55 words

He kept thinking what to write. His mind was blank. He hadn't really done anything today. Morbid stuff was off his list. So was silly humor. And recollections of random conversations. And deep philosophy. That wouldn't fit into 55 words. And who wanted to read philosophy anyway? So, he wrote this. In 55 words. Just.
Kirthi tagged me. I haven't been checked out yet. Ok. Forgiveness.
Madhura, KP could follow. Negi ? Rat?

More Observations of a Specific Kind

Friend 1
(Pre- Hot Consulting Job)
Me: Bye bugger
He: Bye
(Post- Hot Consulting Job)
Me: Bye bugger
He: As much as I would like to talk to you, I need to go for lunch with a friend. I hope I can catch you later.
Me: Huh? ($%@##$#)
Friend 2
(Geek. I have always known him as such. Quoted from the last post.)
Me: 2 Ph. D.s ??
He: Yeah. He didn't time multiplex.
Me: ?? (....)
Friend 3
(Marketing a.k.a. paid to bullshit)
Me and a guy or two: So, how do we get people to join Utsav.
He: Friends, we re-christened IGSA as UTSAV primarily to infuse in it a sense of joy and fun. Please try and understand the name carries everything. Right from our events to Asha briefings make sure "Utsav" comes first. If we can put Utsav first we can levarage its identity and can broaden our scope.
Me: Okk. (So a pumpkin called a rose becomes a rose. If, you can leverage it's identity. And broaden it's scope.)
'Friend' 4
(...)<- preserving my efforts at decency in this public form.
Me: So, we have been friends for so long.
'Friend': Yes, I let you be my friend. It's not like I am going to say 'No no don't be my friend'.
Me:@#$@#@#@$
#@#@#$=Fill in the blanks. Any guesses? Special points for good ones.

Curious Observations of a Random Kind

1. My CS batch in IIT had 30 students. There were about 120 undergraduates in my department across all the years. There were about 180 in my hostel. There were about 400 across all disciplines in my year, about 2000 across all the 4 years. I knew most guys in my branch, my hostel, and some random people through this and that. Lots of people - atleast by face. Here in UIUC, the CS department takes in about 300 undergraduate and 100 graduate students each year. The department has atleast 1500 students as a whole. The university has atleast 25,000 students on it's rolls. I know about 20 people here. I meet about 5 on a daily basis. Sucks no. I fully agree.

2. I had a couple of situations over the last week that has called on my mostly lacking diplomatic skills. When someone asks you for your opinion on something should you be tactful or truthful? Tact saves the awkwardness but borders on being dishonest. Thus is life, but you might not be actually appreciated for being truthful. So, it's a vague situation to be in. What I actually, ended up doing is telling the truth and 'buffering' it, you know, that's how it is for everybody so it's ok.

3. 95% of my meetings with acquaintaces go like this :
Me: Hi
Acq: Hi
(some hi how are you talk)
Me: So, whom do you work with? What do you do for your research?
This previous question can be replaced with:
What courses are you taking this semester?
Where did you intern this summer?
What are your plans? MS or PhD? Tech or Non-Tech?
Acq: Blah
Acq: (Same question rephrased to me)
Me: Blah.
You have no idea how ingrained you are to this. I am wondering if it is always like this. Do certain sets of people keep talking about the same set of things. Maybe some people discuss Vivek Oberoi and Aishwarya Rai. Maybe some discuss cricket. Maybe some discuss good movies. Being in the last bunch would be fun.

4. The Indian Graduate Student's association had an introductory session. I was part of the organizing committe (Yay. Don't worry, you don't need any qualifications. Actually, the basic criterion is you shouldn't have any qualifications. If you did, you wouldn't be there. Ok. Forgive me.).We had a Mr and Mrs Utsav (that's what our org. is called - Utsav).
We had an attitude questionaire and one of the questions were:
'Whats a good line for an alien you meet in a bar?'
Some 3 guys wrote.'Aaja meri gaadi mein bait ja'. 50 cent has a song whose title means the same thing. But, it's not so politely phrased. It's not too tough to guess though.
Another question was:
'Say something bad about yourself'
This question was in jest. Just to see if you can say something bad about yourself. One girl actually wrote 'Nothing'. Heh. I just found something.
Another was a fill in the blank:
'Johnny johnny yes papa...'. You had to fill it in with some nonsense.
One of the replies was hilarious. '..hack into my email account no papa'.

5. There is a Professor in CMU, Eric Xing, who has done 2 Ph. Ds. One in Biochemistry and one in Computer Science. No, he didn't as a friend of mine says 'time multiplex'. For those non-geek souls, that means he didn't do both at the same time. Like pick a cunning thesis topic. He did one after the other. After. I was wondering how one could possibly motivate onself to do that? After, one Ph. D. itself I will be like 'Whew!'. One more a? No no.

Funny Very Funny

Another graduate student haiku. I don't know what the silly thing means but it sounds really deep and meaningful. So, haiku it is.
Apartment,
Department,
Advisor,
Budweisor.
Actually, Google informs me that Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. Here it is.

How to write Haiku
In japanese, the rules for how to write Haiku are clear, and will not be discussed here. In foreign languages, there exist NO consensus in how to write Haiku-poems. Anyway, let's take a look at the basic knowledge:

What to write about?
Haiku-poems can describe almost anything, but you seldom find themes which are too complicated for normal PEOPLE's recognition and understanding. Some of the most thrilling Haiku-poems describe daily situations in a way that gives the reader a brand new experience of a well-known situation.

The metrical pattern of Haiku
Haiku-poems consist of respectively 5, 7 and 5 syllables in three units. In japanese, this convention is a must, but in english, which has variation in the length of syllables, this can sometimes be difficult.

The technique of cutting
The cutting divides the Haiku into two parts, with a certain imaginative distance between the two sections, but the two sections must remain, to a degree, independent of each other. Both sections must enrich the understanding of the other.
To make this cutting in english, either the first or the second line ends normally with a colon, long dash or ellipsis.

The seasonal theme.
Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn't always that obvious.
Please notice that Haiku-poems are written under different rules and in many languages. For translated Haiku-poems, the translator must decide whether he should obey the rules strictly, or if he should present the exact essence of the Haiku. For Haiku-poems originally written in english, the poet should be more careful. These are the difficulties, and the pleasure of Haiku.

More.

Funny

Ha!

Rationality

Man is a rational creature. He loves to reason. He loves to analyze. Pick apart. Dissect. Elaborate. Remember how you spent 4 hours picking apart something that happened over 30 seconds. Wasnt it outrageous? Most of the complexity that you introduce into the event did not exist at the time the event actually occured. It did not have a reason. Maybe it did, but you werent aware of it at that point of time. So, thats not the reason. 'Yeah, he should have seen the off swinger' thing makes perfect logical sense he should have but he couldn't. Capiche. C'est bon.
One of the typical situations to which this self-torture cum masochism applies is decisions. Whats a decision? You have some information, some course of action to be taken and you have options. The first 2 are ok, the problem comes with options. With options - confusion, delusion and collusion. Ok. Ok. No collusion. So, there are some pros and cons that stick out with each course of action and you choose one after some careful though.
Now, what about after a decision after it is made. Does it make any sense to look at it? No! Why? You are making a judgement of the situation based on your evaluation of the situation at that point of time. It is based on the information available to you at that point of time. Actually, I doubt if there are any investment bankers reading this. They have perfectly understood the concept of information. A trading decision might be based on all kinds of statistical modeling and high end math but it is impossible to be perfectly certain. There is some inherent error. The idea is to get into the picture as much information as possible, if possible (preferably) information not available to everyone. Buy Microsoft stock in 1982. Buy Amazon stock in 1992. Stay miles away from Enron. How would it be if you knew it right then and no one did. Both aspects are important, if you didn't know you wouldn't buy it. If everyone did, everyone will, or actually Microsoft won't sell it (as Microsoft knows it as well). Slightly complicated point.
So what is the conclusion of all this? It is meaningless for you to say 'Oh yeah man, I should have done that'.You can only take comfort in these 3 things:

• I tried to gather as much information as I could
• I looked at all the information I had gathered
• The choice I took did justice to the information and my needs at that point in time. I was convinced.

You need to (better) face the consequences of your decision but you aren't actually responsible for the consequences being the consequnces.
The guy who had loads of fun in college says he should have worked. The guy who worked hard in college says he should have had some more fun. The guy who was nerdy says he probably shouldn't have been so nerdy. The guy who partied every night says maybe he should have hit those books. The guy who decided to go for an MBA thinks he should have gone for Ph. D. . The guy who gets into IIT feels he should have chilled out in life and had one hell of social life like the B. Lit. guy in Loyola. The guy in Loyola feels jealous of the guy with the IIT stamp and 'major' career prospects. Without realizing that.. . In final judgement, I feel such talk is meaningless. You made a decision then, based on your evaluation of the situation and your needs then. Just embrace it and if you need to act differently now, do so, but do not regret a decision made.
PS: I know people love sports. But please don't read between lines. Pretty please. :D

Hmm..

You would think people change. You would think people become kind. How much sense does it make to talk trash about people whom you last met 7 years back and you probably aren't going to meet again in your life. None. Is it just me or are these people crazy?

Double guessing

You know there is no joy to this world like nice juicy speculation concerning another person. Especially, if this speculation JUST holds true under the known facts but has very 'interesting' implications.So, when I decided to come to India for a few weeks at the end of my internship:
People in the US assumed:

• I am coming to see gf lady (yeah, right)
• I am coming to get engaged (no, thank you)
• I am terribly homesick. (not really, but I dont mind going home)

People in India assumed:

• The stuff assumed by the US people. Since, they don't know my status in the US there were some additional assumptions.
  
• I have been kicked out of university. (possible)
• I am unemployed and scrounging in India for a job.(possible)

But, till now I have been looked upon kindly by the University and immigration authorities. I thank allah and assorted gods for that.