Hail the 'Vernal Equinox' !!

The onset of the Spring season is after all a celestial event. Don't trust me? Chk this out then...

The weather today was utterly infectious...Bright, sunny and cool! I was severely afflicted with symptoms of inexplicable verve and untraceable zest. Emotions that are completely misplaced considering the fact that my beloved car is sitting in the shop waiting to go under the mechanic’s spanner, an intimidating stack of Lab reports which need to be graded and turned in by the end of the week and a rather lackadaisical progress report in the research front! Not to mention the predicament of the Car Mechanic’s bill that will hurtle me to the precipice of penury. A despondent state of affairs indeed...which on any mundane Monday would make a privy grad student want to switch places with Hermione Granger. Her excellence in transfiguration being an enticing skill to practice during these desperate situations!

So, as I was pondering over a plausible explanation for this blissful apparition, I noticed that my iPod was doling out "Endrendrum Punnagai" from Alaipayuthey...Ahaa!! ( For the uninitiated and I daresay ignorant few who are unfortunate enough to have not savored this brilliant concoction from A.R.Rahman, PLEASE click on the hyperlink provided to listen to it on Raaga.com.) Boy! What a 'picker-upper' that song can be, huh? It can make the most morose of situations seem like a walk in the park! I am sure that multitudes of paeans have already been sung for value of a portable music player in one's life, so I will abstain from acknowledging the same!

But, I do nurture a very intricate relationship with my iPod, feeding of its digital ebullience to sustain myself during my journey through the murky aisles that frequent my journey that is life. So enthused was I that attending to my daily chores seemed impossible! It was as if a shot of adrenaline had been pumped straight into my brain. After a brief and rather futile attempt at furthering my academic credentials, I gave into my venerable guru Oscar Wilde's advice! I succumbed to my ephemeral love for the outdoors and took a stroll around my magnificient campus. I thoroughly cherish these capricious phases when my banal existence can afford to fade conveniently out of focus. It imparts a sense of perspicuity that is completely ingenuous and serene. An amazing feeling of tranquility pervades though every pore of my body and helps me realize the true joy of life. It helps me place everything in perspective and take on the world with renewed vigor and sharpened intellect.

(Images courtsey of: Kalev Leetaru and Alan Craig. Clicking on the images will lead to a repository of their brilliant images on the uiuc.edu website, feel free to enjoy a cornucopia of spell-binding photographs from their collection)

And for that, I have the advent of spring and the virtuosity of A.R.Rahman to thank!! Resolutions taken during the evanescent state of bliss include: stocking my office with my baseball mitts, baseball and the football; promised sessions of 'long-toss' with my buddies who populate this historic edifice called MEL; extended sessions of literature search, grading and paper composition, armed with a coffee sprawled across the wi-fi enabled Bardeen quad. Holy shit, my nerves tingle and my mind salivates at the endless possibilities of Spring '06. This is mannah from Heaven, served fresh for my personal ecstasy and purely to satiate my eclectic desires!!

For all my apprehensive friends who question the nobility of my intensions to earn a PhD, who doubt the reasons for my "protracted" existence in Grad School...here's a reason one cannot beat! Wish you guys made it to grad school or stayed in grad school any longer, huh?? Keep tuning in for more of my exploits before the U of I deems my presence burdensome and unworthy as to evict me from Urbana-Champaign forcefully!!