Generally, my weekly mail has a short description of the week and a long description of the weekend. As it is supposed to be a weekly mail I think it is only fair that equal space be given to my activities during the week. So here is a summary of my week.
Day of the Week: MONDAY
Mood : Irritated
Highlights of the Day:
I finally got my car back….in not too much better condition that I gave it though! The mechanic made the car functional again but alas! It cannot regain its former beauty. I did attempt to ask the cost of repairing the dents on the hood …the answer staggered me so much that I decided to agree with the maxim that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder…and after all if the car takes me from point A to point B it was done what it was intended to do!!
I broke my spectacles today… I was trying to get a ream of paper stored in the upper shelf. It slipped from my hand, a corner hit my specs and the specs fell down with the paper and now there is a neat vertical crack right through the center of the right lens.
Day of disasters!!
Day of the Week: TUESDAY
Mood : Amused
Highlights of the Day:
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Lot of mails today on my college e-group. I started a poll on the egroup just to start a meaningful discussion on some topic. Nobody seemed to respond. Then I suggested closing the group down. Suddenly there was a deluge of mails. People who hardly contributed turned up to voice their support for the group. All because of a stupid comment which I didn’t even mean…. so much for meaningful discussions!!
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Two of my friends are very disappointed. Their partner’s (seems a better word than boyfriend /girlfriend ,which always make me think of junior college crushes) parents are coming for a visit. Not only have they lost their privacy..but suddenly there is an re-exchange of gifts, some items are hidden, stories are made up ,certain snaps are removed from the album and the album itself is reorganized.
Day of the Week: WEDNESDAY
Mood : Sad
Highlights of the Day:
Mail from Seejo describing the fun he is having and how he is happy to be “home”. Subha is busy planning her “India shopping”. And I am stuck here. I am desperately homesick….
Got two contradictory mails today…
A nasty one from Pulkit that said… firstly, you cannot expect people to reply back to what you write, cause no one really cares 2 hoots about what you write. so please refrain from yelling for attention and forcing people to write on the damn e-group! Write when you wanna have fun and please don’t make a big deal out of it.
I was shocked. Perhaps I shouldn’t write these emails and force people to read them. May be its too much if I ask people to reply to my mails. My logic was perfectly simple : I like writing and I assumed people like reading my mails…I like reading mails too so all I wanted was a few lines in reply. Perhaps the logic was skewed somewhere.
Moments later I got another mail from Ruby which said ”
I assure you that your mails are being read, and you are thought of very often”. Ruby, thanks for the mail ….you made my day. Anyway decided to continue writing…. Heck after all I am writing cos I enjoy writing…you don’t want to read it, you can always delete the mail!!!
To add insult to injury, Mark prolonged our weekly lab meeting to 3 hours…It was my turn to present my data and as I had goofed off the previous day, I had nothing to show. Imagine the time he would have taken had I actually worked and presented a normal fortnight’s work!!
UGH! a bad bad day!
Day of the Week: THURSDAY
Mood : Shocked
Highlights of the Day:
A shocking thing happened today. It was 9 am and I was almost dressed to go to the lab. V enters our house and says “There is a problem”. And what an understatement. Turns out that S copied a page in his thesis from the internet. He was writing his rough draft and gave that chapter to his advisor as his own work. His advisor was enraged and threw him out of her lab and for good measure out of the department as well. And if that was not enough she initiated honor court proceedings against him. I have explained the honor system in U.Va earlier. It’s a serious offense to be caught copying and plagiarizing could get you thrown out the university.
It potentially means an end to S’s Masters degree and a career in US. And whats more it also means Good Bye to V, as her parents would understandably be against marriage with a guy with “no future”.
There was a lot of tension amongst our gang. Cell phones buzzed continually and all of us put our thinking caps on to try and get S out of this mess.
On the other hand it gave me more writing practice. Till now my skills had been restricted to recos, SOP, resume, the odd cover letter and love letters!!. Today I got a chance to write an apology mail to a prof and beg for mercy.
We are a tense lot today.
Day of the Week: FRIDAY
Mood : Frustrated
Highlights of the Day:
I think the job market is finally improving. Earlier I used to get no replies from any of the companies that I applied to. I decided that they had blocked my email id. However things are looking up. I am getting replies now. Its only the content that is not very encouraging. The replies I have got so far say
*Â Â Â Â Â Â We need a permanent resident, Sorry
*Â Â Â Â Â Â The post has been filled, Thank you for applying and your resume shall be kept on file….
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Your qualifications do not match our requirement
*Â Â Â Â Â Â We need people who are graduating now.
And to make masters worse , Mark was interviewing candidates for the post he offered me.
I know I rejected his offer (can’t think of working with him for any longer) but now I am truly jobless and without an option.
I am frustrated…Was coming to US and studying and slaving with Mark worth it if I cannot find a decent job?
Day of the Week: SATURDAY
Mood : Busy
Highlights of the Day:
As is the norm in this lab the peak time for working is Friday evening. Our earlier paper came back from the reviewers with the comment that ” amendments required”. Today was the day to make all those amendments. Moreover ,it was a few days since i cleaned out my office table. Mark already enquired whether i had any plans in the near future to do that. I assured him last week that i would do it on Satuday. So here i am on a Saturday afternoon cleaning my desk and drawer.
Meanwhile I am surfing the net to find if anything at all can be done to help Subbu out of this mess…..
And I am filling the required amount of forms ( in triplicate) to initiate my graduation process and to apply for the OPT.
Day of the Week: SUNDAY
Mood : Relaxed
Highlights of the Day:
Got up really late and got up happy! Thats cos i had another dream (Don’t worry I won’t expand on the details….:)) But the dream told me why i am living. Thie revelation dawned on me at precisely 11.15 am and I woke up happy. Do you want to know the ultimate aim of my life? It is that i am living to colour my hair chocolate brown.
At peace with the world …totally!
Books:
1)A Taste for Death  P.D.James
2) GodFather : Mario Puzo ( I know I know Ihave read it before…….)
Movies
1)Yaadon ki Baraat : Total timepass…!!
2) The Generals Daughter. Hmmmmm
Websites:
http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/god.htm
Very interesting site. Tests how rational your belief is. The website doesn’t point out what’s right or wrong but simply how consistent your belief is!!!
Things other people accomplished at your age…
Self explanatory site. Enter your age and voila!!
http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/index.html
Lesson of the Week:
Copying does not pay and DO NOT lie to your advisor.
