Note: This is a bit of a personal post with some insights here and there. It is meant to be read as one would read a story.
My resolution for 2011 is to live it like 2010! This past year has been incredibly eventful and it has made a deep impact on my personality. At the end of 2009, I was immersed in the final year of Engineering at the University of Toronto, taking Carnatic vocal classes, and applying for jobs and a good masters program. Now, at the end of 2010, I have successfully completed one semester of MASc. at the University of Waterloo, Carnatic classes are still going strong, and I have a ton of memorable experiences from the past year. Some highlights of 2010 include:
Trans-illumination Breast Spectroscopy (TiBS) is a research topic pursued by the Ontario Cancer Institute at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Justin, Taq and I chose to assist the researchers in this project by designing and implementing a power source for the system. While the project required an electrical engineering background, it had implications in the medical field. Perhaps this is what they call Biomedical Engineering. This also worked in nicely with satisfying the requirements for a minor in Bioengineering. However, after this project and taking biomedical courses, I realized that while it is a booming field and has real world implications, the subject matter is not for me and the work itself was not pleasurable, hence it will not be pursued by me in the near future.
The experience of working with medical researchers, phD students and fellow electrical engineering students was an enriching one. This was perhaps the first time that I understood the project in its entirety and was formulate the vision and guide the group towards it. We assembled a system comprised of off-the-shelf and customized parts that satisfied the goals of the project. I will always remember the Pad Thai and Beer nights we had at the end of the day, and our personalities worked well together.
Masters and Job Hunt
2010 was a year of decisions. Decisions that would significantly impact the rest of my life. Whether to find a job, or pursue graduate studies? If job, then what field to pursue, and if grad studies, then what field to pursue. After a successful research experience with Prof. J. Anderson during the summer of 2009, I became more inclined towards graduate studies. I felt like with my personality and skills, I can make a contribution to the research field, specifically the field of FPGA CAD and FPGA architecture. I loved being in the research environment with other like minded people during the summer. The best thing I liked about research was the inherent honesty and passion towards making a genuine contribution to the society. Being in an environment surrounded with such professors and students made me realize that I would be truly happy if I were to be part of such an environment. While a working life has its own rewards, I realized that at the current state of my life (where there were no serious financial obligations, or the need to get 'settled' quickly), a logical next step for me would be graduate studies. Following a series of interesting events, as found in this post, I ended up pursuing an MASc. at the University of Waterloo.
Leaders of Tomorrow - Mentorship Program
In my final year of undergrad, I was the chair of the ECE Mentorship program, which was a program for entering ECE students where they would be mentored by upper year students. I conceived and organized several mentorship events, that were meant to help first year students such as Exam study tips seminar, Job hunt seminar, etc. This was a new and challenging experience for me as the position entailed a lot of responsibility and I really wanted to do a good job. It was a meaningful and learning experience for me and I will always remember it.
Iron Ring
An event that every aspiring engineer looks forward to during their undergrad is the Iron Ring Ceremony. It is a secret ceremony where we are presented with an iron/steel ring that symbolizes our obligation to the society as engineers. The ceremony is a very interesting one, where only people with iron rings are allowed. The students take an oath on cold iron and are then presented with the rings.
The more enjoyable part of the ceremony is the after party. This was organized at our engineering cafeteria called the Atrium, or SUDS (on fridays). This was a night of friends, memories, a feeling of accomplishment, good food, music and alcohol. All in all, an apt way of symbolizing the end of our undergraduate studies and the commencement of our lives as professional engineers. Here are some highlights:
Salsa, Paintball, Shooting Range
I also take pride in the fact that I did a lot of things in 2010 that I wouldn't normally do. Firstly, I joined salsa classes with my good friend, Durwyn. It was an amazing experience where I got to meet a lot of nice and interesting people and also learned a few moves for the next party! It was something I looked forward to every week and I hope to do something similar in 2011 as well.
I also tried various other activities like paint balling with the family and shooting range where I got to actually shoot a 9mm pistol, a 29mm pistol, and a shotgun! The whole experience was really scary and when I got to the shotgun, I started having doubts as to whether I could handle the recoil. However, I just went ahead and tried it and I was glad that I did. Sometimes, you just have to stop thinking and start acting and this was one of those times.
It's not like in the movies where you can hold your gun sideways and shoot without looking. You really have to stabilize your hands and hold it straight so as to not jam the gun.
Paintballing:
Music Classes
I've been taking vocal carnatic lessons and this year, I got a lot of opportunities to perform. The Sringeri Vidhya Bharati foundation (SVBF) opened a temple here in Toronto and I, along with the family, was heavily involved with the volunteering etc. I have gotten several opportunities to sing at the temple and they definitely gave me a boost of confidence. I hope to continue with the lessons and go deeper into the world of music.
Jamsterz4
I've also been involved with a random fun project with a couple of friends. We have a formed a band called "jamsterz4" and we play english and hindi/urdu songs and post them up on youTube. The youTube thing is only to keep us focused. If we don't post them up, we probably won't take it as seriously. Plus, it gives us a chance to do something creative together. It has been a fun experience so far. Here's our attempt at a cheezy music video :P
India Trip
After finishing up my last exam, I went to Bangalore, India to visit my grandparents, aunt and uncle. Two years ago when I was there, I was completing my internship with Siemens and I was halfway done my undergrad. I wanted my grandparents to see their grandson as a fully qualified engineer: the first in our immediate family. This was the first summer since I started my undergrad where I didn't have to get up early every morning to go somewhere important. It was a much needed relaxing time spent with family and friends.
I met up with my elementary school buddies and visited my old school. It was a weird experience going back there as adults. I noticed that the place had changed as much as we had. The school had expanded into a well-reputed pre-university college and there were lots of construction going on. It was also weird to see that some girls in my class had gotten married and a few also have babies!
SVBF Mahakumbhabishekam
The word can be a mouthful, but this was the grand opening of the SVBF temple in Toronto. This event significantly changed the momentum of the rest of the year. I had never seen anything like this before. 20 some odd priests were flown in from the remote parts of India to conduct the ceremony, and I was one of the people who got the chance to actually bring the idols of the god into the temple. It was 12 days of intense immersion into Hinduism.
I was very fortunate to witness the occasion at this point of my life because I am at the point where I have seen (more or less) what the world has to offer and I have to choose some direction to take. I am naive and open enough to grasp things without any preconceived notions and mature enough to understand them (more or less). The temple is perhaps currently in its purest forms and has had a considerable impact on me and the community at large. Hopefully it continues to do the same.
Convocation
This was actually quite anti-climatic. It was a fairly boring ceremony where we received our degrees and then took pictures with our friends. A milestone nonetheless!
Concerts and Shows -
I also went to several amazing concerts and this time as a music student, the experience was both stimulating and enriching. I got to meet the great Mandolin Srinivas in SVBF. I actually got to transport his mandolin to his car and serve him snacks and drinks. He was very much a down-to-earth guy with a sense of modesty and humility. Not to mention, he is incredibly talented.
During the Mahakumbabishekam, several high profile celebrities were invited from India to perform and I was one of the people who got to pick up the celebrities from the airport! I was fortunate to have Bombay Jayshree and crew, Maharajapuram Srinivasan and his son Maharajapuram Ganesh sit in my car while I dropped them to the hotel!I also went to the Shankar Ehsaan Loy concert held here in Toronto, and a concert by a local group, Bobby's Naya Afsaana, where my sister performed a few songs.
Recently, the ex-president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam visited SVBF and I was fortunate enough to see him in such close proximity.
Namma Apthamitra Vishnuvardhan
This was a show that I was involved with where I got to push my dad off the stage, sing with girls dancing around me, dance, and also grow a mustache! To break it down, we put on a show to honour a late Kannada actor, so the program involved a scene from one of the movies, where I played the main role who tries to run off with a girl, and my dad played the teacher who tries to convince him otherwise. The audience loved the show as it brought back some great memories and the performances were flawless. They especially loved our rendition of "Malenada Henna", as you can see in the videos. People were slightly surprised by me as I am usually the quiet introvert type and people never expected me to get on stage.
Other Highlights
Just in case I forgot to mention, we moved into a new house and bought a new car!
So, 2010 has been quite an eventful year. It has had a serious impact on me academically, socially, culturally, musically, spiritually, religiously, artistically, philosophically, and any other "-ally" you can think of. It has set the bar quite high for any year and my goal now is to try to achieve or surpass the bar set by 2010 in all other years of my life!
