A blog atlast!!!!!!!

Well....I have atlast decided to write a blog :):) the past month had been pretty eventful with a lot of things happening....I attended a conference for the first time...I presented a paper at a conference for the first time.....I had my first publication thru the conference proceedings.....I drove for 9 hrs for the first time (to go to the conference and to visit Phani)...I saw fire in akron for the first time.....

Yes....the fire was in Sindhu's house and it was a big one....it totally destroyed the second level.....the devastation was such that the girls living upstairs.....lost everything expect for the documents (luckily) and themselves.....they were left with no clothing but the ones they had on that day.....it was a really sad scene....I had never seen anything like that before....there were 3 fire trucks to doze the fire off....the only positive thing in this incident is that no one was hurt and that all the passports were safe.....the girls lost clothes,books, notes and all their belongings (including soft toys).....this is the finals week so the loss will be bigger to bear as they dont have their notes to study from and they also have to bear with the mental shock.

Sindhu lives downstairs so all her belongings were intact but the house cannot be lived in....everything in the house was stinking of ash and smoke....so was my car which was used to transport most of the remaining valuables.....but to their and our surprise the librarian at the University acted promptly by waiving the fees for the lost books and also contacting Red Cross....representatives of Red Cross came home to meet the girls the next day and they gave each of them gift vouchers for Value city......it was really nice of them......I wanted to ask Madhu to see if ISA could do anything....but as I expected the Girls straight away rejected my idea of fund raising.....even in such depression they didnt let go of their principles....hats off to them.....on constant pursuasion though....they agreed to accept some coupons from ICAGA and also household items from the ICAGA members when they move into their new house....

The fire incident totally freaked me out....becoz....my roomie and I have a lot of stuff at our place....both of us have TV's,VCR's, DVD Players's, Laptops....and many other small electronics.....and we dont have a second level.....and most of the things in the room are inflammable....thats a scary thought:(:(

i hope the girls do well in their finals and get done with the semester as they will have some time to relax then and think abt what has tobe done next....in a way the finals are helping to keep their mind away from the incident....so thats good.

the other thing....is that I cleared my PhD qualifiers....I cleared 6/7 papers....I failed in "Numerical Analysis"...so I was asked to take a course in that subject and get atleast a "B" in it.....I will be taking that course in the fall semester. I am happy that now I am a Doctoral Student and from the fall semester I will be on PhD pay .....hhehehehehe

The conference was a good experience....though it was a small one....500-600 people thats it.....but its always better to start with a small group before going to the national conf.....I got to spend time with Phani so that was a bonus....he showed be around his village (sorry phani but thats the best description I could give)....he showed me his work place and the polymers he made.......he made some awesome rasam and beans curry for dinner....we watched Khakee later that night......it was relaxing weekend....if not for the driving....I drove abt 1300 miles over the weekend....I had never done that before.....so it was quite an experience.....

well....I think....I will go to bed now....its quite late as i have to get up early to go to the lab:):)