Night's grown warmer

Every night when I close my eyes,

In disguise, you just quietly come into my dreams..

I’m wondering now if I wanna open these eyes,

And realize, whats the reality..

I spend my time thinking all day

About the way, in which

your warm breath tickles my neck..

I don’t keep a check, on what should I feel..

That soft touch of those gentle lips

that tight grip, that passionate kiss…

I cannot miss, that look and moan..

Oh our nights grown, warmer …

The way your skin in raw feels..

Makes me kneel, and worship you

Baby.. take me through, this journey

Oh honey! That’s what I would call life…

Grad life @ Purdue

Woaaah! Finally got some breathing time to sit and write my blog. Graduate life!! Things have begun so quickly and I’m surged into the current of research in such a way that there was hardly any time to think about anything else or give myself that “slow start” cushion. Days and nights are just passing by. Every day there are these small tasks that need to be done which if carried over to the next day could turn out to be a BIG problem. Everything spoken to everyone, every little detail, needs to noted, carefully calculated and made sure that it fits your schedule. Any task be it personal or professional needs to be done with royal time management. Well it’s more like doing professional work and then accommodating the personal chores within howsoever less free time you get.

Returning to Purdue has been great. Being an intern here has helped a lot to get me adjusted to everything so very quickly that I have hardly wasted any time figuring out the way of life here. Starting with my apartment I guess I have made an excellent choice this time especially when the name of the apartment complex is a French one ;) Beau Jardin Apartments is a very well connected complex to Purdue with Payless supermarket right next to it and all the junk food chains around the supermarket. Basically you can never go hungry there. Also, some of the most important roads like the Northwestern Avenue and Salisbury Street are cutting across this area which makes the busses easily available. It’s great to have 2 apartment-mates, one being the brother of my batchmate from IIT Guwahati and the other is his friend with whom I met for the first time and realized he is too paranoid about insects in the house apparently from his past experiences. This led him to give me a lengthy explanation about how things are to be kept in the house and how I am supposed to wash off everything in the kitchen ASAP. It was quite interesting and funny as I was remembering my mom just a week ago giving me the same instructions whilst I am living in the States. Nevertheless, we landed up having a good conversation and I realized he has a healthy way of life so I just expressed my wish of being healthy too and most probably join the gym. It all went well.

Being to Europe for an exchange semester and then returning to IIT Guwahati and then to Pune and then flying to US was really tiring. Everything just went very fast. I had left all my scholarship in the European bank as I was waiting for one last payment and then I had asked the banker to transfer it to my US account. France did not fail to disappoint me one last time. The banker did not transfer the money which resulted in me being a pauper in the States with hardly any cash to buy even food. Luckily some good friends in US and in France facilitated the process and I received my wire after a week. With the account decent, I finally went to the supermarket and by now I was used to the huge markets with infinite useless options for infinite useless things. I saw ice creams of course and decided to buy two tubs of them ( What? They are just for 5$ here!! ) It was death by chocolate of course and I went back home and was relaxing during the weekend coolly enjoying the taste of USA when my roommate (the paranoid one) came and asked me for a taste of the ice cream. Very happily I shared the tub and he approach the tub with his spoon looked into it and just smashed the tub on the kitchen table looked at me and started laughing. This is by far the weirdest scene that has happened with me. I looked at him bewildered and stunned and of course I asked him “Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!” He looked at me, still trying to control his laugh and told me, “I thought you were worried about your health and all.” I had absolutely no clue what he meant by that and I was like “Yeah, of course I am” to which he very amusingly expressed that finishing half a tub of ice cream in a day is gonna take me very close to my aims, just hypothetically. In that very moment a gush of embarrassment, horror and sadness engulfed me. I can never forget that moment. It was that day I had decided to turn that wish into a reality and actually do something about my health and live a healthier life. A lot of past experiences in my life have given me enough reason to believe that health is the biggest priority however nothing ever pushed me that hard to actually go and do something about it. That moment. That very laugh was and is a very strong motivation for me to continue gymming and I am glad that since then I have hardly been eating junk food or unhealthy stuff. My food intake and eating habits have changed drastically coming here and I am so very thankful to Mr. Lalit for this. He is like the Dark Knight roommate. Not the one you need but the one you deserve. :P My other roommate is as cool as a cucumber. Well, he is a PhD student. ‘Nuff said! I am glad I was able to find three other really amazing set of people in Beau Jardin –Shitty, Aalu and Pahrool who are becoming really good friends with time. The Lake Michigan trip organized by the ISS at Purdue kick started a series of events which led to finding friends like John, Shitty, Aalu, Parul, Akancha, Alper, Diogo, Felipe etc.

Regarding my lab and my research group, I am super happy and excited to be a part of DELP which is such a dynamic design group at Purdue. Some faces are familiar and some are new. Everyone seems to have blended really well. Working on interesting topics like game theory, economics, design innovation and getting to know more about cryptography, 3D printing, crowd sourcing etc. There is so much to learn and so much to read and so less time. Things are going well. Super hectic but so so so glad to be doing something worthwhile. As for now, 6 days to go for the next stipend and then party wohhuu ;) Cheers!

Happenstance, Foreordination or Volition

Words and phrases like overwhelming, in awe, stunned, astounding etc. are not even close to explaining the repertoire of emotion I have been experiencing since February 2014. No the reason is not Valentines day but the exchange semester opportunity I got at Ecole centrale de Nantes in Nantes, France all the way from IIT Guwahati, Assam, India and this has been truly and in all gravity of the word: Special! 

A lot of students nowadays get the opportunity to intern or study at more than one college in probably more than one country however the special thing about an exchange program is in fact it’s short period. The very fact that one can live in a new place with new people and get an opportunity to start afresh without worrying about the outcomes (because of the short period of time) was very exciting. I am glad I was able to use this opportunity in the best way I could. One of the best part about this nouvelle voyage of mine was my travelling with my backpack across western and central Europe. It is the best thing that could have happened to me at this age.

I definitely have a few things to mention about the things that travelling has taught me. It made me believe that the world is not that bad after all. It made realize that I was always judgmental towards others and thus in fact very harsh on myself. Travelling allowed me to put my faith and trust in people again. Moreover it made me comfortable and confident with myself. Being an extrovert since childhood, everyone believed and still do, that people like us have no problems socially however we do have major issues. Problems which the introverts could never imagine in their worst nightmares. Definitely the other side of the hill is always green however being an extrovert is not always cool. It’s exhausting at times and travelling provides you with just that adequate amount of tranquility an extrovert desperately needs. 

Born and brought up in a country like India forced me to be super conscious as a guy about my height. It is not a Tyrion Lannister case however Indians leave no stone unturned to make things overly exaggerated and super melodramatic. Travelling in a continent like Europe reinstated that confidence in me to be okay with who and how I am. It also made me realize that not everyone is judgmental and there is a good chance to encounter like minded people anywhere. Before I wore my confidence as an external shield and now it just seems to be an integral part of me. I have reduced spending a portion of my energy staying on guard about the inconsequential things and rather channelize that portion of energy into something more productive. I also learnt certain things the hard way like losing my super expensive coat in a bloody train to Paris just within one and a half of my journey and then realizing to be more attentive. It has definitely allowed me to be super organized and be aware about the little things without losing the main purpose of travelling which is to enjoy every moment. 

Studying and Travelling in a country like France for 6 months helps you definitely in one way: Developing patience! I have never seen any country so arrogant about its own language to this extent! Luckily I was with students and the younger generation is definitely more open and cosmopolitan especially in an academic setting which makes things better. However travelling to different cities within France made me realize how reluctant people are to embrace other languages. Nantes is a very a different and special city. Everyone seems to be super cool here however Paris gives such a bad impression of the whole country in general being the capital. Sometimes people just don't listen to you if you speak in English. The more bizarre part is when they understand the english language and still don't respond. It is definitely difficult to stay in this country as a foreigner. However one of the silver linings of this dark cloud was that I have learnt a new language and my french has improved to a great extent now. It is a super difficult language but it is beautiful. However my preference is Italian. Probably because of my Italian friends but I still love the way Italians speak. It is the coolest thing ever! I try Italian accent while speaking in english by adding A or O at the end of all my words. Its super funny!!

The amount of acquaintances I have made from all over Europe and the experiences I have had with strangers is truly amazing. Each person I met has been special in their own unique way. The old couple on the bridge, the girl in the train, the parents in Germany, the pianist at Montparnasse, the Indian lady on the TGV, the biologist on the train to Nantes, the mother on the train to Lake district, the girl studying medicine at my age, the professor on the way to Disneyland, the numerous people in the various hostels and so many more. There is just no end to the amount of strangers with whom you can feel connected only to make you realize that after all the world is your country and everyone around you is somehow related to you. Travelling is therefore now my hobby and I have stopped ruminating arrogantly about my situation to be a result of my act of volition. I used to hate when people called me lucky. I used to think that I have worked hard for it and I would not like my handwork to be diluted to luck. However as a traveller after pensive debating with myself I stand confused at the crossroads of happenstance, foreordination and volition. In fact after coming here I have reduced my constraints that shape my logic and perception. I am trying to make my thoughts and principles globally more accommodating. I have definitely become less judgmental and I have stopped assuming things. Interestingly I feel more calm and composed than ever. I hope to build on this trait and try to continue to focus my energy on constructive things...

My personal note..

Places Travelled:

1. Paris
2. Cannes
3. Marseilles
4. Cerbere
5. Nice
6. Monaco
7. Diano Marina
8. Cinque Terre (Monterroso, Vernazza, Manarola)
9. Pisa
10. Florence
11. Rome
12. Alberobello
13. Bari
14. Venice
15. Vienna
16. Prague
17. Munich
18. Amsterdam
19. Brussels
20. Rennes
21. Le Mans
22. Strasbourg
23. Pornic
24. St Nazaire
25. Barcelona
26. Chamonix
27. Les Alpes, Mont Blanc
28. Swiss Mountains from Chamonix
29. London
30. Lake District

Next destination: The Lavender fields, Provence, France

Europe and Everything Else! (Part 1)

Europe! What a continent. What an amazing place to be. After accepting the exchange semester offer from Ecole Centrale de Nantes and coming to terms with leaving the final semester, the 8^th semester of my IIT life, I had decided one thing: to make it absolutely worth it. Luckily, Europe allowed that to happen. Let’s start with Nantes: I was told that France is an unfriendly country and people aren’t helpful at all. Nantes proved all of that wrong. Being a university town it bustles with a lot of students be it French or other nationalities which makes it a very liveable place in France. The French people are extremely helpful and do try to comprehend the English speaking students and go sometimes out of their way to help. This was totally contradictory to what I had heard. I had thought that the French people do not like foreigners. However, Nantes wasn’t like that at all. I guess it only exists in Paris and some other places. Rightly called the capital, Paris is responsible for creating a very negative image of France. I am glad I get to stay in Nantes. However, one thing is for sure and that is you need to know French to make friends with the French. I haven’t made any French friends yet which isn’t very surprising given my abysmal French and nearly zilch zeal towards learning it. I in fact landed up making a lot of Italian and Spanish friends given their awesome social nature. These guys are so much fun and take life as it comes. There is so much to learn and grow living with people who have totally different culture than the one you have become comfortable with. Meeting Antonio was the best thing that happened. Antonio Manco! A crazy Italian who carries his heart on his hand and is in love with every other girl he meets. Simply put he is the Joey from Friends without much action for real :P An amazing friend and a vibrant person. Thanks to him I met a lot of other Italian guys and it has been always an amazing time with them. Be it the Hangara Banana time ( Pub place in Nantes) or the dinner or the clubs. They are always crazy wherever they go. I have also become good friends with Barbara who is like an elder sister always smiling and fun to hang out with. The St. Patricks day fun, the Berlioz dinners, the Australian Disc, the Irish Pub are just a few fun moments to pen down out of the infinitely long list of awesome times that I’ve had with these guys. Nantes wouldn’t have been so alive without them.

An exchange semester is totally different from an internship. It’s a significant period of time in a new place and it’s not just about spending good weekends after a week full of work. Each and every day is a surprise. New people, new places, new information, new food etc. it’s amazing. It’s not just about a professor or your work, it’s about how well you can gel in the new scenario and be able to totally exploit the opportunities the place has to offer within whatever time you’ve got. The voice at the back of my head always made me feel guilty for missing the last semester and all the related memories. This in fact is turning out to be a great motivation to go out there and just have fun. Just participate in any activity which I think an undergrad needs to participate in before graduation. Of course it’s Europe so I spend very less energy thinking about what others think of me and just keep doing what I wanna do.

As it’s said the other side of the grass is always green, I haven’t explored Nantes yet and have been all over Europe. (Which reminds me I need to visit the Elephant of Nantes.) While I am discussing about Nantes itself let me mention about Ecole Centrale. It’s a small college area wise and makes me miss the landscape of IITG of course. However, it’s a pretty decent college. The courses that I have been pursuing has a relatively good set of professors and the timetable is pretty relaxed as an exchange student. For master students it’s definitely a busy week just like it would be in general. The best course I feel is the Numerical Analysis course which is so challenging that it’s irresistibly engaging. I haven’t yet seriously started preparing for it (examination point of view) but it’s fun to have a 2 hour class if it’s interesting. It's because sometimes preparing for an examination is very different from actually enjoying the subject. I am glad that I have been able to do the latter. That was one thing which is very different here. Every class is for 2 hours! Now that can be pretty good or preettttyyyy bad. However this saves a lot of miscellaneous time that’s wasted for students like commutation etc. which overall gives an extra couple of hours in the week.

Speaking about time, for exchange students like me it’s good to have a couple of extra hours for cooking and all other home related activities. It’s living for real “ostsut there” and I am loving the independence. The other activities reminds me of a lethal activity I do every day and that’s cooking. My body is constantly fighting the toxicity it is subjected to with my cuisine. However the reason why cooking is become less worse is thanks to Prathamesh, another Heritage fellow from IIT Bombay who takes the pain to come to my apartment every evening to eat with me. Another one task we share is going to Leclerc and LiDL – the two supermarkets close to our place. The memories of carrying infinite food and domestic stuff and walking all the way back home is not going to missed but is going to be cherished forever. This one time we literally overloaded ourselves with so much shopping that there were 5 minutes breaks for every 2 minutes of walking back home. Crazy days! However foot is not always the option in Nantes given it’s awesome bus and tramways. One exclusive joke between Prathamesh and me is the way the recorded voice announces the station names in French in the trams and busses. “Ligne un terminus Beajoure!!” A very special memory indeed.

The great part about ECN are the continuous holidays and breaks we get for things like Easter etc.  This allowed Prathamesh and me to come up with a highly researched and exacting Euro trip plan. It was going to be a 17 day continuous trip covering France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands and Belgium. Just the statement “ A 17 day Euro Trip” had so much gravity in it, we were pulled into the idea categorically. One what the fuck moment was when we ordered our Eurail Pass and it was going to be shipped to India! Thank god Prathamesh realized that and had Skype credits to make an immediate call to Singapore and divert the shipping from India to France. A narrow escape! After all it was 380 Euros each at stake and we would never get more than half a month’s time to travel carefree! All’s well that ends well. The Eurail passes arrived :D

We decided to travel from Paris without making a reservation of a TGV because apparently Paris via Orleans was a “scenic” route mentioned by Eurail. What the great people did not mention is the time of the year when it is scenic. We began our journey early in the morning from Gare SNCF ( I am reading this stations name in that ladies recorded voice in the tram which I so wish could be put here) With Prathamesh missing the bus to the station and then walking all the way to a stop to reach SNCF we finally made there. We sat in the train from Nantes to Orleans and soon realized there was nothing scenic. Felt so stupid within the hour 1 of the Euro trip. We slept through it and reached Paris in 3 hours instead of 1 from the high speed TGV. Anyway, I was too excited to be in Paris to even think about it that time. One very funny memory was that of seeing the communication tower from the train and looking at Prathamesh with innocent eyes yelling and inquiring, “ Is that Eiffel?” and I really meant to ask it with all sincerity and Prathamesh just shrugged me off saying NO! Well, Prathamesh is a lucky ass. You see, he has been to Europe before thanks to DAAD. His love for Germany is absolute and he had been to Paris. I mean come on! At the age of 22 he was visiting Europe twice with his own money?! Very few people I presume on this list in the world!

Paris!! I mean what can I say about this city which hasn’t been said before?! We definitely saw a lot and took a lot more pictures which will be a good reminder of the things we visited. I will mention those which are the most fondly remembered. The most striking memory of Paris was seeing the Eiffel tower from the metro window. It was the most unexpected sudden flash of the tower beaming in yellowish orange in the night. That will be a long lasting memory. I obviously went much more close to the Eiffel than the scene I saw from the metro however the surprise of viewing the tower had made me exclaim “Woah” even in the metro. The French easily figured we are the usual Paris tourists and were too busy in their own life fatigued by the awesomeness of Eiffel to even bother looking outside. Generally speaking after using the metros and public transport of Paris it was easy to realize it’s a fast city. It’s "know or go" here and that is how speaking in French becomes so important. The lifestyle is so fast! The stations are so intricately connected and it’s super complicated. You need to be young to be in a city like this. I had felt this in Seoul after the rustic life of Daejeon but it wasn’t even half of what I felt about Paris as compared to Nantes. It can suck up all energy you have, I bet! Another amazing memory of Paris is Berthillon Ice cream shop and the salted caramel ice cream suggested by a kind Srilankan guy! I mean cummon! It was fantastic. I couldn’t even find that taste in the Gelatos of Italy but we will come to that later. Salted Caramel! I had never thought there could be salt in an ice cream and it could taste so incredibly good! What an amazing time sitting on the banks of Seine River and enjoying an ice cream so awesome in such a chilly weather. Priceless! Then comes the obvious Mona Lisa ma’am and Louvre museum. The ability to see Eiffel tower in the background while hopping around the city is such an amazing feeling. I don’t know how but it was titillating. Rightly called the city of love! Another important highlight was Disneyland! It made me realize how much less of a kid I was now. I wasn’t that crazy as I expected to be while seeing Disneyland. I was sure happy to finally see it but that happiness which bubbled in me thinking about Disneyland when I was a kid was lost somewhere in the process of growing up. I always thought I could be rebellious enough to not let that child in me fade away but alas! We grow and bang ourselves under the speeding truck called maturity on the highway of life. 

Nevertheless, it was a brilliant day spent and that too free of cost thanks to Prathamesh’s landlord’s (who is also a professor) daughter, Mathilda who worked there. 60 Euro ticket for free! I thank Prathamesh for that. He has proved to be more advantageous and helpful as an acquaintance than many of the so called friends in my life. Acquaintance! It’s no longer a word valid between Prathamesh and me now. He is definitely a good friend. A rather quiet friend of mine (probably because I speak so much I never allow him to speak) but a good “hooman” being. [A joke which only both of us will understand] Overall, it was two very exhaustive and rejuvenating days at the same time. It was a difficult feeling to sink in that I was in Paris. I could probably write a whole new blog about the feelings and experience of the Eiffel tower. To sum it up, one needs to visit the top of Eiffel tower. As a student probably climb up and feel exhausted but thrilled. As a mechanical engineer it was beautiful to see how a 3D truss could look so beautiful in real and become much more than just a truss! I will run out of words to mention beautiful in different ways and that’s what it felt when I looked at the Eiffel tower. With bidding good bye to Paris through Louvre in the night and it’s stunning beauty and of course having salted caramel once again on day#2 we were ready to board the overnight train to Cannes!

To be continued….

Bonjour France!

Bonjour France!

If you’ve read my earlier blogs about South Korea and USA trips, you know how good my travelling events can get. I believe now it is customary for me to have some crazy thing happening during my travel to a new continent and Europe did not disappoint!

Heritage: Erasmus Mundus Partnership program provided me with an opportunity to study at Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Nantes, France as an exchange student for a period of six months. With inexplicable excitement, the time had come to big goodbye to Friends and Family and scratch off a few things from my checklist as the Euro trip was going to begin! After bidding goodbye to IIT Guwahati, I flew to Kuwait to visit my family after a really long time. Those 13 days with family passed faster than I could say “I wanna stay more”. It was a 15 day trip as such but as I said something interesting always needs to happen, I realized all international flights to Delhi were getting delayed or cancelled due to the Delhi fog and weather conditions. I was supposed to reach Delhi on 31^st Feb at 8:30 pm and catch my flight for Paris departing on 1^st Feb at 2 am from Delhi. It was a tight schedule and as concerned as family members always are, they told me change my tickets to reach Delhi 2 days earlier. With a lot of calls, calculations and friends help I finally got my tickets changed to the 29^th of January. It was going to be 2 nights and 3 days in Delhi alone. Frankly, the 2 nights in Delhi experience was nothing less than a 3 month internship experience abroad. Having heard so much about the capital it was surely intimidating to be there alone. However, the experience in Delhi was great! Sometimes we really underestimate the pleasure of being alone. I used to think travelling alone was depressing and lonely however it turned out to be great. It actually can be great everytime if you allow yourself to enjoy your own company now and then. Visiting the malls of Gurgaon and looking at various people, the way they were dressed and their way of life sure makes you ponder about a lot of things. It made me think about the diversity of India with beggars on one side and shopping malls on the other all being reflected in its justly called capital Delhi.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport has always been special! My first international trip (to Kuwait), my sophomore internship (to South Korea) and the latest, the exchange semester trip to France, all have been through the IGI airport. I had never flown through Air France before and I had got mixed reviews about this airline. I must say after flying with Qatar Airways, your expectations from the airlines really increases and it was but obvious that Air France was disappointing. It began with the luggage check-in. My check-in bag was exactly 23 kilos and there was absolutely no problem with that one. The Air France personnel was about to print my boarding card when suddenly a random person who was apparently their team leader tapped me on my shoulder from behind and told me to weight my laptop bag along with the hand bang. It was 2 kilos extra than allowance and god they pained me for that for 2 hrs! I mean who checks the handbags unless you are very unlucky! Thank god I had gone to the airport quite early. Had to throw away my dear food packets and reduce the weight before they allowed me to check in. I started hating Air France from that moment onwards. 2 kilos considering a student should have been allowed given that other flights allow an extra 10 kilos for etudiants.

In the 9 hour flight to Paris I thought I would sleep as the flight was from 2 am as such however, kids always ruin travel! One sweet looking kid showed his true colours as soon as the flight took off! The constant squeaky, cancerous, piercing sound of the kid’s cries royally screwed my sleep. With a bursting head I landed at Paris. Oh wait! Paris!! Who cares about the headache! I was in Europe!! It was too much to accept in that moment. The CdG Paris airport was huge! The way pAris was written was beautiful with the Eiffel Tower drawn in the “A” of Paris. It was raining outside and it was definitely cold! The excitement with which I removed my new winter wear clothes was like that of a kid removing the shiny wrapper of Kinder chocolate! The winter wear would be so exciting I had no clue. I am usually the ‘wear nothing but shorts’ kinda guy. Well that’s the reason I love summers more than winters however I was in love with winter wear like an infatuated teenager. With a few hours of wait I was on board for Nantes!

With just 45 minutes of flight and awesome chocolate cookies being served I became a little considerate to Air France finally. FYI It’s always the chocolates to change my mood :D I landed in Nantes and the ACCENTS (A Club of CEntrale Nantes for Travelling Students) member Audurey was there at the airport to pick me up with a tram ticket to travel to my accommodation. This is the most amazing club for social service I have seen. She gave me general information about Nantes and welcome kit with a bag of EC Nantes. Helped me with my luggage and I finally reached my accommodation. 59 Rue de Nancy, Nantes was going to be my abode for 6 months here.

Thomas Monganne, my landlord is pretty cool for a 40 something French guy. Thin and tall like almost any French guy he was very welcoming and made me feel at home. His English was comprehensible and I realized there wouldn’t be a lot of communication gap. The house was beautiful 80 meter square apartment with four rooms on the top floor and the kitchen and bathroom below. Interestingly the other 3 rooms are occupied by French, Spanish and Russian girls!! My landlord left me with this information and a humorous wink.

Nantes is a beautiful city. The most beautiful aspect of this student university town was it’s helpful people. I was told otherwise about French being helpful to foreigners however the exceptional case is Nantes and I am glad I am here. The first instance of help began with my trip to LiDL: The supermarket. In Nantes here, and I assume in other parts of France and may be even Europe, the shopping carts need 1 Euro to be inserted which you get back after you park the cart. I never knew about the fact that we could get back the coin so just like any other student on budget I decided not to take the cart. I went inside the market and after idling away in the isles for quite some time I approached one guy to ask him about salt and pepper. Accompanied by the guy was an old lady, Michelle, who spoke English really well and these two people were the sweetest people I have met. They asked me about the cart and I explained my predicament. After a good laugh, she handed over to me a fake euro coin which could be used for the carts out of her purse. It was a very small gesture but it touched me greatly. After shopping for a while I was in the queue for the bill and she told me to save the 20 cents for the bag and removed a bag and gave it to me. I had shopped a lot and the stuff was heavy. The most surprising thing that happened was they walked me back till rue de Nancy with my stuff. The lady was definitely 60+ and her gesture had categorically helped me realize how Nantes as a place was going to be.

Trotting in Nantes has its own sweet pleasure. The seven degree temperature, light rains and wind could either annoy you or make you feel ecstatic depending upon which day of the week it is. On Fridays and weekends when you decide to aimlessly walk in downtown you feel elated with such a weather. On weekdays during college you will curse the same. The European culture and architecture was visible through the streets of Nantes. The small windowed houses and streets with intricate façade makes one feel Europe in it's true essence. The beautiful Cathedrals, Restaurants, Historical places and Museums deserve hours and hours to be spent on them. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. I have to still see the Elephant of Nantes and I guess it’s gonna be very soon.

Ecole Centrale de Nantes for a student from IIT Guwahati turned out to be very small. The university is small however the place is really happening. There are some other universities too juxtaposed with ECN and you can see only students around there. The good part is you can speak in English and find many who can respond well. One interesting aspect that I discovered for myself are the cheap vending machines in college with Moccachinos and Hot chocolate in just 40 cents which is not bad at all.

I met Antonio Manco, a fellow Heritage Erasmus Mundus student who is as crazy as me. Friday night in Nantes turned out to be awesome with him. Have made a good bunch of Italian and Spanish friends here. Hope to strengthen our bonds over time.

Antonio and me

New Italian Friends

I also got the opportunity to meet Prathamesh Joshi, a DD from IIT Bombay. Pretty cool guy, very quiet as compared to me but a fun guy to travel Nantes with. He stays close by to my location and I thank god for that. Will explain the accommodation issue with Heritage later. For me it's mostly with Prathamesh for cooking, travelling and bakaring etc. Chu says he has no enthu for taking pics! I told him if he is with me, there will be pics :P

and that's Prathamesh!

I am just waiting for my bank card to arrive after which I will finally get a cell phone connection and most importantly the Eurail Pass. Can’t wait to begin the travel! Hoping for the best, let’s see what these 6 months have in store. Hope to learn some French. Till then Au Revoir!

The promise of constancy

Promises! We make it and we break it. This New Year too began with a lot of hopes and a lot of a promises which are already breaking faster than they were even made. 2013 was a year full of memories. Some of these memories were outrageously fantastic and a few were ridiculously heart breaking. The period beginning with the 2013 New Year celebrations to Alcheringa 2013 is a time that passes swiftly with a new semester to begin with. With the acceptance of the US visa, followed by a crazy 36 hours delayed journey to the States it was exciting all the way. I am glad to have listened to my senior’s advice and finished off my GRE and TOEFL in the summers of 2013 itself. With the US joy ride over and done and a PhD offer in hand I was ready for the pseudo-penultimate semester to begin. I call it pseudo because to my surprise I got through the Heritage Erasmus Mundus Exchange program for Ecole Centrale de Nantes in France. The penultimate semester turned out to be my last semester at IIT Guwahati. After getting the news it was as though I went through those great phases of realization as stated in various scriptures. Firstly, I had to sink in the feeling of being accepted to the program. Secondly it was to calm myself down after being titillated every other second thinking about Europe. I then realized it was my last semester in college and then it was the phase of convincing myself that I wanted to accept it. Phew! What a joy ride it had been! I thought I was all done and then there was the whole duolingo experience of learning French and oh! It is fun to learn a foreign language. The Kolkata French consulate experience was also amazing where being an Erasmus mundus scholar was nothing less than being from MIT. Finally I was set to go back to Pune having consumed half of December in the paper work and formalities to be out of college! On a bittersweet note I landed to Pune only in a few days to realize it was a 9.91 spi this time. Damn! I could never be a perfect 10 in college! Had it in my checklist. Was terribly upset but well it was my all-time highest so that was a consolation. Also, moti always says the best of the things unexpectedly. I was as usual cribbing about my spi and she told me “there is much more to you than being a 10 pointer!” I don’t know if she said it casually or what but there was so much weight in it. I convinced myself of what an ass I am and I got back to normalcy :P I then got to attend the Indo-US conference organized by TCS on ICME thanks to my Purdue Prof. It was a great experience too. New Year’s Eve has been the most special and I don’t think it will ever be this special again. As this year proceeds a lot of relations will fade away and a whole lot more are gonna spring up. Amidst all of these there are a few bonds which I dearly wish, hope and expect are for life and won’t break ever. I wish the promise of constancy remains. With the Schengen visa, an accommodation after a lot of pain and a ticket to France I am all set to experience the European way of life! Before that, a small trip to Kuwait where after 2 long years I will meet dad and bro. A lot of surprises in store for me for sure, hoping for the best. Alvida India, Assalawalekum Kuwait!!