Sudipta's Life

As a grad student, you can choose two out of three things in life for every semester: good grades, good sleep and good socializing. However hard you try, you can't get all three. And the fine print on the good grades is that sometimes you have to survive through tons of assignments, project deadlines and other bizarre TA issues, for which you need to stay up overnight. The funny part of putting in all those hours of thought and effort is that you're not grudging the assignment. You like the class, you love solving the problems, and you actually feel happy when you're done tackling the brain-teasers hidden in the problems. But the only catch is: they require too much time and effort. And add to that the innumerable bugs, logical errors and infinite loops that are so silly you want to tear your hair out (I've been bald four times over)... staying up all night trying to make stupid programs work doesn't seem such a bad investment after all. Midnights are magical, you k

Minus the books in the picture (click to enlarge), the fruits of two and a half hours of career-expo-touring in the university career fair: 6 T-shirts (yes that car in the bottom left is one) 1 cap 3 USB drives 2 free iTunes track gift cards 4 yo-yos 4 dancing light balls 8 mint packs 2 digital calendars/alarm clocks 30 different good quality pens 12 highlight pens 2 cloth frisbees 2 packs of playing cards 1 pair of binoculars 2 flashlights 1 stapler 5 fighter jet stickers 8 post-it note bundles 2 photo holders 1 mouse pad 1 calculator 1 electronic pocket Sudoku Not bad , definitely. Fruits of labour, eh? :)

Update: this is the link that triggered the following tirade: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070910/asp/bengal/story_8298531.asp We proudly celebrated our Teachers' Day on September 5th. Speeches were held; some fat-ass minister came and inaugrated the occasion by lighting a lamp or two. I'm pretty sure, wherever you were, you had elaborate ceremonies. You showed off your lifelong gratitude to your 'teacher'-s by presenting them bouquets and feeding them a few samosas and Pepsi. Our honourable President, Ms Pratibha Patil, also presented the National Teachers' Award to a select few teachers. Oh, lest I forget, it was "for their lifelong contributions to the nation". Only, in her case, instead of cold samosas and Pepsi, she handed over a few certificates and there was a ceremony for an hour or so. The rest, as they say, is history . The grand message of the ceremony was, "You lousy teachers... you have been teaching all your life but you still haven