a balanced month

Dear October,

I hate to see you go. I hate to bid you goodbye. You are always the most funnest month of the year for me. Not only because my birthday features in this month, but also because you incorporate so many fun stuff like Halloween, Fall break and End of term parties. But, you being the month of Libra, also strive to balance it with non-fun stuff like Exams, Submission deadlines and interview dings. At the end of your month October, I look back at the crests and troughs and realize that regardless of the events themselves, you do however, keep it exciting.

First, there was my birthday! yay!! Although I had two exams on my birthday this year, I still had fun. I called a bunch of my friends to party with me afterwards. Inspite of having exams the next day, they came to wish me for my birthday. Some got balloons and others bought me drinks. I also got some lovely prezzies! the best part of birthdays no? This year my prezzies included a pair of sooper gorgeous pink heels, powder puff and stuff from bath & body works. At the end of it, I felt happy turning a year older. The best part of it though was the b'day luck - my exams turned out to be ok (I expected to get absolutely mauled given my inadequate preparation) and I got an interview invite (which I later turned down, long story) but still...

Then there was the Fall break which I spent in Seattle. Seattle is such a fun, quirky city. Its right up there as one of my favourite cities in the US. I love cities that have a distinct character. Cities that you adapt to rather than vise-versa. And since I come from a sea-faring family, I loved the salty scent of the ocean that permeates everywhere. There were hippies galore and bars which served a gazillion drinks. I'll always remember stumbling about downtown in a Fernet Branca induced happy daze. oh such good times! I'll also remember this hippie who sold paintings at the pikes place market who gave me a painting gratis because we both had a shared India connection. All he asked in return was a post card from wherever I travelled to next. This is what makes travel so much fun for me - meeting interesting people and having interesting conversations.

And finally, Halloween. You do end it with a bang, don't you October? I'm not so into this holiday as most others but hey, I'll never turn down an opportunity to wear weird outfits and partay!! This year I'm going as a "word-play" costume. Its rather stupid but has the right amount of stupidity to qualify as a Halloween costume.

So October, I'll have to wait for a whole year to meet you again. You're the month that ushers in the bitter cold gently. The month where the leaves are falling but where the sun still shines fat headedly in the sky. That's what I love about your weather - the lazy sunshine. Not so cold, but not so hot either. I'm glad I could still wear my summer outfits in your month. You were very kind to the tropical me.

You kept it real and made it fun. You run a very balanced show indeed!

Au revoir,

Hugs & Kisses,

A

Term 1: Hits & Misses

Hits

1. Loved the courses I took - Managerial Accounting, Marketing of Innovations and French. Whether I did well in them is another matter altogether. I've decided to take up a host of "quant" courses each time, so much so that it looks like my concentration is going to be in Finance and Accounting. How on earth did this happen??

2. Mentoring FYs - Being a Career Fellow and TA was great fun! I gotta meet a lot of FYs and dish out recruiting and academic advice. Yes, I'm an awesome zen advice-giver!! They seem so sorted though! This time last year I was lost and barely getting by!

3. Keeping Fit - Despite it being hectic, managed to do the 3 mile Wa duke trail atleast twice every week. I could still do better but I definitely feel sort of fit which is a huge improvement over last year where I didn't seriously exercise till term 3.

4. Fall Fashion - Managed to dress better to school this fall. My fall wardrobe was a total hit as I got compliments almost everyday! I know this sounds shallow but my moods are influenced by the clothes I wear and so it is very important for me to dress well. My clothes really make me happy!

Misses

1. Recruiting - This blew up on my face as I was too selective in my approach. Compared to the internship search, definitely performed below par in full time recruiting. Sigh, I need to buck up. But you know what, I like my approach. I don't want to end up with a job, I want THE job. Its a huge risk and a long haul but I cannot work on something I'm not psyched about. so lets see. *fingers crossed*

2. Socializing - we had tons of dinners but not enough rad parties! hoping this will change in fall 2

3. Dating - Just not in the frame of mind to date. Its too much - balancing studies, recruiting and dating but there are times when I yearn for someone to hug and tell me its ok. Thats what I miss the most about not being in a relationship and the back rubs and not paying for dinners ..sigh!

4. Reading - I miss reading a good book, even a "management" book for that matter. I started reading Dan Ariely's new book - the upside of irrationality - dealing with "irrational" consumer behaviour. Its very well written and he is funny. but I can't seem to get past page 50 for some reason. If there is one reason I want to find a job quickly, it is to get back to my beloved reading. I feel incomplete without books. I miss the feeling of being wonder struck at every page, of drinking in beautifully composed sentences and wondering why I never thought of things that way. Reading made me feel smart, made me feel like I was growing as person - without it I feel stunted. My new resolve is to read atleast one book a term. Here's to wishful thinking!!

That was term 1 in essence - few hits and misses. Really hoping Fall 2 will end well. God willing!

Jazz > Finals

been hit by a major case of 2nd year senioritis and so am being extremely lax about the impending finals on Monday.

I had decided to be extremely diligent over the weekend and spend every minute studying but things, sadly, haven't gone according to plan. First I woke up at 1 PM today (Massive Fail!!) as a result of end of term partying. 2nd, decided to go to Saladelia, my fav cafe, to study as there was afootball game today, which meant that there would be no parking at school. But at Saladelia, a Jazz band began playing live at 6PM and that brought all my studying to halt. I loved it! especially when they began to improvise on autumn leaves. aaah love Jazz.

So here I am, late on a saturday night desperately trying to salvage my finals. But its looking like a lost cause!

What is love?

...don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more.....

remember that iconic song by Haddaway? remember? We were at a 2Y dinner today, about 20 of us, tucking into an awesome spread that my roommate made, and suddenly this song came on the system, and me a couple of others started singing this song and doing some sort of co-ordinated dance thingy. Fun! I felt like was transported back into the 90s. The best place to be methinks.

So about the dinner, it was a cozy evening and we were all catching up with each other and listening to Year 2 recruiting cautionary tales, when suddenly some FYs barged in drunk as hell. You see, in the same apartment complex, we were also having the "Around The World" Party - a bunch of 10 apartments, each representing a country and its party experience. As a FY last year, I did the country crawl and got hammered drinking sangrias, margaritas, limoncellos, wine, gin and tonic and ultimately, irish car bombs. The after effects weren't pretty but the party was sooper fun. This year though, my heart wasn't in it and I found that a lot of my fellow 2Ys were also giving this a miss.

We are growing up, my 2Y cohort. We are skipping the get-hammered-silly parties and focusing on small cozy dinners instead. Focusing on getting to know each other very well before the time ran out.

Oh well, getting back to the drunk FYs who barged in, we told them they had the wrong apartment and pointed them in the right direction. I, btw, ended up going to the apartment representing Iceland. It was themed like the smirnoff bar, lot of dry ice and white everywhere and they had the AC down to 40!! a good friend of mine was DJing there and played some awesome techno. Very Iceland indeed. I stayed there till the place started filling up with eager FYs looking to get hammered. Thats when I exited.

Sigh, I'm growing up aren't I?

Status Update

In list form:

1. I got a speeding ticket today. Its going to burn a HUGE hole in my pocket. super ouch!

2. but considering I did earn a lot of money teaching accounting and reviewing resumes of FYs, it sort of compensates

3. So... good karma = bad karma. let this be a lesson! also DON'T ever speed.

4. Good friend of mine had a baby. Super cute and so happy. She is going to be the coolest mom ever!

5. Also, 2 exams on my birthday. again, super ouch!

6. Planning to go to the 2nd exam with a bottle of vodka (hey! its my birthday!). My logic - open book, open notes and open bar

7. heh!

8. My schedule for this term is AWESOME. No classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

9. but I do get sooper effed on Tuesdays and Fridays with back to back classes.

10. not so heh

11. Being extremely languid in my job search. Very bad that.

12. but on the flipside, am making a lot of friends in my class and getting to know a lot of new people.

13. Did trivia at Dains after ages. Did poorly in terms of scores. Poorly by my standards. We beat the undergrad upstarts but still poor

14. Hurts as much as getting a speeding ticket.

15. Actually scratch that. Speeding ticket hurts more. definitely.

16. actually. It depends..

17. New friends also include undergrads from French class.

18. Undergrads are definitely channeling their inner gunner self at the aforementioned French Class.

19. Its sorta annoying but understandable.

20. Reminds me of..well..me

21. They also abuse the use of exclamation marks in their emails/texts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

22. Heh!

23. This is fun!!!!!!

24. ok. will stop.

25. Told you - annoying!

26. Its late and I'm in the mood to quote shakespeare

27. "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions." - (Hamlet Quote Act IV, Scene V).

28. "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport" - King Lear

29. Oh, I'm such a drama queen. But an eloquent drama queen, C'est ne pas?

30. Au revoir world!

I'm a PC

Just introduced this man to an audience of 500, including the Deans of all grad schools at Duke. Had lunch with him as well. The geek in me is doing major cartwheels!

Campout Crazy!

Yes, I love me some campout!

Its seriously the coolest thing about being a grad student at duke. Campout is a 40 hour sleep-deprivation exercise to see if you really are a serious fan of Duke Basketball and if you do succeed in making it through the weekend - Fri Night to Sun Morning, you do get to win season tickets for all of Duke's home games.

I did it last year and did not sleep a wink over the entire 40 hours. I still remember the sigh of relief and the rush of adrenaline when the GPSC campout committee announced on Sunday morning that the Campout was over and that we - the remaining intrepid fans - had successfully completed campout! Finishing campout is something I'll always be proud about considering I like sleep so much! I'll also cherish it because it made me love Duke Basketball all the more.

I didn't do it this year because of the weather and I was worried about falling ill but I still did go to all the parties and participated in on the general madness. Campout has the best array of parties and what makes it super awesome is the outdoor setting, the smell of barbeque and the plethora of sounds that hit you. Every club literally has an RV area, blasting music.

The most intense party rivalry is between the Latin American Club and the South Asian Club -Indus. I'm happy to say that this time Indus owned the campout party scene although my ILE teamate, who DJ'ed the Latin American party, did a super job in playing some BRILIANT techno music. I love techno music when it comes to clubbing and the DJing that my buddy did was soo top notch, that I felt like was at a club in amsterdam.

Campout is also a great way to get introduced to a plethora of drinking games like Flip Cup, Beer Pong and Slapping the bag. I got hammered at last year's campout although my beer pong abilities improved exponentially. This time though I went easy on the drinking as I had to drive back.

I love the way campout brings us all together. We have this survivor syndrome, where a kinship is built on surving campout. It is not for the faint of heart, it separates the fans from the non-fans. What I like best about campout are those 4am conversations. Desperate to not fall asleep, you end up talking to random people and have the most discerning of conversations. Last time, I remember, talking about Middle East Politics with a Jordanian Grad student.

To see what campout is about, check out this video, but to experience it, you have to be at Duke. GO DUKE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLQo_aPTSdE