Tuesday 29 September 2009

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

Thursday 10 September 2009

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.