RandomThoughts

G1 – The Story of Life

2006-03-08T08:42:00.000+05:30

Confused by the title (the credit for it goes to jhumki) ? Even I am. Although we hadn’t really understood the rationale, we had liked it when it was used for khakee’s birthday invite. So let the story begin.

It is what we, the members of Group 1 of Section D, call ourselves. It comprises of khakee, khetana, lizzy, moti, raju and me.

Genesis

The credit for forming this group goes largely to the PGP office, which put khetana, raju, moti and me in the same group in the first term. Khakee joined us in the second term, and lizzy in the third. The process of inclusion, and the deliberations that led to these decisions, are still a secret within the group, so let me not dwell upon that further. :)

The group bonding

Among all the groups of the section, it was G1 that spent most time together. Other groups generally met, worked and then dispersed. But we seemed to spend hours doing the work which we could have finished in a much lesser time. I don’t think anybody really minded this, notwithstanding the regular resolves to cut down on the time-pass. We spent a huge amount of time together, and so the friendships strengthened. Moti took the lead in spreading our notion of bonding in the section.

Acads

It is the focus area of the group and the source of most of the friction between me and the rest of the members. Khakee, khetana and moti are all tremendously serious about academics. Even I am, but my style of studying differs significantly from the others. Raju is a quiet guy by nature, and lizzy, being a new entrant, is slightly submissive still (I can’t believe that I am saying this about hunterwaali). So most group decisions are taken by a 3-1 majority and I frequently end up on the losing side. L

But this does make sure that the group is somewhat prepared for all the classes, which results in our exceptional eagerness to make presentations in as many classes as we can.

Khetana

He is everything to the group. The most hard working and trustworthy person I have ever come across. Just his presence takes away the academic tension from the rest of us. Ever smiling, it is he who does most of the work for the group. But ever since he joined the consult club, he is behaving somewhat like a consultant, giving ideas and forcing the others to work. :p

The rest of us bug him a lot … and he bears it all. But there’s a limit to everything right. He once told me, standing near the edge of the corridor in front of the classrooms, “Mera mann kar raha hai ki tujhe yahan se dhakka deke neeche phenk doo”. I must have pushed him a bit too far. Thankfully he didn’t act upon his words.

All of us trust him a lot. Most of the personal secrets of the group members are first told to him. The rest come to know much later, if at all. He probably knows most about many of us.

Tension

On the surface everything looks fine in the group, and at a group level it is. But at a personal level problems do crop up. A number of us are introvert in nature, so the problems remain out of the ambit of our group discussions, but the tensions do simmer ... until some incident forces something out and allows for a compromise.

The tit-bits

G1 has its own version of CLT. We call it the Constant Laughter Theory. The implications are that whenever moti cracks one of his pathetic pj’s and no-one laughs, he compensates by laughing at his own joke.

The End

The first year ends in four weeks, and with it the life of G1. Will we remain a group after that ? Unlikely I would think. The only thing that I find lacking in G1 is its lack of social life (I envy Group 5 regarding this). All our interactions are somewhat dependant on academic requirements. With the glue of academics removed, it will be difficult for us to stick together. Add to that the fact that one of us is in placecom, one will be on exchange, one is a workaholic … the story probably ends here.

An analysis of online friendships

2005-08-06T18:54:00.000+05:30

Internet has changed the way of life of many people ... atleast of those with access to the free high speed internet facilities at IIT's or IIM's.
Most of us do have chat friends ... but for me and my wing mates at IIT, the relationship with them were at a very nascent stage until we got net access in our rooms in September 2004. After that we made full use of the free time available to a 4th year IITian to spend more time with the "virtual" friends. This article draws from our experiences.
Many issues do crop up. Firstly one must check whether the person on the other side is actually the person he/she claims to be. Failure to do this can lead to rather embarassing consequences. I mean that when you tell a girl to meet you to watch a film wearing a pink coloured dress, and you go and find out that it was a prank played on you by your friends ... it can really hurt your ego. :p
Now comes the case when we are reasonably sure of the authenticity of the other party (why does this line remind me of MANAC ? ) . Now there seems to be two categories of people.

1. They distinguish between real and online friends. They treat online friends as aquantainces to pass their time with and consciously keep their real friends at a higher pedestal.

2. These people do not make such a distinction. They seem to believe that the essence of friendship is effective communication, heart to heart. Meeting face to face is not a prerequisite for that.

I feel compatibility issues crop up between people belonging to different categories. The people of category 1 take a longer time to trust the others. You join college and meet your hostel mates for the first time and you are ready to tell them your cell number but you are hesitant to tell someone with whom you have talked for hours. This can potentially create a bit of resentment within the other person. These two people do find it a little difficult to relate.
Lack of physical interaction can create other problems. Suppose you said something to a "real" friend. If that person does not respond, you can physically confront him/her. But if you find that your online buddy is not responding to mails or sms', you become hesitant to press further. You are never really sure whether the person belongs to category 1 or 2. You can seldom know with any degree of certainty what that person thinks of you, beyond what you are told by the person himself. So you hesitate in exercising your rights as a friend. People err on the side of caution.
So ... these are few of the problems. What are the solutions ? No idea.

Note 1 : Real and virtual friends are used to refer to non-online and online friends and they do not, in any way, comment on the intensity and quality of the relationship.
Note 2 : Two classes of Individual Dynamics and i am analysing friendships. Wow !! :p

I wonder

2005-07-30T12:03:00.000+05:30

The counter of my blog has recently crossed the 1000 mark ... with the last 400 odd hits coming in the last 10 days. I wonder who has the time and inclination to view all the crap that i write. :p

A birthday party at IIM Ahmedabad

2005-07-21T19:10:00.000+05:30

All of us who have studied science in class 10 know that water flows out through an aperture at the side of the container with a much greater force if the size of the aperture is small.
Why am i saying all this ?
The life at IIM Ahmedabad is extremely tough and all of us are perenially under a great deal of stress. So whenever a small opportunity to enjoy ourselves presents itself before us, we enjoy with an intensity comparable to madness. Anybody watching a birthday celebration here would feel as if he has arrived at a lunatic asylum.
I was at the receiving end of the sweet and the barbaric birthday rituals this morning. My dorm mates were exceptionally enthusiastic about celebrating the first birthday of the season, although they were being a month too late.
The process started with the dorm birthday manager booking the 0030 slot and posting the birthday invite in DBABBLE, the institute's online notice board. This is done by the evening so that everybody gets to know.
Now lets fast forward to the time of action. There are some common customs and some dorm specific ones ... and D10 has some cruel ones.
There were a lot of people. It all started with the customary bumps ... but soon the crowd moved onto some more innovative things. Bumps dene ke baad they picked me up the other way ... i was facing down ... and started beating with chappals. Trust me ... those innocuous footwears really hurt. :((
Then my friendly dorm mates decided to make a plane out of me. I am lifted up by 4 people and they run at full speed carrying me ... and stop inches away from the brick walls. Had Puneet braked even a millisecond later, my head would have smashed against the wall. This is done a number of times ... a couple of rounds of the entire floor. In between all these, the beatings continue.
One thing i have to acknowledge is the tenacity of these people. How could they carry ME for so long ? I have never been in the air for so long except in a real plane. :P
But wait ... its not over yet.
By this time somebody has lighted the solitary candle on the cake ... i guess it was a vanilla flavoured one. They carry me to about 3 feet from the candle ... and expect me to blow it out, with one of my dorm mates protecting the flame. Obviously i am unsuccessful. So they carry me a few inches closer. After a number of attempts, finally i succeed ... and i finally LAND.
Now its time to cut the cake. This tradition is common to all the dorms of IIMA. The birthday boy or girl can call any member of the opposite sex as the Guest of Honour. I had invited Medha. So after i had cut two reasonably big pieces, she took them, one in each hand, and smeared them all over my face and hair. Moreover, she is instructed to wipe her hands clean on my shirt. This i guess is the best part of the night. ;)
Now its time for the public to leave (after they have eaten the cake of course). I wash my face and hair and change. Now we are ready for the private dorm ceremony. I cut a second cake, which Creaky, the dorm rep, smears on my cheek. Now we can actually eat and drink something. After this the small party starts with people singing and dancing.
Its quite late now ... and its time to wind up the party. The last item on the agenda is what is known in IIMA parlance as Top 5. But i am not describing it ... let some things stay within the campus. :P

P.S: Its been 18 hours ... but my whole body is still aching. :(((

Musings of a departing senior

2005-05-24T02:17:00.000+05:30

Note: The contents of this post is based on experience gathered in IIT Madras, but may be applicable to other IIT's also.

Author - Tirthankar Dubey
Arrived - August 31, 2001
Departed - May 24, 2005

Dear junior,
I have been through a roller coaster ride in IIT during these last four years. It has been a wonderful experience, and i have done well. Looking back, i can identify a number of mistakes that i made, which i regret.
When an 18 year old freshie clears JEE ... he is overjoyed. During the two years of preparations, he has been taught that clearing JEE is the be all and end all of life. Many harbour this mistaken notion that getting into IIT was the answer to all of life's worries and one needn't work hard any more. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Academics is important ... if someone says otherwise, he is fooling you. You may be a ten gold medal winner at inter-IIT or a stud in extra-curriculars ... but in the end, its your cgpa that counts the most. The universities care more for the work you do as part of NSS than your quizzing skills and the IIM's ask more questions on acads, politics and economics than on the way you organized your cul fest. I am not saying that you should mug all the time and aim for the elusive 10 every sem. You find time for everything ... but not at the cost of your acads. You needn't be a hard worker ... being a smart worker is more than enough. Also ... start studying from the first sem itself. It is very very difficult to recover once you have fallen behind in class. My class rank was 20 after sem 1. It took me a further two and a half years to break into the top 10.
Most IITians are forced to choose between three career options.
1. Further studies in an US university
2. Management studies
3. Job
People are almost always confused regarding their choice. Very few really keep JOB as their first preference. Most try to do one of the first two and keep a job as backup. Good enough. But some attempt all the three. One must realize that both CAT and APP are very very time consuming affairs. Very very few people can do both well simultaneously. Usually people who try this approach end up screwing up both. So try not to board both the boats at the same time.
However ... there is an exception. If APPING is your first preference ... and you are doing well in mock CATs, then you can try both. You still have to spend time on your APP work ... sop, recos etc ... but the time spent on your CAT preparation may be substantially reduced simply because you don't need it. However if CAT is your first option ... don't try this. The potential gains are not worth the risk.
It is very very helpful if you get a job early. The psychological benefits of an early placement cannot be over-emphasized. It leaves you free to pursue your major career goals ... you are reassured that you have something solid to fall back on. I got placed on July 18 ... one of the earliest in the insti ... and it really helped me to concentrate on my CAT preparation.If you are not placed quickly enough, it can really hamper your CAT or APP work.
Well ... that's all for now. Enough gyan for a single day.
Ted

Changes in IIT Madras

2005-05-23T00:51:00.000+05:30

I am leaving IIT Madras tomorrow. I had my viva last week and so i have been jobless for the last five days. During this time, as i have looked around IIT, and also thought of the time when i first came here almost four years back, i realize that the institution and the campus have gone through a number of changes, some very positive ones and some rather negative ones. Lets list them out.

Positive Changes

1. The hostels. They were renovated during my third year. We now have tiled floors, an wooden cupboard and newly painted walls. The rooms look much much better than those of IIM Bangalore.

2. The bathrooms were renovated just before we arrived.

3. This is probably the most profound change ... internet access in the rooms. The connections had been set up during the third sem, but we got net access only during our seventh sem.

4. Academic changes. Dual degree students can change their branch.

5. The CS Department has a new building ... and it looks great.

6. The hostel administration has a new office building.

7. There will be no more floods in Mandak.

8. Hostels have air conditioned computer rooms.

9. We don't have a dhobi in the hostel any more ... rather there is a centralized laundry service.

10. The Students Facility Centre has changed. Gurunath has a much better ambience now. The Moon Lab has been replaced by the Archies gift shop and there is an extra phone booth.

11. There are xerox shops at Jamuna and Sarayu also.

12. A new coffee shop in between Sarayu and Sharavati.

13. Reverse Osmosis plants that supply clean drinking water to the hostel zone.

14. The water tower constructed with funds provided by the 1974 batch alumni.

15. An extra floor in Godavari, Jamuna and Ganga.

16. The cell phone towers within the campus.

17. The new look library building ... though i never used it.

18. A common Mega Mess for Sarayu and Sharavati. So male freshies now have the opportunity of being ragged by girls. ;)

19. A new seven storey boys hostel is being built.

Negative changes

1. Girls are not allowed to the boys' rooms any more.

2. Velachery gate has been closed.

3. A new Mega Mess is being built for the boys' hostel. The hostel messes will be closed and students will have to travel a long way to eat.

4. No more powered vehicles in campus. The rule is being strictly followed.

Heat

2005-05-13T04:09:00.000+05:30

Its May 13 ... 7 years since India's last nuclear tests.
I have never stayed in chennai this long into the summer ... and i realize how good those earlier decisions were.
The temperture, as well as the humidity, is soaring. I feel restless all the time. The heat is soaking up all the energy i have. I don't feel like doing anything.
I don't feel like eating, going to movies, listening to music ... or even orkutting. :((
On top of that the water cooler in the hostel has cupped. The coolers in the wings had been removed last week itself, soon after the end of the semester, for security reasons.
So we can't even get cold water anywhere in the hostel now.
I don't know how will i survive these last 12 days here. :((

Depression

2005-05-13T02:41:00.000+05:30

Read some depressing and philosophical posts today ... notably this, this, this and this.
These and an unrelated event that took place in my hostel last night inspired me to write this.

This is he last semester that i spent in IIT ... and as every IITian knows, the last sem has the least workload. So i have found a lot of time to just lie down on my bed, stare at the ceiling and think. What were the thoughts that went through my mind during those hours ? Now when i look back, i can't remember feeling very happy about anything.
Although i am speaking only for myself, i take the liberty to say that quiet a few of my friends feel the same.
I can't remember when was the last time i felt really happy and elated, and the feeling lasted.
For example ... consider the case of my IIMA admit. It was something that i had worked very hard to achieve ... it was a dream that i had nurtured within myself for a very long time. I had imagined that moment of triumph. As expected, i was happy ... but that heady feeling lasted for only about a couple of days. Soon my mind went back to thinking about stupid things.
Is there any answer to why this happens ?
Possibly a deep feeling of insecurity regarding an uncertain future ... soon we will stepping into the real world ... away from the security that we have been used to all our lives. Maybe a subconscious feeling that these days of enjoyment can never return again and that life henceforth can only be worse ... with more worries and tensions plaguing us.
This sem i have been happier than usual ... but the intensity of depression has also gone up.
I have come a long way in the last 4 years in IIT ... but as i leave, i wonder where on the way did i leave behind my erstwhile jolly nature.

Night

2005-05-12T04:39:00.000+05:30

The sequence of yesterday's events.

1130 - A freak cycle accident. Ravi forgot to tell me that Dumbo's cycle didn't have brakes. :((
But i guess everything is ok.

1400-1900 - A great TLTE session. But there were only 3 people around.

1940 - Pain in the leg increasing. I was walking from Jam to Saras ... it was then that i realized that it was bad.

2010 - Going out for dinner ... along with Ravi and Angad. I still don't know why am i wearing a shoe.

2200 - Nice dinner ... but Kabul is a costly restaurant. Plans for ice cream cancelled as i can barely stand up. I can't wear my shoes any longer. Ravi and i exchange shoes ... i wear his slippers.

2230 - Somehow back to the insti. :)

0030 - Go to sleep. Should have taken a pain killer ... can't find any. Lets sleep.

0200 - Wake up ... the pain is unbearable. Somehow i limp out of the room. Thankfully some people are still awake. Tara fortunately has some Brufen and Punch has some water.

0230 - Can't sleep still ... decide to watch a movie to spend time.

0415 - Watched "Phone Booth". It has been in my comp for 5 months now and i still hadn't watched it. Nice movie though.

0430 - The pain seems to have subsided a bit ... these pain killers work. I am very thirsty ... Anshup is sweet enough to get me a bottle of water from the mess.

0445 - Writing this blog. I think i can sleep after this.

Ravi, Angad, Tara, Punch, Anshup ... my saviours this night.

The last party

2005-05-10T02:43:00.000+05:30

The end sems ended on Thursday, May 5. Not that it mattered a great deal to me or most of my wing mates ... we hardly had any courses this sem. Lekin ek do logo ke exam ho hi jaate the har roz ... mainly of the duals. To apni party ho nahi paayi bahut dino tak. So we decided that our last full wing party will be held on May 5. It turned out to be something that i will not forget in a hurry.
As the sem was drawing to a close, the realization, that our group was going to break up, was growing. Chandni posted the following message in our wing yahoo group ...

hi guys, As the days are passing, the fear of separation is growing...we have only 5 or 6 days left..when all of us will be together...so guys lets enjoy to the fullest.....so that we can cherish these moments for rest of our life...uske baad its almost impossible that all of us will be together.....and one more thing...for the sake of these last days lets forget all our past fights and differnces(I hope somebody is getting what I mean)...old fight between the friends really hurts me these days...so I request you two to forget that incidence...anyways when we guys are having our next booze party....on 6th....any objection. Enjoy guys enjoy......these days will never come back and u will remember me for that.BBC was the host ... he was giving a treat for getting the GE scholarship. It was a treat of pizza + drinks. We have had such parties a number of times earlier ... so i hadn't really expected anything great to happen. It was continuing as usual. Chandni, Piyush and i spent a lot of time on the roof ... till around 4:30. But after we came down, everybody started a sort of ... what do i call it ... a sort of "Bad quality exposure" session. Ek doosre ke baare me humein kya achcha lagta hai yeh to sab jaante the ... aur batate bhi the. Lekin humaare baare mein humaare dosto ko kya kharaab lagta hai ? Yeh baate kabhi publicly kahi nahi jaati, lekin phir bhi pata hota hai sabko. Lekin saamne koi nahi kahta. Usdin pata nahi kyon sabne decide kiya that nothing should remain hidden. Everybody should say whatever they have to ... about any of the others. The person being talked about was not allowed to interfere. This continued for a long time ... and people were brutally honest. Possibly because they were "high". Nahito they would not have said many of the things that they actually said. But nobody got angry at any of the things being said about them ... people took it very sportingly. Shayaad bahaarwaalo se sunne se behtar hi hai. Another thing was disclosure of secrets. Kachra and Appi told Chandni that they had read a letter meant for him and had replaced it back without letting him know ... for close to two years now. Tau came to know that it was Appi who had changed his name from Dwij to Tau in the hostel t-shirt. Somehow everybody had decided to come clean. The biggest positive to emerge from this session was that Appi and Kachra spoke again ... after two months. The problem between them was solved. I don't know whether it was correct to do what we did, but we did feel good, and free, after that night. It was the last night that we were together. Appi left for home the very next day ... the wing has broken up. It is very very unlikely that the 11 of us would ever be together again in our lifetime. We all know that ... and every now and then somebody chooses to rub it in. For example, before leaving main aur appi gale mil rahe the. Appi ne kaha ... "Phir milenge" ... phir kuch der sochne ke baad ... "Kab milenge". Phir appi ke chale jaane ke kuch der baad Tau kahta hai ... "Wing ka pehla wicket down ho gaya". Sabko pata hai yaar ... yeh yaad dilaana zaroori hai kya ? Aaj kachra ke jaane se doosra wicket gira wing ka. I heard that in Alak, the guys cried during the confessions evening. None of us have cried yet ... possibly because we are still in a group in the wing. But i wonder what will happen during the long journey home ... when we will be alone, thinking about all the good and not so good memories of the past four years. Possibly the dam will break then.

Priorities

2005-05-04T16:11:00.000+05:30

I had read this article a few days back.

In the bungalow across the house of my NZ friend lived a taxi driver. He was about 60 and lived alone. His children were grown and out of the house; his wife, either dead or divorced. At the end of the day, he would park his taxi on the road, even though he had a garage. His was the only vehicle ever parked on that road. I wondered why he did not park his taxi in his garage. Then I learnt that he had another car in his garage, his 'other' car. It was the car he would drive when he wanted to go alone. He would come home from work, leave his taxi and would go out on his personal errands in his other car, not in his taxi. I felt that was very profligate of an old taxi driver. I was curious to see his 'personal' car but for two weeks, it kept eluding me. Then one evening, I happened to be outside when his taxi was parked on the road, the garage door was open and he drove out in his 'own' car : a gorgeous burgundy Rolls-Royce. It shook me to the core when I realised what that meant. You see, he was a taxi driver. But deep inside, he saw himself as something else: A Rolls-Royce owner. When he drove others, he drove them in his taxi. When he drove himself, he drove in his Rolls. The world looked at his taxi and called him a taxi driver. But he did not call himself a taxi driver. Taxi was just something he drove for a living. Rolls was something he drove for a life. And we are all like that taxi driver. We drive some 'taxi' for a living, a semiconductor engineer, an investment banker, a CFO, a software businessman, a venture capitalist, or a university professor. Some of our taxis are big and glamorous. Some are simple and functional. But they are still just taxis. Now, there is nothing wrong in making an honest day's money, whatever taxi we drive. The problem begins when we start believing that we are what the world thinks we are: a taxi driver, a corporate banker, a software programmer, whatever. Think of it. None of us ever goes to bed as an engineer; we go to bed as husbands. We wake up as fathers and sons, not as MBAs. We party as friends, we vacation as wanderlusts, and we love life as demigods in chrysalis. Yet often, we base our entire happiness and fulfillment on how high we climb in the corporate ladder, how much bigger and better a taxi we drive. And we ignore our Rolls Royce, keep it stale and dusty in our garage. If we ever decide to take it for a ride, the world reminds us that we would be 'wasting' our talent as IIT engineers and we would wasting x lakhs of rupees that Indian taxpayers have spent on educating us. I learnt from that taxi driver that I was not an engineer or a medical software guy. I just drove a taxi called Medical Softwares. My Rolls was something different: to be a free man, travel the world, read good books, exercise outdoors, stay healthy, and enjoy life. As it dawned on me, I started feeling a lot of peace with the choices I had made in my career in the last 10 years, favouring my Rolls vis-a-vis my taxi . Yeah, and having and caring for your own Rolls, in no way, means you are not serious about taxi driving. You are passionate about technology, writing, blah, blah, blahâ€¦but you also know that after all it's a taxi. You don't seek respect from bus drivers, then! Nice article ... made me feel good about not concentrating too much on my BTP (Taxi), but working for other goals.

Hostel Nite

2005-04-26T03:04:00.000+05:30

One of the most eagerly awaited events of the even semester, the hostel nites generally take place during the first half of April. This year Saraswathi's hostel nite was held on April 18.
Each hostel nite has a theme ... i have no idea why. The decoration is done keeping in mind the theme. This year it was ROCK ( i guess it refers to some kind of high volume music). So all the seniors had to pose with guitars in hand. These would be the photos that would be put in the Rogues Gallery (RG).
The hostel nite begins with a few lectures ... by the warden and the chief guest ... followed by the reports of the various secretaries. Then some awards are presented. All this while the hostel residents and their guests are busy consuming the starters ... nobody ever looks towards the stage. This boring period is followed by the dinner, after which the students present some programmes, like songs, dance or play. Again, very few are interested. People are waiting for the most important event of the evening, the Toast.
The toast is actually a formal farewell to a senior, and is presented by some junior. It contains some funny incidents and anecdotes from the senior's IIT life. Some pleasant and not so pleasant memories. Since IIT Madras has very close knit wings, toasts to an entire wing of seniors is presented by a wing of juniors with whom these seniors have interacted the most. Of course the information has to be collected from the seniors themselves ... who else would know. Preparations start days in advance. Stories about someone is given to the juniors only when that person is not there ... you are not supposed to know about your toast until the very last moment.
The material is divided into two parts. One part is presented in the Rogues Gallery ... which is a profile of the senior and is hung on the walls of the hostel during the event. This is for the public to read. Some of the more embarassing portions, which profs shouldn't read, are omitted and are revealed in the toast itself, which takes place later at night.
Our hostel nite was a chaos this time. Guests had started arriving and still the RG's hadn't been put up. It was put up late. Then we had a counter for Indian food, and a counter for pizza. Chaos again ... people literally had to fight a war for each pizza.
Anyway ... after the grub was over ... we were waiting for our wing video. This is a rather new phenomenon. Wings prepare short videos about themselves and show them. They are really nice. But ours took too much time to render and couldn't be shown before midnight, by when many of the guests had left.
No hostel nite is complete without drinks. But spirits seemed a bit subdued this time as some drinks were confiscated during the Mandak hostel nights two days ago ... and the hostel administration was up in arms against the students. But still ... the drinks had arrived.
Boys have this amazing habit of being extremely decent in the presence of girls, even though they may be quite unruly otherwise (reminds me of Ryan ... ). There was a girl among my guests ... and some 6 or 7 of us, including her, were in my room. The booze party had started outside on the corridor ... but most of us (that is, those in the room), waited till she left. After that the real party started.
I have never liked the taste of alcohol. Its repulsive, disgusting. But it has this amazing quality of freeing your mind from all sorts of inhibitions. You feel free and relieved like you have never felt before. All the worries and troubles of the world seem to disappear. You do and say things which you would normally be embarassed to do ... but now your real feelings are exposed. Some four or five of us spent the entire night discussing the love lives of some of our friends ... a topic that would possibly be taboo at any other point of time.
My toast was read out at 2:45 AM. After that we spent a lot of time gossipping and singing loudly. It was fun. At 6, we went to taramani to have tea ... and slept only after that. The last saras hostel nite ended ... but it was a night whose memories i would endear forever.

Hum bhool gaye re har baat

2005-04-25T23:55:00.000+05:30

I heard this song for the first time today. Its from a Jeetendra starrer called "Sautan ki beti" (source of info : Piyush) ... and is sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
I can't remember ever being so impressed ... rather touched ... by a song before. Its one of the best i have ever heard. It was 5 minutes of pure bliss.
Here's the lyrics.

Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole

Kya kya hua dil ke saath ...
Kya kya hua dil ke saath ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole

Duniya se shikayat kya karte jab tune humein samjha hi nahin
Duniya se shikayat kya karte jab tune humein samjha hi nahin
Gairo ko bhala kya samjhate jab apnone samjha hi nahin

Tune chhod diya re mera haath
*sobs*
Tune chhod diya re mera haath ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Kya kya hua dil ke saath ...
Kya kya hua dil ke saath ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole

Kasme khakar vaade tore ... hum phir bhi tujhe na bhool sake
Kasme khakar vaade tore ... hum phir bhi tujhe na bhool sake
Jhoole to pare bagon me magar, hum bin tere na jhool sake
Sawaan me jale din raat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole

Kya kya hua dil ke saath ...
Kya kya hua dil ke saath ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
Hum bhool gaye re har baat ... magar tera pyar nahi bhoole
*sobs*

The song can be downloaded from here. But it seems it works only with Internet Explorer.
Stay While on this senti topic, do read up this poem. Very well written ... and i could identify myself with it, at least partially.

Contradictory thoughts

2005-04-25T14:30:00.000+05:30

This is inspired by a recent post by Kanu having the same title.

1. Everything is fair in love and war.

If the person you love is going away with someone else, you try to get her back, by hook or by crook.
There is an old saying. "True love is like a bird. Let it go. If it comes back, it will be forever yours ... else it was never yours."
However this policy does not work usually ... as the moment you let the bird go, someone will pounce over it and keep it in his cage.

2. Happiness of the other.
If you feel that the person you love is happy with someone else ... let her be. Seeing her happy ... after all, that's all you ever wanted, isn't it ?

Trust

2005-04-12T16:36:00.000+05:30

I have been thinking about this for sometime now ... so have been in quite a pensive mood lately, which isn't due to "final year blues".
Lets start with a short story.

A and B are best friends. They study in the same class. X is a very good friend of both of them. They form a nice group and usually form a group among themselves for assignments. Things were getting along fine between the three of them.
Now ... a particular course which they are doing has 10 marks for class participation. Since the instructor is visually challenged, he asks the opinion of some of the regular and more sincere students in this regard. The professor consults a group of four students, A, B, Y and a fourth person in this regard. The marks, and later the grades, are awarded. X gets poor marks for class participation ... X was never really very enthusiastic about the course.

The vacations start. One fine day A gets a very bitter and sarcastic mail from X ... whom he considered a good friend. X was very very upset about the marks obtained in the course. A tries to explain his position ... his best friend B also sends a mail to X about this.
A few days later A gets another mail from X ... an explanation. What had hapened was the following. Y had told X that A had intentionally awarded less marks to X ... and awarded more marks to other less deserving students. This obviously hurt X ... who did not know that Y had conveniently suppressed an important fact ... that he was also a part of that same group.
A and B again clarifies their position ... and everything seems to be fine, the situation has been brought under control.

But its not.

It has been two years since those events. The relationships have undergone a sea change. A and B are still best friends ... but X is not with them. X hardly talks with A or B anymore. The friendship has fallen apart. What happened ?
A thinks that maybe Y has said something more to X about him ... something that has poisoned X's mind thoroughly. Or maybe the friendship had never really recovered from the first attack by Y ... maybe X had just feigned understanding then ... deep within, the resentment still simmered.

Is A becoming too paranoid ? Maybe nothing really has changed except his own perspective ? But ... how is that possible ... even B notices the difference in X's attitude towards them.
So something has happened ... maybe A himself is to be blamed for it. But how will he know what went wrong ... if nobody ever speaks out.

Coming back to real life ... i was discussing this concept of trust with some of my friends during the weekend. To what extent do my friends trust me ? The friendship between A and X broke down ... does this imply that they were never really good friends ?
I was confident that my friends do trust me ... at least some very good ones do. But my friends presented scenarios which forced me to rethink. Can a third person say things to a friend that can loosen the fabric of friendship ... with neither of the two being at fault ? Can i be confident that at least some of my friends will always repose full faith in me ?
In some cases, the aggrieved friend would complain to me ... and i would have the chance to defend myself, and make amends if necessary (even then ... a vase once broken can never be perfectly reassembled). But what if that person does not even speak out ... and withdraws silently ? What do i do then ?
Also ... what if i am the one who is provoked. How would i react ?
I am now left pondering over these seemingly unanswerable questions.

I am left wondering ... is any friendship really safe from unscruplous poachers like Y ?

Top of the world

2005-04-07T16:20:00.000+05:30

It was 10:50 AM ... the boring Queuing theory lecture had just finished ... when i got a missed call from Shobhit. I called back ... he said that IIMA results were out. He checked them for me ... i was in.
I was feeling numb ... but i wanted to see it for myself. I rushed to the dept ... but the net at the TCS lab was atrociously slow. I went to the VLSI lab ... the net was slow there too. I was toooooo nervous. The page where i had to enter my registration number and date of birth opened. I didn't even wait for it to load completely. I tried to select my birthday and i found the field only allowed from 1-14. I should learn to wait for a page to load completely. :P
Finally vikram took over and entered my details. I saw the result ... its true ... confirmed. :)
I had not expected the result to be out today. I had only Rs 37 in my cell and had soooo many people to call. I managed 7 STD's and 2 local calls in that meagre amount ... always had to keep down the phone although i wanted to go on speaking. First mammam, then bandhu, followed by ma and baba. The 5th call was to kiddo, followed by richa and kanu ... then the 2 local calls to angad and ravi. It feels so nice to share your happiness with friends ... everybody was so happy ... i was literally at the top of the world. :)

RKK

2005-03-26T09:30:00.000+05:30

RKK ... these 3 letters usually spell terror in the heart of most IIT Madras students. If you have been admitted to a B.Tech programme in IIT Madras, you cannot avoid Professor R. Kalyana Krishnan.
He is well known in the institute for his fetish for engineering. He feels, rightly, if i may say so, that the focus of the IIT's has slowly but surely shifted away from engineering. IIT's produce more "researchers" for the USA than technically competent engineers for India. He says that the students nowdays work only on paper and are not ready to dirty their hands.
To change the situation for the better, he teaches an Industrial Design course ... which is compulsory for first year students. We really have to work for that. Lots of design assignments and a practical design contest. Some common assignments include measuring the distance from the Gajendra Circle to the IN Gate, to the nearest metre ... and also the height of the academic zone water tank. In my first year, the students had to build a bridge of specified dimensions using broomsticks. The bridges were loaded at the centre till they gave away. The bridge with the greatest load to weight ratio was the winner.
He is a stickler for attendance ... and an expert in catching proxies. I was literally amazed when during an ID class of more than 200 students ... he had read off 3 names from the attendance sheet, none of whom were actually present. An interesting character. ;)
If you are a Computer Science student ... your interactions with him continues till late into your IIT life ... the dreaded Computer System Design course of the seventh semester. The last time he took this course was 2 years back (as his son was in our immediate senior batch). That time he had given W grade (low attendance) to 9 students. Obviously we were apprehensive.
He more than justified our apprehension. It was the most amazing course i have ever taken. He took classes for only one month ... some of whom were under a tree in front of the Humanities building. By the end of september, he had given an outrageous assignment to each of us ... to be completed to his satisfaction ... else he would fail us.
I was terrified at the threat ... which worked to my advantage. Most people of the class did not take him seriously. In early January he announced the grades and i was among the 5 who passed. But the ordeal did not end there for the others. A summer course would be offered only when the assignment is completed.
But he did not realize who he was taking on. Our batch still did not work. ;) On march 10, he asked the class to meet him. But the class could not find a suitable time to meet the instructor. :P
But department politics ... we had got a taste of it during our BTP allocation in 6th sem ... forced us to meet him. It was a lecture by RKK that i will never forget ... one of the most senti stuff i have ever heard in IIT.
He first talked about the degradation of IIT ... like ha has done so many times before. But the funny part came later. He declared he is not a sadist and will not keep anyone back for a 5th year. But those who would go without doing the work ... would carry a prick in their conscience throughout their life. I was taken aback. Some confidence. :D What can poor parents do if their children don't listen. Really ...
So finally ... those who don't want to do the work ... must give a signed letter which basically says that "Sir ... meri aukaad nahi hai aapka diya hua kaam karne ki." Ab dekhte hai ki ladke kya karte hai. RKK ka final weapon ... hit at the roots of their self esteem. But i have full confidence in the besharmi of my class.
I still don't know whether i like him or hate him ... but by no means can anyone here ignore him.

Kiddo

2005-03-17T10:43:00.000+05:30

Let me start with a clarification. This post is more about the name kiddo than about the person kiddo (i will write about her later. ;)). This is merely a biased account of an event of great importance that has defined the identity of TLTE ... the purpose being to educate our new generation about the history of our world, and to rekindle the memories of the old generation.

Kiddo

This name first appeared here.
We all know who used it first. Ritesh. The reason being that he had the brainwave that girls like cute baby names. :)
Her profile picture then must also have been a motivation. It was a hand drawn picture of a young girl ... in pink. Probably the word kid came naturally to it.
But taru, who recently said that the name had become a part of her identity, did not like the name initially (I am using the name taru here to fit in with the proper historical context). She was so irritated by the name that she even left for the day in a huff ... tired of the sarcasm. ;)

Sweetest saras was the only one who supported her then. But finally the perseverence of the others paid off.
She agreed to be called kiddo.
Incidentally ... even Shankar called taru kiddo then.
But does that mean the story ends here ? Not at all.

Enters the second contender ... asha. The seeds of the legendary fight that was to follow was sown by shankar.
The name apparantly was not in great demand ... as asha threatened to give others various nicknames in case she was called a kid. A number of interesting nicknames appeared. :)

Shankar called asha kiddo, while Ritesh called taru kiddo. Soon taru demanded that they be given different names.

What could the 2nd name ? The first suggestion was munni ... which apparantly sounded like koi tapori ki sister . :D
Taru preferred kiddo ... but shankar preferred munni. Lekin taru ne shankar ki le li. :D

Now a full fledged fight starts . Ritesh + taru vs Shankar ... who is using his billions of shares as a negotiating tool. He kept on suggesting alternative names for taru ... rinky, pinky and what not. Shobhit is present ... and is chipping in every now and then ... in taru's favour of course. Asha seems to have run out of supporters.

Taru to shankar ... and asha is the same person who called u bhondu..still lobbying for her??????????? ... but emotional blackmailing does not work with the great shankar dada. :P

Now asha and i enter the fight. Asha does not have any problems with the name kiddo . But shankar makes a mistake now ... he angers me by trying to fire me from the position of the CFO. ;)
So taru has one more supporter. :)

Asha is openly opposing me now. Surprising, isn't it ? Since she admitted a few days back that she was scared of me initially. :) Taru had left for class in the meantime. So the two main contenders never actually fought each other.
Ritesh and i tried to negotiate a compromise ... by offereing asha a very sweet name. Cutie.
She accepted the name ... but three months later. :((

Now is the time for the arrival of the all poweful kanu. We will soon see how she becomes the final sole arbitrator of the dispute.
But diplomacy flees when shankar arrives ... he calls her a kutty. A grave miscalculation on his part. :P

Kanu is asha's net sis. She was soooooo happy at kanu's arrival.
well now that kanu has arrived i know TLTE is in good hands!..

Ritesh explains the whole situation to kanu ... and now she is the judge ... her decision will be accepted by both the parties.

She decides. In favour of taru.

The fight ends ... Taru is kiddo now.

A new name has to be found for asha ... but kanu does not seems to be interested in cutie ... so the matter rests there.

Acknowledgement : Kanu and her article on nicknames.
Note : Since this is a historical narrative, i have tried to provide as many links as possible. However some errors might have crept in those. Please bear with me for those and inform me about them. I will edit the post accordingly.

IIM Ahmedabad interview

2005-03-17T10:30:00.000+05:30

Profile ...
Tirthankar Dubey
4th year CS from IIT Madras
cgpa ... 8.79 out of 10
CAT ... 99.99 percentile

Interview was on March 13 afternoon at IIMB.
GD was on a shoe manufacturing company. I spoke as much as i normally do. I started of with what i then thought was a factual error ... but i now think that the wording of the case was ambiguous.

PI ... 1st in line ... the panel was very jovial. Cracked a lot of jokes. It was fun talking with them.

Q Do you like CS ?
A Yes

Q Can CS be applied in management ?
Another panelist chipped in saying that MS Word is used everywhere.
A Powerpoint is omnipresent.

Q Is that really management ? Give management applications
A Talked at length about a paper published by some IIMC guy on secure multiparty computation ... my project area. They asked the name but i had forgotten.

Q Can computers replace managers ?
A A long term research goal is to make computers that can decide like humans. But that's a long way off still.

Q Name 3 areas where computers are replacing humans ... intelligent decisions... basically thinking.
A Industrial process control, games, data mining.

The panel accepted the first one, for the second, it said "let it be", for the 3rd it said "do humans really do that ?" . I said yes, on a small scale. I said i couldn't think of any other area.

Q You have been in calcutta throughout your life ?
A Yes

Q Do you know PK Dubey ?
A No

They teased me for a couple of minutes regarding this. Finally i realized who PK Dubey was.

A Monsoon Wedding.

Q Who directed it ?
A No idea

Q Which one has been your favourite course ?
A Indian natl movement ... sem 4

Q We are still looking at you as a CS student ... say some engineering course.
A Data structures ... sem 3.

Q What ... you didn't like any course since 2nd year ?
A Algorithms in sem 6 was a continuation course.

Q What is fixed point theorem ?
A Got confused at this point ... said a wrong theorem ... realized the mistake and said so.

Q What are open and closed sets ?
A Answered well.

Q What did you do in the course "Recent trends in TCS" ?
A Answered

Q What are random variables ?
A Answered.

Actually this question continued for a while ... but i think i answered well enough.

Q What did you do in the consumer pshychology course ?
A Consumer research, motivation, consumer decision making process, post purchase etc.

Q What is culture ? You have heard of cultural segmentation ?
A Yes

Q Does culture influence consumer behaviour ?
A Yes ... example ... conservative cultures don't generally accept revealing clothes for women.

Q Which culture ?
A Conservative ones

Q Example
A India

Q But ... Satyam Shivam Sundaram ... and so many films in the last few years.
A Those are exceptions sir ... sales here are still very low.

Q Have you heard of Maslow ?
A Yes ... Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Q Explain ... name a higher level need.
A Did that. Egotist need.

Q Do you think it holds ?
A There are exceptions ... but i feels it is true generally.

Q What exceptions ?
A Some artist, painter might be more concerned with his art, will try to satisfy the need for self acctualization before social needs of love etc.

Q Heard of baul singers ?
A Yes ...

Q What about a rickshaw puller ... doesn't he have a need for love etc ?
A Yes, but he will try to feed himself and his family before trying to satisfy these higher level needs.

Q What are birth and death processes ? Example
A Queues.

Q Shouldn't average queue length be 0 or infinity ... depending on which one is greater, service or arrival rate ?
A No ... in a basic M/M/1 queue, it can be finite.

Q What is M ?
A Markov process.

Q What are they ?
A Explained.

Q What distribution does arrival and service folow ?
A Poisson

Q But can the avg length be finite ?
A Yes

Q Show that ...
He passed me a sheet
A I worked it out almost completely

Q What do you do in your spare time ... surely not fixed point theorem !!! *laughter all around*
A Read political articles

Q This person has a pot of money ... and is the owner of an international BPO company ... you are Buddhadev Bhattacharya ... convince him to invest in calcutta.
Like you have sold yourself well to us ... not sold, presented yourself well, likewise sell Calcutta to him. Say 5 lines on that. Think ... but quickly ... others are waiting.

A Did i ?
A 1. Good infrastructure is being developed.
2. Cheap land will be available ... possible tax breaks.
3. Relatively good law and order situation.

Q You really think so ? (about point 3)
A Better than many cities

Another panelist says to the one asking ... are, the CM will obviously say that na.

Q Two more points left.
A Then let me think a little more.

This question and its answer was in Bengali.

Q If you think you have sold calcutta well, you can say so.
A 4. Good public transport system.

Q What !!! Have you ever travelled in calcutta ?
A At least i don't have to argue with autowalahs everytime i leave the campus.
That's all ... 4 points.
Did i convince you ?

Q That i will say when i get the pot of money. Thank you ... offers the eclairs.
I take one and come out.

Apparantly it was a very long interview ... 27 to 30 minutes.

So ... what do you all think ?

XLRI interview

2005-03-09T19:37:00.000+05:30

XAT percentile ... 99.84, with a 65 in GK.

The shadiest interview that i have had ever.
It was supposed to be held at Loyola at 6PM ... March 8. I reached at 5:32 PM. Someone was going out. He asked me whether i was the candidate whose interview was supposed to be held at 6. I said yes. "Then go quickly, they are waiting for you."
I thought ... "What ... so early ? "

So i ran up ... and was a bit sweaty when i reached up. The waiting room was empty. I got pshyched. I did not know that they called only one person at a time.
A panelist saw me and asked why was i looking tired and whether i would like to freshen up. I washed my face. He asked me to come after a minute or so. When i went, he and another panelist asked me to wait for the 3rd panelist. Soon he came ... and my interview started.

Q What's your name ?
A Tirthankar Dubey

Q Tell us something about yourself
A Rehearsed answer

Q What kind of a student are you ?
A More or less good.

Q Why more or less ? Aren't you sure ?
A Depends on what you consider good.

Q What do you consider good ?
A I am sincere.

Q Is sincerity proportional to performance
A Not always ... but in my college there is a good correlation ... from personal experience.

Q A mango tree bears fruit every 2 yrs. Among those years, the fruit is sweet every 3 yrs. Among these years, it is seedless every 4 yrs. This year there has been sweet, seedless mango. When will this happen again ?

A 24 years

Q Why ? Did you count ?
A No sir ... i multiplied (in an innocuous voice)

Q Multiplication ?
A Talked at length on how i got the answer ... the periods in which various events here repeat ... etc

Q Which branch of management would you choose ?
A Not sure ... as i have had exposure only to OR and marketing.

Q Don't you have a future plan ?
A Started talking of being a manager etc ... he cuts me short.

Q There is nothing like being a manager. Its like saying "I want to be a man". What kind of man ... that is important.
A From the info i have, i would prefer finance.

Q But info can easily be obtained from internet ... do you use it ? Don't you think you should have been better prepared with your plans before coming here ?
A Yes, i do. I have collected info from various sources ... but i don't know whether what i know about the streams is good enough to help me make a wise choice.

Q Tell me about the manufacturing sector in India ?
A No idea sir (probably shouldn't have given up on this question ... )

Q Still ... name some manufacturing industries that will do well in the near future.
A Cement, steel ... because of golden quadrilateral and construction boom fuelled by it. Also consumer goods, cars, computers etc.

Q Tell me about the future of the hardware industry in India
A Its almost non existent today. Most of the stuff is imported. But companies are investing ... so the future can only be brighter.

Q You only study ... and never read newspapers or anything. Am i right ?
A No sir, you are not.

Q It seemed so as you did not answer the manufacturing sector question.
A Its a question of preference ... i prefer reading political news and articles.

Q Tell us about the role of governors ...
A Spoke for sometime on this ... with a distinct pro BJP tone while talking about the recent controversies.

Q What are the full forms of CJ, DJ, PJ ?
A Chief Justice, Disc Jockey, Poor Joke

Q Why did you say Chief Justice ?
A I am from a lawyer family ... have heard it too many times.

Q Any technical full form of PJ ?
A Sir ... Poor Joke is ingrained in my mind after 4 years in college. (as i could not think of anything else)

Q Your father worked in TISCO ?
A Yes

Q Give an application of maths in a steel plant.
A Talked of operation and movement of various raw materials.

Q What inventory model would you use ?
A No idea.

Q Where in a steel plant do you keep coal ?
A I don't know

Q Which branch of engineering are you studying in ?
A Computer Science

Q Repeated the question on coal. (i have no idea why)
A I answered again that i did not know.

Q What is data mining ?
A Explained in detail with an example.

That was it. I don't think i have missed any question ... but i cannot be sure. My interview was over at around 6 ... which was supposed to be the scheduled time.

I was so careless that i had even forgotten to take a pen. When they asked me the mango problem, they passed me a sheet of paper, and i borrowed their pen. So overall, i think it wasn't a good performance.

The best thing about the interview happened after it. I had gone with ravi ... and he had my cell. When i came out, ravi said that richa had given 3 missed calls ... and that he had called back, from my cell. I check to find a eleven minute std. :o
So what did i do ?
I called back and had a long chat with richa ... this time from ravi's cell. :D

Bihar

2005-03-09T01:44:00.000+05:30

Read this in Amar Ujala this morning. Simply awesome.

Bihar has been placed under President's rule. So the ministers have to vacate their official bungalows now.
When a reporter asked the former Tourism Minister Ashok kumar Singh his views on this ... this is what he had to say ...

"Pandrah saal bad ye cheezen achanak hamare haath se nikal jayengi to iska manovaigyanik asar to padega hi" :))))

Annual Training Camp ... NCC ... 2002

2005-03-05T21:58:00.000+05:30

Yesterday i saw a notice in our hostel notice board. There are 8 NCC classes for the first year cadets in March. This one notice brought back a lot of memories of my first two years in IIT ... especially of the camp.
The NCC camp has been one of the most horrifying as well as memorable events in IIT. It was held during the winter vacation of 2002 ... when i was in my 2nd year. I had spent that vacation in IIT itself, doing some assignments on Data Structures. So my friends had had a chance of going back home before the camp ... which i didn't.
My first memory regarding the camp. We all had to submit a declaration ... signed by us and our parents ... that the Government would not be responsible if any of us died during the course of the camp. Trust me ... someone could easily have died, ;)

The camp started on the morning of December 20. When i came to know of the daily schedule, my instant reaction was "What !!!!!!!!! I just cannot do this.". This is what we had to do every day:

1. Wake up around 5, and fall in for the morning drill at 5:30. Dress : White t shirts and shorts. For the next hour or so, we had to run around the stadium a number of times and had to perform some idiotic exercises. This continued till about 6:45.

2. Take a bath, have your breakfast and report in full NCC uniform by 8 AM.

3. Standard NCC drills for the next two hours ... and even in December its hot in Chennai. When we returned after 10 ... all of us would be dead tired. Can we rest a bit ? Absolutely not.

4. Theory classes on flying. We were a part of the 4 TN Air Squadron (Tech). Boring theory classes for 3 whole hours. This was the most pathetic part of the day. Couldn't rest, couldn't study ... couldn't do anything.

5. This ordeal came to an end at about 1 ... when we got our lunch break. Break till 2:30 ... when we had to fall in again in white t shirt and white shorts.

6. This time we were made to do some random work ... then had tea and a break of a few minutes. At 4:30 ... another round of exercises. This was worse than the morning session. This was held at the NCC Quadrangle which was covered with stone chips ... and we had to do our push ups on those. :((

7. Back by 5:45. Now rest and report at 6:30. No more exercises ... but as military men, you should always look gentlemanly. So you have to report in full formal attire ... including shoes.

8. After this there was dinner ... which we finished by about 7:30. Then had a break for about an hour. Fall in again at 8:45 for the night roll call.

9. This was followed by a cultural programme for an hour. We only had to perform ... even though none of us were remotely interested.

10. Lights off by 10 PM.

I remember calling home after the first full day of the camp. I said that i just can't tolerate this for 10 more days. But surprisingly ... i could. There were aspects of the camp i liked.
December 24 was the best day during the course of the camp ... my flight, which was Flight A ... was practicing shooting. We used 3 different kinds of guns ... a .22, a revolver, and a DBBL (Double Barrel Bridge Loading) gun. I found that i actually could shoot pretty well.
A friend of mine was made to do frog jump for missing the target every time. :)
I remember a particular incident very well. A cadet was rotating a loaded revolver in his hand in Rajnikant style. His finger was around the trigger. One officer ... Sunil ... got totally psyched. In a soft, conciliatory tone, he asked the guy for the revover. The moment he got the revolver ... his tone changed. He screwed that cadet properly. :))

Punishments : How can the description of a NCC event be complete without a record of the punishments. There were cadets from other colleges ... who mainly constituted Flight E. There was an inter-flight volleyball tournament. Abuses were hurled at them ... and those people complained. The officers identified Flight A as the culprit (we were surely the most infamous of the lot there). They were to be punished. Principle of collective responsibility.
The punishment was simple enough. Raise both of your hands above your head ... bend your knees ... and stand. Stand like that as long as you are told to. Trust me ... from after 2 minutes you really feel what the punishment is about.
One particular officer ... kitna seedha saadha aadmi tha ... chastised us by saying that we would one day be using the same words at our own sister. :)) Come on ... you are from the air force, The officers used abuses regularly during classes ... and we were punished for it. :(

JCO Pandey was a fun guy ... told us a lot of stories. Many of us still remember his story of a co-ed NCC camp at Chandigarh. The way he presented it ... it was hilarious.

The camp came to an end on the morning of 31st, when we got our certificates. End of an ordeal ... or an adventure ?

Mission Kosha

2005-03-02T12:14:00.000+05:30

TLTE ka rahu kaal chal raha hai kya ?

Raja deleted his account in the morning ... and now Kosha is saying that she will leave first thing tomorrow. :((

Why is kosha leaving ?
There was some argument in TLTE today between her and saras. She is saying that saras treated her badly. She thinks that saras is intentionally glossing over her contribution to TLTE ... which, i must add, is immense. She was responsible for the thread progressing during the days after kanu's departure.
She mailed and scrapped me that she would leave. I called her ... and she is serious.
Personally ... i feel that she misunderstood saras. Saras to aisa hi hai ... kisi se bhi kuch bhi bol deta hai.
But she is adamant. She is also justified to a certain extent ... agar tum na pehchaano to saras ki baate thodi si crude lag sakti hai.

I have asked her not to unjoin TLTE community before talking to me. Hopefully we will be able to convince her ... and all will be well again.
Alls well that ends well.

Life sucks

2005-03-02T01:14:00.000+05:30

Yeh ho kya raha hai yahaan ?
Mujhe pata hai ki 8th sem generally doesn't involve much work ... but what am i doing ?

My plan of action for February was working for my IIM interviews ... besides orkutting of course.
But since February 11, all that i have been doing is trying to soothe the hurt egos of TLTE members.
First kanu leaves ... she has a problem. But 3 others leave along with her ... and i spend a good 10 days trying to get them back (i am not taking any credit, but that's what i tried to do). In the process, i have my first ever spat with shobhit.
Now that this problem is over ... shobhit is angry that he wasn't told about deepsy. I have to pacify him now. Deepsy is deleted and shobhit is still angry ... why wasn't he told about tinni. Things are beginning to get on my nerves.
Meanwhile i have to deal with the insignificant detail of two IIM interviews.
Now that shobhit seems pacified, things begin to look up. Kanu has returned ... everything seemed normal.
Now raja deletes his account ... possibly triggering another exodus. Threats have started. I don't have the energy anymore. If anybody leaves now ... i promise i will unjoin India community and go. I won't take it any longer. :x

Raja left

2005-03-01T19:40:00.000+05:30

Why ? Why ? Why ?

Ek problem khatam hone se pahle hi ek aur shuru ho jaata hai. :(
I had written earlier that i have had a bad weekend ... and hopefully this week would be good. But my hopes were crushed.
Brother ... the 2nd oldest member of TLTE after SM himself. The power centre who selected the board. He is gone.

Why did he do this ?
Is it because of that stupid bet he told me about ? But he said later that the statement was made in jest. Don't know ... i am pretty confused.

Last evening he promised me that he would not delete his account. Bro ... you should have kept your word.
Brother ... you were supposed to punish the villain. You come back and do it.

IIM Indore interview

2005-02-28T11:48:00.000+05:30

Date : February 24, 2005 ... afternoon
Place : IIM Bangalore

First thought ... am i the only one wearing a suit ?
*slightly embarassed*
A little while later ... "No, i have company". :)

GD ... A case study regarding the functioning of the Itarsi Institute of Management. I spoke for a reasonable amount of time ... with a few points. But it was much lesser than the amount i generally speak. The passion is simply not there in a case study. :((
I thought i wrote the summary quite well. Missed just one point at the end.

Interview

Q Aren't you feeling hot ?
A Bangalore is cooler than Chennai.

Q What are your views about the awards being given by state govts to Sania Mirza ... people like Vishwanathan Anand were not encouraged this way.
A Media was not so powerful then. Now we have a hype surrounding Sania. Anyway ... state govt awards are useless ... example of that guy from Balia.

Q What are macro and micro structures of chemical systems ?
A What !!!! I don't know ... ok ... let me explain. Started on the macro properties of matter. The panelist cut me off.

Q What are micro processors ?
A Said something

Q Then what are high performance microprocesors and how do you distinguish them from medium or low performance ones ?
A Never heard of the term medium performance microprocessor.

Q What are neural networks ?
A Hadn't heard the question clearly. So said no. The panelist gave a caustic reply that "you are a fresher ... if we don't ask you acads, what will we ask you ? " I politely asked him to repeat.
Gave some gyaan on neural networks.

Q How are they different from linear networks ?
A The methods of learning ... example, back propagation learning law.

Q What sort of circuit will you use to implement a neural network ?
A Sequential ... as we have feedback.

Q Sure ?
A Yes (after a little thought)

Q What are the principles of compiler design ?
A Tried to say something for a minute ... but he wanted a point by point answer.

Q What are the principles of language programming ?
A I don't know.Sorry sir ... i can't mention it in a point by point form.

Q You have done a course in EU studies ?
A Doing it this semester.

Q Name some cities in Canada and Australia.
A Named 4 in canada and 7 in australia.

Q Name some cities in Africa.
A Named some 8-10.

Q Name the currencies of some South east asian nations.
A Named 4 ... then said i don't know any more sir.

Q How can you reduce poverty in india ?
A Gyaan on corruption and implementations at the grass root level.

Q Why do you like gmail ?
A Gyaan on the advantages of gmail.

Q What are stochastic processes ?
A Said something ... which had technical terms in it.

Q What's the difference between random event and random variable ?
A Explained ... with example.

Q Then what's the difference between an event and a random event ?
A A non random event is repeatable and predictable.

Q An example.
A Throw a glass plate from the top of a building ... it will certainly break. That's an event. Throw a dice ... different possible outputs. So random event.

Q What are primal and dual in Linear Programming ?
A Expained, with an example.

Q Are you sure these two LP's will give the same optimum ?
A Yes ... sure.

Q Are history and politics related ?
A Yes, definitely.

Q Fit in a mathematical relation between them.
A History causes politics.

Q Is cause a mathematical operator ?
A Sorry sir, i can't recall any specific mathematical operator to fit in here.

Q Thank you.

*while i was leaving*

Q How many calls do you have ?
A All six sir.

Disclaimer : The order in which the various questions have been asked may be different from what i have written here.

Anecdote : I was the first person in my group to be interviewed. After the 2nd guy was done, one of the panelist came to call the 3rd one. I was standing and talking to someone else. He signalled me ... either to go or to talk softly.

Crematorium

2005-02-28T10:29:00.000+05:30

I had decided that i will try my hands at blogging this weekend. But i am starting with a rather sad topic. :(
Today i visited a crematorium for the first time.
The day started badly. I had slept very little at night ... from 1:30 am to 3:30 am and then from 5:30 am to 7:15 am. I was woken by by undoubtedly the worst dream i have ever had in my life. I wanted to say something about it to someone ... just to ease the tension in my mind. But ravi had once told me that one thing you say during the day comes true. So he never says any really bad thing aloud. A silly superstition no doubt ... but i could not bring myself to risk it this time ... too scared.
So with a tensed mind i woke mayukh up and went to the quiz prelims of Forays 2005 ... the fest of IITM maths department. The quiz prelims started about half an hour late ... at 9:30. We were doing pretty well in it. Towards the end of the one hour time limit, i got a call from samik ... one of my best school friends.
When i had met samik on friday at the hospital, his words had scared me. His mother had talked about the possibility of his father not surviving much longer. Samik's words made me realize how close to death he was. His sister was supposed to arrive at around 8:30 pm. About 3 hours earlier he was telling me that he hoped his sister would be able to see her father alive.
So i received samik's call. His father had expired at about 9 am. I had probably half expected to hear it ... but still ...
I left for the hospital with ravi and mayukh. I was desperately hoping that i meet samik before i meet his mother. I really did not know how to face her.
It happened as i had hoped. Samik seemed calm and composed ... having successfully hidden his feelings. Was it because the end was being anticipated ? I don't know.
I saw the dead body. They were preparing to take the body to the crematorium. There was samik, along with his sister, mother, grandmother and uncle. None of them were crying ... at least not then.
We all reached there ... and everybody went about preparing for the rituals.
A little while before the burning, samik's mother came to me and started talking to me ... and within seconds she broke down. I was dreading this very moment. I was feeling sad, awkward ... and stunned. I was rooted to the spot ... and was looking at the floor ... incapable of saying anything. The moments did not seem to pass.
But they did ... and her tears subsided for the moment. Soon afterwards the body was consigned to the flames.
The family wanted to return to calcutta today itself. So me and samik went and booked the flight tickets. I was with them till they left for the airport ... and came back with a heavy feeling.
Plans can really go haywire. My original plan for the day was to win the Foray's quiz ... but my team could not participate in the finals even after topping the prelims.
One death for the day ... i would have thought that was more than enough. But apparantly it wasn't. I returned to the hostel and heard that a freshie of my hostel lost his mother today itself. I did not know him very well ... but i can really understand what the poor fellow is going through.
What a sunday !!!! This coupled with the depressing saturday ( Why was it depressing ? I won't write that here.) has made it the worst weekend ever that i have experienced.
But tomorrow is another day ... hopefully i will have a good week ahead.