the HKUST entries: kongratulasons

This post is dedicated to my lovely super smart juniors from GIIS, KV CLRI and KV Ashok Nagar and my friends from UST.

Congratulations, everyone, on your spectacular 48x, 47x scores. It is really heartening to see such outstanding achievements from all you guys. I sincerely hope you maintain these high standards of academic excellence and become extraordinary assets to your university, work organization and country.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Bhuvana Jagan, Chinmayi Nadiger and the other super smart nerdy fellas who cracked open the titanium entrance gates of Nanyang Technological University. For those of you whose inboxes are yet to be graced with an email from Dr. Lalit Goel, don't go all depressed and spam our Facebook News Feeds. A lot of NTU successful applicants end up in NUS, so there's still chance that you get into NTU. In the worst scenario, NTU screws up, don't worry for in the words of Late Professor Randy Pausch (Carnegie Mellon University), "brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough ". There are plenty of awesomer universities like HKUST that respects and rewards your talent. So, cheer up! :)

Also, congratulations, Usha, Pranav Prasad, Shreya Saha, Lynn Wu and Aurelia Fediana :). Usha, my sister, has started working in Sankara Nethralaya as a Research Assistant starting this week. I look forward to some expensive tech-spending after I get back, Ushe :P. Pranav is a wonderful friend and an awesome debater. He has been a long-standing member of EDT, HKUST and is graduating this year. This smart Chennaiite has been scooped up by JP Morgan, Hong Kong where he'll begin coming July. Shreya is currently working on her groundbreaking Shreya Saha Theorem, the weirdest mathematical invention ever. Jokes apart, Shreya Saha has officially renewed her HKUST scholarship with some wonderful performances in her final examinations. All you, Mainland ladke, watch out for the Kolkata-Kuala Lumpur K(C)onk(c)orde! Lynn and Aurelia are visiting USA and Germany in the summer. While Lynn is visiting Stanford University as part of a service learning program, Aurelia is visiting the Fatherland on an month long exchange program. Best of luck, you two. Hope you enjoy San Francisco and Munich respectively.

On a slightly un-congratulatory note, here's wishing my Host Family(comprising Tony Chan and Monica Chan, Lise and Shen) and all of HKUST a fantastic summer holiday. Have awesome fun and I hope to hear some fabulous tales next time from you all :)

As I'm on the verge of breaking the "he-writes-so-long" barrier, this post shall be terminated here.

Good night, Stana Katic dreams ;)

Keeping up with the tradition established in the previous post, here's is the next URL - HKUST Summer Hangouts. To all those depraved souls still languishing in HKUST and HK, if you ever want to get a break from active industrial training and job hunting, check out the link. Entertainment shall always be provided in HKUST to those who need it (Albus Dumbledore, don't sue me please)

rendezvous

Dear Planet Earth inhabitants,

Whatsup? How is everyone? Health alright? Sweethearts okay? Stocks in the green? Okie, read on!

It has been a long time since words have been etched on this blog. I apologize for this irregularity in posting but tell you what, I study in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, famously the (U)niversity of (S)tress and (T)ension (UST and UST, get it? Perfect sense of humour. Muahahahha!) Needless to write, I remain forever drowned in this bottomless abyss of homeworks (dare you laugh at it...work done in home IS technically HOMEwork...please don't give the oh-how-high-schoolish-patronising-look), programming assignments, written assignments, portfolio presentations, quizzes, unit tests, research papers, midterms and finals.

Spring 2012 was a particularly troublesome one. I did five courses, 18 credits, and in a nutshell, they were demanding enough to ensure I didn't crash onto my bed before five AM every day. Add to it EDT, JUDC, Badminton, Cricket, Veggie Survey, TEDxHKUST, SLOT, Service Learning...not much of time indeed. So, dear Reader, I'm really sorry for starving you of your intellectual entertainment. Casually glancing through my Calendar, I see a lot of ! (Android /\ White Collar /\ Castle) (Chapter 1, COMP2711H, Logic) days, so I'm sure we are going to have plenty of blog-entainment downloading your way.

Until next time, sayanora !

P.S: Hereafter, I sign off with a StumbleUpon link...so here it goes, the story of how a taxi driver finds the greatest moment in his life...
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2nxmly/:196XsnPNJ:c$L3e_YD/5pwn.com/must-hold-in-the-tears.html/

férias em Macau

Olá!

This week, HKUST decided to improve its Student Social Responsibility and gave us a week long Easter break(for those who watched the Hunger Games, it is that period of niceness which the rulers grant to the tributes before locking them up in the forest). Desperate for some change of scenery from Room 4221, I took this break as an opportunity to get to know some real China and Hong Kong. This post is an account of my trip to Macau SAR, People's Republic of China.

REACHING MACAU 

After working on a really horrible assignment in template programming late on Monday night, I decided have some real crazy fun. So, when the JoJo gang of girls(Aurelia, Sathurshini, Shreya, Olivia) asked me if I wanted to join them in Macau, I joined almost immediately. 

D-day begins with Olivia deciding to spoil my sleep bang on at 5:15 AM with her phone call. At 6, I pass by yet another of the countless AGMs that dot UST Common Rooms and meet up with Aurelia outside Hall II. We spend the first five minutes eagerly, next ten ambivalently, final fifteen angrily waiting for our beautiful colleagues Shreya and Olivia to materialize. Finally, they do turn up in beautiful white dresses and we set out for Choi Hung. They arrive excitedly and I sleepily at TST, grabbing a small meal at McDonalds and waiting for our fourth little princess, Sathurshini to arrive at the rendezvous.

Soon, we make our way to China Ferry Terminal and board the New World Ferry to Macau. Post immigration, "whoo-ing", "aah-ing" and snapping pictures, I fall asleep to the gentle rocking of the Victoria Harbour only to wake up to the sound of honking ferries in Porto Exterior of Macau Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. Welcome! :)

FIRST SIGHTS

We get out of the Ferry Terminal at a complete loss about where to go. A guide approaches us, promising us a splendid trip of Macau at a princely 900$ in a stretch limousine. Being on a tight budget, we refuse him politely and steal a map from one of the Information Desks.

Finally cooking up a 'plan', we proceed to a bus stop and board a bus to Olivia-Alone-Knew-Where. Laughing intermittently at our own hopelessness, we jump off the bus at Senada Square where we begin Operation Second Breakfast. We spread the map on the table, ask a few locals and improve our looking around strategy. Meals consumed, we walk to the St.Dominic's Church. It is a simple church in Portuguese style with confessionals, statues of St.Francisco, etc and Olivia dazzles us all with a lecture series on Christianity. 

We move on to the Ruins of St.Paul, its crumbling crypts and beautiful Portuguese-style entrance. Apart from underground crypts, St.Paul's also plays host to some enchanting Christian sculpture, artifacts and paintings. While Shreya stands determined to cram all about Portuguese architecture at one go, Sathu and I, decide to go hogging. We end up in a shop selling sugarcane juice and corn. Good food, really expensive though.

MACAU MUSEUM

Completely used to full-on air-conditioning in Hong Kong, the sweltering heat of Macau forces us to take a power break to discuss further plans. We break into a few malls just for the heck of it. Soon bored of retail therapy, we leave for the Fortress. Located at the top of a really steep slope mere seeing which discourages Olivia, the Fortress, is famous for its massive cannons, picturesque scenery and cooling environment. It also contains amidst its sprawling complex the Macau Museum which gives viewers a really good understanding of the history and development of Macau from both the Chinese and Portuguese perspectives. It makes extensive use of technology to connect with the past, and boasts of seriously cool exhibits about the Macaunese way of life. Half an hour later, we climb down the famed slope for lunch at Pizza Hut(yeah, we were hungry as hell).

TO BUNGY OR TO NOT BUNGY?

Following a sumptuous lunch of lip-smacking pizzas enveloped in fine hospitality, we continue with our planned trip. The Visiting Professor of Chinese Archaeology from University of Calcutta, Shreya Saha, suggests visiting the Ama Temple and we spend the next one odd hour figuring out Macau's really confusing bus routes. We realize bus stops are hard to find, and finding buses that stop in bus stops is even harder. After taking the wrong bus, we double back up and end up in the historic Ama Temple(the temple that lent Macau its name). We roam around aimlessly and Shreya wins me with her incense-lighting skills. And then, the talk started!

Sitting in Hong Kong, listening to Aurelia declaim her intention to bungy jump off Macau Tower and excitedly second her is really simple. But, when you stand before Macau tower and take in its height and realize the gravity of what you are seconding...you start having second thoughts. A thousand questions grapple your mind, and every step you take towards the tower is more unsure than the previous. "What if the cord snaps? What if the operator decides to doze off? What if you swing against the tower and crack your skull? What if I die?" I ask Aurelia and Olivia. We spend 15 minutes on the banks of a lake outside the Tower wondering if we should do it. Trusting in the infallibility of destiny and mechanics, I decide to take the jump. However, Olivia wishes to extend her visa on Planet Earth and we leave for the final lap of our Macau journey - the Venetian Macau.

GAMBLING AT THE VENETIAN MACAU

More confusion and half an hour later, we pass by the enormous Galaxy Casino to reach the expansive, expensive Venetian Macau. For Mong Kok-lovers like me, it was clearly way out of league. Yet, with the guise of professional gamblers with millions stagnating in Cayman Islands, we enter the Venetian Macau. As in the tag line of the Venetian, the smell of money is there for all to see. Golden shade interior designing, expensive lighting, international brands(Gucci, Prada, Swatch, Levi's...you name it, it is here), we take in the sights. We travel up to the Canal(a small canal made to resemble the canals in Venice) and watch the boatmen in Gondola(small boats) entertain their travelers as they crisscross the bridges over the Canal. Sathurshini, Shreya and Olivia get lost in the swarming masses and we find them half an hour later. We go to the casino and try our hand at the slot machines. We test the treacherous waters with a $10 bill. Unimaginable glee clouds our face as we encounter our first win. Encouraged, we try once again. And, we lose. (An important lesson at $2 a person - money NEVER does come free :P).

BYE BYE, MACAU

A casual glance at the grand ornate clock reminds us it is 7.30 PM. We catch a shuttle bus back to Macau Ferry Terminal. It has been a long day for us, but for the casinos of Macau, it is just the beginning of a long night. Different casinos like the Sands, Grand Lisboa light up brightly luring potential gamblers to try their luck. We rush through Macau Immigration at 7:50 PM and scramble for the 8 PM ferry back to Hong Kong. As we board the ferry, it honks its great horn preparing for departure. As the ferry turns around the waters of the South China Sea, I look sidewards at the Sands, smile at what a memorable day it has been and drop off into the soaring abyss that is much-deserved sleep...

P.S: We couldn't have bungy-ed anyway, it costs a cool 2488 HKD...3188, if you go for a video recording of your crazy moment :)

the HKUST entries: a veggie-tale

Hello, everyone! This might seem hyperbolic but I definitely lead the most exciting life in HKUST. Nope, I’m not on the verge of proving Einstein wrong nor do I practise bungee jumping from the Academic Building. I do something more trivial yet more daunting. Yeah, I’m a vegetarian.

Living off rice, vegetables and fruits was a cakewalk for the first seventeen years of my life in India and Singapore. When you add HKUST to the equation, that’s when things go haywire. UST has ten regular restaurants(Bistro is way expensive!), yet there is hardly a dozen decent vegetarian options. The only things Seafront can offer your starved taste buds is Cheese Sandwich(which is good!) and canned drinks. Take two lifts to LG7, and looking at the flashy screens and gigantic menus, your optimism begins to climb. However, the APC menu will only bring tears to your eyes. GRB is better, offering 4-5 dishes but only the Fried Rice and the Mushroom Noodles qualify as something worth your Octopus swipes. I survived LG7 my first few weeks hoping, one day Milano would open and solve all my problems but I was disappointed. Milano did open, and they could just add an overpriced pasta and much later, a delicious pizza to my threadbare menu.

Fingers crossed, you take the escalator up and the best McDonalds can do to quench your hunger pangs is offer you some Fries, an Apple Pie and a Large Coke. Your growling stomach pushes your lazy legs three floors up to LG1 and voila! you have the delicious option of having steamed rice with ONLY spinach. Initially, exposed to wonderful food back home, you sniff at it, but down the Sem, you start worshipping the queen of vegetables, the blessed spinach. Talk a small stroll and Chah Chaan Teng’s famed rice noodles are worth a try occasionally. Hungry for more, you take the escalator up to the posh-looking Chinese Restaurant and their awesome noodles can save your day(don’t fall for the soup; usually contains pork). Or if you are lucky, you might just be able to catch the last plate of “fandai sikh jai” or a Mushroom Toastie at the cafe. Warning from the experts: Don’t overuse this vital oasis. The Cafe hasn’t changed its menu in the last three months and frequent visits will only prepone the dreaded moment when the weekly Aloo Gobi becomes a taste-sore.

Surely, you don’t need to hold a PhD in Math to realize that with 2 meals a day over 100 days a Semester, the probability that one gets bored of the food is almost 1.  So how did I survive to spread the green tale? Lots of Indomein noodles, weekly visits to Sai Kung and TST and of course, wonderful friends with amazing moms who send food for me.  

Concluding remarks...

“Dear HKUST, you are awesome but please improve your veggie standards. Yours desperately, The Veggie Society”

P.S: I did try taking meat. The disastrous consequences inhibit future culinary innovations.

happy birthday, bangla babe

"Mohammed" Nishi Anand

Yo Boys, I’m sing song...Soup song...Flop song...

Happy Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Nishi!

Happy Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Nishi!

Pa Pa Pa Pa...Pa Pa Pa Pa...Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa(maintain please)...

Happy Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Nishi! 

That’s right, guys! Today marks the (18*365+1)th living day of my craziest awesome-est friend ever. Meet Nishi Anand, the other 50% of God’s favourite friends on Planet Earth. To put everything in a nutshell, whenever anything good/bad/awful/amazing/extraordinary boring happens in my life, she’s the first person who gets to know about it. She’s this really sweet person who lets me rant all day and patiently listens to my nonsense(mind you, she’s talkative too). All the unwanted trivia about HKUST, how awesome we are, what I did every day, she patiently listens without ever telling me off for the bore I’m. Financially, what Pakistan is to the United States, I’m to her (an unwanted unnecessary drain in her expenses...but we have to bear certain things don’t we?). Her CV will glorify her as a genius who surpassed all the crazy tests mankind has ever set to judge mankind but don’t let that cloud your opinion of her with excessive academic nerdy-ism. For the academic blitzkrieger she has been, she’s an amazing sport, excelling in cooking, manaofying and unlimited fun and frolic. She’s always been a selfless friend, deriving euphoria from the success of her friends and never highlighting her own accomplishments. She’s my ideal friend always there with a tissue when I cry, a warm hug when I’m low, a ‘theek ho jayega babu’ when I’m freaked out, a smile when I pour a bottle of Kiwi White Polish on her and an ‘I’m sorry’ when I hang up.

To wonderful moments of friendship, joyful moments of being there, glorious moments of triumphing together, beautiful moments of unvoiced understanding, infinite moments of arguing and slapping each other...here’s raising a toast!

Happy Birthday Big Time Bangla...Have an awesome year ahead!

the HKUST entries: "Hello, Mr.President!"

Professor Tony.F.Chan,
President, The Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology

Yet another normal day, yet another "i-am-sick-and-tired-of-millions-of-emails" attitude towards the UST Webmail and yet another have-to-do-it email check. "One new and unread message", myPortal told me. "Oh Lord, get a life! What is it this time? Credit Suisse? Fencing? Typhoon(hopefully!)?", I grumbled. "Welcome to HKUST", yelled the subject. Reading further, it was addressed to  Lise, Shen and I and made some mention of some random Family Host Program at the Chinese Restaurant on the 30th of September, 2011. It was signed "Tony and Monica Chan"...Tony Chan...Tony Chan...the name seemed familiar. Tony Chan...I kept thinking for a while and then a thunderbolt lit up the skies. OMG!!! Tony Chan as in the THE Tony Chan had written to me. The President of the Hong Kong University and Science and Technology with his wife wanted to meet me and it was no April Fools Day' prank!

The assignments and deadlines of the next few days sort of eroded the initial excitement and on Friday, when I stared idly into my diary, I was taken aback to find a tiny note decorated with x's (Meeting with the President, G/F, 4 PM). Paying careful attention to my otherwise African tribal chieftain attire and letting the razor kiss my chin for the first time in months, I embarked on my historic journey to meet the President. Physics, Humanities and Language classes passed the usual sleepy way and I made it a point to remind every one that I was meeting the President and they were going back home. The "OMG! You are so lucky"s, needless to write, uplifted my otherwise morose spirits.

LANG1007 ended at 4.20 PM and I shot past the Cantonese Class mumbling my apologies to June towards the Chinese Restaurant. Messing up my hair little, indulging in a frantic last minute pressing of my shirt, I made my way nervously to the scheduled venue. With Shreya by my side, I signed against my name, quickly scanned through the list, found a few friends, reassured, entered the banquet hall. A few "Hi!"s later, I found myself talking to Florence Fung, the Manager of the Scholarships and Financial Aid Office at HKUST and we discussed about the exciting lives vegetarians lead at UST. A couple of orange juices and in between a particularly delicious bite of watermelon, a GSO aide rushed to me, asking me to hurry. Completely caught unawares, I made this gallant effort to swallow the humongous watermelon and asked her what happened. Before she could reply, the crowed thinned around the middle making way for someone, obviously VVVVVIP. Dressed in a suit accompanied by his wife in a violet dress, there he was, Professor Tony.F.Chan, the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, standing right there, offering his hand to me and saying "Hi Sathish!".

"Hel...Hello Sir, it is a pleasure to meet you, ", I stammered, thanks to a courage God alone knows, originated from where. Bragging "I'm meeting with the President" every five minutes was cool but actually meeting him in person was nerve-wrecking. Imagine you are an American and you get to meet Obama for a full two hours...how would you feel? I felt the same! But, my nerves were completely unfounded. President Chan was this rather cool person, humorous and extremely fun to talk to. He asked me about my parents, Singapore and unbelievably, Tamil and Chennai!. He went on to address the gathering explaining how excited he was to be a part of the Family Host Program and introduced Professor Forster of the Global Student Office to me. Mrs. Monica Chan, made me feel completely at ease, inquiring about my Hall VI experience, my ECAs, etc and how I felt about living away from home. Later, Professor Chan and I along with Kelly, Philip and others spoke about the higher education system in different countries(Indonesia, India, IB, Canadian Curriculum, etc), 3 Idiots(everyone in China loves it!), Hong Kong, Professor Chan's work, his past students and his college life. Soon, we were joined by Professor Steven Dekrey, Head of the HKUST's world famous Executive MBA Program and the conversation drifted towards how unique the FHP was and what everyone could do to improve it. Professor Dekrey, for his part, regaled us with how his  hostees had become an integral part of his family and how his family was growing with each coming year.Upon his return from Korea, Professor Chan told me that we could go downtown along with Lise and Shen. 

All good things come to an end, and awesome things faster still. Without anyone of us realizing it, the minute hand sneaked its way to 12 and it was time for the curtains to fall. The President's Secretary pointed out that it was getting late for his next appointment with the MHSS and he took our leave soon after. Shaking hands once again, the President invited Shreya and I to his home sometime in the near future. Mrs.Chan asked me to email her if I required anything at all and promised to write very soon. I bid her goodbye and thanked her for her kind offer.

Soon, the Chinese Restaurant started emptying. I, however, stood at its doors replaying the whole episode again in my mind. The exhilaration on receiving a mail from the President, the three days of inexplicable euphoria at meeting someone so busy and important and of course, the near-nervous breakdown I had when I actually saw him with Mrs.Chan. I stood there for a long time, savoring every second of the past two hours...the adrenaline rush, the hesitant steps forward, the surrounding crowds, of course, those magical words "Hello, Mr.President"...

the HKUST entries: the VingCard SIEGE

"ENDRI DA!”

These distant words of Yoga Nataraajan would have startled me any other day. But, today, they failed to have their usual effect. I was determined to enjoy my first 7+ hours of sleep and no one was going to sabotage it!  I mumbled some excuse, pulled up my blanket and went back to Katrina, Angelina and another recent crush :P

An hour later, I groggily opened one eye to see Thasbeeh Moosa leaving for his classes and decided the time had perhaps arrived when I had to get up too. I sat on my bed, worried about the effort I would have to put in order to accomplish this near impossible task when Thas closed the door and headed for his classes. His parting words got processed in my brain and finally the thought-linking mechanism force-started. I realized Thas was going to the City and I badly needed a recharge card. So, I ran towards the lift, yelled my request to him and strolled back to my room.

The door was like a nanometer away from the lock when I had this strange impulse in me and I pushed the door away. I got in successfully and felt my pockets for the reassuring feel of the VingCard holder and IT WAS GONE! I ran to my table and looked for the familiar yellow pouch but it was nowhere to be found. Laptop bag, roommates’ desks, dustbins, clothes cupboards, window sills, draws…everywhere I turned, my search failed to yield a positive result. To make things worse, there was this bladder of mine that was on the verge of explosion :P. Firmly believing that getting into the room once again was more important than going to the washroom, I placed frantic SOS calls to Thas and Yoga but they didn’t have my card either(not that I expected them to…but in my awesome history of losing things…weird things have happened like Varun’s library book ends up in the primary school library :P)

I looked at that poster of Hanumanji, accepted this challenge, resolved to keep calm through this immediate crisis and restarted rescue operations. One fact that helped me was that I had last used my card yesterday night at 6 PM and I hadn’t stepped out of the room ever since but for one small excursion downstairs to fetch a drink. And, I KNEW that I hadn’t had the card then because I was reprimanded by the security guard at the office below.

Thus, the conclusion of all this ranting: The bloody card HAD to be in the room!!!

Thus began a more intensive search and rescue operation. It was not in the usual easily visible places. Then, I started concentrating at the nooks and corners where I usually dump things and forget about them. No, it was not inside any of my books. It wasn’t below the table either. Vacuum greeted me when I expanded my search radius to include the space between my shelf and the wall.

How about the bed? Nah, the pillow or the bedsheet weren’t hiding it. Making a wild guess, I put my pillow aside and Inshallah! there it was…snugly comforted by the table on one side and my bed on another…protected from the 8 hour AC Thas was paying for…my precious little VingCard.

Relieved, I echoed softly. “Come out, darling…it is getting late”. But nope, it was firmly embedded in the wedge. I tried putting in my fingers but they couldn’t get in more than a few centimeters. I tried using a pencil to push out but to no success. A Classmate notebook idling aside was my next tool. It reached the card and I was able to move it to the left. Now, easily accessible from the side, I put in my fingers and it was a euphoric moment to feel the reassuring touch of the card holder and the more comforting thought of saving 100HK$.

Blogspot ERROR 1965: Unavoidable nature’s call. Attempting to reconnect…

P.S: I kept my cool, Dad!