Mundane Musings...

Do we really want to know?

2012-03-09T14:29:00.005+05:30

Scenario: Late Night Thoughts
Inspiration in bits and pieces: *Onky and Fred

So, I have heard that when people really figure out what they want to do in life, it's true bliss. But, do we really want to know what we want to do in life? Isn't the uncertainty, the bursts of happiness, the understanding of small things and everything that comes with it what constitutes a wholesome life?

Maybe, if you really find out what you are supposed to do, life's no longer interesting. You have to give a shot at stuff, try different things. I have tried small ones and yes, it is hard initially but later on it gives this huge experience, that you probably would never get if you were so hell bent on sticking to a master plan.

Sometimes, when you see people, you know they are meant to do what they are doing, since they do it so well. But, really that does not mean that's what they are supposed to do. Take a break, try something else. Why should life be so serious? I strongly believe this train of thought stems from moving to Canada and the influence of some of my labmates (truly admire their decision process). I have heard of investment bankers who completely change from what they are doing 18 hours a day to doing labour work like plumbing. If it helps clear the mind and do something satisfying, it's totally worth the 'risk'. Yes, there will be the sceptical looks and the nagging feeling. I don't think I would do something like that, because while ibanking is software development for me, I do not know what's the analogy of plumbing for me!

It takes truck loads of courage to do something like this, but it should be fun and probably scary initially. Might be not right, but yes, you tried something different.

Similar thing goes with the small things... which is what I decided to start with. Yes, I am scared of the uncertainty. Wish me luck, I am sure I'll need it!

*Pseudo names are used, yes these people are called by these names.
F uses Fred when he wants to order pizza and people find it easier to to pronounce Fred rather than his original name.
Onky was called that by his college mates at NIT Trichy.

US Trip - Philly 2012

2012-02-03T13:04:00.008+05:30

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, yours truly does not have the time to write a detailed travelogue. She does want to write about the eventful flight journeys, the crazy stuff you always do as a foreigner at some place, the very enlightening and interesting research conversations (yes, it's geeky) etc etc, but she does not have the time to do it. So here goes what I can do, some justice to the trip that was epic, to say the least.

I had my first US trip this year at Philadelphia. Was part of a POPL conference and thanks to the wonderful sponsors of the event - PLMW 2012 and the following POPL conference (both known and secret generous donors), the entire trip and stay was funded :)

The onward Journey
So, I left Vancouver for toronto and at toronto airport there was a near Indian cinema experience, running to the boarding gate for philly, because of some misunderstanding on the line I should stand at for the US customs.

The 5 days at Philly - It's always Sunny at Philadelphia :-)
Philly is a nice place, though not as beautiful as Vancouver. It was not at all cold, unlike what I was told. Actually it was pretty pleasant for this time of the year! Made a couple of friends from McGill and UCSB. Met many interesting people and conversations ranged from research to culture to cuisines in different countries.

The hotel I was staying at, the Hyatt Penn's Landing, had some pretty good view of the Delaware river and the bridge.

The food was good. We usually had dinners out, Mediterranean food with a gang of grad students. Tried out a bar at Philly, the local beer is ok. Met up with a high school friend after about 4-5 years and went around the historical places at Philly. We did some sightseeing around Philly with a couple of other friends, the last day before leaving. Unfortunately, I could not go to New York because I had my flight the next day morning (Saturday).

It was actually a good break to be away from UBC and the grind of grad studies for sometime.

The Conference
It was pretty good. We initially had a workshop, where we had speakers like Ben Pierce (yes, the types and PL book author), Thomas Ball from MSR, some very interesting speakers like Simon Peyton Jones, Byron Cook etc. There were interesting topics, related to my research area, though very few. There was some talks on program analysis, security and privacy etc. Types and PL did not interest me much.
There were a lot of conversations, exchange of ideas, meeting fellow researchers.
We had a banquet at the art museum at Philly as part of this conference. The usual food and drinks, some art and history about US.

The Return Trip
The return trip was quite good. Came back with some new friends from McGill who were there with me till Toronto and they flew to Montreal after that. At Toronto, I met my twin brothers since I had a stop over of about 4 hours. They came to the airport and I got some of the stuff I left at Toronto, thinking I'll get them later on. Finally got my ski pants and other stuff. Had a nice lunch with them and then flew back to Vancouver.

All in all, it was a great trip. Met new people, caught up with old friends, met my brothers and had a fun time at Philly.

India as a I know it...

2011-11-27T21:39:00.005+05:30

So, it's 8 AM here on a sunday morning here in Vancouver. I am getting this sudden pang of being in India. I would never think that my five years in India would change me so much. There's something about India, that 17 years in Abu Dhabi will never give me, or any part of Canada for that matter. Frustration sets in when I think about indian tax system, the corruption and all the other innumerable things we think about when we live outside India. However, since I am not doing anything about it (neither are all the remaining NRIs) I would not have the right to grumble about it. Hopefully, one day all this change and India will be the destination everyone will come to.
But this post is about all the good things that I miss when I think of India. This is to enlighten my non-Indian friends that India is not all that Russel Peters talks about :-). Ofourse, there's some truth in it as in all other cases.
I can close my eyes and feel I am in India when I get ...
The sweet smell of the earth when it rains in Kerala, the bus drivers who stop wherever you want, running behind buses, getting stuck in Bangalore traffic jams and looking at the other drivers who take it as it comes, speaking in non-grammatical hindi to Mumbai cab drivers, bargaining at road side shops when both the shopkeeper and customer knows that the price is high, the MG Road in each city, the countless train journeys each having its own story, the spices which makes each curry unique, the sweet coconut water directly from the coconut vendor on the roadside everyday on the way to Yahoo, the filtered coffee and cone shaped dosas at the restaurant opposite Besant Nagar beach in Chennai, the frenzied craze when there's a(ny) cricket match going on, the greenery which I cannot see anywhere else, the riverside adventures, the view of Trichy and Coimbatore at night from a flight at 30k feet, the misty mornings at hills in Kodaikanal and Munnar, the hair pin bends and waterfalls on the way to my paternal home at Wayanad, the customs and traditions that are unique to each place and ... the freedom which I cannot explain.

I have not been north of Mumbai, so I cannot do justice to the beautiful places of Himachal, Kashmir, the north east. Having heard a lot about the beautiful hill stations I hope one day I can see all these places too.

Looking forward to July... India 2012 :)

Ending with this song... makes me emotional whenever I hear this: http://www.saavn.com/popup/psong-EOlLqXyD.html?q=chak+de

Ciao

Moving on...The West Coast it is!

2011-09-10T10:13:00.006+05:30

I have finally completed the move from Toronto to Vancouver and settled down to the new phase... back to school!!

It's been a great 10 days in VCR. Excellent weather, scenic mountains, the beaches, the ocean & the bridges,new faces, new roles.
Vancouver is like mini china, you see a lot of chinese people around.

Toronto will always remain close to me, especially Pickering. A nice small town... friendly people. I guess my brothers were my best flatmates ever till date. period.

It's time to move on... After graduating, every year has been spent at a different place. Bangalore, Toronto and now Vancouver. I have learnt quite a lot from my experiences in all these places, good and bad.

Summing up Bangalore in short: forum mall meet ups when non bangaloreans land here, chilling out with nittians, nitc girls 05-09 reunion, late nights at Corner House, Yahoo! days.

Toronto has been a mixed bag: Skiing at devils glen, Winter movie marathons, 2 awesome months with bros and parents, year end parties, canoeing, National Exhibition, Wonderland, NexJ days

Vancouver started off on a great start. Hike at stanley park which was for about 12 kms and steady elevation. Not sure of the elevation gain. Took some really good photos with my italian friend's SLR cam :)

UBC has a great campus and an olympic size swimming pool indoor and outdoor :)) At the tip of Vancouver, the most beautiful campus ever.

So the next 2 years is going to be another story! :)

Love in the time of Cholera

2011-07-05T09:24:00.009+05:30

There are some books that creates a lasting impression. I have just finished reading one such book.

The story is based on the lives of 3 main characters, Fermina Daza, Florentino Ariza and Juvenal Urbino. It is set on the backdrop of a time when cholera was something close to an endemic at the city where they lived. The best part about the book was how the characters evolved and how the reader can not say that any one person is right or wrong. The author manages to capture the time when love stories were built on scented letters and exchange of flowers. The other characters who were beautifully crafted were Fermina's spinster aunt, her father Lorenzo Daza and her cousin who supports Florentino in his passionate crazy love for Fermina.

Florentino's thoughts and actions sometimes seem so surreal, yet not to the point of ridicule. It seems implausible that Florentino is determined to wait for Fermina till the very end with the hope of marrying her after her husband Urbino dies. However, the part that gives plausibility to the book is the weakness in Florentino's character, as a womaniser. He is not portrayed as a jilted lover or someone who waits selflessly for his love.

His life revolves around Fermina so much that he realises the signs of aging by seeing it in her and when he comes to the sudden realization that Fermina could die before her husband, his grief is contagious. The reader would easily forget that the very desire of Florentino to be wanting someone like Urbino dead, 'can' be wrong in the first place.

The character of Florentino evolves in such a manner that it evokes mixed feelings of sympathy, indignation and sometimes even disgust in the reader. He is associated with someone melancholy and his dark plain clothing which makes him look aged works in his favour when he goes on endless liaisons with women. The author has done a great job in evoking such varied emotions for that single character.

Juvenal Urbino, a renowned surgeon, comes across as a pious man who loves his wife Fermina for her character and their marriage is based on practicality. He accepts her lack of belief in God, they compromise and accept each other and they manage to survive the stormy days of their married life. He is a man who is the opposite of Florentino in so many ways, he's a rational person who wants to live by the rules of society & religion, believes in moral and ethical values.

Fermina Daza, the female character around whom the story revolves, is someone who is strong willed, practical and tries her level best to be a perfect individual. Her moments of fear, guilt and rage at those close to her has been beautifully captured by the author. Her character matures quickly through the tough times in her life and Florentino is left behind as a consequence. The way she sees Florentino, as the shadow of a man she has never known, might seem cruel, but it is not unwarranted.

There are some pretty ingenious parts in the book where they reveal Lorenzo's shady business deals and how he made a fortune by fraudulent means. The idea of getting the left pair of a consignment of shoes at one port, the right pair at another port and selling the pairs together at a 200% profit was one of those means. The hindi movie, Badmaash Company, had in fact been 'inspired' by this book.

The book is an excellent read and it is not one of those reel love stories. Many aspects such as the weakness of human character, our imminent mortality and the selfish nature of love were handled with sensitivity.

The Subway Face

2011-05-12T08:39:00.001+05:30

Travelling by the subway each day, I see so many people, some of them commonly become the "subway aquaintances". All of them are so different, yet similar in one aspect - They all have the "Subway Face". This is supposed to be an impassive expression that you put on when you are in the subway, to show that you are indifferent, you have stuff to think on your own and you are not interested in their conversation. Nothing to blame, especially when you are packed like sardines at a 9:03 am subway train. You do not want to laugh at this really funny joke the person sitting opposite you is telling, since you do not want to be the eavesdropper.

It's not easy to put on the subway face unless you have something to support you with that, like a book or your daily metro newspaper, or your apple gadget. Unfortunately, you can not stare out of the window into the grey walls of the tunnel, no fun in that. I find it extremely hard to sleep, with the operator announcing the name of each subway station through the microphone. So that's about it.

Ofcourse, there are still guys who manage to hit on their attractive counterparts when you are sitting in a morning subway, looking groggy eyed and trying to maintain your subway face. Some of the pick up lines I have heard so far range from extremely lame ones to the downright outrageous. There were some nice exceptions where the concerned person seemed to like it too :)

Then there are these absolute depressing experiences, the ones that result in the best FML of the day and might result in a bad day ;)

As days pass by, you become well experienced in maintaining your subway face whatever be the situation.

Spring's round the corner

2011-03-27T09:48:00.003+05:30

Spring's just a spring away. Temperatures are rising, it's 1-2 degrees nowadays ;)
I have learnt not to get deceived by the sunlight outside, it could still be sunny with a -10 degrees! The trees are still barren, but there's no snow around.

Oh Dear Mother Nature,
your naughty tricks do not deceive me anymore. I know perfect spring would start only in April. There are people who stack away their winter tires and you decide to have a snow storm the day after that! There's a beauty about snow though, which I would miss. The white ground which is so heavenly, skiing trips... i won't miss the black ice and the wind chills though.

Looking forward to summer which reads as hiking, swimming, a weekend at some cottage :) ... ah, blissful days ahead. The days get longer and the nights shorter,

Life is a Tree

2011-02-14T00:50:00.005+05:30

Disclaimer: I am not referring to the tree of life.

Life's like a tree, this makes sense when you look at a tree that has shed its leaves and all that remains are it's barren branches. When we are born, we do not have a choice regarding the time and nature of our birth. We also can not choose between parents, the life we would lead, the religion we would follow etc. That symbolizes the trunk of the tree, thick and strong, no choices, just accept... your childhood.

Slowly, the trunk gives way to branches, which leads to more branches and that goes on, till finally the branches give way to twigs and there is an end, The branches represent the choices we have, the decisions we make and we follow one branch. Ultimately, whichever path we follow, there is death in the end. However, some branches have seeds which end up having fruits. These are those tiny moments of accomplishments in life. As life progresses, the decisions we make increase. Every day we make choices, some are too subtle to even care.

Finally, there is the unseen, the roots of the tree, the foundation. I like to think of it as the 9 months we spend in our mother's womb. When the foundation is strong, the tree is magnificent and healthy.

Lastly, the picture is the tree outside my home, which brought about this philosophical note...

The Canadian Way Eh?

2011-01-30T09:45:00.013+05:30

Post finally written after a suggestion from a nocturnal online friend who knowingly or unknowingly has inspired me to resume blogging! :)
The "eh?" is used in Canada at the end of almost every question.. "enjoyed your weekend eh?"
Where do I start about the past 5 months? It's been one crazy time with the confluence of cultures. So much to take in and a lot to watch. Made a few good international friends. (Un)fortunately, I did not even make an attempt to change my accent. Finally, at work, my team's got adjusted to the accent. I have this Chinese friend who amuses me a lot with her way of saying "rumali roti". She rotates her hands above her head (to show the way it's made). I really do not think we swing our hands that way when we make the roti.

Anyway, food was something I knew would be this way. ...
We have Indian masalas here, but the taste is not as good as in India.
The tea here at cafe shops is just caffeinated water! Even if you say double-double ( 2 spoons of milk powder and sugar each), it just becomes white caffeinated water. Be it Second Cup or Tim Hortons (Timmy's). Nothing gives me the same pleasure as having the masala/cardamom tea at Bangalore.
There's something about Timmy's though.. on a cold winter day, having a hot cup of chocolate milk. YUM. However, everyone feels the same way, so Timmy's is usually crowded on such days.
There's something about pets and people here. They absolutely LOVE pets, sometimes even more than their parents and can engage in a conversation about them for a very LONG period of time.

Reading the Hindu online has become a habit now. I think I follow more news about India now than when I was there!

My present Home...
So, I live at this place called Pickering, that's about an hour from the happening place - Toronto. That's where all the activities take place, very vibrant night life. Pickering is a quiet place.. mostly like the country side, lots of trails and frozen streams during winter. The best month was December, with a lot of year end parties and new year eve celebrations.
On weekdays, two hours everyday is spent on traveling to work in the "GO BUS". It is not as arduous as it seems, the GO buses are luxurious to say the least. The only lack wifi :)

So life nowadays, it's mostly discovering trails in Pickering/Ajax, that's a lot of fun. Next week is my first skiing trip and I'm totally looking forward to it. The ski resort is Devil's Glen at the south of Collingwood.

Jason Being an Atheist

2011-01-30T03:59:00.009+05:30

Mom: Son, we have to go to church today.
Jason: Today, I'll pray at home Mom
Mom: No son. today the Clarks are going to be sitting next to us at the church. They are good people and their friendship will mean a lot to your father. Mary Clark is a nice girl, you know. She has expressed a desire in meeting you. What other place to meet than in the presence of God? *Eyes closed*
Jason: MOM! There's something I've to tell you, I am an atheist.
Mom: Jason Dyck! You Will listen to me today. Such foolish thoughts and behaviour will not be entertained by your father.
Jason: Do you mean dad or the Father in heaven? *Smirk on his face* I think the father in heaven will be more displeased with you going to his "holy house" with such thoughts...THAT IS if the Father and the house exists. I am better off being an atheist than a hypocrite Christian like many I know. Now, let me continue reading.
Mom: Okay, Jay. Do what you like for this weekend. I sincerely hope for your good that you mend your ways. We are off to Church to pray for your soul.
Jason's busy reading and Mom leaves room. In half an hour, his parents leave home.

Jason: So what am I going to do next week? going to church be meet Mary Clark?! You must be kidding me. I would rather sing at Mrs. Higgings choir than talk to Mary.

Between the lines

2011-01-25T07:23:00.000+05:30

Facebook is defintely becoming a phenomenon. Some people watch "The Social Network" and decide they'll not "facebook" again, but Zuckerberg was right...a movie is not going to reduce the number of unique vistors of Facebook. It will probably be just a few months before facebook becomes a verb in the dictionary like "google", or probably it already is.
Its fun to watch the stuff that comes out of this social networking.
Recently, I started noticing people were giving into the facebook-deactivate-for-sometime syndrome. Deactivating facebook is a painful process... literally time consuming, with giving reasons why you are deactivating and having your friends pictures strewn all over your page saying "X will miss you", "Y will miss you". Finally they give you an easy option "This Deactivation is temporary..I'll be back".
How do you realise someone is suffering from this syndrome? You see that your photos have reduced in number and hence decide to see which of your friends untagged you /blocked you /deactivated their profile. Obviously, you would not realise if you have about a 1000+ photos and a few 10s are missing :)
Another thing is facebook stalking. It ranges from stalking your "celebrity friends" to stalking people you have not met and who unwittingly do not realise about the facebook default privacy options! Finally when you meet the person you have never seen before except on facebook, you wonder where the hell you met her. Good for you if you keep yourself in check and don't keep rambling about her awesome dress which she's not wearing right now.
Every facebook app is a hit because there is someone who would play farmville/ mafia wars, "who will be your 2011 valentine?".
Getting to know if a movie is worth the watch does not require reviews anymore. My news feed had a post "avante ammumeda oru Kandahar" and some 20 odd people liked it.
Broadcasting developments from getting a new job, change in current city, getting engaged etc etc has never been easier.
Another thing is having your family and relatives on facebook. One wrong move in the form of a status update/ a photo which you got infamously tagged in and the likes can have them breathing down your neck.
All said and done.... think before you post is a good phrase for us ;)

P.S: When you are stuck at home with a snow blizzard, somehow facebooking seems a better option than most of the other stuff. Maybe it's just the times and the fanciness.
Talking about fancy, I was so crazy about getting an ipod touch. Finally after getting it, it's been lying inside the box for about a month now. Thankfully, I did not get a BB/iphone.

Ma'am, you belong here?

2010-03-09T17:06:00.004+05:30

She was walking up that Road,
and it was a trip down the memory lane
20 years earlier...
many hours were spending idling on the pavement
senior guys trying to rag first year girls
students just enjoying the sight of the Big Tree near the MB circle blossom in white,yellow and orange colours
watching friends bantering near the basketball court and first years skating,playing basketball as part of their OT
The road where she walked every day of her life for four years.
where they leisurely walked for sessionals or ran for classes to avoid attendance shortage
walking on the Road during the night enjoying the ambiance and staring at the starlit sky
where a 100 lamps lit up the pavement on Diwali night and the splendid lights adorned the trees
where crows would target them with shit bombs starting sharp at sunset
forcing them to use umbrellas all the seasons of the year
lots of laughter, friendship, love, tears and photos
the end of an era with a day long procession, trumpets and drums
Now all that remains is...
the Road sans all this. No one seems familiar,
buses ply the road taking students to and fro
students no longer spend time just idling, there's no life on the Road
gone were the days students would just sit on the pavement and enjoy the stillness of the moment
The old guard comes up to her, seeing her lost in a trance
He has a bewildered look on his face, not accustomed to people walking on the Road and asks "Ma'am, you belong here"
She replies "Yes, 20 years back" and walked back down to catch the bus to the City.
Maybe after five years when her batchmates come, if they come, they could relive those days
if only for a few hours

Bangalore lessons

2009-10-25T22:31:00.006+05:30

It's been sometime since I blogged.So much happened in between the prev post and the present one! In a breeze, i had my convocation at NITC with Dr. APJ Kalam as chief guest, converted my internship to full time, had a good diwali @ Blore(could not witness the saturday nite fireworks show since I was in Calicut) and lots more.
After coming here to Bangalore, I have learnt a few things:
1. Bangalore sleeps early and gets up early(unlike popular opinion of non-Bloreans).
2. Nitt lingo (chaaaat,kela n the likes)
3. what to look for in a pg.
4. some telugu words(note:not kannada, but telugu)
5. how pan is not bad for health and not all pan contains hashish and other drugs.
6. how tickets need to be booked on the 1st day of reservation, even 2 months before the D-day can get you in a WL-169 status.
7. how the world is basically a small place
8. Girl company can be so much fun/risky..it's easier for a girl to walk with a guy than with a girl :P
9. how dogs can be such loyal friends,keep you company all the way till the main road :)
10. 2 beer pitchers during lunch time is not much with a medium sized gang.
Friends and mutual friends just keep increasing every weekend...do not get bored during my stay at bangalore...the weekend company is pretty entertaining i must say.
However, there's something I miss when I look back... even after having the best time ever I could hope for in Bangalore, I realise that I miss college, I miss our LH, some of us are here in Bangalore, occasionally meet up too :), but its not like those nights in college..ahh the college days!
I do not know if ppl have noticed, but once we leave school/college there are some people whom we might not have talked much with during those days, but after leaving, we tend to become good friends!..i mn extremely good friends! :) (read:kappu,preeti)
P.S: I stay near a golf park and some DJ night is going on here now...miss clg musical nites :(, an October Beerfest is also goin on in Blore,pretty cheap for 300 bucks and unlimited beer with awesome DJ. guess B'lore is rightly called the Pub city of India.

P.P.S: Yours truly takes back her 1st point, Bangalore does NOT sleep early and does NOT get up early. It's Domlur and Domlur ONLY!! This is after Yours truly witnessed some really enthu and wild show @ Blore few days after writing her post.

The Third Phase

2009-09-11T16:56:00.003+05:30

Hi folks! It's been quite a long,long time. Have been spending the past few months getting adjusted to a new place,new surrounding and the beginning of a third phase.
Firstly, the place... Bangalore! I have no comments except that this place is a bit hyped up. I kind of started liking "namma bengalooru" for what it is, the people, the places and the radio(lol). If you have friends here, this place is just great. You can always come up with some new and exciting way to spend the weekends.
The place where i stay is kinda close to my office, 15 minutes walk. My school friend also stays very close by...just hop over to her place when I'm really bored.
I am interning with Yahoo right now, been almost 3 months. This place is simply awesome! They have almost everything an employee can ask for, including cozy beds to sleep when u want to take an afternoon nap and unlimited sick leave. It's a great place to work. Colleagues are also very helpful and FUN :)

Every week here has been crests and troughs..some weekends are so packed and others are almost absolutely nothing to do. Met college folks, saw a few movies, went for a party, went back home when I had absolutely nothing else to do ;). Had a bike ride at awesome speed in an extremely cool bike...was so blinded did nt even bother to check out the bike.absolutely sure its better than a pulsar.
chal folks
signing off for now
my first post from Yahoo... :)
Anna
P.S:Wish my friends would get a hayabusa

The end of chapter TWO

2009-05-31T20:51:00.002+05:30

So many things have happened in the past few months...it was like a hurricane..moving at lightning speed...the gud,the bad and the ugly :-). So now I'm blogging about the close of chapter TWO in my life..the life @ NITC..the college life..almost the best 4 yrs of my life. The last few days were memorable...celebrated my 1st and last birthday in LH and it was the last midnight birthday party in LH of the 05-09 girls batch @ NITC...one rocking batch with the fewest memos possible :P
We had procession,csea farewell,branch treat @ sea queen..and sandwiched between all this was the running around for the "no dues certificate"...loadz n loadz of stuff. It was quite fast...a blur was what the last few days were.
So now comes a new beginning(yea yea..:P)...a different world, no matter how much i want to still cling to chapter TWO...we have to stride to chapter THREE in our lives...uncertain of wat lies ahead in store for us...
PS:spending a good vac @ auh meeting old frnds, tweeting and facebooking(i know there's no such term..but heck..who cares!!)

world getting way too high tech

2009-02-07T16:47:00.005+05:30

Just the other day, i read a post that would definitely evoke different sentiments in different people...chk it out:
prodigy kid

It's about a 9 yr old kid writing iphone applications :O.. Must be a child prodigy. Anyways we are 21 yr olds copying codes for lab assignments. That's okay..in my opinion, the guy(9 yr old) is missing out on a lot of things that normal 9 yr olds do...

"What you focus on decides what you miss". It's all a matter of choice and of course the amount of effort varies depending on what we focus.

Seriously, I'm wondering--> can a 9 yr old be passionate about programming??!

Developing such an awesome software is definitely mind blowing...frankly the kind of stuff he has done..I'm sure most of us would not even be able to imagine coding for it...even if he was an 18 yr old!

Last Sem...

2009-01-08T16:24:00.003+05:30

So this is it. It's nearing the end of a 4 year saga at NITC. haven't written anything for the past few months. Notable events are quite a handful!On the technical front, we finally installed moodle server at NITC.. all thanks to "hash" :-).Moodle is supposed to be a course management software, which is free and open source! Anything you want to do in a course.. like conducting quizzes,assignments,grading etc.. u name it.. it's there in moodle.
I had just taken a seminar/presentation/demo of moodle for the faculty. I sincerely hope all of them use it... considering the time and effort put into it by so many people like Deepak sir,hanoosh etc... I started enjoying the LAB admin work. I actually have fallen in love with the LAB.. though it would probably never reach as much as Hash's love for LAb :P. Another reason I love the lab os the fact that we do not have NEt in the morning in hostel.. yea! only for girls :(.from 8-2 p.m. We hav complained to everyone possible.. written petitions, verbally complained what not!...but all in vain :(
On the personal front... past few months have been quite a struggle.. trying to get over an addiction... movie addiction.I sit in front of the computer for more than 5 minutes.. and LO! switch on lansurfer and see as many movies as possible.. till i finally get a headache.
Coming to college, life is just the same.Class is the same. Though we hardly ever meet our classmates much thanks to different electives and just one core subject.Some of us actually have fridays off since electives are in a such a way that 1 and 1/2 hour each in 2 days a week rather than 3 hours a week. So that makes it a 3 day holiday in a week!Thankfully I don't have it that way..i say thankfully coz seriously after a few weeks.. i bet it would start gettin boring.. plus 1 and 1/2 hr continously is too much.I slept through my first ever 1 and 1/2 hour class, thanks to the timing in the afternoon...We might hopefully go on some trip this semester considering that we are probably the only branch in 4th yr who have never ever gone on a trip.. excluding of course what we call the "bangalore trip" :).

Hamara Bharath Mahan (!?!)

2008-09-15T20:45:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: Firstly this is personal opinion, I just thought it's high time we spent some time in retrospection on the current state of affairs in India. Bharath here implies INDIA ;)
On a serious note, whats happening in India? Secular India... We are the engineers of our country, but how is the knowledge put into use, making bombs using ammonium nitrate, hacking into accnts and sending mails, sending mails from fake accounts. Shame on us. We see movies like rang de basanti... we see the news with blood splattered bodies lying around crying for help, we VOW to bring about change in our country, we talk ILL about our politicians, frankly what else do we do? n yes we write essays on our vision for INDIA... even if it's purely for the credit;).
Extremism exists in all religions. Tolerance has gone down too low. Atrocities against christians, recent ones being in Orissa, has been on the rise. The hindu-muslim riots can be traced back to our independence. We blame Jinnah and Pakistanies blame Ghandiji/Nehru.
The recent bomb blasts in Delhi with IM claiming responsibility for it is THE final straw. The most depressing fact is that these terror attacks have their origin from Indian soil, the devil is within our country itself. B'lore,Hyderabad, Jaipur and now Delhi. Mumbai and karnataka on red alert... frankly is it time to declare emergency rule here? like during the time of Indira Gandhi, clean up the dirty politics and bring the terrorists to court.

Boring sem ahead??

2008-08-16T15:42:00.003+05:30

How true is the fact that anything done in excess turns out to be an addiction... from the beginning of this month I've been sleeping so late into the night...or rather the wee hours of morning after watching movies on the LAN...and now we supposedly have "high speed " net... so chatting has become another favourite pasttime. I just wanted a break from the "NITC" life. So I hibernated into the virtual world for almost 2 weeks. Probably created a record by watching 6 movies in one day.Now comes the "BANG" -->reality... just a year left..quit the virtual world and come into terms with reality. I love this place and I'm sure I'll miss it.So I've taken a decision ...Want to actually talk(as in vocally ;) ) to all my batchmates(lets start with classmates first) and get to atleast know all of them by their name.Rather far fetched eh?
It's rather grim that most of us do not even know many of our own batchmates.Maybe we ought to have some 4th yr party. How many of us have actually spoken to all our classmates...even if it's just a word? Some of us have quit trying... thinking that it's no use.. so get stuck with the same gang in class or another gang outside class.I've decided to actually go ahead and break the ice(in case it exists) with my classmates. Easier said than done.. but It's worth the effort.If we never live atleast the last year of our college life enjoying every part of it,then we'll only regret it later. Guess we'll have some exciting stuff this year..now that we have elections :) ...after a gap of one year ..

The Best Alternative…

2008-06-16T14:08:00.001+05:30

I have wanted to write testimonials for quite a few people, but the idea of logging to orkut and firing off testimonials rather puts me off, apart from the fact that I would hav innumerable friend requests to accept/reject and umpteen scraps to reply to…nah I’m not blowing my trumpet. It’s just that orkut’s blocked in Abu Dhabi …where I had spent my vacs for a month.
So here goes:
Gayo : I’ve promised her to write a testi for quite some time :D.
My 1st year roommate, so full of energy and enthusiasm. A great friend and a mobile phone addict (each call duration is in hours…never minutes..Neethix n me always wonder where she gets so much topics to talk on!!). Well known for her laughter. She has reached the limit of answering phone calls with her laugh, chucking the traditional “hello”. A great food lover, anyone gets anything from home, Gayo’s always there :D. She’s too good that way…she’ll eat almost anything. A good listener and an impulsive person. Short tempered at times…

Jamz: A very understanding friend, who’s always been there thru’ thick and thin(however chiche it sounds…). Given thoughtful advice and encouragement. Can’t write more…she’s just such a sweet friend.

Neethix:This is for my testimonial which she accidentally removed from orkut…or so she says ;)… Lots have changed since the last testi i wrote for her. My adjacent floor mate who’s one of the coolest girls I’ve met. Someone who has been there during “troubled times”… Well,I guess this is a bit too cryptic, but can’t mention more about it. A brilliant girl who’s given me a rather flattering testimonial in orkut :D.

Paro: An all rounder… a phodu in nitc lingo…a very friendly girl with a great social network….mind u it’s WAN not LAN(okay PJ…).Impulsive by nature. Might lose temper at times ;). Fun to b around with.

Meenu: Well, Meenu is one person who there’s no words to describe.. the most methodical person I’ve ever met. A very practical girl who’s been a great counselor… stopping me from taking impulsive decisions which might hav been catastrophic  .
You can easily identify her room… it’s got lot’s of post-it scraps stuck on her door with everyone asking her to wake them up…she’s a good alarm ;)

Loads of people to write about…the list continues on…Nami, V. Kavi, Kavi Mohan, Neethu.
Ps: 3rd year girls note: This time Nami would surely have to jump from the parapet. She’ll surely get the best actress award one day … 

Another sem over,we are final years!!

2008-04-27T08:15:00.000+05:30

We have finally come to the end of a "long" sem at NITC...s6 Btech..long and hectic.Our seniors are leaving and we are goin 2 be the 4th yrs...a.k.a the "jobless" 4th yrs..wonder how it's going to be,coz until now we had all revved up days,in the sense loads of work,labs and submissions.Everyday there was something or the other...next sem we have just one lab.
Tis sem was different in a variety of ways:
Firstly,this sem was a pretty long one in the sense...many activities got postponed...due to unfortunate circumstances...had loadz of holidays too...due to all this.
Secondly there was a start to new things,some startling revelations,some really sad events, so many new couples ;) and many more.
Thirdly,in Lh, we managed to convince the authorities to renovate the Basketball court...now it's cemented and has a ring,though I must confess that the court is being used for many other activities other than basketball...
Fourthly,normally at the end of the sem,when the end sems are over...everyone tends to be in a happy mood...but this time...all my friends and me...all of us were feeling very wierd and sad.Reasons being different ranged from seniors leaving to we being 4th yrs(leaving within a year).
Fifthly, we went on a trip to bangalore.
The best part is even in 4th year we are staying in the same hostel.I love this place...have been in this hostel since second year.As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts...none of have any intentions of shifting to the new hostel...it's like dungeons,though the rooms are more spacious.The current first years are shifting there.
Finally, I hate to admit this, but I'll miss this sem,I know many of my friends will disagree on this point,but I can't help it. There are many reasons like I had my many "firsts" in this sem and I loved it.
This sem was pretty fast too,very fast with not many instructional days. One more year in this college and we are leaving...it's hard to imagine. I still remember my first day at college, me sitting with thanu.I remember my first year days with my dear "roomies",gayo n divya.Since there was absolutely no change in the classrooms...always stuck in the main block,there are no memories of the DB.
Before I get too emotional thinking about past stuff, I'm signing out :)
cheers
Anna

The First Day of the last month in the third year of college life

2008-04-01T19:57:00.004+05:30

Maybe it's better in simple terms: April Fools Day!
Today was a day when most of the ppl did not miss a single chance which they got to fool their friends.Yesterday night itself one of my friends.."A " send a message to many of our classmates stating that she has no balance n they had to call immediately coz it was URGENT. The fact that she is one of the girls who would not play such pranks made literally every single person called back!.. and the fact that I had dozed off pretty early yest night had saved me my last 1 re (no free calls :(... when they called.. she just laughed n wished "Happy Birthday"...The best part was the reaction from few of our guy classmates. One guy actually said that today was not his birthday ...DUH! another guy started shouting at poor A. Another incident that took place... the first years actually sealed all their classroom doors' keyholes with cement!! What an ingenious idea. Though there was some commotion initially, their classes was shifted to DB. I'm not quite sure if it was an April fools prank. Anyways we did not have first hour coz of that.(one of our classes happen to be in their complex ..ELHC). Many more pranks played by many ppl .. but these were high in the list. One of my school friends birthday happens to be today and coincidently everyone calls her Viddi (her name is Vidhu).Some birthdays are never forgotten. :)

Ragam 08...My Muse,My Canvas

2008-03-26T21:09:00.005+05:30

Ragam's back again this time...Today was the inauguration and performance by a band Raghu Dixit...mostly hindi pop. Tomorrow is the much awaited choreo nite.. that's one show i don't wan to miss! friday night is the Pro Show by Karthik (tamil singer) and finally on sat is the "creme de la creme" (read it as Fashion Show for the uninitiated). I guess this time Ragam is quite a low key affair considering the current scenario in our college. The accident of the Joint Convenor of Ragam was quite unfortunate.I guess our OAT(open air theatre) would be jam packed for the choreo nite. The last time when we had the pro show by Shaan, people were sitting on top of the walls of the OAT and wherever they could stand! That show was one of the best things that happened in NITC.
Chal then
Cya @ NITC during Ragam 08
After all it's all about U
For details check out the site ragam.org.in
Signing off
anna

Changes...

2008-03-08T19:11:00.000+05:30

“Nothing in this world is constant or forever except Change...”
Just the other day I was having a serious discussion with my friend about the changes in all our lives at the end of 3 yrs of our college life...There are so many changes and four years is a pretty long period in this college,but how fast it has gone none of us can grasp. Starting with 1st yr E batch , 2nd yr and 3rd yr comp sci has gone so fast...all that is left is memories. All of us have changed ..some for the better and some for the worse but nobody is the same.Most of us have done stuff we would have never done in school and would never do after we leave college. Many things had been first time for many people...
Initially when we started bunking class....we would feel guilty.. but later there's not even the guilt...classes have been bunked for reasons ranging from lab work to catching on sleep to plain laziness.
All the whacky stuff that we did in our 1st year for sangam, debutante, adrenaline ... some things make us laugh even now.. where as somethings make us turn red with embarassment.
I cannot imagine how “well” comp sci had performed for the ADZAP in 1st yr...n loadz of other events where we do wacky stuff...reaching the limit of our creativity. In LH we have this “ 300's “ group ...that's the ppl who stay in the 3rd floor of 3rd yr block in LH. One crazy gang of people.. who have many things in common other than being on the 3rd floor... we tend 2 be extremely creative duriing exam times (read as “hyperactive”) ...celebrate “FP” days (facepack days where v have photo shoots) and solve ABC puzzles(somethin to do with people being A B and C.. n guess them.. from our colg.. n mostly from our yr...it leads to startling relevations ;)...) and loadz of other similar stuff just 2 days before the exams. Once celebrating an inmate's b'day .. one of the 300's ..Supi ran with the whole cake and the rest of the 300's running behind her.. it was 12:15 and the rest of the hostel was quiet... soon the gaurds came running thinking that some robber had crept into LH...what they saw made them mad...they cursed and went back... :) One crazy gang of ppl.. n i'll miss evyrone of them.. we were thinkin what wud have happened if we hadn't ended up taking rooms in the top floor in the 2nd yr... (we have single rooms) ...being in any other floor and with any other set of ppl wud never be the same...never the same fun... ervy single one.. nami , supi, viddi , anita , shane , meenu , paro , neethiks , gayo , jamz , krishna , kavi , cini , sheba , nematho , neethu , ria , reshmi , reeni ...hope i have included every 300. Always before the exams every single 300 would have to discuss ervythin under the sun except for studies...which comes as part of the discussion somewhere. While every other floor would be quiet only the 3rd floor would have ppl talking and laughing...ofcourse by 9 the talks die down since the next day would be the sessionals. A rumour about exams getting postponed would be enough to start a celebration...I remember when the college had an epidemic of chicken pox.. the day before the exams someone said that exams are postponed..n ervy1 started celebrating...the next day came to know that the 1st yrs and 2nd yrs have leave for 2 weeks and we have the sessionals the next day!! Even this time before the 2nd sessionals someone said something about sports day.. n there was a huge uproar...which was later never spoken about.
I'm sure that if there's anything i would definitely miss in this college it would be the LH(ladies hostel for the uninitiated). Everything else comes after that. Our comp sci class has grown closer after the b'lore trip... unfortunately all were not there... but the trip would be a memorable one for quite a few.
About the trip in another post...
till then
adieu

Goodbye 007

2007-12-31T16:54:00.000+05:30

thats another year gone by,n tomorrow is the beginning of a new year, a new day. Turning a new leaf has been my new year resolution many a time. Last year on 1st Jan I remember having a lab... had class from morning 8 till evening 5... this time it's not that hectic. One thing I noticed about 2008 is that there are very few holidays... most of them happen to fall on a sat or a sunday.. how tragic, that reduces the number of days we can fool around!
So what is special tonight? As usual planning to have a party but this time it's with the fourth years...our dear seniors :)
bidding adieu to the year gone by... the fun filled days,the troublesome days, the 3 month long vacation, The "ragam" and the "Tathva", the LH farewell organised by us 3rd years which was unanimously agreed upon to be the best LH farewell ever.(i'm serious .. our seniors complemented us )...IT WAS PURE FUN,a great year!
Wishing everyone a happy NEW YEAR 2008!!!
goodbye n goodluck
signing off
anna

ITS begun...

2007-12-20T17:35:00.000+05:30

Unfortunately our vacations have come to an end.. and I had to return back to college for another hectic semester..probably the most hectic sem.our project last sem had gone rather well.. we managed to host our HomePage Generator(HPGEN) in our department server.. for ppl within colg pls chk out..
http://192.168.40.99/~b050402cs/
You can create your homepage and add your link to our software... so that people within NITC campus can view your homepage.
it is hosted on our athena server..(the server for computer sceince department) planning to make a few more changes.. improvise on it n release version 1.1 :)
Now it's Christmas time and we have a short break of 6 days.. thanks to our class rep who managed to postpone classes to another day.
Going home in a day's time.
Merry Christmas...
signing off
anna

dilemma...what next?

2007-10-22T17:20:00.000+05:30

hi folks.. i'm back.. needless to say,i've been in standby mode(trying to portray my comp sci traits) for a long time... thanks to the overwhelmingly hectic work load and other activities...
Having a lab like Nachos along with a full fledged project work...i know it begins in s6.. but for us, it's software engineering project work.. which we have to submit this friday, a presentation on our Home Page Generator for faculty and students on CSED..I have absolutely no time, but still i am in a dilemma regarding my future plans after BTech..
Everyone around here are going for CAT classes .. yeah the TIME centre near Lovely Foods.. and i wonder what do I do? I defenitely believe in working for sometime.. but then i wonder if i'll ever be able to bell the CAT with the strenuous work load!! that led me to think about MS or MTECH.. but still i'm confused...after NITC what?
okay have 2 go back to my project work.. as i have plans of completing it...hope it goes well.. anyways it's hundred times better than having to mug up Somerville..Phew..!!

tathva..inspiring innovations

2007-09-12T19:52:00.000+05:30

within a few weeks time.. to be precise, in 2 weeks, tathva our major technical fest @ nitc is going to start.. 28th,29th and 30th of september..this is one major event to look forward to.. considering the fact that probably ragam might not be there.. due to last years happenings during ragam... n the aftermath..
anyways .. life right now is pretty hectic and trying to fit in evrything... is getting quite hard ...as i said life is all about priorities and paradigm shifts...

nwayz signing off...
got to catch up with the PAD work
PS: pls chk out the site: http://www.tathva.org

New MC @ nitc

2007-09-09T17:22:00.000+05:30

finally during a hectic month...or rather a helluva sem
i have decided that blogging is definitely high rated in the mundane things in life that matter to me..
so wats new @ NITC??
its the much talked about MC.. n the best part.. gals r allowed ... the not-so appealing-part.. its near the C-hostel..
a few days before our sessionals began.. the new MC was inaugurated n the next day we decided we HAD to go there.. well not just to check dat out..but also to establish our presence in that male dominated area.
for the uninitiated: it's an unofficial rule that the road from the A-hostel is a strict no-no for gals.. n the mc happens to be in that area...
so we started off.. rather excited.. though we started getting a bit nervous when we were nearing the 'forbidden' area! Well ignoring the skeptical looks on the faces of the 'other' sex we charged ahead..
when we reached there.. t'was a good feeling.. the food also was good.. would recommend the delicious chicken fried rice..much better than the canteen food. Soon guys started pouring in.. n we decided would better go...though that was not the case..
Unfortunately we happened to meet some of our batchmates who decided it was their right to get a treat from us, for being avle to come to the mc... a rather lame reason i would say...
you could imagine the rest.. they just had some shakes n walked off.. telling the guy at the counter that we would be paying.. felt like killing them when we went to pay...
anyways t'was a good experience.. we would be definitely be going again some other time.
PS: the mc is actually an amenity centre cum mc with a gym n some tt boards n other stuff
k gotta return to the excruciating task of completing my NACHOS assignment...the one n only challenging lab for comp scis @ NITC...
signing off
anna

My Fair Lady Series II - Cyclones

2007-07-15T23:04:00.000+05:30

As the tag-mania has taken the blogging world by storm it’s Mrs. X mania for me..;)
Anyways ,I’m sooner or later going to succumb to the tag bug..
Coming back to Mrs. X ..sorry about this disclaimer craze.. but I just can’t help it..
Disclaimer : If anything written in this post hurts anyone’s sentiments about Katrina Kaif.. pls bear with me ;0)
Just about two weeks back a massive cyclone .. Gonu had hit Oman and parts of uae including Fujairah. So the media – Tv and newspapers where giving news 24x7 about this cyclone. Naturally some of us were talking about this, when I wondered aloud about who gave the names to these cyclones .. n how were they named..
‘My Fair Lady’ told me rather seriously…
“ Anna u did not know? These cyclones are actually names of people.. you know there were cyclones like Katrina..(pause..) .. Kaifa ..pause.. now Gonu .. “
I had never heard of a cyclone named Kaifa.. when it suddenly struck me.. Mrs. X got confused wid Katrina Kaif.. whoa ..i told her about it.. n both of us burst out laughing..she told me she confused cyclone Rita with ‘kaifa’..;)
Then I told her about our Katrina Kaif.. n she sheepishly told me about reading it in that day’s tabloids..
Anyways, I’ll never forget about our cyclone ‘kaifa’..;)

My Fair Lady Series I –Car Parking

2007-07-15T01:28:00.000+05:30

I’m back from hibernation mode.. as paro tagged me.. 2 months.. yeah rather long..
reasons for being in that mode ?
It’s just the change of place and pursuing some of my pastimes which I definitely won’t b able to do so once I get back to kerala.Being in abu dhabi feels great, so just could not get myself to the comp to write down something in my blog. Reading blogs though, still dominates my net surfing time.. as orkut has been blocked in uae.

Coming back to this post…I’m feeling overtly tempted to write a disclaimer..here goes…
Disclaimer: All characters and events in this post are ANYTHING BUT fictional.
If this post reminds you of anyone you know.. please let me know. We might be thinking of the same person. ;).. the world has literally become a global village.

Well let me give an intro:I know this lady Mrs. X ( to protect privacy..) pretty well and some of my conversations have been so funny dat I would luv to make a tele series on the incidents.. and hopefully the series would be a household name.. okay jokes apart..

Mrs X has a car and getting a parking in this ever shrinking place is a Herculean task.. so lady luck bestowed her blessings on ‘my fair lady’ in the form of underground parking space. As every normal underground parking area, each person gets a card which they have to hold out in front of the machine which controls the entry and exit into the parking area.

This is where the trouble brews… Mrs. X is not accustomed to holding out a card from the driver’s seat until the oh-so-confusing machine recognizes the card! So the first day when she used the parking space here’s what happened:

1.She drove up to the card machine.. but as most ladies tend to do.. she pulled up her car a ‘bit away’ from the machine.. in the sense that the car was far from being adjacent to the footpath where the machine is kept.

2.She opens her bag, empties all contents and finally manages to get the card. Then ‘my fair lady’ rolls down her window just half way through.. ;) and she swishes the card in front of the machine.. obviously it didn’t work..

3.Picturing this in my mind still makes me smile.. she starts to frantically wave the card in front of the machine.. but it’s really tough for her.. since the window is not even fully rolled down..(don’t mistake me.. I was not standing some where n laughing at her..I went up to her and asked her 2 fully roll down the window which she didn’t comply to..;0 )

4.after 5 mins of showing the card in all sorts of positions in front of the machine.. she decides to get out of the car n show the card.. finally.. the machine worked n she hurried back into the car.. lest it should close again!

5.The last time I asked her about her parking space she told me that she tries her best to get parking outside… though the fact remains that a privileged few only get this underground parking space .. free from the sun, rain n dust.. n get spared of the grueling minutes searching for a parking space…

Describing these incidents will never compromise for those really funny moments when u actually get to witness these scenes…
My fair lady happens to be one of the best managers I have ever heard of.. or come across.. she’s just to good at decision making, multi tasking, communication and the likes … oh communication dat reminds me of something…
That’s it for now.. cya till my fair lady series II.. cyclones…

Signing off
Anna

2007-05-02T09:53:00.001+05:30

A Paradigm Shift

Okay whats this all about??
A paradigm shift is a change in our inner selves.. we view things the way we want it to be.. and our behaviour and attitude stems from the primary way we view things.
So a paradigm shift is something like changing the basic priorities in life..

whats your basic priority in life??
Okay this varies from person to person, time to time.. but here’s the difference. A primary priority should never change.. if it changes it’s a secondary priority.. like when I was in school my priority was to do everything in the best manner.. be it studies,sports, helping friends…anything for that matter..
Now that I’m in college priorities change.. away from family..with friends 24x7.. they’ve become an integral part of every student (at least hostelites wud agree to this..)… to give our full in everything.. from social relationships to studies… but these are secondary priorities.. one of my friends stumped me with a question.. she really keeps me thinking.. makes me wonder what are we doin here… was my roommate.. okay enough of her..she asked me.. wat do u wanna do in ur life ,anna?
family and friends matter, Grades come n go, gpas matter, but whats the basic priority? A gud life.. why do we wanna do well in life?? Its just like after skool , u think “hey college life’s coming..its goin to be complete masti..” ..u reach college and you might change part of your opinion..! then you think.. okay after this work.. its gonna be hectic.. but finally some cash.. big pay cheques.. for what?? To have a better life? What’s a better life when you have stressing work, ground breaking deadlines.. hours in front of the computer..or whatever..? when you work you have to work on something you are passionate about..forget the work part for now.. coz I’m not working to know what it actually means to be having deadlines or anything..
coming back to the basic priority in life: be so content with what you have ,..that no matter where u are or what u do… u wud be happy with it.. that doesn’t mean you should stop trying.. but within your limits.. you should realize when you are going over the limit stressing yourself..
I was just reading this book..Tuesdays with Morrie.. one of the most awesome books I have read till date… it’s about a prof named morrie and he knew he was about to die in a few months time… coz of the disease he had.. but he continued doin everything he could do as normally as possible.. the story is narrated by a student of his.. rather his fav. Student.. he wud spent Tuesdays with his prof at his home and they would talk about everything.. work,family,emotions.. its an awesome read.. makes u realize that whatever you do, whoever you are wherever you go.. finally you have to face it.. the brutal reality.. how you have to cope up with it..how you deal with situations in life.. setting priorities.. it’s a really wonderful book.. read it.. its worth it..
Chal then.. serious talk for a while..hope it keeps u thinking….
Tc
Anna
PS: 3 posts published on same day.. but had been wirtten earlier.. cudn't publish due to net problems at grand mom's place.. finally made it.. still no net connetcion at ggrand mom's place..;(

Yeah Made IT!!

2007-05-02T09:51:00.000+05:30

Yeah….I made it!!
Hey.. don’t get this wrong.. I didn’t get thru’ KBC.. nor did I finally learn how to make chicken curry the way my mom makes.. nor did I assemble my pc by myself..okay forget the so mundane things in life I have yet to do..;).. no points for guessing what I finally did.. even if u try u won’t guess it rite.. just sometime back I had told one of my friends.. a classmate of mine about a really wacky wish of mine.. its really wacky..;) .. don’t want the rest of the world to hear it.. he had a weird expression on his face after hearing that.. n I realized t’was prolly better to chuck out that wish for the time being.. !
Okay coming back ….
I walked thru’ the streets of calicut form one end to another.. seriously.. the time I started was 3 in the afternoon.. not a very cool time for this season.. it was burnin hot.. but c I was kinda jobless n also I did not know where I was.. thanks to me sleeping in the bus.. got a bus from the S.M street back to my place(at 2 somethin.. ).. sat next to a man who was already sleeping .. falling on the side.. I hate that.. n I always happen to have the wonderful opportunity to sit beside such people.. be it any mode of transport.. bus, train or plane..:(
So.. it was scorching hot .. the chicken biryani from Sagar was already making me feel so full .. and the wind blowing against my face.. it was the perfect ambience.. the next thing I knew .. I had reached some place.. seriously no idea.. I woke up.. coz the ‘nice’ conductor decided that ‘we’ had lost our place on the way.. the `we` refers to me and the man sittin next to me.. he woke us both up ,commenting ‘achanum molekum Veete ponde??” translation: ‘dad n daughter doesn’t wanna go home?’ .. I nearly freaked out.. thought I was dreaming.. cudn’t realize where I was .. n some crazy guy mistook the man sitting next to him to be my dad.. anyways I got down from the bus..and started walking just like dat.. after about an half an hour I reached familiar territory.. looked like I’ve been there before.. so I asked a lady whether I cud get the bus to my place from here.. she gave me a puzzled look .. she looked at me for sometime.. I think she thought I had gone nuts.. finally she told me that to get the bus I had to walk the way back.. in the sense the way I had come.. I was ready to scream out over there.. it was one hot day..
So I started walkin back.. really drudging along…n yeah to top it all I was walking along the footpath adjacent to the canoli canal.. for ppl who haven’t hrd abt the famous canoli canal let me enlighten u… it’s the most polluted canal or whatever.. in the city..
finally I reached back to the same bus stop from where I had got down from that bus.. since I realized that one way was wrong.. the way I had taken initially.. I knew that it had to be the other way.. so I stood there for sometime waiting for the bus back home.. now I was sure of the way I had just gone and come back aimlessly.. the names of the place.. everything.. I realized that if I walk the way back home.. I wud be sure of the remaining way also..the heat had reduced a lot.. the sky had become a bit cloudy.. n then I suddenly had this fleeting feeling that it might rain.. that would be IT… its not like hostel .. where the moment it rains.. we all run out into the courtyard.. the place I mentioned about in one of my posts… and get thoroughly drenched.. but now..its calicut..where I cud feel hard stares all the way thru.. staring back has almost become a hobby.. its just who wud stop staring first.. !!
Anyways I just kept my fingers crossed hoping it wudn’t rain.. n yeah I finally made it home..at 5:30… it dint rain.. n I guess i`ll hopefully never sleep in the bus again.. make it a point to stand for short journeys.. no matter what..and I’m sure I won’t stand and sleep..;)
PS: please donot think that I’m so ignorant that I didn’t know my way back home.. the home refers to my grand mom’s place in calicut specifically malaparamba, for those familiar with calicut.Not been there many times..

2 yrs down the lane.. 2 more yrs to go..

2007-05-02T09:47:00.000+05:30

I realized with mixed feelings yesterday nite (the last day of the dreaded end sems..)that I had completed half of my college life at nitc.. feel sad when I think about it.. just 2 more yrs to go.. the classmates, best friends, sharing jokes,
each person who has entered my life as a collegemate/batchmate/classmate/bestfriend/closefriend/friend/even an acquaintance, will be remembered.. the duration depends on the category.. ;)
Ragam,lh farewell, thathva(not much though..! ) and the likes will leave an indelible mark in my heart forever.. I guess I’m getting too senti..
Happy abt 1 thing.. v r still in the same hostel in the comin yr.. phew can’t imagine changing to the new lh block.. its like long corridors and u can’t call out for anyone whenever u wan’t.
In terms of quality, present hostel rooms mite be small.. v don’t hav net or lan.. getting it soon though..but the feeling of oneness.. its like the traditional kerala tharavad houses.. I guess it’s called naalekettu(dunno if this is the way it’s spelled in Malayalam..!) .. that’s a house with four sides and a courtyard in the middle.. the whole joint family stays in that 1 house.. each part prolly one family..
1st yr was slow.. n yes I disliked my 2nd sem thru’out.. from the very beginning till the end.. many reasons..not that t’was an even sem.. a misconception.. coz I liked my 4th sem..
2nd yr was fast.. but then u reach 4th yr.. its ultra cool… nothing to do.. no labs.. not much 2 study.. max of 4 subjects.. if u take overload .. just roam abt.. n yeah u’ll b always noticed.. the younger lot.. that’s the 1st & 2nd yrs.. wud b like .. hey there goes the 4th yrs.. jobless… ! ;).. n then u go out into the big world.. where deadlines mean deadlines.. no excuses whatsoever..

the pro show by shaan this yr for ragam was simply the best ever at nitc… the oat(open air theatre) was packed 3900 that nite… it was an awesome performance for 2 hrs.. end to end…

on technical side.. math over forever.. wrote the last math exam in my life.. I guess so..! its sad though .. coz I liked the subject.. also the bunkometer(the no. of classes bunked in each subject).. had reached a high.. compared to s3.. in the case of some subjects in s4.. which were just plain borin.. thanx to many factors.. which I wud not mention.. guess its obvious.. if my classmates are reading this they’ll prolly be noddin their heads in approval.. for the same subjects.. names censored though.. if u were in comp sci u wud b knowin the most borin subs of s4.. in the end actually got scared if I wud get attendance shortage for a subject.. thanx to the silly idea of 80%attendance.. 8 classes can b cut max for a subject in a sem… the idea of 80%attendance is seriously ridiculous.. I still can’t figure out the reason for such a high percentage… !
they really should reduce the %..
k then signin off…
wanna sleep. Coz of the nite out yest.. actually not a nite out.. sat up till 5 in morning n watched movies.. 300(no not that many… PJ!!!.. it’s the new movie out.. Spartan..n awesome graphics..) n some others.. its always this way.. durin exams.. too sleepy even to sit up till 10 n the day exams get over.. there’s no question about sleepin…;)

Before signing off.. I wanna dedicate a song to all my friends:
My best friends..
2nd floor of old lh block.. (it rocks at nite..thanx to nami’s and shane’s laughter ;)..)

2nd yr comp sci classmates.. an awesome lot.. initially thought they were just plain boring.. during sangam .. when v got the coveted last postn.. or was it 2nd last?? Don’t remember.. even the comp sci t-shirt.. the one n only ORANGE colour t-shirt never seen a comp scian wearing it..except for a few..
2nd yr batchmates of mine..
everything happens to be starting with 2nd !!
the only roommates I ever had until now.. that was in 1st yr..
the wonderful seniors..
my skool friends.. 3 yrs since I saw some of them.. but staying in touch thanx to orkut..n mobile phone ofcourse..
n yes.. last but not the least .. the E-batch.. 1st yr classmates of mine.. the famous 12 gals .. e batch makkal.. (children ;) ) n yes the guys.. each of them a specific character..Guess :
the guy who wud always ask the time..purposely forget to wear a watch.
The guy who wud be made fun of .. no matter what happens.. I guess he’ll never change.. was incidentally our class rep..
Many more come to my mind.. but I guess this wud do.. or I wont be signin off today…!
The song is graduation song by vitamin c.. don’t laugh ur heads off.. I know v haven’t yet graduated.. n yes there is a band named vitamin c.. check it out for urselves.. !
The words are awesome.. but one line really caught me off guard.. goes like this (the chorus line):
As we go on… we remember all the times v had together.. n as our lives change… come whatever v will still be friends forever…
cheers
anna

s3 over

2007-02-17T12:12:00.001+05:30

S3 over?!..dat was fast….
prologue: k .. its really late 2 write abt s3.. n 2 early to write abt s4... so i chose writing abt s3..n pls note da fact dat dis was written durin da hols(3 month vac.. june n april .. ) so very less has been written abt s4..
Well,well… a semester in nitc is over… its unbelievable .. it just feels like yesterday…
S3 was so fast.. it was faster than any of the other sems at nitc.. we had tathva and lh farewell a week before the end sems.. But it was fun.. tathva was just awesome.. with so less time to prepare n get everything done..it was just fabulous.. LH farewell needless to say rocked the audi.. till 2:00 in the morning.. man I was damn sleepy.. I just flopped on the bed the moment I came back.. and we had convocations in between our end sems.. 17th November.. many of the ex-students came.. those who passed out of college in 2005 and 2004.. they got their degrees and some of the students were awarded gold medals for being the best out going students.
We had NSS,value education and OT(other things..not kiddin ! dat is the full form of OT) .. seriously value education is just a waste of time.. its boring..NSS is fun.. v had field work and in the next sem v’ll b havin trauma care.. no don’t mistake me.. v r not havin trauma care.. but I guess v’ll b havin borin classes on trauma care.. though rite now its not dere …J
S4.. is gonna b more packed.. ragam, chrysalis(its over..), NSS(spread over 2 sems) …nah s3 was way to different.. did I like it? I guess so.. got new classmates.. when I kinda got happy n close with the prev batch E.. it was time to leave them n switch over to the gr8 comp sci s3 batch.. yup they r just fine.. just 8 gals n the remaining guys.. I guess the class strength is 72.. the other branches complain that v hav absolutely nothing to study n v hav the maximum no. of free slots.. but really it’s a misconception.. v r just as free as the other branches.. prolly lesser when it comes to lab work. Okay.. studies wise v hav lesser.. not much but lab work n question papers just more than compromise for it!!

S4 is goin on… n it doesn’t luk so good…with afternoon classes from 3 to 7 on a weekday n labs not goin so well..but life’s like dat.. but I guess I’ll rite about s4 in another post.. lets c .. prolly after it gets over.. Ragam…. Shaan’s comin to sing….bet it’ll b awesome.., da chatamangalam surveys(nss work..),sports day, yeah n loadsa of other things……. Its goin to b awesome on enjoyment front..;)
Tc`
Signing off……
Anna

V-day dhamaka

2007-01-20T10:53:00.001+05:30

Disclamer: i thut i wud rite one for this post coz i dont want to get on the wrong side.. this post doesn't imply anyone in general.. its just a true piece of my mind on what i actually feel about this stuff..no offences meant to any pairs in nitc.. note da point...;)
okay rite now i'm in the blogger mode.. but lately we hav been having discussions in the LH (read it as ladies hostel.. for the uninitiated guys around here ;) ...) regarding the effect of valentine's day in the college campus.. firstly the 1st years hav this miserable job of trying to sell cards to the seniors or their batchmates.. cards include red card(i've fallen in luv wid u..cud just b a prank.. also!) ,yellow card(i value ur freidship..) white card(lets b good friends..da strt of a beautiful friendship).. chilly cards(any ill feelings against anyone) and ginger cards(meant for bugging people.. ; )
finally they decide the rose king or queen.. based on who gets da maximum number of red roses..
the idea of cards... i think this is not a great idea.. coz there hav been many instances where ppl sent cards in others names n fool ppl.. i hav seen many ppl who hav stopped talkin to each other coz of misunderstandings.. i guess in other colleges also its da same ol' stuff..
its not dat i'm against valentine's day or something..but this idea of conveying ur feelings thru cards when ppl r actually present in the colg.. its not like they are in another country all together!!... is really absurd. nad mostly its just a time pass relationship.. friends.. sending yellow roses is a gr8 idea.. i mean i like it.. but to sent red roses n chilli cards to someone in others names.. is called cowardice.. express those feelings urself.. not thru someone else
its like dere are so many pairs in nitc.. they will find all this fun.. it is meant for them..valentine's day ....but others.. just stick on to ur friends for their friendship will defenitely be more important than a relationship.. yup i talk like i hav loadz of experience.. believe me..i dont.. but there have been many cases as these which can be an eye opener for all of us..
ppl just roam around with their boy/ girl.. they lose the valuable time they can spent with their friends..friends in both the genders.. i know there are ppl who still hav time for thier friends in both the genders even after they are commmited.. but they defenitely lose on a lot of things they wud hav done otherwise..they are like bound .. to tell the truth.. most of them won't feel it.. coz they belive they are in love.. but are they really??? thats a question they have to answer once they leave this college and ener into the world.. the real world. when they hav to stand on their own feet.. when they can't run to the solace of the atm.. where their caring parents will deposit money evry week (okay dat mite be an exaggeration.. ;).. but there is money wheneva they need it when they r in colllege.. ) .. all will be hunky dory till they leave college.. after dat??? they mite end up marrying.. den its fine(hopefully..;) ) otherwise they MITE end up regretting all those times they missed in collge days.. no doubt the time they spent with their partner mite be fond memories.. but still there will be some pain deep down inside their heart.. why go for that? why suffer such a pain when this is the time u can actually enjoy.. life to the hilt.. defenitely after marriage.. u'll hav the trouble brewing up..;) so why not have your freedom till dat moment..??
i guess da best relationship status is single n ready to mingle.. okay i can c many raised eye brows.. ppl dont curse me.. its just an opinion.. n i'm sure there will b many who agree to this and many more who'll b really critical about this...
anyways HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.. to all the happy pairs out dere...
okay signin off...
n one more thing.. single?? don't be lonely.. loadz of ppl out dere who wud value ur friendship.. ppl all around u mite b in pairs.. but believe me .. life is not so easy for them too...they have their ups and downs..
singles have their family friends teachers.. relatives.. n ofcurz..........FREEDOM......
think about it...
tc
k signin off
bye
anna

new year resolutions

2007-01-19T13:15:00.000+05:30

dis is my first post since da beginnin of this year..
2007 began with all day classes for us.. no fun whatsoever.. believe it or not.. v had classes till 5:00 in the evenin which included an excruciating DE LAB!.. read it as death everlasting(okay not kidding... its digital electronix lab)..
n yes i believe in the age old superstition.. dat whatever u do on the 1st day of teh year.. will continue on till the end of the year.. anyways that is really absurd now.. taking into the fact that i did loadz.... of things on 1st jan.. which i'm sure i wont b doin 24x7 .. ! ;) anyways da previous nite was hard partyin till 1:00.. umm venue was a bit conjusted.. but bearable.. since bein in the LH n havin a prty late at nite was a gud feelin.. ;)
now comin to new year resolutions.. when i was young i used to take new yr resolutions rather seriously n rather hard ones though.. which wud b defenitely broken within a maximum of a month.. so this yr is different.. no new year resolutions.. just take each day as it comes..
k
signin off now
waitin to hear about any wierd new year resolutions.. hrd from most of my classmates.. really wierd ones..;0
wacky n serious ones also welcome.
k gotta go.. hav a class..
tc
@nn@

tathva..grey matters

2006-10-20T13:54:00.001+05:30

i'm feeling really low about not being able to blog for such a long time..and i seud to be reminded of this fact by a friend of mine.. who would ask me why i stopped blogging everytime he saw me.. n there r no points for guessing this person..hopefully when the person reads this.. he'll probably sent a msg in shout box! okay comin to serious stuff.. tathva...
for the uninitiated ..tathva is a AI TECH FEST organised by nitc...
its high level contests n also there are informals.. so folks.. gear up n try to win something.. the stakes are high.. n yeah like the old adage.. participating is more important than winning!
so ppl intested ..there are loadsa different competitions pertaining to different branches.. check out the site.. http://www.tathva.nitc.ac.in.. its really 1derful.. u can also join the forum there ..
n yes ppl form other colgs.. u can even come for just watching the stuff goin on here.. there will always be some stuff goin on...in the evenings will be the much awaited musical nites... n it is on the 27th, 28th n 29th of october..
chalo
cya during tathva..2006
signing off
anna

Alma Mater…ADIS (Part I )

2006-06-16T05:49:00.000+05:30

I’m writing this piece of my biography sitting at a desk in an AC room in Intercontinental Abu Dhabi(a ***** hotel..no stars on keyboard…hehe)
I assure you there would be no additional points for guessing the circumstances that brought me here…
Nways coming back to ADIS …my school years in ADIS are filled with bitter-sweet memories….many close friends, wonderful teachers…Most of the days would begin with a prayer to Almighty…in the morning assembly…’God We thank Thee’ or the Hindi prayer ‘Daya Kar Na..’ ….I said most of the days since some days ….fortunately …we won’t have the morning assembly. I’ll tell u the fortunately part in another post…a post about the morning assembly…
If our class teacher cared about such facts of life..like the morning prayer…some of them did..;) …then they would ask us to recite it…else the day would start with a math or physics period.
Having a math period on the 1st hour of the day was fun…in most cases..i say most cases…as it also depends on your math teacher or whether u have a pending homework which u had unfortunately planned to finish copying ASAP. from the class nerd during the 15 minute break…. ;) …BREAK was a very small part of the time during our school hours….unlike other schools which have 30 min to 1 hour break…we just have a MERE 15 minute break!!
K…I have divided these 14 years of schooling into 1st: KG to 4th (don’t remember much..but I guess it was rather uneventful… ;) ) 5th till 7th(bitter memories…..miserable school life…k here were some teeny-weeny sweet memories too… ) then one entire post for 8th std. (recuperation time from 3 miserable yrs…I’m not kidding…) and the last part is 9th to 12th (almost fabulous… ;) )
K I have to stop here…will be there with the other parts very soon…
Till then
Cya
signing off
anna

Back To School

2006-06-12T23:32:00.000+05:30

No..this is not what u might be thinking… ;)
It is not one of those back to school ads which keep popping up on the TV and the newspapers when the vacations (seemingly short!) get over and it is time to go back….those ads used to be painful reminders of the grim fact that it is indeed time to get back to that(oh so dreadful!) school and the monotonous schedule… dashing towards the brown boring bus before the (really frustrated ) driver decides that it is time to stop honking and go ahead with picking up other not-so-sleepy students…..
Oh …I’m getting carried off… the alma mater memories are for another post…nah not now..
Okay coming back….this is the time when I went back to school….as an ex-student..I remember the times when we used to look up to seeing the ex-students…some were real babes n dudes when they were not wearing the oh-so-plain uniform…after 1 ½ years was overwhelming to say the least..
It was great to see all my teachers…so happy..Adis(dats the name of my school…in case you didn’t know..) had undergone some structural changes during my sojourn at nit calicut…there was a new stadium stand around the playground…a new block was constructed in place of the basketball court which was shifted to a secluded area behind the audi... and some more not-so-worth-mentioning changes… ;)
I met some of my close friends…some sweet juniors…my oh-so-adorable princi n the always-puffed-up headmistress(in appearance …u know…k …I’m not being mean..merely stating a fact).
I also accidentally met Mr. Turtle Neck…our administrator who takes it upon himself to discipline the students and if possible humiliate them …his fav pastime.. I always thought that post was a waste considering the fact that he was the one in dat post… ;) and the fact that there were already many posts…princi , hm,headmaster, supervisors for KG, juniors and seniors…
I went to each and every block in the school…to meet every tchr who had taught me during my 14 yrs of schooling. It was a nice feeling deep down inside when I came back home… my mind churning with fond and the uh-not-so-nice memories…
Okay dat was one day during the really long 3 month vacation from nitc….it was sweltering outside…but it was definitely a great idea to go from block to block n meet my wonderful teachers..
K
Tc
Signing off
Anna

2006-06-07T18:28:00.000+05:30

FANAA FOR U!

Yeah I just saw the movie yesterday…its okay…or is it really??
The first part is fine…I loved the songs….but when the terrorism part starts I’m somehow reminded of dil se…only one difference…there the heroine was the terrorist…
and both of them die in the end..
Okay I know there was no visually impaired girl like in the case of fanaa…but still dat movie has some similarities with dil se...
Actually , I was all geared up to see the movie…but my great friend killed my enthu. By blatantly telling me what happens in the end…n stuff like who aamir really is …she is seriously a kill joy…!
But yours truly is a good girl…she will not tell you what’s going to happen in the end….nah she won’t spoil the fun…
Anyways go and see the movie..it has a lot of serious dialogues….some ppl say it is kind of chaatt(okay I guess it is NIT trichy lingo… it comes from the hindi word chattofying)

Fanaa has a storyline which from time immemorial (not kidding!) has been tried and tested in many hindi movies….some where true box office hits while others sunk into oblivion without a trace.

Fanaa has a really fabulous star cast…Kajol’s grand comeback after a long time…and then the first pairing of Aamir and Kajol…they are a great pair…fabulous.
k...nothing else ...go ahead watch the movie
it might be worth it....;)
tc
anna

reservations...

2006-05-29T18:32:00.000+05:30

hmmm...reservations...a really controversial topic....it looks like all of you have reached a consensus that the move by the government was just an act to get political mileage...
let's have a look at this delicate topic from both sides....not just thinking that we belong to the general category...
firstly, by having reservations the quality of premier institutions like IIMs and IITs are being diluted. Lets say that the measures taken by the government is a blunt to India's knowledge edge.
The OBC's include a whooping 50%(almost) of the Indian population. but do the really needy ones get this privilege...do the poor people living in the arid lands of Rajasthan without water and proper meals get an advantage?? NO...it is really sobering to note that a certain creamy layer (the ones who became doctors and engineers through their reservation and now using this to send their sons or daughters to premier institutions) are enjoying these privileges...the fact lies that they DONOT lack good education...they have all the facilities ...like the general category...just that they have the name OBC and hence they are using it to their advantage.
Secondly, i want to know ...many people make the lame excuse that they don't support this reservation becoz it is not reaching out to the needy...so if there is a rule that THE CREAMY LAYER IS NOT ENTITLED TO THESE RESERVATIONS, WOULD YOU AGREE TO RESERVATIONS????
;) ..i'm wondering....
thirdly, i think it is a better idea to have reservations in the lower levels of education..lets say good schools. really good schools…. the idea of compulsory education...does not entitle OBC students to have admission to good schools....the idea of this act is to give the OBCs a fair chance to coaching materials for competitive examinations, a good foundation...it is another thing that the home and parents should be able to help the student..but having an admission in a good school..is already like half the battle won.
Then the idea of increasing the number of seats is downright ridiculous..to say the least...it is not a matter of having more classrooms ...it is a matter of quality faculty...IIM's are having a shortage of faculty...without looking into this matter and making such a gaffe is hopeless.
the idea of reservations was to amalgamate the suffering, pain and humiliation felt by the OBCs for many years....they have a right to quality education...but at college level??
lets start with school and I think admission to colleges will automatically come with it...
Earlier in the fifties when India just got independence, nobody was rallying on the streets or undertaking hunger strike because it was understood that reservation was necessary for a better India…
BUT NOW??EXCESS IS ON THE VERGE OF DESTROYING THE NECESSARY.

As M J Akbar said” Reservations are now the interest collected by pick pocketing the future of India and paid by politicians for loans taken from their vote banks.
The students are out on the streets because politicians are stealing the future of the young in order to preserve the power of the old politicians. Politics is once again turning a crack into a chasm.
I think it is really a disaster to have reservation into place…..
Tc
Signing off…
Give me ur views…
anna

Chemistry of Room mates.......

2006-05-26T14:45:00.000+05:30

Disclaimers: This is an absolute piece of fiction…it does not mean to intentionally or unintentionally hurt anyone …. :D
This is just based on silent retrospection….(nothing else to do these days…;))…and a small pep talk with the inmates of the famous LH of NITC
This is really a time pass on Friday morning where my dear bros are busy studying for their exams…..n I’m the jobless one around….

So here goes…:
Room mates ….not decided by us in the first year….our destiny is decided by the warden of LH….n that will b the first n last time some1 in LH has roommates…since we are offered single rooms from 2nd year onwards..
Roommates are the ppl with whom you spent the remaining day after coming back from a hectic day in clg.. if u choose to….i say if you choose to because it is up to you to be in ur room or ur friends room…if u think u hav born losers as room mates….;)
Room mates can be particularly helpful to act as a morning alarm while u r still dozing off on the bed at 7:40 while your class is at 8:00( yours truly had a personal experience of this many times….;))
It is better to hear the sweet, mellifluous voice of ur room mate(no I’m not exaggerating!) rather than the cacophonous alarm of that clock which I want to crush everyday while getting up.
Then there will be small misunderstandings regarding chote chote baatien like cleaning the room…( I know of a friend who ended up changing rooms coz her room mate wouldn’t do her share of room chores!)
When I met with my old long lost friends(boo hoo!) I realised that some of them who had become room mates in hostel turned out to be fighting to no end(the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ makes complete sense now).
But the great times you have with your room mates are really unforgettable moments in your hostel life….depends on how you and your room mates get along. Room mates are SUPPOSED to be your best friends….!
Room mates can be a positive or negative influence on you.
They can be a beacon of light in a dark world for many….!

Now I’m getting all nostalgic remembering the 1derful moments with my room mates..the small joys…the chotte temper tantrums….it is really something I’m gonna miss when I go to 2nd year…
Dedicating the ong from friends ‘I’ll be there for you’ to my sweet room mates…(names not disclosed to protect privacy….u know being my room mmates will be a lot of publicity for them more than they can manage….k stopping this self praise here before you get charged up to throw that mouse at the monitor…n then I’m sparing u the worry n tension that goes with searching for a new monitor)

K
Tc
Signing off
anna

burning topics....

2006-05-25T16:46:00.000+05:30

Hey here are some burning topics for the day:
1. The idea of imposing a dress code and making it mandatory for girls and boys to sit separately in Bangalore University….has revoked really strong comments and disapprovals by students and parents alike. …What is YOUR opinion on this…..?
2. Reservations for the OBCs in the IIMs and IITs?
In my opinion, it will ruin the quality of education in the premier institutions in the country….and it is just for the present governing body to get a political mileage over their counterparts…I mean having the votes of the OBCs(nearly 50%) is definitely a big win for the congress…..

3. What makes NITT the best NIT in the country…hey is there any nittian around there who can provide me a detailed answer to this query…..i mean is it cultural wise..placement wise…academic wise…facility wise….please support your arguments with facts…J

Please guys…give me ur views on this matter…comments on the topics are also invited…
Till then…put ur thinking caps on…..n get to the core of these questions
Till then
Chaley chalo
Cya
Signing off
anna

DAN BROWN......ROCKS????

2006-05-19T14:48:00.000+05:30

Does Dan Brown seriously rock...? k i know he doesn't actually rock...i mean he is nt a rocker u know..he justs walks...writes books....ndoes other things that v ppl do...
so what makes him different...is it his Da Vinci Code...yeah i read the book....don't actually understand the hype concerning the book....it has an ingenious plot...the theory is controversial...but does that mean the book should be famous....of course it is human tendency to read books which are highly controversial...or are banned..
i still remember how eager and enthusiatic we(implies the first year gals of nitc) were to watch TV in the tv room...since our DEAR seniors STRICTLY forbade to do so!(yaya it was only till the end of first sem)
so when we were finally allowed to watch tv in that previously....enchanting(no no i'm not exagerating)tv room......we suddenly realised that the room was really boring and plain TO SAY THE LEAST!!
watching tv there when we could go out n hang around with friends n watch movies in theatre was really out of the question....
i'm not against dan brown...i really loved his prevois books...angels and demons...deception point...n all dat(ya the only book left now is digital fortress)...but da vinci code didn't actually keep me on the edge of my seat...as in the case of angels n demons....
of course there was always the back ground rebukes and PJ's my bros kept tellin ....tryin to dissuade me from reading the book syain that it was banned by the Pope!
when i finished reading the book....i realised that it wasn't defenitely DAN's BEST book....
maybe the hype is on the rise due to the release of the film starring tom hanks(really a funny actor...liked him in forest gump!) ...
recently i read in the newspaper that there are protest against the realease of the film in bombay.....
lets wait and see....the show has begun....keep the balls rolling!!!

ambigram

2006-05-14T19:53:00.000+05:30

hey i finally got an ambigram for myself...wanted one sooo badly after reading about it in Angels and Demons By dan brown...that book ROCKS!
okay jus guess what is written in the ambigram
PS: this ambigram is courtesy Balagi...
check out his bloghttp://balaambigrams.blogspot.com....
thanx a lot balagi.
signing out for now
tc
chaley chalo

LIFE AT NITC

2006-04-26T18:52:00.000+05:30

my name is anna thomas..studying in nitc ...CSE currently in 2nd year. ...yup 2 more years b4 leaving this place. here life is really cool. this place is always ..buzzling with activities be it cultural activities like Ragam..technical festivals like Tatwa...or even the (yawn) sessional or end sems. then we have the never ending musical nites.....n the same ol' borin movies screened at our gr8 Aryabhatta hall.
yup v did get to see rang de basanti...one of the screened movies.
then the timings of these great festivals..sangam..the 1st year 'unforgettable' event was just b4 the 2st sessional of our 1st semseter...then the basic rule here is "sessionals come n go..but these events are once ina lifetime events".....
people who can manage their time effectively between extra curricular activites n studies are the winners at the end of the day. there are numerous clubs out here...being junoir exes of these clubs is another thing. doing something worthwhile while we are still at nitc is up to us..instead of simply squatting our time at the 'LH' we could always do something like developing projects..taking part in industrial traning..not just for the sake of credits.
then another thing almos all nittians hate about this place is the 80 % attendance! that just implies we could miss just five classes for subjects with 5 credits and 10 classes with subjects with 4 credits.....the consequences of bunking more classes is really scary...you will end up NOT WRITING YOUR END SEMESTER EXAMS DUE TO ATTENDANCE SHORTAGE!!!
then ofcourse there is the medical certificate option..but you have to get it from the 'NITC Doctor'...certifying that you were genuinely ill..(still face the disbelieving looks on the faculty advisros face!) AND.... you can submit only 3 medical certificates in the course of 4 years! so if you are really a person with a stroke of ill luck and always have the tendency of falling ill just before your exams..goodbye...my friend ..NITC is NOT the right place for you.
then chaley chalo....if you still think you have something you can offer NITC ..or you can crack the AIEEE and get to NITC...way to go..my friend..cya soon ..n don worry about the ragging part..i can assure you this place ..rocks...just chill..whther you are in 1st year or fourth year...ragging is out of question...(yup there is a bit here n there...yaya just 4 namesake)...
tc

email id

2006-03-22T16:36:00.000+05:30

Email id 2 : anna_87@rediffmail.com

Email id 3 : annathomas_36@hotmail.com

You may contact me in any of these.

my life

2006-03-22T16:19:00.000+05:30

hi ppl out there... my name is anna thomas.
I am an nitc student 1st year btech...CSE..very soon goin 2 b a 2nd year..hopefully!!
well then nothin else.. cu around sometime..
chaley chalo.
tc
have fun.
anna