Graduation....

PhD degree doesn't come easy. It demands a lot out of any one and I am sure people who have been through it will most likely agree with me. Hence,the completion of the degree on graduation day definitely asks for a grand celebration. A celebration of the courage shown by the graduates and the unconditional support shown by the family and friends through the course of the study. It's a very special occasion, however a bit overrated in comparison to what we have in India. Back in India, graduation is something which is very usual phenomenon and  is expected of a good student to achieve. Otherwise it is considered a shame. Anyways, people are different and they have different way of looking and perceiving things. As for me I am always looking for ways to have some fun. It was my first time attending a graduation ceremony. Very traditional and sophisticated ceremony which definitely makes you feel special about your achievement. Anyways it was fun seeing parents feeling proud of their kids and at the same time graduates rejoicing the achievement. Here's a video to walk you through the main "hooding".

Cheers!!!

HanS Landa and movie that started the space war....

Konichiwa,

So past couple of days has been nothing but interesting. We had graduation ceremony where I was finally conferred the doctoral degree. So officially I can be called doctor, something that took years of research and peril. However, I would still prefer to be called by my name without the prefix "Dr.". It was an interesting experience and overwhelming at the same time. It still has to sink in so will elaborate more on this in the next post.

I had a chance to see "Inglourious Basterds" by QT. Like any other QT movies, it was gripping and intense with fabulous piece of writing and splendid dialogues. In my opinion, not one of his best but definitely up there with some of the best. I really loved the sublime acting by Christopher Waltz, an unknown entity and a great discovery by QT. Each and every scenes with Hans Landa played by Christopher Waltz, were intense and striking. He can act and when I say that I mean every word of it. The only problem I had was with the ending. I mean throughout the movie the character of Hans Landa has been developed as a fierce, cunning and cruel general. It was highly difficult to digest the fact that he could be so naive to believe that all his demands will be made by americans. How could he be so stupid to trust them when throughout the movie he couldn't trust anybody. I know he believed that Hitler was eventually going to lose the war and that the situation provided him with an opportunity to build a safe heaven after the war. But I think the deal wasn't very convincing and like him. It would have made sense if QT could have spent some time showing that weak side of him. Other than this, I loved the end scene when the inevitable happens and that all die. A great movie but not one of QT's best.

Remember the cold war? Well Nazis are called the best propagandist, but in my opinion it is Americans. I have a theory of how Americans won the cold war.  There was a rat race between Russians and Americans for everything. like race to achieve the biggest stockpile of nuclear bombs.  It was like neck to neck and in order to defeat Russians, Americans needed to come up with a new strategy. And the strategy was to divert Russian's attention from more important civic and economic issues to trivial things which would eventually lead to their bankruptcy. So how could this be done? Obviously by throwing an idea (Propaganda) that air to air/land to land war is a strategy of past and now Americans are developing resources to have space war. And to make it sound more convincing George Lucas made the "star war" series and added a stamp of  virtual reality to this idea which was enough to make Russian think. As expected Russians forgot about everything and invested all their resources on exploring space and the idea of space war, which was obviously not real. As a result Russian economy crumbled and America won the cold war.

Anyways enough of stupidity. I have heard a lot  about the Star War movies from friends and incessant mention  in movies, books, tv series etc, and hence I decided to give it a try. What stopped me till now from watching this movie was my strong dislike to "Propaganda" movies. Any how, so far I have seen part IV and V and it has been really interesting. What really impressed me the most is the amount of creative effort it must have taken Lucas and his team to come up with so many characters, all together a new language, different costumes etc. Kudos to Lucas and his team. Especially knowing that the first two of the series came out in 1979 and 1983, its unbelievable to see the standard of special effects (exception-2000: Space Odyssey). The story is building up and I hope I like the rest of the series too. It definitely fulfills the hype, at least for me.

Drizzle and gloomy skyline!!!

Finally after a long hiatus, I was out in the city, crossing avenues and streets across Manhattan. It wasn't one of those sunny spring day, rather it was gloomy covered with clouds all around and slightly cold too. Not one of the best days to enjoy city, but I couldn't have waited any longer. I have been postponing the visit for a while due to the weather but not any more. Yesterday was the day. I was up at 8, packed my bag with bare minimum;"The gathering", a sweater, my camera with pair of lenses, and my "music (iphone)". I was out of the door by 8:30 and  by the train station on time to catch 8:51 train. I could have taken the later train but then I thought, now that I am spending the money and time, might as well reach earlier to have enough time in hand to enjoy to the maximum.

The train ride was quiet and lazy, but not for long. The bustling noise and commotion at Penn station sent a current of energy through my bones. So the first destination: Battery Park. I like lying down there next to the water with slight irking of music in the background and statue of liberty in the front. As any other day, there was some music festival going on. To tell you the truth, it was very annoying. A lady singing some gibberish in spanish which to any standard didn't sound pleasing to my ears "at all".

Anyways I found a chair farthest from the annoying music and enjoyed some time at peace. I had Bagel with cream cheese and "sunny-side up" omelet. The first meal of the day at 12:30 in the afternoon, a bit too early compared to any other day. In the meantime, I flipped through few pages of "the book" while I enjoyed the cold breeze. Other than the annoying piece of music, it was awfully quiet, considering the ferry to the statue of liberty (SOL) leaves from the battery park. Anyways after half an hour or so, I moved to Staten Island Ferry (SIF) station at Whitehall terminal.

Taking a step back, in fact my plan for the day was to visit the statue of liberty. To my surprise the tickets for the ferry were booked for the entire summer. While looking for alternate way to obtain tickets, I found that Staten Island ferry passes by SOL. Moreover the sight of Manhattan skyline from the ferry is considered to be worth a watch. So here I was at Whitehall ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry. By the look of the crowd, I wasn't the only one taking the ferry for so called "tourism" purpose. There were actually plenty of people with their spouse, kids, and fancy DSLRs. Oh and did I mention that the ride is for free. As suggested by the people, the view from the ferry was absolutely beautiful. You could see the entire downtown Manhattan half covered with clouds. It was gorgeous. Also on the left was SOL and with my 55-200mm lens, it was in touching distance. I think it was almost like visiting the SOL island. The ride lasted about ~30 min, not too long with chocolate croissant in hand.

 Once on SI, there were people passing on pamphlets about "Art by the Ferry". Its annual cultural event organised by the Staten Island creative community where local artists showcase their talent like, music performances, paintings,photography, sculptures etc by the streets. So I thought, now that I am here, might as well give it a try as I had plenty of time in my hand. SI is very quiet place, very few traffic with barely any people visible. Even the people who came out of the ferry disappeared in a matter of seconds. Anyways, the festival wasn't as big as I expected it to be, may be I reached there a bit early as in it was afternoon. Anyways,there were few art galleries and few group of hippies playing some great country music. It was for sure a big change and mush more soulful compared to earlier mentioned spanish "crap". There's a 9/11 Memorial right by the ferry terminal. Its more like two arcs converging to each other. It was beautiful to say the least.

 By that time it was 2:25 and hurried back to the terminal to catch the 2:30 ferry back to Manhattan. So the question: did I like the place? and to be honest..not that much. I like seeing people and not barren roads with ghost like houses staring back at you. Anyways I barely managed to catch the ferry. Another half an hour of ride and I was back in Manhattan where I could see "a lot" of faces with various expressions and definitely not staring back at me.

The next stop was "Other side" of Brooklyn bridge, that is "Brooklyn". I have been to Brooklyn bridge number of times, enough to count on my fingers. However, I never had a chance to walk to the Brooklyn. So this time it was the plan to see bridge from the other side, have lunch at Grimaldi and ice cream from the famous "Brooklyn" ice-cream place. It was a long walk to the other side but enjoyable. Finally, strolling nicely, I reached the Brooklyn Pier and I saw a long line of people standing and waiting for something. The first thought that came to my mind was, probably waiting for the bus. And then I saw Grimaldi right next to the   line. It was an endless line and I couldn't have waited in the line for the pizza. So I decided to go for take out. But I think it wasn't my day to eat pizza. First, they weren't selling slices of pizza. Next I didn't have enough cash to buy entire pizza and to top the two there wasn't any ATM machine around. So bit disheartened, I walked to the ice-cream place and had butter pecan. It was really creamy with enough sweetness. To be honest, the ice-cream made up for the pizza-heartbreak. Enjoying the dripping ice-cream from the waffle cone, I walked around the park looking at the bridge and Manhattan skyline. By that time my legs were sore and I needed to lay down on the bench. It wasn't too comfortable due to the cold breeze and hence the waiting was cut short. Walk back wasn't very nice.

By this time I was too tired and extremely hungry (Damn you Grimaldi..but don't worry I am gonna hunt you down next time). So the obvious place to visit was greenwich village, the "food center" of NYC and especially  "Mamoun's", a great Falafel place. So I took subway to 4th west and walked to 119 Mcdogoul street which is right by Washington square. Fortunately the line was short and also there was an ATM machine. So I had two orders of falafel ($ 2:50 each) and one order of chicken sheesh kebab, and walked to the Washington square park to satisfy my craving stomach and give my sore legs some rest. It was still cold so took out my sweater and enjoyed the falafel.

It was 6:50 by then and I didn't think my legs would have allowed me any further to walk around. SO I decided to take the subway back to Penn station where I met my friend "D" and took the 7:25 train back to home. It was a great trip and hopefully I will be visiting soon to have bit more of city coz just one trip wasn't enough.

See the Picasa Album on the left bar for more pictures.

Yet another day.....

It was just one of those days which passed by without much of a happening. Continued reading "The Gathering" and watched "Chinatown" by Roman Polanski. Also I have started the much talked about "Star Wars" series. Hopefully I will talk about these movies in next post.

By the way got a chance to cook some "mushroom pasta" with mint and lemon. It was absolutely delicious.

Tomorrow is "City Day"!!!

BBQ, Bowling and questions that I hate to answer....

First thing first, I have been revisiting/exploring music and have built a small playlist which is growing with the day. See the right side of the blog to listen to the playlist.

Couple of days back , friends from lab and I had  barbecue which we had planned for a long time. Even though the weather wasn't that great, with shades of cloud and drizzle, it worked out fine with lots of fun and smoky flavored food. Surely, the grilling was followed by rounds of card games. We generally like to play stupid card games which doesn't require too much brain and at the same time has that fun quotient. And hence we chose to play "stupid", an aptly named card game. Anyways, the walk back home was extremely tiring.
        Next day, I had a chance to accompany my friend's parents for bowling. It was my second time bowling and was equally embarrassing to throw the ball out of the alley halfway down the track. Anyways who cares about being good or embarrassing, as long as its fun and interesting. Again, walk back home was tiring.
        Since my defense, I have been asked two questions most frequently by everybody around me.
            1. How do you feel? Aren't you excited to finish PhD?
            2. What's the plan for future?
In the beginning it was OK to answer the question. but now it has started to get into my nerves. If you want to annoy me then there couldn't be any better way but to ask me one of these questions. I don't blame people for asking me this question. I mean it's a very concerning query and moreover it gives people to hold some conversation. However, what beats my logic is that some people asking me the same question within the interval of few days. As in, am I supposed to suddenly develop some kind of excitement or a plan, even though I have already conveyed my thought about taking some time off. To tell you the truth, I also used to think that after finishing defense, level of excitement will be skyrocketing. But in reality, there was a bit of excitement for those first few hours which sort of dissolved with time. A lot of people won't believe a word of it when I say this but I am sure when they will be in my situation they will have a better understanding.

Anyways enough of ranting. I am planning to visit city this sunday. It is expected to be sunny and warm. so hopefully it will be a good day to walk around in central park at the same time give my camera some air.

Friends, family and food.....!!!!!!

Rain is still around. Despite that, the later half of the day was a lot of fun. Whatever be the situation, its the people around you that make life entertaining. And I had some fantastic bunch around me.









 Dinner (Pasta Falafel Carbonara-chicken and crab meat with brandy-garlic sauce) at John Harvard's with Pale Ale beer and laughter followed by a long walk under the rain. Absolutely great day! Couldn't have asked for better.

Oh those sunny days.....

As I have mentioned before, I completely despise rain. It's the time of spring, a season of sunny days and warm breeze, and for god sake please don't make it gloomy and morose. I am not even working in lab and for somebody like me who has nothing better to do, the weather is making it worse. Don't get me wrong, I love gloomy weather but only during winter. The reason being, even with sun around, winter doesn't feel any warmer. So,  rather have a gloomy and cloudy weather, at least I won't be fooled by the sun. But, seriously, who would want such a morose weather during spring.

Anyways, I got a chance to cook roasted chicken with garlic, parsley and lemon. It came out real good. I could taste the inside of the chicken as well. Along with chicken I had toasted garlic bread and asparagus. Yummmyy!!!