The best and the worst: All in a few days

Graduating as a Buckeye
My sojourn at Ohio State is coming to an end. With the Masters defense done and the thesis turned in, all the formalities are over. And with the commencement just a week away, officially my student life is coming to an end. Last month was very hectic due to thesis work, subsequent corrections from advisers and meeting the deadlines. Now that its all over suddenly I find myself with nothing to do. Well, almost.

I am experiencing the feeling of having something really heavy lifted off the mind and at the same time flying carefree in the skies. Its a feeling I get every time the semester exams get over. Only difference is that I did not used to work much for the exams then, though I worked significantly more for the thesis and defense. But the resultant exuberance is the same. Now I have loads of time in front of me and no solid plans for it unless I get that OPT, which is evading me as of now. At least I am hoping that a few travel plans would materialize.


Worst Movie
I went to the movie, "The Darjeeling Limited" yesterday. I wanted to see the movie from the day it was released, because the trailer was 'cunningly' packaged to entice the viewers to believe that its a roller coaster ride sort of movie shot in some exotic locales. Halfway through the movie (a bit earlier than that in fact) I was praying for it to end. In my list of worst movie experiences, it occupies a spot just a tad below "Sideways" (Now, that is one movie experience that will be etched in my memory for ever. There were about 12 of us seeing the movie on a DVD. Four were pretending that movie was good, while the rest of us were staring blankly at the screen. It was only when I got a prank phone call from a person sitting next to me, I realized that everyone was in the same boat! It was a hilarious ride from then onwards, no thanks to the movie though). I had no idea what the director is wishing to convey. Is it a movie to portray an exotic country? Well, every single depiction of India was as stereotyped as it could ever get, except for the female attendant in the train whose promiscuity was as obscure as the movie itself. And the background music for the first half of the movie was a 'veena' being strummed continuously which was disturbing to say the least. And of course, I did not have to mention that the guys never end up going to Darjeeling. Towards the end of the movie, the director teases the viewer with the promise of a man eating tiger which never showed up just like we should not have for the movie.

No 'Sooner' said than done
Once again the Buckeyes are in the BCS national championship game (They should be once the final rankings are out). When the game against Illinois was lost, it was unanimous (at least according to the pundits of ESPN) that we threw away the opportunity and will be lucky to get to a bowl game. But the craziest season of college football has ensured that we gained a back-door entry to the final game on Jan.7, 2008 at New Orleans. Most likely the opponents are going to be the LSU tigers. There is a famous saying for the Indian cricket team, "They are just one defeat away from victory". When the team is rolling by easily defeating all opponents, we end up losing the finals. This is what happened to the Buckeye nation last year against you-know-who. This time caution would surely be a watch word and hopefully we are better prepared and crush the tigers (or whoever the BCS matches against us) and prove that Big Ten and most of all the Buckeyes are as good as we are touted to be.