The Phoenix's Song..

7th sem has been a mixture-in different proportions- of hectic work with everyone breathing fire down my neck at the last minute and lazy afternoons when I have all the time in the world for myself.. The lazy afternoons,when all actions of mine are lackadaisical attempts to regain some momentum in reading or writing or some such thing, is what I'd prefer to the former.. But the hectic weeks are what makes me better, I guess. Having survived one of those crazy hectic weeks last week, and done pretty decently at that, I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, which is packed with tests and tests and yes, more of those damn tests, but I think I won't be lacking in time for anything.. because tests are more tolerable than assignments and the records.. Oh, did I just mention records? Records are the reason time became a constraint- a commodity an engineering student usually has in ample abundance-they certainly deserve more than a passing mention here. Hence the elucidation. Ne...

2nd internals are on. I have RTS and OFC tomo, and the syllabus for this test is vast. Not to mention, it's a do or die situation for me, coz I've already taken the first test lightly, and life gives you only one second chance to un-screw any screwed up thing. The discerning reader might wonder why I choose to update my blog today of all days. When there is so much of cramming to be done, what am I doing here? Especially when I know that I'm gonna die tomo if I don't do it? Surely, nothing so consequential has occurred that it has to be updated right now? Well no, but Go figure. We had Image processing today.. and hardly 20 students gave the internals- the rest of them are busy cramming for tomo. The paper was way below standards, Murphy's law hitting the others in the face. Tomorrow's subjects are not freaking tough or anything, it's just the general negligence by all of us which fetched us terrible marks-except the 6-7 'Good students'(all of you re...

The role a teacher plays in life is one which can't be sufficiently explained in words. But what are bloggers for, if not to attempt to express the inexpressible, procure the non-procurable and measure the immeasurable? Here goes.. Anyone who hasn't had a teacher who changed their lives cannot empathize with this post. For now, let's forget that particular lot and focus on those who, like me, have become what they are, thanks to a teacher, at some point of time in their lives. The aforementioned Guru, who made such an impact on me, was DVN sir. He taught Maths, Physics and Chemistry. To the others, that is. To me, he taught far more than what anybody else has taught me-apart from parents- in life. The reason I learnt that much from him was probably because he didn't preach much. He simply practiced-and still does, I know. He commanded respect, never demanded it. Beginning of 10th std, I was a girl who hardly cared to attend classes-bunked at every opportunity I got un...

World expo, Shanghai: On November 18, 1999, the Chinese government officially decided that Shanghai would bid for the 2010 World Expo. With support from home and abroad, Shanghai won the bid on December 3, 2002, at the 132nd General Assembly of the International Exhibitions Bureau. The world exposition is for the first time being hosted by a developing country,creating a record for itself. Beijing Olympics overall cost: 4.2 million. World expo, Shanghai: 42million. Expected visitors: 70 million. Cab drivers trained to speak English, about a 1000 new cabs. The entire city tidied up-an understatement-for the big event, also taken into consideration is the convenience-and inconvenience-of the residents of the city. The plethora of events being conducted inspires even as it slaps you across the face that Mumbai was supposed to be the next Shanghai- and at the current rate Shanghai is pacing ahead, we have to work really hard to get anywhere close. The staggering improvement made by Chi...

7:12 a.m. I stand on a pavement opposite to my college, waiting for a comrade to turn up. Breezy morning. A woman weaves a basket behind where I stand. A man is cutting wood, right next to the woman. 3 guys enjoy a smoke and conversation. A boy cycles his way to school. A vintage car passes by. An old man carries a heavy bag and walks towards his destination. The birds suddenly demand attention. A family are on a trip-the car is ringing with music, the grandfather driving the car! The same vintage car passes by again-I'm not too sure. I turn around, the woman is now arranging the baskets, the man has done such a good job with the wood, I think he makes them thin enough to weave baskets, but I don't know if that can be done.I'm hoping I will get to see him make the wood into thin strips so I'll know for sure. And they're now listening to the local news on a transistor (I presume). A lady and her colleague walk past me. The lady talks about her son's studies. The...

What has changed, and what remains unchanged.. First for the changes: We have only senior lecturers-surprisingly, all the junior lecturers who handled a few of the 7th sem subjects previously have been replaced, and we are glad. We have SEVEN hours theory in a day. 9-5, on two days of the week. Now, this is something I've never, like never done in my life before-attending 7 hrs theory. If you think 'final year' is supposed to be light, think again. Lab groups- CCN lab commences next week. ADC lab started this week. We had a good laugh after the lab, thanks to preksha's bag and overflow of creativity from Poornima, Mallika, Shruthi Rao and yours truly. My lab group has 1 new member-the remaining 3 of us continue.. and Sannan, for the first time is not gonna be in my group in either of the labs this sem-lets see how it turns out to be. The then freshers and the present 3rd sem guys occupy the adjacent classroom-and I'm trying to get used to having them around-it's...

Just another ordinary friday evening. A clear sky. A slight breeze, enough to keep you cool, not enough to give you chills.. A cleaned room. New books in the closet-some specially acquired ones. New course books too. A new wallet placed on the table. A photograph(also on the table) which brings a smile always. The frame which brings memories. Maggi noodles. A phone. A computer with unlimited broadband, and touch wood, continuous connection for quite sometime now. A brother in the adjacent room who comes to me when he needs help, and looks up to me. Who also quarrels. Who knows me like how I know myself. Quite the contrary of another ordinary friday evening, if you ask me.. such evenings are rare, moments when I get to enjoy the silence, be my own company, experience tranquility. Peace!

There is no upside in screwing up things you can't explain. -Captain Roy Montgomery.

The Indian Rupee gets a symbol-woot!-thus distinguishing it from other countries which have the rupee as their currency. But, they say, the symbol will not be seen in print on our currency notes-not just yet. That will take a while, and I can't wait for it. Getting the symbol means international brand recognition, the INR joining the elite club of currencies like the Japanese Yen, Euro, the British pound or the US dollar. And, how can I forget, it was apparently designed by an IITian. Congratulations, Pranab Mukherjee and the ministry. One way to go about the international popularization of the symbol is printing and circulating, and another is branding the symbol on keyboards. So once the symbol is passed by the required authorities, we're gonna have the symbol on Indian keyboards-cool eh? For some unfathomable reason, I'm all excited about the INR getting a symbol! It somehow comes off as very 'Indian', because of the adaptation from the Devanagiri script. A ...

Familiarity breeds contempt. This is probably the zillionth time you've come across this adage. With a few exceptions, I must agree that it is true in my case. I don't really wanna explain why it is so, but I'm curious to know from you guys. Is it the same with all of you? Or do you find familiarity a welcome thing(be it people or places)? But familiarity with places can't breed contempt, can it? A penny for (all of)your thoughts, please.

We were supposed to have a class trip on sat, coz we had sports day in coll, which meant no classes, and since we know that we can't bunk and go on a class trip, this seemed to be an ideal opportunity. As you must have already realized by my choice of wording, the trip didn't happen. I blame it on our inaneness. A week before this or so, I'd already registered for the 8051 programming event in the MSRIT fest which was also scheduled on sat, coz I knew Koushik owed me this one.( I agreed to partner him for the 8051 event in Manthan in spite of me being informed on short notice-actually the night before the event) Friday, 10.15p.m: A msg from the class rep-Very sorry to inform you that the trip has been postponed to next saturday.. We then decided to go to MSR, and see if fate would be a kind mistress. Sat: We reach MSR, and the campus is huge. Well, if you happen to study in BIT, any other college campus will look huge I suppose. For about the entire stretch, Koushik w...

If you preach something, you should practice it. Else, don't preach. This is in reference to that fact mentioned in class today. "Probability of an event occurring when there are two events in the sample space is 0.5 in a random process". The minute the words came out, I was furious. You bloody don't preach what you don't practice. The person in question went on to say that it is a random process, so the event has to occur infinite times before we compare the probabilities. So, he believes in it. He believes in the fairness of life, and the statement. And yet, my classmates don't feel that there's fairness in the way classes are conducted. I know its none of my business to dictate how people should live, but there are certain basic things you can't violate-the most basic one being your words and actions shouldn't be a contradiction. And yes, I'm gonna put extreme efforts to use my energy in constructive ways than sit and judge him in his class...

Morning folks! Haven't been in the habit of posting before leaving to college, but hell, there is a first time for everything in life. That includes the feeling to post something before leaving..Ok, my life isn't exactly happening at the moment. hell, I feel it has been reduced to the mundane routine of attending classes, read in free time-anything other than acads, and sleep for eons.. But, there is something I feel happy about. I'm reading like as if its summer hols and there's nothing else that requires my attention-which is far,far away from the truth-but the joy that I get by just reading is inexplicable..for one, it spares you the nonsensical chatter you tend to have with friends, allows you to contemplate-which I believe I'd prefer than to spend time with company these days.. Infact, I think a few months of solitude will do more good than harm to me.. I was first inspired by the idea of being solitary when I saw the book "one hundred yrs of solitude...

Mountains look beautiful only when looked from a distance. But it would be foolish to say that you'd rather not admire the mountain's view, just coz you know that only when you get closer do you actually see the reality. In my opinion, as long as you know that you should keep that much distance in order to see the beauty of it, you're doing perfectly fine! P.S: I very humbly request the readers NOT to extrapolate this post to your whims and fancies. Please refrain. Thank you.

6th sem started somewhere in feb, and we're done with an internal..courtesy our time-table, not to mention the awesomeness of the person who came up with it, I feel like I've spent all my time in college since coll reopened. Life has been frustrating and fun alternately. The good part is it hasn't been boring. Books read of late: 1.Kiterunner(Khaled Hosseini)-can't find another piece of fiction so brilliantly written. Godfather comes second to this, though the two books aren't related in any way. I know you don't compare things which have nothing in common, but anyways..(actually, acc to me, you can find similarities even in things extremely dissimilar, if you have a keen eye. Go figure) 2.Straight from the gut(Jack Welch)- I can't rate this, as I skipped thru half the pages in the book. The parts I read, I liked. Rather, I should say, the parts I liked, I read. 3.Like the flowing river(Paulo Coelho)-a collection of stories that you have in all probability r...

A short post in remembrance of '09: 2009 was a good year. Cannot compare '09 with the previous one(that's almost always) as every year that goes by gives you something new, and when things are new, a first, there's nothing before it to compare with( I always believe in comparing my present to my past,so when it is a first of the kind, it becomes the standard for future comparison) . I like that. Diversifying my areas of interest, meeting new people, new ideas, yes, that sounds very kickass to me, and a little bit of all that was a part of '09. My reading habits now: Non-fiction holds a lot more appeal than fiction, fantasy is almost thrown out of the window. I'm yet to digest the fact that a non-fiction book can keep me interested just as much-or more than-as fiction. Its probably coz fiction is too predictable and you hardly get any fundae from them, contrary to books like The Tipping Point(to my surprise, I liked it!), or Freakonomics. Music: Metal, I've...