Jus penning my thoughts

Monday, October 15, 2007

Engineering seat? Your search ends here!

The other day I accompanied my cousin to his EAMCET counseling session for a seat in one of the engineering colleges in Hyderabad. My cousin explained, “Look, when they counsel thousands of students a day, you can’t expect them to call us one by one. They will call a batch of 200 students at a time”. Also, we were not given any list of colleges where seats were available. I had to buy it.

I went to a kiosk and asked for the list. He demanded 20 bucks. I obeyed. He further enquired, “Who are you buying it for – boy or a girl?” Crap! I didn’t ask for a train ticket to Chennai; nor did I ask for a t-shirt. He continued, “The list is different for boys and girls.” Enlightened, I took the boys' list.

Going through the list, I felt like an ignorant duck! There were myriad newly established colleges with names like xyET, xyST, xyTS, xySE and xyIT (they are all acronyms where x, y = a,b,c,..z) Actually working out with the basic knowledge of permutations, there could have up to 5*26*26 = 3380 colleges across the state. The actual number wasn’t as big, but quite close. I am sure, with the kind of aggression the state is ‘commissioning’ the colleges, it would by next year. After all, what more does it take to establish an engineering college than a double storied building?

We were called to the final counseling hall in 3 installments. First two stages were just fitted in to make the ‘Q’ longer and for the candidates to feel that the process has begun, though, in reality, we were 2 hours away from the summit. In the final hall there were 6 numbers of 59” LCD’s displaying vacant seats (includes reserved seats for SC’s, ST’s, OBC’s, PH etc.) And the list of selected of candidates who got selected to various colleges was being flashed on the wall using a projector. The whole hall looked like a Stock Exchange. We brokers stood there making a detailed analysis of the dregs that were left out after a major chunk of opportunities had been catered to the privileged; if one is not OK with what he’s got he always has an option of buying it – in NRI or Management quota, of course!

By the way, my cousin got in to xyET, where x = H and y = I.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

What I think of wen I'm outta here..

Hmmm.. my last week at the IIT... I feel like jotting down few points abt few of my favorites and unforgettables.

Hangouts: I believe it's the comapny that matters more than the place. Ideal company would prompt me to pick Mochas, Bikes or Veronas. The best place irrespective of the company wud be a beach on ECR.

Past-time: My new found love being books, I like to buy them more than I read them :D Besides this, one always has movies, pullng others' legs and hour-long husk sessions.

Means of survival: I started liking food at Andhra mess (in parcel format) as much as the food at buffets. I don't exactly know if I like them the same or hate them the same. Besides this, I've been surviving on caffeine and nicotine. This has made me more controversial and always been leading to arguments with friends.

Unforgettable Prof: Unanimously.. Dr. Asphalt. He is a man of extremes. He doesn't like u. He loves you. He doesn't hate you. He destroys you. A psycho like figure, yet respectable for his work on asphalt. Has a hilarious gait and a disturbing grin. A tamilian to the core. Is he memorable or unforgettable? I was in a dilemma, until he chose to screw my life. The air of doubt got cleared. Now I hate him blissfully, whole heartedly, single-mindedly and without any regret.
I like to say it loud:

"If it is Asphalt, is it MY fault??"

Favorite Prof: I don't have any. And I'm surprised at it.

My BTech Project: I will write an exclusive blog on it.

What I miss the most in here: Freedom. Unlimited freedom in almost anything u do. Look, we r not talking abt the electives we hav taken, rather electives we were given. I won't be able to stroll for miles in a beautiful campus at 2 am in the night. Go eat in Ascendas at 4 am in the morning. Sleep at 8 am and get up fresh at 4 or 5 in the evening and simultaneously avoid the summer sun.

What I hate the most: Nothing in particular.

What I love the most: Obviously, my frienz. And look, I don't like to put senti.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Good bye, Frank!

Jonathan's heart grew heavier. One of his fellow seagulls, Franklyn, was leaving the The Royal School of Flight Technology. Jon was sobre. May be because he might not meet his good friend so frequently. Or may be because their plan to visit Alps was cancelled. Or may be because he was, just like any normal gull, resisting change.

He went to the sea shore to bid his friend a sweet good bye. From there, a flock was scheduled to leave for the island a few miles away; Frank would join it. From there on it's a day's flight to Frank's place; he planned to join another flock on his way home. He wished he had a friend to accompany him. But, by then, he had already learnt to get acquainted to new people and new situations.

It was a warm afternoon. Frank was flapping his wings at every single gull he knew. He was flaunting his big grin with a touch of nostalgia to every face he saw, whether he knew them or not. He was dearly attached to the school campus. He actualy felt like staying for a week more. But he had to join a consulting company that's working on models to gather fish from shallow waters in 2 salt water lakes and 2 gulf areas in the Southern Takitekino region in Japan. He was looking forward to those new challenges and responsibilities. But what attracted him the most were three things - handsome pay package, a good night life and of course gulls of fairer sex. He somehow liked japanese gulls better than any other female gull. Might be because his first crush was a japanese she-gull. Jon got placed in a fortune-500 company where he would be dealing with express delivery sevices. He was told that he could later move on to marketing their canned fish and worms. He hated the idea of canned food. He already had a lot of it at school where his mess food was unpalatable. But the word 'Marketing' in itself was exciting. He would have to strike deals with many global clients. And wouldn't that be exciting? With a couple of years of work-ex there, he could even think of an MBA in an Ivy League B-School! Of course he also wanetd fat pay-cheques and a good metro life, though he didn't have a special liking for foreign she-gulls. According to him, nativity and language didn't matter. He just wanted people around him to know that he had a hot she-gull friend.

The flock captain blew the boarding whistle. Those friends knew that they can meet only after a long time - when their vacation schedules matched. They first promised each other that they would keep in touch by 'e-mail', chat and phone. Later they'd decided to write to each other as well. They were technology specialists now. But they firmly believed that a handwritten letter would keep their emotions alive. E-mails and SMSs would never match the excitement of opening a letter from a loved one and reading it. Jon gave him a hug. Frank smiled. The whistle blew and finally the flock started on their flight.

Frank turned back to adjust his bag. At the edge of his eye, he saw Jon, who was eagerly waiting for him to turn back. He could see a tear rolling down Jon's cheek. Frank yelled aloud, "Jon, take care". They were already too far from each other for Jon to hear those words.

Friday, May 05, 2006

An encounter with a prof

I hurried to my Professor's office after his class got over. Mind you, I didn't attend the class.

The subject he teaches is actually "Response modelling of pavement materials", but he told me initially that it was something to do with "variability in pavement materials". I took it up thinking that it would help me in my project. It didn't. But he helped me a lot with his guidance in my project.

I asked him if I could go collect the data from a company. He agreed and gave his visiting card so that I can show it to the General Manager of the company and get the data. He even suggested me to carry my identity card.

I told him, "Sir, I lost my I-card recently."
Then he started,

"Dilip, how the hell can you screw so many things in your life? You screwed the course you have taken. Never attended classes. Never submitted the assignments. Didn't submit the term paper also."
I didn't. Assignments and term paper constitute 20% of marks. 80% weightage is given to the exams.Despite these irregularities, I still topped the second quiz. Am I not smarter than those who fawn you so that they get better grades than what they deserve?

"You screwed your Btech project. Had you worked well you could have produced a very good paper and have gone places."
Dear sir, you are wrong. I might not have put enought effort so that my work could be published. BTW, research is not my calling. So I am callous to the core about what you are saying.

"You have lost your discipline"
I agree, Sir.

"Do you at least eat in the mess?"
They give us crap. I don't like it.

"Do you atleast sleep properly?"
Isn't that implicit? Had I slpet well, wouldn't I have attended all your classes?

"May god save these BTechs."
You can save me, sir. Get me out of your room fast. I have got a lot of work to do. I have an end semester exam tomorrow. I have to get a photo copy of my friend's notes.
"Okie, meet me after you get the data. Bye."
Haaa.. at last, the golden words!!

I said,"Thank you, Sir," and left his office in a jiffy.

Thank god! The prof couldn't read my mind. Or did he???

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Malice in Blunderland

I crashed in Reddy's room the previous day. Thankfully, he woke me up at 7:45 am and I could attend the 'Pavement Materials' class. As soon as I came back to hostel, I woke up Vamsi, who was crashing in my room. (Btw, Vamsi is a popular senior of mine at our hostel whose nick is 'mallesh'. He is working at Xylings, Hyderabad and was here on a holiday.) We started gossipping. He talked of good old college days he's missing. And I told him how we are celebrating our undergrad days that are almost going to end.

After sometime, I started to glance through the newspaper. Head lines grabbed my attention. It was something on IIT and IIM. One institute where I belong to; the other where I long to belong. My keenness was just involuntary. I read through. The headlines said, "IIT, IIM entry to turn tough over quotas". The article said that the total reservation is likely to hit the appalling levels of 49.5% from the present 22.5%!!!

Height of Insanity!!!
Do these politicians know how big that percentage of 49.5 is? The shoddy MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) wants to cut down the chances of hardworking people from the 'forward' castes. Why do they want to play around with those numbers just to favour their position in elections and parliament?
They are just lashing out at the hopes and futures of thousands of brilliant (unfortunately forward caste) students.

Well... It's high time they get their basics right.
Reservation in the educational institutions should be given to those people who donot have the benifit of good primary education, good coaching for competitive exams and who are differently abled etc. (I might be missing out on few peoples here.)

Reservation may be given on the basis of financial position; not caste. Not race. Not religion. Not gender. Because when you are making things easy for selected poeple on these shallow grounds, you are allowing mediocrity to seep in. Poeple who are well settled and financially sound get to take advantage of these measures. Finally, the goal of reaching the financially and socially weak but intellectually bright students will remain a distant dream. So instead of considering the option of augmenting the percentage of reserved seats, the policy makers can make sure that the present 22.5% is helping the needy.

The present reservation system can also be emended by decreasing the number of reserved seats if the primary education in the country is improved - in terms of accessibility and quality.

Hope our legislators think some sense, keeping in mind one of the objectives of our constitution - EQUALITY of status and of opportunity. Or did they already forget it?

Friday, March 24, 2006

The Sporting Spirit

When India lost the 3rd test match against the English, Many ‘fans’ of cricket said, “

India

played this match only to lose.” People, who hailed Sachin as the Master Blaster, booed him that day. Rediff.com said that the spectators did the right thing by booing him. Dravid, who is respected for his equanimity all over the world, was slandered for choosing to field when we won the toss. Had we won the match, the same people would have praised him for his risk taking abilities. Everybody in the team was lampooned.

Phew…

Cricket is just a game. It ought to be watched for the spirit of the game. Be critical about the game. Not the players. Stop doing yagas and yagnas for victories. This is not a game of life and death. Stop treating the players like gods. They are just talented mortals. Most importantly, don't ever treat it as a national sentiment. A match lost will not cost the nation's pride.

In the 3rd test, we certainly lacked fire. But when things go wrong, as they sometimes will, the team needs to show resilience. And the supporters, patience. The Team India needs to buck up for the matches to come. Let’s wait and see what it has got to offer. Let’s wish them the best. And hope for the best. But let us not attach emotionally to it. Becuase that doesn't bode well for the sport. Beacuase that's not sporting spirit.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Alice in Wonderland

This is my final semester in B.Tech, Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. Ideally, I should be busy doing my project and getting the 'results' by now. But, I belong to the majority.. the class of not-so-ideal people (being politically correct).

I generally crash by 2:30 types. But recently the administrative elite of our institute decided that there won't be internet working between 1 am and 4 am everyday; so that kids would sleep in time. But the idea backfired - atleast in my case. As a consequence to their decisions, I have been staying awake till the net gets back, browse for an hour and then sleep. So I sleep at 5 am in the night (rather morning), miss all possible classes and get up in the afti. Many a time I end up missing lunch.

But yesterday was different. I didn't keep track of time. I never bothered if it was 4 am. I read a part of Alice in Wonderland recently. I was recollecting the kinda surprises Alice encounters and her reactions to those unexpected conditions. Was she innocent? Ignorant? Capricious? Curious? Was she looking for a change in her routine? Or was she pretending to be brave? May be one of them. Or may be all of them.

What struck me the most was this incident. She keeps wandering through the wonderland. She suddenly finds that there are two diverging ways. She is confused. She finds Humpty-Dumpty sitting on a wall near by.
She asks him, innocently, " which way should I take?"
He asks, "where do you want to go?"
Thats an obvious question asked by person who's seen the place. He can't guide you unless you tell him what your destination is.
But Alice replies, "I pretty much don't know".
Then he answers, "then, it doesn't matter which way you take".

I find this situation pretty close to that of our's. We are all roaming in our wonderlands. To some of us, it might be life in engineeirng or a medical or a law college. To many of my friends and my self, it's been IIT. A priceless achievement, for which we toiled for 2 long years. A coveted goal for which our mothers got up at 4 am in the morning to cook breakfast for us. This is where we longed to belong. But, we saw this as a destination. Just a destination. We never planned our travel beyond this. We vaguely thought, we would go to IIMs, Universities abroad, lucrative jobs and what not. That too after substantial damage was done to our CGPA's. In the beginning we were in the same position as Alice - innocent, ignorant, fickle-minded, over confident, trying to differentiate ourselves from our neighbors etc, etc, etc.

Just as Alice had Humpy-Dumpty, we have our seniors, professors and some despo frienz who already got this gyan (Uh oh.. they are just the manifestaions of my jealosy for my frienz who were quicker to realise that they wud get screwed unless they take up the job of reconstructing their career goal maps). But who's fualt is it? Alice's?.. for not asking which way you ought to take to reach what destination. Or is it Humpty-Dumpty's fault for not showing concern for an innocent kid lost in an alien world. I think either of them is faulty. But who has the bigger share?

Well.. I'm still thinking. If you are thinking as well, please care to post your thoughts.