*Conditions Apply

Time to Run!

2012-01-16T03:17:00.001+05:30

So its 2012. Actually 15 days into 2012 and apart from feeling little bit older, everything seems just the same. After a pretty hectic semester and a really long break from any kind of exercise, I went for a run today. Felt fantastic!

I have wanted to run for a long time, just never happened. I owe all this partially due to
a) this iPhone App called RunKeeper that uses my GPS to track how fast, far I'm running etc.,
b) Played basket ball after nearly 8 years, realized I couldn't play for half the time I could way back then.
c) A long term goal to take part (and finish) a full Marathon.
d) The constant fear that if I'm being chased or chasing someone, there's no way in hell I can last more than 5 minutes. For god's sake, I can't even save my life.. thats how pathetic I am right now! :)

This is the map of my running activity today. I clocked in 2.06 mi in 24 min and burned close to 270 cal which is horrible, but its a start, and I hope to be seeing those numbers improving!

Update: I just found this amazing Beginner's Guide to Running with a moderate running plan for about 4 weeks and other details. Hope its useful!

On What it means to be Alive

2011-11-09T01:36:00.004+05:30

While watching this documentary, I suddenly felt that each and every day I am inching away from reality. From what it means to be alive. Alive in a different sense of the word. Let me try to ellaborate for you to see what I am talking about. Also, mind you, I am not one of those un-social guys. I have a lot of friends, I enjoy going out and stuff. But somewhere, I feel that our problems are becoming smaller and less insignificant to our lives. Sure, they affect us in some way or the other but is it the same to bicker about a slow internet connection as is to worry, lets say, about how good the crop yield will be this year? (where your livelihood depends on it) Is the fact that our problems are getting smaller and less insignificant a sign that we are becoming a prosperous/advanced civilization? My worry is that in the process of fixing all our small problems, we are forgetting what it means to be alive. We take everything for granted because slowly, everything becomes certain. Thats a utopian society right? Where everyone has a secure job, enough to pay for his family's living etc. I'm thoroughly confused.

p.s. "The Documentary" referred here, was Life in a Day [Trailer Below]:

Update: Forgot about this! The ZNMD soundtrack which talks about being alive but in a very different context. Beautiful nevertheless. Got the translation from here

Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
If you are moving
with an eagerness in your heart,
then you are alive..

Nazar mein khwabon ki
Bijliyaan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
if you're moving
with the sparks of dreams in your eyes,
then you're alive..

Hawa ke jhokon ke jaise
Aazad rehna seekho
Tum ek dariya ke jaise
Lehron mein behna seekho
learn to live freely
like the gusts of wind,
Learn to flow in waves,
like a river does..

Har ek lamhe se tum milo
Khole apni baahein
Har ek pal ek naya sama
Dekhen yeh nigahaein
Meet every moment
with your arms open,
Every moment these eyes should
watch a new weather,

Jo apni aankhon mein
Hairaniyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
If you're moving with
a bewilderment in your eyes
then you are alive,

Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
If you are moving
with an eagerness in your heart,
then you are alive..

Listen.

2011-10-08T22:00:00.001+05:30

Here are some of my favorite inspirational videos on youtube. Each one is fantastic.

1. Apple Unaired Commercial, narrated by Steve Jobs

2. Everybody wear Sunscreen! - This is a video made based on an article originally written by Mary Schmich for the Chicago Tribune in 1997.

3. Lastly this fantastic speech by Charlie Chaplin, with a montage of videos from around the web. Brilliant.

Time of your life.

2011-10-02T01:50:00.001+05:30

The following is a quote from the book called Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman. I heard this in a presentation when the speaker quoted it towards the end of his speech. Makes you think..

"In the afterlife, you relive all your experiences but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share quality are grouped together. You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on your toilet. You take all your pain at once, all twenty-seven intense hours of it. Bones break, cars crash, skin is cut, babies are born. Once you make it through, it's agony-free life for the rest of your after-life. But that doesn't mean it's always pleasant. You spend six days clipping your nails. Fifteen months looking for lost items. Eighteen months waiting in line. Two years of boredom: staring out a bus window, sitting in an airport terminal. One year reading books. Your eyes hurt, and you itch, because you can't take a shower until it's your time to take your marathon two-hundred-day shower. Two weeks wondering what happens when you die. One minute realizing your body is falling. Seventy-seven hours of confusion. One hour realizing you've forgotten someone's name. Three weeks realizing you are wrong. Two days lying. Six weeks waiting for a green light. Seven hours vomiting.
..and Fourteen minutes of experiencing pure joy. "

Scary thought

2011-10-02T01:22:00.000+05:30

This maybe an old topic but I would like to talk about it nevertheless. I have always had this notion, fear maybe, about how we have based our knowledge of everything we know based on some notions and principles we have developed. But what if the basis of our knowledge was incomplete? A recent event that caught my attention regarding this was the possibility of Einstein's theory of relativity being proved wrong! The main question which I'm trying to understand (not answer) is if evolution is the only reason why nature (such as the Human Body) perform functions which are still way beyond our scientific understanding, even in the future. Something like the human eye outperforms (and will continue to outperform) everything we have ever built (and will build for the next so many years). There has to be an easier way to do things. Something more intuitive, I feel.
Going back to saying how our foundations maybe wrongly based, here's an analogy - Imagine your trying to understand a conversation in a foreign language of which you know only 10 words. So all you are looking for within the conversation are those 10 words. Everything escapes your ears as pure noise.
I don't mean to undermine the mathematicians and the thousands of years of research. I personally love math, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about the possibility of all these coming crashing down. What happens then? bah.

An Update Post - #1

2011-09-11T06:29:00.000+05:30

I have this really bad habit of being very excited to start something new and then leave it midway because it doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately blogging fell victim to it and I have never blogged in the last two years.

The reason why a Saturday afternoon's siesta got me thinking about the blog is that I honestly want to study how I grow over the next few years. A study of opinions and views of several things technical (Computer Vision and stuff thats not in my direct area of work but of interest nevertheless) & trivial.

So here goes to something that will hopefully not discontinue.

Begin.

Bienvenue à Grenoble

2009-08-31T18:14:00.007+05:30

I wrote this sometime back:

I arrived today at Grenoble. This is the first time I am traveling to Europe and I have to say, I am very impressed. People told me to expect great things. At CDG i thought they were over exaggerating. After I got out of the airport I witnessed Europe's beauty in all its grandeur. Incredible. The scenic, picture perfect, postcard like beauty. Its as if God was taking a course on building the earth and this was his final exam. Anyway, all the happiness vanished (almost with a poof!) when i entered my room. To put it aptly in Munna Bhai's words "arrey yea shuru hone se hi khatam hogaya". Ok, it was not such a big problem. Guess I was expecting better. But the real hit came when i learned that

The room didn't come with a pillow
I had to use tissue paper!
The power sockets don't match the ones i got. Oh god

I decided to nap. Sleep it off. The depression was probably because of all the traveling. Suddenly i remember the first year of college, where everything is new (no not the nice new) I realized how important social security is, i couldn't even sleep properly. I was in a foreign country, knew no one. Well almost no one, i had made friends with this Vietnamese chap called Tien who very kindly helped me out trying to explain everything to my french-deaf ears. Still, i have no clue of how i am going to spend the next 2 months sitting here, the thought is scary. Somehow i managed to get an hour's worth of sleep before i got an sms from mom enquiring my status here. It felt so good (almost sad) to read her message. That's when it hit me, familiarity is so important.
Some how i managed to gather courage to venture out for a walk. I needed a plug converter to cook as well! The moment i started walking, i started feeling better. The first victory against my depression was when i found out an electric store nearby selling the exact converter i was looking for. I walked into this store by mistake thinking it to be a supermarket, though i spent 7.99 Euros for it (yes, they return the 1 cent too).
I found a huge market just round the corner. It felt good somehow. All in all, strange day. Went through many emotions i have not seen in a long time. Unfamiliarity- i don't like it.

My computer clock reads 22:24 IST. Its 6:55pm here, bright as ever. Weird

Random

2009-02-25T23:51:00.000+05:30

Randomness fascinates me very much. There is randomness in everything, there is some inherent charm in not knowing what is next.. The titillating feeling of uncertainty while listening to the radio, your Shuffle mode on the ipod or 'Stumble Upon' on Firefox. As ironic as this is going to sound, I believe the randomness in nature is what makes it so organized. Nature has its way of using randomness to its advantage.

In our mundane, straight forward, ever so predictable lives (unless of course we go around chasing wild snakes or tigers) randomness brings so much of joy. Speaking mathematically, i find it interesting that generating a random number is so complex. In fact, most of the numbers which computers record and display to be random are in fact generated in an orderly fashion using mathematical formulae. Its defining functions or using algorithms to generate something random. Today, True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) have been found to be more effective. They record the time durations between mouse clicks or movement of the mouse and generate random numbers true to their nature.

Anyway randomness is here to stay. Screw the astrologers.

My blog- 2.0

2008-12-27T11:17:00.005+05:30

With all the new widgets, my blog is up to date with what i'm doing else where on the web. Now that is something that i find very intriguing. Everything is connected-it always was, but not like this.
For a I'm-trying-hard-to-be-tech person like me, something like this is addictive. Its like a small child playing in two rooms interconected with a door. You go in through one, your into the other. It might sound naive but, most of the times naive is beautiful.
A recent survey conducted in the US showed that more people got their news from the internet more than the newspaper.
Web 2.0 is apparently almost over. The next apparently is Web 3.0 (not surprisingly), called the intelligent web. It "understands" you, each user has his/her personalised web. Something like- everyone is watching a huge sphere from a tiny window, everyone sees differently.
It is expected that this will take over in the 3rd decade (2010-2020) of internet.
So anyway, the internet is all set to get even more interactive, intelligent and informative.
so the next time I'm on the internet, I'm either 'vi.sualize'ing, 'digg'ing or 'friendfeed'ing.
Addicted to Web 2.0, i think it's beautiful.

Mumbai Mayhem

2008-11-27T18:18:00.005+05:30

It's official, 2008 is the worst year and who knows, we've still got 34 days remaining..
I write this after watching the videos which I would have otherwise seen in some bollywood movie. Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, fainted.

The prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh speaks as if he's an emotional black hole. Absolutely nothing, listening to him will probably get one more depressed than watching disturbing visuals on TV. The govt should take strict action, enough of trying to be good to everyone, of trying to make amends, of looking at the greater good, Enough.

Mr L. K Advani has to come to Mumbai only to eat into the security, most probably to show that he's reacting better than the current prime minister, hoping that this would seal his win for the upcoming elections. 14 Policemen lay down their lives taking bullets and all Dr. Manmohan Singh can say is that we need police reforms, the families will get compensation? Isn't it time he realised that SPEAKING to the public is important and not some diplomatic crap like "we mourn this, we'll talk with them, we'll lick their ass". Is that how we reward our heroes? When people take bullets in their chest there is hardly a reaction, we should not be surprised that something this terrible is even happening. Like someone on TV said, if the same thing happened to one of the politicians on Dec 23rd in the parliament then they would have jumped from their seats.

What point are they trying to get across? that by destroying buildings and killing people they will get their 'revenge' ? This is madness, worst of all the cops don't even know where all the terrorists are hiding in Mumbai. Those responsible should be shot dead on front of a TV camera, i'm sure after all the gore we've seen on TV that is something we would relish. We need to send out a strong signal to those plotting, to tell them that we cannot keep mum about this. That there is some hope for the citizens of this country to lead normal lives. To be able to step out of the house without having the fear of being killed in some bomb blast or terror attack.
Where is all this headed? Will the govt. even do anything about this? forget their stupid politics and show some compassion towards people? What happened here in Mumbai could have happened anywhere, anytime to anyone. We're at their mercy we just cannot help it.
We just have to sit tight and pray that something like this never happens to us, while the terrorists throw the dice to pick the next city.

2008-08-09T11:03:00.004+05:30

When A & B are the candidates of parties expected to win,
But C &D emerge out of no where as strong opposition,
and A& D become the winning team,

You know your talking about the NITK Political Scenario. Boy would the news channels be dying for something this juicy..

Already

2008-07-23T14:32:00.004+05:30

It's a new year, new responsibilities, new problems, old friends, new enemies.
It's not been more than a week, I'm already sick of the mess food.
Already hoping there's no class at 8 am, already used to not having water in the bathroom.
So much to look forward to,
so much to be forgotten.
So many hopes,
so many aspirations.
Painful GPLs,
1 am coffee breaks,
it's all back.
So fast, so good.
Glad I'm back

Early morning thoughts

2008-07-16T18:16:00.002+05:30

Its 2:21 am in the morning on the 7^th July. I will be taking the train to Delhi in 3 hours and with that my internship will come to an end. It’s such a good feeling; I’ve always wanted friends from other countries, and how wonderfully that wish of mine got granted!
As I listen to ‘Khwaja mere Khwaja’ all I can think of is how exciting this internship has been, I’m indebted to so many people for it. So many memories that 2.45 GB of pictures still feels like injustice. I just got back from our daily Mussoorie trips. This is how my day was at work:

7:30 am- Alarm rings desperately trying to wake me up, snooze.

9:00 am- Finally decide to wake up, for a comfortable day ahead.

10:00 am-
Valerie-“ Hey, is the internet working? Facebook is SO slow!”
Me- “Actually I dunno, I’m busy doing my project” my project-Scrubs 6x12
11:00 am- Susheel brings in the tea I have been waiting for all morning.
11:30 am- Finally sit to do some work, guilt filling every corner of me.
1:00 pm-
Erin- “Lunch!,”

2: 00 pm- Come back from a heavy lunch, tired, sleepy and irritated with the amount of work pending.
3:00 pm- “Let’s go to Café Coffee Day!”
“I’ll have a Choco Latté without sugar, without milk, without ice please”- Valerie [ I think we call that water, here in India]
4:00 pm- On our way back, Peter proposes a short-cut, time taken to reach work from Café Coffee Day normally – 12 min, That day, thanks to Peter-45 min. But who’s complaining?

5:00 pm- Finally reach the office tired and sweating from the humidity in the air. Immediately save all the files I was ‘working’ on. Can’t afford my hard work to go waste.

6:00 pm- Finish my daily blog-reading/writing sessions, news updates, movie reviews, Orkut, Facebook, etc.

7:00 pm- Leave to Peter’s place, plan to get back by around 9.

11:30 pm-
After many tequila shots, lots of Poker, lots of random discussions “ Let’s go to Café coffee day!” Thiru Sir.
1 am- Just manage to get into the almost-shutting down CCD and order the usual while taking umpteen number of crazy photos.
2 am- Get [kicked] out of the place and just as we settle to go back home and take rest after a long day’s work, “Let’s go to Musoorie!!”

This was the best part of the day, driving up all the way while it was still raining and the aroma of the rain-wet mud filling the air. We stop by a location where we can see Dehradun sleeping and all lit up like the stars in the sky. Cool mountain mist running through my hair, some song playing in the car while I sit on the ledge looking into the sea of green.
3:30 am
Get back and crash, my body finally giving up to all the activities.

This was one of the days; yes we did work hard, but partied so hard that sometimes, I confused this to be my annual holiday.
With a work atmosphere where Girish sir is always talking about how sinful we are with girls and Ajay sir telling us tips on ‘che din ladki in’ , My trips to exotic hill stations, visits to super religious places, finding Marijuana everywhere, entering the blogosphere, meeting powerful people and all it should not be surprising that I’m going to miss this place as hell, more than I thought I would.
Guess that’s life.

IAS - What's that?

2008-07-03T09:45:00.005+05:30

To continue my adventures in Derhadun,

I was recently going to Musoorie on work and while watching the constant war between the mist and the sun, I let my mind ponder on something...
IAS- Indian Administrative Service
The profession which was the 'IIT' of yesterday.
Men and Women who work hard to give their life in serving the administration of the country. It is the toughest exam to crack .Yes, even tougher than the JEE or CAT-recent figures say that 90/300,000 get selected to train at the Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussorie.

I consider myself lucky to have visited the academy escorting an IAS officer on work. I have to tell you this, You know an IAS officer when you see one. That is the kind of charisma they have. That is kind of command they have. When they talk, you listen, period. I have been corresponding with this particular officer on work, whenever I go to his office, there are 15 people waiting to get their things done. In a matter of 20 min he attends to 10 different cases (apart from the 15 in his room). The academy is top notch, located in Musoorie, it has everything you can ask for. From horse riding with the mountain wind or libraries which make page turning noisy.

It saddens me that something this big and prestigious is no more even considered on the 'list' of important professions according to parents and children. No one is to blame here though, children are obviously attracted to the big bucks in even bigger companies. No one cares about power, responsibility. India is very dirty with politics and corruption, why should I dirty my hands cleaning the rubbish?
Referring to Bala's latest blog, Parents, Uncles and Aunties brainwash the child into thinking so. What can we do? If the whole world is telling us the world is flat, the world is flat!

Frankly, how many of us have even considered this as a career option? I know none. [Yes there is Raj who is determined in becoming extremely corrupt !]
Believe me when you see the white ambassador with the red light, a security guard and a driver for you at all times, you might just beg to differ.

Mera Marijuana Mahan!

2008-06-26T18:43:00.008+05:30

Statutory Warning: Smoking [in any form] is injurious to health.

Dope, ahhhhh.

What a wonderful feeling. To fly so high, to forget what it is to be in this stupid world.
Stuff that cracks me up, stuff that can make me do things only retarded clowns and people from Zorbon [distant planet-2.3*e97 light years] dare to do.
Yeah, I can say it’s the one invention of man, me and my 3,111,299,452 (and counting) mates are proud of. I mean who needs ‘The Wheel’ or ‘Time’ ?
Though reports in the ‘save our ~~planet~~ plant’ community show that many people in today’s sad, depressed, frustrated world are moving away from being in heaven. ‘Scientific Evidence’ apparently proved that our staple food is ‘injurious’ health! How does that make any human sense? It’s as simple as this. Every religion in the world is trying hard to preach what they think is the best way for anyone to attain nirvana.
Dude, I’ll give it to you for 40 bucks! [Negotiable]
The only saving grace is that today, god’s children are actually making a lot of effort in getting as close to him as possible. Some even die trying, some stupid cancer or something.
I’m so proud of tomorrow’s leaders, today’s young men and women. They are the main reason why this world is the way it is. They are the only bloody reason why we stay as one big ‘joint’-family!

Anyway getting to the crux of the matter, the other day I went surveying around Dehradun to this place called ‘Chuttmalpur’. What I found there made me forgive all the bloody bullies in the world. Life was worth living.

There was after all heaven on earth. Right here in front of my eyes.

I considered being dead for a while [I dunno how long, the aroma was already getting to me] but the cow-dung right beside my precious trophy bought me back to my real senses. Darn!
So I took off my shoes and went close to it, there was already an aura around me. A halo was slowly forming but that stupid cow-dung was fighting to stop it from happening. [Cow, couldn’t you have waited?]
Now I was there. Never been this close. Let me paint you a picture of what I was going through, it was like watching Kurt Cobain get stoned and the listen to him sing. Not listen to his song on some stupid radio. To put it aptly, I’ve only seen the end product and now I was staring at the creator. It was like coming face to face with god. Wait a minute am I in heaven? Where is the cow-dung?

My Italian friend didn’t seem to paying attention to me, he was already on his way to heaven. I was so jealous of the kids in this place, they would get Hide and seek Marijuana, crack [up]-Jack! , Tata tea-asli bhang ki patton ke saath [with real marijuana leaves], babies probably got to wear underwear made out of fibre from marijuana. AAARGH!
This was the world I wanted to be born in. Not the world with murder, jealousy, sorrow, pain. So I picked up as much as I could and stuffed it into my bag, should last me and my buddies for a long time to come. I felt like Mother Teresa, I took so much passion in feeding the hungry ones.
Since in this stupid world, all the good things have to come to an end, I had to bid good bye. I was trying hard not to cry. There were no tears in heaven.

Three days later, here I am with enough pot to feed hungry Africa. Now If you'll excuse me, I've some rolling to do.

Dehradun Diaries

2008-06-23T14:35:00.000+05:30

Dear Diary,

After a lot of thinking [and backstabbing] I finally made it to Dehradun. Much to my disappointment the place looked like a town very much like Mangalore, the city I always wished was much bigger than it was.
On the brighter side, I was going to work for an NGO dealing in Microfinance. To add the icing on the cake, there were other interns joining me at work 2 Italians, 2 Americans and another Indian from IIT-B.
I have to confess I felt like a tourist in my own country.
I have never personally lived too much in the North, esp. in villages.

Here are a few experiences I found quite interesting:

-Zooming around in micro-lanes which probably couldn’t fit more than half a car.

-Cows pissing so violently on the road that all the passersby get at least 10 ml of it on them.

-The feeling of being from the future.

-Awesome top-of-the-helmet views while on the bike.

-The angrez and their:
1. Bacteria Free cream
2. Sun-block SPF
3. Wet Tissues (1000+ a day)
4. Arbit, Un-Answerable questions about the Hindu mythology (What is the story of Lord Krishna in a nutshell? –err would a nut-shell mean the entire Mahabharatha?)
5. Even more arbit questions on Indian food (What is the difference between naan, parantha and roti- Why bother I love ‘em all)
6. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Every time a ‘cute’ photo clicks).

-Villagers gawking at the girls and looking at me like I’m the king of the world (It felt good :D )

-Atrocious prices for super cheap hand bags.

-Funny, innovative swears from my friends from college and home.

-The feeling of working in an office.

-The even better feeling writing blogs when I’m supposed to work!

- Picture perfect meadows with sparkling river water running through them.

-Long pieces of cotton clouds sleeping on green, rain-bathed mountains.

-Specks of white dust on the mountains-Musoorie.

Here are some interesting quotes from people here:

a. “If your small, don’t try to purify the ocean”- Mr. Manab, my CEO when I told him how we can improve our business.

b. “Small tings wheech eet doags and humans”- Laura, Italian intern trying to talk about “fleas”

c. “Who are the people you are sleeping with?”- Laura about my room-mates

d. “Abbey behanchod yaha pe na TV hai na biwi”- My married roomie

That’s not the best part of all. Every time I went to the villages on work, I would realize how much we, living in metro cities, will probably never see. The love and affection in their small huts is something we can never find anywhere in our mega cities. What’s more, when the poor tell you what you have done has changed their lives, has made them live a little more comfortably even if it is one small stove added to their small mud house.
So all in all, it’s been a great experience so far. Hopefully I’ll make something out of it!

Books and People

2008-06-19T15:29:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer:The following is a work of fiction. Any relation to a person living or dead is purely co-incidental.

Shown below are a list of bestsellers which should be written sometime!

"How to lose a girl in 10 days"-Shata

"How to manage 3 internships in one summer when people are struggling for 1"- Gulati

"The art of using 'bastard' in every sentence"- T S P

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"- Balaji Rao Koneru Humpy [ Bonus Read!- "Rolling away to glory!"]

"Tried and tested ways to becoming the IE Con"- Ponky & Kulki

"What happened to me last summer"-Sameer Vhora

"The adventures of Mamooty and his 3 movies"-Rejin

"501 ways to call mosquitoes and other in-animate objects a bastard"- Vipul Jain, Also
includes a preface by TSP.

"Now which internship didn't I get?"- Arvind N V

"Basketball, GCG, Gals and more.." -M V

"God said life and then there was MATLAB"- Srinivas Naik

"Boxer-Fashion"- Sheki

"My Life-before and after Sheki"- Mota

"The art of being IMBA"- Hani

"The awesome 4-some"-Manu Joy

"How to manage phone-bills for long distance calls"-Me

"101 experiments of inspiring like IEEE Bala"-Heda

"What raa loosu"- B K

"Keeping up the gult name- Slog Slog and you will succeed"-Tarun

"ROLLING stones gather no moss"- B D

"The LOST world- WoW and more" -Sharon

"How to make your semester 3 months short" -Prat

JEE, I thought the IITs were error-free, Part-II

2008-06-18T13:15:00.000+05:30

To continue belting the IITs ;)
I was reading the news online when suddenly I came across this article about the IITs admission procedure being faulty[link] . This was for the JEE 2006 and if my memory is right that is exactly when I wrote the IIT exam.
Do I regret having written it that year and not qualified ? Oh no! I wouldn't have in any case.
I'm happy. At least I can tell myself , may be just may be somehow i would've made the cut-offs if they had been 4,7,6 ! [which they should've according to calculations. But apparently there was a mistake]
That caused 994 Students to miss the admission into the premier institute.
Now since I am from NITK,Surathkal- a college which was supposed to become an IIT and one that had the 'standard', I know how much it means to be in an institution which 10 Lakh fresh school graduates give up 2/3 years of their life to get into.
After all this you end up asking yourself, " Is it worth it?"

What ever happens, IITs are IITs. They're are the bloody best we have in the country. Just that they ought to be more careful because so many students are sacrificing so much to get that 3 letter tag. There is too much at stake and they cannot afford to make such mistakes.

JEE, I thought the IITs were error-free

2008-03-16T00:35:00.000+05:30

20^th May, 8:45 am
IIT-Bombay Campus, Powai

Chittha: “Orrey neeku matram ah letter ela vacchindo naaku ardham avattledu!” [I can’t understand how YOU got the letter of all people!-in telugu]
Me: “Yeah I know Chittha, even I think it’s a mistake!”

8:53 am,

Me: “Excuse me sir, Can you tell me my registration number?”
Mr. I-am-trying-to-lose-weight-but-its-not-working: “What do you mean? Haven’t you brought the letter?”
Me: “I’m sorry sir, I think I have forgotten it.”
Him: “You people come in the morning and trouble me like this, ok go sit down.”

9:17 am,

Prof: “So welcome to IIT-BOMBAY, this is the electrical department and shortly we will start with your interviews. Let me tell you, there are going to be two panels. One, Micro-electronics and the second-Communication and Signal Processing”
Me[Thinking] : Sir can you talk in English? Sob.. sob..

9:45 am

Prof: “Now we have decided that the communication panel will finish before lunch so you can arrange for your transport accordingly”
Me: "YES!”

2:00 pm

Me: “I thought it was going to get over before lunch?”
Apparently not.

6:00 pm

Prof: “Come in, tell me Rrrousssshil, arrey how do you pronounce your name?”
Me: “Sir it is R-U-S-H-I-L”
Prof: “Accha, anyway have you got a job in college?”
Me: “Sir? No No sir, I have just completed my 2^nd year.”
Prof: “Oh then what are you doing here? Today is only for final years. This is the 1 year long internship programme man”
Me: “But sir, I got a letter asking me to come today!”
Prof: “Oh how did that happen now? Ok anyway lets see what you can do, draw an integrator and show me how it works”
Me: “Sir?"
……

Prof: “See, I think this has been a mistake on our part, you were not supposed to come here today. Try your luck next year”
Me [What I wanted to say]: !^%$@&^%@*^%!!!!!
Me[What I said]: "Yes, Sir."

After a week of anticipation and 10 hours of waiting, the IIT bubble had burst in my head. Its a college after all.

Generally Poor at Acads- GPA

2008-02-05T16:22:00.000+05:30

9.00 or 6.75? what difference does it make? One main reason

why so many people go to the 'main' building (not considering all those (un)lucky ones who purely to meet the opposite sex),
why people spend more number of hours slogging it out more than doing everything else combined,
why people get themselves tags which are hideous and which can normally make a person go into mental depression,
why people avoid Om Shanti Om for 'Why Convolution is considered a necessary evil'

GPA.
Thats right, one number that, they think, is going to decide whether they're going to go about in a cool merc or walk around the hot sun sweating it out waiting for a bus.
"College life is the best time of your life .. blah blah" completely agree college life is good if you have one.

Nothing against those who study because they want to 'gain knowledge' but unfortunately the number of people falling into that category is probably more than the number of fingers i have (ten in case your wondering)
Marks have always been a measure of how good/bad a student has been but when it comes to college the whole concept takes a new level. Be it internships, projects or whatever GPAs look like they matter.

Men will always be men

2008-02-04T23:58:00.000+05:30

This is probably not true for many people but heck, its what i think! "Men are from mars and women are from Venus" .. this is one of the craziest theories I've heard..but believe me we're so different, that sometimes i wonder if we actually evolved together from a common ancestor. Be it arts, mathematics, engineering, medicine, law whatever there is always one sex that is superior to the other . Are we the same? we have the same (well almost the same) biological structure, we're brought up in similar circumstances.. then why the differences?
Research shows that women, by default, are good at chores, housekeeping, taking care of the young ones etc etc. Men on the other hand are 'equipped' better to go and get 'food'. Like for example the Man's vision is supposed to be long distance as in he can see farther away ( scientists say this is because it helped him in hunting) and women have a wider vision.
A Man's ego is something which has caused the greatest of battles, brought down nations and still causes a lot of problems. It is as simple as this: a Man must have his way. Try this for starters, try holding out your hand to an old man and an old woman. Most of the time the Man will try climbing up/down on his own without help.
Times are changing now though.. it is said that we're all moving towards a unisex. Men and Women venture into areas that were once considered for the other sex. What is going to happen end of the day? we'll have to wait to find out.
The best part of all is that though there are a billion differences between the two, every man still manages to find some woman for himself, some woman who makes him happier than anyone else in this world.. how? lets see science explain this!

Untitled #1

2007-11-21T14:05:00.000+05:30

Here's one for the people who think this world can be made a better place...
I would like to have many questions answered.. like why are we on earth? what is the purpose of our existence? Is there extra-terrestrial life? Is the world going to get destroyed sometime soon?
Ok thats enough of crap to last us several lifetimes.. What i really want to ask people is, do you really believe this world can be made a better place? there are always people who have such a negative approach towards life that it can affect those who are at least trying! Like the other day i was watching Aamir Khan's latest gift to cinema lovers...Taare Zameen Par and beautifully captures how wonderful life is. Aamir Khan's role of the teacher who is trying to give the kid some amount of joy in his morose life. Like he says it is such a difficult life for the kid, doing something as simple as writing the letters of the alphabet is a task, a difficult one. Can you imagine what he goes through when he sees his peers doing much more than that with ease? My mother taught in a special school for a couple of years and i always wondered how painful it would've been to teach. hats off to those people who actually have dedicated however little time in doing something for those poor ones. We call ourselves 'modern' what does it mean anyway? Do we really not care of the child is not the best in mathematics or sciences? Does it even matter that he is probably the best in his class when it comes to running or music? Why is it that academics are the most important part of a child's life when it should be 'education'? whats the difference between the two? Math, Science,Social studies.. why do we study them? So that it'll help our life at the grocery store or the doctor easier.. but what if we fail the very purpose of it, by making them feel bad about some test or exam!
I was just thinking about something pretty cool.. There should be a real life version of 'Open Source' where people should work not for money, but more for the love of working.
After all we've got one life and lets make the best out of it!