“OH NO, one-fourth of our honeymoon is over!” exclaimed a friend as we walked out of a crowded Altschul Auditorium after finishing the much dreaded econ (read: Economics for International and Public Affairs) finals paper. While the joy and relief of having survived the toll of the finals was evident on most faces, it was accompanied by a queer feeling of disbelief how quickly our first semester at SIPA got over. Evidently most of us, and that certainly includes me, had fallen in love with life at SIPA!
It’s hard to imagine the insanity of the last four months at SIPA and New York City. Right from the time I left India in early August, I was consumed by this feeling of having to make the most out of my stay in US. After six years of (almost) non-stop work, two years of graduate study seemed like a nice long holiday and at the same time a unique opportunity to study and experience things that I had ever been wanting to! And so, as soon as I landed in NYC, I was up and about the business.
In the last four months, this was the story of my life in brief – lost a brand new smart phone in Central Park in Week One (Adversity builds Character, I am told), discovered the wonders of living at a place like International House, connected to old IIT friends in US and made some awesome new friends at SIPA from India, France, Brazil, Spain, US, NYC and California (friends from last two places insist that they be included in a list of sovereign states), credited 4 and audited 3 courses at Columbia (I did it coz I had to!), trained hard and ran the NYC marathon in 4 hrs (in the process, fell in love with Central Park – a runner’s paradise), got to learn about a fabulous non-profit called Union Settlement Association in East Harlem and raised $2000 for them through my marathon run, had a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas day experience (thanks to my host families), and finally, enjoyed my first sledding experience in the post-blizzard snow of NYC yesterday.
This is where I live - International House (Special gift if you can spot me)
Ran the NYC marathon 2010
Thanksgiving day meal with Coleman family, Connecticut
Christmas day celebration with Joyce family, New Jersey
Fun in post-blizzard snow in New York
(Picture Credit: Chitrangada Choudhary's Stellar Moments Inc.)
One of the interesting things I attempted in this period was trying to unravel the intricacies of US politics. Armed with a paper subscription to New York Times (surprisingly, that’s very old-school in US), I was determined to understand the seemingly complex interest-group ridden world of US politics. Like many in my generation all over the world, I found President Obama’s rise to power immensely inspirational. At the same time, I was keen to see how exactly he would set about fulfilling his lofty campaign promises and how American citizens would react to the same. A mix of factors – reading some brilliant thought-provoking reporting in NYT, midterm elections to the US Congress, a large focus on US policy in many of SIPA courses – have ensured that what started out as deep curiosity developed into a strong (maybe permanent) interest in following US politics. This also means, that I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked to in keeping track (major controversies aside) of Indian politics. I need to work on that.
On the academic front, it has been a satisfying experience so far. I haven’t learned as much about policy issues all over the world (India excluded) in my entire life as I did in these last four months at Columbia. I think that was partly due to my deep interest in public issues in India and partly due to the inadequate reporting of international issues in Indian media. One of the wonders of US universities is that they are often (especially an ivy league like Columbia) the foci of world’s knowledge and attention – both explicit (library collections) and tacit (world leaders, faculty, guest speakers and students). When researching and writing a paper on failure of urban decentralization in India for one of my courses, I was amazed how the vast resources at Columbia made it much easier for me to research on an Indian public policy issue from here rather than from India. Every single journal article that I wanted to refer to was accessible online within 2 minutes and every single book within 2 days! As I settle down to a steady rhythm beginning next semester, I hope to make the fullest of the vast resources Columbia has to offer – wide range of course offerings, library, faculty, fellow students and innumerable talks held every single day.
A discerning eye would have noted a glaring exclusion from the what-I-did-last-summer list. Yes, I am referring to (truly) experiencing the myriad wonders of NYC – food, music, theater etc. Well, this is what I have dedicated my winter break to. J
