May fair

The conversation got around to Thomas Stearns Eliot ( a.k.a T S Eliot), and it was agreed that we had to read his poetry, at least to proclaim, "I might die on my way home, but I can now say that I have read T S Eliot".
Anywhoo, from his Four Quartets - Dry Salvages

"It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence—
Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy
Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution,
Which becomes, in the popular mind, a means of disowning the past."

My only comment:

"Dude's kicking Darwin in the 'nads!"

Dicuss.

Other May update:
I spent the last weekend with Jim and Louise in VT. There was much canoeing (a.k.a sitting in the canoe while Hope and Jim paddled!), wood stacking (sprained wrist and all), shrub planting (Hope, the Ag Extension expert, and me, the health extension expert combined to do a fairly good job - things go all right if no one listens to me), brunch by the brook, and of course, Jana Gana Mana on the piano (a visit to Jim without the Indian national anthem being played on the piano is like a visit that never happened at all!). It took me 6 hours to get there, what with a connecting bus not turning up, and the replacement bus dying on us after only 20 minutes! the weekend was well worth the pain. Good times.

Krish, I owe you a call. wait for it... :)

Woohoo, new roommates time. We have one position locked in, another which seems likely to be settled in two weeks. If you want to hang with the coolest, you know whom to call.

what's happening in Boston?

Has anyone caught the 'Beatles' movie, "Across the Universe"? Chetan's endless replay of Strawberry fields and other random Beatles (henceforth called "B") songs - not to mention his B quizzing - seems to have gained root somewhere in me, because i loved the movie. okay, it was somewhat formulaic, but hey, it's all about the B. How about the B trivia ingrained in the movie - the rooftop concert, the characters named after B songs, "She Came in through the Bathroom Window", the green apple from the Apple Records logo; All of this speaks of true fandom, or as I came to realize when I was present in the Crowded House, Chetan's obsession. On par with Jethro Tull, but that is a post for another day.
On the work front, i am keeping busy. Talk at a lab meeting turned to Harvard, and Irv, who is a HMS graduate from way back in the day, mused aloud, "You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can't tell him anything" :). Word.
Last week was Adi's 6th birthday. A "Mad Scientist" performance was the highlight of the party - i missed most of it, so i cannot verify the popularity of said Mad Scientist performance, but if cotton candy making was any indication, it was a hit!
On a similar celebratory note, appy birdy day, alo.
On the culinary front, I have been active. Of course, one does not by Vee's yardstick, measure performance or quality, as sadly lacking, i will be. But I can say that I carried a whole meal from appetizers (masala dosa with coconut chutney) to entrees (peas pulav, chole, aloo paratha) to desserts (semiya payasam), all in one evening, for my whole lab. I have rediscovered my alter ego, Super Cooker, and I bring him out when there's is trouble in food land.
What else's hanging in Brookline village? the roommate situation is a bit ambiguous right now, and a flux capacitor is required to fill in room vacancies. if you or someone you know wants have a great time in Boston with wonderful roommates, you know who to call.
Spring is in the air, my bike is out of storage... off to Fenway I bike...

Bang in the middle....

I am exactly two hours and 12 minutes from reaching the halfway mark in this marathon that is disguised as the written part of my qualifying exam... I have two words and a punctuation mark for the world out there....

"Why Me?"

Was it not sufficient that they cancelled Bharat Ek Khoj and The Office (UK)? Wasn't it enough to make me cry at the end of Forrest Gump , when Jenny dies? (oh shoot, did I give away the suspenseful ending... is there anyone in the house who hasnt seen the Gump???)


Did I ask for this level of stress and tension? Absolutely! Do I love it? YES!


Ask me again in three and a half days time, and do a paired t-test to see if there is any significant difference in my response... Your results, though, are not valid due to sample size issues, and the fact that you are cocking a snook at the body of statistical literature by even contemplating the use of a paired t-test with a sample size of 1...unless... your population is "you, yourself and not-irene"

Its official...

Its good to be back... the last three weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster... an intermingling of the personal, academic and social sides of this hunka cheesecake ("Who? Me?!!")...

Some updates:

I now run three miles every morning (for the metric folks, which *sigh* still includes me - its 5 kilometres)... I wake up at 5 AM, jump out of bed (i take that back.. I limp out of bed), and start running... The average tempretures outside range from 46-56 F(7 - 12 C)... Father Winter is around the corner... By mile 0.5 the tip of my nose is frozen and by mile 0.75 i can't feel my hands... To paraphrase Calvin's Dad (of the Calvin and Hobbes fame/notoriety): "Its good to be alive"... by Mile 2 I am panting and sweating... by mile 3 i am dead... but i feel alive

I am the Teaching Assistant to a Data Analysis class... and I love molding young minds (Read as, messing around spreading misinformation and humour)

I take the written part of my PhD qualifying exams next Tuesday (Nov 1) and the oral exams on Nov 21 (9 AM to Noon)...

I still do not know when I get to go home (Since that hasnt changed in the last few months, I guess that does not qualify as an update)

I make a presentation on Nov 9 to the PhD seminar on some ideas that i am entertaining for my PhD...

I entertained one lone stray thought of leaving it all and coming home.. but that was a fleeting moment of weakness at the nadir of the rollercoaster, and that very thought is now banished forever...

I will not be posting as much as I wish, for reasons that are purely and wholly academic (Again, not much of an update point, is it??)

Later...