Phew! I Graduated !!!!!

As I came back from my graduation ceremony, I wondered, whether it was worth waking up 6 in the morning to get ready and reach the place wearing the regalia for endless speeches, a final 5 second handshake, couple of photo shoots, and a fake diploma with a promise to send the actual diploma soon.

As I reached home I read this congratulatory email that said, "You have reached the epitome of success!" from Ash. But the next line in the email is actually what I have been thinking, as I sat through those endless monologues , "How's that working out for you?"

And although, I would admit, the degree itself did not matter at all. I had lost all hopes of ever getting a Masters and would be sitting in the ceremony. But somehow I pulled through all that to get my Masters and looking back, it really looks surreal to me today. I don't know how I managed it and probably will never be able to replicate this in future.

I have yet to feel the degree to have an impact on my professional life and career, but I will try to be optimistic here and believe in an old adage, "Hard Work will pay" some day!

But I would say the journey was the most interesting part of it. Without graduate life, I wouldn't have met the Freaks and friends of Freaks - some of them who I am pretty close too. Without the thesis work, I wouldn't have worked with an advisor who is a stickler for perfection and kind of helped me in some areas too. Without this all the endless parties, trips with the freaks would have never happened. Without this, participating in each others joys and sorrows would not have been possible. So as I look back I actually got a lot from my graduation.

I find myself still here in Baltimore and everyone has gone places. But as I graduate today, I think people are moving on and my graduation marks my time has come to move on too. Probably migrate to newer places but still do 'glorified cribbing' of the times in Baltimore and elsewhere with the Freaks!

Oh Brother, where art thou ?

Was just persuing through our blog roll and saw that the last blog was way back in October. Yes, a lot has changed since then. Many are busy making their better halves "comfortable", some with shorts and some without (pun intended). Though we all are equally culpable for this lack of activity, a stark observation is that, the man who lives and swears by our blog didnt get a chance to add his two cents and I hope that we dont have to wait more for his third offering after Lust and Wrath which were true gems in my mind.
So much for the rant, I wanted to just kick off some new year activity, to add something to the archives of Feb 2008 which truly is what my blogs are worth. Not an excuse, but here are the significant happenings over the past three or so months due to which Freaks Inc was inactive.

Best of the best: A full day with Vani, Goli, Shruti, Balls, Vcd and Jhadiya just roaming around on the streets of Bombay and a dinner in this itsy-bitsy but awesome Chinese restaurant in Bandra reclamation. Sheer co-incidence.. but well worth it.

Now individual honors:

1. Balls - His Orkut profile once read " Its my way or the highway".. the man has settled down..kyunki " yaar.. settle ho jaana mangta hai" ( with a beer in hand on the beaches of Outer banks, NC). All set to be married in May of this year, he makes quite a pair with his significant other Ramya, a fact that was put forth in his engagement ceremony in Bombay. May God bless the couple ( read Ramya) good luck for days to come. Way to go brother !

2. Kausum: The man was so busy with his thesis that he forgot eating, enjoying, blogging and plagiarising ;-). But nothing can debate the clinical approach with which he completed his second thesis in a row ( both he and Balls know which was the first one :-) ). So, Kausum is finally Masters in Electrical Engineering from the Univ of MD, Baltimore County and will be taking the walk this May. Congrats Kausum....in anticipation for a vice-versa from you Circa 2014.

3. Marw: Was busy with the ATP Masters and master-minded Federer's fall at the hands of Djokovic at this years Australian open, walking the talk in his autobiography " balls.. they are over-rated"

4. Vcd: Still checks the blog on a regular basis but cannot comment because there are no blogs. Vcd managed to be in India and multi-task ( Marw style) and attend multiple marriages and engagement ceremonies. Also played a gracious host cum driver when Vani, Goli, Shruti and I were at his place before Ballsy's engagement ceremony

5. Todd: Is coping pretty well after a three year live-in relationship with Balls. Feel for you bro.. while you were in and out of the relationship both. Apart from that managing work and his musical shows while churning out Kabab stories by the dozen.

6.Jhadiya : Umm..aargh..ummm..aaargh..aaarggh.. Sachin..Prathmesh..IBM.. ummm.... aaargh.. ummm..aargh.. enough said !

7. Bhaiyya: Comfortable sa hai.. he has found a good charger for his Motorola V 810 finally. Set up an aquarium at his new place. Never blogged so lets leave it at that.

8. Goli: Well settled and happy..the Pitamaha of our group continues to baffle everyone with his logarithmic and exponential age and experience. Still working on getting a sense of humor !

9. Mike: Bore ho gaya to Green Card ke liye apply kar diya.. got his Advanced Parole and now is vacationing in India.

And finally urs truly.. got married on 6th of December and since then doing two sets of laundry ( whites and non whites), cleaning the house, washing utensils and ironing clothes while relocating to Saddle Brook, NJ.. second relocation in the past year, meanwhile churning out yet another worthless blog. Coming to terms with a life I had no clue about and adjusting well.. I assume. Waiting to play a good host next weekend to Ballsy, Todd and Kausum. Will surely have champagne to celebrate our achievements.

- Aup