WOW, what a week that was! By far, this has been the longest and toughest week for me - 2 mid terms, a homework submission, a new Lab to TA and mid term grading for 2 lab sections + some additional responsibility being on the EC of AID-Columbus...huff..puff.. and at the end of it, I am forced to shout "Thank God It's Friday"...woohooo...
My update on the blog is thanks to two of my friends - Nano and Sujoy - who politely made me realize that probably they check my blog more often than even I visit it. Last few weeks have been full of activities. My new job as TA meant that I spent more time on the Lab than on my courses, and research obviously showing no signs of getting started. But I must admit that I enjoyed every day of being a TA. It helps to get to know so much people at the same time, being an instructor, and lots of thanks are due to my Lab coordinator, Kimberly, without whose support it would have been nearly impossible to pull it through the tough initial weeks.
I have had my share of fun this quarter as well. The Intra-mural sports started around mid-quarter and indoor cricket is one of the sports. There are 8 teams in the fray. We have had 2 matches so far, and we won both of them. In fact I have a match in another hour.
Lots of international events also caught my attention - the notable being the proposed Nuclear treaty signing with US and the wide spread protests in Muslim countries over the Prophet Muhammad cartoon. While I havent gathered enough detail on the N-treaty, but I have a strong feeling that India might even try to sell itself to the US, while trying to "secure" our nuclear interest. Over the 2 weeks, I have read about protests and clashes in every part of the Muslim world. Though its quite surprising that the protestors should damage properties and establishments in their own country, the more surprising aspect is the total apathy in the West over the issue, dismissing it as another incident of Muslim fundamentalism. I was having a talk with my roommate today, and he reminded me of John Lennon's statement in 1966, when he said "We're more popular than Jesus now." and that sparked off protests in the US, leading to burning of their albums and cancelling of their US tour. The cartoon controversy doesn't seem to be any different.
The parochial and insular view of the West vis-a vis the Muslim countries (yes, I am talking about Iran and Syria) and the Third World will not lead them anywhere, unless they understand that its time they learnt to live peacefully with other nations, instead of trying to pressurize and threaten them.
My room mate, "Playa " bought a digi cam a few days back and resulted in this photo. After resisting for long, I decided to buy a mobile phone, though I am not sure, why. At the very first mention, my mom rightly asked me "what for"? I couldn't decsribe. There is more to it than just being in contact. But when you are in a place, where everyone owns a mobile phone and at any given point, you can see more than 4 out of 5 people talking on their cell phones while waking, running, even jogging, even the best of the minds is made to think about this tiny little creation.