22nd Sept 2009, Adelaide

I remember back in college when we used to study together, I expected someone to read all the things and teach to me and this became my habit, I never really cared to study on myself and expected maggu and phantom to teach me the things when we had common courses during first and the second year. I joined phantom when he used to solve assignments and never looked at them on my own. In my third year when the departmental courses started, then I found a good helping hand of jp, and the responsibilities of phantom and maggu was now transferred to jp. I relied on him to read everything and teach it to me like I did with the other two guys and this continued till the last course my bachelors. We used to take same courses and he used to teach me the things, I think jp liked to teach someone after reading the things so he also preferred this arrangement, in a way he was getting better after teaching me so that helped him to memorise the things more confidently. I have to say he is very good at mugging up the course handouts and I was a bit frustrated with him because I was not able to mug up the things so well and sometimes I used to get irritated with him, but nevertheless he was helpful to me and helped me to score better marks in the departmental courses, so I kind of have this debt to him for supporting me during those days.

In my first year I was really pissed off because of my department, I cursed myself for being in this department and had no interest in studying the courses, I thought that I will get a job after 4 years and I don’t have to study that much. I remember papa used to ask me about “what do you want to achieve in life and how do you see yourself after 4 years” whenever i went home during the holidays, and I used to tell him that I want a job and a good family life that’s all. Now I realize that only getting a job is not important for anyone, the work the person do on the job and how much he loves the job is important.

But why I am writing this thing, what is the motive or the main concern on which this write up is based, frankly speaking I really don’t know why I have started to write these things, but one thing is for sure I am feeling a bit relieved after writing these things, I think penning down the thoughts make the understanding and realization more easier.

19th September 2009, Adelaide

There was nothing special today, Saturday another weekend and i am here at my room doing some stuff at my room. Today there was a party at the city but i choose to stay at the room itself, I am finding myself at the middle of Indian culture and the Australian culture, one culture asks me to stay away from these parties and one invites me to be part of these parties. The problem is that I have to drink when I go to these parties and that I want to avoid, there is no point going to these parties and not drinking because it’s not fun then to see people around enjoying the evening and you just being a controlled guy in the herd of drunk guys. I am really confused at the moment how to maintain a good balance between these two cultures. I really find myself in a new world here where everyone seems to be so happy all the time , everything seems to be perfect and looks like everything in the world is good and the world is such a nice place to live in. I hope most of my friends here haven’t seen the other side of the world, the darker side where there is poverty, pollution, population, scarcity of things; they haven’t experienced the other situation which prevails in most part of the world. They are born in developed countries and have never seem the ugly part of the life and I don’t think they care a damn about the people starving to death, they just want to enjoy their life and make most of the blessed life that god has given them.

I bought my new iPod nano yesterday, was planning to buy it from a long time finally I bought it. Got the green one for 188 AUD and also a power cable. Really just admiring the engineering of this great music player, songs are different on this iPod. Have got the tennis rackets from Jay, will play in the morning with Rangeeta, andLet’s see how I fare there.

16th September 2009, Adelaide

I was feeling very tired yesterday night so had slept till 8:30 am today a bit late compared to the two previous days . Reached the office at around 9:15 am and saw angelishka and the other polish girl, gosh she is beautiful. She has got these beautiful eyes which is so hard to avoid looking at. Angelishka told me about the change in schedule for the kangaroo islands. Later that polish girl came to the office to return the cable plug for her laptop; I advised her computer shop from which i had bought some stuff previously.

Didn’t had much work today so i returned from the office at around 3:30 pm and went to sleep as i was not feeling very well, my body was a bit warm . Wake up at 5:30 pm and got prepared for the information evening of the Ian wark institute. It was raining outside so had to take an umbrella.

This session was quite good for me as i meet namita chaudhary, she was quite happy to know that i am from iit Kanpur. Had some good talk with her and the possibility of doing PhD or getting an honours degree from unisa, she gave her card to me and said to be in contact. I was really happy to attend this session.

14th September 2009, Adelaide

This day was a bit long for me. Wake up at 7am quite early compared to my standards of waking up but was feeling good that I had woken up early, will definitely try to make this a habit. So got freashed up and prepared an elaborate breakfast and ate it with peace and tranquillity. Got a bath and headed for the office. I was feeling really good after taking the bath, was chanting some songs on my way to office. Got to the lab and got a complement from angelisha that i got a bit early to the lab, i usually get to the lab at around 10am and work a bit late but today i was in the lab at 9am sharp. Had to prepare the calibration file for the two monomers so was just involved in the calibration work throughout and also did a run . Meanwhile i got to talk to a guy from Pakistan who was working on the afm today. I thought that he is from india but he turned out to be from Pakistan . This guy is doing PhD from the ian wark institute and he supervisor is some Indian guy named sunil kumar. We exchanged some basic information about each other. He was from Karachi and his father was delhi. He had some other relatives in india now also, he told he wished to go to see the realtives but when ever he plans some tension always broke out between the two countries and its really hard to get the Indian visa then. He said that its generally very hard to get an Indian visa and its the same for Indians trying to get a Pakistani visa. He asked me about the project i ma doing and also some other stuff. I also helped him to a bit in the AFM.

Worked a bit today till 7pm, had a bath in the evening too. Planning to get early tomorrow so that i can watch the us open final , hoping that federer can win another grand slam.

7th September 2009, Adelaide

My day started a bit late and I was not happy for this. I was a bit frustrated at my habit of waking late. So got up prepared breakfast and heeded to the office. On my way I saw an Indian walking past me, he is the guy from my hostel. He was a bit ahead of me but I somehow caught up with him. I was not desperate to talk to him, but I thought it would be good to talk to some while walking to the office. So I started the conversation. He was from Andra Pradesh and working here at the unisa. Eventually I got to know that he is also from iitk. Both of us were so happy that we are from the same prestigious institute. Finally I found someone here from iitk and I am happy that at least there are some guys with whom I can discuss the campus things with more ease. We then talked about the stuff related to iit. He did his MTech from iitk in 2005 and then did his PhD from unisa and now working here. He lives in apartment 24 with his wife and mother. So we exchanged the office information and then said goodbye. I was really happy to meet him and was petting myself that I started the conversation. If I would have not started the conversation and would have simply walked past him then don’t know if I would be able to know about him anytime later also. So this incident gave me a lesson that we shouldn’t be afraid to start the conversation. Most people want to talk to each other and know about each other but people face the difficulty of breaking the ice and sometimes have this ego that the other person should start the conversation to show that they are not that desperate to talk and are fine by themselves. But eventually people like a person who is more open and willing to talk to someone and is interested in others.

I came to the office and put the samples on the XPS and put a note there for Andrew. Got down from the office and then went to the hairdresser. Got a ghajini cut today, I had to show the hairdresser earlier on the net the photograph of aamir khan in ghajini style. She was very good and I was satisfied with my looks. Because of my hair fall I was very desperate to get a short haircut. Paid 22 dollars, it’s my costliest hair cut till date, I had paid 12 Euros earlier in Austria.

So after getting this new hairstyle came out of the saloon and felt different. I can now feel the air passing by my ears and I was feeling as if my head is now exposed to the atmosphere. Came back to the apartment had shower and then went back to the office. Did some browsing and printed some papers I intend to read and came back to apartment.

Watched an episode of Seinfeld and prepared dal and rice. Read a paper on plasma polymers, as I was reading call came from papa and then talked with baba, dadi and momma. In the meanwhile bacha poked in and had a short chat with him and gave him my pictures at the ball. Now as the clock reads 12.24am planning to read a paper and then hit the bed. Hoping for a good day tomorrow.

3rd September 2009, Adelaide

I was sitting in the office and thought that as these days are going past I should keep a record of the things happened during the days mainly focussing on my works and my extracurricular activities. I am writing this from my office desk but I will try to do that from my room at the end of the day and will type the things from my laptop, but as I am waiting for the base pressure in my plasma reactor I thought to utilize my time and give the start to his work from here itself.

So my day started at 9am and had to hurry up to the office. While taking the breakfast of milk and cereals I was just wondering that if that clock placed on the television my room would read 8am instead of 9am then how cool I would have been while taking the breakfast, I would have enjoyed the breakfast slowly and with no hurry. I will work on my mission and will try to wake up early so that at least I will have good and relaxing breakfast. The writing of these facts, oh sorry the typing of these facts adds accountability and increase the level of my commitment to the work. Let’s hope that this will occur tomorrow so that I can write something different in my early day routine.

So after taking a quick breakfast I headed to the office and reached there at around 9.30am. Checked my mail, Renee had mailed me about the register of order from Krasi and the nanoparticles sizes she had told Zihan to make for me. So just got down to Paul and started doing the gradients I was supposed to do, I had calibrated the for the new monomers I had put yesterday so just cleaned the reactor and put my samples and also samples of David and came down to office. I was printing some papers I had downloaded yesterday but the ink was running out so went to the m building and brought some new ink and put them into the printer with the help of angelishka and printed heaps of papers I intend to read this weekend. I am planning to buy and iPod nano this Friday and read all the papers while listening to pink Floyd.

I had to go to my apartment for the lunch. I prepared Thai noodles I had liked it very much when I prepared yesterday so bought 5 noodles from the Woolworths and made them. Ate them while watching scienfled. I have started liking this serial more these days. The episodes of season 3 are really good and I am just getting over this great serial. But I will try to watch it less, just 1-2 episodes each day.

So after having my short lunch came back to the lab and run the file for the gradients. Given back the samples to David after the run and was just browsing the sites of my interest. Looked at the new site of my department at iitk and it was nice to see the faces of the professors for a change.

Just browsed through the plasma polymer groups at the University of Berkeley and thought I have a very nice chance of getting something from this place and will try to go to some good universities of US from here. Let’s hope what future have for me. I can just hope for the best while I should also work for the best.

The time has nearly come for the pressure of plasma reactor I would have to go to see if the reactor is ready to be run down as the clock reads 6:45 pm now.