Bye bye Pittsburgh
As with all the happy stories, my Pittsburgh story comes to an end today. I am leaving Pittsburgh. I have graduated and will have to move elsewhere to earn a living. So here I am, sitting in an Amtrak Pennsylvania 42 train which will take me to New York City in about 9 hours from now.
Aditya seeing me off !!
The early morning train did not allow me to sleep much last night. Thankfully, Aditya accompanied me to the train station and we just had a sad parting. The train now steers off into woods, mountains, springs and begins its breathtakingly enchanting journey to the east coast. I must thank my friend, Krishna, who suggested that I should try the Pittsburgh-New York train ride. Although it is a bit costlier than the airplane journey and 9x times longer but it has been only an hour and already I seem to be very happy about this decision.
I am overflowing with a multitude of thoughts as I leave Pittsburgh and thought that I can preserve them by writing them down. Pittsburgh was my gateway to United States. My first city in the US and a perfect one to get acclimatized to the American lifestyle and culture. It is neither too fast nor too slow, relatively cheap, full of scenic beauty and provides a great academic setting with some very fine Universities.
I had two contrasting years at Carnegie Mellon. The first year was one of the most torturous one I’d ever had (or probably will have in future). Days and nights were spent studying and doing hard work. I had been living an easy life for 2 years before coming to CMU and the contrast in the lifestyles completely threw me out of my comfort zone. It was not uncommon to come back home at 4 AM in the morning, cook and eat ‘dinner’ by 5-6AM and then have a good night’s sleep after that.
Second year though was a little easy. Partly because we got accustomed to the lifestyle, partly because the tough courses were over and partly because I got an offer from Bloomberg and many apprehensions about the job and job search were over. I chose the computer forensics track in my second year and time was spent in doing a lot of forensics – which was real fun. With a little less workload, I could find time to do other activities. Swimming was one of them. I am happy that I was pretty regular at swimming this semester and hope to continue that even in New York. I also could devote a good time for the alumni activities of my Undergrad school which resulted in a great east coast alumni meet.
Last 30 days have been so eventful at Pittsburgh. Final exams, graduation ceremony, visiting friends and lots of time spent at the playground.
During my two years in Pittsburgh, I stayed in a street called Murray Ave. It is a hub of restaurants and pubs – one of the liveliest streets in that area. Although we walked down that street every day, we never had a chance to try out various eateries (or should I say any eatery). With only a few days of Pittsburgh left, we decided to try each of them. This meant freedom from cooking and lots of intercontinental food every day. What a great end 
Gullifty's
Silk Elephant
Sun Penang
I cannot close my Pittsburgh chapter without mentioning about the friends I made here. Definitely, it would have been impossible to survive without these wonderful people I met here. They were a critical ingredient in making my stay wonderful and splendid. No wonder they’ve become my friends for life. I’d love to thank Shishir, Aditya, Mayuresh, Snehal, Rohan and Krishna for being such great friends. There are so many things I’d love to learn from each of them.
Shishir – Well, the list is long. Anyone who knows Shishir knows what qualities of his I am talking about. I’ll keep telling stories of Shishir as an example of will, determination and Hard work.
.
Aditya – I really wish I could get the calmness and virtue of patience that Aditya has. His never say die attitude and optimism towards life(whether aiming for 105 out of 100 in an assignment – by chasing 5 extra credits or chasing a bus that is 3 stops ahead) is simply inspiring.
Mayuresh – I always appreciate (and envy) this guy’s technical skills and sharp mind. This might be for the first time I am ever accepting that in public, but I wish I could borrow some intelligence from you.
Snehal – Snehal’s journey from MIT (Maharashtra Institute of Technology) to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is an inspiration. I am glad that in this jump from MIT to MIT, he chanced to be at CMU and I could know and befriend him. A super sensitive person at heart: dare to hurt him and you’ll receive an 18 page email from him after 3 days of silence.
Rohan – A happy go lucky person who’ll say only one thing in case of trouble: “arre suno na… tum tension mat lo, ho jayega”
.
Krishna – I owe him for tolerating me a lot in all the coursework and assignments we did together. Thank you for getting me good marks in all those projects
.
I am finishing this up after arriving at my home in NJ and I can already feel the loneliness and vaccum without them.
All Good Things Must Come to An End, and so has this. I’ll cherish each moment spent at Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh throughout my life.
I’ll end this blog on a happy note. Here are all the pictures that I took all the while I was writing this blog. Next time you are making a journey from NYC to Pittsburgh or the other way round, consider taking a train !!