rohitj's domain

Back in IIT Kanpur, CSE ground floor lab used to be my daily hangout/work place because it was not a silent place, and yet not noisy place and because there was a coffee shop nearby. I started missing that after coming to Purdue. I tried using the brewing machine in my office, but that wasn’t that great, and anyways, it’s a little lonely working in office. And then I found Greyhouse Coffee Shop.
This shop features some awesome decoration, a class room (yes, a room with black board, chairs and tables), nice sitting place, nice sound tracks, nice wifi, nice timing and last but not the least, good coffee. It opens at 7AM and closes at midnight or 1AM depending upon day. Few weeks back we had a class in this coffee shop, thats when I discovered that its a good place to sit. Yesterday, I spent almost the whole day here. It was awesome. Constant supply of coffee, ice creams, cakes and other supplies. And if you are hungry, you can go outside and eat something in some shop in Chauncey and come back. In night, its a little crowded, so you may not find your choice of seat, but if you plan to sit here for sometime, you will eventually get your seat. They have 4 types of normal coffee. Go for bottomless coffee and try out each one of them. They are all good.

If you live around this place, you are most welcome to give me company here.

I was coming back from a meeting. I was standing in the bus stop chilling, waiting for the bus which was late. Then came this girl and a guy. I hardly noticed them. They stood in front of me. Girl was talking on phone. When she finished on phone she asked the guy what he did on weekend. The guy said “Nothing on Saturday. On Sunday I watched Slumdog Millionaire.” <pause> “Its a good movie”. The girl replied, “yeah its a good movie. The part which I was atleast was, was SO India.” <”So” with a stress>. I was standing there, I heard it. My next inpulse asked me to ask her what she knows about India. And those who know me, know that its natural for me. I would fight with this person. But to your surprise, and mine too, I didn’t say anything. I smiled. No, I laughed.

I laughed because some people still think that India is a land of snake. It is full of poverty and thats all it has. I laughed at the ignorance and unintellect of that person. This is specially significant here. Here as in America. Because America has lot of Indians. (I never noticed that untill I started looking at different research groups in academia and industry in general). And after this, if this person could still think that way, I am sorry for her. Now, I am not saying that the life shown in that movie is untrue. With good approximation I can say the story is true (not the millionaire part, but the slum life). But is this India? Oh, not just India, she said “*so India*”.

When I read this post, I thought its just exaggeration, but guess what? I was wrong.

I was taking hair cut on the auspicious occasion of Oct 27. As usual I started talking with the guy giving me hair cut. And of course the talk started to cover breadth. The best part about talking to people with not-so-brainy jobs is that you get to talk in breadth. Talking in depth consumes lot of energy. Anyways, we were talking about different types of therapy. And he said that he takes light therapy. He has problems because of the dull West Lafayette. And I think its not too wrong. The sky is always covered with the dull clouds here. And not many animals to see. So, basically you have to be creative enough to bring out colors here. This all reminded me of Onion’s poem :

I walk my own way,
the broken path on the west.
Little sunshine from the sunset spree,
that finished atop the mystic tree.
Lights up my way,
the broken path on the west.

Yesterday, while trolling on the streets on West Lafayette, I saw this lonely yet lively road. It looked mysterious. So, I started walking on that road. That road took me to this place. It was awesome. Houses with proper built, long courtyard, trees that let you breath yet gives access to full sight, grass properly managed, and the type which will make you sleep immediately. I wanted to put its pictures, but I didn’t want to insult its beauty. The sign board on that road said “No Outlet”, and I thought while returning back, who wants an outlet.

This is rather a late post. I am at Purdue now. Arrived here on 12th of August. A few glitches ( 0)The taxi driver charged me 300$ for a ride from JFK to LGA, 1) we didn’t get the apartment on the first day, thanks to Vikas and Himanshu to letting me stay in their house, 2) buying big things like mattress, table is a big deal. The walmart here doesn’t deliver things, and thats the only place here to buy things from. ) but otherwise it was fine. I *think* we are more or less settled now. I am sharing a 3 bed-room apartment with Ankit Jain, and Sourabh Dongoankar. Both are in ECE department, so we don’t discuss acads when we are together.

We have been cooking food for last few days. And the experience has been fine. I met my advisor, and we had our first group meeting today. I think I am gonna enjoy working with this group. I will be working on the Orion project, which is an extension of Postgres to support uncertain data. In the group meeting we discussed about the license issues. Lets see what happens. Oh, I also got my first paycheck as well(I am an RA here).

What has been upsetting me is that Purdue doesn’t give a shit about Linux. The wifi system they have is kinda baid for Linux. And the most surprising thing was that by default you dont get a Linux account in CS department. If you want an account to use Linux machine, you have to  be either enrolled in some system’s course or you have take permission from your advisor. I mean, how ridiculous it is. Its an academic system, and they are using Linux for teaching purpose, then how come they are not giving a linux account. Height!!

On a better side, I have been given a Gentoo machine in my Office. Yay! 2.6.14.6 i686 Xeon 3.06GHz.

We are getting a comcast connection. That seems to be the only service available at my apartment with proper services. I also have an at&t mobile now. 1-765-337-8090. Call me whenever you want. My apartment address is 2501, Soldiers Home Rd, Apt#67 C, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906. And my office address is G18, Bay 5, HAAS, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. And like it used to be in IITK, if you want to meet me, meet me in my office . I haven’t decided my office timings yet, but I should more or less be available in my office in day time. lolz

My Purdue email id is rohitj@purdue.edu.

Rest Laterz