So, another year has passed. I am 26+ now. I still remember the incident which happened at a saloon this year. The hair stylist was a 50+ year old man and as usual we were chatting while he was doing his job. He was telling about getting old. The conversation went on something like this
HS: So how old are you?
Me: I am 25
HS: OK, so you are 25. Soon you will hit 30, before you even will know
Me: Yeah time is just flying.
HS: Then 35 then 40 then 50 and it will be time to retire
Me: Silent
HS: What do you think about it?
Me: Well, I guess its sort of scary to think about that.
HS: Scary? immm, thats how it is, time just flies.
This short conversation made me think, how "soon" time goes by. I can still remember my first day at school, pretty well. and now I am at the "end of the road" of school life. I have travelled for more than 23 years in this road, through the highs and lows. Its a different feeling to know that the travel is coming to an end and its time to go on to the next phase of life. A new life in a new year.
So, its christmas eve. What a day to go shopping. Well, I wanted to get warm winter cloths from Walmart and me and my roomie also wanted to watch the movie " THE INCREDIBLES". So off I started from my home. On the way picked up some cash from the ATM and picked up my roomie from his lab. Well, I dont have a car, so picked up means, joined him for a walk to the bus stand. Anyways, what ever. There is just one problem. I have a $10 note and I need quarters to get into the bus. Well, we thought the quarter machine in the Mechanical Department should get us the change. When we reached there, a sweet surprise, the machine takes only upto $5 note. No $10. Now what to do? There should be some shop thats open. Will get some stuff and in the process get the quarter. Once into the street the reality hit us. Man its CHRISTMAS EVE. No shop was open. Well, almost. One was open. The barber shop ;). ANN's Hair dresser in washington ave. We decided to try our luck there. We went in. Seeing our hair, the guy was happy. Asked us, so you want a hair cut?? We said well ... no.... , we need change for $10. The guy was kind enough to get us change for $10. Man that was a close call. If this dint happen, all plans down the drain. From then on everything happened like clock work. Reached Walmart, got some stuff, next went to down town, reached the theater on time (actually a bit early). We were the only people in the theater till about one minute into the trailers. Then about 6 people joined us. In India, generally at this point, we will get our money back and would have been asked to come later. But this is US of A. So we were able to see the movie. IT was AWESOME. We came out of the theater will great joy, when we hit upon a sweet surprise. The bus to our home was just in front of us, like a waiting "LIMO". We were back in home in 10 mins. So that was "clockworky".
So next time, before we start shopping or go to a movie we know where to get change for $10 ;).
So, Here I am yet again with another weblog entry. So what prompted me in writing one? Well, tommorow I have the statistics finals and I am sort of down. Was browsing in the web when I came accross the lecture on "Technology and Courage" by Ivan Sutherland. He talks in length about courage and how essential it is for research. He emphasises that Pride in ones work is a very important component in ones success. An example is " A child learning how to tie the shoe lace". Why the child learn's that? because he wants to show to others that "He can do it". For a very similar reason, I learnt how to bicycle. I was trying hard during my 4th grade class, to learn how to Bi-Cycle. Since there were many people around, they tried to teach me how to ride one, but I could never get the cycle to balance. Then one day I decided I will show them that I can ride a bi-cycle. All my neighbours were outside, and I started. Initially it was sort of unbalanced, but I picked up and for the next 10 seconds I was "balanced". Then I hit a rock and I fell down. It was a bad fall and I lost some skin. But I was very happy and I was not crying. Just because of the fact that I was able to show to people that I can do it. That is one incident of "courage" which I can remember in my life. In retrospect, I dont know if I had shown courage in my research. I cant think of any incident where I showed courage. I guess as one grows older, one tends to forget these basic things in life and this article reminded me to think about it. I guess more than thinking action is required.
If you are interested to read the article, go a gogle search on "Technology and Courage" and the first link will get you the document.