8 hour block

We've been told by health experts or often read in newspapers, television that an individual should have an eight-hour block of sleep every day as an adult. There is a lot of conjecture about this that goes on and I think it varies from an individual to individual. However, for me particularly, 8-hour sleep is a must. Though I feel really good after having it, waking up refreshed and having my efficiency better, at the same time, I feel I kind of waste 2 hours of my day into just sleep. I wish I was sleeping for 6 hours instead, then I would have got more time for the day's work.
I even know there is no solution for it, and many a time I have got into trouble or sleeping this long and also deep. Yes, my sleep is long and deep and continuous. I don't know whether it is good or not.

I am too good

Yes, it's true!  (Disclaimer: This is a self-appreciation post!)

Many times, I get this feeling that I am indeed too good. I am not exaggerating, maybe I 'm biased or just not met enough people out there. You know, right now I am feeling where should I start from :P my list of goodness is too long :D One of my labmate (Ravi) keeps me saying often, aap itna sab kaise kar lete ho (How come you do all this), my guide says, I'm blessed and my friends say, I m stud. Acknowledging all the sweet compliments, I think it starts from my childhood. (Now one can get a feel, I'm talking like a celebrity). 

Right from my school, I was a multi-tasking person. I never kind of focused only on one thing. It doesn't mean I did things with half-heart. Problem was I always wanted to do all the things liking acing it. The first competition of any kind that I participated in was a Banana race, in fourth standard :P. You know its like how they tie your hand and you got to run for 100 meters then eat a banana with your mouth and come back 100 meters to the finishing line. I won first prize. Maybe it was just for the banana :P and there it was, the count of my participation and winning was endless, I have over 70 certificates from various competitions that used to be in schools viz. debating, sports, cultural, quizzes, writing, science congresses whatnot. You name it. See I don't want to sound like I'm boasting but I'm telling the truth. I remember my mom used to say, when after the annual day prize distributions, when I used to get down from the school bus how my hands used to be filled with prizes, medals, and trophies and how neighbor aunties used to praise about me to my mom, sonu ne to pure school ka prize hi jeet aayi hai (Seems sonu has won prizes of everybody). The pace slowed down a little ater my 12th standard. But it never stopped. Even during college, I participated in debating, cultural etc. After coming to IIT Kgp I felt I am at the right place and at the right time. This place is filled with opportunities. If someone is motivated and enthusiast, he/she can become a Sundar Pichai or Kejriwal (sorry about that :P). Oh, by the way, Sundar Pichai is coming to the campus on January 5th. 

Likewise, I used this place and the opportunity showered to me by God to make full justice. I participated again in all the things possible. It helped me make lots of friends, stay fit, evolve more as a person and be confident. Not only I got good grades and be academically sound, but publish papers I also happened to grab some good internship opportunities, the latest being the Fulbright fellowship. But when I started to write this post, my orientation was a little different.  wanted to talk about me as a person, but couldn't stop to tell the whole story. 

Even as a person, I think I am not a person with ill intent or someone who is bad, like bad. I know it would be inappropriate to call/tag someone as bad because its about perspectives. Honestly telling, I think I have a good heart. I will never ever hurt someone intentionally or be mean enough to spoil someone's work or even say a bad word. Again, I feel its because of my upbringing and the whole credits for this goes to my parents and siblings. I know them being one of the nicest people on earth. Such sweet, adorable and kind people they are. I kind of inherited from them. So it is like a bonus, I am good otherwise too and with a good heart and mouth. So this makes me a wonderful person :P I feel like singing this song, My name is sheila, main khud se pyar jataun. I may sound narcissist. and yeah I am beautiful too :P 

Ab aur nahi bola jata :P 

By the way, just yesterday I won Gold in Mixed doubles and Gold in Women championship of Badminton. So, you see :P

Fulbrighter!

I cracked this beauty. I did. And I am going to the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S next year.

It feels great! I remember vividly right from my first year of Ph.D., how I used to just think of applying for this prestigious Fellowship. The Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship. I didn't apply ever since.  (honestly telling) I was a little scared. I had heard a lot about it. For example, only those people are selected who have got n no. of publications or who are just par excellence, just brilliant to the power infinity. You know how it feels I am not bad. Not bad dude. (Though I also possess these perks from my Ph.D. research).

I remember the entire process. It was somewhere around Feb-March that I contacted only 8 profs in the U.S. All of them only from Ivy league colleges. Since I had already got selected through Newton-Bhabha Fellowship and had so much to do already, I had planned I won't devote much time to this because it does demand a LOT of time. To my luck, this was my 8th and the last application mail to Prof. Seider, from the University of Pennsylvania that I got a reply from him after 3 days. Obviously, he had some things to clear from me and know about me before giving me the Letter of invitation, thus he asked me to do a Skype. I agreed but I was running short of time since I had to go to U.K for the NB thing. I remember my first Skype with Prof. was on the first day that I arrived in U.K. It was a relatively short Skype (15 minutes) since I was struggling for a good internet connection. Thus, I requested him to give me some time so that we can have a Skype on Friday, the 6th June. I was sky-ping from my Department of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Sheffield from the lounge. It was a good 40 mins Skype and I got to know he like me. Still, he wanted to be surer, he gave me reading materials and again asked me to do Skype. It was around 3-4 times that we skyped together followed by many email exchanges that he assured me to give the Letter. I was happy to receive it. As soon as I got the letter, I applied online, which in itself was a lengthy procedure, A good 14-page application form, along with a lot of attachments, 3 Letter of recommendations, personal statements and what not. Finally, I submitted it. The wait then started. The wait: for the shortlisting for the interviews.

The result was supposed to come somewhere in mid-august but it didn't come. I was waiting continuously. The time was running fast to pack my bags from U.K. It was 2 days until I had to board the flight to India that a mail popped up in the middle of the road when I was running to the bank. Like its usual, I am the 11th-hour person, and I was literally running for some work and took out the phone from my pocket. Still panting, but felt happy to know that I was shortlisted and had to appear for the interview on 23rd September in New Delhi.

I was back in India and to Kharagpur and I had to go back again to Delhi for the interviews. I was preparing way too much since I didn't want to goof up this one that I wanted so dearly. So I arrived on 22nd September to my home in Gurgaon. It's always good to be home. I didn't want to study any further as I wanted to eat, play with Puchu my niece, and talk to di, mummy and papa and everyone. So, it was the night before the D-Day. I stopped everything, all the preparations and suddenly all my fear was gone. In fact, I was not feeling anything as such but feeling very confident. Next morning, I got up and donned a casual wear. Papa accompanied me to the USIEF office in Mandi house. Ater reaching there, changed into formals and waited for my turn while papa waited for me in the USIEF canteen. I was scheduled to be interviewed at 12:45 pm but the girl just before me took much of my time as well and she was back by 1 pm. Too many thoughts again started pouring up in my head. Maybe she gave it too well; maybe the interviewers wanted to talk to her more than why she took this much time etc. etc. Anyways, I stepped inside, gave a brief smile to 12 of them; in a round table seating. As expected. the U.S person started me asking, he was too sweet for the first one. And then there were those 10 minutes. I gave the best interview of my life. I was confident, had the presence of mind and paid attention to all of them. I could see they all were satisfied with my answers. I spoke a lot with a smile, and then it was over. I came out. I saw my wristwatch (that I wore for the first time) it went for just 10 minutes. I had mixed feelings mainly because 1. I knew it went really well, but  2. only for 10 minutes (maybe they couldn't tolerate me more). So I was little skeptical. There were too many thoughts in my mind.

So it was 3-4 days later that I received a phone call from of ice of my department that I have a post (I was still in Delhi that time). Therefore I immediately called Rabiya to go collect it from the office and give it to Arpit. I hadn't told anyone about this whole thing. So it was with Arpit, and he informed me over the phone about it. Selected. 

It's a great feeling to be a Fulbright Scholar. I hope to do good. :)

Happy Durga Puja

So it's that time of the year! Durga Puja or PujO with the O as Bengalis call it.

I am in Kharagpur these days enjoying my solitude and private time. It's that time of the year when literally the Kharagpur, (with Kharagpur, I mean IIT Kharagpur) go barren, it's empty. The roads are lonesome, the shops are closed and the population is scarce. It's that time of the year when everybody goes home because It'd Pujo time and we are blessed to unofficially have official holidays. Nobody's mind. But I planned to stay back here. Why? Umm..several reasons. 

1. First, I have just come back from home like last week. 
2. Second I have a TOEFL exam on Sunday. 
3. Third, I have a major presentation to give on next Wednesday, and
4.  Fourth, I wanted to take a break.

These days, my routine is to get up (after having a sweet eight-hour sleep), make breakfast with Masala Tea (Post my UK trip, I love cooking and eating that), read or prepare for TOEFL and go for running in the evening followed by exercise, later prepare dinner, again read something, watch some series/movies and go back to helipad.

It is such a beautiful day today. Sun shining bright yet low not causing heat. It's making the entire day bright and beautiful. Staying especially in the room of my hostel, with a balcony facing me and I could look outside the green pastures outside, with periodic sound of Pujo music and Maa Durga Sangeet, this whole set-up is so enticing. Filling me with positivism and motivation. 

One more thing, sometimes you should accept the way things are. It may be difficult, really difficult. I understand. But you got to be strong for I believe whatever happens, it is for a good reason in the long run. For the time being, you need to surround yourself with good people and your family. Time heals everything and gives you number of ways to start it over again. What is most important: Stay motivated, love your work, have an aim and respect your family. Everything will be good then.

Happy Dusshera!

May this Dusshera light up for you,

the hopes of happy times and dreams for a year full of smiles :)

My Helipad :)

My Bed is an awesome place on earth for me and my productivity. Though I don’t spend much time on it due to time constraints but it has been very faithful to me. I m a person who does an 8-hour sleep cycle. Needless to say, without the required amount of time, my mind and body refuses to work as efficiently as it could do had I had my sufficient dose. Nonetheless, I have adjusted myself to work under pressure, less sleep, with fatigue, but not without food. That can’t ever happen. Well, that’s another story for some other time. Coming back to my bed, I call it dearly as my helipad. Landing on my helipad, is the same kind of joy I get after flying for long and having a tiring time in a flight. After that, when you touch down, you can relate. The joy of going home, the feeling of achieving stable state, less chaos, kind of spiritual and completeness. It’s that kind of feeling on my helipad.

Many people complaint they have difficult time going to sleep. Without disrespecting them or not agreeing to their apathy, I am on the contrary, someone who falls asleep within a minute, like literally. It sounds amazing, isn’t it? Yeah it is. BUT, it has some drawbacks as well. I am gonna list few:

1. Easy and quick to fall asleep also means difficult to wake up. (E.g. on my first day when I landed UK, it was 7 pm and I fell asleep. Bhaskar who was also with me, was trying to knock my door to wake me up for going to dinner. He must have knocked and called my name hundreds of time, but I was deaf and was in deep slumber. Lastly he had to call the landlord, and they both opened my door with a duplicate key. Wait, I was still sleeping. And he woke me up standing right in front of me). Same kind of instance has happened before as well.
2.  I don’t know what I’m gonna do after I marry with this trend of me sleeping with the Godspeed. Just saying. 

Anyways, though there are drawbacks but I am still content with the way and hours of my sleep patterns. It feels good to wake up smiling. My helipad has a biggest role to play. I make sure to pamper it with 8-9 nice and clean bed sheets, 4-5 pillows and my teddy-bear. That’s a lovely place on earth.

Ye gum ka saaya hai
Ya pyar ne sikhaya hai

Ye husn tha meherban
Par banda tha pareshan

Ye aag ki aandhi thi
Ya baat hi aadhi thi

Ye baat purani thi
Magar yaad to taazi thi

Ye ishq ka tha suroor
Jo chadha tha ji huzoor..

Jise waqt ne kiya jaaya
So ab kabhi na paaya...

Such a lovely time

You know I was longing for this time when I could feel and say to myself that "I have no other option but to be in library".

Clearly, it is with no bad feelings that I have to go to the library but the truth is, I love to be in the library. Especially, in that corner or room or zone where I am not known to anybody. When I find that kind of space, a sense of completeness fills me from inside and my focus multiplies. Some people like to read or write in their rooms, classes, labs but I am a library person since my college days. I remember all my preparations for GATE, CSIR have been done being in the library. Still these days when I have to write Journal articles I find solace in the library and then the result is just awesome.

One more thing, off lately my life has been so so busy. I never got my "me" time. This is because most of the times, I used to be in lab and when I come back to my Hall, there you go, friends. Lots of friends. Having said that, I don't mean to sound someone who doesn't like to enjoy their company, in fact I used to have ultimate fun and laughter rounds. But, I always wanted to have that day in my life when I could say, since I have nothing else to do/go..I would

rather prefer to go to the dear library.

Well, since I am here in Sheffield and of course there s no match of the number of my friends between KGP and here, honestly telling, I kind of never felt alone or missing friends. Sounds weird? I don't know. But I always had so much to do. If I am not in lab (I mean after lab hours or during the weekend), either I 'd go to library to finish so many work I already have or go do shopping: my favorite thing. Besides that, how can I forget to mention watching South Park. I think this is the third post where I am mentioning South Park. So you can imagine my obsession. 

Anyways, sitting and writing while in the library, munching Doritos and sipping Cappucino, when it is 6:20 pm and sun still shining bright, I continue to work- being alone, unknown to the world still feeling so good and important.

#Life's good