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College Life: September 2012

15 Oct

I have always been obsessed with keeping record of major events in my life, and that was one of the primary reasons why I started blogging. It’s imperative for me to do so because I want to look back at these times and indulge in nostalgic, bittersweet memories. Some of the things are super silly and arguably trivial, but these are all important for me to remember. Most of these things are things that I’ve done for the first time in my life. Emory has opened up many doors of new and exciting opportunities! :)

Here is my list for September 2012! :D

September 2012

  • September 2nd: Ate at The Varsity for the first time! (…after living in Atlanta for six years)
  • September 3rd: Learned Bhangra dance moves.
  • September 4th: Sat in the very front seat in a class of 120 students. (still not sure how I feel about that)
  • September 8th: Rode in the front row of the Goliath (200 ft above ground) and two other roller coasters at Six Flags. Also ate funnel cake sundaes for the first time ever!
  • September 11th: Attended my first candlelight vigil in remembrance of 9/11 victims.
  • September 12th: Wrote on Asbury Circle (the central circle at Emory) and saw former President Jimmy Carter in person!
  • September 13th: Started volunteering at Refugee Family Services where I tutor refugee children in English and math.
  • September 15th: Went to JapanFest, one of the largest Japanese festivals in the nation. Ate authentic Japanese food using chopsticks (tl;dr embarrassed myself), and watched Aikido demonstrations and other Japanese arts performances.
  • September 18th: Made the Model United Nations travelling team at Emory!
  • September 21st: Flew to Washington, D.C. and met 500 incredible Gates Millennium Scholars. Also, met a bunch of Questies (QuestBridge Finalists) that I talked to for almost a year before.
  • September 22nd: Met the sexiest men alive, (according to People’s Magazine), Yul Kwon.
  • September 25th: My article was published in the Emory newspaper.
  • September 27th: Took my first test in college (unfortunately, it was chemistry). And, to relieve that pain, saw comedian Amy Schumer from Comedy Central live!

These were the highlights of September. Just the first month of college, and already so many memories to cherish! *insert Asher Roth’s I Love College video here*

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Crossroads: A Captivating Experience

8 Oct

Aug. 23 – 11:36 AM

Our shuttle is tagging along behind the first shuttle. The green sign on the right-hand side of the interstate reads “Augusta – 105 Miles”. My backpack steadily sitting there between my shoes, and in it only my sleeping bag–I should’ve brought a pillow, but there was no room in either my carry-on or my backpack. We just passed Exit 105 (I believe we’re on I-20, but not really sure yet). Our destination is Eatonton, a city in Central Georgia.

The paragraph above was written on August 23rd, and the following is being written on October 8th. It’s amusing to reflect upon and write on something that happened over a month ago. I shall still write on it because it was just that amazing and it deserves a post on its own.

So, what is “it”? “It” is Crossroads–a retreat for Emory students through OMPS (Office of Multicultural Programs & Services). I decided to attend the Crossroads pre-orientation retreat, which took place in late-August, before orientation (as the name clearly suggests). It was my first experience with a group of Emory students and future friends, so I was naturally nervous.

The two nights turned out to be electrifying! We started with lots of icebreakers and fun introductions. After getting there, we continued with numerous activities intended to get us strangers to “bond”. I was there with forty other freshmen, and surprisingly enough, I “bonded” very well with them in the course of only two nights.

The weekend continued with team-building activities, both physical and mental. As I look back at my Crossroads experience, I am astonished by the balance it offered–the balance of fun and seriousness.

Crossroads was perhaps one of the most fun things I’ve done! I’ve done so many new things and played so many new games (Mafia, Captain’s Ball, Chubby Bunny, etc.). I’m hugely unfamiliar with most popular American party games, and I got a chance to experience most of those.

Also, Crossroads was very enriching in terms of the “serious” aspect of it. I learned what it truly means to be a minority on a college campus, what it means to have disadvantages in various places in society, and the challenges we might face in our college years and beyond.

Frankly, I loved Crossroads both because of its simplicity and complexity. The simplicity in that it was just awesome, and the people were the coolest, the nicest, and the greatest people I’ve met. The complexity in that the issues Crossroads addressed were crucial and prevalent in today’s society.

To all Emory students, I strongly recommend you participate in Crossroads. It is the best decision I made at Emory so far.

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Summer Internship

2 Sep

Recently, I have been pretty inactive on the internet. I’ve been extremely busy with life. I neglected write about a lot of things, so this and some more posts to come will just focus on some of the major things that happened this summer. The main thing I have to talk about is my summer internship.

Throughout my high school, I have always done something productive (mostly academic) over the summer. I actually thought it’d be different after senior year because there aren’t a lot of opportunities after graduation (other than jobs) for students. So, I wasn’t actively seeking anything to do; I wanted to relax over the summer and maybe travel.

A few days before graduation, I was offered an internship through the Atlanta Public Schools. Around the same time, I was also offered an internship from Southern Company, an enormous utilities company. It’s actually the 4th largest utilities company in the U.S. and the 16th largest in the world. So, I was really excited after I received the offer to intern with them.

After much consideration, however, I actually decided to intern with Atlanta Public Schools. I saw it as a wonderful way to give back to the school district which has offered me amazing resources for four years of high school. Less importantly, it paid better than the other internship. Yeah, both were paid internships.

My internship experience was pretty great! I was in the IT Department for the headquarter of APS (Atlanta Public Schools) in Downtown Atlanta. One reason I really found it appealing was because information technology is something I’ve always been interested in, but never had the chance to explore. So, this internship offered me an opportunity to be in a professional workplace with IT professionals and get a glimpse of their work lives.

Over the course of the summer, I’ve worked in many aspects of IT such as service desk, telecommunications, networking, data & storage, wireless, business applications, IT governance, etc.

It was a very interesting eight weeks. What will I take away from this experience? Lots and lots of things, but I think the most important is this: I cannot see myself working in the IT field again. I learned that IT is not my passion, and that I would hate my job if I worked in the IT department. I am fortunate I had this experience though because now I know myself better.

Network switches – a huge chunk of my internship

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Very Inspiring Blogger Award!

8 Aug

Summer is quickly flying by…

I only have two weeks left before I embark upon the biggest, and perhaps most important, journey of my life. I can scarcely fathom the idea that college will start in merely two weeks. Enthusiastically preparing for college life, I have been really busy and neglected posting according to my original goal (at least twice every week).

Today, I logged on to WordPress to find a shockingly pleasant surprise. One of my readers, someone whose blog I am in love with, nominated me for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”. Thank you, Rinth, for the wonder nomination.

First of all, congratulations to Rinth’s blog My Elegantly Cluttered Chamber for getting this award. She most certainly deserves it, and I’m not really sure if I deserve it. I’ve only been blogging for less than a month. I must say, though, this is a great honor to include in my tenth post! (I reached double digits, yay!)

So, as part of the rules, I have to share seven facts about myself, so here goes…

  1. My birthday is on Cinco de Mayo!
  2. I have a bucket list of more than one hundred things and it is continuously expanding.
  3. My favorite numbers are five, seven, fifteen, and seventeen (all for different reasons).
  4. I have a passion for languages. I aim to fluently speak five languages by 2015 (Bengali, Hindi, English, Spanish, and French).
  5. I started working today to diminish and hopefully eventually eradicate world hunger (sounds really ambitious) through a program called Free Rice, which is sponsored by World Food Programme of the United Nations. Users answer trivial questions on the site, and for every right answer, 10 grains of rice is donated to the WFP. I just created a group called Hopeful Helpers, and I urge all of you to join me in this noble cause: http://freerice.com/content-group/hopeful-helpers
  6. My favorite color is orange.
  7. I absolutely love music! Every day, I listen to a variety of music for about five hours or so. Right now, I am listening to Feel So Close by Calvin Harris; it’s a great song, what can I say? Hindi, English, and Bengali music are my favorites. I have tons of favorite artists, but my most favorite artists are A.R. Rahman, Sonu Nigaam, Lata Mangeshkar, K.K (Hindi), Kishore Kumar, Habib, Arfin Rumey, Nancy (Bengali), and Maroon 5, Green Day, The Beatles, Coldplay, Eminem (English).

Also, I am supposed to nominate fifteen other bloggers for the Very Inspiring Blogger award. These are the bloggers who inspire me every time I go on their blogs. Rinth is actually one of the top ones, but I don’t think I can list her blog again. So, here you go! Give these a shot. You won’t regret it.

  1. Mostly Bright Ideas 
  2. Stuff Kids Write
  3. Ernesto Villasenor, Jr. 
  4. The Political Literate
  5. Becoming Me
  6. Crazy Mind’s Eye
  7. Melissa Kania
  8. one day. one year. 
  9. Go Beyond
  10. AIS Journal
  11. Funny Phuppo
  12. The Flame Lily Diaries
  13. Lies Our Parents Told Us
  14. Manisha Dhalani
  15. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Fellow Inspiring Bloggers, do not forget the rules for the award. The first rule is to link back to the blog that nominated you. Then, post seven facts about yourself. Also, nominate fifteen bloggers that inspire you. And finally, post a picture of the award–which is below. See ya!

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Experiences: Shaving My Head and Voting…

3 Aug

“The Human Spirit lies in experiences.” – John Krakauer in his book Into the Wild.

The above-mentioned quote appears in a book called Into the Wild. It is a national bestseller written in 1996 by John Krakauer, and it was later adapted into a movie by Sean Penn. The book is based on an article Krakauer wrote on the life of Christopher McCandless, an American adventurer. I haven’t read the book yet, but I am definitely going to.

As I was reading about Christopher, I was ecstatic to discover that he is an alumnus of Emory University! (Yay!) After graduating with high grades from Emory, he donated his $25,000 college fund to find solutions for poverty and injustice around the world. This was just to give you some background on the book and the quote. 

To me, life is simply a collection of experiences. One of the primal purposes of living is to have a multitude of experiences – good and bad, funny and serious, breathtaking and boring, incredible and ordinary, etc. Notice I used “and” instead of “or” because it’s important to have a variety of experiences. We can only develop through experiences, never diminish.

I love trying new things, and I have a bucket list of hundreds of things I want to try or do. (I’m still working on making the list comprehensive, and I’ll probably write about my list once it’s near its completion.) I mean I guess it could be said that trying new things and gaining experiences is just YOLOing, but it’s more profound than that. You don’t just go out and do stupid stuff; you do things that are meaningful, like completely shaving your head or getting your voice heard.

Pierre de Ronsard once said, “Live now, believe me, wait not till tomorrow; Gather the roses of life today.” For me, those roses are a metaphor for experiences. There is nothing that mandates the roses to be aromatic or even beautiful. Similarly, the experiences don’t always have to be joyful and splendid. Trust me, regardless of how hard we try, we are guaranteed to encounter those sad, boring, and regretful experiences. Accept them and move on!

This week, I completely shaved my head; maybe, it wasn’t the best idea. But, I wanted the experience, and I certainly don’t regret it. I’ve always wanted to shave my head just to see what it’s like, and this was just the ideal time to do it. Am I going to continue shaving my head? No, of course not. Hopefully, my hair will grow back to its normal length in three weeks, before my college orientation and Eid.

Here’s a before and after picture from this week. So far, I’ve been compared to Zinedine Zidane and badasses from Indian movies…

It’s still really hard to believe that I am already eighteen years old and that I get to vote in the U.S. Presidential Election in coming November. On July 31st, Georgia had its general primary where I voted in two very important issues. One of the issues was a transportation referendum for  the city of Atlanta. It was a ten-year long, billion dollars initiative to improve the traffic and economy of Atlanta. The other issue was on whether alcohol sales were to be allowed on Sundays. I voted Yes for both issues. It was just the experience — voting for the first time, doing something that has an impact, etc.– that was certainly extraordinary. 

It was a surprising experience as I made a last-minute decision to vote in the primary. Frankly, it’s not like I was never expecting to be eighteen or a citizen of U.S.A. I realized these things were bound to happen. And yeah, I was really excited after voting!

What I failed to realize is that they would happen in the blink of an eye.

Life is short. Gather the experiences in life and give your life a meaning.

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Ramadan: What and Why?

20 Jul

It’s that time of the year again. Today marks the beginning of Ramadan. I’m currently sitting in my cubicle at my internship and pondering on the purpose of Ramadan, and everything else that goes along with this sanctified month. Oh, by the way, I’m not ignoring my responsibilities; things are kind of slow in the summer plus it’s a Friday so I don’t have a lot to do.

What is Ramadan?

Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar, and everyday of this month, Muslims around the world refrain from eating, drinking, and other physical needs from dawn until sunset.

This holy month is venerated by Muslims because of several reasons. Fasting during Ramadan is the fourth pillar of Islam. The Holy Quran was revealed in this month. Rewards are given and sins are forgiven for those who spend the days fasting and the nights praying. The gates of paradise are opened, the gates of hell are closed, and Satan is fettered. All rewards and sins in this month are believed to be multiplied.

The practices in Ramadan include: fasting, increased prayers and recitations of Quran, and charity. We offer iftaar (the evening meal with which we break our fasts) to those who are fasting.

What is the purpose of Ramadan?

Ramadan is much more profound than simply abstaining from eating and drinking. It is a time of spiritual reflection and worship, a time to purify the soul, refocus attention to God and our faith, and practice self-sacrifice.

In this month, we re-evaluate our lives under the light of Islamic guidance. The underlying purpose of Ramadan is to strengthen our powers of self-control, so that we may resist all evils.

Every part of the body must be restrained during Ramadan. The tongue must be restrained from backbiting and gossip. The eyes must be restrained from looking at unlawful things. The hand must not touch or take anything that does not belong to it. The ears must refrain from listening to idle talk or obscene words. The feet must refrain from going to sinful places.

It’s 1:00 PM right now, the last time I had food/drink was at 5:00 AM, and the next time I will have food/drink will be at 8:45 PM tonight. So, here in America, it ends up being over fifteen hours. Ramadan, however, is not merely a physical sacrifice. Ramadan is the total commitment of our body and soul to purify ourselves.

My personal take on Ramadan is that it’s all about sacrifices and self-growth. It’s about being able to resist the pressures in life. It teaches us to appreciate what we have. It shows us what hunger feels like, and to be thankful for the food and luxury we take for granted. I plan on doing some interesting things this month that will require stepping out of my comfort zone. Reports on that will be coming soon.

Until then, Ramadan Mubarak everyone, and have a blessed month!

P.S. Read this great article on The Huffington Post about making Ramadan more than an exercise in empathy.

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Doing Something For the First Time

9 Jul

Something popped up on my Facebook newsfeed a few weeks ago. Well, that’s remarkable! As if things don’t always pop up on our newsfeeds. This “thing”, however, was probably one of the most intriguing things I’ve seen in recent times. Then again, it was nothing special, just a simple picture from tumblr or something. A simple picture with twelve resplendent words: “When Was The Last Time You Did Something For The First Time?”

I simply looked at the picture, liked it, and then shared it. That was the end of it…or so I thought. The next day, the picture suddenly appeared somewhere in my subliminal mind. An intense desire to look at the picture once more became overwhelming.

So, I went back to my Facebook (this was the next day), and looked at it again. This time, those same twelve words seemed to jump at me from the computer screen. “When Was The Last Time You Did Something For The First Time?”

Was it today? Yesterday? Last week? Last month? Last year? When was it? Unfortunately, and conforming to my innermost fears, I just couldn’t think of the last time I did something for the first time.

There I was, an eighteen year old, who was simply existing and not living. Don’t get me wrong here. I am not frustrated or even a tad disappointed with my life. I am very content and pleased with the life that I have lived/am living. However, life is entirely too short to just sit around and/or be afraid to try new things.

I sat there for thirty minutes, pondering and wondering, and the closest thing that came to mind was that I turned eighteen for the first time on May 5th. As if I really deserved the credit for not dying just yet.

It occurred to me that it was time for a rebirth. I started doing stuff for the first time. In the same week after the fortunate epiphany, I drank bubble tea (for the first time), had lunch with a neuroscience professor from Emory (for the first time), and lost miserably in a contest held at my school (for the first time).

I tend to be in love with the “art” of keeping records (for anything that doesn’t concern school). When it comes to classes, I’m dreadfully disorganized; however, for anything else, I tend to be very organized. Sometimes, I think to myself I’d do great in a clerical position.

Seriously, you’ll be amazed at the things I used to keep records of. I used to keep extensive lists of all the movies I watched, all the books I read, all the coins and stamps I owned, all the songs (over 5,000) I illegally downloaded, all the things I’m grateful for, and all the states/countries I visited (and so many more nonsensical things).

So, the thought of keeping records of things I’m doing for the first time occurred quite naturally. Maybe, forty years from now, I’ll look back at these records (assuming computers still exist) and smile, laugh, cry, and hopefully, not regret anything.

Ladies and gents, and the cats that are reading this…(http://imgur.com/a/6UiIS). I urge you to get up and do something for the first time! Try something you have always been afraid to try.

YOLO! (You Only Live Once).. Carpe Diem! (Seize the Day).. Kal Ho Naa Ho! (Tomorrow May Never Come).. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara! (You don’t Get Life a Second Time).. I’m sure you are already aware of the first two phrases; the last two are just cheesy Bollywood movie titles.

Go out there, and do something for the first time–no matter how big–or how small.

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