Grad sine wave function

Nadal squashed the Roland Garros hopes of Federer, asteroid 2004-XP-14 made a near-kissing rendezvous with earth, back with a vengeance, Federer vanquished the Spaniard at Wimbeldon, NASA had a delayed launch, but they still did it, of course some unknown country to me, by name Italy penalty-kicked their way to FIFA World Cup’06, I would have continued updating myself with the latest happenings if not for the yellow stickie to-do list – an external hard drive to my corrupted and ageing RAM, which resurfaced from its retreat from a huge pile of books, dated June 6, 2006. So took a pen to strike off my accomplishments, but as luck would have it, my pen ran out of ink after the first strike. Who knows me more than my pen, after nearly two months, it’s so pathetic to find laundry as my only accomplishment.

So Lady Guilt was the internal force that stepped in my roller coaster ride of entertainment, and set the inertia of work in motion. Day in and Day out, I slipped into the sleeve of a true grad student, toiling or rather toying with the idea of completing my first project. After two and half years, my project’s crush on me seemed to have grown into a full blown relationship, that its not willing to let go of me. Though I have appeased lady Guilt with the sweat of my brow, she left her legacy for her twin brother, Mr. Frustration to haunt me with my failing experiments. Like Superman’s Fortress of solitude, I flew to the synagogue of caffeine – Starbucks to meditate. My synagogue turned out to be mausoleum, after my accidental encounter with my fellow alien scientists, who were not only bragging about their recent publications, but also discussing my country’s economic and scientific policies, not to forget their analysis of missile launch in Korea and their to-be strategic allies in the third World War.

Leaving them with thanks for the update, it was quite a revelation on the imbalance of my academic and worldly state of affairs. A sinusoidal wave with work at the crest and world affair at the trough, the alternating moments of inertia, is what seems to be pedaling my cycle of graduate life.

shower POWER

It’s so amazing to think of how this small lump of tissue, in my case vacationing in the cranium, works (for others). Just like everybody, I wish I could say working in the cranium. But facts are facts, though I tend to ignore the reality and try to cover it up with a black Cashmere sweater, and suffocate it with a Nautica Winter Jacket, it forces it way out to tell me, holding a placard which reads “ Dude, I am on vacation.”

I take solace in the fact that vacationism didn’t spare the great physicist Mr. Einstein when he argued with a carpenter, persuading him to carve another small entrance for the kitten in a cathouse built for its mother. Albert missed out on the “relative” large hole. It goes to show how brains are wired according to the scholarship of the individual – a software architect flowing with logic, statistician brimming with analysis, artists swaggering with creativity.

Apart from the scholarship, brain tickles to the environment too. Mr.Buddha was struck with a lightening of reality under the cool shady resort of the Bodhi tree, shameless Archimedes became buoyant in a bath-tub before he took on a naked Marathon shouting Eureka!. Well as for me, my brain comes out of vacation either in the shower or at Starbucks. Sad it doesn’t tickle in a classroom or in the conference room.

Archimedes proved shower theory, so no qualms about it. But Starbucks, I am not so sure. Is it the aroma of caffeine that’s stimulating my brain or the sleeveless blonde girl, leaving her lipstick imprints on the coffee cup, that’s seducing my mind to work. Until I prove my Starbucks theory, with synergistic effort from the blondie, I have to be content to hold all my academic endeavors in the shower.

set language life

I guess we are all aware of the Venn diagrams – I enjoyed learning the “SET LANGUAGE” not because of its mathematical wonder, but because I used to get 1 rupee coin to draw the circles, which at the end of the day will meltdown to a stick ice cream. I owe my elevation from a pauper to a thirteenaire (the chapter was done in 13 days) to the Venn diagrams, not to forget the various reasons that I had to come up for my daily swindling.

Never thought about it until today, when I realized that it could be a barometer of my routine. Well here is the mathematical depiction

Set A = Week 1 {sleeping, reading, lab, blogging, crosswords, lab}

Set B =Week 2 {Reading, lab, blogging, sleeping, crosswords, lab}

(AUB) = {Reading, lab, blogging, sleeping, crosswords, lab}

(A∩B) = {Reading, lab, blogging, sleeping, crosswords, lab}.

Can life get more pathetic than this? Groundhog week, in session I guess. As I look back at my 2.7 decades of existence, nothing unusual or adventurous has happened. Followed the regular middle class stream of attending schools, colleges and still going strong in the ministry of education. The regular drab of lab, walk, same Starbucks, same cappuccino, same lakeside ponderings, I find myself no different than the washing machine which times its cycle to perfection.

Except for a few, I think the Homo sapiens as a whole follow the general pattern of birth, education, job, and death. Just like we pride ourselves being the architect of engineering marvels that serve us, my contention is that, we in a way are some human machines, product of some higher intelligence, put to test in the lab of the universe.

Wish each day had its own adventure to look forward, so that my

(AUB) is not equal (A∩B).