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.

Back

Its been a long time. What with the GRE, TOEFL, computer crash, university applications, a visiting cousin and pure laziness, I couldn't bring myself to update the blog.

But here I am and I hope I can keep up the blogging.

P.S. Priyanka is the hottest woman in Indian cinema today (courtesy Dostana).

Short Films

We have nothing better to do on fridays (which is our project day) and so we decided to make movies on Jinju's camera. This is our first attempt. Do let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfUS6mONpZ8

Muhahahahaha

Sem 6 clear

We finally got our sem 6 results today. After a tantalizing wait (because most of us wanted to know if we cleared Power Electronics) I got a call from Vineet saying that results were out; this at 10.30 at night (bloody hell).

Sabdaman went to check out the results and told me I had passed and Debu told me I got 69%. Not bad considering that many people failed in Power Tronics. And I am at least consistent because I have made 3rd rank in class my private domain.

Thank God Chaukya got only 4 kts and in spite of his delibitating jaundice he will stay with us this year. Amazing performance by Debu who scored 64% (rounded off man) and is in the top 15 of the class. He thought he was going down. So also did JD who cleared 10 papers. The wounded Tamilian strikes. All the best to Pari.

Most people cleared so let the good times roll on.

Arsenal vs West Bromwich Albion

Arsenal kicked off the 2008-09 season yesterday with an unconvincing 1-0 victory over newly promoted West Bromwich Albion. A 4th minute strike by debutant Samir Nasri was enough to see off the wolves as the gunners held on to their lead for the next 86 minutes.

Arsene Wenger was forced to play many players out of position due to injuries to his squad. The 21 year old old Denilson took on the mantle of holding midfielder with Nasri and Theo Walcott on his left and right with Emmanuel Eboue incongruously playing in the centre of midfield. Youngster Johan Djourou was given a start alongside Willam Gallas in the back as usual suspects Manuel Almunia, Gael Clichy and Bakary Sagna completed the defence. Upfront were hitman Emmanuel Adebayor and surprisingly, Nicklas Bendtner.

Arsenal began the first half in hot form with some brilliant plays along the left flank thanks to overlapping runs by Clichy and Nasri and only 4 minutes into the half, their efforts bore fruit and Denilson latched on to a Clichy pass and just did enough to turn it in for Nasri who finished it like he had been playing with the team forever. A few minutes later Theo Walcott headed the ball off an Adebayor cross, only to be denied by Scott Carson. Not too long afterwards William Gallas thundered in a shot which was just instant away.

Just when the Arsenal fans were expecting a rout, the Wolves became sharper in defence and managed to kill off some good moves. Walcott looked unsettled and was unable to put his pace to any use. Eboue always looked short of ideas and Adebayor revealed a selfish streak as he refused to pass the ball to a better placed player and prefered to shoot wide.

The Wolves were impotent in the first half with only one good chance which was parried by Almunia. The second half saw them more lively as they threatened to score on more than one occasion. An Ishmael Miller shot was replused by Almunia who was helpless to stop the rebound by Paul Robinson, but it was cleared off the line by Djourou. Things did not favour either side as Robin Van Persie replaced Bendtner with Kolo Toure coming on for Walcott. The match ended in a well fought victory for the gunners and as for West Brom, there is really no shame in losing to Arsenal at their home ground after putting up a good fight. If they show this tenacity in all their games, even a top half finish cannot be ruled out.

As for Arsenal, it was clear they were missing the creativity of Cesc Fabregas. The fans would be relishing the prospect of seeing him and Nasri working in tandem. Denilson rose to the occasion and made a few good interceptions and generally held the ball well. It would be interesting to see how he holds up against the bigger clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea. At back, Djourou made a few errors but that came from a lack of confidence and he should shape up pretty well. Gallas led the lads well and it was a correct decision to let him retain the armband.

Theo Walcott has to get more creative and improve his dribbling. A case of stiff legs perhaps? Adebayor had better not let his ego get in his way and Bendtner needs to combine better with the Togolese. Van Persie is due for a bit of luck as far as injuries are concerned and will hopefully start scoring soon.

What one looks forward to is the return of Cesc Fabregas, Thomas Rosicky, Eduardo and the free flowing, mouth watering football that flows when this young (now also experienced?) and unlucky (but not for long hopefully!) side takes the field. Next up, its Fulham.

Brainless wisdom

Jack Nicholson, in a memorable scene from 'The Departed', tells a young Matt Damon, "When I was your age, they told me you could become cops or criminals. Today, what I'm saying is this - When you're facing a loaded gun........ what's the difference?"

I was sitting in a lecture where the teacher was trying to teach us Control Systems. Everything on the board appeared a blur as she harped on about 'Operating Points' and 'Gain Compensation' and other incomprehensible bullshit. I wished I was in the canteen or playing football or in my house or just about anywhere else because the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I was wasting my time.

That reminded me of something my uncle told me once. he said, "You can be either a doctor or an engineer." When I sit in a classroom where the only thing I think about is getting the hell out, I ask myself, "What's the fucking difference?"

Congrats Abhinav

Thank you very much Abhinav for making the country proud. Winning India's first individual Gold in the olympics is an honour every athlete would have craved, but you beat them to it. Your personal coach from Germany and a private shooting range would have no doubt made it simpler. No doubting your skill though or your ability to cope with pressure. It just makes me sad that most of our other athletes train under apalling conditions and simply lack the funds to garner more medals.

I hope you do the right thing by investing all the money, which the various state governments have announced for you, in building a world class sports facility in the country. You don't need the money. Make yourself the cornerstone for India's future olympic successes. Its the perfect time. I hope one day will arrive when we will not have to blink our eyes with surprise when it is announced that India has won a medal in the olympics. I hope I live to see that day........

P.S. :I wonder if I can win a gold for India too. The spirit of the games demands that any athlete who is good enough, can participate. (Unless he or she is charged with doping, like Monica Devi.)

Inflation :-( or :-) ???

I read a piece on inflation today in the Times of India by Anand Soondas. He says India need not be worried about a 12% inflation rate where countries like Zimbabwe have had to issue a $100bn note which just about buys 2 loaves of bread. (Incidentally the Zimbabwean government has decided to convert the 100bn into a 10$ note). He goes on to give examples of hyperinflation faced my many countries, especially after World Wars, like the Weimar Republic, Yugoslavia and Hungary (where the government had to issue a 100 quintillion note, because prices were doubling every 15 hours).

He also raises a very interesting point when he says inflation can actually be good in some ways. he contends that because of inflation, people are less likely to celebrate. So the amount of noise at parties and indeed the number of parties decreases which leads to lesser noise pollution!!! He also talks about his neighbour who had 5 cars but had reduced them to 3 with only 1 for his 3 children because of increasing petrol prices. This, he says, has reduced pollution in his area.

While he could have been jesting, it is interesting to observe that this is indeed the case. But in a country where people are dying in the hundreds everyday, I doubt if the so called positive effects are even cared about. While I am against pollution, I would rather breathe in sulphur on a full stomach than sit in virginal air eating nothing.

Now if we could only find a way to limit inflation to idiots who waste fuel and electricity........

Won a Quiz!!!

I went to the Bombay Quiz Club's open quiz on sunday, just to get an idea about the kind of questions asked in good quizzes. I reached the place in Santacruz well in time and one of the founders of the club took my name and used a randomization software to asign me a team.

There is a league system in place and there are 6 seeded players. 1 of them was Sumanth who was in my team. 8 teams were formed with people coming late geting added to teams at random. There were 5 people in my team including myself, Sumanth, Dhananjay and 2 other guys whose names I didn't catch. There were 49 questions with each correct answer getting 2 points and with infinite rebounds.

When I stepped into the room, I thought I would just be sitting there with my moth open and watch some awesome quizzers at work. But to my surprise, I actually knew some of the answers which others didn't. I was also able to work out some of the answers and was an asset to my team rather than a liability. At the end of the quiz we had the most points and I won my very first Quiz at BQC!!!

The quizzers there are way ahead of me butI guess with experience I will improve. I hope to make this a regular practice and will see if this win was just a fluke or whether I really know something.

Saving Power

I have been hearing for a long time that a black webpage consumes lesser power than a white one and so I have finally decided to change my blog template. Won't make a huge difference but every small step helps I believe and I ask everyone who reads this blog to consider doing the same. (Yes Sagaro I mean you. You get a lot of hits so help set an example.)



In order to save themselves from a huge electricity bill , my society has come up with a scheme which seems very effective and simple but I believe is an utter failure. According to the latest notice, to save power the society will switch off one lift in each wing between 2 pm and 5 pm and between 10 pm to 6 am everyday. Each wing has two lifts and this sounds like a really effective scheme to save the moolah. It also gives people an opportunity to brag at work about their earnest eforts to save the earth from global warming.



Utter crap. Just how many people would use the lift during the non- peak hours? We would anyway require only 1 lift at those times. What I would like to see is only one lift operational during peak hours. I believe that people would be so irritated at losing valuable time waiting for the lift to come to their floor that they would prefer using the stairs and this would mean lesser usage of the lift. But people won't like this would they. Most of them are only too happy to pretend to care as the current eviro-friendly atmosphere demands being eco friendly. But I wonder how many would care to take the stairs down when they leave for work. Bloody hypocrites.

And we keep running

After months of dithering I finally re re restart running. Its an amazing thing running. Its called a democratic sport. Have feet, will run. A slow jog, an energetic trot or a full sprint, it doesn't matter and neither do the reasons.

There came a time a few years ago when I got it into my head that I needed to get fit. I started swimming, I played various sports, I started going to the gym, I started yoga and I started running. I still play the occasional sport but slowly gave up the rest. I grew bored with the routine. But something, and I don't know what, brings me back to running. Whenever I sense a thickening of the waist, whenever I feel the need to be left alone, whenever I feel the need to think, I feel like running.

In most cultures, running is primarily viewed as a way to attain that perfect shape. Lardballs feeding at burger joints and a million other insufferable places view it as a great way to become a "stud". And why not? But to many other people running is more than that. Its about spirituality. Its about feeling one with nature, feeling one with the wind, the grass (ok maybe concrete), the earth and with oneself.

So I put on my shoes, do a few stretches and set out. I pick a destination which I can cover in 15 minutes or so. And I am off. The first few minutes feel great. The weather is perfect, cloudy with no rain. I reflect on various aspects of my life and people around me. My thoughts go to an advertisement featuring Thierry Henry in which he is running alone, just like I am and it feels cool. Just for the first few minutes.

Then the pain starts. It begins just below my ribcage and spreads to my calves and heels. I huff and puff like the steam engine to Matheran struggling up the slope. I check my watch and see that not even 9 minutes have elapsed. Its the inertia of the previous sedentary months I suppose. A voice keeps telling me "Dude 9 minutes are enough for the first day. Just stop. Tomorrow you can do more." But I refuse to listen. The destination is only 6 minutes away. All thoughts vanish from my head and only the white line, which would mean I have arrived, fills my eyes.

I labour on gamely despite 75 kilos of Rohit dragging me back. 12 minutes. So very close and I put on an extra burst of pace hoping it will help me forget the pain. The adrenaline surges as I stagger on. I know I can do it........... 14 minutes.......... I see the line. I have timed this run to perfection. As the seconds count down and the line approaches ever so close, I feel a sense of relief.

As I cross the line and slow down to a walk to prevent my muscles from seizing, my breathing begins to slow. The pain lessens. But my heart soars high. Higher than the clouds that obscure the sun. It is a feeling like no other. The sweet smell of success is intoxicating and makes me forget everything else. As I walk back, the sky darkens and it begins to drizzle. Rain falls on the thirsty earth triggering that sweet smell and drenching everything.

I walk home through the downpour a proud man.