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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Hello everyone! My name is Anupam Biswas and I am a new graduate student in Mechanical Engineering Department. I graduated from the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. And now, here I am in Vancouver, Canada, for the first time outside my country, pursuing my master’s in Mech, UBC. I arrived here on September 2nd, 2010 after completing 35 hours of flight but I soon realized that I wouldn’t really hesitate to make 500 hours of continuous journey to be in British Columbia, as it is, no doubt, one of the ‘The Best Places on Earth’.

As I am from India, I have always been in multicultural milieu, wherever I have been there. And now here in UBC, it is a delight to be amidst people from different parts of the world. Living here, kind of feels like being a global citizen. In my opinion, to be a part of the student community here in UBC is, besides academics, a great opportunity to learn about other cultures and communities of the world.

I was being told to blog from a really long time, not because I am a great blogger or a page 3 columnist or something :), but simply because I had consented to the idea of blogging and was constantly procrastinating. My apologies for that. Better late than never. I will certainly not justify myself for this delay but I will surely talk about MECH 502 :). Well that is a fluid mechanics course taught by Dr. Ian Frigaard. If one is interested in fluid mechanics, wants to expand his or her knowledge in the area and doesn’t really mind giving the brain a hard time for around four months, this course is a ‘must take’ :). And not taking it is a mistake :), though one has to go through excruciating hours while solving the assignments, for which the deadlines are usually a month after the question sheets are provided. I am sure those who have taken this course already and are reading this blog, are nodding inside their heads. That is why it was so difficult to begin anything else, because all the time, that is, even hours after the lecture, there were always certain words revolving around the centre of the mind, like Reynolds number, Stokes number, Hele-Shaw, squeeze-damper, thin films and many more. But believe me, at the end you are always content of having learnt so much in the course.

Well life in UBC is so full of things. It is difficult to keep oneself without anything to do. I believe it is like ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to learn so much, and in a myriad of domains. As far as graduate student life is concerned, I think these two or three years of life, keeps one involved and occupied in lab-work for long hours besides gathering extensive amounts of scientific knowhow. I’m sure the idea of getting a sleeping bag for ones’ office is not really a novel one :). I have no doubt that life in UBC for everyone is a grand and unforgettable experience.

To learn, to explore, to leave a mark behind                                                                  Here we are in UBC, a place of mind

Thank you! You can reach me at anupambiswas85@gmail.com. Frankly I don’t like the ‘interchange’ in Mech emails, so I don’t use it.

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