po(u)wnce

Today someone in our office sent a mail to the mailing list that he is giving out invites to a "pownce" and asked people not to bother about it if they don't know about it! For a second I thought..rather guiltily...What the heck is this pownce? Is it something basic every geek is supposed to know and I don't? Now, I admit that I am not neck deep into the latest happenings of the websphere but I do tend to pick up things here and there during my daily dose of net surfing. Anyway, turns out this is some new web-application, ( pownce ), whose lead developer is a chic named Leah Culver (looks good btw)! Yeah I know ... female .. developer .... good looking...thats an epic combination..thats one of the main reasons I decided to check it out. Also, since the digg guy (Kevin Rose) is behind this..the expectations are kinda high ...after seeing the overwhelming response (err..requests) to my invites. my colleagues were pouncing for the pownce, hence the title.

Having said that, I dont really understand the USP of it. I mean the site says we can transfer files, send links, notes and events to friends. But I can already do all of this with my gtalk or ym..so why bother? for the free account the file size is limited to 10mb....atleast gtalk doesnt have any limit afaik. I dont understand whats the big deal about sending links..aren't they messages (or notes in their lingo) anyway? Sending events to friends is probably new (I don't think ym or gtalk have this option) and cool...but I am used to facebook events.

Probably it is too early to comment on the site...or rule it out...or I just don't get it. If any of you have any comments let me know...my ears are open. Oh yeah, if you want an invite lemme know..I can probably get one for you from some of my frenz. In the meanwhile...I wish the pownce team all the best.

so far so good

I was waiting for a profound topic to blog about but I decided to write something anyway coz its been already 3 months since my last post. And yeah, I didn't want you guys to keep checking my site and turning off dejectedly every day ?! :P

So my summer break has begun a coupla weeks back and as such given me yet another excuse to relax my tendons. The first week was busy with moving outs...first from my apt to Rajdeep's place (temporary) and then to my summer abode near the place of my internship. We caught up on Oceans13 on the weekend, just for the heck of it...though we were pretty sure it sucked despite the all star cast....our only reason being there was no better alternative. I am actually wondering whether there are any good flicks at all this summer...infact I haven't seen a good one after Departed.

This weekend was more catching up...this time old frenz from not so distant iitg and dear ol' bro. I travelled up north to bay area for the first time, after coming here! Though the journey was a long 8 hours I managed it with chit chat with a fellow passenger, a book (When will Jesus bring pork chops -- George Carlin) and yea some sleep. Met our (me and vicky's) high school friend Shwetha, after 7 yrs! Somehow I didn't get to meet her back in India for some reason or other, so it was good to finally meet up. We all had dinner together before she zoomed off to LA. Come next day, met Jaini, Nune, MC, Nikhil and Tushar (iitg buddies) in SFO. We did Union Square (didnt understand what to see here), Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate and China Town. We all headed back to Berkeley for the night as most of our folks were living there. We had dinner at an Indian place called 'Pasand'....ate idli and dosa after almost 6 months...so was happy about it though it wasn't that great. We (except nune, who skilfully skipped and dozed off in Jaini's room ) then played cards (bluff and some new game, coined on the spur by Tugga, as 'wrist') on the terrace of Jaini's apartment complex. We called it a day at about 12 pm and me and bro crashed at MC's place for the night.

We planned to do some china town again the next day morning, but I couldn't coz I had to hurry back to San Jose for my Grey Hound back home. Unfortunately, also missed the famouse GLBT parade in SFO...though could snatch a glimpse of it while changing stations. Next week Gopi is flying down from canada and am planning a trip to LA with bro and his friends. All in all, a good start to a hopefully great summer.....as i said...so far so good. For those interested...some pics are at Vicky's

People love to show sympathy

hey am bak! am almost done with my winter quarter...just a project paper submission left and some TA work. am waiting for the spring break and the trip to vegas and grand canyon..yay

anyway...this time i wanted to talk/write about people's love to show sympathy. yeah..you heard it right...people actually love to show sympathy. though many of us wouldn't agree or probably may not realize it there is an inherent inclination towards it. if you have a friend or relative in some trouble, you would actually like to give him advice, fundaes , make him feel better etc. In all probability you would become more close to him than before when he/she was not in any trouble. So subconsciously you want people to need you and hence perhaps actually want them to be in a little trouble! this may sound over-stated but i believe its true...whether you agree or not. The reason for this is probably the self-high one gets by helping others. The mere thought of helping others makes people feel good about themselves. when you come to think of it, its actually selfish! its more about you than the person you are helping. i actually read somewhere that parents are in general more attached to the kid who needs them. that is to say..if you don't actually depend on them for a lotta things they probably wouldn't be that close to you. i don't know how much of is it true...am too young for that.

thinking about this the other day, i was actually wondering what kinda people are more attractive. if you think people who are almost perfect, too-good-to-be-true, fully independent etc are the types who attract others then you are terribly wrong. on the contrary , i think people who have some flaws actually get more attention. thats because being not perfect actually is more "humane" (though i dont agree with that, but we wont go there for now) and appealing. if you are lacking in something, you will need someone to fill that gap. now don't get me wrong here..am not saying that you need someone only if you have some drawbacks. rather am asserting the point that, you having some drawbacks is actually attractive to others. if you are too-good then the other person cannot help you and hence cannot feel good about himself. For example, lets take the case of drinking. if you are a tee-totaler and have been complete sober all your life then you don't attract anyone. on the other hand, if you drink and lose control of yourself you probably would have lot of friends. your friends actually like to take care of you when you are completely wasted. they might admonish you the next morning but they still like it. thats because you need their help, they get their high and the balance is perfect!

i often wonder why some jerks who obviously have lot of non-desirable qualities have good (number of) friends. perhaps this is the reason. i don't know. the bottom line is people don't want you to be perfect. they want you to be flawed, infact everyone to be flawed...so that there is a reason for you to depend on others. thats how this system works. now before, you say the killer "Nobody is perfect"...let me say that's not the point of this topic. i know that nobody is perfect. So why am i saying all this? beats me...

my heart goes on....

for all those of you for whom this matters...happy valentine's day. and for all the others, like me, whatever. every year...feb 14th comes and goes by...but (un) fortunately its not a different day in my life. there is nothing out of ordinary that i do. i admit,though, that its nice to see the love birds scrambling in gift shops and flower boutiques trying to give a present to their special some one and express their love.

i wanted to raise this question today which has been bugging me for quite some time now. forgive me for being totally un-romantic on this day for bringing this up. but i thought this is the right time...anyway the question is "Why is love associated with heart?" I thought love was a feeling like any other emotion....and every feeling originates and culminates in brain. So, whether you love someone or not, its a thought process and seems logical to be associated with brain. Where does heart come into picture? I don't think it can think! Can it? Someone told me that brain has some nerve endings which go into heart and these emotions are carried on those nerves. So when the brain generates any emotions the signals are carried to the heart and it might be biologically affected. probably thats the reason of increased heart beat / pulse rate when you see someone you love. why is the dear brain neglected and not given any importance in this phenomenon then? why does heart get all the credit? i always believed brain is one of the most complex structures in the human anatomy and should be given its deserved respect. if you had to choose between heart and brain...what would you choose (assuming you would be alive with only one of those)? i would go with brain ...whats life when you are not able to think?

so when people say "you dont have a heart" or "he thinks with his mind rather than heart" what it essentially means is that part of brain which deals with emotions is responsible. thats how i see it . now dont get me wrong, i love the heart shaped balloons and all those beautiful songs written on heart and love...but it just gets me thinking you know. why did our ancestors romanticize the heart and not the brain. i dont have a clear answer...i hope you would give it a thought next time someone says something about the romantic-heart. if u have something to comment i would be glad to discuss.

anyway...i wish you all a happy valentines day once again. hope u get to celebrate it with your loved ones. ... luv V

about me....

though every time i blog, i promise myself and my paltry viewers that i would put up stuff more frequently from now , i never get around doing it. so this time i wont make any promises...but i would try (again a promise?). lately i have been reading this interesting blog by an anonymous blogger who calls herself "Violent Acres" (u can find the link in my link's section). apparently this blog has raked up lot of interest and web traffic due to its "devil may care" nature of the writing. i wud recommend this to people who have some time to spare...anyway without further ado i will delve into the topic i want to write about.

i have often described the "about me" sections of various social networking and other such websites with corny statements like "its tough to describe oneself", "simple man with complex tastes" and off late "currently retrospecting". i think it was my defense mechanism to avoid trying to answer the question directly. infact i never gave much thought about it. am sure most of the people out there fall into this category. at last i have decided to describe myself , more for the benefit of myself than others.

when people write "about me" sections...what they write is what they think about themselves probably not what they actually are. i hope u agree that there is a difference. so what i am writing now is what i think about myself. to start with...i am a very conventional person i.e., a normal person, i don't want to be a rebel - don't want to be different just for the heck of it. am what a person is supposed to be, atleast according to myself. i hate it when people say but i am only a human being or am not a saint when they do any mistake. i simply fucking hate it. am not saying that one is not allowed to do mistakes...but one has to take the full responsibility of one's actions but not blame the human nature. when u say "i can't stop drinking coz am only human" or "i cheated on my girl because its only human to get attracted to other woman" etc etc...i would simply say "Fk U". perhaps am influenced by the notion of a true man by Ayn Rand ...but thats me. coming back...am not a very emotional person...i don't believe in cheesy talks or mushy-gushy things. if you are truly attached to a person it should be in your heart whether or not you express it cheesily. i agree that expression is important but am sure if a person truly understands you, he will know how attached you are even though u won't express it in words. as a side note...am not a very expressive person either as u might have guessed by now. also....i think more with my mind than my heart, (i want to write a blog about how a heart can think... in future)for better or worse. what i mean is, if a person very close to me makes a mistake and a complete stranger is doing right i would most probably support the stranger. unconditional love is not something i can fathom. and...i cannot hate a person no matter what.in my 22 yrs of life so far, there is no single person i hate ...being mean and hating a person in this short life...i think is a waste of time. adaptive is an adjective i would like to describe myself with...i can adapt to almost any situation and become part of a group easily even if the groups are on extreme ends of the spectrum.

my well wishers want me to be smart but i want to be good. smart is the one who achieves what he wants, no matter what affect that has on others...good is the one who might not achieve his goal because it hurts others. strangely this world admires smart people... they don't care whether u r good or not. god bless people. one thing i would like to change about myself is not being assertive... i want to be but somehow can't. instead of arguing i just shut the fuck up and hope the other person will understand in due time. being cool is a phrase i don't approve of either....atleast in the form its currently being perceived. wtf is being cool anyway? if acting as if you don't care what happens...or trying to look carefree in the eyes of your peers is cool..then i don't want to be cool. if you like what you are doing ...thats cool for me. and finally i would end this with what my friend Sai aptly described about me "i am the kind of a person who would like to play the game within the rules...and don't care for the result".

An eventful winter break....

This winter 06 break had been very wonderful for me. Apart from finally being to get a break from the grind of grad school routine, I got to meet my new born niece, Ragni (meaning: Cosmic goddess J). After a long time and not probably sooner again, we had a family reunion! Though this is kinda strange, the point is, me studying in west coast, my bro in raleigh, sis’s family in nj and mom and dad in India, it some times becomes difficult…believe me. We were all very happy to get back together and share some laughs like good ol’ times.

I would like to put down the events as chronologically as my notorious memory would remember them. Me, vicky (bro), BIL (brother in law, coined by my bro) and a friend of his kicked off the weekend with some street cricket. We were joined by a coupla awestruck kids who perhaps thought it was some kinda of weird baseball variation. God bless America ;). Anyway we let them join us and tried to teach some impromptu nitty gritty basics and all went well. At the cost of sounding pompous, I would say I rocked at the game that day :D. Then came nune , kj (my undergrad mates) and kiran (nune’s roomie) and we planned NYC trip. On the first day we covered Times Square and Madam Tussads (the NY branch) which was really good. The horror room was really scary and we were glad to come out alive (just kidding). After posing with all the wax chics we could lay our hands on (literally!), me and kj moved to empire state building. It was nothing like I imagined (which mostly happens with these hyped structures) but we got a good bird’s eye view of NY at nite. On the next day we could only cover statue of liberty, due to some stupid mix up of ours (me and kj) in the subway trains. Then in the evening, our BIL rented a SUV and we drove off to DC. DC and VA were more beautiful than I thot (a paradox!?). We did the Air n Space and Natural History museums, the capitol hill and white house (from very far). When we were returning back to NJ, mom slipped from steps infront of the house and fractured coupla toes in her left foot. We had to scramble to reach the ER of a nearby hospital and relieve her of the by-now unbearable pain. She had a casting done for her foot coupla days later and now my parents had to postpone their journey back home from jan 18^th to feb 15^th, for better or worse. I bet my sis is happy that they can stay more time with her. Then all the males of our family went to Atlantic City to do some gambling! The unlucky person I am, I was quite shocked to won $225 profit in the roulette (if you know that game) within an hour at Trump’s plaza! Whoaa! We followed some weird strategy of our dad…and it worked…it was not logical...but who cares!

Then came the new years and NY in NY was gr8. Tushar (another undergrad mate) and myself spent the 31^st nite at the Times Square and the crowds were unbelievable. We were lucky to get a place right infront of the concert stage (where Christina Augerilla and others performed) and near the place where the ball drops. We also met some interesting folks and had nice fun, if you don’t count standing for 10 hrs on a windy day without having access to rest rooms J. All went well, my only complaint being that the sound system of the concert absolutely sucked. It was as if the concert was meant for the TV viewers…crap. Anyway…that’s how my winter break was...and currently am on my flight back to SB via Salt Lake City. Back to the grind of grad school. Btw…am now sitting between two not-so-good-looking chics…the pervert I am!

Hey Ram...

Finally, am able to write this piece after a long hiatus....mainly delayed due to my persistence to wait till I get my new notebook. My ThinkPad has arrived and theres no more excuses to prolong this further,so here it goes....

Foreword:
The full credit to the (short) story goes to my wonderful grandfather, who penned this story during the times of freedom struggle of India and got it published in a national newspaper! Am just rephrasing this story in my own words with some modifications to the original story. Am dedicating this to my lovely grandpa and grandma.


Disclaimer:
All characters in this story are fictional and any resemblance is a mere coincidence :)

The Village:
It was the night of august 1947 when India was being given, or rather has been fought for, the much deserved freedom after almost 350 years. Gandhiji , armed with the weapons of non-violence and non-cooperation was able to convince Indians to finally unite against the colonial rule. Miraculously the system worked and Britons were forced to quit. It was the time for celebration, the home coming of many great heroes who fought for the country, lived and died for it. A young but ambitious secular India was born.

Though India was able to successfully vanquish their external foes it wasn't able to stay united, the only force which was the sole reason of its freedom. There was a growing unrest among two major religions of the society, the hindus and the muslims. The slogan of "Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai" (hindus and muslims are brothers), the driving force behind the freedom movement, was no longer seen as valid. Disruptive forces within the country demanded for a separate country for the Indian Muslims. Unfortunately, the top brass of the Indian leaders decided to partition India into India and Pakistan and the worst nightmare began.

A village on the eastern border of India was witnessing the pain of the partition. The villagers were an equal mix of hindus and muslims living together peacfully. They never dreamt that they would be separated by fate and miss their dearest friends. For them, religion didn't hold any water....atleast till the partition movement. Rumours were spreading in the village that a train carrying hindus from pakistan was burnt by the muslims. Hearing this, the hindus of the village seethed with anger and were seeking revenge. Rumours were again spreading in the village that, some muslims were attacked by un-identified youth while they were returning from mosques after their daily prayers. No one knew the truth, all were rumours, but no one cared! The situation was going out of control.

On this particular night, the atmosphere was particularly tensed. The dead bodies of Amir and Ravi were found floating on the lake in the night. The bodies were sent to the respective families for the final ceremonies. Both the bodies were terribly bruised as if beaten to death by someone. There were no visible marks of any weapons but the bodies were mangled. The muslims of Amir's community blamed the hindus of brutally killing their son. Nobody saw a hindu attacking Amir but again no one wanted a reason (the truth being, both Amir and Ravi were secret friends playing near the lake when both of them accidentally drowned in the water. The bruises on their body were the courtesy of the fish and reptiles in the lake). It was decided that they would kill any hindu spotted on the streets tonight. They wielded the butcher's knives and ran amuck in the streets like mad men. Soon, the hindus came to know that their people were being attacked in streets by muslims and they weilded their own weapons. A riot ensured in the peace loving village and blood flowed like water in the streets. The red of the blood defied the black of the night.

A young girl was coming back from her friend's place on this fateful night oblivious of the blood shed going on. On her way home, she saw dead bodies on the side of the roads and was scared to death. She could see a few people with daggers running towards her shouting "Maaro Maaro" (Kill her, Kill her). She didn't know if the people were hindus or muslims, she didn't care. She just wanted to stay alive for the night and started running towards a dilapidated house with no lights. The house was empty and start dark, so she went inside and hid behind a cupboard. The people saw her movements, and came running towards the house. They called her to come out of the house or they would burn the house. The girl didnt budge, she knew she would be killed if she came out. She stayed put. These people were the relatives of Ravi and were in no mood to let any muslims stay alive tonight. They didn't know how many people were inside the dark house and hence didn't dare to go inside. They poured kerosene all over the house and summoned the gal one last time, "Bahaar aajao warna ghar jalaa denge" (Come out or we will burn the house). The gal was frigthened to death to move. She stayed behind the cupboard. With no response, Ravi's relatives lit the house and started to run away. As they began to turn round the corner they froze on hearing the dying girl's final scream reverberated in the air, her final prayer to her god,"Hey Ram......." .

Fire In The Belly

In every person's life there comes a time when he stands at the cross-roads. One has to make a possibly difficult decision to follow the further path. No matter how much you wish to run away from the juncture there is no escape for that. Its inevitable. It doesn't matter whether you take the right or wrong path, for that matter no path can be fingered down to be a right or wrong path. In life, nothing is Black and White. So in that case, what matters is the Conviction with which you make the decision.....the Confidence you have in doing what you think is right...and the clear Conscience with which you need to move ahead to make the journey. These are the three essential C's for leading a satisfactory life.
Paraphrasing an interesting conversation between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent in Smallville...
"Lex: Hey Clark...Did you read 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' ?
Clark: What about it?
Lex: Its a great book. You should read it once.
Clark: Is it? What happens in the end?
Lex: Its not about the end. Its about the journey!"
The goal in life shouldn't be about trying to reach a dead end and be happy with it. Suppose you reach one such end then what next? You will find that there's another end which you need to reach and you set up on reaching that. Again reaching that end, you find still another. Sooner or later you will realize that you are not able to enjoy the ends (technically, its not an end) that you worked so hard to reach. So what's the purpose of life if you are not happy? One has to realize that its the journey that one need to enjoy...the whole process of reaching the destination. Life will then become much more meaningful and pleasant.

Everyone stands at one or more cross-roads in their lives and currently I am facing one. Having decided to pursue Ph.D in computer science I have to decide the way I have to go about it. Essentially there are two ways, one is to get it done with by adapting to the system and get out. The other, more difficult one, is to be true to one self. I am not completely satisfied with the way I have completed my under graduation. Sure I have got some offers from universities, got placed in a company and earned a decent grade point but that's that. It might be merely because I have adapted to the damn system and just trudged along. I really didn't do any path breaking stuff or made a mark of my own. I don't want this to be repeated during my doctoral studies. I really want to learn something very interesting and implement it successfully. I don't want to fall into the norm of being a publishing press and churning out papers during my study. Rather than publishing numerous papers which are no good except for publishing I would rather prefer to publish one paper which I am really proud of. My idea should be able to be patented...should be implemented successfully in real world not just test-beds....and most importantly should be Commercially Viable. What's the use of publishing tons of papers if the idea cannot come out of the conference rooms into the public. Academic research with tight collaboration with industry will provide the right platform for doing innovative (pardon the cliche) stuff. No Co will be satisfied with just high-five ideas unless they can be made commercially viable because at the end of the day they are in the business for profits not charity.

Money is something which everyone likes no matter what phony things they say. Sure I too want money but I don't want to work for the sole purpose of getting it. There are other ways to earn dough more quickly than research. What would happen if you are earning envious amount of money but you are not satisfied with yourself. Would you be really happy if you sit idle and your bank balance will make your life more than comfortable? I won't be able to live like that and I guess no one can and should. Rather I want to work in the field I am passionate about (again pardon the cliche). If I really enjoy the work I do then I will definitely do it with sincerity and commitment and money will automatically come. The satisfaction that comes from living this way is unparalleled. But I am afraid I will be pulled back into the system and do what most others do. I can't and will not blame the system or the atmosphere if I end up that way..because I will be solely responsible for all my actions. I just hope this fire in the belly continues in my doctoral studies n my life ahead....

As a matter of fact, I don't know if research is my cup of tea...may be I won't like it after some time...or may be I will like it. But am now willing to take a chance...to the test the waters..to see if I can enjoy it. My current aim or rather the aim of my life is to find where my heart lies...I mean what exactly do I love doing....to find my destiny!

Memoirs of a Kone - Part II

Continuing from the previous post ......

Third year was the most exciting year both academically and other wise. The course load was comparatively less and moreover we began to understand the tricks of the trade (read getting grades). Here in IIT, a grade point average is not a true indicator of a person's intelligence or capability. Its a totally different ball game where the qualities of sincerity, dedication, determination and all that crap come into picture. Ofcourse for those who want to get good grades by hook or crook, there are other means like CCP(Cut Copy Paste), licking the profs in and out and myriad other such things. By this time, the scenario was clear among the students..those who wanted grades knew what they wanted to do..and those who didn't give a damn (mind you there were some excellent students in this category too) about grades stopped worrying about them. I realized that IITs are IITs not because of the faculty and the infrastructure...but because of the great bunch of students and the atmosphere. All in all it was peace.

The most exhilarating time during the 3rd year was the custom of doing internship abroad during the summers. It was a great avenue to improve your academic credentials on one hand and experiencing a new culture of western countries. Ofcourse, this was preceded by countless no.of emails by students trying to woo the profs of european, canadian and even australian nations. The resumes and skills claimed by us would put to shame even the most accomplished professionals in our fields :P. Such was the dedication or desperation whichever you might think among us. Some lucky bastards got intern offers after a few mails itself and other poor souls like me had to spam 200-300 emails to bag the offers. There were two other kinds, those who got internships passed on from their friends (yeah most of us were blessed with good souls with a ring on top of our heads) and those who didn't get offers or those who didn't even try. After the offers, began the running around police stations and going to embassies for visa stamps. For some it was hell n for others it went smoothly. Thus began our exploitations abroad.....

Me, I accepted the offer from one Salzburg Research center under a Mr. Hofmann working on Synchronized access networks. Work was fun because there was very less to do (though the folks out there felt we had done some excellent work ;) ) and the work culture was totally cool. After running at the heels of the profs bak in iit for every little thing, it was a welcome relief during internship where we were treated like equals. My prof was especially cool...he sponsored my trip to Berlin and Dresden and also drove me till Dresden in his car with his family. I had made some good friends in my hostel during that time and they were really good to me. My room mate, Jaffer, was a turkish guy studying law and he showed me around the city of Salzburg apart from playing tt with me. Gerald and Teresa were the two other good friends of mine who invited me to parties. Teresa even cooked turkey for us on Mother's day and wanted me to cook her an Indian dinner, but I never did for some reason or another. Coming to sightseeing, I had been to Vienna, Venice (the most beautiful and different city I have seen so far), Verona, Dresden, Berlin and Paris. Many of our friends were able to meet at some or others place and used to hang out. Myself, I hosted 3-4 groups of my friends when they visited my place. Suffice to say that it was a memorable 3 month period in our undergrad life.

There came the 7th semester of 4th year and then started struggle. It was the most crucial period of our lives coz we had to decide what we wanted to do or be in future atleast near future. I had plans to write CAT and do an MBA from IIMs (infact I mobilized the students of our batch to join IMS coaching in our campus) but after internship I decided that I wanted to be in the technical field. So I decided "I don't want CAT , I would rather stick to my mouse" :). Some of my frenz were preparing for giving gre (I had given it in the previous year itself) or going for CAT coaching or both. Then came the apping period...where we had the arduous trouble of selecting universities, trying to make pacts with frenz to avoid clashes (tho we ended up clashing almost everywhere) and preparing sops, resumes and all that shit. As all things come to an end, good or bad, the apping and CAT was done with by the end of 7th semester. Due to change of plans among iits, we had the placement period after 7th semester. CS placements were great as usual (I was placed with Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad) and the overall scenario was also quite successful compared to previous years. The management realized that the placements would have been even better, if companies were allowed in 7th semester itself as most of them couldn't wait and went to other colleges.

The final semester was the most enjoyed in our entire iit life, never did we feel better about being in IIT (intern being an exception). With only the thesis in hand, we had loads of time left and we utilized it the best as can be expected from a bunch of blood sucked bodies...yeah we played games (computer games mostly) like hell. The multi-player games in hostels and the computer lab were unforgettable. As the semester was coming to an end, the results of apping and CAT started pouring in. Anoop, a friend of mine, secured All India Rank of 1 !! and that was an highlight in the CAT results. On the apping front, many people got offers from top 10 right from the biggies of MIT and UCB (both to Mohit, another friend of mine) and the scenario in CS was better than others. Me, finally accepted PhD offer from Univ of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Time raced swiftly with project presentations and it was time for (under) graduation. Emotions started flowing left right and center as we realized that we won't be able to hang out as before. We promised each other that we would keep in touch though we knew that its very difficult. I would have cried if my tears can bring back my friends, but I didn't coz I knew the times are not gonna come back.I might not able be to bring back the times...but I have the memories which can bring a smile on my face whenever I feel nostalgic.I would like to take this opportunity, to thank all my friends who have helped me and been there for me when I needed them and am sorry to all those who have been hurt by me either knowingly or unknowingly. We may not meet each other in future or even be able to be in contact but my friend I ask you only one thing...Never forget Me....Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa.

Memoirs of a Kone - Part I

This piece has been in pending for quite some time now as its already been more than 2 months since I have (under) graduated from iitg. This is intended as a retrospection of my 4 year undergraduate life.

It all started on a mid-summer afternoon when I entered into the iit campus at guwahati along with my mom and bro (dad had been away on official trip n couldn't make it). Like all others starry eyed teenagers present there I was nervous and excited at the same time. Will iit education change our lives? Is our future set and on the track ? Is IIT a myth or truth ?....countless such questions dogged us as we went through our initiation ceremony. After setting up the essentials my folks had left for home and I was all alone in a new world or was I !?

I had 4 friends from my junior college and another 3 (who were our seniors in our college but joined iit along with us) and so it was not difficult to start. Also, there was Prasanth aka Pressy (as he was popularly known), my high school mate. Our initial trip was a trek up the famed hill spot inside the campus where one can have a wonderful view of the beautiful (ah! i have to admit it finally) campus. All the first years were stationed in Dihing hostel with no seniors present to curb ragging. But as fate had it, I was digging my own pit ! We had an intra-iitg mailing system called pine (one of my favs in my iit life) where we had an option of sending an email to an entire batch or all batches as we please. As my innocuous brain conjured up a brilliant idea, I sent an email to all batches, including seniors !, stating "I am a freshman and I want to make friends. Anybody interested pls contact me ....". Till date I wonder two things 1) Who the fuck told me the alias of sending mail to all batches 2) Was I insane. Anyway, the second yearites smelt bold and the bakra was summoned. Though I had a few ragging experiences by then, they were relatively mild compared to this. First I was given an eye-opening sermon by a senior, on the nature of true friends and importance of family friends which I had to endure for a good 60 minutes. Then from 10 pm to 3 am I had to bore the brunt of a bunch of seniors, esp kiki n homo, who made me do all silly things till (to quote from my cousin's book) ' I unleashed my weapon.... tears' . Apparently kiki was infuriated that I wasn't practicing TableTennis (guess i made an impression during the TT tournament held for freshmen in the initial days) and told me to resume practice. He also ordered me to do 2 things, to send an email to the entire batch saying that I only want girl friends and to write 10 points on why I think I was handsome. It goes without saying, that his wishes were not fulfilled :)



First yearites in our college were like a pack of wolves when it came to attending classes and having meals. They used to flock class rooms a good half an hour before the scheduled time to grab the coveted first seats (though in later years the back seats became coveted). The bland meals of the hostel meals were not to spared either. My room, 57, was a hub during the initial years for all sort of activities, mainly during exams. To my one side was Jaini and to the other was Nune (we both spoke to him only after 1 month !!). Jaini was laid back n easy going whereas Nune was a kind of tutor for us during exams (he studied undergrad an year before he re-attempted JEE). Computer games became an obsession among the students and we spent all our free time scouting for free PCs in our computer center to play AOE, Quake etc....n ofcourse the adult content passed down as a legacy by our seniors. We had a semester system which was interspersed with vacations. The first vacation of one month in december, made us to stay at home for longer and the second one of three months in summer had us yearning to get bak to college. After the first 2 semesters the inevitable happened...the realization that grades aren't easy to come by had dawned upon us and the entras (the students from AP were called so) began herding together most of the times as a band of brothers.

Second year is the strangest time in an undergrad life...u feel liberated coz u r no longer a freshman ducking at the site of a senior, u can have the revenge on ur seniors by taking it on ur juniors :) and yet ur confused to understand the system. We had one other thing to look forward to in our second year. During our first year, some of the seniors had the pleasure to share a hostel, Manas, with the gals (as we had verrrry less ratio of gals they didn't have a separate hostel !!!). Many if not all were secretly hoping to land in that hostel by hook or crook. But as are the ways of fate, a new hostel was built entirely for gals in our second year and they were shifted. Thus we were deprived of the company of non-males (as they were called here for obvs reasons) for better or worse. Again all of us, second yearites, were put in Manas without any seniors. The turning point of my life happened during the initial days of second year. Studs who are in top 10% of their branch had an opportunity for branch change. As we were the first batch of bio-tech students in iitg I was eager to change to either to ece or cs. But I was standing 5th in a class of 20 after the end of 2 sems and clearly didn't stand a chance to branch change..only students had a chance to branch change in our bio-tech class. But miracles do happen...the first and third rankers didn't want to change branch as they liked biotech. So the 2nd and 4th rankers opted for a change and got ece and cs respectively. Now there was this pal from mech who was enamored by bio-tech and decided to opt for branch change to bio-tech from mech (many of us didn't undstand why). Anyway, as one outsider came to bio-tech , I got the chance to change branch and got Computer Science !!!. Even now I feel I was lucky to get CS branch and will never regret that decision. I love CS :)

Unlike in first year, most of the classes of students of different branches were different. Core courses were started and I had the first touch of computer science. For whatever reason, I couldn't cope with the course load in the 3rd sem and my grade point average dipped. The 4th sem was a nightmare for the CS guys...we had this hardware lab where we were supposed to build a raw CPU.
The effort put was no match for the low credits allotted to it. Finally our group couldn't make the CPU working on time, and we borrowed the CPU of another group and showed it to the instructor (yeah...it was total fraud). Surprisingly we got 10/10 in that course where as the group from which we borrowed the CPU got 9/10 !! But again logic takes a back seat sometimes in iit.

Forgot to mention about the festivals in our iit. The cultural fest Alcheringa and the technical fest Techniche were quite famous in the north-east region. Alcheringa became a hunting ground for the desperadoes among us. As the chics from the NE region flocked the campus, the iit guys bored with the chics inside the campus preyed upon them. Many of the liaisons were abruptly cut short after the end of the festival, which was held for 3 days but some them gingerly clinged upon their catch. The good thing was, it brought out the talents of the studs as it was totally organized by the students right from getting the sponsors, publicizing the event in local colleges and organizing events. The best Alcher we had was in the first year where we had a rock show by Brahma and an eastern music show by Euphoria. Though Techniche was not held at as big a scale as Alcher, nonetheless it had its share of followers who were determined to show their technical skills. We also had an intra-iit festival called Manthan where all the batches used to compete with each other (which later was competed among hostels) in various cultural and sport events. This list would be incomplete, if I don't mention the two sporting events we had Inter-IIT sports meet and Spirit - NE sports meet. It was a welcome relief from the mundane routine of the college and all the pupils looked forward to it enthusiastically (though the enthu slowly died with years).

I would cut this blog here before it becomes any longer......I will be writing another blog about our effervescent third year and happy-go-lucky fourth year...So long

The Matrix - A Perspective

This not just a mere review of Matrix, the film. A sociological perspective is interspersed with the narrative. Here it goes....
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Before delving into the discussion, it would be better if we understand what "Matrix" actually is. According to Morpheus (one of the main protagonists of the movie) "Matrix is a computer generated program. It’s a world that has been pulled over the eyes to blind the people from the truth. It’s the truth that all the people (well most of them) are in a prison, a prison of mind, where they don’t know what they see, what they feel or what they think." In the sociological sense we can think Matrix as a cyberspace where people live without knowing that it’s a virtual simulated world controlled by someone else.

The main plot of the movie revolves around the self-discovery of one Thomas Anderson aka Neo aka The One. He leads a double life as a computer programmer at a reputable firm and a hacker. He doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn’t like the fact that he cannot control his life. He knows that there is something wrong with the world but he doesn’t exactly understand what. His routine life takes a turn on a fateful morning when he wakes up to see his computer talking to him. It tells him to follow the White Rabbit and when he does so, he meets Trinity. She tells him that people are watching him and she knows why he is there. Though Neo is initially confused and intimidated by all the strange things happening around him, he decides to meet Morpheus to know The Truth. Face to face with Morpheus, he embarks on a journey to know the truth the about himself, the world and the Matrix. Morpheus tells him that one can’t be explained about Matrix but it has to be known by oneself. He offers him a choice of Red Pill and the Blue Pill. If one selects Blue Pill they can forget everything about the Matrix and just wake up and live life as they have lived till now. Taking the Red Pill on the other hand, takes them into a new world where the reality of the world is revealed. Without any hesitation Neo accepts the Red Pill and thus the wheel of events is set into motion.

In the first of his training programs, Neo is taken inside a computer program along with Morpheus. There is an interesting dialogue between these two protagonists during this simulation. Neo asks Morpheus “Is this Real?” for which he explains “What is Real? If reality is simply what we feel, what we touch or what we see then reality is simply electrical signals interpreted by the brain.” He further explains that the world that people are living is just a dream world, a simulated environment. Some time during the end of 21st century mankind has united to celebrate the true birth of AI, where machines had a single consciousness. Man had been dependent on the machines from the beginning but fate it seems doesn’t exist without a touch of irony. Initially the machines were dependent on solar energy for their working. Later on they realized the potential of human energy and started “Fields” where human growth combined with fusion technique was developed as a perennial energy resource. So, humans were no longer born but they were grown.

In this process, the machines have gained supremacy over the human beings and so they have been relegated to a place in the underground. At present there is a small population of Real People living in a place called Zion hoping to gain back control from the machines. Morpheus, Trinity and other crew members of the ship where Neo is taken are a group of fighters from this world who are trying to sneak into Matrix and gain control. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One who can do this daunting task of fighting the Matrix and getting back the power to the real people. Of course for this to happen, Neo has to first believe in himself. He has to believe that he is The One and that he is capable of doing it. The entire theme of this movie centers on this realization of Neo.

Deviating slightly from the context of the movie, it would be interesting if we try to visualize a world as depicted or rather prophesized in the movie. Can Artificial Intelligence reach to such levels where the machines can actually overpower the human beings in every walk of life? Will a time come where the machines can actually think for themselves? This of course is an eternal debate and there is really no clear answer. Rather than fighting over the issue of whether machines can think or not it would be interesting if we can divert our attention to the issue of whether we would like it that way? To answer this we have to revert back to the main idea behind the invention of the machines. The concept of machines has been shaped by man to reduce his work load. Machines were expected to do the jobs in an efficient manner in less time than a human being. Probably the man of the industrial age hasn’t thought about the modern concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual world during that time. So, machines started literally as slaves to human beings and slowly developed into a state where they can be autonomous systems now. However, we have to be cautious regarding the independence of the machines from the man. Are they really independent? Any autonomous system, even today, relies on a basic code which has to be coded down by man. There is still not a system which can write that basic code for itself. Even in AI, the machines are fed with a basic set of rules. The
beauty of AI lies in the behavior of the system in new environments. Though the response to the basic rules is known, it’s difficult to predict the behavior of the system as whole when a new environment is encountered. The same is the case with Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and such. Hence, for time being we can be assured that man has still an upper hand to the machine.

Coming back to the point of discussion here, The Matrix, another important beings in the Matrix are the “Agents”. They are the gatekeepers of the system. They can move in and out of any software potentially hardwired to the Matrix. Agents are sentient programs and every person who is not unplugged is a potential agent. Since agents are the guards that hold keys to all the doors of the Matrix sooner or later they have to be dealt with. All the people who have so far tried to defeat them have failed because they are guarded by the rules of the Matrix. Only when a person breaks those rules can he fight the agents. Morpheus tells Neo that, he believes that Neo can succeed where others failed just because he can break those rules. At this point Neo asks whether he can dodge bullets when Morpheus tells him that when he is actually ready he doesn’t need to! Agent Smith is the main agent in the Matrix. He is the anti-hero and is always on the look out for keeping the enemies of the Matrix at bay.

Oracle is like the prophet of the Matrix. She knows enough about the machinations of the Matrix and makes prophecies which never went wrong. She tells Morpheus that he will find The One and Trinity that she will fall in love with him. The confrontation between Neo and Oracle is one of the remarkable sequences of the film. When Neo confesses to her that he honestly doesn’t know whether he is The One, she tells him that being The One is like being in love. One just knows it through and through, bones to bones. She also prophesizes that there will come a time when he has to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’s because only one of them is going to live.

For the sake of the movie, we have to discuss two other things, the squids and Cypher. Squids are the machines designed to do just one thing, Search and Destroy. To keep them from attacking the ship, the crew uses EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). On the other hand, Cypher is the rat among the crew members. He is foolish enough to believe in the material pleasures of the Matrix and is ready to leave the reality and get back into the Matrix. Agent Smith capitalizes on his weakness and tries to destroy the crew members.
One of the fascinating things in this movie is the transportation technique used by Morpheus and his crew to enter into the Matrix. They use a kind of tele-transportation where by plugging them into a networked system they can enter the Matrix. We can visualize this as a kind of back door to the Matrix. We will again take liberty to stray out of the current topic here to discuss about transportation. Do we have any analogous techniques in today’s world for this technique? The answer is yes. Take for example the virtual reality (VR) embedded computer games. By strapping the player to a machine and connecting him to sensors the user is taken into a virtual world where everything seems so real. The sensors are used to give the feel to the user as if the things he touch and see are real. The flight simulators used in pilot training programs are also a good example for VR. So what happens in The Matrix is also a similar phenomenon. Since it’s a VR world, the crew members are transported into and out of that world.

Back to the movie, after meeting Oracle Neo is apprehensive about his real identity. Whether he is The One or not? He is almost convinced by Oracle that he is not because he himself is not sure. On their way back to the telephone, which is their means of transportation back to the ship, the agents attack the crew members. Some of the members are killed by Cypher by unplugging them from the ship. Morpheus is caught by the agents while Neo and Trinity get back to the ship. But Neo wants to get back to the Matrix because he thinks he is not The One and that Morpheus is unnecessarily sacrificing his life for him. So he finally convinces the remaining crew and he along with Trinity go back into the Matrix. After a typical fighting sequence, both Trinity and Morpheus are back into the ship whereas Neo is trapped in the Matrix.

Into the climax of the movie, Agent Smith shoots down Neo. He is about to die when he wakes up again to face Smith. At this juncture, he understands his true destiny. He realizes that his identity is The One. This is shown in the movie in an amazing way where bullets sprayed by the agents stop in their tracks in front of Neo. We can recall Morpheus’s words earlier that once he is ready he no longer needs to dodge the bullets. Neo is faster than the bullets now, he can break the rules. Bullets can no longer damage him. He is the ultimate, the hero, The One. In a sociological perspective, we can discuss about the question of Identity of Neo. We can draw parallel to his identity to the identity of any being in the cyberspace. What is an identification of a person communicating in cyberspace? We know that a single person can have multiple identities at the same time easily in cyberspace. In that case, how can we pin point a person based on his cyber-identity? I believe that as long as there is no restriction on the online identity that a person can use, for example like SSN, it’s very difficult to identify a cybernetic user.

For digging deeper into the aspects of Matrix and the identity of Neo, discussing about the next parts of the sequel (Reloaded and Revolutions) is mandatory. Without those two the story is incomplete and we are, to say in Morpheus words, “Like Alice… tumbling down the rabbit hole”.

Y Not Voice Blogging?

I was just wondering why there hasn’t been a "voice" blogging system instead of this traditional text blogging ? Or may be there is and i dont know of it. I have googled though n cudnt get hold of ne meaningful stuff. So I was just thinking about the odds against voice blogging and got some points.

First of all, I have nothing against text. The beauty of words can never be sidelined and as an ardent lover of great books I can’t refute it. But when we talk about the two things that have prime importance in today's world, time and flexibility, I think voice has an upper hand over text. Speaking wat you want is generally 10 times faster than if you write it down. Flexibility wise, of course we all know that its much easier to speak than to type stuff.

Another important thing is that voice carries more emotional attachment than words .Now dont start rising from your seats...saying that there had been great novels with powerful words that influenced people's minds and hearts more than wat voice/visuals could do so let me put it in another more acceptable way.... getting an emotion across is easier through voice than text. For example....wat do you like better on your b’day , a greeting card written in an effusive way or a phone call with that person and a heart to heart talk? I definitely prefer the latter. Bottom line is that pain to mouth is much better than pain to hands.

So, Iam looking forward to the day when I am not hindered to blog wats on my mind just because Im lazy to type the stuff on the keyboard. I just speak my heart out in my microphone and (voice) blog it. Wouldn’t that be nice.!!?? Of course it can’t stop with voice, it will go till video n god knows wat but every revolution starts with a single step!

.an afterthought.....its funny to think of the place where i got these thoughts...Im sure that u must have understood!..now dont ask me :)

The Unforgettable Adventure -- Tawang

This is a trip turned into an adventure !. 17 of us planned a trip to the hillstation, Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh) as we had 5 days of holidays for sankranti. We hired two sumos (i'll call them: red, white) and one bolero (call them: black). As you can imagine, all the vehicles were jam packed and there was little place to move inside. This was the initial problem we faced...but the worse was yet to come !!!


Day 1 (11th Jan): The Journey
Since some of the guys hadnt yet got the inter-state license to enter arunachal pradesh (its a sensitive area , so the restrictions) we decided to wait for those guys(black) at Khanapara(in guwahati) till they can get their licenses and join us there. There was a small hill near our stop..so me,pressy,vpk,varma,jaravind and vinay(l to r in the pic) decided to do a little trek up the hill to kill the time. Though vinay was scared in the middle of trek due to the slippery path, he continued with us after a lil persuasion. Finally we reached the top of the hill and waved to our remaining guys standing near our vehicles. After spending some time on top, we returned back along a different path. Surprisingly the downhill journey was easier than the uphill one which is not usual.

Next surprise was Prof. Mishra (of mech dept) and co. joining our group for the same trip. Seems he too planned the same trip with his family and a trio of his phd students as he was happy with the just concluded conference which he organized. Initially we thought that he would be a pain in our ass as we probably coudnt enjoy with him being around. But guess what, our journey was made easier because of his generous help which you will find out. Finally, the black guys arrived after getting their licenses and we resumed our journey to tawang at 12:30 pm with 4 vehicles (brown scorpio of Prof. Mishra).



Our initial plan was to stay in a place called Bomdilla for the first nite. But as fate had it in our trip, nothing took place as planned. This was a pleasant change though. Mishra had arranged for accomodation at a place called Tenga which was 45 km ahead of Bomdilla in a military camp. We were thankful to him, that we could call it a day 1hr before than planned as all of us were tired. Brahmi had already vomitted in the black sumo due to the twists and turns on the hilly path. We got three cottages for ourselves and also delicious dinner ready by 8 pm. As all of us were famished (you know how the hostel's food is like esp. iitg's) we pounced upon the dinner like hungry dogs. The cooks didnt except this and we were soon short of dishes. The people who ate last had to be satisfied with only one or two items. Since we were 17 guys (excluing Mishra's gang) with 3 cottages, we had 6 in each of the cottages except one. In our cottage... 6 of us cramped in one double bed and you can imagine how it would be like. For an outsider it would seem like an orgy for sure! Since we were tired we didnt mind and simply dozed off after watchin some television.


Day 2 (15th jan): The first of the twists
After having a nice breakfast (Poori) we took some snaps and started our journey. Since the whole journey for today was mountaineous we decided on a round-robbin rule for people who sit on the back side of our sumo. We had our initial twist just after we stopped for soup enroute. Our driver was young and relatively new to this trip so he was cautiously slow. 5 min after our stop, Mishra's scorpio slipped on the route and fell into a ditch on the right side of the road. This was because of the ice formed on the road. Luckily there was no casuality and with so many guys around we could literally lift the vehicle and put it back on track. Then Mishra and we guys parted our ways coz he had a different itinerary. So we were back to the three sumos -- the red (i was in this), the black and the white.

My main motive for making this trip was to see the snow for the first time in my life. Though I had been to europe, last summer for my internship, i couldnt play in snow there because of the season and place (austria). We were told that there was not much or no snow in Tawang but there was little ice. This disappointed most of us and especially me. I had already seen the worlds' biggest ice caves in Salzburg and was not so enthused by the ice. But fate had something else in its store for us !!


After an uneventful journey we reached Tawang at around 8:00 pm. We already booked our accomodation in Hotel Budha so we all collapsed there. Here we had 5 rooms for us and so two of the rooms required 4 guys. Again I was in one of those two rooms (im not gay btw). As we had blowers in all the rooms save one we had no probs. We had a pathetic dinner at a nearby restaurant called Gauri Chen and hopped back to our hotel. I was skeptic about eating non-veg outside as the place was notorious for mixing dog meat with chicken (can you believe it ?) Back in hotel we played cards (kyaa kare aadat chodi nahi jaati) for sometime and then dozed off.

Day 3: Final Destination
Our main destinations in Tawang were the Madhuri lake uphill and the Buddhist Monastry. We decided to finish off the lake because there was a restriction to not stay on the hill after 3pm. Some time through the uphill journey (we were at a height of about 13k feet.) all the three sumos got separated ! To our utter surprise, we found snow on the hill and were excited about it. We, the red ones did a halt at one of the snow filled places and played like hell. It was great, believe me.


Finally we found the other 2 vehicles near Madhuri Lake. Since we were already late we, the red guys, decided to not go down to the lake but wait for the other guys to come back. There was another small slope filled with snow rite at the place where we were waiting for the guys. So when the black guys came back, we played with the snow again. We had a funny snow battle, with everyone throwing snow on each other. Myself, Bharagav, Ciddu and Grc decided to take a paradox pic and removed most of our 5 layered protection (dont worry...only the upper portion). U can see the pic for yourselves. During that time, Brahmi started throwing snow on us and ciddu tripped in the ruckus that ensued. He got senti and sweared at Brahmi but then everything cooled off and started our way back. The white guys were still down at the lake and so we waited for them at the nearby military camp. They finally after a 90 min wait.

We succesfully came downhill before the 3pm deadline despite the delay but most of the guys wanted to eat something as they were all hungry after all that happened. So we decided to eat lunch and then go for Monastry. After having lunch/dinner at the same pathetic place it was already too late for monastry and we decided to cover it the next day. The rest of the day was uneventful with the usual television and card games.

Day 4: The ultimate Adventure
The day started off with snow fall outside. We were finally happy to see the much awatited snow fall. Our desires were fulfilled. But it didnt stop there !!! With the cars going to garage for some repairs, we had to start our back journey without covering the monastry. Many people were upset by this decision but we had to do this because of the deteriorating weather. Our hotel manager urged us to start early because there was heavy snow fall on our way back.



On our return journey we had to pass through one Sela Pass which was the highest peak around there. We had an inkling of danger as we progressed through the snow capped hills which were pleasant on our forward journey. The roads were covered with snow for the most part and it was difficult to drive. We halted at the Frozen lake which was quite an attraction in itself. Brahmi and others made a tiny snow man (if you can call it that! ) and we played again for 20 min or so. Few minutes after resuming our journey, we were into deep trouble. We , the red guys got separated from the blacks and whites. Hoping that they were safe we just tugged along the impossible roads. Our sumo skidded on a U-Turn beacuse of the heavy ice/snow laiden road. Though i was happy seeing the snow fall and 1 feet high snow, it was clearly trouble. Instead of immediately helping the sumo to get back on track, i was taking pics of our sumo. After facing some music from my frenz i also helped them and we got the sumo back on track. Other bypassers advised us to go back because the further journew was even dangerous and already many vehicles were stuck. But we didnt want to wait for one day and also we had to catch up with our other 2 vehicles which were quite ahead of us by now. By 4:30 there was complete snow fall, the path was covered with ice and to make it worse we had fog. So, we were travelling on damn slippery road, with dangerous curves, valley on one side and snow on the other and top it all with zero visibility. and almost zero fuel We decided to call it a day and save our ass asap.

As luck had it, we found a guest house just in time our fuel exhausted. By that time we were travelling at a speed of 1 kmph with hearts in our hands. It was so damn cold outside that the water on the windshield was turning into ice within seconds and every now and then we had to stop our sumo and scrap the shield to remove ice. So this guest house was like a life boat in the middle of an ocean. The situation reminded us of the old horror flicks where a group of frenz stop in the middle of the journey due to some car trouble and end up in a purani haveli (the guest house resembled the haveli). The cook/watchman of the guesthouse cooked us a sumptous lunch with eggs,dal,cabbage and we were full. Even the rooms were having fire places so it was really pleasant to have these comforts in such a drastic situation. Though it was chilling cold outside, we were happily playing cards in the warmth of our room. All the time, we were hoping that the black and white guys have safely halted at some place.

Day 5 : The Reunion
After having maggi prepared by our cook we resumed our journey. Everything was nice except the fuel. It was almost zero and we had to refill the tank before we got stuck somewhere. So, we started asking every tom dick and harry on the way for fuel. We got an ass hole who tried to sell us kersone in place of diesel but luckily one of us spotted the blue liquid and we could the disaster. We came across a military camp and narrated our sad story. Here I would like to add that, the military people throughout our journey helped us in many ways. Without them it would have been a different story altogether ! 4 of the guys went to talk to the Colonel there and finally convinced him to give 5 litres of diesel. Luckily this guy was from Andhra Pradesh (like us) and so helped us. Finally we were happy, despite the 45 min blah blah of Col.Prince, that we had a enuf fuel to reach the nearby gas station.

Finally we were able to refill our tank at a place called Dhirang. At a checkpost near Tenga we came to know that the black and white guys passed the same point 1hr back. We were happy that the other guys were also safe in their journey. At Bomdille to our utter surprise we found the two vehicles parked near the road. When we disembarked our vehicle, we met our remaining frenz. The atmosphere was totally different than we expected. They were very relieved seeing us finally after our separation the previous day (we were too ofcourse!). We came to know that, they thought we stuck somewhere in the mountains in the yesterday's snow. They were so tensed up that they called up Mishra (he was back home to guwahati by then) and told that we were missing. He ordered these guys to stay at bomdilla till they can find out about us. He also contacted the military at the nearby area and it seems 5 patrol jeeps were sent to find our probably stuck sumo. After all this happened, they were really excited seeing us alive ! So it was a happy reunion for all of us and we vowed not to be separated again. But as i said...nothing went as planned

1 hr from Guwahati, at a place called Tezpur we decided to stop for dinner. It was alreay 6:30 pm by then. Suddenly , at a junction, the black and white vehicles took a right turn (for a short route). But our driver, did a wrong turn and the traffic police asked the driver to sideline the vehicle. In the tension, our fellow took a left turn and drove at 100 kmph in fear of being caught. Thus again we got separated ! Cursing our luck, we stopped at a restaurant and informed the other guys (mobile connectivity was working again as we were near guwahati by then) about the situation.
After having a light dinner we headed for our destination. By 11 pm we were back in campus (others came 90 min before us), and may be for first time in our 4 yr life here felt good being in the good ol campus.!!!

MS vs MS !!!

Donno how many are following (thats a big word..i know) my blog..but i will keep going whenever i have time

so im back after a long hiatus from my last blog during internship...

Got placed in microsoft-hyd in campus placements. tho i was lil unhappy initially that i coudnt clear the written of google, i am happy that i got placed in just my second interview. Best part of the placement is that its in hyd (tho im not from hyd im a telugu guy and what gulti will be insane enuf to not like to do job in hyd). on the other hand i am waiting for my apping results for my ms/phd. actually i just sat for placements as a backup option. since the US univs give out their decisions only from feb end onwards its a painful waiting. now i have to decide whether to go for ms/phd or take up microsofts offer and then apply after 1 year experience. i really hope that i get a gud univ and do my ms (tho i applied for phd in 6 univs im little scared now for committing 5 (more) yrs)....i really dont have any mood to do job right now.

btw...i hope the title of this post is clear ..... my dilemma of chosing between MS (Microsft) and MS (Masters in US)

so long....

Society in general..n Chics in particular !

well...when u see the lifestyle of europeans u wud definitely think most of them are very cool.First thing i noticed is that they are very comfortable with their bodies..be it boys or gals.They wear wat they feel like ...dependent more on the weather n their comfort but not to show off or make a fashion stmt.

In contrast, in India people want to show off their clothes etc.branded clothes,labels etc are stmt of status in india.people give more importance to these than the comfort level.

in europe, when its a particularly sunny day , u can see chics wearing very less clothes (its comfort for them... n feast for us :p ).tho it took me some time for adjusting to this environment nonetheless in those inital days i used to gawk at them.

talking abt girls ...i n jaini were discussing n woabout their 'perennial youth'.let me explain this term first : here high school girls look like blooming teenagers (jainis take on this is that they use cosmetics n stuff to look older)..so tho she is 12-15 or so..u think she is 18-20+.And as they get older say 25+ or so ..they still look quite younger(our joint claim was that they do exercise n have nutritious diet for maintaining their physique)..isnt this great...wish same had been the case in india too..

chal neway..i got some work to do..catch u later

Living in Europe

Well..I guess most of u guys would be dreaming about living abroad.so thot ..i wud share a few things regding this..

First of all living outside means living independently...and its tuff ..atleast in the beginning.You have to cook for urself unless ur planning to spend all ur bucks on pizzas and burgers (mind you...v cant live on them entirely in anycase).If you are lucky, u can get enrolled in your univ's canteen where u can have meals at subsidized rates.

Language barrier is most important thing...when ur living in Europe.I dint expect this problem wud be so great.If ur in an international studs hostel..well n gud.Ow its really tuff since the local studs gen. prefer to speak in their native language.So,if your planning to stay on a long term here taking a language course is seriously advisable.In austria, there are no fking translations in supermarkets or for that matter anywhere.Every damn thing is in German and unless u get the hang of things its real difficult.On my first shopping here,I could barely buy a drink n some rice..phew.

Making frenz is very important ow it would be hell esp in weekends.One thing you notice here is the diff btw weekday and weekend thinking.Lots of planning goes on for spending weekends.Try to make frenz with ur hostel mates (its easier said than done..i agree..but ) n gel with them.

Enjoying urself..hmm.well this is one thing i havent come to terms with yet.But when you are abroad its very important that u should be able to enjoy urself...without frenz.If u can do things like going alone somewhere,shopping,sight seeing etc then u can really have much fun here ow...

Nonsense regding society...esp chics in nxt post..
till then..chao

Intern in Salz

Ive been staying here in Salzburg , Austria for the past two months for my internship.
Though my work aka research has been dull in the beginning its quite interesting now !

But I really dont know how I feel about this place.The place is like a laid back small country town, tho sophisticated compared to India.The night life is also pretty much dead (Not that Im a serious pub hopper..but still I like to see the crowds at nite!).

My experiences here...well...in the next post.

byee