EMSP.

Congratulations!! You have been academically accepted for the European Master of Science in Photonics. The day I received this email was the most happiest day of my life.From the day , I received my admit ,I started counting days to go to Belgium . To be true on my side, I did not have any information or a contact in EMSP so that I could use the opinion of someone with their experience in this master program. I just googled about the Master courses in Photonics in Europe , and EMSP came across. and went across the information given on their website and reviews online - and was excited to apply ( This Master Program is gonna be excited ) and this is exactly true , I am not bragging about it.

I took a flight from Bangalore to Abu Dhabi and from Abu Dhabi to Brussels ( The capital city of Belgium). I did had a layover in Bangalore too, as I come from a mediocre city , Raipur in India which does not has a international airport. While I was sitting in Bangalore airport alone, A weird feeling cropped up inside me on the day when I was sitting in airport , thinking how would everything go , how would be the new culture , a new country, a new way of living far away from home 8000 kilometers away across the ocean. Leaving your parents , home country is definitely difficult because due tot his huge distance you can't visit them often. But, deep inside I had a feeling too, I was going into one of the best school of Photonics in Europe and so everything would be nice, but it turned out to be amazing. The initial days I felt a little home sick, but thanks to Nikhil ( he is my classmate ) , he made me feel Ghent so homely . I was also lucky enough to get a accommodation from my home country , so this made my life here much easier. Also, I would like to mention that finding accommodation in Ghent is so difficult , so make sure the first thing after you get a admit, search for rooms.

I always had a fear of living in European city because of the language barrier. I thought I would feel always left out among the locals, because they will talk and laugh, and have fun in a language you would never understand. But, Ghent is a truely a international city and . If you love parties and socializing , join the Erasmus Group. They are a group if exchange students from across the European Universities. Also, in EMSP there is a good diversity and we are like a family, we do help each other.

I love this medieval ancient, yet modern city of Ghent. Ghent is one the charming"darlings" of Belgium. I have been to Leuven, Brussels , Dinant , Genk , Ardennes, yet I love this city the most . It's so different than what I saw in internet. Internet can't do justice to any place and this is quite true. The Gothic Archietcture of Cathedral, the eternal silence of sunsets across the river , and the colorful bubbles at city center are some of the things I can always keep in falling with love. Graslei and Korenlei are one of my favourite streets. These streets are so magical during the day as well as in night. And also, not to forget the amazing fries and waffles . If your first love is chocolate, trust me you will love Belgium. Want to fancy student life, just go to Overpoortstraat ,grab a beer and you will find the craziest of students there. I had a impression that no one here would speak english, because their native language is Dutch, but this conception turned out to be wrong. Almost everyone , old and young can speak English. So , whenever you get lost , don't worry. Belgians are among the most helping and friendly people. With Belgium lying at the center of Europe, it's so easy to fulfil your dream of travelling to all the European countries. Paris is just 2 hours away from Brussels , and Amsterdam too.

Ghent University is one of the best highly ranked university in the world and our professors are so friendly, nice and their knowledge incredibly amazing. The academic staff are helpful, caring and make your arrival in Belgium so smooth. When in problem, they are always there. There was a introductory session by Ghent University common for all students and also some fun activities like Kayaking, Going to Belfry tower , to have a magnificent aerial view of Gent and many others!!( Make sure to check your emails before your arrival , where you register and just a tip, Kayaking is filled up very soon ) . There was a kick-off event by Photonics Group . Every little detailed information was given which made me comfortable enough to plan out my studies for 2 years ( This is really not a piece of cakewalk ).The professors are so kind and prompt to every question you have. So the transition from culture in my home country to a European culture was so smooth. Now I feel so confident about the perfect career choice I made. In the kick-off event , the information was so crystal clear that I could figure out my way through these 2 years ( I have a sound plan of going for international internship to CEA-LETI, france , I will share my experience , if Corona Virus outbreak doesn't fuck my plan ). Also, since our program and our professors both at Ugent and VUB have so many industrial contacts , that getting a job won't be like walking through thorns in a garden of roses.

Coming from Engineering background, the first semester courses are very challenging and difficult . I didn't even have a space to breathe in .The first semester courses are fundamental physics and some mathematics ( I have a math phobia, but thanks to professor Peter, he made those lectures amazingly well planned and a cakewalk for me to study). The courses are difficult but not impossible. Everyone does it , because the professors do explain the concepts very well. They are brilliant, experts and genius , I would say . Although, I would mention, that balancing your time is very important. Well, I gave six exams in 20 days , so that was a bit more challenging.

The second semester is rather easy and less dense completely manageable, but you have gotta do more lab reports. The abstract concepts ( For me all the Fourier Transforms, Periodic Structures was abstract and imaginary) , but when I actually did them in labs , I realise how fascinating they are. I couldn't say much about the second semester now, because it went all online because of this corona virus outbreak. Also, after one semester in Belgium, you get used to culture , and the lifestyle which makes life so easy.

To get a truely international experience , this master program offers many exchange oppertunities to almost all the Best Universities in Europe like ITMO, EPFL, DTU, therefore, you also have a chance to experience another European Culture. All the professors have a extensive industrial network, so finding a international internship is not so difficult. I too got one in my first semester !!. If I could go for my internship ( Thanks to this corona outbreak making me confuse about doing my internship ) , I will surely share my experience.

If you have any question ( Don't worry , you can also ask silly questions to me ) get in touch using my contact.Always Happy to Help .

Being beautiful is good , but being good is beautiful

What exactly do you think being good means? I’m sure I can guess a few standard responses. Helping others, contributing to the society, maintaining cleanliness, not being rude, being compassionate etc etc. Well, I don’t really consider them as being attributes of a good person. These are logical things that are expected of any human being. If any of these qualities aren’t being fulfilled by you or anyone, you really urgently have to re-evaluate your approach to life.

I’m basically talking about being good within yourself. Your first relationship is with yourself. Don’t you think you need to take heed of your own self before stepping out to take heed of anyone else? No I don’t mean positivity or patience. They’re essential attributes as well for a human being to exist in this world. I intend to point to that good, which lies within you by heritage, by lineage. The good that you’re born with is the magnitude of good your life can become. The only reason we are not able to make most of us, or even identify ourselves is because we are held by shackles of the modern version of pre – specified streams of paths in life. In all these years of people trying to dictate us to make our own path, they ended up creating a completely new set of paths, simply replacing the options in the same system. But the problem with these new set of options is that they lack the holistic approach to complete knowledge. The point of taking a path is to reach a destination, not a stage in the middle of a maze. The “modern” school of thought has left everyone in a situation in which we make our way through the maze only to reach a dead end where we get a stage to project our thoughts, giving us an illusion of achievement. What we don’t realize is that we left our quest to make the way out of the maze.

So what is being “good” got to do with all this? Being good is doing yourself a service of giving a direction to your life and a purpose to your actions. Being good is to identify where you come from, using your complete potential, harness the intellect of your lineage and build up on it. Being good is to do justice to your own capabilities and harnessing the power in your brilliance and perception.

When you start working on your own goodness, you considerably improve your knowledge, perception and holistic development. This automatically projects outside of you in the way you handle people, situations, career or life in general. Communication becomes cerebral and wholesome which would make the world a much more orderly place than it is right now.

Isn’t it better to make your life beautiful by being good than make it good by being beautiful?

I lost it along the way .

I’m here. I’m here. You can’t avoid me! You can’t run away from me!

Whenever a situation of suffering comes up, we aren’t able to bear it. C’mon face it. Even if we put on your adult mind and say let’s look for a solution, at the first instant the child inside you wants to come out crying and say please help me. But then, we suppress the cry and go on to think like an adult.

We may be hurt by something or someone. But what do we do about it at that moment? We constantly entertain ourselves, watch movies, listen to music, socialize or resort to alcohol. We totally block the child within ourselves which wants love and care at that moment, because we do not want to experience that suffering.

We all go through painful times in life. When we come across a similar situation, we want to forget about it and stuff the memory deep down the unconscious mind. We do not ever want to face the child that we are shoving further down inside us by this.

The wounded child is there, always, and we don’t want to feel it. That child is further being wounded and needs our attention, but we turn away from it, afraid we may scrape old wounds and be hurt all over again. Just because we ignore it, doesn’t mean that child isn’t there. Running away this way doesn’t help us get past the suffering. It only prolongs the suffering.

To tackle these situations, we must make use of the awakening that is etched into us genetically. The first thing to do is to express. We see it evidently in children, that at any point, they express themselves very well. They do not hide emotions, they come out and cry if they want to, laugh if they want to, smile if they want to, fear if they want to. All these emotions come out if and when they want to. They do not hesitate from expression.

As adults, we are enforced to a society having fixed set of accepted emotions and situations. A situation is faced with two reactions from the society that surrounds you. It applies to all kinds of situations. If something delightful happens in your life, one section is happy for you, while the other is left grudging. If something uncalled for happens, while one section of your society will feel bad for you, being your well – wishers, the other section of people are only contented about it. Either ways, one section is happy and the other isn’t.

When we know this is going to be the situation anyway, then why don’t we express ourselves and make our views evident about our own life?

The goal must be to make ourselves socially compliant, while maintaining personal happiness. A simple way is to do it as well as maintain it, has been ingrained into us since we were born.

We may have lost it along the way.

The trick is to use the adult mind to think while letting the child inside you, express emotions. Once we get the hold of it, we will be able to control our mind along with letting any kind of feelings, whether resentment and distress, or, contentment and comfort, flow out and not get clogged inside us.

When faced with a situation of suffering, cry your heart out. That is human instinct and it is NOT AT ALL inapt to cry. Once the child in you has come out with the emotion, you know what to tackle in life, whether it is sorrow or regret.

When faced with a painful memory once again, do not run away from it. All painful memories have a good time before them. Live for them and not for remorse.

When you are hurt physically, it is only natural for us to apply some kind of medicine and make it feel better. We do not cover it with clothes and pretend it never happened. Because it hurts to look back it, but then we eventually have to, since we need to be well for our life to continue. Similarly, getting hurt emotionally doesn’t mean resort to other things to take our attention away from it, because eventually you need to go back to tend to it in order for you to life a normal life. So let the child within you come out and talk. Let it talk so that it knows why it isn’t getting the love and care it wants at that moment.

Nurse that child, don’t push it down because it only yearns for love. Listen to your inner child; it knows what’s wrong. This Children’s day, learn to help the child within you, and see many problems of your life getting solved like child’s play!