Finally, it's over

Yesterday my 7th sem engineering results were out and I'm so relieved that I cleared SGP(with my lowest ever internals-15!) so now I'm lisenced to use the words "missing" for my Manipal days. All this while the results were threatening to undermine the use of the word itself as there was a small possibility of me having to go back to college to write my make-up paper but all that can be thrown out of the window now.Honestly, I did believe that I had done just enough in the paper to see me through but then, you never know until the results are out.How much I love my ability to never overestimate myself! :-)

Moving to my life in general,the past 15-20 days have been the most enjoyable.There's hardly a good or bad emotion I didn't feel.Bhaiya's marriage, fear of failure in exams, visit to an amusement park with Sagar, Anubhav and APS and riding on such rides that twist you round and round from all possible directions at a height of 20 feet, having the usual argument with one of my best friends,spending time with my now "Complete" family(thanks to the newest member, my Bhabhi) and then, most recently, loneliness( thanks to the honeymoon schedule of the newly married couple :( ).

Thus, I'm back to the world of chess and there are a few tournaments lined up in the next month and a half, which would get me closer towards an international rating, for which I've craved all this while.There are a few people who've started showing me the sky by saying that "At age 23, you've all the time in the world to become a GrandMaster if you work from now".These are the words of Mr. Anoop, the founder of a FIDE(the world chess governing body) affiliated club here in Delhi and by mentioning him I've reminded myself that I've to rush now so that I can undergo the 2-hour journey to meet him in time and hone my Grand Master skills :)

So, bye bye till the next update!

Do we still need any "proofs" of Pakistani hand??

It's been a week since terror struck Mumbai right in the face. As usual, there were visits of politicians promising the world to the families of the deceased and this time,for a change, the government has apparently taken a sterner approach towards our neighbours, but the situation has hardly changed.

Interrogating one of the terrorist has clearly relvealed that the 11 people responsible for shaking Mumbai up left the shores of Pakistan from Karachi on a small ship and the next day, they got help from a Pakistani vessel. They have been given intense military training in Pakistan. While the top brass of the Pakistani government keep on denying this and pledging "full support" to us, its pretty evident that they themselves know the fact better than anyone that Pakistani land is being used for infiltration.

The U.S. President-elect Mr. Obama has supported India by saying that we can go ahead and bomb the terror camps if Pakistan can't do anything to stop it.It does send out a strong signal but with all the diplomacy involved, its still a long call.However, we might just have a few more concrete steps coming up from the Indian government in the near future.
Let's wait and watch!

Happy phase over, life comes full cycle!

Not so long ago I posted about how everything had apparently fallen into place, from academics to sports to personal life.And now,life's come a complete cycle.
The past month has been anything but perfect. Spending diwali at home after a 3 year gap is probably the only good thing about it.The lesser I speak about academics, the better as at this point of time I'm giving a shot at the end sem exam, with the aim of clearing a paper with my lowest ever internals. Apart from that, the phone that I loved so very much has been practically ruined.It soaked in rain when I obliged happily to Omveer's idea of walking in Manipal's rains "One last time". To add to the misery, I switched on my phone a bit too early and now its got a strange problem.Everything is functional but the phone itself,i.e. it always shows "No network".Funnily you can use all other features of it!I hope it'll be fine once I reach home after the end sem.

The addiction to online chess is thankfully fading and thus the time isn't far when I'll be having nothing to do in my room and will resort to books out of boredom!I hope this happens before the end sem exams.

An exciting 30 days are in prospect for me,where I'll be writing my end sem exams, flying to Delhi and back within a span of 24 hours, write my remaining papers and then there'll be a week or so in Delhi with my college friends!Really looking forward to this one :)

ADDICTED to Chess!

In case you missed the capital letters in the title, go read it again and it'll tell you what I mean.Online chess had always been one of my favourite pastimes but these days its reached a new high.All credit goes to my chess captain, Mr. Abhimanyu Sangwan, who introduced me to this new site, www.chessbase.com (as if spending 4-5 hours a day on Yahoo chess wasnt enough!) and here I am... taking regular doses of the game.

You do get addicted to something you're good at(for example,I never get addicted to studies) and if you have a few people sharing the same interest,there's nothing like it.

Thankfully, this habit of mine has reaped some rewards in a short time,i.e. going to KMC, Mangalore as the captain of the "B" team of my college and winning against a few good players does instil a sense of confidence in you, which you carry with yourself throughout the day, in no matter what you are doing.There are a few certificates that I'm supposed to get and if Mr. Sangwan is mindful and generous enough, I might as well get them before passing out of here.
For those who're still untouched by the game,I would like you people to just give it a go and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The negative part is that I've got so much addicted to it that sadly I've not been able to spend as much time with my friends as I used to.I still make it a point to do that but its difficult to give this up completely.And on the rare occasion that I find myself free to chat to them, one or the other is busy with something and I'm in a way forced to return to chess.

Life's lately been going pretty smooth,not much turbulence anywhere.Second sessionals have been messed up as has always been the case with me but this time I had scored comparatively better in the first so am not much worried about that right now.Have been meeting quite a few new people in the last fortnight and the latest in the series was meeting Komal yesterday and in some ways, she lived upto the impression of the childish person that I'd expected her to be after hearing her voice.I might have gone horribly wrong here and either of Omveer or Komal reading this would definitely want to chop my hands off but then,its MY BLOG,isn't it?? :)

Things falling into place..finally things are keeping me busy!!

If anyone ever needed a definition of "multitasking" they should monitor my life over three weeks,i.e. the one gone by and the two to come.

It all started with a leisurely walk into the chess room of my college,where I turned up for the trials for the college team.I had given up on playing chess since my 7th standard and then started playing here online,just for killing time.Till my second year I didn't even know that we have a chess team and trials are held for it.Last semester I managed to get into the substitutes of the third year chess team and was lucky to get a game because Harsh,the person who re-ignied the passion for chess in me,had to pull out at the last moment. It was 14th Feb,2008 and I lost the game after taking the lead.Not giving excuses but my mind was somewhere else,after all I expected(and probably deserved) a better "Valentines' Day" than that nightmare.And ultimately it was my defeat that cost us the tournament,as we lost by a score of 1.5-2.5

Anyways,this year I desperately wanted to give it a shot for the MIT Chess team and thankfully I have improved my game and I was unbeaten in the first round(forcing a draw in 1 and winning 5 of a total of 6 trial games).The captain, Abhimanyu Sangwan(the Grandmaster of our university) was skeptical in picking me(as he should be) because I was outscoring a few big and better known players.However,I played innumerable rounds and finally he was convinced to take me in the "A" team and handed a part of the selection responsibility for the other teams on me.

It was last Tuesday when we had inter year tournament and I played the game of my life to help my team win it.I guess none of you have ever played a game of chess(leave alone on a 5 minute timer) so there's no use trying to explain you the thrill and pressure to avoid defeat at the hands of a first year guy when you're on the backfoot.That victory really set me up and the joy on the face of my teammates was the biggest satisfaction for me.That blitz-krieg prompted me to try my hands in the "Best Individual Player" competition which was to be held the next day and,to my delight,I stood second in that.Harsh,the deserving second placed candidate was third(which was unfortunate) but such was the draw that I didn't get to play him.

So,moral of the story is that the agony of costing my team the title the previous year is mitigating.It would have been nice had my so-called sports freak friends turned out to watch the games(about which I had duly informed them) but then,when they could not come to my cricket games because it was held "under the sun"(at a ground where everyone except the players can sit in the shade) it was too much to expect from them,given that it collided with their dinner time.They wouldn't even know the result had I not told them and I am sure some of them still don't know it,neither do they care.

Moving on to another of the many happier things,I was delighted to get my end sem exam schedule yesterday.I know it sounds weired but I have a reason to be elated.My brother's wedding is on the 30th of November and my exams are from 21st nov to 4th dec.But,the good news is that I don't have any paper on 30th Nov and 1st Dec, which means I'll get around 48 hours to make a u-blink-and-you-miss-me trip to Delhi for that,which was seeming impossible.

The Infosys campus connect program is starting from tomorrow and it'll occupy me for 90 minutes,4 days a week.Add to that the seminar that I've to present tomorrow,for which I've been working for a week.Once that is done with,the chess evenings would reasume and it'll be time for some serious games,as we'll be practicing to defend our title of MAHE Chess Champions in the Inter Mahe Tournament,on 13th and 14th sept.
Then the preparation for the second sessional would start and this time I'll have to perform better so that I can relax a bit in the third test(which has been a dream till now).

All in all,it's been a busy semester till now,with a couple of parties thrown in here and there by my friends to keep me going.I don't know how long these good and busy times would last but I'm loving it like anything.It makes you thing that you're actually not sitting idle whole semester and putting on weight.

SORRY TO THE WHATEVER FEW READERS WHO STILL ARE PATIENT ENOUGH TO VISIT MY BLOG FOR NOT GETTING BACK TO YOU.I'll be back soon..

And Life Moves On...

Couldn't believe that I have not updated my blog since two months now.Not that I didnt have anything worth writing..actually its quite a contrast to it!

A new semester has started and the feeling that this is likely to be my last semester here in Manipal is slowly sinking in.Suddenly I'm overwhelmed by a sense of realisation that sand is running out of my hand at an uncontrollable rate... the way it has been for the last three years.However,this semester is something very very different.I always wanted to live an "all-rounder's" life here,which includes performing well in studies,managing my extra curriculars well,sports of course and a few other things here and there.Not sure what all would I be able to achieve in the next three months but the start is showing ominous signs.

I wrote my sessional papers a week ago and after a long period of low single digit scores since I entered Electrical Engineering I'm happy to announce that it's been fairly satisfactory.For a change I've studied a paper or two in class itself,so as to save up on the preparation time during tests and whatever little effort I had put in,it showed.

Getting the highest marks in one of the low scoring papers was the most satisfying performances and getting 5 double digit scores out of a possible 6 is something that I hadn't done ,if you take out the first yr performance.However,I had set a few goals for this semester,both academically and otherwise and till now,I've been well on course but there's a long way to go before I start jumping up and down.

have been real bad in one paper,scoring 3 on 20 and I've to make sure that I get to a safe total in the next two,so that this doesn't count.
Wish me luck for my goals!!!

Congrats Sagar

This one's for one of the members of my closest friend group here in Manipal,Sagar.
Yesterday he appeared for the selection procedure of his dream company,Deloitte, as did around 400 other students and all but 39 were eliminated after the first round itself.

Anubhav,another close friend of mine,also got through but he could not get beyond the first round of interview,which left only 20 candidates to compete for final selection.
Sagar was one of them and,as we all expected,his name was there in the final list of 13 shortlisted candidates who were finally to be offered a job.

All of us have always held him in high regard and he lived upto that status by getting through both the companies he's appeared in,i.e. Accenture and Deloitte.

As a celebration, he threw a party for just the four of us(himself being the fifth one) and we've returned about two hours ago after a pretty entertaining treat.

I will include some of the pictures of the treat some time later(as my net connection is too slow right now and it's taking an eternity to add an image to this post) to give you an idea of how it went.And before you jump to conclusions about me,let me clarify that I do not drink and it is so much fun when you go to a restaurant cum bar with a bunch of people who actually do drink.

Omveer,famous amongst all of us for his drinks,has surprisingly(and SHOCKINGLY) given up on it.He preferred to watch with just a bottle of breezer to keep him company.

All in all,it turned out to be a good outing,just the kind you need from time to time to take a break from the college schedule and then to return to the same with a fresh mind from the next day.
I initially wished for a job at the earliest for all the five of us.This wish was fulfilled on 4th of June itself,with myself,Sagar and Anubhav all getting a job,to add to Omveer and APS's jobs with TCS which they got a month earlier than that.

However,now the bar has to be raised and my wish would be that all of us get through our dream comapnies in the near future.It will be quite a life after that and the last few months here at M.I.T. in each other's company would add to the happy memories we've had over the last three years.
Pray for us!

Placements: Season III

So,the so called third round of placements have started in our college and it's quite a scene to go and watch the candidates,especially when you are not actually going in and taking the tests :D

Round one was on 2nd May,when Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) came and recruited 322 of my batchmates. I appeared for it,cleared the written but could not get past the technical-cum-HR interview.Thus,I was left high and dry after it,wondering what the future holds for me.Only I know how hard I prayed to get "One Job Somehow".Even if it is in the IT sector only!

Round two unfolded right after our end semester exams of 6th sem,i.e. on June 2,3 and 4.Three companies in three days and they gave hope to the remainder of students,who could not get into TCS. Accenture,Infosys and Wipro were the three companies and according to me,the chances of getting into Accenture and Wipro were bleak,as the former was famous for its elimination in the GD round(which is where I was eliminated) and the latter was famous for its gruelling technical round. Infosys was my only hope.It's written is supposed to be tough but its HR round is considered to be only a formality.

However,the turn of events didnt exactly follow the script.I got through the written of all the three,got kicked out after the G.D. of accenture but even then,I was confident of getting into Infosys. Even before I was to appear for Wipro technical interview the result of Infosys written round was out and I knew that Wipro would only be a "formality" as I was sure to be kicked out in the tech interview.

That left me in a nothing to lose situation and I went into Wipro full of confidence. The technical interviewer was generous enough to ask the questions which I knew well and I was handed out the form for the H.R. round,which is the last hurdle.Confident of failing that one too, I went into it,answered some general questions and somehow qualified it!
Infosys turned out to be quite an anti climax,as I was kicked out in the interview(the "unthinkable" had happened!!)

And now,since the past one week,SEASON 3 has started,with companies like Mahindra and Mahindra, ABB, Deloitte, Sunguard(plzzz.. it's not a company manufacutring sun screen products),Toshiba,L and T and a host of others queued up to come in.

My interest lies in Cummins India Limited,which is due on 29th of July,around 60 hours from now and I've decided today only that I'll sacrifice GMR as my dream job to give a shot at Cummins.Thus,all the readers,pray for me,coz i need the prayers a loooot!
Once selected, those regular readers who are in Manipal would get an immediate treat :)

Amen!

Happy Birthday Dear Laptop :)

As the title suggests,today my laptop completes one whole year in my company.Its travelled with me from Delhi to Manipal and has been my companion through the good and bad times.It's helped me surf the net for uncountable hours,doing a lot of nonsensical things and a few sensible ones as well.
I've chatted to my friends, fought with them, ignored them, shared my happiness and sorrows with them and have let a few people know that I dont exactly hold them in very high regard.All this would have been impossible without it so I think it deserved a full post dedicated to it.
It's never broken down at any stage,has recovered satisfactorily from one or two software issues that keep creeping in from time to time.Thus,all in all,it's been a worthy companion to me.And lately,it's also helped me make a few hundred dollars :D.

No wonder I care for it so much!

It's of my favourite colour, BLACK and for all of you who are still bothered about reading this post,I'm including a pic of it, taken through my ten day old mobile phone(guess I'll write an entire post on it when it completes at least 6 months) but that's quite a story in itself.The image is taken at the place where my laptop usually resides,with the same cluttered surroundings(to give you people a real feel of what it has gone through ;) )

All the blog readers are invited for the party :P

How do you blog?

I always wanted to ask all the bloggers this question.And now that I know that a few people have started visiting mine, what better time than this to put this question through?

I HOPE you people are not thinking literally.We all know how to blog,isn't it?

The point I'm trying to bring out is,"How on earth do you retain your idea?"

I am not one who sits for hours, thinks about a topic, gathers ideas related to it and then organises them to give it the shape of a post which is entertainin/meaningful to read.I am one of those bloggers who gets his ideas from nowhere. And sadly, mostly it happens at a time when I'm out of my hostel, on my way to somewhere(where I have no means or mood to write the ideas down).

When I was sitting in a class,I thought about writing a post on the cribbers of my class. The kind of nerds who will go to any extent(and redefine begging) to get that extra half a mark from a teacher on the day papers are shown. While travelling in a train, I listen to people of all shapes and sizes talking about a variety of things,wanting their ideas to be respected more than Mr. George Bush's and I think of writing a post on the kinds of people you encounter in a train. Then I recall the beggar that crossed on the last signal or the waiter who served me food in the restaurant, who was similar to me in age and I think how possible was it that I'd have been born in his family and faced all the hardships...
We never value our resources much and keep on craving for more, like greedy parasites.We fail to understand that there are people who are in a worse position and who would not get to ours even if they work harder than us whole their lives! Isn't it a tragedy?

And then,I read someone's blog with posts like "The Tag Game","Weired Things About Me",etc etc and I think of writing one myself.

So,basically,after reading all this nonsense, you must have understood that the point in questinon is how on earth do you people manage to gather your ideas and organise them so beautifully into a post?

Finally decided on the new mobile handset :)

The last 36 hours have been full of adventure for me,with my mind diving in a sea of varied emotions (joy,sympathy,frustration,etc to name a few).Before you decide to navigate away from this page thinking that there was(or still is) something terribly wrong with my head at the time of writing the post(due to the difference in the topic and the first few lines),please read on,I bet I'll connect the two.
The "adventure" refers to the procedure of selecting a new mobile phone and the emotions largely concerned either myself or the phone manufacturers(Its upto you to decide which emotion was for whom :P).The ordeal started around 10th July,at my home in Delhi(I am writing this post a week later,from my hostel room in Manipal!)when dad finally gave me the freedom to raise my budget to five(yes,FIVE!!!) figures(with the restriction of keeping the digit at ten-thousand's place to PRECISELY "1" and the following digit "BETTER NOT EXCEED" "2").Anyways,I was too happy to think over these things so I agreed instantly.

This is the time when real problem started,i.e. deciding upon the set.I've been going through all sorts of user reviews,website reviews and forums that discuss the top brands currently doing the market rounds and what follows is a brief account of the the kind of confusion I've had to live with over the past week.

"When you buy a phone,it SHOULD be Nokia".This seems to be the mantra that dominates the minds of the cellphone using masses in the present century.I was guided by the same and I had almost instantaneously decided to go for Nokia N73/Nokia N73 Music Edition(priced at 13k,something which was "affordable" if I could deliver a few perfectly timed dialogues, studded with proper emotions to mummy).


Then I thought about giving other brands a "fair chance".I browsed through the Samsung phones and was amazed to know that they've successively launched 3 phones over the last year or so and all of them have beaten the previous one to take the honour of being "The World's Slimmest Phone".And trust me,once you see their design,you DO NOT want to miss a chance to get it.However,the complaint was that Samsung isn't exacty renowned for their battery life and taking a slider phone is always a gamble.I was blown away by their BEAT 450 model,which boasts of virtually everything you can ask for(and some things that you wouldn't even imagine) in a basic multimedia mobile.However,the 2MP camera was the downsider,as when you're paying 13k,you deserve better than it.There's no protection for the camera lens either and besides,it's got an annoying feature of having to take out the speaker and plug in the headset if you want to receive a call which comes while you're enjoying the supreme music quality.There's a general complaint in Samsung phones that you can't even change the message alert tone.Now how annoying are these features!##%$#@!

Next...

In comes the Sony Ericsson "Cybershot" range,with Xenon flash,that can take quality snaps in pitch dark!Its got all the essential music features,3.2MP camera(the highest resolution possible in my budget!)and all kinds of connectivity facilities that I'm least bothered about.
"How can a phone be so perfect?",I thought.I searched for the answer and I was happy to get it.It uses a joystick,hardy reliable.And,SE aren't renowned for their battery life either,are they?The set looks brick like as well....

Next...
Motorola..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Ok,Ok.. then let me get back to the good old Nokia itself.. I searched on for possible problems in the famous N73s and I found one,to my satisfaction,i.e. the phone hangs at times and the software is relatively slow.It takes time to get the camera started.



But then,it ships with all the gadgets that you can possibly plug into the various slots avaialble in a mobile so who cares?Add to that a 3.2 MP camera with Carl Zeisses Lens(supposed to be the BEST) and 20X digital zoom(perfect for shooting girls from a non-hazardous distance) and the tonnes of other applications,you can hardly ask for anything else.

The lesson I learnt was that no matter how hard you search and what your budget is,you will ALWAYS find a mobile phone lacking in something or the other.Thus,it's the best to go with your heart and that's what I'm going to do.
I had always dreamt of a N-Series phone when I looked at the ad.And their punchline was catchy too(which I surprisingly remember even though I've not seen their ad for more than an year now),i.e. "Meet the new Nokia N-Series".

Ready for the final Hurrah!

My vacations are almost over.Am leaving the comforts of my home(for the comforts of my hostel :) ) tomorrow morning and hopefully this is going to be the last semester full of classes,tests and all there in Manipal.I'm done with 3 years of engineering and its needless to say,I've practically learnt nothing to be of much importance to the Industrial people.That's one of the reasons I am still amazed at what the Wipro Technologies people saw in me that prompted them to select me in their campus interviews and pay me from next year onwards!

Anyways,the point is that this is basically the last semester of my engineering life and all my seniors/teachers/professors have advised me to enjoy it to the fullest because "You will not get these times back in future."Now let me tell them very frankly that that's exactly what I've done in the preceding 3 years!People say that this semester should be "different" and in my case,being that would advice me to study(for a change!), which really sounds nerdy,doesn't it?

However,now I'm starting to worry about the future after B.E. I have the security of a job and that has actually confused my thought process.I always wanted to go for GRE as this seems to be the exam best suited to my style of learning.I even went to the USEFI office here in Delhi to gather as much information about the Universities/courses/scholarships as I could and it was a useful visit.I've also found a very supportive senior to guide me along so I guess I'm ready for it now.I will hopefully decide over the next week whether I really WILL GO FOR GRE or not and that would determine how I spend the last sem in my college..

Have to go off now as mom's been shouting at me for a while to take my breakfast..
bye!

Movie Review:Jaane Tu...ya jaane na

I watched the movie today,exactly a week after its release,at PVR Priya and I feel like writing about it(unlike Love Story 2050 which was way too predictable,combined with ordinary acting and dialogue delivery).

Jaane Tu.. doesn't have any extraordinary script.If you look back at the movies that have released(especially with actors making their debut) you'll find a lot of similarity.Its a typical college romance but what makes the movie worth every penny you spend on it is the way in which a simple story has been narrated.All the characters fit in their roles naturally.Genelia has got a refreshing break from the childish image she used to have and I'm sure she must already have got more offers!


Imran Khan is this simple,sweet, typical chocolate boy many girls would be drooling over by now.He looks as if he had got his name written all over that role.The casting of the movie starts in a rather unusual way,with images of couples of all ages.Honestly,I couldnt get what exactly they tried to show,can only guess..
Anyways,once the movie starts, you get glued to your seats.Never once during the movie did I feel like running out, though the script was somewhat predictable.
It's got everything except fight sequences, i.e. emotional scenes,college romance and an adequate dose of quality,situational humour.

After all,if Aamir Khan decided to produce this one so he must have been convinced by the quality.

The movie isn't perfect,as is the case with all the Hindi movies,as it defies logic a few times,one of it was: For majority of first half the story was based in college but I can't remember any classroom scenes or for that matter,any prof!!

But then, you wouldn't like any Hindi movie if you start searching for logic in each one of them,would you?

To cap it off, Jaane Tu.. is running full four shows at PVR Priya for second successive week and if I remember correctly, the last movie to have achieved this was Kal Ho Naa Ho.. so that should tell you something about the response of the audience.

How is it to travel with old people?

All of us like to travel,don't we?Personally,I've travelled across the breadth of India in the last ten days.The most interesting part was that I got to travel in all kinds of vehicles with people belonging to a varied class of society.It is really interesting to travel with such a diverse group,hear what they have to say and then to add to their discussion if you can.

The most common discussing while travelling in train is the kind the middle aged men indulge in,usually in the mornings,but then it can be at any time of the day.They will pick up any politician from the day's newspaper and start criticising him/her.This will slowly spread to the person's political party and in no time it will cover everyone in the political field.The older men have one major misconception that "these youngsters" cant do the job as well as the older people,let alone do it better than them.Today's youth is more educated than ever and I have no doubt we are equipped and educated enough to carry out a task better than what people belonging to a generation earlier than us are/were capable of doing. The elderly get an eternal pleausre in sitting over coffee and reminding us of how well things were done in "their days".

Well,there are different kinds of travellers and I would shortly do a post on that alone.Am off for some time now,meanwhile you might want to go through Travel, a blog belonging to a friend.

All you wanted to know about EPL

English Premiere League is the biggest and the most widely followed league in the world.There are a lot of webistes running that would claim to bring you up to date with them but then,here is one of my personal favourites.Just go to EPL-English Premier League to satisfy all your appetite for the league,including the live tables,latest match updates and all.
Enjoy with us this coming EPL Season!

A day of sporting extravaganza!

Yesterday,July 6th,was a day full of fun for sports freaks like me.Though I didnt have much to do in the first half of the day,it all changed once the clock hit 15.30IST.
To start with,there was the eagerly awaited Asia Cup Final(Cricket) between India and Sri Lanka.This Indian side has got a new look and energy about it and come across as a side formidable enough to take on any opposition at any venue. India were the favourites yesterday,having already beaten Sri Lanka once in the league stage but then they had not seen anythng of the new Sri Lankan sensation,Ajantha Mendis and he turned out to be the trump card for them.India were set a target of 274 which looked very easy,given that 300+ totals had been chased down fairly easily in the tournament till now.However,the script had something else written in it and Ajantha Mendis was introduced into the attack with the Indians having scored around 85 odd in just 9 overs. Virender Sehwag had done brilliantly yesterday,having reached his 50 off just 26 balls and the team's total read 58 for 1 in 7.2 overs!



However he lost his wicket owing to his continued disrespect for spinners.He went charging down to Mendis' second ball and got himself stumped.India never recovered after that,though Dhoni had some support from Robin Uthappa but they never really looked like chasing down the target and eventually,the line up with 7 specialist batsmen and Irfan Pathan as the eigth one failed to reach even 200,folding up for 173 and handing the Lankans a 100 run win!India are still not shed the "chokers" tag and they'll need to win a few finals consistently to be able to do that.


While India were restricting Sri Lanka to a below par total,the British Grand Prix was in full swing in Silverstone and it did present an enjoyable and exciting race,with the cars spinning left,right and centre in wet track conditions.One of my favourites,Felipe Massa,kept on spinning time and again and I didnt bother counting how many times he did that once he crossed 5!The race winner,Lewis Hamilton did it in style,lapping two world champions in Fernando Alonso and Kimi on his way to the podium and that meant he had lapped every driver upto 4th spot!This result threw open the world championship for drivers,with as many as 3 drivers tied at the top spot on 48 points and Robert Kubica just two points adrift of the trio of Hamilton,Raikkonen and Massa.


I still believe Ferrari would run away with the constructors championship but the two Ferrari drivers have made a mistake by letting Hamilton come down from a spot where one or two more solid performances from Ferrari would have seen him all but out of the Championship race.



And finally,it was time for Rafa to show that he can win on grass too.It was the best Tennis game I've ever seen.Nadal took the first two sets 6-4 each and then it was the time for FedEx to show why he's won the Wimbledon five times in a row.Saving two championship points,he took the next two sets into tie breakers and won both of them,setting up a thrilling final set.Not surprisingly,it also went into tie breakers and then it was the Spanish Warrior who prevailed 9-7 in it to break Federer's dominance at the Wimbledon.

Euro 2008:The Surprises Keep Coming!

We're now left with just 4 games of the showpiece event of the summer,Euro 2008 and we've had plenty of upsets worth mentioning.It all started from the league stage itself, when France,the World cup Finalists, had to lock horns with Italy,the World cup champions for the only available quarter final spot and both the sides knew that even a win against the other might not be enough to see them through.
However, Italy prevalied in the tight game and edged France by a 2-0 margin to sail through.Gigi Buffon deserves all the credit for Italy's progress.He was the man who saved a crucial penalty at the dying stages of Italy's second league game,against Romania,with the scores level at 1-1. Italy would well and truly have been dead had that gone in and that would have put an unexpected end to their Euro dreams. And again, Buffon was instrumental in making a few crucial saves against france. We must not forget the side which caused so much chaos, Netherlands! They scored 9 goals in the three league games and conceded just one, against France and were looking to be the hot favourites for the title. However, as I posted in my last post, the Dutch had started too well and as we've often seen in sports, fairytale starts often don't yield the right results at the end and that's what happened with Netherlands last night.

Holland were knocked out of Euro'08 last night by an inspired Russia and I suspect it has more to do with Guus Hiddink's mastermind than the Russian squad. This man always achieves the results least expected of him, be it in the wolrd cup with South Korea or with Australia and now, another underdog side, Russia! The game was locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes. Russia opened the scoring in the last 20 minutes or so and Holland pulled it back via the talismanic Van Nistelrooy. But it was the Russian Czars who prevailed at the end of the extra time, scoring two late goals to knock the Dutch out.

The earlier quarter final, between Croatia and Turkey was more dramatic. To start with, Turkey had started with 8 players on a yellow card and their first choice goalkeeper was serving a ban following his behaviour in the previous game. The Croats were the hot favourites and they showed it when they opened the scoring in the 119th minute(after the score was 0-0 at the end of 90). The turkish side showed their fighting spirit when they equalised in the 122nd minute to drag the game to penalties. That is where the Croats lost it, as they fired two of their penalties outside the post to hand the Turkish side a 3-1 victory on penalties and a semi final date with Germany, one of the clear favourites now even though the term itself loses its meaning once the knock out stage starts, as we've seen.

Tonight my favourite side, Spain will take on Italy and I back Spain to come out of this one as winners. It is a tough call as Italy are always a strong side but this spanish team can beat anyone. A Spain v Germany final would be a fitting end to this competition and I'd be happy if any of the two sides win.

Euro 2008! The Favourites and the Dark Horses

Well,the Euro fever is at its peak,with just two more nights of league phase games and then we move to the business end of this spectacle,i.e. the knockout phase.Predicting anything in football is always dangerous as you might have to eat up your words later but I would like to stick my neck out here and say what I believe!

Netherlands would be everyone's favourites,given the command they've shown in beating Italy,France and Romania and they've conceded just one goal in the three league games!I've been following football and sports in general for quite a while now and I can say that Netherlands aren't going to win this time.They've started just too well and over the knockout games,you never know,just one bad decision,a penalty or something against you and all your good work can be undone.I would like them to win but then,I'm sorry to say,they won't.

Teams like Italy,Germany and Portugal would be in the fray for the second favourites spot and they've quietly squeezed through to the knockout stage,without getting much attention.Portugal had an opportunity to win all three games but they ended up on the wrong side in their last league game.

My favourites are Spain.I know it's not a wise choice but this time it comes more out of heart than head.Spain have,on numerous occasions,started their camapigns at World cup or Euro with a bang,scoring goals by the dozens but then fizzled out.All this despite having a good enough side.This time I want them to win and they've shown that they're capable of beating the best.

Croatia are the dark horses.They're playing way too freely not to scare any of the top sides.Germany,well, I saw their young side do so well in the previous world cup and was sure that their players would mature into a world beating unit two years later but that freedom is lacking this time from their game.
Best of luck to them!

There's space for all forms of Cricket!

After a month long of tonking the ball in a pre determined manner, slogging the good length deliveries over mid wicket,going for big shots right from the first ball and encouraging the belief that being a bowler means death(especially in the sub continent) the past week has served a pleasant change to a genuine cricket lover.

England,the world's most tradational venue and one of the few countries which actually has a well defined "season" of International Cricket, played hosts to the Kiwis and since the first test overlapped completely with the IPL, there wasn't much focus on it.It was only in the third test that I sat back in a relaxed mood to be taken by the charm of good old Test Cricket.Sadly, the Kiwis lost that by an innings and 8 runs but the result is not the talking point.It is about the feel of watching test cricket, the joy that one gets when a Ryan Sidebottom takes a 6 wicket haul to dismiss the kiwis or a Jacob Oram makes a fighting century at a rate much less than run a ball in swinging conditions at Lord's to take his side to a formidable total. Over the last two months we've witnessed so much of T20 that we've forgotton how much fun we can derive when a bowler's teasing the opposition with his swing, when batsmen are afraid to touch the ball in the "corridor of uncertainly" and when the ugly looking slog sweep is just not employed.

However,the future of Test matches was never under threat from T20, but that of 50 over cricket was.Today was India's opening match in the Kitplay cup, hosted by Bangladesh, against Pakistan and going by the fun it provided for at least 80 overs,I dont think any form of cricket is under threat by any other.All of them have a niche for themselves and they have their own audience.However, I must admit that now the common audience would be very few. The die hard, traditional fans would not get as much pleasure from a slogged six by a Swapnil Asnodkar as they would get by watching Rahul Dravid play a perfect cover drive or a Sachin Tendulkar playing a straight drive back past the bowler which almost hits the stumps.

It would be wrong to say that cricket is the loser in the long run.No. If anything, cricket is gaining audience worldwide with the invention of IPL as it was broadcast successfully in over 170 countries in the world!And dont even think about Indian audience turning their back to it,it just can NEVER happen

Aarushi Murder Case takes interesting turn

After a week of investigation and a few dramatic events,there's yet another twist in the Aarushi Talwar murder case.The police are somewhat convinced that it was not exactly a case of honour killing,though her father is still a prime suspect.They claim Mr. Talwar had extra marital affair and Aarushi and the servants of the house knew of this.Another MMS clip released makes matters more complicated,however police arent giving it much importance at the moment.
We can just hope that justice prevails in the end.

Apologies for not updating with personal posts

My end sem exams are going on these days and I hardly get the time to sit down, think a write something sensible which wud make a good reading. Ten more days and I'll be done with all this stuff.Secondly, if you are wondering what I have done to my "personal" blog, here's the answer: I'm planning to start a tech blog very soon and for that I need some finances for hosting, domain registration etc so I'm trying to arrange for that.I've moved my personal blog to another page, which you can access if you're smart enough...[;)]

Jaipur,the Pink City, Rocked by blasts

I'm sorry to be starting a post like this,but then it's so very true.These days,when we hear of a bomb blast taking place somewhere, we hardly bother finding out what went wrong unless there is a chance of our friends or relatives being involved.And yes, I'm not only blmaing others,but I'm blaming myself too, as my initial reaction after reading the headline was to ignore it,as I thought so many things happen in this country all the time,who has the time to bother for those?

Anyways,four hours later I have realised how grave the situation is.In case you're not living at your house,i.e. living in a hostel,etc and you hardly get the time to(or you hardly bother) watching news, let me update you.
The Pink City, Jaipur, has been rocked by serial bomb blasts,yes, it's right,SERIAL BOMB BLASTS.The timing of the blasts couldn't have been worse.7(probably 8)serial blasts took place in a space of 20 minutes,starting at around 7.35 pm in the crowded areas of Hanuman Temple,Johari Bazar, Badi Choupal, Tripolia Bazar and the surrounding areas.Today being a Tuesday, the Hanuman Temple area was particularly crowded,as were the neighbouring areas.All the localities were within a span of 2-3 km so we can only imagine what the situation might have been there,at the peak time for marketing.
Till now, 60 people have been reported dead and more than 200 injured,and these are the official figures,which means the injured list might go well past five hundred.

The usual blame game of the government has started,with those people choosing to single out Bangladesh based terrorist group,Harkut-ul-Jehadi Islami(HuJI) this time.The Prime Minister, as usual has condemned the blasts(as if we didn't know!) and must have given the routine explanations,i.e. the guilty wouldn't be spared, criminals would be nabbed,etc etc.

A few days will pass like this and then the focus would shift to something else,may be the on-going IPL, and everything will be forgotton by people,as public memory is short lived.Sadly, we can't do anything to help the state-of-affairs and only time will tell what efforts have been put in by the big-talking government to actually do something about it and,most importantly, come out with results.

Another failure.. and getting over it!

Have been quite busy since friday,May 2nd till Sunday and a large part of Monday, for various reasons and you might find this surprising when I tell you that I didn't have classes even on a single day of those four days.

TCS came for campus placements to our college on Friday and as it was a first time experiences for all of us,the entire batch was so excited that even those people who didn't want to appear for it attended their Pre Placement talk, just for experiencing the occasion.

It was scheduled for 9.00 am and not surprisingly it got extended to 9.30.Then we came to know that some big shot who was to come for it had got stuck midway on his way to Manipal from Bangalore and we'll have to wait at least two more hours for him to come, thus the official time given to us was 11.30. It gave us ample time to do the last minute preparations, getting our resumes and all organised in a file and we even tried to catch up on the english word lists,but decided to give up on it very shortly.An hour later, the re-revised time given to us was 12.15 and thankfully, it started finally at 12.30.

Ironically, the "qualities" that the presenter, some Chakravarty(whichever way you spell it) better known as "Chaks" insisted upon were, respect for Individual(and what respect did he have for his future employees when he himself turned up so late??) Integrity, blah blah...

Anyways, we got over the presentation rather smoothly and were divided in 3 batches of 250 people each and were to take tests one batch after the another, as 700+ people had applied for it.My batch started at around 5pm and I knew halfway through the test that I was going to clear it rather easily.So after the test I was relaxed, watched the IPL match of Delhi Daredevils(crushing Chennai :) ) and didnt even try to study. Friends confirmed at around 10 that night that I had expectedly cleared the test, as had 474 other students.

Next day was going to be really big, as it had interviews coming up.Nobody was sure how many rounds were going to be there and people were interviewed random number of times.Personally, my interview was excellent,as the most dreaded thing, technical round, went very very smoothly for me.They asked such simple questions that I didn't even think to answer,except one, which I promptly accepted that I wudnt be able to answer it.My questions ranged from Cricket to friends to industries to academics, etc.I was asked to "wait outside for some time" by the two interviewers and later on, it turned out to be a wait for more than 2 hours. They finally announced at 7.30 that no further interviews were going to be there that evening and we could check the results next day.

I had expected to get through in interview as well, as it had gone pretty smoothly. I didn't show any signs of nervousness(coz I wasn't :P).However, the next morning when the results were announced, my name didn't feature in the 322 candidates that had finally been taken out of the 475 initially shortlisted.It came as a big disappointment to me and I could barely walk back from the auditorium to my hostel room.I had a few friends for company, who couldn't get through and we shared our experiences.

The surprise came much later, when I came to know that my first roomie, Chandan, couldn't get through either, similar was the case with Srinivas, Hemendra(topper of comp sci), Aseem and a lot of other people.If the H.R. ppl eliminated me, it could only have been due to personality(which I still doubt) but even if that's the case, these people have the most pleasing personalities in our college. They've even taken few very good students, including my branch topper and few other, similar people.
The biggest shock is that a lot of people who have back papers of previous semesters and one of my classmates who's repeating the entire year and still has backlogs got through.

Thankfully for me, I hadn't told anyone that campus recruitment by TCS was coming up, not even to my family or closest of friends.I had initially planned that if I get through, I'll give them a pleasant surprise and if I didn't then I wudnt have to answer them about anything.Thus, I was relaxed on one front.Finally, I told about it to my mother two days later, i.e. today evening.

Getting back to that day,
All I can make out is that those people wanted a mix of people, some very good,some average and a lot of dumb guys.Dumb, because those who didn't answer even a single question in their technical round got through easily.

Anyways, I've come out of it fully now and have a month full of exams and tests coming up.All I can say is that it was hard luck for me(and for those TCS guys ;) ) that they didn't take me. I'm now waiting for Infosys, my first preference(even over TCS, but I had to sit for it as TCS came first) and I'm pretty confident of getting into that.
wish me luck!!

PC: The strangest of strange things

All of us bloggers use our PCs as if it were the most routine objects.We hardly stop a moment and think about what goes on inside it, do we?We yell at our ISP if our net connection isnt working, we yell at our PC customer care executives if there is the slightest of disturbance in it, without ever bothering how much effort and skill it takes from an engineer's side to be able to understand your problem, leave alone solving it.

Being an engineering student,I've not been able to delve deep into the PC knowledge, apart from a few parts which I find very "hip" to name,like the Mother Board, Processor, Graphics Card, lan card and the likes.People can boost up their download speeds to several times higher just by making a few internal changes to their systems. One can reduce the boot time considerably if he/she learns to identify the start up programs/applications that are not required.One can even control another system on the network through a far off workstation.

This post isnt about what goes on inside a system, as I hardly know 1% of the entire thing. It's just to give you an idea of how many millions of electronic circuits are at work to perform the simplest of operations. For example, when we hit a particular key, it appears on the screen.Most of us have no idea as to what engineering goes into making such a thing a reality.The very basics of a computer system, i.e. the Kernel, operating system, software, hardware,etc etc is a complex subject in itself and to integrate all of these to create such a magical machine is nothing short of miracle.The fact that we have such people who know how exactly a PC works and they actually design it, is astonishing to me!Just imagine someone who knows the entire electronics and electrical circuitry, the digital circuitry and the operating systems part and then they actually put all of these together to give us a wonderful magical box!!!

I know this post was rubbish but then that's what may sometimes happen when you're completely out of thoughts but want to write a post just for the sake of it,isn't it??

Time to slog!

Its 26th April,Saturday and I just attended the last DSP lecture of this sem.Soft Computing syllabus is already over, microprocessor lab is over too and we've even had the end sem exam for that(which means we'll be free on all mondays from now onwards).We were supposed to submit the synopsis for mini project today and god knows what's the status, as I've not done anything about it.Add to that another lab end sem coming up on wednesday, then TCS coming for campus placements on 2nd to 4th May, then demonstration of the mini project, then the third sessional tests and then the dreaded end sem examination.

Going by the kind of lifestyle I'm living you wouldn't get even a hint of what all lies in front of me and that's one of the reasons for this post,i.e. to vent out my frustration, plan out strategies and to demonstrate my anger at my inability to come to terms with studies.
Well, enough of ranting now and forgive the nonsensical contents of this post. :D

Tough weekend ahead

Its again Saturday!I just can't keep track of how time is flying.It seems as if you blink you eye and week after week passes away.Got to rush to college in less than two hours' time and then we have that all important cricket final in the evening.The paper seeing of the second sessional and the much awaited Chelsea vs Manchester United match is there in the evening as well. Oops!!! Didn't I mention studies at all?It's such kind of situation where I just cant' have enough of studies.The more I get into it, the better it will be as I can't even figure out how many subjects/topics I need to keep a track of simultaneously during the next fortnight with placements, third sessionals, mini project submission, lab test and all coming up.
However, as I always do, am staying positive and hoping for the best of results.
good luck to me!:)

IPL is here to stay!!!

Its been just over a week since the Indian Premier League Twenty 20 cricket started and even though I didnt support it much initially, I have to confess that it's the new sensation in International cricket.People might argue that the entire concept was taken up from the existing league in English Football but still, one must have the vision to see its future before implementing and Mr. Lalit Modi has excelled in that department.

The amount of talent that's on display from the top countries of the world is awe inspiring.The close matches that we've had recently and yesterday's phenomenal feat of Shane Warne knocking off Symonds for 4,6,6 off successive balls when his team needed 14 to win from four balls is simply breath taking.These are the kind of matches that draw the spectators to grounds and make sure those watching at home stay glued to the TV sets. The prospect of Shane Warne bowling to Andrew Symonds, McGrath bowling to Warne, Sehwag facing RP Singh was all hypothetical but only till this new phenomenon struck world cricket.

India sure is the driving force of world cricket when it comes to finance but then we've shown that we also have got the talent to match them, through players like R Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, R Bhatia and the likes..
way to go IPL!!!

Barcelona vs Man U.... just can't wait for it!!!

Finally, the match of the season is here!If you're a soccer buff..or even if you're remotely interested in soccer... or(worst) you don't like soccer at all, I'd suggest you stay glued to ten sports tonight at 00.15am,IST.Its the Champions League semi final(first leg) and the teams involved are considered Giants in their respective countries,and even around Europe.

Starting with my favourites,Manchester United, it's a moment of reckoning for them. They have been considered the best in Europe and fairly, they've had critics playing them down, saying they're not strong enough to score against Spanish and the Italian giants. Over the past few seasons, they've been knocked out by the Italian powerhouse A.C. Milan but this time, our arch rivals Arsenal have done us a huge favour by sending them out of the competition fairly early. We're returning to the Nou Camp after 9 years,and the last time we were there, we scored twice in dying minutes to overturn a 0-1 deficit to win the Champions League. It was our treble year(1999) and though this time we're in the hunt for the Premiereship apart from the UEFA Champions League, we're strong enough to bring both the trophies to the Theatre of Dreams(the name given to our home stadium at Old Trafford by Sir Alex Fergusson). In my opinion, we're favourites because for a change, we've a fully fit squad to choose from at the closing end of the season, which is something we've never had in the previous few years.If I start describing the quality of players on both the sides, the blog would become too boring for those who don't follow soccer but still, Rooney and Ronaldo are worth mentioning.

A brief glance at Barcelona's season lately suggests that they're not quite at their peak,as they've not won a single match in the last four games.They'll be missing the services of superstar midfielder Ronaldinho and Messi's not fully fit, though he will take part in the match for sure but most probably he'll be substituted at some stage. Eto'o, Henry, Puyol, Valdes... the list goes on and on..

Just can't wait for the kick-off,which is about 170 minutes from now and I'll sign out on this note, and expect the few people who read it to experience the thrill of soccer themselves.

In a Pleasantly Unpleasant Situation...

The days are whizzing past like anything.The placements, tests and all that seemed so far away a week ago are staring me in the face now. And in spite of all that, all I do is play, watch, eat, drink and sleep.... CRICKET!!!

Yeah, it's another post about cricket and its not about the Indian Premiere League(IPL) or something, it's about the cricket tournament I've been playing in over the last month or so.The Shanthala Cup, as we like to call it, has resumed after we were done with our sessionals and thankfully, we're continuing our march towards the trophy.On a personal front, I've played three games in the last three days, failing in one of them and helping my team along to qualify for the next round in two of them. The pleasantly unpleasant situation I talked about is this.. I am playing for two teams and both had qualified for the semi finals. Over the last two days, both the teams had their respective semi final matches and guess what... both the teams are in the final now!That leaves me with the awkward situation of having to play against my old team, whichever team I choose to play for.

On a personal note, it's great to be in such a situation, having contributed in the wins of both the sides at some point or the other.I'll have to disappoint one of my good friends before the finals but then, that's not a problem as I expect both of them to be considerate enough.After failing for two years to make it to the next round of the tournament, it feels great to be in such a situation. Finally, the patience has paid off and I've found out not one, but two teams which don't depend completely upon me to deliver at all the time.

Its been really hectic and there was a time two weeks ago when I had to play four matches inside 24 hours!It really does take a toll on your body and you cant even think of studying once you get back to the hostel but then, over the last two days, I'm learning to get used to it and I'm trying to balance out all the things(which is quite difficult [:(] )

Happiness all the way!!!

Its the beginning(I hope) of some sort of a purple patch in my life here at Manipal. Blogging so frequently and not for sad reasons is unprecedented phenomenon and I really hope it continues this way.
The day began with my Micro p. lab end sem examination and I'll get through comfortably and when you add to it the fact that I'd studied for not more than half an hour for the test(prior to which we got 4 complete days off), it'd sound a pretty significant achievement.To add to that headache, we had three assignments to be submitted today, two of which were postponed, thanks to our C.R. and the remaining one was done(read copied) by me right after the lab.Went about meeting the other critiera,of filling up the Dream company for our placements today with relative ease, filling up Schneider Electric and GMR.

Then comes the fun part and no prizes for guessing what it's going to be about... CRICKET!!! Our knock-out tournament resumed today after the sessionals and I was informed at 4.15 pm that we've the quarter final match at 4.30.Initially I wanted to refuse it but the insistent individual that Pradeep is, he came to pick me up from the hostel and we were literally laughing when we reached the ground, as we couldn't muster 11 players!We started fielding with 2 players short.The missing ones joined in soon and the match was a topsy turvy encounter until the last over. I faced the first ball of the over in which we had to score 12 to win and guess what... I hit the first ball over the long on rope:). We won with Johnnie's last-ball six and it was a really satisfying effort, considering that we went in without our best batsman and bowler.
Enough of cricket now!Its time for me to sleep as its already 4.09 am on the next morning of Earth Day and I've to finish up an assignment in the morning..

Windows Vista:Is it really worth the switch?

This is one question that must have been asked millions of times during the past year, ever since it was launched.Here I present to you a brief comparison of the features of Windows XP with Vista Home Premium(the edition I've been using for the best part of previous year).The ususal practice in any O.S. debate has been that Linux invariably comes into the picture so I'd like to refrain from the age old Linux vs Windows debate.

The reason I started using Vista Home Premium was simple enough: It came free with my laptop and at that time, the thrill of using an ORIGINAL software was reason enough, as I'd been using pirated versions of XP for a long time. I didn't go into too much debate as to whether it's advisable to switch on to Vista or not and decided to explore it myself.After all, the option of switching on to XP was always there as you can get the CD from anyone.

Merits:It contains revolutionary features such as the much improved search option(highly recommended), the aero interface(which doesnt add much value in terms of performance but it's good to have nevertheless), the windows sidebar(again an optional gadget, not too essential) and the much improved installation guide/the help and support system and the frequent warnings(it can get boring but then it keeps your computer secure). The C.P.U and RAM meter is the feature I like the most, alongwith the improved search and navigating through windows thing. It gives you a straightforward information about how badly are you screwing your processor and is a good indicator to keep a check on the no. of programs/applications you're using at a time.There is this "typing software" as well, which can type the words you speak but then I've not used it much and from whatever I've seen, there's scope for improvement.

Demerits:The major demerit that I've found out is the really long boot time. I use Vista Premium on a 1GB RAM compaq and it really takes at least twice the time taken by xp to boot.You can, of course reduce the boot time by chaging/removing the start up programs/applications but then it's not recommended until you're close to a geek(and if you were a geek, you wouldn't be reading this anyway!!). At times the CPU meter gets stuck on 100% and you need to shut off all the programs/applications to continue uninterrupted work.I think both these problems can be solved by getting extra ram(may be 1GB), something that I've planned to do in the near future.

All in all, Vista is the way forward, with a few shortcomings but then, all the good things come with a few glitches,don't they?

What a Day it turned out to be!!!

People mostly update their personal blogs when they're down,frustrated,sad and a hundred associated adjectives. And why talk about other people, even I've done that myself most of the times.One of the reasons for not updating when you're happy is that you get so many people to share your happiness with,but no one to share your sorrows. However, I'd like to suggest all such people(including myself, to an extent) that it feels great to take out some time for yourself when you're happy and blog!This is exactly what I'm feeling right now.

To take the curtain off the suspense,I've got many reasons to be happy.First of all,my team won the first prize in the podcasting contest that we participated in yesterday and it was something which all of us had least expected, as the other teams consisted a member(s) who were mass comm. students, who deal with sound recording, editing and stuff day in and day out!One girl, from the organising college, was put in our group but she opted for a separate group(and rightly so) as she had all her friends there.That was a discouragement for me on a personal front but meeting my team members,I knew that we could actually pull off something special,as the mood in the Sound Lab(where we worked) was really good and the voices were coming out better than expected through the mic.Still,I insist again that I didnt expect us to win.

The day passed off like any other holiday,with me wasting most part of it.Attended the last few talks of MMSC and rushed back to hostel,as it was my b'day treat two hours later and I had to prepare for that,being the host.That was the time when Karthik messaged that we'd won the first prize and I rushed to the venue to collect mine.I remember getting a first prize for a quiz in my 5th standard,and its been more than a decade, so it is really special to me.

After that, as if the script was written in the Heavens, we had a party(which was pre planned,even before I had got the prize).Got really good feedback from all the guests and that rounded off a pretty good day.The only glitch was the absense of my new friends. It was largely due to misunderstanding but then, its okay,I know what they've missed out on so its their bad luck :P

MMSC - Another feather in MIC's cap!

The valedictory function is still going on, I presume but I didn't see the need to attend it, as have attended most of MMSC during the last two days. Initially I thought of it as an event in which there'll be no space for engineering students and all that publicity done by the organisers(including the bloggers' meet) was just an effort to draw the crowd. There's no truth in the first part as I realised, anyone who's interested in media/podcasting/internet writing/ blogging could have attended it and those who didnt have interest surely would have some now, especially after the "making money online" presentation yesterday by Karthik. The second part of the previous sentence,though, I still believe has "some" truth but then, its the case with every event,isn't it?

It's the second event I attended of MIC and both the times, I've noticed that the volunteers come out with full spirit to make this "their" event, instead of just going through the motions and carrying out their "duties". The delegates(and to some extents, participants too ;) ) were looked after really well, right from providing conveyance to food,etc. Their smallest of demands(that of a mobile charger!!!) had been taken care of.

One of the organisers told me before the event that "I'll have to dance to the tunes of people who're 17 and 20 yr old." I met one of them yesterday and he really was the person to handle. I wished her "all the best with this guy!" via telepathy and it seemed to have worked,as the guy seemed a lot more civilised today :).Got to learn a lot from the podcasting workshop in which we(a team of 6) were given one hour to make a podcast of 10 mins. I wrote a part of the script and all of us took turns into recording their voices and it went off unexpectedly well. Made some good friends and thanks to Kenney, who invited us to Kerela for a free accomodation, free food, free conveyance holiday any time we pleased!Have a few grouses towards the attitude a few of the in-mates of MIC showed but that's nothing new,as it happens everywehre.

All in all, another successful event organised by them and felt really good to be a part of it. Hope to attend more of such events in the future.Have to sign off now as I've invited people to my party in two hours from now and I'm still to check the list of the guests.

New-found interest in blogging :)

I am still amazed at the time I spend on blogspot these days. I had my tests since 12th but still, I was visiting people's blogs(most of them random ones) religiously. Obviously, it took a toll(and a HEAVY one, I'm sure) on the tests, but now I CARE TWO HOOTS about marks. It all started about a fortnight ago, when I was scrapped randomly by a Anadi to attend a pre-event to the Manipal Blogger's Meet. It all started from there and then I went through to his blog itself, thinking, "Let me check if he himself is interested or not."(hehe.. sorry for that thought, man!).

It was then that this addiction started, as I found links to a lot of blogs on his page and, I must confess, most of them were really good. Today, I finally got rid of my exams(not that I was killing myself studying all this while but still...) and the first thing I did was to Blogroll the people I always wanted to, add a few gadgets to my blog and thought that this GRAND ocaasion(coz I've spent more than an hour on my own blog for the first time) DEMANDED a post so, here I am!

Thanks to my readers who've recently started visiting and the one and only who has stuck on all this while, even if I wasn't posting( Thanks a lot, Carra for the patience). Would try to keep it updated from time to time now.

ATTENTION Please comment whenever you read any of my posts so that I know that people are still visiting it.

P.S. This post was completely a random one so I apologise for the lack of sensible content!!

Kudlu Trip

As always, its been quite a while since I posted here. But, unlike all other occasions, I've had plenty to write about all this while.Will try to include the interesting bits here and keep the not-so-interesting byes out!


March 21:Trip to Kudlu Falls
It was a typical lazy MIT Sunday, i.e. you don't have anything to do apart from the tiny bit of lab work, no assignments, sessionals far faaaar away, and I was glued to online yahoo chess when Sagar barged into the room and ordered," Jayant, get ready, we're leaving for Kudlu Falls in half an hour."

My initial reaction was," Forget it! Someone or the other will say NO and the whole excitement will die sooner than it had been generated." I didn't utter any of these words to him, as something in his enthusiasm told me that this plan was going to be successful and, as he revealed microseconds later, "All are ready, we've to leave asap".

Soon enough, the five good men( Myself, Omveer, Sagar, APS and Anubhav) were on our way to Hebri and about two hours (and 8 bananas :) ) later, I found myself facing a taxi driver and Omveer negotiating with him. He was trying to explain to him how it will serve the 5 of us well if he brought his initial demand of Rs 600 down to 500. Finally he obliged and we set off for a (supposedly) 45- min drive to Kudlu. This was the time when the Devil in Omveer's mind spoke out:

"How about a night stay there? We can arrange for tents and all. It'll be exciting, wudn't it?"
"Wow!!!" Chuckled APS with unprecedented joy, which was quite a contrast to Anubhav (and to an extent, mine) reaction.
However, none of us objected and we drove to the Ranger's office, where they book tents in advance.

"NO GIRLS IN TENTS, OK?? Manipal has a bad reputation here." was the Rangers initial monologue upon knowing our college's name.
We all laughed his warning off and told each other, "How we wish we could join that club!" However, we had been passed eligible to stay there but then came the problem.He had only one tent left, and it could house two, at the max 3 ppl.

Even before we could start thinking of a solution, the exicted Jaat spoke out," Koi ni yaar, shift wise reh lenge. Sone thode hi na aaye hain". He had reached an agreement with the ranger, wherein he'd charge us the normal Rs 400 for the tent and half that amt for each extra person, making it Rs 1000. A bit more drama followed but finally it was a deal. We were supposed to stay there at night, once we came back from Kudlu.

Our taxi driver rushed us to the falls and it was 3pm when we got off the taxi(as it couldn't go any further) and set off on a 4km ordeal, with the kind taxi driver somehow agreeing to accompany us. at 3.30 he left us, saying," yeh raastha sidha chale jao.1 Km aur hai." Our requests of him accompanying us all the way through turned futile and we marched on.
at 4pm, we were supposed to be bathing in the falls but here we were, wriggling our way through the jungle, judging the right way, then realising 10 mins later that we were on the wrong way(as we had encountered a dead end), turning back, taking another way and the same story repeated. The supposedly "BEST TREKKER" amongst us, SAGAR, was the most bruised, slipping a few times and losing balance( and with it his cap :P). Add to all this the fact that all of us had changed to shorts due to the rain and we found leeches stuck to our legs every few minutes.(I still can't believe I had touched them with my fingers and pulled them out!!)
At 4.15pm, it was decided that the light was getting worse and going back would be the best decision, as there was always a danger of us losing way again on the return journey, so returning before dusk was always the better option. That was the time when we found few more Manipal-ites going towards the falls and a localite returning from the other side(which meant we were on the right way!).
That gave instant courage and energy to everyone to give it one final dash!We started on the way and reached the falls in 15 mins and had the best of sights awaiting us. All of us agreed that it was worth all the pain(I'm still not convinced on the leeches bit).
Bathing at the foot of a water fall in deafening noise of water hitting the rocks is one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever go through. It all ended well and by the time we came back to the taxi, we were all too tired to dare n stay in the jungle for the night. We decided to put end our trip just the way it had begun: in an unplanned manner!
Boarded the bus back to Manipal where we had Holi awaiting us the next morning..

Days at Dreamland over, time to get back now..

The past month has to be classified as one of the most satisfying and, to an extent, productive vacations I've ever had in my two and a half yrs of engineering life.Looking back,there were several happy things about it that give you a sense of satisfaction... so,if you're still guessing about what its going to be about,let me draw the curtain.... it's about how I spent my month long vacation with my family,here in Delhi.

I came here on 15th dec, welcome by the unpleasant winter of Delhi which I've become so unused-to in the recent years.One big disadvantage of moving to Manipal is that you're so close to the sea all yr round and get so much used to the pleasant weather that even a 10 degree C temp of Delhi seems to be unbearable.However, it got overshadowed as only those people can understand the joy of meeting their family after 5 months who have actually been in that situation... the joy that surpasses all climatic disasters(yes,i called it precisely that,totally unaware that in the days to follow,the double digit tempeature would exist only in the imaginary world!)

Phase one:
It was the happiest and laziest of the times,as I hardly did anything other than being cuddled up in my bed till mid-day,getting up to realise that dad and bhaiya had already left for their respective offices at a time that seemed "night" to me(but later realised that it was around 9am).Sadly,mom had had enough of it and a day or two later,all that motherly love that u crave for in your hostel had started transforming into motherly "care",which resulted in me getting scolded when I "demanded" breakfast at 11am.The answer was simple,"Son,you woke up too late for breakfast and too early for lunch".
I was waiting all these days for two things..one,the beginning of the Cricket Series between India and Australia and two,the only unpleasant part of the holidays, my results...specifically-to find out how much below six my gpa had fallen...more specifially-to find out whether I had flunked in my PSA paper or not(which was a real possibility,given that I had even brought over my books,test papers and all for this subjet)

December 26:The Judgement Day
I went to face the mess and looooong queues of Janakpuri early in the morning with my dad to get a Learners' Driving License done.Was in constant touch with my mates who'd stayed back at college to prepare for their GATE exam,which is due in february!!(as if the screwing fifth sem papers weren't depressing enough)Thankfully, I got a call that contained the great news that I'd cleared the doubtful paper with one grade better than the minimum required,and my gpa had fallen to an all time low,i.e. 5.88(this somehow got overshadowed in the joy of clearing the paper,which was an achievement in itself,given that I had twice scored two on 20 in the internals!)That brought upon a sudden termination to the nightmares of achieving the unwanted feat of flunking for the first time in my life(now come on,don't count my failure in hindi writing as a failure,which was in my 4th standard).

Phase 3:Rising From The Ashes
Now was the time for some serious work.I started learning MATLAB,a very useful tool for engineering students,together with my Inudstrial training,and least expectedly,found a girl there who was JUST ONE YR senior to me.However,I found Erich Segal's novels more interesting than her and that's what I used to do most of the time I spent in Goldwyn India Ltd, Noida,as a trainee.Most of this phase was spent watching Cricket,Surfing the net,meeting a few friends and here I am...after a holiday,more educated on MATLAB,fresh to take on the new semester and wise enough to bury the disappointments of the last yr and looking into the future,i.e. VISION 2008!

Got a train to catch tomorrow and haven't even started on the packing so have to leave before mom dumps my laptop out of the house..