Well, well, well another year comes to an end. This was a year of many firsts for me. My first class as a Professor, my first grant success, my first marriage (:P), and so on.
After many years I have spent majority of time in a city other than Austin this year. My move to Montreal was complete and I began teaching in January. It was only a small class whcih made it easier for me to handle the workload, but overall it went ok. The semester flew by with my course and some grant writing! I cant remember anything else that I did during the semester. I went for a trip to Burlington. It was al right to get away.
The year did include a lot of travel: multiple trips to Austin, 2-3 trips to Houston, two trips to India, trip to Yellowstone (from Portland), trip to Denver, and trip to Jefferson (TX).
The trips to India were hectic but very nice. I spent a lot of time with family (of course after august the size grew by 1). Slowly but surely, i am making progress in my relationships in the family. It feels good that way. The wedding was in Goa. The ceremony and the many proceddings went off smoothly. Considering the differences in our backgrounds I was quite pleased it went so smoothly. The marriage hall and surroundings were pleasant. Many of my friends did make it to Goa. It was great to spend sometime with my friends. Then the travel began, Goa-Hyd-Nandigama-Hyd-Bombay. It was hectic but it was fun to go around the country meeting family and friends.
Once we were back from Bombay we went to Denver. It was a fun trip with both of us sick :). The locales were wonderful and I did squeeze in a lot in terms of sightseeing! After that the grind began. My first semester with two courses. Boy was it busy or what! It was very hard managing two courses (one of them over 100 students). Not to mention the many grant applications and other academic work that I had to do! There were many times where I felt pretty low teaching the large class. It felt I was not doing a good job of making the material interesting. But, I continued on hoping that even if 20 students are motivated I need to do justice to their interest and the moment I forgot about the results and focussed on the process of teaching it felt so much nicer for me. There were students who complained and probably hated my style, but there were a few who liked it. This gave me the motivation to continue further. For sure, i do enjoy teaching. I hope it will remain special all my life! The semester was so hectic i hardly got time for anything else but work (which did not include writing papers :(). The weekends were usually spent at home eating pizza, sleeping and preparing classes!
Then as soon as the semester ended I flew to austin. I was ready for downtime and boy did I have a great holiday of doing nothing but chatting, cooking and driving here and there! It was so relaxing, i still can't believe it. Now very soon I will have start work again. I am not ready for it for sure :P
On the physical fitness side, this year was ok. I am still trying to lose my excess pounds from the India trips. It looks like the process will go on for 6 more months or so! I picked up swimming and it went well. i have reached a stage where I can proclaim "I SWIM" without feeling bad:P. Hopefully over the next year or two I will start picking up skiing.
On the sports front, it was a mixed year. India won the World Cup. Boy it was awesome. I was watching the final.. feeling desperate for sometime and then feeling great again. It was a wait for nearly 20 years for me and it was worth it. It was great that Tendulkar now has a world cup. Then the england tour was a disaster. On the other sport front, Federer had a pretty bad year, losing from matchpoint situations. But it does not bother me that much nowadays. Well I have learned to let go!
On the friends front, there were marriages of other good friends too this year. Then there will be many more in the next year. I am looking forward to those. Will attend one for sure. One of my close friends has a son now. Well its surreal to say the least. But pretty happy for him! I wish everybody will have a great 2012 too. It looks like more kids might be on the way! Man I am getting old or what!
On the family side, things have been al right, especially after the marriage I was worried, but things could not hace been better. I am so happy things turned out so good. It was nice to see the families genuinely enjoy spending time with us! It was fun and great! Now that the Eluru family has increased in size by one more (and many more relatives) it is fun keeping in touch with all of them.
On the "professional side", well this is something I dont try hard enough. I am not good at sweet talking or even talking for that matter. Had to endure some really rude meetings (some of them in French!). But it does allow me to realize what I like and help me direct my energies appropriately.
On the "spiritual side", well I have been able to learn a lot about myself, my weaknesses etc. due to the many conversations and fights. But they were very helpful and allow me to better myself.
There is one thing that bothers me a little off late, but there is not much I can do about it except hope thinbgs will become better. Well, you can't ask for everything to be perfect in life anyway I guess!
Still 2011 has been a great year and hope the future will continue to be as generous towards me, my family and friends!
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