Twilight Sky

Yesterday when I was returning from office, I got to see the fascinating view of the evening sky. I won't make an attempt to explain the beauty, that is for you to see...

19TH DECEMBER 2006, BANGALORE

Serenity!

Building, lake, street-lights and the fading sun...

Perfect Evening Motley

There she goes.. Darkness creeps in..

The last few rays

I attribute these pictures to the sunset of 2006. Maybe with the dawn of 2007, I will show you the morning sky. :))

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year 2007

It's been a while

Taking cue from Jayant, I tag myself!!With so many new things popping up around me, It's been a while since I have thought of writing something ...

When I look at stars.... I feel belittled.

Rains... fill me with joy.

Happiness... is getting atleast small instalments when you're hoping for a big one.

Books... say so much, yet so less.

Men/Women... form the milling crowd.

Love is... ought to be truest of all.

God... says looking for me??I am not!

Summer of '69... The best days are always due.

Pride... sucks, even if you're the best!

Life... has various shades. A shade up or down does matter..

Doesn't it?

Metro

Delhi Metro me aapka swagat hai.Agla Station Chawri Bazaar hai. Kripya Darwaze se door rahen.Darwaze Baayi taraf khulenge.Kripya Savdhani Se Utren.Metro mei safar karne ke liye dhanyawaad....




All this sounds like music to my ears. Metro is one of the best facilities that a person living in a big city can avail. Someone who commutes by a city bus daily at 8:30 AM will definitely agree with me. The Speed, Majesty, Novelty or Ambience that is associated with Metro is really exalting. Not only those who travel by Metro are benefited directly, but also those who drive independently on a busy road as the traffic density comes down by a considerable 10-15% or even more in busy areas. While a DTC bus takes more than 1.5 hrs to reach Dwarka from Connaught Place(lovingly called as Rajiv Chowk by some neogenerationalists :) ), Metro does it in 40-45 mins flat minus the pollution, pushing-pulling, suffocating crowd, pick pocketing threat etc. plus comfort, agility and a sense of gratification that lingers for long. The clean, serene, secure environment of a Metro Station fosters a feel-good sense as well. And yes, you won't find anyone keeping a torn newspaper, towel or a piece of stinking cloth on a seat in order to 'reserve' it and later fighting with a co-passenger for the occupation :). All this comes at a dirt-cheap rate to us, thanks to the Government for bearing the huge installation expenditure.

The exemplary success of Metro in Delhi is to be re-enacted in various other Indian cities, some of them really crumbling under infrastructural problems posed by ever-growing traffic. Bangalore and Mumbai are the prioritized ones where the mammoth task of carving out ways underground has started since August of this year. The other blessed cities are Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Calcutta(second phase) and Kochi(Sky-rocketing developments here, really impressive!!). These massive projects, expected to complete by 2009-2010 will really be a boon for people residing in these cities. There is different school of thought though. Some Urban Planners think that Metro should not be on top of priority list. Basic issues like water and urban habitation which have not been resolved yet can be worsened during the setting up of Metro as it consumes a lot of water, electricity and land. Sad but true. Can we wait for all basic problems to be resolved entirely and then look for alternatives that raise the standard of life?? Not really, because it is never gonna be a level playing field for all. So, those who need the most should be given a bigger piece of this cake. Having lived in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, I guess I am qualified enough to comment on these two cities. Ahmedabad, being smaller and less crowded of the two, is still far from having the status of Metropolitan city. The roads are great and traffic is not smothering barring a few busy areas. My present abode Bangalore, on the other hand, is in dire need of Metro. One feels smothered, waiting in the middle of road for the signal to turn green and before crossing it turns red again leaving one stranded in miasma of SO2,CO,CO2 etc. With Metro, there won't be any such plight. There is still a long wait to 2009, nonetheless, I would be really pleased to see Metro running around.

Lost, Alone, Confused, ...

Last few months have been eventful and brought a flurry of changes. When I was in college, I used to have my dinner alone and I pretty much aced this unsought act of eating alone and quickly. Now that I am living in a flat with college friends(became friends after coming here) spending a lot of time with them including dinner, I still feel alone. I have this queer syndrome of feeling alone when I am in a herd. Infact my whole unstructured thought process, way of living, way of delivering is haunted by a flock of queer syndromes. Cynical, as someone rightly referred me to be, I feel terribly upset when I couldn't convey my truest feelings to few people who matter most. I had a major misunderstanding with my sweetest friend, all due to my queer syndromes, and I wonder if I will be able to sort it out, if I will be able to tell her how important she is. She said that "the greatest crime is to hurt a heart that loves" and I believe I am the greatest sinner.

I stepped out of engineering college to start working as a software engineer. While everything is running as expected on this front, a lot of things are lacking in my personal life. I always try to keep myself busy even when resources are scarce but there are certain things I can't do away with, can't stop thinking about, can't let it go just like that. Thinking back about the opportunities I lost, the relationships which came to my door and I couldn't enliven or the dilemmas which engulfed me till I drowned, I feel it is better to start all over again. Like in a game of Age of Empires when the city is under attack, you build many layers of wall to prevent the rampaging army from entering, build barracks, archery ranges, watch towers hastily and devote all your resources just to build the army, even when you know it is just a peanut which will ultimately succumb. What is the use of resources and faculties if it can't give you life for a while? Finally after delaying the invasion for some time, you run away with the villagers to nearest ally and build all over again and fight back with valour. In my case, unfortunately there is no such ally I can look forward to and fortunately I'm not so hapless that I need to run. I have the resources with me but I need to wait for the right time to strike the iron.The problem lies inside and so does the solution.

PS- I am writing blog after such a long time and that too full of laments. Sorry people! I wanted to post about my college-end and job-start stories but at this point of this time, I guess this blog is more apt. I have decided to do things at the right time.Thanks to Ranjan and Naresh whose blogs inspired me to write.

At Home

Sorry people for not updating my blog when I had unlimited net connection and now I'm in cyber cafe paying for every frigging minute...

News Flash:-

• 12 May- BTech Project Presentation! Engineering Over! 12 May is the day when I gave entrance examination of DA-IICT. This has been an exactly four year long pleasant journey! :)
• No more a STUDENT :(
• Right now at home without net connection :(
• Going for a trip to Himachal with friends in June :)
• Will be joining HP @ Bangalore, my first job!! :)

This is for now. I'm writing blogs and saving on my laptop these days and I'll publish when I get free net :D

bye,

have fun!

Number Seven

I've been bugging Steve for SEVEN long semesters now :D thanks to him for this tag.I'll write down 7 things about myself now, sounds easy but I know I'm going to have a tough time. My roll no. was 7 in class V :) Other than this I don't find many seven numbered things in my life. 7 looks cute especially when it is not cut at the middle. Before I transcend to higher levels of intellect, let me come to point straight away!

7 things I want to do before I die

• Lead my team to victory single-handedly in any game

• Teach kids somewhere-school/college/privately

• Get some norm in Chess

• Enjoy life with lot of sex, music and tourism

• Donate money for Brain Tumour Research

• Develop a secret international network for some cause

• Write my autobiography

7 things I can do

• Stay quiet for years living in my dreamworld

• Drink lots of coffee and cold-drinks!

• Show flashes of brilliance amidst mediocrity

• Make eye-relations with people

• Remember almost anything to everything

• Surf net aimlessly

• Not care for my clothes or looks at all

7 things I can't do

• Walk without bending

• Do something against my wish

• Use foul language
  

• Make someone feel bad intentionally

• Strike a proper conversation when I wish to

• Drive slowly

• Hide my true feelings

7 things I say the most

• Chalo yaar

• Useless ( thanks to Shikha)

• Kya baat hai!

• Sahi hai!

• Shit!

• Chalega!

• Like

7 Celebrity crushes

• Andrea Corr- Angelic face, sweet voice, perfect hour-glass figure, what else?

• Kate Winslet- She looked awesome in Titanic!

• Bipasha Basu- Black Beauty :)

• Catherine Zeta Jones- Simply beautiful!

• Greta Garbo- I love Enigma!

• Divya Bharti- If she were alive, she would have been at the top!

• Vida Guerra- Let's not get into this :p, do google search if you want more!

7 things that attract me to opposite sex

• Long hairs kept loose ( Girls with short grass-like hair are immediately disqualified ;) )

• Jolly, Talkative Nature

• Open, Frank and not fussy at all

• Good Vital Stats

• Thinker

• Technology savvy

• Having a view point

7 people I wanna tag

• Triple Six( It's been a long time since you've been tagged)

• Amiya ( Where're your blogging gloves? It's been a while!)

• Ishani( Same goes to you)

• Jayant( Same goes to you too!)

• Bhavesh( Complete within one year, just kidding)

• Anand

• Isha

Donnnnneeeeee!

Feelings, Emotions and What not!

It is expected that by the time a boy turns 22 he is matured enough and well-versed with the intricate complicacies of the system. This great expectation might disappoint you if consider me, since I'm turning 22 tomorrow :) . While this is purely subjective, more important is how does one plan to go further on his path? If you ask me {which you haven't :) but what the heck? this is my blog afterall :D}, it solely depends on one's personal discretion and ambitions. Every individual will do what suits best for him. I and my friends in DA-IICT are on the verge of completion of college life, don't know who will take which path and even the common string(read DA-IICT) has moulded individual personalities in different ways. For me, it wasn't as good as it could have been, but surely it was an enriching experience.

First thing, I grew up as a person. Now this is pretty obvious as when I came here I was 18 and now I'm 22 but alongwith physical growth it is the mental growth which matters more. As an almost-22 year old guy, I'm able to take decisions independently now. My mind is flooded with feelings, emotions and what not! I remember loads of stuff, maybe I'll write it in details in my next blog. Since we're parting our ways and not getting ample time to interact due to BTP, we've to think of something which will help us to interact forever. Can we make a website(like Orkut) where all members of class of 2006 have their homepages? And the activities on that site may include:
Writing testimonials
Updating information about one's whereabouts
Comments Section- Everyone saying good or bad stuff about others
Dinner-table gossips and hostel stories- A section for that
Talk about canteen- various caterers, awesome food, late night snacks etc.
Talk about Sports Complex- TT, Badminton, Football ground etc.
Hostel- Section for each hostel wing
Professors- A section for them
Courses- A section for courses- faves and hates
TAs- A section for TAs
Pics and Videos- Uploading College pics, videos and MMSes
Personal Talks -section where you can reveal crushes, sort out disputes and say things which you always wanted to say
Life after DA-IICT- Aren't you nostalgic?
Make new friends within 2006 batch which you couldn't do during 4 years
Sports Section- Section for various sports
Resource Centre memories
Gandhinagar-The uninhabited vicinity around DA-IICT
Galla Stories- For the uninitiated, its the dhabas just outside college where people talk while taking puffs
Smokers' Club
Drinkers' Club- Watchout for cops, Land of Gandhi afterall
Hang-out Places in G'nagar or A'bad where we had fun- FR, City Pulse, R-World etc.
Girls!!- Can the website be complete without this?
Girls only section- must be atleast viewable by everyone
Semesters 1-8 section
Sector 7 and 8 (where we stayed during 1st sem,for the uninitiated)
CAT and GRE prep days
Placement fever
Entra Talk- Telugu Stuff which we cant understand :)
Daddu's Shop!
Computer Gaming- Isn't DA-IICT a lot about this?
SPI and CPI talks
Projects
Rural Internship- Those were the best days..
Industrial Internship
Research Internship
Reunion- Plans, City meetings etc.

and I'll add more as I remember.

Just imagine! Something like www.da-iict2006.com , where you log in and feel like being back in college!
So what do we need for this??100 GB to start with? How much does it cost? Even a forum( strictly moderated)will serve our purpose, as we have to talk only! If you fellow DA-IICTians clinch this idea then we can go about this. Do let me know asap!

PS- On April Fools Day, I made someone a big fool! The guy was totally shaken up and since he got angry after knowing the reality so I am not putting his name here. For those who love to solve riddles, he is a "happy frog".

Sanskrit, Cousins and IIM K interview

So here I was for my last interview of the season, IIMK! I stayed at my mausi's place in Kaushambi and had a great time with cousins.My younger sis was having her Xth board exams and her next paper was Sanskrit on 13th March so alongwith her I read little bit of Sanskrit remembering the good old class X days. Poor girl! She studied Sanskrit till 330 AM and was still cheerful about it. I enjoyed listening to her school stories. I really appreciate her attitude towards life- full of zeal, dreams and ambition, straightforward with no complications.Sanskrit was an ordeal for me then and I barely scraped through it in preboards. There was a general notion that Sanskrit is like mathematics and everything is based on formulas. I never felt so. Anyways, I slept just two hours before interview and here is the experience:

12 March, 2006
IIC Annexe, New Delhi
----------------------
GD- An article was given: Sumantra Ghosh, a management guru presented at NASSCOM infront of various IT professionals. His slide contained only "Thankyou". He was thanking IT professionals for what they have given to country. Indians in foreign are proud and confident but an average Indian man in any city is not so.

11 ppl in GD! And to put it mildly it was chaotic!! Though I spoke but no one heard me, and my pen stopped working so I could not even take notes, thankfully no one was asked to summarize.
Two interviewers and me, I was the first person to be interviewed.

P:Tell me something about yourself.
A:intro, hobbies, technicals..
P:What kind of communications?
A:Signal transmission and reception..digital communications..
P:What is Nyquist rate?
A:told
P:Minimum or maximum bandwidth?
A:*confused, took time* told
P:What is the sampling rate of audio?
A:44khz
P:What is the sampling rate of PCM??
A:64 khz
P:Are you sure?
A:not sure
P:So in Software Development, what do you know??
A:Told about languages *cut short*
P:Difference between C++ and JAVA?
A:JAVA is platform independent, many features are inbuilt
P:Why programmers prefer JAVA?
A:Repeated the last answer
P:Any other advantage?
A:Can't remember
P:POinters...
A:*snatched the opportunity* yes JAVA doesn't have pointers, memory allocation fundas
P:How should we evaluate your performance in GD??You hardly spoke??
A:You might consider me as a docile person who gives due respect to others say
P:SO you would have performed better had the group been a little peaceful?
A:Yes, but the discussion was fruitful, points were raised and we were able to address to the problem
P:You have done well in school but how do you rate your performance in graduation??
A:Not up to the mark, could have done better
P:So what was the reason?It is not expected that you get all As but it could have been better?A:told about various reasons..
P:I can see that you repeated one course?
A:That was because I submitted the assignment after my internship and college's SRS has no such provision
P:Did you inform your college authorities because it's a permanent thing?
A:Yes, we've told them and they're changing it...
P:I can see a lot of chess certificates, tell me who is the world chess champion
A:Told that two international chess authorities PCA and FIDE are running in parallel, so there're two champs- Vladimir Kramnik and Vaselin Topalov
P:Who is you all time favourie chess player?
A:Bobby Fischer
P:Why?Tell me about his matches
A:Talked about his style, visualization and famous matches...
P:What is ELO rating?
A:Explained the formula..
P:Why is named so?
A:After the person who made it...
P:Why 10^something?
A:*dumbfounded* Sir it could be anything 8^something 9^ something..*whatta stupid answer*
P:Has it got something to be with common logarithms?
A:*jumped* yes it is because so and so...
P:OK Amod, you live in Gandhinagar, tell me something about Gandhiji
A:Told..about freedom truggle and how he differed from extremists
P:What's his autobiography's name?
A:my experiments with truth
P:So how was Gandhi's methodology different??
A:appeal to common mass, moves like satyagraha and dandi march
P:What qualities of Gandhiji do you possess?
A:*stumped* non-violence blah
P:Oh yeah, you told me you are docile *laughing*, that we saw in GD *laughing*
A:**smiles*
P:You want to be a public figure??*hehe* how?
A:some arbit gyan..pure philosophy..
P:So what all have you learnt in mathematics?
A:I have done courses on calculus, matrices, discrete maths, probability, stats etc.
P:Matrices hmmm.. what is eigen value?
A:I forgot, but i will take a guess, told something *completely wrong*
P:What is transpose?
A:told
P:What is diagonal matrix?
A:told
P:Repeat it
A:repeated
P:Does elements of a diagonal matrix have to be equal necessarily?
A:not necessary
P:Sure?
A:yeah, sure
OK, Thankyou, Best of luck!
---------------------------
It was a simple feel good kinda interview. I came back and spent fun-filled evening with my cousins - shopping, eating out, driving etc. I really wanted to go back to home from there but considering the fact that India is a highly populous country, getting ticket of any sort was impossible. Now I feel like reviving my B Tech Project out of shambles and with just two months left in college I also need to preserve things for nostalgia.

IIM L Interview@New Delhi

So here I was, once again, in New Delhi. I love and hate this city simultaneously. Love it, simply because Delhi and everything related to it has a class of its own. In general, Delhi education, Delhi chicks, Delhi roads, Delhi culture and the feel of Delhi is just rocking! What I hate about Delhi is the people out there which includes autowalas, hawkers, cyber-cafe owners etc. who always try to cheat. These are all my personal experiences and I do not relate it to any Delhite in particular, so don't pounce on me :) There was lot of security in Delhi this time because of George Bush's visit. Fortunately, I was not caught in traffic jam due to the reason aforementioned. Well, the purpose of my visit was IIM Lucknow interview at IIFT.

Mar 1, 2006
1000 AM
IIFT, New Delhi

GD Topic: Income Tax creates more liars than showmanship (..kinda)
In my group there were two of my friends Riddhi and Diwesh, so some fraternizing was there :) GD was cool with people cooperating and even summarizing at the end.

I was 5th guy to be interviewed...A long wait once again. I just want to get rid of this number '5' from my life.

Some of the questions asked in PI:

Tell me something about yourself.
So the other guy is also from same place?
You good at number crunching?
Why acads bad?
How did you manage same marks in both X and XII?*laughing hysterically*
How does number crunching help in your course?
What is 'three thinkers'?Who were they?
So you took a course on philosophy?48 hrs a sem on philosophy?
What did you do in that course?
What is the meaning of 'tactile'?
Why a separate word like that?
How is it different from touch by emotions?
You have done a course on Business Finance, what were you taught?
What is balance sheet?
What are the components of balance sheet? Explain!
How is it different from profit and loss account?
What are expenditure and income?
If I buy a house for company, where will it appear in balance sheet?

Interview was cool, no serious grilling, but not soothing either. How on earth do you expect an engineer to know about the intricacies of balance sheet? Anyways, life's like that only, so no hard feelings.

After interview, I went off to meet some of the old stupid useless friends. Incidentally, I also met one of my blog friends -666 and we went for a coffee. It is always nice to meet new people especially girls. Thanks for the treat 666!

All in All, it was a decent trip. Have had loads of fun.

Arbit fundas of my life

It has been quite sometime since I have written on my favourite topic, Life et al. Someone (some great person) rightly said that Life is what happens while you plan other things. Life is an equation with too many variables to be taken care of. Things never go the way they were planned to and little do we know what's in store for us. My fundas of life are pretty vague and uncorrelated to what others think nevertheless I'll put some of them for public scrutiny.

1. Anything greater than zero is positive.

he he!Obvious na? Mathematically true but what I mean here is that whatever you get just put it in your bag because it is atleast 'something'. There are people who are dying for what you own. It may be materialistic things like your marks in exam, bank balance, clothes, sexy body etc. or something as basic as clean air, water or freedom. There are people who can't walk or do things on their own, it feels great whenever I realize that I can use my limbs to live gracefully. I just want to have whatever comes in my way.

2. Its hard to pretend to love someone when you really don't. But its harder to pretend you don't love someone when you really do!

I got this as an sms nevertheless I always felt so. Replace the word love with crush to make it more realistic. I feel it very very difficult to hide my feelings whether likes or dislikes. Eyes say everything. I just can't tell a lie looking directly into someone's eyes. However it is rather tough to strike a balance between public relations and my truest feelings.

3. Energy comes with will.

I can give my best only when my heart and mind are in consensus. In case of conflict, I want to go with mind but always end up with decisions taken from heart, guided by emotions. It's difficult to motivate oneself when one is not enthusiastic enough, afterall one can deceive anyone else but not oneself.

4. Freedom

What one should seek forever..No shackles, no barriers... Utopia!

5. If two distinct things are equally good and bad (if at all measurable!), then bad thing will overrule good one.

Pessimistic, not really!! Do we ever care if something good happen in our lives? We keep finding instances of Murphy's law in our lives but we never see the good things happening to us. The queue in which one stand moves slowest sometimes, but it does move faster also at various occasions. Happiness is ephemeral.

6. God is non-existent.

If it is there, what is it doing?If something goes haywire, some calamity strikes or everything goes kaput then it is considered to be God's wrath and when something fortuitous event occurs, God takes all the credit!! Good people die disgracefully without any fault on their part, innocent people are killed, rich exploits poor and weak, corrupt people flourish, women are raped and despite of all that if one thinks God is taking care of this world, I can't help it.

7. The sum total of all positive and negative virtues is not zero.

Optimistic is one who thinks there are more +ve than -ve and pessimistic thinks other way round. I keep vacillating. My other definition of optimist is one who considers zero to be positive and pessimist considers negative.

8. After infinity, minus infinity comes.

Some arbit mathematics..

9. If a path is changed before reaching destination you'll never reach the same destination. However, priorities change as life moves on.

Consider a sphere(or any solid) in your hand and any two points as starting point(source) and ending point(destination). Start from source and traverse in any direction to reach the destination and change the direction(or path) somewhere before reaching the destination. You'll never reach the same destination. Even if the path is changed more than once, the probability to reach same destination is theoretically zero. So if you wanna stick to something make sure you are there till the end. More advisable is to be flexible.

That is enough I guess. These were some of my arbit fundas which delineates my staccato lifestyle. Absurdity and Ingenuity are relative. :)

PS- The Bird Flu Scare has been overhyped, totally blown out of proportion. It is restricted to a very small area near Maharashtra-Gujarat border. Those who have stopped eating chicken may resume it asap.

IIM A Interview Experience

18th Feb 2006
0900

Venue- KLMDC, IIM A

GD: Case Study

I was the 5th person to be interviewed, it is toooo difficult to wait!
There were three interviewers, two young and one old. I didn't like any of them. :)

Interview Questions:

What are you doing these days??
Do you expect to passout and join us??
What is ICT??
What is Ranchi known for these days?
Dhoni Dhamaka?
Gave a graph, find the slope at various points!
Have you read algorithms?Networks?Data Structures?
What is a priority queue?
What is stack?
Difference between Queue and Stack?
Operations of Stack?
What will happen if I do pop operation on an empty stack?
Linked List??
Protocol of Internet??
Does it follow the OSI model?
Is internet session oriented?
Condition for maxima and minima
Integration by parts, write the formula
Integrate xe^x
What games do you play?
Apart from Anand, who is your fav player?
What do you know about algorithms of Deep blue?
Basic difference between thinking of human chess player and computer?
So you like risk taking abilities of Topalov?
Why don't you go for enterpreneurship, if you like risks?
Do you consider India a poor country?
Tell me five ways to remove poverty from india.
Is corruption prevalent everywhere?
GDP of India?
GDP of US?
How do you define poverty?
Why $1 per person per day? why not $2,3 or 5?

Crap Interview!! Took exactly 15 minutes, but felt like years!! I was totally exhausted after interview, slept like log.
Totally unconventional interview it was, no HR questions just acads acads and acads. Next is IIML@March 1.

Contentment

I've always wanted more, and some more, more than what I have, more than what I have achieved. I don't think I'm greedy, not that I covet others' possessions (confession:rarely yes) but I haven't been content either. I was thinking about this, how content I've been in changing times. Obviously I was most satisfied when I was in infancy and during early school days, but as life progressed expectations and objectives collided with effort, luck and willingness. Recent years have seen a lot of changes in all facets of life and I've been confused most of the times. Guess that's what happens when you grow up.

I considered each and every year of my life and I analyzed how content I was.The graph below shows my level of contentment w.r.t. years(1984-2006 feb). This is the result of ennui @4 AM and the fact that blog is a place where one can whine officially!

Bangalore and IIFT interview

I've always held Bangalore in high esteem, and it hasn't changed despite all the oddities I faced there during my recent trip. Due to myriad postponement and preponement in schedule my whole travel plan was shuffled up, and Steve couldn't go with me :(, otherwise we had major plans of having 'fun' there. I reached Bangalore on 27 Jan 2300 hrs and the guy whom I befriended during my train journey gave me lift on his cousin's car to nearest hotel. Now I know it is a juvenile and risky proposition to take lift in a stranger's car, but what the heck, I'm not a kid anymore! I had my room booked in a guesthouse but that was from 29th, so on 27th night I stayed in some lodge. It was such a scary area, bars everywhere, drunk people shouting in kannada and looking at me strangely, all shops closed (it was not even 12) etc. Bangalore has become so populated, can't even imagine boarding in bus with people fighting to grab a seat. Worst was when I was returning back at midnight and a group of eunuch was standing there and staring at me..I was so scared..I started counting 1,2,3... and took a deep breath when I left them behind.
Finally I slept peacefully and next day I woke up early in morning(obviously on my own), took bath with ice-cold water and reached TIME GD/PI workshop centre right on time. It was St. Xavier's High School, Museum Road. I just loved the building- Christian Style, church, beautifully carved out structures, high roof corridors, pigeons flying and producing gutar-n-goo sound... I really adore classical buildings, one of the interests which I may develop in future. The workshop was a good one, GDs were really chaotic and PIs were stressing but the best thing was food! TIME guys brought some real good caterers and food was delicious. The day 2 of seminar was at St. Joseph High School nearby and it was much better. I had a decent warmup GD and PI just before actual IIFT interview, finally I left the workshop midway to study for tomorrow. I made some good friends there... Sandeep( RVCE Bangalore guy), Eileen( BBM girl with 6 calls, very decent girl), Srinath etc. but I didn't ask anyone's contact ID, that was such a stupid mistake on my part.
Then comes the purpose of my visit, IIFT interview.

Venue: Coffee Board, Bangalore
Date: 30 Jan 2006

24-25 ppl divided in two groups..I was in group 1
Essay topic: Morality and Consumerism (which I misread as consumers :( )

GD: FDI in retail sector
Moderators explicitly mentioned that they donot want a fish market and they are expecting a debate. They also told the criterions on which we were to be evaluated.
12 ppl - 1 absent = 11 ppl in GD . I was the ONLY fresher there.. so was feeling little awkward.
I was asked to start the GD ..my first attempt... fortunately I read a news report in TOI just an hour ago about FDI expectations in coming budget, so that really helped.
I was also the first person to summarize, and consequently, the first person to be interviewed ( hence I missed the coffee at coffee board)..

Prof himself came to call me for interview and I had to walk down three floors with him in complete silence except for boots...imagine..how I must have felt!

PI was ultra-cool!! Interviewers liked me, probably our auras matched..
all in all a 20-25 min affair!
Three ppl :
P1: Decent guy, asking psychological and HR questions
P2: Very learned person, Prof. of International Finance, He is a Sardar.
P3: Came late, asked a few ques only..

Questions and Answers:

P1:
1. Tell me something about yourself.
A: told abt Strengths, Hobbies, Interests...
2. What is blog?
A: told them..webspace where you express unrestricted thoughts...
3. Why do you blog?
A: no restrictions, know abt world, informal media etc. etc.
4. Do you like unrestricted world?
A: yes, as long as it doesn't offend anyone
5. Freedom of speech?
A: yes, definitely
6. Having shackles like regulation of blog, isn't it contradictory to the original idea?
A: Yes, but reader's sentiment must be cared..gave some examples of offensive blogs and its impact..
7. You live in G'nagar, why did you come to Bangalore?
A: planned my final yr proj here in some company, but doing in college.
8. Which companies in Bangalore did you try for internship? Why in telecom?
A: blah-blah, telecom is matter of interest
9. What do you listen in Music?
A: Mostly Rock
10. Your fav band??
A: PF
11. Why Pink Floyd?How is it different?
A: they are natural and touch every facet of life, not just musical instruments but natural sound, explained a song and its beauty
12. Name the band members
A: bol diya
13. Tell me something about International Business
A: Finally came to the point!! told abt globalization, shrinking world, disappearing boundaries, increased trade..
14. What is Globalization?
A: defined in my own words...not very convincing..
15. Wasn't it there always?
A: yes, but it's faster than ever now..
16. What do you unerstand by Globalization in present scenario?
A: increased interaction, trade, services, outsourcing, global communication...
17. Define liberalization, give few points
A: Govt going easy..explained some fundas.. low taxations, licenses, setting up industries etc.
18. Name some items in India's Export Basket.
A: So bad! I couldn't answer prperly...Services..
P2:
19. What is your strongest area?
A: Mathematics
20. What is mathematics?How does it help?
A: Language of nature, explained him how the table infront of him was designed by the help of mathematics.. concept of numbers and operations..
21. You said you're good at calculations, what exactly do you mean?
A: Can do normal multiplication, division fastly..may find sin,cos,log,tan mentally..
22. I don't know log. explain me.
A: Started with defining 'numbers' and then 'operation' then addition then multiplication as repeated addition, then exponents as repeated multiplication, then log as a form of conveniently expressing it.. exponents converted to linear form..advantages..basically blah
P1:
23. You have said some nasty things about your homestate Bihar in your performa, Justify?
A: Rampant Anarchy, Mentality of people, underdevelopment..
24. If I make you CM of Bihar, what steps will you take?
A: Law and Order, faith of people in govt.,
25. What is the problem with Bihar? How can you solve it? Give steps.
A: Mentality, poverty etc. gave him ideas about controlling crime..
26. Why Acads so low?
A: adjustment problems, some personal reasons..
27. Can't you managed it in a better way?Time management?
A: accepted my fault..could have done better...
28.Scenario: You're manager of some firm..someone comes with a request for urgent payment..but payment is not possible today..what will you do?>
A: ask for reason..if genuine..recheck system for any provision, and even if there isn't any, allow him..humanitarian grounds..
29. Why don't you work for two years? MBA now and MBA then, whats the difference?
A: talked about perspective..can utilize two years in a better way
P3:
30. Tell me something about Gandhingar
A: trees trees and trees, nice ppl, retired ppl living...
31. How are ppl in Gandhinagar different from ppl in Bihar?
A: helpful, good business skills..blah
32. How do you find Gujaratis?
A: very nice...praised a lot..
33. Where have you been in India?
A: Started with delhi, rajasthan..and I was stopped in middle..
34. You've read Alchemist and summarized it as "Treasure lies where your heart belongs" Explain
A: talked about innate abilities..and how to realize..blah
35. Isn't it contradictory to some idea?
A: complementary actually..
36. Heart and Mind?
A: Mind should win.
37. What do you do after you return from college generally?
A: play football/TT, study, roam around, surf net, sleep..
38. You've leadership skills?what are they?
A: popularity, amicability, dealing with controversies and many more..
P2:
39. How do you finance yourself?
A: sound economic background..blah

So it got over finally! I enjoyed every bit of it..
My very old school friend was waiting outside..so I met him after 2-3 years, we roamed around in Bangalore but then we came back to hotel and talked a lot about present life, school, engg..he kept talking about marrying his girlfriend, I kept telling him 'get a life'..and I explained him fundas of Othello(was there in his mobile).. finally I left for Mumbai same night and then came back to personal hell..

Leaving for Delhi tomorrow..
Bye!

Wish you luck for CAT 2005

It's all about being me!!

Nothing new, It's all about being me. Infact this whole blogspace is about me, but this blog is more about me. I've been tagged by Steve about a fortnight ago, but procrastination is my birth right. Anyways I've been really busy this time, not that usual vagrant's quandaries, but some serious soul-searching, reason being CAT preparation. I have been pondering these days on education,competition, dynamics of success and failure etc. Millions of students study and only few excel, and competition??You get one more mark and you're through and one less you're a cabbage! Is there any authoritative way to churn out good students on a massive scale? A two hour exam is just not enough to test someone's aptitude earned in a lifetime, but in life not everything is as per our wishes. Let's take whatever comes.
Coming back to life, I would like to thank Steve for tagging me. I always wanted to be tagged, but that was a secret. I would like to say 20 things about me...

1. Girls keep ogling at me all the time. Wherever I go, whatever I do, but that doesn't make me self-consious at all! I dont know their ulterior motive, but then you never know what goes inside a girl's psyche. Do I look funny?

2. I'm fascinated by Banks. My father was a Bank Manager and so I've been knowing a lot about banks since early childhood. Those ledgers, vouchers, pass book, applications fill me with joy. Even the menial drudgeries of a bank clerk's job seems to be so enticing.

3. Something went wrong with me, may be when I was an embryo. As a result, all my choices are obscure! No one likes my favourite dish, no one likes my favourite player and my favourite movies etc. etc. In any given set of n items, the item I will choose will be the item with least probability of selection. So the more unpredicatble you are, more predictable you become. Paradoxes rule my life.

4. I love numbers. I've been adding, subtracting, mutliplying, dividing numbers just for the sake of fun since when I was a kid. During my school days, I used to pass time in classroom by playing with numbers.

5. I like wearing full-shirts and cotton trousers. I like clothes of one colour only, not cheques, stripes or any modern art. Plain shirts are sober.

6. I believe that all battles are won in mind and real world is just the physical simulation.

7. I am very bad at explaining things. Ask me to describe the moon, I will start with sun and earth and then I will try to find out the relative distances and then may be I'll describe the colour, shape, size, history etc.

8. I'm ambivalent like hell, if I think of 'A', the next thing which comes into my mind is 'not A'. Consequently, a lot of my energy and time is diddled away fighting with myself.

9. Nostalgia, sigh!!! How much I remember about my past, though uneventful, but thanks to good memory I still have faint pictures of times gone by. There are quite a few things which I would like to change, if I happen to go back to the past.

10. I don't compromise to the greatest possible extent. I dont like to drag myself down to something, to accept a policy which is not in accordance with my innermost feelings. I accept people the way they are, and I expect the same.

11. I would like to learn Violin. Melancholic tunes fills my heart with pleasure.

12. I yearn to be a sportsman. I've spent a lot of time at ground, but I never mastered any game. How much will I love to win a match on my own!!

13. I don't need drugs to hallucinate. I live in dreamworld for a long long time. The world is better there.

14. I'm ambitious but I don't think too high. Sky's the limit, but for me a big cloud will suffice :). My policy for life -" Aim for the moon, you'll end up in higher stratosphere someday."

15. I love to drive fast. My parents used to get complains every alternate day that your son is driving too rash. But that is what they think, I think I take calculated risks, never had any serious accidents. The induction principle does not apply in every realm of life, however.

16. I love summers and scorching heat. My mind works at its best when I'm drenched in sweat.

17. I love fruits. Whenever I have an opportunity, I live mostly on a fruit diet. That's the secret of my slim and trim figure :)

18. It is only me who understands my jokes. If you are finding this post funny, you're becoming like me. You're warned!

19. Kids love me. True!! I've great amicability with kids. Kids stop crying when I hold them up.

20. I wish this world were a better place with lesser problems, higher congruence and above all contented! I'd like to play my role in making this world a better place. Ideas are welcome.

Phew!! Now I've been through this ordeal so I would like some more to suffer, my evil tendencies point towards Amiya, Jayant, Raj and Milo!!
Put on your thinking caps, and get down to work! Peace!

***********************************************************************************

Those days, when we blogged...

Hey! If you're a regular blogger, or an irregular blogger, or a frequent blog visitor, or an infrequent blog visitor, or a one-time blog visitor or at least heard of people who write blogs, you could have remembered the ancient glorious days of blogging. There was passion which tailored our blogs, there were ideas which enthralled or were supposed to enthrall blog-readers, there was a burgeoning urge to express our views, there were no barriers and we were free to choose anything and everything. Those days, when we blogged, we eagerly waited for others to express themselves and if something opposed our belief, we were overly keen to put forth our debatable views.

Time has changed. In DA-IICT, everyone is busy now. All we fourth yearites are slogging for CAT, GRE whatever and now midterms are around the corner. I firmly believe that an efficient person should be able to separate two distinct domains of life so that they don't interfere. With respect to this, I've failed without fail. Its not like we're mugging 10 hours a day, not anyone I'm sure, but this is more because we've put ourselves in an invisible cage. Even when we're not studying, we either tend to think about it or worry about the things which are beyond our control. I believe I'm one of the least concerned person about exams, but now even I'm behaving like a complete idiot. Even on the eve of Annual Examination, me(and Giri) used to play. On one such day,I blogged too.

What delineates this misery? First one is pretty immanent, we're all lazy sloth. Our inner self still considers spending time infront of computer screen a way of passing time, so during days with high academic workload we avoid it as much as possible. Blogging is considered to be a creative and innovative way to bakar. Wasn't it always like that? A blog a fortnight will not harm. Come on, atleast consider blogs as a practice for RC, try to understand the tone of the passage and think if you're likely to agree or disagree with the author. That will really help :) Best of luck.

Rakshabandhan

Since the college reopened on Aug 6th, I've been busy with various mundane stuff like completion of RI, 'inaugaration' of B.Tech. Project, selection of electives, mock CATs etc. So when Bhavesh invited me and Vivek( who couldn't go for some reasons) to his home for Rakshabandhan it was a welcome break. Though I was little apprehensive in the beginning because of "studies", but as always Bhavesh, with his super-duper persuasive skills, belittled me. Finally we left college by 2000 hrs on 18th Aug. For the first time in my life the principles of murphy's law were violated and everything went right.

1. We got a bus to Railway Stationeven before we got out off autorick! It never happened before as generally it takes me 30-40 minutes to get a bus.
2. The bus took the long route and still managed to reach Station at 2058 with 7 minutes to go before the train leaves.
3. My queue at ticket counter was the fastest! We were ready with ticket by 2103! We ran towards the train but it was so crowded that we couldn't get in.
4. The train started to limp along and we decided to leave this train and wait for the next one. But lady luck was smiling for sure and we managed to get into the least crowded LAST bogie after chasing the train.
5. Fortunately we got to sit and it turned out to be Anand( Bhavesh's home) special bogie. The policeman was kicking out all non-Anand passengers from that bogie. hehe!

The stay was very pleasant and I feasted on a lot of Sindhi cuisines. I wonder I will turn obese if I stay at his place for a couple of days. Rakshabandhan was special to me as I was tied Rakhi for the second time by Charul(Bhavesh's sister) after 10 years gap. Post Rakhi, we strolled in NDDB colony and I met Bhavesh's friends. They were all so sincere guys!! I came back and slept like a log. I ate, ate and then ate again and again.We left back for college the same day and there comes the end to a wonderful stay. Thanks to my cellphone, I took a lot of photos which I will post in my photoblog. These memories are gonna last for a long long time. Next Rakhi, I won't
be here but I'll relive in those memories.

Placement Saga

Some people wait for this day since their first day in college, some are worried about, some simply wear dontcare attitude and some are fazed what to do. Come placements and college becomes the liveliest and most happening place. Everyone is getting ready, buying new formal clothes, wearing a tie for the first time, putting on neatly ironed shirts, getting hair cut short and above all wear a grave look on their faces which looks quite weird when compared with their natural wide stupid grin. Placement fever started and everyone was busy in making their CVs and I later learnt that you don't need to do much to make it look decent. It's just a clever way of factual representation. Placement actually kicked off a day before schedule, anyways here comes the generalized experience.

Day -1 July 17th

Mindtree, the most preferred company for DA-IICTians in general, gave its PPT and written test followed. They made it clear that they are gonna take separate tests for different streams. Results were out by midnight, and many people were disappointed as only 69 were shortlisted!!

PeopleSpeak(): CPI mattered!

Day 0 July 18th

TCS aptitude test was a cakewalk for everyone though TCS people spoilt their repo by behaving absolutely weird when they saw almost everyone getting through. Interview were highly disorganized with scheduled interview getting late by 4-5 hours! Some were interviewed for 55 minutes and then rejected because they were "overqualified" while some were interviewed for merely 2 minutes. The final selection was highly skewed.

PeopleSpeak(): A dog in our college was renamed as TCS.

Day 1 July 19th

Infosys turned up! It was forced to reduce its CPI requirements from 2.50 to 2.00 and to 1.90 finally! The test was quite good, but the invigilators! Just imagine, 8-9 invigilators in a room giving instructions every 7th second, even during test as if filling up the form was a mammoth task. Most guys were selected and the HR interview was just a talk. A whopping 75 were selected! TCS interviews still continued and it ate up precious time and space of college.

PeopleSpeak(): Infosys is God!!

Day 2 July 20th

HP gave its PPT but there test team was late so InterraIT got the first spot. The test was very easy, but company appeared to be dull. Best thing was that they were bang on time, each interview for 10 minutes or so and no unnecessary grilling. People got the taste of lady interviewer. HP exam was well-organized and of a respectable level. Except for an invigilator who kept shouting on mic "Don't chitchat! Don't chitchat!" continuously, everything else was tranquil. Nirma ppl also came so college was a crowded place. Interview was just a formality, and HP people were most jolly and ebullient. Very few were disappointed today.

PeopleSpeak(): Thanks to MindTree for taking the cream away, it was easy for us!

Day 3 July 21th

Here comes the mother of DA-IICT, Reliance Infocomm. Lots of hope and everyone was craving for that motherly affection, but Reliance lived upto expectations dodging everyone. Rejecting a lot in written test and then interviews were technically tough but then everyone was called for interviews irrespective of test result.To the repugnance of candidates, it delayed the results to monday- typical Reliance way! Overall, it was a huge disappointment.

PeopleSpeak(): No reliance on Reliance.

Still companies are pouring in, as placements are going on. College will reopen in first week of August, phew!! Finally, there will be a schedule to follow otherwise I just keep lazing around. OK this is the final call for all those who are willing to go to Indroda Nature Park, Aug 1, 1000 hrs. t h a n x

Trance

People, I really don't know what to write. So much has happened recently but I'm unable to pen down. I compose the first paragraph and then delete it, don't know why??Probably this is what they call writer's block, but don't worry, I WILL BOUNCE BACK!! These days I'm living in trance, trying to resume CAT preparation, thinking about future, getting lost in oblivion, reveries ,12 hrs sleep, dreams and many more.
And for Gandhinagar people, so far Praneet, Prasoon, Vivek, Bhavesh and myself have clinched the idea of going to Indroda Nature Park, can we have some more??Please respond in a day or two.
Why am I just a speck of dust?

Animalia

It was way back in 1988 when I was mathematically 4 years old . I bought two white rabbits, Rs 300/- apiece. They were cute especially when they kept their long ears straight like horns. The biggest problem was faced by my mother because they used to shit anywhere in the house, but obviously it didn't bother me . I was busy making a living place for them.I took my TV's box and put some mud and plant leaves in it and the rabbit-house was ready. I was simply fascinated by those rabbits, they jumped higher than me. One morning I found their blooded dead bodies. Dogs ate them, I mourned and it was over. Behind my house there was a grazing field. I saw one black memna one day and it was love at first sight. The good thing about goats is that they shit out of the house. Well that memna was owned by some shepherd but he allowed the cuty memna to stay with me while others grazed every evening. With my new found fantasy, I used to collect vegetable remnants all day to feed him(or her, not sure). Weeks passed. One fine evening, the shepherd boy told me that memna is ill, two days later it died. Life went on.













My rabbits were pretty much like this, but not so fat.














A cute memna

Years passed, I was still one-digit old. I found a cow. Well there were many cows roaming around but they were rowdy but this one was retiring. So I befriended him/her and everyday at some fixed time it came to me. Animals are more punctual than we human beings. It felt great when that cow leaned infront of me so that I can touch its head. But then my father got transferred to a different place and(as an 8 year old boy) I could not even bid goodbye to that cow. Phew!!!!! I have always disliked dogs, simply because they dislike me. I've been haunted by dogs so many times, but luckily I escaped on each occasion. Once a dog even managed to grab my foot in its mouth, but I survived then also. Birds, I love them, Bird-watching, my hobby. There have been quite a few times when a bird came in my room and ruined its life by colliding with moving fan. I did whatever I could do, but life and death are beyond human control. When I was in class Xth(CBSE), there was a chapter in biology on birds. (Knowledge fact: Study of birds is known as ornithology.) There was an exercise for which I had to roam around and see all kinds of birds and make notes on them. During my summer vacation, I did that exercise with my colony friend Nitesh and I really enjoyed it.

Slowly and gradually as I grew old, I lost touch with animals. There are still animals around, just go out in Gandhinagar you'll find cows with really humungous horns which scares me badly. Obviously there are lots of dogs in college, but I hate them for reasons mentioned above. I change my way if I see a dog standing infront of me. I'm a nonvegetarian but that is another aspect, I still love animals. However if you feel bad about it, I'd clarify my stand if needed. Why is it that I've lost touch with animals? Partially because I'm busy with my daily routine and more because of lack of commitment.There is an Indroda Nature Park just 1 km away from DA-IICT and Deer Park may be 3 kms from DA-IICT. But none of my friends are willing to go there with me to enjoy the mystic flora and fauna. How many of them know about it?? It's not too late so if anyone is interested, leave a comment. Some of us may have attended the Animal Help Foundation seminars and rallies in Ahmedabad( because I see people wearing those T-shirts as their nightdress) but that does not bring us closer to animals. The most effortless way to interact with animals is to feel them around and just shower our love on them. Cat, Dogs(eww!),Squirrels(lots of cutiepies), various birds, chameleons, Peacock(its a privilege!!), monkeys etc. are some of the animals that we can see everyday in college. Ofcourse attending AHF seminars and rallies will help us, but natural interaction is more needed. Nature has been benevolent on us, I feel I should express my gratitude towards her.