This is the first time I have come close to recording experiences. I felt a compelling need to do so, thanks to the new phase of life I have stepped into.
The past three months have just whizzed by. Tracking time has become increasingly hard. It is amazing how things look different, more often than not, when they happen to us. I've always thought Murphy's laws are exaggerated. No longer.
I'm a graduate student now. It is by far the most important decision in my life. A strategic move, if I may call it, which I am happy to have made. However, I strongly sense that disillusionment is not very far :-).
Living a "grad-day", pardon the coinage, calls for a diverse set of skills. It is rather ironical that academic skills pale into insignificance and sneak to an abysmal spot in the competing list of qualifications demanded of a student. Theory of relativity finds a rigorous application.
One fancy phenomenon is constantly in air and is always lurking in some corner of subconsciousness. They call it "assignment". I may not be surprised if some statistics reported that it is the most frequented word in the recording of utterances of graduate students. The number of assignments is a good measure of the pitiable state a student is in. While some are pointless, the worthy rest are difficult. Finishing the assignment, in many cases, is independent of getting the whole point. If there is one invariant across all the assignments, it is time consumption. All can be completed, if possible, just by the deadline. I've not had much of trouble with this phenomenon. As yet.
Managing time, I reckon, tops the list. Somehow I see "time management" as a paradox. I'm sure many share this idea. It is more so, when you are employed too. Most of the tasks help determine my patience threshold, and consume a lot of time.
There are some lighter sides to grad life. I have never imagined that I would do some real cooking. I had plans of cooking before coming here, but I never thought I would actually execute them. I even suppressed laughter when my mom was seriously articulating a recipe, for I thought that I was not going to translate it anyway. Now, just 3 months later, I am desperately collecting recipes. Cooking daily is a luxury. When laziness or boredom takes over, sandwiches and left-overs come to the rescue, the age of which remains a mystery and best ignored. The first thing that is compromised, owing to some inevitable task, is cooking. It is impossible to do without the two complementary devices: microwave and refrigerator.
Amidst all this, I manage to get a foosball game daily.
Assignments, exams, projects and deadlines are the order of the day. This semester is just the start of a preparation for the adventures that lie ahead.
