2008: The Year That Was

Well, 2008 was actually a good year now that I look back on it. To keep a record for myself, a recap of the significant events:

January to March:

The first three months of Practice School II in NAL, Bangalore. This was a lot of fun. It was the first time I was sharing a room with someone. I made some new friends, the more important ones being Hari, Aparna, Naveen, Meenu ( My supervisor!) and Grips Sir. It was the first time I did anything close to research (and enjoyed it thoroughly). I think it was also the time that Dr. Jha screwed with my midterm grades.

The other important thing was waiting for the MS admit. I don’t think I heard from anyone till March anyway. The other thing that was significant was the Chennai trip I took in February to see Charanya. Boy, that was a LOT of fun!

Oh, February was the month that my grandparents moved to Mayapur for good. So that was a sad thing. I still miss them so much!

April to June:

Well, PS was getting a lot boring, especially because Meenu went out of town to get married, and I was bored to death for two weeks, since I could not do any experiment without her. I guess they thought I would blow up the lab. But thankfully, she was an angel to give me her room keys, so I spent most of my time chatting and surfing the net from her room.

April was another trip to Chennai to see Charan.

I got my admit to Drexel, and was jumping around in Garuda Mall when my parents called to tell me about it. I promptly treated Hari then and there and treated myself to a HUGE pastry. :D                                                   

May included the best time in PS: Charanya’s Bangalore visit! Man, that was 5 days of pure indulgence and undiluted FUN! And Kavitha just moved to Bangalore because she started work in GMR, so met her a few times and cooked egg dosa and omelette… :D

The first weekend in May included my big trip to Coimbatore, and I saw my cousins after a really long time. I was out nearly the entire weekend, eating, sleeping and eating some more.

May and June were a scramble to finish the PS report and get out of Bangalore. But I had a really wonderful time while I was there, and still miss it.

The middle and end of June went in The Kauby and Vrish Poonal - Family event of 2008 (for me) and the DREADED visa interview!!!! That was an awesome week of partying, fun, tension and happiness. Oh, and of course another visit to Charanya (which ended with me sulking and contributing to it being not so nice).

July to September:

Well, this was a lot of fun for me and a lot less fun for Amma: SHOPPING! I emptied my parents’ accounts with the amount of shopping I did to come to the US.

It also included Rohan going off to Manipal. I was so sad to see my lil brother going off to college and growing up so soon! But I was also happy that he had to suffer the misery of washing his own clothes… :D The Manipal trip included a stop at Coimbatore, which was just AWESOME! Lakshmi and co just rock! We went to Palakkad and visited old relatives and temples, and had a great time there, too.

Back in Hyderabad, it was a whole lot of lazy days, missing Rohan and trying to convince Charan to come home. The high was her getting a job, and I was so happy for her! I on the other hand, spent a lot of time in front of the television, eating and sleeping more than anything.

The months were also spent looking for roommates and housing in Philly, and I met Suganya and Archana.

After a lot of shopping, I shipped off to Chennai on September 5^th, for my last round of family visits before I flew to the USA. My 22^nd birthday was a quiet affair, with the rain putting a damper on my dinner plans, and ending up with a candle-light dinner prepared by Appa (power cut!).

7^th September, 2008 was one of the best days of the year! It was Charan’s birthday and I got to spend the WHOLE day with her, which was just the best thing that could happen before I left India. It was truly one of the best days ever. We saw a movie, roamed around Spencer’s Plaza (one of my favourite places in the world!) and just had a good time in general. I met Kavi in Spencer’s and exchanged birthday presents with her.  And took some really nice and funny pictures. And oh, I got the best birthday present I could ever hope to get!

10^th September was the BIG day. It came time finally to bid goodbye to my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and Charan and fly to the US for my Masters’. I met Sug at the airport, and we flew to Philly together.

The rest of September went in settling down in Philly and the beginning of classes and MS.

October to December:

The last three months of the year were spent in studies, cooking, assignments, losing sleep, midterms and finals, and of course a lot of fun, too.

December was mostly about the Christmas break, which I spent eating and sleeping most of the time because I was short of cash. We spent new year’s eve at Penns Landing, watching the most spectacular fireworks display.

That was a brief look into the 2008 that was for me.