty flakes. As someone who had experienced the 3rd worst winter of the past century in the good old “Prairies” of Minnesota, the best piece of advice I had gotten to Winter survival was to be an optimist, enjoy the weather (even if it was 30 below freezing with the wind chills, after all a good sense of humor always warms you right-up) and try to be outdoors as much as you physically can without being cooped up indoors for too long. How I loved to kick back on those cold wintery days as the days got shorter and the nights long, with a hot cup of coffee (or soup) and watch the latest action flick or college football, bliss!! After Winter, March followed in time for Spring and after having survived those three months of snow you are ready for the trees to turn green again. Spring is the time for ‘re-birth’, to plan ahead to the future and to contemplate on the year gone by. And then the cycle begins all over again, just like that…..

Sunrise over Lake Michigan

2005-08-10T21:28:00.000-05:00

The sun comes up in all its glory over Lake Michigan, Milwaukee. The picture was taken during our recent trip to Milwaukee and Madison. The highlight of that trip was watching the sunrise!

To Blog or Not to Blog?

2005-07-29T15:15:00.000-05:00

What is the ideal time to blog? Weekends, weeknights, anytime?Should I blog from work or from home? I am wrestling with the question when should I blog?
Should I blog only when something significant happens in my life?
Should I blog only when I am happy or upset?
Should I blog when things are going my way (or not)?
Should I blog when I need to share information?
Should I blog when I have opinions to share or views to propogate?
Should I blog to criticize or promote a view?
Should I blog to just show off or to spite?

Blogging is very much an evolving phenomenon as we speak and the rules of blogging etiquette are evolving. Of course anyone's blog is his or her own personal space but yet the question remains how much you want to let your audience know about your own personl life, is anononymity a good thing or a bad thing (After all some peoply misuse this)?

These thoughts entered my mind after I listened to this interview of an anonymous blogger (of course she was not anonymous anymore when CNN interviewed her on 360) who got fired from her job when she started commenting about her industry and her job!

Some food for thought.

Road Trip- Summer 2005

2005-07-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

My upcoming road trip, starting tomorrow, significant statistics:

Miles: 2100 miles (yes, it was exactly 2100.00 miles!)
Trip duration: 6 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes
Driving time: 30 hours, 49 minutes
Driving through: IN, IL, TN, MO, AR, MS, LA, AL, KY and FL (yes, we also entered Florida unexpectedly!)
Significant stops: Sikeston, MO; Memphis, TN; Jackson, MS; New Orleans, LA; Ocean Springs, MS; Mobile, AL; Gulf Shores, AL; Orange Beach, AL; Perdido Keys, FL; Nashville, TN, Louisville, KY and Indianapolis, IN.

The Joy of Gardening

2005-07-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

It is an amazing experience to watch any living organism grow, be it a pet, a plant, or even a baby! I don’t have any pets or babies but D and I are cultivating a number of plants this summer. A two minute, short walk from our apartment is our garden, courtesy the University’s friendly policy that allots land that we can use to cultivate flowers or vegetables. I must confess this was never my idea to begin with and I went along with D’s enthusiasm to grow our own food. She has toiled for the past two and half months since we have had the garden, ploughing the land, seeding, watering and tending to the plants. I only accompanied her on our evening walks and watched her water the plants, never once lifting a finger. About two weeks ago, I think the gardening bug bit me when I offered to help her clean out some weeds. Little did I know at that time what I was about to experience would be so profound that it would affect me deeply i.e. watching plants grow. It is an indescribable feeling if you consider how a tiny scrap of land, that you till and in which a seed is planted, breaks out to give a tiny leaf which then blossoms into a plant. There is a lot to appreciate in this beautiful gift of nature. The analogy to our own lives is remarkable, how we have come a long way from being ‘seeds’ our selves to mature independent trees ready to bear fruit.

In addition to the shear joy of gardening there is another aspect to it, the physical experience that gardening provides is also amazing that one must only experience this to believe it. Talk about bearing the fruit of one’s own labor. This has made me realize that how learned and successful one gets in life and how much ever money one makes there are actually very small and invaluable moments that nature provides for free! These are what I call the simple pleasures and joys of life.

My Trips to Chicago

2005-07-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

The advantage of my present campus location is its proximity to the Chicago Metropolitan area. I have been to Chicagoland atleast a couple of dozen times not to mention catching the international flights to India. Chicago is one of those wonderful, vibrant and beautiful cities. There are so many things to do in Chicago that I sometimes feel the day long trips I often make are insufficient to enjoy my time there. I have enjoyed my time along the beautiful Lake Michigarn shore, downtown with the fantastic museum (though, I must confess it was no match for the Met in NYC), Michigan avenue, US cellular field (Twins vs White sox in the Summer of 2003), a conference in McCormick Place (which purportedly claims to be the biggest convention centre) to name a few. Of course being the Desi that I am, I also cannot but enjoy the ambience of Devon Avenue. Its always a great feeling to go there and find the latest music cassettes, CD’s, movies, chaat and the great food! It’s always a new experience visiting Devon, and if only I had the time to re-capture every single happening

D and I celebrated our first anniversary with a visit to the Aurora temple. The Aurora (www.balaji.org) along with the Lemont temple (http://www.ramatemple.org/) are the most popular temples in the Chicagoland area. It’s always a very moving spiritual experience to visit both these places and I feel fortunate to be able to visit these places as often as I do. This time around we also went to the new Shirdi Sai temple on IL-47 in Hampshire, IL (http://www.saibaba.us/index.html). A friend recently mentioned the opening of the Swaminarain Mandir in Schaumburg with its great architecture, hopefully we will get another opportunity to check it out on our next visit.

The drive to Chicago is always fun-filled and adventurous and this time around I wanted to explore alternate routes, without spending too much on the toll-ways and it was interesting driving through some of the neighborhoods. All in all a great couple of weeks. I could not help but document here for the record that I traveled more than a 1000 miles in the last 10 days. To Chicago and back on the 25^th, to Indianapolis on the 29^th to the airport, to celebrate S’s birthday at his place, the drive to OHare to drop off S’s mom along with all the extended family members on the 4^th of July!

Another big road trip is coming up as D and I gear up to travel 1800 odd miles through the mid-west and the south to visit the big-easy for a conference. This will be the longest road trip I have ever under-taken through 8 states and visiting the Gulf of Mexico. 7 days, 1800 miles, I can’t wait.

The Week in Review and 'The Craft of Scientific Writing'

2005-06-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

The past week was one of the busiest in a long time. There were three very important events that took place: 1. My PhD committee meeting; 2. Meeting with our funding agency and all the PI’s (Principal Investigators) on the project and 3. Review of my first PhD paper from my Advisor.

Now, no 3. happened first and there was one thing I realized quickly after receiving the comments from my boss, and boy was it bleeding red, that I still could not claim to have conquered the domain of writing scientific articles’. Well, I was never under the impression that I had it all figured out but I thought I was definitely getting “there”, especially after that successful preliminary defense. But thanks to my Boss, I was brought back crashing to earth. I deserved it! Any way to cut a long story short, the entire week was spent adding, fine-tuning and reworking a good chunk of my ‘research paper’. Still some amount of work left to do and I hope to finish it by the middle of next week. The consolation is that the Boss liked the new look to the paper and thinks that the paper is improving! Always a good sign!

For any one reading this who wants to improve their Scientific Writing skills, here is a great book I recommend, which was gifted to me by my cousin last year: May be I need to re-read it myself :)

The Craft of Scientific Writing, by Michael Alley, 3rd Edition

I also spent a good chunk of my week working on two presentations. The first to my committee which fortunately was well received, lots of good feedback. Now, if there is one thing in this world I love to hear is ‘constructive criticism’. I don’t mind people ripping into me, so long as they tell me what would make my ideas/presentations/results etc. better. The other presentation to my funding agency with the other PI’s also went well; this unlike the previous presentation was not a one man’s show but a collective effort of a couple more students. I coordinated the presentation and everyone like it, so it was a great way to end the week.

Another eventful week coming up and I am gearing up for it. There is something about Sunday evening’s that I love when I get an opportunity to plan out my up coming week, I always feel good and think I get a head-start when the week begins Monday morning!

Good nite!

The Valuation of Technology

2005-06-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

The title of the post is also the title of the book that was recommened to me recently. The book deals with 'Business and Financial Issues in R&D' and the author is Dr Peter Boer. I have only finished the preface and I already feel great about the info that I am gaining out of the book.

Here is a link for all those who might want to take a peek at the book. I was seriously debating on buying this book but fortunately the book turned up in our Engineering library.

Hopefully I should be able to attack this book with gusto once I finish the other book I recently started, "Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson. I had a lot of MBA bloggers gushing about the book, but initial impression is that it is a decent book and the hype surrounding is misplaced. Just my take.

I have a PhD committee meeting coming up next week. I will be reviewing my past year's research effort for my committee and bringing them up to speed with my work. It should be interesting to get everyone's feedback and keep myself on track for graduating without too many surprises.

Till then....

Can we Plan for Innovation?

2005-05-28T17:35:00.000-05:00

As a graduate student, I am in the business of research. So how does one define research? To put it simply it is the search for “new information and understanding of phenomenon, concepts etc”. Now to seek new information, one must “innovate” i.e. “a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation”. So now how can we then plan to innovate? Is innovation always something that hits one when one is in the shower, or when one is taking a long walk etc, or is it something that can be planned, I have had mixed feelings about this subject since a long time. I have always approached innovation as something that as the adage puts it “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. During Graduate school, I have learnt to appreciate the approach to research which involves developing ‘hypotheses’ and then designing experiments to verify them. Now in addition to the ‘Hypothesis’ driven approach there is another approach which was expounded by Dr Frank Bacon Jr. (http://www.plannedinnovation.com/) in an excellent presentation, that I had the privilege of attending. The beauty of this approach lies in its ability to ask critical questions about an existing product and then to develop a new approach/extensions that will solve existing problems with the product/process. The best part of the approach I felt was its ability to institutionalize this approach so that innovation can be built into a nice model for use by everyone. I was impressed by the examples of the products for which this approach has worked. Of course there were some where in the approach failed miserably but due to reasons other than the approach itself.

This has set me thinking that “innovation” is something that can be carefully planned for and sometimes all you need is to start asking the right sorts of questions and lo and behold there are ways to create and develop extensions and solve problems. It does not have to be the exact approach suggested by Dr Bacon and others, it can start with one’s own unique approach. After all who better understands the product/process better than oneself.

Twin Cities, Land of 10,000 Lakes

2005-05-23T22:12:00.000-05:00

The last weekend I visited the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul in the great land of 10,000 lakes. It was almost an year since my last year to the Cities, but every time I go back I feel more attached to that place than ever before. After all I had spent close to 3 years before I had moved to the ‘Crossroads of America’. It was all the more enjoyable as we (I invited my extended family members who were visiting us) to accompany D and me to MN. We drove through Madison and this time I spent some more time exploring the city. We enjoyed the visit to the Capitol, the Museum and the Lakefront. The hospitality of D’s cousin in Madison was phenomenal and we were talking of that all through the trip. I cherished my visit to my erstwhile school, and felt nostalgic about some of the memories that came flooding back as I showed everyone around the St Paul campus. I got some parting shots of the ‘Finnish Bakery’ and the Dunn Bros coffee shape where in I filled up on many a cups of Cappuccino on my way to the library while writing my MS thesis. The weather during the trip held up, though we experienced some anxious moments as the clouds threatened occasionally. The highlight of course was attending J’s marriage. The church was tastefully decorated and so was the reception which was held in a ‘Manor’. We really enjoyed our drive through the twin cities on our way to Minnehaha Falls and Lake Harriet. Not to forget a nice visit to the Mall of America.
The timing of our drive was perfect and we reached back home on time Sunday night. Last Monday I started off with the “Applied Management Principles” class that I talked about in my earlier post. It has been an amazing eye-opener, a wonderful opportunity that I have always desired. The instructor is amazing and he draws upon his vast experience to teach us some ‘fundamental principles’ in Management. Hopefully, I will be documenting some of my key learning’s or “take-away” in the B-school parlance in future posts.

Adios… G’nite

Do PhD’s need an MBA?

2005-05-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

The simple answer if you ask anyone this question is, ‘it depends’. Well, if you were to ask me the same question, my answer would be ‘Yes’. A couple of years ago when I was at a crossroads in my career working on an internship after my MS, I seriously considered alternatives to further my education. I had weighed the pros and cons of a PhD and an MBA. I chose to do a PhD and thought to myself I will come back to the MBA later in my life when I had more experience and worldly wise. I am glad I made the right decision.

The reason for this post is this very interesting program that has been developed by the Business school of our University. It recognizes the need to equip students who are armed with PhDs with certain tools that may be necessary for them in their interactions with their Company Business. Here is what our Business school website states quite clearly:

“Increasing numbers of Ph.D. scientists and engineers are expressing a heightened interest in the world of business for a variety of reasons. They are: (1) Interested in the economic ramifications of their scientific output; (2) intrigued by their attractiveness to, and fit within, industry; and (3) curious if their technical knowledge is best applied in entrepreneurial start-up ventures”

So our B-school in all its wisdom decided to develop a short-program exclusively designed for certain Industry people and PhD students. Here is what the website states, I did not want to paraphrase it, and hence the direct quotes:

“This program is designed for select industry participants, as well as doctoral students in science and engineering who will likely move into the private sector (rather than academe) after completion of their studies. Whether the participants find themselves in a research and development position, a technical service role, or even in sales in a company, they will likely have to deal with management issues and managers in a "for-profit" setting. Ultimately, many may assume senior management roles in their companies or start their own enterprises. In most cases, they will find that a basic understanding of the functional fundamentals of business management proves most useful”

I was honored to be nominated by my Advisor and my Department for this class. Well, now the fun part. I am going to be a part of this short series which will cover the following 6 core areas:

1. Accounting
2. Human Resources Management
3. Financial Management
4. Marketing Management
5. Strategic Management
6. Entrepreneurship

The series will be short spread over duration of 2 weeks including Saturdays. It starts next Monday. The course is being coordinated by this Professor in International Finance and Business, who also happens to be an alumnus of our University. I am very excited about learning some fundamentals of Business school. If not anything else, I will know what to expect in my job when I graduate. This is a great learning opportunity and I want to make the best of it.

Modified Graduate School Food Pyramid

2005-05-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is a very interesting take on the life a PhD student. A friend of mine a few months ago introduced me to this site called PhD comics . I had never heard about them before. One look and I realized what I had been missing all these years. Kind of a 'Dilbertean' view of the life in a research lab. I could not agree more with this cartoon!! It is a humorous take on life in grad school.
I was also practicing my new found skills on inserting images into my posts and as it turns out I was successful with my first image post.
Enjoy...

An Exam to Remember

2005-05-06T10:15:00.000-05:00

A few minutes before 10 am on Friday the 6th of May, 2005 will definitely be one to remember. I had finished the exam only a few minutes earlier, I reviewed my paper, with the same degree of thoroughness, that I had displayed over the years (atleast whenever I had finished the exam in time), trying to make sure I had not made any mistakes, reviewing the answers, adding a few additional comments here n there. I did stop for a moment to ponder the consequence of what I was about to do. I was turning in my exam paper, unlike previous final exams, I did not feel an immediate rush of excitement but I was lost in thought, a quite reflection as I thought to myself about all these years.

I could not resist this post, but I wanted to capture my feelings at this time. The previous night was spent unlike no another, even though I was completely prepared, I spent hours (until 2:15 AM last night) going over the contents one more time. May be I was feeling nostalgic and could not let go of the books, but I cherished every moment of it.

Inspiration- "It is never too early to start writing"

2005-05-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

Today... I made my way to the library to check out a few of the 'Dissertations' from my Department. I wanted to get a flavor for what kind of format people have used, I checked out a number of different 'Dissertations/Theses'. It was very helpful to see quite a few formats being used especially for the PhD. I think I have an outline in my mind as to what format, I would like, I hope to formalize this by the end of this summer. It was also interesting to note how much our Department has changed over the years and I did not recogize some of the Professors who were listed on some 'Theses'.

In addition to checking out the format, I also read through some of the 'Acknowledgement'. I always feel that the most perfect insight into a person's insight about their accomplishment comes across in their 'acknowledgements'. It is one place where people genuinely express their feelings and one can clearly see the sense of their pride in their work. I felt good, I dont know why exactly, but given the fact that how much work I have accomplished over the past 2 years here at Grad school, I feel I can see the "light at the end of the tunnel". I felt inspired and ready to go forth and get my act together.

My previous experiences while writing my MS thesis have only made me wiser to one fact and that is, "It is never too early to start writing!"

Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation

2005-05-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

The title is a book by " James E Mauch and Jack W Birch" that I have been reading recently. My goal is to complete this book cover to cover in the next month. It has been designed as a 'A Handbook for Student and Faculty'.

Here is some 'wisdom' from the book that is worth pointing out:

It is a 'Thesis' when it is a Master level degree and a 'Dissertation' for a Doctoral degree.

"The doctoral dissertation is expected to represent independent and original research in the field of the candidate's graduate study. It must add, in some fashion, to understanding either from the critical examination of materials not hitherto dealt with or from the re-examination of traditional materials by means of new techniques or from new points of view. The project undertaken must be of sufficient difficulty and scope to test the candidate's ability to carry on further research (independently) and it must ensure.... mastering the skills needed for such research"

Now, I could not pass up on posting this because this represents in its entirety my 'mission' here at Graduate School and why I am here. Will I live upto this expectation and rigor is a whole another question but I know I am making my effort.

Finals Week

2005-05-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

It is Finals week here at school. It is one finals weeks after a very long time, that I am not stressed out about. I have only one final exam, scheduled for Friday at 8 AM. Interestingly, this exam might turn out to be the last sit-down formal exam of my life! I feel elated but at the same time, cautious so as not to jinx it! Will I ever be in a formal sit-down type exam situation every again??? I know I have plenty more exam type situations to go with the most important being my 'Final PhD Defense' but an in-class exam, may be not !! Gee, 23 years of formal education!! (Starting with Grade 1, of course). WOW!!! It has been an amazing ride, to say the least.

For the Record

2005-04-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

It was an eventful month. There were a lot of high points and indeed one very low point too. Ok so for the record:
1. Yours truly successfuly defended his 'PhD prelim proposal' on the 31st of March. Was a great day and the feeling was/is still wonderful. So I am 'PhD candidate' now. (Have always wondered why that is different!)
2. Went to Madison, WI to participate in a 'College Bowl competiition'. Wondering what that is, it is just like a 'quiz competition'.
3. Three of my aunts are here in the US. Lots of goodies from India and it feels almost like home here in town. To put the record straight a 4th aunt is also here but in a different part of the country. Missing only parents otherwise the entire 'clan' would have been here!
4. Low point: It was a very very low point, rather not mention it here, but I never knew how big a role 'trust' plays in one's life. But to end this point on a happy note, things are better than they used to be!!!
5. Spring Fest at school. Had good fun and never realized that spring could be so beautiful (I mean I knew that but it was good to re-experience it once again).

Now having listed all these points, I feel I am ready to blog again. I need to get a hold of my life for an instant and plan into this Summer and Fall. I need to finish a lot of things so that I can graduate on time. Let us see how it goes.

Till then... enjoy!

Saturday Night Fever

2005-03-19T22:06:00.000-06:00

I love Saturday Nights, but than again there is also something about having enjoyed a Saturday evening so much that, I know I have to catch up with all the work that has piled up on Sunday. I always want to work on Saturday afternoons but end up just having a good time and today was no different. Had friends over for dinner tonight and the evening was spent getting ready. I hope I have a productive day tomorrow.

I somehow forsee an eventful rest of Spring and Summer. Lots of reasons some owing to my extended family visiting from India and others due to my upcoming Prelim defense. Ths upcoming year is also going to eventful neverthless, I just hope I am able to stick to my schedule to graduate in time.

Ok ... pray for me and keep your fingers crossed.

Life's persistent questions?

2005-03-16T20:11:00.000-06:00

What do we want in life? aka what is one's life ambition?
How do we manage time?
How do we communicate our feelings?
How do we love someone?
How do we tell some one how much we appreciate their help?
How do we obtain happiness?
What is true happiness anyway?
Who is a true friend?
How can we satisfy our family and friends? (aka keep 'em happy)
How can we help other people?
How can we make a difference in someone's life?
How can we enjoy with what we have?

Just a few thoughts, I have been thinking today. I seem to be seeking a lot of answers, I probably know answers to most of these questions but I don't know if they are the right answers. One day when the final chapter will be written shall I know.

G'nite

Spring Break

2005-03-15T14:02:00.000-06:00

This is spring break week, life has slowed a bit. The rush from submitting my prelim proposal has subsided. Its only the calm before the storm though since I know I have to prepare for the final defense very soon (Scheduled it for the 31st March).
I have been "blog surfing" quite a bit of late. I keep wondering where I have been the past few years, of course it is not like my blog would have made a difference. However, I wish I had cemented my own thoughts for posterity. I am impressed with a number of blogs. I am a frequent visitor of the www.indianmbaleague.blogspot.com I have been following some of the blogs quite frequently. It is indeed interesting to note that there so many themes for candidates to right. Their experiences about getting to Grad school for MBA , life as a student etc. I guess I am a little too caught up with these MBA blogs but neverthless, having a theme for your blogs is essential for the blog to hold a readers attention.

I do not have a theme yet, I guess that is the beauty of being in a 'research' oriented setting where you have an ultimate goal but the path that leads to it is uncharted, atleast by others before, and you are by definition required to leave a new footprint. I hope I get to do just that.

Take care....

Random thoughts....

2005-03-09T19:46:00.000-06:00

How it got started

2005-02-07T13:09:00.000-06:00

Alrite... here is how I started my blog. It was the week before Superbowl weekend, I was searching for the perfect recipe for Hyderabadi Biryani online, of course on google! I entered the keywords and started checking out the results.. there was this link to a blog, in which there was a reference to "Hyderabadi Biryani" in the column titled Gastronomic delights. Now I found it strange... and clicked on the link, to read the blog. It was interesting snippet of the humble origins of the biryani. Then I started exploring this persons blog, it was interesting and it caught my attention. I have heard of blogs and even followed a few during the Presidential elections in 2004 but I never realized there was such a big community of bloggers from India...... I have been hooked the past week and have browsed through quite a few blogs especially the MBA bloggers. I hope I can keep writing and keep in touch. Ciao.

The humble beginnings!

2005-02-02T19:58:00.000-06:00

Alrite, here I am and what do I do now? Well, I am going to make the customary welcome to all who happen to stumble into my weblog. I have an interesting story as to why I created this site and how it happened, kindda silly but I will post it later.

Adios... n keep smiling.