My apologies! I guess that is too stilted a title for what I am about to write. Today was the first day of classes for my last semester at IITK. So, obviously, this is quite a moment for me.
It began, more or less, like other semesters till date have begun; with the slight exception that I was supposed to try out some courses and see if I would like to take those up. Till now, it has always been very easy and proper with all courses pre-registered. But well, seems like it is not too bad an experience.
However, our attempts at convincing some profs for their courses met some ill-fate in the morning itself, when one of the profs was found to be on a pretty long leave. Hence, one "rather easy-looking" course was eliminated. The second encounter was more amusing and less disappointing.
It was the class for "Topics in Indian Philosophy". We were all seated by the time the bell rang. Also present was a chubby looking guy who was every bit like a student except that he wasn't! He was actually the instructor. He began proceedings and belted out quite a lot of sanskrit jargon, most of which was rather intimidating, and in an uncharacteristic english accent. What was more surprising that he began his boardwork with a "shri" symbol on top! Some character that... altho it seemed like a nice course, so I will take it presuming he accepts me. :D
In the afternoon session, one instructor forgot he had a class and chose to absent himself. Things got worse when a bunch of 'idiots' went and called him from his office. He, obviously, was totally befuddled and somehow managed to teach for the next 30-35 mins, much to our dismay.
All in all, it was quite amazing to see everybody in the academic area. We might not see too much of this... ever. Guess all of us have to move on. Just like this year, and the last, and the next too.
On this note, here wishing a very very happy new year to anybody who's reading this... which kinda amounts to like 1-2 ppl. So I might as well use FB & gtalk for that!
Amen!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Just another 'PoU'm
This semester, there was a choice of course,
I chose, alas, The Physics of Universe.
The earth (for all intents and purposes) was a sphere,
So were the marks, and that gave me the scare.
The class, it seemed, begun at dawn,
The prof's eyes met mine, and I stifled a yawn.
Crammed up 'astronomical' figures, I wonder why?
Galileo was confusing, so was Tycho Brahe!
I swept the azimuth, and climbed up the pole,
Burst in a 'nova, and became a black hole.
The mids, the end-sem sped by like light,
The magical 25 percent was still out of sight.
"You'll fail only if you deserve to", the professor proclaimed,
The hopes and dreams of hundreds was drained.
He'll fail me, He'll fail me not, there were rumours galore,
I'd had so much of it, I wanted no more.
Sprang up in no time, the placements and CAT,
The fear of an 'F' pinned us to the mat.
We could whine, we could explain, we could cuss,
But there seemed no way we could "Ask the Pankaz!".
But God hears our prayers, he's surely not deaf,
I now have a 'Z' and an 'S', but, it seems, no 'F'.
I chose, alas, The Physics of Universe.
The earth (for all intents and purposes) was a sphere,
So were the marks, and that gave me the scare.
The class, it seemed, begun at dawn,
The prof's eyes met mine, and I stifled a yawn.
Crammed up 'astronomical' figures, I wonder why?
Galileo was confusing, so was Tycho Brahe!
I swept the azimuth, and climbed up the pole,
Burst in a 'nova, and became a black hole.
The mids, the end-sem sped by like light,
The magical 25 percent was still out of sight.
"You'll fail only if you deserve to", the professor proclaimed,
The hopes and dreams of hundreds was drained.
He'll fail me, He'll fail me not, there were rumours galore,
I'd had so much of it, I wanted no more.
Sprang up in no time, the placements and CAT,
The fear of an 'F' pinned us to the mat.
We could whine, we could explain, we could cuss,
But there seemed no way we could "Ask the Pankaz!".
But God hears our prayers, he's surely not deaf,
I now have a 'Z' and an 'S', but, it seems, no 'F'.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
New Uploads on Youtube
Here is a link to the video of me performing at Antaragni '09.
Geet Prelims @ Antaragni'09
Geet Prelims @ Antaragni'09
Friday, October 30, 2009
The phenomenon called "Michael Jackson"!
Just yesterday, during one of my youtube browsing sessions, I chanced upon a particular Pepsi commercial which featured MJ. Needless to say, it was amazingly invigorating with some cool dance moves. Immediately, I was lost in a reverie and was reminded of the rocking "Black or White" & "Beat it"s, the groovin' "Billie Jean" and the soulful "Heal the World". And suddenly, it struck me... all those wonderful moments deserve atleast one nice blog post! So here it is... specially for you, Jacko!
I would be fooling myself if I claim that I had been listening to Michael's music all these years. I was always a huge fan, yes... but somewhere during the past 5 years or so, MJ had finally managed to be "out of sight, out of mind". Unfortunately, his death brought back his music to me. I cannot describe the chill that went up my spine when I heard the Intro tune of "Thriller" again... after all these years. The high-pitched shrieks, the flashy costumes, the feline movements, the intricate plots surrounding the song...every single second is sheer pleasure!
The guy has teamed up with greats like McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Lionel Ritchie and many more that escape my humble memory here. There are loads of people out there who believe that MJ's music is trash and when prodded, shrug off any arguments by referring to all the accusations heaped on him. Moreover, most of these people cannot hold a note to save their lives and cannot tell the sound of a guitar from a flute.
Ok! I am no soothsayer and maybe, MJ was no saint either! However, firstly, none of the accusations belie his musical genius and secondly, most of them seem to baseless now that, after his death, there are loads of people coming out in his defence. There is enough evidence now that MJ was nothing more than a victim of the big bad world which knew nothing better than to use his talent to fill its own coffers. The recently released movie "This is it" is evidently another such gimmick to cash in on the hysteria, and not a tribute as the makers claim it to be. Alas! MJ never had the childhood he wanted, nor the pleasure of spending his money the way he wanted to and died, a mere skeleton in his huge "Neverland" Ranch, wishing he had never grown up.
Jackson's entry onto the music scene was a landmark in the beginning of the Generation-X (whether one likes its ways or not is another matter). He was a phenomenon, like nobody has ever been nor anyone, in this fickle digital age, ever will be. He has left behind a treasure of music that will be cherished for decades to come, 'cult' moves that are as much a rage as they were 25 years ago and glimpses of a life so extravagant, so lavish, yet, so incomplete.
I pity the psychos who label him a 'freak' and mock him for a lack of anything better to do. Even in his death, they try to find something that might benefit them, even at the cost of putting Jackson's reputation into peril. Well, this might be going a bit over-the-top but I am reminded of a few lines from Julius Caesar, the play, here:
" You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
and men have lost their reason "
I would be fooling myself if I claim that I had been listening to Michael's music all these years. I was always a huge fan, yes... but somewhere during the past 5 years or so, MJ had finally managed to be "out of sight, out of mind". Unfortunately, his death brought back his music to me. I cannot describe the chill that went up my spine when I heard the Intro tune of "Thriller" again... after all these years. The high-pitched shrieks, the flashy costumes, the feline movements, the intricate plots surrounding the song...every single second is sheer pleasure!
The guy has teamed up with greats like McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Lionel Ritchie and many more that escape my humble memory here. There are loads of people out there who believe that MJ's music is trash and when prodded, shrug off any arguments by referring to all the accusations heaped on him. Moreover, most of these people cannot hold a note to save their lives and cannot tell the sound of a guitar from a flute.
Ok! I am no soothsayer and maybe, MJ was no saint either! However, firstly, none of the accusations belie his musical genius and secondly, most of them seem to baseless now that, after his death, there are loads of people coming out in his defence. There is enough evidence now that MJ was nothing more than a victim of the big bad world which knew nothing better than to use his talent to fill its own coffers. The recently released movie "This is it" is evidently another such gimmick to cash in on the hysteria, and not a tribute as the makers claim it to be. Alas! MJ never had the childhood he wanted, nor the pleasure of spending his money the way he wanted to and died, a mere skeleton in his huge "Neverland" Ranch, wishing he had never grown up.
Jackson's entry onto the music scene was a landmark in the beginning of the Generation-X (whether one likes its ways or not is another matter). He was a phenomenon, like nobody has ever been nor anyone, in this fickle digital age, ever will be. He has left behind a treasure of music that will be cherished for decades to come, 'cult' moves that are as much a rage as they were 25 years ago and glimpses of a life so extravagant, so lavish, yet, so incomplete.
I pity the psychos who label him a 'freak' and mock him for a lack of anything better to do. Even in his death, they try to find something that might benefit them, even at the cost of putting Jackson's reputation into peril. Well, this might be going a bit over-the-top but I am reminded of a few lines from Julius Caesar, the play, here:
" You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
and men have lost their reason "
Monday, October 26, 2009
Memoirs: Antaragni' 09, The Final Fantasy :D
Scenes from all the Antaragnis I have been part of are etched in my mind, more so from this, the last edition I would witness as a part of the IITK student community (unless some mean professor decides otherwise). If you are reading this blog and wondering how details of my activities and perspective on Antaragni could interest a reader, I would like to point out to you that this is merely for personal record.
I will be following chronological order (more or less) from here on...
Day 1: A Nice Beginning!
As is the case every year, hordes of people start trickling in on Thursday (some of them have actually been here since Wednesday). I have just a single class in the morning but decide against visiting the SAC before the evening. Guess it didn't hurt too much. Come evening and the lot of us head for the SAC in a definitely-more-than-ordinary attire. And lo and behold! That amazing hustle-bustle: a motley crowd of guitar playing dudes, "bewildered at being in IITK" junta, sweet girls, naughty girls, "goth" chicks, woooo girls (seriously!!), a 10, a pair of 8s, a bevy of 6s... an indigestible assortment of the happening crowd! Had MJ been here, he would have shrieked... "This is it!"
Our ogling eyes having been satiated a bit, we move to the venue for the Opening Show. Ha! 4th year... no standing in queues. We get in... Advaita is nice, Sitar Funk is great! Kudos Niladri... but ya, we've seen u already, remember "Megabucks'08"... we move back to the SAC before the show reaches its climax. Hungry stomachs... we head to the food court; new resolution - any money spent on vegetarian stuff is a waste! A chicken lollipop here, a butter chicken there, a few roomali rotis thrown in for good measure... and we're full! Wait for the much awaited Antakshari... turns out to be a bit of a bummer, i get my singing opportunity and we manage to get 2 tees (size XXL)!
Some more time at the CCD stall... some more foodstuff... and we retire at about 3 a.m.
Day 2: Pretty Eventful!
Get up pretty early in the morning considering the last night's bed-time. Surprisingly, choose to skip the word games (had enough of lit events in my 4 yrs). Head off to see the 'designs' in the rangoli competition, on the recommendation of a friend - not really worth spending too much time. So, a detour to our favourite haunt : the SAC. Not the most crowded of places at this time of the day. I plan to participate in some musical events today - a first for me... get myself registered... have to wait till after lunch. During lunch I am coaxed into hosting a pretty lame event called "mallville - mafia wars". Around 3 pm, I finally get to perform in 'Geet' in the presence of quite a lot of my friends, brought together by loads of phone calls :D. Seems the outing was better than most had expected. After the usual lounging around, I reach the mall desk for the "mafia wars" thingy. The not-so-surprising time-delays ensure it begins only around 6. And what do we realise... that for some weird reason (still beyond my understanding), the event sees an all-male turnout. I crack some pretty lame jokes on stage, not that the event had any scope for me to "do well". After around 2 hrs, the painful game ends with my friends and I (!) winning the maximum we could have from the game (not that it mattered in the long run). With still some time at hand, I rush to the english vocals event... another entry - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', not too many ppl this time around but this one seemed to have gone well too. After this we flit from some event to SAC to food court and end the day at around 2 am again. Ya, I did sit through an incomprehensible flurry of questions called the "sports quiz" and left in a hurry!
One of the interesting happenings of the day was the nukkad event - Our team did brilliantly but that is not too much of a surprise really. What was more amusing were the ever-so-shockin' beginning some of the Nukkad entries had. One moment there was a small group sitting near you, quietly, and before you know it they just dash off to the centre shouting at the top of their voices. In a scarier one, I saw a girl heading in my direction, pointing her finger and the next moment she grabs the girl sitting next to me, drags her by her hair and both of them jostle for some reason... naaiice!!
Day 3: New day, new stories!
I will probably be a bit more concise with this day as most of our activities repeat themselves henceforth. Get up in the morning... have Hindi Dumb-C which doesn't seem to be a Dumb-C event at all. We are kicked out in round 2. See a bit of the JAM where jam-master J.Das emphatically announces that "self-banging" is allowed. The crowds find it too gross and leave (Ok! That is not true :D ). Gen Quiz takes place in the afternoon... we miss out by less than a mark - disppointing! Take a bit of rest... see the Mridaksh prelims on Mall Stage... find them extremely soporific.. exit. We enter the discotheque... 3 dudes... decide against dancing, begin to leave, meet two geeks (also close friends and cool people!) who are extremely enthusiastic to shake a leg : quorum complete... we head to the dance floor - an enjoyable hour follows! Time for the Bolly Quiz - new team, the quiz turns out to be a farce... we don't qualify again... but sit through as the "nOOb" quiz ends in a jiffy! Time running out to make our last Antaragni outing a quizzing success... retire late to bed again, after the usual hanging around! Some interesting Dumb-C participation late at night... acquainted to the "Thakur High-Five" - don't worry, that's an esoteric joke!
Day 4: That's all, folks!
Well, here it is... final day of the final edition of Antaragni! Another day with a fresh bit of hope that this day will be special! What do we do in the morning... hmmm... oh! the usual... return to the SAC for some more guy-guy hanging out. Oh ya, did i mention that every morning I woke up to the blaring tunes of Salsa numbers with pairs of boys and girls dancing, hands-over-hips, right in front of my room. Bhhaammm! It hits you... get out and get goin'. We miss the comics quiz and a mixed bag of word games... maybe I did repent that a bit... but as I said before enuf of those events for me, really! Then we get together for the MELA quiz with a junior completing the ranks with me and Raju. Did pretty well... As Raju put it, atleast we didn't go out for a duck like Sourav Dada! No prizes for us tho... a first for my Antaragni career.
Then came in the climax of the festival... the prof nite with KK on campus. Began with a disappointing opening by "Faridkot" but KK managed to take the fun a notch higher. Hung out with one set of friends for the first half and then met up with the quintessential geek group - An AIR 5 (now a Fulbright scholar), an AIR 10, a PhD student (female) who is about to get married Jan next yr and some other dudes who love to hang out but derive most of their humour from highly skilled wordplay. Not the group you would associate with the usual definition of "fun". But boy! Did we have some fun that night! It was an amazing show, not because KK was exceptional, but because everybody was so keen to have a good time and succeeded! Weird and hilarious dance moves, Venkat's "Uchcha Lamba Kadd" performance, and our dear friend Bong flashing (his receding hairline) on the giant screen... all elements for some moments to remember for a long time. Pretty tired, we come back to SAC... I meet my Student Guide (Baap), here for Antaragni, eat some food and then resort to playing Dumb-C again! Very unwillingly, we call it a day at around 3 and bid farewell to a not-entirely-awesome but definitely a special Antaragni!
P.S. I tried to write the above in the form of an ongoing commentary. As the events were already in the past by the time I wrote them, there might be tense inconsistencies at lots of places. If you give a damn about that, get a life!
A special mention for the little girl who hung out with our gang and actually went out of her way to dance with us on the prof nite inspite of her sociopath friends' efforts to dissuade her! Also to my MME buddy "ak100ak" for raising the 'fun' bar, his long sojourns to attend calls notwithstanding...
Ciaos Antaragni!
I will be following chronological order (more or less) from here on...
Day 1: A Nice Beginning!
As is the case every year, hordes of people start trickling in on Thursday (some of them have actually been here since Wednesday). I have just a single class in the morning but decide against visiting the SAC before the evening. Guess it didn't hurt too much. Come evening and the lot of us head for the SAC in a definitely-more-than-ordinary attire. And lo and behold! That amazing hustle-bustle: a motley crowd of guitar playing dudes, "bewildered at being in IITK" junta, sweet girls, naughty girls, "goth" chicks, woooo girls (seriously!!), a 10, a pair of 8s, a bevy of 6s... an indigestible assortment of the happening crowd! Had MJ been here, he would have shrieked... "This is it!"
Our ogling eyes having been satiated a bit, we move to the venue for the Opening Show. Ha! 4th year... no standing in queues. We get in... Advaita is nice, Sitar Funk is great! Kudos Niladri... but ya, we've seen u already, remember "Megabucks'08"... we move back to the SAC before the show reaches its climax. Hungry stomachs... we head to the food court; new resolution - any money spent on vegetarian stuff is a waste! A chicken lollipop here, a butter chicken there, a few roomali rotis thrown in for good measure... and we're full! Wait for the much awaited Antakshari... turns out to be a bit of a bummer, i get my singing opportunity and we manage to get 2 tees (size XXL)!
Some more time at the CCD stall... some more foodstuff... and we retire at about 3 a.m.
Day 2: Pretty Eventful!
Get up pretty early in the morning considering the last night's bed-time. Surprisingly, choose to skip the word games (had enough of lit events in my 4 yrs). Head off to see the 'designs' in the rangoli competition, on the recommendation of a friend - not really worth spending too much time. So, a detour to our favourite haunt : the SAC. Not the most crowded of places at this time of the day. I plan to participate in some musical events today - a first for me... get myself registered... have to wait till after lunch. During lunch I am coaxed into hosting a pretty lame event called "mallville - mafia wars". Around 3 pm, I finally get to perform in 'Geet' in the presence of quite a lot of my friends, brought together by loads of phone calls :D. Seems the outing was better than most had expected. After the usual lounging around, I reach the mall desk for the "mafia wars" thingy. The not-so-surprising time-delays ensure it begins only around 6. And what do we realise... that for some weird reason (still beyond my understanding), the event sees an all-male turnout. I crack some pretty lame jokes on stage, not that the event had any scope for me to "do well". After around 2 hrs, the painful game ends with my friends and I (!) winning the maximum we could have from the game (not that it mattered in the long run). With still some time at hand, I rush to the english vocals event... another entry - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', not too many ppl this time around but this one seemed to have gone well too. After this we flit from some event to SAC to food court and end the day at around 2 am again. Ya, I did sit through an incomprehensible flurry of questions called the "sports quiz" and left in a hurry!
One of the interesting happenings of the day was the nukkad event - Our team did brilliantly but that is not too much of a surprise really. What was more amusing were the ever-so-shockin' beginning some of the Nukkad entries had. One moment there was a small group sitting near you, quietly, and before you know it they just dash off to the centre shouting at the top of their voices. In a scarier one, I saw a girl heading in my direction, pointing her finger and the next moment she grabs the girl sitting next to me, drags her by her hair and both of them jostle for some reason... naaiice!!
Day 3: New day, new stories!
I will probably be a bit more concise with this day as most of our activities repeat themselves henceforth. Get up in the morning... have Hindi Dumb-C which doesn't seem to be a Dumb-C event at all. We are kicked out in round 2. See a bit of the JAM where jam-master J.Das emphatically announces that "self-banging" is allowed. The crowds find it too gross and leave (Ok! That is not true :D ). Gen Quiz takes place in the afternoon... we miss out by less than a mark - disppointing! Take a bit of rest... see the Mridaksh prelims on Mall Stage... find them extremely soporific.. exit. We enter the discotheque... 3 dudes... decide against dancing, begin to leave, meet two geeks (also close friends and cool people!) who are extremely enthusiastic to shake a leg : quorum complete... we head to the dance floor - an enjoyable hour follows! Time for the Bolly Quiz - new team, the quiz turns out to be a farce... we don't qualify again... but sit through as the "nOOb" quiz ends in a jiffy! Time running out to make our last Antaragni outing a quizzing success... retire late to bed again, after the usual hanging around! Some interesting Dumb-C participation late at night... acquainted to the "Thakur High-Five" - don't worry, that's an esoteric joke!
Day 4: That's all, folks!
Well, here it is... final day of the final edition of Antaragni! Another day with a fresh bit of hope that this day will be special! What do we do in the morning... hmmm... oh! the usual... return to the SAC for some more guy-guy hanging out. Oh ya, did i mention that every morning I woke up to the blaring tunes of Salsa numbers with pairs of boys and girls dancing, hands-over-hips, right in front of my room. Bhhaammm! It hits you... get out and get goin'. We miss the comics quiz and a mixed bag of word games... maybe I did repent that a bit... but as I said before enuf of those events for me, really! Then we get together for the MELA quiz with a junior completing the ranks with me and Raju. Did pretty well... As Raju put it, atleast we didn't go out for a duck like Sourav Dada! No prizes for us tho... a first for my Antaragni career.
Then came in the climax of the festival... the prof nite with KK on campus. Began with a disappointing opening by "Faridkot" but KK managed to take the fun a notch higher. Hung out with one set of friends for the first half and then met up with the quintessential geek group - An AIR 5 (now a Fulbright scholar), an AIR 10, a PhD student (female) who is about to get married Jan next yr and some other dudes who love to hang out but derive most of their humour from highly skilled wordplay. Not the group you would associate with the usual definition of "fun". But boy! Did we have some fun that night! It was an amazing show, not because KK was exceptional, but because everybody was so keen to have a good time and succeeded! Weird and hilarious dance moves, Venkat's "Uchcha Lamba Kadd" performance, and our dear friend Bong flashing (his receding hairline) on the giant screen... all elements for some moments to remember for a long time. Pretty tired, we come back to SAC... I meet my Student Guide (Baap), here for Antaragni, eat some food and then resort to playing Dumb-C again! Very unwillingly, we call it a day at around 3 and bid farewell to a not-entirely-awesome but definitely a special Antaragni!
P.S. I tried to write the above in the form of an ongoing commentary. As the events were already in the past by the time I wrote them, there might be tense inconsistencies at lots of places. If you give a damn about that, get a life!
A special mention for the little girl who hung out with our gang and actually went out of her way to dance with us on the prof nite inspite of her sociopath friends' efforts to dissuade her! Also to my MME buddy "ak100ak" for raising the 'fun' bar, his long sojourns to attend calls notwithstanding...
Ciaos Antaragni!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
GRE-at Expectations
This is an article I wrote for the recently published edition of my college newspaper "Vox Populi" which currently has me as one of its editors. I thought it would be interesting to share it with other people too... so here it is:
The first two years in this college are sheer bliss. All you know are instances of illustrious seniors lapping up prestigious jobs with mind-boggling pay-packages. Enter third year, and the harsh realities begin to surface. You realise that not everything is as rosy as it seemed to be.
In the last year or so, the economic downturn has just made things worse. The hordes of third-years lining up for placement preparation sessions and the so-called “personality-enhancing workshops” bewilder me. These “troubled times” have also got people thinking about continuing their education and avoid the messed-up placement scenario altogether. This has led to something which I would like to the call ‘the GRE phenomenon’.
Suddenly, everybody is queuing up for the hitherto little-known and “not so happening” city of Allahabad (oddly, one of the two centres for GRE in the north). People who, till yesterday, swore that they would die rather than continue in their current field of study are cramming thousands of words, only to pursue “higher” education in their respective fields. Every place you go, you find people racking their brains over a list of ‘alien’ words and strategizing for the test on war footing. Only, this war has a different kind of ‘Barron’ as its indisputable hero.
These GRE ‘maggus’ are becoming a pain for the other half of their peers, the GRE “muggles”. These innocuous beings are made to brook their ubiquitous “Barron’s”-wielding cronies’ persistent rambling in an array of stilted words. You definitely understand what I intend to convey, don’t you? I mean what were these people thinking when they designed this test. Someone must have said, “Hey! Here is a list of some really nasty and useless words you need to mug up. If you’re ready to do that, you must be really desperate to get to the US and we’ll let you in”.
It is common to see students stashing some “not-so-flashy” flash cards (for the uninitiated, these are word-meaning lists) inside their notebooks, and anxiously taking a peek at them when the professor looks away. So ugly is the rat-race that it has gulped up some totally clueless “muggles” who, realising that their friends were into GRE, have begun vigorous efforts to increase their vocabulary, just so that they are not left behind in any way.
Joining the rats in this race for a successful career are the CATs. They were recently seen to be at the peak of their activity when they were remarkably stumped by an apparently confusing form to be filled, merely to register for the Common Admission Test, which, actually, should have been the puzzling part.
Well, in the fact that all this preparation leads to people joining hands to improve upon their skills and aim for a better future, there is a beauty in this mess. But, as they say, pulchritude has cutaneous profundity... – “beauty is skin deep”, yaar!
The first two years in this college are sheer bliss. All you know are instances of illustrious seniors lapping up prestigious jobs with mind-boggling pay-packages. Enter third year, and the harsh realities begin to surface. You realise that not everything is as rosy as it seemed to be.
In the last year or so, the economic downturn has just made things worse. The hordes of third-years lining up for placement preparation sessions and the so-called “personality-enhancing workshops” bewilder me. These “troubled times” have also got people thinking about continuing their education and avoid the messed-up placement scenario altogether. This has led to something which I would like to the call ‘the GRE phenomenon’.
Suddenly, everybody is queuing up for the hitherto little-known and “not so happening” city of Allahabad (oddly, one of the two centres for GRE in the north). People who, till yesterday, swore that they would die rather than continue in their current field of study are cramming thousands of words, only to pursue “higher” education in their respective fields. Every place you go, you find people racking their brains over a list of ‘alien’ words and strategizing for the test on war footing. Only, this war has a different kind of ‘Barron’ as its indisputable hero.
These GRE ‘maggus’ are becoming a pain for the other half of their peers, the GRE “muggles”. These innocuous beings are made to brook their ubiquitous “Barron’s”-wielding cronies’ persistent rambling in an array of stilted words. You definitely understand what I intend to convey, don’t you? I mean what were these people thinking when they designed this test. Someone must have said, “Hey! Here is a list of some really nasty and useless words you need to mug up. If you’re ready to do that, you must be really desperate to get to the US and we’ll let you in”.
It is common to see students stashing some “not-so-flashy” flash cards (for the uninitiated, these are word-meaning lists) inside their notebooks, and anxiously taking a peek at them when the professor looks away. So ugly is the rat-race that it has gulped up some totally clueless “muggles” who, realising that their friends were into GRE, have begun vigorous efforts to increase their vocabulary, just so that they are not left behind in any way.
Joining the rats in this race for a successful career are the CATs. They were recently seen to be at the peak of their activity when they were remarkably stumped by an apparently confusing form to be filled, merely to register for the Common Admission Test, which, actually, should have been the puzzling part.
Well, in the fact that all this preparation leads to people joining hands to improve upon their skills and aim for a better future, there is a beauty in this mess. But, as they say, pulchritude has cutaneous profundity... – “beauty is skin deep”, yaar!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
An eventful day
Today was a tiring saturday. We had a departmental tour scheduled today which made us walk through incomprehensible mazes of industry shops at the Tata Motors plant in Lucknow. It is impossible for me to put down in words the pain I have in my legs right now. I am not sure why I am writing this post right now since I am extremely dazed owing to the fact that the above mentioned trip forced me to get up at 5:00 am.
I won't be talking too much about the trip. The journey back and forth from Kanpur to Lucknow was pretty interesting, with lots of chips, biscuits, cold-drinks and amazingly loud recitals of numerous cheesy and sleazy bollywood numbers. The place of visit, Tata Motors, was good and yeah, well... that's about all I came to make of it. After spending 10 hours traveling in a bus which painfully ambled to its destination, we arrived back in campus at around 8 pm.
Now, my next room neighbour and good friend, usually called by the name "bong", has his birthday today (13th sept). So we had plans to celebrate it at 12 in the night. And so we did. Surprisingly, in a college like IITK, this guy mananges to party with a group which has more gals than guys. And I am not complaining.
The cake was good. So were the photo sessions. And obviously, the entry of the SIS guards to shoo us away from the place of celebration added to the aura of the moment. For no particular reason, most people were at their humorous best and we spent close to 2 hours cracking and laughing at extremely hilarious jokes. All in all, a perfect end to an interesting day.
I am extremely sleepy and don't know what to write further.
Ciao...
I won't be talking too much about the trip. The journey back and forth from Kanpur to Lucknow was pretty interesting, with lots of chips, biscuits, cold-drinks and amazingly loud recitals of numerous cheesy and sleazy bollywood numbers. The place of visit, Tata Motors, was good and yeah, well... that's about all I came to make of it. After spending 10 hours traveling in a bus which painfully ambled to its destination, we arrived back in campus at around 8 pm.
Now, my next room neighbour and good friend, usually called by the name "bong", has his birthday today (13th sept). So we had plans to celebrate it at 12 in the night. And so we did. Surprisingly, in a college like IITK, this guy mananges to party with a group which has more gals than guys. And I am not complaining.
The cake was good. So were the photo sessions. And obviously, the entry of the SIS guards to shoo us away from the place of celebration added to the aura of the moment. For no particular reason, most people were at their humorous best and we spent close to 2 hours cracking and laughing at extremely hilarious jokes. All in all, a perfect end to an interesting day.
I am extremely sleepy and don't know what to write further.
Ciao...
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
...and that's life!
Whoever said that the final year of college is extremely cool, should be forcefully made to eat his words up and I wish he chokes on them. Right now, there is such frenzy around with respect to academics, future plans, preparations to realise that future, pressure of coping with the recession and a nagging uneasiness that one year hence we will be at crossroads again.
For the umpteenth time in your life, everbody around tells you that if you somehow successfully manage things "this" time around, all will be good with your life. The truth, as we all have realised by now, is that things will never be that simple... ever. And yeah, I am totally cool with that. Life presents its challenges and you waddle through them and also try to enjoy while you are here on this earth. But then why do you take the trouble?
Ok, I am totally digressing from the theme that I had in mind when I started writing this post. Now that I have brought up this point, I would also mention that this question has often perturbed me, as I am sure it would have all of you readers (if there are any!! :D). Thinking about all this is pretty unnerving and it totally screws up your head.
Why do we imperil all our comfort and happiness in the present moment just to realise the same things at a later stage. Why are people expected to live their life to the fullest and have a passion for what they do.. blah blah. When you came into this world, you, as an individual, had no say in it! All this is as complicated as the big bang. Your birth was your big bang! Before that, there was nothing... People have found out ways to convince themselves of a larger motive behind all this. They charted out concepts of rebirth and how you live 84000 lives and try and attain nirvana. The question is if the human being is an imperfect being looking to seek that perfect balance, WHO created this anamoly in the form of a being? All this looks like a divine program code, but who is running this and why? Is God himself seeking some answers by changing the codes and generating new sub-programs? Do we really have a choice in deciding the course of our life or is this just a predecided simulation... slowly leading to an end.
I had taken up a course in philosophy in my second year which talked of concepts like the Deus Deceptor and "brain in a vat" wherein people had deliberated as to the entire world could be a dream that our brain was dreaming. Then, of course, we would never know because there could be no world we could wake up into. At times, I too feel like I am recalling my entire life and am presently a grown up individual. The only evidence for reality are our physical senses and they are as good as anything in our dreams as well. Hence..! Phew... I have had enough!
I guess the best policy is... enjoy the moment!
:D
For the umpteenth time in your life, everbody around tells you that if you somehow successfully manage things "this" time around, all will be good with your life. The truth, as we all have realised by now, is that things will never be that simple... ever. And yeah, I am totally cool with that. Life presents its challenges and you waddle through them and also try to enjoy while you are here on this earth. But then why do you take the trouble?
Ok, I am totally digressing from the theme that I had in mind when I started writing this post. Now that I have brought up this point, I would also mention that this question has often perturbed me, as I am sure it would have all of you readers (if there are any!! :D). Thinking about all this is pretty unnerving and it totally screws up your head.
Why do we imperil all our comfort and happiness in the present moment just to realise the same things at a later stage. Why are people expected to live their life to the fullest and have a passion for what they do.. blah blah. When you came into this world, you, as an individual, had no say in it! All this is as complicated as the big bang. Your birth was your big bang! Before that, there was nothing... People have found out ways to convince themselves of a larger motive behind all this. They charted out concepts of rebirth and how you live 84000 lives and try and attain nirvana. The question is if the human being is an imperfect being looking to seek that perfect balance, WHO created this anamoly in the form of a being? All this looks like a divine program code, but who is running this and why? Is God himself seeking some answers by changing the codes and generating new sub-programs? Do we really have a choice in deciding the course of our life or is this just a predecided simulation... slowly leading to an end.
I had taken up a course in philosophy in my second year which talked of concepts like the Deus Deceptor and "brain in a vat" wherein people had deliberated as to the entire world could be a dream that our brain was dreaming. Then, of course, we would never know because there could be no world we could wake up into. At times, I too feel like I am recalling my entire life and am presently a grown up individual. The only evidence for reality are our physical senses and they are as good as anything in our dreams as well. Hence..! Phew... I have had enough!
I guess the best policy is... enjoy the moment!
:D
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Back in college...
It has been such a long time since I wrote my last post, I had almost forgotten my blog address. Much has transpired in my life since then.
April was more or less spent in mugging up all that the professors had fed us during the entire semester. I had my US visa interview right in the middle of my endsems and, as a consequence, had to do a bit of running around (What happened to that visa finally will come up later in this post :D). After bearing the shocking sight of my graded endsem answer sheets, I returned home and started waiting for my visa, which had been delayed due to "administrative processing".
I had to come to Kanpur during the vacations as well and compressed some 60-70 metal samples but that is not pertinent to this post. Well, nothing about this post is really pertinent to anybody now. It's just a look back on the past few months which are, well, exactly that... past.
To cut a long story short. My visa arrived by the first week of June. By the my professor in the US Univ had other plans and ... program cancel. I spent the next 1 and a half month at home too. It was incredibly cool and fun. More so, due to the 5 day trip to Rajasthan - Jaipur, Udaipur, Mount Abu. Some sites in these places are amazing and worth watching once in a lifetime.
I also played my guitar a lot during the vacations and it has accompanied me to Kanpur as well. Another semester is about to begin... this being the penultimate one in my undergraduate study. I just wish it goes off well!
Amen!
April was more or less spent in mugging up all that the professors had fed us during the entire semester. I had my US visa interview right in the middle of my endsems and, as a consequence, had to do a bit of running around (What happened to that visa finally will come up later in this post :D). After bearing the shocking sight of my graded endsem answer sheets, I returned home and started waiting for my visa, which had been delayed due to "administrative processing".
I had to come to Kanpur during the vacations as well and compressed some 60-70 metal samples but that is not pertinent to this post. Well, nothing about this post is really pertinent to anybody now. It's just a look back on the past few months which are, well, exactly that... past.
To cut a long story short. My visa arrived by the first week of June. By the my professor in the US Univ had other plans and ... program cancel. I spent the next 1 and a half month at home too. It was incredibly cool and fun. More so, due to the 5 day trip to Rajasthan - Jaipur, Udaipur, Mount Abu. Some sites in these places are amazing and worth watching once in a lifetime.
I also played my guitar a lot during the vacations and it has accompanied me to Kanpur as well. Another semester is about to begin... this being the penultimate one in my undergraduate study. I just wish it goes off well!
Amen!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
If you can't beat them, Po'em
Aloha! My friends, I guess it's time,I always knew I had a knack to rhyme.Naive, one may say, my verses are,Give me time I say, I shall raise the bar.Humor, love - I know my theme not,A penchant for words is all I've got.People, places, I'll let my wit jog,And here goes the first post in my poetry blog!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Galaxy Winner Hall 3... yeahhhhh!!
What an awesome week this has been. I mention this because I was reminded of this by a friend yesterday. A few days before Galaxy began, I was pretty skeptical about the utility of such a festival in an already jam-packed cultural calendar. I was of the opinion that it would nothing to improve the cultural scene here, neither would it be an "enjoyable" affair. I couldn't have been more wrong!
Galaxy not just rekindled the spirit of competition among the people in the institute, it also helps develop a yet unseen level of camaraderie among people of your hall. Throughout the week, we had loads of competitions and due to certain delays, almost every day stretched to 3-4 am. By the last day, we had tallied an almost invincible lead. I really don't want to crib about this. But the shock results of the structure competition (where a canopy of bamboos won over a magnificiently constructed ship) reduced what would have otherwise been a landslide margin (It still was around 120 with the runners-up fetching 700 something). For all those who saw it, the faux pas was pretty obvious. Here, I would like to concede that there might have been instances where the results might have been skewed in our favour but well all this evened out totally).
Leaving aside all this, the ecstatic moment when we were declared winner will truly remain etched in my memory (and for that matter the memory of every Hall-3ite). The roaring mob, the colour-smeared faces, students dancing like mad-men and chanting at the top of their voices. Not a sight that is witnessed every day. Every person in your team, whether he knew you personally or not, not just shook your hand but went out of the way to indulge in a ecstatically warm embrace. The happiness of having achieved what we had dreamt of was palpable.
Any amount of words would not do justice to the electrifying atmosphere that was, so I'll stop writing albeit with a few points.
First and foremost, congos to everyone who worked hard towards this victory... we need to keep this trend going so gear up!
Secondly, people who are making baseless accusations should rather spend their time improving the pool of talent they have. This is not the last time this is happening (unless you really make efforts to ensure that :P). So just take it in your stride and work hard!
Thirdly, amidst all the viciousness in the hearts of the teams which didn't win, there were certain people who bore the risk of coming out when the mob reached their place and congratulated us with a smile. Kudos to your spirit... we need more of your kind!!
Adios...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Galaxy monologues... Day 1
Seven years is a long time, but the way “Galaxy” began, it was worth the wait. I am not really into the Hall ‘funda’, which is such a rage here at IIT Kanpur. However, when one sees hordes of the usually sincere and studious students transforming into frenzied mobs, one’s enthusiasm is bound to rocket. My case was similar. I was asked by certain friends to join the Opening parade and I joined albeit a bit unwillingly. However, the moment I reached Hall 3, the electric atmosphere totally bedazzled me and suddenly I was part of the excited crowd. I got my face painted in the colours of our team and we began preparing for the parade. By now, I was so taken by the enthusiasm that I joined in the people who were playing tin cans in the front. With titillating beats and sky-renting slogans, we marched on the roads. It was an amazing moment, something words cannot describe.
We won the parade competition which set the tone for the rest of the events. However, soon we were reminded of the roller coaster ride that was in store with the shocking loss of our “declamation team”. In the night, we were supposed to take part in an antakshari which, though scheduled at 10 pm, started at 1 am. With the pride of the Hall at stake, our inability to answer in the first few rounds made us fear the consequences of losing the first major event. But then came a unique and rather weird song-memorizing round. We used some logic and it somehow got coupled with total dumbness on part of the other teams. In one round, we shot from being last to sitting comfortably first. The journey after that was pretty smooth with Tanmay (one of my teammates) cracking some good questions. We had some totally hilarious moments with Abhishek aka ‘Chomu’ (the other teammate) making certain other teams the butt of his wisecracks.
We ended the day at 3 am. No wonder, the next day began at 10 am with bunks in two classes. (You see, this still matters to me... ). Some more events today... let’s see what happens as the day unfolds!
We won the parade competition which set the tone for the rest of the events. However, soon we were reminded of the roller coaster ride that was in store with the shocking loss of our “declamation team”. In the night, we were supposed to take part in an antakshari which, though scheduled at 10 pm, started at 1 am. With the pride of the Hall at stake, our inability to answer in the first few rounds made us fear the consequences of losing the first major event. But then came a unique and rather weird song-memorizing round. We used some logic and it somehow got coupled with total dumbness on part of the other teams. In one round, we shot from being last to sitting comfortably first. The journey after that was pretty smooth with Tanmay (one of my teammates) cracking some good questions. We had some totally hilarious moments with Abhishek aka ‘Chomu’ (the other teammate) making certain other teams the butt of his wisecracks.
We ended the day at 3 am. No wonder, the next day began at 10 am with bunks in two classes. (You see, this still matters to me... ). Some more events today... let’s see what happens as the day unfolds!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Turmoil everywhere!!
The past few weeks have been full of ups and downs... one might say that some of the things that happened were made out to be more than they actually were. Nevertheless, they figured as major points of contention in my life.
Not that the rest of the world is free from similar waves of unrest. Economic recession has been sweeping every little corner of this earth. Our neighbour Pakistan seems like a sinking ship, something that does not augur well for India. On the other side of the border, election manipulations are the order of the day. Disappointing names have been spelt out as potential PMs. Basically, waat lagi hui hai poori duniya ki hi!! :D
But sometimes it is great to see the problems with a whole new perspective. This is something my mom advises me to do frequently. Analyze what is the worst that can happen if things do not correct themselves. At times, you realize that the consequences do not merit all the fretting and worrying you have been indulging in.
And suddenly, the problem remains a problem no more...
There is so much to life. Something or the other is always going wrong. Perhaps all we can do is count our blessings..!
Not that the rest of the world is free from similar waves of unrest. Economic recession has been sweeping every little corner of this earth. Our neighbour Pakistan seems like a sinking ship, something that does not augur well for India. On the other side of the border, election manipulations are the order of the day. Disappointing names have been spelt out as potential PMs. Basically, waat lagi hui hai poori duniya ki hi!! :D
But sometimes it is great to see the problems with a whole new perspective. This is something my mom advises me to do frequently. Analyze what is the worst that can happen if things do not correct themselves. At times, you realize that the consequences do not merit all the fretting and worrying you have been indulging in.
And suddenly, the problem remains a problem no more...
There is so much to life. Something or the other is always going wrong. Perhaps all we can do is count our blessings..!
Friday, January 16, 2009
(NO) food for thought !!
As usual, a long hiatus and then comes this post...
All my entries till date have been rather sombre and lack the comic element which is so evident in my day to day life. Of course, most of the jokes we people share lie outside the public domain and my writing about them here would, perhaps, be deemed “blasphemous”. But I realise that I am 20 years old now and free to express what comes to my mind, especially if it sounds interesting.
By the way, the above justification is there for the perusal of my two elder sisters who form a major chunk of my readership, which also says a lot about the popularity of this blog.
Well, moving to the point. Recently, a very amusing piece of research was brought to my attention by one of my friends. A group of Japanese researchers studied certain subjects and found that people who skipped breakfast were likely to lose their virginity early.
Now, that sounds ridiculous. Of course, the researchers tried their best to give some plausible explanations. However, having the sort of wildly imaginative mind that my friends say I have, I came up with my take on this. I made hypothetical inferences and wondered about the change this could bring in the status quo.
Imagine this scenario:
Guy (using one of his favourite pick-up lines): Boy, I am starving, didn’t have any breakfast today.
Girl: Oh my god!! That is so turning me on... maybe you can have me for lunch today... ;)
Weird... Moreover, companies like Kellogg and those that make breakfast bars would be thrown out of business. “HUNGRY” would be the new “COOL”.
All this is amusing but I have my reasons to totally despise this theory. I am frightfully regular at having my breakfast and I am currently not in a position to totally disprove this theory either. Neither have my friends, who haven’t seen the face of breakfast for months together, done anything which would corroborate the study. So basically I would hate to see any truth in here. I have propounded some cause-effect misjudgement explanations to console myself but that, is for another day!!!
Ciaos! Sleep well, Eat well (or don’t, suit yourself :D)
All my entries till date have been rather sombre and lack the comic element which is so evident in my day to day life. Of course, most of the jokes we people share lie outside the public domain and my writing about them here would, perhaps, be deemed “blasphemous”. But I realise that I am 20 years old now and free to express what comes to my mind, especially if it sounds interesting.
By the way, the above justification is there for the perusal of my two elder sisters who form a major chunk of my readership, which also says a lot about the popularity of this blog.
Well, moving to the point. Recently, a very amusing piece of research was brought to my attention by one of my friends. A group of Japanese researchers studied certain subjects and found that people who skipped breakfast were likely to lose their virginity early.
Now, that sounds ridiculous. Of course, the researchers tried their best to give some plausible explanations. However, having the sort of wildly imaginative mind that my friends say I have, I came up with my take on this. I made hypothetical inferences and wondered about the change this could bring in the status quo.
Imagine this scenario:
Guy (using one of his favourite pick-up lines): Boy, I am starving, didn’t have any breakfast today.
Girl: Oh my god!! That is so turning me on... maybe you can have me for lunch today... ;)
Weird... Moreover, companies like Kellogg and those that make breakfast bars would be thrown out of business. “HUNGRY” would be the new “COOL”.
All this is amusing but I have my reasons to totally despise this theory. I am frightfully regular at having my breakfast and I am currently not in a position to totally disprove this theory either. Neither have my friends, who haven’t seen the face of breakfast for months together, done anything which would corroborate the study. So basically I would hate to see any truth in here. I have propounded some cause-effect misjudgement explanations to console myself but that, is for another day!!!
Ciaos! Sleep well, Eat well (or don’t, suit yourself :D)
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