S से San Diego

"How's Mihir?", my aunt asked my mother a day before I was scheduled to fly out to the States. My mother has been a creative creature for as long as my memory serves me, and her reply only reinforced that belief — "He seems fine, but only once he writes his blog a year and a half later, will we know for sure." I remember this exchange distinctly, and moreover I wrote it down in my diary — something I had decided to maintain over the course of the next foreseeable future. Just a couple of days back I had written about my undergraduate experience and while the memories had made the words flow naturally, I was almost certain that I had missed out on so called smaller incidents that must have been crucial to my growth during those four years. I did not want to repeat the same mistake, and I believed that noting down incidents, and emotions in real time would aid my memories when (not if)  I did decide to pen down my blog once I completed my master's. So here I am, nineteen months after that particular exchange between my aunt and mother — ready to tell you my story.

diary entry

For those of you who've known me for a while would remember that I was heading out for my master's in Computer Science to the University of California San Diego. Now for all the others who just joined in during this new phase, let me fill you in on one major (not so major, as I learned it the hard way) detail — I had an undergrad degree in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology! In the larger scheme of things, this did not matter — and although I say this confidently right now, my mentality and initial encounters with this past reality were far from where I am today. But more of that later. 

In the days leading up to my departure, we were all calm, at least that's how I felt, and was made to feel. This was not the first time their only son was leaving home under the pretext of getting better education outside the abode of Pune. Undergrad in Delhi, and internships in the summer had robbed them of quality time with me, but a delayed start to the academic calendar in the States, did help us spend four months of uninterrupted time from May to September, before I left. That, and knowing the potential challenges I was going to face over the next few weeks, given my past encounters of moving away from home, meant that I was not expecting any real surprises. 

But there were some. Being a graduate student meant that I was no longer guaranteed on-campus housing, and was instead on a waitlist. Four others, and me found a place a few minutes away in a two-bedroom apartment. Now I've stayed in a hostel room with two others before (during undergrad), in a space that was one-fifth the size of this apartment — so it was not exactly about too many cooks spoiling the broth, but well it was. It's hard for me to adjust and compromise on certain beliefs — I realized. I had arrived with the notion that I wanted to manage my own groceries and make my own meals, apart from the odd occasion where of-course we could make meals together, and I had my reasons for this — it helped (and made sense to me) to visit the store periodically and plan for the week. Coming back from university knowing what's in the fridge, rather than being surprised to find an empty stock was not a headache I wanted to burden myself with. But the others were not of the same opinion, and having this conversation explaining my rationale was something I did not look forward to. There was a palpable tension in the air once we did talk about it, and although it felt weird for a bit, I knew I would be much more relaxed now that this was sorted. Cleanliness was and has always been a major issue for me over the years, and I'll vent out some of those issues as we move along the months.

walking out of class to see this

I realize now that I have spoken about things that are remotely related to the academics side of things, and it's time we digress (or rather progress) to that. The day I arrived in San Diego, I remember going for a walk around the campus with three of my flat mates, two of whom were also going to pursue Computer Science — but their situation was different from mine — they already had a lot of exposure to this field during their undergrad. Part of the conversation was about the courses they planned to take to supplement their knowledge, and both of them seemed to know exactly what they were doing and wanted to do. I threw around the phrase, "machine learning", a couple of times knowing well enough (or rather under the false impression) that I was no where close to the clarity they had. I knew I had to cover a breath of fundamental CS courses to strengthen my roots, but knowing is one thing and believing and sticking to your plan amongst a circus of students trained in this field, is an entirely different ball game. But things slightly changed for the better on orientation day.  It was a day long affair on the ninth of September. No sooner did we arrive at the auditorium, were we given some merchandise that instantly brought a smile to my face. We seated ourselves in the room that was now packed with two hundred and fifty students all here to do their master's in CS — this observation once again overwhelmed me — these were people who had stronger fundamentals than me, and on paper, were better(?) than me. My fears subsided in the background as different professors welcomed us and spoke about what UC San Diego had to offer, but none of that has stayed with me in my memory, apart from a question that the moderator asked one of the panel members. "A lot of students are coming here with a non-CS background and would be in the same class as those with a CS background. They're bound to feel out-of-place, so what is your advise for them?" The moderator had almost read my mind, and the question was floating around the room begging for someone from the panel to answer. The panel consisted of senior engineers from some of the companies here in San Diego, and one of them rose to the occasion — I don't remember her exact words, but the essence has stayed with me ever since. She went on to describe how students with a background in CS may often do a master's because a bachelor's is no longer sufficient in most cases in today's world, and they're probably doing it out of necessity. But for those students who have changed majors — they had the desire and passion to make the change, they know exactly why they're pursuing another field and already realize the need to put in the effort to cover the gap. She went on to say how students like me are likely to work harder and stay motivated all along to make the transition smooth! She had fired her arrow, and it had hit my bulls eye — that was it, I remembered why I had applied for a master's in CS in the first place and acknowledged the barriers I needed to overcome — and needed to be confident all along in my abilities.

The first day of classes was two weeks later — it was a course on Natural Language Processing (NLP). The professor began explaining the course outline, and as part of the grading criteria, we had to complete a quarter (shorter version of semester) long project in groups of three. I knew a few others in the class at that point in time, and no sooner had the professor announced this, three of them decided to group up. I again went through a phase of being overwhelmed  — how would I find someone to do the project; why would someone take me in their team with no background; how would I pass this course? These thoughts continued throughout the rest of the hour long lecture. The class got over and I immediately dialled my father back home, in India. It was important for me to talk through this, and as usual he calmed me down, and made me realize that I was just following my usual cycle  — the initial overwhelm before the calm. The solution was simple  — I had to talk to the others I knew and simply form a group, but the uncertainty of someone wanting to form a team with me kept banging on my head. To add to this, the recruitment season was here, or probably it had been going on for a while, but I was made aware of it then. Unlike the Indian system, where you register on a university portal, and give company tests, the States implemented the model of career fairs  — companies literally put up a stall and students needed to go and impress their representatives within a minute after an hour long wait in the queue (per company). We as students had just begun our master's and were immediately expected to portray our skills for an internship nine months away, when the sole reason for doing a master's was to gain those skills! Brutal, to say the least. 

my first career fair

I went about preparing for my 'elevator-pitch', and even spoke to a dozen companies on the actual day, walking them through my resume. Parallelly, I was doing two courses other than NLP, and given that we had a ten week quarter system rather that a traditional semester  — the same amount of content needed to be covered at a faster pace. Assignments were a weekly or a bi-weekly affair, and if we were lucky the deadlines did not coincide. The first set of assignments for all three course arrived right around the same time, and it was only fair that I implemented my cycle  — I was overwhelmed. "How does a Biochemical Engineer do all this?", I kept thinking. It was then that I had an epiphany — if I continued believing and telling myself that I had no background to do well in this field, I would never do well, even if I could. Never. It was right around the same time — during one of my lectures, the professor of my Algorithms course had just finished discussing a problem. While some students were able to solve it, most of us couldn't. He shared an anecdote about how the whole world seems to be obsessed with machine learning, but no one seems to remember our roots  — the brain. If we train it enough to look at more and more similar such problems, the mind would be trained to recognize patterns and do well. These two experiences — the epiphany and this anecdote, did me a world of good, and I began the process of rewiring my thoughts, and confidence!

getting dressed for the career fair

I seem to have taken up a lot of space just for my first quarter (and there were five), but it was pivotal in so many ways — probably each of them was for different reasons. Two of the three courses I did in that first quarter were taught on the blackboard, with the professor moving from one end of the room to another, interacting with the students. The idea and process of taking down notes replicating what the professor was doing on the blackboard was an experience in itself — reminiscent of school. Like I mentioned earlier, assignments were posted periodically, and that brought with it the need to plan ahead and manage time well. Biochemical Engineering during undergrad did not bring with it many assignments, and most of our grading was based on exams — so this was something new for me. I used to be busy during my first degree, but that was attributed to spending more time exploring the city and being with friends, but this time around, majority of the chunk went to completing work — it felt good to be busy — the mind was made to think and I felt satisfied. I eventually formed a group for the project, and that earlier tension subsided. The course on NLP also had the concept of iClicker questions where during each lecture, the professor would put up some questions that were supposed to be answered using remotes that were replicas of the ones you would have come across during the audience-poll on Kaun Banega Crorepati. The intent of these questions was more for the purposes of attendance, and they were basic to the degree that if you were paying attention in class, one would easily be able to answer them. During the last lecture of the quarter, the professor mentioned that she had decided to reward the top three students based on their iClicker scores, and to my surprise, I was one of them! She called me on to the platform and gifted me with a book — this was so symbolic, for so many reasons. Ten weeks ago, in this same class, at the same time, I was worried about not forming a team, about not doing well, doubting my abilities, questioning my decision to do a master's, and now here I was — being recognized for the efforts I had put during those ten weeks. I was now, finally, pursuing a master's in computer science, in body, mind and soul.

me after being awarded the book

Fast-forward by four weeks, to early January. I had just arrived back to the States after a three week vacation in India. Now it probably isn't common for a lot of students to fly back home after just three months, but we as a family felt it would be nice if I did come home for sometime. When I got back in January, things were much more different — this time around I would be in the States for over a year without meeting my family, and this was something that had not happened before. I can't recollect exactly (and my diary doesn't mention the reasons either), but once I was back, I was considerably much more homesick. But of course graduate school doesn't give you the license to be down for a long time, as coursework makes itself heard  — loud and clear. More over, this time I was going to be a Teaching Assistant for the undergrad version of Algorithms (the course I had done in my first quarter)  — here I was, about to teach students a skill I had learnt and taught my brain through patterns just a couple of months back. This experience brought with it it's own challenges  — I had to hold one hour doubt sessions every week, and I used to be nervous if I would ever be able to answer the questions the young minds threw at me. As part of my responsibilities I also had to grade assignments every week, and this brought with it an ethical dilemma. I was worried about grading the correct solution as incorrect and vice versa  — and the consequences that would follow. Was I even the right teacher for these students? I spoke about this to my parents, and they said just about the right words. This time around, my mother took control to pass on her wisdom and explained how recently she had taken over a new role in school as a coordinator, my father had become a director, and now I had this new responsibility of a TA. She said none of us have the experience of being in these roles, but only living out the role would teach us. We're bound to make mistakes, but that's part of the process, and she told me that if I don't grab the opportunity with both hands, someone else will! As the reader, you would slowly be realizing how each and every phase of my life is guided by some excellent advise from one person or the other, and I couldn't not agree with you! I've been blessed, and on that front it's worth talking about something else that's probably the most important aspect of being given an opportunity to study in the States  — the cost! Education is expensive in the States, but those costs just form one part of the entire package. There's living, food, travel, and more food. Periodically I was reminded that if I ever needed any more monetary support, I should not hesitate in asking them for it  — I was told not to worry about it and focus on work and enjoying my life! This is tremendous, not just the fact that there was financial stability, but also that I was not made to feel guilty or made to save. Of course I tried to, but my parents have always provided me with all that I needed to thoroughly enjoy my life. Now that I think of it, I know a couple of students who wanted to pursue a PhD, but are not simply because they need to start earning soon to provide for their family. It's brutal, but the truth.

Coming back to the second quarter  — I was doing two courses other than my TA duties. It was during one of those courses where I absolutely fell in love with the camaraderie of the students. This was a course on Operating Systems (OS) — the Android, and the iOS of the modern world. We were given assignments every two weeks where we had to implement a portion of our own OS. The professor provided us with the write up for what we had to code out, but did not give us test cases  — for anyone in CS you know the importance of test cases already, and for those not in this field, think about opening up a bridge to the public without testing it for various loads. Now, coding was okay, but coming up with different test strategies is not the easiest of things. It was here that the undergrad students at UC San Diego, made it evident that they cared more about the learning, rather than treating it all as a competition. For every assignment, some students designed their own test cases and made them available to all the other students (of course after taking the professor's permission)! This was great, to say the least. Continuing with this, our final exam was scheduled for mid-March  — right when Covid had taken over the world. Our exam was shifted online. At the end of all the lecture slides, the professor had posted some questions that he wanted us to think about. A student came up with a strategy to fill out a document with these questions and requested all the four-hundred students in class to write down the answers in that document to make it easier for everyone to understand and solve common difficulties. This was endorsed by the professor — he was happy to see the students help each other! Here, we were in a classroom environment where everyone realized that learning is a collective effort and there is no advantage leaving someone behind. In every class at UC San Diego, the culture from the professors, teaching assistants, and fellow students has been to encourage everyone to learn  — they want you to solve the assignments, they want you to learn and do well. Group discussions are encouraged  — the sole requirement being that when you finally submit your work, it should be yours  — written down after understanding it! This is in stark contrast to my experience during undergrad, where it became a rat race  — at times, people wouldn't share notes, or avoid sharing information that might benefit everyone. This experience of the OS class was an eye-opener and was a joy to be a part of.

The end of the second quarter meant that we were at the end of March, and in a lockdown. But more importantly (yes, for an international student there's something more important than a lockdown), I still did not have an internship for the summer that was about to begin in three months. The bigger companies were anyway out of the question this late in the year, and the ones that seemed targetable, didn't consider me seriously enough. Most of these companies get tons of applications owing to the large number of students, and more often than not your application won't even be considered if you go in without a referral. This is not a way of influencing the hiring managers, but just that if someone already working in the company feels you're a good fit, the company would interview you rather than the thousands of others who have applied alongside you. I had been interviewing with two companies and the process had been going smoothly all along, but the uncertainty that Covid19 brought with it led to the companies cancelling their internship programs — and I was left without an intern in the States for the summer. This sprung me into action from the state of trance I had been for the past few weeks — classes being shifted online coupled with the courses not demanding as much as before, made me quite unproductive and I was just about getting through each day. But the cancellation of a potential internship made me start networking more as I spoke to seniors and others alike to figure out the best plan of action for the summer. It's worth remembering that this would also play a crucial role when I started to look for full time positions from the beginning of August. Yes, I know it's a vicious cycle, and it's so important to get that first break into the industry. Conversations were had, and it would only make sense for me to summarize it here — the essence of it all was that eventually I wanted to get a software engineering position (for full time), and the interviews for that are based on something called data structures and algorithms — for most of you these terms are going to sound very familiar, and for those of you who haven't heard of it, well, you've done a good job staying clear (jk!) 

working from home

One of my uncle's back in India had a set-up of his own where he helps clients build and maintain their own e-commerce websites, and we believed that it would be best for me to understand the workflow and contribute to that. This was going to be coupled with me doing an online course to understand the development of websites along with preparing for interviews (no mean task in itself). There was a general optimism as summer began, and I started trying my hand at these three separate, yet connected tasks I had planned for the next three and a half months. This was also the time I was staying alone at home — my American flat mate had moved out two weeks back, and I wasn't assigned a new one just yet. In case you're wondering this change of surroundings, I'll address that in a bit. Coming back to the summer work — I began having calls back in India to start understanding the work, and the time difference meant that we could not get a lot of overlapping time. Nonetheless, I was eager to get learning. Parallelly, in the afternoons I started with the other two dimensions. This rhythm and effort lasted for a week. The lack of structure for the internship, the newness of the online course, and the difficulty of the interview preparation, all coupled with being alone in the house — got to me. I felt it would only make sense to tackle one, or perhaps two of these things at one time rather than swimming in all directions — and I decided to keep the internship work on hold for a bit. Not that it made things easier, for now I had two things to be inefficient at rather than three. There were days I would work for only two hours — and I'm not saying two productive hours. Every morning I would begin the day thinking that there was going to be a change, I would have the morning call with my parents, work for a bit, and go back to sleep. Every evening I would feel guilty of not having made a lot of progress, and then have the evening call back home with my parents. Every call, and I mean every call, began with my parents having a wide smile on their face. Every call they would reiterate and make me realize how I had had a good day, and how it was the best possible day I could have had. There was no pressure, no unrealistic demands — they just wanted me to keep trying, keep working hard, and wait for the results to follow. They deserve, and have earned this master's degree as much as me, if not more. 

that wide smile

And it's just not them, there are a few more — my friends who had still not made an entry into this blog. I have had the fortune of meeting some beautiful souls during my undergrad with whom the bond has stayed the same, if not grown stronger, and fortunately I have been in constant contact with them. Adding to this, I did cross paths with some people here in San Diego, without whom this would not at all be possible. I had a walking companion to vent out my irritation, as we walked along to Starbucks; I had a movie and dinner partner as we cooked a meal for each other every other day for a few months; I had a touring group, as we tried to cover a small part of the city on every weekend we could take out time; a cohort with which we played football every other week; and there was one senior who tutored me, and guided me through it all. Although each person played a separate role in these months, there was one thing that united them all — weekly visits to San Idli — it was an innocent looking South Indian restaurant in one corner of the city, but the food they served was second to none. It served as my comfort restaurant when I needed a break from cooking, as a stressbuster when there was too much to do, and a backup when all else failed. I left the city two months back and on my last day there, I had to visit them and thank them — for without them, there wouldn't be the essence of home.

But while I was here in San Diego, I would still say that my closer, more tightly knit circle was (is) back in India, and they were always there, when called upon, or even otherwise. I have spent hours on the phone, and perhaps I don't regret that entirely. There were times when they have lifted me up form the other corner of the world — especially when I was struggling to land interviews for full time jobs. They made me aware of the work I was putting in the background that might not be immediately tangible. They were there to support me, and celebrate with me — and I couldn't have possible asked for more. I would have liked to have had more of a group here, in San Diego, but it was not to be, and I'm taking conscious efforts to change that now.

Going back to that summer where I was going through an inefficient patch, I had also started reading Vikram Seth's, "A Suitable Boy". I had heard a lot about it, and now that BBC was coming up with a show on it, I wanted to read it before I watched the show. Now, there's a reason why I mention this here. That book is more than fourteen hundred pages long — no that's not the reason. As I was going about preparing for interviews, I was always concerned about the end product, about completing a certain number of problems, and feeling uneasy when I was still far from the target. It was right around this time I realized that I did not have the same expectations (of me) for the story book. That book was much longer and was likely to take me more time to complete than the practice problems, and yet I was not hassled by it. I was enjoying reading that book — and I pleaded with myself to follow the same philosophy for the interview preparation. 

Weeks turned into months, and it was only until early October that I received my first real interview call. I was excited, and yet very nervous. I had been preparing for months with no real interview practice, and I did not want to end up wasting an opportunity that had finally come knocking on the door. The Fall quarter had begun and was well underway and I also had assignments that needed to be taken care of while I prepared for the interview. The first round was an hour long interview with one of the engineers. I still remember the beginning — as he was describing the question he wanted me to solve, I was slowly realizing this is something I had come across before but had left it for it felt hard. I started panicking at the opportunity that was slipping away from me, but I couldn't let this show on my face. I calmed myself over the next few seconds and soon realized that the problem was much easier than I had imagined, and I walked him through the process over the next forty five minutes. I was relieved it was over, and happy that it went well. I heard back from them two weeks later saying that I had made it into the next round and that there were going to be four interviews on the same day! I was shocked, this was something new for me, but there was nothing that could be done — this was the norm for all companies and I would have to go through the drill. The day arrived, and I had my shirt and boxers ironed the previous night. As before, the first interview started and my initial reaction on listening to the question was panic — I didn't have an immediate idea about how I was going to solve this. That phase passed and slowly the problem grew on me, and I was able to provide a reasonable solution. I was elated. There was a forty-five minute break before the next interview and I went and sat next to my Indian flat mate (yes, he's the third one) and talking to him helped me calm down. For the second interview, no one showed up for the first ten minutes and I reached out to the recruiter — there had been a mix up and this was going to be scheduled for the next week! This was horrible —  I had built up these four interviews in my head and wanted them to get over in one day, but well this wasn't in my control. However, the third and fourth interview that were scheduled for the day were still going to take place. While the fourth interview went very smoothly, I can not forget the experience of the third one — the interviewer asked me the question, and this time round I couldn't come up with something optimal immediately. I suggested a few things, but he kept saying that I could improve on it more. This went on for forty five minutes, where he was silent for most of it, and I had to keep the conversation and discussion going.  I remember sweating, and not knowing what to say — I kept voicing my thoughts, but eventually I did not solve it the way he wanted me to. At the end, he did mention that this was a hard problem and that he asked it to see how students approached the problem more than the actual solution. That was one experience — to be able to stay calm and keep talking and coming up with new approaches in those forty five minutes was important for my learning! I slept slightly easier on the weekend, although there was an interview scheduled for Monday, because I had come to realize I was prepared, and there was not much I could do. This was a good feeling — to trust your capabilities! 

interview attire

The final interview on Monday went well too, and I was now confident about landing the job — I was in a joyous mood, and was feeling a sense of relief. But to my absolute dismay, I received an email three days later saying that I was not selected for the position! This was unexpected — I had solved all the questions in three of the interviews and I had walked through different approaches for one of them which had been genuinely hard. I was gutted —  I had already imagined myself working for the company, looked up the salary package, made plans to graduate in December, to list down a few things. I went to play football that evening, and seeing everyone all I could think of was the fact that no one had a crisis like me. I would have to start all over again, go over five, if not more, rounds again, be nervous yet appear confident again, sacrifice time from assignments again. Every time I missed a goal scoring opportunity that evening, or a simple pass, I related it to my interview failure. It felt like a failure. 

After the match, I spoke to my walking companion — he tried his best to make me understand how this is just one opportunity, one company. I spoke to my sister after this, and vented out more of my frustration. These things helped of course, but not really. There was some respite and some change of surrounding the next day though —  I was finally going to go on a date after months, perhaps years. I had been busy and had not taken out time for this, or probably did not have the best of luck with it, but had finally met someone on the app, and we had decided to meet. It did me a world of good —  to meet someone new, and get my mind off what had happened the previous evening. A change of surrounding helps, a conversation can do wonders —  it can take you to another world, and once I was back from that world, I was ready to apply once again, was ready to fail, if not succeed, once again! I looked myself in the mirror and told myself that now at least I had a story to tell!

after the interview rejection

If I've written that much for a failed interview, you might wonder how much I'd write for a successful one. But the success stories are the smaller ones, for they are built primarily on the failures, the ones no one talks about. A week after this, I emailed a recruiter who I had connected with a couple of months back — she had not got back to me after our initial exchange. No sooner had she received my email, than she called me and made me understand the reasons behind the delay. She immediately set up an interview for next week, in early December — three days before I was going to return to India after a year. The first interview went well, and they immediately set up three final round interviews for the Friday before I was flying out. This time I was not hassled when I found out about the three interviews that were going to be back-to-back. There was no real stress while giving the interviews, and no real tension when one of them didn't go well, for the interviewer simply asked me things I had no experience with. I flew to India and within two days I received an email saying that I was not selected but that another team wanted to interview me in the first week of January — just a day before I flew back to the States! I know, it just seems that my interviews are so (im)perfectly timed! 

I did get some much needed break in Pune, but this time I was more determined than ever before to ace these interviews and took out enough time out everyday to prepare for these. I was growing confident and was relaxed in the days leading up to it. Given that the interviews were as per the clock of the States, I had to give them from 10:30PM to 3:30AM — what an experience! I remember being sleepy during one of them, trying hard to not yawn, and I did succeed —  at least I would like to believe so. The stress was out of the bag, I was barely energetic to be stressed, and the interviews felt more like conversations — where the interviewers really wanted to know what I knew rather than expect me to answer things that they had learned during their long and illustrious careers! It was all done by 4AM, and I was left with genuine optimism, once again! I switched off my laptop, and got some sleep, before I could spend some time with my family on my last day there.

It was a Monday, two days after the interview, and a day after I had arrived (yet again) to the States. I was homesick, naturally. I was trying to make myself useful when the email notification popped up on my phone — I had got the job! Third time's the charm. I had always imagined calling my parents first when I did receive my first job offer, and it was almost a muscle reaction to dial their number. It was 1AM in India, but I couldn't care less. This was my moment, this was their moment — one they had worked hard for, one they had told me to work hard for, one they had requested me to be patient for, one they had deserved, one they had earned with wide smiles on each passing day.

orientation day

Over the next few days stress levels dropped, and I was so relieved — all worries out of my head. But while I've spoken about my friends and immediate family, there are a couple of more characters that deserve a mention, if not much more. My dad's sister, and her husband, my uncle, stay here in California. Even before I arrived to San Diego, nineteen months ago, I was made to feel that I have my own home in the States. As I look at my chat conversations with him, and search for the phrase, "Thank You" — I find more than fifty occurrences — and this does not even account for the times I was grateful for his presence over a phone call. As soon as I had arrived, he had a sim card delivered to my address. Constant messages asking me to reach out if I ever needed any help or if I was feeling homesick; regularly reaching out to his wide network asking them to refer me for internships and eventually job postings; editing my emails to give them a professional touch; guiding me on what courses to take and how best to prepare for interviews. During my role as a Teaching Assistant, I was having difficulties to understand a few questions, and being the amazing pillar of support he is, he offered to read up the problems and make me understand them. Adding to this, he and my aunt would make it a point to call me every other day to check on me and make sure everything was okay. At times I think, and genuinely believe that even I wouldn't take so much care of myself, let alone do it for someone else, yet here I am blessed to have had their presence, and I can only be thankful.

It's been a long write-up, and there have been many learnings to say the least. Academically, I feel absolutely content and fulfilled. As part of my master's curriculum I was supposed to do ten courses, and I have sent emails to five of the ten professors to let them know how wonderful it was to be a part of their class. The assignments were designed to mirror real world applications and I feel so confident when I think that I have implemented an operating system, designed an application similar to Dropbox, and modeled a small part of Amazon's database. The culture at UC San Diego, in terms of collaboration was eye-opening and made me realize collaboration is the only best way to learn. I think it's time to let you in on a small secret of sorts. UC San Diego was not one of the first choice universities I was going to apply to — I didn't expect to get in, and moreover, the application was due towards the latter stages of my application timeline. By that time I was lazy to go through the grind again. However, on the day of the deadline, I was worried that if I didn't apply, an email would be sent to the professors who had referred me, informing them that their student hadn't applied. I didn't want such a situation to occur, and I put the bare minimum effort to fill out the application. I never expected to get it, yet eventually it became my first choice and has influenced my life in such a dramatic way. On similar lines, initially I couldn't take out the Biochemical Engineer tag from my identity, and yet here I am, a computer science major, in body, mind, and soul — because I had the motivation to change my field, and it simply needed some brain learning — to rewire my prior beliefs. Oh, and I did complete reading, "A Suitable Boy" — much later after I secured the job, but I enjoyed the process, for both those activities!