2010 !!! the year of the tiger !!!

according to my Chinese zodiac , i am born in the year of the tiger (1986), and this year being the 24th year since , 24 being the multiple of 12 (which is the total no. of Chinese zodiac signs) 2010 was the year of the tiger. Its supposed to be a very lucky year , but it was nothing like that. An easily forgettable year. If every 12 years is gonna be like this one , id like to avoid them. Here is hoping for 2011 to bring in something better. 2010 will I guess be remembered for my time in the states. The entire year almost was spent there , completing 2 semesters in my masters in computer science. Also working in summer at bank of america was a special time. Working in corporate America was exciting. Apart from that not much I can take from the year , which has been fairly forgettable. I will miss my grand mom and Murali mama. 2011 has a lot of things I am looking forward to , like my graduation in summer , then work from July. I will finally be stepping out of the university gates after 22 years of formal education. Good bye 2010 , screw you !!! so glad you are done !

Murali mama !!! i miss you

as convoluted as it might sound , the beginning of the end is here for fall 2010 semester. I write this after a short visit to India where I went to perform the final rites of my uncle "murali mama" as I call him. He was a nice man , a simple one at that. I want to write down the memories I have of him before they fade away . I did not spend a lot of time with him , although he was close to me. He helped my mom a lot in her work and actually he was the man of our big joint family. The youngest of my uncles , he always was there for any kind of help we might need. He used to enjoy watching cricket and I used to love discussing the game with him. The few times I watched cricket was usually with him. We both shared the same passion for A R rehman songs and Tamil comedy. I will miss you Murali mama , I hope you have gone to a better place , coz if you haven't then its just not fair to anyone. I wanted to spend time writing this blog entry , thinking about the little time I had with him. I hope jaya amai has the strength to move on and salvage of what is left. I hope you meet up with amamma and vignesh up there in the heavens. I wish I could see you holding Vignesh one more time . Murali mama and amamma you people will always hold a special place in my life and I am sure I will never forget your contribution in my life. I am probably still not over this, its not sunk in that you are gone. Difficult to digest I guess , but the trip to India probably helped in the process. Holding that urn, was when it hit me that you are now reduced to just ashes and dust. All the moments I may have been rude or indifferent , I hope I am forgiven. I miss you and I miss amamma. 2010 will always be a sad year for me even though my own career kind of had a lift off and was quite eventful. I hope 2011 has better things stored for my family.

next 3 weeks will be hectic , stressfull and I hope to get past that to return to India (this time for a longer time).

-love from your nephew Gokul

Fall 2010 begins

Well this post is in continuation with the earlier post , where i signed off hoping for a great vacation in Atlanta and anticipating the fall semester.

So this is it , FALL 2010 began with a bang , well that's because of 2 things
1) I am a Part - Time TA position in the department, yeah thats right , I teach now , grade and have my own office hours and lab support hours. I quit my dining hall job this semester. :)

2) I went on my 9 day vacation (includes long weekend) to Atlanta :)

The trip was exactly the boost I needed before taking up a really tough semester.It was me and Sheldon who traveled from NJ. We booked our flights from Philadelphia to Atlanta inorder to save some money :). Lucky for us , Sriram and Ashwin were also heading for their long weekend vacation to Portland, and they too like us had booked their flight from Philadelphia. So we got a late night drive from New Brunswick NJ to Philadelphia airport. Meeting Priyam after ages was the highlight , besides the aquariam and six flags trip. I had a great time there, recharged my batteries fully and now prepared for the long fall semester. I dread the oncoming winter though :(

ps. notes on atlanta, definetly visit Georgia Aquariam , Six Flags, Chow baby All American Stir restaurant and the cool student bar named Rocky Mountain aswell.

Karma

The universe has a way of balancing itself out. Physically, you have matter and anti-matter. Chemically, you have protons and electrons. Biologically, you have males and females. Ethically, you have Do Gooders and Douche Baggers.

When somebody does something bad, they should be expecting something bad to happen to them. That is karma. Conversely, if someone does something good, they can expect good things. All this happens, so the universe can balance itself out.

But sometimes, bad things happen to good people even though they haven’t done anything bad to warrant the bad thing. This isn’t the universe balancing itself out. This is karma on credit. Like a credit card.

Karma’s all like, “Hey, I’m going to do this really shitty thing to you, make your life miserable for a while and you’ll want to poison yourself with mothballs. But don’t worry. Don’t eat the mothballs yet! I’ll hit you back when the statement comes and your life will be awesome.”

But secretly, Karma knows that our lives are going to collectively end in 2012 and Karma’s not going to get charged shit. He just stole your good deeds, replaced it with something really shitty and now you’re dead. We’re all dead.

Thanks, karma. You really are a bitch. Go fuck yourself

this is a repost from : http://thoughtsaboutstuff.com/post/586876915/karma

credit to the original author

I just don't agree to the author's ending of the karma story

here is my version :

at the end of the day , karma pays back with interests...if you do bad things, and you are momentarily rewarded even though you don't warrant the reward, soon karma provides a pay back..with interest..

similarly when you do good things and shitty things happen to you, after sometime karma provides a pay back ..with interest..

so yeah !! karma is the way to go. !! do good things and good things happen to you..

i also wrote this quote up : "The universe has a way of balancing itself after almost making you believe that life is just a meaningless blob in time and space " - Gokul Menon

with that, signing off

ps. can't wait to travel to atlanta and meet priyam , summer 2010 ends and fall 2010 begins with a bang !!!

cheers

summer 2010

well, its been a while since ive posted,

not like there are a million views on this page..hahah *grins to self*

so a lot of updates,

I am working at Bank of America, NYC for he summer as a Technical Analyst Intern in the Global Loans and Special Situations Group (GLSSG). Work has been a fantastic experience, got to work on multiple projects, multiple technologies and so many amazing people. Don't want the work to end, dread the fact I won't be working after 2 weeks :(

other than work , life has been a big drag, begining of summer I tore my ACL while playing basketball..so pissing off, with all the pain,pshyiotherapy and to add things to that, insurance claim got denied coz of improper dates in my medical records ...:@

Its getting a bit hotter here now, day time temperatures cross a 100 Fahrenheit these days , I just noticed my electricity bill ..jumped up from 50 bucks to 121 bucks..wow..

as I write this , I realise its almost a year since I arrived in the US for my masters, phew..time flies they say..so true !!

signing off

-Gokul

ammama (eulogy)

I write this in grief , in loneliness , in frustration , in regret , in tears , today the 16th of april , parvati amma left for her heavenly abode. She was my most favorite person on this planet , my guide , the sweetest person I know , my grandmother. My earliest memories of childhood always have me playing in her house , in her kitchen , breaking her furniture with our (me and my cousins) mischief. I still remember how many times I must have troubled her by playing cricket inside her house in erode or messing with the water or throwing stuff down the well behind the house. Those summer vacations in erode have been the best times in my childhood.How many times she has saved me from a sure beating from my granddad or my mother. She has always been very fond of sweets, one of the few people in my entire family having a sweet tooth like me. I cannot believe she will no longer be there to advice me , she will no longer be there to tell me not to bite my nails , or ask me to take a shower , or ask me to come to eat. She is no longer there to watch and discuss those tamil serials , or enjoy the odd malayalam movies. I will miss her for that cute smile , that showered a lot of joy in my life, the malayalam and tamil proverbs and quotes she keeps saying , whose meanings I never understand , and she patiently explain. I grew up with her always beeing there for me. Always supportive of anything I wished to pursue. She supported me when I wanted to do engineering and my mother wanted me to do bio and then medicine. How she managed to raise 6 kids , is still beyond me. She had immense strength , exceptional patience and a heart of gold. I really don't think I will ever meet a person who is so sweet and patient like her. I can't remember a time when I was angry at her, ever. That speaks volumes of the kind of person she was. I am beeing selfish , i am beeing stupid , but I need her to be around , I need her to see me step into a critical phase of my life, and her absence is like an abyss in my life, I know I will move on and life must go on without her , but I know that this abyss will not be filled , not for a long time. She was important to me , very important, not only because I spent a lot of my childhood with her , but because she was like one of the people I wanted to do something for when I was capable enough. I wanted to buy her something from my first salary , wanted her to see that I have done well and make her proud. I have lost that opportunity and there is nothing anyone can say or do to fix it. Its an unfinished promise to myself which I cannot finish anymore.Ammama I love you , and I will miss you , I want you to know (where ever you are) I will always remember you ! May your soul rest in peace ....

your grandson

gokul

Winter Break '09-'10

The fall semister came to an end on a bright sunny Monday morning, the 21st of December, with a final project presentation for the 'Principles of Artificial Intelligence ' Course. Well It was not my best end sem , since I already had received 2 of my grades (both were B) which was unusual , both because I expected better grades and because I am not accustomed to getting my grades while my exams are still going on , unlike back in India. Nevertheless , I guess I just have to work harder now for spring. Well before that , I have this winter break :). As i write this , my winter break is half over. So far its been a great break , I visited NYC on two different occasions , one for christmas eve and the other for new years eve. The fact that Priyam visited my from Atlanta just made my winter break all the more memorable. There are few things that can substitute the company of friends like him. I also made some new friends in NYC. All in all , fun time is over , as priyam will be leaving tommorrow and I will have a lot of work to do. Graduate School ensures you don't have enough time to maintain your blog, and this break gives me that opportunity to do just that.

to anyone stupid enough to be following my blog , well happy new year !!!

ps. New years in NYC is overrated , Mumbai city is much more happening.