{"id":146,"date":"2006-12-25T05:04:45","date_gmt":"2006-12-25T05:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naresh.blogsome.com\/2006\/12\/25\/2006-year-end-reflections\/"},"modified":"2006-12-25T05:04:45","modified_gmt":"2006-12-25T05:04:45","slug":"2006-the-year-that-was-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/2006-the-year-that-was-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"2006 – the year that was for me"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, a Merry Christmas to one and all! And a Happy New Year 2007!! For five years (1990 to 1994), Class VIII to XII in school, I maintained a daily diary. It was something I liked doing, and was a good habit I think. For some reason, it got discontinued once I came to Singapore, though there are a few odd days documented here and there. December end was a time when I used to sit for 2-3 days each year and send New Year cards to all my friends – that’s how one of it landed at Archana’s grandfather’s address one year (after our very first meeting in 1993), and created a furore as to who was the card from :) Since coming to Singapore, I started sending year-end emails\/e-cards to all my friends and contacts – a way of saying that I haven’t forgotten you. Over the last 2-3 years, I haven’t done that. This year, I’ve decided I’ll send New Year greetings to all my friends. Before I do that, I’d also like to reflect on the year that is slipping down the hourglass. Below are some of the major events in my life this year: <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Parents in Singapore:<\/strong> After 10 years in Singapore, my parents finally came to Singapore and spent about a month here. Last New Year, we watched the fireworks over Esplanade together.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Archana:<\/strong> She passed her USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge Exam (91 percentile), went to Los Angeles and gave\/passed her USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam, applied for US residency, went to the US island of Guam (a dot in the Pacific) and did a 1-month externship and travelled through US cities (Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Tucson and New York) for her interviews. She also passed the MRCP-UK part 1 exam, did research at SNEC and was offered the position of Honorary Fellow in Emergency Medicine at NUH and temporary registration with the Singapore Medical Council. She made a large pencil sketch of roses.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Bond completed: <\/strong>I got the bond-relieving letter from Ministry of Education. All the talk about serving a 6-year bond working for a Singapore-registered company finally came to an end.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Modules done:<\/strong> Got A’s in both the Level 6000 modules I took this year, thus completing all required modules for PhD with a GPA of 5.0\/5.0 (A+ in 5 modules, A in 3 modules)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    PhD candidature: <\/strong>I passed the Qualifying Exam\/Graduate Research Paper and was transferred from Graduate Program to PhD candidature. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Publications:<\/strong> Two top-ranked paper acceptances (a Rank-1 journal and a Rank-1 conference in Beijing, China in July 2007); acceptance of a 35-page chapter in a book; one Rank-2 conference paper acceptance (May 2007, Vancouver, Canada). Other included APSEC 2006, Bangalore, India and InSciT 2006, Merida, Spain.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Conferences:<\/strong> Attended the IEEE EDM Workshop (presented a paper) and the EDOC Conference in Hong Kong. Also presented a paper at the weeklong APRU (Asia Pacific Rim Universities) DSC (Doctoral Students’ Conference) at NUS.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Extra-curricular activities:<\/strong> Got elected as Director, Academic, Research and Cultural Affairs, NUS Graduate Students’ Society and as Board Member, APRU Doctoral Students’ Network – one of the two members elected from Singapore. Also reviewed a number of papers.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Art\/Painting:<\/strong> I had my first Solo Exhibition (13 paintings), “Expressions in Watercolor & Oil”, at ArtsBuzz, the NUS Central Library. Made a watercolor of a Rajasthani flute player.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Acting\/Modeling:<\/strong> Acted in True Files Season 4 for Singapore Television (Channel 5) and appeared on TV twice this year.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Public speaking:<\/strong> I won the first prize in the ‘Rang de Basanti’ movie critique competition.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Spirituality\/religion:<\/strong> Completed the 9th volume of Swami Vivekananda’s works. Attended and greatly enjoyed a weeklong Srimad Bhagwatam (Bhaagavat) discourse by Girishanandji of Vrindavan. I’m currently reading the first chapter of the Bhagvat Gita – a verse each day. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Personalities: <\/strong>Attended the talk by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the President of India and a lecture by Claude Nicollier, Switzerland’s first and only astronaut in Space. The 82-year old Basant Kumar Birla (BK Birla, grandfather of Kumar Mangalam Birla) and his wife Sarla Birla attended the last 2-3 days of the Bhaagavat in Singapore.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Friends:<\/strong> Sanjog and Leona got married; Prateek became a father. Pavneet got married yesterday<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Visits:<\/strong> Shekhar bhaiya, bhabhi and Ishaan visited from Bahrain. Sharad Gurung from TNA was also here. Met Naresh Subba as well.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Deaths: <\/strong>Mahabir dadaji died in Gangtok. Dadi in Patna passed away too. With the two went the last of my great-grandfather’s sons and their wives. The husband of Bidya Mousi (she’s the sixth among eight sisters) died in Jalpaiguri. Mr Manas of TNA also passed away.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    Health: <\/strong>The lumps on eyelids returned on both eyelids, had to be operated upon (twice), but haven’t gone completely. Acne appeared on the face as well, but is almost gone now.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

     <\/p>\n

  • \n
    This New Year’s:<\/strong> I plan to spend a quiet New Year’s eve this year- probably sit at home and watch TV or work. Archana will be in New York or may have to travel to Pittsburgh by 31st or 1st. I was interviewed for and offered the position of Teaching Assistant (Research assistantship coming to an end). I begin from January. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    First of all, a Merry Christmas to one and all! And a Happy New Year 2007!! For five years (1990 to 1994), Class VIII to XII in school, I maintained a daily diary. It was something I liked doing, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/naresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}