Picture album
Pre-historical
1. At IIT
Kharagpur: This is our graduating batch of Computer Science and Engineering
students. Those who are there in the picture know how much it is worth. Every
time I look at it, the memories, only the good ones, come hurtling down memory
lane and I waste a few minutes in delightful reveries. (picture)
2. Growing up:
A montage of images growing up in India. Perfect cure for any worry lines that
may be thinking of cropping up on my forehead. (picture)
3.
End of tenth grade:
Tenth grade is done. Board exams beckon and then the maelstorm of 11th-12th grades and IIT prep. (picture)
3. In Chicago:
At Somali's apartment near UI Chicago where she was doing her Masters at the time, with Maa. Taylor Place Apartment #903B has sweet memories galore. (picture)
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October: The Turkey Trot run with 23,000 running-crazy Austin-ites. (picture)
September: Shayok is a wannabe music star, during his birthday celebration. It happened in a county park near Austin, which has the big attraction of a toy train. Well he can play music alright, but after he gets his PhD in an engineering discipline (grin grin). (picture)
August: All ready for a trek up the mountains in Park City, UT. We were there for a Department of Energy workshop on failure resilience in exascale computing. The place is buzzing with activity over the winter skiing season. But for those wishing for the unspoiled wilderness, summer is a great time to visit. (picture)
2011
At my younger brother's wedding (August 2011): Our family at my younger brother Sutirtha's wedding in Philadelphia. The wedding ceremony was held in a place that was done up to look like an old French mansion. (picture)
DSN in Hong Kong (June 2011): I am addressing the audience at IEEE Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN) Symposium in Hong Kong. I was the Chair of the Program Committee and so got to entertain the audience during the beginning plenary with such sparkling gems as what was the acceptance rate of papers submitted to the conference. (picture)
Disneyland trip with Somali and Shayok (March 2011): Would you believe we did not go to the Magic Kingdom. The attractions of Epcot and Animal Kingdom kept us enthralled for our two days there. (picture)
2010
1. At DSN in
Chicago: We went out to lunch at Flat Top Grill, our favorite Mongolian place,
with our Portuguese friends Miguel (Correia, a faculty member at the Technical
University of Lisbon) and his wife Mary. Somali remembers vividly the sea food
place that Miguel took us to in Lisbon in 2009. Alas, that has set the bar so
high for all sea food places for her. (picture)
2. Shayok is
looking to open up the Bluetooth hands-free and see what circuit is inside. And
then he will move on to the IPOD. I say that is an Engineer in the making. (picture)
2009
1. All decked
up with the new one: Shayok said a loud “Hi” to the world on September 19. Here
he is with his proud parents, all decked up on the occasion of Durga Puja. (picture)
2. Famous Five
at Global Fest: Global Fest is a celebration of the international culture at
West Lafayette. As part of the student organization Asha, I am involved in
putting up a stall selling yummy Indian food, for the cause of education of
underprivileged children in India. Here we are the five of us – Somali, Baba
(Dad), Maa (Mom), my brother Sutirtha, and me at the entrance to this year’s
Global Fest. (picture)
3. Trip to
Nashville: Somali and I are budding country singers at the Grand Ole’ Opry in
Nashville, TN. The setting is quite inspiring despite the kitsch all around.
Once you enter the auditorium of the Opry and specially when you get on the
stage, the feeling is magical. (picture)
2008
1. UIUC trip
with Mammam and Dad (Somali’s parents): This picture is taken in front of the
apartment that I called home for more than 2 years. Lots of happy memories,
crowded with a frantic pace with work and frolic. (picture)
2. With the
DCSL research group and Mammam-Dad and Somali: Our day out with my entire
research group in summer. We are in front of the Earhart Dining Court where we
went out to eat. In the picture are my research group members, some with their
spouses. (picture)
3. Trip to
Naples for SRDS 2008: I stayed in a hotel right on the bay. Naples is reputed
in circles here as famous for its Mafiosi and pizza. The cautionary note as I
am walking to my hotel makes me think that there may be something to it. (picture)
4. Durga Puja
at Indy: Somali and I at the Durga Puja, the function of all functions for us
Bengalis. It is a celebration of the coming to earth of Mother Durga, our
goddess. We celebrate it with great gusto here in the US. Now we have a celebration
at West Lafayette. Apart from this, we have a tri-state Durga Puja which
rotates between Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. (picture)
2007
1. Trip to
a.
Hotel façade:
I stayed at the
b.
Street
intersection: This is the intersection right outside the hotel. Modes of
transportation of different shapes and levels of modernity vie for space. They
lead a happy co-existence with nary a bump or a fight. Everyone knows her right
of way in here.
c.
Banquet table:
We had a gala conference banquet at a traditional garden palace. It has now
been turned into a restaurant, as fancy as it gets. The waitresses are all
dressed in traditional finery and the cook is in the family line of cooks who
would serve the Qing dynasty (the last royal dynasty of
d.
Breakfast
cart: This is the real breakfast cart – the kind with wheels. An
enterprising wrinkled old man with his wife will bring it in every morning and park
it in the intersection in front of our hotel. He would fry and serve a crispy
dish and lather a sweet concoction on it. Language barrier and queasiness about
hygiene notwithstanding, I had a few of these one morning and I live to tell
the story.
e.
Traditional
attire: Though I starved, I had an interesting conversation in broken
English and sign language with this waitress at the restaurant. She said she
was glad to be able to practice her English skills.
f.
Great
Wall entrance: We went to the Great Wall, at the Mutianyu section a trifle
less afflicted by gawky tourists than the Badaling section. This is the ticket
counter. The Chinese flirtation with English is few and far between and often
leads to comic consequences.
g.
Atop
the Great Wall: The entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese vendors at the Great
Wall have to be admired, as must their persistence be admired. Here after
trekking up for two hours, we reach high up on the Great Wall and see a table
with a uniformed waiter serving champagne. Wow! Champagne at 10 RMB surrounded
by the mists.
h.
Tiananmen
Square: I woke up at the crack of dawn, took the subway and reached
i.
MIT of the
east: If I had been born in another country, I would have slogged through
the equivalent of the IIT-JEE exam to get inside the hallowed portals of
Tsinghua. The prosperity of the campus was evident to me even in my role as a
casual observer. The best universities in the
2. Aaron’s
Farm: I am negotiating heavy machinery with Aaron keeping a close watch. I am
pretending as if it is just another day’s work while Aaron is counting in his
head the damage to the farm that I can do if only I press down a little hard on
the accelerator. We were visiting Aaron’s farm in
3. Our trip to
a.
b.
c.
Edinburgh, HMS Britannia: We were taken to dine at this royal
yacht which till 1997 was for the use of Her Majesty for her leisurely
vacations when she would set sail for far off shores. Prince Charles and
Princess Diana took a honeymoon cruise aboard Britannia in 1981. We wined and
dined as kings and queens would, which is to say with an enormous amount of
paraphernalia and meager portions of vegetarian food. I have never seen so many
folks in bow ties before. (picture)
d.
A small town in
e.
Callander: The picture postcard town at the foothills of the
Trossachs. We walked through the untrodden hillsiders, boated on the “Lochs”,
and splashed cold water from the falls on us. (picture)
f.
Callander: The police is seldom called out in these placid spots.
In fact so taken aback were the Scottish police by the disturbance in
4. Saraswati
puja: At the Bengali association function in the
5. Snow storm
in February: Just when the global warming trend had lulled us into a mild
winter, we got a whopper. 18 inches of snow in
2006
1. DSN at
2. Our trip to
a.
Outside the ramparts of St. Malo walking to the National Fort.
b.
I am cowering in one of the German bunkers at Pont du Hoc, a town
off of one of the D-Day beaches. The steep climb to take this beach made it
extremely dangerous for the Allied troops. But take it they did. Two months
after the victory Allied troops had steam-rolled through the whole of
c.
The breathtaking sight of the abbey of
d.
Wouldn’t you like to get into this Smart Car, which gives 60 miles
per gallon. They are ubiquitous in
3. The day my
brother graduated (May): My younger brother, Sutirtha, graduated with his MBA
degree from Purdue’s Krannert School of Management in May. This is after the
formal ceremonies are over, when the cap has been tossed high up to the
ceilings of the Elliott Hall and he has his travel plans to Pittsburgh (he
joined McKinsey in their Pitt office) all finalized. This is when we loosened
our ties and belts and whooped it up at BW3 on the Levee. Together with Somali,
Sutirtha, and I, there are the Boffen-Yordanov’s, Sutirtha’s splendid host
family when he was here. (picture)
2005
1. Our trip to
northern
e.
Atop the crookedest street in the world –
f.
Imprisoned in the hole at the dreaded
g.
The famed cable car of
h.
The board walk of
i.
We chanced upon this pristine beach (Bonny Doon) as we drove
through the picturesque highway 1 which winds its way through the side of the
Pacific. This was like our private beach for the entire time we were there. (picture)
j.
We are immersed in mud. If you are going to say “yuck”, hold on.
This is a mud bath fit for royalty – mud and peat moss from
k.
We are at Sterling Winery and are overlooking the Three Palms
vineyard.
2. Me in front
of the Water God in the
3. In front of
the Bahai temple at
4. This is one
of our favorite haunts in town – there is an over abundant set of books, good
coffee, wireless internet … it all adds up to a great time for work or play. (April, 2005)
5. Moving out
of hired boardings to our own nest in
6. This seems
like
2004
1. Skiing high
over the
2. At the home
of Jim Beam, the famous Whiskey maker. The distillery is in the town of
3. A cozy
group of Seinfeld fans at a humble grad student abode in
4. At the
McGraws in
5. With
members of DCSL after our semester end party. From left: Nipoon, Gunjan, Hank,
Padma, Issa, Somali, Mark, and me. (Apr,
2004)
6. Singing on
the occasion of the Bengali New Year at Matthews Hall on the Purdue campus. The
Bengali New Year called Poila Boisakh falls on the first week of May and is
celebrated locally by the Purdue University Tagore Society. We put up a medley
of songs by Rabindranath Tagore on this occasion. (May,
2004)
7. All decked
up in
8. This is in
front of the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze (aka
9. At San Marco’s Square in front of Basilica di San Marco
in Venezia (aka Venice). This is one of the most photographed open spaces in the world. It
was difficult to tell if there were more people or pigeons at the place. The
lines to get in the Basilica made us give up, but standing in the square and
looking up at the Campanile (
10. Overlooking
the Chianti region, home of fine wines and fine dining. We were at the IFIP
Working Group 10.4 meeting and were entertained one evening in a castle on the
outskirts of
11. Basilica di San Pietro in the Vatican. Jesus said
to a fisherman: "You are Peter and on this rock I shall build my
Church" and thus was built the impressive basilica. It has been destroyed
and rebuilt several times since. If you are nimble footed, try the climb to the
top of the dome and take the guided audio tour. The view of the Pope’s
residence and garden from the top may tempt you to try to wangle an invitation.
They are typically off-limits to the public. (Jul,
2004)
2003
1. Somali in
St. Patrick’s Church, downtown
2. Somali and
I at Mesho’s place in
3. Asleep at
the wheels in
Saurabh Bagchi
Last modified: June 6,
2011