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:

The Pattern Match TAship

As part of the M.Tech programme - we have a per semester Teaching Assistantship; where we assist in coursework. The first two semesters were pretty smooth in this regard as I was assigned TA for the C++ programming lab - where all one had to do was debug errors from the codes the students wrote, or worst case - ask them to google their roadblocks...

Third sem, however, I got Linear Optimization - a theoretical course about which I had no idea, and got assigned to it probably because I had taken the Algorithms course in my first sem out of the zeal of getting into IIT..

The entire course was all about the above image - equations, feasible points, solutions etc etc. Alas, I had no background - so had to go and sit in most of the classes. In the end - I as a TA definitely had more attendance to the class than any other student..

In the beginning it seemed to borrow some concepts from Linear Algebra - but that link broke down pretty soon...

Anyway, that wasnt the main deal - I had to correct the quiz papers of all the students. Although I was attending all classes - I definitely had no expertise in the subject(just a nice way of saying I didnt know squat about the subject!).

Thankfully Prof. Sundar - who took the course - used to give answer keys. Thus went an entire semester  of pattern matching answers plus some recall of concepts from the class and giving marks. I must say it ended well - more because Sir took over the end-sem corrections - much to the dismay of some students and happiness of a lot more..

With that bygone - only one more semester of M.Tech, a.k.a one more semester of TAship remains...

Dial-Up using GPRS

Back to Godspeed internet @IITB.
So I thought why not a post on the now almost outdated way of connecting to the Internet - which I still use when I am back in Bangalore - the Dial-Up using a mobile phone as a modem..

Here is the list of things you need:

1. A GPRS enabled phone - obviously, basic models and even China phones would do !!
2. A data cable - something Samsung feature phones do not come with...
3. An active GPRS pack - 10p/10kb gets over in a jiffy !
4. Modem drivers - Generally installed when the phone is connected to the computer, best of luck finding one otherwise..
5. Extra Initialization Command - Final piece of the puzzle
6. *99# - An almost generic dial-up number for mobile phone connectivity, which should be entered when creating the new dial-up connection

Steps 1 to 3 are relatively straight forward, and Step 4 is a hit or miss - but still its the last one that finally gets you connected..
Its generally of the form :-

AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","<Access Point Name>"

The command is different for different mobile service providers - so either google it, or call customer care. For e.g: Vodafone uses "www", Virgin Mobile uses "VINTENET.IN", Idea uses "ideagprs" etc.

If you are using a PC suite - its all well and good - just enter the access point name, and you are ready to go..
If not, there is more work to be done. Here comes the problem - The "customer representative" of your service provider will insist on installing a PC suite and continuing - just say you have the suite and follow the instructions until he/she asks you to enter the Access Point Name.
The command needs to be added to the Modem Driver installed on the PC. So go to Phone and Modem -> Select connected Modem -> Properties -> Advanced -> Extra Initialization Command  and enter the above data.

Test the connection by clicking on the respective Dial Up Connection icon and you are good to go - hopefully if you do not get a 619 or 734 error which means something is wrong - either with the hardware or the Extra initialization command.

Disclaimers:
1. I have no idea how tough or how easy it is to do all this with smartphones.
2. The above thing works in Windows - I am not aware of the equivalent in Linux.
3. This isnt completely a technical article - just an aggregation of my experience with GPRS and Dial-Up

Placed !!

Placements Over :)
Got placed in the only company I had been shortlisted for on Day 2(and perhaps for the entire placement process!!) - Oracle.

Here is my interview experience:

Round 1: Tech
The notification of Round 1 being scheduled at 08:00 came at 07:50 in the blog. So I hurried up to breakfast - and reached the place; only to hear that it had been rescheduled by an hour.
However,since I had already reached, the interview started off at 08:30. After a short formal introduction and a look at my resume and projects, the questions began.

Question 1: Given a set of points representing some data set obtain the point at the middle(or say equidistant from others)
This consumed almost 20 minutes - where I initially thought of a binary search sort of scheme based on some ordering of the vertices - then got caught how to provide a distance measure to create that ordering - then gave a recursive divide into 3 parts and find minimum distant vertex set and combine.
The interviewer and I both still had doubts on whether it was correct, yet I got another question..
Question 2: Given a linked list without head pointer; delete a random node given a pointer to it
I gave an inefficient solution - that of pulling the neighbor node's data and proceeding until the end of the list; only to realize later that all I had to do was to copy the data of the successive node into given node and delete that successive node!

After Round 1, I was very doubtful of making to Round 2 - but to my surprise, I was called for Round 2!


Round 2: Tech
I was called for round 2 in a short while, and again there were 2 questions

Question 1: Given 2 dates in DD-MM-YYYY format, how do you find the time duration, in same format
Fairly obvious question I thought - and went ahead to give the solution starting from the year, and go backwards to the day, and capture the difference and decrement the values when needed etc.
But alas, missed a few corner cases - that the interviewer spotted immediately - and I went on to correct them
Question 2: Add 2 numbers represented in singly linked lists with one value per node.
Again , standard question; so I said reverse the lists and add from units place with carry propagation - leading to the next obvious question - How do you reverse a linked list?
I gave the recursive algorithm that I had memorized; so the interviewer asked to give an iterative one instead.
Here again, I began to fiddle with the code, missing and messing a few things - using three pointers, jumping twice per node and all, and finally got to it with the interviewer's tip to forget what I already had in mind partially about how the code should look like...

Again, after Round 2, I wasn't very sure about going ahead to the next round..


Round 3: Tech
Surprised again - I got called to Round 3 and I think this is the one round where I gained confidence and performed well..

Question 1: Give an optimal solution for a Snake and Ladder problem - with data representation of my choice.
I got full 20 minutes to develop the solution - so I went on writing classes for the board, ladder, snake and the logic of choosing the maximum distance reached from one of the six rolls of the dice until reaching the end.
The interviewer saw the solution for a moment, and then remarked - Why make it so complex when you can order the ladders to reach in minimum possible moves. I nodded my head for the same and kind of completed the solution..
Question 2: Write a singleton class.
8th sem B.E project in action - though I wrote a mix of C++ and Java syntax code, I covered it up and explained it correctly. Apparently the interviewer seemed pleased..


Round 4: HR
HR interview was cool - all standard questions like:
Tell me abt urself
Why Oracle, and why Apps?
Why Mtech when you got placed well in B.E itself
Why low CPI ?
Will you be joining if placed ?
Are you shortlisted for any other companies(obviously no :D)

Then the HR explained the Compensation details, and how the Apps profile differs from OFSS.
Meanwhile I asked for workplace preference of Bengaluru - for which the HR said mostly but cannot be totally confirmed right now.
Another question from my side was where do I see myself in next 2 years - usually asked from the other side of the desk!
All through the HR round - I was trying to look the HR in the eye - and not the dorky here and there look that is my default setting around the women lore :D : Interview Etiquette !!

It seemed to me like the HR was more confident about my getting in while explaining the compensation details and so on - and hence by the end of the interview, I thought the interview process was over.
But surprise again - There was one more technical round!


Round 5: Tech, again
One question: Draw an E-R diagram of a railway ticket booking system
Hopefully I still had remnants of the Entity, attributes and relationships concepts and modelling in my head.
I came up with a fairly good design - which still had shortcomings such as detachment of certain compartments, booking between any 2 stations in the way which the interviewer pointed out. So I had to plugin those modifications and add some more relations as well.
In response, the interviewer went into depth explaining how product development involves your own problem scope and refining it to add features and cover inadequacies; unlike application development aimed at satisfying set of features demanded by a client.
He then concluded that it would be a Yes from his side but had to wait for the others


5 rounds and I was done by 12 -> 3 and a half hours and I was all done.
But then I came back for lunch, had lunch and went back to the interview corner - waiting for 2 more hours doing nothing but waiting, got tired and came back to hostel again awaiting posting of the results online.

Finally all done - Got the Job!
So no more placement tension - actually there was never much of it since I had applied for a few companies(relative to few others..). And happy to have cleared the first and only company I was shortlisted in - nostalgically related with Cisco internship..

All said and done: Time to switch back to MTP mode !!

What season is it ?? - Placement season!!

It is that season of the academic year that students eagerly expect; and quite commonly one that professors are usually resentful - Placement....

Past few days were a countdown sequence to the start of the interviews - the much attention grabbing  Day 1 of the interviews where big shot companies compete to grab the most coveted talent of the IITs(Source: Various news sources and gossips). We had our end sems immediately followed by screening tests of few companies to lead upto today.

12:00 AM marks the start of Day 0 - one last day before the interviews; and consequently scheduled with a line-up of tests. From CS viewpoint - bigshots like Google, Microsoft, Opera, Twitter and Rocketfuel are coming on Day 1.

The last few days were eventful too - besides the tests themselves - one got to see serious preparations, planning, anticipation, expectation on the upcoming events. Personally - I was there refreshing the placement blogpage every now and then in hopes of getting shortlisted; and thats the scene in general - appreciate the people who got shortlisted, and a "Happy to see you in the club!" cheer for the ones who werent. 

So finally tonight I got shortlisted for Oracle's interview; and in the spirit of which this post is coming out. Oracle is on Day 2, so Day 1 is free(actually preparation time) - Time to watch the Day 1 drama and face the music on Day 2.

Wishing all the best to all my friends and to myself :)

23 on 23

Another year added to my tally - now 23 years old. And the above song captures my emotions quite well :D

This year I tried a few funny things - trying many ways to keep it a secret to prevent bumps and ended up giving a treat to the guys anyway!

It started off with removing the birthday notification from facebook - the main source of knowing your friends' birthday in today's world. Then I also disabled posting on my wall. So I was only expecting a few wishes by message. But alas I forgot tagging - so a friend did try to stir up some interest by tagging my birthday on his wall. By the way thanks to all the guys who did remember my birthday without the help of fb...

But the idea worked - didnt get GPLed(IITB lingo for birthday bumps on you know where..) on the midnight! Only one Birthday paradox friend - sharing birthday with me knew it; and far later in the night another friend got to know from a birthday wish call. 

All this circus and I blew my own cover today - and took a few of the guys for a treat at a restaurant. But its a real dilemma to decide whom to include and whom not to. However it felt good to hurdle around a group of friends and take them to party - and it felt extra good to get the bill less than expected ;-) 

Various PPTs

The first part of this placement season is nearing to a close: PPTs , viz. Pre-Placement Talks.

It was a mixed bag - some short ppts, some extremely long; some interesting, some very boring; some of established companies, some of relative startups;some that grabbed attention, and a lot that did not..

All in all, it was an interesting phase - although frankly without the 25% mandatory weekly attendance rule, things would have been different.

Apart from going over the company objectives, job profile, work environment, goals, and not to forget package; a few had other things to keep us interested.

There were companies that gave away a Kindle(no guesses who..) to Key bunches; and quite commonly T-shirts..

And a few Deja-Vu's as well - like the Stack by Stack presence and product explanation of NetApp, Intel's Pie graph of compensation breakdown etc; back from PESIT days.

Amazon had a problem grasping and solving session following its ppt; which was quite interesting.

Microsoft had a great place to show off its Surface, Kinect and other Windows 8 products arriving soon into the market(And a lot other companies did show off too)

Other than the traditional IT, development and research profiles that one can get in software, financial or analytical firms; one does get to see unconventional job profiles too - like Epic systems that works on Healthcare software, Strand Life that works on biological data etc.

But the placement process certainly differs here. 

Most companies give their ppt before, and have tests much later - quite different from the placement that used to happen in my former college. Only a few like Adobe and DirectI had their test following the presentation.

And right now it is the time of giving tests and waiting for the shortlists to be announced later.

Not to forget - some big names like Google, Twitter dont have ppts but have their tests directly scheduled.

More on the tests in the next post..

A day of Good things

Finally a good day after a string of monotonous days of everyday nothingness; that has persuaded me to blog after a long long time...!!

First thing - woke up at 7!! - An achievement of the recent past; but had to get up for I had my MTP presentation due in the afternoon..
Although the day didnt have a great start - spilt milk and corn flakes over chutni - and in effect ended up eating a mix of Uttapam, Chutni, Corn flakes and Milk for breakfast; but the rest of the day went on pretty well.

Later on: "Pappu pass ho gaya!".
Done with the fearsome stage 1 presentation - that weighs in at 50 credits and hence important. I was quite tensed but it did go rather well..
Not that it was supposed to be a heavy burden; but now that stage 1 is done; there is time for the other things in academia...

Its placement season - so we are having a test or two every day.
Today there were two company tests. And I did considerably well in one and willingly screwed up the other(cause the job posting isnt in Namma Bengaluru..).
Perhaps the former company is the first one on which I have some confidence of getting shortlisted...

So November has started off well, and in the hope of this continuing :-)

The Rupee Utilization Conundrum

There is something that I usually do when purchasing a commodity - Calculate how much time it takes to utilize a rupee of the amount spent on that item..

For e.g I bought a Capri(fancy term for the three-fourth that we all know) at 350/-. Considering that I would wear it twice a week for say 40 hours for approximately a year; that would come upto somewhere 5 hours utilization for a rupee - Very good...

On the other hand, if I bought some T-shirt for the same amount - and wore it only 10 times when going out, that would make up only like 5 minutes for a rupee - Not so great...

Worse still are items of luxury or say for the geeky us - gadgets. My 33k laptop should run for over 10 years incessantly to match the scale of the Capri :D !!

Well of course there is a flaw in the above notion; every thing has its own purpose and value, and correspondingly a different utilization policy. Different things have different value - a clothing item by no means serves the purpose of a laptop....

But the rupee utilization scale helps in thinking before putting money on something - a 33k modest laptop does provide most of the needed functionality needed of an exotic 1lac model like a mac or alien-ware

On the downside - this does bring out the "kanjoos" side of oneself. 

Would'nt it rather be better to save some 500/- that you would spend per head at a hotel to have some delicious meal, by say purchasing some books ??

Or save up some money by not lavishly spending a day-out at some resort or tour ?

Surely it is a fun-kill when one applies it bizzarely in all situations!!

Going beyond money related utilization, like time utilization - the same principle can be applied...

The time I spent writing this post was certainly better utilized than that when I would simply laze around by watching some movie or sitcom; but if spent on the big things coming up: MTP reports and presentations and Placements - it would have been even better.

But what can I say - Human nature!! Always attracted to things that are in the long-run insignificant...

To conclude(well, no matter how hard I tried, this post did turn out to be an essay - so let me throw in a conclusion..), Rupee Utilization is one of many ways to effectively spend money on things you need, but most often than not it conflicts with a compromise of quality/fun/flauntmanship..

There come many situations where the latter holds prominence, so you dont care about how bad your rupee is getting utilized!!

(Ok, that did sound freakishly weird, but since I put some time and effort onto it - I am going to let it stay...)

Have a good day folks :)      

Google Test - A wake up call

Today was the first of the many placement shortlisting tests scheduled to happen in the near future; and it sure was a wake up call to buck up and be more serious for the tests to come..

Consisting of objective questions that ranging from OS to FAFL to general programming and a coding question - the test was fairly "easy" according to many of my friends...

The coding question was(I am not sure whether this comes under non-disclosure clause or not....) :-

Given a number of dices n, each with a number of faces m, find the probability of winning in terms of getting a sum total greater than or equal to x from all of the throws. 

And the wake-up call part - The test brought about the realization that understanding basics of any and all fields of computer science is important to crack the test and make it though to the interviews; and of course - you have to know how to write good and efficient code without a computer and without Google - even Google expects that :D

So wishing the others and myself a good placement session.... 

Worth Watch Documentaries

"It is wrong to think that IBM is present and Microsoft is the future; actually IBM is the past and Microsoft is the present,and the future is unknown.." (Triumph of the Nerds, 1996)

                                                                                         Larry Ellison - CEO, Oracle Systems

" We are all Star Stuff"

                                                                                         Carl Segan, Noted Astronomer

The above quotes are just two of many many enlightening facts that I came across by watching documentaries. Outside the movie and serial craze, this is one of the ways of me usefully wasting time :)

After coming to IIT, I have watched a sizable number of documentaries - that makes me ponder: 'There is a lot of useful stuff out there that ought to be watched before one dies!!'

So, I am enlisting some of the major documentaries I have watched until now....

1. BBC Horizon - An awesome long running series of documentaries, and each one different and intriguing than the previous one.

There are just too many of them, but here are some really cool ones:-

• What time is it?
• What is Reality?
• What happened before big bang? 
• Is seeing believing?  
• Is everything we know about the universe wrong?
• The six billion dollar experiment
• The day the earth nearly died
• Parallel universes
• Supermassive blackholes
• Richard Feynman - No ordinary genius
• What makes a genius?

Well, I wanted to give a one-liner description to each of them; but that itself is too much and wont even do justice. Watch atleast a few of them to appreciate their awesomeness..

2. Stephen Hawking's Universe and Into the Universe 

• Aliens
• Time travel
• The Unified Theory 
• Marvels of universe 
• and of course - what Hawking is well known for: Black Holes. 

Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch voices Hawking in Into the Universe - making it all the more interesting beside the super-science that is already there..

3. Albert Einstein's Life 

• E=mc^2 - A journey through scientific history and exploration of the events that ultimately lead to the all famous equation of Einstein that has profound effects. The documentary has a historic story telling feel to it too..
• Einstein's unfinished symphony - Another documentary that deals with the latter part of Einstein's life where he had to struggle with the upsurge of Quantum theory that was clashing with his strong belief in classical relativity physics

4. IMAX - Under the Sea

A visual treat that shows the less explored under-surface marvels of the Sea

5. India v/s China - Race to the top of the world

A relatively small documentary at around 25 minutes, but quite comprehensive in chalking out the differences, commonality and the effect of India and China's development

6. African Cats

Another fantastic documentary of the beauty that is nature - This time set in the African jungle that traces the lives of a herd of Lions in a struggle for supremacy, and the quintessentially lone life of a Cheetah and her cubs. Specially awesome if watched in HD..

7. 100 Greatest Discoveries in Physics

The name suggests it all - a quick recap of the greatest discoveries that have made great impact

8. Religulous

A curious documentary that questions the faiths around the world, ridiculing the various startling aspects that are imprinted blindly into people's lives. And indeed offensive to the firm believers..

9. Triumph of the Nerds 

A pretty old documentary that sheds light on Apple, MS and IBM in the world of  PC, operating systems and the struggle to out-beat others and be on top; and also where Larry Ellison envisions today's connected mobile world back in 1996 itself

10. The Universe

Anything and everything you have heard about the Universe - here is a documentary on it. Another series type documentary - it talks about virtually everything: Big Bang, Parallel Universes, Quasars, Pulsars, Magnetors, Black Holes, White Holes, Worm Holes, Blazars, Space Travel, Past Present and Future of Solar System, Every planet, Alien Earths, Weird Things in the Universe and more funky stuff

11. The Ascent of Money

A six part documentary that focuses on exactly money rules the world. From the history of money system to loaning ; from loan sharks to banks and finance institutes; to bonds and gold as a common currency; how money dictates war and peace and the rise and fall of nations; to stock markets and how its crashing affects us.

Plus a lot more like why printing more money does not solve the problem but just creates inflation and how the Spice trade allured Europeans to colonize parts of the world. In a whole - it covers all the causes and effects of Money

12. Nova - Hunting the Edge of Space

A comprehensive documentary on how telescopes have expanded our vision and propelled advances in astronomy and the discovery of universe

13. Universe from Nothing - Lawrence Krauss

Another quirky talk that says that even nothing a.k.a vacuum is made up of stuff, and correspondingly gives a picture of Universe - on whether it is expanding, stable or contracting. It also sums up the limits of exploration with time

14. BBC - Life

For those who are more eager on nature and variety of life on our planet - this series provides a whole deal of enjoyment. Different episodes pertaining to different kinds of lifeforms - Reptiles, Mammals, Amphibians, Fish etc makes high school biology more fun...

15. The Elegant Universe 

By now one would have realized that I am crazy about documentaries about the Universe. This is one more such documentary, that talks about current hot topics of Universal Physics - String Theory, Quantum Mechanics and a Unified theory that explains everything..

16. Richard Dawkins - The universe is queerer than we can suppose

Actually a TED talk, Dawkins talks about the capability and limits of human intellect in deciphering the code of nature and the universe; with lot of strong and sarcastic anti-religious statements - for he is a well known forerunner of the Atheistic Society

17. TED talks

Covering virtually everything that we have gathered as knowledge - TED talks are a huge collection of freely available videos that focus on ground breaking research and understanding.

This list is but a mere beginning - there are tons of more documentaries by Discovery, National Geographic etc. 

I look forward to some more awesome documentary suggestions....

   

Monthly Round Up

August has been an eventful month at IIT

There was a second convocation during my stay here - that of our senior batch - in the traditional Jubba-Pyjama attire. Eminent personalities like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kapil Sibal were at the occasion. As expected, it was a fun-filled fan-fair of academicians, students and parents.

The counterparts - the junior batch are into the IIT life now - bringing up some nostalgia of what we were an year ago. There was a freshers welcome event by the Kannada Sangha for the people joining from Karnataka this year too...

Placement activities are gaining pace. Companies are coming for presentations, resume uploading has begun, and few practice tests have gone by; and individual preparations are at varying levels. I am still in confusion on how to graft a good non-technical resume that would span atleast one page - with not many activities popping in on that stream.

As a subsidiary of the placement process was the Communication Proficiency assessment - of which I spoke long and boring in the last post itself...

One thing that has been particularly noticeable is the modesty of monsoons - there was almost never a day where it poured throughout - something that Mumbai is well known of. Just like the other parts of the country - rains have been less this year here too.

On a more personal level - my project seems to be making a steady slow progress; and I dare not to refer to it as research in any context. Also, there was a dip in my health graph - coinciding with last year; seems like its a follower of the season changes.

As the Teaching Assistant of Linear Optimization - I did some form of TAship in terms of invigilation and paper correction - solely based on the answer key. 

As far as all other recreational and time wasting activities such as movies and facebook are concerned - they are fine :D. Atleast twice a week I get the advice by friends on reducing such frivolous stuff and concentrate on the more important things!!

    

Communication Proficiency Assessment

In view of the upcoming placement activities - we had a communication assessment - basically a recorded 8 minute one-on-one interview which was later analyzed for various language skills. It basically acts as a self-examination of the way we formally communicate. This assessment was carried out by a company called ValueInc.  

Frankly I had started out with the title - 'The Two Dreaded Interview Questions'; but after getting the feedback for the above assessment, I had to change my mind. Besides, I had been planning to write this post from the day the test happened(which was relatively ages ago..) - but the results came in first.

But I have to succinctly mention about the two famous questions which I feel are never answerable to the best possible extent: "Tell me about yourself..?" and "What are the other activities you pursue in your free-time?". 

The former has a very less margin of error - its a make or break question to create your impression. And for the latter - "I tend to be on my laptop, online or otherwise" never seems to be a very convincing answer!!

Anyway - I drifted away from the topic - low scores in Coherency (one of the evaluation criteria) for that....

I was initially very skeptical about the effectiveness of an 8 minute dummy interview - more so because of the kind of questions like - Which was the recent movie you had been to? What was your favorite character in that? Tell me about your project, What do you not like about IIT etc. Turns out each question had its own purpose - even if it was asked randomly.

To my surprise however - the report-out is pretty accurate. It voices out many concerns that I have personally felt or others have indicated, like that of bad intonation, use of too simple language, creeping native sounds and more such subtle points. So it was not a waste of time or money going through the process - although the results might have been different for different circumstances and mindsets.

Delving into specifics - the test quantifies our communication based on 6 areas - Comprehension, Language Structure, Phraseology, Enunciation, Fluidity and Coherency. Google up those terms to know more - I already feel like I am exceeding the readability word limit and going into the boring length. Accompanying the results was a spider graph depicting the acceptable levels, the excellent levels, and where we stand.

So I got an overall proficiency level of "B"; which must mean around average. There were some low scores in the Enunciation and Fluidity sectors - with suggestions such as Watch English News and Online Lectures, Record yourself and evaluate, Think and Organize before you speak etc as generic remedies. 

There was also another assessment based on a questionnaire to decide our type of learning - mine turned out to be predominantly Visual, over Auditory and Kinaesthetic (surely they do use those high-funda words to make the report look good :D). The report also contains those small and large inadequacies that we have while communicating - Jarring, Slang,, Foghorns, incorrect syllable stress, fillers, false starts, dead pan intonation and many more.(Apparently, I have 26 of those!!)

And finally, here are the verbatim words of the assessment:

"Sumanth is able to convey thoughts and ideas albeit with some inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Sumanth prefers usage of simple structures and has difficulty framing complex ones. Sumanth may have difficulty understanding native pronunciation and sometimes not follow a well-paced conversation."

Sounds just about right.....

To end this really long narrative, here is the link to a funny video played during the report-out - one that depicts the disorder called "Knack" of an Engineer and its effects (from Dilbert Comics):

2 reasons to wake up early

Waking up early has not of late been something I have been punctual at. But that should not be stopping me from pondering about the topic. Be that as it may, there are only two reasons that prompt one to wake up early - Motivation and Fear.

Motivation is something that is innate and drives you to do things - and it can be a definite cause of waking up early. The want to accomplish something for the day can be a strong reason to wake up and start early - and follow a certain order of things. Gradually this becomes a practice. Oxymoronically; there can be a "forced" motivation during early days of our lives - the environment, our family etc can be agents driving us to wake up early...

Fear, on the other hand, induces a compulsion to do something, or imposes a situation that has to be dealt with by an early wakeup. This mode is perhaps more familiar to us from our school days right from when we were kids - Wake up, Wake up; or you shall miss the school bell and lose attendance!! One of my recent ignorance of this factor lead to almost a situation of me getting kicked out of a course for missing a class(well, it wouldn't have been so bad if the class was at 8.30 - this one was at 11.30!)

As we grow - the fear gets replaced by motivation. We grow more responsible of ourselves and our work; and one way of displaying that is to have a schedule that starts early and following it rigorously. Of course, you can relapse into the fear-mode like I have if you grow less responsible - by choice or by habit...

Disclaimers: 

1. The post solely considers those normal beings who have a fixed workcycle that runs in the day; unlike some odd IT jobs and research jobs where people work overnight and lead an inverted lifecycle...

2. I don't claim that waking up early works wonders - but it is a certainly good practice.

3. Well, considering that I am writing this post at 3 in the late night/early morning - I am most probably not going to follow what I have just said :D !!

Tomorrow Never Comes

Procrastination leads to Predicament

Very true statement that - the saying has been reeling in my head for the past fortnight, and may be more...
Also I had been in a circle of procrastinating thoughts about procrastination too!!
Coupled with laziness - it is definitely a recipe for disaster.

For the past few days - my schedule has been pretty much the same; wake up late in the morning, think of MTP and other stuff, push off the work to afternoon, evening, night and then poof - the day is up!
And also it had been days since I went to the lab.
Each day would start with a temporary anxiety - soon to give way for delaying work and apathy. The only warning bell would be a meeting with the Prof - after which it would be back to square one...

"There is always tomorrow" is surely a double-edged sword!
Its time to buck up and try doing some work...
Not that I am going to change immediately - but I have taken a first step by writing down this post - which I had been postponing for many weeks now. Just hoping that it carries over to work as well...

Single Again ;-)

"Room # B-208
Hostel 14
IIT Bombay"
This will be my address for the next one year....

Finally shifted to the new hostel room - and feels good; specially because its a single room....
After many days - things went on as planned - smooth payment of fees, getting mess card done, and moving to the new room.
Of course - no "room-warming" happened, but got the nook cleaned before entering. And moving can be a real pain - realized that for just 3 times up and down and a few steps of walking.
Oh, and took out the lights of the whole wing by accidentally pressing a light switch that was not supposed to be pressed - Kind of a solid entry ;-)

And its great to be 'single' again - no sharing of keys or available space, no adjust-maadi business, no sharing of compartments of the cupboard, no waiting outside the locked door when one forgets the keys inside, no blaming each other for things that may or may not have been because of one another, no talks on who goes to take a bath first or second, no competition on who sleeps later in the night(almost ending up to be an early morning :D), and my personal favorite - no late night fake calls to wake up a snoring roomie!!
So a lot of No's and Yes to one full year of alone life :-)

There are 2 drawbacks though - one, you won't have anybody to talk to if you are bored or want to bore someone, and two - the new hostel room is a tad farther from the department than the old room - so more laziness to fight!!
Oh and also an MTP to be taken seriously !
So Single with a Tingle !! 

Goodbye Seniors...

Its that time of the academic life where seniors are bidding adieu - leaving their positions to us. Fourth time around in my life - it is a phase of fun and anticipation; of what they will be in the future and what awaits us as the passing out batch...

Although not all of us had a great rapport with the seniors; it was certainly helpful and fun to have them with us - and yeah, a moment or two of annoyance as well. But all of it being part of the game; our IIT seniors had been a co-operative and supportive lot.

So here is a small post of thanks - for the student companion sessions when we were new to the campus, for all the information about the department and the campus to help us acclimatize to it faster, for all the patient mail replies for our various enquiries, for the guidance in software lab, for the formal and informal sessions to get to know our profs better, for the placement prep sessions, and for being there to assure us that all is well...

And there were moments of enjoying together too - the department trek, the job treat and the reciprocative farewell treat, and some other events like the traditional day or the tea party; or just the casual meet-ups..

So wishing you all a happy and bright future and loads of fun. Keep Rocking :-) 

A visit to Nehru Centre

Today we went to Nehru Centre - mainly for the planetarium, but ended up amazed by the exhibits at the Centre. I would definitely suggest it to be on your checklist if you have the slightest of interest in art and Indian history...

The building impresses with its outlook itself, and it does not disappoint from the inside as well - with well depicted and picturesque history of the Indian freedom struggle, exhibits of various monuments and cultural artworks, replica statues of immaculate detail and more to watch. Named "Discovery of India"; the exhibit very well justifies its name...

It had also housed painting exhibits of students of an art school - with paintings costing roughly in the 15k to 25k range(and us wondering why one pays so much money for them...). On the bright side - Entry is Free :D

Check out the website; or more aptly go to the place to have a nice time: http://www.nehru-centre.org/

Oh, and the planetarium - for the 50/- ticket, it is worth it, but with the issue of one of the projector not working and flickering lights, it can be quite a letdown! But a renovation is scheduled in the near future, so for later visitors things might be hopefully more fun..

A nightmare in the day!!!

Just woke up form a horrible dream - made me jump up in the bed, and thankfully my roomie was not around to see the drama! I just had to pen it down - for both its horribleness and twists.

So here it goes - may get weird and crazy in the course; but please bear with me - after all, its a dream....

The outset is my brother going to the college he got admissions in; but all of a sudden, he rushes into another college that refuses him his 'M.Tech' admission; and starts vandalizing the place. I get a call an hour later about his actions, and go out there to see what has happened.

There he is - sitting untethered by what he did, and instead of scolding him, I turn to console him and make him reason as to why he did it; the reason which is shady even in the dream version. Just then, the principal walks in - a big man with a heavy temper; and goes berserk at the happening. He yells out that my brother shall not get admitted elsewhere, and he would inform the authorities of the unrulyness that would result in rustication. Meanwhile I drag him out.

Scene two - I am taking my brother on the road, all the while scolding him, a result of delayed realization may be; and we go into the college he wanted to get admissions; and surprisingly the people there agree, only to get a call from the Big guy and throw us out.

Now back at home - my dad is surprisingly calm, and my mom is all tensed out about the situation, I am worried about whats going on - at 2 levels: about the situation and about the dream. Then suddenly, he storms out at near midnight - and I follow him, still harsh on for his erratic attitude. However, on the way through - a weird boost of philosophy about life kicks in, and we talk and talk; in some weird gibberish, until we realize that mistakes happen, and amends can be made and we shall put all this behind and start afresh. 

Climax - A totally unrelated and fiendishly cliche event. We are walking back, when we see a bunch of travelers that are talking half in Kannada, and half in Hindi - mostly about how well that road is useful as a detour to cut their journey by half, and one woman keeps boasting how it was her idea. So they see us, and one of their girls comes up to my brother and starts talking. He starts narrating the day's happenings, and she starts giving appreciative nods - a chubby little cute girl. All this while, I am trying to avoid conversations and strut out weirdly, almost running, in an equally weird hood like costume; while they are happily chatting away.

Considering that all this drama is happening at our main road - the conversation should end in 5 minutes, but it goes on and on.. Surprisingly, my brother still looks the same, while I am 20 to 30 years older. Thats what woke me up!

So this was not the conventional way of bringing up my family and particularly in a post - but I guess the weird dream did demand the story be told. 

May be the dream represents some of my hidden intentions or its just a cockamamie of things running in my head. I have to state that none of the above stuff is made-up, I mean I have presented as is what happened in the dream; so its an actually virtually actual story !!!!

Monsoon - Full On...

Season 2 of Mumbai Monsoon is here....
For the past few days, the rains had been mild and occasional, but since yesterday they have gathered pace!

Currently the atmosphere is pleasant - with the rains cooling down the surroundings that were scorching under the sun a week ago. After seeing the effect of the summer sun and the accompanying heat waves, this one is a way better...

But things won't remain like this long though - soon it is going to be raining non-stop for hours, the ground and the roads will be wet or damp, and no one shall dare to go out without an umbrella even to the neigbouring building.
All this is bringing back memories of the first time I came to Mumbai - me and my Dad were fed up of the rains and the trains on the way to IIT !!

Well, in my friend's words: "Its time to pull up your pants, open your umbrellas and face the rains"
Welcome to Mumbai Monsoon :-)

Mother's Birthday Celebrations and some Resolutions

Back in Bombay, but heart still at Bangalore - so here is another narrative that occurred back home. There was one post with reference to my Dad, this one is for my Mom.

I must say my mom had a rather lavish birthday this time around - took her and my brother to Pizza Hut and McD; and also bought her a thing or two she had wanted for the home. Well, the latter went fine, but the former did not go as well as expected....

Apart from the general disapproval of first time tasting - all 3 of us were definitely discontent about the plan. If its just plain old onions and tomatoes on a batter that you get for that much money; anybody would have the same reaction; unless you are willing to just throw off money. This experience definitely re-instilled my views on pizzas as a waste of money.

So resolution 1 - never eat pizza (mom's perspective) or eat it only when its treated (my perspective ;)). 

It also happened to be a learn by experience moment...

The other part went just well - got some kitchenware that was needed; this time definitely money well spent. So resolution number 2 - always give preference to useful gifts first, rather than going out to some eat-out place. We had such a system in our college friend circle - and it works great !

And the obvious thing - malls are not the best places for family outings; hotels are convincingly better! There might be different views on this, but this is where my stand is....

Next up: Year 2

Back to Bombay after nearly a month long vacation, to face the second year of my course...

Entering Reporting mode.....

The vacations got prolonged due to the coincidental absence of my Prof, and knowing myself I wouldn't have done any work by coming earlier. And they were pretty usual - stay at home in weekdays and go out to meet friends and relatives on the weekends; but with a few welcome changes. 

One thing about going back home is spending quite a lot of money - a thing that bothered the naturally stingy side of me :D

One fun outing was at Chairman's Club resort - the highlights of which were a zip-zap 5 minute Zorbing session, and a delayed Xbox Kinect experience, and the awesome food - certainly worth the money. If anyone plans to go there after reading this review - do remember to take the appropriate swimware for total paisa vasool....

I also kept up my reputation of bunking meets - bunked an elaborately facebook-planned friend meet! 

Also went around to some PU colleges for my brother's admissions - crossing out all those colleges I had been for mine, and trying the other ones..

Switching back to non-reporting mode.....

The coming days call for initiation of the MTP, reiterating the placement preparation saga, and just 2 more courses that make up the the complete course structure, and in the meanwhile try to explore more of Bombay. Quite simple sounding set of tasks - but certainly the crucial year that has impact on the years to come..

Also, it is the last year of being a student - a decree of no responsibilities and lot of fun; something that a lot of people realize once it has passed. Fortunately, I am having a second of such 'last year's,  so time to capitalize and enjoy it..

And also thinking of testing to try to cut down on being lazy and wasting time doing nothing. Well, I do sound very confident while saying that :D

So shouting at myself: "Ahoy Captain, 2nd year ho!"

9.point Somebody

Well, of course, it sounds like CB's much famed book title. But this is the nearest I can get to make my 9.0 SPI sound fun! 

And also there is the IIT commonality; alas there were no Cold Feet on Metal experiences ;-)

Anyway, 2nd sem ended in a much favorable outcome than the first! Time to think more positively about IIT now - who knows, I might write a post on the pros of IIT soon...

Now the Somebody part - there is no big deal feeling after reaching 9.0 this time, considering the choices of subjects and the potential number of people who would have crossed this barrier; and more importantly the minuscule effect it has on the bigger things in life(oops, I guess thats the effect of Philosophy, hmm, nope, just some social networking trivia). Its upto me to make that count..

But it surely did push up my CPI, so things seem much better now. So it is yet another juncture to remind myself to get rid of the laziness, work more sincerely, make proper utilization of time and before points 1,2 and 3 think - Should I do all that ? 

There kicks in the Bangalore and Home effect - no more stuff to write. Good night folks :-)

2nd Sem Sum-up

Yet another semester has dawned - and so the counting begins: Just 2 more sems to go...

This semester started off with an anticipation to do better than the first one - and the target was fairly achieved I guess.The application of Proportional Efforts Theorem continued, aided by a definitely better choice of subjects, where it worked out pretty well...

Not much travelling around - notably once to Elephanta and Bandra, and later to Marine Drive. Other than that, life has pretty much been confined to the IITB atmosphere...

This sem did have a few learning and self-exploring experiences, like how I was being Over-reactive in the first sem, how habits affect us, interaction with teachers, and a Deja-Vu of the good times of B.E! And a serious concern of spontaneity taking over me would occasionally make my day! 

Time is utmost important - a thought that always bothered me, but still I spent countless hours watching sitcoms, youtube videos, being online on facebook & gmail, or do plainly nothing for no apparent reason!!

Then there was a quick visit to Bangalore, which was a surprise to my family, and on coming back had the highly expected MTP Orientation. Things got a bit serious then onwards, with quizzes, assignments, projects, midsems and obviously classes. But there always was the opportunity to relax and have fun amidst all that too - like the non-dancing at the job treat of seniors, and almost 24x7 internet, albeit a minor 3-day Lan Ban.

And then there were the obvious end sems, followed by a period of boredom owing to a late rescheduling of seminar; prompting writing of outdated posts like describing the travel back to Bombay for the start of the semester, an 'analysis' of the IIT transformation, and fueling a whole lot of lazyness...

And today was the culmination of it all with the seminar, and I happened to sound lower than the certainly least audible girl in the room - an indicative of how well the seminar went!!

Anyway, heading back to Bangalore tomorrow - so Bangalore, Here I come again :)

  

An Ode of Laziness

Laziness is one very characteristic of me, anyone who gets to know me will figure that out too...

IIT life has fueled that rather well - perhaps I am at my lazy best !!

The very basic thing that has aggravated is my sleep patterns - sleep late, and wake up very, very late - classically lazy. There have been many instances when I have missed classes(and today my TA duty too!). Currently I am touching the extremes of it - almost midday by the time I wake up..

And there always is the air of general unwillingness to do anything. Does that come back and kick me ? - yeah, there are one or two probable occasions, but well, I am too lazy to elaborate on that too..

But laziness seems to be an easy answer for everything - why are you late? why didn't you do this thing? why is this not perfect? etc. So much so obvious that some people won't trust it to be the valid reason. But well, it is yet another manifestation of laziness to push off all the wrong-doings to laziness itself...

Well, laziness has kicked in during this discourse. I shall say no more but put an image or two of I'm NOT lazy quotes...

I am so lazy of late that even though I realized that an ode is a poem, I am too lazy to change it; so if anyone inadvertently expected a poem - you are not going to get one! And a last one - lame excuse of a lazy example - "Be Lazy, Go Crazy" :-D

The IIT Transformation

Another light-hearted and humorous post(may be, lets see how it comes out); for some getaway off the exam and project tensions(needless to say - for others, not me personally....), and perhaps from some conflicts...

Disclaimers:

1. This post is not intended to hurt anyone; not an inch more than what they deserve and have developed - including the author himself.
2. This is a general trend analysis and .... ( hmm, anyway no one would take anything I write here seriously so no need of completing that with justifications and exceptions..)
3. Statistics on the other kind of population is not performed. This is a purely male-oriented and male-dominated post!! 

A picture says it all - and what better than the above picture showing the 'development' of an IITian over the course and stay.

The above pic clearly sums up a general trend; and the reasons for it are obvious - Food habits and more mental workout than physical exercise.Obviously there are exceptions - very energetic and fit kids, or genetic outliers; but this is a common scenario...

Details are probably insignificant here - whether it is the mess food or the canteen food, erratic eating habits or high carbs and fat diet; what strikes out is that the 'curve' happens to be one of the identifying factor of a well settled IITian!

I am a Stage-3 now; and yes - initially I did try some jogging stuff to curb the bulger, but of late became complacent. So, no jogging, no gymming(well, never tried - but was a mental exercise :D) - just worrying about the protruding tummy. Just wishing that Stage-4 wouldn't set in with all this laziness growing!!

So here is a notable 'benefit' of joining IIT ;-)

Before ending, one question:

What stage do you find yourself ???

3 days of LAN BAN

Finally experienced the terror that grips a whole lot of kids here at IIT - The LAN BAN !!!

Its not the snakes that crawl out occasionally or the rumored panthers in the neighboring woods that scare the people more - but its the after 12'o'clock No Internet period; which has earned quite a reputation as the Lan Ban...

This semester has been a - I don't know which one is appropriate word; fortunate or unfortunate - but lets say considerate in terms of the Lan Ban. Our wing had the privilege of being in the No-LanBan sector even after the stipulated period for placement and academic related reasons. So, we were the lucky chaps - and quite often the available connection was shared among the other hostel inmates via wireless connectivity. I am honored to have been a part of this social(in all senses of the word :D) service - albeit in a small scale..

It is no surprise that you can get a whole lot of internet addicts if you come to IITs - perhaps the largest numbers!! Sources indicate that many people go overnight to labs and libraries for 'work', with the internet connectivity as just an added 'benefit'...

I solemnly and completely belong to this category of internet addicts - only difference being that due to my laziness I do not go labs or library; and the No Lan Ban was a serving in a silver platter :D

So, the past three days were quite a surprise - and just when I was preparing myself to adjust to the new situation, its gone and back to the days of 24x7 internet...

I had a few plans - just like many others in my position - sleep early, wake up early, be more sincere and hardworking - err may be not.., etc etc.    

Now its back to square one. But now atleast I sleep off at 2 AM instead of 3 AM, which is quite an achievement :-)

So, much to the envy of my friends here at IIT, I had a fortunate run with the internet connectivity; though the utility of the same is questionable....

Oh - regular sleep time is here, or should I rejoice the return of No-LanBan a bit more ;-) ???

The travel back to Bombay

Another outdated post - more out of context than a recent one...
But I am in quite a mood to write stuff after writing an essay for the Philosophy course in the morning - and in lieu of that I might drift away and might not make sense in between..

This dates back to the first week of January - where I came back for my second semester; by train from Bangalore. It was by far my worst train experience - mainly due to the Snore Competition between the people occupying the compartment(Three months now, I can still recall the snores, if not their faces :D). Thanks to the noisy environs, I had to read a book through the journey - and well, not much luck there because I only had Revolution 2020 with me - Bad Read for a Bad Journey!

But on the bright side - I wasn't feeling homesick this time; I was actually longing for the sem to start. Though I hadn't particularly prepared for it in any sense; I was done with the long holidays. It seems like this cycle keeps going - when you have holidays, you want to work; and when you have work, you long for holidays(or may be its just me - I dont see anyone around here who shares this thought).

I had enough of trains this time - listening to the same set of songs over and over on my phone, crippling around trying to catch sleep or kill time in the upper berth, unscheduled stops when a Shatabdi crossed over, and a whole day of journey! I decided to mostly travel by buses then on, and have kept the decision until now. One mond boggling question - why dont upper berths have windows o_O ????

After a whole day journey I landed at Bandra - and there came the realization that you don't get autos from there. So I took a Taxi voluntarily for the first time - and it seemed like it roamed around half of Bombay before reaching IIT. On the way, I came across this place called Saki Naka; a name I believed was fictional - wonder what it means ?? The journey gave me a sort of 'I am filthy rich' feeling considering that it cost more than the cost of the train ticket for me to reach IIT!!

All that and I finally reached - only to realize that there was no orientation that was supposed to be, and I could have stayed back a day or two more. Back to the present - planning to come back to Bangalore for
two weeks or so - yet again with the resolution of spending time fruitfully...

Why did I decide to write all this now - I can account it for the constant procrastination and the longing for a proper rant post in my blog after many days :D
Sorry to eat up the time of some of you very busy people...

Non-dancer at a Party

Had been to what was probably my first party - one organised by our seniors for their placements; and got reaffirmed that I am definitely not a dance and party animal :D

There were a lot of my friends and not-so-much friends dancing around crazy to some of the most heard songs around(alas - had to hear the same songs that play at hostel with some DJing...) , and I stood there at some corner watching them - amused but never inspired to put a step...
I did have company though - not everyone goes out there to let go and dance ..
And yeah, a few of them did try to pull me in and make me dance - mostly by fiddling forcefully. It turned out to be a vain effort - for it seemed more a puppetry than dance :D

Of course - there were the two holy grails of parties - loud beat music and drinks(yes, methodically asked whether one prefers to have alcohol and was made available; with the list of those who wanted it..).
I tapped my footsteps to the music - the nearest I got to dance!!
And obviously - I did not drink...

Then what was my intention of going there ? - just to observe what happens at parties - stuff that I have usually seen in TV or movies. I saw what I typed just now - and it sounds totally lame :D
All through I only kept wondering - what makes all these people go berserk and - what they term - "have fun".
So here I am - back at my "kottige" and blogging about my doing nothing at a party, while the others are - welll - still partying...