I've moved

I just don't like Blogger anymore and like change coming to America, it has come here too. I'm moving to Wordpress so please update your blogrolls.

http://adatelessdiary.wordpress.com/

Ciao.

Blogroll updated

Blogrolling finally got its act together and I finally expanded my blogroll to include some good blogs.

People say hello to Deepak, Chinmay, Siddharth, Mayuresh and of course Sardar Patel Quiz Club

Jhopadpatiikutta Crorepati ki Jai ho!!!

The next time I see the list it is Slumdog Millionaire sharing space with movies like The Departed, The Return of the King, Gladiator, Schindler's List, Braveheart and The Godfather.

This is what me, Jinju and Debu would call a Scam.

Staying Grounded

Every once in a while something happens to you that makes you feel really really happy that you are what you are. It can be a secret admirer, a great song you composed which everyone loved, the thought that someone cannot get enough of your blog or as it happens to be in my case, a couple of quizzes you totally owned.

Well it doesn't always happen that the person in question immediately starts walking three feet in the air and gets that superior smirk on his face, but sometimes it does. The trick is to remember that no matter what you do, there is always someone out there who can do what you did with so much more ease.

So in spite of the fact that I know my quizzing quotient is pretty average as compared to some, I like to get that fact drummed into me, which is one of the reasons why I try to attend every quiz organized by the Bombay Quiz Club. Now these guys are everything I would love to be- professionals from every sphere who make sure that they take time out for their passion and always make an effort to attend every quiz on the planet. And organize some too.

The Bombay Quiz Club meets once every 2 Sundays with one of the members organizing the quiz for the day. They follow a league system with the members scoring a certain number of points according to their team's position in that quiz. Slowly the leaders emerge and the top 8 become seeded players and from then onwards they have a clever randomizer software which makes sure that there are no two seeded players in each team and whoever has the maximum points at the end of the season wins the league.
In Chinmay's words, there are usually a hundred questions asked out of which you recognize 7, mumble out something related for about 3 can guess the answer to 2 and out of that one answer turns out to be correct and that's the thought that keeps you happy throughout the day.

I went for the quiz for the first time in August 2008 and got lucky the first three times. Because of strong partners I ended up finishing first in the first 2 quizzes and second in my third quiz. I was really happy because I felt I had it in me to join the elite league of "Super-quizzers" when the fourth quiz came along. Well many of the seeded players did not turn up and to my horror, I was made a seed.

No points for guessing what followed in the toughest quiz of my life as we were utterly humiliated and stood so far back in the points tally that suicide seemed to be the only honourable way out of our collective shame. But I remain grateful because the quiz made me realize with painful obviousness that far from being a great quizzer, I just get lucky a lot of times and sometimes the luck just runs out. I took back a valuable lesson that day and if after that I ever felt the need to show off, I remember that fateful day and sober down pretty fast.

Its important to be proud of your achievements but it is even more important to realize your limitations and work towards improving yourself. So anyone out there with the same problem could do with a session at Bombay Quiz Club.

The Reject Part 2

Now its the University of Minnesota who no longer require someone with my less than competitive qualifications.

Sigh.

My first Reject

With the good we have to take the bad. Close on the heels of my first admit from UT Arlington, comes a swift reject from Texas A & M University.

They say,

Your application for admission to graduate studies has been received and reviewed throughly by those most concerned with your admission. After carefully considering your application file, we regret to inform you that we cannot offer you admission at this time.

The departmental evaluation of your application indicates that your overall profile is not competitive with other applicants. If you need any additional information,we ask that you contact the department to which you have applied.

So basically what they are saying is as Chaukya puts it is Fucccck Offfff.

Honestly I would have loved to get an admit from this college but I was prepared for the reject as their track record in accepting Indians is not great. So far from producing a deeply contradicting feeling to my happiness at getting the admit, the reject has just made me say "Meh I have 7 more to go".

I will of course update about the results of those colleges.

Will Rohit get an admit to the college of his dreams? To find out return to A Dateless Diary.

The First Admit

Applying to the US for higher studies is a decidedly strenuous process. GRE and TOEFL are a cinch when compared to the troubles one must go through to send the application materials by post to the universities.

Then follows a nervous wait as one keeps checking the inbox to see if there are any new messages, only to be greeted by ones from the college IEEE committee telling one that Mr. So and So would be giving a talk on This and That and this will surely be an enriching experience..... blah blah or by a certain Mr. Mbutu aka Mr. Okiri from Nigeria asking if one can be his business partner and help him retrieve 27 million dollars from the Reserve Bank of Tanganyika or something.

The wait certainly paid off for me as I got my very first admit just over half an hour ago. Its not much as admits go. University of Texas at Arlington is my last choice no doubt. However the first admit will always remain special. They were the first ones to give me any "Bhaav" so to speak. So I thank UT Arlington from the bottom of my heart for judging me capable of being a part of their institute. Now that me going to the US is just a matter of securing the Visa, I'm going to take it easy this semester (if I can take it any easier!). Anyway I can now safely lecture juniors on GRE and stuff because I have got my ticket.

I hope this first admit is leading the line of eight more. But no matter which university I get into or which one I go to, UT Arlington will always remain in my memory as the one that gave me my first tangible opportunity to believe. Here's to more of those moments!

Why Chandrayaan

A long time back I wrote a post criticizing the need for Chandrayaan. A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of attending a talk on "Chandrayaan and Beyond" by Dr. P. J. Bhat, a senior scientist at ISRO. The talk was about how Chandrayaan conceived and the technical hurdles faced in putting the lunar module into orbit around the moon.

A student asked a very pertinent question - Considering the various problems the common man of India is facing like hunger and poverty, how can the crores of rupees spent on the mission be justified?

The answer actually brought back memories of a essay topic I came across preparing for the GRE. Should countries focus their attention on solving the problems of today? Or should they try to find solutions to problems we would face in the future. The answer I came up with was that the problems we face today are becuase of negligence of governments yesterday. In order to not let history repeat itself, we must focus our attention towards anticipating future problems and try to solve them.

The Chandrayaan question had a similar answer. Every major technology we use today has in some way or the other descended from space exploration technology. Cutting edge really is so out there. So eventually the common man will reap the benefits of this mission.

The other point is that while we can imagine man zipping across the galaxy and conquering space, it has to begin with a small step. We are still not so advanced a species that we share our technology with everyone else. Commercial considerations still play the major role in deciding our priorities. If India has to keep pace with other countries on all fronts, this is the only way to do it.

A great success like Chandrayaan which has been achieved at a relatively low cost and a very low rate of failure is something to be proud of. Until we develop a world government and have one body deciding every future aspect of space exploration, Chandrayaan is the way to go.

Making a quiz is fun

I am gearing up to host my first quiz and setting questions is an exhausting process. I have been working for 2 days and I have only set 10 questions. But I love every minute of it. I have to take care that the questions have enough clues for the people to be able to work them out but not so easy that they come up with the answer right away.

A good quiz is one in which the people have the answer on the tips of their tongues but need a bit of coaxing to get it right. Even if they do not get it, when the answer is revealed, they ought to be surprised at its simplicity. At least that is how I like my quizzes.

I want the whole experience to be perfect. The quiz is to be held on February 5 hopefully and is open to all students of SPCE-SPIT. For anyone outside who wants the questions just for the heck of it, do leave behind your email addresses and I will mail it to you by Monday for sure. I will be grateful for any feedback about the questions.

My wonderful IEEE trip

When I signed up to go on my college's IEEE trip to Amritsar, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in November, I expected something great because this year's committee is filled with people whom I felt were very good at what they do. My classmates, for reasons best known to them, declined to join me on the trip and planned their own trip to Kullu Manali, etc. Finally it was only me, Jinju and Deepu (Project Fridays minus Debu) from BE Electrical who went on the IEEE trip.

The trip to Amritsar from Mumbai was extremely boring chiefly because 6 of us were isolated from most of the people we knew. But from the moment that journey ended, it was fern and excitement all the way.

I was expecting it to be biting cold in Amritsar and when we arrived I was not surprised that everyone of us felt like we were suffering from Parkinson's. It took some time to get used to it but the wonderful hotel rooms made up for the cold. We stayed at S.G. Resorts and the experience was brilliant. And the food - fantastic. Really rich Punjabi food with loads of Paneer and the best part was, it was so cold there that we did not feel really heavy in spite of pigging out all the time.

The first day we went to Jallianwala Bagh. I was pretty depressed by the end of it and the short walk to the Golden Temple was spent in silence. My first glimpse of the Darbar Sahib in the middle of the Sarovar was something that will remain etched in my memories forever. The feeling of peace that I got there despite the rather large crowd seemed like a godsend and lifted the heaviness I felt after visiting the Bagh. A view of the Granth Sahib and a meal in the langar made me feel like a new man.

The next day we gave the Industrial visit to Khanna Paper Mills a wide berth and instead went to the local market which was not too productive either. That afternoon we left for the Wagah Border to view the 'Beating the retreat' Ceremony. The ceremony felt more like a shouting match between the two sets of guards - The Border Security Force on our side and the Pakistani Rangers on the other. It was nevertheless a very different experience and as we kept shouting slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande mataram, i realized that the life we have in India despite the corruption and other nonsense, really is worth fighting for.

The next day we set out for a small station called Makkhu where we were supposed to board the Jammu Tawi Express for Jodhpur. The boarding was a near miss as we had assembled on the wrong platform. We boarded from the side which did not actually have a platform and since the coaches did not arrive in order meant a lot of chaos for the next hour or so after everyone got in from everywhere but it was all fine in the end.

We arrived in Jodhpur the next morning and immediately left for our camps at Jaisalmer. The ride was a bit long and a change of plans meant we had lunch at the famous Chandam Shree Hotel and went and saw Gadisar Lake first where we indulged in a spot of boating. We reached the camp late in the evening as the sun was just about to set and watched a wonderful folk dance performance which involved women picking up needles and blades with their eyelids and some major balancing acts.

Of all the things, the wonderful night view of the stars was blocked by dark clouds for the entire time we were there. It was actually drizzling in the desert and it was unfortunate that I had to give star gazing a miss. The tents were pretty warm and the food pretty fine.

The day after we went to Jaisalmer fort and had a beautiful view of the town. We managed to buy a Pagdi for Jinju's surprise birthday which he knew we were going to have and also took in a fun camel ride back to the camp. Jinju's birthday celebration went off pretty well and we expected to have a lot of fun the day after. However the next day was spent in the bus travelling back to Jodhpur and since we arrived at night we could not get anything done.

The hotel at Jodhpur was well worth the wait as the four star rooms seemed straight out of a movie. There was a bathtub and a swimming pool and for people like your's truly who had not bathed for 3 days running it was heaven. There was a bit of dancing involved before dinner and the wonderfully cooked dinner itself which ended the day on a perfect note.

On the 17th, our last day, we went to see Mehrangadh fort and had a beautiful view of the Blue city and visited the famous Chamunda Mata temple. We had precious little time to buy stuff for people back home and the tour guide took us to some emporium where they were selling stuff at Mumbai prices and that was actually the only big disappointment of the trip.

A short visit to the hotel where we had late lunch and loaded our luggage on to the buses and we were on our way to the station. we boarded the Suryanagari express to Mumbai and arrived today just an hour late.

As it was my last college trip I really wanted it to be a special experience. When we realized that on the trip, it would only be the three of us without our class, I felt we would get bored of seeing each other's faces. However I met a lot of people on the trip. My impressions of a few people changed and I gained many new friends. The IEEE committee went out of their way to make this journey good for us and they pulled it off admirably. They completely repaid my trust in them and this was really one of the best trips I have ever been on.

Me and Jinju wanted to make a documentary about the trip but the videos from the Golden temple and Jalianwalla bagh got erased. However we got some good videos and the birthday vids were also covered by Rohit and Ganapati's special channel. Hopefully with a bit of editing we can still make it a cool Project Fridays video.

Many thanks to Pratap, Taha, Gurtej, Badrike, Ronnie, Divya, Anand, Srihari, actually everyone for making this an unforgettable experience.