Being a student

Having been a student of a government institute, I quite know the woes of tackling the administration people there. Quite a lot of people will nod their head, when I tell similar stories of how they would make you wait for silly stuff like getting an examination form signed or submitted, or paying fees or for that matter enquiring about student issues. The 4 years of engineering taught me a great deal about the virtue called patience and the importance of the "smile". Because people in these departments just loved imposing their misguided sense of power on us students. And just smiling away on their mean deeds and not losing our patience meant a lot.


And when after almost 6 years of having learnt my way through such situations, where you keep on telling yourself that just get the work done without taking anything personally or losing your temper, I experienced a familiar situation today. And it just strengthens my observation that people everywhere are the same. Put them in a slightly superior position than yours and they will make sure that your life becomes miserable or at least make you feel less good about yourself.


And this is strictly my personal observation. I am not trying to put anyone in bad light. This kind of human behaviour amuses me and sometimes angers me too.


I am an F-1 student who has graduated and waiting for her EAD card to arrive to start working. And my start date is getting closer and I have not received anything from the USCIS. So quite naturally I was concerned and wanted to know more about what could be done from my end to expedite the process. So I went to meet the International Center advisor. The first thing she did was lecture me on how students should not wait for their offer letters to apply for an EAD card and you might be brilliant getting loads of offers from companies, but you should not wait (Come on, like all this stuff about my brilliancy was REALLY needed.). She has to tackle 1000s of cases like mine everyday and hence very patiently nodding my head and understanding her point of view, I agreed. But the next thing she said which totally made me lose it was 'so admit that this is your mistake'. Yes ladies and gentlemen, these are the exact words she used.
(In short you not getting your employment authorization is your mistake). Well I kind of knew that even before going to meet her. I was just hoping for getting some help. DUH!
First thing that popped in my head was 'Come on we are not here to discuss that!'. But I lost my temper after that and said, 'I agree my application got delayed. But what is done is done. We cannot keep on blaming each other for stuff that is already done. What I would like to know is what can be done from here on, so that your student doesn't remain jobless.' 


May be I might not get more co-operation from her end in the future. May be if I had accepted my mistake (so that she felt better) she would have called USCIS to expedite the process. or May be this is just her way of making students feel bad about themselves for having a job offer in hand. May be its not even worth all this time and energy (of writing the post). But I know it isn't about admitting my mistake or anything I said or wrote. Its about having to say NO to your student for any help. And since you cannot do that in a straightforward way you make them feel bad about themselves.


~nightflier

The Engineering Fight

Ladies and gentlemen,
Presenting to you the commencement anthem for us engineers :D


e to the x
dy dx
e to the x
dx
cosine
secant
tangent
sine
3.14159
i
PI
square root of 3
rockem
sockem
iit


We sang it at the end of our commencement ceremony!!!
Too much fun :)


~nightflier

Tales from skinnystan

What do you do when ...


1. You are graduating soon, and to blend with the culture need a nice, pretty outfit.
2. Every store you visit invariably seems to sell clothes only from size 2 and above.
3. Even the stores which are meant for people like you with weight issues, dont sell anything which suits your taste.
4. When you do find the 'one' you are looking for, is available in your size, but only in distant suburbia, whose names sound like quaint 18th century villages and where the buildings are 3 story high.
5. You decide to compromise and buy an expensive dress which does not fit you and get it altered.
6. Having spent almost a fortune on buying stuff which doesn't fit you, a thought crosses your mind, why all the fuss ? You might as well skip the function or wear something old and Indian.
7. Seeing your dilemma friends, family, random strangers (like the bus driver lady, the shop assistant) start giving you advice on how and what to eat.


It is then, frustrated by the injustice meted out to you for being skinny, that 


1. You decide to make cheese, milk, eggs, bananas, chocolates, french fries and the family, your best friends.
2. Even though its against your conviction, you decide to join gym and work out like crazy. After all you have heard stories of how sylvester stallone became john rambo.
3. You make a resolve to hog till it makes you FAT.


And it is then, that your eyes fall on a random dress in a corner deeply buried below other stuff. It isn't what you wanted but it fits you really well. You decide may be you can accessorize it a bit and it might be the one you wanted!
It is also at this moment that you have an epiphany which tells you, probably its time not to take things just stated above so seriously. Time to take deep breath and chill.


~nightflier ;)

Mother's recipe!

Oh no no, this isnt a cooking post.

My parents had promised me a graduation gift and I just received a box full of home-made goodies.

Chiwda, laadoo, badam burfi (yeah Mother specializes in it!), paapdi, and few chutneys :D

The greatest thing is, Aai made everything at home! (Well the usual sob stories of how I dont get to eat anything she cooks). I just put down the phone to tell her that I received everything in excellent condition and how it feels like स्वर्ग सुख when I put anything in my mouth! 

Mother's day has just gone by. And I don't really believe in all these (though I wish her by default), but today I feel awed. At her tenacity, the hard work she puts into everything so that her kids get the very best, her resilience, tolerance, patience (specially raising a brat like me!), her faith, her un-possessiveness, and not feeling the necessity to poke us at every turn of lives so that we grow up to be us and not someone else!

I think its absolutely great! And when I grow up I want to be like you Aai!

Love,

~nightflier :)

We never really seem satisfied with what we have. Howmuchever we struggle, fight, achieve things we want in life, there is always something! And we let that 'something' make us unhappy and sad.


It may be a job we don't have, or admission to that prestigious institution or the special someone we don't have to share our lives with.


On one side, the frustration of not finding a job or suitable work, is something which can be related with. But I really don't understand when people fret over things like how much their other friends are earning and that's why conclude that their own jobs suck. At least crib about not getting your desired flavour of ice cream. I will sympathize with you.
Really, as we grow up, it's always about something! Today it will be about the job I don't have, tomorrow it will be about the time we don't have because of the higher paying (very rarely higher responsibilities) job we got. Today it will be about finding love, tomorrow it will be about accepting that person for what/who he/she is. Why do we find change and acceptance so difficult to deal with ? 


And here I think the following holds true. As we grow up, our struggles become the most dire ones, the injustices doled out to us the most unfair and thus our tolerance levels dip down to zero.
In the quest to outshine everyone and sometimes ourselves, how about taking a deep breath to relax and wonder, how amazing life is. Because in the end, we all are doing the same permutations and combinations in random patterns!


~nightflier


P.S. I know there are no exceptions including myself!

Quotable quote!

“All that is gold does not glitter, 
not all those who wander are lost; 
the old that is strong does not wither, 
deep roots are not reached by the frost. 
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, 
a light from the shadows shall spring; 
renewed shall be blade that was broken, 
the crownless again shall be king." 


- Bilbo Baggins


P.S. I badly want to read LOTR!


~nightflier

Blast from the past

Whenever I am down in the dumps, I have this habit of remembering all these nice and sometimes queer things/incidents. As you might have deduced I suffer from incurable nostalgia. But these normally work as a good ego massage ;)

Few of the ones which resurface by default are

1. A senior from COEP. She has the most amazing 4 year old kid and through Orkut, FB I have been able to see her grow up, through these years. Now we are not exactly buddies, in terms of junior-senior relationship. But while wishing her on her birthday, I could not help but tell her how adorable her daughter was (I also told her that her daughter's smile makes my day. And I was not being obnoxious at all. You will have the same feeling when you see her snaps.) And after a few days I got a really cute reply from her, which said, 'I can just imagine the smile of your daughter (whenever she decides to come) to be just like yours!' 

How awfully nice of her :) It makes me feel good, now please don't ask why :P

2. A small little mail from my brother. In the 'siblings' perspective he has this strange calming quality quite contrary to my strong-headedness. In a mail I had blasted some hi-quality emotional stuff to him. In reply to that, he had said the most simple things in the most simple manner. (Personal stuff, so cannot reveal :P) But it gives me strength to see things in a clear/simple manner, whenever I am in a mess.

3. Mom's letters. Always very motivational and pure at heart :)

4. Aajoba's (Grandfather) letters. They are awfully cryptic and every reading makes me see things in a new light :D

5. A small short story written by Cervantes on Don Quixote. My aatya (Father's sister) had this amazing habit of gifting us books for our birthdays. And this book I am talking about had inspiring stories of great philosophers who were held captive or were prisoners during their lifetime. Though I cant re-write the exact story here, it speaks of the quests of Don Quixote. The story basically reflected Cervantes internal struggle. (Can go really deep but for the sake of sanity wont). I cannot thank my aatya enough for introducing me to this illusive character when I was 13!

6. A really cute poem that KT had given to me as a birthday present. It still remains my greatest and most treasured birthday gift ever!

7. Harry potter and the deathly hallows. Reading it makes me think. Always!

8. Cannot think of anything else. How I had wished while starting this post, that it will have 10 points. Alas!

~nightflier