The Graduate's Life

Each day breaks with so many activities piled up for the day. The obvious candidates will be the assignments. I never knew the meaning of assignments until I stepped into graduate school. Some assignments are fun to solve and you enjoy every moment of problem solving. Some others literally suck the blood out of your body. Those deadly deadlines keep haunting your dreams ! You may forget to brush, eat or even breathe but not those deadlines. Assignments before exams are the craziest one could ever imagine. The pressure is so much that you don't have time to think of what can be done but you feel relieved if you are done for the moment.

Cooking is yet another time demanding activity amidst this hectic schedule. The worst scenario, according to me is cooking when you are hungry. Even worse will be when the food is not actually edible after it is cooked !! But then again our friend assignment will demand our company and immediately we forget our mess with cooking. Social life is something graduate students must learn by taking extra credits ! Strange but true is this fact that almost every graduate student is deprived of social life and is limited to a problem solving machine which responds to external stimuli !

The concept of weekend is redefined for graduates. Weekends are an excellent opportunity for them to stay alive for next one week, meaning finish their home works and assignments. The universities are so generous in offering you weekends to solve the problems. Forget those partying habits at least for the first semester, else you will be screwed. Google calendar will be of immense help because every hour a day has its due! But then again the pleasure of seeing your grades after this battle is something beyond the explanation in words !

Ice Cream Social

Having spent almost three weeks in US, I discovered one common practice among Americans which they use to socialize new people among themselves. It's by inviting people for a sponsored ice cream party. This is a party where people come and get to know others when they are enjoying cups of ice creams. When I say cups you must have comprehended the meaning that it's unlimited! One such happened in my apartment where the owners of the apartment invited the guests of each home for the party during one fine evening. We were able to talk to other neighbours whom we couldn't meet otherwise because since it's a place where graduate students stay who are always studios, meetings like these provide a good opportunity to know about each other a easier job.

The second ice cream social was at International Student Center of my University. It was to bring all the newly enrolled graduate students together. We had students from China, Russia, Uruguay, Taiwan, Middle East and of course India. The organizers conducted some cool games which were entertaining and at the same time helped students of one country know the students from other countries better. Games like saying hello in the language of foreign language of any other foreign student brought cheers to students. There were also prizes for small events. The prizes were like free tickets to fun events within the college. Everyone of us had good scoop of Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate ice cream. Later we parted our ways, but only for the evening and to stay together for at least two years.

Independence Day celebration by ISA

The Indian Student Association of Kansas State University arranged for a flag hoisting ceremony followed by a dinner at Long's park at Manhattan, Kansas. It was the first get together of all the Indians associated with the University and I was extremely happy to meet them all so soon at a very special occasion. There were two flags, American and Indian. The American flag was hoisted by an American Professor and the Indian flag by the Head of the Department of Computing and Information Sciences. The glad thing was that we had many Americans participating in this function.

The dinner served after the ceremony had something special in it. The dishes were raji ma, pakoda, jeera rice, some side dishes and Pepsi . These were prepared by some Indian students and Indian home makers in USA. They were so good that we felt like we are eating Indian food. There was one retired Professor from Vet-Med who sang a song about Mahatma Gandhiji. Everybody listened with patience and appreciated the song after it was completely sung.

There were also other performances like guitar by a Masters student from Mechanical Engineering, song by a small Indian girl and a group song. There were some prizes distributed. They conduct ISA cricket tournament. There were winners and runners-up. There were other events for which prizes were awarded like badminton, table tennis and so on. I met all the seniors of all departments. Luckily met three people from Tamil Nadu. Then met all the current year students. Finally the evening ended saying adios amigos to all the Indian and American friends.

What I Miss

The stay at the States though sizzling leaves me with sad memories of things which I enjoyed while at India but miss them badly here !! The fresh tea from mom tops the list eliminating all contestants. As soon as I get up, I used to walk up straight to the kitchen and grab a cup of tea and those awesome Britannia Marie biscuits. Then comes the daily edition of the famous 'The Hindu'. I have spent so many mornings deeply engrossed into this popular daily. The ride on my Kawasaki. Though it's not a bike with high power engine or enticing accessories, I feel nostalgic when I get memories of my bike. I also miss the daily morning ride on it during which I drop my dad at the station.

The bus trip to my college deserves a special mention here. Though it's only a 20 minute journey from my home it's just an awesome ride with friends. The trip is even more exciting when we are returning from college after any function at the campus. The bus used to thunder with sudden claps and also resonate with musical melodies. The colony in which I lived has some evergreen memories attached to it. My neighbours who always ensured my wellness until I was there, I miss them a lot. The badminton ground is a cool place to hang out for me almost from the last semester of my college till I left to US. There used to be people of all ages thronging this place and it was so good to be there in the evening.

Well, I am deeply missing my friends. There are no words to describe how bad I miss them. The farewell at the airport still stands as a framed picture in my mind. Actually I never expected so many people to come and was simply moved by the gesture. I just felt I am so lucky to be blessed with a bunch of nice buddies. There were also friends who wished through phone and I am ever thankful for their wishes. These are no formal statements because I am saying this from my heart after realizing how much they mean to me.

My mom and dad. I just can't express the way I am missing them. My mom used to sacrifice all her happiness so many times just to satisfy me. Of course nobody could find a noble heart than his/her mother. I am too blessed to be a son of such a kind mom. She was not just my mom but my all time friend, listener and pacifier of my worries. In short she was a part of me ! My dad. He was and continues to be the guiding lamp of my career. Always wished that I stayed top of every competition. I wish those small fights with my dad. We used to argue on lot many issues. I miss all my relatives especially my grand parents and my uncle. But, life needs to go on and memories are the fuel that keep the journey perpetual !!

My first seven days in USA

Well, it has been a week since I landed in USA and am simply amazed by the professionalism and commitment to obedient civic life of the Americans. Professionalism seems to be in their blood. Whatever be the job they do you can see the perfection. They don't hire inefficient people for any job, how small it may be. Adequate training is provided before someone is assigned a full time job. The apartment in which I live has got a IT services help desk where they help in providing wireless access to residents. I have never seen such efficient group of guys who are working on fixing the computers. They are well trained and are able to fix any type of bug, on whatever platform your computer operates upon.

Then you have Walmart where you get everything. The shop is massive with employees always on their heels to help you. Whenever you ask for a product the helpers there take you to the place where the product is available and leave only when the customer is satisfied that he/she has got the product they wanted. Ofcourse, the boards in Walmart clearly say you where to find what. Everywhere you can see this commitment to offer best services to the customers.

When it comes to public life, Americans are the best I feel. The way they drive on the road simply astonishes you. Whenever there's a stop sign they stop their car even when there are no vehicles to cross by. When somebody is crossing the road anywhere the cars stop at a distance of 5 metres to ensure the person's safety. But, people here cross only at the zebra crossing. There's is one request button which one must press to cross the road. Once the request is accepted green light glows and you can cross the road. Everywhere you can see Americans working cheerfully. They enjoy what they do. It's just a lovely place to live in !! Will update more....

To US through air

Hello folks, back to blogging after a very long time. Hope you all doing good. I just got settled down at Manhattan, Kansas. It's a beautiful town with very friendly people. The college campus huge, bigger than our IITs. The library is awesome. The people here do craziest things on earth. Well, it's a different life here than my Chennai days. I am learning to cook here, which seems the primary skill to be possessed by every Indian to survive here. Food is very costly if you eat outside. So cooking is the best option. I can't cook sometimes and I sometimes I sleep hungry. Planning to change this bad practice. Fine let me describe my flight experience. It's crazy and well, it was little horrible for me.

The flight booking was in jet airways, 1 am flight on the morning of 31st July (IST). The flight took off on time and the food was satisfactory. I felt kinda sick in the flight because the food was just not like how I expected it to be. But then I overcame that sickness. The flight reached Brussels, Belgium at 7:30 am (local time). Then had to board the same flight after roaming around the airport. Again the food was satisfactory. Later reached New York at 12:50 pm (local time) and it was time for tragedy. It started to pour heavily. Many flights were cancelled. My itinerary from New York was like this, New York to Chicago and then Chicago to Kansas City. I must reach Chicago by 9 pm to catch the flight to Kansas city. They delayed the flight at New York and I reached Chicago only at 11 pm and ultimately missed the flight.

Had to sleep the whole night at the Chicago airport since outside accommodation was costly. The food too was costly at the airport. So it was a struggle against the odds. Then at 4 in the morning next day, approached the airline officials and got a ticket , of course of no charge, for the 7:30 am flight. Had a coffee at the airport, which was my only food for 10 hours. Then got the flight and reached Kansas city by 8:30 am. Waited for another one hour and Indian Students Association people picked me up. At last now settled with an apartment. This journey has taught me how mentally tough a person should be to face life. The Americans are very very friendly and you can see professionalism in everything they do. Will post more, till then adios.

Ideas, Events and People

The human mind is so quick in its thinking ability and can run into complex conclusions at lightning speed.  This ability of the human mind has an effect that depends upon the way we utilize its potential.  From the past the universal objects about which this mind thinks about can be grouped into three main classes, ideas, events and people.  Whatever the human mind thinks of will easily come into one among these three categories.  Surprisingly, the effect of the human mind on the psyche of a person depends upon whether it thinks about the ideas, events or people.  To understand this clearly, let me explain in simple terms and in the end you will be surprised to note that everyone of us have experienced such varying effects !!

Ideas are something that bring a change into this world.  Good ideas are often aimed at bringing comfort to lifestyle, to alleviate pain (both physical and mental) in short make our life simple.   When our mind discusses ideas the atmosphere within the mind is positive and aimed at ensuring something good is done to people.  This is a good sign and all the inventions in this world have been the result of such great ideas that originated from the minds of men of past. Inventions in every field like Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Geography, Astronomy etc., have made our lives much simpler and only because of these novelties we are away from much of the ailments of nature.  It's always advisory to discuss ideas whenever we talk with friends, relatives and even in a public meeting.  By this way I don't mean that we need to be serious with friends, talking too serious equations, just we need to make sure that we always wish that each conversation spawns a little new idea.  Bottomline, the ideas must never be crooked !!

Events are the occurences of the past.  Events are the result of human actions and may have had a good or bad ending.  Events often teach us a lesson of how not to live or how best one can live.   It's always good to analyze the result of an event as it helps us to correct the mistakes one has done and in case of a good event, we can try to emulate.  Beneficial events of the past include, peace treaties, revolutions in the field of food and medicine, economic resucitation, renaissance of culture and lot more.  When one looks at the course of these events, he/she can realize how tough it is to bring a change into this world and what are the requisites to do so.  Ofcourse, history has got some painful events like war and homicides that ought to be forgotten.  Bad events shouldn't go unanalyzed because one cannot learn what lead to such a disaster!  It is always good to learn from the past as it's funnily said, "one must learn from other's mistakes as he cannot commit all of them to learn!".  So, when the human mind thinks of the events, there is a mixed impact of positive and negative thoughts.

The last class of objects of this Universe, according to our classification is the 'People'.  This World is nothing without people.  It's more interesting to analyze what people are made of. People are   not absolute beings and are greatly influenced by ideas and events !!  Sounds strange, isn't it?  People in the past might have been free beings and had their own way of life and did what they felt as the right thing to do.  The World today is not that similar to the World of the past.  The commitments and responsibilities of people have gone high.  The events in their lives have a greater impact on their actions.  So, no person can be quoted as absolute and no person can claim himself to be living according to his own principles.  But, the natural tendancy of human mind is to discuss loads about people !! We grumble a lot about people and their activities.  The result is that we lose our temper and perform poorly in our career.  Discussing about people is the worst form of human brain activity !  We discuss a lot when people go wrong and so little when someone does something great.  

The conclusion can be clearly drawn.  Discuss a lot of ideas, with your friends, parents and relatives.  Ideas build our lives.  You need not be a scientist to do this.  Ideas can be for your everyday living.  Don't discuss too much about events as there are events that might have made you feel lot lower in your life.  The case of the human mind is to think of negatives first and so the negative events might cause you set back !  Keep discussion of events to a minimum and use them only to learn a few lessons and of course events that made you achieve greater things can be used as performance motivators for the future.  Last in the list, 'People'.  Talk about a person only when you want to admire him/her and when you want to emulate the person's traits. Never think about why a person is so bad in his life which will definitely leave you in a sullen mood.  No person is absolute and events control them greatly.  When the ideas are great, the events are good and the impact on the people is awesome.  So, it's the ideas that are the source of good will and make your best attempt to generate good ideas.  Often there goes a saying, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people", by Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Kindly Listen

This is one of the best lessons that life has taught me.  Something everyone needs to follow in their lives.  It's the art of listening.  Here I am going to discuss what this simple listening can do to your friend.  When your friend talks to you about your worries we at times don't bother to listen, knowingly or unknowingly.  It really hurts your friend.  People generally say their problems to those whom they feel reliable, lovable and whom they feel they are at ease.  When he/she approaches with some sorrow and pours his/her worries it's like a slap on one's face when we refuse to listen.

Listening to problems has a great role to play in medicine too.  Doctors and nurse develop this quality which helps to cure their patients.  Many patients who are in a pitiful state with the disease ruining their life, the time the doctor spends listening to patients' worries cures them before hand.  When you listen you assure that you still love them, you want them to get better and you spend your most valuable asset, your time.  No gift can be more precious than the time you spend listening to someone.  Never shrug off and quit when someone wants you to listen, they say you with this hope that you will bring peace to them.  So, next time when you are wanted to listen be happy that you are going to make someone settle in tranquility.

Gender and Friendship

Hello ppl !! Back to blogging after a long time.  Fine.  Let me start this season with a common yet so sensitive topic that discusses the influence of gender in friendship and if at all gender has any role in friendship.  We all live in a society, of course this 'all' refers to city dwellers, in which job opportunities are equal for men and women, where people are very social, where there is no shyness in moving with the opposite gender.  These are the brighter side of the issue that gender has been removed out of focus when it comes to employment and commerce.  There is yet another, not much openly discussed issue which analyzes the effect of gender in friendship.

Well, friendship is a beautiful relationship which involves two or more people who understand each other and stand by each other in all circumstances.  It is a selfless binding where one does expecting nothing in response.  What role has gender got to play in this purely personality based relation ?  Personality here means what thoughts the person is made of.  Two people like each other and become friends because one likes some character or trait in the other.  The trait is unique to each person and absolutely has no influence from the gender of the person.  People are bound together with this admiration for that trait which attracted them to be friends.  It's too mean to bring in gender here and spoil the very sancity of friendship.

The yet another pitiful incident being the narrow mindedness of the very broad minded society, as it calls itself.  Try to look relationships between the opposite gender in the name of sacrifice, care and affection, rather than in the name of mere attraction.  People don't realize how deep the wound is that they cause by insulting friends of this sort.  The irony is that when people start to look on this narrower prospective, they tend to feel that friendship with opposite gender is a sin and stay aloof from the masses, ultimately ruining themselves.  So, next time you see a boy and a girl as great friends think before you utter words not in good will of those friends but on your own future as stated just above.

Religion and Thought

This post takes inspiration from the great saint that this beautiful country, India gave this World Swami Vevekananda.  The ideas here are a blend of this great man and mine.  Religion is one among those beautiful things that humans started from the pristine period.  People became disciplined and got motivated to relieve themselves of this worldly pleasures and started believing that they can sense that extra-sensory perception that remains beyond our five senses.  Busy is the stature of human life now and people can spare time to meditate towards the concept of religion, only with low probability.  But these small percent of people who do are the ones who are actually happy in this Universe, believe it or not!  Realizing the truth relieves us of all the misconception that we have on this very existence.

Now plunging exactly into the topic, religion grouped people with similar thoughts.  Similarity means masses who believed in particular preaching and that particular path alone leads to realization.  Religions started in the earlier period, when man's intellect started developing.  There are no newer religions.  One amazing fact is that these religions have their followers multiplying rather than dwindling in numbers.  This means more and more people are ready to search the true meaning of this existence and to get cleared themselves of as to who controls this massive structure of galaxies.  Every religion sent a message to it's followers to spread love and not to argue which religion is the best in the World.  No single religion can answer the question "who controls this Univers?".  The concept of God evolved as follows.

Every single action of living thing in this Universe involves some amount of intellect involved.  The mind co-ordinates beautifully with the body and thus manifests itself as actions.  This leads to perception of intelligence by fellow creatures on this planet.  We breathe in and breathe out air.  We drink in water and also water drains from our bodies and one day we came here and one another day we'll go back.  This makes sense as on one day this Universe originated and yet another day it will go back, both scientifically and philosophically.  Even physicists claim that this Universe originated from a single compressed mass that exploded itself into it's constituents.  Human mind has this serpentine habit of thinking of varied causes for an event and one possible solution that can satisfy human intellect has been put by....  ?  Can you guess who or what was it, well it was the concept of 'religion'.

Earlier concept of religion proclaimed that every single occurrence on this Universe air, water, intelligence are the manifestation of a single force.  Since life originated from a single protoplasm and this by itself composed of inorganic materials it can be traced back to a single entity that remains as the cause of every single event till now!  As years rolled by many religions claimed this concept to be true, this should be because human intellect is limited and everyone that uses it to the fullest will arrive at one single logical conclusion.  Since many got the similar conclusion and came up with their names, a Universal name "God" was accepted.  The projection of that supreme is this existence, this universe.  Religion is a collection of people who believe that particular practices bring them closer to realise this supreme, the supreme what these religions proclaimed was not personified.  They personified only to make people more convincing, to make people come out of the miseries of common man's life and become one with the cosmos.  The miseries are artificial and foreign to the creation and anything foreign would intoxicate human minds.  So, as long as religion breeds realization and more refinement it will remain extremely popular else a similar search would continue but with another name, because the intellect is ever growing.

Media and The Red Letter Day

Come Republic Day or Independence day and guess what's with the television channels? Programs featuring actor interviews and just-released movies!  Each National festival of our country is under this similar fate now.  Soon a day would come when the public would feel that whenever there is a day full of these crazy filmy programs, it's something to do with our country! The amount of money these channels spend for these programs can be utilised to produce programs that portray the glory of our country through innovative programs.  People avoid programs that are dull, usually.  If these producers are creative, as they call themselves, they can project the beauty of our country and the laudable achievements that we have made in a people friendly manner.

It's not fair to blame these channels completely.  People of our country have this nasty taste for themselves.  So, these producers fearing loss of business avoid taking risks telecasting patriotic programs!  This could be solved only through a shift in our public mind, their ideologies and their desire.  We should love our country for it is, it's geographic and cultural diversity must be admired.  The best people of a country make the best use of their varied resources that are intellectual and natural.  We can stand tall among world nations by boosting higher our tradition and our customs.  To do these, the media must provide a helping hand.  Creative programs depicting the battles that we fought and also attractive dramas must be telecast especially on Red letter days.  

People must stop enjoying these small desires, at least on these days of National importance.  We need to keep telling our self our glory, our strengths, our uniqueness and only by this we can say how powerful we are to this world.  When our people are unaware of our prowess, it's so difficult to prove it a point to this world.  It's a hope that these producers would realise the problem soon and try to pull our people out of this imaginary world and show them what India is.  The sooner they do this the better it would be.  

Why We are?

Years have rolled by, man thinking on this million dollar question "Why we are into this Universe?".  Some say it's by chance, some claim that we are here for a purpose.  So recondite is that purpose that no one has clearly figured out as to why we are here!  Rational thinking led us to create newer dimensions in life.  Adding facilities to our living, in fact eased our way through life.  Earlier scientists, who in contrast with current day scholars aimed at research that helped unlock the mysteries of laws of nature.  Newton defined the laws of motion and popularised the theory of light, Ptolemy proposing his heliocentric theory, Galileo with his own experiments on stars and many more laudable men.  These men took us to some extent in realizing that this world does not exist as such, but governed by some law, in simpler terms bound!

If this is the case, how do we just come into this universe?  What is that purpose that we are intended to achieve?  Nobody knows.  We wanted to be relieved off the mysteries of this life and meditated towards a pure soul, called God.  Some argue that God sent us here to serve people and called that is the 'purpose'!  But, if we are sent to serve others, whom does the served by serve?  Or does that continue as a chain.  If at all it happens as a chain, what is the purpose of the very first man?  Whom did he serve?  No clues here too.  The evolutionary theory states that man evolved from a monkey.  This evolution applies to the monkey too, which implies that the monkey must have evolved from some other primitive organism.  So, coming again what is the purpose of that primitive organism on this Universe?

Physics has one interesting area of research, 'atomic research'.  Which defines that every composite matter on this Universe is composed of atoms, which too are decomposable.  If the most primitive organism that first evolved on this earth can be traced, then what is the purpose of that organism?  Yet again, that organism can be considered to be composed of chemical components, which in turn decompose to molecules and finally to atoms.  So, it seems that there is nothing as such called 'living thing'!  It's all how these atoms combine to form molecules and various combination of molecules resulted in first organism and there on evolution has started! So, it becomes little clear that until the cause of existence of atom is questioned this is the answer.  Phew!  I muddled up so much... This is my solution for our existence folks!  Do comment if you got an alternate.... 

From conscience, with Love

Ryan has been greatly helped by his conscience on many critical occasions of his life. The moment was so surprising when his conscience spoke about its own credits to Ryan. So, here goes the soliloquy of Mr. Conscience.

Dear Ryan, I have been with you not since you were born but when you started reasoning things. The type of reasoning that you do with me is totally different than that you do with Mr. Intellect. I have always insisted you to be 'just' with people and hold on to morals, how hard the situations may be. I have been motivating you to learn your purpose of existence on this earth. Your intellect guides you only on things that help make this life more comfortable, or even move you from one misery to the other. I always struggled to liberate you from the fetters of this common man's life. This, I never did on a spiritual note but on a realization flavor. I wanted you to realize the existence of things. Realization in it's true sense means analyzing and accepting things in their true nature, not a pinch more or less. It's only with the help of me you always tried to unlock the mysteries of this very existence.



Money has been your motivation in life, no doubt aided by your intellectual mind. Whatever you did was to earn the most amount of comforts in life. It is good as long as you desired for what it's within your capacity. When you long for something that's out of your purchasing capacity, greed creeps into your mind. You make desperate attempts to acquire those material comforts in order to satisfy your greed and not you! This is because greed has kept you so unhappy and when you got what greed wanted, you are satisfied not because you actually got that thing but because you are away from the shackles of greed. My duty at those times was to illuminate your mind with thoughts pertaining to transience of material wealth. How wealth degrades with time, this was most important of all teachings that I made to you.

You always had qualms about desire and it's effect and as usual tried in vain to quit desire, only to free from the thought and not from desire itself. Desire is the personal liking to something, loss of which leads to dissatisfaction. The degree of dissatisfaction is directly proportional to the amount of liking that one has for the substance and not to the size of the substance desired. If you like a pen immensely and a car superficially, the unavailability of a pen hurts you more, not the car. But then desire helped you to climb up in your academic career. You earned better grades and secured a great future. After achieving so much you were still worried about quitting desire. You were so poor that you didn't realize that desire to quit desire is in itself desire embedded in it! When you start living for others and start learning to understand nature and with no more personal intentions, it's that moment you have quit desire completely.

Yet another thing you confused yourself with was 'good and bad' syndrome. I got you cleared off this issue through a simple term 'perception'. There is nothing that can be termed in a wholesome as good or bad, only the way we see and who sees it makes the difference. when I cut down a tree that was a hindrance to the public, am I doing good to the public or harming the tree? This shows nothing can be absolutely called good or bad. Stating in a more complex term, the doer cannot comment on his actions but only the influenced can say if it's good or bad, but again no universally agreed upon answer. No universal answer implies no action has been unanimously accepted as good or bad by people of the world. Things that bring most benefits are termed as good and vice-versa as bad. So, I advised you not to involve too much with this complicated issue and do deeds that benefited most people.

I'll speak more............