Long time no see...

ya! I know I'm a bad blogger. I had kinda forgotten that I have a blog :p... Well nothing much to write that's why I don't blog anymore these days. You know the semester going on, TA duties and above all, hunt for an advisor. If you'r a grad student, you know the time I'm going through. The person you want to work with has no positions fro grad students and the people who have openings don't work on things you like. That's right!! I'm going through this phase.

Anyways! Let the sem finish in a few days (maybe 16-17th of May), then I'll write a few things. Till then...

Google Nightmares

Well a post after a loooooooong time. For a few days I was supposed to be (but actually was not :p) busy with a few things so I had no time to post. Well off late (I mean for past some months) there have been a lot of speculations about the fate of Google and its possible impacts on our world (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check for example this link or search for it on Google :p). I don't know how this thing got onto my mind so much that I had a strange dream two days back. The dream was okay until the end but the ending was very abrupt and scary. Here it is for you to enjoy:

I'm in some mexican place. I really don't know the name. I've just gone there for some conference or school. After the conference finsihes, I go out to see the city. I see people living in a similar to "desi" way and while going through the city, I see a punjabi girl in a house. I'm surprised to see her. She looks at me and calls her father who is an elderly sardar ji. He greets me and says that it is nice to see a punjabi here. I'm surprised to see him speaking spanish. He tells me that they have been here since he was a kid. Suddenly I don't remember where I got some companions from. But all of us were greeted and treated. Then the sardar ji tells his son to drop us all to the train station. That fellow takes us to the train station which seemingly turned into a bus station by the time we reached there :p. And as we reached the bus station, suddenly buses started flying into air and falling into crowds as if some giant were playing with toy buses. There is havoc all over the place and suddenly there are shouts all over "Google has taken over the world!!!", "Google is doing all this!!!" and then I just woke up and was not able to figure out how and why google did it :p.

Was it funny or boring? Whatever the way you found it, it was interesting for me...

It's not just me...

While writing my previous post I was feeling that I probably had the worst time in the past 4-5 months. But then I saw a link in Ved's orkut scrapbook. It's 4 in the morning and having seen this I feel that maybe 2005 was not a good year at all. It started with Tsunami and then there were Shia-Sunni tensions, London bombings, Baghdad bridge stampede, Indo-Pak earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Stan, Paris fires, Gaza strip evacuations and lots of other terrorist attacks and earthquakes... All this made me feel that my sadness was insignificant as compared to the problems that the world faced last year.

Having seen this I don't know how am I going to sleep...

Happy New Year

Well Chirstmas holidays are over. Today our school restarts 'n I can't wait to go to school after the most boring holidays in my conscious memory. Well it was not that bad as my last weekend was really a happening one. Lots of things in one short weekend.

Thursday: I went to Lancaster Mall with Bindiya 'n her bhaiya bhabi. The best thing about it was the drive from Newark to Lancaster. For the first time during my stay here in states, I saw villages, small cosy ones. I really felt like buying a house and getting settled there itself. Then those little buggies that run around in those villages are just fantastic. I have the photos in my camera phone but I don't have the transfer cable [:(]. At the mall I bought myself a sweater and a sweat shirt from GAP 'n a pair of shoes (remember those "fleet shoes" we used to wear on saturdays in primary school?) from Nike for just 10 bucks [8)].

Friday: Nothing special but for a very good movie The Motorcycle Diaries. It is based on an autobiographical book by Che Guevara. It is about a journey across the continent of South America with his friend Alberto Granado which transformed him almost completely. The main focus of the movie though is about lives of two people who came together in this journey. I must recommend that if you have not watched this movie by now, DO IT!

Saturday: We went to New York. Boy!! What a city it is!! PHENOMENAL!! I just loved the place. Those big skyscrapers, big ad-boards, those herds of people around you... Reminded me of Bombay/Calcutta at the same time. It looked like a combination of the two cities. Well as you might have guessed by now, we were there to celebrate the New Year eve at the Times Suqare. I had thought that about 70-80K people had come there but when I read the news, I was shocked by the number 1 Million! Anyways, the real thing happened when I realised at about 2 in the afternoon that if I don't go to loo now, I might have to stand for next 10 hours just trying to control myself against nature [;)]. So I decided to just sneak out from the group and look for some cafe/bar/shop where I could find a restroom. I did succeed but by the time I came back, my group was displaced by the police to rearrange people 'n I could not find them. I called them up and tried to locate their coordinates but the police did not let me go to that side [:(]. So I spent the next 9 hours alone. To make the situation worse it started raining with snow and wind. It just chilled my feet out. The only solace I had was that I was just about 50 meters from the building where they had the world famous crystal ball. Actually I got bored after some time without friends but patiently waited for the New Year to arrive. After 12:00 when the crowd dispersed, I met my friends and we went to the NY Penn station by the metro. From there we took the train to west park place NJ where we had parked the car and came back home.

Sunday (The New Year): Got up at 12:00 in the noon 'n just lingered around the house for some time. Then I got a phone call from our department graduate sceretary for a dinner at her house. Her house was at a very secluded 'n beautiful location. It was a very quiet 'n simple gathering. Just a few students and her family friends. The dinner was fabulous. Just the right thing to finish a great weekend.

Well I have bored you enough by now and I think I should go to bed now as I have to be in the department in time.

hijras in our society

yippi!!!! exams over! don't ask me if I did good or bad. It's over and that's what metters. btw I still have the final exams to grade for the kids :( ya I was taliking about some ouestions that came to my mind last week.

Remember there was a news that gay marriages have been leagalised in Britain? BBC had a detailed account of leagalisation of gay marriages in different countries. The very next day there was a program on HBO which was about the status of gays in different coutries. When they were discussing India, they talked about Hijras. They interviewed a Hijra named Nandini. He (sorry she) got himself transformed into a Hijra when he was 15. He was from some place in south India. Looked like Hydrabad (some jalebi language 'n that hydrabadi hindi). Anyways the point I am coming to is about the status of Hijras in our society.

As Nandini correctly said in that program that there is no acceptence for Hijras in our society. He (sorry again; She) has a degree in computer science but says it is no use for her. It reminded me of something my mother told me once. The Hijra who danced when I was born had a master's degree (Keep in mind that she had this degree back in 1981 when MA was really a BIG THING). But the point is that it is no use from professional point of view for them having these degrees. Nandini said in her interview that the only two options for a Hijra are begging or "dhanda" and this comment struck me hard.

After that program I tried to think of Hijras spending a normal life and I could not visualise it. I tried to think of a Hijra student with all others in the class knowing of their sexual orientation or a Hijra shopkeeper or a Hijra teller in the bank. It just seemed impossible. What else can they do? Just begging or prostitution? When this thought came to me, I felt bad about all those times when I refused to give money to Hijras in trains (and believe me, it was pleny of times. actually all the times I travelled in train). Next time I travel in a train I'm going to give them some money. But the question is that will the Hijras ever be able to enjoy a normal life just the way we do? What do you think? ...

exam time!!

Exam time!! Next week is full of exams. I fear doing bad in Galactic Astronomy course. Electrodynamics and Quantum Field Theory should go fine. Two days back I saw one program which arose some questions for me. Will be talking about that after the exams. bbye till then

lots of snow last night!! practically my first experience with snow. went home from deptt on foot in snow ;) enjoyed myself a lot. but surprisingly it does not feel tha cold even with snow. only if there is a wind... got feedback for my TA duties too. did not do well on communications but other things were fair enough. decide for yourself. Communication: 3.36/5.0, Grading: 4.04/5.0, Subject: 4.04/5.0 and Rapport: 4.50/5.0 got some flattering comments too B-) have to go and talk to Dr Shafi in the afternoon about the advisor selection stuff...