America is cool! I knew that back home but never knew that it was pretty cold too. The winter spell is just beginning with the temperatures dropping
drastically day by day. I have never witnessed such a phenomenal change in
weather overnight where I went to sleep in my apartment wearing shorts and woke up with a sweater and pyjamas. It was chilling, and still is. The winters in many parts of the US are extremely cold, especially the parts in the north. My friends in New York sure gave me a complex when they retorted to my comments on the weather here by saying "Big Deal! its -1 C here". It sure scares the wits out of me when I look forward to my trip to New York in December when most probably the temperatures there could go to -10 to -15 degree Celcius. I guess I will need to spend more money buying stuff to survive in the cold there than I actually spent buying the air tickets!
I remember this part of the year being a big celebration time in India with
Diwali, Dusshera, and Durga Puja happening. It's strange that here it is so
difficult to even remember the days when these festivals are because the
academic calender is not affected by them. It won't be a surprise if I am actually sitting through a mid-term exam at Diwali night, something that I can never imagine being through in India. But fortunately the presence of a big Indian community in the US does make these days different from the rest. Last week we celebrated India Week on campus with every day having an Indian theme ranging from garba, to dandiya and bhangra. This was accompanied by a spell of Indian dinner buffets and lots of delicious Indian food served everyday. The week ended with a gala garba get together at the Indoor stadium of the University. It was a pleasure seeing many Indians dressed up in traditional attire. I guess the flavor of the week was pretty much Indian.
Last week was concurrent with Navratras in India. I remember not having non-vegetarian food during navratras in India and was pretty much wanting to avoid the same stuff here. Very soon I realized how difficult it seemed to
stay a vegetarian in US. The definition of vegetarianism in the US is based upon reasons of health and fitness and not on religious grounds. A vegetarian here might have bacon, eggs, and mayonnaise and still be called the same, however contradictory this might sound to vegetarianism in India. I had a real tough time hunting for vegetarian food and had to resort to the help of my vegetarian friends in India who are in large numbers here and deserve appreciation. They sure have settled down here pretty well, despite the problem of availability of meat-less food and actually look much healthier than us guys who survive on hamburgers and steak. There are many such options available for vegetarians in the US, including lots of prepared canned food dinners, all green vegetables we commonly had in India, rice, pulese, etc. Further, there are so many Indian grocery stores in the US and many of them are online so getting your favorite brand of Sambar Masala should not be a problem at all.
It had been more than a month of classes and it is now the time when all the
professors schedule and conduct mid-term exams to test our knowledge of the subject midway through the semester. I appreciate this to be a very good practice since it makes me consistent with studies and motivates me to work constantly for the subject. Moreover, these exams carry a big percentage
of the weightage (about 20-30% of the final grade) which makes them equally
important as the final exam (carrying the same percentage) and there was no
reason why I shouldn't take them seriously. Studying for the mid-term exam was a wholesome experience, which is a slightly different approach as to what I experienced in India. I noticed a strong preference of people to sit together (community learning, discussion groups etc) and solve problems as compared to individually studying for the exam. Further, each test was preceded by a review of the entire content by the professor so that it makes it easy to get the whole picture. It might sound strange but for many of the tests here it is allowed to carry books and notes to the exam, which indicates that the preference of the education system is to actually apply knowledge than just memorize the subject. The content of the tests was very much as I had anticipated it to be, intuitive thinking and application of knowledge to problems. The papers were generally of short duration but sure meant to tax the brains. It was great going through the first set of mid-terms here. I sure saw some of my hair turning grey when I got over
with the exams!
Letters Home
Forums
