Mushrooms, with a sprinkling of supervisions

Thursday, October 18th contd...

In the evening, we had the Trinity singer's rehearsal. Practised a bit before the rehearsal and then went to the chapel for the rehearsal at eight. As usual, it lasted until ten. Then I got hold of the pianist and a score for Handel's Hallelujah chorus and practised it with the piano once for the audition tomorrow. Fixed a rehearsal time with James, the pianist, for 1 pm tomorrow.


Friday, October 19th

Had a QM and an REL class as usual. Then disappeared from the Cavendish as I had my Corpus Christi Chapel Choir audition at 2pm. Went to St. John's and took last night's sabzi (mattar aloo) from the fridge, brought it back to Trinity in a box and had it here with bread. Then left for the music practice room to meet James. He came soon after one. We went through the piece a couple of times and then he left and I went to Corpus. Waited outside the chapel for a bit for Leo Tomita, the organ scholar at Corpus whom I had been in touch with. He told me immediately that "there was too much of a gap" between what they wanted and where I stood in terms of singing ability and that I should try music lessons and that they'd open up a whole new world. I think so too.

Came back and worked on the REL supervision assignment, which is to be submitted on Sunday. Waited long whiles for Nandhini to come for dinner preparation. Got a mail from Pradipta, my CCT parent, saying that he was back from Arizona and would I like some candy? Gladly replied in the affirmative. He arrived at 9 as I was waiting for Nandhini. Since there was no dinner to be had and no Nandhini either, went with him to his room and helped him make a Bengali experiment. Don't know what they call it but it is made with paneer (which was readily made by putting some lemon in milk and then strainging the liquid through a handkerchief). The paneer is gathered into balls and fried (more easily said than done) and then put in a curry. It wasn't too bad, but it was an experiment after all. Had it with rice at around midnight.

Came back from Jesus Lane where Pradipta's room is, to find most entrances into the Blue Boar Court compund locked, being early am. Went around to the main gate (across the street from the Great Gate of the college) and was finally able to get in.


Saturday, Octber 20th

Slept long. Awoke at 10:30 and got ready. Went to see the Great Court Run at 12 noon. The college has one Great Gate and the courtyard it opens into is called Great Court. There, every year, on the noon of the day of the Matriculation dinner, they hold the Great Court run. In that, you have to run around the perimeter of the court as the clock strikes 12 and finish before the clock finishes donging. It goes ding-dong four times (to indicate that it is a full something-o'clock) and then dangs oclock times and finally dongs oclock times.

I went ot great court just before 12 and found to my delight that today people were allowed to get onto the grass, which covers most of the court in four patches. There were runners arrayed in running suits streching just inside the Great Gate and another group of runners in fancy dress (there's a prize for fancy dress) under the clock tower, which is to your right if you are standing inside the court with the Great Gate behind you). The idea of putting the fancy dress runners there is that they don't impede the srious runners starting at the Great Gate. It's assumed that runners beginning at the clock tower will have sufficient speed to get out of the way (i.e. cross the Great Gate) before the serious runners reach it at the end of their lap.

So it danged 12 times and donged twelve times and in that time of some 45 seconds, Sam Dobin managed to run around the court. The full story, which made headlines, can be found at: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk
I was there to see it and to cheer Sam on :) Wish I'd made a movie.

Checked email and wrote to Nandhini reminding her about today's Durga Puja, which was being organised by the town's Hindu cultural society. Read a bit and then picekd up Nandhini and went to the Durga Puja for free lunch. I've heard it said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Accepted it grudgingly, having to wait until 4 for the lunch. Boring puja. The mantras and even the pulic announcements were in Bengali. The whole thing was held in some sort of a hall (It's called Guildhall. Don't know what it is really. Just a hall, I suppose. In fact there are two, big hall and little hall, inside this building called Guildhall. So much for British naming conventions).

Came back and worked on the REL assignment until 7:30. Today we had the college matriculation dinner. I'll write about that in a separate post as there is much to tell. That's it for Saturday.


Sunday, October 21st

Went for a jog, for the first time on a Sunday. I'm afraid I caught a chill. It was severely cold that morning. It's a requiredment of the human bidy for the inhaled breath to be brought to a certain temperature and the cilia were hard pressed for the task, with the result that I had a headache from the cold air that morning. Is till have it, compunded with some loss of sleep, making me wonder if it may be meningitis (!) but we have a habit of personally glorifying everything. Will go and sleep in a bit and hope it wears off...

Anyway, to continue my Sunday story, I met Shivam early morning and bought some cheese-and-onion breadspread. Made some sandwiches and dropped off some at Nandhini's with the aim that I'd arrive at John's again in the afternoon for lunch. Discovered when I got there with the Sandwiches at 11 that she had already made lunch (grr) and was planning to go to the Gates Common room (lucky Gates scholars of the world have a common room for themselves with free soup - I think I mentioned it before in one of my posts) to study. Seeing my lunch slipping away before my eyes, I dissuaded her from going there just yet. Cambe back and had sandwiches. Shivam kindly offered to drop off my REL assignment in P. Wong's pigeonhole. I put a slip on the assignment apologising for the handwriting. Shivam then left with my REL assignement and I sad down to work on the Quantum Mechanics assignment, which is due Tuesday.

Worked until 2, then went to John's and found Nandhini had eaten the lunch she had made at eleven, at eleven itself and had left the sandwiches. I had the remainding sabzi with bread for lunch and she had the sandwiches. Then I decided to travel to the Gates room with her and avail of some freesoup along with finishing my QM work. Picked up my books from Trinity and we went to the Gates room. On the way I bough a calling card for 5 pounds. I can now call home (whoopie!). Haven't used it yet.

Came back from the Gates room at eight thirty. It was bitterly cold outside. Carried some cups of freesoup to warm the hands and the minds :)
Reached John's and cooked. Made Dal-palak (palak in dal) and mattar-makki. She made the dal, I made the mattar. Very nice dal and ditto for the mattar. We had it with rice. Left for the night.


Monday, October 22nd

Dragged myself out of bed for the morning run. !5 minutes is now standard. Lot of fun, but it is getting cold now. Have been running with gloves on, but wish there was something to cover my ears. Will look around for ear muffs. Had Comp Phy and REL today. REL was nice! We talked about antenna theory. Met the prof after class and told him about the radio telescope and that I had seen the syllabus before coming here and been waiting for this lecture.

Went back to college and picked up some bread on the way. Went to John's and got last night's veggie and had it with the bread. Was feeling queer and so slept a while. Then rushed at 2:30 pm back to the Cavendish for my first supervision. The (REL) supervision was fine. There were three of us and a P. Wong, PhD student studying MRI in the Radiology lab. Pauline (Wong) first asked us if there were any specific questions about any part of the course so far. Upon a reply in the negative, we proceeded to discuss the questions. Very friendly environment. She also told me there was nothing wrong with my handwriting and that she'd seen much worse. Brightened a little on hearing so. When we came to the qns on Maxwells' equations, she said let's write them down one by one. She began with div B = 0. David Yu wrote down Div E = rho / epsilon naught. Bo wrote down curl E = - del B / del t. I was the unfortunate on to get the last one, the one with the curl B and so proceeded to mess it up with pomp and flair.

Anyhow, after the supervision, which lasted an hour, walked back with Bo to Trinity. Then sat down to beat out the QM questions. Had a tough time and was late going to Nandhini's for dinner. Discovered that she'd made rice and dal for both of us, but thinking that I woulnd't come, had made palak and eaten it all. Reminded her that we'd still need something for lunch the next day. Made some mattar-mushroom and had it with the rice and dal that was left (which was quite a bit) and then packed up the leftover sabzi into her lunch for Tuesday and my and Shivam's lunch for Tuesday as well.

Left just before 10 and made it out of the St. John's Great Gate just as they were closing it, with the porter on my heels. Came back, sighed and sat down to finish the QM assignment. Got into bed just as the Trinity clock struck 12 midnight.