Phoenix

Another year has gone by. 2009 sped away; like the gusty winds of North Carolina! As with every year, here's a new year quote: May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions! -- Joey Adams That is one more reason NOT to make a new year resolution! The year started with my second semester at NC State, then an internship at Qualcomm in San Diego and then a feverish third semester. Of course with four courses in the last semester, it was bound to be meteoric! After a laborious one-and-half years, here I am with a Master's degree in Computer Engineering. It is so satisfying to see the hard work reflected on the degree :) It really feels strange though, when I think that I no longer have projects, assignments, exams! The very next day after my exams ended I followed the routine to check the course webpage for any new projects/assignments. It was then that I realized that my MS is over and I've graduated! It's a strange feeling... no project deadlines, ...

Summer full of enjoyment and a trip back to India. What more could one want??? Studies and Classes??? Its the same ol' routine again - class, home, cooking, projects, assignments! Well, hopefully this will be my last semester at Graduate School. Will "try" to enjoy my time! The palatial home at San Diego, the work at Qualcomm, the beautiful San Diego, my home in Bangalore, Mum's delicious dishes - I waved a bye bye to all that for the time being and am back to being a student at the hot-and-humid Raleigh. I'm eagerly waiting for winters. I hate summer in Raleigh. My trip to India was really good. Its always nice to see your near and dear ones :) Most of the time I was home, helping my family pack as they are moving to a different place. Met friends, family. Had a nice time. About the travel, I'd like to caution people traveling on Lufthansa. The journey wasn't particularly a pleasant one. Especially my last leg of journey Frankfurt to Bangalore. It was an...

Its the time of the year when students aspiring to pursue Masters in the US are in a dilemma in finalizing a university. Some may haf finalized the university. Whether you belong to the former or the latter, you are sure to haf many Qs racing in your mind. I've been getting a lot of emails, wall posts, messages etc. regarding information about North Carolina State University (NCSU). The questions are all the same. Hence I decided to write a FAQ which will answer most of the Qs. Hope you find this blog post useful. Q. Are there any chances of financial aid at NCSU for international students (Masters Students)? [This is the most popular Q] A. NO. You need to be born with a golden spoon in your mouth to be funded at NCSU; be it in the CS or ECE department. There is almost absolutely NO funding at NCSU. If you are banking on funding for your MS then just forget about this university! [Update] This was not to discourage anybody. The point is that nobody can guarantee your funding/schol...

Its been movie time for me surrounded by exams. Saw Billu Barber last week. An average movie I must say. But Irrfan Khan has acted well. Lara Dutta was hopeless! This week (actually just back sometime ago) I saw Delhi-6. Now I'm assuming (in fact, sure) that everyone reading this would haf seen Rang de Basanti. After such a movie the expectations from Rakeysh Mehra would surely be high. Delhi-6 falls in a different category. While its not a nation-awakening movie or such its like any other videsh-se-returned-love-your-country kind of movie. The plot is good. But I think the picturization could've been better. The movie has so many "cut-to"s that one may lose track of whats happening ( a la Ghajni, eh? :D ). Oh one interesting snippet: The movie is called Delhi-6 because it is picturized in Chandi Chowk, Delhi whose postal code is 110 006; hence the name Delhi - 6. I guess its become a fad these days in Bollywood movies to include a couple of Hindi abuses and Delhi-6 ...

Goodbye 2008, Welcome 2009! A year has gone by. Things moved fast for me in 2008. Some good events, some heartening... Graduate Studies, gOS, Mac4Lin, Linux Magazine and some more exciting things in the pipeline :) Semester has ended and I'm getting my much needed break. "Chilling" out in Connecticut. Mind you, its really chilling. Snowing since quite sometime here. Will be getting back to Raleigh tomorrow. A week more of vacations and the usual life starts again. We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. -- Edith Lovejoy Pierce Here's wishing everybody a Happy and Exciting New Year ahead! :) EDIT: I'm back home. The New York/Connecticut trip was great. The photos are in "Now Playing" widget at the top right of my blog.

Being away from home you mostly don't feel like celebrating (unless of corz, you were "caged" at home! :P ), but then birthdays are something which get you in the mood; especially after getting your face painted with the cream! About 10 of my friends were part of my birthday celebrations this year. Very thoughtfully they'd got a chocolate cake with my name "engraved" on it! The cake was looking just yummy. Poor cake.. if only it'd know its fate ;) After cutting the cake my face was "decorated" with the delicious cream, smeared all over! We all had a ball on my birthday. The photos, as usual, are on my Picasa Album. Being away from home I couldn't visit the orphanage this time on my birthday, unlike last year. But my wonderful mum went to the orphanage and spent time with the kids. Some simple things in life sure give us a lot of satisfaction :)

I've uploaded a few pics of my travel as well as the city I live in. Head here to my public albums on Picasa . The Raleigh city pics are "Now Playing" on the right pane as slideshow. More pics in the pipeline. Boy! Its hot in here.. very very hot! We hardly step outta home these days. Its almost daylight bright till 8pm. Waiting for the Fall to completely set in.

Its back to school for me. Fall 2008 semester classes started today. Feels odd attending class after a year! The university is huge.. take my word, it is insanely huge! The campus is spread over an unimaginable area. ECE and CS departments are given step-motherly treatment by separating them from the main campus. Not that its bad or something but its away from the library which houses Xbox 360s and PS3s :D lol... Few pics of my university: Clockwise from top: 1) The ECE/CS building at Centennial Campus where my classes are conducted. 2) The famous tall Bell tower of NCSU. 3) That building is our library. Yes, you saw it right... its 7 floors tall!