Once upon a time...

How did it all begin for me? By doing homeworks! Three a week, ten weeks a quarter, three quarters a year... for only one year (thankfully!).

The new millennium brought us here -
one-and-twenty young first-years,
And as the summer break grew near,
the homeworks grew - as did our tears!

(Ok, so that was contrived.) We never saw the light of day - down in the dungeons of Eckhart Hall, we stayed in a common room. And did problems. And more problems. And then some more.







Of course, when we decided to step out of the department and into the "real world", we found this - and that is the secret of how people get so inspired to work in Chicago!







So we went back in. Some of us actually studied - and frequented this place:







And some of us refused to study, and frequented this one :)







Once we had survived the first-year "bootcamp", we were sent off into the real world (of mathematicians). This is myspace...







And I still refused to go to the library - so instead, we played cricket just outside my office (remember how nice it was outdoors?). Here's the pitch! (Silly Point stands near the fire-extinguisher, across from the mailboxes and the kitchen door.)

This is the view from the "bowling crease". The long boundary at the end of the corridor (see appropriate picture above) was four - and I still remember the only full-face-of-the-bat, high-elbow, carpet (straight) drive I have ever hit in my life. You can then admire the ball hitting the wall at the far end ten seconds later. It feels... beautiful.