Vital Signs: I was born in 1978, in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. I went to the Government College Lahore for my intermediate, and the University of Engineering & Technology Lahore for my bachelor studies. Subsequently, I joined Techlogix Inc. for a one year stint as a Software Engineer, and in 2002 began my graduate school at Georgia Tech. I graduated from Tech. in 2008, and am currently (2009) working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Disney Research Pittsburgh.

Following are some of the things I enjoy besides my work.

Poetry: I love Urdu poetry, Urdu being the national language of Pakistan. My favorite Urdu poets include Faiz, Ghalib, Iqbal, and more recently Rashid. I also enjoy reading the works of Punjabi poet, Bulleh Shah. Some day, I would like to better understand Farsi poetry, specially by Rumi, Hafez, and Bedil.

Occasionally, I also write poetry, some of which can be found here.

Photography: I like taking pictures, particularly of the genre known as street photography. After months of agonizing contemplation, I am pleased to report that I am now a proud owner of a Nikon D700 (which even though has left me bankrupt, is a gem of a machine). I only use prime lenses -- the ones I presently have are Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D, and 35mm f/2.0D.

Some of the pictures I have taken can be found here.

Music: I like to write songs in Urdu, and am under the impression that on a good day, can sing a note or two as well. I have been playing acoustic guitar for some time now, and use it to compose all my songs.

I have started uploading some of my songs on youtube recently, which can be found here.

Squash: I love playing the sport of squash, and am a part of the CMU team. My favorite squash players are Jahangir and Jansher Khan, the last two of the Khan squash dynasty, that enabled Pakistan rule the world of squash for several decades.

Chess: I enjoy playing speed (blitz) chess. I am still at the beginners' level, and occasionally play at FICS, where my user-name is mrhamid. If you like speed chess, and find me at FICS sometime, please feel free to ping me.

Languages and Etymology: I am interested in learning about languages, and how words evolve over time and space. With my native language Urdu having its origins in Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic, and a more recent influence from English, I was lucky to be exposed to a variety of linguistic influences while growing up. Recently, thanks to Maya, I have been working on learning a little bit of French (oui, c'est vrai!).

Documentaries: I am an avid fan of the documentary film genera. There are some excellent documentaries freely available online, and I'm enlisting some of my personal favorites here:

Born into brothels, The power of nightmares, Dangerous knowledge, PBS frontline, The ascent of money, Charles Darwin and the tree of life, The trap, Pandora's box, The living dead, The way of all flesh, The Mayfair set, Fermat's Last Theorm, Rageh inside Iran.

Some of the useful online video resources are given below:

PBS Videos Online, BBC Documentaries on Google video, TED Talks, MIT World, Documentary Bank 1, Documentary Bank 2, Documentary Bank 3.

Copyright © 2010 Raffay Hamid. All rights reserved.