My Bucket List

Hello my friends,

Thanks for visiting my blog. As everybody has childhood dreams and dream goals including me. And, I wanted to list down all the points, every possible one.

One day, I read a blog/site called 'Personal Excellence' and I read a lot about author and her articles. And one of the things struct to my mind was to make 'Bucket List' right now by supporting reasons to make it happen.

So, I wrote the bucket list (written down) which will be expanding with time and being completed with time.

According to provided guide and exploring questions listed below. You are also advised to answer these questions right now and explore yourself.

Questions : 

1. What if you were to die tomorrow? What would you wish you could do before you die?
2. What would you do if you had unlimited time, money and resources?
3. What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?
4. Any countries, places or locations you want to visit?
5. What are your biggest goals and dreams?
6. What do you want to see in person?
7. What achievements do you want to have?
8. What experiences do you want to have / feel?
9. Are there any special moments you want to witness?
10. What activities or skills do you want to learn or try out?
11. What are the most important things you can ever do?
12. What would you like to say/do together with other people? People you love? Family? Friends?
13. Are there any specific people you want to meet in person?
14. What do you want to achieve in the different areas: Social, Love, Family, Career, Finance, Health (Your weight, Fitness level), Spiritual?
15. What do you need to do to lead a life of the greatest meaning?

I wrote my answer to all above questions as follows : Which made my Bucket List :)

Ashok’s Bucket List

#1.

1.     Call to parents and family members for their support

2.     Giveback to Father, siblings and society

3.     Thanking all the high school teachers / professors and gifts to them 

#2.

4.     Travel every country on the world 

5.     Accompany parents and siblings ( few trips )

6.     Space travel ( at least once ) 

7.     Give money to deprived children and sponsor education

#3.

8.     Visit to entire Europe

9.     Fly a jet flight 

10. Land helicoptor in my hometown

#4.

11. Visit Europe, Southamerica, Ocenia, China

#5.

12. Be rich with money and give back to family 

13. Swim in ocean. 

14. Drive a train engine

#6.

15. To see 7 wonders

16. To see extinct wildlife, birds

#7.

17. Win a nobel prize in research 

18. Win honour of societies IEEE, Royal Society

19. Happy parents (Name stars ) 

#8.

20. Rolar coster ride 

21. Horse ride 

22. Swimming merathon

23. Zero gravity feeling

#9.

24. FIFA world cup match

25. Nightout at big US/Euro city with special people

#10.

26. professional Skating / Ice skating

27. Do skydiving  

28. Martial arts and flexibility

#11.

29. Playing in national championship 

30. Representing India in International congress 

31. Glory of parents and honour

#12.

32. Euro / US trip with parents families

33. Completing their every wish e.g. house, skills 

34. Road trip with friends in India / Leh - ladakh 

#13.

35. To meet stephen hawking 

36. PM Narendra Modi, 

37. Author Robin Sharma 

38. JNV principals (both) again

#14.

39. Give back to hometown ( Infrastructure, education ) 

40. To have life partner full of mutual lovely values

41. To do Yoga every single morning 

42. To read atleast a para of Gita & Chant holy names.

#15.

43. Acquire great Education! Technical and Communication skills 

44. Public speaking / Leading workshops 

45. Uplifting fellows and people in hometown 

46. Being a researcher to contribute in field of smart grid / Psychology 

Trip to Akagera National Park

The most awaited trip to any national park has been done this weekend on 5th-6th July. I was searching for fellow traveler to make this happen in reasonable cost. And I did through CS discussion threads by a dutch guy. 

Our Beautiful Land Cruiser (Fifth member )

On morning of Saturday 4th July (Liberation day of Rwanda), I woke up in excitement to visit to beautiful national park of Rwanda. I joined the trip with four fellow travellers from Netherlands and Belgium. I went to their house after getting ready and having breakfast and collecting food items. We started trip from kigali at 9.00 am using personal Land Cruiser. It was great experience since fellow driver was so funny and interesting. We observed the roads, landscapes and read travel guides to get excited to see wild animals and birds. I talked regarding various topics, their travel itinerary etc. We entered the South gate of park and saw Monkeys, deers before reaching reception. 

Day 1: 
After reaching at reception, We bought tickets and paid camping charges worth 35000 rwf. This was so high for foreign traveller and very cheap for native citizens. I was excited and saw the collection of things at reception place e.g. arts, map, bones and head of dead animals etc. It was in mid of wild forest and very well managed. We were ready to explore the park since one guy knew the routes and also, park was well directed using route no. etc. We went towards Giraffe area first and saw Giraffe and Zebras as first animals. I was so excited to see and click pictures of them ( also with me) but I was resisted with friends considering risk in wild forest. Giraffe was really huge and staring at us thinking who are you and why you came to our home? :D . Then we moved on to see strange goats ( I don't know exact names but friend did ) Then we saw herd of zebras and gazelles again. It was really cool. One friend is fan of seeing birds or say, Ornithologist and carried a binoculars. he told us different birds name using his book 'Birds in East Africa'. I got to know many birds and saw using handy optical device. 

My friends (Donald and Luca) Awesome & Funny 

Eric & Ashok (:P) 

Then we headed to Lake Ihema for seeing hippos, wild buffaloes and others. I was quite friendly with them searching animals, birds and stopping car again and again. We had flexibility to see , picture any thing with immense time. I took very cool pictures of animals you can see. We went to lake but couldn't see hippos. We saw mountains of Tanzania in other end of lake. We moved back since it's getting late for camping near another lake. We reached to the Camp site and got ready for bonfire and night show. We had tried a lot to make fire in windy top area. Other group from Belgium helped us using Kapur slices. We had another group from US who were excited to celebrate 4th of July in mid of forest. We had eaten chips, cookies and drank cold-drinks. Another group had their food and Belgians cooked fish from nearby lake. We talked a lot about various things in three groups. After that , we watched clear sky full of stars lying on the grass. Others were so excited and felt fortunate but I saw that sky for my first 10-15 years everyday. But I saw Jupiter, venus and other stars using my mobile app too. And Eric and Luca (my friends) played classical songs which I didn't know bit of it. I was enjoying the time listening them and talking with them. At last, we got into tent with sleeping bags to sleep since we were supposed to leave early to see most of animals. 

Day 2 : 
I was woken up by Luca's call at 5.30 am but I wanted to continue my dream of some fort and sanctuary etc. Anyway, I woke up and came out of tent and felt very good. The damn before sunrise and cool breeze has made me crazy and I enjoyed like a child. We were ready to see Sun to come out from Tanzania side above the mountains behind long lake Ihema. We enjoyed that Sunrise, clicking pictures etc. Then we headed to the exploration of park. 

After Waking up from camps  in dawn of SunRise. I was so excitingly waiting for Sun

He was so scared but was curious to see

.... (To be continued)... 

Celebration of Grad 2015 by Bowling Game

On 22nd May 2015, After intensive work of the week, all personnel of CMU were invited in small celebration of Masters Class 2015 at Bowling Centre in Kigali. We, (Students, faculties and staffs) went for bowling in the evening by bus. It was fun even in the journey since I was excited for bowling as first time. During journey, I had chat with one MIT alumnus PhD student regarding various fields.

It feels great that CMU-R has some event every weekend which refreshes all of us. We reached at spot and introduced each other since many students weren't present on previous trip. We got ready by putting on Bowling shoes. Few of us were also first timer like me. And we started in different teams of six people. I played very well considering first time experience.

In first game, I performed getting 3rd place with other Pro students after obtaining one strike and one spare ( which was awesome with 8+2 pins ). In second game I played in place of other friend, and improved her game by getting the 4th position with one spare. I loved the game but it makes your fingers in pain. And Awesome experience !!


Here are few snapshots. I am sorry for blurred images.

After trying hand with Bowling, We played Ping Pong (Table Tennis). It was different name and I heard first time. We played and I lose both games of 5 points. It was also good since other friends cheered continuously for a small game.

Thanks again for visiting this Public Diary of Ashok Tak. 

Visit to Lake Muhazi, Rwanda

Last Saturday on 16th May, We all the students of CMU-R and few students from CMU Pittsburgh, visited the Lake Muhazi, a small but beautiful lake in eastern Rwanda.

The trip started in morning at 9 a.m. CAT after packing all picnic luggages. During travel of just 2 hours, We all enjoyed listening local music in the bus running in the raining weather. We introduced each other first time since this was my first interaction with most of CMU-R and CMU-P people.

After reaching to Muhazi Hotel near the Lake, started having fun near the bank of lake. We played Titanic Cards, Monopoly game (Business game) and few local card games.

Since one of the friends took Cricket bat, We tried our hands on Cricket game on the bank taking care of every shot so that ball shouldn't fall inside the lake. I played well with respected to others since all were new to this game. Also, We played volleyball which was also awesome fun.

We enjoyed boating by encircling in the lake and seeing different flora and fauna. After that we had lunch in the hotel. Regarding food, I would say it's kind of difficult survival for me being a vegetarian. But It's fine.

We returned back by the bus travelling through villages and few streets. Few experiences moved myself and broaden my horizon. We reached to CMU-R building and then had supper with all. It was great day and first experience in the team and I enjoyed complete day including having pain in arm due to excessive bowling in cricket.

These are few snapshots of the lake. I hope you'll like it.

This video is taken by fast circulating chairs near lake. Awesome clip with beautiful landscape and great people.

Culture of CMU Rwanda

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Rwanda is one of the international campuses of CMU Pittsburgh, USA.

I feel fortunate to be hired as Intern to pursue Research in Microgrid development and applying Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to energy systems.
 
    Regarding Culture of CMU, It can be figured out by single quote of its founder 'Andrew Carnegie'.
                  
                                     My heart is in the Work ~ Andrew Carnegie 

 Every person at CMU is so diligent and dedicated to his/her own work and enjoy doing every single job but at same time all employees and students don't miss any chance to have fun during working hours. I enjoy each and every moment of being in office during day and meeting new people during breaks. Here, everybody is like a friend irrespective of age, position etc. All CMUrns are being called by his/her first name, weather he is either director or student. I was shocked by this but I like this culture.

There are a lot of facilites for students, employees and faculties in the single building. The office rooms, student launge, food center. And all different rooms of the building is fully secured with access gates opened using personalized access cards. It's bit annoying but necessary too.

Telecom House (CMU-R Building) during evening

Outside View of Kigali from my office room at Telecom House

Being a student cum employee of CMU, I enjoy each and every moment with people around here. The faculties are much friendly and also very knowledgeable in his / her own interesting areas with great research depth. I enjoy the time talking with them in every meeting. Also, acedemic staffs are very helpful for solving any problem instantly.

Really, I am pretty sure that this summer will be awesome and enjoyable with CMU family in the land of 1000 hills ~ Rwanda.

I also wish you great time with full of happy moments.

Flight experience

Thanks for visiting the blog.

On 10th May, I started my journey to CMU-R from IGI Terminal 3, New Delhi. It was my exciting and new experience to go for Check-in, Immigration and flight on my own first time. At the 3 a.m. in the morning I was struggling with time to get boarded in Qatar Airways.

Boarding Passes 

IGI T3 Before Check-in

After reaching on Window seat, it was all set to see the world from 12000 m above the earth within clouds having temperature -50 C and in the moving plane at speed of 900 kmph. It was awesome moment to see the horizons in the night above the Arab sea.

I reached Doha, Qatar at around 6 local time and transferred for next flight to Kigali by Qatar Airways only. Landing at Doha airport was beautiful in the early morning and with Sunrise. Plane circled in the air moving above tall scrappers on the touch of desert and sea.

Flight swirling on Doha, Qatar

At 5 am above 12000 m of Arab sea 

Above Victoria Lake 

My Public Diary

Now onwards, I will be using this blog link as 'My Public Diary' where I will be posting the recent experiences and views publicly for interested people.