Life at CMU : June 22 to July 24

A strong breeze with silken touch gently pats my face,
Swaying and merrily dancing along, with utmost grace.
The clouds play hide and seek, as I give a longing stare,
Oh yeah ! a pretty sight; you know rain is in the air.

As I fasten my paces, in my journey towards the campus,
The squirrel hops along, nonchalant; without any fuss.
The Cathedral is at its imposing best; tall in stature.
When you look for beauty ; don’t look beyond nature.

I look back upon the eventful month I have had so far,
Work keeps me busy;courtesy Eduardo and Ed Barr.
Yeah I know that I have done pretty well in all my courses,
Of course it’s been a struggle;Life is not a bed of roses.

That was an attempt to check if the poetic fire was still burning inside me… looks like it still does

It has been a draining month so far, physically and emotionally. It began on a wonderful note when me and my team got deserving grades for our project work. I also had to work on a new course from Heinz.. It is about Business Writing.. My main objective of taking up this course was to make up credits and lead life easy but the assignments break your back.. I have realised that blog writing and professional writing were chalk and cheese.. yet the results have been satisfying.. I could feel the difference the course has made to my professional writing abilities..

The ISR courses and project work have also kept me busy and occupied.. My team ( Suprema, Vignesh, and Yours Truly) put up a satisfying show in our Estimation presentation..But the challenges of balancing time are really nerve wrecking.. frequency of cooking at home has considerably reduced, and the routine for the last few days has been .. struggle to wake up at 7 30, still struggle but wake up without a choice by 8, take a bath, eat breakfast (if milk and corn flakes are available ;D), go to college by 9 30..( I love those morning walks from home to college), attend classes, then break for lunch ( which has invariably been slices of bread), then attend mentor meetings, client meetings, team meetings, make desperate attempts to do project work, take a break from them and do course assignments instead, and finally, give up attempts to conquer sleep and take the escort shuttle to home from college at 1 45.. and repeat the routine again..

On a personal front, I have been missing mom, dad, sister, mom’s food, and all my buddies ( Prem,Logic,Achu,Madhu to name a few).. but work has kept me occupied.. I have also gone through a phase which has only made me mentally stronger.. I have witnessed love and trust being murdered in the name of “sensibility” and “practicality” , the two common words that are most mis-understood and often used when people need an excuse..

I have never seen people treat a sacred “institution” with utter contempt in the name of being practical.. an institution that teaches you the joy of living together,loving each other, developing trust, making compromises for mutual benefit has been reduced to a matter of convenience these days.. materialistic aspirations have dis-illusioned such a holy institution.. Yeah.. I think the topic deserves a separate blog post, but it does not deserve my time at present..

Failures bring out the purpose of your actions and life as a whole..such incidents can only make you stronger and more determined to come up in life..I realised that I had to neglect the distractions and focus on the purpose of my CMU visit..I have got the best parents that I could have wished for, the best sister and the most supportive brother in law I could have hoped for.. I have been blessed with the best set of friends that I could ask for,- the ones who would stand by your side to help you see through your difficult moments,and I am here in Pittsburgh, 40000 miles away from my home ONLY to “Realise my mom’s dream” and yeah on a positive note, it was nice to have been reminded that I was fit,fresh,fine,YOUNG..and just 23