How I came to think about this great theory is because we recently completed a year of being happily married and it just seems like yesterday! The year was eventful and diverse.  The first six months, when I was in India seemed relatively longer, while the next half of the year went past in a blink. Though the absolute time was the same, there was a huge relative difference in both the halves

A relativity lesson from one of my favorite comic strips

Aaaaaannnnnnd, if you come to think of it, maybe even Einstein observed his theory of relativity in his daily life before he did in particles of matter Quite believable, isn’t it?

P.S. – This post looks relatively shorter due to a relatively lower level of patience to sit and type in this holiday season! It’s all relative!!

• what if the alarm clock forgets to ring in the morning?

• what if the computer we log on to everyday forgets our credentials?

• what if our own cell phone forgets to show a birthday reminder of a dear friend?

• what if the television set forgets our favorite channel someday?

• what if the Facebook page we refresh every minute forgets to give us a notification?

• what if our debit card forgets its bar code?

We have become so accustomed to these electronic devices that our life would be a chaos if they start forgetting! Thank God I’m human and have these gadgets at my disposal

P.S. – Dont forget to key in your thoughts!

I was never an ardent follower of tennis. Being an Indian, I religiously followed cricket. Tennis, was just an interesting game the fair skin played and lately for me it was Roger Federer. I generally only watched the semi-finals and finals and could name the grand slams ;P. It was only in the last US Open, that I watched almost all the matches, more out of compulsion earlier (Aniket watched them at home everyday) and later out of interest.

After that, it had to be soon enough that I give it a shot. A lot of (free entry) courts by our University are an enticement coupled with motivation for everyone So finally, on Sunday I went to play with Aniket and his friends. No points to guess, I was a disaster on the court! I played badminton a lot and it took me time to comprehend that in tennis the ball is allowed to bounce once before you play. Like badminton, I tried to hit the ball full toss in the air After a few shots though I got a judgement of the things around and could at least return the ball on the other side. Aniket was out of techniques (and out of patience too) while teaching me to play

playing half court with Aniket

There were a couple of times when I hit and the ball landed in another court! :O I thoroughly enjoyed though. And I will go again with Aniket and his friends. It would test Aniket’s (and maybe his friends’) patience yet again. But that’s alright! I know they wont mind

oops! the ball landed in another court

I am still trying to figure out the reasons behind people finding me similar to someone. Maybe, I have a very common face (saying that, even I fail to understand what it means ) or maybe I give away a certain vibe which makes people talk to me and since they are out of topics, they start the cliched way.  Or simply, I am very approachable and make people comfortable enough to voice out their minds.

At one occasion, I was jogging on a ground and there was a lady sitting on a bench nearby. She suddenly asked me, “How is your mother?” I replied (thinking she must know my mother) “She is doing good”. The lady then asked me, “So how is your elder brother doing?” That made me realize that she has mistaken my banal face with someone else. Then I asked her (with the same contortion on my face), “Aunty, do we know each other?” She said “Don’t you remember me Sheetal?”

There was one other time when two maids almost scared me thinking I am someone else. It was on my journey to Bahrain and I was traveling alone when 2 maids came running to me shouting “Dipti! Dipti!” They were trying to tell me how Dipti’s boyfriend is crying out there to meet her!! They thought I was lying when I said I am not Dipti as I did not wish to meet Dipti’s boyfriend

The resemblance has chased me way along and caught me even after marriage. People confuse me with Aniket’s sister-in law, Sayli. And this time I am thankful for the resemblance as it gives me an edge when meeting new people. The ice breaks immediately with “She looks like Sayli!” and the flow into the conversation becomes easier

Bit by the writing bug, 1 out of 5 IITians comes up with his own version of romance while he was in IIT. And most of them turn out to be the nowadays-found-everywhere love stories. I mean I found no difference in the way an IITian lives his/her love life and the way any non-IITian lives it.  The world seems beautiful, the stars start twinkling, the birds begin chirping and life becomes heaven in all love stories.

It was fun to read Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone because it was first of its kind. It brought a whole new freshness with it. It unveiled the mystery behind the IIT life that everyone was curious to know. However, after that, the same mystery was unveiled again and again by different people which is not fun anymore.

The list that made me write this post:

Five Point Someone

Anything for you ma’am

Nothing for you my dear…still I love you

Heartbreaks & Dreams…the Girls at IIT

No offence to any IITian, its just that we expect a lot more from you guys! I am sure there is much more in you that everyone would want to know and would look up to than your (successful or unsuccessful) romantic encounters while in IIT!

To start with, I am currently in Texas which is supposed to have the hottest summers and the driest weather in the country. My starting semester here being Summer the first thing I had to face was – the Sun. A couple of days after we roamed about, I had sun burns (seeing them Aniket panicked completely and got me all the sunscreens, jackets and cap ). Thus, in a country where people believe in sun-tans and sun-baths and wear as less clothing as possible in summer, here I am trying to cover myself as completely as I can with a jacket, a cap and sunglasses; not to forget the sunscreen lotions I bathe in before I step outside. I am now accustomed to the oh-my-god-look-at-her-what-is-she-wearing glances I get from the passersby. Nevertheless, I know that the glances are easier to bear than the sun burns!

And as much Aniket enjoys pulling my leg, he tops all of this with a suggestion: ‘I think you should carry an umbrella. That would protect you completely.’ To which I have to react, ‘Thanks, I look funny enough without it!’

They call the Master’s a Graduate Course here and ‘Graduate College’ is called ‘Graduate School’. A couple of times I was taken aback when people asked me ‘When do you start school now?’ The maximum class strength is 20(!?!?!), so you don’t have people struggling to accommodate in the classroom.  My class hosts a heterogeneous crowd with a Chinese professor and American, Indian and Mexican students. With a strong accent of the professor it took me 10 minutes to comprehend that he was actually speaking English and not Chinese

The classrooms are fully equipped with audio-visual systems and huge LCDs. As the university spans across two geographically different locations, lectures are conducted on an ITV so that students can attend classes from both locations. Each student has a microphone on the desk on which he/she can speak so that everyone gets to hear the conversation.

There is no physical (paper) submission. The professor posts homework assignments on the class forum and students upload the completed assignments through FTP (something which is totally new to the Indian Graduates!) The library here is a 10 storied building with thousands of books of every subject.

All this and many more exciting experiences are keeping me really occupied these days. Its fun to be back at school and I am enjoying it!

My flight was at 5 a.m. (a punishment to my family who had come to see me off) Adhering to my way of describing journeys, here is what happened after I walked away from the waving hands and moist eyes at the Mumbai airport:

3.30 a.m. cleared immigration, security reached Gate 11.. Gate change announcement…. Run-run-run to Gate 3…reach Gate 3…Gate change announcement yet again… Run-walk-walk back to Gate 11 ….Everyone calls … 4.45 board flight to Doha.. 6.00 a.m. reached Doha… dad receives me there…had breakfast in the lounge.. chit chat with dad…8.30 a.m. dad boards his flight back to Bahrain.. 9.00 a.m. I board my flight to Washington…find the seat.. crew takes care of my cabin bags … take off to Washington DC… eat…watch a movie (The Princess and the frog)…sleep…eat…watch a movie (Devil wears Prada)… sleep…eat..watch a movie (Satte pe satta)…4 p.m. Washington DC… immigration…luggage check out.. check in to the connecting airline… take a coach…reach the Gate..board flight to San Antonio…9.30 p.m. arrive at San Antonio.. Aniket waiting with a bouquet at the arrival terminal …call everyone..11 p.m. Home Sweet Home

P.S. – All the timings in the description are local timings. The actual travel time was 28 hours, though here it seems to be 14 hours

P.P.S. – Many adventurous happenings are omitted from the description above due to the already long post, will create a separate post for those and believe me… you will have a laugh reading them

I agree to the fact that the ratio of number of fathomable zoozoo ads to the unfathomable ones is 1:1, nevertheless, it always amuses me to watch these creatures express emotions using mere hand gestures and static facial changes. Some of my favorite ads where zoozoos have shown extremely adorable gestures are:

Zoozoo News Alerts:

Watch the hand gestures of the scared zoozoo while leaving

ZooZoo SMS Jokes Alerts:

The Tribal dance..Unbelievably Adorable They actually lift one hand and wave it in the air

The paradoxical part is, even Aniket is a somniloquist!!! He too sleep talks! :D But the fact that I am a sound sleeper and no amount of noise can disturb my sleep has skewed the ballast on his side. It was as if we were taking turns with our sleep talking skills But the worst part of it is whoever talks while sleeping, its Aniket who wakes up

Its something we are working on. Hope we get over it (or used to it) soon

Till then..Happy Sleeping (I mean reading) !!