Tale of TOEFL & GRE

The must dos for any graduate school aspirant - writing TOEFL and GRE. While TOEFL was a piece of cake GRE appeared to be a tough nut to crack.

My preparation for TOEFL was similar to those of most test takers - NOTHING. To appear as a sincere aspirant I bought a study book for TOEFL and after leafing through it for 10 minutes I decided I was not going to learn anything so I slept through most of my study time. On the day of the exam I arrived promptly at the centre at the stipulated time in the evening. All of us waited eagerly for the start of the exam. Due to some server problem our exam got delayed just like most of the flights. To add to this I was the second last person to report. And they have this system of starting the exam in a first come first serve basis. So I had to sit idle till the other 11 people were comfortably seated in their chairs.

At last I was allowed to start my exam. I couldn't wait to finish my exam and return home. After all my wedding was just a week away and we had a lot of things to do. I guess this sounds as wierd - writing TOEFL a week before one's wedding. Well it's all courtesy of the college I studied in. Anyway that's another story to be told later. I managed to sit still in my seat long enough to complete all the sections. Best part was not getting to know the score as soon as the test is over. I for one was not extremely eager for the scores. But when the scores eventually did come I was surprised to have surpassed my expectations with flying colours.

Coming to GRE, now this turned out to be a totally different cup of tea. The wordlists loomed like huge mountains. Try as I might I was unable to learn the words and their meanings. Even though I am a voracious reader this type of learning was totally out of my legion. I tried all possible methods known to me to learn the words. All of them gave me the same result - successfully finish one word list and be horrified at not being to able to recollect the words the very next day. This went on for some time. Finally I decided to move to the other sections. They proved to be easier. Quantitative appeared to be my strength. I could never judge my position regarding the essays simply because I could never get myself to write one essay (till the day before the exam). As for antonyms and analogies they depended solely on the wordlist so the less said the better.

Everyday I looked at the Barrons with a frown. This appeared to be a monster that just could not be conquered. After long deliberation I just decided to try my luck with GRE. After all time was running out for admissions. So with a million butterflies in my stomach I scheduled the test and with even more butterflies I ended up an hour early in the test center. Fortunately this time I got to start my test early itself instead of waiting for the stipulated time. The essay sections seemed to be ok.

Next came the dreaded verbal section. Once the 30 minutes were over I was able to breathe a lot easier. Next quants. What I had considered to be my stronghold turned out to be a bit of a challenge that day. Too many geometry based questions stumped me. Finally with bated breath I awaited the next section. To my horror the next section turned out to be verbal as well. So I ended up with two Verbals. Anyway I cruised through this round of Verbal. After completing all the sections I awaited the tentative scores pretty nervously. I was in no mood to write it again. Hey what a surprise. I cleared the test with more marks than I expected. Yippee.. This calls for a celebration. So we headed to the nearest hotel for a delayed lunch :)

The Forgotten Art of Writing

Last week I was watching "Notes on a Scandal". Judi Dench's character maintains a journal in that. While watching the movie I recalled the time when I used to maintain a diary. I used to frequently jot down my thoughts and experiences in the diary. Every year began with the resolution to maintain a proper diary. This resolution used to feverishly pursued for the first week or month. After that occasional jottings would be made. By mid year the diary would be forgotten entirely.

Somewhere down the line I gave up on this resolution totally. Seeing the movie motivated me to start with this practice. Now human tendency is to excel in whatever they do. This did not leave me alone. Now that I had decided to note down atleast the memorable events of my life I could not decide on where to start. Which event should I keep as the landmark? And will I recollect all the details properly?? After a lot of thought I decided on the starting point. I successfully finished 2 pages. While taking a break I tried to list what all I will include and I was overwhelmed by the number of events I wanted documented. Oh my God, when will I ever finish it all? The diary writing became a daunting task.

To ease the problem I decided to phase it out and interspersed my journal writing with other activities. While writing another thought struck me - when was the last time I wrote a letter? As was expected I had no idea. Now with the advent of internet, email and countless number of messengers where do we have the need to write letters and send them by mail? All I do is type a hurried email or even better get my relatives and friends online and chat with them. I guess the days of the letters are gone. What I keep questioning myself now is whether the future generation will learn to write or will they start typing from their kindergarden days??? Any thoughts?

Little Miss Sunshine

It's been quite some time since we really laughed our heart out watching a movie. LMS turned out to be just the type of movie one can see at almost anytime - when you are happy, sad, angry. By the time the movie ends you will be happily laughing forgetting all your problems.

The movie is funny from the word go. It's filled with ironies as well. We have the dad who is a motivational guru who has found the 9 steps to success but is still struggling to meet ends meet, the mom who is overworked, the son who gives up talking till he attains his dream of becoming an air force pilot, the daughter who wants to be a beauty queen, the grandpa who smokes pot and the uncle who recently had a failed suicide attempt. It has some memorable dialogs such as "High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that." or "Oh my God, I'm getting pulled over. Everyone, just... pretend to be normal." & "Losers are people who are so afraid of not winning, they don't even try."

The plot is very simple. The girl gets selected to participate in a beauty pageant and the entire family (out of no other options) is forced to drive cross country for the pageant. The movie follows the events as they drive up to the pageant and how each person starts appreciating the value of each other. What hurdle are they going to come across next? Will they make it in time for the pageant? Will she perform properly? Will she win? These are the questions which float through our heads while we see the movie.

One of the must watch movies.

DIYA Featured in Hindu

DIYA, a social service group, was started in 2004 by a group of final year students who wanted to make the life of people around them a little better. We had a very humble start. No high aspirations or false promises. What started as a group which frequented orphanages and old people's home to supply their monthly provisions has now diversified into multiple streams.

• Environment - Partnered with Nizhal to plant saplings in various parts of the city. Taught the neighbourhood to care properly for the plants.
• Education - Started a tuition centre for the kids in Pozhichalur so that they don't have to study in a thatched building which falls off during each rain.
• Empowerement - DIYA helped launch the Life Star program which imparts vocational training to students who are visually impaired.
• Service - Regular visits to old age homes and orphanages to cater to their monthly provisions.

This week DIYA has been featured in The Hindu. Full article can be found here or here.

To know more about DIYA and to join the activities visit http://diya.org.in/