So it was Holi today....

So here I am - sitting with a pinkish hue in my face - courtesy all the colours of Holi.

Yeap, I was part of the festival of colours - officially for the first time...

And I got to say - it is another version of a Dance party for me!

So your friends come barging in at your door; smear the colors all over your face and hair; pour more on rest of you - and you have to do the same - thats the covenant. Well, I was following the social convention and became part of the tantrum party..

Too late to change the track of this conversation from grumpy to cheerful ? Of course; how can I leave a chance to rant - though I did forego the job treat :D

But hey, there were a few positive takeaways - do not wear any cotton whites - I now have a purple-pink colour-patched Banian that is a sight! And for that matter - loose the glasses too - its tough to clean around the edges! 

Anyways, here I am wishing everyone Happy Holi - with traces of the colours still in my cuticles and hair - and gallant about going back to being a Bangalorean depicted thus:

Post #100

Well, it took a long time, but here is Post #100 on the blog.
Enlisting 100 things that flash into my mind to commemorate that:

1. Mumbai to Bangalore, Bangalore to Mumbai - 17 hours by bus; 22 by train.
   The farthest place I have been so far !
2. Hostel life for the first time - and that started in Hostel 6 x-( !
3. Speaking in half-polished Hindi
4. Local trains - Lifelines of Mumbai
5. Room # 42, Hostel 6 to Room # B-208, Hostel 14
6. Beating myself in laziness times over in the past one and a half years of stay
7. Placements - Oracle on day 2
8. Squandering time online - facebook, gmail, imdb, twitter, reader and what not...
9. Pissed off my project guide by not meeting for a month - and on the way to do it again..
10. Blogging, of course - why else would this post come.
11. Elephanta, Gateway of India, Nehru centre, Bandra-Worli sea link, Malls, CST - just a few places of visit
12. Running off to home whenever there was a bunch of holidays - not so much now :D
13. Tons of movies and serials: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur35793309/watchlist
14. Staying up overnight and feeling sleepy during the day
15. LAN BAN dictated sleep cycle
16. A renewed taste for Sci-Fi and Fantasy themes
17. Me and my laptop - Best and Worst relationship at the same time ;)
18. Big fat birthday treat - Lesson: Take people to a veg hotel for treats :D
19. Mumbai monsoon bash!
20. Vain attempts at reducing time-waste by staying invisible online
21. Visit to 'Alma Fater' Cisco previous December
22. New facebook profile with Kannada name
23. Kannada sangha and the a formidable number of Kannada people
24. "I used to be indecisive, now I an not sure" prevails
25. IITians of all kinds - serious, not so serious; like me, totally unlike me; research-oriented, job-oriented, un-oriented too..
26. The goddamn mess food !
27. Graduation day at PESIT :)
28. 2G 'Snail'-Net when I am back home v/s IITB unlimited LAN
29. Make and break resolutions after every quiz, exam and presentation
30. Off and On jogging regimes - morning, evening, midnight and now none..
31. Proportional Efforts Theorem - and proportional CPI !
32.  MTP = Mostly Time Pass :D
33. Job treats and Send-offs
34. Tomorrow never comes!
35. A brief spell of documentaries fever
36. Attended many ppts of companies - only to end up getting placed in the first shortlisted company - such a waste of time that could have been wasted otherwise...
37. TA duty - few ups and downs but overall sailing safe..
38. Shortening of every word - Acads, Valfi, Convo, Apping etc among other nuances of the IITB janta lingo
39. Pulling all-nighters - Never for work but to watch serials
40. Showing off 'Still studying' status among other friends who are deep into worklife
41. Semi-successful and uncoordinated meetup plans 
42. First try at a few things - should I say first taste..?
43. Getting into the Tum-tums
44. Spending 2 hours and more to write a blogpost like this..
45. 1 TB hard disk for data needs - and thats apparently not enough..
46. Aakash tablet - for 'educational purpose'
47. Lengthy posts that made no sense - and didnt do anything about the ones that did  
48. No subjects in the last sem - just the big fat project
49. Lot of TO-DO lists that were never done!
50. Few friends and many many acquaintances.
51. The willingness to do anything except work!
52. Retracing footsteps before 10th Std - Dorky and does not talk to girls :D 
53. Experiencing a wider world - outside the Bangalore bubble..
54. Kind of liking the single life now..
55. crazy courses where I got AA - IT Project Management and Philosophy of Education 
56. Halfway through - and wondering who will read this long and blatant monologue!
57. Fill up laptop with movies - and then search for space to save course documents :D
58. Aimless chats and conversations online late in the night - just before the lan goes down..
59. Not sure even now whether I know all the classmates from the M.Tech batch.
60. Following #59 - never cared to know names of students enrolled in the courses for which I am the TA
61. A dirty one - bath cycle extending to once in 3 days!
62. The hype of IMAX!
63. Fingers crossed - Hoping Oracle apps places me back at Bangalore
64. Nostalgia - now and again - school, college, bengaluru and more
65. Ridiculous habits and laziness that are hard to get rid off..
66. Every day was Sunday - January 2013
67. Coding skills - From OK to I dont trust myself bad!
68. Non-dancer at party - and intending to keep that record..
69. I dont understand the big deal about this number !
70. Contemplating all possible ways of cutting back time waste - while doing those activities that are responsible for it
71. An improved Dont Care attitude towards a lot of things
72. Self-induced distraction of things
73. 11 subjects in first sem of B.E v/s 11 courses in entire M.Tech - definitely not the same!
74. 4 more months to go - if I dont get an extension - or else more!
75. NOTHING - most common response to small talk when someone asks about life or MTP
76. Corporate lingo: Current package - 96 kpa
77. Bored and lazy - 2 self complementing moods
78. Lost one month's TAship for not signing attendance and not submitting any leave application
79. Lot of the points on the negative side - what can I say - I am a natural cribber !
80. New attitude towards pizzas - a welcome change out of the boring routine of mess - but better look for coupons and offers
81. Watching runs and re-runs of TV series that I love
82. Oh yeah - they call us 'Matka's :D
83. Stingy as ever - I still dont have a mosquito repellant(and that officially tells that I am out of things to tell and looking around the room for more!!)
84. After the Troll era - its confession time now(IITB confessions, PESIT confessions..). Here is mine - I keep changing my IP every week because I get blocked out by netmon due to some rogue software update requests that I have not been able to figure out!
85. Contrary to the general trend - I like Windows over Linux - and preferably free. By the way - IITB provides 2 year licensed Windows products :)
86. Summer days of Mumbai are no different from Monsoon days - same exhaustion!
87. Going lengths and breadths into making the resume - only to realize that what matters is the top column of marks - same as other colleges!
88. Follow up - CPI matters! Even in IIT!
89. Hiranandani - One place for everything for IITians - and I went there after one whole year!
90. Clocked more time on youtube than my project!
91. Apparently there are some places in IITB like the boathouse that I have not yet visited!
92. Getting a tummy and doing nothing about it!
93. Step out of IIT to see the real Mumbai - and all you get to see is tons of people rushing around all the time - its all about work.... 
94. Au contraire - IIT, PESIT, or some other ****IT - all that matters is you - what you want to be and what efforts you put into it..
95. Correcting answer books - not the best job!
96. Did 2 more years of studies pay off - Upto time to decide!
97. Missing breakfast in lieu of sleep - where else can you do that :D ?
98. Brand name IIT forever...
99. Thinking about a 100 things in a flash(that lasts 2 hours though :D) is not an easy task!
100. Now looking at this list and wondering: Who gives a $#!+ about this ??
     

Exquisite Elephanta!

There is more to Elephanta Caves than just the caves.
Here is why:
1. Boat Trip from the Gateway of India
2. Exploring the now dilapidated caves
3. Hiking up Cannon hill
4. A mini garden
5. A view-only lake
6. Tons of shops
7. A small museum
8. Lots of Foreigners ;)
9. and a fair number of restaurants - albeit upper-priced
--> All the reasons making Elephanta caves a perfect one day trip-cum-trek spot!

Like my last post; I am letting pics do most of the talking - for detailed information; there is Wikipedia anyways :)

The Boat Ride:

The Caves:

The Hiking and the Cannon:

The Lake and the Garden:

Back to the Sea:

A day well spent - for one who wants to have a fun weekend outing :)

Funky T-shirts

It is often said that a picture says a thousand words - so does a T-shirt with a witty or funny slogan. 

IIT - a home for both kinds; definitely has an interesting spectacle of such T-shirts.

So here is a post on a few such shirts I have come across - and a graphic illustration of the same(well, nothing compared to the original ones; but who knows when somebody gets angry for violating copyrights - if any ;-))

"We code the rules, you follow them"

Somewhat egoistic statement by our very own CSE department T-shirt; but thats what we are...

But poor depiction - Imagine a grid of 1's and 0's with the CSE embossing out - so geekishly binary :)

And also missing is the department logo at the back that says "Watch out - The one inside is CSE property !"

"Somehow got in, somehow got out"

A quirky one and seemingly favourite of the alumnis; for reasons obvious...

"IITians - Gods of Dating" 

Keep wondering until they turn the back!

"Eat, sleep, material science"

Probably of the metallurgy department; goes similar to this famous design:-

"Talk Nerdy to me"

The punchline of Techfest held recently

" Road to Success is Under construction"

Well, now that you got the general hang of things; I am going to cut down on the T-shirt illustrations..

This one is the favorite tagline of the Civil(I guess..) students.

" By the time you leave IIT Bombay you are absolutely ***ked!"

Well, Wait for It before jumping into conclusions - Look at what is there behind :P

Some of the other top favorites of mine are:

"So you think getting into IIT was tough ?
Try getting out!!!"

" Cowboys dont take a bath, they just dust off" 

- Not exactly academic; but explains a general scenario crisply !

"Either way, we fuel you"

The Chemistry T-shirt is rather bold - with a beer glass and a petrol fuel injector - the Chems show off what they do best(Sorry, no images hit that depict the shirt)

"Relax, Its only ONES and ZEROS"

Last but very relevant - Not just a CS t-shirt; but also a reflection on the marks :D

Facebook reboot

Long boring weekend ahead - You have to catch up with the course project, but you don't intend to; you are bored with the sitcoms and movies on your computer and not in the mood of watching; and lazy that you are - you don't want to go out...

Given this situation what can be done ?

Well, I created a new facebook profile and archieved the old one - for I am obsessed with it and can live without but not want to !

Few things that I observed:

1. Not many people care why you do it. They just accept the request thinking - Obviously this guy has nothing better to do!
2. A few people do - and either accept the request thinking the old profile was hacked or deactivated; or reject the request suspecting phony account.
3. Even lesser people actually ping and ask whats up with the whole thing. Although the primary reason I believe to be is the Kannada name...
4. Reduction in number of troll posts - the social networks are so very trolled these days!
5. Whatever be the reason - its actually a good way to reduce the number of 'friends' you have - my count: 543 to ~250.

The question remains - Why did I create a new account ?

Silly as it sounds - I did that to remove the non-existent 'Rao' in my real name :D

So here is my suggestion - Want to have the thrill of something new but at the same time reinvent the wheel ?

Delete your old facebook account and create a new one - Start afresh, get rid of some of the old things and keep what is needed.

And catch me on my new facebook account:

 https://www.facebook.com/jsumanth1989

A January of Grand Nothingness

People have lazy Mondays or lazy weekends or lazy holidays - but I had a whole lazy January !!

A rather unpleasant start to a new year - and faced the heat on the last day from my Prof. !

So what did I do the whole month - NOTHING, absolutely nothing !

Whole days went in youtube, facebook. movies, and lots and lots of sleep... 

Not that the time waste is something unique - but it just got amplified this time around - so much that its become a real concern.

Unlike earlier times where some work used to happen - this time no efforts - all time went in waiting for the moment of realization - the sudden spark that comes around where all priorities get straightened up, I get up and go promptly to do the project etc etc - alas, that Magic doesn't ever happen !

Apart from the no work debacle - one other thing I tended to do was thinking of far future, and ignoring the imminent one: "Hey, I will do this after joining Oracle, I should be buying so-and-so stuff, go to such places" etc where the current important thing to do is to sail through the MTP !

So, January did not go well - and all blames on me for that. Went to my Prof. to finally meet him after roughly 2 months - so one can expect the reaction to that. Got advice from a lot of friends to stop all this fooling around and concentrate on work - yet to do that.

And was so very lazy that I did not even write a blog post !! 

Closing words - No promises, one should not do any promises that do not have the intent to be kept behind them...

2012 roundup

Last day of an eventful year...

2012 had some interesting and some boring moments; but overall was a fine one..

I must say that I have been enjoying the single academia life; while a lot other friends have now become neck-deep corporate busy..

Going ahead in M.Tech - done with the third semester - finished up with the quota of subjects, started off with the M.T.P, and got placed too..

Looking back though - what seemed to be the most critical sem of my life turned out to be one with lot of lazyness and easy-going - atleast thats how I took it most of the time..

2 subjects - ACA and ALA; of 3rd sem were two courses that I attended less and bunked more - and eventually passed out. Whats more, I had to attend the course for which I had been the T.A - which I did gladly - more than the number of classes of these two combined :D

MTP - well, its more or less on the track. Somehow cleared phase 1; and phase 2 has been in stasis for over a month. I can say Proportional Efforts Theorem went for a toss during implementation !!

Placements - well, lucky there to be placed on second day - that too in the first company I interviewed for..

That did generate a feeling of why the hell I had to write so many other tests - if I were not supposed to try for them anymore. And also the Google Test never served as a wake up call...

And a general representation of the placement season was well captured thus (Courtesy +Sampreet Sharma  and transitively thereafter for the pic...) :

In other news:

* Turned 23.

* On and off Jogging, making resolutions that were not met, and To-Do lists that were not done.

* Consistent youtubing, facebooking and screwed up sleep cycles.

* Another season of monsoon and Lan-Ban went by.

* Visited Bangalore around 3 times - soon coming back for good(well, mostly..)

* Due to increased storage needs - got a 1TB portable hard disk(and now wondering if that is sufficient..)

Life out of IIT - not much to say. Been to a few places like the Nehru Science Centre, Elephanta,  Hiranandani, Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Haji Ali etc. 

And two senior-junior parties earlier on in the year - and as per IITB tradition, they are going to happen again; probably at the same places - with our batch on the other end of the table.. 

So there ends 2012 - making way for 2013.

Ending note - one of my favorite realizations: