Hello everyone!!
I hope everbody’s having a nice reading break. But I doubt if people are into studies today. It has been drizzling and raining continuously; something I wouldn’t wish for on Valentine’s Day, but with the weather getting colder, I am lost in explosive reminiscence. The memory of having a very special company, in front of a fireplace inside a house, with sweet slow music playing, with incense burning, with only the fire illuminating the whole place making the chandeliers on the ceiling glitter like diamonds, with a similar chilly and rainy weather outside. I am drowning in an ocean of nostalgia :).
Okay then, let me swim back to the present. I will take an opportunity to speak about my experiences I had this weekend. Friday started with intervewing a few undergraduate students (for assisting me in my research during summer), along with my supervisor Dr Sheldon Green and colleague Haiya Peng. Then I dealt with classes and assignments for the rest of the day until around four, when I thought it was time for some coffee but when I went to Tim Hortons, I had a chance meeting with a friend named Vasu Tiwary, a very jovial and enthusiastic person, apart from being a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics, UBC. I had a ‘valuable’ conversation with him, about life and about novels, something I usually miss to have. Then I went to the Birdcoop gym for a little workout and when I left for home I was extremely fatigued. I had to return back to UBC by eight to attend my tango class at REC.
The tango class in the REC studio has been an exciting experience this term. When I speak about tango to some people, I get an impression that they consider the dance to be a simple one with a male and a female dancer holding hands and walking and circling the dance floor in a trivial sync, but I believe the dance is a very sophisticated one, which requires a lot of practice to learn it well. I also feel that it is a dance with an elegance of its own. The more the passion, the more the flair of execution of this dance.
When I returned home, I had a small gathering with Javier and Manuel, my Spanish and Mexican roommates. We had a few drinks before going to sleep. I was really tired after the long day. But I think something remained to happen. At around 4 am, I suddenly woke up and realized someone was playing music with high bass in the room underneath mine. After enduring it for around half an hour it wasn’t anymore bearable, so I went and requested the guy to reduce the volume. After a low volume for around 10 minutes, I found the music volume had been raised again and so I went again and this time, with a slightly hard tone, asked the person to reduce the volume for I was not able to sleep. And the same thing happened again. Then, I was running out of patience and due to all the fatigue from the previous day, I was turning paranoid. At around 5 am, I dialled the house owner’s number but my call wasn’t answered. Then I had no option but one. I called 911 and then my my call was forwarded to Vancouver Police, who then gave me a non-emergency number and asked me to call immediately. Getting the police involved only for someone playing loud music may seem unnecessary to some people but to all those people I say that, had you been in that situation and seen the person’s attitude, you would have done the same. I called the non-emergency phone number and said about this person who was not cooperating and was probably taking drugs, and in around 25 minutes, two large Vancouver Police vehicles pulled over in front of my residence. I was called and asked to open the front door, which I did and then, directed the 3 cops who came in, to the door of the annoying person. The person was interrogated for around half an hour and since I was listening from a distant place, it seemed to me that the cops even found some objectionable thing in his room (I shall not go into much detail here). The person was given a warning and they said, this time he wasn’t arrested. Well, I had a problem and I dealt with it.
Rest of Saturday wasn’t so exciting so I will switch to Sunday. I had not been to a church for a long long time and it was really great to have an invitation to a church from Peter Anderson, a graduate student under the supervsion of Dr Green pursuing his PhD. I donot remember the name but the church is located close to Dunbar. It is a Baptist church and when we were there, songs were performed and we all sang. It was a very holy and spiritful atmosphere inside the church. After the songs, people prayed. There was prayer for children who were born recently and for mothers who were going to deliver soon. There was prayer for the people of Egypt. After the prayers, the pastor of the church spoke about the history of churches in different parts of the world. After the final prayer, we went to have a potluck meal which was arranged that day. One very nice thing I noticed was that everybody knew almost everyone else and it kind of felt like home. Everybody was introducing oneself without hesitation and it really felt so good to be there. I am thankful to Peter for inviting me as I had a very special time at the church.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll return soon and next time I shall talk about some of the graduate students at my office. Have a good night, everyone 🙂
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