Michele drove up to New Brunswick to see me. We had dinner at Chilis. I'm so stuffed right now that if anyone as much as even punched me slightly, I'd explode. It felt good to see her. In a few days everyone's gonna move in. Vicky's already moved in. So have Chris and Nick. Mich, Kat, and Cigir all should move in this weekend. Tomorrow's my last full-day of work. From next week, I'm down to 20 hours a week. Less work - good. Less pay - bad. Oh well. Who needs money when you have pretty ladies taking you to the dining hall :)

Hard to believe it, but one of the best days in my life turned out to be a Monday! Well today was a pretty awesome day by all standards. Most of it was spent with Manzinder (morning/noon) and Cher (evening). Here's a bit of interesting conversation between Cher & yours truly, with reference to my so-called "popularity" - something that I vehemently refuse to acknowledge:

• Cher: How do you know so many people on campus?
• Chirag: It's really easy actually. You remember that guy you prolly met in the Intro-to-something class two years ago? And that girl from your Calc class?
• Cher: Yeah, but I haven't kept in touch with them.
• Chirag: I did.

I guess what my point was, the easiest thing you can do to be loved, is to just keep in touch with as many people as you can. Of course, it's NOT easy. It's not easy to call up old friends when you have 2 papers due and 4 homeworks to submit, but if you do call, it'll be worth it. It's not too important to remember and call-up/write-to everyone on their birthday, but it's remarkable. As always, I'm not saying that I'm the greatest nicest guy on the planet, but what I mean is, if I can say today that I love and am loved by a lot of nice people out there, it's only because I make pro-active efforts to keep the relationship going. Quite possibly, I'll gain nothing (monetarily, career-wise, politically) from almost any of these relations, but I know the emotional gains more than make up for all the efforts I put into it.

So for a change, why don't you go and email your friend from high-school and just randomly call up that friend who used to be your best-friend for number of years, but things slowly faded away. I'm sure they'll appreciate your email/call. I know I would. Here's just a few people I love keeping in touch with, if not actively/regularly, then once a month or two - Nitesh, Ketan, Vaishali, Pooja, Jessica, Kiran Uncle, Megan, Sonu, Leah, Tamara & Bruce, John Allan, Jackie, Aashika, Steve, Vicky Z, Arpit, and god knows 100 others. I didn't even mention the people I *have* to keep in touch with regularly - parents, best-friends, immediate family members; I just meant people I keep in touch with (or at least try to), simply because of who they are and what they mean to me though they may not realize it. I highly doubt if most of them even read my 'blog and I think that's actually the biggest reason why I have to actively keep in touch with them. Hehe... Oh and don't think if you stop reading this 'blog I'll start personally emailing you or anything. Nope! Doesn't work that way...

I think I am the most honest and straight-forward when I write in this little box right here. Here, in this tiny 'textarea' tag, spews forth the story that is my life. By the way, I've been reading a lot of books today, so ya, I'm getting all poetic/author-like now. What can I say... I get inspired really easily. Of course, not as easily motivated as this.

I'd say today was another good day, just like 29th March 2002 :) Except for that email disappearing act :( Woke up @ 11am, showered 'n studied till 2 pm, and went to see Purvi @ the train station :) She had come for the night @ my aunt's house and was on her way back to the city. So I just walked down and chilled with her till her train came. Nice to see her after a long time (Utah - January). Next week I'm hopefully gonna go see her in the city for this program she has. Let's see how it goes.

Then I panicked over my emails and did my physics web assign. In fact I did two weeks of web assign, meaning no tensions next week :) So anyways, I was supposed to go see The Pianist with Cher, but cuz of the weather and my Econ lab and blah blah, it just felt like a stretch. So I did my Econ stuff till 10pm. Cher came online, and we decided to go have a nice cup of coffee @ Au Bon Pain. Of course, I can never have just a 'cup', so I ended up with a large 'Iced Mocha'. Hehe.

Anyways, four of my housemates got a nice house down on Hamilton and need a fifth person. Since I hadn't seen the house yet, I walked down there with Cher just to check it out. Next time somebody remind me NOT to go house-hunting @ 11pm! Nobody answered the damn door-bell! But the house looked pretty weird from the outside - it was shaped like a boat! Like it had a corner with railing that looked like the bow of a ship (you know, I'm the King of the World part... hehe). And they're opening a coffee shop right under the house! (We have the top floors). Though I haven't seen the inside, it looked like a good place. Now my problem is to get the lease/deposit money asap. I think credit cards are the answer :) Hehe!

So anyway, then we went to see my friend Vicky @ the College Avenue Gym. They're having a 32-hour dance marathon there with over 400 dancers, dancing all night 'n day. Pretty cool actually. I bought a nice Iced Mocha for Vicky, cuz well, I'm sure she needs all the caffeine possible. Ohhhh and I got a free bag @ the gym! I love free stuff. Met a couple of ppl from older classes, ppl I haven't seen in months and years :) Pretty cool actually.

And best of all, Cher got me bagels :) Yup. She works @ the bagel store and got me a coupla bagels :) Yummmm. We might go see the end of the dance marathon tomorrow. There's some mildly hot chics in there, though nothing THAT great. Plus you really don't look all that hot after dancing for 32 hours! LOL.

Here's to another great free lunch @ the Busch dining hall with Michele! Thx girl :) Well you see, me and her have Physics lab together on Monday (we're lab partners) and since we always finish our lab before everyone else in the class, we leave early and she takes me lunchin' @ the dining hall. She's got a 50 meals per semester plan, and since she doesn't eat @ the dining hall everyday, rather than waste 50 unused meals, she feeds me :) I love free food! Hehe. Sure... it's not that expensive and I can probably get my own meal plan (actually, it IS kinda expensive), but the thing is, I don't get hungry during the normal dining hall hours. I am hungriest after 10pm in the night, and they close at 8pm. So it's pretty much useless for me. However, free lunches... aha... I'm ALWAYS hungry for them :) Ya ya, I'll prolly have to make it upto the girl some way or another. I know she loves Taco Bell, so let's see...Hehe...

Anyways, tonight some guy's gonna come to see my room and decide if he wants to move in or not. If he does, then I'll be sharing my room with him till May-end and it'll save me (and the other 9 people in our house) like $65 a month! However, it'll also mean I lose some of my privacy. But oh well... let's see how it goes...

I got a class @ 4:30pm, then going to my room. Will do some computer science homework, setup two websites, and if I have time, work on Chime Away! v2.0 :) Yup, there's a v2.0 coming soon, basically cuz everyone wants to cycle their own away messages. So ya, I'm gonna try my best to finish it asap. You know what I love about my life @ the moment? I'm not bored. There's always some work I can do (and hopefully it's something I like).

And if you're reading this Vishal... you rock dude! And I miss you and Chetan - the two best friends I will ever have. And if you're reading this dear Dad... u da bomb pops! And if you're reading this grandpa 'n ma... I love you... And if you're reading this mom and sis... you are the two loveliest women on the planet and I love you both... And if you're reading this Niki, Keval, Sneh, Sagar, Chris, Megan, Vicky, Mich., Kath, Art, Manzinder, Syed, Steph, Aript, Ritesh, Vu, Steve, Taylor and whomever else I forget, you have made a big difference in my life, even if in small gestures of friendship; you guys have certainly made my life worth living and it is because of you guys that I look forward to waking up everyday (and those stupid 10am classes). And if you're reading this Jackie... yes I know I just mutilated and slaughtered the good ol' English language, but you know what, you inspire me and you better keep writing. And if you're reading this Jenny... you already know how much you mean to me, and just to annoy you even more, I won't write explicitly why you're the coolest chica I know.

There! Now I sound just like a high-school girl on her sweet-sixteen birthday! Hehe... Ok class now - it's already 4:25!

I'm soooooooo sick and tired of studies! Well I didn't even feel like saying anything in here tonight. But then I HAVE to mention the cutest thing Vicky (from Calc2/3 and now in Physics Lab with me) did. She literally snuck in (right under my eyes) a sweet little chocolate cup-cake in the Physics Lab and kept it hidden till after the class. Right after the class, she took me out in the lobby, from somewhere whipped out a musical candle (yup, a candle that plays the Happy B'day tune!), lit the candle, and then asked me to blow it out. I was like whoa! Cool! And the cup-cake was sooooooo good too! Thanks Vicky!

G'nite world now. I'm tooooooo tired. Mentally.

OH MY #$%$% GOD! What a rockin' day already! I just came home and my monitor's in! This is the last 'blog (hopefully) that I write using my old 17" CRT. And then I checked my emails and my instant messangers and ohoooooooo!!! There's just soooooo many ppl who just wished me. I feel all special right now. Let's add to the listing:

Manzinder (the girl with the cute car) was the first, right in my Discrete II class and later she emailed me this really funny greeting card. She's sooooo fun to hang out with. Seriously. We skipped half our Discrete class and went to the Busch Student Center just to chill (and do some icky homework). Then it was Steph, and then Kathleen called. We talked for over 30 minutes! It's really been a longgggg time since I talked to her. We never see each other anymore :( Oh well, good thing is she's giving me a lil treat on Monday, so it's all good. Anyways, more to the list: Vicky (Kath's old roommate), Resha, Ritesh, Ashish, Elaine, Bruce & Tamara! Elaine sent me this really neat greeting. Thanks a lot :) And Bruce and Tamara just knocked me out of my senses with the BEST GREETING CARD EVER! No seriously! They sent me the single most best greatest greeting card ever in the world. It's a short powerpoint presentation, starring, *hold your breath*, my favorite awesome dude: StrongBad! Guys, I've already said this 10 times on this 'blog that you are the two COOLEST people in the wolrd, and today you just proved it yet again. Download their StrongBad birthday card here (140kb).

Ouch! I just hit 22! Hehe. Yup, it's my birthday... turning the big fat double ducked twenty two now... It's just half an hour and already 14 people wished me 'Happy Birthday'! Isn't that sweet? First my sis, dad, mom, grandpa and grandma wished me online. Then Priya, her mom, and her dad. Then Taylor, Alex, Vicky (Calc2/3), Vicky's friend Sharon, Jenny, and Chris. And now I go and get some sleep. Not a good idea to stay up late the night before your b'day. Hehe.

So after a whole loooong summer, I met Vicky (from Calc 2/3) today. And guess what? I have Germany & Spain now! The newspapers I mean. My collection's slowly slowly growing. Me like that! Thanks a mil. Vicky!

Studying for Calc all day/night non-stop.

I don't remember if I mentioned earlier, but THANK YOU once again Vicky for the newspapers (Cayman and Japan). Also thanks to Astrid for newspapers from Bahamas :) I love this hobby... hehehe... it's free too!

Anyways, today was the last day of college! Yay! Now I have exams on 9, 12, and 14 May. Then I am a free bird :) Tonight, tomorrow, and day after I study for Linear Algebra... then it's Calculus and then Computer. Oh Calculus... reminds me... today was prolly the last class I'll ever have with Kathleen, Vicky, and Jim. And most prolly Steve too. Jim and Vicky were with me for 2 terms and Kath had been for three! In fact she's the first person I met after transferring to Rutgers New Brunswick in Jan 2001. I've already missed Ross and Steph a hell lot throughout this term. And on top of it I'm now gonna miss all the bad Calculus jokes I made and all the fake laughter from my 'friends'. Haha... Ah... it's the end of an era... Next term I have 5 interesting classes... I'll meet more new people... but first... We all gotta get through the damned final exams!

Of course summer's going to be heaven! I think I've begun to hallucinate a lot lately. I keep thinking I am already @ home in Calcutta! Hehehe... This morning I woke up dreaming that I was in my room back home... then realized I was here in US... oh well, I love being in both places! Hehehe... I know one thing for sure, as soon as I reach India, I'll miss New Jersey. I've begun to love this place...

This harassment by Toronto Airport customs of one of India's most famous and prolific actors: Kamal Hassan is pathetic, saddening, scary, and depressing. What are they doing in the name of 'fake' security!!! I can only imagine what they'll do to me when I go to India this summer. When I think about it deeper, I feel like taking some sweet revenge on these customs ppl. Maybe when they strip search me, they'll find me wearing interesting undergarments courtesy of Vicky's confedential clothes! Haha. God I'd love to get back @ these customs morons... I can't ever Ever EVER EVER forgive them for what they did to me in India on the day I left... urghhhh.... bad bad memories... not a good way to start your day!

Anyways I have a long day ahead of me, lots of important stuff to do :)

What a day! What a night! I'm talking about yesterday. Cook college has the AG-Field Day every year to mark the beginning of Spring. So I went there expecting a nice family gathering-type environment. As soon as I reached on campus I saw dogs... damn thousands of them! This was no ordinary picnic! Cook and Douglas have a huge campus area and ppl had opened shops, and set up tables over tens of acres. I went around the whole campus checking out all the stalls and events. It was just a smaller and americanized version of Kumbh Mela.

At 6 pm, I thought it was time to go home and relax. But before I left, I wanted to meet Kath and roommates. Imagine my surprise when I reached their apartment and she said, "Wow! Chirag you're here. The party is just starting!" Well you know the rules of the party already. Don't you? No need to repeat them. Anyways, it was different this time, since we moved from one party on Cook to other constantly. We, meaning, Kath, Ian, Vicky, Astrid, Eric, Mike, Jay, myself, and two really cool ppl I met for the first time: Dave and Lauren, both from Livingston campus. We're definitely gonna hang out with those two more often. Dave's like the ultimate party dude! Haha.

At 8 pm, I discovered that you don't need years of training under a choreographer to learn how to dance. Just 7-8 of these can do the trick!

At 10, Astrid comes in and tells us all there's free food near the dorms! Everyone else had all those meaty stuff like you know, burgers, hot dogs blah blah. Thank god for pretzels. I had 2. God I love 'em!

Anyways, by the time it was 11, we were all dead tired and sleepy (read: DRUNK!) and that's when the party-2-party jumping ended. We all went to Kath's and just crashed in her living room for over an hour just babbling randomly and laughing non-stop! Kath was her usual funny self. Dave was sooooo funny! I 'think' I cracked a lot of jokes too. God we were hilarious! Or MAYBE we just 'thought' we were funny! The sane world will never know. I crashed for the night there and drove back home in the pouring rain @ 6 am! I slept for 6 more hours and here I am now.

I'm soooooo overworked right now it's not even funny! I was supposed to go to a movie w/ Kath, Vicky and their friends but I had too much work and plus there was a little problem with the ride to college too. So oh well... I get to stay @ home and enjoy work! URGH. Anyways, I was talking to my other friend Vicky, and something came up and here's what happened:

Chime: I'm sooo scared!
Vicky: Why?
Chime: Because this is supposed to be the most 'fun' period in my life!
Vicky: Oh. So you're afraid of the future?
Chime: No! I'm afraid that someday in the future I'll actually look back on today and be all nostalgic and tell myself - 'Boy! Were those days fun or what!'
Vicky: LOL

Had a pretty loooong day today. Woke up @ 7:30, going to bed after 3... Ahhhh... But it was good. Like most other Thursdays, for some reason, the weather was once again good. I chilled out w/ Kath for some time in the afternoon. We drove down to the McDonalds @ Brunswick Mall... then we did a little Maple lab work. Nothing great. Just a plain nice day... Then did some more Maple work with Vicky, Jim and this new girl I've become good friends with recently - Rebecca. God she's soooooo smart! She can fill up crossword puzzles like she's just copying the answers from somewhere! And I think she's the only one to ever beat me in hangman!

Well Kath's having a party tonight and it's going on even @ this moment... but I had to do sooooo much work that I coudn't go :( Oh well... There's always next week... hehe...

Ah... Yet another fun day. I didn't 'accomplish' anything at all! Kinda relaxed all day to prepare myself for the loooong weeks ahead. I have sooo much stuff to do!

I made myself a nice techno-fast-music cd for when I work out. I listened to the cd when I drove to campus - Kath's apartment this afternoon. But she wasn't there so I just chilled out with Vicky for a couple of hours. Then I had to attend an International Student's meeting on Busch campus and when that was over, I came back to her apartment and Astrid was there too. She's such a sweety! We started talking bout her research paper and the topic changed slowly to Mahatma Gandhi. I felt sooo proud today talking to her about the man considered the 'Father of the Nation' (in India). She knew a few things about him, but I think I said enuf to make her interested enuf to read more about his philosophy and idealogy. Oh then me and Astrid tried to fight about politics but as I said, she's such a sweety that she can't even fight! Haha... (I know she's gonna kill me for saying this out loud here! HAHA)...

Then Astrid left and it was me and Vicky again. She's a really great person to talk to. I have a number of friends whom I talk to on a normal basis, but I just don't feel as relaxed or comfortable with anyone, as when I'm talking to Vic. It's pretty cool. Oh and she's going on a cruise next week to Cancun! The lucky girl! So we talked bout her vacation and what she's gonna do there. Actually, now that I think bout how annoying I was, she prolly hates me by now - cuz everytime she started talking bout something, I'd interrupt and start my own off-topic story! Haha... Ya, I still have that bad habit of 'talking'! LOL.

Song for the day: "Mea Culpa" by Enigma

Let's just say that March 07,2002 is probably one of the most beautiful days in my life. I know it for sure that 20 years from now when I'll be nostalgic 'bout my college life and look back, I'll remember days like today... It was such a perfect carefree beautiful day! The weather outside was soooo perfect... it was warm but not hot, it was breezy but not windy, and it was sunny but not parching. I went to work and I had no work! So I just chilled for a couple of hours, talked to my Dean and her secretary. Then out of the blue my really good friend Jessica came online and we talked for almost an hour. God it's been such a loooong time! I want to go to Newark and see her sometime... cuz she's soooo much fun. And then I literally walked for one and half hours from College Avenue campus to Cook campus! I mean I could have easily taken the college bus but it was just too beautiful outside! Felt like spring was here... I was just walking down the road when I met my buddy Ross's roommate Ian - he's one helluva cool guy! Then I walked a little ahead and met Andy! Whoa! This is one good day for socializing :) It's been almost a month since I met him and he said Kathleen was in her apartment so I could prolly go and visit her...

So I goto her apartment and her friend Megan was there too. We chilled out for some time and then Kath had to buy something so me and her go on a short drive. God she drives like a speed daemon; but it's fun :) When we came back @ her apartment, her roommates Astrid and Vicky were back too! Ah..... I hadn't met them in weeks too! They (Kath/Astrid/Vicky) are the three most wonderful and lovely girls in RU! Trust me...

Then in the Calculus class, we did pretty much nothing! Our TA just said that do whatever you want and didn't give us any assignment/homework! Yay! I mean HOW perfect could this day be?

Next me and my other friend Vicky (not Kath's roommate) goto the computer lab and I give her a 101 lecture on how to use this really weird math software called Maple cuz we have an assignment due in it. It was fun... because she's a Mac lover and I'm a strictly PC guy. For atleast the Maple Lab homework I converted her to PC! Haha... Aw come on Vicky... you know PCs rule! Hehehe... Oh well... I wish I didn't have a class after that cuz I really love hanging out with her too! We fight a lot though... but it's good nice fight...

Well then I goto my honors class and I see the most interesting movie I've seen in years I think: Being There - starring Peter Sellers. Trust me this movie will blow away your mind! It was such a simple yet beautiful movie...

After the movie I come home, have dinner and here I am! God this was one wonderful day! Seriously...

Lots of things to write. First of all as you can see... I finally put up the pics from Kathleen's party on my photo gallery. Click here to check out all the pics.

Last night I went over to Kath's place to hang out w/ Vicky and her friends. It was lotsa fun and best of all we saw two really really really funny movies:
---- The Ladies Man
---- Baseketball

So today I did something all *normal* people do... watched sports w/ family: The Super Bowl 2002. I'm glad the Patriots won. I'm not a big fan of American Football. Neither am I a big cricket fan. I love Soccer and Volleyball though. I think I would be at home in Brazil... They have one of the world's best men's soccer team and one of the best women's volleyball team.

My friend Vicky get me more newspapers!!! She's sooo nice :) This time, from Cayman Islands. It's like a baby archipelago, just a few small islands; in fact sooo small that the first 2002 baby was born on January 2! I'm asking all my friends to get my newspapers from every country they go to. If you ever visit any country, remember to bring me a newspaper! Ok? Hehehe...

Ok! 'Blog time :) Today was my first day back at the new semester and the first thing I did was go and meet my friends on Cook campus - Kathleen, Astrid & Vicky! It's been a loooong time since I saw you all! *hugs* (hope your shower is fixed by now. hehehe!)

After that I went to my office to work for about an hour and then went for my computer class, but it was cancelled. So I went to sell my books from last term. Imagine this... the books that cost me over $200 last term, sold for ONLY $44 !!! God this is SOOOO expensive. Who said knowledge was cheap! After being disgusted by the book-rip-off-episode, I went to chill out in the computer lab for 2 hours and @ 4:20 went to economics class. Now I haven't been able to register for this economics class since it's already full. I'm trying to get in, but since it is a class that most 4th year students take (as it's very important for graduating) there is a high chance that I'll be denied entry into the course. The teacher was pretty neat though and it would be very interesting to study under her. Love her Ukrainian-Russian-type accent O:-)

And now I'm back home! Dinner was good. Will get started on a new website project now. I'll post details of that later in here :)

Ah. I talked to Vicky today and turns out it wasn't her. But I soooo thought she was. Damn. :(

Good morning beautiful world! Things have been going pretty great lately. I woke up @ 8 and got ready prepared to go to work on campus but it's still closed :( On the brighter side, I get 5 more days of vacation!

Then I went to our store and did some work. But then I got to talk to my family! It's been a long time since I heard from them.

Anyways I think I heard someone I know on the radio today - Kath's roommate Vicky... I was listening to Z100 - New York (while driving to pickup some stuff for our store) and I heard them talk about some females-only club (the name of which I'm afraid to mention. Hehe). And I'm 99.99% sure that one of the guest callers was Vicky! Let's see. I'll ask her when she comes online. Hehe.

I was talking to my friend Vicky online and I just said these words, which I think are more true than anything I've said in weeks:

Quote for the night: "Life is great. I Swear. Someday in the future I'll look back on tonight and miss it." - Chirag Mehta

I don't have enuf words to thank my friend Vicky! She got me three really cool newspapers from UK: The Guardian, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Well as some of you already know, I have this little hobby, that I collect newspapers from all the countries of the world. So far I have newspapers from Japan, Netherlands, India, Puerto Rico, US, UK, Trinidad etc. This is like a lfe-long hobby and someday I will have one newspaper each from almost every country in the world! :)

I think I did pretty good in my Music test. Oh and I did see the anonymous Calc2 girl today! Yey!!! She was looking mmmm-cute. (And Vicky 'n Steph: I'll never tell...) Haha... Actually she kinda stared @ me for about 10 secs @ one time. And I thought, God! Does she know??? LOL.. Who knows maybe next time she'll look longer... To be honest, I can just go upto her and talk to her any time, but I wanna keep the suspense alive for a little longer. Hehe.