Life goes on - it just does.

It has been over two years now since I've even as much as had a look at my own blog. Since I joined facebook there has been no reason for me to blog - you have the convenient notes on facebook to share your thoughts.

A lot has changed, as indeed it must. I am no longer in college - belong to the working class now. Can't say I enjoy it that much, though. Life goes on as it must. I'm glad for the people around me who are responsible for me finding my way through life.

Hectic weekend awaits

The beginning of a long weekend. And its time to study to the fullest. Well you might be wondering whats wrong with yours truly? Studying? him?
Its just that finally I have realised, after 4 disregarded semesters that CG is very important. I've been led down the wrong path believing that CG is a useless way to spend your time. Just maintain a bare minimum and you'll do fine. But I am not an average person. This much I have realised. Mediocrity does not impress. I aim for the highest. And this has made me realise CG is very very important for such a life. And also the fact that I have missed out on a number of wonderful opportunities because of CG..

Trippy maxxx workshop..

Game – survivors.
Scenario – World at the brink of nuclear devastation. A group of great thinkers meet to decide what must be done to save civilization. They decide to send two people from different backgrounds into space, to survive there for 5 years and come back to rebuild civilization as we know it. Each of the six participating parties elect a representative to put forth their arguments.

Trippy stuff that occurred in the Shell workshop .
Godly as politician – we have a very high EQ to IQ ratio. What the heck is he driveling? Is he trying to tell us that he has a very low IQ??
Nuclear scientist (kasai) – Countering an argument that this set knows only about high end equipments, gets irritated with the Dhobis and retorts ‘Dhobis are talking to me about technology??’
‘You guys are responsible for this mess. You made the bombs. You’re so stupid’
‘We used a lot of intelligence in making the bombs. We were stupid to give it to the politicians.’
Vinay as liquor baron – Liquor connects the world. It appeals to all sets of people. It was the only industry that developed simultaneously all over the world and I can connect to all sets of people through it. Liquor will help save the world !! WTF??
Wake up guys – You are goddammed barons, why not base your arguments on experience in business and capitalistic tendencies !!
Cavity as pirates and smugglers( Why in god’s name did we choose him to represent us ? )- left the audience wondering - is this guy really a pirate or a smuggler? Must be the dumbest profession around. Ask him a question and he’ll be like I am great, I am a good leader, I can rule the world.
Tell him ‘you’re a chuthiya’ and reply will be – ‘So what? I am great, I am a good leader, I can rule the world. Next question, please. ‘
‘How will you make people trust you?’
‘They can’t trust me’ (Where reply should have been- I will point a bloody gun at their face and tell them ‘ follow me or you’re dead!’ Fear is the key to the rise of the new civilization. At least initially. Then godammed democracy can take over) I am great, I am a good leader, I can rule the world. Next question, please. ‘
The highlight of his speech – ‘We are pirates, we do not follow any law. We make our own laws and follow it.’ What’s your point, mate?
Some arbitrary person as Dhobi – ‘We are poor, everyone will be poor after the disaster. So we can connect and live in harmony with them.’ Oh is that so? That’s why we are spending billions in sending you into space is it? So that you can come back and live with the poor in harmony? Boy, that’s real genius, mate. We thought we asked you to assume you were Dhobhis – meaning still hold on to your brains that you have as IITans !
Swathi as bar dancer – ‘Do not think of me as a bar dancer, think of me as a normal person.’ Then why the heck are you here? What makes you different from the rest of the world?
‘Bar dancers are intelligent, progressive people who just happen to dance in bars’
Well, that’s nice. So you dance in bars because you are intelligent eh? Do you even know what intelligent means?
‘Bar dancers are essential in bringing culture into the lives of people.’ WTF – the first culture that should originate in the new world should be that of bar dancing? God save that world !!
Trippy question to Swathi from the pirates– ‘You don’t expect us to believe all that you said, do you?’
An angry retort, ‘Do you think the rest believed what you guys said?’
‘That’s my point. No one did.’ (:P)

Crux of it all :
Liquor barons were more like politicians – they spoke a lot but hardly made one significant point.
Politicians spoke like politicians when they were off-stage.
Pirate representative was bulbing so much on stage that his own team-mates started tripping on him.
Dhobis do not want to develop the civilization.
Nuclear scientists don’t give a f*** about you.
Bar dancers – well they are not bar dancers it seems, just normal people.

AMPA Skywalk - a walk it was :P

A place worthy of being called a MALL. On the junction of nelson manickam and poonamallee high road it lies. Bigger, in fact way bigger than citi centre, but nowhere close to spencers (but it is still the best in Chennai, so far:) )

With landmark, an awesome food court, archies, pvr cinemas - it just propounds the fact that Anna Nagar is becoming a city within the city of Chennai. No more do I have to go all the way to satyam for a movie, or to nungambakkam for landmark visit :). And the best part is the skywalk. Spanning the entire layout of the mall you can actually get a very good view of the entire mall from here. And I go in the records for being the first person (barring those involved i nthe construction of the megastructure) to walk over it.

I'll end this post on that high.....

Shaastra 09 - all about MA trip

Another Shaastra gone by.......

Cometh October it came. And in the wink of an eye it was gone. A Shaastra I looked forward to most eagerly. It did not disappoint. Nor was it of the stature I expected it to be.

The air show and the laser show pulled the largest crowd but overall the turnout of people for the event was a bit disappointing. I've lived two Shaastras so far and it hurts me to say that crowd and entertainment-wise my first was the best, closely followed by the Shaastra 2008. And the fact that this had to happen when I was in-charge of publicity in Chennai (as some people blatantly pointed out) was like adding fuel to the fire. Well, all that is in the past now.

However I got to admit food-wise it was by far the best. This might be because I had unlimited access to free food..lol.. Still...

Oh and the MA trip - that was what this Shaastra was all about. The involvement of MA students in organising the event and the constant banter(well carried out by the newsletter team - even though that TEAM was dominated by MAs) meted out to them. IITM is changing - with scope for IIIT and MA students to take an active interest in campus life. Can't really complain - they are after all a part and parcel of this institute (sigh :P)

Mindblock - really can't think of a grand finale to this post. I'll make up for it in my next. Tschau...

Why do i get the feeling that I am not learning much about engineering in IIT?

Lets take a look. I've been here for the past two years, thats half my course completed and the only thing i've learnt about engineering is that you do not need to study much to get decent grades !! Whoa.. that was really not the reason why i entered this place. It was, if i remember right ,with a passion to learn, to be the best ( was it really? well i do not know. Boy, i've changed a lot and this might be a consequence of that. Or not). But you know now that i look back on these years i really do not remember what i have learnt in class. As a person, i will agree that I have definitely grown and have started making decisions of my own, learning to live on my own, roughing it out, standing on my own feet, and having fun at the same time. I've found happiness, I've found passions, I've found adventures, I've even found love. But when it comes to engineering, well, unfortunately what i've found i've either lost it as soon as i did, or i never found it at all. Take my friends who are doing the same mechanical engineering course in other colleges. They speak of stuff I have never even heard about. This design, that circuit, this code. My oh my, you've lost me totally guys. 

Why is it this way? Is it something amiss with the way we study here? Could be, our semesters are very short, we have the least number of classes( we crib about it still, we sleep them off, we wake up, we find end sems, the quizzes are a vague memory). And in these semesters are packed a host of extra and co curricular activities. To give you an example - all that my mom thinks i do is shaastra, saarang and mechanica and fun ( i never fail to mention that)  ! Lol. And to top it all anyone who opens his books well before the night of the exam is tagged a 'muggu'. God!! 

I really do not understand this. Now that i'm doing an intern in wheels india, i've learnt that there are loads of things about real engineering that i do not follow or dont give a damn. Its also made me realise that people from my college all prefer white collar jobs over core engineering ones. I'm going that way too. Pray, my mom would never understand. But thats the way it is. With my track record on marketing, i'd seamlessly slip into any job in that sector. 

IIT M offers you a lot besides engineering, people. In fact it offers the 'lot' part more than engineering. And here i am experiencing it to the fullest. 

A noble thought

I've been thinking. Its not often that i do it but when i do venture down that moss-overgrown path it is with some reason and purpose( and care, cause the moss is slippery.. lol... forgive the pun, i'm just too excited with this new macbook of mine :P ). 

Elections for the second largest democracy in the world have just been completed and the results are out. If you think politics is out and governance is in, well think again, some ppl are just too caught up with politics ! As the country awaits the selection of the cabinet ministers I wonder why is it that ppl who truly deserve the post do not want it and those whom the PM just barely managed not to name them as corrupt and inefficient are fighting like a pack of wild dogs over it. Gets one thinking, well it certainly got me thinking, is democracy the right form of governance. Or its success is just a farce? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with the concept which puts the least efficient person in the most powerful post? 

I had this 2 hour long discussion on politics with my parents ], grandparents and cousins and by god it was awesome, being the most illuminating discussion of my life. I learnt a host of stuff abt politics, how it operates, how it should, how it can be made better ( easy enough, just elect the goddammed right person, ppl !! ). It got me thinking by the end of it, why dont i give it a shot? There are a host of things i want to see changed about the country. And out there are definitely a few ppl at least who share the same ideas as me. The same passion burns in them too. Its not an easy decision to make. And i'm biding my time, one reason being, well i've still got college to finish!! 

FYI, I did not vote this time. What use is there, if all u can do is vote for the lesser of two evils?

Democracy was not meant to be like this....