Rewind: The Fall of 2014

Time does fly, and my vivid recollection of activities I did in the month of August, 2014 is a testimony to this fact. If I am asked to visually represent how the month of August in 2014 was for me, I will choose a Bell curve because I was literally at the top of the world, yet at the bottom. Having successfully completed an internship with a reputed market research and consulting firm in the satellite industry called Northern Sky Research (NSR), and also being the first person to have a job offer before graduation was something worth celebrating and being proud of. However, it also marked an abrupt end of the road with many people from across the world, with whom I had spent the best year of my life. Not that I wouldn't be in touch with them, but there was a certainty about not seeing many of them for years to come.

Lot of people would have loved to be in my place back then - good grades in college, job secured, and a decent social life. But I wasn't very happy or excited to start a new life, because I preferred hanging on to an imperfect one that I had in Strasbourg over a perfect one that stared at me back then. The last couple of weeks with the troupe were emotionally taxing, as we had to come with terms on the fact that we would probably not be drinking so much in our lives again. The silver lining was that we could make up for it by drinking our livers out in those last few days, and we did exactly the same!

The event that stood out for me as a defining moment of my life was a road trip that I did with a few other friends - Paul, Leena, Vittoria, and Jose. If there was something in my life that I regretted and wanted a second chance, this was it. We went to beautiful places, no doubt about that, but I wish there was someone who could regulate the emotions that overflowed from my end during the trip. After a few outbursts and a lot of grumpiness, I realized that is what it means taking control of your life - managing your own shit without harming others or yourself, because no one will do that on your behalf. And if someone does, that person is worth hanging on to. 

After a lot of drinks and words, things converged on the finality of a life after ISU, and it took an U-turn as I moved back to India and chose to start working out of Bangalore - the city that was to become my new home for the next two years. I joined a small team of Analysts from all over the world at NSR, and restarted my career all over again after 3 years of core engineering work with ISRO. The journey since then has been a roller-coaster ride, but not without its own hiccups - and more on that in my future posts :)

What is Dead May Never Die

I had almost forgotten that I used to write a blog until recently, when I received requests from two unknown kids on Facebook, who referred to some old posts and seeked 'career guidance' in the field of astronautics.

Two years have passed since I wrote my last blog-post, and there is so little to catch up on the personal front that it amazes me how time flew. Life has been busy with work and the pressure to have a social (media) presence despite it.

In the coming few weeks, I will try to ponder how the last two years has changed every aspect of my life, and share a few thoughts on my blog for future reference before I forget. 

Europe You Beauty!

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” ― Ernest Hemingway

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu

That single step for me was the booking of a car from a rental website, after days of speculation whether we would do a road-trip to Italy and Croatia. This was one small step for Leena, who had previously driven for long distances, but a large step for me since I hate driving and also because the steering wheel as well as the roads in Europe is reverse of that in India. But nevertheless, a decision was made that we would be driving all the way to Pula to meet our friend Robert, and pickup another friend Vittoria on the way. That was the rough plan, and thankfully none of us tried to fine tune it during the course of the trip, and therein lay the beauty of our 'plan'. We were travelling not to arrive at some destination, or to see something specific like tourists, but we were travelling to see whatever comes our way...

We got to Strasbourg airport to collect the car, and were pleasantly surprised to find a mini-van instead of the originally booked mid-sized car. The car had automatic transmission, a glass roof, curtains and just too much space for three people. It felt like one of those cars my mom would be travelling in without complaining. But the one thing missing was GPS navigation support. I was sitting beside the driver, so unfortunately that responsibility was bestowed upon me and I would like to believe that I did pretty well for the first two minutes before my Blackberry decided to give up on me. We still made it beyond France within an hour of our departure from Strasbourg, and that's when our smartphone GPS stopped working. We were forced to navigate through Switzerland in the conventional way like our ancestors did, reading signboards on the road and using our common sense. Driving through Switzerland was so aesthetically pleasing that we didn't care to freak out because of this small glitch. We were also very happy at having received a 2 CHF coin each at the border control toll booth, after paying a whopping tax of 40 euros. 

Cow spotting became a sport for the rest of the journey, and almost got us killed once when we freaked out our trip sole driver (Leena), but that comes later. The countryside was beautiful and serene. The radio music was terrible and we ended up buying audio jacks at the first stop in Altdorf, Switzerland in order to be able to play music from our phones. It was interesting to note how the language, food and people changed within such a short period of time. We reached Milan, Italy by midnight and got used to spotting the 'uscita' sign instead of the usual 'ausfarht' or 'sortie' which we saw on the road in Switzerland and France. We also happened to cross some of the longest tunnels in Europe on our way, and every time we entered, one I was reminded of the movie 'Matrix Reloaded'. Yes, they were so well kept and completely justified the exorbitant toll fee (later on we found out its a yearly fee, not one way).

 

Milan turned out to be the reminder of what happens when you do not have GPS access. After a nice late night snack at a cafe, we thought of visiting a few places before exiting. I happened to pass out conveniently, waking up two hours later to find out that we just exited the city! Leena and Pulkit was super stressed and pissed after having driven in circles for more than an hour to find the way back to the highway. Leena still kept driving while Pulkit took his turn to rest while I returned back to my job as navigator, and by Leena's side to keep her awake till we reached Verona.

Chilling in Milan   

Verona turned out to be one of the many surprise packages of our trip. It is a small town in northern Italy, and a world heritage site as per UNESCO. My only source of know-how about this place was through the Shakespearean drama 'Romeo and Juliet'. We reached there early morning and had a crisp breakfast, which was basically 2 pints of beer, something that Pulkit missed while having Milan nightmares at the back seat. We strolled around the city, visiting the Grand Roman period Arena (which is the 3rd largest in Italy with a diameter of 139m), Piazza dei Signori, and the Cathedral San Zeno Basilica, before setting off for Venice where we were supposed to meet Vittoria, but not before we took a short detour into the vineyards on the mountains. The greatest problem we faced all this while was to keep in touch with friends and family, and getting to that place with free wi-fi became a challenge that we accepted humbly.

City Centre

At the Arena

Piazza dei Signori

Cathedrale San Zeno Basilica

By the time we reached Venice, most of us were dying out of tiredness. The entry to Venice was kind of melodramatic with Leena showing signs of road rage, while I struggled to keep my eyes open.

We were received by Vittoria and her pretty Italian friends in Venice, who escorted us till our hotel. The crazy thing about the place is that there is no motor vehicle allowed, so you either walk your legs off or take the super expensive water taxis. After having walked for about an hour, we finally reached the place, but completely rejuvenated admiring the beauty of Venice. We took a late night stroll to the main bridge, and had delicious authentic Italian food for dinner, with an expensive bottle of dry Italian wine. Yes, we were doing it the right way ;)

We woke up to a bright morning, after having slept like dead men, and explored Venice on foot. People got the traditional masks, gifts, etc for the loved ones as mementos. Venice was pretty, probably the prettiest place I have ever been to. And the fact that I was exploring it with the people I love made the experience even better. It is a colorful city splattered with winding lanes, old buildings patronizing the Roman architectural styles, backwaters (hell lot of them!) and tourists from all over the world. We were thankful that we had an Italian friend with us, which ensured we won't be ripped off at every nook and corner. Childhood memories of playing Assasin's Creed came back being in the city, so did the typical Indian stereotypes depicted in the movies and captured in this video beautifully.

 

  

 

We set off for our next and last target, Pula (Croatia). The 3 hours’ drive was through Trieste, which happened to be the hometown of Vittoria, and turned out to be another surprise package of our trip. Situated at the border of Italy and Slovenia, the city is built along the hillside which merges with the north Adriatic sea. The drive through the cliffs was simply amazing, with hills on one side and the sea on the other. Later on after researching, I found that Trieste has been rated by LonelyPlanet as the No.1 underrated travel destination in the world!

 

We reached Pula by 10pm the same day, and miraculously found out Robert's place without getting lost. The ghosts of Milan still haunted us and we took extra care this time. We got a warm welcome from his parents, and were immediately directed towards the dining table to have the delicious food prepared by his mother. His dad pampered us with a short wine tasting which we thoroughly enjoyed and almost got drunk. There were some embarrassing pictures of young Robert, when he used to enjoy a normal BMI. Next morning, he made us a sumptuous brunch and we set off exploring the city. It was Wednesday and 11am in the morning, but the cafes were full of people chatting and sharing a drink! According to Robert, that is a normal day for people in his laidback hometown. We visited the market, a fort, a church and the arena (most towns of the old Roman Empire have one) before breaking for lunch.

  

 

  

The clouds had cleared by then, and we hit the beach. Our original plan was to sail in the Adriatic aboard Robert's boat but that could not materialize due to fickle weather condition. The beach was a rocky one but nonetheless we went for a swim once we got accustomed to the cold water. I was swimming after almost a year, and probably swimming for the first time in a place other than the pool, where I learnt the art three years back. I did not fare badly on that account, although my tongue did feel salty for the entire evening. We had a grand dinner by the sea in Istria, tasting authentic Croatian sea-food preparations. It was delicious and expensive, but we had stopped caring by that point of time about financials. I was having the time of my life, and knew it may well be the first and last time we all group together for such a holiday.

  

  

We returned the next day, driving continuously for over 10 hours and stopping at Trieste to drop Vittoria and be treated to delicious Italian pasta and hospitality. There was a certain calmness that I had seldom felt in a long long time. Traveling regulated my imagination with reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, I saw them as they are. Our battered bodies were overlooked by the satisfied soul. I was happy, after a long time and I would like to take another trip to Italy this year...

As we neared our destination and the sun set on us, I was remembered the dialogue from the movie 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' in my head

"I know these will all be stories someday. And our pictures will become old photographs. We'll all become somebody's mom or dad. But right now these moments are not stories. This is happening. I am here and I am looking at her. And she is so beautiful. I can see it. This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive, and you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song and that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite..."

- Prateep

Ma Connexion Russe

Before setting off for Strasbourg, I had managed to meet most of my friends from Bangalore and Trivandrum, to say a long good bye and get their best wishes. But there is one conversation that I remember vividly till date from that phase of my life...

My Friend (browsing Facebook pages of some girl who was on the ISU 2013 group): Dude! This chick is hot..you should definitely pursue her.

Me (halfheartedly looking up to see whom he was gaping at so joyfully): Meh...I wonder which one is her...(there were two girls in the display picture, both in bikinis at some beach)

My Friend: Ha! Both are out of your league but you could still try lol... 

I shook my head in agreement to change the topic of the conversation and we continued drinking our beers and discussing politics, career and what not, like usual. I remember it was a good night... 

One Month Later in Strasbourg

It was my first day in Strasbourg, and I was roaming around the famous Cathedrale Notre-Dame with Pulkit, Robert and Vatsala. Pulkit had arrived a day before me so he happened to meet some other classmates who were staying in and around the city unlike us, who were at Illkirch Graffestaden. He had the phone number of just one person, a girl by the name of Leena Pivocrates, the same girl my friend back in India was so interested in. Robert concluded that she is Greek going by her surname. Meanwhile, I was cajoling Pulkit to call her and meet up with the rest of the space crew. Unfortunately, that never happened although Pulkit did call, but we got caught up exploring the beautiful neighborhood of La Petit France that day.

One Day Later

We had arrived in Strasbourg ten days before our term was supposed to start at ISU to attend French language classes. But I met up with few of my classmates a night before these classes started at 25 Cathedrale place, which housed three of our classmates namely Leena, Sam and Trisha. I was meeting them for the first time so I had bought a few drinks to carry to their place. The place was at the top of the building and the stairs up till there reminded me of the Cathedrale which I had scaled earlier that evening. It was winding and spiral, or in short - horrible! I was out of breath by the time I reached the door and promised myself never to be back at this place again. Our teaching assistant Nathan received us and introduced us to the people sitting around the living room. I do not remember who all were there except the people who lived in that place (except Trisha, who joined later). There she was, Leena Pivocrates, sitting by Sam's side who had her arm wrapped around her. I made a mental note to tell my friend that she was the girl in the left side of the picture (later on, we would joke that she was the one with the smaller boobs). Her black hair, deep eye shadow and brown eyes struck me as Asian features, and my guess was confirmed when she introduced herself as Russian origin-USA settled.
             To my glee, there was a sheesha in the house and I had to stop myself from grabbing the pipe from the person taking puffs. The introductions were pretty straight and formal, and I was amazed to see people from as far as USA and Australia sitting together in the same room. The only difficulty I faced that night was to participate in any conversations as everyone had a different accent and it took a lot of effort trying to understand each and every word that people spoke. I spoke the maximum with Trisha, since she took a place right beside me, and enjoyed the occasional sheesha that came my way. My memories of the first night out with my future classmates is limited to the feeling that people were trying hard to make an impression on each other. Hence, most of them were talking and participating in the conversations vehemently except Leena, who was more observant and talked only to the point. In my culture, such behavior maybe considered impolite but I had heard that's how normal Russian (and Chinese too) people interact socially. I had also heard from my seniors at ISRO that Russians seldom smile, and Leena soon became a living proof of this fact to me.
           By the end of the night, I had failed to make any impact on the people present. But the one positive thing that I took from that night was while bidding good byes, when I noticed that there was another person being as uncomfortable as me doing it the French way, and it was none other than Leena. I smiled to myself that I was not the only one...

A Week Later...

Attending the French classes together was a good social activity to begin the year. We all were from different countries and this feeling of being foreigners somehow brought us together. I had become pretty comfortable with most of my classmates, especially Robert and Trisha, with whom I spent maximum time (and I am not counting Pulkit here, since we knew each other from six years, a fact that never failed to garner those looks of amazement and at times shock whenever people came to know about it). I had missed the house-warming party at Jose's place since I was still mentally adjusting myself to the completely new culture I was experiencing. My last outing was at the "Language Exchange Bar', which was memorable but for all the wrong reasons. I was hit on by a gay guy, could not manage to continue a conversation with a decent looking German girl who had herself initiated it, ended up laughing alone at my jokes, was laughed at when I wasn't trying to make any joke (I was hitting on the pretty bespectacled girl named Alix, from Canada), and saw Leena being carried by a drunk Sam on his shoulders.
           My self esteem was at a record low, but I still decided to give social life at Strasbourg another chance and went dancing to this place called Barca Latino, which was basically a shabby looking boat serving cheap drinks and providing a decent (but in no way comfortable) dancing floor. My dancing skills are as good as Marlon Brando's singing, hence I abstained venturing to the danger zone while Pulkit and Raul (from Venezuela) rocked it. I spent more time chatting with this Spanish guy called Isaac, who like me was also not into dancing. I had met up with Leena and Co. earlier and she seemed pretty drunk. Also, her comment that her leather jacket was real and mine wasn't had put me off a bit. But there was something about this girl that kept me interested. Maybe it was her eyes that didn't give her away, or her 'devil may care' attitude at the bar where she kept downing shots  like I drink water after being out on a hot sunny day, or her sense of humor (she could be funny when she wanted), but the fact is till date I haven't been able to figure out.
         I don't know what happened that night (I had a bit too many shots myself obviously) but I decided to join the dancing group. I danced till I started smelling my own sweat, and that was when I noticed only me and Leena were left on the dance floor. Our friends had gone out for some fresh air, and one half of me wanted to do the same but I stayed back. Leena was grooving in a way I had seen only actresses do in Bollywood flicks. I wanted to dance with her and mustered up the courage (thanks shots!) to ask her to teach me how to dance with a girl. The next five minutes were a blurr as I followed her lead and had a gala time until she brought my senses back to Earth by saying she likes girls too during the conversation we were having while managing to move on the heavily crowded dance floor. That day, she officially became the first bisexual person I had ever known. We had a brief 'moment' together after this piece of breaking news and till date we haven't come to a clear conclusion of who was hitting on whom, but it clearly marked the beginning of our friendship. I admired her capacity to practically inhale alcohol while she may have realized I wasn't that much of a weirdo. I managed to find her precious leather jacket among the heap while leaving the club and I guess this gesture put me in her good books.

One Month After Barca Latino

The ISU crew had bonded pretty well by then, and we partied every weekend as if there was no tomorrow, with 25 Cathedrale being the one stop party shop. I was good friends with Robert and Trisha by then, and she used to spend most of  her evenings with us much to the annoyance of her room mates, especially Leena. The two American ladies then decided to rename me and Pulkit from 'The Indians' to 'Indian Boyfriends'. According to the 'nomenclature' and 'agreement', I was Leena's Indian bf and I used to call her 'crazy little russian gf'. Today when I reminisce about it, I feel amused when I think 'Oh! That's how we got to know each other...'

(to be continued) 

My New Space- Part III

The delay in writing the third piece about my life at Strasbourg is due to multiple reasons, foremost being procrastination. At the end of October, we had our first examination which most of us passed with fairly decent grades. This marked the beginning of the next six months, which were as hectic as it could get. We were doing three modules in parallel - academic lectures, the team project and the individual project; the most among them was the team project for reasons far more greater than the scope of the project. every year at ISU, two team projects are carried out which are inter-disciplinary in nature and inter-cultural in team composition true to the ISU motto of 3Is education. This year, the team project titles suggested to us were 'One way mission to Mars' and 'Space for Migration'. Both of these topics sound fairly vague, and I was assigned to the latter. The individual project work was more laid back and this helped me to divide time efficiently between lectures, assignments, the two projects and having fun at the same time. 

As I had mentioned earlier, the team project was the most important aspect at ISU as it happens to shape the social group dynamics for the entire year. It is through this endeavor that we come to know most about each other. When you put people from culturally diverse countries together, sparks are bound to fly. Even though I had worked in ISRO where people from different parts of India work together, we shared some common sentiments, hence working on the team project was a completely different experience. The topic itself was a difficult one to crack and went through many changes, before being finally named as Steps To Effectively Prepare for Migration (STEP M). I had a gala time and would remember this for a long time to come. Its not often that you find your team members from 11 different countries like the USA, South Korea, China, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Venezuela, Czech Republic, Nigeria, Ireland and Japan. The academic load had some effect on the partying spree, and also stressed out a lot of people, which was reflected in the increasing number of arguments (and bitching that people resorted to thereafter) people had for petty issues like the cleanliness of the student lounge.

Team Migration at Flams, Strasbourg

One of the good things at ISU is the guest lectures delivered by eminent people from industry and academia. Module 2 had a bevy of such lecturers, the most popular among them being by astronaut Bob Thirsk. The area of Space Medicine had already caught my imagination due to the awesomeness of the way it was taught to us by in-house faculty member Dr. Gilles Clement. Bob Thirsk took it to another level during his lecture presentation, and later on we got to interact with him personally in typical ISU fashion with snacks and drinks. Most of us managed to get an autograph from him, and a few of our classmates successfully managed to persuade him to write about kitchen cleanliness! Being the gentleman he is, he obliged to our childish requests and I have this autographed poster thanks to him. 

We had many industrial visits during Module 2. In module 1, there was the remote sensing trip which was spoiled by bad weather, still it was pretty awesome and we had a great time at Mount St.Odile. The ones after that included the trips to Astrium, Friedrichshafen (Germany), SES, Betzdorf (Luxembourg) and ESA ESOC/Telespazio, Darmstadt (Germany). The bus journeys were not that eventful with most of us being passed out for the maximum amount of time. Meanwhile, there was a big Christmas holiday in between when most of the class went to their respective homes and only a few of us (mainly Indians) were left to enjoy the excellent Strasbourg Christmas, photos of which can be found here - https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107005930852174377989/albums/5923808040874314497. It turned out to be a great holiday, especially since I had a visitor back from home, and we all had a blast (unfortunately I can't post the best photos of our adventures). I explored Strasbourg like never before, and also happened to visit a small town 30 minutes from here called Colmar. One of my classmates is from this place, and her mother's hospitality touched us, especially since we were visiting during Christmas when you are supposed to be with family.

While all this was happening, I got so engrossed in my ISU life that I forgot about my life back in India. I never lost the connection, but some strings went loose and I paid the price for it. I may have learnt to do a system design of a remote sensing spacecraft in 3 days flat, and managed an inter-cultural team for a few weeks successfully, but I failed at managing my personal life to the extent that I stopped caring about it. I knew I seldom learn from my mistakes but this time it was right on my face and yet I repeated the same mistakes that I have committed before. Thankfully I had a good support system of friends with whom I spent almost 16 hours per day 6 times a week. Honestly speaking, I haven't spent this amount of time continuously even with my parents in the last three years. Hence a strange bond existed among all of us..we may not like each other a lot, but we still had to bear with this fact and live like a family. The projects were completed successfully and both teams were lauded for their efforts.

With this I end the summary of my life at ISU, Strasbourg. There are a few important things which I did not mention because I will be writing separately on them. I tried my best to present my experiences in a crisp way. Keep reading for more details :)

My New 'Space' - Part II

The charm and beauty of Strasbourg got me slowly, which is weird because I spent the last one month before coming here in the dirt and pollution of Kolkata. And here was this place, serene and calm, and surrounded by water everywhere. The city has two parts, from the architecture point of view - the old part, with colorful Columbage styled building and the dull new part reminiscent of French socialism. I prefer to show the old part, which I find to be visually more pleasing.

                           

Ill, a tributary of river Rhine, flows through the city of Strasbourg. Actually, Strasbourg is located on the islands made by this river, and its canals. It used to be a port historically, and they still maintain the old gate system for boats to move from one water level to another. 

   

Our reception ceremony was a big hit, with astronaut Kevin Ford being the chief guest. The good food added to the other delights of the evening, like meeting important people from the space industry in the most casual way ever! I posted this photograph with him on Facebook out of excitement, and a feeling of accomplishment, only to be amused by the reactions I got from my friends and family. Apparently, they felt 'proud' ....Alas, all I could feel at this was amusement. Nevertheless, it was a big day for me as technically, he was the first 'astronaut' I had met. I had met another person before who flew to space, our own Mr. Rakesh Sharma, but he was a 'cosmonaut'. 

                                             

As I said before, the food that evening was great, and unfortunately I happen to have only one picture of the buffet since I was too busy filling my mouth with delicious European food (and wine of course)

                                     

During the first week itself at college, we were handed out first assignment, which was to make a model rocket and fly it successfully with the egg of a bird (thankfully, it was not a hen). We were split into groups, and mine ended up making the most badass looking rocket. But sadly, it wasn't suitable for the task we were asked to execute, although there was no denying that it was pretty and had the class nerds give you those glances of envy. 

The next few weeks went very quickly, as we were usually having classes and workshops till evening, and then had to do some assignment almost every day of the week. Team-working was never an easy task, but it became more difficult with so much cultural differences at stake. I even lost my temper once, but later realized how foolish it was, and how the misinterpretation of tone could lead to manipulation of thoughts. The only things I would like to remember from the first month after classes started were the dinner invitation by an Alsatian family (my friend's landlord), who made the favorite local dish called Tarte Flambees (a type of thin crust pizza), and my evening parties with the new group at every bar/club of the town, and of course, our favorite hangout place- 25 Cathedral!

Partying was never simpler than this - Get a few beers/wine, board the tram to the city, and ring the door-bell to ever welcoming hosts of the place 25 Cathedral, a simple yet effective 3-step process to have the best time of your day....Though what was not that simple was the academics. It consisted of subjects from engineering (both aerospace and avionics), sciences (mainly astrophysics), medicine, policy & economics, law, management and humanities! True to its 3Is principle, ISU curriculum isn't the cup of tea for everyone. Only a person with many shades and interests can survive here. I never knew before coming here that art inspired by space is up there on the International Space Station. I had heard there are space laws, but did not know that our satellites went up to space with a registration number given by an organization called International Telecommunication Union (ITU). So yes, the breadth of my knowledge definitely increased, and I reveled in this structure of education.

As much as I learnt about space, I learnt equally about gastronomy, thanks to my friend Robert from Croatia. I keep telling him that he should take up cooking as a profession because that's the only thing he enjoys doing (apart from his new found hobby of spinning hapless people on a chair for a 'classified' space medicine experiment). I also learnt during the first month itself about how cooking and having food together can be a better social activity than drinking. Indian cuisine was surprisingly popular, and I was amused to see the willingness with which people ate our spicy food at school. Thanks to our above-average cooking skills, me and my friend Pulkit became quite popular! Presently, our vegetarian friend Robert has more stock of spices than us, and probably cooks better daal and chana masala than we do. 

I had a faint glitter of hope that even if we do not get our dream jobs after completion of masters vis-a-vis the famed demon of recession, we could still open a good Indian restaurant (this was something that Strasbourg lacked unfortunately). This kind of optimism was a fresh change, which was brought about by the rate at which I discovered new found abilities. But more on that later, keep reading! ;)  

My New 'Space' - Part I

It has been a long hiatus, and I have absolutely no excuse for being away from blogging for this long. I am writing this piece from Strasbourg, France. Yes, it has been one hell of a ride ever since I left the lush green campus of my college at Trivandrum. I have lived multiple lives in the last 2-3 years, and yet, none of these ever felt a complete one...

My decision to study at International Space University (ISU), Strasbourg was one that baffled many, including myself. Off late, I have developed this habit of surprising myself, and in a way it helps me to keep pushing my limits and remain motivated. I have to admit that coming to ISU was that one odd smart decision that I seldom take. I have studied in a space institute before, and worked in a reputed national space agency, but never before I actually felt the charm and drive of what I was doing. At ISU, I met and mingled with these people who grew up watching TV shows like Star-Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc., and always dreamt of being associated with 'space'. In contrast, my aspirations for being a space engineer was so fuzzy that I had to do some serious soul searching for why I was actually among these starry eyed kids! Before I get into details of my last 6 months, let me show you where I live!

Strasbourg, located in the north east part of France, is the seat of the parliament of the European Union. It is the capital of the region called Alsace, and is the 6th largest city of France. With its location by the banks of the river Rhine, the region of Alsace has a deep history of violence between the French and Germans, and its possession has switched several times between the two in the last two centuries. They even have a language of their own, which they call as Alsatian, and is very similar to German. Hence, if your are ever here, don't be surprised to see signboards in French as well as German (oops, I mean Alsatian!).

I arrived here via Frankfurt, since air connectivity of Strasbourg is as good as the train connectivity of Sriharikota. On my way to Strasbourg from Frankfurt by bus, I happened to see most of my dream machines - Lambhorgini, Ferrari, BMW motorcycles, a Harley-Davidson chopper, overtaking my bus (moving at around 120kmph) at ease, as if it were an auto-rickshaw. My first evening was very eventful, and that set the tone of my stay here. I understood the importance of two things that day - the battery life of your phone/smartphone (how I missed those old Nokia phones...), and paying attention to learning the local language. 

I was overwhelmed initially by the surroundings, the roads (they are opposite to those in India) and most of all, the number of people I saw around me. Coming from Kolkata, this seemed like a world apart, and it sure was. It took me some time to stop converting the prices in euros to rupee in my mind, but by that time I was completely aware that I was going to be ripped off in this place! France is expensive, and Strasbourg was no better. But that is a small price that I paid to live in this beautiful city. I had traveled around 18hrs straight, but that did not stop me from going to visit the famous Cathedral within 24hrs of my arrival. And I got to see the cathedral like this! (there was a light and sound show)

Same day, I got introduced to two things that I would spend a lot of time during my stay at Strasbourg. This bespectacled half Croatian-half Italian guy, and the awesome Alsatian Blanc beer!  

The first week at Strasbourg was a blurr...I was attending beginner French classes in the morning, and partying every night with the new found group of people, and my future classmates. The only thing that was common among us was that we could speak English. All of us were from different countries and cultural backgrounds. That did not deter us to quickly bond with each other because we all were foreigners in this country. It was an altogether new experience for me. I shed off the fake south Indian English accent I had been wearing for the past few years in a matter of few days. I also shed off a lot of inhibitions, to be able to greet the French way, by kissing them on their cheeks, without the air of awkwardness. Nevertheless, I learnt it the hard way when I met this beautiful French gal who leaned forward to kiss me, and I stuck out my hand instead to greet her, successfully making both of us look stupid. I made up for that lost moment though, when I met her again at a bar later that week ... ;)

It used to be bright and sunny for the first month when I arrived. Somehow I couldn't help but draw parallel between the weather and the mood of the MSS14 class (that's how we call ourselves). But more on that later..Out of my enthusiasm about my new college, I visited its campus (a 10mins walk from my residence) before the classes started. It was a small, yet beautiful campus and I instantly fell in love with it, especially the student lounge, which was fully furnished and totally awesome!

The next few months were he most memorable (though sometimes not) times of my life. I will try to cover some important aspects in my future articles. Keep reading!  

Those Days...!!

When you are 25 years old and have done nothing substantial in your life (the odd job aside), one does tend to think what exactly has he been doing all this time. I did that too a few days back, while on a flight, primarily because there was nothing better to do (the carrier was Air India). Just ten minutes to myself and the realization of how much life has changed in the last one decade hit me like a bolt of lightening. I never had enough time to introspect about personal stuff because I was busy planning other things, important things..things that my family cared for and the society gave importance to. And as time flew, I barely noticed the changes within myself. But that day, on the flight with overpriced food, I delved deeper into my memories, ironically for the first time in the last 10 years...

There are basically 3 important stages in a person's life in his transformation from a teenager to an adult. They are -: high school, college and job! Of these three, I guess everyone would agree that the last one is the least enjoyable. High school for me was the transition period, the turbulent period, when I had changed schools and was preparing for IIT-JEE exams. Which reminds me of a question that my boss had asked sometime back-'Why did you join engineering?' The fact that I was stumped by his question had made me realize that I had actually not given a good thought to it, even after becoming a practicing engineer. Not that I regret being one of the million engineers of India, but I was disappointed with myself for giving my boss the impression that I went along with the tide (and the sadist bastard's smirk still lingers in my mind). 

I remember it all started after finishing the 10th boards exam, when parents sit with you and ask you to decide your career path, and sometimes force you to select their preferred career path (not in my case though). What they don't understand is how the fuck is a 15 year old supposed to decide something so important, something which they are supposed to do for their entire life (no one does that though, but this is what goes through the mind when parents have such conversations). I remember deciding my fate over a game of daily evening cricket with my best buddy Sharad. When asked, he said unflinchingly that he wanted to do engineering and get into IITs. There was awe and respect in our minds when we thought about the IITs. It was the time when facebook was just born and quora (the best place these days apparently to answer all your IIT related stupid questions) was just a word in the dictionary. Our knowledge about the famed IITs were based on the triumphs and stories of the neighbourhood bhaiyyas who (or whose friends) were studying there or had failed trying to get into it after years and years of preparation. So began the quest for the unthinkable-cracking the JEE! Tuitions, admission to the best school and practice tests, these dominated my mind for 2 years.

After having spent 12 laidback years in a school for middle class people, I found my new school (Delhi Public School) to be a bit overwhelming. Filled with intelligent and good looking people, and with the indiscipline all around, I use to feel out of place. My definitions about friendships and discipline changed more rapidly than the value of rupee against the dollar. All of us in the school, as well as in the coaching class, were nothing but competition. It was the first time my self confidence had taken a beating, but I remember crawling out of the mess somehow, primarily because my best friend was also in the same place as me.

The DPS experience transformed me from an introvert to an extrovert, and I will always be thankful to it for this sole reason. I tasted my first big success and failure simultaneously at the end of 2 years of high school, an event that definitely did change my life. Most of my batchmates cleared the revered JEE, but I couldn't. Probably the only reason I recovered from this disappointment was again the same reason-Sharad couldn't make it too! (I guess it's general tendency to find solace if your friend fails along with you) My decision to take a study break, even after clearing other national competitive exams was followed by mixed reactions from family and friends. I decided to move to Bokaro from my hometown Ranchi, basically to avoid unnecessary questions (and mostly unwanted advice) of relatives and neighbours. I will always be grateful to my father and Kittu, my sister-cum-friend, who understood the personal turmoil that I was going through for having failed myself, and made me strong enough to continue on my path.

I did clear JEE the next time, with an allergy problem arising unceremoniously during the exam, affecting my aggregate rank. It was disappointing, but not disheartening for long, since this became the reason I joined the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), my alma mater, where I spent the best and most enjoyable 4 years of my life. There are some memories that stays with you forever, and my counselling for IIST at hotel capitol remains one of those incidents (I still can't say with conviction that its a good memory or a bad one). Some may think that going as the first batch to Asia's first space institute required some guts, given that most of my friends had preferred opting for an established college, thinking that they would do an MBA after finishing engineering. But to me, the decision somehow came without any hesitation, and later on, without any regrets! One article is short to write about those 4 years in God's own country, a place which we hated at first, and now each one of us misses in some way or the other...

Friendships were forged based on different criteria, like the floor on which you lived, the sport you played or the interests you had. People from different parts of the country, speaking different languages and having different upbringing mingled freely. Somehow, religion, region or caste wasn't a deciding factor. For the first time, I understood the concept of living in India and the complicacies it involves. First year went like a whiff of a storm. Celebrities like former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited our college. But it was the one on one interaction with Rakesh Sharma, India's first (and only) cosmonaut that had an impact on me. New friends, CET practicals (and Mar Ivanios too..whooff!), the tiring (and sometimes enjoyable) journey to the academic block  by buses, the Kanyakumari trip, Veegaland, sleeping at the back rows like a bunch of sleep deprived daily labourers, the daily adda in my room, the excellent mess food (including the stolen ice-creams at nights) and my first ever crush, these were the what defined my first year in college.

Second year was more meaningful, in the sense that I found out a lot of things that I was good at, like organizing events and leading from the front, playing cricket, writing stories and enacting them on stage or through movies (one of them being selected in top 5 short films at Mood Indigo, IITB being a highlight), being a good friend and eating like there was no tomorrow! Oh yes, and I was in love too by the end of the 2nd year, and like so many other people in long distance relationships, I had my own cheapest mobile set (thanks to Reliance mobile) with a monthly plan.

Third year was more of defining, both on the personal as well as professional front. I went to Wayanad for holidaying with my entire (or almost) group for the first and last time. The trip was fun, but such an endeavour could not be taken in future again due to broken friendships and soured relations. I came of my own as a co-ordinator for both annual technical and cultural festival of IIST. I understood that my strength lay in my communication skills and man-management. But everything comes with a price, so this new found abilities came with the baggage of having to stand up against friends at times. I had a minor health scare when I pulled a muscle near my spinal chord that year while trying to play rugby for the first time. I can never forgive myself for that freak accident as my cricket team lost out in the semi-finals and I could not bat. This, and the outcomes of the fests made me more responsible towards my duties and my personal life, but probably not towards my health as booze and the occasional weed became a part and parcel of my life. My music tastes were now larger with Pink Floyd, Guns & Roses, Creed etc. making to the music folder in my laptop. But the main highlight of 3rd year were my frequent trips to Pune...

I tasted freedom to live in the city of Pune. I never knew college students could have so much fun until I went there. I somehow managed to get an internship in Pune, so as to be able to spend some time with my lady love. But I ended up doing so much more, like making new friends, visiting new places and doing stuff I hadn't imagined I will ever do in my life. That time will always remain with me, although we are no longer together, because it was a life I wished to live, but could not because I had bigger plans...Those late night coffee/ice-cream shop visits, dining at different restaurants everyday, the trips to Khandala, Lavassa and KhadakVaasla, celebrating my birthday and hitting the badminton court (and the tasty snacks after the game), who can forget these ever! Back to college by the backwater, I was forced to wonder for the first time whether I was missing something in my life at IIST, Trivandrum. No amount of Baskin Robins ice-cream at Technopark, Sharma Dhaba's delicious and cheap food or the sun-kissed beaches of Kerala could match the charm of Pune's life thereafter.

Shifting to our new campus at Valiamala was an arduous task, and settling there was even more difficult. But what was more difficult was recovering my academic scores from the deep abyss they were in. Thus began my quest to prove to myself that I am more than my marks. Thanks to an able partner, I found back my motivation to study. And it is when I realized that after coming to college, I had not thought seriously about what I was going to do after college. Of course a government job at ISRO was waiting for me, but then I had never imagined myself settling for a comfortable secured life with just above average remuneration. It was then that I seriously gave a thought about 'what after college' thing. This time I had more clarity than the last time, when I was forced to make such a decision. And this time, I had matured friends to take advice from. Alas, they were as clueless as me! I somehow came up with a basic idea about what I was going to do, hence I started working towards it and the result were a few good research works that were presentable in outside forums.

My participation in extra curricular activities went up, now that I was a 'super senior' and my job, like my other friends, was to just guide our juniors for organizing fests. And did I thoroughly enjoy it! I amassed more than 20k winning events at fest of other colleges, some as far as Cochin. Most of it was splurged on food and drinks though as being the last year, all of us had got a bit touchy and tried to spend maximum time with each others close friends. Late night canteen raids and biweekly trip to Trivandrum city (through the windy kerala roads aboard the rickety KSRTC buses) became our hobbies. And we did visit a lot of places in and around our college that time as we had a lot of free time during our project semester.

Every good story has an end, and mine had two endings. College life finally came to an end, and so did 3 years of courtship. As a child I was prone to anxiety attacks due to anger, and I had a minor scare that I may go back to being the weird kid who shouldn't be angered. But thankfully, such a situation did not arise and surprisingly I took both the endings pretty well, because a new beginning awaited me. I really like this dialogue from the movie Batman Begins - "It's not who we are underneath but what we do that defines us". My next two years were defined by my decision to opt for Sriharikota as my first job. The decision baffled many, including my parents, since it's an isolated place (90kms north off Chennai) and I was used to the ways of cities. But I stood by my decision because for the first time in my life, I was clear in what I wanted to do. Although I still couldn't understand why I wanted to do it. Financial freedom is what I tasted in my first job (and the scotch too) at SDSC SHAR, and this place will always be remembered for that. Zooming around on my Yamaha Fazer, frequenting the highway dhabas (and sometimes the odd CCD) and learning new activities (the local language, swimming and lawn tennis), the Bangalore and Chennai trips; I truly re-discovered myself. The boy who had a break up and chose his job away from friends, transformed into a man finally, and of course not without flaws... There are few things about which I am pretty sure after my tenure of 2yrs at SHAR. One is that all my future bosses will be better than my first, and secondly, that I will never stay so far away from my social circle! :P

  
8 years is a long time. Lot of things have changed during these times. My mobile (my first being a Motorola C100) and its specifications (from black & white to the age of smartphones), entertainment (from gully cricket to social networks), my weight (I gained fucking 10kgs!), my family demography (I am no longer the youngest), my camera (Kodak KB10 to a sleek digicam) and my overall perspective of the world. I will be going to France in a months time for pursuing higher studies, and once again my world will change. But I have learnt to absorb changes in these years and I am sure that if I can live happily in a place like Sriharikota (an island basically), I can live anywhere in the world! I had set some goals for myself a few years back during a drunken introspection, and uncannily I have completed all of them till now. That sense of purpose, which I had lost after joining IIST, is back again. And it is this that gives me the confidence to explore the unknown.

By god's grace, I have been able to execute whatever I have planned or imagined in my professional life for quiet sometime. But one cannot plan everything, especially matters like falling in love or having to let go of it. Very recently, a friend asked me innocently-"Is there anything that you want and you do not get?" The conversation was over phone thankfully. I knew that to the world, I was this lucky kid who somehow managed to make correct decisions based on pure intuition. People usually forget to see that I put in a lot of hard work, but then it doesn't matter what others think as long as I am able to achieve my goals. I replied to her truthfully that I did not always get what I wanted, and like in that telephonic conversation, I will leave the this topic for some other fine day. But I too, like so many embraced the fact that everyone makes mistakes in their lives, and I was no better. Howsoever I achieve, I can't always get my way. All in all, I had my good days and bad days, but at the end I don't remember them by their outcome. I just remember those days as they came by and went...