Friday, May 26, 2006

FIRST WEEK AT IAF

I had plans of watching and ogling Bindi,Ghungroo,Payal,Kumud,Banno {typical northie names} back in March but then realised that I will have to settle down with sighting Thamilselvi,Kanimozhi,Muniamma when i learnt that Avadi wil be my place of interns.The first few days have evoked mixed reactions.4 of us-3 guys and one girl, were selected for the interns at IAF base in Avadi.1st jhatka-No aircrafts here as this place basically deals with not the aircrafts but with the supporting vehicles and some ground equipment like starters etc .The most fascinating equipment seen so far has been the arrester barrier.My project will in all probability deal with arrester barrier.{Google it for further details}.And as always I wont go into the details of tech stuff ,not because you might get bored,but mainly because I myself wont know what I will be blaberring then.

3 of us have been put up in a small 2 bedroom flat type quarters.The facilities are pretty good.Atleast I dont run the risk of being caught in the loo with air gushing out of the taps which is a very normal occurence in IITM.We get tea and newspaper in the morning and like I used to do in my school days have been spending more than necessary time flipping through the pages,berated by friends and consequently getting late.We have a Sumo to transport us from the house to the hangars at 8 am.We were told to get ready by 7-45 and the old habits of walking in late to the 8am class have embraced me and like a leech refuse to go away.After 2-3 warnings we did not yield,and our Sir no longer asks us about the delay and has accepted it.We,on our part have not been capitalising on the generosity and go only 10 mins late.But we have been very punctual in leaving on time.We pack the work by 1-45 and assemble outside the hangar for the Sumo which comes at 2.Food,something for which I live,and which has been denied to me in good manner thanks to the authorities here in college,has been awesome.Lunch has been particularly amazing with a proper 3 course meal being served.A bulged waistline surely in the offing.

We seem to be world-famous in IAF with almost everyone asking us "Ohh you are those 4 peepal from IIT naa?" .We chorus in unsion "Yes" .99% of the times the next question has been "IAF jaain karoge kya" and a chorus "No" has been the answer.They seem to be having wrong notions about our making a ground-breaking discovery there and so the non commensurate respect.The fox will soon show its true colours. A tea meeting with the Commanding officer {He is the Head of this place} was the high point of Day One.Tea seems to be flowing like a river here and has been following us wherever we go.Most of the technicians are Northies here .So the mechanism,parts etc were explained in Hindi mostly.I didn't have much of a prob and dont think will have it either unless he hurls bouncers like "vidyut chumbkeeya tarang"{ EM waves}.Of course the Biharis do chip in with their "vheri pphirst " and the Bongs have been explaining stuff like "taarbines".

One of the main difficulties in being with the fairer sex is the lack of freedom of speech.I have been forced to curtail,nah totally stop the usage of four lettered words,addressing the kith and kin etc and their corresponding translations in other vernacular languages.These actually are pasted on my lips thanks to my hostel life.On many occasions I have been uttering half the word,realizing the presence of females,being embarassed like a kid being jeered by his peers for peeing in the pants and wishing the earth opens up and swallows me.The other thing which beats me is the abysmally low amounts of food girls eat.I know the basic psychology is to stay slim {*and attract guys*} but that should not be at the cost of food.My co-intern has been having almost 1/3 rd of what I eat every session{or the other guys for that matter}.I shall devote an entire post towards this one as I cant do justice in one paragraph.

We have not had much work so far and boredom in the nights has been one of the few cribs.Having been accustomed to a life full of activity{read net},people all around ,etc this deserted and lonely quarters did disappoint me.I was teetering on the brink of madness in the first week not knowing what to do.Now Wodehouses,Forsyths{also Feminas,Womans Era etc :P} have provided some respite but still nothing rocks like free net.The weekend just flew away and its off to Central now to catch a train to Avadi.Hopefully next update after one week.

Monday, May 15, 2006

DONE WITH MY B.TECH

Last last thursday I wrote the last exam of my B.tech in IITM.I wanted to blog about that since then but slow net at my cousin's place prevented me from doing so.So I am done with my B.tech for all practical purposes.Wait,my engineering is not yet over.I will be entering the world of uncles-M.tech in August and have two more years to go to get the coveted degree from a "premier" college.Somehow M.tech in IITs is not at all "kewl".I mean B.tech has a pretty good brand image whereas M.tech in IIT has been suffering from an identity crisis.M.techs are fondly referred to as mataks or matkas in IITM by us and are synonymous with uncle like guys and a stitched trouser that doesnt run through the entire length of the leg.I do not know what the mataks call us B.tech.If its a similar process of christening then i guess we all would be called bataks ,which rhymes with a part of the human body.Due to the aforementioned reasons I somehow donot want to be called M.tech.Probably calling myself a designer{no ,not the Manish Malhotra genre} is a better bet I guess as my M.tech is in Product Design.

Well I guess you all dont want to hear the same story about my exams so even I wont delve much into that.Anyway a few lines will do no harm.The first three were very painful with me sleeping only for max 2 hrs in the night.After that the rest weren't so difficult.One thing I have been practicing ever since my childhood is not sleeping in exams and I can proudly say that I have never slept in any of the exams here.We had a pass-fail course this sem and pretty obviously complacency creeped in as a result of which i was inadequately geared for the exam and finished the 3 hr paper in 45 mins.In order to keep up the record of not sleeping I started cleaning all parts of the cell phone and reassembled it and also cleaned my calci.I also played antakshari with myself by singing in 3 different languages.To the best of my knowledge the only exam in which i dozed off for a considerable amount of time was a totally crap exam called DA-IICT{Dhirubhai Ambani's Engg Coll at Gandhinagar} entrance exam.I had no enthu in that and after completing the easy questions I dozed off after 1.5 hours.I think many others also slept accross the country because I found my name in the 1st list of qualified candidates.

The vacations are on now and visited a few of my cousins in Chennai and Bangalore after totally lazing around in my room watching lots of movies.As I have already mentioned if you have no work to do then IITM LAN is a total heaven.You can choose from eng,tam,gult,hindi movies,videos,songs,cricket and footer clips,amazing documentaries,hazaar e-books etc {and of course "you-know-what"} and all this comes without any price tag attached to it.My summer internship was originally scheduled to be at the IAF base at Palam near New Delhi and the Dept office dropped a bomb a few weeks back saying it would be at Avadi near Chennai.New Delhi became No Delhi and Avadi became KLPD.I have to report on 14th and I hope to atleast catch a glimpse of the fighter jets and defence related stuff.Of course I have absolutely no idea what a mechie is going to do there.Updates about that will be given after a few weeks.

I am back after a 4 day trip to Bangalore.It was mainly to kill time {and blow up money as I have spent a lot}.I came to Chennai this morning and will be leaving to Avadi at about 9am.I am already a day late!The seniors have said that its a very good campus and that we get royal treatment there.One thing for sure is that there will be no net there.I guess i will be posting sporadically this summer on the days when I get back to my room.I do hope to get back to my room on weekends and catch up with a few hostel mates,orkutting,chatting,movies etc.Will blog about Bangy trip soon.Now all set to leave.All you guys enjoy your summer and get roasted and fried like me.Ciao folks.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

WHAT THE F***

The idlis they say are mighty fine
Until one fell down and crushed the toe of mine


This pretty much gives an indication of the latest insane thing that has come up in the campus.On April 1st a gigantic,gargantuan,mammoth mess was declared open-The Himalaya or better still Shitalaya.This mess,constructed at a whopping cost of 9 crores{What a waste!} will surely be bigger than some of the colleges in Hyd!I was slisha apprehensive about the day of inaugration {April 1st -All Fools Day} but later realized that it was a perfect launch because they have been succesful in fooling more than 2500 students.Wow! Sensational timing by the authorities I should say.It couldn't have started on a better day.It is a huge 3 storeyed building with a posh facade and green lawns in front of it.But it's total nonsense inside .A perfect way of describing it would be "Good from far but far from good".

For non iitians i shall give a brief intro.All these days we had our food in the hostel mess.The Dean decided that the students of one of the premier engineering colleges of the country needed better food and came up with this horrible idea called "Giga Mess" wherein all the students in the hostel zone will be going to a single place for their food.This Mess has 3 different caterers {RR,CR and SHAKTI} each serving two different cuisines called C1-Predominantly Northie and C2- Southie food.We later realised that C2=C1 + Sambhar.We were asked to exercise our vote on the caterer and C1 or C2.RR caterer had the reputation of being the best of the bad lot and so we all voted for that with the hope that atleast now things would get better.Alas the food is at an all-time worst now.

First of all the very fact that we have to walk so much for food acts as a deterrent.This Himalaya is just beside that Gurunath and evening coffee is non -existent.RR invariably has a mile long queue at any time of the day thanks to the huge turnout.Each floor is assigned a different caterer and the capacity is 720 in each floor.About 1600 students have registered for RR,some 500 for CR and about the same for Shakti.Needless to say there is absolutely no rush in CR and Shakti while we all fight it out in the queues in RR.The concept as such is bad,food worse and the queue "worshtest".We have to walk back the entire distance even for a spoon of rice.The scene in the lunch time is literally like a refugee camp with people pushing and jostling each other.This is mainly due to the 1pm class.I seriously feel lunch time has to be increased because we can never predict when we will be done with this stupid ordeal.

All of us were issued cards for entry into the mess and it says we cant go to the other caterer.It is a simple yellow card which would cost no more than 5 bucks.Loss of mess card means a fine of RS. 500 {REALLY} and coupons for extras will be issued in multiples of Rs.300.For all of us who experienced hunger pangs in the night Dhaba provided some respite with the ok types food.Now Dhaba also has been closed and we see a new outlet called Tifanys above Mega Mess.This Mega Mess is just beside Gajendra Circle and it closes by 10pm thanks to its proximity to the girls hostel.Infact its sandwiched between the 2 girl's hostels.Firstly why the **** was it opened there?And what's the problem in guys coming near the hostel after 10?? Anyway there are hajaar couples who roam till 3-4am and n hajaar couples just outside the girls hostel who keep talking till some 3-4am.The Dean has no problems with that and has cribs about guys coming near the girls hostels for food. *Evil Grin *-I am sure girls dont mind guys coming :P.

The Govt mess in our 1st year was pretty good and the hostel messes were privatised in the 2nd year and the food has been deteriorating ever since.How I wish our students enact a Rang De Basanti{hmm maybe without killing} or some Medha Patkar comes and starts Himalaya Hatao Andolan.Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul guys,if you really want to target an educational institution you are most welcome.Do come here and demolish Himalaya without leaving a brick instead of targetting harmless profs in IIsc.

P.S. : The rebellion has started.Be a rebel
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=11116736

Monday, March 13, 2006

THE BEST MATCH EVER?

2 years ago Pakistan scored around 344 and was 5 runs short of victory over India in the first ODI at Karachi.This was the match where Kaif took that awesome catch jumping over Badani.That was the highest chasing total till yesterday,although it wasn't a winning one.A few months back NZ prevailed over AUS in a high profile chase and won, chasing a total of 330 odd and till yesterday that was the record for the highest winning chase.Few other memorable 300+ chases have been the Natwest final at Lord's ;the 316 at Dhaka vs Pak {Kanitkar scores a boundary off saqlain},;SL chasing 333 set by WI at Sharjah ,Tillakaratne scores an amazing century but the team falls short by 3 runs.Move over guys! 300 is passe.400 is the in thing now.If a team scoring 434 in the 1st innings is out-of-the-world then what can you say about the team which has chased 434 at 8.7 RPO.GOD LEVEL!!!!!!!!!!

I cant imagine with what mindset Gibbs went in to bat! Chasing 434 is surreal.How could he even think that his team could go for a win?His lofted cover drives,pulls,straight hits to the fence were an absolute treat to watch.Never did he get bogged down and the best part of his innings was that he tried to score off every ball.In his 80 odd runs partnership with De villiers the latter scored just 14. Gibbs totally bludgeoned,hammered,pummelled the ball and I cant come up with more words. He never lost sight of his goal even when wickets fell and the way he accelerated after his century was too too too much! The age old adage "Fortune favours the brave" was seen yesterday .Without taking away any credit, Gibbs had a reprieve at mid-off.A couple of edges also flew to the third man boundary and there was a missed run out chance. Every ball he tried some innovation -coming down the track,creating room on the off,chipping it over short fine leg etc. But the way he threw away his wicket was slisha disappointing.He had already scored two sixes and a lofted drive without the power or timing towards long off with a fielder there was unwarranted.He could have taken a single or hit a full blooded shot.Anyways i think he was tired.All said and done this was one of the best innings' i have ever seen and I dont think anyone can emulate Gibbs atleast for the next few years. "Wonder"wath was also wonderful! And full marks to Boucher for having kept his cool.He kept the scoreboard ticking and ensured that 6 an over was always coming. Imagine a tailender like Ntini facing one of the fastest bowlers with 2 needed off 3,this being the series clincher,SA on the verge of creating history.Phew!He aptly took a single.Well done boy .Boucher deserved the winning shot and his boundary over long on brought the roof down in the room and we all were dancing,shouting,embracing each other as if it were an Indian win!Such was the tide against the Aussies.

Almost all the guys in the TV room were baying for Aussies blood barring one or two . Every boundary was greeted with rapturous applause and we all were left red-handed after clapping so much.The atmoshpere was totally electric with about 150 people and this is something i wont forget for a few years to come.

Ponting's captaincy has left a few open questions.Even you and me know that Gibbs is extremely strong in the cover region.Why didn't he have a sweeper when he was repeatedly hitting it over the covers? Secondly Lee was the best bet with such such an inexperienced attack.So why didn't he complete his quota and why that Lewis was given 10 overs after giving away 90 in 9?Lewis might be a great bowler in the death but after being hammered for 90 runs it was an unwise decision to hand over the ball to him.Anyways I am happy he did that because I don't want the Kangaroos to win every series.But I am pretty sure that they will fight back hard.After every defeat they have had comprehensive victories.They swept the Super Series 3-0 and defeated WI,SA,SL back home after their Ashes debacle and the previous ignominious loss to Bangladesh.So a good fight is on the anvil.

The Ashes victory saw a surge in the popularity of cricket in England.Lets hope the same thing happens in SA .I would like to see SA attain the levels it had reached in 1996-99 and regain its lost glory.

Bottomline: Any target can be achieved if you are determined and put your mind and heart into it.Will sum up with one of my favourite quotes - "Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." - Mohammad Ali.And Gibbs,Smith,Boucher are champions. ^:)^

Monday, March 06, 2006

TIME IS FLYING AWAY

I am half way through the sem and have not yet described how it has shaped up.This is mainly due to an extremely busy schedule which for a change included mugging ,playing cricket and of course the usual time wasters like chatting,movie watching etc.As usual the Profs are not great barring two profs.One prof teaches well but slighly on the slower side.His class is somewhat like HIndi commentary on DD -1."Mohammad Kaif"..wait for 10 seconds.."shandaar shot"..10 more seconds.. ""kharab ball".Surpise-I have a Bradmanesque attendance average of 90+ so far in his class and have jotted down awesome notes.Infact i am pretty proud of a unique achievement.For the first time in my 3 years i studied for the quiz from my own notes.Of course it did have the usual glitches as i didn't copy a few graphs and the "sieve theorem" came into effect once again.Probably can be termed Beginner's Luck.As some golfer said "My luck is so bad that if i bought a cemetery people would stop dying"!The other prof is a total god.Infact he is going to be the next HOD and for the first time i seem to be enjoying classes.But he sent me out once as i went in 3 min late for his 8 am class.Grrrr.

The labs and the associated reports have been the most painful part eating away precious Sundays.Of all the things I dont think anyone would want to spend his Sundays writing lab reports and drawing graphs.In the previous sems too we had labs but I used to blatanly carbon copy the reports.This sem there were specific instructions not to copy from our batch mates.Certainly that dint deter me from copying ,the fact that i was dependent on others provided the impetus to write reports on my own.I still don't write it completely on my own.Thats obvious because Habits Die Hard.Thursdays and Fridays are the best days as the afty's are free.They are spent in the best way possible-sleeping.Even though I have been writng down notes in a few classes religiously I am absolutely not able to cope up with them and in most cases its blindly writing down what the prof has been telling.Sometimes when LB sits beside me we both have a small competition on who writes down more notes.Though I won on one particular day, after going through the notes I found out that what I had written was totally insignificant and irrelevant.The prof was using some analogies and like a fool I wrote down that without writing the subject matter.Phew!The simple things in life like writing notes in class is so tough man!Hats off to all you people who maintain notes.

This sem also saw the advent of GD's in our wing {6 guys} mainly in order to improve our debating skills.It has done everything except that.Mainly it has resulted in each of us taking turns to rape the other guy and pain him to the core.In most of the cases the guy getting tortured has had no support and its like 5:1 attack.But those sessions were total fun and I was also the victim many times.If I am not wrong I was the one who started these sessions and the cliched getting a taste of my own medicine.Hope to have one of those sessions this weekend.I am pretty sure the guys passing through our wing are convinced that these 6 guys have no other work apart from farting {aimless chat sessions in IIT lingo}.

I had put on weight in my December holidays and started running in our stadium in order to reduce it.Sadly i dont seem to have lost much inspite of running a good 5*400m these days.My main aim is to reduce my waist line so that i can flaunt my brand new Lee jeans by tucking the shirt in . :P.I hope to tuck in my shirt atleast by the end of this sem.Btw all you doubting Thomases,I am not that fat,just 65 kgs :P

This has been a total bits and pieces post.But what to do I dont get many ideas to blog about :(. Life is just going on peacefully these days.First quiz was just about ok.Hope there is no "sieve theorem" in the 2nd quiz!!!

P.S : For first timers sieve theorem --> Whatever i leave will surely appear in the exam.100%.For further details contact LB.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

THIS FARE IS NOT LOVELY

Superstar Rajni waxed eloquent about this tribe in one of his superhit flicks.He goes about extolling the virtues of the autokkaran of Chennai.His cronies dance with wild abandon and sing along with him , probably shouting for an encore.In fact in his first few lines he claims to be a good singer.I dont second his views and I am pretty sure many of you will assist me in directing a stream of invective towards these guys.I do agree that they are good singers.They seem to be huge fans of Eminem as our guys also can sing rap songs{or crap songs?} with generous amounts of swear words thrown in.

I have been fleeced royally almost every time I took an auto here.I am particularly sad at my inability to reach at a favourable price even after minutes of haggling with the autowala.They are adept at using the choicest of Tamil expletives,obviously aimed at your immediate kith and kin.I dare not scold him in return as I am aware of the fraternity and camaraderie existing among them.The Hyd autowala is also equally adept at usage of expletives which often revolve around parts of the human anatomy below the abdomen,both posterior and anterior without any bias.Dont be surprised if you hear many of your relatives being called names in different languages.Poor guy,spits and wastes his 5 bucks worth paan just to tell you few of your body parts.But still the Hyd guy is better than the Chennai guy,atleast he sticks to the meter.

My experiences in Chennai with the autokarrans have been horrible to say the least.What would have costed me 15 bucks in Hyd costs me something around 30 if I catch a moving auto and 40 if I hire a stationary auto outside the IIT gate.He does take you on a ride!Cant understand why these static guys demand more.Invariably he demands 5 rs extra on reaching the destination.It is somewhat like "You wanted me to take you to Y on X road,this place is Z which is quite a distance from Y".This "quite a distance" is generally about 200-300 metres.There is also a worst case scenario- Z does not figure on X road at all and its 10 Rs extra.Any hour of the day apart from 10am-11am and 6pm-8pm is "untime saar" for our guy.He uses this word pretty often.Another handy crib is that the petrol prices were raised just a few days back.He predicts a traffic snarl on every main road through which we'll be passing .Is this guy any VIP with a convoy and Z plus security???

I do not wish to restrict myself to the autokkaran alone.His baap,the taximan surely deserves atleast few lines here.The biggest pain in life is when i disembark from the Chennai express which arrives at around 6 am,which is obviously "untime saar" for the taximan.Even at 6 am you can see our man very fresh,vermilion and sacred ash smeared along the forehead and the divine aroma of incense sticks in the auto/taxi.Dont get carried away people,beyond the saintly God-fearing exterior is a pertinacious guy who can extract any amount he wants despite stiff resistance from your side.He never pulls back even if you are in numbers of three or four.Hats off to your determination machi! I always arrive the day classes start and since we have to reach by 7-30 there is no time for the haggling .We pay him an outrageous figure which is delta less than what he demanded,he asks 25 more for the luggage,hostel security guard intervenes,usual expletives follow {there is one particular word used for the 1st few customers of the day who crib a lot and dont pay},we end up paying that extra 25 bucks,he elated,we fuming,the end.

All said and done this autowala certainly is an integral part of our lives,especially for me in Chennai as i do not have a vehicle here and my cycle wont take me beyond the gates.Read that as-I am too lazy {also a bit afraid}to ride a bicycle on the busy Adyar road and so take an auto even for short distances like Shakes and Creams.We just cant do without him and we are at his mercy.I will be happy if he atleast reduces this blatant exploitation of the weaker sections of the society{Yeah in this case we are weak}.Any tips from experienced customers on how not to get fleeced are welcome.In the meantime let me think of cheaper alternatives.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

EK HAZAAR :)

Yipee!!! The counter says 999 and since this is my blog i wanted to be the 1000 th visitor.A refresh would have done so but i thought writing a small post would be better. :)
I thank all the readers for this .Surely for a novice churning out sub standard stuff having so many visits is an achievement.Thanks a lot people .Do read and voice your opinions.

PJ-- A woman saw her daughter-in-law at a restaurant with another man.She was shocked on seeing this.She saw the same pair again another day holding hands and eating ice cream from the same bowl.But she chose to keep quiet.Why??




"KYON KI SAAS BHI KABHI BAHU THI" !