Time to kill

I have time to kill. :P Not 'it is a time to kill'.

Can anybody suggest me ways to kill time?

I need to kill time before I go home. On 16th.

I've got a job!

I was the dog yesterday since it was my day. I got placed 5 days before I wanted. I was selected 5 days before my dream company was to visit. So is it a good thing to be placed before what you wished or bad?

But at the end of the day Oracle application development group is not a bad company to work in if you want to start a career in software.

All the time I studied turbo machinery, power plant engineering, fluid mechanics, manufacturing, thermodynamics and finally no use for placements. But I never got a chance to show this knowledge. :) Even for this company I prepared nothing in the name of IT. Only 2-3 hours preparation on the day of the interview. Only few simple questions were asked which I answered somehow. More than half of the interview was on this project which I had done in 2nd year - StockSim. I think this really impressed them and bought the offer.

Is it possible to go back to core field after working in software industry. I guess not. I have 6 months left to make a decision. I wanted to work in core mechanical engineering sector. But at the same time I know that I enjoy programming and I can do good in this industry. Seems like I tough decision to make given the condition that I already have one good start-up kit in my basket for software industry. Wherever I go I'll just try to be good in whatever I do.

Updates...

So things coming closer and closer and becoming inevitable. Updates are that I appeared in two of the written tests.

1) JPMC - went quite decent. Not great. attempted 16/21 in Data Interpretation section and 27/30 in Verbal Section (GRE has done some good!). Hope to get through this one. 

2) Oracle: This was disaster. In the name of 'basic computer science' they asked questions based on jargons of Database and Binary Trees. I did fairly if compared to zero but pathetic with reference to maximum. Very dim chance. only if they have to take non-CSE.

Next is an interview schedule on Dec.1. And this one is very big name. Daimler India. Although I'm reluctant to work in automobiles (neither do I have good chance) but it may be good warm-up interview. Couple of aptitude tests on 1st and 3rd Dec. for Fair Isaac and ZS.

Next updates might take a little more time. :) Hope to post as employed person soon.

Forgot to mention that there was live performance by Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Although marred by inferior sound system of the inst-auditorium  he put up an awesome show!

Choices are half the chances

Winter chill is setting in the region where I live - Gangetic plains. The season calls for playing what I'm adept at - being lazy. I go partial hibernation like cold blooded animals.

Few days back my sis asked for my blog URL. Yesterday I gave the URL. Today I was asked about This is it as it was? :P

The placement season is also setting in. With little preparation till now let's see what best I can get. Schedule for first week is out. Not very exciting scenario.

There is lot left to prepare. Hope to get it before my D-day. Still no clue which day it might be. From the look of things I would like it to be Day 7 or day 8 of placements. Companies of my choice are visiting on day 7,8,11. Second preference companies are scheduled before that. But can I take a chance to leave others in the beginning. A choice to make. No, I guess. :(

Well, I'll just settle on get-whatever-comes-and-try-to-do-well-wherever-you-go and keep things simple. Take life as it comes attitude. Optimism! Ohh.. but it may not necessarily be Optimum. :|

The dilemma of multiple identities

Words offer the means to meaning and for those who listen the enunciation of truth and the truth is that there is something terribly wrong with this country. We have suffered for it in the past and few people among us, called politicians by some, are taking us back to the same history. India suffered at the hands of foreign invaders because there was no 'India' as such. There existed a conglomeration of multitude of kingdoms. The identities were with kingdoms and not with nation. That made possible the divide and rule. That was why a civilization thousands of years old was plundered and conquered.

Today most of us, even the most educated and/or urban ones would identify themselves with anything but our country. Prominent among them are caste (ages old) and region(new one). While the former is politically most efficacious in northern India, the later is in southern part. Caste based voting is an unsaid rule in most part of India. The phenomena is observed without exception in rich/poor and educated/uneducated. Factually speaking Maratha Empire (a great and highly revered among all Indians) was not spread all over India. Even when at its peak it reached till Meerut. Yet there are multiple instances of people claiming Martha identity rather than Indian. If at all we require an icon for INDIA then it is Ashoka who held the largest empire in India. Precisely that is why we have that symbol in our national flag.

Now that we have a country 'INDIA' these self proclaimed saviors of pride, so-called leaders are driving Her into the same abyss! Its not only the fault of leaders. They will do whatever gains them votes. Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, 'but again, truth be told if you are looking for guilty you need only to look into a mirror'. They corrupted our reason and robbed us of our common sense. Things like caste, regionalism and the associated pride are just a matter of mental construction. Tell me what good has pride brought to any mortal. Often have we heard that saying 'Pride comes before fall'. Time and again we hear invidious comments and fall trap to the demagogues.

We should learn from what prosperity European Union has brought to Eu nations. They succeeded as conglomeration of nations and we can't even make one single country out of our people. The sooner we realize the fact the better it will be for the people. We are an entity as a subcontinent and should move as whole.To reiterate we can move only as a bigger unit not as many smaller units. So start believing in INDIA. That is our foremost identity. Time to stop blustering about unity in diversity. Time to get out of dilemma of multiple identity and identify ourself with one motherland.

Last class at IITK

Tomorrow (or today.. as it's 3:30 a.m. already) is my last class at IITK. Monday is my last end-sem exam at IITK. Looking back, I think it was quite fun with all those high stress days during end-sems. Amid all the tensions we used to manage time for frivolous activities. It was among these times that orkut was visited most frequently. How can we forget the good old IITian 'top rat3d Mangoes' community. And that midsem sting operation during first sem was awesome thing! We also captured them visually digitally. I remember after an exam during end-sem I used 'Gunda' - the legendary movie (see the review) as stress buster. We watched Gunda twice back to back! Now that's some feat. All due courtesies to mid-sems & end-sem.

The learning was to see the enjoyable moments in spite of loathsome tasks. Performing under stress: that's what IIT system teaches you.

Although it should be noted that not all our peers were able endure it. Some chose to end themselves. And the numbers have been increasing after 2005. A total of 8 successful and 4 (or more may be) unsuccessful attempts. May they rest in peace.

Placement blues..

Its month of November. Normally it used to be a haunted time because of the end of semester and concomitant exams. But this year it is different. Only one final exam ( on 16/09). All the worries are reserved for the placement season starting from 1 dec.

When we entered IIT one thing was assured - we would get a good job. From vocation guarantee place to a life transforming place. The POV has changed. I have learnt most important lessons of life at this place. But still what is expected at the end of academic career is a good vocation. The decisive time has come.

Money

What is money? Originally it was supposed to be a medium of exchange assumed as a deferred payment. But I doubt how many will answer this if asked.

I am at a place where if counted the total worth of all the people around me (read as students in my campus) that they would have 10 years from hence would be tremendously large! And possibly their average will be much above what an average person would conceive as rich. I've heard people around me being obsessed with earning money and its comeuppances. Many of them. Probably they are that smart to amass a lot of it. They argue: who denies money is power? Money may be power but then is it happiness as is generally deemed to be? Happiness is a fastidious fish which can not be fished with money's bait.

Some of our mates have the idea that by having a lot of money they will have everything they want in life. One of my mates said today 'I am going to U.S. next year, I will have a lot of money, all the girls around me at my disposal, marry any girl of my choice. You will have nothing for you. What will you make with the meager you earn? You will not be able to satisfy your wife and children. How will you be able to make a family with that?' It was really upsetting to hear that. They think that with all the money they can satisfy themselves and in that hope continue on with the process. They generally assume that money brings happiness. But that argument is a spurious one. In fact miles short from reality. If you conduct an who-is-happy survey then probably it will show no correlation with money. 

The assumption that you will be happy when you have a lot of money is a flawed one. Has it ever been tried and tested? I mean have you ever heard anybody saying 'Look here, I have all the money I wanted. Now I am the happiest I can be. Lets call it a day.' The basis of the conclusion is only previous occurrences in counting which they have left out certain other contributing factors also. Most of the time it is just taken as a premise. What is usually forgotten with the power that money brings with it, it brings the power to mask you as happy. After they have yearned and earned for so long it is not apposite of wealthy men to not be happy. And because of this deep rooted flawed conviction that money brings happiness they are forced into an assumption of happiness which again acts as corroboration of the same fact for others. 

Obviously money is considered as a 'value' is our society and I am no sociopath. It's not bad to have money. Even I want money. Earning money is a value but fantasized and obsessed with it is not a good idea at all. May be someday I will also turn into money-obsessed social animal. But certainly I am not like one right now. I need only that much I need. Somehow I cannot appreciate the idea of having 'a lot of money'. What is that to which 'lot' refers to. Ideally a lot implies an interminable source. But in all ways that is unattainable. The key, according to me, is to strike a balance between your needs and your wants. Otherwise, like I said, the ends are open.

Post GRE life

Post GRE life gives a feeling of recumbent! :)

Sunday was TOEFL day. Four of us hired a taxi and left campus early morning for Lucknow. What a humdrum test! 4 and half hours of testing. Towards the last section, which happened to be essay writing, it grew like one of those prosaic lectures. I was disinclined to type at all. But like every other thing in life it had to pass.

Now it's time to gear up for one more challenge. Placement season starts December 1. Seems like good lot of companies are recruiting from Mech. department. :) 

Meanwhile I came about this article about IITians which shouts of verisimilitude of the situation. All this written is so true! I'll copy and paste some excerpts.

• Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of IITians do nothing of note in their lives. Indeed, many of them became IITians because their parents told them that’s what they should mug their butts off for, and aim to hit the US of A, so that’s what they did. They attended classes, took notes, passed exams, took the gre, applied to a dozen American universities, and disappeared into that country’s vast technological underbelly, to reappear only in the matrimonial columns of Indian papers with a dollar salary multiplied diligently by the day’s exchange rate.
• We lived and ate together, and shared our joys and heartbreaks and good times and bad times, in competition and camaraderie. We compared our philosophies and, bit by stumbling bit, developed our value systems.
•  IIT was also a whole insular world in itself, complex and complete, and it sucked us in.
• There were few material pleasures. Lifestyles were spartan, the food abysmal. 
• The vast majority of males were totally deprived of female company. The girls lived a strange life.

Life is not at all at peace amongst all the crisis which is characteristic of post GRE of every common IITian. Apprehension of leaving home etc. And I'm now very much disinclined to do so.

Mercurial state

It has been years I'm living out of home but still why did Momma wept this time when I left today. I know the answer. She knew. And She also knows that I know. But nothing need to be said. It's unsaid communication. She is having qualms of things which usually follow GRE exam. At times I myself start feeling xenophobic. These things contribute to my mercurial state of mind.

Best words to describe me now again is indecisive. I've been vacillating between decisions. But at the current moment I am very much disinclined to go for doctorate. Since future states of mind are not known it would be expedient to go with the process of application, painstaking although it may be.

Furthering the lies ahead preparation for taking TOEFL test on 25th October. Since I got a good score in GRE, to keep the promise I made it is incumbent to apply to 6 universities. It's very tempting to cheat on this promise.

1400

1400 = 600+800

I floundered in verbal section. And as expected it was RC (Reading Comprehension) which did the damage. I skipped a 2 question RC when it was 10 questions left in last 6 minutes.
I was scoring consistently between 610 and 650 in last few mock tests. But anyways 1400 is a good score. And also the score I targeted when I started. So a fair deal all in all. Kudos to me. Once again I was able to make a dot performance similar to my 7th sem spi when I needed 9.2+ for 8.0+

Going home

While still in hibernation I'm going home :)

For a relatively long break. 6 days.

Diwali at home. Exam at home. Happening days to come in life.

I've been performing between 1300-1400, as displayed in my mock test transcripts, while the target was 1400+. All I need is a good day. It depends quite on luck also. And RC is somewhat giving me scares. almost 50+ % of wrong answers are in RC section.

Happy Diwali to all of you! May God bless everyone with health and wealth they deserve. Coz often we deserve more than we wish!

I'm hibernating

I'm hibernating for the sake of an exam which requires to mug up some (3500+) really nasty looking horrendous words-meanings.

Mock test performance had not been something to cheer about. So I need to reinforce the preparation.

Nevertheless I'll try to steal moments here and there to peek at blogger.

And I've got registered for TOEFL too. 25th Oct.

:(

Bye bye blogger.

(A funny link http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/global/06milk.html?_r=2)

Afghan movie

When was the last time you saw a movie that ended on a sad note? This afghan movie titles 'Majboor' in hindi is a doleful representation of the realities of Afghan women.

Again the theme has no ingenuity in it but the fact that it sprung from the people of the country touches hearts and asks for applaud.

Afghan people are spending harsh life with dim or no hope. Worse for women. But in some sense partly they themselves are responsible for it. Reasons apart they are seeing the dark part of life.

(P.S.- part 1 loads slowly. Later parts work fine.)

Now and again

Sometimes, at some point in life, out of two choices the one that is pleasing and beatific and the one that is feasible are not the same. They might be poles apart. By poles apart I mean there seems no midway between them. You have to decide either to go with the first choice or not.

Of course you want the first choice because it is the pleasing one and the one that you 'want'. But it is not feasible, at least ostentatiously. You are left with only one option which is feasible.

The more you think the more precarious your situation becomes. So may be its better to stop writing and engage in other things so that you don't get to think about it. That's what I have been trying from quite some time (a year may be). But inadvertently you get back to it spasmodically. There are fits I'm inflicted with at times. And the best way is to write them off. Each time it's reflected in blogs.

Best thing as seems now is to get a sleep and start afresh tomorrow. With wordlist 42. [:|]

Signing off...

"Don't want to cry when there's people there
I get shy when they start to stare
I'm gonna hide myself away, ay hay
But I'll come back again someday"

New OS

Logged and locked to new operating system. Ubuntu 9. Has some cool features and few drawbacks. Only major thing that will always be missed on lnux based OSs is a class document processor like Microsoft Office 2007. Undoubtedly it is the most compelling feature that keeps windows OS running. For rest of the things there is 'Wine' emulator. :D
Highly customizable OS. Saves from the hastles of virus and anti-virus. Resource efficient. Dashing looks. And not to mention comes for free.

Up again

Last few days I was out of blogger. My laptop was down. Heating problem. The reason as it appeared later was blockage due to dust collection in front of fan. This is a design flaw in all Dell Inspiron 1525s. But very happy with the Dell's policy of using bomb to kill mouse. They changed my  2GB RAM, heat sink, and motheroard. Not to mention under warranty cover. Only grievance is the motherboard is a refurbished one.

And with the laptop I was also down in spirits. Although these two things don't have correlation. Part of the reason may be that I came close to being thrashed by my supervisor for the crime of duplicating an assignment. But fortunately it was spared of the embarrassment.

I've been lagging a bit in wordlists. But hope to catch the wind soon.

Now I'm up again. On high!

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
I get high with a little help from my friends,
Oh I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends.

Some elusive questions

• Has nostalgia ever killed anyone? 

• Should I take the risk where I have chance of being first?

• Will the risk be worth it?

• Will I be able to prove  that the risk bore fruits?

• How big will the fruit be and will it be commensurate with the risk (and the efforts)?

• Is there a remote possibility that I will fall in the '(n+1)- year' trap?

• Are any of these questions worth pondering at this crucial time?

This is it as it was

OK people so its time for confessions. Questions will be posed, comments will be hit and banters will be pulled. But it has to come sooner or later. After all it's an auto-blogo-graphy. It ought to have every episode in my life.

I don't know how it happens but yes truly there are no Rules of Attraction. It can be said after some concessions (1 or 2) that practically I have not met her but why do I always have a corner for her. She shares some space in my thoughts. It started a year after we met. In the year earlier to that I never felt similar to what happened latter. But why? No answer. I cannot answer. I don't even know if there exists an answer. I just know that there was this amorphous connection with her.

May be its just that I admire her qualities and because she is a girl I'm feeling like that. I admire many people around me for many things. May be it is because it is for the first time I have known any girl so close. May be because I have not been exposed to the company of opposite sex much. (The 'not much' in the above sentence can be interpreted as never if the criteria for exposure is made more rigorous.) I always felt that there are thousands unexplored acquaintances/relations in this world. May be this was only one of thousands. Anyways the feeling was unusual. But I'm not here to brainstorm the reasons.

She knows about what I feel. This happened so because I simply told her what I felt. In the same way as I'm telling here now. Through a post. So what is next thing to come. I'm just waiting for the agitation to settle down. I'm waiting from something around less than a year. And in the meantime we have come one full circle. We've argued, fought, stopped talking and then started afresh. Thereafter never discussed on the same matter again. Just left it untouched.

So what is the current stage of development. I am a hardcore optimist and believe that I will be happy in whatever condition at whatever price. There are very few things which can bind me to deficiencies and consequently yearnings. Season is gone and things fade away with time. I'm settled into my good old life. It was kinda teenager-ish stuff. I don't know how it came into being but so was it. I'll not lie that it wasn't. There is no shame in telling truth.

Everything happened much earlier. It just never struck my mind that I should write a summary of events in a post. Okey, that's not 100% truth (:P). But you can't figure out the mess while into it. Elevated I can look back (and laugh) and define what it was. As of now I'm not really after her and at the same time do not ignore her. To translate I do not tend to call her up frequently but attend or callback if she called (on cellphone). And we are still very good friends and share many things with each other.

I considered adding more texts and references but to abridge what is in my mind will take time and since I have to devote it to many other things, which I recently undertook, I decided against it.

(P.S. to those who know her name. I don't like put named reference on my blogs for some reasons. From my best mates to acquaintances. No names.)

Half way through

Officially I'm half way through the barron's lists. But learning by heart requires repeated efforts and that requires time. But as for the first effort it's done! As per game plan it's up to maximum of 20. For the 25 lists left. That's too few...

Once again me and a friend on one more decisive night came to an important decision that we should try and maintain conversation in our second language in the wake of imminent placement season. It spur from a statement of mine that we should try and uphold the tradition that our wing-mates started last year. Tradition of good WPR (wing placements result). Speaking in language other is never as expressive as mother tongue. It's not that I'm not comfortable but I'm used to listening in that style. Its more about style rather than language. And that style can only come in one way which is natural to us. Hitler said: In times of war no man is civilian. So in times as these no one needs to play himself. We need to be what corporates want us to be. And that is 'highly trained professionals'. 

::Just a thought. Or rather realization: Best moment to be happy is now! If you don't learn to be happy now then you can never be happy. Because every moment is now.

Decent going

So I started with this years placement process officially. By attending the first PPT. National Instruments. seems to be a good company requiring technical and technical skills only.

Few days back my cellphone stopped speaking. All of a sudden it went completely mute. It took some time before I got chance to get it repaired. But it's no longer dumb!

I'm on list 21. It has been over a month now and still not half way through! That seems daunting. But now choices have dwindled away with time. I have to but study.

The game plan is to finish with barron's list in this month or early(first 5 days) next month. And then start with exhaustive mock test taking, practicing analytical writing and quantitative part.

But you know what happens when there are two deadlines to one task. It is deemed as one in the end. Let's see what happens this time. That was because with the amount of input as I'm giving it seems less realistic to attain the first one. Nevertheless I will have dushehra holidays in between during which I've decided NOT to go home.(not in bold :D )

By the way I am thinking of posting a something which may bring me embarrassment and chaffing but may form a good read. I'm not sure whether I should post it here or not.

And finally

And finally I registered for gre test in exchange of lot of money. Now I am supposed to get more serious about wordlist mugging. 33 more to go! The date is 21 Oct. Not too far. People say that RC (Reading Comprehension) section gave them blues. It is the most tricky one. Need to practice on that.

Our first stipend deposit is awaited. Waiting for the amount. Then register for TOEFL as well. Now that Im doing it I'll do it sincerely. Whatever I may decide but I will not leave any room so as to regret later. It's good to have an offer and reject than trying half-heartedly and getting complacent with the meagre result. So i'll try, instead.

Time to show some sport and get up to challenges. 

Weird

Sometime it feels really weird. And this time it feels like it's sometime. Just because you have to do something and you don't know how to go about it. Or what to do with it. Whatever. It's bit quandary out here. Thinking it over and over again. I need to act promptly.

Go Go Go!!!

Sleep cycle

Its gone all wrong. I used to sleep in mornings. Sleepless nights. It is a bad practice. So in an attempt to mend it I've made worse of it. Yesterday I slept at 10 at night and thought it would be a good change to wake up in the morning. But then I woke up in the mid of night at 2 a.m. after an weird dream. Tried to contemplate but couldn't sleep for next one hour. So I wake up and brush. Study for an hour. Go jogging. Go bathing. Go M.T. Still no sign of sleep. Breakfast at 9. But still no sign. Finally I fall at 11. And played dead till 2.

And guess what. This day same thing repeats. At least till this time of 3:20 a.m. How do i mend it. If there is need to.

My first 5x5x5 solve!

Finally I got to solve 555 completely! With no edge parity. I took help from a video but I did it finally. 5x5x5 can help construct much more conundrums than 3x3x3. After all it has much higher cardinality (total possible configuration) than 3x3x3 Rubiks cube. A total of 2.83 x 10^74. !!!

back on lists

Once again started wordlist and moved on to 13 after a long time. Exam tomorrow. I'll start preparation in the evening.

BTW I had my first class on Wednesday. I took english class in stead of a friend of mine who unfortunately caught jaundice and took a break. It was a nice experience. People were anxious to know things. Not like us sitting like deadpan in class. Most of them of our age group. Next class on Saturday. Maths this time.

I've got hold of a 5x5x5 cube which Im able to solve with two edge pieces reversed or more technically with one edge parity. I need to figure out how to resolve the edge parity. I just need some time for it. May be this weekend.

Our first  installment (of 3 months) of stipend to be posted end of this month. Lots of money. Unsure what to do with these. Earlier planned to buy DSLR camera Nikon D60 kit. Reviews suggest that its a good entry level DSLR with optical anti-shake technology. But now I need bucks for GRE and TOEFL and who knows for applications too. So I've held the idea in abeyance.

All work no play

No squash for now. Not this month. Even after paying 150 bucks. After all the 2 months hitting the ball I was going with a group where all we were supposed to do is ping the ball. 2 bounce and wall. 2 bounce and wall. 2 bounce and wall. How many times? The new racket is like driving a bike as compared to cycling with the old one. Its just that I'm not used to the grip as well as speed of this one. I think I need to hit the shots a lot to fit into this one. But this might happen in near future I fear.

Now the wordlist count has come to halt as shown by the roll count at the top. Most of the time these days goes in a website that Im developing. Struggling with the rusty IE 6 browser which behaves annoyingly and incompatibly with many CSS feature. Why the hell people use such browser. We must declare it sinful to use IE in these modern times.

Next up I'll be talking classes in maths/computer in an organization of our institute which trains people in basic computer, maths and English. Probably after next week or so.

Also mid-sem exam is coming this week. This time its not when-are-exams-starting. Its just when-is-exam. Only one course. [:)]

SPO has started its activity and the season for PPTs and resumes have started. I too will have to go through inevitable and pathetically boring task of making resume. In other words it's self-bragging on MS-word. Buying yourself a black coat suit, long sleeved shirts, black leather shoes and packing yourself in all these. It's all part of the process I'll have to go through in the next few months. Karega bhai karega. Naukri ke liye kuchh bhi karega (Translation: everything to be done for job).

In all these tasks the gre thing got overshadowed. And the will for gre also. Till now I'm not registered. There is no harm in research but the thought of me living out there with once-a-year visit threatens my mind to think in that direction. Let us hope that I have enough thought, reason, courage and will to appear for it. Or not appear for it. Whatever is good. Ohh. By the way does it sound something like 'I Used to Be Indecisive But Now I'm Not So Sure'. Wait, I have a snap of it!

Its birthday time

Its birthday time again.for I have seen 23 17 Augusts in my life. Birthday came and went. Each year. Year by year. And I only grew older. And wiser i must say in usual sense of the word.

Parents visited me this time. Gifts and all was quite nice. Btw I bought myself a gift this time. New Dunlop Blackmax Carbon 520 squash racket. So I finally get rid of the old Aluminum body racket. New one weighs only 140 gms! Although 2006 manufactured it is brand new in usage. It was good to have Rs.1800 discount on it anyway. Reviews suggest that it is specialized in power shots but has a disadvantage too. Its grip is not as per expectation. The rubber is wearing leaving powdered particles in hand which act as lubricant (as we studied in ME461 small particles can act as lubricant) . This forbids a firm grip. Let's hope it settles down quickly otherwise I'll need to change the grip.

No progress on wordlists.

Need to learn web development using ajax/jsp.

61 years hence...

Let's wind our clocks 61 years ago. Imagine the aura that must have prevailed in the new rising country. But as I think of those celebrations it reminds me of the concomitant havoc the treat of independence brought with it for the two daughter countries. Millions faced the blades of millions. Millions displaced. And millions wept for them. The carnage was such that it would shame the cruelest of murderers. 

Yet millions were celebrating. Yet the newspaper headlines read: "One-sixth of human race get independence". Yet Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister. Yet the Brits claim credit of power transfer. What was transfered? Power? If yes then it got dissipated in the process of transfer. And the dissipated power exploded in the form of violence and hurt very people it was transfered to. 

The celebration of independence was marred by the violence the engulfed millions for most people. But for others the independence meant execution not in British rule but in self-rule, if by any definition there a tint 'rule'. From then year after year people celebrate independence and year by year the marring of celebration is lessened. But for me it always reminds me of the people for whom independence meant death. It brings a bad taste always.

The Brits expulsion from country is many times referred to as Shameful Flight. As for my belief the largest share of this shame should be credited to Mountbatten. The undue celerity he showed in making decisions was the core of it. And if not half then at least partly the shame is shared by Indian leaders who were so hesitant to partition before Mountbatten and just as he stepped in everything seemed running for them. At least they should have foreseen the aftermaths. For Pt. Nehru himself said that: It was difficult to decide the best way of transfer but for what's happening now I can say this was certainly not.

Get busy living

Yes. I've found something to work on. Mugging up wordlists for GRE. Not very interesting though. To much of everybody surprise I'm giving GRE. Everybody is either preparing for CAT or GRE. May be because they want to play safe with an extra option than relying on SPO for placement. And in the times such as now someone getting placed for a job is not a frequently occurring phenomena. So it be. I'll also play safe. At least it keeps me busy.

Squash coaching started this Wednesday. And this time in the morning 7 A.M. Now that means getting up early morning. Implies sleeping early at night. Implies very difficult thing to be regular.

Thesis is dull as used it used to be and with only three lectures a week I'm left with affluence to prepare for GRE. Doing one wordlist per day is not bad. Whole 50 in 50 days. Sounds good.

By the way I'm reminded of a considerable achievement of mine. Into fifth year of stay at IITK and still alive! That's not a certain event. Statistically speaking that's not 100% probable event. Unfortunately in last 4 years seven unfortunate people have failed to do so. All of them chose to end it rather. A few others attempted but couldn't succeed. A most recent attempt came few days before. What a pity of this institute and what a sad end to those so-called cream-of-the nation. And what bad name it brings to institute. But authorities still shamelessly lying in everyone's face.

Worrying works

Worrying works! 90 percent of things I worry never happen!

zoke

Happy new month!

Its  August baby. Month of independence day and month of Birthday. That is my birth day. And my sister's and my friends'. Rakhi in the same month. And yes today is friendship day also. Happy friendship day to all. I'll look to make more and more friends and less and less enemies.

Also this seems to be month of idleness. Earlier in first 4 years of my graduation it was loads of courses. Always pinned between deadlines. Extra stress. Lots to do. But now its only one course and thesis work which is not so heavy. There is lots of free time. Im not getting ways to kill time. Just wasting it away.

I need something consuming. Something to work on. By sitting free I'm growing degenerate. I'm doing nothing but aging. This day I was thinking that I should start preparing for something. May be GRE or CAT. GRE seems a better option. But a bit costly. CAT will take nowhere but management. I do not want to close the option of working in my field for which I have dedicated 5 invaluable years of my life. I don't want to waste it.

Im onto it again. Im spoilt again. Im awake late nights. No getting early. Its getting more and more difficult to take that routine back. New hostel hall-9 is boring and remotely located in the campus. Village hostel of IITK.

From last few days i caught bad cold. I think I will need medicine now to recover.

Exploring my hometown

I've been living in my town since I was in 4th class. I'm not in a mood to count now but still that's too much of time. There were so many incredible places near me unknown two me. Thanks to two of my friends who wished to see Allahabad and visited me a week ago. Revisiting planetarium after 15 years or so it was like visiting memory lanes. Watching Swaraj Bhawan museum as adults was more meaningful. I discovered Yamuna ghats which were more than good and worth visit. And the sunset at Sangam point was enchanting. The color and mix of sky was just wonderful!



Not to mention that I have a thing for clouds. I used to have a dusk-phobia earlier in my life. I couldn't bear dusk time outside roof specially in city crowd. I still remember the haunting image of December sky when I used to return from a coaching class in my high school days. Then there was psychological renaissance and I became admirer of the beautiful clouds. Colourful skies and there varied shapes too.

Back home

I’m back home enjoying a 1 week break. Now being a master’s student it’s not as easy to get a week’s break as it has been earlier. Get your leave application approved by your supervisor and submit it in department office. Only limited number of leaves available at disposal. On 15th I travelled to Lucknow (less than 100km away from IITK). Then along with my sister we came to our home town the same day. At home mamma is doing excellently well in her health. Her doctor recommended to stop taking medics. What better than this can happen.

Life is treating me good these days. Last 2-3 days were spent with friends who were visiting my place. Driving half the day in the city and around the city. I drove something like 60 km in 2 days.

Eating Mom made food and sitting back idle at home feels so good to me. Having mangos daily is yummy. I love em! But alas only 2 more days to go. :( Will be back by 23rd. All things must pass.

Misty

Just when I decided that I will write a confession something happened. Something happened and saved me the foolishness. I was thinking from quite a while. I was about to. It was on my fingertips ready to strike the keyboard. But then it changed. I went back. I got to state of uncertainty again. It's misty out here I can't see. I know what I want to see. But knowing is not enough. Still can't see. I'll wait for the mist to clear. Then it will come out. Everybody wait for the mist.

Lost in the world

There was a peahen roaming around in the lovely weather after the rain. She was accompanied by her three roaming peachicks. Two of them were quick and followed there mother.One was quite dumber and got left behind. He (lets suppose 'he'. I'm not anti-feminist if not feminist and I don't want to use 'it') was left behind and lost his mother. He was left behind in the race for survival.

We saw this baby lost in the world he doesn't knew. It was crying like you would cry if you were lost. Yes, it was not a human cry but it was filled the emotion you would carry. It must be the same feeling. Because the feeling does not know which species it is felt by. If we can't listen to his feelings then, well, I must say, its only our limitation. After all we are just humans. Nothing more.

Free time

With large part of the so called summer term of M.Tech. thesis finished I'm on another movie watching spree. Frequency of watching movie is on high. Three in a row from this morning. Two yesterday. That's quite too much for me.

Lots of news watch. The 3 favorite sites being hindu, bbc's S. Asia and IBNlive.

Fed has done it! He won Wimbildon for 6th time and record 15th time a grand slam. He says the excitment kept him from sleeming that night. Toast for the big man. King of his era. Now the only thing that will make him bigger and undisputed all time best is a win against Nadal. Lets wait and watch.

The new budget presented by Congress govt. allots around 500 cr rupees for RnD in scince and technology in India. And just for the sake of facts its nearly one-fourth of the budhed of Harvard.

Getting with the squash sessions. As for now I don't seem to gain any special skills as to what I was 2 months ago in the game. From few days I've been struggling with the backhand. I remember last semester when I used to practice lone I once came so close that backhand seemed more natural than forehand. But that's gone. Seems I need to practice on myh own. That's the best way. But these days we are into full court game during sessions so it's quite fun. To play with 2 people on court.

I've been also reading history books a few. History of Europe and the Indian history as well. I read to learn that I forgot many things from Indian history. Oh what a sin! Now is the redemption time!

I need anti-sleeping pills

Where do we get them. Im sleeping too much. There are many sleeping pills in the market. I wonder why they never worked on anti-sleeping pills. It seems reading and sleeping have ancestral enmity. Both of them ever-hostile to each other. As soon as I start to read a journal I'm down. I have a big task ahead. I have to read 7 papers till 5th July and summarize them too. If that is to be completed then only with the help of non-existent anti-sleeping pills.

Happy Birthday

Birthday wishes to my bestest friend.
I wish him all that he wishes for him and all the good things he deserves.
Thanks for being my friend.
You are integral part of my life.
You will be always remembered as a good man.
Wishes again on completing 24 beautiful years of your life 4 of which we spent together.

Monsoons

Monsoon is the another name for life in the region to which I belong. When mercury is touching sky it is the monsoon that help us. Predictions are that it will start as late as 25 june in Mumbai itself. So in north it will take much more. We'll be scorched in Kanpur more weeks. With only a fan to work at room tis quite a survival challenge.
BTW we also have Library and CC where we can spend time in air-conditioned atmosphere but what else can replace playing lazy. It is the ultimate truth of life. Divine bliss. Source of infinite joy and happiness. "Play lazy, be happy". That's my motto of life.

The cup and the celebrations all around

Twenty20 World cup title is no more with India. And to worse it is with Pakistan. My friend from Nazibabad tells that there are all celebrations all around as Pak won today. Processions in the city too. And a little general knowledge - Nazibabad is a city in U.P., India, not Pakistan, with dominant minority population. This brings out a face of our society which many people do not know. At least I didn't know until I came to know this friend of mine.

But above it all, as quoted, "Cricket has won! Again! Hopefully, this will bring better support and bigger things Pakistan's way". A great show by Pakistan as a cricketing side, specially with kind of affairs back at their home. They really deserve a praise in this space.

Who created who?

A: Man is creation of God.
B: God is creation of man.

Options:-

a) A is more correct than B.

b) B is more correct than A.

c) Both are correct.

d) Both are incorrect.

e) Both may be correct but are mutually exclusive.

f) This is a worthless, unanswerable, controversial question.

My choice is (e). What's your take?

(many subjects)

A normal day in my life these days is sleeping, eating, reading, sleeping, gaming, squash-ing,sleeping.

Got a bit of injury in the elbows. But don't worry its just scratch (big ones) and it's healing day by day.

It's been 2 days of getting early and Im liking it. 7:30 and 8:00. Gota sleep now.

Left with a 40-page journal to read before tomorrow's meeting. And lots of 'Literature Survey' on the topic. They say that literature survey is first and important task in a research work. But it's ultimate boring thing to do. You never know what you are missing in your survey in spite of through googling and science-direct.

It seems our squash coach Vikas Sharma is fond of starting blogs (www.squash4iitkanpur.wordpress.com/ ) that too with long web addresses. I never understood the UI of wordpress. That is one of the reason I'm using blogger in spite of it's buggy editor. It is shit if u r used-to using Ctrl+Backspace key.

All this hard work on squash court is giving me pain in different muscles and bones. Now I believe the when they say we have as many as 206 bones in our body!

--Signing off

Dull

No work makes Jack dull. Life's dull these days. Nothing much happening around. So much so that I'm not blogging at all.

Indians are playing pathetic cricket specially the mister over-confident arrogant captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They are out of the race.

Last night we guys decided that morning time is the best time to do thing. Actually it should not be 'decided' but understood the already stated fact. And to be accurate with facts it was'nt night either. It was 4:30 in morning . So we 'decided' that we will (try to) reset our body clocks to conventional timings.

Y5-BBot - Commemorating best years of our life

Its just yesterday that I realized now is the end. Yes it all ends here. Best four years of my life. Here it goes. I see its trails as it goes away.

Today is the graduation day of many of us, supposedly a red lettered day for them but somewhere in their hearts everybody is sad. Sad because this is the end of four years of joy. The thought that when I wake up next day I will not find my friends in the rooms beside me is horrible. I wish I wake up tomorrow to find that it is first day of fourth year and we all arrived from our homes. We are running here and there for registration. I just wish! Who says boys don't cry!
May be we will meet each other or may be not.May be very often of not. But we cannot live together the way we lived. It was mere celebration of life and the joy of being together.

But we celebrated in style on 29th of may. A farewell cake and celebration to mark its end.
All things must pass. Good or bad. So does this. Its time to move on. A new phase in life begins - life without all of Y5-BBot group.

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends
I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
there is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more 

Squash coaching

I've joined squash coaching which started last to last week. I had to shell out 1000 bucks for protective eye-glass. They say ball hit in the eye is very dangerous. Leads to excessive pain and unsuccessful operation. Apart from that a new graphite made racket will cost me another 2000 bucks. That's lot of spending.

Its been over 1 week and 2 hrs daily is a tiring schedule. I must say I never toiled so much (physically) in such short duration. Only in the first few days things were taught and thereafter it is just repeating the same thing and physical work out everyday. It has become as boring as lectures during semester. Though till now I've missed only 1 session I think I will skip more in coming days.

Election Results - SMS rulz

Its election time and so it gets reflected in my blogs to. Coming from state of Uttar Pradesh no surprise I am interested in politics. (Detailed Results at http://www.ndtv.com/elections/)
Good thing about this election is that one party, Congress(with allies), got near to majority. Out of 543 seats 272 are required to prove majority in the newly elected parliament. This means that we are going to have a stable government. There were a lot of surprises in the results. Left parties reduced to around 24 that is about 36 short of last election figures. Mamta Banarji's TMC in West Bengal got around 20 as opposed to last time's 3. A remarkable increase. Much of this can be attributed to Nandigram land issue.
Also after a long time Congress was able to attain considerable no. of seats in the most important state U.P.
Now staage is set for 5 more years of UPA rule. 5 more years of SMS rule in the country. Btw SMS is for Sardar Manmohan Singh.

Unreported days

Several days have passed unreported and unrecorded.

Last major semester exams ended on 29th. It was a bit of nostalgia. Half of my friends leaving soon. It pains to part from the 4 years of friendship. Spending time in last few days together with our friends. I feel lucky to get 5 years (1 still to go) of life at this wonderful place. But this place in last few years has not been the one it used to be. Seven suicides in last seven semesters. and 2 attempts, though unsuccessful, in the last month. This place is up to something.

A chain of night strolls together with friends makes best of memories. On one of these one of my friends says that it will be lonely fifth year with most of us lively friends gone suggesting that we should get gf. My friend has not yet evolved to the IITK style of life. Getting a girl is not into the tradition of this place. But like every other thing in the world this tradition is changing.

Came back home after the exams after a little bit of thesis work. My thesis guide is a very calm and considerate person. Seems we will make a good team.

Watching a series of BBC’s Story of India, a must watch for all Indians, a good informative and entertaining documentary by Michel Woods.

Returned from home on 12th this month. Now back to college. Got to read a chapter on 'Blood Flows'.

With much time to spare computer gaming is the major activity around. Plugged into CS and the good old Quake3.

Whole summer is ahead. I still have to make plans about how to spend it. Btw I joined squash coaching camp in campus.

Years of Joy

Years of joy in final stages. It's time now foe most of us to dismantle and settle in different places. Places so unknown and not yet decided.

I will post after I finish 3 of 5 exams

Wake up call!

Probably the last one. here comes the bell from DOSA. Library goes round the clock from this Saturday. This time the call has been delayed a bit. Exams start from coming Tuesday that is 3 days to go for endsem! Gosh! This is the do/die call. Hoping to get not less than 8 even in this bad time of recession... Btw placement figures at IIT Kanpur are improving. Many department have morre than 70 p.c. placed. All eyes on next year.

This is the last semester which sees me giving pool of courses. Next one year and 1 course.

Good luck Saucy!

--Saucy

Simple

Simple is sophistication
Simple is beauty
Simple is style
Simple is simply good
Isn't it?
[:)]

thoda jyada fek diya kya...
(Translation: Have I exaggerated?)

NB: Mitchell's Law of Committees: Any simple problem can be made insoluble if enough meetings are held to discuss it.

Homogeneous Flow

This post is kinda technical and may be relevant to very few. But then it has to be like this. If one still reads on one may understand it.
Today I will talk about two phase flow i.e. flow of liquid + vapor(of the same liq.) in a pipe. Homogeneous flow model is a theory which proposes to quantify the flow process to get numerical values out of it. It assumes that the liquid and vapor states are mixed homogeneously and a pseudo state - a mixture of both of it - is formed in the pipe. The assumption is wrong as it can be felt with our experiences with water and water-vapor in our daily life. All the laws of Fluid mechanics (with slight modification) are assumed to be applicable on this phase. This gives all the parameters like mean velocity, mean density, mean viscosity of the flow, wall friction, Reynolds number.
This modeling looks quite vague in the first look but is very good to start. It gives results of the orders of magnitude close to the actual values obtained by performing experiments. In fact this model works quite good (error of around 30%) in the type of flow in which vapor and liquid are mixed such that vapor form small droplets mixed in bulk of the flowing liquid. This model is also known as fog flow model because of the above formation.

Society vs Individual

Since time immemorial there are two rivals. One named society and another named individual. There took a fierce battle between them one day. The individual lost and the society won. The fall of individual. The rise of society. Since then society governs every individual.

Camera

Switched to Picassa for image viewing. Downloaded a software called NEAT Image which claims to be a effective noise reduction software. First few results are effective. Lets check more.
I've decided that my next cam will be Nikon D40. Initially i was a bit confused between the newer version of Nikon entry level cams D60. But all it provides is some fancy buttons here and there, air flow lens cleaning system, in-camera editing and active lighting for some 100 extra dollars. Now only incentive for D60 is that the kit lens with it is a VR(Vibration Reduction) lens as opposed to D40's basic 18-55mm without VR. If D40 will not be available with VR lens kit I would be forced to opt for D60. Hoping for getting some filters and telefoto and macro attachments too as shown in ebay.ca shops.
Im also counting on Indian economy to boom so as rupee value gets stronger over dollars. In that case I might be tempted to go for an extra 55-200mm (not necessarily VR) lens too. It will be great for tele photography. equivalent to 8x zoom! An SB-400 flash instead of extra lens will also be good for indoor photographs and is priced approx $12o instead of $200 tele lens.

Searching for reviews I came across this person named Ken Rockwell. Any body looking reviews of advice on which camera to buy must read his page http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm as well as http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm. Megapixels really do not matter beyond 6MP. if you are owning a compact cam you will never be printing larger than 20x16" in which case 6MP is enough.
Read the recommended cameras page, choose your budget and buy the one that fits. believe me it will the best thing for you

Talk

I feel like talking a lot of things but not getting dynamic enough to do that. Just hope someone comes to me and insists me to talk. Then I will fool around and talk no sense out of laziness to collect the words into a sentence which is literally meaningful which can be very difficult at many times. How to make sense out of your sentences. Has any book ever been written with that title. Well, I need it. Write it. I will buy it.
Well I've got company Transporter is ready to come in my room and also go out for a stroll. I'm out for night stroll

Illness

Illness and poor health surrounds me. Throat infection is really painful but I've learnt to live with it. With the kind of medical advice available in Health center of IITK I can't take risk. Few days back I woke up in the morning only to find my left eye black and red instead of black and white. Colour stayed for 3 days and now fading. Whenever I think I'm falling ill, more frightening than the fear of illness is the idea of getting treatment from HC.
Awakened in the new era of health consiousness today I gave me spectacles for new pair of glasses. The health revolution movement which is taking place in my life these days is much attributed to the 51.5 kgs slip from the railway station weighing machine. I don't know how good they working but they really working for me to help me in good health. I started eating lots of food. Stopped eating ice-creams frequently. More so after the troat infection began. Minimized oil intake. Boiled egg in breakfast. I'm missing breakfast less frequently.
Now its 3:30 a.m. and not healthy to wake up so long so I will go to sleep. :)

Quote unquote

Read somewhere.....

"I have not failed 100 times. I have discovered 100 new ways how I cannot succeed."

Leisure time

It is rare of events that one has completely leisure time at disposal in IITK. It happens only just after exams has finished. Coming after the midsem exam break I relax and use my leisure. No deadlines, no assignments, no nothing! A relaxing time. I enjoy this time not in cubing, not in reading, nor on chating. Watching loat of movies in last few days. To name a few - V for vendetta, Wall E, A time to kill, The Prestige, Sin City,..... All in HD print. Believe me it really makes a difference watching movies on High Definition and normal quality. HD is great!

By the way also had a weekend trip down(south from here) home. Reached Friday night and returned on Sunday night. And guess what? I was not pickpocketed this time! No wallet to be taken away. I've decided not to carry wallet no more (double negatives :)). Caught fever in this short time too. On Sat evening felt like cold and kept on switching off fan. Mamma noticed. "Who is switching off the fan each time?" And her suspect is right. Yeps! You caught fever. Fever is gone now but the throat infection thing is really hurting. Like pinching. And poking. With needles. Inside throat. It has become a friendly disease in some sense. Not that we like each other. But it is stays with most of the time. I've tried few tablets, with and without physician cnsult, but of no use. A kg of oranges kept on my table but can't have them for the fear of making the throat worse. It is keeping me from playing squash too.

The deadline to give testimonials for Y5 Yearbook ends tomorrow. Gota get on with in no time if is to be done. Right now stuck with an assignment to be submitted tomorrow morning.

Getting lethargic

Happy Holi to all the few who read this book. Happy Holi also to those who do not read this.

I decided to write a lot of things about the trip but somehow I'm getting lethargic and forced to save the draft of the post I started.

Back after the trip

It has been a dream holiday trip. Practically my first with college friend. And wonderful too. Though a bit tiring but we enjoyed like anything.

There was a little change in the original plan. As we reached we heard of strike in Darjeeling for the Gorkhaland outcry. We had to drive straight to Gangtok on Monday. Tuesday Morning we leave for Yumthang Valley, only place we were to witness snow. It took 2 full days. First day we traveled a mountainous road to reach a place called Lachung. On the way I clicked many beautiful scene. In the journey there was a traffic jam on a hill due to landslide. It was about 8 and raining when we reached Lachung. Stayed there for night. In the morning of Wednesday when we woke up it was biting cold there. The rain earlier night added extra flavour to the cold. Water gave frost bites. Thanks to those who carried toilet papers. It saved frost bites at several places. Coming out of the hotel rooms we witnessed some of the most beautiful scenes on earth. I clicked the picture (below) which captured the early morning rays of sunlight coming from behind the hill.
It was Holi the festival of colours on Wednesday. We drove in 2 cabs towards yumthang valley and stopped where it was most snowy and after roads were snow laden. My idea of carrying colours rocked and we had great time playing with colours and snow. Colourful Mr and Mrs Snowy that we made also rocked and the work and idea of bringing colours was appreciated by other tourists present there.
Return journey from Yumthang to Gangtok was not as dreaded as whole going there and we safely drove to our hotel. Thursday morning we were to drive to Nathula pass, the Indo-Tibet border. Situated at the height of 15000 ft it gave practical example of thinning of air which we study in 8th class physics. It was first time I saw so steep roads. As high as 30 degrees steep. Or may be more. Climbing up few steps hurriedly and we were panting like dogs in summer. Cold winds challenged hearing and breathing. On return we saw the Tsomgo lake pupularly wrongly pronounced as Chhangu Lake. A lake in the lap of mounting. Green water and snowy mountains around was distinctly to behold. New to it was a market which attracted tourists. I bought some gifts/memoirs from this market and from shop new a temple called Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir of Indian Army which has a strange story of its own. That very day we returned to hotel and went out in the evening for stroll on MG Marg for the second time (First time was previous day). A beautiful street with beautiful shops, beautiful people and beautiful ambiance. We clicked all the beautiful things on street. It was on same day that my camera started malfunctioning. It is 2.5 yrs old and seems its life is over. Time for new cam!

Friday morning we took 4 cabs for as-called-by the hotel manager 10 point sight seeing around Gangtok. Only 2-3 sites were worth seeing but this time we enjoyed being together. All 4 cabs mountain racing was breath taking but we enjoyed it in the end as we came alive out of it.

Moved to Darjeeling on Saturday morning. Reach there and then city touring that day. on Sunday early morning we went to Tiger hill to see Sunrise but the cloud disappoints us. We could not see Kanchanjangha peak. Disappointed at last spot we catch the train and start with same shit again.

For first few days the images of beautiful scenery of Sikkim and beautiful chinks crowded our minds. But we finally adapt to our style and place of living and evolve to live with it happily!


Ending with a smile :)

A holiday trip

Exams are over now. Came home yesterday as soon as exam finished.
Lots of things happened (I was pick-pocketed) on the way back but don't have time to write now. I have to wake up early morning to catch the train. All set for 1 week holiday trip to Sikkim n Darjeeling. Here is our tour itinerary.

8th March Sun 4:30 AM Leave from Hall
9th March Mon 5:30 AM Reaches New Jalpaiguri (Breakfast)
9th March Mon 9:00 AM Board up in toy train
9th March Mon 7:00 PM Reaches Darjeeling (Night Stay)
10th March Tue 4:00 AM Departure for tiger hill in Darjeeling
10th March Tue 10:00 AM Return from tiger hill and have breakfast
10th March Tue 11:00 AM Sightseeing of Darjeeling
10th March Tue 2:00 PM Lunch and departure to Gangtok
10th March Tue 7:00 PM Reaches Gangtok (Night Stay)
11th March Wed 7:00 AM Departure to Nathula Pass
11th March Wed 7:00 PM Return from Nathula Pass (Night Stay in Gangtok)
12th March Thu 10:00 AM Departure to Lachen after breakfast
12th March Thu 5:00 PM Reaches Lachen (Night stay and sightseeing)
13th March Fri 6:00 AM Departure to Yumthang Valley
13th March Fri 8:00 AM Reaches Yumthang Valley (visit and sight seeing)
13th March Fri 8:00 PM Return from yumthang to Gangtok (night stay in gangtok)
14th March Sat 5:00 AM Departure to Pelling
14th March Sat 10:00 AM Reaches Pelling (Visit and Sight seeing)
14th March Sat 3:00 PM Departure to Darjeeling
14th March Sat 6:00 PM Reaches to Darjeeling (Night Stay)
15th March Sun 6:00 AM Departure to Newjalpaiguri
15th March Sun 10:00 AM Boar up in train to Kanpur

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.

Good to be scared. Good to be embarrassed. Good to be hurt.

Go out. Look around. Take chances. Explore!

Exams

Every time library goes round the clock it is like ringing the bells for exams. tan! tan! tan! Your time starts now. Run!
And then we keep running for life. (read as making ourselves study). Everybody running here and there. All chaos. All sorts of abnormal things begin to happen. To list a few:

• Kush starts studying.
• Sleep cycle? No such terms exists. Sleep when you want. Wake when you want.
• Suddenly mess food appears filthier than ever.
• Half of hostel is seen in mess just as it opens for dinner.
• Flood (of students) in library.
• Orkut/facebook logins increase drastically. And what we do then is well a known fact. Let's coin a term for it e-bird watching.

For many of us (those who are graduating this year) it is practically second last time we are witnessing this event. I guess they will miss these days too when we they start missing college days.

And btw this is the ;ast post of February... Let's what is the number for this month... The number is 11

Skyping...

Spent quite a lot of time on Skype. with mom on previous night and with sis today. It works very good with decent internet connectivity. All credits to laptop integrated dell webcam.
Now days are becoming hotter. There is so much excitement in the coming days. The mid sem exams - not so exciting in a usual sense but yes they effect your life to considerable degree. They start from 4th and end on 6th. Then starting from 9th is our much awaited tour of Darjeeling. This is practically first tour with friends. A group of 15 together and 1 week of fun i.e. 168 hours! This is called life dude. Or rather the bright side of the coin.
But before it the former part of excitement is not so electrifying. So I'll have to make up for it first.

Current favorite Beatles' song are...
The Inner light
Misery
I feel fine
Not a Second Time
This Boy
I Don't Wanna to Be a Soldier Mama
Gimme some truth
The ballad of John and Yoko
Love
and the evergreen Hey Jude...

Back from home

From the beginning of this year there was drought of weekend visit to home. It ended on 20th of this month. It was more than 50 days I was away. As soon as I reached home it was observed that I had grown frail. Spent hell lot of lazy and comforting 2 days at home. Enjoyed eating loads of stuffs like goats. Lots of food. Tasty and sometimes healthy too. Momma made sure of the later. When it was for breakfast she made sure that the glass was filled with milk up to the brink. Matar-paneer and home-made apple jam were no less than trip to heaven!!!

After multiple trips to heaven I was back to hell... no hostel... at 11pm.

Few observant friends tell me about my writing style. My sister somehow believes that what I write carries a critical meaning. One of my close friends said to me today: why don't you pursue Ph.D. in metaphysics. Why? He says: you will contribute to it significantly. Another friend once said something similar. To quote: "u sound horribly like one of the poets 4m d Metaphysical school of poetry".

To quote me "I write what I think. It may be wisdom, it may be crap but it's all the same to me. I can add it is meaningful for me."

Had a break

Ahh...
back to usual style of life after a six day break. Friday to Wednesday was like extended weekend. IORC 09 was better than 08 in terms of competition but the enthusiasm was not like last year. The excitement of first time was missing. But all in all good event. 20 people solving Rubik's cube sub-60 sec is good. Results are here. Till Sunday it was Techkriti.
Left for Mathura to attend a wedding. One of my friends invited us at his sister's wedding.
Back to Kanpur on Wednesday morning. Slept the whole day. Then life starts from 10 clock sociology lecture in L-16. All in all good break. I wonder why I had not taken such break every semester.
Leaving for home this weekend. This is the first time I'm visiting home in this semester. It has been nearly 2 months. So out for 2 more days. :)

Techkriti over...
Out for 2 days

Techkriti 09

Techkriti this year has started. Opening night is over. This time I can really see whats happening in Techkriti. Last year it had been only one thing that filled - IORC.

One thing I am looking forward is the panel discussion Energy 2020. From he panel discussions that I've attended so far I learned that they are not that informative. In the sense that they mostly tend to exhibit personal inclinations of the speakers rather than the real picture. But this panel have some doers than talkers. R.B.Grover (part of Kakodar-Grover duo) is supposed to do the most of the argumentative business of the 123 Agreement. Kakoder is said to have played directive role in the historic agreement. I have a feeling that the discussion is going to stick around 123 mainly - the after-development outcomes.

IORC is 2 day this time. It will be enlightened by the presence of Mr.John Louis and Bernett again. It seems better this time in terms of participation.

A walk in the rain

Everything was favorable. Indian team grabbed a sensational victory in T20 cricket match. It has rained in the evening. Rain just stopped. मिटटी की खुशबु was calling us. And 5 of us went out for a night stroll.
We reached till the new MBA school building via MT. It was sweet cold wind. Although cold is always cold there are some types of cold which bring warmth. Like something sweet touching you. Believe me it's not just poetic imagination. That cold was really sweet! Ahha feeling!

It was not long when it started raining.Just in front of CESE building we had to run to find some shade. Now running in the rain was that fun I cannot tell. All in the dark and under a bus stop in front of Gate-1 waiting not for bus but for the water to stop. It was pouring heavily. The shade was failing us. Every time I found a spot to settle a hole in the shade found me. Half of my back was wet.
With the help of watchful eyes of one of our friend we were able to steal a dry moment and run all the way up to SAC chauraha and then to hall 1 back into our rooms. Back to the same old business.

I think everyone should try such a walk at least once. It is worth giving a chance. Give walk a chance.

Why do you do what you do?

Actions of an individual, says Max Weber, are a result of three things:

1. Tradition (so called Society)
2. Affective (Emotional)
   
3. Rationalism (ones own thinking)
   

You cannot always boast for 'reasons' in your action. For those, like me, who always crave for rationale in things let me tell you that when there is apparently no reason for someone's there is still reason in it. And that is accredited to the first 2 factors.

For me the order of importance is reverse of what is listed.

What are the things that govern your action?

Bubba Gump Shrimp

Once while dinning I bit my lower lips (inside). The very next meal in afternoon it was bit again at the same place. Then it got hit by someones hand next day. Three hits in a row!

It was only when I started medication that it stopped getting worse. It gave me sore lips. Lips like Bubba had in Forest Gump.

Wonder. Sleep.

I was asleep. I wake now. I talk to mom on phone. Then I am not sure if am asleep or awake. I think. I wonder. Then again think. Then wonder more.
I wonder what would happen if we were made to never feel the pain. The disaster we would suffer. Then I sleep. Then I sing. Then I wonder. Wonder if ever any governing equations can be written for the feelings that arise in us. Can it be predicted given all boundary and initial conditions? Does it violate of follow the Causality? If anything like Hawkins' 'theory of everything' comes then will it include this thing?
No answer. Just wonder.Wonder and sleep. Wonder and sing. Slepp and sing. Oh sleep.

Hail Exams...

Exams in the corner. 4 mid-sems within 22 hours. and the last 1 on third day. Lets see how much space can I make for sleeping!

Btw yesterday was vasant panchami and everyone back home woke up early for Saraswati Puja. And when I woke up it was 23 missed calls in my cellphone! I was being called to get up for puja. But the sleeping giant I am. It took 24 rings of phone to break my slumber! [:P]

Current Mood: Oh, I believe in yesterday!

Love Lennon

Love and Peace!!! That is what John Lennon is about. And that is why we all love him. He was an artist, a dreamer, a revolutionary.

"It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you
love, how you love, it matters only that you love."

--John Lennon

Yet another wake up call

It's yet another wake up call for the exams. There is nothing great in this exam except its being the exam. But lets respect this fact only and get back to serious studies.

In past weeks I have been in and out of being 'me' but now it's time to get back into 'me' i.e. the geek who used to be a 'hard working fool' and had very few things apart from studies, friends and family. May be this is what is good for this geek. After all 'you are in IIT' so it means you should not be sticking around nose doing things what it doesn't suits to be IITian. You are just another stinking IITian who is expected to study lotsa technical stuff, earn high LPAs, do something which are said to be success, get married, have kids and then die as an IITian! Don't expect human things from him because he is just IITian. Nothing more.

I should not write these things. Because is people read this, specialy friends and well-wishers, they will start asking what happened to you. Are you fine. What is wrong. etc. etc.

Now this may effect my exams. So I will not write any futher in spite of the face I still have many things I can write. I will now be the geek.

Its (what is antonym of gloomy)... jubilant

I find every reason to be glad. It is only in near past I found every reason to be sad. It was all gloomy out there.

Sometimes reasons are so unreasonable that they gives me a jolt to believe that somethings just happen for it. Just like that. For no reason. You can witness it but you cannot explain it. Yes that is happening. But I find no reason to go around looking for reasons every time. Oh! I just realized what I said. It was a self contradictory statement. Anyways, I am happy and I feel fine. I'm so happy that I started dancing on a beatles' song in my room last night.

To my friends...

Friends are those.......
many things have been said since ages. Intellectuals, noblemen, sages, writers, poets, singers, mediocre, idiots, retards, morons and almost everybody have defined what do 'friends' means. You can find millions of quotes and anecdotes on friends
But for me a friend is one who stays friend. I feel blessed to have the kind of friends I found in my college. The best part of IIT life are FRIENDS. They will love you, they will bear you, the will bully you, they will need you, they will give you, they will ask from you and what not. They will share everything. And when I say everything I mean it. I heard during orientation that some alumni say they were 'closer' to there wingmates than their spouse. It could not be imagined then but now. It's hard conceive the idea of friends without the group of people called Y5-BBot (named after our batch in college and name of hostel wing assigned during 1st year). These are people who are assigned to you when you come to IIT. It was not by choice but by chance, fate, destiny, karma of intellectual design or whatever you may call it that you were born in family you were born in. So was I born in B-Bot wing of hall-2 in the year Y5 and that is my identity.
I wish I enjoy such friendship as long as I enjoy living.

From last few weeks I have developed a habit of ending with a song so here I will dedicate a song to all my friends:

A geek's way of expressing surprise and denial

Why do all the things you feel nice about always have to come to an end? And the way they come to an end has an expectation value of variable which is an array of index n (where n tends to infinity) each element of which have value infinity (that's a geek's way of saying 'totally unexpected'). The end result is not what surprises or rather I would say matters most but the way it comes. Like they cut your marks on the steps you take to prove a mathematical identity not the identity you prove. Identity is something invariably true the way taken to prove it are important.

I don't know what to write. It's like an exam. I'm feeling like I came to give an exam but by mistake I sat in classroom in which other exam was being conducted and with the question paper of the course I never prepared I'm puzzled how to proceed. Should I quit and submit the paper? Or should I try to explain now I was not meant for this exam? In any case I will get an F because invigilator is gone and no one to explain. I only wish invigilator would have shown more rationale(forgive the grammar). Call it luck, call it fate, call it destiny, call it Karma, call it will of God or call it Butterfly Effect (remember Chaos Theory) it is all that I'm into.

But given the emotional giant I am, my mother made me that strong (mentally) that I can even come out of schizophrenia, I will get over and soon-be-enjoying. I will soon be feasting upon the F. I welcome my failures also. It is just that this one was not in my list as to be defined as success or failure. This was not I would have confronted. But facts are more real than the shoulds and woulds. Soon I'll be sitting in another exam for good grades. and before that for tomorrows quiz!

But there is still one hope. There is 1% doubt if it was Mid-Sem exam rather than End-sem. I can recover in end-sem if given chance. But the scar of being 'tagged' bad boy because of F will remain. Of all those who know me know me as a good boy. I never intend to hurt anyone but sometimes it goes opposite. But nevertheless as they say policies do matter. My policies were right. I never felt bad about doing the right thing and I wish others understood it. But again shoulds and woulds do not always happen in life.

At the end of it I'll again sing a song get by:

“hazaron khawahishen aisi ki har khawahish pe dam nikle,
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle”

And given the Beatles fan I am I will sing one more:

There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

Fly high

From the childhood days I had a fantasy for kites. I never learned to fly 'em but always used to keep a collection. I remember staring up in the sky. For hours I will be on top most roof of my house (which happened to be in another town then). And momma will know where i am if not found in my room.

Now it is time to find the fantasy again. To fly high. Just go on flying. As high as the sky stretches.

"अगर देखना चाहते हो मेरी उड़ान को,
तो और ऊँचा कर दो अपने आसमान को ।"

C me live from your browser

Yes. Now you can see me live. You just have to request me for the URL and ask me to switch my video monitoring on my Dell. And then you can monitor me live from your browser (doesn't works with Mozilla somehow. IE of chrome work). You don't even need flash enables browser to see it.

How it works?
A software called Dell Webcam Center comes with the Dell Laptop Integrated Camera. It features remote monitoring which can capture images at regular intervals (user defined) and upload it on FTP. I'm using my website for it. In effect when I run the program it takes images at rate fixed by me (which I have set to 1 image/sec.) and keeps updating the web location every second. On opening the URL it looks like a bad quality video streaming with no sound.

So next time just ping me and get my visual. You can request for URL by writing a mail to me (see my profile if you don't know the ID).

Love

Many times I have written under this title. This post is just another one. Just saw a 2001 move Captain Corellis Mandolin and this dialogue is from it...

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

-- Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Beatles and Jagjit Singh

Both of them have one thing in common. Lyrics is most distinctive feature of their songs. So meaningful. Even if you see it without music. And with music its all what it is. Simply genius!
Jagjit Singh's Baat niklegi, and Har taraf har jagah and Beatles' While my guitar, Strawberry fields, In my life, A day in life, God, How?, Hey Jude are the best examples. Simply great.
It seems that some level of gloominess is contributed to the diseases I'm infected. It is called Beatlemania.

My current playlist

Lots of beatles on my playlist these days...

1) Hazaro Kwahishe Aisi (Jagjit Singh) - Excellent song sung by Jagjit Singh and written by Mirza Ghalib

2) Hoshwalo ko khabar (Jagjit Singh) - Live concert video is what I'm playing. Soft and soothing song.

3)Hey Jude (Beatles) - The first line 'Hey Jude dont make it bad' is worth falling love with. Sort of motivating and keeping from going paranoid.

4)Strawberry fields forever (Beatles) - What is real? How do you define real? What makes you happy? Reality or imagination. Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.

5)While my guitar (Beatles) - Must listen to this song and the next one. Sure everybody will like it. At least read the lyrics here.

6)In my life (Beatles) - Lyrics here.

7) A day in the life (Beatles) - Its tells a normal day in our life when we son't care about a lot of thing but they have significance of their own and worth a more introspective look.

8) How? (Beatles) - Its about feelings. Feeling of Love.

9) God. (Beatles) - What is this word. Is God something you believe in? Then you should'nt. God is a concept that is our necessity and all you shuld believe in is YOU!

10) Instant Karma - One of Lennon's classic. Everybody must be knowing about Karma theory, at least if you are in India.

11) Give Peace a chance (Beatles) - Bedicated to peace. All we are saying give peace a chance.

Its gloomy...

Why is the atmosphere so gloomy? It feels dusk even before the dusk. It is dawn much after the dawn. Nothing is motivating. Even the Lakshya song fails.

They say happiness like sand on the shore is made of many little things. So is the gloominess. It is difficult to credit some reason of the other

Nothing is happening in these days. Not much of gaming. Not much of studies. Only 2 chapters of 'The Great Partition' and then the book has been showpiece. It has just Beatles and Jagjit Singh (songs) that has been happening to me in last few days. And I again fell in love with both of them.

How can I?

How can I have feeling when I don't know if it's a feeling?
How can I feel something if I just don't know how to feel?
How can I have feelings when my feelings have always been denied? Oh no, oh no.
How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving?
How can I give love when I just don't know how to give?
How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had? Oh no, oh no.

You know life can be long and you got to be strong
and the world is so tough sometimes i feel i've had enough.
Oh no, oh no.

-- JOHN LENNON