The Three Week Blur

Its been a while since I posted here. The last three weeks have been really hectic at work and the weekends have been spent on going to and coming from places. I have had to attend a conference, a workshop, write a proposal, put together lectures for a course in Malaysia and win a cricket tournament in the last 3 weeks.

I attended a conference in Philadelphia, where I stayed in a hotel that was literally just around the corner from the Phillies Baseball Park, Eagles Stadium. I heard from a friend that there is a chance we could tickets to go to a Phillies game and that too VIP section. However, that didn't pan out, sadly. The conference was mostly for networking and it was alright. Met up with some old friends while there.

The following week I went to a workshop for companies that were awarded a research contract by the National Science Foundation. I stayed in the hotel where the workshop was held, Hyatt Regency. It was the first time I have ever stayed in Hyatt, and I must say, its pretty good. One of the most comfortable rooms and very pleasing ambiance. Even the blinds were very stylish. Flat screen TV, Oak desks, funky lamps. All in all, it was a pleasant stay!

Few cool things happened while I was at the workshop:

1. 10 minutes in to the workshop, I noticed a very familiar face. It was one of my buddies (Pradeep Bhatta) from Penn State circa 2000. He had moved to Princeton University and I had not seen him in 9 years. Like me, he is also a Cricket nut. I was glad to see he still had all the characteristics that defined him during his stay at Penn State.

2. I was on the phone while this guy walked up to me and said, "Hey, I know you!". He looked familiar but I couldn't place. It turned out that he and I graduated from IT-BHU in 1998 together and stayed in the same dorm. We reminisced the good ol' days and caught up on friends from the past!

3. This another guy - about 50 years old, while Pradeep and I were chatting up, approached us and introduced himself and started talking to us. Eventually, he asked me, where I went to college in India and when I mentioned, burst out laughing. Even he went to IT-BHU and graduated in 1980 and is a professor in the U.S. and has set up his own company. We exchanged contact info and talked about the sense of entrepreneurship you find in Indians..... Good times.

During the workshop, I had a deadline for an Airforce proposal and I had to pull all nighters to get the stuff done. When I got back to State College, I had to prepare for the Fall Cricket Tournament. I have led teams to Semis and Finals before but never won. This year, I knew, I was taking a loaded team, but still, we had to go out and get it, which we did. I shall write a whole post on the tournament with pictures. This week has been relatively quiet compared to all the craziness of the past 3 weeks. Oh by the way, During all this madness, The Champions Trophy took place in South Africa, India got kicked out in the first round, Australia won the whole darn thing. Bleh!