My 2015 in Words

Hello everybody,
This is my last post in 2015. This year has been full of changes for me. That's why I decided to put down words that defined my year. I made a word cloud out of it and here it is!

I wish you a wonderful and prosperous new year 2016! I hope we all achieve our dreams and become better people this coming year!
See ya soon! :D

1 year Blogiversary!

Hello everybody!
I can't believe that it has been 1 year since I started this blog! I can clearly remember the night I started this. I had my exams going on and we had guests over that night. In the middle of my finals I had started a blog! I was so excited that day. I still get super excited when I see a new comment or a view from some remote country that I know very little about. If you've been following my blog, thanks a lot!! You're awesome! If this is the first time you came here, hi there!, I hope this won't be your last visit here! I hope to continue posting interesting stuff here.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

Christmas collab with Adorkable Darling

Hello everybody!
I hope you are having an awesome Christmas and are enjoying your holidays. This is the first collab post on my blog and Adorkable Darling from 'the wonderful (yet ordinary) life of me!' helped me with this. If you haven't checked he blog out, do so! Its wonderful! For this collab, I asked her a bunch of Christmas related questions. Here are her answers:


1) What to you is the best part about Christmas?
The best part is being with my whole family on Christmas eve. Everyone exchanges gifts , and I make music with my brother. We play a gift exchange game and let me say it can get pretty crazy. I'm from a Mexican-american family , so of course there is a lot of FOOD (another one of the best parts);Pozole , tacos , rice , tamales , and of course something sweet after dinner. It's always a good time.

2) Your favorite Christmas related activity and why you love doing it.
I love singing ( and playing on my piano) Christmas songs. I love making music in general but Christmas music is just so much more joyful.

3) Did you believe in Santa as a kid? If yes, how and when did you realize that he wasn't real?
Yes I did believe in Santa as a kid. I even thought that I had heard him on the roof one year, haha. I found out he wasn't real when I was 13. I was in Choir class and my class mates were talking about how they found out that Santa isn't real. I was a little in denial first but then I saw a video in history class that talked about when the classic image for Santa was created. Of course I didn't really tell my parents that I knew but they probably figured it out as i got older.

4) Your dream Christmas tree.
My dream tree would be decorated with blue and silver ornaments. I would have little white flowers scattered on the tree skirt and topped with a glittery angel. Also little white lights would look great hung on it.

She asked me a bunch of questions and here is what I replied to her. Do check it out!!

Do leave a comment with your answers for these questions! I'd love to read them!

Merry Christmas again!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Update

Hello everybody,
If you have visited my blog before, you might notice some changes here! If this is the first time you've come here, hello and welcome! :D
Here's a list of changes and updates:
1) 
2) I've organized all my posts into categories - Thoughts, my journey and Fun stuff (you can see those tabs above)
3) I've added a Follow by email option. So you just need to enter your email id and you'll get an email every time I post something new. (Don't worry, it wont be too many emails)
4) I've enabled RSS feeds. So you can subscribe to them
If you're in a mood, click on "Join this site". That's the best way to follow this blog. Also enter your email id in the follow by email section. If you did that,

You're awesome!!
If you didn't, that's fine, I won't hate you. (But do! :P)
I have a whole bunch of interesting posts coming up! So stay tuned!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Don't be ashamed to cry

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day. It may look like I've chosen a very depressing topic to blog about today; but its not a depressing post! This is something that I've always wanted to write about.
I am a person who cries a lot. For that, I've been made fun of/ insulted innumerable times before. Crying, like laughter is something that is very hard to control. There are two main types of crying: 1) When things are not in one's control, people burst out in anger or cry 2) Out of sadness.
 If someone shouts at someone in anger, they are considered to be "strong" and instead, if someone cries out of frustration or not being able to control a situation, it is considered to be a "weak" reaction. Its not. It is just a different way of expression one's emotions. A lot of crying happens out of frustration rather than out of sadness. Just because you cry, it doesn't mean you fail at life or are incapable of handling a situation. It only means, at that point, you need sometime to think and figure out a way to handle the situation. When people burst out in anger, they don't have much self control on what they're saying and they may end up creating further problems because of something that they said without thinking. But these people don't care much about this. And that's fine too! It is just the kind of people they are. And then there are people who think about what may happen if they shout at someone in that state of mind and choose to remain silent and get their emotions out by crying. It isn't that they are weaker. Bottling up emotions only results in you becoming generally more depressed. If you feel like crying, cry! (If you want to scream, do! As long as you don't hurt someone else too much). Get your emotions out. You need to address the fact that something is bothering you. When you do that you may feel like crying. Do! You can't keep crying forever! Once you are done, you will be in a better frame of mind. You will be able to find a way to get over whatever is making you cry. You will address the issue that is making you feel any less happier than you should be. If you never acknowledge the fact that something is making you sad, you'll never find a way to solve the problem. You'll just learn to live with it. Why live with any kind of sadness when you can find a way to better it? Every problem has a solution! At least, there is a workaround for every problem. The most important part is to first acknowledge that you are unhappy about something. If it makes you feel like crying, don't hesitate to! It is a natural way of expressing feelings. Humans cry, dogs cry, dolphins cry! Its ok. Don't let anyone else tell you when it is ok to or not ok to cry. Don't feel the need to hide your emotions just to look like a strong adult. What people might think about you is not worth bottling up your feelings. And crying does not make you a weaker person!

I have struggled a lot in the past trying to control my tears. Not everyone reacts the same way to situations. I cry sometimes for getting a lower score than expected. I know it is a trivial issue not "worth" crying about. But that's just the way my brain decided to react! I didn't feel like crying at all when I left home (and country) for an indefinitely long period of time!. I am very attached to my family and I felt sad to be leaving them. But I did not feel like crying! The brain is a weird organ and you don't always know how it works. There is no "better" or "right" way to react to a situation, Crying is never a "weak" or "laughable" way to react to a situation. So don't hesitate. Let it go!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Fame

Hello everybody,
Today I decided to write about my obsession about celebrities. I don't know if its only me or if it is a common thing, whenever I discover a new celebrity, I first like some work of theirs, then stalk them, get obsessed for a week/month, get jealous, compare my life with theirs, try to find an explanation as to why I'm not as successful as they are and feel depressed about life. At this point, I usually find something I think I'm slightly good at as compared to the general public, work at it like someone possessed for a week/month, feel better and stop pursuing the activity.
Currently, I'm at the 'compare my life with theirs' phase. I know what's coming up next and I'm not too happy about it.
Why am I obsessed about being famous? I want to know what it feels like to have thousands of re-tweets and tens of thousands of people favoriting your tweet each time you tweet. Waking up to a thousand new subscribers on YouTube, hundreds of comments saying 'You're the BESTTT', 'I LOVEE YOU' 'Amazing work' etc. But after a point, does it start to feel meaningless? But still, getting such encouragement from thousands of people for the work you do must feel pretty amazing. I too work. The only return I get from it is a salary. I'm sure there isn't a soul who admires the code I write or is jealous of me because I built a super awesome app (I didnt... hypothetically speaking). Celebrities get to do what they love the most, get paid more than well, AND get the adoration of millions! How lucky are they!? I agree, superstars lose all their privacy, need to be careful about every action of theirs, don't exactly get to do what they love, have other people directing every move of theirs' etc. I agree that their lives have quite a bit of problems. But its not the super stars that I'm envious about. Its the moderately popular people that I'm really envious about. They have enough popularity to have a million followers on social media; but at the same time, they can lead normal lives without being surrounded by paparazzi the minute they step out of their house. (I'm referring to YouTubers, new singers, comedians etc here). Do all those comments by millions of "fans" have any significance? Does anyone actually care about someone who does not even know that they exist?
Are they really more lucky than me? Would I really be happier if I was a semi-popular person? Is it possible that I may one day become popular? (Considering the fact that I have no special talent that could qualify me to become popular, this most probably is never going to happen. This is a different kind of popular that I'm talking about. Not the Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs kind; but the Superwoman, Zoella kind.)
This post is such a mixed up random set of thoughts. I'm in a really confused state of mind. Maybe its because of my reduced interaction with friends off late (all thanks to exams :( ). Earlier, I used to have long conversations with my best friend on this topic and that would help me get over the why-is-my-life-so-miserable phase a little faster. Now I need to resort to my blog to do this.
If anyone actually got to this point, CONGRATULATIONS! You really are a patient person. If this post made any sense at all to you, let me know!
I have my finals in less  than a week and I'm rambling about fame. :/
Until next time,
Bye!:D

Too much of anti-racism?

Hello everybody,

I hope you are having a great day! I just came across this video today and wanted to share it here.

I had heard a lot about how in America it is very important to use specific words to describe people of a particular race and how one could get into major trouble if someone used an incorrect term to refer to them. 

I do completely agree that being rude to a person just because he/she belongs to a particular race or is from a particular country is unacceptable. However, being over sensitive about it just shows how insecure one is about one's own origin. People from different countries have a different upbringing. It is fascinating to know about things from other countries/cultures. If there is a constant fear of offending someone, we will never be able to get to know about other cultures. 

Each culture is beautiful in its own way and one must be proud of one's own origin. I remember, when I was in 12th grade, I had a friend who belonged to a different religion than me. I had tons of questions I wanted to ask her. The popular belief about that religion is that people are very strict followers and take offense easily. So, I used to think ten times in my mind before I asked her a question. Slowly as I got to know her better, I realized, she was quite open minded and nothing like what the media portrayed them to be. I'm sure a lot of other friends just avoided conversation with her just to ensure that they never offended her in anyway. 

By being oversensitive, we are just preventing spread of knowledge and increasing the barriers. I know, people will ask a lot of questions based on stereotypes that are shown in the media. But this is the opportunity to show that there is more to your culture! 

These are my personal opinions. Do let me know your opinions on the matter in the comments below!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Bitten off more than I can chew?

Hello everybody,
It has been so long since I last published a post here. Grad school is super hectic and I've been living from deadline to deadline. Its ok to live on a tight schedule for a short duration... when you see an end in sight; but off late I don't see an end to this! I just finished picking courses for my next semester and I've again chosen really hard courses. One of them was a course I had to finish, that is a heavy course and wanted to finish it off. However, I've also chosen a PhD level elective class. We have a lottery system for choosing classes and I got a really late number. I had very few options and thought this seemed interesting. Now I'm having serious doubts about my decision. This semester, I chose fairly moderate load classes and I've been working really hard keeping up. I have no idea how I'll manage next sem. On top of all of this, next semester, I'll have to seriously start interviewing and applying for internships in Summer 16. So till the end of next sem, I think I'll have this crazy hectic schedule. It feels like the sem has just about started and its already time for finals!
I've had quite a few ideas for posts but have put them away for lack of time. I thought I'd take a few minutes off to post at least this.
A friend has taken three heavy load courses this time and is managing fine! I hope I'll be able to manage next semester without a huge negative impact on my GPA.
Among other things, quite a few of my friends are going back home in December. I know that it doesn't make sense for me to go back now, as my parents would probably be visiting in June 16. However, when I see them all excited I feel really sad. It'll be at least a year before I get to see little Tee. By then, he may have forgotten me! I can't bear to think of that situation. I hope some miracle happens and they find a super easy way to transport pets overseas. (Or that he'll start responding to me over the phone or when we skype)
Will resume studying for my test now :/.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

What if I was born as a boy?

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having/had a great day today! Stephanie Mayer recently announced that she will be releasing a new book titled Life and Death which will be a re-imagined version of twilight but with gender roles swapped. That should be interesting! I also watched a video of a girl putting on make up to look like a boy. She looked funny... but I could imagine her as a guy. This got me thinking... what would I have been like if I was born as a boy?! Crazy! I know, but here are a few things that I think would be different.

Looks
I look a lot like a girl (that sounds really weird); I mean, some females have slightly masculine faces and some feminine, I think my face is slightly feminine. Also, since I rarely wear any makeup or get my eyebrows plucked, it wasn't too hard to imagine how I would look. There are so many hairstyle apps available. Some months back I had tried one of these apps, and it had a few boy hairstyles too. With that on, I thought I could have passed off as a boy!! It was really weird; but funny!
I'm quite short; so if I was a boy (I hopefully would have been slightly taller than I am now), I would most probably be teased/bullied for being too short.

Even Emma Watson (who I think has the most feminine face) looks like a boy sometimes! :P

Source

Personality
This is really hard to imagine. I would like to think that my personality is based on who I am and not based on who I am expected to be; but I'm sure my environment, society etc has played a huge role in creating my personality. Also the fact that I have no brothers makes it harder for me to think what a guy would like and not like had he grown up in the same environment that I did. But trying to think about things that are really me and not qualities that I've developed because of the society, here's what I think I would be like:
I hate conflicts and try to avoid them whenever possible. I love things that can be explained logically and try to find a logical/scientific explanation for everything. I hate any form of sports and have no interest at all in watching any game. However, I do enjoy playing video games and am pretty good at a few. I love technology and hate it when I'm in a conversation where someone else knows more than me about some technology. I am quite modest and rarely show off. I hear guys usually brag about every little achievement. So, I think I would show off my skills/abilities a little more if I was a boy. I don't talk a lot and I think that would be something that wouldn't have changed. I am quite emotional with regard to some issues and people, but I don't always give into my feelings and take irrational decisions.
Overall, I think would be a soft spoken, sensitive, law abiding person with a few good friends. (That line could describe me even now! Maybe girls and guys are not too different after all.. but then again, I don't think such guys exist! :P)

Interests
I am a big fan of Disney; I watch a lot of teenage drama kinda shows. I don't think I would be into those if was a boy. Disney maybe; I have a friend (who is a boy) who loves all things Disney as much as I do! I like teenage drama shows because usually the main character is a girl (whom I can relate to); I can't think of any shows with a guy as the main character;  so I don't know what I'd like TV/movies wise. The most popular genre among guys is action; so, maybe I would like such movies. But, there is noting in those movies that an ordinary person can relate to! I don't know... maybe there is something relatable. The shows that I watch also don't have people like me in it... but I still enjoy watching them, Maybe its a guy thing and maybe I'd have understood it if I were a guy.
As I mentioned above, I love technology, gadgets etc and I think I would be even more interested in them as a guy.
I enjoy writing, but I rarely find guys interested in stuff like this. Yes there are a lot of male authors; but that's different. I don't think I would have had a blog if I was a boy. Maybe I would've just played video games in my free time.

Career path
This one is pretty easy. I'm 99% sure I'd still be pursuing the same career path. Being an 'IT guy' is slightly more common than being an 'IT girl'. So, I think career wise I would be in the very same place that I am in now.

Friends
I don't like talking to strangers, but I make friends easily. Although that sounds contradictory, its not! If I need to ask someone a question, a favour etc, I feel very uncomfortable. However, I don't have a problem introducing myself and befriending someone of my age who goes to my same school/college. So, I have a lot of people I know/ am "friends" with; but I have very few close/true friends. And most of my friends are girls. Even in the larger group of "friends" very few are guys. So swapping the case, I would have a large group of guys that I am friends with, a small group of very close friends and a few girls that I know fairly well.

Ah! Finally, I've reached the end of this very weird post. It was really hard and amusing trying to imagine myself as a guy. I don't think I (the girl me) like this... would be very impressed with me (the guy me). I'm glad I wasn't born as a boy! Anyway, have you ever imagined yourself as a boy/girl? Would you like yourself (your gender swapped self)? Do let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Bye! :D 

#IAmNotAFruit!?

Hello everybody,
I hope you are having a great day today!
As I scrolled through my Facebook feed today, I came across this video where women were saying 'I am not a fruit'. It was a protest video against generalizing women's body types into categories based on fruits (apple, pear and banana). Here is a link to the video. I strongly believe that any kind of shaming is wrong and everyone is free to wear any kind of clothing that they fancy. That being said, I think it is trivial to protest against anything and everything that is said about the body. Magazines do say what flatters each body type and what doesn't; but that's just the view of one stylist/fashion guru (dunno the exact terminology; I rarely read such stuff). Its upto each individual whether they want to read about it, follow it, let it bother them etc. A lot of people like being told what to wear and what not to. And some others like deciding on their own. When there are people who want advise, and people who are willing to give it, I don't see why anyone else needs to get involved. It is hard for anyone to give advise without any form  of generalization especially when they're addressing such a large audience. For such convenience sake, if they categorize body types, I don't see any harm in it.
Ultimately, you decide what you choose to wear. When no one's calling you a fruit, I don't see why you need to say you're not one!
This is just my personal opinion. I don't intend to put down anyone; I just feel that was something trivial to protest against. Again, this is just my opinion. Do let me know about your opinions. I'm open to counter opinions too and would love to hear the other side too!  
Until next time,
Bye! :D

10 things I find strange about America

Hello everybody,
Its been a month since I landed in USA and I find a lot of things strange here. Some good, some bad; here is a list of top 10 things that I find weird about USA. (This one's going to be a long post!)

1) Everything comes in large sizes.
This is probably one of the most well known things about America; but I had to put this on the top of my list. Onions the size of cricket balls! Ridiculous! On the other hand, I saw some baby carrots at the store and they were TINY! I could never imagine carrots could be so tiny. They were really sweet too!
Last week, I saw something rustling behind a bush. It looked like a cat or a dog; but I've never seen strays here. So I was a little curious to see what it could be. A minute later I saw this huuge big squirrel. A squirrel the size of a cat! That can happen only in America!!
Ice cream packs are big; no... anything that is packed is in large quantities (most things; I've seen some really small sized packs too! But generally speaking they are big). The houses are big, the cars are big. It goes on.

2) People talk a lot.
Talking to strangers stresses me out and maybe this is the reason I find this weird. The first sentence anyone greets you with is 'Hey, how are you doing today?'. I'd prefer to answer it with just an 'I'm fine' (because that would end the conversation :P), but the preferred response is 'I'm good. How are you?'. Another question = more conversation. Moreover, I don't know you well enough to help you in anyway if you are not doing good. (But thankfully no one ever says anything other than 'I'm doing good too.'
Even at other places, waiting in queues, at stores etc, people will start a conversation even if you haven't been introduced to each other before. It is a good thing that people are friendly and approachable, but stressful for people who find it hard to interact with new people.

3) A lot of people use trucks or vehicles with a large open carrier compartment in the back.
I believe they are called 'pick up trucks'. (Please correct me if I'm wrong) A lot of people use these vehicles. I have no idea why anyone would need such vehicles on a day-to-day basis. I thought those vehicles were meant for transporting heavy goods. But I've seen a lot of common people use it as a mode of transportation and usually the carrier compartment is empty. Why buy such a big vehicle (and pay for extra fuel) for everyday use? I don't understand.

4) Washrooms are better lit than living rooms.
This was one thing me and a lot of my friends found strange. The living rooms, kitchen etc are quite dimly lit. However, washrooms have 4-10 bulbs and are really bright! Some of my friends, took off some bulbs from the washroom and plugged them in in the living room. Where I stay, the washroom has 8 bulbs and each time I switch on the light I feel guilty that I'm using that much of extra electricity.

5) Have classes for everything
If you want to learn something, you'll have a class for it. Recently I had been to a library and I saw a list of events that were lined up for this month. There were classes/sessions on such a wide range of topics! And it catered to all ages! Even at college, info sessions keep happening. Even if it is just a bunch of stuff that you can find on the internet, they'll have a class for it. (I think its wonderful!) You may be able to find it on your own; but if someone conducts a class and tells you the same thing, you'll have more faith in it as it has more authenticity.

6) You'll want to buy EVERYTHING! (Too much of consumerism)
There is a 'new and improved' version of everything you can imagine. And the variety available is endless! I recently visited a store that sells art and craft supplies; it was so pretty! Especially the aisles with the Christmas stuff... I wanted to buy everything in that aisle! I loove glitter and everything there was fully glittered up! I, a twenty-one year old (on a strict budget) found it hard to get through the store without buying unnecessary stuff; I could completely understand my 4-year old nieces' excitement (and eventual disappointment when she wasn't allowed to buy anything).

The amount of merchandise available for any movie/ character etc is too high! For example, a chapsitck with just a brand name on it won't interest kids; but if it has a picture of Elsa on it (especially if it has some glitter on it) they need it! The other day, I saw a pack of grapes with a frozen sticker on it! We just passed the aisle and my niece immediately shot back and picked it up and insisted that she needed the grapes! As soon as a new character catches the fancy of kids, they'll want everything new again!

7) No traffic and smooth roads
Ah! This is one thing that I've been loving ever since I got here. The city where I used to live was known for its traffic jams. I used to spend 4 hours on a an average each day in traffic, and this was what hit me the very minute I got here. The roads are wide and smooth. (I haven't seen a single pothole on any road!) And people follow rules so well! And pedestrians are given so much respect! I find it extremely funny when cars stop when I'm waiting to cross the road. Initially I wan't aware that people would actually stop if they saw someone standing on the pavement at intersections (in the college campus). A friend was amused by this too. The other day, she was standing on the pavement, thinking about which way to go, and then a car stopped. She never realized that the car stopped because she was standing there. A few seconds later when another car stopped and the person driving the car gestured for her to cross, she realized that they had stopped because she was standing there! She was totally embarrassed for having made two cars wait! I find it strange even now and avoid reaching junctions when I see a car approaching.

8) Everything is spreeaaad out
I'm sure this doesn't apply to ALL of America, but its true for quite a few parts of America that I've been to (I did visit quite a few states during my previous visit). You rarely have trouble finding a spot to park you vehicle, crowded stores etc. There are large empty spaces in front of houses, parks are huge... in general, everything is spread out. (Of course not everywhere!) I did see tall buildings, crowded places in the downtown parts of the city.

9) Everything is automated
Everything runs on electricity, has a mind of its own and is connected to the internet! I've heard that IoT (Internet of Things) is going to be the next big thing technology wise, but I'm actually seeing it in effect here. America is technologically advanced. That's a well-known fact. But the role technology plays in everyday life is something one must experience to understand.
I found digital toll booths very fancy! Where I lived, toll booths used to be a bottle neck for traffic, and here, one need not even stop to pay the toll! A machine scans a sticker on your windshield and the money is transferred from your account! How wonderful!
Many other little things like this are automated.

10) Bad healthcare
This is one major drawback I've noticed. America is well known for its medical advancement; however, the availability of basic healthcare is limited! Insurance plays such a big role here! Where I lived, there were plenty of good doctors available, and one could schedule an appointment for the same day or the next day easily. Here, wait times are so long, the person would probably have recovered before they meeting the doctor! Also, I find that doctors here tend to talk about the worst case scenario and scare patients. I know its better for patients to know about possible implications of their illness, but I think it isn't right to tell them about the worst case possibility before getting sufficient evidence that it could be it. I generally tend to avoid visiting doctors, so I'm not very sure about what I expect them to do, but this is what I feel from what I've heard about other peoples' experiences that I've heard about.

So these are the top ten things that I find strange about America. There are a few more things,like the freedom to dress as you like (Contrary to what is shown in movies, I think people are not very  judgmental about what you wear.) ; but these are the top ten according to me.
(P.S. These are my opinions based on the little part of America that I've seen so far. I may be completely wrong about some stuff, so, if you think I was wrong about generalizing something, please do let me know!)

Until next time,
Bye! :D

One more thing, I participated in a collab post on 'Party ideas' over at the wonderful (yet ordinary) life of me! (Here is the link to the post) Do take a look at it! It has some really cool ideas posted by fellow bloggers! :D

Disqus!

Hello Everybody!
I hope you're having a great day today! I have a new improvement on my blog today! Did you notice it?? I have enabled Discus for the comments section! I'm really new to Discqus but I really liked how it looks. It had been such a long time since I did anything to make my blog better, I thought this could be one nice improvement!
Do you like it? Please do let me know in the comments! :D :D
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Growing young

Hello everybody!
Hope you're having a great day! I've been MIA for the past few weeks because I've been experiencing so many new things and trying to get used to a whole new country. So far, I'm loving USA. I miss my parents and Tee a lot; but with whatsapp and skype, its not too bad. Another huge advantage that I have is that I live with my sister and her family. I have an adorable 4 year old niece and I spend a lot of my free time with her. Off late, I feel much younger! I am quite lazy and lethargic by nature and used to spend a lot of time watching TV or scrolling through fb. With my niece (let me call her A) around, I don't get to sit around much. After spending these past few weeks with her, I've started enjoying playing with her more than sitting in front of the computer! I've never been good with kids; I don't know how to engage them. I've never even had any desire of doing so before. A is the first child I've ever lived with. She's become really close to me and she puts me at ease! Earlier, I never knew what to do with kids. After being around A for these few weeks, I've realized, I don't need to do anything! I just need to find the kid in me and enjoy myself!
When we take A to the park, I never used to get on the slide and other play equipment. Play equipment is for kids and grown ups like me shouldn't get onto them was my thought! (I thought it wouldn't support my weight! :P But the play equipment here is really heavy duty; I've seen well-built 6 foot people getting onto them to help their kids) I finally got onto one once as A kept asking me to play with her; and it was SO much fun! I loved sitting on the swing for hours when I was a kid. The other day I sat on a swing after roughly 8-10 years! God! What an amazing feeling it was! It brought back all my childhood memories. It was early in the morning, and I could see the green grass all around for quite some distance. a cool breeze was blowing, and I swung for almost half an hour! It was SUCH a wonderful feeling! You feel weightless on a swing and I love that feeling.
About 3 days back, in the evening, A was struggling to finish her dinner and we decided to play a memory game with her just to distract her. I never thought that I; a 21-year old would enjoy a game meant for 4 year olds. But we (3 adults and A) had SO much fun! We played another round of it even after A was finished with her dinner.
I don't know how or at what point of time I grew out of all this. I've stayed away from it for such a long time that I was convinced that I was too old for any kiddie stuff. I was wrong! I still enjoy playing games and playing on the swing! (Not to the same extent as A of course!) Staying with A has brought out the kid in me again!
Do you enjoy playing games once in a while? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Bye! :D 

My first day of college in USA!!

Hello everybody,
Its been a loong time since I last posted here. I'm finally in the USA!!! I have so much that I want to share; but I've been so busy trying to get adjusted to all the new things that I haven't had time to write a proper post. Technically speaking, today wasn't my first day at college. Its actually my 5th day. but today was the first day of class, so I'll call it my first day of college. I'll write all about my experience the first time I visited the campus in a later post.
I have classes on just 2 days of the week; but they are back to back with just fifteen minutes between two classes. I have 3 classes this semester. Today morning, I woke up at 7:30 am. I was ready by 8:30 and left home at around 9. (My sister lives in the same city where I attend University and I stay with her) I reached college at 9:20 am. I had already seen my classroom the last time I had been there, so I was able to find it easily. Another class was going on and I sat waiting. I saw two girls from my own country standing near the door. I went and introduced myself to them. They  seemed really nice. As soon as the first class ended, we got in and sat in the first row. The class was Algorithms. The professor was a short soft spoken person. I thought he was really well-organized. He started off with the actual coursework.
My next class (Object Oriented Design)  was in the same room as my first class. I stepped out as I had a fifteen minute break in between. By the time I came back, the first two rows were full! Another person whom I had met at an orientation earlier had taken up this class too. We sat together. (We need to submit a project for this course and it forms a major part of the grade. The professor would be putting us into groups of five for the project work. (I hope I get good team mates!) ) We were asked to introduce ourselves and talk about our expectations from the course. The course would be slightly tailored to our expectations. I found that very interesting!
The next class was Database Design. For this I had to go to another classroom (which was on the same floor). Another friend of mine had taken up this class. I met her and befriended another person in that class. The professor was an energetic cheerful lady. I had heard that she was really strict with grading. From what I saw today, I think scoring well in this subject would be slightly hard. Although happy and cheerful, she seemed like a strict person who wouldn't be lenient with grading assignments.
I had taken most of these subjects at my undergrad level too; so hopefully, this semester  would be easy in terms of study load. I have so many other things that I need to get used to.
After class, we went to the library to get some textbooks. From what I've heard/seen, text books in USA are very expensive. Of the three books, I have brought one of them, the other one, I had referred to during my undergrad course; however, I haven't brought it. But I was able to find an online copy of it. The third book I was able to find a soft copy at the library. By about 4:00 pm I was back home!
I relaxed for a while and tried to look at the online material posted for each of my courses. I'm really impressed with the promptness of the professors in posting material online. I was able to find a lot of useful info.
I love that I have classes on just 2 days a week!
Welcome Week is going on at the university. I still need to plan on what events I want to attend this week. I'll post anything interesting that I experience. I still have lots that I want to tell you all. So stay tuned!!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Up, Up and Away: few HOURS to go!!

Hello everybody,
Today is the day! Today night, in a few hours I'll leave the country to go to USA for my studies. I'm really sad, excited and a little tense at the moment. All my bags are packed and ready. I just need to have my dinner, change my clothes and leave. All my bags are just within the allowed weight limit. Hopefully the scale I used co-insides with the scale at the airport. I've been home all of this week and I feel really sad to be leaving for such a long time. I'm not too sad about leaving the house (that I've lived in ever since I was born!) or the city etc. I will miss all that, but not as much as I'm going to miss my parents and Tee. My mom was almost in tears today morning. Day before I couldn't sleep till around 2 am and kept sobbing in bed. I feel really sad to be leaving behind my parents especially at this stage when they are getting old. I see that they have lesser energy than they used to a few years back and I fear they may become weaker by the time I see them next. The thought that they may struggle all by themselves when I'm away enjoying my life haunts me. Technology is a boon; I will be able to see them and talk to them online everyday; but, I won't be able to understand the little struggles they may face on a day-to-day basis or help them out in any little way I can. But I guess I'll have to bear with it for now. Hopefully after 2 years, I'll get a job that will allow me to stay close to my parents and take care of them. I am teary eyed as I write this as I think about all that they have done for me and my sister. They've done the best that anyone could possibly do for their children. They've worked hard all their lives ignoring their health to do the best for us. And now, after all that I'm leaving them here and going away so far. This post is also a reminder to the future me. I hope I never forget all that my parents have done for me and never hurt them ever! I'm scared that I may change as a person and get too engrossed with my own new life and forget all about my parents. I HOPE and PRAY that never happens. If such a day comes, I hope at least this post may remind me. Me and my mom had a little squabble with my sister a few days back. The amount it hurt my mom deeply hurt me. The way they look forward to my sister's call every evening and if  she doesn't ask about them one day, the expression on my mom's face after I end the call is heart breaking. I hope I never ever do such a thing! Although I scream at them, I fight with them, at the end of the day they always forgive me; they could never do anything to hurt me so much that I would not forgive them.
I just hope these few years away in a new country won't change me. I hope my parents and Tee are happy and healthy here and I hope very soon we'll all be united again.
So, those are my thoughts right now. I don't want to cry before I leave, but I'm so on the verge off it right now! Ugh! a  really bad time. God! why do things have to be so difficult! Why hasn't teleportation been invented still!? I hope the journey is smooth! See you on the other side! (Hopefully I'll be in a saner state of mind in a few days time!) I still had a lot more to write about about this past week (happy stuff). I'll put it in another post after I reach USA.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Friends

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day! This is kind of a continuation of my previous post. As I mentioned earlier, I recently got my visa and told my friends about me leaving for university abroad. The way some of them reacted, surprised me a little and got me thinking about friendships.
I had kept only three of my very close friends (I'll call them ABC for convenience) informed about my plans from the very beginning. A lot of people put you down if you plan/try to pursue something and fail. So, I thought it would be best to let others know only after things were clearer for me. Once I received my visa, I thought it was suitable to let others know about it. 
For the past 6 months I've been working as an intern and don't meet ABC on a regular basis. A few other friends from my college (I'll call them DEF (God! I need to come up with better names!)) are interning along with me. So for the past few months, I spend most of my time with DEF and have become quite close friends with them. Sometimes I wonder, if I had met them in my first year of college, would I have become best friends with them? They come from a similar background as me, they have a similar upbringing, values etc. However, on many occasions I've found them behaving in a petty/selfish manner. In such situations I wonder, are ABC better people than DEF or is it just the way ABC react to me vs how DEF react to me (considering I'm a newer friend to  DEF than ABC).
I'm writing about this now because I noticed a significant difference in the way ABC reacted to the news that I had got my visa and how DEF reacted to the same news. Our internship offer was such that if we performed well during the internship period, we'd be converted into permanent employees. I have been performing well and my manager offered to convert me. However, I declined the offer as I had plans of continuing my education. I didn't tell DEF about this as I hadn't told them about my plan to study itself. They thought I hadn't been offered a conversion and used to boast a little about their offers. I used to be tempted to tell them that I too had been offered a conversion but held back as I'd have to reveal my other plans then. Finally when it was my turn to tell them about my plans, I thought they'd be a little more supportive and happy for me. They did congratulate me, but it was quite apparent that they were unhappy about it. I told them about it two days back and I already notice the change in their behavior towards me. They've become a little distant and cold.
When I broke the news to ABC, they were genuinely happy and I could see that in their texts itself! Now I do think ABC are genuinely better people than DEF. I'm glad I got to meet ABC before I met DEF. ABC are friends because I like to be with them; DEF are more friends for convenience.
I know this post was really cryptic and personal, but I needed to tell someone about it and I figured, who better than you! I'm sorry if I bored you with little details of my life which may not make sense to you. But I hope atleast a few people can relate to what I'm talking about.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Up, Up and Away: < 20 days to go! (Visa approved!)

Hello everybody!
I know I haven't been posting anything else apart from this topic, but I think that's all that's going on in my life these past few months. I have no idea when I'll post a quality post next. Please bear with me for a few more weeks. I have a feeling that I'll have some really interesting stuff to write about soon!
Coming back to the topic of this post, I finally finished my Visa interview and my visa got approved! I got back my stamped passport too. The interview went really smooth and lasted no longer than 2 minutes! I had spent months procuring all the required documents and organizing them. A lot of people post a lot of stuff they think is true on groups and forums and get others worried. Even on the day before my interview, someone on the WhatsApp group (of people from my city going to the same university) said some particular document had to be attested and the original was not enough! Although that did not make much sense, when an important thing like your visa is at stake, little things also bother you. Finally it turned out that that document was not required. I felt like I was over-prepared; but its always better to be a little over-prepared rather than under-prepared.
I bought a new suitcase. I'm allowed 2 large ones and a small carry-on. I already had 2 large ones but decided to buy another one as my parents might need the other one for when they travel. I haven't started putting stuff in, I think I'll start doing that about a week  before I leave. I bought a few dresses and shoes that I thought I could use there. I don't even have a vague idea how much all my stuff weighs. This week I'll start putting all the things that I'll be taking in one place. That should give me an idea about how much space I'll be left with if I decide to buy more stuff.
I have a to-do list to which I had just been adding stuff all these weeks; now a lot of them are getting checked off. I had to get my eyes checked (I've heard medical treatment is very expensive in the US). It turns out that I have a slight power but the doctor said that I don't need to wear glasses regularly! (only when I need them).  A lot of my friends are getting a dental check-up too. I'm really scared of the dentist and am quite sure I don't have any cavities. So, I'm planning to skip that. I had to get a vaccination and a blood draw test. (I think I've suffered enough in one month!)
This week will be my last proper week at work. My internship was supposed to end next Sunday, but I'll be taking some days off next week to prepare; I'll go on friday to finish the closing procedures.
Until now I hadn't told most of my friends about my plan to go abroad; I told quite a few of my friends recently after I got my visa. There were mixed reactions. I think I'll make a separate post that and other stuff.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Up, Up and Away: 30 days to go!

Hello everybody,
I hope each one of you is having a great day! I just have about a month left before I FLY! Next week I have my visa interview. I hope and pray it goes well. On the University WhatsApp groups I see only approvals and people saying that their interview was no longer than 2-3 minutes; so, I hope it won't be something that I need to worry about. I have most of my documents ready. One last document that I need to get from my Undergraduate University is pending (I'll get it on Friday).
My internship goes on till the first week of August. I barely have 2-3 days of holidays before I leave. This gives me no time to prepare. I need to finish my packing, organize my documents (separate the ones that I'll need to take from the ones that I'll leave behind, make copies, scan originals etc), decide on which courses I'll take etc. Since I haven't got my visa yet I keep feeling like I have time and the fact that I'm at work for the most part of the day isn't helping.
Packing wise, I've made a list of things that I'll need (I have most things; so, I don't need to go shop much). I've also decided on the clothes that I'll be carrying. All that's left is putting stuff into suitcases (I need to buy one still!) and making sure that the weight is within the limit. I don't think this will take more than a week's time; but since I get time only in the evenings I need to start early- probably next weekend (after my visa!). As I said in an earlier post, I'll be living with a very close relative; so, even if I forget a few things, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
The next important thing that  I need to do is organize my documents. This is such a boring job that I keep putting it off and I've not even started doing it. I need to plan for all the documents I may need for the next 2 years! I don't know when I'm going to do this.
That is the status of my preparation. Coming to mental preparation, I'm more excited about this whole thing than I've even been before. I've started to see more at the positives and less at the negatives. I hope to make new friends, become more independent, learn more about my subject and learn more about myself. All these many years, I've looked up to my parents to guide me about how I need to handle situations. Now, hopefully from all that I've learnt I'll be able to take proper decisions and handle situations that come my way. I know I'll always have them to guide me when I'm in a really sticky situation; but staying in different time zones would probably mean that I'll have to handle most situations on my own. I'm  curious to see how I'll manage.
Some of my concerns at the moment are 1) how I'll handle finances and 2) commute.
Till now, I've always just asked my parents for anything that  I wanted and they'd buy me that. Even now when I'm earning, I don't spend the money that I earn. I'll have to start managing my own account; maintaining a record of the money I have, I've spent etc. Hopefully I'll learn all that soon.
My other concern is regarding transportation. The city where I live in has amazing public transport. I completely rely on buses to get from one point to another (when traveling alone). However, in the USA, most cities (including the city I'm going to) have very minimal public transport facilities. I've also heard that it is quite unsafe to travel alone. Although the university is about 15 minutes by car from the place where I'll stay, it would take me close to 2 hours by bus! I know how to drive a car; but barely drive. Most people from my city/country who are going to the same university have taken up accommodation close to the campus. So, this will be one thing that I'll have to figure out on my own
That is it for now. The next time I write on this topic will probably be after I finish my visa interview. (Hope that goes well!)
If you have any suggestions for any of the problems I've mentioned above, please do let me know in the comments. Even otherwise, feel free to leave a comment; I love reading them! :D
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Clothes

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day! Yesterday I picked out some of my clothes that I'd be taking with me to college and that put me in a really bad mood! I never thought clothes could upset my mood! I have quite a conservative dress sense; I usually wear kurtas (a knee length top) over leggings or jeans and I feel very comfortable in them. I feel a little awkward wearing jeans with T-shirts (I don't like the way I look in them). I feel I would look out of place wearing kurtas in USA. So, I've decided to carry mainly T-shirts and a few kurtas. I feel more confident when I'm comfortable with my clothes. Even if it looks old-fashioned or weird, if I like it, I don't mind wearing it and feel confident in it. If I feel uncomfortable wearing something, even if it looks good on me, my whole body language would make it look awkward on me.
I never thought earlier how important it was to like one's clothes! The thought of wearing something you think would make you look nice makes you happy! Right now, I'm in the opposite situation. I can only imagine myself looking awkward and avoiding situations that would put me in the spotlight. Hopefully I'll find some other kinds of clothing that is worn there that I'll like! I love wearing skirts (calf-length and flowy though; I don't think adults wear that any longer :( ); I guess I'll figure it out in sometime after I get there.
What are your thoughts on clothes? Do you think they are important? What are your favorite kinds of clothes? Do let me know in the comments! 
Until next time!
Bye! :D

Up, Up and away: 50 days to go

Hello everybody,
As  I have mentioned before, I will be pursuing my Master's degree in a foreign university. Leaving the country I was born in and going to a new country and exploring things by myself is going to be an enormous change. I thought I'd do a post on how I've prepared myself for this change, how I feel etc. I'll keep posting under this topic at regular intervals.
Now I have about 50days before I fly. I've booked my ticket but my visa is yet to be done! I need some documents for the visa and I'm waiting for them. I met a bunch of people from my city, who are going to join the same university, yesterday. Social media is SUCH a boon. I was quite unsure about meeting a whole bunch of people whom I had never met before. Most people have at least a year's work experience. (I just finished my Bachelor's this year)  I was a little intimidated by them initially but as I got to know them a little I became a little more comfortable. (Even then I was one of the quiet few in the group). I met 2 girls (one from the same branch that I've chosen) whom I found to be quite friendly. Meeting them helped me get a better picture of the kind of people I'd be dealing with. I'm also glad that I'll have their company to attend college for the first time! I plan to live with a close relative who lives in the same city as the University I'm planning to attend. So, I did not have to get an apartment or find roommates. Almost everyone else has already booked an apartment and know their roommates. They have at least the company of their roommates to attend orientations/ pick classes etc.
I've had mixed feelings about the whole thing. Sometimes I feel excited and happy that I've got this wonderful opportunity to explore the world and myself. Other times I feel extremely gloomy and depressed thinking about all that I'll leave behind. The thought of having no form of income for the next two years (especially after starting to earn a little) and having to burden my parents is scary. By the time I finish my course and start earning again, my parents will be older and I feel guilty that I'm depriving them the opportunity to enjoy their lives when they're fit. I'll have to leave behind Tee (my pet cocker) under my parents' care. I wish transporting pets abroad was easier!
On the brighter side, I may be able to get a better job than what I would get now. I hopefully will become more independent and mature. Emotionally, I'm quite mixed up right now.
As far as preparations go, I've not even bought my suitcases. Since I haven't got my visa yet I'm kind of stalling the travel preparation. I haven't decided on what clothes I'll need, what I have, what I need to buy etc. This weekend I plan to organize my clothes a little and decide on what I'll take and what I wont. Atleast then I'll get a vague idea about how much stuff I have. The airline that I've booked my ticket in  allows only 2 pieces of checked in luggage. Some airlines have a special student offer allowing them to carry 3 pieces of checked in luggage. So, I need to plan well and organize my stuff to fall within the weight and space restrictions.
I think that's it for now. I'll keep posting under this topic more often as the day gets closer. Have you moved away from your hometown ever? How was you experience? Do let me know in the comments!
Until next time!
Bye! :D

Voldemort key-value store

Hello everybody,

I just finished my last engineering exam yesterday! Woohoo! The last thing I would expect to read in a computer science text book was a heading that read 'Voldemort'. Apparently there is a database system called Voldemort that is used in LinkedIn. How cool is that? I love the series and thought I had to post it here.
People working on it would be saying things like "Voldemort is down for 10s", "My Voldemort just crashed", "Inserted 10 rows into Voldemort", "Updating Voldemort...", "New version of Voldemort available". I'm sure they wouldn't be saying such stuff. But I'm sure whatever they do, would be really cool!

 

Until next time,

Bye! :)

The day after an exam

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day! As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an important exam yesterday. It went well and it feels like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. Before an exam, I feel exams are the worst things to happen to students and life would be much better without them. But actually, the joy you feel after finishing an exam is much more than when you don't have an exam. Any form of relaxation or enjoyment that you indulge in after an exam feels justified. Today, I woke up at about 9:30 am, switched on the TV and sat in front of it till about 4 pm! ( I did shower and have breakfast and lunch in between.) If I had done the same thing on any other random day, I would have felt really guilty. But since I had been working really hard for quite some time, I felt completely relaxed and happy wasting an entire day.
I think this is the reason we need goals and desires in life. We all love the sense of accomplishment that we feel after working towards a goal and achieving it. Living life as it comes is like the joy you feel when you have no exams. It is simple, uncomplicated and happy.
I think it is just a matter of choice. Both the options seem valid ways of living a happy contented life.
Woah! That turned philosophical very soon! I had a really nice day and wanted to do a post on how awesome it feels after an exam. What do you prefer? The day after an exam or a day when you don't have an exam approaching? Do let me know in the comments!
Until next time.
Bye! :D
P.S. I still haven't finished my exams. The next one is still about 5 days away so took a day off.

Where's the pause button?

Hello everybody,
I'm writing a post after such a long time. Since I've been away for such a long time, I thought I'd just do a post telling you all what I've been up to.
My life has been super hectic for the past month. I was busy with my final year project work (worth 18 credits out of 24 credits). Getting the reports printed and bound was one hell of a job. We had to use LaTex for formatting the report and one missing bracket could ruin the formatting of the entire document. But at the end of it, I felt really proud seeing the printed reports.
The week before last week was our department farewell and institution farewell (on two separate days). The same week we had an Open Day in college where we had to present our projects to the public. So, the whole of that week I had taken leave from work. So last week and this week have been crazy at work too. I've just been living from one deadline to the next. Tomorrow is my final project evaluation and I'm quite nervous about it. Usually final projects are done in groups of 4; but since I'm showing the project that I did during my internship, I'm doing it alone. The entire responsibility is upon me and this is quite nerve-wracking. I hope all goes well tomorrow. I'll be done with my college exams by next Saturday. 
I'm sorry for this crappy post. I promise to post better content after I'm done with my exams.
Until next time,
Bye! :)

The donkey wedding

Hello everybody,
I'm so sorry I've been so irregular with my posts. I have a lot of things going on (project submissions, exams and stuff). Today morning, the news was on, and I heard this report about people in some town getting two donkeys married! There is a belief that getting two donkeys married brings rain. So, if rains are delayed, people perform this ceremony. It's a silly tradition, but it doesn't harm the donkeys in anyway so I don't mind it very much. However, today morning, it was for a different reason that they were performing the ceremony.
Some organization had cheated some people, and the government had supported that organization. The donkeys were supposed to symbolize the government and the fraudulent organization and the wedding was to show that they were working together. They were comparing the inefficient/fraudulent organizations to donkeys! It was such an insult to the donkeys! The sad part was, people thought that it was a completely logical way to protest! Donkeys are useless, was the assumption! I was infuriated with it. I hoped the donkey would kick those people (who were insulting it). But then realized, if at all it did such a thing, it would be beaten and chained!
This got me thinking about how we humans think that we are above all other creatures and punish them for not obeying our orders. Imagine a situation where one person was insulting another person and the other person was prohibited from even objecting to it! That's the situation of every creature on earth other than man. For no fault of theirs, the donkeys were being publicly insulted! I know, they would not have been able to understand that they were being insulted, but even the ceremony, the people, the garlands were all irritating the poor creatures. Why did they have to tolerate all that? Because, if they didn't, cruel humans would beat them up!
We humans perform innumerable such acts against animals. The severity behind this act wasn't much (the donkeys weren't harmed in any way), but it was wrong. The concept of attributing bad traits to an entire species is not right. Also, expecting them to behave well when crazy rituals are performed on them is unfair.
Do let me know about your thoughts on this topic in the comments.
Until next time,
Bye!

Living in the now

Hello everybody,
I hope each one of you is having a great day. Today I decided to do a post on a new life policy or way of life that I've been following for a while now. It wasn't really a conscious or well-thought decision; I just decided to think about everyday life differently. I've always been averse to change. I enjoy small changes in routine; but only if I know that things will be back to normal after a while. However, I find major changes scary. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've decided to pursue my Master's degree abroad. Living in a whole new country, all by myself! I can't imagine a bigger change than this. I live in a big city, with a lot of good colleges; so I easily completed my undergraduate course staying at home. But now, since I've decided to pursue my Master's degree abroad, I most probably would take up employment (after I finish the course) in the same country (because of better career prospects). This means, these few months before I leave for college are my last few months at home! I will have to leave behind everything that I've EVER known from the time I was born! Thanks to technology, I most probably will be able to keep in touch with people here. But my little Tee (my pet cocker spaniel)... I would miss him terribly. Being the quiet person that I am, I was also quite apprehensive about having to talk to new people, having to make new friends etc.
For these reasons, I had started to dread the future. I was gloomy and irritated most of the time. Most people in my situation would have been excited for their future and there I was pretending like something terrible was about to happen to me. So, one day I decided to change my attitude and that was when I started to follow this new policy: living in the present. I know that sounds silly; but it really helps. I realized that I was wasting the time I have by thinking about what may or may not happen. When you think about life that way, it reduces a whole lot of stress! I don't mean to say that I won't plan for the future or work towards having future success. I really don't know what the future holds. There's no point in thinking about things that may never happen.
From the time that I've started to follow this policy, I've been happy! I love my work, I'm happy that I earn (until my internship ends at least), I'm happy about the time that I get to spend with my family. And who knows, if I keep following this policy, I probably will be happy when I move abroad too! I would concentrate on my college work, and not think about my life here. The trick is to live in the present and not worry excessively about the future or brood over the past. Like Oogway says, 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present."'
Do let me know in the comments about your views on this topic.
Until next time,
Bye! :D
P.S This life policy (I don't know if that's what its called) would completely fail during rough patches of life. During that time, having faith in the future and hoping for a better tomorrow would make more sense.

Movie Review: Cinderella

Hello everybody,
I hope you are having a great day. I finally got to watch Cinderella (last day last show) and I'm glad that I did. It is the perfect fairy tale told as it should be. I think I've watched every movie based on Cinderella and to watch one that sticks to the original is actually refreshing!



The movie sticks to the story that I've read as a kid. Lily James plays the part of Ella well; however, I think they've overdone the 'country girl' look a wee bit. Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger play the role of the step sisters perfectly. Their arrogance and dim-wittedness is apparent from the first scene. Their overdone makeup and gaudy dresses do complete justice to their characters. Lady Tremaine, the evil step-mom is played by Cate Blanchett and is very convincing. Cinderella follows her mother's last words 'have courage and be kind' and never says a word against her step-mother who is super mean to her. There are a few instances in the movie where I felt like punching her in the face and Ella doesn't say a word! Once such instance is when she forbids her from having breakfast at the table. Ella drops and breaks her plate in frustration (in the kitchen of course!) but obeys her step mother. The evil lady also tears up Ella's mother's dress (which is beautiful by the way) just before leaving for the ball. The final punishment that Lady Tremaine and her daughters get for all that they do isn't justified I felt. The fairy godmother is played by Bonham Carter and I think can play any role perfectly. She first appears as an old woman. The makeup for that part has gone completely wrong. She looks very weird as the old lady. But that scene is about 30 seconds long, so it hardly matters. Once she turns into the fairy godmother, she looks a little silly (because of the huge dress and tiny wings) but like a typical fairy godmother. I thought Richard Madden wasn't the ideal choice to play the prince; but he's quite convincing and plays the part well.
Coming to the costumes, first let me talk about the dress. It is amazingly pretty. It is big, glittery and flows! The shoes, and by shoes I mean the shoes, the glass shoes, didn't quite live up to my expectations. With the amount of technology available now, they could have made it look a little more magical. The fairy godmother's wand keeps emitting a kind of glittery magic-y stuff; that should have been added to the shoes as well. If you notice most animated Disney movies have that around magical things. Her everyday clothes were nice, believable yet kind of what I would imagine Cinderella would wear.

Expectation

Reality

The computer effects used for the carriage scene are good and add a bit of humor to the movie. The mice half transformed into horses, Mr. Goose and the lizard footmen look quite funny. That was the only humorous scene in the movie; but of course the movie doesn't belong to that genre so no more of humor is expected than is already present.
Overall, I'd say I loved the movie. Would totally recommend it to you if you liked simple stories with happy endings or if you were into Disney princesses. Even if you were'nt into such movies, I would still recommend it to you because, really, what's not to like in Cinderella especially when its been made by Disney.
If you have watched the movie, do let me know your views in the comments.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

PS: This is the first time I've posted an actual review, I'm not sure if there are any rules to be followed. If there are, please do let me know!

The race to #AT2UI tickets

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day! I had a crazy day today. As many of you may know, Lilly Singh aka Superwoman is going on a world tour (A Trip to Unicorn Island) AND she is coming to the city where I live! I love Lilly and I've been super excited  from the moment she announced the tour. Today the tickets were to go on sale at 1:45 pm. So me and my friend (who is as big a fan of Lilly as me) decided to buy the tickets as soon they opened if the cost was around 1000 rupees. However, we had presumed that the show would end at some earthly hour so that we could reach home before late.

Today morning the minute I reached work I checked the tour site just to see how many hours were left, and to my surprise, it said the tickets were open! Immediately I checked out the details and saw that almost all seats were still available. I tried calling my friend (who's interning at another company) but wasn't able to reach her. I kept tracking the seats and they were quite a lot of seats empty. However, the show was to start at 8 pm and the place is at least 2 hours away from where we live. I was a little concerned about this but my parents agreed to pick us up after the show. My friend's parents were a little concerned about the time and she took a while trying to convince them. I checked the tickets at 1 pm and there were about 20 seats left in 3 categories. I had a meeting at 2:30 pm and had to finish lunch and be back by then. So while my friend was convincing her mom, I went to have lunch (at around 1:30). At 2 pm my friend called me and told that her mom agreed and she was trying to book the ticket but the tickets were sold out! I had completely missed the fact that a lot of people would visit the site at 1:45 pm (the announced time for the tickets to go on sale). I rushed back to see the same message. We kept refreshing and retrying and once in 10 minutes or so a few seat would appear. We tried booking them but both of us had problems with the transaction. Finally I gave up at 2:29 as I had my meeting then. My friend kept trying with no luck. After my meeting, I tried again. The transaction was almost complete when there was a problem and my card got blocked!
After another half hour of cribbing I asked a senior friend in office and she agreed to pay for it with her card. She had some work to finish and finally when she came and I tried to buy a ticket, it displayed an official SOLD OUT message!!! Not a single ticket was available in ANY category.
That ended my race to buy a ticket for A Trip to Unicorn Island. An hour of blaring music, a movie and a blog post later I think I'm finally at the stage of being okay about it. I wasted an entire day at work, got my card blocked and ended up without tickets to the show. But, its ok... I've learnt from my mistakes. I should have bought the ticket in the morning when I had the chance. Waiting it out isn't the solution to every problem. Any #TeamSuper fans reading this post? Do let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

My first admit!

Hello everybody,
I'm excited to announce today that I received my first admit to pursue my Masters at a reputed university in USA! As I mentioned in earlier posts that this year would be a year of change for me, this was what I had in mind. I wasn't sure earlier about how things would turn out and hence hadn't told you that I had applied. But now that I've received an admit, I'm pretty sure that I would be taking up the seat if all other things fall into place.
The application process to US universities in a very long process and is quite complicated. When I joined my undergrad college, choosing a college was so simple. Where I live, admission to (most)undergraduate colleges is based on a board exam. Once the ranks are announced, counselling is conducted in 5-6 centers (in different cities) and there is a central system that displays the available seats. Students are called to pick their seat in the order of their ranks. If a seat you wish is available, you pick it up. Its simple and straight forward.
But in the US, the application process itself involves a long procedure. You need to take up the exams, fill in the application forms, write a statement of purpose, request letters of recommendation, pay the application fees and then apply. And even after applying, it takes close to 4-5 months before you get a response. Waiting for a response is quite scary especially when you see others receiving multiple admits. However, I wasn't really nervous as I already have a job in hand; but still, I was a little anxious. Every time I logged in to my mail I would cross my fingers and pray that I hadn't received a reject. Getting no response is better than getting a reject I feel.
Yesterday, just before leaving for work, I checked my mail on my phone. I saw a new mail with the subject 'Update on admission status' and I could see the word 'Congratulations' in the preview line.I was super excited and skimmed over the important details and read it out to my parents who were equally thrilled. I received my first admit from the university I was most keen about.
I still have to finish a lot of procedures that are required before I can be admitted. I still can't imagine moving away to a new country and living away from my parents. I will write more about this in my future posts. Do let me know if you have any thoughts about studying abroad.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Saying prayers

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day. Today I thought I'd do a post on why I think prayers are helpful. I do believe that there is some power that controls the universe. I don't endorse idol worship and complex rituals, however, I think giving a form to that power/energy makes it easier to imagine. I'm in the habit of saying prayers in the morning before leaving home. I don't really believe that there is some entity called God who sits in heaven and makes a note of all our prayers and goes around trying to make them true. I think prayers help us to take a moment and think about what we'd like to accomplish that day. It helps us make a mental list of goals for the day or week. Once we have goals set, it is easier to work towards them. This is the reason I think saying prayers in the morning is helpful.
Also, the thought that there is some super power that can help us in difficult times, reduces the stress on us. Isn't it soothing to think that there's someone to help you out during tough times? We usually think about positive things when we pray. Positive thoughts give us energy to face tough situations.
These, according to me are the benefits of saying prayers. Do you pray everyday? What according to you are the benefits of saying prayers? Do let me know in the comments
Bye! :)

Struggles of being a Socially Awkward person

Do you feel anxious to meet someone you don't know very well? Do you prefer to send an email or a text message rather than make a phone call if you are given a choice? If your answer to those questions was yes, you probably are socially awkward. But relax, a lot of people are... just to different extents. How do I know? I've been reading about this stuff for quite sometime. I have always been awkward in social settings. I prefer to stick to my close set of friends and avoid situations that may require me to interact with strangers. I recently took a quiz that said that I was 67% socially awkward! (not surprising... but the quiz did not look very authentic so I'm not going to leave a link to it here)

To give you an example of the kind of struggles I face on a regular basis, recently, a person in my team whom I worked with closely, resigned. During his send-off, most people spoke a few words about him and thanked him. It was a small gathering of about eight people and I could have spoken if I had wanted to. But I over thought (as always) and decided not to because I felt only people who knew him for a long enough duration had the right to talk then and it would be silly of me to say something, having worked with him for only about a month. So I kept quiet. After the "send off", I felt guilty for not having thanked him as he was the only person in my team with whom I had had any form of interaction (except my manager of course who had hired me). By then, a lot of people were coming to talk to him, wish him luck etc. I had to find someway to say thank you. So, at some random point of time, I went to him and gave a kind of a mini speech that I had said at least ten times in my mind by then. It was such an awkward thing to do! I literally died of embarrassment; but at least I was able to say thank you. I still don't know how I could have done it in a less awkward kind of way. 

This was just one incident when I've felt the need to become more confident and social. I had no problem discussing about codes, logic and other work related stuff; but when I had to express a human emotion like gratitude, my brain just switched off. I've made up my mind to make an attempt at improving my social skills. I will do a follow up post on tips that I've found online, observed others follow etc that could help one become more sociable. I also hope to follow those tips and let you know about any progress I make. Do let me know in the comments if you have some tips.

Hope for the best!
Bye! :)

The kind stranger on a crowded bus

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that for the past month I've been traveling a lot by public buses. I don't have a direct bus from my house to my workplace, so I have to take a bus to the central bus station and change buses there. As I leave during the rush hour, I rarely get a seat and end up standing in the bus the entire distance. It is a tiring journey and a little act of kindness in such situations can go a long way in making one's day better.

Yesterday, there was a huge jam at the Central Bus station. The entire bus station was blocked and none of the buses were moving.I had to wait for almost an hour to get a bus. Finally, when I got a bus, I was lucky enough to get a seat! I settled down, plugged in my earphones, chose a song that I like and turned up the volume. I really needed some music to relax my mind. Just then, two old women got onto the bus. All the other seats had been filled up and a few people were standing. The two ladies were really old and I had to give my seat to them. A little sad that I had to stand with my heavy bag, I stood up. One of them took the seat and thanked me. Just then, another lady who had been sitting in the seat behind me immediately offered to hold my bag! People do offer to hold other peoples' bags in crowded buses, but not very willingly. And that was not the end of her kindness.
A few stops later, one girl who had been sitting, stood up to get off the bus. I hadn't noticed it and the lady who was holding my bag quickly pointed towards the seat and told me to go and sit and said that she would pass my bag after I got the seat. There were people standing and I wouldn't have been able to get the seat if I had tried to make my way to the seat with my bag. The lady made sure that I got the seat before giving back my bag. If I hadn't got the seat, she would have had to sit for a longer while with my bag. The fact that she tried to help me even if it meant more discomfort for her, touched me. This may sound very trivial. But the fact that a total stranger cared for another stranger's comfort restored my faith in humanity. I know it sounds like I'm over-exaggerating; but the gratitude I felt towards the lady that day was real.
Have you experienced such random acts of kindness lately? Do let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
Bye! :) 

Cryptic Talk

Hello Everyone!
I'm so excited to publish this post. This is the post that I've been talking about for a while now.
Last semester we had a subject called Cryptography and Network Security. It involved use of a variety of ciphers to encrypt and decrypt text. It is a very interesting subject and I loved it. I thought I could use this knowledge to implement a simple cipher that people could use for fun.
This led me to develop 'Cryptic Text'. It is a very simple widget that I've designed and added to this blog. It implements a variation of the 'Pigpen Cipher'.

Using it is really simple. The Encrypt part takes a piece of text and returns the encrypted text. The Decrypt part takes the encrypted text and gives the decrypted text.

You can use this to share secret messages with your friends. Get the encrypted message, send it to your friend along with this link. Your friend can decrypt it and get back your message!

Sounds cool? Try it out now!

Do leave your opinion in the comments. If you have any issues, let me know and I'll try to fix them!
Bye :)

P.S I've added it as a page to my blog to make it easy to access.

Announcement

Hello everyone!
My next post is going to be about 'Cryptic Talk' a fun widget that I've designed to share secret messages with your friends.
P.S This is my 13th post of 2015. I didn't want 'Cryptic Talk' to be my 13th post. So I'm posting it as the next post.
Watch this space! :D

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello Everyone,
I'm sorry I've been irregular with my posts. Since today is a Saturday, I finally had time to write a new post.
 I don't really believe in Valentine's day so this post is going to be very short. I'm not against celebrating Valentine's day... but I don't endorse it either. Ideally, if you really love someone, you don't need a special day just to show them that you care. But practically speaking, in today's busy life, we barely have time to talk to people we care about. I think by setting apart a day, we try to make time at least on that day to show our loved ones that we care.
I think it is important to take some time off in our busy schedules to re-evaluate our relationships and think about others in our lives who really matter to us. It is hard to do this on any random day. Having days like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day etc, helps us do so, and we can make sure that we spend some quality time with loved ones at least a few times each year.
I don't know if this post made much sense. Do let me know what you think of celebrating Valentine's Day in the comments.

P.S. I have something very interesting planned for my next post which I hope to release on Tuesday (Feb 17th). Stay tuned! :D

My first week at work - Part 2

Hi all,
Today I will write about my third and fourth day at work. Since I started work on Tuesday, my first week consisted of only 4 days. If you haven't read my first two days, you can do so here.

Day 3:
Today my dad said that he would drop me off at my office, so I didn't have to wake up as early as yesterday or day before. I left home at 8:30 am and reached my office at 9:30 am. My manager had already come. He gave me an overview of the exact project that I would be working on. He used a lot of jargon that I didn't understand exactly, but I got quite a good idea of the problem and the proposed solution. He gave me certain modules that were already ready and told me my part. It was around 11:00 am by then. I had to take my laptop to the IT division to get some initial setup done. It was a 15 minute process but I had to wait for a while as my friend was also getting it done at the same time. We all met at lunch at 1:30. On one floor there is one table that is a little secluded. We had lunch there and talked about our teams and work we had been assigned etc. I'm starting to get the hang of the project I've been assigned and I'm beginning to like it. I finished my work and left by 6:30 pm. The first bus was extremely crowded and I had to manage with two super heavy bags (my regular bag and my laptop bag). The second bus was comparatively less crowded... I got a seat. Reached home at 8:30 pm. That was my day.

Day 4:
Today is a Friday... last day of the week! My dad dropped me off in the morning. My manager had already looked at my work that I had mailed yesterday. There were a few updates and changes that I had to make. Finished them by 11 am. I was done with a major part of the work assigned to me for today by 1 pm. Since it was the weekend, most people were talking, taking long breaks. I met my friends for lunch at the same table as yesterday. We took a longer lunch break than usual. There was some network problem because of which some people could not continue with their work. My manager left at around 3 pm because of the network issue. I had very little work remaining and I completed it by about 4 pm. By then, one of my friends said that our badges were ready. We spent another hour there and finally got our badges. I thought I'd wait for my friend as I'm still not comfortable with the route. I just blogged a little and wasted sometime. I was home by about 7:30 pm. Tomorrow is a holiday! 

So that was my first week at work. I'd love to read about how your first day at work was! Do let me know in the comments.

Bye! :)