world is ..... a football!!

It is almost 12-30am. About half an hour to go to the next World Cup match. However hard you try to get work done in these "in-between" times, it almost never gets done. Having yawned through the opening matches today (astoundingly pathetic games between Spain and the Saudis and Ukraine-Tunisia) the prospect of watching the nonstarting and aged French without Zinidine Zidane, does not look too good. But it is the world cup, and a part of national duty is to ensure that we Indians remain the most passionate non-participating country ever.

A word or two about the pros and cons of watching the world's biggest festival on TV in Allahabad. ESPN which is beaming the matches live hardly seems to be on the priority list of the cable distributors here. "Brajil ka hya babu? E to UP hai!!" We in the institute atleast were getting a stolen espn channel (with pictures good enough to earn you glasses if you didnot have them) for the first few days from the local operator. Then a proper ESPN (along with Star Sports) came along and our joy knew no bounds. But wait! I have not told you about the icing on the cake. These channels come along with their own brand of Hindi commentary which runs together with the English one! It is fantastic... If you happen to pass allahabad, drop into our institute. The commentary is worth the visit!!!

(p.s.- The hin-lish now seems to restricted to Starsports only. Strange!!)

At last I am free. I am off to the mountains and then home, sweet home. No Allahabad, no HRI and hence no blogging for the next few days. 'Ca'nt say I am too unhappy though!! :)

the return of the (shall we say...) king

as i had elaborated on one of my previous posts, phd students go through phases. well i just had a period of constant activity.... whuh!! so the king returns to his kingdom after a long time..
add to that the fact that the bloody LAN connection was down for a week and a half......
it is like finding that the oasis in the middle of the desert is currently out of water!! a chap had to come down from Mumbai to fix the problem!!!!!!!! you can understand the state of things in sad old allahabad...
if only they had build this research institute in some other decent place!!
only solace is the campus and moments like the one on top.

sunset........
I was walking upto the mess for our evening snack when I happened to look up... A quick run back to my room and a couple of minutes later I got these captured on my camera. Got drenched by one of our garden pipes on the way ... Well such is life, you win some and lose some! :)

time...
"ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.. " -Pink Floyd.

We, PhD students, would invariably complain to you about how we are so very short of time.....
Don't believe us! Here I am sitting and writing about it when I could very well be doing what I am supposed to do, what the Government pays me to do.. STUDY!! Instead I wait, I fret about, I write like I am doing now.. It is a relatively free period for us now, a time one should utilize to the fullest.... getting work done. But as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Shall we rephrase it a bit,- when PhD students get going, you know the going has got TOUGH!! The same work which could have been done slowly and steadily like the age old saying goes, would get done when there is a pole up our backsides, when the deadlines hang above us like the inevitable guillotine. You would (if you are fortunate) see bearded, unclean, harrowed guys (please forgive me if I sound male chauvinistic.. assume something similar for the fairer sex)running about like mad, calculating or mugging like crazy just before the submission of a homework problem sheet or a presentation or say before meeting one's supervisor. We like discretizing our work into packets of extreme intensity followed by bursts of extreme inactivity,- at least I do and there are a good few I know like me too...
For us the hare always wins. It is a long road, folks. One should stop for a snack or two and a couple of naps.....
Three cheers to the fast and unsteady!!!!!!!!

This is the beautiful cage where I have been imprisioned for the last couple of years. To the more fortunate people, who can look and admire from the distance and comment on how green the grass is (which, by the way, is quite literally true) this is Harishchandra Research Institute. The most amazing part of the whole thing is that it is in godforsaken Allahabad. You need to see it to believe it... the difference inside and outside the gates!! 'will illustrate with more pictures as we go along.................