a nice weekend

am back from a nice weekend filled with fun and sleep :)

had gone to San diego, to my cousins place after visiting the Malibu temple and Santa monica pier, (close to LA).... Had great fun at all the places...

The Malibu temple is amazng, carved in white stone... dediacated toVenkateswara, plus has a side temple dedicated to a few more gods....

After that we went to Sana Monica Pier, where I had my first view of the Pacific ocean... amazing... its mindblowing... with the surf n seagulls flying around in abandon.


after that spent sunday lazing out at Tushar dadas place... was gonna take the sunday evening bus but missed one andditched the plan... eating some more yummy food at his place :)
Ash tai had made amazing shrimp fry..(yeah... drool ye unlucky ppl!! :P )






reached UCLA on monday afternoon, and paid my fees .... which means that now I am an official Bruin :)

Ahoy from foreign shores

My first post from foreign shores....

Am settling in to LA ... my body clock is yet to finetune it to pacific time.. it wildly is oscillating from Pacific time to Eastern time... ;) Flight was cooo. had a nice seat just ahead o the wng.. and so able to see both the view, as well as the thrust reversal during landing.... mandar's addition to Murphys law did aply, with me having a elderly couple for company... ~X( (mandar is gonna die ;) !)

BTW My apt rocks.... we have got a nice 2BHK apt for 5 of us... and everyone of us has settled in fine... Its close to the univ, the bank, as well as the local supermarket.... (10 min walk to all of these) ....we are on the lookout these days for any drawers or desks that we can lay our hands on... We have 'jugado-ed' abt 8 mattresses, 10 drawers, a few chairs, 3 sets of sofas.. :) I hit a jackpot today when I got my hands on to about 1-20 novels.. no idea when I will get the chance to read them once sem starts ... sicne I am planning to take 4 courses #-o :-ss

Speaking of Books am reading the fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.... it seems to be as gud as pl say it is.. ;) More critical comments later, when I finish it

Have started the gym.. as of ystrday.. the fitness centrerw rocks.. with rows after rows of nice advanced equipment(steppers/jogges/bikes) It has a few raquetball courts and a ROCK CLIMBING arena as well (*drool*)

Am currently writing this from the Powell building which acts as te main library.... more updates as events warrant
N

The last day....

The para below was part of my blog some months back, during the valfi period.

"Sallu and Anshu infi senti hue.It broke my heart at times, to hear them talk.It made me think of the times that me and mandy have talked about the things that we will miss here.
We had become senti at the start of the acad year, and I still rememebr climbing the convo slope enroute to a lecture, when mandy had said, "today is the last x August we spend here, .. rather each day is the last 'that day' that we shall spend here"
May seem too senti, but thats the way life is..."

Well the time has come for the final day....
Note all "lasts" below imply "last for a 'small' amount of time", not eternal..

Today is the last day that I will be spending in Pune for a long time.... The day was gr8.. Was a flurry of packing ... had a haircut, which looks cool, I must say. The past few days were filled with lasts.... "last meeting with a,b,c", "last trip to place f,g,h" , "last food/trt at m,n,o", "last drive past q,r,s"

Had my last cold coffe @ durga, with a very beautiful friend... thanx 'chumu'.. I owe u many, not one ;) ... visited one more close friend.. M.

crappy coincidence .. :).... My clock just chimed 0000.....
pretty symbolic ... since from now on... there are no lasts.. only firsts.... first time i venture out.... first time I crack(IITian meaning) things in foreign soil... first schol.. first job.. first friendships... first kiss... [ if I allow myself to do a bit of daydreaming ;) :)) ]

Neways.... time to start working .. 1 bag needs to be packed. yet :O:O ... :) Day D shall be soon.. when I leave India, n reach US...

to the future firsts....
Kaustubh

Aim High, Stay positive, Stay happy

.......

-Kaustubh

Rhyming out ....to glory?? /:)

What started as a 'pakao'-ing session for one friend continued with another as follows....

DP$%^&: pan khooop dur (--- the primer, wrt a eatery that was to be visited the next day)
KbYN: me drives
KbYN: why u cries?
KbYN: let us all eat rice
KbYN: shaslik tastes nice
DP$%^&: never been ther fr lunch....so dunno
KbYN: have u had pepsi without ice
DP$%^&: yeah...shashlik is my fav too
KbYN: hope they dont ask us to wear ties
KbYN: else we will have to rob some tie-ed guys
DP$%^&: aaaaaaaaaaaaaavraaaaaaaaa!
KbYN: zamus is so gud that thr are no mice
DP$%^&: baaaaaaaaaaas
KbYN: else we all wud have to call on christ(chra-ist)
KbYN: who has cleared all avarice

Enter friend 2

G$%^&*: good for you, bitterbrain, that was so nice!
G$%^&*: especially because it came at no price
Kaustubh: was but a thought slice
G$%^&*: oh? i thought 'twas just some caprice.. :D
G$%^&*: no no my friend, this is no vice
i mean, no cheating, no lies!
true, Mr barron has given some advuce
oopsadaisy.. i meant advice

Kaustubh: advice u meant but
but the words got bent
G$%^&*: what I meant was mistakenly bent
Kaustubh: and tho this is not for the hearted-faint
G$%^&*: gosh, our thoughts are cogent!
Kaustubh: i wud thank u for thy ear that u lent
G$%^&*: of course, listening to a friend is a time worth spent

Kaustubh: let nothing be, that can leave our frensdship dent
G$%^&*: HOw do you manage that, mind-readers' monument
I was going to write a rhyme with 'dent' at the SAME moment!

Kaustubh: oh i believ it is god sent
u think there, and here it shall vent

G$%^&*: of course yes, by godspeed it went!
so you "believe" in God and let agnostics taint?

Kaustubh: Believe in god i not
we had talked over what i thot

G$%^&*: of course yes, that's why the subject was brought

Kaustubh: my thots over the whole lot..
are as varied as the veggies in a salad pot

G$%^&*: should be put up on a blog and what not!

Kaustubh: but for the fact that this is going too hot,
it wud have been a poetic roman juggernaught

Did themention of the 'naught bring thou to a halt,

if so then i will take it as my own fault

-----And so it continues.... :D
and post I shall news,
KyN

Back to the blog

hullo every 1...
m back.. for how long no one knows.....
neways... news = me going to UCLA, for a PhD in Materials sci....

the last 3 months have been intense... and i wouldnt like to pen them down in detail.... They have been testing, emotionally, mentally, professionally n personally... They have made me strong and wise, and I hope that I can put to use whatever they have taught me......

The three months saw Day B[ref post dated April 4,06] (the day i decided to finally pursue Postgrad, thanx to my friends {Asmi n Mandy being the most significant} n family) and Day C ( a combo of the day [24th Jul] when my visa was put on probation and the day [29 Aug] it was released)

Am booked for a ticket on the morning of the 10th of Sept... by AI 137, o710... reaching LAX at 1635... Parag n Divyanshu have booked an apt.. and apparently have moved into it by now... hats off to them.....

feels diff to comprehend/believe that in less than a week I will be on the other side of the world.....

amti-damti left for Germany for 3months of exchange training at Univ of Koln from IIMA.. and that $^%^ is gonna be staring his apt with 4German girls... lucky dog ;)
Speaking of friends.. Shoan cracked a job at McKinsey.. the dude rocketh again.... as usual ;)
Suds cracked a seat at KEM for neuro @ MPth... rocking as usual.. tho she had to depart in a hurry to Bbay... :(
Rest all are busy with jobs/GRE :) so hhopefully everyone will be there soon....

Since am writing after aeons.. Pran got married in the meantime.. was one of the most rocking periods of my life.. the entire 5 day trip to Lknow was mindblowing...the fun level undescribbable.. the bonding infinite... :)

Also my dad shifted back to Pune, taking over as CEO of a company based in Pune.. ending as we joked.. "7 years of vanvaas n 1 year of adnyaatvaas" so atleast for a few days before i leave, we are enjoying together as the big happy family that we are... :D \:D/

I believe all major updaets done :).... will post later if any are left ;)

To sum up...
As i said to a friend today 'saagaratle don ondke.. pravahamule jitka sahvaas titkaach...'
(roughly translated to "we are but, two logs in a water current, together till the current takes us" taken from a 7th std marathi lesson on Anandi bai Joshi...)

-To everyone, and all new things to come, n to life for the rocking thing that it so is.....
Urs truly n forever,
Kb-YN