Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 21:10:04 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 22:10:06 GMT Content-length: 5345 More about Manuvir
Manuvir

My Life Story

Manuvir

I was born on a Sunday, the 3rd day of May in 1970, in Cochin, India to my father Premvir Saran Das and his wife, Nalini Das. At the time, my father was a 30 year old Lieutenant in the Indian Navy, and my elder brother, Puruvir, a 20 month old devil. I was named Manu after a great old sage who was responsible for such edicts as "the woman shall walk in the shadow of the man", "she shall walk 3 steps behind him" etc. I always introduce myself to people by claiming that my name is as blatant a misnomer as you will find. The "vir" part of my name just means "brave man". Naturally, my full name then suggests that I am as brave in my convictions as the great Manu. My family name, Das, means servant. Oops! Well actually, the real family name is "Saran Das", meaning servant of God. My Dad decided that my brother and I needn't keep the God part of the name. Either that, or he got confused about which word meant what|

Anyhow, to continue the story: as I grew up, we kept moving from port to port. I spent my school days in 9 different schools in 6 different cities in 2 continents; one of those schools was a public school right here (relatively speaking) in Newport, RI. I met many people, but quickly forgot almost all of them as well. At some point I developed a scientific bent, a surprising event given my family background: almost everyone in my Dad's family is in the government, one way or another. No scientists, engineers etc. I must have got it from my mother's family then. Yeah right, they're all politicians! Anyway. While a senior in high school in New Delhi, I applied for admission to MIT for the first time.

You might have guessed that I didn't get in. Instead, I enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay for a Bachelor's in Computer Science. I spent four years at IIT, honing my non-academic skills and occasionally studying for a test or writing a program. In May 1991, I was done, and I decided to give MIT another shot. Same result. So, I came to Madison, WI for an MS in Computer Science beginning August 91.

Madison is an amazing place, but after two years here I found that the urge to get to MIT hadn't gone away just yet. So, after getting my Master's degree in 1993, I decided that I had improved my credentials enough to finally make it to MIT. Unfortunately, the admissions people at MIT didn't agree. (Are you a Buffalo Bills fan by any chance? If so, you know how I felt!)

Instead of proceeding East to MIT, I proceeded East to Brown University in Providence, RI. Why? It wasn't the Ivy, I can tell you that. I've never understood why that plant means so much to some people. It takes more than that to drag one 1,000 miles away from Madison. Anyway, I won't tell you her name, but I was young and optimistic and I thought it would be nice to cut the phone bills and hang out in the same place for a change. She was admitted to Brown too, you see. So I spent a year at Brown, and then we lived happily ever after.... Not so fast! She got admission to MIT! Of course, she packed her bags and left for Boston. As for me, I stuck my tail between my legs and headed home to Madison, WI. It soon became clear that whatever they smoke at MIT is enough to forget all else, and I was a single man again. It was that cursed MIT once again!

So anyway, I've been back here in Madison working on my PhD since June 1994, and things have been going well. With no all-night phone calls etc research has progressed faster and better. I actually became a dissertator in August '95; of course all my friends claim that it only shows how simple the requirements must be. The story of my life! They can't be totally right though because I managed to get my first and only attempt at a paper accepted at a conference (PEPM95, June, La Jolla, CA). So I am a perfect 1-1 lifetime, which is a better percentage than that of some very famous people. Neato! Radical party, dude!

Meanwhile, I've given up my life long passion for Tennis and turned to Golf. At 26+, I'm getting old! Like many many others, I have by now lost countless Golf balls in trees, in water, even in the middle of the fairway sometimes (I'm just not used to seeing my shots end up in the fairway!), I have tried different clubs, I've watched videos and worn wierd devices, and just a few days ago I became a real golfer when I topped a 6 iron and the ball bounced off the rocks, hit a duck, kicked off another rock, and went in the hole.... Yeah, right! The thing about Golf is, you play as badly as you can all day, but if you hit one great shot, that's all you remember. Sort of the opposite of a relationship! Anyhow, I've bored you enough, so I'll stop now and let you go.