Vicarious (adj)

Definition: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another.

Seems to be this entire vacation has been lived in a vicarious manner. Everything I thought, and went through was something I heard about from my friends and family. All their trips, their escapades, their sojourns were things that kept me going through this non existent winter.

So lets recap. In the last two weeks of December and these first few days in January, I have visited a lot of cities. Some in this country, some back home. I have heard stories of fun filled times, of meeting old friends, and making new ones. I have seen pictures of wondrous Christmas and new years celebrations, and heard tales of drunken revelries to bring in those joyous holidays. I have been part of a new beginning for some, and a rekindling for others. I have also seen things shatter, and disappear.

I have seen two oceans, and a sea. I have seen one river. I have sat by the river, and walked by the sea.

I have experienced all kinds of flights, from short 1 hr ones, to 8 hrs and even 14 hrs non stop. I have flown over continental US, over the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Pole. I have dined with people I never knew. I have gone for movies with them. I have gone on pilgrimages with them.

I have travelled down the lanes of nostalgia, as well as the sands of time.

And everywhere I went, I went unmarked, leaving not a footstep, nor a sound. I was the silent observer. The watcher. The one who would listen as the tales unfolded, and imagine as if I were there as it happened.

How did I do this? Well, thanks to my friends. I journeyed through their conversations on chat, or the phone, and even through their blogs. Its true, while I have been in Pittsburgh during the day, I have travelled the world at nights, not in my dreams, but through conversations, and pictures.

Oh Winter, where art thou?

They said it would be cold. They said it would snow. They said we'd freeze in January. They say a lot of things.

Its now January, and the high for the day was 15 Celsius(59 F), with the low being a cold, 13 C (55F). Is this supposed to be cold? For this climate, why did I buy the snow boots, the down jacket?

Its disappointing to say the least. I expected a white Christmas, a white birthday, or even a white New Years. But no, it just rains.

Where is the snow? The pure white of the snow, that cleanses the city, the people. The snow that brings out the child in everyone. The snow that has us making snowmen, snowangels. The snow that brings out our ingenuity in ways to hurl snowballs at one another. Where are these unique crystals of water? Why do I feel let down by this place?

People say I'm lucky. Why doesnt it feel like it? They snow causes a lot of trouble in walking to school. But if there's no snow, why call it winter? This place is supposed to go 20 below zero. It did for 2 days. With no snow.

So, my question? Oh Winter, where art thou?

New Years in da Burgh

December 31.
The clock struck noon. There was not a plan in sight. It was new years eve, and the winter gang was wondering what to do to ring out the old, and ring in the new.
Frantic calls were being made. Mails were being despatched. But still no idea. We finally decided to meet up over lunch.
Lunch at the Orchid was a delicious South Indian buffet. Memories of Bangalore came flooding back with the dosas.

Lunch done, we finally decided to head to downtown in the evening for the First Night Pittsburgh events.

After some trying, managed to convince the entire Winter Gang that this was the only party happening in town, and dragged them along.

5 pm.
In the dept. Figuring out buses to get us there, and what events to attend. After some trying, the printers finally printed the schedule, and we headed out to the bus stop, only to see the bus go in front of us. We trekked to the next bus stop, and thats where the rain began. The rain that wud haunt us through the rest of the evening.

Reached the downtown area at 630 pm, and started the tour.
The events were quite good. We saw musicians, jazz artists, painters, magicians, guitarists, ice sculptors, and many other such artisans. And in between it just rained.
An audio, fun event, and palmistry were also on our schedule. People's fortunes were read.. Of course, what was said will stay between the winter gang.

The ice scultputres were gorgeous...

Anyway.. after 5 and a half hrs, half the winter gang decided that there was no point in waiting for midnight at downtown, and so they left at 1130 pm. I dont know what else to say abt that!

The rest of us stayed put in the rain, and waited for the turn of the year.

It finally did.. and with it the rain stopped as well...

So here's wishing you all a very happy new year.

The Winter Gang

Seven souls. In a city nearly lifeless. Many alone in their respective homes. Some with a room-mate present. One with a visiting mother. Yet, these seven will have something unique binding them together once this break is over.

The "leftovers." That was their first name. The "winter gang." That was the name which stuck. Consistently these seven would get together at night, and celebrate the night away. Movies, games, laughter. Every night for nearly a week now. And the gathering always rotated. Everybodys house got a turn to host the seven.

It started with just that. Slowly graduated to dinner as well. Get together and then cook. The greatest part of it is, that here too many cooks don't really spoil anything.

Christmas came and took us to a scenic spot. We then followed it up with midnight mass, and then the trademark followed. The stories, the incidents, and the remarks. Things that will be shared amongst the gang, and reminisced over.

The seven souls and three more

But slowly this group moves on. New members enter, while some of the founders move on to their vacations. And tonight, again, the night will close in on each soul alone at their respective homes.

The Winter Break

All through a long and arduous semester, the winter break was like the beacon of light, the hope that we all clung to, for some welcome relief. And now its here. But is it what was expected? Far from it.

With the city warmer than it was at the start of Fall, and the number of familiar faces diminishing daily, one wonders what the entire brouhaha was about. Come 14th December, and the day was upon us. We were finally free. Free to do anything. Free to relax. Free to do.....

After a point you realise that there's not much that you can do. Pretty soon the feeling of being lost and alone creeps up to you, and then nestles down quietly in your heart. With almost all of your world disappearing into the darkness of the early evening, you are left wondering about the days that just transpired.

The new place that u arrived to full of hope and anticipation. The new faces you met, and how they slowly became friends. The parties that we had (few that they were). The long sessions of work in the department, the all nighters. Some things to look back at, after the semester. Things that make you introspect. Is this really what you were expecting on arrival? How life has changed since that day.

Sleep is now considered a luxury. More than 5 hrs a day and you are living like a king. Even now, in the break, its hard to sleep before 3 am. To have food, a proper Indian meal is something unheard of. Have done it for two meals in a row now, and my stomach is starting to complain!! The Internet. When we first got here, the speed of the Internet amazed us. I mean a 1 gigabit line straight to your comp is something fascinating. But now, having downloaded a lot of things, in under a minute, it kinda leaves u dazed, and bored. A friend passed a comment few days ago. "If the downloads were a little slower, I could play my game in between downloads, but I cant. Its just too fast, man!"

Friends; there are lots of them here. But they always disappear into their cliques given a chance. This isn't a complaint, just an observation. But its something that can be rather annoying at times. Leave everyone alone for sometime, and the Bombay gang form one circle, the Bangalore gang another. The natives form a third. I, having some loyalties to both blore, where I made my first friends of my class, and bbay, where I am from, tend to get caught out a lot. And sometimes it stings.

And gossip. It seems to be the only thing that keeps people going. Heard a lot of it this semester. Some of it warranted, some of it not. Some people had to be careful of what they did thereafter in order to quell the stories that perpetuated, others just took it in stride. Yet others fought over it. With battles that will last the duration of the course.

In a span of 4 months, friendships have formed, and been destroyed. Rumors have that nasty trick of destroying beautiful things, as well as forming wonderful replicas.

The hectic times brought out a lot of hidden sides in people as well. True colours blossomed, and inner characters made their selves visible. Waves of depression hit people at times. Sometimes insecurity. Sometimes fear. But things are never as happy as they seem to the outside world. The pressure gets to you. And everyone buckles. In their own ways. But its always obvious if you spend enough time together. (I'd consider spending 12-15 hrs in close proximity for about 2 months, enough time.)

And now back to the winter break. Alone at home lost with your thoughts. Until the evening, when those of us here get together at one house and watch a movie, and have some fun. But that still leaves the entire day. Its times like these, when you realise what solitary confinement would be like.

Karaoke Night

It was an evening that had everything. Good food, drinks, good music, karoake, and even some scandal.

The department holiday party started quite slow, but like a good book, ended with a climax, the likes of which you wouldnt have thought possible if you entered at 7 pm. With everyone sitting at a table, drink in hand, and food on the table, the dance floor empty, one would wonder which project or assignment the students were worrying about.

Soon the dance floor opened up and despite repeated requests from the director, nobody budged, and the dance floor stayed empty! Some of the kids in the room did dance, and what a dancer TB's son is.

Karaoke finally opened up... and took a while for the singers to come out and declare themselves... Finally, EW took the floor.. Copa Cabana... He was joined by DH and LC (the director and the career counsellor). It was their song, so they claimed.

This was closely followed by Uj and his rendition of "Everything I do." Not in the best of tune, but good job... to continue the ball rolling. Country Roads with EW and Uj, before I decided to put down the chardonay and join them. Soon LC joined us as well..... That was fun.. first karaoke experience, and I was having fun.

The seniors then tried their hand at American Pie. Good rendition, but that was the last anyone saw of them. Disappeared soon after.

Back to us, and the songs continued. MG with "She bangs" William Hung style. ;-) Then some backstreet boys wanting it that way. This is where the guys blossomed. Most of us hit the floor singing with our hearts.. This was followed by some GnR, singing Sweet child of mine. Quickly followed by Nickelback's How you remind me.

Then we had a solo with RC taking the floor with an impressive rendition of Shania's That dont impress me much.

This was followed up by the girls and a couple of guys singing to Carpernter's Top of The World, before the wrap of the karaoke. I think I sang almost every song up there last night...

As in all parties, this was followed by some dancing, and we have some fabulous dancers in our midst. HJ, NW, RC, and J, some ppl to definitely note.

A fun party, and gala event. Something we should do more often, as a department!

Sideshow

Finally managed to make it to a play here in Pitts. Amazing experience. It was a musical, entitled Sideshow.

Finding company to go for the play is itself quite an ordeal, very different from my Wall Street days. Thankfully, did find a similar minded person in RC, and so we decided to go for this play. I arranged for the tickets in the midst of crazy project demos and exam reviews as well as some amazing snow.

The two of us reach the theatre a few min late, and are quietly ushered in to two empty seats, stage right, fourth row from the front. The play had begun, and the actors were up there singing/talking and acting away.

The voices.
Havent heard such great voices in person before. Sure, my stage days had some good vocalists, but never such good singers. The guys had really clear and crisp voices. The girls had such melodius voices.

The expressions. Facial expressions are always the key to any form of acting. These guys and gals were as good as professionals.

The play.
About a pair of siamese twins during the depression, and their exploitation, and then meteoric rise. Coupled with a love story, and the fears and feelings of each half of the twins.

The acting.
Splendid. The choreography, the sets, the people, the faces. All of it awesome.

In the intermission we realize that we are the only two Indians in the entire hall, which looked like it could hold nearly 200 people. Amazed at this fact, we sat down for the second half, another round of fabulous acting and singing.

The play was really enjoyable, the company unbeatable, the actors and actresses superb, and the auditorium superb. A great way to spend an evening.

Makes me wonder when I will get back to the stage again.....

Winter is Here!

After a moderately warm fall, the cold finally set in. After my last post, we had a day where the temperature hit 8 Celsius. And that was the very next day. Anyway, yesterday declared the official onset of winter.

Woke up at 8 to prepare for my exam for the day, Business Management. While reading through the case study, I got a ping from a friend. "Look outside, its snowing".
Turned to look out the window, and was awestruck. Reasonably heavy snowfall outside the window. Both R and I grabbed our cameras and went shutter crazy. That is, until I ran out of memory, and he ran out of battery power. :-)

Here's a sampler of what we saw.

Soon after, I heard a scream out of my window. Looking down from the 9th floor, where I stay, I could see my classmates run out of the department screaming and jumping with the excitement you see in five year olds who just got their first big toy. Took some aerial shots of that as well... Videos too, but thats not public domain.

The story doesnt end there. Soon after it got really heavy. A perfect distraction for the subject I was to be tested on in an hours time.

And I forgot my camera at home after that. So not many pics worth sharing thereafter.

But, yes, it is nice to welcome snow... and temperatures consistently below -10 Celsius :-)

Cold?

Did u say it was cold? Lets see....

High for the day: -3 Celsius
Low for the day: -7 Celsius

Constant wind chill factor for the day: -6 Celsius

Making it feel like -13 Celsius at its coldest.

A chill runs down the spine!

Crash

A bus ride.
On the bridge.
Casual conversations.

Crash.
Windshield shattered.
Nobody injured.

A ladder.
It slid.
And slammed.

Pause.
Resume.

No ignition.
Bus stagnant.
Alight.

A short walk.
Board.

Drive past.
And all this while;
traffic continues.

Pot Luck

Thanksgiving was upon us. We hadnt slept for days together. The week began with exams. And results of earlier exams. Projects were flying around us thick and fast. But thanksgiving was upon us. The annual holiday in this continent. The holiday where everything shuts down, and u cant even get a cup of coffee anywhere, let alone turkey.

But thanksgiving was upon us. A four day weekend. No classes. No waking up early. Just your projects , and food. Food? Yeah.. so we organized a pot luck party. Everyone was to cook and come with some delicacies. (In our situation, if its cooked, and involves no cold cuts, bread, and lettuce, its a delicacy.)

We have the greatest chefs amongst us.

Have a look at the menu:

• Chole
• Missal
• Rasam
• Vada
• Pav Bhaji
• Bhajjiya
• Curry
• Cutlets
• Pulao
• Tamarind Rice
• Bhindi
• Tortillas
• Butter Chicken
• Lahori Murg
• Orange Chicken

Dont beleive me? Have a look.

Satisfied? Mouth Watering? :-) That was the intention.

Desserts you say? Well there was kheer, which unfortunately I was too busy devouring to take a picture of. Sorry.
More?
Ice Cream and Walnut Brownie! Yummm....

So that was the food... What followed?
Games. More games. And still more games.

Of course I cant tell you what happened at those games.. Highly sensitive stuff. But yeah, there were proposals, dances, serenades, ice cream feeding sessions and many more.

A blast of a time for the class. And a much needed break. Something that made some of us forget about our labs, if only for some time.

Big Time

Lost in Finance.
A call...

"Its big time. Its snowing!"
Leave the cluster with skepticism.

A peek out the window.
Wow. What majesty.

Go out. Enjoy the pitter patter of snow (yeah it actually did!)
Heavy snow. Lasted abt 5 minutes. But snow it was.

Nice to see you again! :-)
Its been a while.

Rain Dance

They say it runs on logic. As long as what u feed it is perfect, there will be no problems. Well, thats what they say. And now, I'm beginning to doubt them.

I have my reasons. They seem fairly valid to me. These results have been collected over a period of 2 months, and from varying individuals. So its not just me.

Case 1.
Networks: Simulating networks. We set up a network in a simulator which claims to "accelerate network R&D." It all works well and good, until u throw some extra stuff in the scenario. No, i didnt connect them. Its like i brought home an extra server, and left it by the kitchen, in the box, but my network suddenly starts performing better! And thats pretty much what happened in this lab, for nearly all my class. A nifty way to beat the system and get the required performance, I agree, but thats not the R&D i was looking for!!

Case 2.
Embdedded Systems: This happened to my room-mate, R. For those of you who dont know, embedded systems are a highly timing sensitive environment. An extra statement here and there, and the entire program goes for a toss. This leads to tricky debugging issues. A print statement here and there, and thats the end of ur program for good measure. Yet, to fix a bug encountered for 3 days, my R had to add a print statement to the code. The code runs perfectly!
And thats not all. Apparently the order of initializing the clock also makes a difference. Initialize the seconds first, then the minutes, your code hangs... flip the order, and voila!

Case 3.
Malloc: First me. I wrote code. Perfect, if i may say so. Ok, after several rounds of debugging. Yet the program refuses to run properly. Somewhere along the line, it stops running at all. Start commenting my code in pieces. One set of comments later, and half the program is running. Another set of comments. Remove the last set of comments. (drumrolll......) Its all working, and that to, near perfect!
Another friend, RC. Modified a perfectly working program (why someone wud do that is beyond me!), and managed to get the program to crash. Delete that block of code, it works. Add it back, the program still works.

These are some samples of raindance. Something so illogical it actually works!

Crazy Week

It drives me crazy
I just can't sleep
I'm so tired, I'm in too deep

Oh what a crazy week its been, and it still is....

The week began, like any other, with a hectic Sunday. Woke up rather late, and had to rush off to a meeting with my project partners, as we had to work on, what else, our project. It was a crunch time meeting, as we had lots of deliverables piling up. Some issues were resolved.
A quick hiatus, to the department to work on the strategy for my business management course. We had to run a company over a few years, and our annual report was to be prepared. The meeting progressed, with a little analysis, and some roles were given. And then back to the lab. Till about 1 am. Back home, and some more project work.. till I sleep at 3 am.

Monday : Early morning lecture (0930 hrs). A short nap, and I'm awake. Off to the lecture. And then the one that follows. Lunch, and then a meeting with a prof. Then back to tackle my project. Still no rest. A quick dash to the lab. Return to the department, to give some strategic inputs for the running of the company. The results came on Tuesday. Then off to the department, and then the lab. Some more project work. Sleep at 3 am again.

Tuesday: Wake up at 10, slightly feverish. Go back to sleep. Wake up at noon. Finally caught up with some sleep for the week. Get a call from one of the vice-presidents of the company. Apparently, our decisions took the market by storm. High Quality and low price goods. Something unheard of. We stocked out. Big time. Hit our income. Made a net loss of $3 million. Missed the lecture for this course, as I was still not well enough to go out, and I wanted to make sure I could attend the project class. Apparently nobody turned up for the lecture. Our company was made the laughing stock of the world! But we knew, we would show them.....
Network lab, and a discussion with the prof. Some more work done, but feeling ill, i left, and decided to go home and sleep. Unfortunately, got caught in another lab. The design and implementation of a dynamic memory allocator for the C programming language. (For the geeks, the malloc package in C).
And then we had the craziness of compatibilities. Writing our strategy document for the company, the various VPs all used their own systems. President on Dell with OpenOffice, VP Finance on Mac with MS Office, VP Marketing on IBM with MS Office, VP Production on Dell with MS Office. Now one would think the MS Office would be compatible. But MS is full of smart people ;-) So a rush of madness till midnight as we compiled the document and submitted just as the clock struck witching hours.
And then back to malloc! Slept at 5.

Wednesday: Woke up at 1130 am. Too late for the morning lecture. Half asleep and exhausted, back to the department to work on malloc. In between, a small break to watch the video of the lecture missed. (The great thing abt this place I tell you! Some lectures are recorded for later viewing... thankfully this one was!) Back to malloc. Some more inputs to our business company somewhere in the middle of the day. And what a turnaround it was, something we found out on Thursday. More malloc. Slept at 6 am.

Thursday: Woke up 1030 am. A friend had just had an interview. Got the lowdown on the interview, and then some more malloc. Lunch at my place, with the egg chef, making his trademark omelete, and feeding the recent interview. Off to business class, and we discover that we have had a remarkable turnaround in our company. From being the ones with the maximum stockouts and the lowest ROE, we are now the best company in the world. Back to the lab. SOme network design. And then malloc.
But stop. We had homework due that night. Business Management the bane of this part of the semester. Calculate the financial ratios of a company. Started at 8. Soon realized it was not feasible as a solo effort. Congregations happened. And things happened ala bombay U. Finished it at 10 pm, 15 seconds before deadline. And then malloc.
This was one long night. Implementation finally got under way. And the the debugging began. Was at it till almost 7 am! Left the department when there was light. The first of many times I am given to believe. Finally slept at 7 am.

Friday: Woke up at 1100 hrs. Some more malloc. In the department. Then class. Listend to a guy from Morgan Stanley talk his way through wireless communications. The first glib speaker so far this semester. Its impressive how bankers can keep a straight face and make up stuff as they talk. Back to the department and malloc. Now the frustrations were just creeping. From some parts of the code working, by midnight, it had completely stopped. A short break for a couple of bdays. A nice celebration as usual. And the cakes and ice cream were devoured.
Happy birthday to you too again! Back to the code. By 3, I had completely given up. Just sat there. FInally left the department at 5 am. Slept at 6 am.

Saturday: Woke up at 1230 am. Finally had some decent sleep. A quick brunch and down to the department to work on malloc. Now a day a late, knew I had to get it working properly today for sure! Commented a few functions. Fixed a couple of lines. And then uncommented them. The entire program ran today. Reminds me of a story my room-mate told me abt a tribal dance around the computer. Should probably have tried it last night itself!
Now commenting and some formatting. And the code is ready to be submitted. What a relief.

But the semester is not over yet, and more weeks promise to be like this.... so stop thinking abt it, and time for a smoothie!!

Walk in the Fall

Its fall.. The colours are astounding. Whats a hobbyist photographer like me doing without any snaps of the area?
Well, no more!

But first, a sampler of the architecture in the area.




And now the foliage...



From a height? Thirty six floors above the ground.

First Snow

It snowed today. Its still snowing. Slight flurries, not much more than that, but its snow nonetheless. Been a while. Missed it.

What was way more interesting was the responses my classmates had. Its the first time most of them have seen snow, and their comments were quite interesting.
At the first sign of snow, we ran out of our department and went to stand in the first snowfall of this winter. A winter that, rumour has it, is gonna be quite cold, much colder than the previous year.

Pretty soon people realised that standing in the snow was nothing like standing in the rain. You dont get wet. At least not immediately. With the flurries we had, you ouldnt get wet if you stood in the snow all day. Then the snow crystal made itself known. People started to examine them as much as they could.
I called a friend who has always been in two minds abt the snow, first linking it to cold and depression, and then complaining that its not snowing yet. Ecstatic at the news, my friend looks out the window form the department and sees the snow.

But, wait, the complain comes .. "theres no snow on the ground!"
Well of course I say, its barely a flurry.
"But there's no snow on the ground! Can only see it through the window"
Well its not a blizzard....
"There's no snow at ground level!"
You seem disappointed.
"Whatever"

I found this conversation quite interesting, and it kind of put into perspective the way people imagine snow to be.

Let it snow.......

The Festival of Lights

Miles away from home.
Yet the sparkle remains...