WHERE DID YOU GROW UP? WHAT WAS YOUR PATH TO CAL? I was born and brought up in Calcutta, India and did my high school from La Martiniere for Boys. I have always had an analytical bent of mind and always knew I wanted to pursue Computer Science. When the time came to decide my college - I examined my choices - and Cal was the obvious choice. Currently a 3rd. year undergrad in CS, I couldn't be happier with my decision. HOW MUCH PROGRAMMING HAVE YOU DONE (& WHAT LANGUAGES)? I began programming when I was in sixth grade. Through high school, I have worked with BASIC, Java and C++. At Berkeley, I have completed the 61 series and taken some upper division classes such as Artificial Intelligence, Compilers, Graphics and Databases. I am fluent in Scheme, Python, Java, C, and C++. WHAT ARE YOUR SOME OF YOUR TALENTS AND SKILLS? I love playing squash (for those of you don't know - it's very similar to racquetball). In India, I used to play for my state - West Bengal. I have been a member of the Cal Squash team. Freshman year we with won the West Coast Round Robin tournament and emerged runners-up in our division at the Squash Nationals held at Yale University. Besides squash, I enjoy table tennis and have played for my high school in India. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR HOBBIES? I love playing sports! Brought up in India, cricket holds a special place in my heart. Before transistioning to squash, I had played tennis for nearly 8 years. I still follow the sport avidly and am a huge Rafael Nadal fan! I have also dabbled with golf, basketball, football and badminton. I love playing board games like Taboo and Monopoly and enjoy the occasional hand of poker. HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING REMARKABLE? HAS ANYTHING MEMORABLE HAPPENED TO YOU? I lost a large amount of weight in a really short span of time! :P When I finished high school in April, I used to weigh (230 pounds). And on my first day at Cal in mid-August, I weighed 165 pounds. WHAT COMMITMENTS WILL BE CONSUMING YOUR CYCLES THIS SEMESTER? In addition to being a TA for CS61C and taking four classes, I am super, super excited to be facilitating the "Introduction to Open Source" DeCal (CS98/198). It's going to be a great semester where we hope to build a community that will actively contribute to the Open Source.