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Showing posts with the label Engineering

If you’re reading this…

  ….congratulations! You made it! 2020 has felt like a test of patience, and although the upcoming year doesn’t look like it’s going to be sunshine and daisies right away, at least we’re moving on from the one that started it all. The coronavirus ended up being a dark horse of sorts, pushing past every other catastrophe to emerge as the victor. So many protests, marches and fires around the world and at home, but with the virus always looming in the background. During January, I was back in Riyadh, mourning a vacation I had made the most out of. The weeks had flown by too far for my liking, but the fun had to end at some point. And as I waved my parents goodbye and rolled my suitcase away past the gates at the airport, I’d consoled myself with the thought that I’d be back when the semester ended. A couple of months later, after we had our college fests and wrote a couple of exams, everything abruptly shut down. At the time, an unexpected break from college life was a small blessing, an

To All The People Who Made 2020 Slightly Better

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This is probably the first time that everyone (and I really do mean everyone) can unanimously agree on how bad the year’s been. Unwelcome surprises, roller coasters that have gone more down than up, classes on Teams everyday while trying not to fall asleep. This New Year’s, instead of making a resolution I’ll never keep, I would like to give some shout-outs. For years, my blog has helped me record every detail I’ve wanted to be able to revisit, and this post will be dedicated for this very purpose. First of all, I would like to Taylor Swift for the Miss Americana documentary, the City of Lover concert, the music video for The Man, two new surprise albums, the Long Pond sessions. My ears have remained blessed throughout the year.  I would also like to thank my school friends for always being ready to trade gossip and nostalgia (also Sauda is an aunt now! Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!) Now, moving on to college: Sreya and Sesha taught me a lot about K-pop musicians. They also adopted a cat (and nam

A decade of blogging

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Today marks ten years of blog writing . It’s so crazy to think that this journey started when I was nine, but I can still remember penning my thoughts down into a little pink diary, and then reading it out for Dad as he typed into Microsoft Word. Eventually that diary got filled, and so did the next one. I still have both of them in my possession. We’ve moved houses several times, and a lot of belongings have gotten lost or misplaced, but these books are my own odd little pensieves that I can never let go of.  People say that it’s the little decisions we make that can alter our lives forever, and maybe that’s what happened when I stumbled across that book. Ten years of my life have been documented on this little corner of the internet, and there is a feeling of comfort knowing that these memories will stay safe and treasured for me to look back on. Whenever I go through the posts, I’m hit by nostalgia in the most magical, emotional way possible. The best part is when I reconnect with o

A new normal

So now online classes have been eating up a lot of my time, but I am well aware of the fact that the number of posts I upload every year has dwindled. This blog was one of my biggest priorities when I first started it. But life and its exams took over and now the green display behind my posts looks like it has more weeds than grass. Yet, I find myself reaching back and digging deep, sifting through older memories and finding bits of myself abandoned and forgotten. Every time I read back, and land in Christmas of 2010, or the Bahrain trip of 2013, I’m reminded of the tiny details I had otherwise forgotten.  So it’s important to me that I document this period of my life, just like I’ve done for every other important event. Lockdown is currently ending on May 17th, and the future remains uncertain. We don’t know when we’ll return to college or write our exams. The number of cases in India are on the rise, but Kerala has managed to demolish the curve skillfully.  Catching up with the news,

Thank you, Chetta

“Pass it through the window.” Lina’s outstretched hand was trying to grab the pencil pouch bag Akshara was extending to her. Our classroom was visible through the window on the wall perpendicular to the balcony we were standing upon. If you reached out, you could just barely high-five someone in class. But right now, we were on a different mission. Lina grabbed the pouch, but it was only when its contents fell out that that we realized it hadn’t been zipped close. We screamed for no reason from the first floor, watching the pens that had fallen out bounce onto the ground.  Eva’s face was the physical definition of oh no, especially since it had been her bag passed through the window. It was safe, but half empty.  “I can’t find my ID!” Eva rummaged through it, and came up empty-handed. She took off back to class to check if she’d left her ID there. The rest of us peered down below, and watched a couple of boys walk briskly into the building. We hissed to get their a

Save the Earth

Let’s face it- concern about global warming was laughable until a few years ago. It was an obligatory subject in textbooks, and appeared occasionally in newspapers. The general assumption was humanity still had several years to implement measures before it was too late.  The time is ticking, and somehow, the needles have picked up pace. The consequences of our actions are now catching up with us, and taking their toll on other inhabitants of the Earth as well.  The most fascinating part of our thinking is the one that allows us to believe that we have authority over every other species on Earth. It is the one that will subsequently lead to our downfall, lest we start being more pragmatic than selfish.  It is unfortunate that millennials and Generation X will have to start taking global warming into account while thinking about building families. Overpopulation is a grave issue with far-reaching effects. Eventually, our descendents will face a despondent future alone- that