Machaxx Valfi!

Aage padhne se pehle bol du ki pehle baar is post ko Hinglish(English mein likhi hui Hindi) mein likh raha hoon - kyon ki apna Valfi bhi zyaadatar usi style mein hua tha - aur uss wajah se aur bhi mazeedaar tha. To thoda bahut grammar aur transliteration ka galtiyon ko maaf kardo..

Kal raat zabardast thi - Aakhir mein apne H-14 walo ki Valfi ban gayi - aur wo bhi poora pagalpanti aur masti ke saath :)

Sabse pehle to hamari CS Mtech batch ki procrastination aur baad mein last minute effort dalne ka character ko tarif karna hi padega - valfi se ek din pehle tak log thanda the - itni ki valfi ke liye stage bhi book nahi kiya! Aur phir valfi ke pichle sham ko aakhirkar kuh paanch saath logo ka facebook mein valfi threads chalu kar diya...

To phir jaake valfi ke ek ghante pehle function ke coordinator aur Secy ke saath fight marke bacha hua 6th floor ka jagah le li - stage-vage kuch nahi - magar ek light to lagwa liya. Aur 10 baje tak logon ka profile banate rahe, banate rahe...

Magar apne bande bhi hain bahut hoshiyar - music room se laaye speaker aur mike, tablet aur laptop mein profiles ke saath; aur khudh ka cameras, extensions aur chargers leke ready ho gaye valfi ko 11 baje.

Aur tab se shuru hua - laughter pe laughter, bharpoor bhakchodi, dher saare non-veg gande jokes, total taang kichayi, past aur present ke girlfriends aur crushes, nashe mein kiye hue cheesey, sharamnak incidents, dark secrets, aur end mein thoda appreciation bhi - bole to fultu entertainment !!

Kuch highlights is tarah hain:

• Dan ki to sab lete hain; aur uske khane ka range gazab hain.
• Aarif hain download, DP aur online shopping ke expert - hai isko penthouse ke sapne aur bahut kuch.
• Peeyush hain ladkibaaz aur bhayankar coder - aur Mumbai ke trains to isse hi chalte hain.
• Madnani ka sirf do mood hain - spiritual aur sexual(aur unke rangeen daastane)
• Bol Burange ka pol khul gaya - Goa ho ya IITB - Burange ulti optimize karta hain.
• Kashyap ek hi wo banda hai jo PB ke bare mein complaint nahi karta, aur koi negative point nahi hai iska.
• Rajesh ki daaru ke baad kiye hue kaarnaame hai bahut saare.
• Yogesh ke explanation kisi ko samaj nahi aata - phir bhi koi phir se Samjha Na sunna nahi chahta.
• Manish hai senti aur fundebaaz - aur poore wing ko pata lagta hai ki kab ye naha raha hai..
• Siddhanth to 11 baje ki baat alag hi aadmi ban jata hai - aur uska oracle ka interview ka koi jawab nahin!
• Anuj nikla sabse bada chuppa rustam - hai iski GF bahut pehle se - Google, Visa aur GF: kuch baaki nahi raha is bande ki!
• Dabre ki muh uske height se jyaada hai - bahut ladkiyo ko kiya impress, phir bhi pata nahi paya ek ko.
• Ananth ke paas hai bahut stories - lekin hai bhulakkad bhi, sabko course mein help karta hain, par uski grade ka lag jati hai end me.
• Senthil ka to hain kahi punchlines, aur Deepika pe hain fida all the time; Khud ko kahta hai LPG - Low Profile Guy.
• Ramteke hain best bahut saare cheeso main, phir bhi hain Down to Earth.

.......................

aur bhi bahut saare kisse - jin pe has has ke sabhi log thak gaye!

Mera bhi thoda bahut khichayi hui - upar wale hastiyo ke saat compare nahi kar sakte ho, phir bhi - mazaa to aaya. Pehle to Title diya 'Chindi' - aur pizza ka har piece main hisaab dalke pay karne ka kaarnaama bataaya. Phir aayi baat naya facebook profile banane ka reason. Isi bahane main ne 'self-experience' ke do baat bataaya:

1. Jab ladki ke saat ho to kaan pe earphone lagake usko ignore mat karna

2. Jab uske saat bus mein jaa rahe ho to use sone mat dena - kuch baat mein lage raho

Magar apne class ke ladke to iss baat mein mahir hain - shaayad kisi ne suna bhi nahi; aur kahi doosre baaton mein bhi bahut bakkarchodi hui :D

To anth mein poore raat masti aur baatein ki barsaat ke baad subah ko 7 baje hamara Valfi khatam hua, aur last wala Valfi toh dirty jokes ke limit paar kar di! Bas uske baad breakfast kiya aur so gaya - aur utha to shaam ke saade-paanch baj chuke the!!

Is sab ke baad to picture kheechna banta hain(Kuch log to missing hain - picture main aur upar ke kahaniyon me, maaf karo aur adjust karlo...) :-

Job Treat v/s Farewell Party

The season of big treats is coming to an end for us IITBians - viz Job Treat, Farewell and Valedictory functions. Valfi is just around the corner - and we had the other two in the recent past. 

For those unaware of the whole thing - As per IITB tradition: Job treat is what we seniors give after the placements to our juniors in celebration, and the juniors reciprocate by giving us a Farewell Party. 

As any outsider ready to pass judgement, here is my verdict: To put succinctly - the Job Treat was a brave attempt, the Farewell Treat was conventional but well executed..

To elaborate on the details (because this is a blog and not a facebook post so that I can end as above!) - our Job Treat was on boats - a few kilometers away from the shore facing the Gateway of India. An innovative idea indeed - rather than the usual Hotel or Party Hall plans. Except for one thing - the constant rocking of the boat implied that no one even needed to dance; it sways you automatically - both good and bad! And everyone unanimously agrees that the food too was a spoilsport - I still get goosebumps imagining the almost non-veg tasting Paneer sabzi x-( 

But still; it was quite adventurous to party in the middle of the sea - albeit those with Thalassophobia (of course I googled that!) 

The Farewell party was in a more common party place; and in keeping up with the current trend of Confessions and Secrets - there were games of share your secret, get others to confess a secret etc. Food definitely scored more points than Job treat; and so did the Memento - A photo/scrap book of all the current batch students.

Since I don't have any of the pics of the event - I am sharing pics of the book itself, also seems symmetric with the above content...

Oh, and here is my entry in the book; thanks for the geeky description +Amitkumar Patil !!

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