Numb

The Linkin' Park song playing on songbird right now is so apt for my current mood. 1:00 am and you find out that the bug in the program has rendered your work of about 5 hours corrupted. You cannot but smile at the laptop and say this has to happen just now - 3 days before the DVLSI mini project submission.

How I wish the submission date wasn't extended last week and everyone would've been the same kinda ***t I'm in right now. The bright side is I get something to write on in the blog because.. because I dont have anything to do now! God save our souls..

Life rolls on...

Sitting in Instrumentation Engineering class taken by our HOD. Its raining outside... yes, its raining in chennai. He is talking about how to improve the accuracy of some voltmeter so that there will be 5 significant digits by blah blah.... I am sitting there with an old tamil song running in my head - "Kanmani anbodu kaathalan..." from kamal hasan's movie guna. Thats on the movies to see list. Wondering why he cant talk about something more interesting like Formula 1, flight, gaming, graphic cards... maybe i am better off with him not talking about such interesting things in his dead mundane drone. Thinking of Formula 1, wonder how the sport will survive given the japanese exodus from motorsports in general. Many companies planning to leave the sport next year and Kimi yet to get a confirmed drive. Hoping he will be in Mclaren opposite Hamilton. Battle Royal.

Saw "Kerala Cafe" while i was in Trivandrum last weeekend. Very good movie. 4/5. Some of the movies were really top notch. Suraaj An Shyamprasad team up to deliver the worst of the lot. Mruthyunjayam deserves special mention. Island Express and Makal were also good. For those of you who are wondering what this is all about, Kerala Cafe is a compilation of 10 short movies of 10 different directors, cast and crew. Mammooty gets only a few moments but shines in those moments to prove why he is considered one of the better actors around. He swings the mood of the movie with just one heartfelt dialogue... brilliant. Suresh gopi puts up a lacklustre display and dileep plays the only sort of role he is good to play now - "pongachakkaran". Makes us think of the stark lack of new talent prevailing in the malayalam movie industry.

That line of thought takes me to the Star Wars movies. There is a world of difference between "not that good" acting and bad acting. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker seemed a bit green to me in the first movie but credit to him for improving throughout the series and providing us with a good portrayal of one of the most remembered characters in movies, all time. But Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in SW2: Attack of the Clones was just unwatchable. Thank God for SW3: Revenge of the Sith, else the whole prequel idea would have been nothing but a waste of time and money. One of the most loved movie series of all time and still gathering new fans, i think it wins us over because of the fact that it is not just about ultra cool lightsaber battles, big spacecrafts, humanoid robots, aliens but about the human spirit, the capacity to love, to trust and the will to redeem oneself given a chance. For me Empire Strikes Back was the best of the series followed by Revenge of the Sith and then 6,4,1 and 2. And whoever came up with the idea of having the 10 yr old Anakin fall in love with Queen Amidala deserves more than a kick up their @$$.

Will be in Trivandrum in time for IFFK, International Film Festival of Kerala :) . Hopefully, will watch some really good movies from all parts of the world and from all eras. The movies to watch list keeps growing as i am still to settle down into any sort of routine after getting here. OK, class is done. He is taking attendance, the whole purpose of being here for one hour. Off to the next class and mind wanders to new thoughts...

Rhythm of Life:The Road Trip

5.30 am: Beep..Beep..Beep...
6.55 am:Bus Stop..."Thiruvananthapuram Ordinary Limited Stop". "Phew......Ente Patti kerum". Let the fast bus come. ...No bus coming for 3 mins..... Sombody said"ChakkulathuKaavu ippo varum"...
7.00 am:"Thiruvananthpuram Limited Stop Fast Passenger"..No seat and the driver doesn't seem to be skilful..HMM...'will go in the next bus".
7.02 am: Yeah...one comes....."Seat undu"
7.03 am : Inside bus..... "Oru Thampanoor"......"Pettannu cash edukkada....Thamponoor ayalum Ulloor ayalum Jakkikku pullaaa....Sit Down Rosario."....
7.10 am....."Buhahahah"....My bus overtook the Ordinary Limited Stop Bus....I looked at the driver of that bus "I told ya....Buhahahah"
8.00 am ....Nokia 6030 polyphonic ringtone sounded, breaking the "pin drop silence" in KSRTC bus..It lasted only for 3 secs .Everybody in the bus felt uneasy ...Yes that is the signal indicating the departure of Qburst Technologies' bus from Vellayambalam...The KSRTC bus reached Palayam Underpass. The QBurst bus reached museum......Two scenes flashed on the screen...."Avide Qburst bus..Evide KSRTC bus"...."Qburst bus at LMS traffic light...KSRTC at Legislative Assembly"....The two scences flashed again and again in the screen...Everybody was on the edge of their seats....."Tsssssss...The KSRTC bus stopped at the PMG bustop with a sudden break"....Those people who were on the edge of their seats now seated properly...Yes....We are here before the Qburst bus..
8.10 am...I took my Nokia 6030 and pressed some swithes....At Pattom bus-stop people started dancing to the tunes of Nokia Express Music...But their joy lasted only for 4 secs. ...It was a missed call.....
8.15 am...Now Inquistivo is inside the Qburst bus,much to the discomfort of those who were dancing to the frequent message alerts received by Inquistivo's Express Music....Inquistivo seated himself on the backseat of the bus..which was empty, if it wasn't for me.
8.17 am...With his characteristic grin, resembling Mr.Homer in The Simpsons,Inquistivo pressed a secret code in his Nokia Express Music.....He was signaling "Master Boss Unnikuttan" about the arrival of Qburst bus.....
8.20 am..."Master Boss Unnikuttan" is now inside the bus....His face was grave....It seems that Uncle Luco has betrayed him again....He seated himself near us in the backseat....We didn't ask him anything about Uncle Luco.
8.30....Thomas Kutti got inside the bus from Sreekaryam....Thomas kutti was Master Boss Unnikuttan's school mate and had helped him in the "Settle a Beta Permanently".
8.40.....At Technopark Trivandrum......
..............Coming up.....Chapter 2:Harmony at Work

Treading Unknown Waters

Some day in week 1: 11:30pm PD-220
Just back from my own beautiful moment of the day - the midnight walk back to my IISc hostel room listening to iPod. I didn't know whether Soumya, ma roomie, is back yet. Seems he's back early today and out talking to someone. Tomorrow it will be a week since I left my hometown.

IISc
I feel blessed to have been part of three awesome campuses. Right from the beauty of Loyola in school days, to the elegance of CET and now IISc. All three have something in common - unlimited greenery, and that's something I enjoy very much. It's said that the temperature in IISc is three degrees below the normal temperature of the city. All the roads are bound on both sides by trees. Though it's not the spring season, I can imagine how it would be during full bloom. None of the buildings are more than 2-3 floors high, each unique in design. They seem to pop their head occasionally out of the green and does not stand out from the surroundings. The main building is an exception. Made of some kind of white stone, just one view of it takes us to the grandeur of 1900s. Our admission procedure was held in the main building. Before that we'd to pick lot to decide our hostel room and I got PD-220.

Hostel
The walk towards my hostel room seemed an endless one, esp. with a bag full of stuff. I'd to cross a busy road. Thankfully the guard in the gate opposite guided me to the hostel. The room is a double room. It's really spacious with large wardrobe, well furnished and even a small balcony to top it all. There's also a terrace nearby. The area is very silent at night (which is pretty much the only time I'm there). My roomie is a bengali - Soumya. I got quite a shock when he messaged me for the first time telling name and informing that 'd arrived ;-). The name is pronounced Shomu, pretty nice guy about to do PhD in ECE dept. Though the hostel is about a km from main areas, I like it and the walk back to the room at night.

12:00pm PD-220, a week later.
CEDT
The department had impressed us a lot the first time we were here for the test and interview. On the official day 1 in the department, we were taken around the department, shown the labs and given a briefing about the subjects. Both Suraj and me felt like the labs comprised of our favourite subjects clubbed into one MTech course. The teachers were jolly, even overdoing it occassionally with chalus. Now we're past a week into classes. Labs are about to start soon. That's gonna be the tuff and time consuming part according to seniors and the dept would virtually be our second home. Four of our subjects have lab and we get to have a hands-on experience in electronics design.

September 5: U-47
Now in Sreejith's room. It's more than a month now. Starting to taste the real IISc life. The past month was pretty good with not much work. But towards the end we got to know what's going to haunt us for the next 22 months. Lab assignment submissions seems to be the worst of that nightmare now, but who knows what all are going to be thrown us at from now on. Lab work is enjoyable if you know how to do it. But sitting in front of some problem without a clue how to solve it for hours at a stretch is plain disappointing. Hmm.. Hope the situation gets better if we start studying. How to find time to that is another question.

Sept 7/8: Lab
Riding back to hostel at 4:00 am.

Find Me My Love

This darkness seems to surround me,
Taking me in and all my thoughts,
I seemed to have lost my way i know not when,
Its true i might soon see a splinter of dawn,
But right now i know i'm lost in this deep abyss of time,
I search for a hand that will lead me on,
For my journey is endless and my destination unknown,
All i need is a companion in this tunnel of desperation,
That someone who can show me that ray of hope i want to see,
I need that someone who in my silence will hear all my thoughts,
Find me my savior......Find me my love....
Hold my hand and let this wait end,
When my fingers would be entwined in yours in a bond of oneness,
And then will you wake me up from this dream to find me with you,
To give me my life,to give me my light...
And all the happiness and love i could ever ask for....

Workshop woes

(Yet another incident from my CET life. Slight exaggerations here and there, as usual.)

Usually for Engg. students, third semester begins with a bit of relief. The feeling that 'we are also seniors' comes in and the insecure feeling is far gone. Besides that, they get relaxed, and start to master this unique technique of covering the whole syllabus on the day before the exam. The same happened with all my friends also. (I had started to apply it from first year itself.)

The easiest electronics lab in the whole of B tech course was in that semester. Electronics Workshop. But there, things were not that simple as I expected them to be. I stood inside the workshop, like a rabbit thrown into a lion's cage, in total dismay, in front of RM ma'am. Things got worse when I started to write the rough record. I had to submit it, then go and wait somewhere near the garden that we had in the middle of the dept. building, so that I can catch it when she throws it away. The throwing - catching process went on and I had to redraw pictures several times for some grave reasons like one leg of the resistor is shorter than the other, the angular distance between the legs of BC107 is not accurate enough etc. Later, when I got the first experiment signed, I was relieved, and felt like I had just completed half the requirements for a b tech degree.

But more bitter things were still in store for me. I couldn't attend the regular exams due to chicken pox. And that made me the only person to have a suppli in workshop. I attended the supplementary exam, got Hartley oscillator or something, screwed the whole thing up miserably, and failed again. That put me in one of the worst situations I had to face in my B tech life.

A s5 student attending the workshop exam with juniors.I felt like shit. I entered into the exam hall, and as soon as I saw the internal examiner, I knew that I was doomed. It was none other than S ma'am (who, later turned out to be our VLSI teacher). We were pretty familiar with each other by that time. When I had to go to the staff room related with the SB sir episode in s4, along with bond, Bimal etc., we had already had an encounter. At that time, she had blessed me with some divine words like "Nee orukaalathum gunam pidikkilla" (Translation will destroy it's beauty.) as if I had done something highly reprehensible. (Gosh.. but all that was for not writing class notes..!!)

When I was drawing the layout, she came walking towards me, with a disdainful look.

"You stay at MH. Don't you?"

"Yes ma'am"

"So you proud MH ite, you have no intention to complete the course in four years huh?"


I didn't know how to react. I was already a bit nervous. I wanted to ask her to give me some peace of mind. I knew that it would make her more hostile. So I kept looking at my answer sheet without saying a word.


"What is your first year gpa?"

"6.4"

Right then, she sat on a stool near to me. I knew that she was not gonna leave me soon.

"What was your entrance rank?"

"194"

"What about your tenth and plus two marks?"

"94 and 88"

"Don't you feel ashamed of yourself and what you are doing? You are letting your parents down in a big way."

She was snarling at me like I just raped someone right there.

"Why don't you tell all these on another occasion?" was all what I said in my mind. I just stopped drawing with a deep sigh. I looked at her with a 'What the fuck you want' kind of an expression.

She got more furious.

"What do you think of yourself.. huh? Now, all of you MHites do have a feeling that you have conquered the world. But once you get out of the college, you will know what real life is.. At that time, you will regret thinking of all these. But it will be too late.. Your parents will also suffer for what you are doing now.."

I decided to change the track, and tried to bring a sad expression on my face as if, I was deeply moved by her words. Shook my head in between and kept staring on the floor. "Oh.. you just opened my eyes!!" was all what I wanted to convey, and from her face, I knew that I had done very well..


I saw her face expression changing. She used her palm to support her chin, and her face looked like that of someone who is at the funeral of a close relative.

"You have done a few mistakes, but now you are worried about your future, right?"

Her voice was very soft.(Er... I mean.. the maximum softness that she could bring in her voice. of course, she has got her own limits..)

I nodded very slowly.

"Why you were not able to study properly?"

For a moment, I was blank. What would I say? I can't tell her that it was because I didn't give a fuck about studying. I couldn't figure out anything quickly. So I chose the option of silence.

After a few seconds, she leaned forward, and asked in a lowered voice.

"You have any problems?"

"Eh?"

"I mean, any mental problems?"

I felt like rolling over the floor and laughing, but I did respect her concern. Somehow, I managed to keep the sadness on my face, and replied.

"No, ma'am."

"Physical?"

I wanted to say something and abandoned the idea too quickly. I had to turn my face to the other side so that she wouldn't see me smiling. I retained the sadness, and turned back.

"No"

She crossed her fingers, and said very seriously..

"Anyways, we have to find a solution. Do you study at least an hour everyday?"

"Yes ma'am"

I replied without thinking much.

"No, you don't.. Because if you did, you should have scored at least 7.5"

"Er.. actually... I started doing so only in this semester ma'am.. "

"Hmmm... That's good. You should promise me that you will continue to do that.."

"I promise, ma'am"

"That's really good.. Now go on.. "

As she left, I felt totally relieved. Somehow, I managed an output that time.. But, the trouble wasn't fully over. Viva was still left.

As I sat in front of the external examiner, she, straight away, asked me to identify some components. My eyeballs bulged outwards as if I was looking at a ufo. Examiner got a clear idea of my pathetic condition and let me go very quickly..

So that was how the thing got ended, folks.. and the only thing left was a
promise. What about that? Now, even if I tell you that I kept my word, You will take it to be a joke. Won't you??

HOTC Ch 7: The Rains Went By

A new semester, a new hope, a new beginning.. No No! we were right in the middle of the storm like in the beginning of HP7 and we didn't have time to appreciate the change in classroom. We were Potters in search of the horcrux jobs, with Albus Samson helping us out at CGPU. That's when the bubble-that-must-not-be-named burst (literally) into scene. Things never got better after that and even after a year our batch is still bathing in the aftershock. (pardon me for the absurd allegory in previous statements :-) . The fact that our class secured the most number of jobs in the batch was little consolation for what happened.

Looking at the smaller picture, the placement season was an 'experience'. There were the PPTs of companies in the beginning. The real deal didn't bore us as much as the PPTs though. It was a special sight seeing us dressed well, as executives for a change (got to say our ladies looked better those days too.. ;-). Those days provided some unforgettable scenes.. The joy after getting a job, the disappointed figures being consoled by friends. I was able to stay back many of those days 'cuz of the proximity of my house. Saw a lot of gr8 friends groups around CGPU including ours - staying together during the hard times. It had the funny moments too.. Sure going round and round the pillar before an interview and three guys doing the same after he'd gone in, AS claiming 'I love japanese people, I love japanese culture' at Toshiba interview and a lot more..

Then came one day that could be named the Happiest day in HOTC. It was our onam celebration. There wasn't any celebration to tell about the previous year. But this was to be our final onam celebration and the AE batch of '09 rocked it Applied style. Back were the laughter, the energy that had gone dim after S5 tour. After our customary trip around the campus (esp civil for obvious reasons), we were back in our class. Thanks to some organising by LN, we'd plenty of payasam and sweets. Then a session of onappattu accompanied by traditional dances (dappankkuthu). There were many cameras around and none of them were disappointed. We made all kinda permutations and combinations for group photos sessions which lasted well into the evening. There were even absurd ones like Akashagopuram kandu thenjavar.

Robotics was still in our veins and another Shaastra was coming along. This time we secured entry in two competitions (thanks to AS). Sleepless preparation nights (mostly just chatting around) and countless screwings (?) 'n debuggings later, we'd three bots ready. One was shaped futuristic-ally like a bat-mobile though it ended up having stability issues. This time, there were more of us making the trip. But we couldn't roam around the campus as much as previous time 'cuz we'd competitions on two days. The robotics competition was real tuff and we were a tad disappointed by it's organisation. Else might've had a chance at winning a prize. The laser show was stupendous! We did go to the beach and spencer plaza. The time we spend at CCD were enjoyable too.

Towards the end of the sem, we went for another robotics competition at GEC, Trissur as part of their tech fest - Resonance. Our group had become professional by then, each knew his part of the work. We were rewarded with 4000 bucks too though the organisers were reluctant at giving out prizes. We also witnessed the first and last Sargam (inter-sem) which went through without much fanfare. I believe Jisha (in pic) won many dance prizes. Another thing to take notice was that the teachers were in charge of the events, which told a lot about the political scenario.

In academics, lectures became more of a formality even though teachers showed their love by drawing hearts in class. We had our seminar and preliminary presentation(s) of main projects throughout the sem. We'd thought of them with reverence in the previous sems. But as usual, most of the work was done at the last minute, keeping up the CET tradition and most of us got through fine. The university exams came along dragging it's feet. We didn't have proper answers to his questions, but survived somehow thanks to our combined efforts. Thus ended the prefinal semester of CETlife and the fact that it would be ending soon was dawning on us.

-JFx

Coming up: Ch 8 - And Road Goes On