A New Adventure

Eak Quarter Khatm aur mein fail ho gaya :-)

Again its been a week that my first quarter at UCSD came to an end and I have not written anything about it. Sob Sob!

Yes I failed in one of the exams still I am happy. I have to be. :-)

I had taken up just two courses in this quarter. My advisor told me to take one as two will be heavy on me along with research work, but I insisted and took a basic course on Image Processing. The endsems were just not like the ones I gave back at IIT. The modus operandi was same but personal emotions were quite different than any of the IIT endsems. For the first time I felt what it is to be prepared before the endsem. Having missed just 3 classes that also of the basic course I did not rush to Mayank Prakash Gupta to know what the course is, I did not rush to Zia to find the notes and book, and I did not rush to Mridulto help me clear my concepts. I was all set, all by myself. First time!. I never give any comments on how was the exam, so as usuall - 'Ho gaya bas'.

Anyways, I also had a third exam - 'Behind the wheels driving test' - for california driving licence on 9th Dec. On 8th evening after the end of the second exam, Himanshu and Nitin as my mentors and tutors for American Rules and Regulations, helped me to practice. I had to hire a car and luckily (or unluckily) got two upgrades from the car I had originally booked - from compact car to a standard one - Kia Optima.


First time drove an automatic transmission car. No clutches, no manual gears, just use accelerator and zooooom goes the car. Good power, low engine sound. All in all it was an easy drive. And fast.

All was set, with full knowledge of the rules I went for the test the next day. All my concentration on moving my neck to check traffics from all the sides at intersections and turning as the rule demamded. At the end of the test the examiner says. "I am sorry you will have to retake the test"! Reason: Overspeeding - I was driving at 35mph on a street that was marked 25mph. As Nitin said: 'Jwaan khuun hai, ab teez nahi chalayega to kab chalayega'!. Have a retest in Jan. :-)

posted by Nikhil @ 9:24 PM