BIT Mesra : Rest In Pieces

2009-01-14T20:45:00.007+05:30

2008-10-15T08:23:00.004+05:30

Stop being the Intellectual Whore!!

2008-05-09T19:56:00.003+05:30

Sally: We are just going to be friends, OK?
Harry: Great, friends. It's the best thing...You realize, of course, that we can never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape, or form - is that men and women can't be friends, because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry: No, you don't.
Sally: Yes, I do.
Harry: No, you don't.
Sally: Yes, I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You're saying I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all want to have sex with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive.
Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail them, too.
Sally: What if they don't want to have sex with you?
Harry: Doesn't matter, because the sex thing is already out there, so the friendship is ultimately doomed, and that is the end of the story.

When a man meets a woman, the first thing that pops into his mind, be it consciously or subconsciously, is "What are the possibilities of me having sex with this woman?"

When a woman meets a man, the first thing that pops into her mind, be it consciously or subconsciously, is "Is this guy someone I'd want to have sex with, or is he good to just be friends with?" Unlike the man, women have a "bi-ladderal" system, or two ladders. One is the Good Ladder, on which all men she would like to have sex with are on, much like the man's ladder. The other ladder is the Friends Ladder, a ranking of all the guys she knows and likes as a friend, but would never have sex with. Ever. At the bottom of and between both ladders is the abyss, which if a man tries to make a ladder jump from the Friends Ladder to the Good Ladder and fails, he will likely fall into, since once a woman has a male friend who suddenly tells her he wants her, things tend to go awry quickly and they split, or the man becomes unhappy and leaves her life, via a NEXT.

According to Ladder Theory, men are attracted to a woman 60% based on looks, 30% on how easily he sleep with her, and 10% to other factors. Likewise, women are attracted to men 50% based on the man's wealth or power status, 40% on attraction (which further breaks down into subcategories, the largest of which is looks), and 10% on other factors.

One of the major tenets of Ladder Theory is the relationship known as the Intellectual Whore/Intellectual Pimp dynamic. This can also be equated with "nice guys", and should be a common observance. A man who is too "nice" and unwilling to show his dominant, sex-hungry side, will instead approach a lady as non-chalant and unthreateningly as possible, attempting to have a friendship with her to prove that he can be trusted first. This is all done with the hidden agenda of eventually confessing his feelings to her and attempting to have sex with her. This also typically involves the man buying her gifts, giving her rides to places, voluntarily taking the short end of the stick at every occasion, and basically being a doormat, in order to prove that he is "a good guy," but generally it translates to the woman as "weak." Then when he eventually comes forward with his feelings towards her, known as a ladder jump, it typically takes the woman by surprise and she rejects his offer. It is termed a ladder jump because usually the man tries to work his way up her Friends Ladder first, and from the top of the ladder, tries to "jump" across to her Good Ladder. But as stated earlier, by this point he has likely been seen as weak and a doormat, not to mention if there was any sexual tension in their first encounter, it's likely worn off by the time the ladder jump comes around. What typically happens next is that the IW will hold on to their friendship, since it's all he has - which is settling for less in his mind - and he typically rises back up to the top of the IP's Friends Ladder, and then stays there, delusionally content, and/or waiting for his next opportunity to try another Ladder Jump.

The man, in this scenario is known as an intellectual whore, or "IW". An intellectual whore is a man who readily pays a woman with his emotional support so that he may receive physical returns, which again, is hardly ever successful.

The woman in this scenario is referred to as an intellectual pimp, but in most cases, the woman is not aware that she is the man's intellectual pimp, or "IP". This is due to the man's concealing of his true desires with her. There are cases of course, where the woman realizes exactly what's going on from the beginning, and chooses to abuse her power as an IP, and this woman is known as a ninja bitch, or "NB".

The Solution

Most IPs will spend their time talking and being friends with the IW, while he receives no physical return from her, besides perhaps being the occasional cuddle bitch, while she runs off to have her sex with an Outlaw Biker or "OB" instead, and then vent her frustrations over him to the IW. She will have sex with this OB repeatedly, and then always air her stories and frustrations over his emotional distance to the IW. The IW will typically respond with, "well he's a jerk," "you deserve someone better," and likewise supplicating statements.

Ladder Theory purports that to avoid IWism and to begin attracting women in an effective manner, one must avoid falling into the IW/IP trap by avoiding supplication, acting disinterested in women he is actually interested in, becoming an OB, or getting rich.

--Source: Ladder Wiki and a chain email amongst friends.

the return of the native

2008-04-03T01:55:00.002+05:30

We got DC++ and interhostel LAN back. in return for this:

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi
Undertaking with respect to BIT Ranchi IT Usage Policy

Whom this Document Concerns:
All Users of IT infrastructure at BIT Ranchi.
Reason for Policy
This policy outlines the responsible use of the Information Technology Infrastructure at BIT Ranchi.
Statement of Policy
All users of BIT Ranchi will be subject to the following Acceptable Use Policy

1. [Content] I shall be responsible for all use of this network. In case I own a computer and decide to connect it to BIT Ranchi network, I will be responsible for all the content on it, especially that which I make available to other users. (This provision will also apply to any computer or device for which I am responsible, and is included in the meaning of "my computer".) In case I do not own a computer but am provided some IT resources by BIT Ranchi, I will be held responsible for the content stored in the designated workspace allotted to me (examples: file storage area, web pages, stored/archived emails, on Computer Centre or Department machines).
2. [Network] I will be held responsible for all the network traffic generated by "my computer". I understand that network capacity is a limited, shared resource. I agree that physically tampering with network connections/equipments, sending disruptive signals, or making EXCESSIVE USE of network resources is strictly prohibited. Repeated offenses of this type could result in permanent disconnection of network services. I shall not share the network connection beyond my own use and will not act as a forwarder/ masquerader for anyone else.
3. [Academic Use] I understand that the IT infrastructure at BIT Ranchi is for academic use and I shall not use it for any commercial purpose or to host data services for other people or groups. Also, I shall not host or broadcast information that might harm others or may be otherwise considered objectionable or illegal as per Indian law.
4. [Identity] I shall not attempt to deceive others about my identity in electronic communications or network traffic. I will also not use BIT Ranchi IT resources to threaten, intimidate, or harass others.
5. [Privacy] I will not intrude on privacy of anyone. In particular I will not try to access computers (hacking), accounts, files, or information belonging to others without their knowledge and explicit consent.
6. [Monitoring] I understand that the IT resources provided to me are subject to monitoring, with cause, as determined through consultation with the BIT Ranchi administration, when applicable. The monitoring may include aggregate bandwidth usage to effectively manage limited IT resources as well as monitoring traffic content in response to a legal or law enforcement request to do so. I authorize BIT Ranchi administration to perform network vulnerability and port scans on my systems, as needed, for protecting the overall integrity and efficiency of BIT Ranchi network.
7. [Viruses] I shall maintain my computer on this network with current virus detection software and current updates of my operating system, and I shall attempt to keep my computer free from viruses, worms, trojans, and other similar programs.
8. [File Sharing] I shall not use the IT infrastructure to engage in any form of illegal file sharing (examples: copyrighted material, obscene material).
9. [Security] I understand that I will not take any steps that endanger the security of the BIT Ranchi network. Specifically, I will not attempt to bypass firewalls and access rules in place. This includes not setting up servers of any kind (examples: web, mail, proxy, DC++ Hubs) or any other software that are visible to the world outside the BIT Ranchi campus without concern of network team. In critical situations, BIT Ranchi authorities reserve the right to disconnect any device or disable any account if it believed that either is involved in compromising the information security of BIT Ranchi.
10. [Settings] I understand that I will no change or tamper any settings for the network setup which are done by the Network team.
11. [Penalties] I understand that any use of IT infrastructure at BIT Ranchi that constitutes a violation of BIT Ranchi Regulations could result in administrative or disciplinary procedures.

r.i.p. no more

2007-09-17T22:03:00.000+05:30

resting in pieces, indeed.
that's what we seem to have been doing lately..
i'm one to speak, considering i haven't bothered picking up the pieces here for a really long time.
until now that is.
and the song seems to be pretty ominous of that very fact.
been caught up with a lot of things for a long time to think of Life @ BIT.

but it's time once again.
time to get back to THiNKing, which was lying dormant for quite sometime now.
time to get back to being a BITian.
time to get back to those halls.
and miss those classes whiling away time in the canteen
as the lioness was saying a minute ago,
only time will tell.
----------------
Now playing:
Pink Floyd - Coming Back To Life

myDilemma

2007-09-04T17:49:00.001+05:30

We often pride ourselves on the struggles that we've faced, and hurdles which we've passed with great difficulty.. They remind us of some of our greatest triumphs and make us feel good..
It actually feeds the desire to feel good about ourselves.. always.. a constant yearning to see ourselves as a hero or an achiever..
And often, this desire leads us to take up every small difficulty that we face as a big challenge - as if there won't be a tomorrow if we fail..
True, consistent failure is never good, but then such overt exaggeration of every adverse situation, however small, has it's penalties.. most of which scar us for life..

Of late, I have faced with a dilemma.. Am I one of those unfortunate souls who takes everything as a Win-Lose situation?
My closest friend once remarked-You see cake in everything.. Very true.. I hate losing.. Everything I do, reeks of a competitive outlook - I have to win.. I can't lose..
And that has created a lot of strife in my life..

Every dealing that have with another person, I seem to be intent on taking advantage of the other person - for fear of being taken advantage of...
Have lost a lot of friends that way..
Every moment that I spend with people, I have to prove myself to be the best..
I don't care if it makes me seem immature, but the innate feeling has to be sated..

Long ago.. I'd read somewhere-Life wasn't meant to be fair..
And it hasn't been exactly the fairest.. There have been situations which I still feel should have gone my way.. And I keep dwelling on them.. Depressed..
Am I right in doing so?

There have been several opportunities that I've missed, and they've hurt me..
But then it's been those opportunities, which according to me have been snatched away from me, that hurt the most..
I still feel that I could have grabbed them, if only I'd had some time..
And I still plod on the path to snatching back that opportunity.. Is it delusion?
I don't know.. And contrary to many close people's views - I do care..

Am I right in pursuing my life in the field of computers ? - I sometimes wonder..
After all, I'm a mechanical engineer (on paper, though)..
And then again, I remember Google and those interviews.. Every moment of it is etched in my mind.. It infuses a new energy in me.. to strive for that pinnacle in the silicon world, which I've always dreamt of..

Am I right in fighting for such things?
Am I right in still hoping to repair certain damages that I've inflicted on people, even though deep down I know that the damage is irreparable?
Am I naive in believing in the old age adage of "Time heals all wounds" ?
Is it not folly to be continually hoping for my lost love to come back to me?

And am I going mad?
-ONE
...every war has it's casualties,
every victory it's price...

mLife1.3@infosys.com

2007-08-26T15:52:00.001+05:30

WHOA!

As I "graduated" from college life to corporate life, life did a complete about-face...

My mother summed it up in 1 sentence - "What I couldn't achieve in 5 years, Infy's done it in less than 5 days"

She was referring to my habit of waking through the nights, sleeping only when the wee hours of morning had approached (She doesn't know this, but most of my college life, my average sleeping time was 8 am)... And now: I wake up at 6 am!

And there's more surprise in store... When do I sleep? 10 pm... Aargh! During the initial weeks I used to feel as if ALL my freedom's been bound by this monster called "corporate" life... I was almost mouthing to myself every time I adhered to this "insane" timetable - They better pay me well for it...

As the first month of my employment draws to a close, I wonder HOW on Earth I could follow the college lifestyle...

Staying up past midnight is a nightmare - Apart from being late for work the next day, my (frail) body would have succumbed to the day's tiring schedule...
And it is beginning to feel good..
We just got a mock projet to work on, and frankly, it's pretty exciting seeing that i'm the only one in class who's accomplishing loads.. Most of the folks can't even figure out what they're supposed to do in their module... hahaha!

Sometimes I am faced with the question - Has my life taken a turn for the better or worse?
Well... true, I don't have those buddies with whom you could spend endless hours atop the hostel terrace, doing all sorts of things...
Nor do I have the luxury of bunking a couple of classes just because I feel like resting my limbs a bit more.. or play a couple more CS rounds...
But then, I'm getting paid (grin).... and that too for doing what I LOVE doing...
And then, this lifestyle has taught me discipline....
yeah you read right.. I concede defeat... ONE does need discipline in one's life sometime or the other...
and of course, you feel smarter, and feel like belonging to the elite.. heh heh.. I know it's just up in the head, but it's a good feeling nevertheless...

So long...
CS beckons.. I gotta go...
Ohh.. I forgot to tell you.. we're allowed to play CS here too... :P

-ONE
Winning isn't everything.
It's the only thing :P

Ride through BIT Mesra

2007-07-25T09:45:00.001+05:30

Nostalgic to say the least- especially on the road to Outer Canteen. This video comes up 3rd on youtube when searching for BIT Mesra.

Movie Mania (Again)

2007-07-13T18:11:00.000+05:30

Hullo ppl...
I just spent three absolutely freaking days (and nights) on campus...
No work, no respite from the rain, as well as the insects...
So, I sat down with a TROLL to watch a few movies... thought I might share my views...

Let's tackle the summer releases (sequels - all) first:
Spiderman 3
There's nothing in this movie except some spectacular stunts...
No story.. No drama.. fultoo timepass for those who have pickled their brains in a jar...

Shrek 3
I closed Windows Media Player before the 20th minute... And this, from a hardcore Shrek fan...
Somehow, no sequel should've been made after shrek 2... though those flying donk-dragons did make for a delightful sight...

Pirates of the Carribean - At World's end
WHOA!!!
Caought me by a storm.. Keira Knightly behaves every bit of her babe-without-brains part with elan.. though where exactly she looked like a babe, is a complete mystery...
And she looks to lay every second guy she meets, at least she does make a move on James Norrington, a stupid git of a Brit (come to think of it, most Brits ARE gits), Captain Jack Sparrow (this guy, having learnt his lesson, firmly pulls back and says,'Please.. Once was enough..') and strikes gold with her equally retarded mate-Orlando Bloom...
The movie is so full of double crosses, that you lose track of when which character is double crossing whom and for what reason...
sometimes you're left wondering-What the HELL is going on?
And in the end, all you remember is how Johny Depp carried off the entire movie on his own...
Truly, without him, this probably would've been worse off than Spiderman 3..
Peanuts strung all over his hair.. licking his own brain.. the Black Pearl teming with scores of Jack Sparrow(s).. trying to turn over the ship.. fainting at the sight of a crab.. phoow
The list of his antics just go on..
He's the life of the movie..
If you ain't watched this movie.. you're missing something...

The Sentinel
Another Michael Douglas flick.. typical CIA, SIS, SSA stuff.. He's framed and he comes clean at the end.. End of story.
But the movie's been shot well, drama's good, action's not overdone.. all-in-all a good experience..

Perfume-The Story of a Murderer
This one was strange..
Some poor orphan, who could detect any kind of smell, except his own... and his ambition was to create that one smell which could make the world fall at it's feet...
Apparently, every perfume is composed of 12 chords(smells).. and when a rare 13th chord is added to it, it's smell gives you a glimpse of paradise n bliss.. now, perfume makers have got those 12 chords, it's the 13th chord that's missing.. and he finally gets it right...
Very unusual story, a bit darkish, gross in parts..
Was a good watch though..

K-Pax
Another WHOA!!
This time, it's the master-Kevin Spacey-who's from outer space, travels at a speed of 6c (yeah.. that c=3,00,000 km/s).. and the whole story revolves around him.. There isn't much happening in ter,ms of a plot/storyline etc.. but the movie was a treat to watch.. simply bcoz the master was at work..

Elektra
Now, I'm not sure what EXACTLY the movie was about.. but there's loads of fighting, myth/legend.. and the babe's DAMN hot.. that makes it a must watch ;)

Stargate
Remember Klits? of the Girl-Next-Door fame?
Well.. he's our hero.. Kurt Russel's just a sidekick..
Apparently some alien landed on earth somewhere around 8000 BC, looking for a life form that could sustain it's soul, and finds the Egyptian kids to be perfect.. and leaves behind a StarGate - a pathway through which intergalactic transfers of children could be made..
So, it is the job of these Secret Service/Military (The movie never makes it clear who they are) people send a recon mission to take back any humans from the 'other' galaxy.. the movie's complete science fiction.. too far-fetched.. and there are no subtitles for the foreign language (ancient Egyptian)..
So, there you go..
If you got absolutely nothing to go with your afternoon meal, you could consider eating alone rather than watching this movie..

Catch ya guys later...
-ONE
Hold on to your dreams
Do not let them die
We are helpless without them
Birds that cannot fly

mLife 1.1

2007-06-21T01:02:00.000+05:30

Having been on campus for the last week and half..
I have been introspecting hard and long, given the enormous amounts of leisure time at hand, about what I have achieved so far in my existence..
Starting as a kid, I was innocent to a fault..
And for a surprisingly long time, till my adolescence, I remained absolutely naive about worldly matters.. believing that every human was fair, just and malice was unknown to me..

Then started the pangs of teenage, and during all of 7 years, I went through all the trials and tribulations that every teenager goes through..
Had my fair share of crushes, betrayal, rough dealings with thuggish peers, lying through your teeth..
Was academically good though.. mind you..
Two board exams with more than decent marks, and I was feeling on top of the world when I was preparing for my Engineering Entrance exams..
IIT JEE was a nightmare..
AIEEE provided some respite..
And I landed up in BIT, Mesra.

That is when it all started.
Completely carefree, this was when and where my life took a sea change..
My own funda of doing my own thing, no matter what the cost was, led to several ups and downs - some of which still continue to haunt me..
It was the present moment that mattered most to me - If I felt like doing something, I HAD to do it..
I'd not give a thought about what the consequences would be.. Was ready to accept responsibility for my own actions.
Easier said than done.
Never before had I known how tough it is to face your own actions..
Conscience was always needling you with doubts whether the path I'd chosen was good or not..
But temptation led me on my path, and I gave in to it.. completely..
The first victim were my grades.. from ok-types to absolutely average, my grades steadily declined.. but the lure of AOE and the absolute freedom of night-life kept me hooked..
By the time I'd reached 3rd year, all my principles went down down the drain...
Except for some macabre bundle of ethics that I possessed and took pride in (Which was the major factor in endearing me to a great many people, despite my eccentric and sometimes foolish behaviour) I had NOTHING left that I could take pride in as a human being.

Meantime, I re-discovered my passion for programing, and endless hours were spent in front of the computer. Armed with the conviction that talent NEVER goes unrewarded when the right amount of hard work is put in, I was foolish enough to NOT apply the same funda to my acads.
Day-by-day my grades went down, as my coding skills improved.
Home front was deteriorating, and i was getting increasingly estranged from my folks..
Entering the final year, my life looked in a mess.. and the coming placements seemed the only way to give some purpose and direction to my life.
Given my current lifestyle, I had just ONE question-"Can I do it?"

More of this later..
-ONE
Every man has but one destiny. I don't know mine :(

LOSLI : 1

2007-02-02T23:34:00.000+05:30

I believe that the most important thing in life is the journey. The one that begins at our birth and ends with our death. I believe that what we do in this small, irrelevant (only in the cosmic scheme of things way) amount of time is something that matters a lot. In totality. In every sense. To us. To our Existence.

What I'm talking about here is this: The small amount of time we spend on this planet is limited. We are born not knowing anything, with a little time to change things here & there. My point is, is it worth spending this lifetime we get, in pursuit of rather narrow, limited, conceited, self-centered goals that we fix early on in life with neither the knowledge to make the decisions nor the foresight to think about it.

Here I am right now, sitting on a bench on the railway station, for seven odd hours, stuck between changing trains. And I wonder about many things. Like the five or so hours that remains. About the aspects of life one see from the sidelines. About a sweetheart friend who has finally finished her engineering and with whom i won't be spending sinful moments gulping hot delicacies from the roadside stalls in Ranchi.

LOSLI : 0

2007-02-01T12:11:00.000+05:30

On my way back home for the winter vacations, I managed to get myself stranded for seven straight hours on THE most enthralling of all places to be: New Delhi Railway Station, Platform 1, Bench 36. After an hour or so of cursing my luck, I finally settled down to writing. What resulted is here before you now. I give you

Life or Something Like It

An agony in 17 fits

In small, easily digestible servings, which shall be henceforth referred to as LOSLI.

2007-01-20T08:12:00.001+05:30

Why THiNK………….

First think about your web-life. Has it not changed rapidly? You no longer mail friends…..you drop by scraps. Your photos are up for display to the world. You have suddenly started preferring random videos on YOUtube to chat shows with famous personalities. Where do you go looking for information, not Britannica but wikipedia. Firefox and Linux spreading like wildfire. And the biggest one of ‘em all……THE BLOG.

WHY?

Because, as Time magazine suggests, the spotlight has shifted to YOU. We don’t want to listen to the general on a news channel briefing us about the situation on the warfront when we have a soldier pouring his heart out on a blog.

We don’t want one professionally made movies anymore……some moron with a camera filming an average day in his dorm seems much more interesting.

We don’t want telephone calls or even e-mails when social networking rocks.

GLORIFYING MEDIOCRACY???

Are bloggers just a bunch of wannabe writers doling out crap about non-consequential things? Should a regular Joe be allowed to tamper with the baap of all information- the encyclopedia? What is so good about the amateurish video clips the world is going crazy about?

I SAY,NO

Because blogs, wikipedia, YOUtube and the gazillion social networks are not trampling upon the already existing ways of information interchange. They are carving a new space for themselves, an alternative. And like it or not everybody riding this wave( now officially called WEB 2.0….though nothing official about it!) is lovin’ it. We have lived linearly too long relying on a bunch of specialists to tell us what we know or do. Its time for a different perspective.

CHANGE

Maybe it’s time when the junta jumps up from the ‘ people’s poll’ corner of the newspaper and spreads to the pages.

BUT, WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

Because bitrip and now THiNK are both a part of this phenomenon. I might now recognize many of my fellow BITians on the road but I get a peek into what they think and do from their blogs. Calvin and Hobbes may tickle me a lot but it is an altogether different experience to read a comic strip about the life around me done by someone living in the adjacent hostel. A book on famous one-liners may be good but it cannot beat the nonsensicality of H4ism. News channels with hundreds of investigating teams blew up the death of a student here but Rhea’s simple observation and remembrance was closer to the truth.

So….START THiNKing but don’t forget to open the lid of your head when you do so that the world can peek in.

COME and be a part of the first THiNK forum/meeting/briefing/celebration on 24^th January……

BECAUSE it’s time ME AND YOU took over.

New Sem Begins.......................

2007-01-17T10:11:00.000+05:30

It’s the middle of a very cold January and I am finally back at BIT. Coming so late, with the college already in full blow seems weird and makes me feel left out. So The Last few days I have been trying to catch up………

I say it again; it’s very very cold, especially if you decide to jog 6 in the morning. Made my feet go blue.
The LAN (intrahostel….yuk yuk) and the internet are finally working but the speed…it’s easier and faster to go to RND, save the pages you need and come back and read them than trying your luck with the internet.
BITOTSAV is already on people’s mind and is mentioned often in passing.
People are gearing up for spring fest, KGP.
Many BITians are off to Youth Fest, Chinnai to prove their metal.
ThiNK people are doing a lot of work and there is lot of material on its blog. I even attended one of the ‘meetings’ today.
Since this is no.7 and I can’t think of anything else of consequence I pray JKR finishes off the 7^th book fast (no hic hic…..I am in my senses)

BITOTSAV………anyone in 2k6 reading this…I’d say…. PARTICIPATE. It’s the closest you will come to having a good time in BIT. Form a team, hop from one event to the other, chill at the informal ground and dance and sing into the night. I say it again, no matter who you are or what you do in some form or other PARTICIPATE. Now since my brain is numb from reading 50 articles on ThiNK and I am repeating my sentences I better stop. I leave you with a pic of what happened to me last Core Night at BITOTSAV………

THiNK - the idea

2006-12-23T21:15:00.000+05:30

A Brief History of Change

BC 65 million: An Asteroid Strikes; Wipes out Dinosaur Population, the course of evolution of Life on the Planet Changes
BC 10 million: An ape takes a small step upright; humanity takes a leap forward, the saga of anthropology Changes
BC 3200: An Egyptian develops hieroglyphic writing, the process of communication and knowledge aggregation Changes
BC 509: Roman Republic is founded, political and social setup of human civilizations Changes
AD 1: The Christ is born; A Mel Gibson gets the subject for his passion; Eras of Beliefs and Calendars Change
AD 820: An Al-Khwaizini invents Algebra; Comfort levels of Generations of High School Students to come Change
AD 1492: A Columbus discovers America, the destination of freedom and prosperity seekers for generations to come Changes
AD 1776: A James Watt invents steam engine, an Industrial Revolution Changes the scale of Human Enterprise
AD 1879: An Edison invents Incandescent Bulb Power Equation of Day & Night Changes
AD 1969: A Concorde is airborne; the relative Speed of Transatlantic sound waves Changes
AD 1991: A Manmohan Singh assumes office; a nation’s economic orientations Change
AD 2000: A Y2K bug mania bites computer Systems, the face of Indian IT Industry Changes
AD 2007: A magazine by the name of THiNK is published in BIT Mesra.

Crash! Boom! What the Hell!

Wait a second! I thought we were talking about change here?!
Yeah!

Change.

That's what THiNK is all about.
About stepping out of the cast mould. Away from the mindless rush of life to ascertain one's identity. No, THiNK is not a movement. It's just a thought. Exhorting you to THiNK.

To stay hungry. To stay foolish.

In these two lines lies the paradox of this idea.
Stay Hungry.
For more knowledge. For more of everything in life.
Stay Foolish.
Not dumb. Not arrogant. Humble. plain ol' simble you.

Like all good things under the sun, this idea was born during a time when ideally the idle mind where it sprung to life should have been doing something else. Like studying Electromagnetic Theory. or Linear Control Theory for that matter. But it was elsewhere. Musing to itself, to try and do something different. Something off the beaten path. I think the original idea came to me sometime around idle week following the mid-term papers, when we were preparing to return home and stuff our faces with good food. It went something like this:

Left> so what are we gonna do this semester?
Right> something different?

{ Note to reader:
Left and Right (L & R henceforth) can be freely interpreted as per the limits of your imagination. They are however to be both treated as mutually exclusive integral parts of the author. Suggestions include parts of:
a> the brain
b> vacuum occupying the place of the AWOL brain
c> alter egos - without the obvious political leanings of course
d-z> your imagination?
}

L> let's continue blogging.
R> Na, that was last year's idea. Something else.
L> like what?
R> how about actually writing?
L> you mean like a novel? That will take umpteenillion millennia to finish, and longer to spell-check, proof read, plus it will never be published.
R> hmmm. Point.
L> so what to we do?
R> you temme.
L> ahem. I know this may sound lame, but how about resurrecting Zog's idea?
R> which one? Starting a movie library?
L> No dude. The other one.
R> Ok. You mean setting up a propah coffee shop-cum-eating joint near the library wi-fi hotspot, right?
L> seriously! I am surprised I happen to be connected to you. I am talking about Buzz-In-Town.
R> What! Not that Gossip rag! Isn’t that the reason she buried it in the first place?
L> exactly. Let's come out with something more like, you know, my style...
R> you mean a half-baked re-incarnation of Douglas Adam's writing that no one this side of the galaxy can interpret?
L> uh.........
R> loaded with brain teasers, quizzes, useless trivia, comic strips, smart alec comments on everything under the sun and over it, et al?
L> uh.........
R> that is sure to ruffle some feathers and other appendages of most people that hear about it? That will be another time sink for you?
L> uh.........
R> Well, You are absolutely right. Sounds exactly up your alley. Let's do it. But how are you gonna mange it?
L> uh........., what?!
R> I said, how are you gonna manage it? What form will it be? What will it be called? Who’s gonna do the designing? Who will contribute to it?
L> I think I need to sit down.
R> what you need is another shot of caffeine.
L> yes that will do just fine.

Post Caffeine Ingestion

L> hmm. Name... the obvious moniker will have to serve as a placeholder till I THiNK of something better.
R> and what’s the obvious moniker called in these parts?
L> think.
R> I am.
L> no, THiNK.
R> Huh, why can’t you just say it?
L> i already told ya. T H i N K.
R> oh. Right then. What about the....
L> you know what your problem is? You never...
R> Eh? Which one?
L> What?! Now how am i supposed to know which one?
R> you should. You are the one that brought it up in the first place.
L> ya right. So why don’t you just make a proper numbered list of all of them and we could check later which one it is that we were discussing, or add it to the list if it isn’t already there.
R> ok.
L> as i was saying, your problem is...
R> but what am I gonna call it?
L> call what?
R> the list of course.
L> how about things that aren't right?
R> but that describes you doesn’t it?
L> yes, but not exclusively. Or completely.
R> ok. "Things that aren't right" it is. You were saying...
L> saying what?
R> that my problem number is...
(whispering- x being a placeholder for its number on the list you see).
L> ah yes. Since you ask, just not these down. Firstly …
R> you are dictating a list.
L> that’s right, and you are to be taking it down without interrupting me, get it?
R> ok. Go ahead, make my day
L> ya rite. Ok, where was i?
R> 3rd rock from the sun
L> i mean where as in...
R> Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
L> Jesus Christ Bananas!
R> Alright, alright. Firstly?
L> God! Yes. Firstly, you never stop
Secondly, you make hyperspace jumps at every pause for breath on part of the other person communicating with you, or trying to
Thirdly, you leave all others confused, dazed and tired from jetlag / spacelag / whateverlag, trying to keep up with you
Fourthly ... what are you doing?
R> … … …
L> hello? I’m talking to you.
R> … … …
L> will you bloody answer me?
R> No.
L? No?
R> N. O.
L> why?
R> I’m trying not to interrupt your stream of thought, seeing how hard it is for you to get into it in the first place.
L> ok. I give up. What do you say we do?
R> are you sure you can handle it?
L> ya
R> absolutely?
L> yup
R> positively?
L> yes
R> lock kiya jaaye?
L> Y.E.S. Is that clear, or you want it in writing on stamp paper, signed in triplicate, attested in duplicate and sealed by legal counsel?
R> Nah. that will do.
L> so...
R> so what?
L> WHAT DO WE DO?
R> oh that? Yes yes.
L> well?
R> ya. catch some carbon based life form, show it how hard it is living the way we do, with this endless stream of ideas and thoughts, focus on the one's about fun, food, enjoyment, college and print THiNK diagonally in bold across it.
L> and?
R> that should be enough to put things into perspective. Meanwhile we can think of more things to shock the living daylights of the poor thing. What say you?
L> Seems like a plan.

Ok.
(deep breath)

So that is something of what went on in the devil's workshop before i manage to dupe Mr. insaneunknown into listening to my latest brainstorm
(believe me; you have no idea why it is called a Brain-STORM!). He further suggested SS (Not the Schutz Staffel, in case you were wondering) & logistics undefined. I decided to call everyone to a war conference at the canteen, threw in the zog as part of a forgotten package deal and Voila! We had the editorial team of THiNK ready. That left the creative group/team/person issue dangling. At which point the lioness was lured in, putting my fears to rest (in pieces…) with sharp measured ninja chops of creativity. Whatever that means. So the next day at the canteen, i managed to dole out the stuff swimming in my mental cavity, between bites and sips of a free treat from idontknowwho. Well, that's that, and this is THiNK now.

What originated as a bored gestation of thought seems to have picked up some wind, even if it should only be from half a dozen individuals, at least it's there.

So come the Ides of March in the year of our lord 2007, THiNK shall be distributed as a PDF on orkut, Gmail and bit-mesra.ac.in (God & Pant Sir be willing).

Dear weary reader, if you have managed to reach here unscathed, drop me a line and I promise to treat you to a coffee at the canteen and a copy of THiNK.
Alternatively, you can also take your revenge by sending in your contribution to bit.think@gmail.com

Auf Wiedersehen
(Google it out if you don’t know German! that's what I did.)

And meanwhile,

THiNK
stay hungry, stay foolish.

2006-12-23T12:46:00.000+05:30

IEE : The Initial Years

The IEE club in college was one of the first that impressed me during my first semester. Briefing time is one of the few times when seniors persuade you to do something when you are still officially a bakra. All briefing were a pack of lies, except that I somehow managed to join this club.

No activity in the first year. Not heard of the office bearers till until the end of the second semester. Come suddenly a notice asking all members until third year to pay a cool 100 bucks. For what? Farewell to the outgoing members of the club. What? Are you kidding me? These politician style (well, in Jharkhand and Bihar thats quite popular and more often than not the normal way to get things done) club leaders did not care to show their shameless faces even once, and look at their audacity, they want a farewell. No money paid. Not 'invited' to the 'party'.

Second year saw some activities in the club which could very easily be passed off as a roadshow. Came in touch with some seniors; most prominently Mr. AJ and Mr. AM . AJ had the habit of stoking anyone's dislike towards AM. AM somehow did not quiet get along pretty well with me too (although I appreciate a lot of his qualities including the subtle way in which he neglects people, including me), and I found myself working only with AJ. I decided to pay for a farewell for the outgoing '99 batch seniors. It was a sham. AJ was made the president of the club, AM got the prized IEEE club.

With AJ as president, I should have expected some freaking activities within the club. I somehow did not want to have majority of his shit, AB (the next presi) was pretty good at that and I was more than happy for him to be that way. One major disaster was the Haldia trip that was organized. RK, AB and myself were the only 2k1 batch guys in that. Rest AJ and another 2k guy (imagine no final year guy came!!!), and a bunch of ignorant juniors. We traveled to Kharagpur and got off in the cold at 4 am in the morning there. Now? AJ announced, " So we shall all use the waiting room toilet". That sentence marked the beginning of the ordeal.

To the unknown, as such railways toilets suck. More so at a non-discreet place like Kharagpur ( the place of India's no.1 technical college) in a poor state like Bengal. I could barely manage my ablutions in those conditions and decided against and bath. Tea at a nearby stall came in handy. We got onto a local train at 6am to a small town called Mecheda. This is somewhere deep in Bengal in Midnapore district, apparently close to the Bangladesh border. The countryside is amazingly beautiful ( I am not amazed by the Britisher' s description of Bengal) but after years of neglect the poverty was stark. We reached Mecheda with our luggage. Where to go? " Ujjwal and AB search for some guest house". Hail Hitler. We managed a small ram-shackled guest house. I suggested we have breakfast at a dhaba. People had it. I did not even try it. AB still swears at me for that meal.
Ok. Now how do we get to Haldia. I should have guessed with AJ at the helm of affairs. Local bus. I could not believe my luck. I traveled with fish sellers and WT (without ticket) Bengalis in the local train. More was in store. We settled at the back of the bus. 18 of us. The juniors were already looking at us in despair. I felt helpless but joked around with them, AJ being the puppet of amusement.

By the time we reached Haldia ( around 120 minutes for 35 or so km), I was nauseated by the smell of humans. Got down and a whiff of fresh air. Now? What to do? Where is the petrochemical plant? Ask the locals. Ok. Now this was the best. I hung onto one of the trekkers which run with at least 5 times their capacity . I was desperately clinching onto the small iron rod at the back end of the trekker. There was some semblance of roads within the potholes, few and rare.
Reach Haldia plant. Grand. Thats the word. We were not allowed to enter as apparently AJ did not confirm the trip with the lady concerned and she had apparently gone off to Calcutta for some official work. Superb. I thought now I had an excuse to beat this guy up. After 90 minutes at the gate in the heat, it was already 2 pm. AJ begged like anything to the authorities fearing a bash up. The authorities relented after they saw our hopeless faces; hungry, thirsty, tired and with luggage. They took us on a bus ride around the campus, gave us a 15 minute hushed up information presentation and served us tea and Marie biscuits. Heavens!! That was one of the meals I thanked God for. Tea was like amrit at that time.

We walked back 2 kms to the highway. Juniors were pretty angry. Completed the 2 hour journey to Mecheda standing in a local bus. I told AB that I wanted my money back and that AJ should not make profit out of this. I got down at Mecheda. Bought tickets to Calcutta for the 18 of us on a local train again.
As I saw Howrah bridge, I thought it was over. I walked across from the station, crossed the bridge on foot with luggage due to traffic. Finally we caught a bus from Bara Bazaar. 2 kms.
When we reached back to BIT after the Pujas, there was a rebellion within IEE. RK and I had messed up our chances for some decent position within the club. I did not go for any activity of the club in Bitotsav, mainly because I participated in it as one of the BABAz.

Finally, the day came. AJ was to go. He was to announce AB as the next president; fair enough. I relented to be present at such a ceremony at first, but then went along anyways. I was to be made some secretary. I kicked AJ that day and on the day of the farewell. It was pretty satisfying.
When AB and I walked out of the gathering at the end of the ceremony as the Chairman and the Vice Chairman, we kept quiet. The shuffle in posts and fortunes and the embedded trust within the silence of our walk changed the face of IEE in the coming year. IEE was never the same again from that day.
********************************************************************************

ps: This article is old was written just between the period I graduated from BIT and was about to leave for higher studies. The club has been renamed as IET now. Names have been abbreviated to preserve confidentiality of the people involved.

NJoy RASHly………..

2006-12-08T11:21:00.000+05:30

Legend has it that once upon a time there lived a master craftsman who crafted out a Gurukul for young boys and girls out of 780 acres of dense forest. Unfortunately, he had to leave before his dream was completely realized. Hence, to assist his successors he left behind a board saying “site for swimming pool”. But his successors were oppressive, orthodox demons who chose to ignore it and spread their reign of terror over the Gurukul.
The sands of time dimmed the “writing on the board”. Occasionally some students would notice it and sigh! However one day in a train chugging away from the Gurukul to Bong-land two ladies, who happened to be under instruction there, brought up the topic. One was drunk in the anticipation of getting drunk and the other was perennially drunk. But it was in this moment of disillusionment that they saw clear light. “We must complete the task and relieve our brethren of the bane of boredom and joblessness”……..hence NJoy RASHly was born……
NJoy RASHly is an underground club in the Gurukul. The sign said “site for swimming pool” but Robert Langdon taught us to dig deep (and we did…..literally!!!). It is built in five levels. The first is a bookstore called ‘Biblioklept’. You can find everything here….from second hand text books (no need to say Jai Bajrangi one week before the exams now) to Penthouse. But this is only for deception lest some unsuspecting professor or student stumbles upon it.
The second level is a lodge. This has been built keeping in mind the needs of the fairer sex who have been meted out a not- so-fair deal we all call “in-time”. This provides them shelter so that they too can NJoy the nightlife the club has to offer.
The third level is for the boys to park/hide their beloved possessions i.e bikes. This is the level that is connected by underground tunnels to all the hostels, for easy to and fro movement.
ENTER—level 4----our best offering….the bar, restaurant and disc all rolled in one….where you can NJoy RASHly. Food, drink and ‘accompaniments’ from far and wide…..such that you will never feel like going back……
Level 5 is a tribute to the master who showed the way….it houses an underground swimming pool connected to Subarnarekha…..just in case you want to get a breath of fresh air.

I have told you the tale and showed you the dream…but I can do only so much. You must look for hints hidden near the ‘board’.You must find the path yourself……. only then will the wine on the fourth level taste sweet.

Blogging in the finite universe

2006-11-30T12:17:00.001+05:30

Wacky. Weird. Cool. Smart.
All these and many more words pop in and out of your head. Actually, they just flutter through it. This happens when you happen to think of the person I am talking about here. All this and much more is subject to you having actually having crossed paths with the very person in question.

A seemingly simple gentleman. Goes by the name of Ravi Handa. I know him from a few quizzes I met him at. In Calcutta (Yes, I still spell it the old way!), and my college.

Seemed to be a guy who was a veritable source of gyaan on movies, books, music and other forms of intellectual activity that piques the curiosity on engineers-to-be in colleges when they are not busy mugging up for their exams the next day. I’ll skip going into the finer details of what really interests this unique species- engineers-to-be-during-exam-prep-leave. (I speak only for the males, since females are, well exactly that.)
Coming back to the thing I shot off at a tangent from, this frood, is like a real cheer-upper for lost causes. Let’s just examine his case.

Guy Studies (Assumption).
Gives IIT-JEE (Fact).
Lands a seat in IIT-KGP(Kharagpur, the oldest one) (Fact)
Gets a dual-degree course in Computer Science (Assumption)
Spends 5 years on the way to the graduation ceremony.
Decides against treading the beaten path
Takes an extra year at it.
Gets a job offer from some SW company
Gives a few choice Entrance tests for business schools, in hope of pursuing an MBA
Misses the IIM’s, get’s XLRI
Decides to take a sabbatical from whatever he was doing
Tells SW company & XLRI where they can take their respective offers
Joins IMS to teach Gyaan to mortals (spelt CAT aspirants)
Gives the CAT again, since this was actually why he took this path
Now, with CAT over & major load dispelled, goes back to musings on Life, The Universe and Everything.
Calls me up n has a nice chat about the weather on his planet
Discusses his plans of contemplating about not accepting the likely IIM offer that maybe headed his way soon
Causes me to ruminate on all this for the next 3.326 minutes and end up writing this piece

There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.

Never you mind. What just suggested itself to me a few hours ago, was that the fact the people read your blog, and make you think that Hey, someone is finally hearing my point-of-view. And that is exactly causes you poor ‘lil point-of-view to keel over and die a silent, painful, excruciatingly slow death. Sorry for that. The writer ends up feeling, hmmm, what will XYZ think of this when they read it? And so starts the infinite self-destructive loop that trims away whatever worthless thoughts you had starting expressing in the first place. I mean, really, c’mon, what the hell? When you start and no-one visits your blog, you mope that you ain’t getting any hits on the site. And when the stat counter starts chasing it’s tail, ever so slowly, though it might be, you end up moping about the repercussions of your mopings on the net.

Like in case of the frood mentioned above, he simply stopped blogging since most of his students read it and tell him about it too. So, it’s a constant nag, like, what might this be understood as, so on and so forth… the very reason blogging is so much fun is killed if your real-life self becomes responsible for the meanderings of your web-presence.
My way out of this mess is a quote from Ford Prefect, a cool frood from The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which makes a whole lot more sense than logic mostly).
It mostly says it all.

"My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre," he muttered to himself, "and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Time for me to get back to being actively irresponsible and shut my brain off, so as to study for my papers tomorrow.meanwhile, i give you my mantra on how to tackle the papers and other tasks you face in life with no clue as to how to go about them :

Don't Panic

One Year

2006-11-24T21:45:00.000+05:30

Here's to an year of blogging.

Of listening to The Pink Floyd Sound, The Who & The Doors, day-in and day-out, minus the Mary Janes, and wondering about life the universe and everything.

Of learning more about the inner workings of my brain. and realising how utterly pointless the task is. Of enjoying every moment life throws at me. no matter what shade of grey it might be.
I had thought of doing something to mark this anniversary that is typical nikhil kumar verma. different. So, here i am typing from a moving car , actually a trekker, on my way to a splendid buffet breakfast that awaits me at Capitol Hill, one of the better places in the town to eat and make merry. and to consider that in 4 days my end term papers start. and i have to start preparing for those papers.

However, this time around, i know something. that it's gonna work out just fine. some how. i am clueless as to the exact path that i am gona take to leave this place, my alma mater, that has taught me so much. to live. to love. to fail. to getup and face the new day. not from a hope of seeing the greener grass on the other side. no. just cause it's worth it.

When i initially started bloggin, it was more of a fad than a passion. people i knew and respected blogged to express themselves. So i tried too. to see what my POV looks like once its outta my head and in front of my eyes.

Honestly, it was pathetic. I sucked at expressing myself. but, hey i was enjoying myself, and that was what all this was about. my niche. where it was my word against the world's. and my rules. na, not really, it was more of a deluded rambling. a outpouring of random flashes from my brain. reducing the digital divide between me and the rest of humanity. but seriously, who gives a fig about that.

I dont count my self as one of the bloggers i would read. really. i have come across blogs and people who really have the gift of communicating. of letting ideas and opinions flow through words. it really is a beautiful feeling. to learn something about the world from a totally different perspective. The world as i know it. from behind a stranger's eyes. Living someone's else life through their words even though you know nothing about the person. but hey, isnt that what the information age is supposed to be? bring the world and it's people closer. Freeing your mind.
what started as a half witted idea of two morons ruminating over fingerchips and a glass of special coffee on a cold november night an year ago has evolved into something much bigger than just a bulletin board for thoughts and views on life in BIT..

I cant say what it will become or how long it will be around, but here's to BITRIP, an year old and still kicking.
Cheers.

About Time

2006-11-23T19:24:00.000+05:30

Well
just heard this from some junior.
BIT is finally showing the answer sheets of the mid-term papers to the students.
Not something to be glad of for all of us, but a giant step forward from wondering about the laws governing mark distribution in the papers.

now this has only been done for 2k6, so atleast the rest of still live in doubt / hope / mystery.
Along with the new colour laminated ID cards they have been issued, the new syllabus structure
( 5 marks for attendance and 10 for project , out of the total 100), there are definitely a lot of positive changes coming around at BIT Mesra.
Let's just hope we get LAN and internet access from the comfort of our rooms in the next semester too.

gotta go study now.
ciao

Mess Food Survival

2006-11-08T10:53:00.000+05:30

Are you an incurable epicure stuck in BIT? Did you know that the gooey mess food does to your elementary canal what a fag does to your lungs?? How often can you eat in the canteen, you rich brat??? How long does the home achaar and tit-bits last ???Its time to take control

Here is a quickie you can make and survive the BIT food

LEMON-CHILI PICKLE

> Steal good quantities of lemon, chilies, salt, red chili powder and some black pepper if you can manage it.
> Take the old achaar jar that your mom had given you (clean it if you have the enthu) and put in the lemon pieces wrapped in salt, green chili pieces, red chili powder and pepper.
>Keep this in the sun for at least five days.

Note- don’t be judicious with the quantity of ingredients…its all from your mess bill.

Now this is not particularly tasty but what it does is numbs your mouth so you don’t actually mind the food that much.It’s worth a try…for free sample all you need to do is ask me.

:-)

SUJI.......the fish

2006-11-08T10:51:00.000+05:30

Its gender is not externally perceptible so I cannot say if mademoiselle is a mademoiselle or if monsieur is a monsieur so lets just be politically incorrect and call it ‘it’.
It happens to be a new fish I kept…..and it is fondly called Suji because it only eats suji. With a more generous provider it could have had colourful fish food and have an even sillier name.
Suji moved into my room two weeks back and now lives in its goldfish bowl. No, Suji is not a goldfish but hails from the Subarnrekha. It is not a NRI but a localite.
One day a bong friend of mine came in an observed it for a long time and then said thoughtfully, “You know, this fish would be perfect for fillets”. These bongs are crazy…. crazy about fish.
Initially Suji hated me and I considered a forced responsibility but now our attitudes have softened up a bit. Suji swims happily in the bowl and I put in my hand and play with it sometimes (thankfully its not a Piranha).
So go ahead keep a pet…..be it a rabbit you steal from the Pharmacy dept. or a dog you pick up from the road…….it’s an experience worth having…….

THiNK folks, THiNK!

2006-10-27T23:05:00.000+05:30

THiNK ,
for your thoughts are integral to your life
THiNK,
to splash your ideas , in the pool you dive
THiNK,
coz after you are gone only your thoughts survive
THiNK,
coz for every beginning, there's an end to arrive !!

THiNK,
to break free from the monotone of every seconds blink,
THiNK,
do not let the ship of your convictions sink,
THiNK,
to unleash the colors of life , from blue to pink,
THiNK,
only what you believe in, not what others about you THiNK!

THiNK,
coz you hold the bridle to making others THiNK,
THiNK,
to resurrect those who've forgotten how to THiNK,
THiNK,
coz to make a chain, we need every link
THiNK,
be a sport, pick up your pens and drop in something , definitely in ink!

THiNK folks, THiNK!

T H i N K - The Orkut Post

2006-10-26T00:11:00.000+05:30

Hello People.
Im Nikhil, currently at BIT Mesra,
and I'm launching a magazine called T H i N K (an e-mag).
I am asking for contributions from all, students and alumni alike, and request you to send in all sorts of contributions as articles,stories,humour, POV's (Point's Of View), etc...

More news can be obtained on this project from my blog on the college :
BIT Mesra - Rest In Pieces ( http://bitrip.blogspot.com )

Awaiting your response.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
--
Nikhil Kumar Verma
T H i N K
Cogito Ergo Sum

Canteen Rush

2006-10-12T13:49:00.000+05:30

well what do you know? for the first time since the 2k batch passed
out of the college, the canteen is packed. to the limit.. and with a
Crowd. wow. ok, so i am completely jobless, being in ECE and still
hanging around in the canteen for four hours now. but seriously, for
the first time in the last three years, it feels like a college
canteen during college hours.really weird. had almost given up on this
place. maybe there still is some hope. Ciao. food is here.

--
Nikhil Kumar Verma
T H i N K
Cogito Ergo Sum

Holiday post +

2006-10-04T15:13:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer- The reader of this blog is advised not to hold the authors
responsible for absolutely any event that may arise as a result of
having read this blog and getting inspired from it. Sure you are
welcome to do so, but we ain't responsible. You are. And this has
nothing to do with the frustration of being limited to a max input of
838 chars per post by this imbecile mobile.Nevermind.
That is the reason this post is a continuation of the prev one. So,
what else does one write about while trapped in a clinic to have your
eyes checked when you are sure there is nothing wrong with them? I
have finished memorizing all the charts on the walls and have on
interest in the refractive index of the aqueous humour. Hmmm... Now
what? Let's see. The topic i was last scrapped about. What else?
books! The strictly non-syllabus kind.

Holiday Post

2006-10-04T14:43:00.000+05:30

Ok people. We finally have the Lioness fulfilling her promise of
giving us ignoramuses a glimpse of life after 6 on the far side of the
G.H. gate. As expected, the girls have turned out to be specimens of
our species that remain beyond our wildest comprehension. So, how's it
going? mLin, control the excitement, or else you may forget how to be
ONE with your true spirit. Answering our dear old pal's comment (spelt
U J Z ), yessir, the undergrad studies here suck compared to
Yankeeland, but its the same education that got you there. Well
atleast it's one of all those factors. We got it, Let's get on with
it, ok? One more thing, if you don't like the indentation or the
language here, sorry buddy. Tough luck. There is a disclaimer i wanted
to put up here a long time ago, and this seems as good a time as any
other,

--
Nikhil Kumar Verma
T H i N K
Cogito Ergo Sum

After 6

2006-09-30T13:05:00.000+05:30

Should have written this one looong ago…but better late then never….

AFTER 6…….

So you finished with your tata-bye bye at PMC by 1810 and managed to get your ass inside H-9 by 1815 only to get in the loooong line in front of the ‘sign-in’ register. You curse the system as you wait in line surrounded by sweaty and stinky girls….one signature each day to certify your presence in the hostel. Finally you reach the register…….now begins the search for a pen because some girl absent mindedly walked away with the original. You notice something strange on the register….nobody in your lobby has signed….bang it hits you then….its your signing day…you have to sign for the whole lobby. You have to do it in a clandestine fashion because it caught the warden will give you a hard time. Somehow you manage to forge 10 signatures…….its 1630….

With some hope you go to the food counter….only to be rebuffed rudely…..’chai bajey ke baad kuch nahi milega’ says a fat mausi and leaves…..still hunger makes you persistent and you scrape at the leftover samosa and cold chai……

You reach your room…..your roommate is absent but there is music playing…..not only from your room but from the 10 rooms surrounding yours….its a funny headache you get after you listen to a) Zombie b) where is the party tonight c) hanuman chalisa at the same time……..

You go to take a shower…….only to find the drain clogged with long strands of silky black hair. The wash basin is no better……..egg shells left by some lady who washed her hair with it. You really have to appreciate the variety of things girls will put on their faces and hair…..any thing form ripe tomatoes and bananas to sea weed and algae…….yuck!!

The time between 1900 and 210o flies in a daze. It’s finally time for dinner and your friends drag you to the dining hall. Another long line is waiting for you. But once the parathas arrive it’s a scene to behold. Manners, etiquettes and all such inconveniencies are cast aside and girls give way to the animal inside them. They jump, they snatch and they fight…..to get two hot parathas. You join in the fun and throw in a few expletives to make the atmosphere more charged. After few such fights you get your food and as you go to the table to eat hungry eyes of girls till waiting in line follow you…….

Back in your room you realize you forgot to fill water. Damn! No way are you going to the first floor to do it now so you dwell in your need. You spread your sheets and get to work. Why the fuck did I take architecture you wonder…….but other girls have a better life. 90% are out with their cell phones huddled in corners talking on and on and on to god knows who. Others not afflicted by the cell addiction are huddled in groups in one others room talking to each other. I am in awe of the ability of girls to talk about practically nothing for hours…..

from your room you get a view of what others are doing….some are dancing for no good reason….some are having a fashion parade and some are simply laughing their heads……strange….damn strange……

so you see….its a weird world in there. From being deprived of food to being bullied by mausis….I bet you expected me to write about the good things in there….like girls moving about in practically no clothes…..maybe tomorrow when I am not so sleepy I will….

Beware: Trespassers will be recruited!!!

2006-08-29T18:35:00.000+05:30

This is an old joke, but is still effective...

And if you feel offended.... it's your problem, mate...

One day, three consultants, one from Wipro, one from Infosys and one from TCS, went out for a walk.They were old buddies from an Engg College, and they were together for a college reunion...
For no apparent reason, they went into this zoo and passed a monkey. Being in the same business and from the same college, there was a little bit of a peer competition going on between them - they couldn't resist testing themselves against each other- especially the Infosys guy.
He said to the others: "Why don't we prove who is the best among ourselves?"
Why not, said the other two.

The Infoscion said "Let's have a test. Whoever makes this monkey laugh,works for the best firm".

By mutual agreement, the Infoscion took the first turn.Being a pure logical strategist, the Infoscion tried to make the monkeylaugh by telling jokes. The monkey stayed still.As a more practical consultant, the Wipro guy tried to make funny gestures... no good, the monkey stayed put...
Now, comes the TCS guy... being the practical guy he was always trained to be, he whispered something into the monkey's ear, and it burst out laughing at him.
The other two were astonished.How did this TCS guy manage to beat them? No way were they going to accept defeat so easily.

So the Wipro guy said "OK, let's take another test. Let's make this monkey cry!!"

So there they went again, applying the same methods as before.The Infosys guy narrated sad stories, the Wipro guy made sad gestures,and they failed again...
Then, the TCS guy whispered something into the monkey's ear and lo! Itstarted crying, patting the TCS er's shoulder!
The other two just could not believe their eyes!

So the Infoscion said "OK, you've won twice. If you can win just thisone, we will bow to you. Let's make this monkey run".

And he barked at the monkey and ordered him to run. Of course, it did not move.
The Wipro guy, true to his type, pushed and prodded the monkey- still no go.
So... here comes TCS guy, again, and whispers into the monkey's ear.
The monkey just takes off!
It runs and runs as fast as it can, as if itwas scared to death!

The other two surrendered. Said: "OK, we give up. You're the best among us, and you work for the Best firm of the three. But please,please tell us your secret," they begged him.
"Well", said the TCS guy,"
The first time I made it laugh, I said I work for TCS.
The next time, I told the monkey how much I get paid...so it started crying.
And then I said that I was here for recruitment!!!"

-one of the countless forwards in my mailbox

2006-08-10T05:08:00.000+05:30

Reflections: The Bonafide Certificate

As I felt my wallet getting lighter by almost three grands on that hot April afternoon, I was happy to finally have tickets to and from Delhi. It was third week of April, 2005 and the prep leave was staring down students at BIT, Mesra as the lull before the storm. For students from the 2k1 batch, it would have been the last storm before they get to stand up to the Vice Chancellor, on an elevated stage in a ceremony where the sheer number of people being awarded their degrees wears down those attending the function. Nonetheless, I had to brave another storm, one whose ominous clouds had been gathering on the horizon for quiet some time now in a far off land, Delhi.

In the preparation for my visa interview and the associated sanctioning of the loan by the State Bank of India, Ma had called me that uneventful afternoon wondering if it would be possible for me to come down to Delhi to sign some important papers and be present in person till the burden of the education loan is put on my shoulders for the next few years to come. As I quickly ran through the dates, I realized that I had enough attendance in all subjects to deny BIT the previlige of handing me a F* (which essentially meant repeating the class). Also, since the prep leave was just a couple of days away, it was not a bad idea to dash back home and come back in time for the final tyranny, the end semester exams.

As I walked into the canteen to break the good news to my gang, something struck me. It was almost 3 pm and I had another day to get a bonafide certificate needed for the loan. The certificate essentially stated that I was a student of BIT, Mesra and that I had been staying in hostel # 3 , yada..yada..yada..I almost froze. A cold sweat descended upon me. Anything to do with the administration in BIT was a pain in the @$.

Collecting my notebook from the table top, I bid adieu to my friends, not expecting to see them that evening. Walking in the high rise corridors, it was just another day at Mesra. Students walking out of classes, yearning to run to the canteen or the comfirts of their room. Teachers, dispassionate as ever, coming out with attendance registers in their hands with the borderline F* case students meandering around, pestering them to take a lenient view of the bunked classes. Girls, mostly shy, walked in groups chattering animatedly about how some professor looked at some not-so-worth-looking-girl during the lecture and giggled away. The ones with boyfriends, with an air of dominance around themselves, walked out as though the jailbreak plan was almost final when the siren thwarted their plan for freedom. All in all, nothing too different from a hot, sweaty summer afternoon in Mesra.

"Mji ka office yahi hai kya?", (Is this the office of Mr. M?),I asked the peon sitting outside .

To protect the identity of the concerned person, I would refer to him as 'M'.

Without looking up and paying scanth attention to my querry, he nodded in affirmation. Post 3'o clock in Mesra is time up for most of the administration. The peon was no different.

"Ka chahiye? Saahab beejee hain. Thori der me pata karna". ( What do you want? Sahab is busy, check out in some time).

I did not have the luxury of time on my side. It was thursday afternoon and my train left on Saturday. As I tried peeping through the curtain separating my view from the 'officer' who would issue me my certificate, I decided to let go the issue till Friday morning. After all, realistically speaking, I would not have gotten the certificate that day and my request would have anyways been pushed to the next working day. I walked off the main building cursing SBI for making me travel 1325 kms to Delhi just for a signature.

Friday morning was busy and I checked out Mr. M's office just before the lunch break. As I should have guessed, he was out. Anyways, I took the first step and filled in the application form with all my details which included the reason why I wanted the certificate.

Purpose: Visa Interview.

I walked off believing the certificate would be ready the next time I would walk in. Wrong again. At 1 pm, there was no sign of the elusive Mr. M. Infact, he had not shown up since morning. Bravo. I checked in at 1:30 pm again. No luck. At 2 pm, even the peon was gone. These were ominous signs of lurking trouble. It was Friday afternoon and I was leaving the next morning. At 3 pm, I was somehow sure that Mr. M would be in his office. And Bingo!! There he was. Since there is no reason for the administration to come on time or being receptive to the needs of the students, who end up coughing out a fortune for their salaries, Mr. M was relishing a small cup of tea with some 'guest' of his.

"Sir, I had applied for a bonafide certificate. I was hoping that it..."

"When did you apply?", he almost spat on my face cutting me short.

"This morning."

On hearing that a student expects things to be done within a few hours, as they should be, he almost jumped out of his rickety wooden chair. I had breached the invisible line of implicitly questioning the working of this man.

"What do you think of yourself? You think your work is the most important one in the world? Dont people have other issues to deal with?"

I was speechless. The lashing left me with nothing else to speak but to ask if I could expect it the same day. I explained to him how I had to catch the train the next day and why was it important for me to get the certificate. No use. He asked me to come the next day, raising my expectations with the sentence,"I shall see what I can do".

As I walked off despondently, it was another day lost. End of friday with nothing in hand. Saturday morning was my last bet in getting the certificate else my trip to Delhi would have been of no use. Instead of being filled with desparation, I was somehow determined to "extract" the certificate out of Mr. M.

Saturday morning. At 8:30 am I was standing outside Mr. M's office. My train was scheduled to depart from Ranchi at 2:30 pm and I had to leave Mesra by 1 pm at any cost. Going by Ranchi's traffic and roads, an hour is what it takes to travel 11 miles from Mesra to the station. (Looking back, I ride 11 miles now in not more than 10 minutes. Sighh!!).

M arrived at 10 am. I had already started to hate this name which somehow reminded me of stray dogs pouncing on unattentive passerbys. Hence the prefix 'Mr.' is dropped henceforth. As M took his seat, he was visibly not happy to see me around first thing in his weekend 'morning'.

"What do you want now?", he barked.

Now what does one say to such a question? His tone pretended as though I 'needed' something from him which was not mine in the first case. Not trying to mess up, I clarified.

"Sir, the bonafide certificate."

"Oh yes. Why do you want one now?", the cracking tone growing even more restless.

Without thinking too much into his demeaning behaviour or tone, I went along. I had no choice.

"Sir. I am travelling to Delhi for some paper work needed for my visa. I need the certificate for my visa interview".

"Visa? What Visa? Where to? Where are you going?"

"America".

"Amrikka? Why?"

What why? To design fashion clothes for Paris Hilton. Didn't you know that? I was loosing it with his incessant barrage of apparently senseless questions.

"Sir, I am going there for higher studies. For my masters degree."

"Where are you going? How do I know you are going? Whats the proof that you have a visa interview?"

These are the moments when one feels like kicking the person sitting in front, casually sipping his tea and totally cut off from the need of the time.

"Sir. I have no proof of my visa interview, but I have a letter of acceptance from my university", I retorted back, raising my meak voice for the first time in the exchange.

That did not go down well with M. He shot back, "Get me the proof. Then I shall think about the certificate".

What was he thinking? Was he thinking he could get away with depriving me of my right as a student? Sometimes the best way to cross a river is to flow with it downstream and walk back along the shore. I decided to show him proof. As I ran back to my room to get my hands on a print out from State University of New York ( I was supposed to go there before Carnegie Mellon happened), I was aware of the fact that this might be my last chance at procuring the certificate. Saturday is half day working at Mesra and I had a window of 45 minutes to get through.

"Here it is!!", I spoke as I walked into M's office. He was a little taken aback by my belligerence but decided to look into the A4 paper I handed over to him. Adjusting his huge granny-style rusted spectacles, he read every line carefully. I was confident that there would be no pretext left after this for not handing over 'my' bonafide certificate. As I started imagining driving on the Brooklyn bridge, I was jolted back to reality.

"I dont have time right now. There are many applications which came before yours. The certificate would not be issued today."

"What? What are you talking about? I am supposed to catch a train in sometime", I resisted.

"I am not responsible for your travelling or staying. Go out. Come on Monday".

There is an old adage in Hindi, "Jab ghee seedhi ungli se na nikle to ungli teri karni parti hai"(when its impossible to get work done the right way, hack!)

"Alright sir. I believe you. Just give me what you said in writing. That you shall not issue me a bonafide certificate even after 2 days and for no apparent reason except that your ego is too big. Please give it in writing so that I can ensure, through my means, that I get the certificate today."

Bombed. Numbed. Shocked. Speechless. Disillusioned. Melted. I dont know how to describe M's expression at my statement. He succumbed.

I had my bonafide certificate within the next 15 minutes. After much heckling, I had a piece of paper which would ensure I flew to America at the end of that summer. As the train started from Ranchi station that afternoon, I could almost smell the air in Central Park. At last, I was on my way...

Links to my previous posts:

Reflections: The Campus Placement (1)

Reflections: The Campus Placement (2)

2006-07-31T10:02:00.000+05:30

Reflections: The Campus Placement (2)

As promised, the second post did not come up on the 27th. Many reasons for that, but lets get down to finishing the story first.

"May I come in sir?".

One of the persons sitting on the wooden chair looked up and nodded.

"Nice shirt"

I smiled and nodded as a gesture of appreciation.

"Nice tie."

I smiled again. Now was this a trap to get me talking or were they just trying to ease up my nerves? Before I could decide, pat came the next statemet.

"A nice combination, infact!"

"Well, thank you sir, but this is my father's taste."

Looking back now, I'd like to believe that statement was taken as one in which I did not want to take credit for what was not mine. Good for starters.

As for the details of the interview, I'd rather not publish them else some people sitting in TCS might be upset. But I was not asked a single, "not a single" technical question. The remotest relation to anything tech was,"Why is network security important?". I'd like to think that the question was a joke because after three projects in the field, I expected something better. As I walked out after about 20 minutes or so, I was numb. Was it over? But they did not test me. I mean, they simply chatted with me. Good for me because I had not prepared for more than 4 hours in totality for my placements.

That night was fun listening to a lot of other 'interview' experiences. In the mess, on the roof, outside the hostel while walking to the canteen. Animated discussions taking place amongst a bunch of guys passing one, ever shortening ciggarette amongst each other. People were just not getting tired of talking. As it became clear, Shireesh had topped the written test amongst everyone in the country that year. Add to that, he was asked about music in his interview. Looking back, I wish interviews here would be something like them too. But those ones deserve a separate entry..

Next morning I had my HR interview. I was super confident about cracking it. Talking was never an athelete's foot for me and going by how my tech interview went, this one should have been a cakewalk. But as I noted somewhere on my blog, life has the uncanny habit of catching you offguard when you are least expecting it to.

So as I found out, this 'HR' guy asks me my favourite programming language.

"C".

"Fair enough. So whats the difference between a structure and a union".

This is where Mirinda gets it right. Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage. I was not prepared to answer any technical question, be it the easiest one on the planet. Besides, I had never prepared for my placements believing that I would wait for some "better" companies before I warm up. Anyways, now all that did not matter. As I took bouncer after bouncer on my chin, I realized it was time to hook some deliveries out of the ground. The interviewer game me a sample Java code, to which of course, I could not give the correct output. Just before he would say thank you to me and easily strike my name of the list of candidates, he asked a last one.

"You dont know C. Neither can you answer C++ or Java questions. Your grades are fine. What were you doing all this time?"

Now there are some innings when you might be the 11th man coming in to bat. You have not done particularly well in your career as a cricketer and the team needs a sixer off the last ball of the innings to win the World Cup finals. Life always gives you the opportunity to do something about which you talk a lifetime. I took a deep breath and spoke my mind.

"Sir, I had better things to do in the summer than to prepare for my campus interviews, and least for a company like TCS."

Sorry Mr. Pant. I said that. I just did. As I started to reach for my certificate folder to walk out, the half-mouth-opened person sitting infront me spoke with a raised voice, "Like what?"

And as they say, the rest is history. When you are facing the last ball and you know you are good on the leg side, move your legs before the bowler releases the ball. Chances are that me might follow you and then you stand your ground and heave the ball over mid wicket for a winning six. Thats what precisely happened. Though I would not compare winning the world cup to a job in Tea-See-ess, it was definitely a good feeling talking about something I could. I kept on blurting about my networking project, my project in IIT Delhi and DRDO. My guides being the Directors of the institutions themselves. yada..yada..yada..

And so, here I was waiting for the result to be declared at night. I was mostly in hostel 2 with Saurabh Roy and Rajeev Tripathi. Sometime with Birju too. Doesn't matter. Killing time before one gets to hear that you have been hired for almost $5000 as your starting annual salary.

As Mr. Pant walked into the big room opposite his office (I forget the name of it), there was a smile on his face. As he announced that out of the 167 odd people interviewed, 117 had been selected, there was a huge round of applause. Some made it. Some did not. Most of us hugged each other as we heard our names being called out. Rajeev Kunar did not make the mark. As I walked out, Chatto came running in. I congratulated him on getting the job. He ran in to check the name list. As it turned out, he was not hired. Till date, I feel I had heard it correctly, but Chatto took it seriously. He imagined that I deliberately made fun of him. Happens. Things get sorted out with time.

As the ritual of getting kicked began to lighten up the otherwise dead night, it was as if the hostel looby had suddenly became a torture house for punishing the hardened criminals. From kicks, bumps, hugs shifting and to a bleeding Oswal (courtesy Manu Kant), it was a scene to remember. I rarely have seen so many people being soa happy at the same time. Guess it was time to celebrate and harp the fruits of one's labour all those three years.

Amongst the couple of high and low points I recall from our batch were:
1. Gaurav Singh being rejected by TCS and making it to Oracle.
2. Anoop asking people to kick him more when he made it to Infy.
3. Jujhar having to leave the final round of Tata Motors to rush back home (for a medical emergency).
4. Some placement committe people quitting as soon as they got a job.
5. And many innumerable ones which is hard to mention in a single article.

As I walked back: half sore, almost limping back to room 15, it was almost day break. For 116 people from my batch, the job had been finished. I had to get back to my unfinished job...

ps: For many of us, Mr. Pant was a hero. He worked real hard, listened to people and took decent enough decisions to win the admiration of the students. Thank you sir for all that you have done to BIT Mesra. Anyone at your place could and can easily walk off by working a tenth as hard as you do. Good job.

Placements @ BIT, Now

2006-07-27T22:49:00.000+05:30

Ok people...
First things first

Here is the scenario as on July 27, 2006
TCS - Written - 250 Shortlisted
Google - 5 Shortlisted
Microsoft - 3 job offers
Tata Motors - 24 Job Offers
Maruti Udyog Limited - 11 Job Offers

Secondly,
Ujjwal, welcome abroad. sorry i had to butt into your memoir series...

As for the rest of the companies, will keep periodically updating the details
If the junta wants the names of those placed, kindly say so
So long
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

2006-07-27T07:51:00.000+05:30

Reflections: The Campus Placement (1)

Being my first post on this blog, I am glad to welcome myself to the arena. On the onset, this is Ujjwal Moitra from the Computer Science 2001 batch of BIT Mesra and today, the 26th day of July 2006, I begin what should be an interesting rendezvous writing some memoirs and reflecting back on the four years spent in Mesra. My posts would be part of the Reflections series.

July 26, 2004 08:50: As I rubbed my eyes to see the time on the wall clock hanging on the eventful room 15 of Baba hostel ( hostel 3 to the unknown), I realized that the sun was beating down my window and it was time to get to the mess. Although hostel 3 was famous for serving food at insane hours, 9 am was pretty much the time when one should be heading towards the rusted chairs. Gulping down water from big plastic bottle which pretty much everyone carried, I lazed towards Prabir's room for a cigarrete. As luck would have it, it was locked. So was Ankit's, the adjoining room.Crap! Alright, lets get some chai. The chai that was served was no more than a sugar syrup boiled with the cheapest tea leaves available, over and over again. Nonetheless, that was the only option of getting me started for the day.

09:00: As I walked into the mess, it was uncharacteristically empty. I could see just one Baba sitting at one end of the mess, sipping the half cold chai and reading a local Hindi newspaper with such penchant as though New York had been hit again. To the uninitiated, Baba was a common term used to describe students who had failed year after year to obtain a degree. The mess helper looked at me in amazement, as though I was just landing from Mars. As I tried to get my thinking process started about the things to do that day, the helper asked me, " Ka lijiyega? Anda naahi hai aaj. Doodh bhi khatam. Ka layen?" (What shall I get for you? Eggs and milk is finished). Thank you for the good news, now that I have to prepare my taste buds to 'relish' plain bread. As I asked for butter and bread, I walked to sit with the Baba. Some company is better than none.
As the butter was being graciously applied to the bread surface, out came the question " I thought you were eligible to sit in the campus (shorthand for campus placements). Why did you not go for the company then?". What was he talking about? Company? Campus? In my preparation for GRE, I had totally forgotten that today was the day when Tata Consultancy Services, the messiah of the masses, was suppose to come for recruitment. But who cares? I was not interested in the placement process anyways. As I gathered my thoughts, I wondered if it was prudent to miss a pre placement talk (PPT). "What time is it?", I asked the Baba as though I was a war refugee who had to catch the last us to the camp. "Nau baje tha. Chaloo ho gaya hoga" ( It was supposed to begin at 9am). Crap! I gulped down my last couple of sips of the liquid that was served in the name of special chai.

09:50: Walking into the CAT (closed air theatre) was never easy with big events going on. And here I was, jostling with the crowd pouring beyond the main gate, to get in and listen to someone who would try and convince me to join a company which I never would. And as always, when in trouble in BIT, use the age old paua (jack/source). Most of the placement committe members were good friends and it wasn't long before the head of the placement committe, Mr. Pant, was staring down me with disbelief. I was sitting on the second row from the front;unshaven, in shorts and the T shirt I had slept in the previous night and a half torn bathroom slipper gracing my feet. The sea of humanity around me was all prepared: cropped hair, clean shaven, with pens and diaries to take notes (for what?), and mostly in atleast a decent shirt and pant. Without thinking too much about it, I wondered which section of the GRE preparation book I had to finish that day. As I fooled around with friends, the PPT began around 10:00.
Thats the first impression of the company I have, a PPT starting an hour off schedule. Had it been America (well, I speak from my experience with only Carnegie Mellon, but surely it is the same elsewhere in the States), they would have served Pizza and soda, given away some freebies and started a cool state of the art PPT bang on time. I would love to see that day in BIT when students walk out just because the person suppose to present the PPT is not on time.

11:00: As I walked out the totally uninspiring and boring PPT with Siddharth Mukherjee, the only point that had captured my imagination was some collaboration of TCS with Carnegie Mellon University for sending people to complete their masters degree. The rest of the colleges they mentioned were Jadavpur Univ, IISc Bangalore et al. But CMU. My dream college. Walking past the canteen, it was clear that both Siddharth and I decided to atleast give the first round. It was to be held the hi-tech building (having seen what tech really is, I would urge the BIT administration to strip off that name. Have some mercy!). Fine.

13:30: Having been through some easy computer based maths and general analytical tests, I was waiting for the results to be declared. In my quest to be the cool one, I spoke only of GRE and what it takes to get to America. TCS? Hah..
The saying goes by: Beware!! This is TCS. Trespassers will be hired.
Only two people were not selected for the interview round. That was insane. But that was bad news too. If one does not sit for the interviews after clearing them, there might be repurcursions. And in BIT, where decisions are based not on logic or merit but the whims and fancies of a few, it was prudent enough not to give the administration a reason to play with my future.

15:00: After getting off the phone with my dad and explaining to him that I 'have to' sit for the interview, I got down to getting myself presentable. Shaved. Shirt on. Pants looked good. Tie on the neck. Leather shoes. Heat. 400 people in line. Aah. Time to take a break.

16:00 - 19:00: In the time that I spent in the canteen discussing what kind of questions the interviewers might ask, I saw others were remarkably well prepared. Most of the people had parrot-ed (I take the liberty to create a new term here) staple answers to vomit out during the interview. I felt nauseatic. It was unbearable to sit with people trying to make an effort to get into a company like TCS. Just to clarify, I dont mean to demean people who work there or the company in any manner. But the fact that a company can select 100+ people in a day is proof enough that the selection procedure is flawed. I killed time till I felt it would be better to stand infront of the placement office, where the interviews were going on.
When I walked into the corridor, I saw a sea of humanity. Some glad that the ordeal was over and doling out free tips to others. Tips to chickens on how to escape the butcher in case he comes into the room. Tips which are never ever useful. Tips which you dont remember once inside. But people talked to calm down the nerves.

20:00: Just as my patience was wearing thin by not knowing exactly at what time my interview was, I saw the Bengali manager of the TCS team coming out. As I do at many occasions, and sometimes I regret doing it that way, I charged towards him,"Sir. Are you incharge of the team here?". Before he could reply, I went on " Dont you think it is advantageous to you as well of the people standing here, waiting endlessly, to know the sequence number of their interviews. Can we have some semblence of a sytem here?"
People around me froze. I am sure they were at the point to shout,"We dont know this guy". The manager stopped. Couple of placement committe members looked at me in disbelief. There are some points in life when you dont know whether your words were taken in the right spirit or not until the other person speaks.
"Thats a very good point" and he walked off. Within five minutes, the waiting candidates were given approximate timings as to when their interviews shall be held. Good. Mine was in 30 minutes. Finally, the five hour wait was suddenly coming to and end.
" Tu marwaega beta kisi din. Chup nahin reh sakta?" (Cant you shut up ever? You shall get us all into trouble), retorted Geetanjali. She was on the placement committe and hoping to get through TCS. Fair enough. I should shut up now. But my unusual action on that moment was discussed until my batch graduated.

2130: That was the time when my name was called out. As I walked in, I suddenly realized that with my show off confidence and rhetoric, being rejected was not an option. I had to give it my best shot irrespective of what I think about the company. I walked into Mr. Pant's office and stood outside the attached side room for somebody to signal to me.
"May I come in sir?".
As I stood at the threshold of my first ever job interview, I saw two visibly tired and disenchanted personalities sitting in a hot room with an antique fan rotating from the high ceiling.

What happens next? Well, the TCS placement procedure was spread over two days and hence it is historically correct to end the post tomorrow.

Back

2006-07-22T12:08:00.001+05:30

am back....BIT looks so beautiful these days.......green and wet.....people running all over for registeration.......wifi signal sucks.........charge runnin out.........

When the clock strikes SIX

2006-07-16T21:19:00.000+05:30

Here I am, stuck at home, and have no idea what is going on in BIT…...so here is some stale bread served in a new packet

We all know what happened to Cinderella when the clock struck twelve. At BIT a different version of this fairytale is played everyday………

At PMC…..

Guys are bidding their final farewell for the day. They generally have a very weepy look on their faces and are trying their best to linger for as long as possible. The girl in the meantime is thinking, “My warden is going to kill me, doesn’t this guy know that there IS a tomorrow”. Other people in groups of 4 or 5 are cracking sick jokes on these couples. The H1 PMC lobby is very active at this hour making full use of binoculars and camcorders!!! The guard’s quandary is a spectacle to behold. If he breaks up the couples he gets to face the guy’s scorn. If he does not Thapa might come and fire him. So he just stands there looking even weepier. Some ME girls can be seen running back (the ONLY people who probably do some serious studies).
But all share one sentiment. Curses for a certain individual (ahem….won’t name anybody….let’s just call him Wicked Step Father). But every time I see his constipated face in the insti I know the curses are well at work.

PS: I, for one, would like to see more action at PMC.......the place ought to live up to its name!!!

To know what happens in the girls’ hostel after six….keep reading
GROWL...
LIONESS 3:16

Slam! Bang! Ouch!

2006-07-14T16:26:00.000+05:30

How many of you ppl have driven a car? And how many have dashed a two wheeler on the road? And how many fortunate souls found out that the guy in front is a tholu(police wallah)? And how many of you actually said,"Agar tez chalaaye hote, toh gaadi kya, ap bhi nahi bach paate." before finding out his true identity?

Welcome to the club.... Thursday evening ws as eventful as it could ever be...
Having gone to the reservation office for some tickets, I fell short of cash. Had to hurry home, and en-route, on the busiest mile-long stretch in Jampot, I see this stupid OR14D,8933 Hero Honda CD100SS riding smack in the middle of the road, without a care in the world, with a long stretch of empty road in front of him. I honk him thrice, the third one being as long as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (The actual duration might be conjectural, but remember relativity?) Some time later, the guy pulls to the left, and I move forward... There's a three wheeler, and as all notorious three wheelers, this one is as erratic in speeding up n slowing down as one could be... I ease into third gear, slow down, and the gap between the tempo's rear and my car increases just a bit...
Whoosh... into the gap squeezes this CD100SS fucker...
And God decides it is time to teach me a lesson (for what reason? I now wonder)... the tempo wallah applies brakes suddenly... The CD100SS goes smack into the rear of the tempo n stops...
I too apply the brakes, and CRUNCH!!! The CD100 makes a nice filling between the sandwitch of 3 and 4 wheelers...
The tempo wallah decides that... I dunno.. He speeds away. The angel of a guy that this fuckfaced biker is, gets down hi sbike, makes me pull over, and with a steady stream of God-forsaken language asks me,"Iska paisa kaun bharega?"
God only knows how these hot-blood surges work, and I wish I can control them.. but at that time I cannot. saying,"Paisa se matlab hai na? Toh hum denge. Pehle hisab lagate hain."
And off we march to the nearby Hero Honda Workshop. The damage is not much. The rear mudguard is slightly bnt, and the horn needs re-wiring... How the horn-wires got entangled into this crunch, I cannot figure out... But the figure that is most perplexing is 726INR... the cost for a new rear mud guard. I immediately call up my dad, and wait.
Meanwhile, this guy, the darling that he is, starts threatening me, right in front of the stud-in-one-ear 25 something owner of the workshop... "Bahut josh hai, nahi?"
"Abhi sab hawa nikal denge tumhari"
"Aankh sar pe chadhake rakhe ho"
"Kismat hai tumhari, gaadi ka daemaige (yeah, he pronounces it that way) kam hai"
"Gadi tez chalaane ka aadat pad gaya hai, nahi?"

My mind starts a retort,"Teri maa ki %@#$*..."
but audibly I only say,"Agar tez chalaaye hote, toh gaadi kya, aap bhi nahi bach paate."
At which his eyebrows rise. And his cheekbones. Danger signals.
And he looks every bit of the corrupt sipahi that he is. And I am scared. Shit scared.
Literally quaking all over. Then the stud-in-my-ear guy says softly,"Pay him off. Right here."

Over the next 3 hours, dad settles the problem. Gets his bike repaired by a local mechanic, who's an old friend of his. Costs some 400 bucks. And I get just one warning from my dad,"Next time, make sure it isn't a next time."
He is sort of relieved, I guess, that no loss of life/limb has occured. And the bill isn't in 5 figures. Like the one last year.
What had happened was.......
But that's another story...
worthy of it's own post.

Till then,
Safe driving

-ONE

Movie Mania SE

2006-07-12T14:58:00.000+05:30

I'm back...
After watching another movie...

Taxi 9211
Yeh kahaani hai in do chapter ki...
So it begins, the not-as-bad-as-the-movie narration being provided by our very own Sanjay Dutt.. who's had too many interesting chapters in his own life...
The subjects are John Abraham, a rich brat who's Dad leaves everything to his best buddy, and leaves his son a pauper, or so it seems... and Nana Patekar, who is a taxi driver, but lies to his biwi that he's an LIC agent... and to keep up the lie, he parks his taxi 2km away from home every night... and doesn't take passengers to Andheri... afraid that his wife might see him...
The END.
That is where the story ends, and looking at my watch I realized not even 15 minutes had passed... The rest of the characters ar just for filling in the gaps.. though I must say.. John's girl does have some booty... (can I hear some wolf-whistles out there?) There is a will, a locker ki chaabi, some stupid lawyer, Nana Patekar's cute wife... If Bollywood could have churned out a bigger mess than this, it was PHP... the movie has a sort of a message for public, though... It is a rhetoric about how ppl always kosofy the world, their kismat and baaki saari duniya but the fault lies entirely within... blah n blah...
Verdict: Watch it only if you have got NOTHING else to do... and you have loads of cash for chips n popcorn...

Cube 2 (HyperCube)
This is an ok types movie... involves strange unimaginable laws of physics... nothing much to writ about...
There are n number of people trapped inside a cube like structure which leads to 6 other cubes, each of which lead to 6 other cubes.. and so on... the catch being that each cube belongs to a different fourth dimension... The movie's pretty ok... though certain elements seem to be a repeat of Cube, as in the characters seem to be stale... the analyst who undertands other's psyche... a crazy angry man, who's got demons of his own... All in all, a let down on Cube...

Ice Age 2::The Meltdown
Hilarious... If you can understand English, it is a must watch for you... age no bar...
Manny, Sid and Diego, alongwith that squirrel-with-his-nut are back to entertain you more in this sequel.. where Manny gets a girlfriend, Diego discovers he can swim, depite being a cat... and Sid becomes the 'fire king', albeit solely for a night... the movie's hilarious... Sid singing 'Food, Glorious food...' which is a vulture song... or Sid being pounded by kids in his summer camp... If you don't like the movie... you're probably somebody's grandsire cut in alabaster.

There's another movie that I saw.... Lion King 1½
But.. again.. it's time for my afternoon siesta...

adios

-ONE
..and I don't want the world to see me,
'cuz I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am...

Movie Mania

2006-07-11T23:33:00.000+05:30

GOD knows what was wrong with me...
Over the past two months, I kept making mistake upon terrible mistake ... of watching the baddest, shittest movies possible just in the hope that I'd stumble across a gem of a movie ala Shawshank Redemption...

So, for all those (lucky) ppl who've not seen the following movies, here's a review outlining why you should(n't) see them:

Fanaa
God! Kajol's amazing in the movie. The firt half builds up to a point where you start expecting Hollywood-like treatment. Alas, it's a yahraj stable product, so you'll have load of snow, melodrama and most of all... heart wrenching scenes... (Kajol's dad, played by Rishi Kapoor, floats under a frozen lake while she looks on...) By this point, you just start praying that when the rush to get out of the hall starts, you're the first to reach the exit... Imagine.. A terrorist who falls in love with a blind girl, screws her so badly she gets pregnant, then leaves her in the lurch just hours after the musical-lovemaking (no pun here, the entire sex is camouflaged by a song), and reappers Tom Cruise style at an airport only to be half-killed by the Indian army...
And then, in the wilderness of Kahmir, he stumbles across a door, Lo and behold! it's kajol, and she's got her eyes back, it seems...
the rest of the muck is anybody's guess... ohh.. the movie ends when Kajol shoots aamir Khan.
Yes. She shoots him, and he dies. :P to all those gals who want to watch the movie for Aamir...

Phir Hera Pheri
GOD!!! Not again...
Better take the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels from me... save yourself from mental agony... pithy poor and downright shoddy, PHP is as crass and poor an attemp at a remake as any...
The movie opens with a item number, and that's where my interest ended. The item number was so damn laughable, yes you got it right, it was comic... and that's about all the comedy in the film...
with kucku-doo-koo-s all over the place, and baboons who scare better than gun toting goondas... the entire movie's a mess.... unless you call Baburao Ganpat Rao Apte's dhoti coming undone, a comic masterstroke...
You got money to waste.. give it to a beggar.. not to the cinema hall for this movie.

I've got a thing or two to say about Taxi 9211...
But that'll have to wait.. I gotta finish my forty winks first
adieu

-ONE

Orkut Chirkut

2006-07-09T20:25:00.000+05:30

May God bless Orkut Büyükkökten ! This Turkish software engineer created Orkut, a social network service, for Google. It appers to be the next big thing on the web. And for jobless individual like me marooned at home, it is manna!

In my twelve years of schooling, I changed my school 12 times(no, I wasn’t that bad in studies, my dad got transferred a lot!). I made a lot of friends but lost touch as I shifted to another town. Now, thanks to Orkut, I get to meet them(albeit, virtually).

There are a plethora of communities and everyone is sure to find something they like. From your college community to one of your residential colony. In fact, once you start exploring it becomes very hard to stop. Soon you will enter into a competition with friends on who has the maximum friends, scraps and communities. Scrapping leads you to redifine your definition of privacy but nobody seems to mind that.

So what are you waiting for, become an Orkut Chirkut today!
(for interesting trivia visit Wikipedia)

Update.:for the sake of one...:.

2006-07-06T22:40:00.000+05:30

Hello folks...
If you are wondering where I was all these days, I was busy enjoying...

After a Loooong time I've had some time to myself... (NO summer training, NO begging with Sasmal-the-monkeyhead for grades, NO prepare the reports on time,....)
which I spent sleeping, eating and marvelling in the oh-so-"private" world of Orkut...
and of course .. playing AOE.. stretching my abilities to the extremes, winning just ONE game (1v3 hardest RM) out of more than 15... Life is tough even in the Unreal, I must say...

Talking about computers, there'll be a series (actually just 2) ACM lectures on coding practices, and some miscellaneous stuff which would be (I hope) of interest to ppl interested in computers...

For ppl who are fed up of opening other ppl's Orkut profiles everytime they wanna scrap them, there's a cool free software for u.. check out: http://www.scrapboy.com
It's a 24MB download, so be patient.. or else, just wait for a few days and it'll be available on email for free....

Yawn...
These days.. I'm off to sleep b4 midnight.. weird.. strange things happen when you fall in love, i guess...
g'nite

-ONE

Get Moving.....

2006-07-03T22:07:00.000+05:30

There are times in BIT when you get so sick of the place that you want to take a rocket and zoom off to space. However, for people with moderate budgets, here are some quick getaways…..

Disclaimer: these are strictly for nature lovers. If you are into pubs and swanky places….don’t even come close to BIT……you’ll fall into depression!!!

Jonah or Hundru falls-- Jump on a bike( for 2 or 3 people) or rent out a trekker( for bigger groups) and zip off to these falls. Leave by 9 or 10 in the morning. They are about 30km away. The drive is pretty pleasant except when crossing small bastis. Here people are always ready to exhort money on the pretense of some pooja. Once you reach there just jump in the water. It is advised not to hang around the crowded area but to find a secluded spot with your friends. We had taken some marinated chicken from H-4 and cooked it in an open coal fire. Yummy!!! Add on some booze and you’ve got a perfect party!! Start back by 4 in the evening and you will make it by 6. Winter season is a good time because you can lie around in the sun but if you’ve got guts go during the monsoons.

Rukka Dam—this one is close by. Must be around 10km. Same mode of transportation as above. Even auto waalas agree for Rs 300. Make the autowaala wait otherwise you will have a hard time finding transportation for the return journey. Take your swimming trunks because the water is verrrry tempting. Do take along your fishing rod (bamboo stick with a nylon thread and a hook in my case!!). Fishing during winters is a bad idea because then you will be the only person eating the earthworms!!

The Zoo—my favorite Sunday getaway. It opens at 9 in the morning. It is an eye-treat for those of you who have grown up seeing big city zoos with very few animals and only people. Here the case is reverse. A wide variety of animals in the green surroundings…enough to drive any nature lover mad! There is a cute pair of elephants that roam about with their keepers and if you are on the lighter side they will even let you ride. There is a cafeteria but the food there sucks. Worry not; Madhuban is only a stone’s throw away. A word of caution- it may seem very secluded and you may be tempted to do ‘things’ but be careful about the keepers….they pop out from the least expected places!!

Sorry ppl...

2006-06-27T12:15:00.001+05:30

I'm sorry ppl...
I was going through a bit of a bad phase.. So, I decided to give up blogging...
Heck! I can't do that.. I owe my sanity to this blog... It is one place I can call the administration a mule, and still get away with it...
For all those poor souls who felt relieved when they read that I left blogging, I'm back, with a vengeance...
I've been given a very raw deal by BIT this time, having had to answer a back aper when I didn't deserve one...
So, BIT will get it back, with interest...

So, keep reading, and keep posting ur lovely comments...

-ONE
"I am Sir Oracle. Let no dog ope his lips when I speak" - The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare

Update 0.0.0.:BYE:.

2006-06-23T21:31:00.000+05:30

Goodbye folks...
it's been a truly wonderful and encouraging (though rather short) journey to have blogged my heart out.. and to receive all those comments...
IT was a great experience...
Due to "unavoidable circumstances"... I'm completely disillusioned with stuff... Hence I'm giving up... There's more to life than what I do.. take a leaf outta my leaf ppl... DON'T screw ur lives...

Work hard... Play harder (sorry, couldn't avoid the cliche...)
and ohh.. flirt your heart out..
would like to see more authoirs on this blog...

once again.. BYE

(for the last ONE time.....)
-ONE

BIT & Blogging

2006-06-23T14:48:00.000+05:30

I was just hanging around, jobless, doing nuthin.. and thought..
Just how many BITians di i know who blog?
couldn't really exceed counting on my fingers..
so i decide to be a good boy n do my homework.. and here are the results...

am just posting the links for blogs by or for BITians.

Enjoy..
http://bitrip.blogspot.com
http://bit-mesra.blogspot.com
http://facelessind.blogspot.com
http://etscientia.blogspot.com
http://ujz.blogspot.com
http://gyanpipasa.blogspot.com
http://shabda123.blogspot.com
http://souniteya.blogspot.com
http://kkkishore.blogspot.com
http://anti-reservation.blogspot.com
http://booksireadrecently.blogspot.com
http://mr-tourist.blogspot.com
http://amythology.blogspot.com
http://coolrythms.blogspot.com
http://theeliteclub.blogspot.com
http://beanengineer.blogspot.com
http://knowthecodes.blogspot.com
http://causeandtheeffect.blogspot.com
http://bhargavatham.blogspot.com
http://underconstructiontilleternity.blogspot.com
http://room73.blogspot.com
http://bhangargubbi.blogspot.com
http://www.aeonity.com/anishmitra
http://www.aeonity.com/khadke
http://insaneunknowns.blogspot.com
http://theconfuzedphilosopher.blogspot.com
http://atulprasad.blogspot.com

Rain

2006-06-22T19:13:00.000+05:30

It's finally raining in bit...
Feels like the monsoons are finally here.hope it aint just a two day affair like about two weeks ago..
Man, this place comes alive...
Even though the reason i may be here isn't really a very pleasing one, the greenery and the weather just make you smile.
People, be ready for the lush green lawns and the wonderful breeze when u get back..
As also, for the powercuts, Stomach trouble and smelly drinking water...
Oh Well, What The Hell!
Who cares....
guess i'll go run amok with Adi's camera tomorrow.. let's see what transpires...
Peace.

Memories of first year

2006-06-19T15:26:00.000+05:30

You hear a lot about college from your elder brothers and sisters. You imagine this place with no uniform, no parental guidance and very little studies, in short, a place where the party never ends. But this dream bubble gets brutally popped when you enter the gates of Birla Institute of Technology (they should add a :ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK board there).

For the first five minutes you see nothing but trees, trees and more trees with hostel buildings peeking from behind done up in gay(pun intended) yellow and spotted with undies. Finally you reach your own cellular jail. And then your warden says the two magic words “IN TIME”. Things get worse with the stuff they call food and hell holes called toilets.

First day of class, hope rises again. With buoyant steps you enter the building. A swarm descends upon you- SENIORS. From the next day on salwaar kameez, oily hair and bathroom chappals become your style statement. They make you sing, dance or act the fool anytime anyplace. At night you sob your stories to parents and hope you had never left home.

After the first week something happens….something they call orientation. You get used to it. You tell yourself, “It maybe bad but it is what I have to live with now”. And then the fun begins…..

You share your sorrows with your jail mates. You form a team and have fun at Techneek. You enjoy the sad show at Fugia. You experience the joys of free SMSing. You slip off to Subarnrekha right under the guard’s nose. You learn how to study the night before the exam and still get good marks. You learn to play the guitar. You come across funny words like PMC and BABA. Seniors don’t seem so bad when they hand over notes and treat at CCD.

College campus is a place where rumors spread fast. For one whole week you gossiped about a girl from your hostel getting married even when she lived as a happy spinster in the next room. You hear one day that your room was raided and enough stuff was found to earn a narcotics officer a lifetime achievement award. In reality not even a room heater was found!!!

Suddenly you realize that this jungle is always abuzz. Drishyant, Genisis, Dope Seminar. During BITotsav you wish you had Hermione’s time turner because you have to participate in 4 events at the same time.

And now as you finish this blog entry from home you can’t wait to go back. The place has somehow grown on you. The administration may be cold and apathetic or plain non-existent (except on registration day) but the students take care of the rest. The best soldiers are the ones that take the hardest obstacle course. So cadet tie up your boots for another action packed semester !!!!!

Missing you...

2006-06-16T00:42:00.000+05:30

This is so embarrasing...
I'm actually missing BIT...
never has this happened before...

Campus is the same...
VC is busy meeting students with F*s... parents of students with F*s... Pauwa cases... HCL managers... and all sorts of riff-raff that roam the Earth...
Sasmal is busy imitating a grand mal seizure everytime a student goes to get his F* changed...
but then he's calming down in the afternoons.. or so it seems...

Munna Dhaba seems to be in a bit of news.. Rumor has it that the WiFi signals have been caught on laptops in the aforementioned site...
Though what were laptops doing in Munna Dhaba, that too in the evenings... is anybody's guess...
Tha's good news... People have started investing in WiFi adapters for their desktops so that when the WiFi LAN is launched.. they can play all sorts of multiplayer games to their heart's content... and at unimaginably high data transfer rates...

okay ppl...
the examination schedule is out...
I gotta heck it out...

meanwhile... u guys keep doing whatever u're doing...
Aloha.

-ONE

Mass Rape in BIT

2006-06-13T00:26:00.000+05:30

This is true...
All it takes is a coupla days in the campus during the summer... and you'll get an idea as to how many young, innocent (and not-so-innocent) lives being mercilessly reaped...

It starts with the end sem results... A flurry of randomly given D's and F's... (imagine landing with a D, after having scored 24 in the mid-sem) was not enough...
The past two years, BIT has decided to garnish several GPA cards (and thus grate several careers) with an F* or two... (I know for a fact that an NRI guy, an executive member of the Unesco Club, received 5 F*s this semester, which subsequently got converted to 5 Cs thanks to his aunt, who's an MLA)...

And that's not all... This summer there are 319 people (reportedly) appearing for the Engineering Mechanics exam... 151 from 2k5, 150 from 2k4, 16 from 2k3, 2 from 2k2... the figures may vary slightly... but the essence remains the same... BIt has turned into a minting machine, with GPA cards being manipulated day-in and day-out to fill the coffers...

Here's more news...
The clown that we have for a Dean (Academic Co-ordination), the one who jumps like a baboon everytime you appraoach him with a request or an apology, seems to have realized that people will kill him very soon.. what with frustration mounting
due to the F*s... so he's started diverting people to the VC... who at least seems to be the last sane person left in the administration...

What can we all do in the face of such mindless tyranny?
(Post your ideas in the comments section)

-ONE
(Give me a rod, and a place to pivot it; I'll strike down BIT)

The Return of the Pachyderm

2006-06-12T15:36:00.000+05:30

Hello people.
Im still alive despite contrary wishes of a few hundred people.
Was just away sleeping ,etc... leading a pachydermish life.
The ONE (He wont lemme name him here) was surprised to see me online lately and even more on doing so in person. Hence the title...
It's been a long time since the cuppa coffee over which this blog started...
Lots has happened since then.
btw, from this point on this is gonna be the uncensored completely opinionated BIT blog. if u want plain facts, then u can hop over to BIT Mesra Times. To quote Adi,we are only Journalists there. Here, we are opinionated facetious morons.That us.

Coming to new stuff, caught GVS necking someone the other day at the OC.
It was a shock. i wish i had a camera. Mohit, Devarsh, You guys listening?
Others things have been happening too, like Hercules making me realise that im not an elephant really. na. more closer to a beached whale. so i have a diet of a crustacean now. Man! gotta go torment my body under his expert guidance now.

Morrison Lives !

Update 6.6.1.:technIEEk 2006:.

2006-06-01T12:47:00.000+05:30

Hello ppl...
I'm back...
First all.. sorry for being away for so long...
was busy with my summer training... now that it's almost over... i'll be more regular w/ the blog...

the most happening thing that belongs to the campus seems to be technIEEk 2006...
sems that the ppl wh are organising it are in full swing...
Nadu from Chennai, Anish from the US, Adi from Mumbai,Khadke from B'lore... looks like all corners of the country are joined by this single thread...
Gmails are flowing thick and fast... and rumor has it that IITB's ROBOTICS event's prelims (North-East regionals) shall be hosted by us...
good...

BITians are Orkutting quite frequently these days...
Rumours in BIT is an especially good community that you should check out...

yawn.. I've just returned from my training...
am tired...
will post more later...

-ONE

Update 6.3.3.:G I C J:.

2006-03-21T00:17:00.000+05:30

If anybody's wondering what all those initials stood for... they stand for Google India Code Jam. 2006. The qualification round of which is going to end on 21st March 2006. at noon. After which the top 500 coders will be invited for an online contest, from which the top 50 will get cash prizes. The top ten get job offers from Google.... And as if this wasn't enough... the cash prizes will wipe out all your financial worries... for the rest of your college life !!! The winner gets 122000... and the person who comes 50th gets 18k.
My personal performance in GICJ was ok..... was able to solve both the problems... though I lost a lot of points bcoz I wasn't conversant with ISO C++... hell.... 610.85 points out of a possible 1250 should be amongst the top 500. I'm praying.....

and while I'm at it... I can shed a couple of tears for my dismal performance in Robocode 6.1...
Got questions wrong which were as simple as: If the size of an int in Java is 4 bytes on a 32 bit Pentium machine, what will be it's size on a 64 bit AMD Athlon ?
Can you believe that??? This is a lesson for all of you.... Never take anything for granted...

Gotta go and sleep...
Good Night...

-ONE
I don't think. Therefore I may not be...

Update 6.3.2.:Baby Eyes:.

2006-03-17T04:23:00.000+05:30

So ppl....
With all parts of your bodies colored in different shades of yellow purple n green... It's time to get back to the daily grind...
a couple of weeks and April will be upon us, and a week after that people will be scrambling all over the place to finish Lab journals/files. Take care lest some lazybone manages to pinch your journal... It's a hell of a job to write a new journal, and convince the prof to accept it... believe me.. I've done it several times...

For all you minions who missed the Holi celebrations on campus... it was a good thing you did...
After 15 minutes of early morning revelry, most of the hostels ran out of water... Hence the morbid attraction to mud... naturally available, in abundance outside most of the hostels...
My lobbymates looked straight out of a Hindi-phillum... remember the ones where the hero and the villian have taekwondo bouts, while having the time of their lives rolling in mud ?
The campus wore a more desolate look then usual as most of the public had either gone home... or as some 'smart' fellows did... went off to Cal to watch 'Rang de Basanti'...
Well... even I wanted to watch that movie... but I sure didn't have the 'courage' to shell out 2k bucks for a day n half in the most polluted city in the country....

Time to sleep... In a few hours the insti would be teeming with grouchy profs, intent on driving their students' up the wall, and even grouchier students...
But I'll be asleep... I have a day off...
whoever said Mechies don't have it easy... eh ?

-ONE
"Every war has it's casualities...
every victory it's price..."

Update 6.3.1 .:Happy Holi:.

2006-03-15T04:50:00.000+05:30

Happy Holi to all of you ppl...
May the festival of colours bring joy into all your lives....
Play with safe colours, and exercise restraint with that pitcher of bhaang...

Now that i've dispensed with the crap, let me remind you all...
Google India Code Jam 06 is fast approaching... The practice sessions are good... though I still can't figure out how to declare arrays in ISO C++... it seems we've gotta use vectors or sth...
Ppl... wake up... register for it... It'll be a good measure of your coding skill...

Gotta go... My lobby animals are baying for blood... I'm doomed today....

-ONE
I code. Therefore I am.

Movies At Long Last !

2006-03-15T03:18:00.000+05:30

Happy Holi Folks

The Movie Collection as on 15th March 2006

A Few Good Men
A B C D
Alladin
Alexander
American Pie
American Pie 2
American Wedding
Anand
Anchorman
Apaharan
Bend It Like Beckham
Blow
Braveheart
Bruce Almighty
Casablanca
Chicken Little + Hitch
Cinderella Man
Cliffhanger
Deep Purple & The London Orchestra
Die Hard
Dire Straits – On The Night & Nirvana-Unplugged in New York
East is East
Enemy At The Gates
Euro Trip
Fight Club
Final Fantasy
Finding Nemo
Finding Neverland
Flightplan
Freaky Friday
From Hell
G3 – Live In concert
Ghost & The Darkness
Ghost in The Shell
Ghost in The Shell 2 – Innocence + Indiana Jones – The Temple of Doom
Girl Next Door
Good Will Hunting
Guess Who + Constantine
Harry Potter 2 – The Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter 4 – The Goblet of Fire – Disc 1
Harry Potter 4 - The Goblet of Fire – Disc 2
Harry Potter 1 – The Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter 3 – The Prisoner of Azkaban
House of Wax
Indiana Jones – Raiders of The Lost Ark
Indiana Jones – The Last Crusade
Jackass – The Movie
Johnny English
Kill Bill vol2
Lion of the Desert
Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
Love Actually
Metallica – The Black Album
Minority Report
Mona Lisa Smile
Monsoon Wedding
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer
Naked Weapon
Notting Hill
Phone Booth
Pitch Black + Must Love Dogs
Revolver
Ronin
Salton Sea
Saw 2
Serendipity
Silence Of The Lambs
Sleep Hollow
Spiderman
Sweet November
Taking Lives
The Butterfly Effect
The Day After Tommorrow
The Emperor’s New Groove
The Fugitive
The Incredibles – Disc 1
The Incredibles – Disc 2
The Island
The Others
The Real McCoy
The Ring
There’s Something About Mary
To Kill A Mocking Bird
Top Gun
Troy
Van Wilder
Vanilla Sky
Vertical Limit
We Were Soldiers
When Harry Met Sally
Wimbledon
Wild Things
XXX – State of the Union
Pearl Harbor
The Italian Job
Requiem For A Dream
Trainspotting
A Beautiful Mind
The Longest Day
Ocean’s 12
The Lion King
The Day Of The Jackal
Saw
All Quiet on the Western Front
All the President’s Men
The Longest Yard
You’ve Got Mail
The Matrix
The Ring 2
Salaam Bombay (Disc 1)
Salaam Bombay (Disc 2)
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (Disc 1)
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (Disc 2)
Scorpions – Acoustica + Steve Vai - Rock Around The Bay (Tokyo 97) Live
Antz + Moon Hoax
Munich (Disc 1)
Munich (Disc 2)
15 Park Avenue (Disc 1)
15 Park Avenue (Disc 1)
Oliver Twist (Disc 1)
Oliver Twist (Disc 2)
Iron Maiden – Ullevi -2005 – Disc 1
Iron Maiden – Ullevi -2005 – Disc 2
The Road To El Dorado
Hyderabad Blues
A Walk to Remember
Murder On the Orient Express
Antitrust
Citizen Kane
Where Eagles Dare
The Interpreter
Heartbreak Ridge
Escape From Alcatraz
Sniper 2
Shallow Hal
City of Angels
Fun with Dick & Jane
Dumb & Dumber
Wicker Park
Forrest Gump
The Usual Suspects
Hearts in Atlantis
Monsters Inc
I Am Sam
Dreamtheater - Scenes From a Memory - 2000
Kingdom Of Heaven
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
G3 Denver 2004
Collateral
Boat Trip
100 Girls
Waterloo
Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara
LA Confidential
Battle Of Britain
One Missed Call
Treasure Planet
The Matador
The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Disc 1)
The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Disc 2)
Bunty aur Babli
Black
Brokeback Mountain (Disc 1)
Brokeback Mountain (Disc 2)
Firefox
The Eagle Has Landed
Bullitt
Kelly’s Heroes
Runaway Bride
The Man + Herbie
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Disc 1
172* The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Disc2
Hellraiser 1
Hellraiser 2 : Hellbound
Hellraiser 3 : Hell On Earth
Hellraiser 4 : Bloodline
Hellraiser 5 : Inferno
Hellraiser 6 : Hellseeker
Catch Me If You Can
The Transporter
The Blair Witch Project
Monster
Atlantis – The Lost World
Hostel
Dinosaur
A Bug’s Life
The Lion King II – Simba’s Pride
Dil Se – Disc 1
Dil Se – Disc 1
Apollo 13
Pulp Fiction
Se7en
Scent Of a Woman
Goal! – The Movie
Raging Bull
Goodfellas
Green Street Hooligans
Batman Begins – Disc 1
Batman Begins – Disc 2
Hitler – The Rise of Evil – Disc 1
Hitler – The Rise of Evil – Disc 2
Snatch
The Godfather – 1
The Godfather - 3
The Godfather – 2
Rang De Basanti
Paycheck
Osmosis Jones
Raincoat
The Phantom Of The Opera
The Shawshank Redemption
The Ten Commandments
Split Wide Open

Ponder This

2006-03-15T01:04:00.000+05:30

IBM Research Ponder This March 2006 Challenge

Update 6.2.1.: This is a loooong post...:.

2006-02-23T01:15:00.000+05:30

Ppl...
how're you all...
This entire month has been too damn busy for me... as for other ppl too...
2nd Feb'06 to 5th Feb'06 : Kshitij 2006 happened...
this time there were too many days of technical events... even KGPians were sick n tired of it... as was evident from the very low turnout for popuilar events like TechQuila... and the abnormally high turnout at the local bar...
Got loads of movies from the IIT KGP LAN...
City of Angels... Chicken Little... Hyderabad Blues... The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe... A Nightmare on Elm Street... to name a few...
and of course... all seasons of The Wonder Years... I simply love them... as do quite a few ppl on campus.. as it sems from the great demand for it's DVDs...
As for Kshitij... Team Centrifuge managed to clear the preliminary round of Topsy Turvy...
Two more teams participated... Kannan G. and team won the third prize in Avishkar... Team 007 qualified for the finals of Overnite, the overnight coding competition... as did Team Pulse (Pratik Dhaboo and Varun)... Gogoi and Nasseh reached the quarter finals of the Water Polo event... Varun and team qualified for the finals of Nightshift after 3 gruelling rounds of elimination...
These are the achievements of BIT Mesra in Kshitij this year... which saw a markedly dismal participation from the 2k4 batch... c'mon guys... muggu banne se kuch nahi hota...

6th FEb'06 to 9th Feb'06 Drishtant happened...
We touched down in Ranchi on the marning of 6th... at 8:00... attended lectures from 8:50... and then I got busy with Drishtant from 4:10 onwards...
It was a gruelling experience... setting questions for the Debugging contest ... and as a whole the entire fest was as grand a success as it could ever be... apart from the meddlesome administration, and the unco-operative profs... (A special thanks to the profs who actually helped : Mr. T. Ghosh... Prof B.M.Karan... to name a few...) the rest will be named by Atul soon...
Okay guys...
gotta go.. mid sems are up on my head again... and this time.. for the first time in 6 semesters.. I'm actually studying... so long...
Good Night...
(to be continued...)

-ONE

What is Blogging ?

2006-01-17T02:18:00.000+05:30

Here is something i found concerning Blogging.....
Since so many people keep asking exactly what Blogging is, pray take a look...

Links
Definition
Wikipedia
Google Search : Blog
What Matters: Blogs and Their Impact on Society

That's All...If You want more, then use your mouse button in the right places and click away...

Time's Running Out

2006-01-17T02:10:00.000+05:30

Well the time is running out , for a lot many things

Ankit Fadia's Lecture on 30th jan
IEEE's Zeitgeist , also from 30th jan
Kshitij from 3rd Feb
Tata Crucible on 5th Feb
Drishtant from 6th Feb
Bitotsav from 12th Feb
MidSems(!!!) in the distant unviewable future...

What else, huh?

Robolabs 2006.1 finally wound up, and fom what i hear, the participants never enjoyed learning and working so much..
They are raring to go for the next installment whenever they can have it.

Our Spowdy team will be joining us in a few days, that along with GOD's return to our college grounds will make plenty of news, for a few days atleast.

But ONE's just gotta accept this...
Nuthing beats blogging from a Flat-Top Bench in front of your Institute Building at 2 am in the Night Shift...
Ok maybe getting rid of the mosquitoes could help...
That's an idea for a HW project for Drishatnt.... A USB Mosquito Repellent Device...
What with the over-enthu freshers seeking guidance & ideas for projects and HW Presentations.

BTW for the uninitiated and those who cant pronounce it, here's some background info on Zeitgeist (The Word, not the Event!)

Definition
A German term meaning "spirit of the time." It refers to the moral and intellectual trends of a given era.

Here are a few links that are worth going thru
Wikipedia
Flickr Zeitgeist
Google Zeitgeist

Enough of Zit and Gits for now...
So its back 2 watching tons of movies, catching up on the TV Series i missed thanks to my boards, Saas BAhu Serials at prime time courtest Ekta Kapoor, and a single television with Mom holding the remote (both literally and figuratively). No one told me one does all this stuff in college apart from the rare studying... would have made th toiling more sufferable back then.

Then again, who knows. As my dear drunk friend(More About Him some day later) keeps mumbling to anything and everything that comes his way, DKDC(Don't Know , Don't Care!)

enough for now, more later, another time, same place
already people are howling for my blood in the book club and a million other things and places...
Am looking forward to blogging from the canteen in Drishtant n Bitotsav...
lets what sorta experience that turns out to be
Good Night Folks !

6.1.3: Trends... Disturbing and otherwise

2006-01-14T14:59:00.000+05:30

Good Afternoon everybody....
Of late a lot of things have been happening on campus... and off it too.....

Robolabs 2006.1 is going on in full swing... and though Mr. Khakhor might have wearied the Robolabs team, but the overall response of the participants has been very encouraging, to say the least. Future Robolabs will definitely be held... as has been decided - seeing that most of the budding bot-builders just needed a prod in the right direction...

SPOWDY... hmm... No comments.
Prep for Drishtant is going on in full swing... Registration for the workshops is almost over I guess..... This time there are 'packages' for registration...

Rs 300 for both the Workshops and all the events of Drishtant
Rs 250 for the 'Network Security and Hacking' workshop, and all other events of Drishtant, except the 'Maya' workshop
Rs 100 for the 'Maya' workshop, and all other events except 'Network.....' workshop
Rs 75 for just the events of Drishtant, no workshops
Rs 50 for any 5 events

This brings us to the first disturbing trend in full flow... People who are helping out with the mundane or peripheral taks of Drishtant should not act as if they are organising Drishtant on their own. And they should take care not to put down people/events that are not theirs. Just because the IEEE events (Zeitgeist'06), or the Architectural Seminars(one held at Capitol Hill, quite lavishly hosted by the generous Jharkhand government) are not being organised by the IEE doesn't mean that these people... absolute riff-raff ... start saying...
'Ohhh... yeh technical thode hi hai?'... or things like...
'No Zit or git can ever organise events at a short notice...'
The core of Drishtant should take strict notice of this... for this will lead to ugly scenes during the events...

The second trend is these mock tests and GDs... people are flocking to each others' rooms, practising.. or else they are staying cooped up in their own rooms... poring over books that flash out names like 'GRE' , 'GMAT', 'CAT', ad nauseum.

The Scrutiny forms have been filled... wonder if the F*s will be converted to Ds or Cs....
There was an interview that I appeared for as part of P-SAT (Placement Simualtor Aptitute Test)... after scraping 21 marks outta 60 in the apti test... (the tech section was of quie a good level, mind you)
Was fun... the frizzy-haired girl asked me questions like: 'Being a mechanical engineer, why do you want to go in for the IT industry?'
'Do you want to go in for an MS or an MBA?' upon choosing the latter, she further quizzed me: 'Don't you think you'd be doing injustice to your talents?' Was she insistent upon me doing an MS...!
All in all I had a good time... When asked 'Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?' my reply was,'I dunno. I don't have enough GPA for that.'

Wi-Fi Net rocks!!! Download speeds are amazing.. the 160kbps download speed is total bullshit... it is actually 160KBps!!! I downloaded a 9.2 MB file in less than 25 secs... I'm currently downloading a movie 'City of Angels'.... Should be over in 30 mins.. i guess....

See you all later....

-ONE

A Wish Car

2006-01-14T02:09:00.000+05:30

Hey People...
This just in...
Two of our guys, Ankur Aggarwal & Nirbhai Chadha, who are currently in New Delhi presenting their project named SPOWDY(don't ask me what it means!) seem to have struck gold.
Apparently, their stall in Auto Expo 2006 happens to be bang in front of Dilip Chabbria's Stall. Also, Delhi College of Engineering's Team's Sponsor seems to have agreed to back them too.
Our own VC has gone for given them a well deserved boost of morale.
So if any of your acquaintenance's happen to be in New Delhi between today and 17th Jan , then ask them to go visit BIT's Team at AUTO EXPO 2006

Stall No-31
Hall N0-7FGH.
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi (from 12th Jan to 17th Jan) 2006.

http://www.awishcar.com/

Update 6.1.2

2006-01-08T09:26:00.000+05:30

Good Morning ppl...
Sitting at home I'm wondering whether BIT administration has gone mad, or has their grade card printing machine gone crazy...
Just take a look at the number of 'F*' grades handed out this time... They've even handed 2 F*s to a 7th sem guy!!! Left right and centre... the F*s have flown... affecting every batch and every branch... of course... the numbers are still small... roughly 1 out of every 40 students has got an F*... but divide the total strength of BIT by that ratio... and you'll get a record number of Fail grades....
One of my pals had scored 16 marks in his mid-sems... and gt an F grade.... implying that he'd not scored even 4 marks out of the 70!!! can BIT get more ridiculous than this ?
I'm getting my comp back to my room... I've been advised against it.. as I've scored the lowest GPA amongst students of my city... as of the last five years.... But where there's a will there's a way...
A small group of students is ready to help people out with their problems...
Will publish more when that is completed....
GOD has met with an acident... it is a miracle that he's alive... got 8 stitches on his temple... just above the eye... and 2 on his left knee... and a badly peeled left arm... Pay attention guys... (and a few of the gals too)
Wear a helmet. Always. It saved Suchintya's life. It may well save yours too.

Here's wishing a speedy recovery for the GOD of our campus...
alvida

-ONE

6.1.1: Happy New Year

2006-01-01T11:21:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year ppl...
Hope this year brings more opportunities your way...

Just a brief reminder of what's to come...
20th-22nd Jan'06 : Tefchfest (IIT Bombay) http://www.techfest.org...
2nd-5th Feb'06 : Kshitij (IIT KGP) http://ktj.iitkgp.ernet.in...
6th-9th Feb'06 :Drishtant (BIT Mesra) http://www.drishtant.net...
25th-28th Feb'06 : Techkriti (IIT Kanpur) http://www.techkriti.org...
ciao...

-ONE

The Year's Last Post

2005-12-31T23:59:00.000+05:30

Well People... back after a long time..... and just in time too.. still a minute left for the year to end... will more than make up for it in the next year...
Here is wishing you all Happy New Year, at extremely short notice...
take care and sleep well...
coz next year , its gonna be one helluva ride.
ciao

Comet Nosce

Update 5.12.2

2005-12-28T23:41:00.000+05:30

Hellos to all of u...
Was my previous post too long ? well... I had had quite a bit of news to share with u ppl that time... and what with my dramatic way of presenting stuff... I generally tend to consume a few more bytes than absolutely necessary... So. There you are. you don't want to read a long post, don't read it. I ain't going to change my style. After all... I've gotted free 24x7 net connectivity at home... I'll take all the time in the world to post...

ppl have been asking what Drishtant is... so here goes...
IEE Student's Chapter (BIT,Mesra) proudly presents BIT's very own techfest... Drishtant 2006. Sponsored by Infosys, Satyam, Accenture, Dainik Jagran etc, Drishtant is in amny ways a big step forward for organising events free from the administration's mismanagement and undue interference. For more details please visit http://www.drishtant.net/
what makes Drishtant unique is that it has got a 2 Robotics events, where the participating robots will have a common 'goal'. Pun intended. All this while, robotics meant presenting a structure with a couple of motors thrown in, without sense or purpose. Of course, quite a few genuine robots - ones that actually made sense - were presented, but the fact remained that most of them were leftovers of some other competition/project/model-making contest. Now, Drishtant is actually providing us with an impetus to plan,project and build robots.
And before Drishtant, we're going to have the Robolabs workshop... exciting times ahead...
(Mritunjay bhaiyya is EEE 2k2. His knowledge in Elec is second to none...)

I couldn't start "One night at a call centre"... my friends told me that the bok was shit... So I read Robert Ludlum instead. Try out the following books:
The Bourne Identity,
The Bourne Supremacy,
The Bourne Ultimatum - all 3 by Robert Ludlum.
The books are good... far better than the movies....
I heard that a fourth part in the Bourne series has been released... Haven't got around to reading it though.

See...?
I've kept it short this time...
Adios...

-ONE

Update 5.12.1

2005-12-24T00:21:00.000+05:30

Hello ppl...
I'm back...
these bloody winters get to me... damn cold at my place... had to put up with a lot of wind and rain... not to mention the insects...
So.. what have all you been upto? looks like this winter not many mails are flying... my inbox looks very empty... no news of friends and acquaintances alike...
and news is trickling in very feebly.....

Team 007.. well.. the trio solved 4 out of 8 ACM problems as i've posted before.. 23rd.. hmm.. not bad.. but then.. if you check up the stats... http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/regionals/ViewRegionalStandings.asp?ContestID=730 , well.. it just goes to show that practice and preparation pays off... who knows... next time maybe they'll beat the daylights out of other teams, with just a bit more dedicated effort - which wasn't quite there, what with the end sems and all....
this is a message for all coders from 'Team 007': "Practice. Pay attention to even small details. The best coder is not the one who knows the most, but is the one who uses his knowledge the best."
Hope to have more participation from BIT in the future ICPCs.. surely the ACM chapter will work towards that end...

The Robolabs prep is going really well.. well placed sources have expressed the following views...
".. abe. it is sexy. ..."
".. the Atmel microcontroller is powerful, boss. line-follower robot aaram se ban sakta hai... aur autonomous bots bhi ..."
".. bhayanak.. Kshitij ke liye sahi prep hoga.. oof.. god type hai..."
Hats off to Siddharth Priya and Suchintya again... not to forget Mrityunjay bhaiyya...

Heard that polls have taken place in Iraq... good.. even in all the gloom around the world.. some people do find out time for acting out a comedy...
and India's won the test series against Lankans.. moved to Rank 2 in the ICC Test ratings... obvious ain't it ? I mean, no jayasurya, no vaas... what did the lankans want ? 3 innings defeats in 3 matches ?

A team of S.R.K.Raman (Rawman), Aniruddh (Nishu), and Mallikarjun Deo went to Kolkata fro the Campus Rock Idols...unfortunately they didn't make it past the first round.. No Sweat guys.. At least the effort was there.. I'm sure you'll all do much better next time...
Ppl.. there's got to be some serious work to be done in the area of extra-curriculars... I mean, not just guitaring, bot building or coding.. but things like gaming - your everyday NFS Underground, AOE/AOK/AOM - should be taken care of...
True, we do it for fun.. but has anyone of you given even a moment's thought of the talent out there on campus? There are a couple of AOK players who can give 'The Sheriff' (one of the best players in the world) a run for his money... "and what are we supposed to do?" you may ask... Encourage them... Organise contests... not just racing games like NFS or something else, but also strategy games... scripting games...
Remember.. if you pay a little bit of attention, you may well excel at what you consider to be fun... As far as i can remember, Raman started playing the guitar just out of curiosity.. look where he's now.. not even 2 years, and he's playing as well as, if not better than, 5 year veterans like Mallikarjun...
And here's a bit more trivia: Suchintya started solving ACM problems only after his second year.. and today he's ranked 3087... worldwide...

What are ppl doing for Drishtant? C'mon guys.. blokes as far as St. Kitts and Anna University have been asking questions... they seemed eager to participate... wouldn't exactly be a good show if more outstation teams turn up than BIT teams.. eh? And talking of participation.... rumours have it that Bitotsav'06 is going to be held from 1st Feb'06 till just before Drishtant. Now, Kshitij is starting on the 2nd of Feb. Would BITians give up their enthusiastic prep for the KGP techfest (Kshitij), just to show some acticity on campus for BITOTSAV ? Narf... My ass... If I correctly remember, Tatva was a total sham... Tej Dhar (snort)... hmf... Any sane person wouldn't go and waste his/her time in stupid, badly managed attempts at a "college fest" like the BITOTSAV... at least not till the current administration is around... Let's all head for Kshitij... it's more fun there...

News just came in that the Architecture department of BIT went on a study tour of some sorts.. Mallik you gotta fill in the gaps... I ain't gotted the full details...
looks like they were supposed to head off for Orissa (Cuttack,Bhubaneswar and Puri)... But certain ppl (administration again) insisted that tickets for the train be booked only after the concession forms arrive... BIT released the forms on 5th December - Team 007 could not therefore avail of it for their trip to Coimbatore, being away from campus, And due to some railway entrance exam in orissa on 18th Dec, all trains were chock full.. so the Archi dept had to settle for a bus for their journey to Orissa on 17th. As luck would have it, as the bus started out from Ranchi, a tanker collided with god knows what, and lay sprawled across the highway (NH-33), making sure that the entire Archi paltan arrived at Jamshedpur at night, instead of afternoon(as planned). and so far that's the update.. they put up at Cuttack, i presume....

Do let us know what you have been doing over the vacations.. keep the comments coming.. you have no idea hom much we appreciate them...
It's late at night... yawn... I'm going off to watch a movie - "Johny English" a funny one according to what ppl have told me...
By the way... all people who have missed 'The Shawshank Redemption', make it a point to watch it... Rare are such movies....
And all those fools who are planning to watch "Neal and Nikki" with their families... It's an R-rated movie ppl... take your gals for it, or best go with a bunch o pals... A few good songs, and a screen full of the girl's tits... that's what you'll get... and it's just 80 minutes long.. so you won't have to put up for long if you don't like it... And people have been telling me that "Bluff-Master" is amazing too.. as is "Missed Call".... well try them out if you wish...
And among books.. I got "One Night at a Call Centre" by Chetan Bhagat of the "Five Point Someone" fame for my birthday... will try to finish that by the time i come back... And also try out the follwing books... They're a treat to read I assure you:

The Evening News by Arthur Haily
A Stone For Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins
We, The Living by Ayn Rand
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Adios...
-ONE

Update 5.12

2005-12-16T19:35:00.000+05:30

Okies ppl..
First things first... Thank you mr. "anonymous"... for correcting my English.
And here's some quick newsflash from Bangalore where our TEAM 007 is staying, albeit not together.
BIT stood 23rd amonst 49 teams, solving 4 out of 8 problems... which i personally think is commendable... 50% of any ACM problemset is quite a good show. Further details of the journey, contest,etc will be posted soon... As of now.. waiting for details..
will update in the next..
gotta go..
hungry..
-ONE

Whatcha doin, ppl ?

2005-12-06T23:25:00.000+05:30

So BITians... how's the holidays going ?
Surely everybody is enjoying the good food and warm beds at home, though missing the late hours of the hostel. Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire is out in the theaters. Take my word for it - it's a theater watch. Don't make the mistake of watching it on a comp, or TV. you'll simply miss the effects.
Prep for the Robotix Workshop to be held in Jan 06 is going on in full swing. The organising team is working real hard to make this a truly memorable experience for the young minds on campus. And from the looks of it - it sure will be.
If anyone of you has anything interesting to share - something that you've achieved during the holidays that is worth noticing, or some funny incident that you had.. or a new joke you'd wish to share with your fellow BITians.. simply post them in the comments section. They'll be posted in the next update to the blog. After all.. this blog is for the BITians, by the BITians and of the BITians...
Enjoy the winters.. my fave season...
Ciao
-ONE

Adios

2005-12-02T01:53:00.000+05:30

Phew!!!
finally.. got rid of the monster that was end sems....
the last paper was a sitter.. will save me some GPA...
as for the latest news..
BIT ought ot be proud of it's students:
Team "COMET NOSCE" comprising of Suchintya Dandapat, Siddharth Priya, and Atul Prasad represented the institution at the International Collegiate Programming Contest 2006 Kolkata Regionals, and secured an honourable mention.
Team "007" comprising of G.V.S.Abhishek, Aditya Devurkar, and Sumit Kr. Dey will be representing BIT at the ICPC 2006 Coimbatore Regionals, to be held on 11th-12th December, 2005. Here's wishing them the best of luck. (The winners of the Regionals get to go to Texas for the ICPC World Finals)
For all those who are interested in learning/enhancing their skills in C/C++/Java, just drop a mail at acm.bit@gmail.com

as for other news... the rumour mills are working overtime..
seems, Wi-Fi Internet access has been stopped, reportedly since it had achieved it's target of letting the campus 'inmates' taste the proverbial blood... hardly matters.. since if it worked once, it'll surely work again...
People are packing their comps off.. wither to some faculty housing 'dump', or to their own homes.. accompanied by lotsa permissions to be taken from the security office, the hostel supri.. and so on and so forth...
The 2k5 Batch will be starting their end sems from 2nd Dec... well, all the best to them from fellow BITians.. may the Lord give them strength (read guile) to brave the frequent power cuts, and crappy 1st semester syllabi to muster enough GPA to be called respectable... Amen...
Okies ppl..
Even I'm human, gotta sleep, pack my dabba, and leave this place for another one where food is excellent, laundry service is impeccable, but the unearthly hours are strictly forbidden - HOME.
Keep blogging, posting your comments, and don't forget to sign your comments :D
Happy Holidays...
-ONE

The Book Circle

2005-11-29T02:48:00.000+05:30

What the Hell, since i am awake and online, i might as well post the first list...
so this is the Bookist v1.0.0 ....
Will update at leisure later... Till then, Read In Peace

Wish List

Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki
Freakonomics – Dr. Stephen Levitt
Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Two Lives – Vikram Seth
Ulysses – James Joyce
Princess: The True Story of life behind a veil in Saudi Arabia – Jean P. Sasson
The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie
Grimus – Salman Rushdie
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Wind in the Willows – Graham Greene
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Airport – Arthur Hailey
Schindler’s List – Thomas Keneally
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
Bertrand Russell
P.G. Wodehouse
Amitava Ghosh
T.S. Eliot

Bookshelf

Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
Brick Lane – Monica Ali
Freedom at Midnight – Dominique Lapierre & Larry Collins
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Shame – Salman Rushdie
Dreamcatcher – Stephen King
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Five Point Someone – Chetan Bhagat
one night @ call centre – Chetan Bhagat
Inscrutable Americans – Anurag Mathur
Eye of the Needle – Ken Follett
The Third Twin – Ken Follett
Vital Signs – Robin Cook
The Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsyth
Fist of God - Frederick Forsyth
36 Short Stories – Jeffrey Archer
Overload – Arthur Hailey
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
To Kill A Mocking Bird – Harper Lee
Who moved my cheese? – Spencer Johnson
Beyond the Last Blue Mountain: A Life of JRD Tata
The Lazarus Vendetta – Robert Ludlum
The Paris Option – Robert Ludlum & Philip Shelby
The Partner – John Grisham
The Runaway Jury – John Grisham
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Cervantes – Don Quixote
“Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman” – Richard P. Feynman
G E N I U S – James Gleick
Chaos – James Gleick
An Equal Music – Vikram Seth
Rage of Angels - Sidney Sheldon
Evening News – Arthur Hailey

Good Morning People

2005-11-29T02:35:00.000+05:30

Well, at least ONE guy has got things right...

Lets hope that the internet access that God enjoys is made available to us mortals too… that shall save us from this terrible Reliance on dial-up …

And In case you are thinking who GOD is here at BIT, we take a rather concerted view of a person and call him that… to know more about him, go to http://facelessind.blogspot.com .

Kudos to SP, who has not only earned himself the career start he is truly worthy of, but for acting as an inspiration to all of us…maybe we will follow him sometime in the future…

As for the book circle, and final formalization, it finally exists. In case you are wondering what I am blabbering about, check up here around mid-December to learn more. I wish someone would start something of the sort for movies too.

And for a change, lets all try and do something positive and good for the greater good.. forget technIEEk, forget Unnayan, forget Drishtant, forget Bitotsav (whatever obscure name they decide for it this year!). How about putting in some serious effort , and then having a helluva time in having a College Fest for a change… after all, a sizable number of colleges manage to do it all across the nation… so people, this time when you come back from the vacations, prepare to come and make the next semester truly memorable.

One More Thing… We really relish you hurling brickbats, but do have the guts to give your name and own up. And if possible, please mind your language. There are many places to use your exceptionally colorful vocabulary, and this ain’t one.

As for End Semester woes, who doesn’t have ‘em?

I still say that the best time we have is during the end semester exams, which we shall remember long after we have left this place to fight our way thru our lives...

Like watching Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, with half a dozen guys who have their PDC exam in 11 hours....

Like playing computer games and forgetting the rest of the world, if only for an hour...

Like reading the novels you just can’t put down and won’t come across once the papers are over...

Nearly a week of sleepless nights waiting for the papers to end, for the month or so that shall follow when we wont have anything to do anymore..

Taking long walks at night, in the freezing cold, cursing everyone and everything we can consciously remember….

Like writing web logs like these…

Some might say, in fact, quite a few do, that when the heck are you gonna study dude?

Thing is, we come here to learn a lot of things, our syllabus being just one amongst them. I’m not saying that studies are not important.

Oh no, they are paramount.

And it’s bout time I got back to them now. See you later. Good morning.

End sems time in BIT

2005-11-29T00:51:00.000+05:30

People..people..people.
Why all the confusion over gryphus/nike/metallica ? Anyways, as someone rightly said, we ain't bothered by pebbles.
End sems are upon my head, and if i don't sit down to study,...well... quite a few of us know how eagerly they look forward to the summers...

Here's the newest news:
There's Wi-Fi Internet available in the RnD building.. or so it seems..
if GOD can surf for an hour at 4am, then surely it must be worth it.. though I'm deeply sceptical about the 160kbps "download" speed that it is touted to offer...
The book circle has been finally formalised.. or formalised finally.. (i can never seem to get the order correct) and hope it survives the onslaught of higher sem pressures.. and all
Quite a few good things have been happening on campus....
This semester:
ACM (Association of Computing Machinery, for the uninitiated) rose from it's own ashes... held programming contests.. gave away T-shirts (an absolute first i may add)... and identified quite some talent...
And ohh.. before i forget.. The vice-chairman of ACM (Siddharth Priya) is formally recognised as a Google employee !!! And to think that all the IITs put together, only one more guy got through the several rounds of interviews.. none of which, I assure u, allowed the interviewee a moment's rest.
technIEEk 2005 was a resounding success... with a budget of just 5 figures, team IEE really pulled it off.. in a way, they have taken technIEEk several notches closer to being the "techfest" of BIT... are the Unnayan guys listening ? buck up guys.. I'm sure this year's performance must act as a motivation for you guys to put up a better show...
after all.. that's what life in BIT is all about.... amidst strategically planned power cuts during exam times (only), and pathetic mess managers, it is upto the campus residents (and I mean the students, not the rodents) to make their own life.... agar yahaan kuch nahi kar paate ho, to phir baahar kya karoge?
more of the sunshine in my next one...
till then.. to all my readers... adios
-ONE

The First Post

2005-11-25T00:00:00.000+05:30

The first Post, so let's start off on a good note, shall we? Though it might be rarity here, we might as well begin the trend of doing things differently and doing them well.

The End Semester Exams are going on, and as we always hope they are not going well and not going away fast enough.

Ah, the woes of student Life...

But new things seem on the cards here at BIT, and we are not just speculating as is usual here.

First a Blog, Then news of a LAN, probably being setup in the next semester,then a Book Circle and lastly MENSA....

Big Things coming your way soon...

But only after a relaxing month long R&R stay at home during the Winter vacations...

One Question though? If we are in the midst of winter,how come the winter timings never got implemented this sem?