The final Countdown

(Warning...long, slightly boring post ahead...)
College term in coming to an end; a 4 year wonderful journey will soon be over. With incredibly talented people around me, I’ve transformed quite a lot in these years. From being a quiet, low profile schoolboy who was comfortable talking only with a closed group of people to somebody who has decent interaction with each and every person of the class.

Few days back, I saw my junior k. g. class photograph. I could recollect a lot of faces in it, but couldn’t identify who they were. One thing that I regret about my school life is not having interaction with a lot of people (interaction beyond the hi-hello). In college, I’ve distinct memories with almost everyone that I can never forget.

There are many reasons behind these interactions, the most important one being that you clear the misconceptions about people that you had in your head. People are sometimes a lot different than you think they are. Secondly, it’s interesting to listen to a variety of people living life very differently; People watching champions league till 4 in the morning and coming to college at 9 and people running from college at 5 to catch their 7.30 pm TV show.

Also, these interactions will remind people about me (hopefully) and I’ll remember them by the same incidents. Many people see this socializing habit of mine as some kind of flirting or friend circle improving exercise. Let them cook stories. But the truth is I am not in it to expect something back in return. I would be more than glad if I’d be in contact with 2-3 people from the class ten years from now.

I’m terrible at maintaining friendship. I’ve lost two of my best friends to the degree that we feel awkward being around each other. The reasons for both I know and I had an opportunity to correct things. But I didn’t feel like doing that. That’s how weird I act at times. But yes, the first time, losing a good friend had created a big void in my life. From talking almost daily on the phone, to never seeing each other for 3 years, the transition was difficult.

Luckily, I’ve not done things to alienate friends this time around in college. I want to end things on this happy note. The last day of exams would be the last time I would be seeing many of my college friends. It is going to be an emotional day for me. For I know, I’d be missing a lot. Ideally, I would like to leave the college as soon as the exams get over, amidst the cheer of the crowd and go alone to one of the beaches, switching off the mobile. Walking with the breeze and bringing back the memorable moments from 4 years to mind and relishing them.

But, I know I might end up in college doing exactly the things that I wouldn’t want. 68 people trying to get an individual photo with all others, then the group photos. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t need photographs to remind me of the good times with my friends. I mean we already have roughly 100GB of photos from last 4 years, when are you ever gonna watch them. After the photographs, couple of hour’s discussion about which place to go, where to eat, what to do kinda crap….. some side planning....some other side planning…some more side planning….some heads turning here, some there…..A Hundred bye-bye’s. Possible night-outs. I’m actually looking forward to the final day stories.

Take the lead!

‘Hey people, let’s hang out someplace nice, say Juhu Beach’.

The response to this depends a lot on who’s asking the question, doesn’t it? Read on..

This post isn’t about personal bias, but it’s about how effectively some people can take the lead. These are the people who have mastered the art of persuasion. They are the ones who by one way or another refuse to take no for an answer and manage to get people to agree with the plan. This works even in situations where you thought ‘no’ to be a definite answer. Convincing comes so naturally to them.

I’ve never been good in this department, but have always observed the modus operandi of people who are good at convincing right from school times to college. They work in myriad ways, but the end result is the same. Being a good persuader and eventually a leader requires a lot of groundwork; it’s not an overnight process. There are many phases to it, first one being recognition. Unless you have recognition in the place where you want to influence your ideas, nobody’s going to listen to you. So, basic communication with everyone is a must here.

Next step would be activeness. One has to be very much active around the place where he or she has to aspire to be a leader. You can’t expect to come to college on time, leave right when the college is over and hope that one fine day when you plan a trek, many people from your class will come and join you. You can’t expect to hit the target right the very first time you try.

Bonding together with people who like to take the initiative is the next step. You gotta be amongst the planners of the group. It’s again necessary that you be involved in the plans these initiators make, then only can you expect them to join in your plans. Another vital aspect is building a bubble of trust around you. You can become a good persuader only if people trust you. This trust comes from small things like living up to the tasks that you took up, confining to yourself the personal stuff your friends tell you about their lives, helping your friends when they are in need, consoling them in their grief.

Getting the plan together gets a lot of patience. You have to listen to the tantrums of lot of people around, you have to clear everyone’s doubts, be ready to spend a lot of money on phone calls, sending reminders again and again and most importantly, not giving up despite the obstacles. Many a time, it also warrants to make big last minute changes to suit maximum number of people involved, keeping your own comforts aside for the sake of others.

It’s the satisfaction of a successful venture keeps you going through all this trouble. The joy of being together is more pleasing than relishing the happy times alone.

The thing I feel about leadership is that you don’t always have to be a leader, but you have to step up when nobody’s there to take the initiative. When few people are working towards a plan, we needn’t demonstrate our planning skill. After all, if everyone needn’t be cooking delicious food, sometimes we need to look forward to tasting those delicious dishes too!

À la carte

I like cooking. I’m not saying I’m great at cooking or whatever, but I like cooking. They say, in life, you should do what you like doing. I heard them and joined a 4 year professional cooking course at a reputed institution. As my course is coming to a conclusion, I wanna say, liking something is one thing and obtaining a degree in what you like is a completely different thing. I also want to elaborate on my journey in the cooking institute.

I expected to cook many delicious dishes in the process. But they hardly ever tested my cooking skills. All they kept asking were the recipes of famous dishes, that too more than a decade older. Now, you could not make up fancy versions of these recipes. You have to write the version which your instructor cares about!

Sometimes, we had the task of making some of these delicacies ourselves. We made them with great effort in the beginning. But our instructors never really tasted the food we prepared. They just saw the outer decoration of the dishes and the aroma and judged us on that. Smart people that we are, we did things differently the next time. No one cared about the contents of the dishes, but we always, always decorated with the best of the toppings from then on! Another rule, all the preparations taste the same as all of them are prepared with the same gravy.

If you like the food in a restaurant, you complement the restaurant manager for that. Something similar happens with us. If our dishes are exceptional, the credit is taken away by our instructors who portray it as their own work. It’s cheating, but as a trainee, you have little to complain.

Now when external examiners from other institutes came to test us, they mostly asked us about the dishes we didn’t make or study. Being a chef in a restaurant, they expect us to know the current wholesale and retail price of soyabean. Despite this system, some of my colleagues do manage to get all answers right.

A good cook has to cook whatever that comes his way in the syllabus, even if he is nauseated about some of the things in it. It’s about completing the task, whether it suits you or whether you like it is a different story. You are not the one who decides the menu.

Every semester the menu changes, the specials change, but the approach remains the same. We have adapted to the system really well. Make everything and try to add the spices. Don’t forget to add the pinch of salt otherwise the food will lose its taste.

It will be a different story henceforth when we join a restaurant as a chef. Practical life teaches you a lot doesn’t it. Degrees do not actually imply what we have accomplished. It just tells that we are familiar with the field.

Replace cooking by any other profession in the post and it’ll work fine.

Powertoni

If money is the thing that drives the world crazy, I think power is not too far behind. So many people directly and indirectly crave for power. Now, ‘power’ here is not ‘power in the political sense’. By ‘Power’, I see at it as an ability to make things work as you want them to work. No-one can deny their love for power!

Why are the ‘Reasons to Hate your boss’ type e-mails so often sent and enjoyed by people? Most people tend to dislike the people who issue authority over them. So many stories you might’ve heard about two great friends, one gets promoted and the friendship no longer remains the same. I’m not saying this is always the case, but most people do like to have equal or higher power than their peers.

There are various ways of showcasing power. Take the simple example of viva. Why do many of our internal profs like to screw us up in our viva. The simple reason is they want to signal that they have the power to make or break your life (Hardly do they know stupid vivas don’t constitute our life!), so you better suck up to them to get good marks. It’s a way to say that you execute your freedom to bunk lectures, I’ll execute my power to screw you!

Police in India are very measly paid, live in uncomely living conditions. Still, so many students give the police force exam every year. The applicants are never excited about the money or living conditions, but mostly in the powers the police officers can exercise.

One of the benefits of having many friends and contacts is the ‘power to get things done’ that comes along with it. Let’s take a simple example, apart from a handful of friends that call you regularly, remember the ones who call you less frequently. Recollect the last 10 such people who called you. I bet most of them would’ve called to ask some favor from you. (Unless you are a hot girl who is remembered by almost everyone you ever met!)

While shopping, even if we aren’t going to buy most things we see, we all like to have the power to buy them. College elections also see the play of power games, so many students resort to unfair means for the love of power, to be the most influential person in the college. Luckily our batch didn’t have such students for GS and CS posts.

Another example of power is when you alone have the expertise. I remember my father telling me about the early days of ball pens. The technique to prepare the ink which didn’t flow freely and dry up was known to a very few people. These people were so much in demand that big companies were ready to pay a fortune to hire them. Power of capturing the market was important to these companies.

One more thing you must have observed that previously, the name of inventors of new theories and products were made famous. Like the Aeroplane, the TV, steam engine and so on. Now-a-days, you see so many products, but hardly ever come across the names of the people who were involved in the discovery. That’s because discoveries and advances in many fields are held secret by companies so that they aren’t copied by anyone. They want to have the power to manufacture those products all by themselves. No-one can replicate a MAC Thin Air book!

I can go on and on, but I shouldn’t be using my power to bore people by writing long posts.

Engineering reloaded

Few days back, a friend of mine studying in class 12th asked me if I could come along with her to a seminar cum counseling session called as ‘An insight into engineering’ given by a famous coaching class that trains for both, the CET as well as engineering subjects. I know that such seminars are all about publicity, another of those time wasting exercises, but I had nothing better to do, so I agreed to attend it with her.

Some guy in his thirties in a loud and clear voice started explaining ‘what is engineering about?’; Something which I couldn’t figure out after three years of engineering. Then he spoke of how important is the first year and if you don’t figure out how to get around things in the first year, how the rest of the years will be difficult for you. 'First year is the foundation for everything, here’s where you get the basics right' he added.

Basics what, being friends with the person who writes assignments, being a regular at the Xerox place, finding someone to make your ED drawings and all, I wondered. Then he started talking about individual branches of engg and here’s when I started dozing off. After almost an hour gone, I looked around to see students still paying attention with the same enthusiasm. How fast your attention span can reduce after getting admit to an Engg college is what I was thinking about!

After the seminar, there was the counseling session. Seriously bored by then, I decided to have some fun. Students in group of 3 were counseled by the volunteers of the coaching class. I pretended to be a class 12 student along with my friend. At first, I preferred listening to the questions my friend was asking such as 'Is engineering difficult?' 'Which colleges are the best for engg?' and more such questions. He mentioned my college name as one of the best ones. I felt happy for a moment. He also said, "First year is the most difficult, but don't worry, if you join our classes, you will have done the syllabus a month before the exam leaving ample time for revision".Then he asked me whether I have any questions.

I was kinda waiting for this. I asked him what distinguishes a good engg college from an average engg college. He answered ‘ Good engg colleges have good professors who give wonderful insight into the subject and they have good research facilities, good labs and other infrastructure.’ Those exact words he said. A picture of my profs flashed for a minute in my mind. Period.

Next question I shot was, ‘How good is the interface of an engg college with the industry?’
He answered, “Every year, most colleges arrange Industrial visits (IV s) to get student interaction with the industry; they are quite good for budding engineers”. I can’t remember how I controlled my laughter then. Man, people can lie!

Then I bombarded another question, ‘If I enter Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, which companies will offer me in college placements?’
He answered, “There are the telecom companies like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and also internet providers like Hathway, MTNL etc. who come for placements. You can also get into good core electronic companies such as Siemens, Falcon, Samsung, Sony etc. through good colleges like a, b, c, d.” one of those colleges was mine. He also said that some people also end up with software or financial jobs. Unless the word ‘some’ meant ‘almost everyone’, it didn’t reflect the truth. When I asked him about the course of Electronics and Telecom Engineering, the answer he gave me could very well have been termed as something even no professor of this subject in any college, has done in his lifetime.

A few more questions and I was wondering which of his answers was the most hilarious one. He was like an in-form batsmen hitting sixers all over the ground. For a while it made me wonder whether I was studying the same thing this guy is talking about. If I were to do it all over again, would I do things differently? Nah, I love my life and love the journey that has been so far. I would change nothing about it, not even a single thing!

Surpriseee...

A couple of days ago, few of my college friends came to my house for a surprise visit. I was quite overjoyed seeing them and felt very nice. Overjoyed because it has been really a while someone came by without a reason, or without wanting something from me. It wasn’t my birthday too! That’s when I realized how good it feels when you call someone or visit someone without actually wanting something from them. I’m thankful to have such great friends.

This friendship day, I had no real plans. It was kinda getting boring going through dull GRE wordlists. To my surprise Anand came to my home around the evening after a day full of Linux course in college. It’s so nice to meet a friend than to send stupid forwarded messages to everyone. It’s the element of surprise that doubled the fun.

We had a crazy Idea. Anand said ‘Let’s go around and surprise more people.’ We had no plan as to who all we’ll surprise and how many places to cover, but hoped to cover maximum people. We hit the road on the bike at 6.30 pm towards Malad. With the crystal maze that Malad roads form, we had difficulty in finding our friend’s place. Finally at one point, I gave up hunting for the building and called him. He said, “Turn around, I’m right behind you”. Wish we could’ve looked around before calling. Still it was something that he didn’t expect to have happened. He offered a Cadbury as friendship day sharing which we shared till our last friend’s house. We had to cover many places so decided that nowhere we will have any food. We’ll come for that some other day.

Next halt, kandivali friend. Here we couldn’t resist eating delicious pakodas and Basundi. This time too, he caught us when we were entering his building. No surprise again, but he was really happy seeing us come. Here on, we got the map to our next friend’s house. The Mr. Gre was busy studying with last pack of flash cards and was literally shocked seeing us come. Finally, we had surprised someone completely. After a cup of tea and Lonavala chikki, we left his house. It was getting darker and we decided this would be our last destination.

On the way back, we thought we’d change plan a bit. Visit one more friend and surprise him. We had lots of options to think upon and would’ve liked to go visit many more people, but time just didn’t permit us to do that. Just then our friend from Powai called in to say he had prepared cookies and cake to bring to college the next day. That’s when we decided, ‘let’s go surprise him’. Kandivli to Powai was hell of a journey. All possible things that can happen on a bike happened. We were almost hit by a rick, almost caught by a cop, lost our way at Saki Naka and went all the way till Ghatkopar. After more than an hour of roaming around, finally reached the republic of Powai.

Now there was some more element of fun. We didn’t have his address or any details of where he lived. Just recollected random facts about what he’d told us about his apartment during college time. With some help from the locals and a lot of common sense, we finally reached a building which we figured out he might be staying at. The watchman asked us the room number where he stayed and here too, luckily we dialed the right number and reached his place. A day full of surprises as it was! Happy that we could surprise one more friend and shared the last bite of Cadbury.

It was such a nice day. Would’ve liked to visit many more friends. Hopefully, that’ll happen sometime soon. I’ll remember this friendship day for long. Something different than the regular...

One more year...

A few days ago, we gave a farewell party to our senior batch. One thing was going through my mind back then. Next year it will be us going through this. Actually during the farewell, there was one more thing going through my mind. This is not how our farewell would be. It was one of the most boring farewell parties to be.

Three years into college, I felt like I was seeing almost half the faces present there for the first time. It was not just me, most of my batch mates were seeing them for the first time that day. It’s strange for us because we are the ones who stay back late in college almost everyday and do many more things other than attending lectures.

In the Conference room where the party was there, all I could see was clusters of people talking within themselves. Group-ism was very evident. There were just three speeches in the entire class, none of them very efficient, none with an impact. There was no feeling of nostalgia at all. It was more like a formal function.

Worse still, it lasted only for one and half hour, out of that we played music for them for like half hour and had designed a fun filled award ceremony for half an hour. Party was over at 4 pm and everyone was outta college by 4.30 pm. Come on people, have a life!! Reasons for leaving early, ‘Padhna hai bhai, Viva hai’. Four years in college, this is what they come up with !!!

I just feel that with us next year, it would be an entirely different story. Even the shyest student of the class will come up to the podium and speak about the experiences in college he/she had. Things they thought engineering would be and what it turned out to be. Speak about how different their lives would be waking up tomorrow and realizing that they don’t have to head toward college anymore. No more Cutting chai and Misal Pav in canteen.

I think we might stay up in college that night. If not all, atleast a few of us as we did during college festivals. Playing TT or Rounders(This is our class’s National Game, credit to Pratap) in the middle of the night. Have intense debates and discussions on the silliest topics on earth and loads of other crap. But it’s far isn’t it? One long year to go, let’s see what happens then. Only time will tell………..

Oye it's Friday !

Before you try guessing about what this blog is all about, i'll tell you that it's not about Farhan Akhtar and his show. It's about something much bigger. Something which millions of people in this world eagerly wait for. It's about a day, it's about Friday. For most, it's about keeping work aside for a while and giving entertainment a chance. Unless you have joined some stupid coaching classes to screw the fun. I exactly know whom i'm talking about.

Fridays this semester were different atleast for the 'L clan'. Call it Oye it's Friday or TGI Fridays(Thank God It's Friday) or anything which you can associate Friday with. Started with four people wandering at Andheri station and thinking what to do, this activity has popularised to quite a good extend in college. Though i must warn you, it's strictly by Invitation Only.

It's about going to Andheri station, having street food, juices, Ice-cream whatever you wish. Not a big spend, atmost fifty bucks. Then we find a good quiet place to start a discussion. A discussion about how the week was. About the latest happenings in the college(Read happenings not gossips). About what's right and what's wrong. About the week that wasn't. About forgetting the old and turning a new leaf. Then signing off together at Andheri station.

There was more to fridays this time. College festival second day was Friday. The day of Fashion show and Musical Band. The best day of Space probably. Then on one of the Fridays, we waited in the Amphitheater singing songs and Gaurav playing the guitar till late near the Bhavans lake. Such a great entertainment. I attended a marriage in Nagpur wherein i had never met the bride or the groom before, and ended up having quite fun. Made some friends there too. It was Friday the13th.

On another of Friday the 13th, we had our results. The rumours of result coming were on a month before actual day arrived. Eventually the rumour turned true on this day and people started getting sms of result being out by friends. The running lecture was called off and eager people ran like crazy to see the result. For a better picture Click Here. Fortunately the result this time was good and the profs hadn't given kt's to many people like me who were expecting one. So again a merry day. After results we headed for Juhu Beach. Everyone in a cheerful mood, the after result enjoy mode. We ended up playing Dog and the Bone which i still think is a wonderful skillful game. A crowd of around 50 people had gathered around seeing us play. Believe me, I'm not exaggerating, this is true.

Finally this Friday, on one day's notice we went trekking to Karnala Fort near Panvel. It's a fantastic fort, unlike other commercialised forts, it has no proper stairs, no hawkers selling Cucumber or Chaas, not even water. A walk through the jungle hearing different birds sing. Variety of flora and fauna well preserved as heritage site. Lizards crawling trees, monkeys, snakes, bugs of a hundred types, honey bees, dense bamboo trees. Never felt we were 10 kms from Panvel. Felt so far away from concrete jungle. The sight from the top of the fort. Just brilliant! See Photo.

Just be sure to eat something and carry lots of water with you. There's absolutely nothing on the fort to drink or eat. Nothing on the way during the 90 mins trek either. Like Bear Grills of Man vs Wild, Anand roaming through the wild, found a tree with the fruit 'karvand' on it. It tasted very nice. We ate a lot of it. Until all our hands went sticky. Due to the dense trees you don't feel the heat either. It's quite an undiscovered destination must say, but very nice. After reaching down, we realised it's Friday again and started hunting for street food at Panvel. I'm sure gonna come here again. What a place! All of this for just 90 bucks. Money well spent. Wonder how Friday's are really economical. Maybe there's something special with Fridays and me. I love them. That's the day which really keeps me going through the week.

L clan

In the last blog, i wrote about most of the points which would normally associate with the so called "Loser Clan" of engineering. I re-read the blog again as a neutral person who probably knows nothing of engineering, and the blog seemed to put engineering students like us in a bit of negative light. That was when i thought i should probably make my views about 'L clan' a bit clear.

'L clan' is not a group of individuals who are just pissed off with engineering, running away from the hard work in college, borrowers of all materials. Living on the edge, hanging on to the rope, delaying everything till the deadline comes scaringly close. Cramming stuff into their head to fill in the papers and knowing nothing the day after. Sure, we do this, but there's more to us.

Is not that the 'L clan' hates lectures, infact they are the ones who attend in large numbers when lecturers from outside come for taking good seminars. It's not that they have stopped questioning in lectures because they have no interest in the subject, but for there's no one to give satisfactory answers. They end up getting poor marks just because the crap system expects the problem to be solved by a particular method only. No concern how correct your method is. The system doesn't care how much you've understood but it does give a damn to how much lectures you've sat through.

Every member of 'L clan' is in with a purpose why he's chosen not to take the regular path of 9 to 5 college and the sincerity that comes along. Some who see a much bigger dream than engineering like some sport, or maybe future entrepreneurship option, or dealing with technological things beyond the books. Or best, the people with leisure who have within them great painters, excellent photographers, good marketing skills or amazing leadearship qualities to manage college festivals. ' L clan' is highly responsible for success of most college festivals. It requires people who can work day in and day out without caring about attendance, without caring much about the time of the day. Most of the participants in college fests for that matter are 'L clan' people.

Here, there are people who wont mind going to Pune for going for a seminar on Game Theory, without knowing a word. There are the people who can fill in seminar halls when there's no one else attending and embarrassment of the arranging committee is to be avoided. People who can roam all through Mumbai to bring in Money for college festivals. People who take the pains to come to college during peak exam time, sacrificing their own study time just for the joy of their friends in faring well in their exams.

I admire the 'L clan' for variety of reasons. The fact that it adds so much energy and color to engineering life. The intense debates that we come up with in the quadrangle that we never realize how time goes by and clock strikes 10 at night. The people involved almost forget that they've to travel from one end of Mumbai to another after this talk.

Sometimes there are clashes, differences of opinion, misunderstandings and all, they exist everywhere, don't they? But it's so amazing that how quickly these people with one intense discussion in the quadrangle of college, speak out all that is there in their minds and sort things out. There is no greater feeling of unity or happiness in a group when the dark cloud of misunderstanding disappears and people begin to look through the clear glass. It's so good when people speak out what they feel is wrong than they keep it to themselves.

When i think of ' L clan' the thing that always comes to my mind is the alphabetical blocks that we played with in our childhood. Particularly the 'V block'(for victory) and our 'L block'. 'V block' has to be held by hand otherwise it falls down and forms a shape of 'L". The 'L shape' with a bit of push from one sides makes it look like 'V'. I guess it will take just this little bit of difference for 'L clan' people to turn the tide and emerge successful. It's just a matter of time and finding the right opportunity before everyone picks up the tumbled 'L' and holds it such that it takes shape of the victorious 'V'....

Dedicated to the 'L-clan'. Membership still on. Conditions apply. Must know the 'L clan' official dance choreographed by our own Gaurav.

Random things about engineering!

These are the random little things which are very much a part of every engineering student by the time he's in third year. Didn't put much thought into it, but you'll agree on most of things i feel. Do add more to it!

• Attention span---Even the fiercest of the warriors who could battle the dullest of the lecturers in their lives till 12th grade, would find it difficult to concentrate in some of the lectures after two years of engineering. My attention span has been ridiculously low for this sem in college thanks to the wonderful insight of the subject these people provide.
  
• A Guiltless state--- You are not guilt about so many things. Not guilty about thrown out from the class, not guilty about completing assignments day after deadline. Not guilty coming at 10.45 for 10 o clock lecture and asking attendance. Many more things..
  
• Best invention----Thinking about the best invention for engineers, the one that comes to mind first is the time machine... oops ... err... sorry... The Xerox machine. We spend ridiculous amount of money in 4 yrs xeroxing stuff. Now-a-day's all journals are xeroxes too. Life made easy.
  
• Exams, here I come----After giving so many engineering exams, you are ready for anything in life. Any subject, buy a book, ask syllabus, buy question papers, make few phone calls and excel. So much prepared that tomorrow if you're given a book on 'Human psychology' of 400 pages and told that there's a test in 4 days, you'll surely clear it.
  
• Bird watching---As a engineer, this surely develops as one of your major hobbies. Should I say more. Just that it's interesting only outside the campus. Quick Pj: Girls are also interested in this activity. But the ones that they watch are actually real birds.
  
• Attendance---You come to college daily, go home always late. Are seen around the campus most of the times. Yet, your name shines with florescent color on the defaulter's list. Maybe they don't really take attendance in the gymkhana do they?
  
• Vivas--Here's the fun stuff. Say any crap, but say it confidently. Never show a tinge of worry or fear on your face. Never will you fear vivas again.
  
• Borrowing things---You are in college..1 assignment pending...Deadline today...No assignment sheets...borrow...open bag...pen not working....borrow...pencil...oh wait i have....shit, no lead...borrow...By the time you are deep into engg, you stop using erasers. If any error, manipulate it by adding few strokes of pencil here and there...things like sharpeners are passe...No Stapler.... borrow...no pins...wait...again borrow...Udhaar ki jindagi.
  
• Manipulation---If you cant get it right, make it right. So many things come here. Program gone wrong, take xerox of the one which works. Experiment not working, show on paper that it's working. It started with me quite early. First chemistry practicals, all we needed was a pink ppt. The closest anyone got was orange. Mine was blue, miles away. Saw a pink chalk lying nearby.Put a piece of it inside test tube. Next moment, prof is telling the entire batch, this is how the output should be.

Lectures

We always talk about lectures being boring, monotonous and dull. But we could always find alternative ways so that our life becomes less miserable bearing with those. Here are some things that people do during lectures……….

1. Listening to MP3,Ipod, FM Radio—
   To avoid RK’s high frequency noise, It’s always better to listen to some soothing music. Maybe a slow Brian Adams song will do or john Meyer if you want more slower and more peaceful songs. Warning: Listen to Ankit Shah’s soundtrack at your own risk.
2. Mobile Games
   The snake game has been such a popular thing, played almost everywhere. Then why not lectures? Hard core gamers may also play Multiplayer games such as Fifa via Bluetooth
3. Sleeping/Relaxing/taking rest
   In your tiring schedule you need some time to take rest. Why not sit a lecture and just relax then. Or have a quick nap on the last bench. And you also get attendance as a bonus in this case.
4. Bluetooth Song Transfer
   You must keep up with the latest soundtracks. Listen to good music all the time. So find a mate and just start exchanging the good songs.
5. Drawing/ Sketching
   This one is for the creative ones(read Patro, Dobby, Vivek etc.) to express themselves and to entertain people around them. Others can take lessens from them and start developing their creative side.
6. Reading Novels
   So far Dobhal and Taha have been caught in this act but it still is a safe thing to do. Again if you really can concentrate when so much disturbance of prof is there around you is another issue against it.
7. Singing Songs
   You may think of yourself as the best bathroom singer. But you need to prove it to the backbenchers forum. Clear your throat and just showcase your talent.
8. Eating Tiffin
   According to a recent survey 20% of the tiffins are consumed in the lectures itself and the figure is continuously on a rise. Above line indicates nothing but the fact that I have been working something with surveys in PCT projects and linked it here
9. Playing Cards
   Chandan has been involved in this for so many lectures and never been caught. So very much a safe thing to do.
10. Chalk Fights
    This is the greatest Intra class sport ever.A game with so much fun almost enjoyed by everybody.
11. Watching out of the Window
    One of my earlier blog illustrates this idea better.
12. GRE flashcards, Gate questions, MBA questions
    Better think about future education plans coz Engg is gonna take us nowhere. So utilize the lecture so you may hear some interesting lectures two years later in US. LOL.
13. Completing Assignments/journals
    Why waste time at home writing crap. Utilize lecture time instead.
14. Clicking funny Photos
    The 3 megapixel cam in your cam is not just a showpiece. It can be put to good use.
15. Games
    Games such as X and Zero, bollywood-hollywood, Bingo, cows and bulls, dot-dot can be played.
16. Football/Cricket talk
    Discussing teams/clubs, their strategies, fixtures. Possible outcomes, predictions, expert views, analysis. Fight over clubs, rivalry and much more. Welcome to sports chat.
17. Discussion
    Discussion about any topic, like of a debate. Talking about latest happenings, gossips, rumors etc.
18. Pretending to pay attention
    This exercise might work in your favour possibly at the end of the term when the prof will begin to think you are sincere and may give good termwork. This idea never worked with me though.
19. Fighting for the attendance
    The sole purpose or Raisson d’ Etre of attending lectures is attendance sheet. Fight to sign it and keep the sheet with yourself. So that by approximation techniques, you can estimate the chance of proxy being checked and then decide whether to sign dummies or not.

Window View

Looking down from my classroom window, saw Rajhans students walking out of their school in a single line towards their bus. Their discipline and simplicity was admirable. Sometimes we can learn a lot from these kids.


Looking at my life, thought that simplicity was pretty much there, but the discipline lacked. Life had been a lot unorganised, lot unplanned, my room's a mess, nothing's at the right place. I waste time hunting for my notebook, my pen-drive,my pen etc. I admired those kids.


I little further from the school is a large piece of unused land. Full of greenery due to rains. With grass and short bushes. Hard to find such a big open ground in Mumbai. A little further was PVR cinema where Badri, Dobhal, Kushal and Noopur were watching Rock On.I wished i was with them(though i ended up watching it next day). Then saw the heavy traffic at the JVPD junction .....dis place is never traffic free.



Back to the Bhavans campus again, i saw a small boy of 5-6 years with a coach in the tennis court. I was eager to watch how the coach would start. He was first explaining him the techniques of holding a Tennis racket correctly and appropriate method of movement.Next they started on to service. The coach made 3-4 services of different kinds and the boy was observing him.


It was his turn now. First serve, the boy could'nt connect the racket with the ball. Again the same thing next time. But for the third time, he connected it, only as far as to reach the net. This continued for long.The racket used to either miss the ball or the ball would touch the net.The coach corrected his arm action again and now after a few more trials, the ball reached the other side of the net. The kid must have felt happier. Now the ball was travelling other side of the net quite well, coach told him about cross serve and that the ball should fall in the opposite quadrant. The boy tried that too, sometimes going right,sometimes erred, but nevertheless he was learning.

The session ended soon..And So did the "CC" lecture.....Infact lectures have been so interesting these days. It's just a matter of how you look at it.

Life @ fast lane…………….

Life has been fantastic last few days. Being busier than ever before. Learning things that I myself would have never thought I could. Having fun with friends. Making college our Home, be it holiday or college-day, being in college. Still managing to watch a DVD a day, reading novels, contributing to college committees. Life is great.

Sometimes people find life boring. I think because lives of such people are monotonic, i.e. their today is same as tomorrow. A new day should bring you new opportunities, new problems and newer ways to solve them. Then life will never again be boring.

“Don’t try for too many things in too little time”, “Take your steps slowly or you might crumble” people have being telling me. I know they are right. But I know that it’s now or never. Whenever a good opportunity comes, you should grab it with both hands. Doing the right thing at the right time matters. I may have to sacrifice a few hours of leisure time for that, adjust a few things here and there. Doesn’t matter, enjoyment can come later.

In some ways I have learnt from Pratap, a guy from my class( Read IEEE Chairperson….). The amount of effort he puts in to get things done in time is awesome. He shall remain my inspiration forever. How can I forget my after-college group of Yugi, Gogo, Amey, Rohit, Anup, Sinnan, Rahul. We are a fantastic group. We are into everything. Silly jokes, pranks, serious work, game strategies(read cs and warcraft), football chat. Someday they’ll transform me into a better Warcraft player.

And yes, how can I ever forget Nikhil sir. He has been so great with us. He has presented us with a great opportunity to do an industry level project. Guiding us the way through. Helping us with getting around things.


Meanwhile I am getting a call asking events list for Nirmaan(our college fest) which is to be displayed on website. I get a call saying JSP/Servlet project submission in 3 days. Some SE asking why php is not working on his PC. Some crap microprocessor journal to be checked tomorrow. Maybe some assignments to do which I am not aware of. Making me wonder why I am wasting time on writing stupid blogs? Sometimes you got to live for the moment I guess.


I remember Shania Twain’s song.

“C’est la vie……
That’s life and that’s how it’s gonna be………………….”