I should be sleeping, but I find myself in front of the computer one last time before I set off to my homeland. Quite a few things still occupy my thoughts. Seems a bit unreal to me. I don't know if I'll be prepared for the culture shock or any other shock. Had to brush up on my mother tongue, which still leaves a lot to be desired. And I have no idea how many things I forgot to do, that I planned on doing. Oh well, times up.

See everyone when I see them. Ask me when I get back, I'm sure I'll have stories to tell ...

Posted in: Life, India, Travel,

I meant to post this earlier but I got sidetracked. This weekend my brother graduated from UofM, Chemical Engineering. As usual the student speakers were a bit goofy and irrelevant. But I was pleasantly surprised to hear Bill Joy speak. He was one of the software pioneers who started Sun Microsystems and helped create BSD (one of the most popular Unix systems). At first I feared he'd come across as a nerd or only relevant to computers. But I think he did a great job addressing engineering and the graduates alike. Very interesting guy and he really put things into perspective with regards to technology 20 years ago.

The odd thing for me is that I vividly remember the speaker at my older brother's commencement in 1999, Jacques Nasser, who was then with Ford. But I cannot recall one single line or even the name of the speaker at my graduation. But I guess I can't blame her, not sure what was going on through my head on that arena floor. Maybe it just says something about the motivation she gave, or rather the attention span of my class.

Ahh the end of another cycle, life goes on.

Posted in: Life,

The last few weeks have been anything but rewarding. I've been having my usual up's and down's. More down's really. Easter in Chicago was pretty nice, way cold. A2 not much better - I saw snowflakes this tuesday! ... Getting ready everything for the big trip. With the size of us, it's like we're invading or something. "Pack up the pani puri troops!". ... Well yesterday the brothers 3 flipped the frisbee around the cul-de-sac - cursed wind. Man, those guys can't throw - catching no probs, but the wrist, c'mon! It was a long overdue diversion. And then, for a moment, it felt like spring was finally here.

Posted in: Life, Travel,

If you've never read The Odyssey, I'd recommend it. It's the story of an unfortunate Greek warrior who must make a perilous trek to return to his homeland after years of being stranded. I remember reading it my senior year in high school and having a great deal of apprehension for its exam. It was the first exam for our Humanities class and that friday before the exam I went home as usual dreading the studying I would have to do over the weekend. Something worse was waiting for me.

As it turns out my grandmother passed away in India that day. Needless to say, studying was all but impossible and I missed my prescheduled study groups. It was difficult for me to fully understand the loss. I could not even remember her face. I can't imagine what it was like for my mother, who knew that when she left her mother years before, that they would never meet again. Unfortunately I had developed a detachment for my relatives back at home. It's not as if I cared for them less, I just came to realize that the world between us made their memories incredibly intangible. And even though I grieved with the rest of my family, I couldn't help feeling that it was just another distant relative. Life here had made me feel that things at home were somewhat irrelevant - a tragedy in and of itself.

And painfully, the weekend passed. I walked into my humanities class on monday morning and approached my instructor, Mr. V, who was scrambling to organize everyone. I said to him "My grandmother passed away this weekend, would you mind if I don't take the exam today?". He paused and he looked at me with a half disgusted half shocked look on his face and finally replied "Are you serious?". Let me recall, was I serious? I don't think I could have been more sincere that moment. I'm not sure what he was thinking but I politely replied with a yes. He just shook his head a bit and said, "of course" before he excused me to the library. So I wasted the whole hour in the library thinking about the futility of actually studying. The following day after classes I arrived promptly for my make-up exam. Not only was he late, but he also left the exams elsewhere. So in the end I had a little under a half hour to complete the entirely essay exam. I received a surprising B+, with the note "Great Effort!" for an attempt that didn't have much. So I wonder today, was the grade earned or out of pity?

I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. What matters more to me now is that the fates have given me an opportunity to return home. A chance to go home and end the feelings of distance that have lingered since my childhood. It's been over two decades since I've seen the faces of those who I only know by name. After 21 long years of feeling "stranded" in this country, I get to make the trek to my homeland. I get to see the fields where I played, meet the people who held me as an infant, visit the graves of those I may never remember and take part in a land that is in my culture as much as it is in my blood. I can't describe my feelings in words ... or maybe I just did.

Posted in: Life, Philosophy, Travel,

I was looking at my brother's LCD display. He had a remote VNC session open, flipping through some PDF file. It looked like some sort of language reference.

“What sort of language is that?"

“ASL”

“for?"

“DSDT table”

“huh?"

“ACPI”

“ohhh, I see”

Yeah, that's us.

Posted in: Technology, Random,