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Monday, February 23, 2009

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.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

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.

Friday, February 13, 2009

The Reject Part 2

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

Sigh.

Friday, February 06, 2009

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.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

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!