Clueless

Cross roads. Confusion. Clueless. It feels like I am still waiting to know where I am headed to. This surely does draw a lot of frowns from many people.
There are so many things on my mind. I feel that there are many people who are definitely better engineers than me. I want to do something for the society. Not necessarily right now. But that is how I want to be known to the world. I have had people telling me that I can earn money and give a part of it as charity. That somehow does not gel with me.
I have this feeling that I can survive with lesser money. But then, I do want to enjoy luxuries of life.
Conflicts.
At this point, I am just hoping that I would do what I really want to do and not be in the lot that does things for the sake of doing them. Luckily I am blessed with highly understanding parents and close bunch of motivating friends.
Life goes on..

The running fever

Just like many others, I began jogging(walking?) to lose weight. Running a kilometer would be a big deal. I have the best faculty advisor(SJS) anyone can ever have. He motivated us to start training for an upcoming event. Somehow I saw myself signing up for the Marg Chennai Runners for a 10k, Nov6th 2011. And thus began 2 or 3 jogs a week. The highest I had run-walked till I went to the start line was around 4km. My friends, Keerthana, Tejaswi and Sharath were there with me at the start line and the atmosphere was all charged up. It was in our beautiful campus. It was just awesome. For the first time I was witnessing a race. Old ladies were walking at great speeds with so much enthu. Half marathon guys were amazingly fast. The volunteers and the runners were cheering us whenever they could. And within, 1 hour 35 minutes, I saw myself at the finish line. A cute li'l girl gave me a medal. :')
Thus began the journey. I signed up on Dailymile, a site to keep track of your workouts. There were(still are) Saturday runs in the campus. Thanks to Adhokshaj, Shankar sir and Preeti.
This August, I started running on a li'l serious note. Suddenly I noticed, my pace was way better than what it used to be. It kept motivating me. I logged around 14k a week. Stretched and did some workouts.
One day, my brother, the famous Rudra, suggested that I should keep pushing my limits. "Run a little more each day and unknowingly you will find a new threshold." The very next day, I did a 7.2k and was so so high(Runners high). I love that feeling. I feel high after every run. I tell myself that each run has to be better than the previous one. Credits to Manivannan(who motivates me a lot) for that chain of thought.
Well, obviously there are highs and lows. A weekend filled with junk would bring down my pace. My flat foot would ache sometimes. I did a lot of reading. I love reading. I am not a great runner. I know that. But I am happy with my progress. I feel restless if I don't run for 2 days. It is now a whole new world where I am finding my way through my slow progress.
My parents are still surprised with this new "hobby".
Crazily, I have signed up for a 10k in Mysore. Oct 7th is the date. It happens to be my dad's birthday and the run would be my gift to him. (He doesn't get the funda though).
Still fingers crossed for Dec 2nd, TWCM where I am planning to do my first half marathon.
Running has brought so many changes in me. I feel  Just a suggestion: Try jogging. Leg pains etc are common. It is a sign of laziness leaving the body. Lot of benefits otherwise.

You don't have to like everything you take up!

I joined Hapkido classes 2 weeks back. I somehow found myself uninterested in it as time passed. I spoke to my mom. She just had one thing to say," Do what interests you. It is not necessary to like everything one takes up. Sometimes there is no choice. But here you have other options". My goal was to shed all those extra kilos so that I can run better. Well, there are more ways to do that and I finally decided to choose something else. I just need some more time maybe to get over the feeling that I quit something. I am happy that the 2 weeks were demo classes and people were allowed to give it a try with no compulsion of continuing. I just did not think I would fall in that category. Hopefully, there are better things in store for me. :)
I was thinking about how people would react. Blah! Life is a lot about just moving on. I will update you with some better stuff the next time. Have a nice weekend!

The summer internship which made sense

The summer internship after my second year did not make much sense to me as I was not assigned any project in particular. The output was good though :) A collection of 50+ sketches.

Then I decided that I must do something else next summer. I was lucky to find a teaching related internship. 

http://students.iitm.ac.in/thefifthestate/2012/08/internship-stories-bindu-duke-tip/
The above link would give you a glimpse of the amazing experience I had.

Well, I happened to show the Duke TiP Book to two of my professors and they were pretty impressed. (Doesn't mean I will get good grades) 

I hope more such programs happen in India. It would give a lot of exposure to the kids. Ha! I can not stop talking about what happened this summer. So let me end it here. This is getting random. You might as well take a hint that I am in good spirits today!

On a totally different note, I was just happy that whatever I teach can make sense to people. 

So, I am once again on the thinking mode about my future. Primary education needs a lot of attention and I think I will work for that. Rest in next.

Questions

What do I really enjoy doing?





Who do I want to be around?


How can I make a difference?

Conclusions

Well, interns are a fun experience and I am having loads of fun. :) Designing physics experiments, teaching a bunch of intelligent kids, talking to them when they are homesick, helping them build catapults, popsicle bridges is simply awesome \m/

I am a teaching assistant(TA) for the course- Design Challenges: Physics and Engineering. My students are class 8 kids.  Instructor is a stud prof from Duke University. It is a summer studies program for 3 weeks. :)

Location: Infosys campus, Mysore.

Observations:

• People come to conclusions so easily. A lot of us do. Being on the receiving end is irritating. I hate it when some person just randomly says: IITians are like this etc etc.. x-(
  Well, I can get back and make my point. But I somehow feel that ignorance can't be cured!
• Assuming things is what many of us do so many times. We never realise how we might be hurting someone with that. 
• Sarcasm is not good if you are not with your close friends.
• When someone is your enemy, whatever they do looks like a mistake. Everything is mocked at. Irrespective of the fact that you might be doing the same things :P 

It also feels great to be told by people that I am very patient, understanding etc. The best thing someone said was that if they had a teacher like me, they would not have hated maths as much :D

Rejection..

.. by people, teachers, friends, family ( and sometimes clothes). Rejection is painful. Greater the importance you attach, greater is the pain. It may be piercing-the-heart-pain or watery-eyes-gone-red pain. PAIN is pain.
We can’t do anything about how others imposepain upon us. YES, we can do a lot about how we take the pain :) How we react.
There are a lot of solutions out there. A LOT.  Jot them down and you will realise how creative you can get!
Give up the problem and enjoy whatever you have or fight back and get what you want. Speak up. Share or simply, write. (Just the way I am doing) :)
Well, reactions depend on the situation. I agree. And yes, being on the receivers end teaches a lot. What not to do, what not to say etc. Above all, how not to hurt others. It helps us in transforming to better individuals.
I shall forever keep in mind that I will never reject people the way I have been (Interviews, team formations etc)
I will try not to put people in the situations I have experienced.
Lessen the pain, Increase the joy. Pump up your enthu!
This is the least you can do for yourself :)

Something which my mom always says and which is true in many situations:

There is something better always in store for you. It is all about how you see it. :)

[wrote it on the day I was rejected for an intern. Later got a call from the same place and they took me in :) ]