tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55937516844864582522024-10-08T22:08:13.935-07:00weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-55019706737485521602009-12-06T00:38:00.000-08:002009-12-06T00:41:43.671-08:00Hi, i have changed my blogging address. You can now follow my posts on the following address...<br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.placidthunder.wordpress.com/">http://www.placidthunder.wordpress.com</a><br /><br /></div><div>Thank you.</div>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-27935648627471378002009-11-30T12:49:00.001-08:002009-12-01T05:12:05.667-08:00Ohk, i don’t have anything to write really, nothing new seems to be happening anywhere for me to express myself through the black keys that are straining my fingers.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I just realized that i had a blog and i have a duty towards it, which is to continuously keep feeding it my rants. Anyway since i have begun this, i better put something to it. <p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So this Sunday marked the end of a very long week for me, highlighted by go karts, assignments, reports, online tests and a lots of searching (google obviously).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Though it started really well with the 20 laps of high speed go kart racing (which even though i paid for the 20 laps for 7 people, felt<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>thrilling!)..it went pretty much downhill from there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was like the karts provided the adrenaline to make it to the end of the week in sane condition, as the next couple of days went into googling<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>everything about recession for our TRW report (don’t bother with what TRW is) followed by some serious data editing and manipulations which took up most of the time. though i did learn some new things about recession, but frankly it didn’t really fascinate me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After some serious two days which involved lots of last minute running and convincing, we made it through the report and to the next level in the week, which was named “ES assignment” (again don’t bother what that is). It was an online assignment which we were given 2 hours to solve and it was really one of the more memorable moments in the week to see people shouting across hostels to see whose question matched with whom. That level was completed at 11:10, 10 minutes later than the time given to us, but really we (that is to say 9 people in 1 room who were doing the assignment simultaneously) had no time to really bother as the final level loomed in the distance, the CP online test (we engineers do pride ourselves in making abbreviations for everything, which only we understand), which was scheduled for sunday.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As some might be knowing, the final level for anything is the toughest and this case wasn’t different as we spent 1 hour pondering over the the greek presented to us and labelled ‘question paper’. The only silver lining in this level was perhaps that the last line stands for the majority of campus, and of course the fact that i felt most relaxed in the week after we were finally asked to switch off our monitors and hide our work behind the black screen reflecting my free face. And thus ended my week long game, testing cunning ,survival skills, hand eye coordination (??) and ya a bit of gray cell concentration in my brain too.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Also I’d like to add that based on some valuable suggestions , i have tried to reduce the length of my posts, though i don’t seem to have done a good job.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> S</span>o anyway i better wind up, its not really a great confidence booster <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>to talk about your disastrous endeavours.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hope you had a better week!</p>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-19171006394611058092009-11-19T09:23:00.000-08:002009-11-19T09:32:02.165-08:00Ohk..so i was thinking what to post on my blog after a long absence (attributed to test, fest and anything else that comes to your mind, which rhymes and can be considered a valid reason), and after 'not really an intense’ brain storming session, i decided to post the poem that i wrote for the Creative Writing contest in my fest. This poem i wrote for the elims of the contest and it did make through to the final 6, so i am assuming i will not feel stupid after posting it. But before the poem here are the rules to which we were supposed to abide to..<br /><br /><div>Rules: basically we were given 3 lines. We had to choose one line out of them to be the 1st line of our poem, one to be the last line and the 3rd was to be the theme of the poem. We were given 2 hours to do so, and i came up with this…<br /><div><br /></div><div>(its easy to guess 2 of the 3 lines that we were given because obviously they would be the 1st and last line of my poem…but see if you can guess the third line..!!)</div><div>So here goes..<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"Fair is foul, and foul is fair</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>I lived on those lines, I lived against the rare,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>As i forgot for what i am here</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who is it that can tell me who i am?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one with the sting of the serpent,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Mocking those who accepted me as their servant,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why is it then, that my heart has repent</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who is it that can tell me who i am?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one they consider pure?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who are deceived by my false sense of cure,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why then am i not sure?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who is it that can tell me who i am?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one who was always with them?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Giving a reality to what they dreamt</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why is it then that i cannot be content?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who is it that can tell me who i am?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one who gave them the solution?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>To the problems formed in the smoke of my brain’s pollution,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why is it,the that my soul is in the way of a drive of demolition</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Who is it that can tell me who i am?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one who they think i am,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Or am i the one i think i am not?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Am i the one who they all see?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Or am i the one who i think i might be?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why cant i understand my inner call,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Why cant i face the people on whom i stroll,</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Conscience does make cowards of us all."</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />I would also like to add that this poem is not inspired by any person that i can recall of and neither are these the thoughts that actually go through my mind, infact these would perhaps be the last thoughts i might think, it was just for the sake of the competition that i wrote i So hope you enjoyed and please comment whether or not you like it! Guesses for third line are also welcome!</div></div>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-45753837503415617402009-10-29T10:13:00.000-07:002009-10-29T10:19:09.599-07:00<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;">this is a story i wrote for an online sci-fi writing contest...i didnt win anything but i'm posting it anyway...please comment!</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">“Man I am so full, that was 1 hell of a treat...i don’t think i have room for coffee at all”, said Ravi.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Well...i have given you the option of not<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>drinking, you realize that don’t you??” , was my reply, as i continue to search<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>every piece of penny left in my<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>thinning wallet…man i thought birthdays were the best part when i was young….but now..I just wish I wasn’t born…first minute of your birthday and you are already holding your butt with 1 hand, have the cell phone in other, endure shouts of “treat” in the ears, bear the smell of rotten eggs in my nose coming somewhere from the top of my head, and strain my eyes by looking everywhere for more potential<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>attacks on my body…and if this wasn’t quite<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>enough, I also have to pay for all the gluttons gulping down my hard earned money(???) presented to them in the form of food..I tell you concentration camps would have been a lot more effective if they had employed a similar technique. But we do get a chance to redeem on other’s birthday though. “DUDE…where are you lost...we have already ordered, it is you who are left to pay you know..” said someone, drunk obviously, thus interrupting my train of thoughts<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>from visiting places hitherto unvisited till now. I went to the counter and asked him for the bill...boy. Why is the cashier eyeing me so strangely??<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I asked him again and still he doesn’t say anything...just continues staring…is he blind or what?? “ err exc..” I started but just then the door behind the shop slams open “get back you moron, ruining my shop earnings go and do the dishes” said the owner (I think)..”but don’t you see…?” started the cashier but was cut short again by the owner who seems to be terrified for some reason...”I do and i am wise enough not to be shouting loud about it...we cant mess this up..So just get out and let me handle”. What the hell were these guys talking about...are they …”sorry about that, your net total is 124” said the owner who seems to have quite a timing of interrupting people just when they seem to be suggesting something important..Might have come really useful to hemi paid the bill and joined my friends who were already halfway into their coffee. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Wow, this coffee sure is strong,” commented rave who has an opinion about everything apparently. Was it my imagination again or were they all acting strange again??? Dammit whats got to me?? I think too much...of course they are all right...they are all acting normal...it’s just my imagination.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“It’s not your imagination, son”.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">WHOA…!!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Dammit what the hell was that?? I turned around, saw no one and again thought i was imagining…I turned to my friends, “hey did you guys hear that as well??” I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>All remained still. I asked again….and again…wait a minute...why are they not moving? I went to Ravi and hey…his coffee is hanging in mid air...ohh no...Everyone has stopped….just stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I run outside, all the cars, bikes, traffic everything has stopped….what’s happening?? My mind is definitely playing tricks…</p> <p class="MsoNormal">”no it’s not playing tricks ronit”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">..Dammit this time I am sure I heard it. I turned around and I am sure I saw it too. Standing before me was the owner of the shop with his cashier. I knew something was not right about that guy. “Who are you?? What is this?? What happened?? Wha..??”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I know a lot of questions are there in your mind. And I will do my best to answer them all. Only if you have a little patience and come inside. I will explain everything. Trust me I won’t harm you, nothing will happen to your friends, just come inside.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Reluctantly I agreed and went inside though keeping a distance. Something tells me not to trust people who can apparently read minds and stop time. I went inside and saw a cup of coffee. The owner assured me that the coffee will help me relax. As I sat drinking the coffee...he started “my name is rofuus and i am not an inhabitant of earth. I am from planet napstia. I...” the statement was cut short because apparently the owner was wet, owing to me spitting out the coffee in shock. I mean come on...i know it happens a lot in the movies, but...”i know its tough to understand, the UIA has done a commendable job of keeping you in the dark till now.” The blank expression on my face was taken by him as a hint to explain further. “But of course you don’t know what UIA is, do you? You see the UIA stands for the ‘universal interact association’. It’s the representation of earth in the universe. Just like you have parliament of various countries, in the universe we have representations of various planets that has people from all over the world. As a whole all the agencies from all planets help in maintaining the universe’ order and at the same time discovering new planets and new phenomenon in the universe.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You know those moments of life when you have so much to say and you go completely speechless...well this wasn’t one of them for me...because i exploded after hearing this<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“WHAT???!!?? What is this supposed to be a joke??? What are you talking about??? How co…” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I see you are having a tough time believing us. Let me show you something.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And with this he did some weird motion with his hands and well there was a screen in front of me showing a lot of weird people and some more weird machines. Before I could ask he explained “this is the agency on my planet. You might have noticed the people are not human. Hope you believe us now.” “Fine even if all this shit is true, why are you telling me this? What have I got to do with this?? And why you?? Why not earth??” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Yes...yes now i see us getting down to business…i need you to listen carefully without interruptions. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As I said before all agencies of universe work together in exploring new phenomenon. So far you must be aware of 3 dimensions and maybe heard about the possibility of time as the fourth dimension. But we have succeeded in not only discovering time as the fourth dimension but also have discovered 2 more dimensions. Please don’t interrupt now. You see the fifth dimension is ‘intelligence’ and the sixth is ‘noemic’ which means the ability to control minds. You see just as you travel through the 3 dimensions you can travel through the other 3. That is you can move in time, move through intelligence zones of the universe and and the worst, move through minds.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Bang...here comes the lots-to-say-still-speechless moment. Though I didn’t really need to bother as he continued “and now we are at the brink of discovering another dimension. The most important dimension of all as unlocking this dimension will give us all the answers ever aroused in the entire universe. It can give us answers about origins of universe, about evolution of planets and life, vastness of universe and even about existence of god. However the problem is after the 6^th dimension was discovered the agency of earth feared that after the 7^th dimension is discovered their position in the universe as the superior intelligent species will be threatened and thus they have so far attempted in every way to stop people from going after the 7^th dimension. You see their intention is clear, they want to dominate the world” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“But why are you telling me all this? What have I got to do with it?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“That’s because you hold a very important part of are the seventh dimension. You see as I said we can travel through time and a sneak peek into the future just showed us how important part you are.” Was his opinion.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“But if you can travel to the future why not see the seventh dimension itself??” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">”ahhh good question, you see the fun of living life is when you know every day is different and unpredictable. If you know what holds tomorrow, what good is that?? What fun is watching a match if you know the result beforehand. Keeping that in mind each planet is allowed only 1 peek in the future that too only 6 months in future, except in emergencies. Thus we only know that you hold the key to the lock that unlocks the seventh dimension.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well I can’t help say that I wasn’t exactly modest at that time. I mean come on how would you feel a person from another planet came and told you that you can answer all the questions of the universe but still I kept my cool “but I don’t know anything, no special ability, nothing...” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t worry we’ll train you to think and act. And…” but just then a voice rang through the sky...”rofuus we know you are here. Leave the boy. You have no right to be here. Come out and surrender.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“wha...what...i-is that?” i stammered. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Dammit how did they know?? Seems we’ve been compromised, kurtin call for backup, quick”. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“There is no use of calling anyone rofuus. We have jammed all signals in the universe. The universe is united. You cannot go anywhere. Come out before it’s too late.” Just then rofuus took out a strange equipment from his...well…well in humans (males) that is…well anyway…he kept that on back and ordered in a strange hoarse voice so unlike his nice one “MARCH”. I just stood still but he just nudged and I shouted out in pain, a huge electric shock passed through my body. “DO WHAT I SAY”. And without further hesitation I walked forward out of the café and what I saw was better than any Hollywood movie, better than my wildest imagination, explaining it in words will completely devalue and demeanour the very grandeur of the spectacle. However I was brought back on ground by another electric shock.” You cannot do anything to the boy, you need him don’t you. You are surrounded. Just let the boy go and surrender yourself.” “surrender? HA, oh hi am not surrendering, but i know what I am about to do, I know I have no chance but I won’t give you a chance either, say goodbye to your planet.” And with this he took out some kind of weird device again...but before that he was on the ground. His eyes wide open and the last evil smile still on his face. I turned around and saw the cashier, whom he called kurtin standing with what seemed like a rod but before I could indulge further everyone came rushing in and a person came along and took me away as people surrounded his body. As he took me along I asked shakingly “i d-don’t un-understand..”. “of course you don’t , you are too young and you<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>have just heard an hour of lies.” “you mean everything he said, about UIA”…”oh no no, that all I fear is true. in fact everything he told you about dimensions is true too” .”so that means the 7th dimension is there? Something that can answer everything??” . </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“ i am afraid there is. In fact the seventh dimension has long been discovered and its power is quite evident.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“ “ what?? Its already been discovered?? But he said..that i hold the key?? But then what he needed me for?? “.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">”ahh yes you see,when the seventh dimension was discovered everyone feared the enormous power it had and its implications if used in the wrong way. Thus the universe collectively decided to lock away the 7^th dimension forever and not to be used ever again. The 7^th dimension was locked by a complicated code whose algorithm changes every day. and the algorithm for each day is stored in a different person of the universe though that person is not aware of it. Every time a new person is born a random algorithm is planted. No there are no adverse affects of planting the algorithm. But you see you hold the algorithm for this day exactly 6 months later the closest in the future found by rofuus by unimaginable means. His sole intention was to unlock the dimension and control the universe. “ </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“but then if i know the date of my algorithm, that means i can unlock it??”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“you can try but i bet it would be the last thing you ever do” and he smiled though i didn’t find telling people about their last deeds remotely funny. “but what is the seventh dimension that is so powerful”. The agent smiled at me and moved his mouth and it hit me. Of course what else could it be? So obvious,so simple..but just then a needle jabbed into my arm and just fell down asleep,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>with the name of the seventh dimension fading from my mind.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-76316524258616195412009-10-20T13:16:00.000-07:002009-10-21T05:19:44.125-07:00<p class="MsoNormal">Okay, the topic might be a little biased owing to my bitsian nature, but no one can deny the fact the two premier institutes in the country have gone the BITS way. Kapil Sibal’s new proposal makes it mandatory for students to have a an 80% board percentage, and IIM’s seem to be going online (you can read the article <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Eyeing-IIT-Get-80-in-Class-XII/articleshow/5140103.cms">here</a>), something that BITS did long ago (both of them). I wont argue about the online test system because its high time we did that, but is 80% percentage really necessary for any institute??</p> <p class="MsoNormal">First of all as an IIT aspirant myself who has given both boards and JEE, i can say that even though syllabus of both boards and JEE is more or less the same, there is a huge difference in the level of the course. While boards keep to the basics of without going much into derivations and details, JEE expects us to know the in depth analysis of each topic we study. Therefore it is safe to say that a person preparing for JEE <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>wont find it difficult to get 80% in boards because basically the concepts are the same. And if a person is good enough to clear IIT, boards should be a cakewalk for him. Moreover, mostly the board question pattern remains same every year and it is easy to predict the questions. So i don’t particularly think that keeping the 80% cut off <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>for JEE will drastically change the quality of students getting into IIT, unless you take boards too lightly and write the exams with too much overconfidence. (which happened to a guy In my college, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>who scored 350 in BITSAT ,the entrance test for BITS but failed to clear the 80% cut off as he took the boards for granted and therefore had to join in the second semester. Though the fact that he couldn’t score 80% in boards doesnt make him less worthy but does make him lose a semester.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">However i do feel that the cut off criteria will certainly create unnecessary pressure on the students. Even though there was a minimum of 60% required in boards before, but that’s something that you usually get without much bother in boards.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But 80% cut off will definitely be playing on the back of the minds of the aspirants. Even though i maintain that isn’t difficult to score 80% in boards, it is enough to make the students uncomfortable. They would definitely take boards more seriously and spend more time on it than they usually would. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Till now, people just used to open books a day or so before the exams but now they will definitely be more watchful in boards, considering the fact that boards are now playing an important role in their dreams to crack JEE. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">All in all i feel, even though it isn’t difficult for a serious JEE aspirant to score 80%in boards, it definitely does add pointless burden on the students and in the rarest of cases (as the guy in my college) costs a worthy student a seat (or a semester). Without the cut off, people can easily concentrate on their preparations for JEE which is undoubtedly more important to them than boards. Thus i prefer that cut off should be reduced to 70 or 75% as the figure 80 invariably plays with the psychology of the students and adds an additional onus of the board exams (and i speak for every institute which has this criteria, including BITS)</p>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-4295253966943071522009-10-06T06:33:00.001-07:002009-10-06T06:48:47.319-07:00<p class="MsoNormal">Salman Khurasheed, the minister for corporate affairs in the country, recently remarked about the pay packages of CEO’s and indirectly described their high income as ‘vulgar’.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For the past few months now, ministers seem to be keen on initiating an ‘austerity drive’ as the popular phrase goes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Pranab mukherjee started it with his plans of curbing government expenditure by reducing security and other benefits enjoyed by ministers and supposedly ‘driving’ tharoor out of his hotel. But is austerity, just for the sake of it justified?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Firstly coming to the point of CEO salaries, i see no point of government interfering in employee salaries there. What a company and its shareholders decide to pay their employee and CEO is entirely their business and surely they are more worried about the company than the government, so they will know how to reward their CEO appropriately.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Moreover a CEO works hard to get in a position to lead a corporation and whatever he earns is well deserved and justified , as in contrast to some of the ministers enjoying free perks for just showing up once in 5 years. Also, as H P Singhania (ficci president) pointed out, lack of compensation for employee efforts led to a brain drain 15-20 years ago as more and more people found foreign offers more lucrative and beneficial. We must make sure that this isn’t repeated. Sure economic downturn has caused a lot of changes all around that requires government intervention, but this is an issue that is best handled by the firm itself.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Having said this, i feel Pranab Mukherjee’ attempts to curb unnecessary government expenditure is well placed. Many ministers don’t require Z+ security, but are still covered by its shield.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I agree security is important for political leaders, but security should be according to need and not to fulfil the minister’s desires. Besides this, controlling other perks like railway passes etc also seem to be a good move and not just because of the recession but in a stable economy also. Although if a politician wants to live flamboyantly on his own expense, its completely his decision and no one should bother about how he lives his life, as long as he isn’t spending the taxpayer’s money. All in all, i think government should think about reducing its expenditures first before bothering about company CEO’S. </p>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-55319638167953154422009-10-03T04:17:00.000-07:002009-10-05T00:50:47.554-07:00Recently we celebrated gandhi jayanti and every news channel and newspaper had a special coverage of the gandhian principles and ideologies followed by a note saying how his ideas and methods seem to have been lost as times progressed and gandhi jayanti has become just another reason to plan a weekend. Very very few people (read no one) today i feel lives by his methods and ideas. Have we forgotten him and his ideas or are his principles simply too demanding?<br />I personally feel living life by the gandhian philosophy requires too much of patience. Almost everyone wants to pace things up and do stuff as quickly as possible, no one is patient enough to wait for a long time to get results. Gandhi asks people to go on doing good deeds without bothering about results, but don’t we all get frustrated when results don’t show? Sure some time or the other we might reap the benefits, but is the wait worth it? Lage raho munnabhai aesthetically showed how gandhigiri can be applied to everyday routines, but again they gave out the message that even though it might work, it requires a lot of patience. I remember when people started sending flowers instead of using violent means to protest against the delhi demolitions. But nothing happened, so after 2 days it was back to violence. People do get frustrated when nothing happens. Same with pink chuddy campaign against pramod muthalaik. Did it actually work?? Did he actually stopped following his so called “Indian tradition”? even gandhiji had to wait about 30 years to gain independence. Could it have been if a couple more like bhagat singh would have come along that the independence would have come earlier? We can never say.<br />Gandhiji’s principles today are just not realistic. I don’t think people bother much unless we show them that we can do damage if you don’t listen. Can we imagine going to each terrorist and preaching non violence? Will it work?? And if they resort to violence, should we sit back and go about doing gandhigiri?? Will <i>that</i> work? Sometimes its important to follow tit for tat principles to have your way. And frankly speaking if we can get the same results much more quickly following other methods, why shouldn’t we adopt them? Why should we wait so long to get something done?<br />Its not that i have a lack of respect of gandhiji or what he has done for the nation. i sincerely respect that. and neither do i deny that his ideas work. All i am saying is that i don’t think anyone is patient and selfless enough to follow his principles today.<br />Opinions welcome.weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-63919050359224752332009-09-26T02:29:00.000-07:002009-09-27T05:56:17.847-07:00ohk so back to blog after a month or so filled with excitement..but i'm not here to describe all that..i realized that people arent really going to keep checking my blog to know about my experiences..i mean come on they have theirs to boast about..so from apart from mentioning about my life experience ,i’m also gonna write about other general stuff..stuff i feel merits an opinion..and it could be anything..simply anything..so please comment on everything..good or bad...but preferably good..(just kidding, bad comments always welcome) <br />some of you might have noticed the change in my blog template..that’s to keep up with my idea of change..and as i was uploading the template i thought "why is this necessary?" "why is change necessary" (okay i thought about it before, not while uploading)..and i am not talking about change from 70’s t0 80's to 90's and generations and all...thats obvious..thats evolution. im talking about change that isnt necessary...as in things would keep on going just as well as they were without change occuring. change would just affect the usual process..in a negative or a positive way..<br /> i mean, i changed to increase the traffic on my blog. i know people would argue that the if your content is good, it'd automatically increase traffic...but then why did godrej and videocon changed their years old logo..? even shoppers stop went for a more simple, subtle logo and shedded away with its previous flamboyant one. psycoanalysts say that by changing the logo the brands sent out a message to their customers claiming that the brand was still alive and working for better products. infact sales figures clearly showed the positive affect it had on the brands. infact if i am not wrong godrej is currently in a profit (cant confirm this). <br />but change is not always positive. look at microsoft. they first launched xp which was one of the most brilliant products ever by microsoft. they were thriving on that when they came up with vista, and the trouble began. it turned out to be one of the most disastrous products for mirosoft. so a product which they launched to compete against the growing popularity of linux kinda backfired. and now to rectify that mistake,MS is now launching win 7 which looks promising but like other MS products, its too early to say. Infact, it just came to my mind, the MS-google rivalry. google launching an OS and microsoft coming up with a search engine...its all about competition though ultimately benefitting us. but both are venturing into new fields and dimensions. i suppose thats how growth occurs. can you imagine tata's ambanis's so successful if they had stuck with one line of products? No, because someone someday would eventually come up with something better.<br /> a person's interest in anything wears out soon. if we dont change to keep them interested in us, we end up doomed. maybe doomed is a strong word but you get the idea. take the example of social networking sites. orkut created a rage..almost everyone from kids to teachers joined orkut..and it was going great until facebook came along and ruined things for orkut. facebook gave a whole new world to discover for the users. and now its twitter which forces people to sum up in 140 words....facebook still stayed in the race because of the quizzes and new games that they launched but orkut refused to change and the outcome is quite clear. orkut went down as quicky as it came up.infact in times such as the present recesiion it becomes all the more important to change to deal with change in economy and even with respect to environment. We need to change to prevent greater changes happening later.<br /> i request you to scroll up and see the title of my post..ringing any bells?? exactly! barrack obama! his entire election campaign centred around the single word 'change'. needless to say it worked for him and today he enjoys the most powerful post in the world. i believe change in everything is very necessary to keep yourself in competition on, to keep up in the race, to keep up in life. and to deal with change occuring elsewhere is equally necessary, "who moved my cheese" was a great book i read about dealing with change and its consequences. <br />comments are welcomeweightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-61713144811102098862009-08-16T02:56:00.000-07:002009-08-16T03:00:40.975-07:00Right so my first blog from college…after a long and quite eventful vactions at home…i am back at my college..more experienced and more armed..and as seniors this time which meant we’ll be having nervous wierdos (read 'fuchas') hovering around campus with a fear of looking around other people and we could walk around campus with an air of authority..but all that later..<br />So i finally enter goa…and look forward to entering my campus…i see some familiar faces already…and so finally i enter my hostel and i see my neighbour waving at me..and i respond by calling him to help pick my luggage…and during the usualties of wassup and kaisa hai and all…i finally reach my room…i open it expecting to find a neat and tidy room waiting to be burdened under the heaps of dirt to be developed over the period of time….but as you might have guessed things dont always turn up the way we want them to…what instead greeted me was a very strong smell which my friend attributed to fungus…ohk..thats a shocker…i didn’t expect such a warm welcome…its rainy season here so usually fungus does tend to creep in here…but i didn’t anticipate dealing with it on the 1st day back…but seems i had to.! As two more of my friends joined me to compare their fungus with my own…and i found out almost every person had uninvited guests to attend to…infact turned out i had relatively suffered much less damage…just a couple of shirts and a bed sheet and the pillow…! With the cleaning process over we set out to observe any changes in the campus…!<br />The first thing that catched our eye was that the campus was definitely greener…lots of grass and trees seem to have growed in our absence…and in the distance we also spotted a couple of windmills…which on digging further we found had been planted by the government..! many solar panels had also been installed so the campus is definitely going the green way!! Moreover our shopping centre had a new contractor…though most of it remained kinda the same still looked better…much the rest remained the same. One thing that coudnt have been ignored were the parents with their ‘wards’ the newly admitted..all nervous,excited and tensed…reminded me of my first day really! Thus ignoring them for now..we made our way to monginis..and enjoyed a little snack before coming back and chatting with new arrivals (at our hostel)..and thus went into the night..which gave us a chance to try out one of the new messes….though disappointment awaited us…much of the food was pretty much the same..but our first 15 days were in the other mess so perhaps that would be better..! and thus the day ended with almost all exhausted and sleeping early! <br />The next day was pretty much boring with most of it going to the registration process…with not much to do the remaining day or the other two days being paralysed by the rain we had to spent most of it indoor…talking about our vacations….our classes started from Monday and for the 1st time in 3 semesters i had a great timetableto boast about…with a adequate breaks and classes….so the week passed by normally….without much incident….a couple of interactions with beloved juniors bit ya..thats about it…! As the rains became less…it was decided to explore the city…we decided to going to fort aguada..followed by dinner…thus we booked a tavera and went to the fort…it as kinda ok…but still another item checked on the checklist….it was really hot and humid and we went there in the peak afternoon so by the time we came back all our heads were spinning like anything and went to bed early and time passed as usually as it does!!weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-26919424733970212192009-07-28T06:06:00.000-07:002009-07-28T06:08:41.988-07:00hii this is just a tester blog to see whether my new tag cloud actually works or not..my apologies if you were expecting more...!!weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-21675063050746211302009-07-22T01:46:00.000-07:002009-07-24T12:12:28.403-07:00Now since my vacations are almost over and I was sitting wondering what path breaking, glass shattering ,mountain crumbling achievement have I done in the 2 months ,I realized though I might have not done any activity of this magnitude, it has certainly been one of the most productive summer vacations I have ever had. Another thing is that this was one of the most tension free vacations we had…ohk some people might argue that the time after 12th boards and all competition exams was cool as well but I don’t think so..i mean then we still had results and our college going on at the back of our minds. So all in all I feel that these vacation were certainly one of the best….<br /><br />Well my vacations started quite pleasantly…as 2 days after I landed (and bore the never ending remarks of coming back darker, thinner and all that)..we, that is to say my entire family, went on a trip to munnar (in kerala)…it’s supposed to be a hill station, so the weather there was quite teasing if I compare it to that in delhi…but it was an awesome place to start vacations in..with all the valleys (and the spooky tales associated with them), the tea gardens,the long drives in the cool breeze,adventure activities and of course how can i forget the food…not to mention spending time with my entire family after a long time..so it was definitely a great commencement to my holidays…<br /><br />Upon coming back my first thought was joining any activity to follow in my break…my first preference was learning a musical instrument and I rounded up on the guitar…I know its a bits clichéd but I like its sound anyway…so I found a professor to teach me near my house and informed him that I’d be here for another 2 months…though he was sceptic about it..he agreed to teach me saying that I may not be able to learn everything but definitely enough to keep me occupied in college.<br />So that’s how it went..i started learning the guitar..and it definitely does its bit in keeping me preoccupied…after what 3-4 weeks my sir went on some vacations for 10-12 days ..which gave an opportunity to my mom to take me along with her to my grandmom’s place which till now I had been strongly resenting.(primary reason being that I didn’t want to cut short the the already little time I had for my guitar lessons..)..so next week I was off to my grandmom’s….where I was treated no less than a celebrity as i was visiting after 4 years…i had the best servings of all the delicacies and the food that grandmoms all around are known for making…and the fact that i was eldest amongst all my cousins there was not something i complained about either…as i had a real fun ordering them around and troubling them and making them do work which i had to do otherwise…so all in all another great trip in the vacations.<br /><br />On returning home i was brought down to reality after my little stint in paradise (owing to which i had lately taken to bossing people around)…but a complete role reversal occurred at home..from being the eldest at my grandmas place i was the youngest in my home…so apparently all orders eventually came down to me…though i don’t do much work at home anyway but still i was getting used to doing nothing at all recently. A habit which my sis was only too happy to break…so as routine started again with my guitar classes and the minimal amount of chores i do….i decided it was time i learned to drive a car…so i enrolled myself into a driving school and thus started my second class for the vacations (after guitar) though a relatively short one..after 15 days of sweating it out (literally!!)..i finally managed to get the hang of driving..and the six string too for that matter! (i did start out on learning php but that didn’t get very far…;)..)<br /><br />But apart from this i suppose the best part of vacations were called ‘friends’. It was something i had been looking forward to since my last month in college…to get back together with all my friends and have a blast…and that’s exactly what we did…with all the movies and lunches and getting lost in roads to cherishing all the memories of school and coaching and all…it was truly great..i truly believe that my friends from school are the best ever..and i do hope we stay that way always!! <br /><br />Right now the end of the vacations are almost here and I don’t know how should I be feeling…I mean after staying at home for nearly two months you don’t always feel like going back but on the other hand thinking about college and the fun there you also hope that these 8 days pass quickly.. i believe i am on the excited side…to go back to college and all ….specially since all my friends here are already back in their hostels and I am alone left here to while away on facebook…and plus this time I would have a lot more to do!!weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-19820866884540984702009-07-14T06:24:00.000-07:002009-07-16T06:31:54.429-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YOowbXm8K1ec79hNEAarkltWDceFVPeqQIw9SMGYoIefRr75fLDGQaNE0MVilMeePc2TJfaKSitfMCePAVLWz-R42PqdxRvbd7WOPFmnczc7WpAAmwkkVt8ygs_Su-H35Uw7EVgsLP93/s1600-h/100_0889.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YOowbXm8K1ec79hNEAarkltWDceFVPeqQIw9SMGYoIefRr75fLDGQaNE0MVilMeePc2TJfaKSitfMCePAVLWz-R42PqdxRvbd7WOPFmnczc7WpAAmwkkVt8ygs_Su-H35Uw7EVgsLP93/s320/100_0889.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359048960607591362" /></a><<our>><br /><div><br /></div><div><br />}}our official quark mascot{{<br /> <br />hmm...my post for 2nd sem will be relatuvely shorter than of 1st sem...primary reason being everything we did in 1st sem more or less continued in 2nd sem...even though this time it was a bit more subdued.owing to the prescence of laptop in almost every room and people discovering the wonders of our internal lan p2p software viz direct connect (dc for short) which has all the stuff you require to boast to your friends about any book you have read or movie that you have seen lately because dc has practically everything ranging from ebooks to movies to software tutorials to software<div>themselves to games...everything you can possibly think of!! we dont have to spend money on theaters etc which going by the look of things is pretty useful in college..(you will hardly ever see a person leaving even a 1 re tip anywhere..a penny saved is a penny earned after all)... still major point of 1st sem remained same...i mean classes,exams and our preparations (or rather lack of it) werent affected...apparently teachers were not amused by the fact that all freshers were experiencing a new virtual college (read dc) and needed time to absorb the fact that everything on dc <i>can</i> be viewed in 4 years (as many of my mates only spend their time on their laptops taking everything dc had to offer..unaware of outside world perhapsthinking that if he has to finish dc he will have to spend his every spare time on it)...so anyway the point to be considered was that teachers werent bothered about out lame excuses about entering classes late (that too in an unclean and just out of bed condition) because we slept late at night lost in the realm of dc.(i am mentioning dc too much aint i???)..anyway the new thing that happened in our 2nd sem were the fests...i know i talked about an inter hostel event in our 1st sem..but this was diffferent..it was national level..more fun,more events, more people (for use of a more appropriate word...girls) and more competition (ya like we cared!). so there were 3 fests in all held at different times of semester..they were (with time of occurence)...</div><div><div>1) a techincal fest QUARK (held 3 days before our 1st test) </div><div>2) a cultural fest WAVES ( held 4 days before our 2nd test)</div><div>3) sports fest SPREE (held 20 days before final exams..still better huh??)</div><div><br /></div><div>btw quark is supposed to have a full form which i am dutifully not aware of ..i only know that 'q' stands for quest and 'k' for knowledge (and mind you before you draw conclusions about my attention in college affairs...this info is what less than 10% will be able to tell you)..you can come in with your entries of remaining letters bit noone really cares though i ike to call it "Quest for Upsetting All Remains of Knowledge ..i suppose spree must have a full form too though i am not sure..waves i assure you does not have any meaning behind it..!</div><div>right. soour first fest was quark...and our 1st expirience of a national level fest..well atleast my 1st expirience....one senior in my department had given me a small something to do..and make charts about it...and i remember moving about aimlessly in search of a person with better chart writing than me (i refer to it as chart writing coz its different from normal paper writing..those who have made charts would know..) aind eventually i actually had a girl from my dept make those charts in 1 day that too...and in th e process ended up giving my friends sketchpen box to those girls...but i was grateful..they saved some serious trouble...thanks to them! and 1st day of quark i mostly spent registring people for bitsmun (we dont really need to go into details.). and ya Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was apparently coming to innaugrate our event...though he arrived like 2 hours late and well after events started (which meant officially we were conducting events even before quark started..thus we were ahead of time for once). his speech was utterly boring which was hardly a surprise...! there wasnt much use of us in events as most were bagged away by seniors..as their technical knowledge was obviously far greater than ours...but again atleast we gained an insight as to what projects and ideas were our seniors working on...another thing in fests are the food stalls....a nice break from college mess food...specially the 'gola' which was the most sold out food item...but even apart from that were all the burgers and pav bhaji and stuff which was awesome really!!</div><div>waves was the next fest to come by....the awesomeness things such as food stalls and other feasts (read girls) kinda improved....and i for one had definitely more fun in waves than in quark....coz i definitely had more part in organinzing which involved me running around daily..which frankly speaking i thoroughly enjoyed...you know all the planning and stuff and then seeing the success of your event..it was brilliant! i am looking forward to it again...! but apart from that there were the special nights to enjoy...namely the dj nites and band nites and all..! and then there was sea rock...a semi professional rock band competition that demanded full stenghth of our neck muscles (headbangs in short) that too in the hot afternoon sun..though it was fun!! and our media coverage was done by mtv wassup team...i dunno maybe you people even watched it...but we had a chance to see Bani j work live! it was awesome and thus went waves!!</div><div>third fest was our sports fest spree....all we did during that entire fest was enjoy and rest in the 3 day break...and ate free food...not because of treats or anything...but there are other ways ..if you know what i mean...<<wink>>....and ya the highlight was basketball...girls basketball ...and the teams that came to participate...even though they hammered our college team we still cheered for them... for obvious reasons...<<<wink wink="">>>...the best part in spree was the fuzz ball competions...which we spent entire days playing...that was about it from spree for us..</wink></wink></div><div><br /></div><div>and thus with exams some 3 weeks later ended our second sem and 1st year of college...technically it means we are 25% engineers now...but thats no use as we all know...and frankly speaking we dont know anything in the name of engineering yet,...and i am really looking forward to our 2nd year...but letme tell you...everything i wrote for my 1st year and al the fests is very much in brief..(dont give me that look,,,i noe that joke...its way too old now)...there are many things i might have missed out...like our outings and all.. but you see...every day in college is worth writing a blog on...and thats what i intend to do from now on...i wont be typing annual reports...they are far longer than i tought.....so thats all from my 1st year!! i'll be coming back with my next blog soon (as soon as i get a topic!!)...! </div><div><br /></div></div></div></our>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-92149784372423527322009-07-09T05:54:00.000-07:002009-07-13T05:01:14.311-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXT6G8_fL_TyTWSZsrParHzywcyHHFYFWqPGvEYtLpRNQN4FiacarXOYblgmlGwrFKZwE7mzUH24I7PeTxLs8KLTsuFKuw9S8g8ypI5YajNmuG9yEpjniTgMx1Biht5fpHUoKWo0MqtVgP/s1600-h/DSC00216.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXT6G8_fL_TyTWSZsrParHzywcyHHFYFWqPGvEYtLpRNQN4FiacarXOYblgmlGwrFKZwE7mzUH24I7PeTxLs8KLTsuFKuw9S8g8ypI5YajNmuG9yEpjniTgMx1Biht5fpHUoKWo0MqtVgP/s200/DSC00216.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357493290990088290" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfTRlBs25dyDH1_xxVQ1Ov23OlgBYYGIEgcptvAJo01GOPhDvJC2tGYBJ6KrrgnhCkixozZXOqZs5P_OKgvTlqUlHeP4uzE6ydDAa0Xc-pbHfoVBtCBy5JHla80QqG4lztxMRJ8xuLE1hq/s1600-h/DSC00091.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfTRlBs25dyDH1_xxVQ1Ov23OlgBYYGIEgcptvAJo01GOPhDvJC2tGYBJ6KrrgnhCkixozZXOqZs5P_OKgvTlqUlHeP4uzE6ydDAa0Xc-pbHfoVBtCBy5JHla80QqG4lztxMRJ8xuLE1hq/s200/DSC00091.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357493285404280802" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU1EiD7pCMbvCMkwHcB8sOVcHvrrN4ultV7Qi88vlOKjqNAgk59uk0iRxJRyeE-95cwpX8ygWTi82IYZX3c3JbKj5csICOo2gsUEmsABbfVafTsVRd_2Xzpp9Wv-Svv2aBVbRGm90LroB/s1600-h/DSC00085.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU1EiD7pCMbvCMkwHcB8sOVcHvrrN4ultV7Qi88vlOKjqNAgk59uk0iRxJRyeE-95cwpX8ygWTi82IYZX3c3JbKj5csICOo2gsUEmsABbfVafTsVRd_2Xzpp9Wv-Svv2aBVbRGm90LroB/s200/DSC00085.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357493281905157010" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17TLPr2jPyPwrgjvn1uVsibq38Cvwz-4Ccgi1ug2fdam5kzpgoeAqmD6HlotOUby4VyWyHSbCYtzoAQOrdP1AGYs26vuuB-HyGcVcm3Jh9yqHyikQefLEU0y5a669dDHn-PXuz9mKCxCr/s1600-h/DSC00130.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17TLPr2jPyPwrgjvn1uVsibq38Cvwz-4Ccgi1ug2fdam5kzpgoeAqmD6HlotOUby4VyWyHSbCYtzoAQOrdP1AGYs26vuuB-HyGcVcm3Jh9yqHyikQefLEU0y5a669dDHn-PXuz9mKCxCr/s200/DSC00130.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357493278790723746" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTtgW5RgguPeixPvwKri8UfWNNJgFNyq8VKvqe6JWGjNH2NyLCQXTP5Su-wtxyW6HObfdYjnpRERiCpM-Vv8g4l4SitSfXwHXZc95LOpGEQf-nW9IY8dQ8U1aQpgEB3TZwt-XYYJQcKRP/s1600-h/DSC00090.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTtgW5RgguPeixPvwKri8UfWNNJgFNyq8VKvqe6JWGjNH2NyLCQXTP5Su-wtxyW6HObfdYjnpRERiCpM-Vv8g4l4SitSfXwHXZc95LOpGEQf-nW9IY8dQ8U1aQpgEB3TZwt-XYYJQcKRP/s200/DSC00090.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357493273111318818" /></a><br />my second blog and ive already repeated the word 1st..not that i am much bothered but i couldnt think of a better starting....and ya dont go with the heading and believe that m actually gonna write bout my first year..(which was 1991 btw)... ok lame joke...i know.... but the fact is that ive just completed my maiden year at college....and i thought what could be a better topic than this to write a blog on....! (m writing bout 1st and 2nd sem seperately because it would be too long a blog if i wrote both in one!)<div>right...after a lot of tension,drama,sleepless nights(mostly on my moms part) last year it was finally decided i would be gracing bits pilani goa campus with my sincere prescence for the next 4 years my life..4 years that are supposed to be the most "awesome time of my life"...4 years that would transform me from a "boy to a man"..4 years in which i m supposed to be ready to "face the world"...and every other 4 year thing people have bored me with ever since they heard of my next "stop" in this journey through time where ive gotta have a lot of such stops (i avoided the use of the word "supposed" here again for the sake of repetion..but my intention remains the same however). i was particularly happy...and my parents can validate that in exagerrated terms....i mean this was one of those colleges which i was studying for the last two years to be in (the study part could make another blog but i wouldnt dwell too much on it right now)...and my family was happy too...so we as in my entire family took off to goa 3 days before my registration..so that we could enjoy a break before i would be dumped in my hostel for the 1st sem... and since this is a blog on my 1st year..lets skip the 3 day holiday and cme to the registration day..</div><div>right we were supposed to be in campus by 9 am....but as is the age old custom ..things didnt start until 9:40. the 1st step was to book for hostels...the name of my hostel was ah6...and we wandered around the campus looking out for a billboard saying ah6 which eventually turned out to be the farthest hostel from the main building...the hostel was the most recently made...so the 1st sight which greeted us on entering it was the dirt and stones lying on the part where there was supposed to be a lawn...but it also eamnt that we would be living in rooms never stayed in before..and using toilets never used before (infact we found out later that ours was the only hostel with western toilets) though we had to live farthest off from the insti building.....and after a long day of registering and signing confirming details and giving certificates..a process in which i was required to run to and fro from the hostel about 10 times(remember my hostel being the farthest) and which ended with the most speech by the director in the auditorium...it was finally time to bade goodbye to my parents..it was enotional..specially for my mom..and i was kinda nostalgic too seeing them return to the hotel in the taxi without me...but the prospect of the new life energized me and i rushed back to the hostel...to my new room...i met a couple of guys who were of my hostel..people who i lost track of after a few weeks..but they atleast gave me starting ompany which every fresher might have been wanting at that time...i came back and was about to enter my room when a voice behind me said 'hi'...i turned around to see my neighbour...well actly a coupleof rooms off for a neighbour in exact terms but definitely the guy i chatted till bout nite joined in by my actual neighbour later...well its kind of an irony that i dont have either of my neighbours numbers even after 1 year...but thats the way its is...! </div><div>the next couple of days went without event just the normal intro part with friends and checking out the campus...and getting accustomed to college life. the time when i was askedfor my intro by seniors is worth a mention..though it isnt extreme as in iits perhaps but still it was fun giving intro in french,on both knees and to put 'sir' at begining and end of each sentence. we had to arrange for books from seniors and it was required to enter their hostel for that...a place where us juniors had thought of as a lions den till...then it didnt went as bad..we sat in 1 room for nearly 15 mins without incident...! so thats what are "encounter" with seniors went...! infact my first few days in college were quite boring.. except when 22 people gathered in 1 room to watch a movie on the only laptop in hostel till then..and the late night chats...for which our corridor was particularly famous...infact even the warden warned us not to chat to each other after 12pm...ya ohk..we listened!</div><div>but the real fun came after the classes started...for the first couple of days everone used to get up on time and dress up and bath (some people didnt even bother with those formalities even in the beginning) and go to class ready to take in everything our teachers said ...after all we are here to learn arent we?? but "first couple of days" lasted shorter than we expected...soon we were bunking classes gettin up late...not bothering to keep up with class...after all tests were still away werent they?? as time progressed we started sleeping late and late doing basically nothing..but still the air in hostel somehow seems to suck out the sleep hormones from body...i mean i slept so much at home..and still do while on vacations..i guess its part of hostel life..even though i slept really on time la=ike a good boy at 11 11:30 for the first few days..but again that didnt last long....another factor was the mess...though we were excited at eating out in mess...we found out pretty early that mess isnt something worth getting excited for...as the rumors of mess food came out to be pretty accurate...we were found hanging more and more at monginis,nescafe insti cafeteria for our breakfast and other snacks....</div><div>vasco is another place as dear to us as our hostel rooms...its the nearest town to our college..we get everything we need there...but not everything we want....so we have to venture out to panjim and other places to eat or treats and stuff...infact being on the beach with friends and then out for a dinner is one memory that perhaps i will miss bout being here...and by treat...i found out here as to how unlucky a person is on his birthday...i mean just look at it...that poor guy is beaten by the bullies who could hand the likes of stallone their pink slips...plus he is completely wet, if lucky by water...(usually eggs are the best deal) and he has to attend calls till late night depriving him of sleep...get up and first words he hear is treat...and whats more he doesnt get as much as a toffee for his efforts....he lives on in the hope that everyone present there had to be born on a day that is labelled on the calender...and that gives relief trust me...!!</div><div>college fests is something we all look forward to...though we didnt have national fests in our 1st sem....we did have one interhostel event....that was aweome in its own respect...wearing our specific hostel tshirts and and testing the capability of our lungs with all the shouting and staying up entire nights preparing for competions and making slogans to humiliate others was a great expierience!</div><div>but its not all milk and roses in hostel too...there are things like exams which act as great stress boosters to combat all the stress busters available....as i said we didnt really pay attention to whats happening in class till the test dates started teasing us about how close they were....and thus began the relentless late night struggles (with maggi and biscuits as our first aid to drowsiness...you know its shocking as to how exams even counter hostel air which is supposed to suck out sleep hormones and actually make you sleepy..exams are indeed powerful tor tools for teachers!) to conquer the mountain of exams...it were our first exposure to relative marking...a remarkable discovery of its own...so all our pride of gaining 90's were smashed when we saw our marks which were like in 60's.and all that was muttered after exams were estimates of averages of grade cutoffs and what were we expectedly getting (which surprisingly are always more than we put..no matter how strict we are to ourselves while estimating) .but the relative marking system turned out to be saviour...with people with bout 20 marks more than me also endin with the same grade and i did manage a descent cgpa as well...soon we were done with everything and it was time to return home...i mean even with all the fun around..you still somehow find time to miss home in between,especially in the last month or so with exams and all, so obviously we were all excited to go home and answer questions awaiting us... about the journey called "1st semester"!</div><div><br /></div><div>2nd sem post soon!</div>weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593751684486458252.post-47205116410142751012009-07-03T01:50:00.000-07:002009-07-03T01:55:31.700-07:00right...so this is my first time blogging...and i dunno wanna bore u with all the shit bout i-dunno-how-wud-i-do-this and i-am-doing-this-coz......i just thot it wud b nice to keep track of everything m doin....so i guess blogging was the best option available....okay so i am boring u with i-am-doin-this-coz thing....dont worry...thats all from my first blog...hope u keep following...!! and ya i xpect to write longer posts than this!!weightless epicure!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05188555057881824907noreply@blogger.com0