The cynical me takes over :)
More to follow.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A job well done! :)
Finally D-day had arrived,September 11 was here. We all remember this as the day when disaster struck America, the day that shook the world's most powerful country( Infact I have a paper cutting of the next day's Times paper which carries the caption: " The day that Shook America"). The day when Osama-bin-laden became a quarry of every American agent; to be hunted for the rest of his life. But the world's biggest army failed to a capture a tramp who lives among rocky mountains and deserts in western afghanistan. Period.
This is nowhere related to my current post. I only remember this day as being ultra-important to me, as it was the judgement day for me and the organizers of the workshop by Texas Instruments. We could not see a month's hard-work go down the drain for nothing, all that haggling about sponsorship, possible dates for the workshop, all that pain of booking halls, convincing profs, writing infinite mails, making IP's; everything was about to materialize and if succeeded could spell a lot of things for the Electrical engineering association and for me and for Galib. It was Galib's brainchild, his genius came up with this idea of having a workshop event for the deparment, and i just happened to be there when he needed somebody. I am just happy to have worked with him for the last one month, he is a great person, true to his word, very intelligent, industrious, planned, considerate, and yet at the same produces great results. Salutes to you man!!
Speaking about the workshop, all arrangements were made, the hall was ready , the food was made ready by the coordinators, the vols were there, the coupons were ready , all was in place, and i was just waiting for it to start. I could not contain my excitement at 12-0-clock , when my G slot class got over, i rushed to the library to jot down some notes about the speaker(this proved to be really useful let me tell you), then off i was to the mess, where i met Galib and Alibaba munching on some chapathis, i joined them in the act and start gobbling a couple of chapathi pieces voraciously. We were discussing about everything in general , he told me that everything was ready, there was no need for worry and things would be right if we did not screw it up( Ain't that obvious?!).The workshop was about to start in some 2 hours.
There were some initial hiccups before the industrial lecture( which was held prior to the workshop), the speakers Dr Ravikumar and Mr Gurjit Singh Gill were not able to locate the hall and Prof Arun mahindrakar had screwed it up so to speak , as he neither had their contact number, nor had he given them any information on where the Bio Tech seminar hall was situated. As a result the IL was delayed by about 15 mins. Dr Ravikumar went about in his usual nonchalant tone, explaining basics of VLSI, Moore's law, the process and the need for verification. I presume the IL was too theoretical for people's liking, as many of the people who attended it did not turn up for the actual workshop. The workshop began about an hour later, thanx to the prompt checking/verification by the second year student who was made to stand guard at the entrance of the BT seminar hall.
I was asked to present a short welcome speech, i believe i executed it well enough except for the part where the audience burst into laughter at a statement of mine( I said "We would like to welcome the students for turning up in such 'large numbers' and adding sheen to workshop"). The room was half empty, no doubt the audience burst into laughter. I gave an excruciatingly long introduction about the speaker, which led to audience clapping in applause(/scorn??) at the end of my talk. I was a flustered at this unusual behavior by the audience, but then i realized I should have cut short the crap i was trying to disgorge out. The speaker took over and pleasantly continued with his talk. This was the funniest and the most interesting part of the the whole day , and I am pretty sure, people got their time's worth by listening to the man speak. He was a real good orator, he could match any stand up comedian, and the 2 hrs which was spent listening to him passed by like a fleeting moment. The examples which he gave were extremely funny, the audience burst into laughter at some of his jokes. Even Prof Nitin, who usually sports a serious look( which doesnt go well with his boyish appearance) was enthralled by the speaker's distinctive sense of humor, and i could see his face lit up with joy every now and then. When Alibaba tried taking a snap of the man in action, he started posing for it, I have never seen anybody do it in front of a full-fledged audience before. He said " I would like to pose for the photograph so that I can show my colleagues that I have given a lecture to the students of IIT", and bent backwards, giving him a funny appearance. For those of you, who have not been able to be a part of the workshop , here's the pic:
Have you ever seen anybody do that during a presentation?
Truly man! Hats off to this guy's indomitable spirit! or should i say Singh is King!
During the last few minutes however, the lecture turned out to be boring/ugly as the speaker turned salesman, started hard-selling his product, the MSP 430. Some took it in the lighter sense, but i believe a few fools got enraged and starting questioning the advantages that MSP 430 provides, but our man had the answers to all the conundrums that were posed before him. It truly was a brilliant display by the turbanator. There was this particular heckler who started abusing the product MSP 430, as if he had had a long standing grudge against Singh and his team. Singh answered back in style, unperturbed by the heckler's verbal outrage. The workshop got over, the speaker signed of in style and all the participants were provided with snacks. There was a mixed response to snacks provided, but most people did like it, and it was one of the major reasons for such a high level of participation in the workshop.
All was done and everybody was happy, a lot had been learnt by me. An experience well gained. A job well done :)
This is nowhere related to my current post. I only remember this day as being ultra-important to me, as it was the judgement day for me and the organizers of the workshop by Texas Instruments. We could not see a month's hard-work go down the drain for nothing, all that haggling about sponsorship, possible dates for the workshop, all that pain of booking halls, convincing profs, writing infinite mails, making IP's; everything was about to materialize and if succeeded could spell a lot of things for the Electrical engineering association and for me and for Galib. It was Galib's brainchild, his genius came up with this idea of having a workshop event for the deparment, and i just happened to be there when he needed somebody. I am just happy to have worked with him for the last one month, he is a great person, true to his word, very intelligent, industrious, planned, considerate, and yet at the same produces great results. Salutes to you man!!
Speaking about the workshop, all arrangements were made, the hall was ready , the food was made ready by the coordinators, the vols were there, the coupons were ready , all was in place, and i was just waiting for it to start. I could not contain my excitement at 12-0-clock , when my G slot class got over, i rushed to the library to jot down some notes about the speaker(this proved to be really useful let me tell you), then off i was to the mess, where i met Galib and Alibaba munching on some chapathis, i joined them in the act and start gobbling a couple of chapathi pieces voraciously. We were discussing about everything in general , he told me that everything was ready, there was no need for worry and things would be right if we did not screw it up( Ain't that obvious?!).The workshop was about to start in some 2 hours.
There were some initial hiccups before the industrial lecture( which was held prior to the workshop), the speakers Dr Ravikumar and Mr Gurjit Singh Gill were not able to locate the hall and Prof Arun mahindrakar had screwed it up so to speak , as he neither had their contact number, nor had he given them any information on where the Bio Tech seminar hall was situated. As a result the IL was delayed by about 15 mins. Dr Ravikumar went about in his usual nonchalant tone, explaining basics of VLSI, Moore's law, the process and the need for verification. I presume the IL was too theoretical for people's liking, as many of the people who attended it did not turn up for the actual workshop. The workshop began about an hour later, thanx to the prompt checking/verification by the second year student who was made to stand guard at the entrance of the BT seminar hall.
I was asked to present a short welcome speech, i believe i executed it well enough except for the part where the audience burst into laughter at a statement of mine( I said "We would like to welcome the students for turning up in such 'large numbers' and adding sheen to workshop"). The room was half empty, no doubt the audience burst into laughter. I gave an excruciatingly long introduction about the speaker, which led to audience clapping in applause(/scorn??) at the end of my talk. I was a flustered at this unusual behavior by the audience, but then i realized I should have cut short the crap i was trying to disgorge out. The speaker took over and pleasantly continued with his talk. This was the funniest and the most interesting part of the the whole day , and I am pretty sure, people got their time's worth by listening to the man speak. He was a real good orator, he could match any stand up comedian, and the 2 hrs which was spent listening to him passed by like a fleeting moment. The examples which he gave were extremely funny, the audience burst into laughter at some of his jokes. Even Prof Nitin, who usually sports a serious look( which doesnt go well with his boyish appearance) was enthralled by the speaker's distinctive sense of humor, and i could see his face lit up with joy every now and then. When Alibaba tried taking a snap of the man in action, he started posing for it, I have never seen anybody do it in front of a full-fledged audience before. He said " I would like to pose for the photograph so that I can show my colleagues that I have given a lecture to the students of IIT", and bent backwards, giving him a funny appearance. For those of you, who have not been able to be a part of the workshop , here's the pic:
Have you ever seen anybody do that during a presentation?
Truly man! Hats off to this guy's indomitable spirit! or should i say Singh is King!
During the last few minutes however, the lecture turned out to be boring/ugly as the speaker turned salesman, started hard-selling his product, the MSP 430. Some took it in the lighter sense, but i believe a few fools got enraged and starting questioning the advantages that MSP 430 provides, but our man had the answers to all the conundrums that were posed before him. It truly was a brilliant display by the turbanator. There was this particular heckler who started abusing the product MSP 430, as if he had had a long standing grudge against Singh and his team. Singh answered back in style, unperturbed by the heckler's verbal outrage. The workshop got over, the speaker signed of in style and all the participants were provided with snacks. There was a mixed response to snacks provided, but most people did like it, and it was one of the major reasons for such a high level of participation in the workshop.
All was done and everybody was happy, a lot had been learnt by me. An experience well gained. A job well done :)
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Minutes of the ProE Class
Ah, another of those boring Pro E class, a complete waste of 2 hrs which could be used in such fruitful purposes. Shankar was caught reading a novel during the class and reprimanded for his action, the prof illustrating that it was a clear case of conflict of interest between Shankar and him.Unmindful of the unkind prof, Shankar continued browsing through the novel in rapt attention, chuckling every now and then, to my dismay. The topic of today's discussion was well exemplified by the Professor, I was bit upset with Shankar's high handed attitude. Prof was illustrating the concept with further examples taken from Ramayana and one from his one personal life involving some Sadhu in the Himalayas. The prof poses a question on the integrity of Lord Rama( which is well beyond his power and right); on whether Rama was justified in deserting Sita to the forces of nature( in Aranya) when she was pregnant. Wasn't it an ethical and moral obligation on Rama's part to take care of Sita? History and culture epitomizes Rama to be the embodiment of spirit, honor and integrity and our professor with his own human flaws can't brush away Lord Rama just like that. I am upset with his examples, but I keep quite as it is not right to question the professor during a class, especially in IIT Madras, lest you delay the class by a minute or so and people will kill you for the same, as Junta have to rush to the hostel to resume their daily chores, ie, sleeping, sha**ng and what not. All my energy and enthusiasm is curbed, thanx once again , to the hallowed portals of IIT Madras.
Our prof ends his part of the lecture now, and the Stud prof comes into picture, he is truly learned I must say. He reeks Gyaan from all parts of his body, no offence meant. He continues from where SreeKumar and poses an interesting question on the origin of the word "Corporate", I have the answer on the tip of my tongue, and my mouth is ready to blurt it out, but my master, the all-knowing all-sensing brain tells me, this is IITMadras, pseud putters in any form are either glorified or intimidated beyond measure, and thus i dont speak a word, cuz i dont want to belong to either category of people. Meanwhile , the prof continues his monologue on deontology, Prolexianism( the word misses me, need to search), without any interaction from the class, he cuts his lecture short and goes back to his seat. The profs are disappointed, they want more interaction, but they aren't getting any. This is IITM for you, where the young budding engineers turn into unquestioning, spiritless zombies without any zeal, where the majority is from a part of India where people do nothing other than prepare for JEE. I slowly slip into a state of inactivity which could soon be followed by sleep or a sudden surge of enthusiasm,in short, i am dangling in the region between hell and heaven. With a spurt of energy, i whack the Sleep demon bothering me, crush it and resume listening to the class. A video on the bhopal gas tragedy follows next, a video that serves as the rightful criticism for the atrocities committed by the Dow chemical corporation and its subsidiary, the infamous and fiendish, Union Carbide Company. I plunge deep into the movie, feel compassionate for the sufferers, cry with them, do an act of reasoning and conclude that the government was at much at fault as was UCC. Shankar, meanwhile, brings in a few points to justify his claim that we were the masters of our own trouble as far as the Bhopal gas tragedy was concerned, and Mayur on the hand, is bored with pleasure. He has watched the movie like 100 times, and starts going through my OR notes. I continue sympathizing with the people of bhopal and slowly slip into depression for being in a country which is at the receiving end of all forms of trouble. At this moment, the movie ends, and the prof declares that there is no attendance for the class that was held, and is therefore, faced with a hundred catcalls. Only half the class had turned up and they return back in a state of shock ; demanding justice ( and attendance) for all the drudgery and mental labor they have been through. Once again, i realize, that i am in IITM.. adios my frndz.
Our prof ends his part of the lecture now, and the Stud prof comes into picture, he is truly learned I must say. He reeks Gyaan from all parts of his body, no offence meant. He continues from where SreeKumar and poses an interesting question on the origin of the word "Corporate", I have the answer on the tip of my tongue, and my mouth is ready to blurt it out, but my master, the all-knowing all-sensing brain tells me, this is IITMadras, pseud putters in any form are either glorified or intimidated beyond measure, and thus i dont speak a word, cuz i dont want to belong to either category of people. Meanwhile , the prof continues his monologue on deontology, Prolexianism( the word misses me, need to search), without any interaction from the class, he cuts his lecture short and goes back to his seat. The profs are disappointed, they want more interaction, but they aren't getting any. This is IITM for you, where the young budding engineers turn into unquestioning, spiritless zombies without any zeal, where the majority is from a part of India where people do nothing other than prepare for JEE. I slowly slip into a state of inactivity which could soon be followed by sleep or a sudden surge of enthusiasm,in short, i am dangling in the region between hell and heaven. With a spurt of energy, i whack the Sleep demon bothering me, crush it and resume listening to the class. A video on the bhopal gas tragedy follows next, a video that serves as the rightful criticism for the atrocities committed by the Dow chemical corporation and its subsidiary, the infamous and fiendish, Union Carbide Company. I plunge deep into the movie, feel compassionate for the sufferers, cry with them, do an act of reasoning and conclude that the government was at much at fault as was UCC. Shankar, meanwhile, brings in a few points to justify his claim that we were the masters of our own trouble as far as the Bhopal gas tragedy was concerned, and Mayur on the hand, is bored with pleasure. He has watched the movie like 100 times, and starts going through my OR notes. I continue sympathizing with the people of bhopal and slowly slip into depression for being in a country which is at the receiving end of all forms of trouble. At this moment, the movie ends, and the prof declares that there is no attendance for the class that was held, and is therefore, faced with a hundred catcalls. Only half the class had turned up and they return back in a state of shock ; demanding justice ( and attendance) for all the drudgery and mental labor they have been through. Once again, i realize, that i am in IITM.. adios my frndz.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The First Wing!!
A post that is solely aimed at my wing! Firstly, the title of this post is misleading, for I am not from the 1st wing. My wing , the 2nd wing (Sekund Ving) as some may prefer to name it, is in the limelight for all the right reasons in the world. The New Year brought in a spate of new activities, all of which have contributed to the Wing's meteoric rise to fame. The inter wing Schroeter victory, a hard fought tug-of-war between the various wings, which went down to the wire was snatched from the jaws of defeat by us, thanks to inspired performances by NATURE and Buckbuck. That marked our entry into the schroeter points table, in which we are currently the leaders, climbing up the ladder and away from the reach of the other wings.
What took the whole wing by surprise, was Ayrus' meticulously planned movie "not a clue" which succeeded in winning many-a-hearts in the institute.The film was a run away hit, thanx to incredible performances by Lk and Ip .
The Wing that is second to none, other than itself.. Hail the Sekund Ving!
What took the whole wing by surprise, was Ayrus' meticulously planned movie "not a clue" which succeeded in winning many-a-hearts in the institute.The film was a run away hit, thanx to incredible performances by Lk and Ip .
The Wing that is second to none, other than itself.. Hail the Sekund Ving!
Ab initio
Here i Am about to start it all over again. A blank mind in a lazy body, ah! not the start i wanted. Why do people want to blog in the first place?
*its easy?
* they are jobless
* they have this penchant for writing/jotting down important happenings of the day.
* they are crazy, whimsical and want a platform for expressing all that goes on inside the convoluted neurons of their cerebellum.
* blog is a great way of maintaining and recollecting events in a chronological order and brooding over it later.
* blogs are glitzy. rakish and of this age?!
Whatever it may be, i am into blogging. To not blog is an insult.
*its easy?
* they are jobless
* they have this penchant for writing/jotting down important happenings of the day.
* they are crazy, whimsical and want a platform for expressing all that goes on inside the convoluted neurons of their cerebellum.
* blog is a great way of maintaining and recollecting events in a chronological order and brooding over it later.
* blogs are glitzy. rakish and of this age?!
Whatever it may be, i am into blogging. To not blog is an insult.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Between yesteray and tomorrow
Yesterday was a day of total chaos for me. After running up and down through the hallowed pathways of elec dept, an exercise which proved futile, we returned back to our hostel rooms in total disgust. The lady in the department howled "Come Back on Monday and find out your grades". Pathos on us as we had been to dept thrice yesterday, only to be shown the door every time. As i squat in my room to fill out my first blog post, my mind continues to waver between the past and future. Tomorrow will be another one of those days which will spell my destiny, yesterday was just one of 'em bad days. As people pour in with more rumors about their grades, I stand in time in consternation of my future. A day which I would remember for years to come, not as the day which i feared the most , but as the day which began it all--The Blogging Era.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)