RP Hall - Illumination

A sneak peek at the Gold winning effort by RP Hall. With a maverick approach to Illumination this year, RP projected a silhoutte as compared to the usual periphery of images, and raced away to glory. Its a pity that I could not capture the other chatais - my batteries ditched me.

RK Hall - Illumination

RK Hall enjoys a location advantage, and it does really well to capitalize on the same. This gargantuan Samudra Manthan image which won Silver (only due to RP's unconventional concept) must've been one hell of a task to draw!

VS Hall - Illumination

One of the chatais at VS Hall, which won third place at Illu. It may be remembered that VS cried foul last year, saying that they were never awarded prizes and even threatened to boycott the event henceforth.

Patel Hall - Rangoli

This picture does no justice to what was arguably the best Rangoli this year (not a personal opinion, given that it was our Hall's creation, but backed by those of almost all on campus). Kudos to Shahzeb, Tudu and the rest of the gang!

VS Hall - Rangoli

This one went on to Win Gold at the event, with their depiction of the Onam festival

SN Hall - Rangoli

Hats off to Riti, Sheekha and other members of the team that won Second place at the event, despite infinite obstacles and a three-day marathon to completion!

LLR Hall - Rangoli

Wheel of Fortune

(VS Hall) A cool pattern of petals outside a Rangoli room

Mr. Nonchalance Personified

With Rachit Gupta (left) - the best 'don't care' attitude I've come across till date. We had a fun time in our labs (or should I say 'extra labs' - I'm sure he still curses me for those!) together back in third year.

The City that Never Sleeps

They don't say wrongly about New York that you've got to see it to believe it!
It was tough to take this pic from the Brooklyn bridge with all the wind and long exposure in the Cam.. On the left, in the background, try to spot the Statue of Liberty with the lighted torch.. When its Manhattan by night, its falling short of words and just gaping in awe..

Encore

And again.. Click and enjoy!

Times Square revisited

The Times Square looks just as spellbounding by the day, as it does by night..

Langotiya yaar - Parth

This trip was all about Parth.. I was in for the F1 race at Indianapolis that weekend, but there was no one who could've made me change my mind, other than Parth.. He's my closest pal from school, and shifted to New York to pursue his studies last year, at the Brooklyn Polytechnic University (seen in the background)..
Glad to find that he hasn't changed one bit! Same old PJs, same old 'heep' greetings, same old spurts of laughter and the same old 'Ruk, potty'!.. Among the few things in life that I really cherish, one of them is Parth's friendship..

Sourdon

Sourabh Dongaonkar, better known as Sourdon.. Sourabh, a fourth yr EE student from IIT Kanpur, was a fellow intern, and my closest buddy while at UMich.. He's probably the sweetest IITian I've ever come across! Be it discussing Electronics or bantering about the Prof's Secretary, I had a gala time in his company.. Missing your lingo a lot, pal!

Concrete Oasis

With Parth (left) and Sourabh (right).. Its a lobby inside one of the buildings of Financial Center.. The ambience looks really cool with all those coconut trees grown indoors..

Aeroholic@Parth.com

Parth is a passionate aeromodeler, and has been addicted to planes ever since he remembers.. From balsa-wood models to Radio-Controlled stuff, he's done it all! This is his desk at his dorm room..

Shopping Spree?

This is an area near the famous Fifth Avenue.. Shopping addicts would love to put it on their roster, sky high prices notwithstanding.. And what did Parth want to buy from here? "Baba, chappal!" ;-)

Albert Einstien would've smirked!

Sourabh (left), Parth(centre) and I, at Battery Park.. Parth is SO good with his whacky gestures.. Boy, I miss those school days with him..

The Statue of Liberty

12X zoom, used to the fullest! Here's the famous lady, as seen from Battery Park.. Whats better is that Battery Park faces the west, which makes it a PURRfect evening hangout..

The Hudson River

Man, that kind of a view would make a poet out of anyone! The Hudson seems draped in Gold..

New York by dusk

Lighted through the haze.. This one's from atop the Empire State Building.. Picture: courtesy Sourabh

Washington Square

Located bang in the heart of the city, this place reminds me of Five Gardens at Matunga, Bombay.. It isn't that apparent in this pic, but the tree cover around this area is pretty dense and makes it one of the surprisingly and uncharacteristically serene locations of NYC..

The Brooklyn Bridge

The 'Kal Ho Na Ho' Brooklyn bridge.. I had seen it only from a distance on the Harbor Cruise last year.. Looks pretty neat up close..

Freedom Tower

The monument that's coming up in the void created by the World Trade Center.. It has been designed to grow even taller than WTC itself! ('Museum mode' in my Nikon CoolPix rocks!)

Bus breakdowns - in the US?

Yeah, it can happen in the US too.. On the way from Philadelphia to NYC, a tyre went bust and the virtually disintegrated until the bus came to a standstill.. It wasn't before 4 hot hours and a lot of cribbing that we were finally put onto another bus.. Meanwhile, I had some lousy company in the form of a cynical American lady who thought that the world was coming to an end.. Phew!

Shucks Benjy - you made a spelling mistake!

At the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.. That is Benjamin Franklin's statue.. Arti, from my school in Bombay, who now studies at UPenn, gave me one of the most verbose tours of the campus.. This pic is dedicated to her patience and excitement :-)

Downtown Philadelphia

Philly is one of those cities that, like Athens, looks a lot more pretty by the night! With lotsa avenues to shop and a host of cuisines to eat, night-life at Philly is really enjoyable.. Arti and I had dinner at an Italian restaurant that night.. Dim lighting, soft music and great food - Easily one of my most memorable evenings!

Liberty Bell

Another symbol of the American Independence - the Liberty Bell.. Philly probably is only second to Washington DC in that sense..

Independence Hall

The place where the Constitution of the United States of America was signed.. I would've loved to go inside, though, but the day being July 4 itself, the site was cordoned off by 8 in the evening..

Bombay Pav Bhaji, in Michigan?

One of Chintan Sanjeev Kapoor's best dishes! My tummy was missing Bombay a lot.. Easiest solution - recreate it! Succulent is the word, replete with butter and neatly cut onions, with toasted bread to make up for the Pav..

Askeplion

Candid pic, that one! Its one of those Greek pillars in the background, from Askeplion, the first ever hospital in the world, built by Hippocrates. Forget the facts - enjoy the pic!

Smack n Slurp!

Don't get too many ideas - I just had half a glass of beer! The food, of course, is more interesting - you can see it on my face!

The Kos Harbour

The Kos harbour was not as beautiful as the Sydney harbour, but you've gotto give it to them, since its a very small place. It looks more romantic by the night.

The Welcome Reception

We were given a wonderful welcome reception by the conference guys, at this village called Zia at the hills of Kos. The show started with a Greek dance troupe, with traditional music, and was followed by dinner at one of the restaurants nearby. Not in picture is some red wine, which I prefer to name 'Cough syrup'. (From l to r, Ankita, me, Nikhil and Marek, a Polish researcher).

Paani paani re..

Kos has almost a continuous beach-line all round the island. This one was right in front of our hotels. The sunset, goes without saying, was spectacular! (although I missed it on this particular day)

The MIT Gang

Here's me having lunch with the MIT fellas - 'Superthok' Soumyajit Mandal at the left (I don't think I need to introduce him - Google search for comprehensive results!) and Mike to the right. Both of them are so smart and yet so down-to-earth at the same time.

Greek Dinner

Our first shot at Greek food. I'm glad that they had quite a few vegetarian dishes - stuffed tomato and rice, olives (which I didn't like eventually) and the ever-safe Pizza. They also have this drink called the Oozo, which tastes like Indian 'saunf', and had me raving all over!

Impromptu jig

The banquet, which started slowly, ended up as one of the most memorable days of my life! The Greek music band invited for the show gave more than we could've asked for. Seen here, letting my hair down, in Greek dance fashion. Greeks have lotsa intricate foot movements, and it was quite a while before I could feel like a fish in the water. Special mention for the violin - t'was outstanding!

Outside the window

Thats the view from our hotel room. Nikhil, as usual, is the subject of the pic.

The Kos Skyline

Now thats the difference between Ankita's 60 Euro per night room as compared to our 25 Euro place shared by two- the view from the balcony!

Top of the Island

Not a very remarkable pic as such, but we had a tough time adjusting the timer in the cam. Its the Kos island in the background. How we got there after 4 kms of uphill cycling is another story in itself, and by the end of it, Ankita was all ready to pounce upon us for our ideas! To think of it, she was the one who had ditched her transfer to the airport and join us in the first place!

Million-dollar smile

Nikhil Gupta - aquaintance at Athens airport, room-mate at Kos, companion at the conference, and one of my quickest best friends! The two of us went along famously, and with the chidings and repartees all over the place, we had a blast at Greece with each other's company. Nikhil's doing his PhD at Concordia University, Canada.

I'm an Ace Photographer's Son!

Nikhil's too good with his poses, and after long last, I am trying to live up to my Dad's name with a few good close shots. It might not be very classy, but I'm pretty satisfied with the effort anyways!

Business Class

My first stint in a blazer, with Ankita (Singla, from IITM) and Nikhil, at the banquet. I look pretty unfamiliar in that attire, since casuals take up most of my wardrobe at all times. Nevertheless, not too bad, isn't it?

Wet and raring to go!

This place is Papas Water Sports, where we had an adrenaline-filled ride of water skiing, lying on a tube. Racing across the wavefronts of Kos at 40kmph was replete with unnerving lateral G-forces and water splashed all over!

Farewell at the Hippocrates Tree

At the conference farewell, with (l to r) Kiran from GaTech, Ayaskant from Texas Instruments India, Nikhil Gupta from Concordia University, Canada and my first ever White Wine from Greece! :-)

The world-famous Parthenon of Greek civilization

Thats the most famous Greek monument in the Acropolis area of Athens. Famous - hmm.. Honestly, I hadn't heard of it before! It seems that they're on a massive renovation spree, which is why you can see all those bars.

The Temple of Zeus, or Jupitor

You know why I'm not in the picture? Its obvious - I'm running away after I did that to the millenium old temple!
Jokes apart, that one was toppled by a storm in the 1800s and they have preserved it in the same state ever since. Ruins cost 12 Euros to see, man! India should learn from these innovations at tourism! :P

A 2500-year old Theatre at Athens

The Greeks call it 'Odeon'. Its amazing to see how they've preserved things this old!

My talk at IUI 2006, Sydney

I've given talks before, but never to an international audience! Strangely though, but I didn't have any nerves this time around, thanks to Nuria's calls every morning and the rehearsals for the talk with her, over the phone, at my hotel room. :-)