Wisconsin

After an uncharacteristically mild January, today we had a Snow "Event" to remember. It actually started yesterday evening and by this evening the storm had dumped a foot of snow. At times, it was spectacular - the first time I have experienced lightning and thunder during a snow storm.

Many people didn't turn up at the office, everyone claimed they will be connected in via VPN. For the many who I am sure tried, you have my sympathies :) . Our VPN wasn't meant to handle such traffic.

Schools, malls and even the UW had shut down for the day. I did get to work and actually managed to get a lot of pending stuff done. I was driven to and from work by my car (a 4 cylinder engine encased in a low-height lightweight fiber chassis). The steering wheel was indeed a wheel but nothing more. My car felt like an unbridled horse, except it was more like a duck - yes, that's right, an unbridled duck. I was sitting on the duck, making steering actions and constantly puzzled by why I am moving in certain directions - sometimes multiple directions all at once.

I saw many people on cross-country skis on the roads. The kids and the more enterprising dogs were having quite literally, a field day at Elver Park. There were not many vehicles on the roads, and there was a proportional reduction in the jerks driving around in SUVs (or is it SUVs driving around in jerks).

Apparently, even (Hard-Core) Wisconsinites haven't seen a storm like this in more than a decade - they make it sound like it's an honor. Super-cool air will be moving in from Canada soon. Oh yes, It is indeed an honor to have such visitors from the North.


QOTD

The desolation of winter
Passing through a small hamlet
A dog barks
-- Shiki

IISc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2005_IISc_Bangalore_shooting

I was at the same (ORSI) conference about 7 years back. I had even briefly spoken to Prof. Chandru, one of the injured, back then about taking up grad study in OR. I feel sad and outraged at this attack.

During high school in Delhi and undergraduation studies in Madras, I had visited some of the internationally renowned institutes in India - the IIT-D, IIT-M, Anna U and U Madras and of course, IISc.

Of all those, the IISc campus touched me in a way no other campus (except for my high school SPV) had. Very serene, refreshing and having the effect of clearing one's mind. It almost felt as if I could think much faster. It might have been that the campus is huge and lush with trees and other greenery and the oxygen had its effect.

But it was more - I wanted to catch hold of a book and read it. I wanted to have a puzzle, an engineering problem presented to me so I could solve it and make someone's life easier. It was on this trip that I decided I wanted to pursue higher studies.

I would wake up early in the morning and have breakfast in a small stall set up behind the guesthouse and then walk briskly to the conference hall. After a day of seminars where I learned that I could grasp at least some of what was being presented, I would walk around the campus for a few more hours finishing the day with a very fulfilling dinner at the institute-run restaurant on-campus. On one of the days, I visited the huge ballroom on the second floor of the main building, I was the only person walking around the beautifully lit hall - it was grand like a palace. I felt sad leaving the campus even though I had been there just 3 days.

Looking back at the experience, it was 3 days very well spent and a cherished memory.

Here in the U.S., many parents take their kids (who will soon be applying for colleges) to various campuses and in many cases the kids decide to go to one or the other school based on the beauty and/or location of the campus. But even before making the decision, I think the kids start to feel what stirred within me at IISc - the yearning to adopt a lifestyle so very conducive to learning.

QOTD

Seek not to follow in the footsteps of wise men; seek what they sought.
--Basho