US Road Trip - day 6

Oct 12, 2005

Boston was the turning back point of my trip. I wish I could have driven up to Maine and met Vatsala, but a little calculation indicated that I would not be able to make it to Houston and Los Angeles in time to return the rental car. I started to retrace my path over I-95S. I crossed Newyork and drove further down into Philli. I got lost once while trying to reach Drexel, but made it without too much hassle. It was an amazing feeling to see Philli downtown after so many years. I drove through Powelton Avenue and passed by both my ex-apartments. I parked my car near my dorm and walked to Neeraj and Madhu's house. I called up Neeraj from here and he was quite shocked when I told him I was in front of his old house. I told him I would be in Houston in a few days and would love to meet him.

I drove to Drexel Electrical engineering building. Man it had really changed beyond recognition. The entire building had been so dramatically altered that it was harad to recognize. I went to Moshe's lab. He was out on a trip and I met his new students. The new lab was much bigger and the old robot was still there. It felt very nice to be back in the EE building. I met Athina, she recognized me immideatly and was very happy to meet me. I tried to meet Prof. Shankar but he had left just a few minutes ago. I went into the office and I was immideatly recognized - that felt nice. I got Prof. Shanker's number and called him up. His daughter is now admitted in the Princeton EE dept as a bachelor student. I also met Dr. Banu and Dr. Pourrazzai. I met some young students in the building. I spent about an hour in the univ, visited the library and walked around the food trucks refreshing all my memories. I must have spent about an hour here. It was already evening now and I was getting late. I was already running late and my next destination was Baltimore to meet Amit Jain.

I continued on I-95S towards Balitmore. There was a long traffic jam on the way and I was stuck for about an hour. Finding Amit's house also proved non-trivial and by the time I reached Amit's house it was a bit late. I met Disha for the first time here. She made some nice marwadi style food - dal bati. We had a pretty long chat and slept late.