Why are we here....

So I just finished two of the four exams that I have this week. One was an International Finance exam and the other (on the opposite end of the spectrum altogether) was an Astronomy exam. On a tangent, only in college can you have a 400 level finance exam and an astronomy exam within two hours of each other. Try studying that kind of material together and see what it does to your brain!

Anyway, that was not the point of this post. In my astronomy class we recently discussed different theories on how our solar system came to be. One such was the Nebular Theory. This is the most widely accepted theory and its basic premise is that our solar system formed out of a gigantic cloud of smoke and dust (similar to the image on the right). Now, the part that interested me (and the part that I will fast forward to in case none of you are as interested in space as I am), is that after our solar system became the disk shape it is today, and after materials started condensing (hence forming the Terrestrial and Jovian planets), our solar system basically had a young sun and a bunch of planetesmials. For the uninitiated, planetesmials are the building blocks of planets. They joined together to form the planets we are surrounded by today. Now, Earth was obviously formed the same way. So why is it that there is life on Earth but not anywhere else in this solar system (at least not that we know of)?

Basically, Earth won the lottery. The right asteroids and comets(those containing water and ices) hit Earth....and then there was water! After that, the rest of course is history. Astronomers say that although the way the solar system started to form in the beginning could happen anywhere else, life (or at least carbon based life) only occured on Earth due to the random asteroids that hit it. In other words, just the right asteroids hit Earth at the right time. You know when you have two "right"'s in the same sentence, that it's a win-win situation.

The entire idea is so mind-boggling. Maybe if that one asteroid that bought massive amounts of water did not hit Earth at the precise moment that it did, we would not be here today. We are literally drinking water that originated BEHIND Mars. I'm sorry, but does that fascinate anyone else other than me?? It makes one wonder....what if? Maybe somewhere else, at this very moment, asteroids are hitting another newly formed planet in a way similar to Earth. Again, nothing short of mind boggling.

I think what attracts me to Astronomy is that unlike subjects such as Finance or Accounting (both of which plague me ceaselessly), Astronomy deals with concepts and ideas that are not Man-made. We are only trying to find answers, to maybe understand why we are here today. Astronomy is almost our way of showing gratitude to that mysterious force that decided Earth was going to have it all. Think about it. =)

                                  Circumpolar Stars (above)

Boots and Beaches....

A fair number of moons (and suns) have passed since my last post. And what a post it was! After getting some mixed reviews about the (dark?) undertones of my last post, I have decided to make this one light and frothy. As can be seen from the title, 'Boots and Beaches', this blog post shall talk about my upcoming trip to Miami and the new pair of boots that I bought today. (Yes I am very excited about my first pair of boots). Two random topics says you? Read on says I!

As a senior at university, one would think that there are very few moments when one can stop and smell the flowers. What with the never-ending tirade of classes, homework, projects and group meetings, it is hard enough as it is to mainitain a social life and still get a decent night's sleep. Now with the added pressure of "Whatever will you do after you graduate my dear child?!" from random strangers, life has taken a dive into the deep end of reality. If you are still scratching your head trying to understand what that last phrase meant, I would advise you to instead spend your precious time thinking about world peace or some other such fruitful topic.

However, as is a custom in U.S. universities, we students get to take a week off during spring as a break. Such a blessed event that has been christened (not too ingeniously) 'Spring Break', allows us to take a breather before tackling any further stresses of life. As this is my last spring break, I decided it had to be different. Unique. Exciting. Adventurous. Of course, with the way my life usually shapes out, the chosen destination had to be Miami. And for those of you who are not that familiar with U.S. spring break destinations, you can't really get more cliché than Miami. It is like the Goa of India. This is not my first trip there as I went there for a few days 2 years back. That was quite an eventful trip and I thoroughly loved the sights and sounds of Miami. This will be probably be the last time I travel to Miami (at least in the near future), so I intend to make the most of it.

Now in order to make the most of it, will require being able to walk across the lovely beaches, promenades and the quaint (yeah, right) streets of Miami. In order to prepare myself for this intense exercise that will no doubt last hours and hours, I went ahead and did the most sensible thing a girl my age can do. I bought myself a pair of boots with four inch heels. Sensible right? You bet! However, I am still very excited about them as they are my very first pair of boots and I can remember wanting boots ever since I was a kid (or you know, since I hit adolescence and started reading fashion magazines).

So yeah. Spring break 2010 + Miami + Killer new boots = Riya with a tan and sore feet. I'll post pictures when I get the chance (in case you live under a rock and don't use facebook).

This is a picture from Spring Break 2008 at Miami. The beaches are to die for!

Going, going, gone....

Isn't it strange how we only realize the value of something after it has been taken away from us? While we are in possession of it, we either take it for granted or we forget about it completely. And then after it's gone, we realize that something is not quite right and we don't know why. It takes us some time to figure it out and by then it's too late.


The reason I was prompted to write this was due to the numerous "Do you remember when...?" lines that I have been either hearing around me or have been thinking about myself. Nostalgia. The one feeling that has been taking over my consciousness more and more recently. The realization that my college life is drawing to a close and that real-life is waiting and watching out for me....it is genuinely unnerving. So far, everything has been like a page from a step-by-step manual entitled 'Life'. School with its various challenges and excitements. College life with its various revelations on adulthood. And then what?


There is a phrase that recently popped into my head and has since then, firmly latched itself onto my thoughts - "Every problem seems hardest at the time and the smallest in retrospect."  It is very true and when I thought of this phrase, it was like remembering something I had long-forgotten. Like an unknown known. Maybe in twenty years (hell, maybe in ten) I will look back at the situation I am in now and laugh, thinking how trivial my problems were then. And I will probably do the same ten years after that. Truth is that humans were never designed to be satisfied. We always want more. And in this world where everything is so scarce, the 'more' never gets realized. And in this pursuit of 'more' we forget to enjoy the present and to cherish what we have. Later, either when we have somehow managed to get that 'more' or we have long given up the quest for it, we realize what we have missed on the journey. We then feel guilty and for a few days, consciously try to correct ourselves. However, one inherent aspect about us humans can be understood from the phrase- 'Old habits die hard'. We don't change and we go on that wild quest for the unreachable 'more' once again.


Satisfaction. It's a bittersweet feeling. One is happy that one was able to accomplish what one wanted. However, it is a doorway to bigger expectations, longer journeys and maybe more precious moments lost in the process.

Baby Steps....

Although I am not exactly new per se to the world of blogging, I have never really created a blog of my own. This can be attributed to several reasons, all of which are as odd as the next-
1) With the boom of blogging (not too different from the real estate boom a few years back), a part of me just refused to get onto that bandwagon.
2) It seemed extremely egoistic to assume that other people actually have the time (or care!) to read what I would have to say because its just THAT important.
3) My "writers-block" that I have apparently had since eighth grade. Don't even ask how it managed to last this long.
4) Me just being plain ol' lazy.

And out of these four reasons, I would honestly say the last one has the most weight. Yup, chalk one up for ye olde procrastination!

Actually procrastination has gotten to such a level with me that in between writing the minuscule amount that I have written so far, I have already visited five to six different websites. No joke.

Anywho, I thought that I'd start off my very first blog by just giving you readers (or reader depending on how many people I tell about this blog), an insight into my mind. Certain quirky characteristics about me if you will, and I hope maybe you can give me some insight as to why I am like this. Lets play a little game of psychoanalysis shall we? (With me being the psycho of course!)

1) I can be unbearably superstitious. If you know me as an acquaintance, you probably won't think this is true but anyone who knows me on a not-so-superficial level will know this is probably the truest (?) fact in the world of Riya. A funny side-fact about this is that the more independent I have to be, the worse my superstitious beliefs get. And I am not talking about the black cats and walking under ladder stuff. I am talking about legit beliefs that have not even been invented yet.
An example you ask? Out of the two hundred or so songs in my iPod, I probably don't listen to about twenty of them at all. Never. (Which begs the question as to why they still have a place in my iPod). And if they do start playing while on shuffle, I will stop whatever I am doing to change the song. I would say the one song that I am most deathly terrified of (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration) is "Bittersweet Symphony" by Oasis. The haunting tune, the depressing lyrics and the context of the song is just too much for me. Needless to say, this one song does not have a place in my iPod.
Another example? Maybe the song one is a little common. Different people do have that one song they believe is bad luck or whatnot.
Well, this one is probably going to allow you to classify me as some kind of mentally disturbed person because it has no logic and no reasoning behind it (but then again, superstitions are not exactly known to be logical).
I believe that eating salads causes me to have a bad day. Ok, maybe not causes but correlates. Why? I don't know. Maybe the salad Gods want me to get fat. Maybe this is my subconscious forcing me to choose a burger or fries every time. Or maybe I am just plain cuckoo. That was a rhetorical question, so don't answer that.

So yes. This has to be my biggest quirk ever. And all that I have explained here so far is just skimming the surface. Maybe in the future, I will reveal more but you have to promise me I won't end up in a strait jacket in Hell's Kitchen or some such place. Anyway, let's move on.

2) I am beyond obsessed with anything that cannot be explained or that mankind is still discovering. I am not talking only about ghosts, spirits and the supernatural (though God knows, these fascinate me to no end). I am also extremely intrigued by outer space, the planets, extra-terrestrial life and everything else that has to do with Astronomy. (note- this is different from Astrology. No I am not insulting your intelligence but there are some people I know who really don't know the difference).
Do I believe in ghosts? Its hard to say because there are so many unknown variables. It has not been proven nor has it been dis-proven. News channels still broadcast certain videos of what appears to be "a spirit caught on tape". This is rare and you may argue that local news channels will do anything to boost their TRP. However, there is obviously something to it that fascinates the human mind (or at least my mind). Certain classic stories such as the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle (I can almost guarantee there will be a blog post dedicated to this soon) or the odd crop-circles (the subject of M.Night Shyamalan's 'Signs') or even the little green men from Mars are very well known.
We all learn something new every day and I recently learnt that the entire crop-circles business is a hoax. An utter deception. More on this later.
Alien abduction stories are rampant with people claiming to have been taken right into these U.F.O's and studied. Most of these stories are hoaxes, of that I am sure. But this does not allow me to rule out extra-terrestrial life as a hoax. Earth got incredibly lucky. Just the right distance from the Sun to make it not too hot and not too cold (or 'just right' as Goldilocks would say). The lucky combination of more than just hydrogen and helium thanks to nucleosysnthesis. The conditions required for the first single-celled organisms to come into existence and then there was just no looking back. And this is just in the Solar System, in our galaxy (most of which is undiscovered). Who's to say that there wasn't just that one other planet in a galaxy far, far away that got as lucky as Earth did? I'm starting to sound too much like George Lucas? Very well then, moving on. (I hope you get the point- these ideas intrigue me greatly).

3) Whenever I ask myself a question, I always get two answers. Every time. And usually they are both polar opposites of each other. No, I don't have a split personality (yet). However, this did puzzle me for awhile because it never really used to happen before. It puzzled me to the extent that I asked my parental units for advice. My Mom suggested that one answer was from my brain and the other from my heart. My instant reaction was "that has to be the most stereotypically movie cliché'd kinda answer ever". But the more I thought about it, the more the possibility seemed....possible? If I asked myself "What do I have for lunch?", I would get two responses-
(a) Something healthy
(b) Fries!!!!
So which smart-aleck organ is responsible for my bad eating choices then? My heart? It should know that eating fries will bring me just that much closer to a heart attack so that can't be it. My brain? But fries will go straight to my thighs! (Funny how that rhymes.) That's something so logical my brain should be knowing that! Maybe its my brain that always votes healthy as it knows that I am just finding more ways to kill myself otherwise. In other words, my heart is sabotaging itself. Purposely. Good going heart! Hmph.

Ok I may have gone off on a tangent there but really, this whole "Follow what your heart tells you" slogan is going to get me in some serious trouble soon.
And I don't just get two answers regarding what I should eat. Regardless of whether it is about buying a certain shirt or deciding to study for a test or just waking up in the morning to face another day, ALL of these questions have two answers now. Previously, they all had only one. I think that was when my brain was winning. Now the jury's out as to who wins from now on. (Go heart! You're more fun!)

Talk about a long blog-post. I should probably just go ahead and write a book about me. How oddly ego-satisfying that would be to see a book like that become a best-seller. Enough with the castles in the air. The above three quirky characteristics are just the three that happened to be in my head as I penned this down. No wait, that's a lie. As I typed this down. No pens were involved. Ah, technology!

I don't know when my next post will be or what it will be about. In my rigidly planned out life, I am going to rebel against myself and let this blog post business sorta go with the wind! If this post was too long and tedious for you to read, I apologize. Maybe it is only I that finds myself interesting (that can't be good). However, if you are one of the brave souls that made it all the way here, maybe you offer me some insight as to why I have these eccentricities in me. Do you have them too? Any insight would be appreciated.

However, before the insight, please stop calling the local psychiatric ward. Thanks!