AT CROSSROADS

When the cast of FRIENDS was filming the finale of the series in 2004, they became very emotional and this is what Jennifer Aniston had to say then to sum up their feelings "We're like very delicate china right now, and we're speeding toward a brick wall." Today as we are filming the finale of our engineering career, I kinda feel the same.

Not a day passes , when we do not recall the our days @ LH , when we dont discuss how we were ragged, how we met each other, when we dont recall the girls we had a crush on, (and vice-versa :P ) and so on and so forth...

Not a day passes when we do not look at the countdown timer that says 8 days remaining now, and wish that the timer itself stopped.

Back in March-April, when the sun was blazing down, I for one, hated this place and reminisced the weather in BIT back when we were in our first couple of years.When it used to rain almost daily at 4 pm during the summers and everything seemed heavenly.And now just then when we are about to leave, weather gods did a u-turn,the skies opened again,the rains returned as if trying to make up for all the shit stuff, that sometimes made us hate this college, that sometimes made us wish to fast forward time itself. (How ironic today is that we are searching for the rewind button or atleast the pause.)

It now seems as if the place itself is making one last attempt to hold us back.

A classmate of mine remarked after the examinations- " Tan, where were u lost during the exam today..? 5-10 mins u were staring at the blackboard and nothing else." Well, my friend, it dawned on me as people were leaving the examination hall, that maybe I was seeing many of them for the LAST TIME EVER :(

But leave we must, for as a wise man said, the only thing constant in life is change.And as our last college exam ended today, it has sure left us at crossroads.

People have been placed in different companies , some people are going for higher studies.

For some of us , 2 years of college life beckons at some of the best institutes in the world.

For the rest of us move on we must, from the luxury of bunking classes, to the non-stop 5 days a week 12 hours a day schedule. Where we cant request the teacher to cancel classes, where we cant have classes according to our own whims and fancies.For our last year, at college, we have had to luxury of getting up at 7 50 for a 8 am class, wonder how many offices will be that close to home. We made even the GOD of our dept wait for us to come 15 mins late to the class, wonder how many bosses will be that lenient.

As a friend of mine puts it , classes and exams may be over, but does not life test us everyday ?

As we move into the real world, where there doesnt exist a pen drive to rescue me, where i cant ask a friend to help during exams, where i cant turn to my FTP server for aid.I am not ashamed to admit that this is scaring the shit outta me.

I recently bought a 1 TB hard disk to get much stuff from the college LAN as possible, and it seems now that it turned out to be just enough, what I am wondering is what capacity hard disk will suffice the memories I take back from this place.......

FaceBugged ?

Ms AR aka TS : seriously seeing facebook lagta hai u live life online.Go get a life Tan...

This is what was the tipping point that convinced me to do this writeup. Facebook's popularity has surged over the past year or so, and my college is no exception, and what this has done is, its revived the age old discussions of pros-cons of online social networking.

The very notion of Facebook being just social networking site is wrong in the sense that I believe its absolutely criminal to categorize Facebook along with other sites such as Orkut, LinkedIn etc etc. Orkut never went beyond coming across as just a medium of meeting up old friends. LinkedIn- the "Professional Networking Site " seems to me just another naukri.com or monster.com. With all the past info up on display, what experience I have had with this site is that it serves no greater a purpose than putting up your resume on any job-search site.(Note please that LinkedIn actually has a feature where you can upload your resume to build your profile info). And i have also never understood why Twitter is the "IN-THING" today...? 140 characters is all you have.. Facebook can do that and better.. ?

Which brings us back to Facebook.So how big exactly is Facebook ? First things first. Has it been a success or is it merely hype..?

Mark Zuckberg, the founder of Facebook is the world's youngest billionaire, and his wealth has multiplied four-times over the past year or so.As people are making a beeline for the company, major financial institutions have valued it at more than US $ 15 Billion.So thats settled i guess.Facebook is a financial success (for now atleast).

Since the darling of the age seems to be Google, a comparison with it seems apt.How does Google function ? You type in some keywords press search and you get a plethora of relevant links. That is -You are searching for Information. How does Facebook function ? You log on to see that a friend of yours has shared an highly informative article with you. Or perhaps the coolest Ad that he mite have come across. Or perhaps the newest movie trailer.Point being - Information has come to YOU, and you can easily pass on the information to others. Did anyone say something about the popular hindi saying of knowledge increasing by sharing.. ??

Quoting from a renowned business magazine "You know about the famous Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park? You know the one where everyone can stand and address the world ? Well Facebook is my Speaker's Corner.No other medium has existed where I could broadcast my thoughts to 5000 friends at the click of a mouse(or type of few mobile keys).Thoughts that everyone notices.Whether or not they LIKE or COMMENT does not matter.."

Anyways talking about commercialization.Companies are lining up to put up their ads in Facebook.Ever wondered why ? Have a look at this data

Years an idea took to reach a market audience of 50 million

Radio - 38 years

TV - 13 years

Internet - 4 years

IPOD - 3 years

Facebook - 2 years.

And just to drill in the point have a look at the google analytics page for Q-BIT our college quizzing blog

ALSO HAVE A LOOK HERE



Ok.Point made.

For an introvert as I must admit I am, facebook has been more of a boon. Its helped me link up with all the SUPER-SENIORS (as a friend puts it) whom i couldnt know earlier. Hell I credit facebook in helping me know my future colleagues and seniors way before I actually join them up at work. Its made me say Hi to that friend that I didnt know. Its made me smile, coming across someone relatively unknown, who had shared the "awesomest" link the other day or played the most idiotic of quizzes.Its made me poke fun at the person I defeated in the online game and apps thats on Facebook. We may be 1000kms apart, but we connect at stupid flash games..

Its thus been the icebreaker.

Last but not the least,coming to the "addiction part". See,Too much of studies is bad.Being too much of an introvert is bad.Being too much of a party animal is bad.Too much of Cricket is bad. So is too much of Social Networking. The key is maintaining the perfect balance. With cybercrimes on the rise, its essential to draw a line with regards to online behavior.Thats why many offices dont allow social networks and blogs in offices.

But can a case of few bad apples ruin the whole standing of FB as a whole... ?

I must also point out to a very shrewd observation by one of my close friends..

Me : m i hyper active on FB...??

Mr.T aka AR aka IS : Jo aisa bol raha hoga (FB being bad) wo couple hoga.coz fb is meant as a timepass for singles like us. Couples share (links and vids ) khud mein, singles saari duniya se share karte hain. Jindabad singles !!!

THINGS I WILL TAKE BACK FROM COLLEGE

With just about 40-45 days left in college, and people writing good bye blogs already, I thought of writing my own take on what memories I take back from college.

Below is a list of 50 such things that i could think of.Hope to add some more to it, in the last few days.

1. 139---> 155---> 115-----> 74

2."Yahan Ray-ging hoti hai ?? Ray-ging ??"

3."Oye AGRA !! idhar palat.."

4."Hey where do i get bed,window locks, fuses n stuff ?"

5."OM-JAI JAGDISH ALARM @ 5 AM"

6. "WHere is the C lab... "over there.. in the building with the tower".. "Aap mujhe chor denge.. ?? "

7."Aaj Jharkhand bandh hai.."

8. How Dare u enter workshop with slippers go back to your hostel.. and get shoes on.!!

9. "Agra waale bhaiya..."

10.Youth Fest 2006.

11."How come you know i will be able to present well "... reply comes .."I just know"

12."Kya mujhe pyaar hai", "Ya Ali" and "sutta" on a loop in the lobby. SEMESTER 1

13."Sm1 other than 1277 please... "

14."PHODUUUUUUUU" #ED lab .

15. Abey bitotsav mein team banate hai na...

16. E-Mech Lab.

17. "bhaiya plzz give your phone no.. nahi toh yeh didi log phir se bhej dengi.."

18.Trips to Jaudice Dhabha, Sharma Dhaba and OC.

19.Vikram making all kinds of plans only to not implement them..

20. Hemant playing the same song in loop 1000 times during xams...and both of us planning to take up sufism srzly after xams...

21." Abey saaale Anna, tamil gana bajaya hai toh off toh karke soya kar..plz.. i cant sleep"

22."wat say Kunnu..?"..."hmm abey hum kuch sure nahi hain"

23.HTK2T ? (Haraami Type Ka Karega Tum ?? )

24.Koi NAI-TAAZI ??

25.Bloody hell what will i do of a Toshiba laptop.. bet its as small as my calci...

26."Hi X, Tanmay here.. would you like to come along to NIT JSR with us.." X replies.. "ummm dunno.. will let you guys knw"

27. RustyRider, Troy,Caesar,Leonidas,Hurin,Aragorn,DaDa,Recca, Jallal, akbar, ecstasy... and the rest of the AOE gang..

28.Sukku-Sahoooo at 5A

29.Encounter with the Rahman-maniac and Quizzing GOD rolled into one.

30.Drishtant 2008,Technieek 2008.

31."SO wats your take on the TAJ Mahal Controversy ?"

32 Origin of Q- BIT April 2008.

33.Party at Little Sisters, KTJ 2009,

34.SF 2009,transITion @ calcutta 2009.Tycoons 2009.

35 Lunch = Maggi + lassi.. Summer 2009.

36.Ordering from Munna Dhaba.. and eating with friends watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Summer 2009

37.MINDTREE PROJ, Summer 2009

38.Sm1 = "Hey me going to the library to check sm stuff on DBMS.." ME= "hmm sure.. i guess I will tag along.." 20/7/2009

39."So Which B-Schools are u looking at ? " and the FIVE ROUNDS 20/7/2009

40."Sundae on a SUNDAY"..er. it ended up being on a friday... 24/7/2009 :P

41.CSE Rajasthani Theme Party, Aug 2009.

42. "hey all the best... "

43. TATA STEEL-GS niteout at madhuban.

44.All nite bakar while coming back from SF 2010.

45."Mr.Agarwal, Stay back. we want to do a security check again... " ranchi Airport (on WAy to bangalore)

46 Trip to MNNIT 2010- and listening to the most melodious hindi accent for 3 days :)

47.Branch Pic Day

48.3 round chappal hi chappal"... Crorepati Branch....Karthik calling Karthik followed by Abey HOW COULD HE... ? MAARO BEEP BEEP BEEP KO.. MAARO BEEP BEEP BEEP KO (ORACLE PARTY)

49.Trip to SAICO Falls..

50."Abey aaj tune kisko trump rakha hai ?? " Cricinfo Fantasy League Craze IPL 2010.

Tattttaazzzzzzz.. ??

hehe.. not yet... :P

PEPSI v/s COKE

and you thought only GOOGLE was funny on APRIL 1 ?



Every1's choice?



Apparently COCA COLA moved into the second floor of the building in the background,so they put up their hoardings.But Pepsi was not to be left behind. :)





Pepsi "ganging" up on Coke.



The RED ARMY has its revenge


Anyways.. Wats up DOC ?

What Life has taught me

So its that time of the year again,practicals,quizzes, project submissions and what not.While doing all the googling, i came across an interesting poem.With college nearing completion I thought it would be a retrospective take on what we have really learnt over the last four years....



Something that life has taught me,
you can be as close to a person,
only as much you want yourself to be,
Fact of life , live with it or just die.

Something that love has taught me,
relationships are meant to mend or to break,
Love an odyssey you want to live with,
you need to try hard to live without.

Something that friendship has taught me,
It takes just a remark to liven a day,
Remark good or bad,
One's misery is the other's happiness.

Something that work has taught me,
The more harder you try,
Lesser are the chances of success,
Let things be, see the difference.

Something that nature has taught me,
You are a reflection of something else,
The harder you try to be different,
The more the similarities become apparent.

Something that music has taught me,
Every tune exists in the universe,
The quality depends on the composer,
It could be smash hit or a flop.

Something that emotions have taught me,
The more you emote, the more you are vulnerable,
Vulnerable you definitely will be,
Once the tears dry up, human you no longer will be.

Something that intoxication has taught me,
The more you drink,
the more you speak,
more relationships you damage.

Something that women have taught me ,
You love a woman and you need to unify the world,
But if she loves you with her heart and soul,
your life is done , you will die a happy man

Something that money has taught me,
The more you crave for it,
The more you find your necessaties,
Contentment would negate all these,
But alas! you would then be a man with satiable desires

Something that imperfections have taught me,
nature, work music and emotions,
virtually complete your life,
Intoxications woman money and love,
they just help you blur these imperfections


YABBA DABBA DO :)

THE 'OTHER' INDIA

I have been a keen follower of the Russian political scenario and as we all know that it has come to be dominated in recent times by Vladimir Putin.Along with his party "UNITED RUSSIA" he has come to dominate the mental landscape in his country to such an extent that all dissent has been crushed or silenced.Only recently some opposition has come into the picture in form of Garry Kasparov , the famous chess player who launched his party "the other Russia" and is bravely trying to be the voice of the mute and the muted in his country.

IIT = INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), are a group of thirteen autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947. The students and alumni of IITs are colloquially referred to as IITians.
Taking in students by the JEE, which is reportedly the toughest exam in the world,their name is a brand in itself from Bathinda to Bangalore to Boston.An entire multi crore industry thrives on this.Things once came to such a scene once that we had people repeating for ages all together just to get a way into these colleges.
What i accept is the fact that these colleges are the cradle of excellence and the fact that we have many IITians behind the best brands in the world, but the question i m asking today is that whether we are neglecting the enormous talent that pours out of the other engineering colleges in the country?

Today i request you to put your self in the shoes of a prospective engineer who got rejected from an IIT.The odds that he/she faces are enormous from day1.The so called "SAMAJ" belittles him to no end...starting from the NOT-SO-CORRECT BELIEF that is ingrained in him that he does not have any value in the job market... to matters of heart..where he is either rejected in favour of an iitian..or the matrimonial ads stating "IITian groom/bride required". Every one worth his penny is out there to advice him.All doing little but belittling his "UNSUCCESSFUL" hard work of last 2 years.His whole future looks DARK to him.

Today i request you to be GARRY...and give a thought to the non-iitians as they are called.The poor souls, whose life is said to have finished for all purposes just because he messed up a 3 hr test for an institute that is not even in the top 50 engg colleges of the world,

Today i request you to give a thought to this "other" india..

IITs were established as a part of the Nehruvian model of mixed economy where the state was responsible.. for everything from SCOOTERS to education.Heavily funded and subsidized, along with the increase in the requirement of engineers, soon made them temples of technical education in India.But soon, we found out, they were not enough.. with the opening of the economy.. many private institutes also came up.
However IITs were already a niche brand.They even made their way into popular literature





More than the Dilbert strip i would like u to have a look @ pic no 2... now that he is through.. a typical IITian can let his hair down a little bit.And to be honest, he deserves it.He did some hard work and was paid for it.Now he is practically "branded for life"

For a non IITian i m afraid, things are not so rosy.He wonders which magazine rankings should he chose... which NIT or private university is good.. which is not.His JEE qualified peers have made it big.He has no clue whether he would be able to look them in the eyes again.And wen he is through to college, he knows that the fight has already begun.

The College that he got to.. is not the college of his dreams. Not a very huge library...hmmm.... FREE INTERNET what is that..? that is supposed to be for IITs no ? Subsidized canteen.. or cafeteria.. oh gimme a break.... and no.. none of his profs had published papers in IEEE or yeah no guest lectures... NO Asia level college FESTs for him..

This is wen he decides to slug it out

when an IITian makes it big.. some new invention.. some innovation.. its FRONT PAGE NEWS,despite the fact that he had adequate resources at his disposal .And when the OTHER guy does it... having struggled against the RED TAPE @ his college, having to write endless applications and begs his college for some support or patronizing.. you know.. what happens...

HOW MANY ARE US ARE AWARE OF where India’s First Tri- Fuel Hybrid Concept Car was made or where India’s first indegeniously developed Humanoid Robot was invented or which colleges besides IITs have been representing INDIA @ FORMULA STUDENT England ?
An IITian knws his college attracts the best industry attention... and to be honest they deserve it.

What about others? Little said the better.His college needs "mass-recruiters" to make it 100%..NO AMERICAN BANKS or INTERNSHIPS for him. NO BIG OIL BEHEMOTHS or some construction company in the Middle East for him.

Wouldn’t it be fair to say that he has to struggle doubly hard?
He gets down to work. Makes compromises with what he has got and tries to do his best. But do we appreciate him?

India today has her own place in the world. After years altogether of slow growth, its only now that we are so robust financially that we are among the only 2 countries to have beaten the worst economic recession since 1929, and may be it would not be unfair to say that she remains the only country with such an inclusive growth in progress taking along with it swathes of population out of poverty. At this critical juncture in our history is it only about IITians? What I want to say is that while there is no doubt about the IITs being perhaps the pinnacle of technical education in India, isn’t it time that we start give a damn about the "other" India too ?

till then
TO INFINITY AND BEYOND....

DU FEHLST MIR

I was watching a movie today.. namely Music and Lyrics..Yeah i knw.. its a romantic comedy kinda.Those that are often classified as "ChickFlicks" :) Actually there were a coupla songs, in the movie that really touched me..

I am sharing the lyrics here

A Way Back Into Love

I have been living with a shadow on my head
I have been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I have been lonely for so long
trapped in the past
i just cant seem to move on.

I have been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in the case i need them again some day
I Have been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

All i want to do is find a way back into love
I cant make it through without a way back into love

I have been watching the stars that refuse to shine
I have been searching, but there just dont seem a SIGN,
I know that its out there..
Theres gotta be smthin fr my soul smwhere

I have been looking for sm1 to shed sm light
Not smbody just to get me through the nite
I can use some direction
And i m open to your suggestions

All i want to do is find a way back into love
I cant make it through without a way back into love

And if i open my heart to you
I m hoping you tell me wat to do..
and if you help me decide a way
You know i will be THERE FOR YOU


Dont write me off just yet


Its never been easy for me
To find words to go along with melody
But this time thers actually smthing on my mind
So pls forgive these few brief awkward lines

Since I met you my whole life has changed
Its not just my furniture you rearranged
I was living in the past but smhow u have brought me back
and i havent felt this way before Franky said relax

And though i knw, based on my track record
I mite not seem to be the safest bet
All I m asking you
is Dont write me off just yet

for years i have been telling myself the same old story
That i m happy to live off my so called former glories
but you have given me a reason
To take another chance
now i need you despite the fact YOU KILLED ALL MY PLANS

Although i knw, i have already blown more chances
than any1 should ever get
All I m asking you
is Dont write me off just yet

Dont write me off just yet


You dont knw smtimes.. these songs hit you where you dont wanna get hit.
Anyways..those hu liked em.. thanks.. those hu didnt... oops.. my bad :)

untill then

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER