Experience at "Alma Fater"(and what the term meant anyway...) CISCO

I was actually surprised that no one found out that the word Alma Fater was peculiar, may be everyone considered it either to be a spelling mistake for Alma Mater, or just ignored it to be yet another of my insignificant gags...

Anyway, lets get into the derivation of it - Alma Mater refers to the school you went into, where you gained significant wisdom and knowledge; and if I recall, it means second mother.
So, considering that your father is mainly responsible for providing you financial stance and exposure to the world, Cisco was a kind of "Alma Fater" to me, if such a terminology actually exists :-)

End of lecturing, back to narration(or more aptly 'reporting')..

Left home at 9 - and reached the campus at 12; call it nostalgia, or call it unchanging conditions, but it never improves!

Meet people within meetings - It was a day of meetings for most of my friends back there - team meeting, progress meeting, one-on-ones and what not.
I am glad they could make some time for me there.
I could relate most of their daily routines to that of my dad's split hours of work - it is seriously a bad thing to have you working in India, whereas a sizable chunk if your team working in US; you end up working half the day at office, and then attend calls in the late nights from the US!!
It was also awkward to sit there with a guest badge - and just watch people busy with their work lives, being the only "academician" around, (and sometimes searching for ID cards to get their names ;-))..

VTV delicacies - Had the opportunity to grace the occasion of gracing Shruthi's birthday celebration, and get a taste of the building's birthday mandate pastry.
Followed this up with Veg Biriyani from probably the same caterers, from the same canteen, with the same objectionable taste!
Alas, I realized much later that the main Cisco campus beside VTV had a brand new building, with a brand new, diverse and large food junction...
* VTV - Vrindavan Tech Village, the place where I did my internship

Building 16 - The new Building 16 is definitely a great add to Cisco, right from its food junction at the bottom, or the familiar games section, to the video games and self-massage chairs for stress busting, and the sitout/hangout area; it is certainly a nice place to explore.
If anyone happens to visit Cisco campus, do not miss out Building 16..

Climax - So was the whole day just about meeting busy people, and just a killtime ??
Not exactly..
It turned out that in the end, I got my much needed "enlightenment".

Final thought - I realized that its better to meet friends outside the corporate aura, specially if you are not a tekkie with a IT company tag hanging around your collar !!   

Yet Another Post Exam Realizations and Aspirations session

With the end of one more era of exams - time for yet another thought train on what went right, what went wrong, what could have been better, what could have been worse etc.

The very simplest of the realizations would be coming out of the three hour paper, and realize how you goofed it up completely!
And the most thoughtful of them would be to realize how you were complacent during the course - be it in classes, assignments, projects or exams - that has brought you into this stage..

Come to think of it - It amazes how fickle your mind is..
Just before exams, you try for futile prioritization of studies and revisions(if possible, and generally has a small success probability :D); but once you are done, you are so relieved that it did not matter much, you never had to do it :D

So here goes my list of resolutions for the coming sem, that have been in my favorite lists for quite some time:

• Concentrate more on studies, and reduce that careless attitude.
• Get motivated on things pertaining to coding and research.
• Spend less time online(Deliberately not specific here!!), and divert that time to something more productive - New favorite and Top 1 in the list !!
• Maintain regular wakeup and sleep timings(which I am not doing as I am typing it out *!)
• Get serious and focused on what next in life....
  <add any of your thoughts here>...
  .....
  .....

Knowing that most of the above wont reach their expected fate, it does seem to be a lame exercise to even consider making a list - but well, it does use some brain cycles to do some 'useful' work...

Now looking at the other dimension - Holidays.
This is a whole new arena - you plan, chalk out a strategy and workout the best possible and fruitful way of spending it - meet friends, do some next sem planning, catch up with family events, learn something new, practice a hobby and what not; but more or less the scene would be ending up a couch potato at home!!

But this time, things seem to be different - so would be the holidays...
Time to forget all these rants, and Move On !!

Official Google Blog: The next stage in our redesign

Google new look - Looks better :-)

Official Google Blog: The next stage in our redesign: Six months ago we started rolling out a new look and feel for Search, News, Maps, Translate, Gmail and a bunch of other products. Our goal ...

My 5 dates..

Back to blogging after a real long time...

November has been quite hectic, quite tensive; but in a weird way thrilling; just like the good old college days..
Oh, actually I am still in good old college days :-D, just that I have evolved to hate the exams part of it!!

So let me rewind and talk about the 5 "dates" I had in this month..
It was these 5 dates that kept me busy and generally invisible throughout the month..


1. The first and a rather early date with Network security:
 The going was initially tough, and had lot of bumps along the way, but overall it went pretty good. Hopefully, the relationship continues in the next semester...
The experience was definitely different from the usual ones - it did have some welcome twists and turns.
Looking forward to considering it an option -_-

2. Next one was Algorithms:
Badly wanted to end this one!
Got tired with the first few encounters itself, just had to carry along till the end of the semester..
The results of the break-up came soon too, and obviously as expected - it wasn't very heartening to look at!
But now, the break-up is done; the bumpy ride is over; never again shall I consider this route !!

3. Next up - Networks:
Following the date with Algos was this one.
Had no time and mood to even prepare for it properly - and it clearly showed.
I fumbled along throughout the date, even though it wasn't supposed to be so.
But it was not over only at that, it was preceded by a disposition of affection* and followed by some affectionate letter writing**
The relationship status here is definitely in doubts o_O

4. The most weird one - Functional Programming:
This one was a total astonishment.
I was attracted towards this one in the beginning, because it was different - but turns out being too different can be acutely problematic.
After the first few happy days, there has been a stark downfall - but wait, its not over!!
Though I dont want to be with it any longer - it wont leave me so easily; demanding the mandatory disposition of affection....
I would for sure not suggest this date to anyone else
P.S: A totally personal opinion, there are lot of guys who find this one intriguing and awesome.

5. And the most grand one of them all - Software Lab:
Packed with variety - this one was expected to be the ONE.
But turned out its ONE TOO MANY!!
Those prolonged non-timebound dates were total put-offs.
They say too much is too bad - and that is exactly what happened in this case; leading to a total loss of interest.
The last date - the final nail in the coffin, is tonight, and past midnight (And I dont need any wishes for it - thats something that does not work much!!)
 

For anyone who were misled by the title for some seriously funny article; sorry for the disappointment - this one is rather a funnily serious article :P  

Getting Life Back on Track

Back to blogging due to statistically popular demand :-D

After coming back from Home, with a home-stay, no-crackers diwali; I have decided to make a few amends to my IIT lifestyle..

1. Sleep deadlines - Maximum sleep delaying until 1 AM only...
   No watching sitcoms or movies overnight!!
   Keeping the resolution for a week now :-)
2. Start working on projects - Resolution made, not yet implemented!!
3. No late night hogging - it really upsets the metabolism.
   So cutting down on past midnight crunchies or canteen parathas !!
4. When online, be visible - enough of the showoff !
5. Try shaving once in 3 days - should I really explain like a Nanny why :D ?
6. Stop being an all time cribber - make sure that it does not cross 50% of the total time ;-)

As I go through the writing - I feel as if I am kind of a 2 faced Martian; talking to myself :D :D

They say rules are meant to be broken, resolutions are made to be dropped - hope I keep up with atleast one among the above ones !!

Happy Life Folks :-)

Life in Bengaluru

Now that's a pretty contradicting title - concerning what the blog is about :-D

But being a Bangalorean, and being in Bangalore now - this post shouldn't be too off-track.
(And let me honestly accept - I don't have any other significant topic to blog as well ;-))

In one phrase - Its a slow pleasure...

No worries about what is coming ahead for the next day or the next week..
No hurries for each day - no marked deadlines for doing a task..

I just get into a total different mode when I get in - just sit back and chill, take life easy :-)
Of course - workload mounts steeply upon getting back, but as long as I am here, that seems to be the least of concerns!!

Talk about SLOW - the lifestyle, the people, the Internet, the traffic - name it and it is 'relatively' slow..
Caution Notice: Above view is completely personal and spatio-temporally biased due to my current life.
No offences intended ;-)

Its just meeting up with friends, sitting like a couch potato in front of the TV, relatively(again..) less use of internet, have some pointless but fun chit chat sessions with kith and kin(now thats a purely literary usage - Flag if inappropriate!)

But bottomline - I love it...
I dont see me telling 'Aamchi Mumbai' anywhere in the near future..

Now for a grand sentimental ending:
Bangalorean by birth, and Bangalorean at heart always!!

News Bulletin

Dedications: An early wake-up after many many days .....

1) A picture says a 1000 words:

Well, I dont think the above does :-D
One of the many pics from the Department Trek - perhaps the best "adventure" in my life of recent times..

2) Too much of Charlie Sheen these days:
      Roast of Charlie Sheen
      Two and a half men - almost all seasons
      Hot Shots
      Status updates about him..
I believe its time to cut down on this one!!

3) Trying to get back the old sleep pattern - Not very early to sleep and not very late to get up...
Success today - should see what awaits tomorrow..

4) Finally a named email id that proves I am an IITian( :-D ): Changed the roll-number id to sumanthj@iitb.ac.in

5) I am SINGLE ;-)
    .
    .
    .
    in terms of marks of mid-sems and quizzes of many courses :-O :-P
Its a never-before feeling that you dont want to experience!!

6) This one is rather complaining and intruding - Discovered that my roomie snores !!!
Shh, keep it a secret, don't let him know :D

7) Discovered that we guys are so reckless waste generators..
Don't read between the lines! - I mean that everyday huge bags of throwaways and unusable materials are dumped as garbage..

8) Crazy kids in the hostel - I dont understand the need for brutal birthday bumps at mid-night..
Poor guy would be wishing that his birthday would fall during the vacations!

9) Trying to showoff that I am IIT material and busy by being invisible online ;-)

10) Project time - A project in almost every course; indicating of the tough days that are to come ahead!

The title and the post just reminds me of the wiki days of PESIT :-/ :-)