Random update...

I removed the McCandless picture from the right side, because I felt I´ve moved on from whether he was right or wrong. Not that I have a satisfactory answer. Just that: that question does not bother me now.

Spending time in the lab (i.e a computer lab, not a real laboratory) makes me happy. I have some great, very nice people as researchers (that is - bosses) here. Especially when compared to the complaints other people say about their teams and advisers. I´ve decided to continue here for next whole year, for the Master thesis. Somehow I feel comfortable. But this also means I´ve gone back to my ways in India, i.e, not meeting new people, not going for parties, etc. But good. Life seems bright. But for two months I take a break from my lab, and plan to go to Paris, Berlin, etc. Even though I have no plans for August.

I am not reading these days. Which means, mind is rather static, without new radically different ideas and passions coming to the mind. I took a book from the library today (Away - stories from Indian expatriate life - edited by Amitava Kumar), and read it on the way to the lab. I was quite disappointed by reading the letter written by Nehru to Vijayalakshmi Pandit - nothing much great and very mundane, but with plenty of complexes. May be I will write more about it later. I also read the love letters written by Sarojini Naidu to her lover and future husband, when she was in London and was merely 15 years old! The love letters are very warm and not much poetic, what much to expect from a 15 year old. Not that they are bad. But the letters by Tagore seem to be interesting.

Talking about Nehru, I also read about an encounter Neruda had with him - in his autobiography - when he visited India after her Independence, when Nehru was the Prime Minister. Nehru does not come up as much great in this narrative too. Not that he cease to be a hero for me, but just that I wished I had a more godly figure to admire.

I did some traveling, but they cannot be called travel. I saw some places, did some you-shouldnt-do things, and was mostly happy. But its not a travel I want to write about. Or where I have a story to narrate about, or think about with a smile. Not like that Tamilnadu trip I took few years back. I feel I am more suited to traveling alone - trips with friends are very nice and enjoyable - but they count more as vacation trips. But a good mixture of all these is the best, and I am glad I made the trip.