A year gone by!

Today Alexander Pushkin, Sukarno, Björn Borg, Steve Vai celebrate their birthdays, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj became a King, YMCA was formed, Tetris was launched, NBA was created, Battle of Normandy started, Venus crossed the Sun, the world will shift to IPV6 from IPV4 and I completed one year at Tata Motors Limited. One amazing year spent at Mumbai, Johannesburg, making new friends, meeting new people and going to so many amazing places. Hope the journey continues forever :)

This was my status message in Facebook on 6th June, 2012.  It has been one year since I joined the dream job that I had mentioned in my last post. It has been over a year that I've not blogged as well. I would accept at the outset that it is not because I've a super busy job. I had a lot of expectations in this job when I decided to select this over the OTHER Tata job that I had got after my Summer Internship at Tata Steel Ltd. This blog entry will also be an answer to a lot of my pals who remind me each time we meet that I had left a better paying job at Tata Steel. Tata Steel had been an excellent company and I had the fortune of working with very good people while I was working there, but Tata Motors is an Auto company where innovations like the Nano and also powerful image making products like the Safari. Post acquisition of Jaguar - Land Rover, it has some of the most beautiful machines that men has created. An example of that can be seen in this ad:

 

All this being said, now I work for Tata Motors Limited for over an year. A year that took me to a lot of places, made me experience a lot of things that I dreamed of and some which even were beyond my dreamworld. I joined at Mumbai for a month long induction that took me through the various stages of getting accustomed to being in a CORPORATE culture than the relaxed life one had in a B-School. Corporate world, now it sounds funny, because I still have the fun I had in college, albeit the people around me have changed. I'm lucky to be in Mumbai which is where half the classroom of any B-School gets placed. I had a lot of fun in the initial one month, mainly because of the location where we were accomodated during our induction - South Mumbai. It was amazing to be at a stone's throwaway from the best location in Mumbai called Marine Drive. I've spent a big part of my life in a coastal town and even now I say to my friends that a beach is not a great hangout place to goto. Marine drive is not even a beach, it is simply an artificial sea-wall built in the southern coast of Mumbai to prevent the water from coming into the town. But after 6 PM it lights up and gives you a simple but not isolated place to sit and gawk at the waves crashing onto the seawall. It is one of the best places to hangout with friends, have your share of looking at girls walking/jogging/running. Have a look and decide yourself if this is a beautiful place at night or not. I've spent atleast 10-20 nights chatting with friends till midnight and later in the night and the best thing about this place is that no cop, no moral cop will come and question you "kya kar raha hai be" even if it is 2AM in the night, no matter if the group consisted of more girls than guys.

Before I make someone feel that this post is gonna be a "I LOVE MUMBAI" piece like the one Pritish Nandy wrote in TOI blog, let me assure that it isn't so. So after a few weeks of spending each night at Marine Drive, chatting to new people who joined the job with you and go out to eat at all the amazing places in South Mumbai, we all got our projects. I got lucky in that regard and went on my 1st overseas trip(barring the short walk I had into Nepal while on a break to Darjeeling in my summer internship) to Johannesburg. The place was not having a great reputation, unless ofcourse you worked for the Mafia. People and websites started scaring me about the possibility of being mugged and even being killed for sums as little as $10(yeah, by then I was talking in $ and €).

Johannesburg or Joburg as the locals called it, is one of the best places I've visited. Yes, there were moments when I felt unsafe, there were people who scared the living hell out of me, but then I also loved the place a lot because of the amazing roads, the nice work culture of 8AM-5PM and most importantly because it had places where even Europe or US would've felt less opulent and at the same time had slums which were worser than the one's we see while landing at Mumbai airport. It was another country which had the dichotomy of having few rich men who held more wealth than the rest of the nation's population. It had a high percentage of people who were HIV positive and had no means to support themselves, so they indulged in theft, mugging and even murder. 

The city was a treat to watch from the air as I landed at 8AM on a cool morning at the end of July 2011. I was simply amazed at the lack of people on the ground and the speed at which vehicles were being driven. I saw trucks doing 100kmph with full load of 40-50 tons, even old people were driving cars older than me at speeds above 90 and the city had such an amazing road network. This is how I always will remember it:

 

The reason I loved the place most was because of the amazing roads. The whole country had  some of the best roads that I've ever driven on. Some dream surfaces like this:

I drove so much in this place that some days I had so much driving that I kept on driving even without stopping for a piss. I had an amazing time both in my work and in my free time. I was living alone and enjoying it. Technology made it possible for me to be in touch with my loved one's even when I was 1000's of kms away. I saw some of the best cars that men have been blessed with on the road on a daily basis;  lamborghini's, ferrari's, rolls, buggati's, bentley's. You name it and I had seen it on the road in Johannesburg. Even had fun with a few of them while driving my 7 year old Indigo, trying to keep pace with a prosche boxster after a signal and feeling amazing when the chick driving the boxster couldn't find the right gear and I got ahead for a second. 

It was a place where I drove more than 10000 kms and totally loved the 5 months I spent over there. I came back to Mumbai and took up my new role from 2nd of January. It wasn't sales, it wasn't marketing; it wasn't anything that I had ever dreamt of when I joined TML. It was a role that even now I'm trying to understand and the less told about it the better. I had a lot of good days when I've met a lot of people who are the big names in the auto world, I've had the pleasure of visiting facilities where some of the best vehicles of the country have rolled off from.

In addition to all this I had a big promotion in my personal life, I got engaged on 19th March, 2012 and since then it has been an amazing journey for me on the personal front. I've been the butt of a lot of jokes from my friends who keep telling me how much freedom I'll lose once married and what all I've lost already by being engaged. But I simply enjoy the feeling of being in a relationship and I somehow feel better. I don't know what exactly it is, or which exact moment it is. But when I'm with her I simply have a great time, I yearn to spend more time with her and most importantly I look forward to spending the rest of my life with my wife.......

International Suit Up Day 2010

It is October 13th, 2010 and it is International Suit Up Day 2010

SUIT UP in honor of Barney Stinson, the suit-wearing womanizer we all love. If you don’t know who Barney is … ask your friends, they will tell you.

SUIT UP because suits are AWESOME, even if you don’t like Barney.

Things to do on International Suit Up Day
• Wear a suit to work
• Wear a suit to university
• Wear a suit in hospital
• Wear a suit to school
• Buy a suit
• If you see someone without a suit, tell them to go home and suit up, or convince them to watch How I Met Your Mother
• Drink in a suit – if you can find a bar called McLaren’s, drink there
• Party in a suit
• Play laser tag in a suit…. What up?

If you don’t have a suit, you’d better start looking for one right now.

Books - Man's best friend and mine :)

"Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx.

Books were a fascination for me during childhood. Not because of me being a bookish guy or anything. But then I've always liked reading. My mom had a good collection of novels from her college days and I used to go through them(except the Mills & Boon section) during my high school days. My dad isn't a big fan of fiction and he feels that reading stories isn't the best way to learn about the world(especially when the stories are written by Sidney Sheldon). So to get rid of me begging him to buy all the books in the world, he took me to the state central Library or commonly known as the Trivandrum Public Library. It was a great day for me. I still remember the 1st time I entered the huge doors as a thirteen year old and being awe struck by the rows and rows of books in the various reading halls. Since then my love story with books and authors had started and this relation, though had its ups and downs, is still going strong - much stronger than my OTHER love stories :).

This post will be about my fascination about books, some of the books that have changed my view about life and some of my favourite authors. The books and authors all came from different cultures, countries and ages, but influenced me greatly to THINK! If you are interested, read on to know their names and it would be good befriending them based on your interests.

I always was a fan of paperbacks; mainly because I liked reading lying on my bed before sleeping. This habit is still there with me and I still like the same type of stories. It started with comics when I was a kid; then Famous Five, Hardy Boys and then later on I graduated to novels and then stuff which I couldn't put my hands on as a kid :)

Books always used to be my 1st love, but since my life started having a new member called computer, books had taken a backseat. All through college my reading habit was lost and I picked up books again only when it was time for belling the cat - which ultimately belled me.

Then my focus started shifting from fiction to non-fiction. Particularly the autobiographies of business and political leaders and the so-called management books. Some of these were good reads, some were utter waste of time.

During my teenage I used to adore books by two authors; one was Sidney Sheldon and the other was Jeffrey Archer. I still remember the 1st Sheldon book I had read. It was Stranger in the mirror. It was like all of his other books, written like a movie with all the effects and special scenes that would make it a page-turner.

I'm proud to say that I've read all books written by Sheldon and Archer and I owe a lot of my reading habit to these two guys. If it weren't for their awesome narration and gripping tales I'd have left books a long time back.

Now any Indian in the 2000's who claims to be a book lover can't be ignorant of a certain individual named Chetan Bhagat. I've loved all his books and even though I feel that except for the 1st book, the others have had a very bad ending. Either being too filmy in style or too quickly wrapped up.

I’ll say that the books he writes talk about the social evils in our society, rather than just being funny. His 1st book talked about how parents just force their kids to take up ambitions for which they don’t feel the same way. The 2nd book talked about the youth’s lack of spiritualism in the present scenario. 3rd book talked about the evil of the religious riots. 4th book talks about the disconnect in our country when it comes to forming relations with people across the country.

So I feel he is someone who is required in our society which is at crossroads where parents are afraid to tell their kids what to do and what not to do, and even though Mr Bhagat has this cool dude image, his books actually help in putting some semblance into the Indian fast changing lifestyle :).

Top 25 books that I would love to mention are:(not all are from the world of fiction)

1. The Godfather - Mario Puzo - The greatest novel I've ever read, truly amazing.
   
2. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho - A truly amazing tale of life,love and desire.
   
3. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman - An interesting side of a serious scientist.
4. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein - The only book which inspite of being a fantasy is in this list.
5. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand - A totally outrageous but interesting philosophy.
   
6. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - The confused teens story which was a great read.
7. Lateral Thinking-Creativity Step by Step - Edward De Bono - A good one for creativity.
8. iCon:Steve Jobs - Jeffrey Young - About an Icon's comeback to be the most admired CEO
9. Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler - I wanted to know what was in the mind of the evil genius!
10. The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman - A great tale about the present world we live in.
11. Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt and Steven J Dubner - An interesting outlook to practical economics.
12. Relativity: the special and the general theory - Albert Einstein - The greatest physicist explains the most complex theory in the simplest way possible.
13. The Motorcycle Diaries - Ernesto "Che" Guevara - An awesome travelogue with great thoughts.
14. The Google Story - David A Vise - The most detailed account of Google's spectacular rise
15. The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels - Being a Malayalee, I couldn't miss this one!
16. Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig - A good insight into the human psyche
17. The Art of Computer Programming - Donald Knuth - For a non-software guy this is a bible to understand programming(for the software guys too)
18. Theory of Game and Economic Behaviour - John von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern - An awesome book which explains the most baffling economic theory with ease.
19. Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking - A man who's life is a great example to follow, explaining the toughest concepts with just 1 equation in the entire book.
20. Joker in the Pack - Nitesh Pahlajani & Ritesh Sharma - An awesome tale of love, friendship and life in a B-School, a must read for any MBA aspirant and .
21. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - An awesome story of justice and a good eye-opener about the American society in those times.
    
22. Day of the Jackal - Fredrick Forsyth - A tale so realistic that I felt it was too much of a story.
    
23. Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - The best love story I've ever read.
24. Jeeves Series - PG Wodehouse - An awesome set of books which though funny are a great read anytime :)
25. Kiterunner - Khaled Hosseini - The last in the list is a book which made me feel sad and happy at the same time.
    

I hope you find the above interesting and thought provoking as they were for me.

My Generation

Don’t make someone a priority, if you are just an option......

I absolutely love this saying that I cannot find an author to give credit. It rings true everyday of my life. I have used this saying more than a couple of times in my GTalk status messages and also in my facebook, twitter and orkut pages. But till today I hadn't given serious thought to this line. You might ask what happened so much today to make me think about this sad fact of life. I believe it hasn't been a smooth sailing for anyone in their love-life, who ever says that they've the perfect love story, are either lying or are acting in a movie.

Now coming to the saying- Whether they are friends, family or a special someone they really can’t be that special if you are just an option in their life. I feel that people do make you an option in life, especially in your work, your college(at times it does feel wrong), your social circle and so on. It has been the norm in the fast moving world that we live in. I still remember the term Friendship of Convenience when it was told to me by a teacher at the TIME centre I had attended. He told about people being friends for just the sake of using eachother when they need something. People who think like:

How can I use him? He is well connected, financially well off, resourceful, he is a doctor, lawyer. Build and maintain the relationship, some day he could be useful. Usefulness goes, friendship goes.

I hadn't got seen much of FOC(not pronounced as the F word, but just F.O.C) in my life until I joined my work and their again in my training programme the company HR head told about the same term. He rather gave a 30 slide PPT on how to do the same quoted lines I've given above. But finally he told the term Social Networking, rather than FOC.

I had heard about networking since I am a part of the Orkut era, the Facebook generation, the guys who wake up and tweet their status and check their mails before going for a piss and will even F**K for the next best thing. Now when my generation decides to make friends it is a simple step. There are a thousand different places where you can meet people, maybe real, maybe virtual. But anyways you will always find people; more so because you live in a world with 6.6 Billion people. But still people will be happy to talk to some unknown on a website rather than with their next door neighbour or even to the people living in their homes.

There is a saying "my enemy's enemy is my friend." Common enemy goes, friendship also goes. True Friendship cannot survive without the element of mutual respect and that I feel is the one thing that lacks in these ONLINE, always there for you friends :).

I am not pointing fingers at anyone, I am very much part of this generation, I get happy when people say they "LIKE" my stupid messages in Facebook, or when someone RT's my tweets; why go that far, I ADORE the one's who comment on my blog and for me and my generation this has become a way of attaining social recognition, of having a status that they won't get otherwise. Especially fat guys like me who would not be able to make it to any happening parties or be invited to movies or hang outs because of their looks or because they can't dance that well and so on and on........

Now I feel I've digressed quite a huge bit away from the saying at the start the blog; so let me just FOCUS and get back to the point. (MBA has been doing its good bits to me too, don't you see the jargon's I've used till now :D). So I was talking about someone making you an option when you make them or rather plan to make them a priority. I feel that in the family life the FOC should just F*** off and you should have sincerity in your relationships. I can't imagine a father having a caring relation with his children only so that he thinks they treat him well when he's old. Going by the present way MY generation is going ahead I don't think even if we care for our kids they will take care of us when we're dying. Maybe this fear is making my generation to run more after the all elusive MONEY.

I still remember my dad's words when I had told him that I want to quit my job and go for an MBA, he was shouting into the phone that I am mad to leave such a well paying job and I don't realise the value of a government job. It is true, my generation doesn't know the value of a government job. Even after working in a government company I feel that I would do good in a private firm because their I will get recognised for my work. Its true that private firms reward people who show dedication and usually in govt. firms and departments good dedication means trouble for the person.

But then when I joined my course in July and in the discussions in class when people diss about government jobs and the work culture and how corrupt the officers are and that if the country is allowed to run by private firms then we'd beat US in a matter of years and all that wonderful ideas go around. Only the handful of people who've worked in govt. firms and have led a non-corrupt, non-maligned career(albeit short) will disagree and try to persuade that NOT ALL the officers are like that(heck I too was in that category a few months back, so how can I agree??).

My generation takes pride in the discussions and dialogues that we all carry out, but still we either never vote, or never care to know who wins the elections. As far as we are concerned it is always one corrupt guy to another, one uneducated fool to another and one idiot to another. But like the Tata Tea campaign I ask isn't it time to wake up and do something about it?

But then I myself am not doing anything about it other than proudly showing my finger off about the vote I cast, then why will anyone else do anything about it??

PS: Title credited to The Who for their wonderful song - My Generation.

*Disclaimer: I am being overly emotional tonight. These are the rantings of a person with absolutely nothing fun to do right now. And instead of getting studies done, is making non-sense blogs.

Onam 2008

Onam 2008 was the best Onam of my life. Period!

I'd never had a onam like this for a long long long time. Only when i was a kid did i get to enjoy the onam like this. You're always special when you visit home after living outside for a few months. Maybe it's because the people think you're a GUEST and behave nicely to please you, or maybe some genuinely missed me being around. But whatever it maybe i really loved this break away from my monotonous work life.

I'd not really planned to come home for onam. But then my company was sending all new trainee engineers on a pan India trip in september-october and hence i'd to use all my spare leaves or else they'd lapse and go away free. So i thought of surprising my parents and freinds. But then cash shortage made me ask money from dad for the tickets, so that surprise was done with. Then i'd tried to hide my visit from my girlfriend and had hoped to surprise her. Again failed miserably. She seems to read my mind and i couldn't help but confess. :)

Then i didn't hide this fact and posted on our college batch community. Then the posts that followed were really NICE.

So coming to the point. Why i liked this onam was the fact that i spent more time with my family than with friends and i LOVED it. Usually i hated spending time with my family, especially on vacations. Almost all my breaks used to be spent with friends @ Kovalam or veli or some place like that, but miles away from home. Now being away from home has made me miss home and my family a lot and hence this time i was determined to give them some quality time. I loved it.
Spending time with friends also was fun, but this time everyone had time only to discuss their tight work schedules, bad bosses and horrible working hours :). Then the usual vayinottam @ Kanakakunnu palace grounds in the name of Onaghosha paripaadikal :). Went to Uni-Y for a great onam programme. This time i knew a lot less people than before, but then it was fun. Sheer fun.

Then the major thing i loved about this trip home is getting to meet my love. I'd missed her a lot and seems she also did so. I'd hoped to spend 2-3 days at the max with her, but then we made up for the lost 4 months with 4 meets in 8 days :D. That was totally awesome for me. She did manage to surprise me with a gift - A shirt. It seems she's good at picking nice shirts. She'd given me a shirt when i'd first joined for this job, but this time she'd the help of another common friend, and they both managed to WOW me with their selection.

Now i'm at the Chennai Central railway station while posting this, waiting for my connecting train to Cuttack and then back to hell. :) This might be my last onam spent with my family, or maybe the first in the series of onam's @ home. Only god knows.

Some snaps from my visit home.

This is where i started from

Catching a train. But where are the bogies?

A Kerala landscape pic on my way home.

Uni-Yans posin for Snaps - I relived my Uni-Y days once again.

Posing alongside the newbies @ Uni-Y

A kodak moment- Winning the Vadamvali @ Uni-Y

Onaghosham @ Kanakakunnu. Had a great time there.

With the Kalip pose-Atop the Lighthouse @ Kovalam

" Kovalam" or what's left of it

Had this snap taken @ Kovalam. Never seen foriegn kids playing on Indian soil like this :)

Trainil vere pani onnum illathathu kondu engene okke samayam kalanju

Before the theeta malsaram with friends :)

After the Theeta malsaram :)

Ona sadya was great @ home. Mom you're the best :D

Birthday blues

Today i celebrated my 22nd birthday. Well it'll be wrong to say that i CELEBRATED, plainly because i didn't celebrate anything. Not because i don't like the idea of celebrating myself getting old or because i'm a snob who hates such celebrations. But then there were two main reasons why i didn't like the idea of CELEBRATING my birthday. One being that i'm not in the best of financial conditions to celebrate anything, let alone give my friends at work a decent party. Second being i'm not in the best of mental conditions for any kind of celebration. The financial conditions got so bad mainly due to my bad management of my salary. I ended up spending a lot more than i'd planned when i went to Kolkata. I more than 3k for the books i bought. I'd planned to buy around 1000 bucks worth of books and save the rest for my birthday and also for my now-cancelled leave to go home. But after getting back happily from Kolkata i'd a really bad week. It started with me being down on one day because of the extreme heat in the plant. The temperature in the town in around 40 deg and due to the conditions in the plant it's 5 deg more inside the plant. All this took a toll on me and i had a real bad time on tuesday evening and on wednesday morning i'd so much pain in my body that i couldn't get up from my bed. I decided to have a day off from work and just sleep thru th day. After spending half the day sleeping, i just got up and had some water. Slept again till evening and then went to see the doc. I'd told my problems and she first asked me if i'd fever. When i said no, she asked if i'd been out too much in the sun. When i replied positively, she said that i was suffering from sun stroke. WOW. Now that's something that you only get to hear in hi-fi fashion mags. I was elated bt at the same time worried too. She said i'll be ok in a day and it was good on my part to take rest. After this i had an ok kind of week. Only the usual pump getting a vibration problem and some gearbox getting oil leaks i had a tension free week. Now while typing this post from my mobile i'm watching Lakshya, the Hritik starring action picture about the transformation of a young man from a carefree guy to a military man with responsibilities. I don't know why but i felt i'm also getting the same kind of transformation. Not that i'm in a war front, but this will be the closest i'll get to a war front. These scorching temperatures, the squabbling workers, being far from home, missing my friends. All this. I know i'm comparing somethings that are far far apart. But then why do i feel so, i don't know. I got up today to my girlfriend calling me at 5 AM. She'd set a 12midnight alarm to wish me but it ended up waking her at 5. So i got my first wish of the day from her. That was a great thing for me. I just don't how to explain but i think guys and gals in love would understand. Actually it wasn't the first wish, I got a few wishes at midnight. But then i slept at 1 in the night after watching the film 'Shooter' in a senior's room. I saw a lot of scraps in my orkut scrapbook and also got a few messages in my phone. All these make me happy, but then now the boredom hits back. The day is going on and i don't know how i'll celebrate in the middle of all this. It's just another boring day in orissa :)

Things that make me smile………….

Here are 15 facts that make me smile even in the gruelling heat and tough work conditions.

1. That my girlfriend still remembers the last time we shared an ice-cream together :) and awaits for another opportunity.
2. That I came to know how much my parents love me, while they were saying all the time that they just want to get rid of me.
3. That I earn a few more thousands than my friends and still work less number of hours in a day :)
4. That I am free to spend what all I can in anyway I want and still not be answerable to my dad.
5. That I miss the homemade food even when I hated it all the time I was home.
6. That I work at a place that’s being listed in the record books as the largest in the world :)
7. That I have earned the respect of people older than my dad.
8. That I am losing inches off my waist and kilos off my body even without going to a gym or getting up in the morning :)
9. That I have learnt to live without browsing the net for a week: D
10. That I get time to spend just to lie on the bed and think about the past and plan for my future
11. That I am being invited to weddings of my college mates and schoolmates.
12. That I can wear a T-shirt and not look ugly :)
13. That I loathe at people speeding down the road on bikes, while I used to be one among that group a few months back.
14. That I can put on music as loud as I want in my room, without anyone stopping me :)
15. That I have regained my favourite hobby-Reading.

Changes..........

I had read long back that CHANGE is the only constant thing in the world. I believe that's what's happening to me, and my life. Changes are happening in things that i assumed will never change! I had never thought that i'll be walking 3-4 kilometers a day, never did i think i'll be missing home like this, never did i think i'll be spending my time writing notes even after grueling 16 long years of education.

But here i am thinking about all those nice times i had when i was in college, days when MOP was Master of Puppets, DAP used to be the download accelerator and SAP used to be a software company. Now MOP is Muriate of Potash, DAP is Di-Ammonium Phosphate and SAP is Sulphuric Acid Plant. What else do i say about my job profile. I just wish i could enjoy those lovely days under the trees once again!

Now a discussion from me not talking about FOOD is not a proper one, isn't it! I hadn't thought that i'll be drinking oil mixed with some spices as RASAM and potatoes cut and sambar powder mixed with water as SAMBAR. But then here i am missing those nice dishes that my mom used to make. I still remember how i hated to have food at home. "Ippo thonnunu veetil poyi enthelum thinnnal mathi ennu"

Adieu

I used to weep every time a batch of my friends joined for their jobs and i sat @ home waiting for the date to move and finally get a mail from campus.manager@wipro.com. But when it was more than 3 months i was hurt. Especially when friends started getting salaries and started sending money home. Here i was sitting online, reading posts on communities and spending more and more money from my parents when i should be supporting them after these many years of education.

I still have the respect for Wipro since it was the 1st company that gave me a job. I have had days when i just wanted to call up the helpdesk and shout abuses. But then thanks to the eternal queue, i never used to get a person on the line.

Finally i had enough and started applying for jobs wherever i saw. I wasn't that keen to join a software job with a mechanical background. Finally i cleared one of the tests and got to the interview and now i got the job. Wipro was a nice romance that i have now moved on from. It was great to know so many people and be friends with people whom you might never see again in life and share with them the mental trauma of having to wait @ home and say that "I'm placed in Wipro, but they haven't called me yet". People used to look at me with a sense of doubt, as if i had told a lie that i got a job.

But now things have changed. Finally i've a date when i'll be stepping into an environment completely alien to me. I'll be 1000's of kilometers away from my comfort zone. Hope i'll be able to fulfill my expectations and be able to rise upto the standards of my employer.

I feel sad coz i'll be leaving the college where i was for more than 4 years now(studying and teaching)! I feel sad to leave a city where i spent the last 13 years, moreover its heartening to leave your loved one's, friends, teachers and all those people you're so used to seeing.

I leave on 24th November to join IFFCO @ Paradeep, Orissa. That means 30 more days of fun, laughter and enjoyment. I hope i would still be ther in the hearts and minds of all here..........

My First Job

Some people get an education that prepares them to be a captain of industry, or that sends them out to do important scientific work to cure world hunger or horrible disease. But my education hadn’t done any of these. I graduated from Govt Engg College, Bartonhill(GECB) in 2007 and am proud to say that I spent four years of my life here. I still remember the day I joined my B.Tech. It was 27th of August 2003. I can still remember the words “Enter @ your own risk” scrawled across the door as we stepped into what was going to be our home away from home for four years. Four years of one’s life, a period where one becomes a man, where one earns his 1st job.

First job, it has got a sweet sound, doesn’t it? My 1st job interview was for Wipro. My luck favoured me when I cleared that and technically it is my 1st job. But the 1st time I’ve been working was when I stepped into GECB again on 18th September, 2007. It was something that I’d never planned for, something that I’d never expected myself to put up with. But there I was, waiting outside the HOD’s room to join the elite list of enlightened people whom we call Teachers. It’s a great feeling when you walk into a classroom and have a set of 120 eyes staring at you with anticipation. I had never thought that I’ll be teaching, and even when a friend called me to join up, I had refused saying that I’m unsure of myself, how will I teach a bunch of students who’ve set their expectations on me?

But then something's are beyond one’s control and so I joined up and found myself sharing desk space with some of MY teachers! Till that day I could come to college anytime and sit on the steps leading to the EC labs or the drawing hall. But now I’m a teacher, someone who’s respected. I do miss those days when I could roam around the college, when I used to cut classes and share a laugh with my pals or jostle for space in the chairs at the canteen.

All those are sweet memories and are etched in my mind. Thinking now, being a teacher is an opportunity that I didn’t want to miss, especially when it’s in an institution that made you what you are. Now when I see guys and gals talking or doing things that I did with my friends I feel so jealous! I wish I could do it again, wish I could turn back time and be a student again! For those who’re cursing their days at college, you don’t know what you’re going to miss once you are out of this compound.

I’m someone who wanted to join the corporate world. Where I wanted to set a distinct mark, and I had thought that teaching is one job which doesn’t give you the challenging environment where one can find the excitement and the adventure of a corporate job. I’ve had many friends who’ve joined software majors and most of them, except a lucky few, have got numerous bad experiences to tell. There’s even a guy who quit his job and told that it’s a dog-eat-dog world and all we’ll ever achieve is the hatred and evil stares of our peers due to the rat-races going on to gain a upper hand in evaluations and projects. It’s a blank life for some, with no entertainment and no enthusiasm. All we’ve to do is code a programme that someone might use in some other corner of the world and we don’t know who actually benefits from what we do.

All one is bothered about are the looming deadlines and bad bosses! For another friend it’s an aimless world where they say we’ll end up earning this number at the end of the month, but don’t know what to do with the money that’s cashed into the account each month. For the companies it’s a cheap labour force which they use and abuse to their best of abilities. One guy went on to say how sweet the grass looked on the other side when the HR people came with their presentations and now the world looks worse than the Sahara desert. People are yelled at, made to clear high cut-off’s in training tests and finally they say the effort isn’t just paying enough!

These words aren’t supposed to be demoralising to my juniors who’re looking forward to work under the Premji’s and Narayanamoorthy’s who’ve brought prosperity to our poor nation. But it is just a word of caution for those who really don’t know why they took up a software job. For them it’ll be the most boring job in the entire world. Teaching too has its share of boring moments. It is really plain boring to sit in a class with 20-30 students writing page after page of exam questions. I had suffered that boredom for three straight days and frankly that was the only time I thought this is a boring job. Other times I’ve had chances to learn things afresh, sometimes entire new concepts which I had skipped when I had learnt the same subject a few years back.

Now having said all this, I’ll soon be joining the rat-race myself. Not because am a daring person who would want to taste the dangers out there in spite of the warnings, but because I believe in the line from Forrest Gump "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." But in my heart of hearts if I ever get a chance to come back to these classes again as a teacher, I would give up anything for that offer. As Don Corleone says in Godfather “It is an offer that no man can refuse”. But then it is upon time to tell, because once again in Don’s words “Each man has his own destiny.”

Some things are better left unsaid…………

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

This piece was presented as Kurt Vonnegut's commencement address at MIT in 1997. It's great stuff, but apparently it wasn't written or delivered by Vonnegut. It's still a beautiful piece...

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

But actually this is not the commencement speech @ MIT in 1997, In fact, the commencement speaker at MIT in 1997 was Kofi Annan and the supposed Vonnegut speech was an article published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 by columnist Mary Schmich. It is also known as Wear Sunscreen or Sunscreen Speech. It's an essay actually called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young"

The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.

To know more about Kurt Vonnegut click HERE.

To get the song Click HERE.

To get the actual press report click HERE.

Now to answer questions as to why i am posting all this in my blog; it's quite simple and a sad fact. Its coz my college life ends in 19 days and 12 hours and some precious seconds. I put this as a post in my blog coz the speech makes a lot of sense, i got hold of this speech at 1st when i was browsing through videos on YouTube after uploading the video that Nikhil, a classmate of mine had made from the collection of pictures from the past four years of our college life. Its been a saga that i just can't tell in one post. I have mentioned a lot of things that have happened over the past years through a post some months back. Now it hits me how hard it is to leave college.



This is that video, trust me it will take you back to your college days(or school days for juniors). Great work macha! Hats off to you!

So as i said while uploading this video i was browsing through various other videos that were in the genre of "last days @ college", "Life @ college" and so on, and like many other things the IITians came on top for this too! They have the most outrageous collection of videoz about their life in those "temples of engineering", than any other college will have. Maybe it's due to the mega wide bandwidth they get their for free, but even then kudos to the guys who take time out of their ultra-tight schedule and make these videos.



This is the video that made me look for this speech. Hats off to you guys too!

Talking about speeches. Till date the best speech that i have ever heard was the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at the Stanford University.

It goes something like this:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.....

You can get the rest of it HERE. I got to hear this speech for the 1st time at a quiz which Abhilash sir conducted some years back. It had been a tremendous source of inspiration from that day onwards. It makes me feel that anyone can be anything if they follow their dreams.

So the point of this whole blog, well; I don't know. Though i will share something useful that i found at 3 am in the morning! Still interested?? Check out my fav videoz HERE.

It really hurts to bid adieu to my alma mater for the past 4 years.

Life's Best memories!

It's been a few weeks since i am in the web of nostalgic memories from my past. Memories that made me smile, one's that made my eyes fill with tears and also a few that made me thank god that i survived through them and am still alive! To tell you all about it, i thought of sharing them in small packets. For the purpose i divided my life into segments of five years each! I thought of posting the BEST memories in each of those 5 year periods and hope to be able to get down to a good list that will do what they do to me! Now here i stand few days away from my 21st birthday and it's so nice to remember the last 20 years of my life!

1st 5 yr plan: Age 0 to 5....(Years of growth!!)

First of all i don't remember much of my life from this period. So here goes.......

1) The very first memory of me in my childhood will be getting my toenail busted by a huge rock thrown at me by a guy who lived in my own colony. Those days i was living in the Air force quarters @ AFS Avadi. I was something like 2 or 3(i dnt rem my age that much). The incident happened really fast. I had a quarrel with a dude abt something and the next thing i rem is he hurling the biggest stone he could find in that ground and thus ensuring that i lose the nail of my smallest toe I go home crying ammmaaaaaaaaaaaa and my grandma saw this and then goes out of the house and beats the guy black an blue! Next thing i see is he coming with his Punjabi mom and she beings to shout at my grandma. It was funny seeing her defending what she did even though she didn't understand a word of the Punjabi mixed hindi that the lady was talking!

2) Crying and beating my nursery TEACHER when my grandma left me at the place and started walking home! I think that was the 1st time in my life that i was all alone in a strange place! I started to cry and then when my teacher tried to console me by taking me in her arms(i dnt knw a better way to put this) i started to beat her. Guess that shows am not too good at respecting teachers!

3)Being scared by a COW on the way to my nursery school when i was 3 yrs old. It was usual for me to walk alone to the class which was about 1-2 kilometres away from my house, and i had stopped beating the teacher too! I was walking alone through the road and saw this COW on the road! I thought of it as a MAD BULL which will hit me and my fear was emboldened by the fact that i had seen some film which had a similar sequence. I started to run and stopped only when i got to the class!

4) Going to school for the 1st time in my life! Yes that's right! Am among the few who got to a school when they were 5 yrs old! It's done both good and bad for me in years till now! Main prob being that i usually am the YOUNGEST in my class(though i rarely look like it). So this time i was in AFS Bareilly. Bareilly is famous for being the home-town of former Miss World Priyanka Chopra.That's a pretty important Air Force installation. I still remember my dad saying that it's the ONLY base outside Russia equipped with Mig 25(Foxbat). It was a very secure installation and the only times i went out were with my family. The base here was HUGE and had almost all the facilities in house! The picture below is one which i took from Wikimapia. It shows the region around the base, including the MIG's on the ground!!! The link to the pic can be got here.

The school there was also pretty big. I still remember my teacher and the few faces that i can still recognise in my 1st school photo!

5) Still remember the day i put my sister's hair on fire. It was very stupid of me to hold the candle near her hair and i realised my mistake only when i saw the shocked expression on my mom's face. The shock went off the the next moment when i got a nice slap on my cheek.


Pretty good period for starters eh!


2nd 5 yr plan: Age 6 to 10....(Years of ......can't say what)

1)School was great, i had friends who spoke almost all the 15 languages that India has. My best pal in those days was a guy named Nimesh. He was a Bihari by birth, but then he was among the brainiest guys i have ever known(don't ask me how brainy a 6 yr old can be). He was the class topper and i was somewhere in the top 5(yeah, you heard it right). Still remember the day that we went on a tour from the school and it was to a park somewhere in the city outskirts. Don't know why i remember this day, but this was the 1st time i had gone out with people who studied with me. I still love the days i spent in Bareilly.

2) I used to like the train rides to Kerala during the vacations. I still remember getting to New Delhi railway station early morning at about 5 AM and waiting for Kerala Express at the platforms. The train used to start at 11 AM or 1 PM. I am not so sure about it. But i remember the journeys that me and my family used to undertake each year to Kerala. It was fun to be in a train for 3 days, to meet new people, to see the landscape change as the distance passed and so on. So this is among my best memories too.

3) The day i stepped into KV Pattom. I had come for getting admission to the 3rd standard and was given admission since my dad was in a special assignment posting. The 1st day i didn't get to meet many people. Just met 6 people. I was in the middle of 2 gals. I joined the school on 25th Jan 1993. I remember the day very well coz it was on the eve on the Republic day. The teacher was a very pleasant lady and introduced me to the class. It was the 1st time i was facing an audience and she told me to say something about me. I was kinda shocked. I told a lot about me and the people in the class were having a question mark on their faces after they listened to it. Prob was that i spoke in Hindi. A language that was used by all in my old school. But it wasn't so in KV Pattom. People looked at me like an alien from some other planet(i get those looks even now at times)

4)The very first time i saw a ELEPHANT in my life up close. Till then the elephants that i had seen were either in TV or one's that i saw in zoo's. This happened when a elephant came to the temple near my house. I went very close to it and touched it. It was a very sweet memory from my life.

5)The day i learnt to ride cycle. I got a crash-course in cycling from a relative in a SINGLE DAY. I almost made it, until i forgot to press the brakes while cycling down the slope from my home to the temple. I went down into the drain next to the road and had a bad time walking home from the hospital with the bandaged toes.( I still proudly say that i have NEVER had a single broken bone or fracture in my ENTIRE life)

What to say about this! it was a great period and i will not change anything from this if i got a chance to do so!

3rd 5 yr plan: Age 11 to 15....(Years of Love n Adventure.....can't find nythn better)

1)School was still the best thing to happen to me in this period. I had a great time there. It was a great period of changes in my life; both physically and mentally(if i go more into that, ppl wd rate this as inappropriate). It was in one such day that i found the very 1st LOVE of my life. The 1st in a long list. She was one who was in my class and i hadn't noticed anything special about her until the day she said that she would like to have me as a friend for her entire life(again a dialog that i am used to now!). Things changed overnight and we became thick friends. Problem was that i was going down on my studies in this period and she helped me a lot in this time. Thus it was good in many ways

2) The memory of me watching my very 1st PORN movie was also in this period. I can't explain more about it, but it wasn't a good experience. For the guys who still are hanging on.......it was a mallu oldie from a friend's UNCLE's collection. Guess that's enough to quench your thirst.

3) There were many things that are still afresh in my mind. The top among those will be my entry to one of the biggest and oldest library's in the state(if not country) the state central Library or commonly known as the Trivandrum Public Library. I got in here when i was 13 yrs old. It was like a treasure house to me. I had rows and rows of stacks arranged with books. It was a dream come true for a person, who's family didn't have much of a habit to buy books. I used to go every week and it really helped nourish the bookworm in me.

4) The occasion when i was the class leader and had the 2nd LOVE of my life( yeah, life moves FAST). It was rather an accident and it wasn't even an infatuation. It was just a thought put into my head by a friend who happened to comment about the way my picture was close to that of a gal in the class in the class magazine. She was the gal's leader and i was the boy's leader(yeah I WAS, TRUST me on that). The pictures were put rather too close and one gal commented like this: "wow, this looks like a marriage photo". Things took a rather unpleasant turn and ppl made a hell lotta stories about me n her and finally i had to oblige!

5) I learnt to ride a bike in my 10th exam holz. I was still 15 and my 10th Board exams were just 10 days away. It was among the best passions in my life that i have still not had enough of. It still gives me a thrill when i ride my bike at the maximum speed it can go. The maximum i had gone in those days was a meagre 40 kmph. But then i progressed quickly and really enjoyed the days with my bike in my 10th break.


Now that's a happening age isn't it??


4th 5 yr plan: Age 16 to 20....(Years of Passion n Action......)

1) I had lotta changes in this period and i still continue to evolve, or rather revolve around the thoughts that come to my mind. The first thought that comes my mind of this period is the time i spent with my friends on a tour from my class to Goa-B'lore and Coorg in my 3rd year of engineering. The pictures from that are posted in a previous post and that i will say is a frontrunner for the award of BEST Memory of my life!

2) I got a kiss from a girl for the first time in my life.(Dnt ask stupid doubts about the veracity of the fact.... and don't even dare to ask who the gal is......)

3) I drove above 100 kmph for the 1st time in my life and it was such a great thought to see the road just becoming a blurring picture in my eyes.

The Machine : Pulsar 180(not mine of course)
The Man : Eh... stupid to say, but ME :D
The Turf : The NH 47 bypass stretch from Chakkai till the turnoff to the Veli station.
The Reaction : Shouting at the top of my voice "Yaahoooooo"(now that's somethin even Shammi Kapoor wd be proud of)

4) Cheering for my college at Dhwani '04 after we won the overall points. It was a great experience during my 1st year of Engg. I was a very eager fresher who had very little reasons to be proud of my college. People all around me were cursing and mouthing abuses at me for selecting Mechanical Engg @ GECB rather than going for Industrial Engg @ CET. It was indeed a special moment when i too was proud to be a part of the team that were winner's @ Dhwani '04. I too had a small part by being a finalist in the quiz.

5) Getting to join UNI-Y. UNI-Y is the best thing to have happened to me in my college years. I joined in the 3rd semester of my engg and i met a great bunch of friends whom i can trust for my life. I got to be with them and be part of the organisation that moulded many a great person in their youth. I am truly happy to note that the time that i spent there and the friends i made there will be in my mind all through my life. I know many will not like me placing this as the last memory from my life. But then the order in which i have typed doesn't signify anything about the events. Each have a distinct mark in my heart and mind and will remain to be so till the last breath i take.

So that's my life of 20 years in a set of 20 sweet memories!

Best days of my life..

This is a very painful moment for me, today was the last exam of my 7th semester! Now all might be wondering what's wrong with this chap? Why will someone be unhappy when exams come to an end?

That's coz of the fact that now am into my last semester, 3 and a half years of trying to become an ENGINEER( successful or not-remains to be seen!). A Mechanical Engineer, better known as Royal's or Mexxians. Now all that separates me from life after BTech and now is 6 months, the last 6 months of being a student of an institution that shaped me to what i am(not physically :P).

Government Engineering College, Bartonhill:

A beautiful view of Thiruvananthapuram City from my college:

The college that gave me an identity, the insti that helped join the ever growing community called software engineers, the college that helped me to add four letters to the end of my name B Tech (oops that's five).

The place didn't look that great at first. Those who have visited my college would concur with me when i say that it's more of a school than a college. Starting with the board with fading paint proclaiming the entrance to centre of HIGHER learning. But then it's not just building's and concrete that make up a college, does it?? The other factor's that make a college were present aplenty in my college. Great teachers, a caring principal (not now!) and most of all the most diverse bunch of 60 guys that could be assembled under a single roof!

We all had a tough time finding the places in the 1st day. The seniors had left us sweet memories, with notices with warning's like - Enter @ your own risk and so on! All of us sat in our seats and were waiting for the 1st teacher to show up. Some knew each other from tuition classes and some were friends. I tried to meet everyone possible and still remember the reactions that i got from my classmates for talking to the gals in the other classes! Strangely all the years before i joined my BTech i was in a co-ed institution and was ..... let's say USED to having gals in my class. Seriously telling i missed them for the 1st 2 weeks. But after that i have NEVER EVER missed having them. I was made to change my decision by the camaraderie that was shown by my pals. Especially in the football ground. Yes we DID have a ground, a full scale ground where we used to spend the maximum time. I still remember WATCHING my friends play ball. I enjoyed being on the sidelines and having a running commentary about the match in progress. Their used to be abuses blurted out, commands being shouted and so on. 1st year also saw the RISE of the BASKETBALL team of GECB, yeah a team in which their were guys who had NEVER played basketball and still i love this team and am an ardent supporter for all their matches. Am proud to say that 70% of the team STILL consists of my classmates:

Basketball team,GECB

Now this is NOT the only team that is made up of my class as a majority. The college football team also has more than 3/4th of its members from my class.

Football team- GECB

The college ROCK BAND- INFERNO also is made up of guys in my class. It was started in the 1st year with the help of a few seniors and after they completed their course the guys in my class made sure that the legacy is carried on.

Inferno - Performing @ Crossroads '06

Another INTERESTING team that was formed was the GECB Quiz team consisting of Alen and myself. We can very well be called as opposites when it comes to be partners in a quiz team. We think in entirely different ways, and NO the adage of Opposites attract is NOT applicable here. Anyone who's seen even one quiz show in which we have participated would testify for that! And that's the reason why i don't have a picture of the two of us together. If you're that desperate to see us, watch the SIB Quiz in Asianet on Sunday's @ 730 PM. The quarter-final which we won, and the semi which we lost :(, are yet to be telecast.

After reading all this you might be tempted to believe that my class is all that's about GECB, well that's true to a very large extent. We have shown our TALENTS in and out of the college. We are the reigning champions in ALL the Arts festivals held in the college after we joined the course. Just two have taken place till now, one in our 2nd year and the other in the 3rd year. Waiting to reign supreme this time too! Also our class forms the debate team, the quiz team and the other teams which have won prizes across the city and south Kerala. We have the distinction of being the most notorious class in the entire 2003-07 batch and still manage to get the highest pass percentage in EACH semester exam. All this is proof to show that we are second to NO ONE, in arts or studies!(Open to debate!)

The football matches greatly increased the friendship and through the game we came to know a lot about each other. Like who's best to mouth abuses when a kick goes awry(that would be me), or who's got the defensive moves and so on! We were so much into football that we used to play it everywhere, including our class! We did pay the price for that with 4 tubelights being broken by the assault of the ball! After that we turned to the most common game in mexx classrooms- Cards. Well if i say it like that it doesn't sound soo cool eh, so here's the technical term- Cheetukali! Now that sounds better, doesn't it! Add to this the ragging, the funny games we pulled on each other(vaal games, ASS kali and so on), the great GOAL-SCORING verbal assaults and so on. The list is endless and somehow we all managed to write our 1st Professional Degree exam. Combined 1st & 2nd Semester B.Tech Degree Examinations May-June 2004.

We had a great time in the 3rd and 4th sem's, mainly coz the new batch came and we played the game that's the MORAL RIGHT of any 2nd year Engg student - Ragging. Had a good time with it! Well if i start mentioning what all i did and then what all i made the juniors do, the list will be highly unbalanced. So not mentioning about that! 2nd year brought us close and we were more mexxian's than any other time previously.

In 2nd year we took this picture:

During 2nd year and 1st year we had a combined tour with the other branches and on both occasions i was unable to go. I do miss those beautiful days:

Caught unaware in the tour:

REMOVED due to REQUEST! :P

Now after that we had an interesting 3rd year. I know i have cut short the 2nd year to a few lines, but then if i sit to write all that i remember from the time i had, it's gonna be too much for anyone. In s5 we went on a tour/ industrial visit and that's how we came to know the natural BEAUTY of Southern India(If you call B'lore, Koorg and Goa as Southern India). It was before i went to the tour that i started this blog. If you have the time and if your level of interest hasn't died out, you can view the itinerary of our s5 tour among the very 1st posts in this blog! Phew that means i am in this bussines of blogging for a long long time. :P


Now the tour can't be described in words so i thought pics would be better:

DIL CHAHTA HAI!!(they happen to be our teachers!)

BEACHMONGERS

Lalbagh @ B'lore

Picturesque Hills @ Coorg

A beautiful path @ Coorg

A beautiful sight @ Coorg

Monastery @ Coorg

Poolside @ Goa Resort

Roadside @ Goa

At the end of s5 we had to go on a mandatory Industrial visit as part of our curriculum and some of us found a good time in that too, especially the one's who went to Hindustan Latex Limited, for the most OBVIOUS product they make:P. Some pics from the VISITS:

Kishore during the TRAINING @ Railways

A piece of machinery from the CONDOM factory...this is a generator, not the condom manufacturing machine. Sorry to disappoint!



At the end of s5, many of us joined for CAT coaching classes and their were serious discussions in the class as practise sessions for the GD's that take place in placements and we did have our share of MOCK interviews and it was fun to test the patience of our classmates and to watch them burst at their seams. It has happened many a times that after the INTERVIEW, the CANDIDATE runs after the panellist to beat him to pulp. Many times i have been the panellist too!


The lab's @ CET are a great place to have some fun, especially when ther's no one in the campus and a lot of area to walk around.

A picture from the CET labs(a dreaded area :P):

This was a picture that we took in s5 during our tour:

After s5 we got into a tight semester the 6th. It's tight in terms of the subjects it has and another EVENT that takes place at it's begining the PLACEMENTS, I was fortunate enough to get not one but two jobs in campus recruitment. I owe a lot of it to all my teachers and friends who helped me in any and every possible way to get the job i wanted. The companies that were fortunate(or unfortunate) to recruit me are: Wirpo Technologies and IBS Software Services. Some of us were not so lucky and had to suffer a long wait to get the right job.

After getting the job some of us were in for a relaxation and the favourite spot for us is Zam Zam Ice Fruits Restaurant. It seems when it comes to placement treats, this is the favourite hangout spot for all college's irrespective of it's distance. In the June-August(the so called Placement SEASON), one can find students from different engg colleges in there with the favourite dish:Chicken Shawai after a Shawarma, along with khoboos dipped in mayonnaise. Wow my mouth is watering now!






Into s7, the final year; most of us found it a experience to relish when we were the SENIORS of the college. Now there was no one called as SENIOR who would question us why we did this or why we didn't do it their way! The 1st change was that we got a new classroom:

New class:

We put up a banner proclaiming the greatness of our branch to be seen by the new batch of mexxians joining this year. And so S7 Started with a bang.






In S7 some of us planned a mega event to be conducted by the college. It was named as Aagneya and i was named as the Event Coordinator. This was the 1st time that i saw my classmates, who always have a 1000 different opinions coming together for a common cause and tried to bring the name of GECB in the cultural fest arena. We never had a cultural fest of our own, and for a college that has been the winners at Dhwani for the 1st three instalments and having many talented youngsters in it's rank, this was a shameful truth. It was SUPPOSED to have a budget of close to Rs 5 lakh. Now for those from outside my college, that SUPPOSED to would have been a surprise, well yeah; you guessed it right. The event DIDN'T take place, mostly due to internal affairs! :P I would like to have this as a reminder of what we had planned! IF any future batch wants to take up this endeavour they will always have all our blessings!

Aagneya Brochure's front page:

We celebrated Onam in our own way and put up a athapoo and had the best day of our lives on the day we had the Onam.

Athapoo by MEXX

During s7 the time for the MBA entrance exams came and the 1st to come was CAT. I have described about my CAT experiences in a previous post and hence no explanation would be necessary! I gave IIFT entrance test, JMET, SNAP and XAT in addition to CAT and as of now the only ray of hope has come from SNAP (dnt dare to ask me my CAT %ile).

Some college ACTIVITIES:

Burning the college :P

Community service - We FIX what we BREAK!

Again Community service - In a different way though!

We still manage to play, amidst the concrete jungle

This happens only in GECB!

A picture taken at the end of our ONAM- the best day of my life in college!

Now here i am at the end of S7. The past few weeks i had a harrowing time with my semester exams. 1st the university decided to play a prank on all of us by postponing some of the exams. For me and most of my classmates business went on as usual and we enjoyed the holz to the max. After the holz the exams hit us like a ice cold shower on a December morning. For the 1st time in my BTech, i didn't study in advance and for all the exams, i had done the most common thing done by generations of Engg students. The technical term for this is NIGHT OUT, simply meaning, not sleeping the day before the exam and tryin to cram up maximum amount of S**T up your head in the wee hours of the day!

It remains to be seen if it was a good strategy to follow or not, and be sure to expect a post on my SCORES after the s7 results come! But the strategy did take a toll on me, and i ended up sleeping in the MIDDLE of an exam and the teacher in the class had to WAKE ME UP! Well, today's(rather yesday's) paper was Marketing Management and i had a tough time keeping myself awake while i was STUDYING. I pray to god that i pass all the exams and sincerely hope to get out of college within the stipulated 4 years and 8 semesters!

And as Tyler Durden says in FIGHT CLUB "Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see us squandering it. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Phew, i started this @ 1:30 AM, now the clock reads 5:20 AM. God am gonna have a bad start to a good vacation!

That's it for now, over and out!