Arcade of Thoughts

Four years of hostel life changes a lot of things. Though I see myself as the same person as I was when entered IIT Madras, I kind of know that I have changes a lot in these four years. This post will reflect what I have learned from the four years of my undergraduate life. It is unfortunate that many us miss out on so many opportunities, while some of us explore a part of it. And there are very few, if any, who make the best use; I so envy them. I wanted to write this while at IIT Madras, but laziness got the better of me.Statuary Warning : Long post

The Tech. Part

It was only in my final year that I indulged myself in the robotics, robotics-like activities because the courses I took demanded them. My college has a fairly active “hobby club” which caters to people with such interests. In fact, the robotics club started in my first year. It now provides a reasonably good platform for the students to start their work. What many of us fail to realize is that when you get your hands down and dirty, science and technology can be fun too. In the final semester, I was involved with a project where a miniature model of a lift had to be made. To be frank, it was the first time that I actually learned about handling micro processors, assembling mechanical components and electrical components together and actually put some of the workshop skills to use. The best part of the whole deal is the fact the you get to know people better, you interact with lot more and make more acquaintances. I can only wonder why I chose to distance myself from such activities in the past.

After the first year, it was only a matter of time before many more clubs like Physics clubs, Astronomy club popped up. I am sure that those involved in their functioning would have had loads of fun. Mostly, I was part of the Programming team in IIT Madras in four years. It was amazing being part of that. Met awesome team mates and that even took me to Tokyo. As part of the technical festival called ‘Shaastra’, projects such as building a hovercraft, tensegrity tower, remote controlled aircraft etc would have been an immense learning experience. Yet again I stress the fact that it is the people who you meet during the period that you value the most.

The Management Part

Many people miss out on being volunteers and coordinators for different events and facilities that help massive cultural and technical festivals (Saarang and Shaastra respectively) run smoothly. It is a common misconception among students that by being a part of mangement, the “fun” of Saarang and Shaastra is gone. That is true only to an limited extent. Given the ample number of events that take place, and given that fact that there are only a handful of event which really confined to your interests, you are not missing out much. Work on Saarang and Shaastra begins months before the actual event. During the run-up when you are loaded with tonnes of work other than acads, it is very satisfying targets falling one by one during the entire course. It is a pity that many of us take academics so seriously that it is considered a ‘waste-of-time’ to find yourself doing “other” things.

I have been a ‘volunteer’ three times and a ‘coordinator’ five times. Each time, I have had great fun being a part of both technical and cultural festivals. More than half the people I know in IITM can be traced back to acquaintances I made as part of the organizing team. In 2006 Saarang, I was part of the Production team which ended up being a great group to hang out with. After that, I was part of the event “how things work” for Mechanical Engineering Department’s technical festival ‘mechanica’. I was forced into it, but I have to thank all those who forced me into it because the people I got to know were the most enthusiastic bunch I had ever seen. Also because, I managed to win “how things work” in the following shaastra. In other occasions too, I have always loved being responsible for whatever I was in-charge of. Any youngster today, I would advice him to be both technically inclined as well as be ready to work on cultural activities to earn a wholesome experience. Plus, a coordinator in Shaastra would mean 400 bucks worth of freebies and 900 bucks in Saarang
It is often complained that students more time of computer these day and less on social interations. I think more such activities undertaken by the institute will help in building Social interation skills among students. Instead, today we find the Dean reducing the number of days of Saarang as it not in academic interest. Earlier, a real show-case of Indian Culture was observed in the name of “Bharath Utsav” in IIT Madras. Again, as it was not a part of academics, the entire fest was canceled six years ago.

The Acad. Part

In the final semester I took a course named “technology and development” taught by Prof. D Veeraraghavan one of the most eminent profs in Humanities Department in IIT Madras. In one of the classes, an old student of his, an alumnus of my college’s electrical department, gave a small talk. He had done is Ph.D. in social sciences unlike his peers who stayed on in core engineering. That talk was an eye-opener for me on research in Social Sciences. He explained about indigenous cotton seeds, imported cotton seeds and how it affected the rural textile industry as the looms were designed for indigenous harder cotton seeds. Frankly, until then, though I had often wondered, I had no clue as to research in subjects other than science and technology. It is true that IITs (and all engineering colleges for that matter) provide a one dimensional view of education, ie technology. A “full-fledged” engineer from my college will have completed just 12 of 180 credits in non-engineering subjects. This is a dismally low number. It is sad that people don’t realize this.

Apart from numerous (a lot more than even MIT actually) core engineering courses, we are given a free choice for two courses (free electives) from any department. Also, we several have a minor streams which are designed to different from our engineering Major. In my opinion, these options aren’t enough. But, many fail to consolidate even on this limited choice. For instance, almost three-fourth of computer science students opt for operation research as minor as it complements some of their courses. Though I appreciate their enthusiasm, I have to remind them that the whole point of minor stream is to do something different from the regular routine. A lot of students end up taking courses from their own department in the ‘free-elective’ slot. They are simply not making the most of what the institution has to offer.

I should refer to Steve Jobs speech in Stanford convocation where he talks about “connecting the dots” on his calligraphy course which he later used in Apple mac OS(youtube link, text link). I would advise any fresher to explore his options completely before resorting to “safe” choice of following the herd.

The get-together, treks part

This is one part, where, I don’t think many would have missed out. I have been to places in last two years of stay. Traveling, photography are cherished by all. It is inevitable that people end up in a clique of 5-6 people who constantly hangout together. It is in treks and traveling that people with common friends get together and have the time of their lives. The network of friends grows very fast on such occasions. Hopefully, I will go to one more Himalayan trek that is being planned now When you travel, invariably, you have stories to bring back and envy a lot of people.

The treats part

Chennai, though the climate sucks, is blessed with beaches. The treats, get-together, parties happen a lot across the east coast. When it comes to choosing colleges for your under graduation, I would recommend a place on the coast, a big city preferably. A city a lots to offer. Chennai, for instance, has places like Tanjarine (sizzlers), Don Pepe(mexican), Eatalica (Italian-American), Pupil (formerly Veronas, Junk food heaven), Buena Vista (on East coast road, for secluded beach with nice stuff ), New Yorkers, Lil Italy etc. It’s no use lamenting about the city not being as “cool” as Bangalore (in every sense), enjoy the place while you are there. Make sure you visit all the eat-out places

The LAN part

Gaming, surfing, movies on comps, sitcoms etc form a integral part of any hostel life when it is connect to LAN and internet. You gotta enjoy all of that while it lasts. When you watch movies in CFD lab meant for academic purposes late in the night because of the AC to beat the summer heat, the experience will remain imprinted in your mind for a long time.

Bottom Line: Be tech savvy, be geeky, be cool, have fun! Believe me! All of them can happen at the same time

On a personal note:

I am headed to Pennsylvania State University (PSU) for Ph.D. in scientific computing in Computer Science and Engineering Department. I am sure I will miss the name ‘coolshankin’ three months on, though i hate it as of now. Many of my friends have told me that all I have to do to tell them my email address and the name will stick. If that happens, I will surely hate the name all over again.
I am sure a lot of people will hate me for saying this, but I will say it anyway. When people have no reason to meet, they don’t. Though we all promise that we will keep in touch, it is only once in a while that we actually bother to mail the friends. When there is a reunion, there simply isn’t any common topic to talk about. The conversations are mostly formal. Given orkut, facebook and gtalk, I am sure people will make an attempt to keep in touch. After convocation, I got no idea when I will be meeting my friends again. Perhaps in US or perhaps in India itself after one, one and a half or two years. By then, all of us would have moved on and meeting over the net will also be a rare thing.

It is a fact that though we all keep promising that we will keep in touch, in the end we all tend lose touch. To know whats happening with my life, you can always see my status messages and read my blog posts :P. After a lot of complaints from friends and family alike, I promise to take more pictures with myself in it and post them at flickr, orkut, picassa or wherever. It was great knowing you all

I am reminded of a song by Amy Grant which goes, “Oh how the years go by, oh how the love brings tears to my eyes ….” It’s very apt here. Don’t mind the video .. listen to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/v/PZcbRr7GBHY

I remember my first day at the college when my dad was about to leave me and I was missing home already. I was thinking, “I can’t believe this is happening”. Couple of days back, when I was packing stuff in my room to leave home I was thinking again, “I can’t believe this is happening.” Emotions were exactly the same. How good a place can be measured by how happy you are while you were at the place. How good a place can be measured by how sad you felt when you left the place. I think the latter is more appropriate. Lemme know what you think.

Here are some of the videos I took in Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur. We lived in Hilton Tokyo Bay which is on the Disney Resorts. As it can be expected, the whole place is a fantasy come true. This video was taken on the Disney resort line.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ZqyrnRCKgkU

Shamisen is one of the Japanese stringed instruments which gives a rather bass sound similar to that of percussion instruments. This video was taken during the opening ceremony of ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).
http://www.youtube.com/v/q8e0W-KdXbE
This folk dance was also part of the opening ceremony

http://www.youtube.com/v/dHePmrpFcuY

These acrobats performed some good stunts during the closing ceremony aka the acm world finals celebrations.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Y-8nI00ZuTU

This performance by the Scandinavian was easily the highlight of the show making nearly 30 successful pickpocket/watch stealing attempts while on stage. With his excellent presentation skill he was the talk of the party. No one knows if the last part of the performance (not in video) was staged but he managed to take a man’s undergarment with just couple of strings (of course, the pants were in place). The victim claimed he had no clue how that was done (obviously he would say so). Observe the host steal the tie and the belt. He couldn’t take the tie of one of the volunteer because it was tied with a double knot, he reaveled right after.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Xe-2mAF7eGM

This comedy juggler performs mostly in Las Vegas and is supposedly one of the most watched comedians on You Tube. Here he performs a keyboard piece using ping-pong balls and also juggles the ping-pong balls in his mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/v/h9RMqEp6yaQ
http://www.youtube.com/v/HIPwFjx4clc

This video is from Kuala Lumpur Tower where the artists performed for some five minutes. Traditional Malaysian music.

http://www.youtube.com/v/nFwOp1_Rj4E

For the whole of last week, I had been to Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur for ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals. The contest did not go as favorably as we would have hoped. We secured 44th position among 88 teams. Nevertheless, we (me and my teammates with our prof.) had a great time in Tokyo and also in Kuala Lumpur as transit passengers.People:

Just as we landed in Narita Airport, the customs process was smooth. No long queues, no wait for baggages to arrive and only 10 minutes wait for the train to arrive. We boarded the train and after a couple of minutes, our prof. realized he had left his back pack in the station. Couple of people assured us that the bag wont be taken away by anyone. As we got down from he train to go back to the airport station, couple of women called up the station and asked them secure the back pack. I can only wonder if such helpful people can be found outside Japan. We did not even ask them for a favour. They just noticed us talking about it and came forward to help us. Japanese are known for their manners and helpful nature. We had already got a glimpse of that in just 30 minutes of our arrival. This was not just an isolated incident. Through the four days, I never had trouble traveling in Tokyo. Of course, I had the map of railway system there; even otherwise, some people actually walked me to the place I wanted to visit. Many of them know reasonably good English. Those who didn’t, try their best to communicate with the limited English they knew.

Train Network:

In Indian cities, we don’t have a train network. We just have a line or two running from north to south or east to west. I was impressed by the network they have in Tokyo. Over a hundred stations and many junctions. They have many lines run by different organizations, intersecting at different stations. More efficient than any bus service in India, they provide the best means of public transportation. Electronically controlled trains means no delays. They have arrival times like 7:14 PM and are seldom late, not even by a minute. With a map in hand and aided by annoucements in both English and Japanese, its hard to get lost.

Some trains have zillion ads which are a visual overload. No complains as long as keep the prices low. Strong currency of theirs, Yen, makes a small stay in Japan very expensive for Indians. It will cost an average Rs 300 for two hour commute in the city involving changing the lines at the ‘junctions’.

Here an interesting observation. On escalators in subways etc. people with lot of time on their hand move to the left, while people in a hurry climb the stairs of the moving escalators on the right. This norm was followed almost every where.

Girls:

Close to 10 people asked me about girls in Japan claiming they are drop-dead gorgeous. Well, here’s my opinion. It is great to them all working. The ratio to women to men is more than 1 during the work hours. Women look real good in the business attire. When it comes to how hot, sexy or beautiful they look, i am saying the ratio is as mush as it is in India. It is not that apparent in our country because of poverty. If you dress all Indians up in good cloths, we will find as many pretty women as in Japan or any other country for that matter. It is not a magic that, all hot girls spring up in MG-Brigades. It is just that they have money to spend on looking good. Kimonos look awesome by the way.

Asakusa:

Given very limited time we had on our hand to spend, I managed to steal some to go to the Buddhist Temple in Asakusa. Never having been to a Buddhist temple before, I have no clue of the customs that are followed there. If anyone knows what they are, please explain them to me. I got to capture some good pics of the place. Bought some keychains and other Souvenirs for collection.

The Entrance

Shopping Arcade

5-Floor high Pagoda

The Temple

Pagoda Again

Adjacent Structure

They used the ladle to wash their hands

Similar to Mangalaarathi in Indian Temple I guess

The above pic: I have no idea what it is. They took a brush like stick and looked at the number there and then opened the corresponding box. In there was a manuscript in Japanese. I am guessing it is some sort of astrology or prediction of fate or something

This was outside one of the structures

Ginza, Akihabara:

They were the two other localities we visited in Tokyo. Akihabara is famous for electronic goods shopping while Ginza is top notch locality for premium items like Gucci’s etc. In the streets of Tokyo, people follow rules. Pedestrians dont cross the street if the pedestrian light is red and automibe wait for the pedestrians to pass. Given that mass transporation is on trains, there is hardly any pollution traffic on streets.

Automobiles

Got to see some interesting stuff there.

I got myself a caricature from the artist Sponsored by IBM

Kuala Lumpur

We had a 24 hour transit in Kuala Lampur. Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) hits you as you enter it. It is damn beautiful. Rated as world’s best airport in one of the ratings, the architecture of the place makes you rant on the hapless situation of Indian Airports. Chennai Airport is dirty to say the least. Both Narita and KLIA are well maintained, clean and organized. KLIA is way better though.

Awesome Architecture

We visited KL tower and Petronas towers while in Kuala Lumpur. Got a bird’s eye view of the city from 84th floor at KL tower. Brought some souvenirs from here for collection. Some pics follow

Bird’s eye view

Petronas from KL Tower

Traditional Music being played

KL Tower

Petronas … just outside

To make some people envy me, I am posting pic of the place we stayed in Japan and Kuala Lumpur and also the desert I had on one of the days there.

Hilton Tokyo Bay

Holiday Inn, Glenmarie Residence, Kuala Lumpur

Next Post:

Unable to upload videos on youtube because of the newly authentication process which isn’t working all that well. Will upload some videos of the events organized by IBM after the worldfinals. It includes some Japanese music and a comedy juggler who played key board with ping-pong balls and also juggled the ping-pong balls using only his mouth. Will also upload some traditional Malaysian music as well.

* . Jokes(?) apart, it has been two years and surely I qualify to be called a veteran blogger. Coincidentally, it is my fiftieth post too. Do check out two of my favorite posts in last year (here and here). People loved this post as well.For a light post after a long time, I present some of the quotable quotes by me in the last year.

Quotable Quotes:

Pride:
(On being asked about certain position of responsibility in my hostel)
“I am in fourth year, I dont have to work”
(I wasn’t that lucky)

Envy:
(No reference to context required)
“Even he gets chicks!”
(No comments)

Gluttony:
(Chat transcript that repeated over 30 times in the 7th Semester)
Maro: Ascendas
Shankar: How can I say no to that?
Maro: Peace, leaving in 5 mins
(Ascendas is a food court that is open (used to) 24 hours…. my visit is usually between 1 am and 2 am)

Sloth:
(On being a Quality Management System Co-ordinator (QMS Coord) in Saarang without having to do any work)
“In 4th year, all I care is Grub (food) coupons and free entry into pro. shows (professional shows)”
(I was successful )

Lust:
(Near Monkey Falls…. looking at all dressed up women)
“What is it with Indian women, its like …. they are born with cloths”
(I know thats sexist and cruel, but one is surely gonna a laugh at it. I am not really that bad a person. trust me!)

“Three most wanted Ws - wine, weed and women….hmmm…. wine and weed can be brought with money. Women …… that too!”
(Really, it’s just a joke)

Averice:
(On being asked to share food coupons I got from being a QMS Coord)
“I don’t want to part with my hard-earned money”
(Eventually, I had to )

Wrath:
(on being ridiculed for celebrating blog birthday last year)
“Get lost!!! People do celebrate blog birthdays. ”
(I may have used more provocative phrase other than ‘get lost’)

It has been two years since I started the blog. It’s been great. Over the last year I have been less geekier then the year before, wasted a little less time, a bit more studious, a lot more serious owing to app, have had funnier status messages, blogged on both serious and fun issues and also, unfortunatly, chickless.

Past few months have been excellent. Been to Hampi, Goa, Coimbatore, Pondycherry and Delhi already. And I am looking forward eagerly to Tokyo in Mid-March. Hoping for a fun filled semester ahead. This blog will keep you informed.

In case you were still wondering, Peg’s Law is a mnemonic for the seven deadly sins.

*Update:
I respect Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as a person who has influenced many lives in a positive way. The status message did not intend to offend anyone and should be taken in jest. No offense meant.

Here are a few pics from places i have visited in last two months which are Hampi, Jog, Goa and Coimbatore. Most pics are here courtesy my brother, Srikanth. Hampi is a world heritage site declared by UNO. One look at the ruins scattered all over the place (350 sq kms) , you will know that it will take days just to see all the ruins present in there. Click on the pics to get a larger image.Hampi

The famous Stone Chariot in Hampi. The stone wheels could rotate.

Water Canal System way back in 15th Century

Queen’s Bath

Trading place (?)

Disfigured Narasimha Statue

Vittala Temple (from top of a Hill)

Gopuram of one of the ruined Temples

Elevated Stage

Market Place

Delicate Balance

Scattered Ruins of temple perhaps

Queen’s Palace

Arches inside Elephant’s Stable

Jog Falls

A burning tree near Jog Falls (Don’t ask why, what etc. I have no clue)

Jog Falls looks lot more majestic than what it seems in this pic

Goa

From the ‘DCH’ Fort

Trek Near Coimbatore at a place called Top Slip

I thought the structure blended well with the surrounding woods

Bald Tree

Silhouette

Update:
I have written about things that are wrong with South India too (2 or 3 posts at that). Please do not treat this post as some kinda “North vs South” post. No offence meant.

At the end of last post, I wrote about on a week long travel for a programming contest in IIT Kanpur and Coimbatore. The programming contest went great; we came second (lost first place by three minutes). If the documents come through, my team will go to Tokyo for world finals of the same event in March. Wish us luck :). But the journey as worse as it could get. The journey was well planned to accommodate delays with our flights and trains. If anyone even hinted on what could happen with delayed trains and flights, i would have remarked, “surely, you are joking Mr. Murphy”

The journey to Kanpur and back well planned. Flight from Chennai to Delhi, Train from Delhi to Kanpur and retrace the same route back. Chennai to Delhi flight was delayed by twenty minutes. That did not effect me at all. The flight was suppose to reach Delhi at 6:45 PM and the train was at 11:50 PM. The flight was delayed nevertheless. Took a taxi to New Delhi railway station, hunted out a decent restraunt in about 40 mins, had my dinner and went back to the railway station. The train arrived on time. I was surprised about pre-recorded messages over the public announcement system in New Delhi railway station for delayed trains. Never heard such pre-recorded announcements in Bangalore or Chennai Railway Stations. I figured, if Laloo and Nitish Kumar keep adding train from Bihar /Jharkand to Delhi, this was bound to happen. Next day, when I woke up, I was told that the train is late by about 3 hrs to Kanpur. The contest was on following day, so no harm done here either. For the record, both the train and the flight were delayed.Return journey was eventful to say the least. The plan was simple, leave Kanpur by 9:15 pm train, reach Delhi at 4:10 am, catch the flight at 9:00 am and reach Chennai at about 11:30 am. I reached the Kanpur Station at about 9 pm. The board display the train delay by 30 minutes. After that, it become 1 hour, then 1 and a half hours and finally the train arrives at 11:30 PM because of engine failure at Laknow, it was running on Diesel Engine. It leaves Kanpur at 12:30 am. Owing to initial delays, it stops at every station to let the “on-time” trains pass by and the train is pushed back further on schedule. I wake up at 7 am and co-pasangers tell me that train wil reach Delhi only at 11:30. I grew increasingly frustrated as a train makes a stop for 1 hour to let seven Rajdhani express pass. Missing the flight was inevitable as the train is limping towards Delhi. Finally, it reaches Delhi at 12:30 PM.

I rush to Airport to find out that only the taxes in the flight ticket can be reimbursed. I made inquiries about cost to fly to Chennai. Thankfully, I had just about sufficient money to travel to Chennai. I find that Go Air has one ticket left but they do not accept Debit Cards. I rush to an ATM and by the time I get back, that ticket is taken. Yet again, I go back to ATM and withdraw some more to book flight for a little costlier Air Deccan. The flight was suppose to leave Delhi at 7:55 PM. Tired and frustrated, I wait all alone for about 4 hours in the Airport hoping nothing worse happens. But….. it does.

I wait for an Hour or more in the Lounge, waiting for Air Deccan to announce boarding. The flight is suppose to leave at 7:55 pm and at 7:50 they announce a delay of 30 mins. I wait for 10 mins more, and get on the bus. The bus goes to the Aircraft and they say that it is being cleaned, please get back. The bus comes back, I wait for 10 more minutes in the bus and then it goes to aircraft again. This time we (me and other passengers) board the air craft. Again, they announce the delay of 30 minutes to correct a technical snag. Fifteen minutes later, they annouce that they are going to abandon the aircraft. I don’t know, but I have never heard of air craft being abandoned and passengers asked to change airplanes. I mean, It’s not a bus. We get down, board the bus again and the driver leaves us at domestic arrival. Even before I could inquire about being dropped in domestic arrival, all the other passengers leave the bus. Having no clue, I follow them. The CISF refused the permission to go out of the same gate. Meanwhile, some other passenger start shouting at the helpless Air Deccan official without getting any work done. Left without any choice, we get out of airport and get back in through the departure gate. We were reissued boarding pass and went though security check again standing in the queue for over an hour. When the plane took off, it was 11:30 PM. It was suppose to reach Chennai at 10:30 PM. Despite asking for a complementary food after all this, the air-hostess refused. I reached Chennai at 2 am i guess, and I was in my hostel by 3 am.

I also happened to read the Air Deccan’s cost cutting techniques in one of their in-flight books. I find it “ok”, if they don’t serve food in a 3 hour flight, or rent their spaces in the cabin for ads. But, they also claim that they keep the planes flying as much as they can to avid the rent to paid to the Airport to keep the planes. This time the technical snag was found and air deccan is fairly new, three years. What about next time? Most of disasters that happen is due to poor maintanence of the Aircrafts. I would mind paying thousand bucks more if they can assure me that the plane will not crash. I am really apprehensive about flying in a low-cost airline again. Not matter what, Air-Deccan in particular is out of question. They claim 98% flight run on time. On time is delay of up to 2 hrs. The average flying time in India is 2 hrs. People take flight to save time. These low cost carriers simply do not serve the purpose. From what I hear, this is not an isolated incident. Air Deccan has had their expertise in annoying passengers since their inception. The funniest one being a Techie who received an sms saying he missed a flight even with a boarding pass in hand. Seriously, do not even consider flying Air Deccan when you plan a journey.

Some other experiences from the travel:

In the first flight from Chennai to Delhi, I happen to sit beside a Navy guy working in Car Nicobar islands. He kept a good company. Beside him was a woman in her 40s. She was sitting up-right though out the journey. The navy guy asked her to lean back when she talked about a accident she had some years ago because of which he can’t lean. If she does, she can suffer from a shooting pain in the back which last last upto a week. It was indeed a sad way to begin a journey. Then in the next train to Kanpur, I was with a family in which an elderly couple were talking about a case of cancer that one of their relatives in suffering from. Apparently, it was a cancer int he stoamch which had spread to the liver. The patient had under gone 12 operations and a chemotherapy. Though I did not speak to them, I did keep me depressed until i went to sleep.

In Kanpur, to go from railway station to IIT Kanpur, I boarded a bus. I paid 10 bucks for the ticket, and the conductors gives me a ticket for 1 buck. I asked him for a ten buck ticket. He claimed that what he gave was a ten buck ticket. I showed him “Ek Rupay” and “Re 1″ written clearly there. He argued back saying that the minimum fare is 3 bucks, one rupee ticket got printed by mistake and it is worth ten bucks. I argued with him for nearly five minutes telling him that he was corrupt. He did not listen. I ended the argument saying him and i both know that he was cheating. Seriously, I have had such experience before in Bangalore but it been with 1 rupee tickets. It has never happened in Chennai. The conductors are too prompt. But here, I was cheated off 9 rupees. I may be generalizing here, but the fact that South India is more developed than the north doesn’t surprise me at all after this incident.

Coming back from IIT Kanpur to railway station, i hired an auto. Mid-way two policemen stepped in and got out when their destination had arrived with paying the driver. When I asked driver about it, he replied, “Kanpur hai, kya kare? (it’s kanpur, what can i do?)” I have never seen traffic cops or any other cop do this is Bangalore or in Chennai. India is lawless, but North India is way more lawless than South India.

Had been to Coimbatore (another venue) for for the same programming contest couple of days later. Then Hampi and Goa for the new years. After that to Coimbatore again for a trek. Saarang happened in my college for last 5 days. Will post pictures if possible. Till then, cya!

PS: Never travel Air Deccan

Update 2:@everyone .. about the bussiness analyst question

The reply he got was an arrogant “you are not suppose to ask me questions, I am suppose to”. Would a little reverence to students hurt?

all i am against is arrogance of the interviewer. yes, the candidate must have done his homework.

“they should be well aware that none of engineering students have any clue of what business analyst is” etc are suposrting statement meant to justify that the interveiwer should not have been so surprized that he had to resort to the arrogance.Update:

To my friends who have been placed in companies mentioned here, please don’t get offended. I just thought speaking out against it will change things for better next time around. The first session of placements in IIT Madras comes to an end today. There is a break for about two weeks for the inter-IIT sports meet after which they resume once again. I was disappointed by the lack of professionalism by some of the highly regarded companies here during the last two weeks. In fact, the unprofessional display was unexpected by some of the companies that had come for pre-placement talks (ppt) over the semester. There those handful of companies which refused to reveal their compensation packages even when the questions about it was raised during the question answer session. A mere hand waving “competitive package” was announced by them. It annoying when that the one thing many look for in a ppt (yeah, it’s the money.. who cares about job satisfaction and social life anyway ). This disregard to professionalism was shown by relatively unknown firms.It was during the placement week that many of the renowned companies also let us down. It all began with Deutche Bank. Citing reasons of being unavailable during the first week of December, they were allowed to come for placement well ahead of the scheduled placement week. As it was one of the high paying jobs, no one complained. The shortlist was announced and interviews were scheduled at Park Shereton hotel. One of my friends, Ashish, who was short listed was interviewed. Being from an engineering background, non of us knew what exactly a ‘business analyst’ was all about. During the interview, he asked them what a business analyst exactly does. The reply he got was an arrogant “you are not suppose to ask me questions, I am suppose to”. Would a little reverence to students hurt? They should be well aware that none of engineering students have any clue of what business analyst is. Their unprofessonalism (if there is such a word) doesn’t end here. They shortlist three candidates to the final interview and have given the offer to only one student among them. The other two students still are unclear whether Deutche Bank is hiring them or not. Its already been over three weeks since the interviews. The students have had a few telephonic interviews. They offered them summer internship before joining the bank as a full time employee based on their performance. Even that isn’t clear yet. From what I hear, Assistant registrar in charge of placements is very much pained by Deutche Bank. Also, The interviews stated at about 4 in the afternoon and went on till 12 in the night. They did not have the courtesy to offer at least the three students some snacks.

Shell was another company I was unhappy with. They came it with the offer of placements to all branches here. They asked all the interested candidates to fill in their online application form which easily took all of us 1 hour to fill. This was in the middle of the semester. After all this, they shortlist only the students from chemical and mechanical engineering. It not about the one hour that every one wasted, but about the communication gap between HR and Technical group which let us down. An internationally known company shouldn’t so crass in its approach.

As my friend informs me, Fair Isaac cheated IIT Madras’ placement office. It was agreed upon that those who cleared the prelim examination and appeared for test for r and d division will also be considered for other divisions. But, those who had cleared the first round of test but not the r and d round weren’t even short listed for other divisions. When one makes such a small promise, why is it hard to keep them?

Yet another company was transocean. Two were almost offered jobs and other two waitlisted. During one the placement days, all four of them were flown to Bombay for interviews. As it turned out, it was a mere formality. The two were given the appointment letter, the other two were rejected. If the decision was already made here, why were the other two flown to Bombay (one of them is my room neighbour btw) missing a whole day of placements here? All they did was simply take away the chance finding a job the next day.

I don’t know about other (if any) unprofessionalism displayed here. But from where I see it, most of them were easily avoidable. If employers expect respect from employees, there is nothing wrong in employees expecting the same from the employers.

I am off on a week of travel (no sight seeing unfortunately ) for couple of programming contest Friday: Chennai - Delhi, Friday / Saturday Delhi - Kanpur, Sunday / Monday Kanpur - Delhi, Monday Delhi - Chennai, Tuesday / Wednesday Chennai - Bangalore, Friday / Saturday Bangalore - Coimbatore, Sunday / Monday Comibatore - Bangalore …. thursday is the only day of the week i wont be travelling at some point of time. Wish me luck for programming contests at Kanpur and Coimbatore Will reply to comments when free. I find Chennai winter cold, it goes to 6 C in Kanpur these days.

Earlier last month, there was a request made by freshies in my college about a mathematics test being postponed by a week so that it doesn’t fall right after the diwali hols. It was scheduled on Monday following the diwali weekend. Even before the request letter signed by freshies read the mathematics department, the authorities turned the request down (as far as I have been informed). In my opinion, the request was quite a legitimate one. After all, diwali is the most celebrated and biggest festival in the country. If students want to have a good time, I don’t understand their problem. I’m sure that no American or English Universities schedule their tests right after Christmas. The holiday season is what it is supposed to be - Holidays. What is annoying is the fact that it is the same authorities who complain about brain drain later at a different occasion. How the hell can’t such a simple request be fulfilled? If the “brain” is not even allowed to enjoy what rest of country takes for granted, you can’t blame them for trying to get out of this place.It is not an isolated incident that I am complaining about. We have had Industrial Design test to write on Gandhi Jayanthi. We have been forced to write Engineering Drawing Exams right after sweating it out on Fitting Workshop for four hours. There was one lab in which the in-charge wouldn’t let us switch on the fan or open the windows (it was close to 40oC) because it would affect our readings. None of us could see how though, it was a completely enclosed system.

There are always those Profs who demand respect rather than command it. Somehow the “Indian culture” put a teacher on a pedestal. From what elders have told me, “They ought to be respected, no questions asked.” Such a respect is not advised to any other profession. That leaves a little wonder why there isn’t any dignity of labour in our country. A ‘level’ of a cobbler, for instance, will remain low forever because no one ever asks anyone to respect them. But a teacher, oh no, they have to be respected. I may be grossly wrong here, but from what I see, over the ages Brahmins have been teachers and are always respected simply because they are teachers. After thousand of years, we cannot wonder how the whole social (caste) hierarchy came into existence. We are not taught to respect anyone on how well they do their job but on what they do, no matter how miserable they perform their job. Why isn’t it clear to some teachers that students are going to respect them provided they teach well, and not just because they are teachers?

Over my stay in school, every year I have seen some teachers who tried be “forgiving” to students on their birthdays. They tell them, “I am letting you go because it’s your birthday, otherwise ….” Come on! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the birthday is effectively ruined. Thankfully, I have never been at the receiving end of this, but some of my friends were. Let me not get started on beating (read physical torture) that some of the teachers in my school were “famous” for. Also, every one of us would have been victim of imposition sometime or the other during elementary schooling.

My friends have their exams in Bangalore starting the day after Christmas. Perhaps, the authorities find Christmas and New Year parties against Indian Culture. Whatever the reason, these people (like Mathematics dept.) have forfeited their right to talk against brain-drain as such people are driving cause for brain-drain to begin with.

And yes, before I forget, lemme tell you that Pizza and other delivery people cannot come into our campus. It is not that they cause nuisance in the campus, there are tones of other vehicles coming in and going out everyday but because it’s a residential zone. There is a gate through which the bikes don’t have go through the residential zone, and can reach all the hostels. But even that is a big deal for authorities here to allow them to come in. This issue, hopefully, will be resolved soon.

Please note that I am not saying many teacher, Profs and authorities are that way. In fact, I respect, in the true sense of the word, almost all teacher who have taught me, not out of compulsion but because they do a good job. There are those few who, unfortunately, make life difficult for us when all it takes is a little effort to make it simpler. And I don’t respect such people no matter what their profession is.

To end on a positive note, our Mathematics Prof had absolutely no problem in postponing the test for a week. All it took was an oral request.

Couple of friends of mine and me had an argument which was kicked offby this peace of news. My reaction, just like many others, was, “wtf?” We all know how the government had done such a mediocre job is building new schools. The right to basic education is being denied to scores thousands of people in the state. Yet, the government goes out of the way to destroy the existing school. This clearly shows the sign of its irresponsibility. Yes, the schools were given to permit teaching in only Kannada as the medium of instruction and they did flout the law. All that govt. had to do was warn them and remind them about the condition on which the permit was given. It wasn’t necessary to take the extreme step. Let’s face it; English is the language in which science is best taught. International standardization for scientific terms has existed for long time. Social Studies, on the other hand, is best taught is the native language. When you learn about a society or about a culture, the native language obviously has the richest vocabulary to express the ideas. It was wrong on the part of the schools to have taken license for schools to run in Kannada medium and flout the rule. I can only say that, it’s now fair if the govt. gives permits to existing schools either as Kannada medium or as English medium provided the schools follow the necessary norms. Though many may hate to admit it, English medium is a necessity and not a luxury in Urban India. In rural India, perhaps, native language works the best.There had been a constant worry among Kannada activists that the language is losing importance. Some of them have taken extreme measures to burn English hoardings in Bangalore to encourage Kannada. This is not acceptable. Kannada Activists have every right to encourage Kannada, but they have no business to discourage English or any other language like they did. There are ways to popularize Kannada and other regional languages. For instance, a good comic book for primary kids and good novels to a high school kid goes a long way in developing interest and enthusiasm in a language. You can’t enforce a language on someone and hope that it popularizes it. You have to develope a natural inclination to a language. The fact that locals are offended by “outsiders” are encroaching Bangalore is laughable. Different kinds of people coming into Bangalore has added diversity and richness into the culture of Bangalore. And remember that the Indian culture we talk about has again evolved over 20 centuries. If we have to retain our identity, we have encouraged it, not prevent people from coming into Bangalore. IT is blamed for “infesting” Karnataka. Remember, IT contributes to 25% of GDP of Karnataka. Given 50% comes from agriculture, the share of IT is phenomenal. It’s up to the govt. (indirectly, the people) to use them.

Regionalism took its tool on our debate. points about how Tamilians never speak in other languages, and how accommodative Kanndigas are as they are “allowing” people to stay in Bangalore were all made by my friends. I did not agree to the fact that Bangalore was decaying because of presence of other people.

The topic of the debate swayed a little bit to how tolerant, in general, Indians are. My friend claimed this has lead to our downfall in some sense. We talked about how foolish India was for not trading POK for Lahore after the ‘71 war and other passive attempts to counter terrorism. Speaking of recent comments by Manmohan Singh , I acknowledged the fact that a stronger stance was needed to counter terrorism, state-sponsored or otherwise. Then the debate turned to religion. And that’s what prompted me to write this post.

At this point I made it clear that I don’t find my life very different from a Christian Indian or Indian Muslim. I don’t consider myself a Hindu and that I am an atheist. I don’t want to assume a narrower Identity. I am a citizen of the world first, then India, then my state. This according to them was being too benevolent. They said, “We have to serve our people. One has to be a Village/Town’s person first, State next, country next and then the world.” They claimed, ‘Indians have this tendency of giving a lot to the world and not getting as much in return by being benevolent and tolerant to others.’ Despite the obscene portrayal of Hindu deities by MF Hussein, he was felicitated by the Indian Govt. Govt. was blamed for appeasing the minority for votes (obviously) and splitting the majority and successfully make a living out of it. They claimed that because of the India being a secular nation, political parties are able to use the mantra of “divide and rule”. That is, appease the minority, get their votes, split the majority, get half their votes and win election. However, it isn’t clear to me how the majority is split. Both of them went on to claim that India will be more peaceful nation if it officially a “Hindu state”.

I was taken aback. What sort of a country (and democracy) is it when you don’t have a freedom to choose the religion you want to follow. They went on to claim that Secularism hasn’t worked anywhere in the world. I claimed that it obviously wasn’t true. It is only in India that Secularism has worked because of Hindu Muslim conflict. The only other place where a bitter war is being fought in the name of religion (between two religion) is Israel which isn’t a secular state. Source 1, 2. The rest of the world is quite peaceful secular or not. It is easy for Hindus in India to say make India a Hindu State. What about the minority. Why should they be subjected to the torture of having to follow a religion not appealing to them. India is a free country, a secular country. For a country as diverse as ours, that’s the best.

I was baffled at this point. First, they say that my priority of considering myself citizen of the world first is screwed and second they want to make India a country which bound by laws of a rigid religion whose rules cannot be changed easily. The topic of Narendra Modi was also raised. I called him a cold blooded murderer and a terrorist. This was agreed upon. Then came the issue of conversion, Christian missionaries and of course Graham Steins. One of my friends claimed, he can justify the killings of him and his two sons.

—
He Explained:
It is against the Indian constitution to coax anyone into converting his religion. Graham Steins did just that. He went to tribal area, spoke to people over there. Introduced then to Christianity. Offended a lot of people. He deserved to die.

I answered back, “how the hell can you justify him being killed for that? What was the fault of his two children? Would you kill Osama’s children? The intention of the missionaries is to spread Christianity. They do a lot of social service. If they can inform people that that is what Christianity is all about. There is nothing wrong in asking them to convert as long as he doesn’t force them.”

He started, “Ok, killing his children was wrong but he still coaxed people. Its against constitution”
Me: “Coax is not a crime. It is surely not wrong. Constitution is wrong there. It should be changed. It can be changed”
Him: “Nothing is right or wrong in abstract sense. I follow what constitution says. I accept it as a norm”
—-
My opinion: Great argument in rhetoric, hardly holds any weight otherwise.

I asked him if he thinks what missionaries is doing is wrong, does he approve of what ISKON is doing? He replied, “Yes, there are spreading Krishna Conscience, not Hindu conversion.” Logically speaking, since Krishna is Hindu God, shouldn’t an ISKON follower imbibe certain (not
all) Hindu customs and traditions? Isn’t this a hypocrisy? You can’t approve what Iskon is doing and not approve what Missionaries are doing.

He went on to speak about how he insulted people over there and that there is a written proof of that. He offended a priest in the tribe who ran away from the place and that aggravated people. I asked him, “If he was insulting them at their face, how did he even hope to convert people.” He answered, “lets not get into logistics of that.” He told me that police and ministry wouldn’t help the tribe and hence they asked Dara Singh to kill him. He said, “Dara Singh, in a way, helped them.” At some point I asked him the source of this information. He said that it was in a book by Arun Shouri. Why didn’t that surprise me? He is from BJP. He is obviously going to bend facts in Hindu’s favour.

Even then, how does it justify him being KILLED? His view was that Indians have been insulted by Graham Steins’ actions. I questioned him if he believed Christianity was an Insult. He said, “no”. He also stated that such action were “necessary” for Hindus to retain their identity. At this point I was totally agitated. He had just claimed killing was a necessary and not just that. He wanted it to happen once in a while. He continued, “tribal were threatened by him, they killed him. I don’t support the killing. But, it is justifiable.” I made the usual clichéd argument about no one having a right to take a life. I also firmly said a big NO to capital punishment to Dara Singh or to Osama.

What kind of a religion supports violence? Isn’t the intolerance expressed by my friends totally against any religious beliefs? I asked him if he supported Osama Bin Laden’s Killing. There is a parallel here. He merely claimed they were different cases altogether. Seriously, Bin Laden is killing because he feels his religion is being threatened. Dara Singh did the same. Isn’t what he did a Hindu jihad? Just that in other religions there is no name for religion sponsored killing. How can anyone who supports what Dara Singh did, not support ehat Osama is doing? They are being hypocritical.

All of this happened between 1am and 5am. Raising my voice of several occasions and repeating many times, “how can anyone ever justify killing?”, I was waiting for an answer. I still am.

[PS: Ironically, this post on a heated argument had to come right after my post on lack of social interaction in IITM]

Picture this: Two people, moving in the opposite directions on the same road happen to bump into each other and start with the formalities. They are absolutely not related to each other but for the fact that they had been classmates in college twenty years ago. “Hey, how have you been? What are you doing now?” “I am fine. I am working in……. What about you?” “I am working in ……” “I did not expect to meet you like this.” “Me too.” “See you around then” “Yup! Good bye!” As they slowly drift apart, both of them can’t help but wonder, “What is his freakin’ name?”I’m pretty sure this will happen to me. After having been in classroom with 110 students for over three years now, there are at least 60 of them with who I have not had a ‘decent’ conversation with for over a minute. It is not that I am an introvert or they are introverts. Almost every person I know in my college agrees with me. Despite many students in a class, out social interaction is highly limited. All of us tend to form groups and our own circle of friends and don’t venture beyond that.

The generation which I am proudly a part of is one which thinks it not courteous not ask for a treat on ones birthday, and not snatching a bag of chips from a good friend is sign of a person not having his priorities right. All of this does paint a rose tinted picture of a close-knit generation. At the same time, one has to remember that the geeks we are, we also use orkut to ask our neighbour if they are going to mess. Tech Savvy or not, we all do crave for a much closer correspondence. For instance, be it vicarious, we mail each other “hey, listen” and not “hey, read this”.

In my first year in college, three of us (other freshers) were put in a room in our hostels. All of us wanted our privacy and we did not like this idea initially. To be honest, life seemed a lot more fun those days. There were no computers in our rooms as there were just too many people in there. Internet wasn’t provided in our rooms then. When 2nd year came, almost all of us had computers and progressively out social interaction got confined to the hostel mess.

Even orkut really can’t come to rescue. I find ample number of scraps that go, “What a relief from Chennai’s hot climate, no?” If you ask me, talking about weather is indirectly saying, “We are left with nothing else to talk about buddy. I have given up trying to think about things to talk about. But …I don’t want to give up talking altogether.” I honestly hope I don’t resort to weather predictions and global warming to bridge the communication gap.

By the end of my third year, a mega mess was built for all hostels to dine in a single place. As far as I have seen, this too hasn’t helped in building a good interaction. Somehow, it in contrary to our disposition to smile or even acknowledge the presence of the person whom you are sharing a dining table with. Among some reasons given to start the mega mess, or Himalaya as it is called, two were to increase inter-hostel interaction and reduce rivalry after certain incidents in inter-hostel competition. Unfortunately, the former is not happening and I’m not sure about the latter.

The best conversations I have had with my class-mates have been in lab hours. Be it, dumb charades in Milling and Shaping workshop or endless debates on whose performance is worse in the tests. Being is fourth year now, we have no labs and all of us are engrossed, if I may use the word, in our rooms with our computers and the B-Tech Projects.

Still, we all do, desperately, if may add, to fit in. There are those nine point “the” ones who join orkut’s ‘iitm give-up junta’ community. If there is one non existent quality in us that conquers all, it is humility. I don’t know why, it is a weakness in us to confess that we have done well in tests. I really don’t know what to believe when my friends’ gtalk status message says “f***ed up” and they end up getting one of the highest scores. There are others who constantly use swears to “express” themselves. Those who think that’s cool, I have one piece of advice. When you call someone, please don’t couple ‘b***nc**d’ and ’saala’.
[PS: I started the post before the notice of reflections organising a GD tonite on "Social Interaction in IITM" was up on the notice board]
[PPS Don't try to fit in and say, "you have already started working on project, I haven't even started"]