Random Variables!!

Six months in Shillong

2011-12-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that I have already spent six months at Shillong. Time passes so fast. These six months have been so much fun. Thought I would share a few good pics here.

On the way to Cherrapunji

At Cherrapunji

Cherrapunji Waterfall

At sacred forest, Mawphlang

Elephanta Falls, Shillong

Shillong Peak

On the way from Shillong to Guwahati

At Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati

The glass is one-third empty, but there is still two-third left. And these remaining days at Shillong are going to be legen-wait-for-it-dary! Looking forward to it!

IIM Shillong Interview experience

2011-05-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

My IIM Shillong interview was scheduled in Mumbai on 3rd March 2011. The Interview process started on time and first the panel checked our CAT scorecard and our identity proof. They also took from us the printed copy of our profile sheet, which we were supposed to carry with us. This would be used during interview process. Then the GD began.

Group discussion (GD)
For GD we were given a case study and we were asked to write our opinion on it on a sheet of paper. We were given 10 mins for it. It was about an MBA student who was promoting a new company as a part of her internship and she was challenged by the CEO to enroll 100 new users over a week's time. She went to four campuses and talked to groups of students and offered to give free T-shirts to whoever enrolls to the website of the new company. She got 300 users in one day. She had a choice of distributing Chinese shirts that cost only 175/- each but they were produced by workers who worked under poor working conditions and less pay. The other fare trade company T-shirts cost Rs 550/- The MBA student had to make a choice of which T-shirts to distribute. She was worried that she might get a bad grade if she chose expensive T-shirts as the budget of project would go high.

After writing down our opinions, we were asked to discuss the same in a group of seven, for 15 mins. I supported that she should go for the higher priced T-shirts provided they are of better quality. She should think of it as a long term investment and had she decided to offer cheaper shirts which do not satisfy the crowd's expectations, then it could lead to bad publicity. Many start-up companies come up and go down in no time. But thinking about long-term, she should go for higher quality higher priced shirts and also she should not worry about the grade she gets because she over-performed and got 300 users in lesser time, so CEO is bound to be happy. Overall the GD went pretty well, without much of fish market.

Personal Interview (PI)
I was the second student to be interviewed by a panel of three. I entered the room and wished each panel member "Good morning" and shook hands. I was wearing a blazer and was feeling very confident. They made me sit and took my file, which contained my mark sheets and other certificates. I will write the interview in the conversation format with P referring to the panel member and M referring to myself.

P: Tell me about yourself
M: My name is "XYZ". I come from the state of Goa. I have completed my education up to engineering in Goa. I have done B.E. Mechanical Engineering from BITS- Pilani, Goa Campus and now work in John Deere in the Value Engineering Team. My team identifies opportunities for cost reduction and value improvement in various products of John Deere like tractors, harvestors, combines, lawn mowers, utility vehicles, etc. and executes them through the value engineering methodology.

P: Which are the competitors of John Deere?
M: Mahindra & Mahindra, Sonalika, New Holland, Balwan... (I named about seven)

P: Do you know who is Mallika Shrinivasan?
M: I am sorry sir, I have not heard about her. (After thinking for a while)

P: You have not heard? (He gave me a look as if I was a fool).
M: No sir, I have no idea.

Turns out she was in news a month back when she became the CEO of Tractor based company called Tafe. But I did not lose my calm.

P: In which states are elections going to be held in recent future?
M: I thought for a while, I was not sure. I thought it was either Kerala or Tamil Nadu and Assam. But I said I don't know as I was not sure and did not want to start off by giving wrong answers. Answer was Kerala, TN, Assam, WB and Pondicherry and it had appeared in newspaper two days back. I repent having missed such an important article in the newspaper.

P: What do you know about Pondicherry?
M: Sir, it is a small town on the coast of Tamil Nadu and is very famous for French houses and colonies. I have seen a few pics of them when some of my friends had visited this place. (Actually I was a bit nervous not having answered the first two questions, and I could not think of anything more to say)

P: Okay, do you know who is S. M. Krishna?
M: Yes, sir he is the external affairs minister of India

P: Who is Sheila Dixit?
M: She is the chief minister of Delhi

P: What is the capital of Pakistan?
M: Islamabad sir

P: Are you sure?
M: Yes sir. (By now I had regained my calm and confidence).

P: Tell me about Goa.
M: I told a few things like Goa was ruled by Portuguese since 1500 and got independence in 1961. (He acted surprised to know this and asked me again, but I was sure about the date). I continued saying it was Pandit Nehru who sent the army and within two days we achieved independence. It was called Operation Vijay. Terekhol Fort was used in the freedom operation, bla bla, went on for some time. Ended saying Digambar Kamat is the CM currently and he also holds other portfolios like finance. (Mentioned this just because I felt he had special interest in chief ministers!) :P

P: How many seats are there in the state assembly?
M: 40 seats sir, (I could not think of anything more to add but continued saying the following very confidently, though I don't know if it is correct) Goa has two districts sir, North Goa and South Goa. North Goa has 20 seats and South Goa has 20 seats. (Wish I had used figures like 22 and 18 or 21 and 19. Anyway he seemed convinced.)

P: How many countries are playing the world cup cricket?
M: There was a pause and then I said 14 countries sir.

P: Are you sure?
M: Yes sir, there are 7 teams in Group A and 7 in Group B. India is in Group B.

P: Name all the teams in Group B.
M: I named about 5 or 6. Couldn't recollect Bangladesh. But the ones I told were correct.

Except for the first two -three questions, I answered most others. I might have missed writing a couple of more questions here. Anyway, then the technical part started.

P: Have you studied any management courses during your engineering?
M: Yes sir, Operations Research in which we studied different things like transportation problem. (This was the only topic I remembered in this course. I had revised only two subjects CAD and Design of machine elements thoroughly and was hoping to make them ask these, but they did not give me a choice. They started asking me questions about Operations Research).

P: What is Linear Programming?
M: I did not know exact definition, I tried to explain with an example. But he told me I was wrong.

P: Is transportation problem an example of Linear Programming?
M: I thought for a while and said yes. Then he made me write the equations and I wrote them down correctly. He nodded. He asked me whether the variables could be negative. I said no and immediately realized I had not written the condition for all variables being non-negative on the paper. So I immediately accepted it and wrote it down.

P: Was this course Operations Research or Operations Management?
M: I did not really remember. I had done both actually. I said the name of the course was Optimization but the name of the textbook was Operations Research.

P: Who was the author?
M: It was Taha sir, by Pearson Edition (I said this very confidently, though I was not sure if it was Taha or Taho. It turned out to be correct).

They did not seem really happy with my performance in academics but they proceeded with next few questions which were based on my work experience

P: You said you work in Value Engineering. What is the difference between Value Analysis and Value Engineering.?
M: I fumbled a bit but then took a pause and started off again saying. Value Analysis is only for an existing design and Value engineering can be for an existing design as well as new concept development.

P: What is Value?
M: Value is what the customers perceive in a product. So it is basically dependent on the customer's perception. It can be different for different customers.

P: What do you mean? If I give you two pens then there should be a standard method to tell which pen has more value.
M: (Pen was my favorite example in value engineering, something that we use very often. So I suddenly became very confident and took both the pens from his hand and held them in my hand and started looking at them and analyzing). Sir, the basic function of a pen is to write. If a pen is able to write continuously without a break and smoothly, then it is fine with me. For a customer, who wants only this from the pen he will buy the pen which does this basic function in the least cost because value is performance divided by cost. But for a customer who cares for good aesthetics, a Parker pen with higher cost will be of better value as aesthetics matter to him. So coming back to my point, value is different for different customer.

I had said this with such conviction that they all seemed convinced. But one of them asked me further,
P: If value is different for different customers, how would organization decide what value to provide in the product?
M: (I smartly used this question as an opportunity to talk about my project). I used my experience to say... Sir companies do this by providing a range of different products. For example, I am working on lawn mowers, where the base model costs so and so... whereas the best model with added features costs so much extra. So an organization targets different customers by providing a platform of products with additional features at higher prices, rather than selling only one standard product.
(They were convinced that I know more value engineering than any of them and they can't catch me there.) :P

I think they decided to give me one more change regarding academics questions and started asking more questions on that
P: What is reliability?
M: Reliability is a measure of how well a product is able to perform the expected task under given set of conditions.

P: So how would you define reliability of a pen?
M: Sir, If the company selling the pen promises that the pen will last for 500 hours and if it lasts for 500 or more hours, then it is reliable. Whereas if it fails in like 100 hours, then it is not reliable.

P: What are control points used for?
M: Control points are used to check whether a process is in control. If we have a set of data derived from an experiment, we find the mean and plot the variation of the points about the mean. (He drew a graph on his paper and asked me to explain). I continued that if the points lie within the band marked by the two lines above and below the mean then the process is under control. If any point goes outside that band, then the management needs to decide whether it was due to some controllable factors or uncontrollable factors and then take a call.

P: What are controllable and uncontrollable factors?
M: Controllable factors are factors like tool wear or working conditions of the workers. The workers might not be efficient after working for 8 hours continuously and that may cause error. Whereas uncontrollable factors are like environmental changes, for example temperature and humidity that can affect the process.
I had answered these technical questions well and the interview moved on to ethical questions

P: Tell me about a situation of ethical dilemma.
M: I narrated an incident that my friend wanted a job in my company but did not exactly suit the profile of any of the job openings. I could have influenced my manager to take him in our team though he was not fitting all the requirements. I was in dilemma because I had to choose between friendship and being ethical about the company's hiring process. Finally I decided to only show his CV to my manager and pointed out a few of his strengths but did not try out of the way to influence him further to hire my friend.

P: What if your friend was really poor but not deserving the job, but he had the capability to learn the work and be useful in the team after 5-6 months?
M: I would still not interfere in the hiring process sir. Because may be in those 4-5 months there would be a critical project in which the company may lose a lot due to his inexperience

P: No it is just regular work, not a critical project
M: Even then, he might not be able to take up the work pressure and contribute well in the job. It is not only about the money. For him money is critical, but I would try to search some other job for him that might pay less but would suit his skills.

Important thing in ethical questions is to maintain your stand. I feel they just wanted to check whether I will change my answer under various circumstances. They were happy to see that I was firm with my answer and the interview ended on a good note.

They said "That is all. You can leave. Please take a chocolate" (kept in a small bowl on the table).
I did not immediately take the chocolate. I stood up and shook hands with them again and thanked them individually and then took my file and at last picked one chocolate and left the room confidently. (It could have been only better had I added "Have a nice day sir" after thanking them). Interview had lasted for about 25 mins.

Anyway, overall I would say except for a few questions that I could not answer, interview was good. At least I was happy with my performance. I gave in my BEST, and left to god the REST.

Apart from that, my profile was good. I had consistent academic performance. In 10th, I was 4th in Goa State Board with 91.73% and in 12th I had managed about 86%. I had completed mechanical engineering from BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus with 9.28 CGPA, had got a decent CAT score of 95.6%ile and had a work experience of 8 months in a good organization as on the day of the interview.

The results came out in May after a long wait. I was waitlisted 79 in the first list and 16 in the second list. Finally, I had fulfilled my dream of securing admission in a coveted IIM when the third list came out. And with this, a new journey began...

Maths Questions for 10th Std

2010-10-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Just came across some Maths questions I had framed for teaching my sister in her 10th class and magnanimously sharing it here :)
P.S. Click on the question to enlarge it .

For any doubts, feel free to drop a mail to bhatchimu@gmail.com

SPICE MOBILE QT-55

2010-02-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

I checked out this cellphone of SPICE three days back.

Model No: QT-55
Came home and googled for customer feedback and surprisingly found no mention of this model, not even on the SPICE mobile website. The features were however appealing, considering that one can get it for only 3.5k (MRP is 3699/- but can be negotiated to 3.5k or more if you are good at it).

I fell in love with it at first sight, not when I first saw the model but when I first saw the MRP! :P
Finally I bought it and have been using it for past two days and it feels great to possess it, especially when people who know, that you have been using an old fashioned nokia 6020 model for past 3.5 years suddenly start staring at you! It looks great, at least to my eyes. And buying the cellphone out of my own 'hard-earned' stipend, makes it even more special :)

As far as features are concerned, I would say, they might slightly fall short of NOKIA (E63 costs 11.4k) or SAMSUNG (Corby costs 6.7k) but considering that the cost is just 3.5k, features provided are cool... Point is this difference in price I would attribute more to the fact that NOKIA has better brand name than SAMSUNG and it in turn has better brand name than SPICE.

Salient Features:
1) Qwerty keyboard \m/
2) Dual simcard (now onwards both my simcards are active); well this was my primary motivation to buy this phone
3) Mobile tracking if cellphone is lost (recent high end models have this feature wherein if your cellphone is stolen and the thief inserts his simcard, then his simcard sends sms to 5 numbers you had stored before, which makes tracking it easier)
4) Inbuilt FM antenna (means you don't have to carry your headphones everywhere), plus FM recording (scheduled FM recording also), which is also great quality to a non-critic's ears
5) Awesome speakers (loud and clear)
6) Motion games (rolling dice on shaking)
7) Ebook reader (But only .txt format)
8) Torch: quite powerful
9) Long battery life (1200 mAh, 5 hr talktime or 12 days on standby mode, normally lasts for 5-6 days as I use music player often)
10) Two slots for expandable memory (I am using a 2 GB card that cost me extra 300 bucks).
11) 1 year warranty
12) Bluetooth
13) Screen display is cool :)
14) Camera (well can't zoom while clicking photos and it's not high resolution, about this feature I would say "just fine")
15) Videoplayer (plays only few formats, I am yet to figure out which all formats work). In audio files, most common formats like mp3, wav are supported.
16) Screen display is cool :)
17) Melody composer, which used to be provided with only low end cellphones is present. We also have some stuff which is of not much use to me: Ibibo, Nimbuzz, mGurujee, email2sms, rueters, spice gang, job search, weather, cricket updates and mms.

18) What is lacking is USB file transfer, you have only bluetooth to transfer your files. But I already had a card reader, so I thought I could manage the limitation of USB. I had heard from my friend, that USB connectivity is bad for most SPICE cellphones, so I guess they removed this feature completely in this model
19) Also no Wi-fi connectivity, but I hardly use my cellphone for browsing, as I can use my lappy when I am at home. It's GPRS enabled though!
20) If you are looking for GPS or touchscreen, then these features are absent. Finally few minor features like keypad password protection, when you unlock your keypad, are absent. Also I am unable to figure out how to insert smileys in smses yet!
21) Speed is not as good as nokia phones, but still manageable.
(Obviously you can't expect everything in 3.5k)

So overall, based on my needs, I would say this phone \m/

But I can't comment about the reliability/ durability until I have used it for a few months. Also this is not an advertisement for selling this model, they are just my personal opinions. I don't take the responsibility for any kind of dis-satisfaction caused to you if you purchase this mobile. Please check the features yourself before buying. And also don't comment saying "bakwaas phone hai!" Rather suggest a cellphone with better features for same price :P

Animal lover, am I?

2010-01-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

Ten days of PS2 in Bengaluru were over; work in Mercedes Benz had not started in full swing yet and just when we felt that we were well settled in our rented apartment, the army of bed bugs marched out from their hide-out one night, and killed our night's sleep. Bed bugs, bad bugs!

We had made up our minds to dispose the old mattresses and buy new ones, but I was in mood of a treasure hunt. Bed bugs usually hide in the dirtiest corners of the mattress and are about 5-6 mm in length. So in 45 mins, I managed to find and kill 10 bugs, from my bed and sprayed Baygon too. Later that night I had a good sleep without a single bite and sweet dreams about hmmm...

On Thursday, we went to Ulsoor lake and did a bit of paddle boating. The lake is beautiful. Though we reached after the closing time, I was able to convince that guy to allow us boating for 10 mins, which we later extended till 30 mins :P

On Saturday, we planned a trip to Bannerghatta National Park. The Grand Safari ride of about an hour, was fun. Though the rightside window seat was claimed by Pintoo, luckily for me most animals were on the left side of the bus, Left-side rocks! Teasing me backfired for Pintoo! The bisons, deers, bears, lions and tigers awakened the animal lover inside me. And later we checked out the beautiful butterlies too.

The zoo was legen-(wait for it)-dary. I borrowed Pratik's mp3 player and finally succeeded in convincing Vidyadhar to give me his mobile camera and took some awesome pics. Earlier that morning I had not taken a single pic as I had left my DIGICAM at home. I loved the birdies so much that I ignored the chicks for a moment! :P The golden pheasants, the hornbill, peacocks, grey partridge, heron, pelican grey, eagle owl, pigeons and the russel viper, python, zebra, iguana, emu, porcupines, hippopotamus were just few of the beautiful creatures about which I had until yesterday only read in textbooks. The lion tailed macaque started jumping when we reached there; understandable why it got excited!

Pratik, Anand, Antony and Sandeep went on the Elephant Ride. I saw tears rolling down the elephant's eyes and could feel how much he was troubled, so I decided not to trouble it more. Anyway I have been on an elephant ride before, so I only took pics and yeah, we touched the elephant's trunk! :P

Aerostat Recovery Device (ARD)

2009-12-26T13:17:00.001-08:00

Well, when I began writing this blog, I had promised to post some random stuff here. And it would be like throwing a biased dice if I don't include any technical GYAN.

So here it is- the fruits of my 2 months arduous efforts in IIT Bombay during summer 2009 The project title- "Design of an Aerostat Recovery Device (ARD) in case of accidental breakage of tether". Full pdf is available for download. Do check out this link, and refresh as many times as you like ;)
http://www.casde.org/index.php/casde/article/view/4

Well apart from that nothing much to share. Well yes, we said tata-bye-bye to BITS, our home for the last 3.5 years. It was a little sentimental moment, but considering that there is lots more in life ahead, I didn't feel that bad. Lots more includes Mercedes Benz PS in Bengaluru and job at John Deere. But yeah, I will miss DC++ badly :(

Anyways life has been great and will continue to be, Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

A week in Bengaluru

2009-12-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

Finally I am home, and I can pour out all that I am holding inside for the last one week. I haven't felt the need to blog more desperately than I am feeling right now and this post is going to be a long one. So prepare yourself, while I take a deep breath and start from the start!

I had booked my slot for online CAT 09 on the evening of 30th Nov.

Saturday, 28th Nov
We took the Yashwantpur train at night. I had slight cold and so had stuffed my pockets with HALLS chocolates. I had decided against carrying my laptop, for preparation on the day before the exam. (I had just carried one notebook of Quant questions just incase I suffer from boredom attack). My priority was to chill out. However, one important thing I did was to copy some rock bhajjans and relaxation music from my lappy to my father's mobile. I knew this would come handy on the night before the test. The journey was good, slept better than expected.

Sunday, 29th Nov
We received a warm welcome from our relatives in Bengaluru, after which we settled in our room and had breakfast. I loved the house. I found a novel about the History of Philosophy, it was called "Sophie's World". I decided to read it, as it would help me with relaxing and with the RCs in CAT paper. We visited my center of CAT exam in the evening. There was a lot of news about chaos the online CAT had created nationwide, so I was more worried whether I would be able to answer my test than about my performance in the test. Luckily, Iskcon temple was quite close to the place we were staying. So I could go into the "sharan" of Lord Krishna.

Iskcon visit:
The atmosphere helped me to relax. I entered into a conversation with Lord Krishna. I asked him how do I avoid stress while answering the paper? Then a thought emerged from within . (It must have been Lord Krishna). "Karma karo, phal ki iccha mat karo". This was the answer to a lot of my queries. If I was able to trash the thought of "results" out of my mind, it would help me to focus, give my 100% as well as keep my mind in the present. Next, I asked him: how do I avoid the anxiety that I felt before the test? He advised me "Karma karneka uchit samay hota hai." So there was no use worrying about the future. These two replies changed my mood drastically. I felt like I had attained nirvana. :) By the way, the temple is beautiful, definitely worth a visit.

That night, I was not much tensed, but still sleep eluded me. So I remembered the songs I had copied on my father's cellphone. I must have listened to them from 12:15am to about 3am, when I must have finally fallen asleep.

Monday, 30th Nov (C-DAY)
I woke up at around 9am after a good night's sleep. I had deliberately chosen the evening slot, keeping in mind my sleeping pattern during the semester :P I had a good breakfast as I had decided to have a light lunch. Also I had a long hot water bath under the shower, which was comforting. (Begaluru is cooler than Goa). I did feel a bit anxious, but I was in a better state of mind than expected. I had lunch and left for my center, listened again to the meditative bhajjans and kept reciting them all the while.

CAT Experience
After a brief security check and all the procedures of fingerprinting and photosession, I finally sat infront of the computer screen that would decide my fate at around 2pm. My test was scheduled to start at 3:30pm. This 1.5 hrs were the hardest to pass. I tried to take a nap, but then heard one of the invigilator say, "this guy has fallen asleep or what?", so quickly opened my eyes and sat down. I smiled at him and he smiled back. On my left side was seated a beautiful girl, another CAT aspirant. Unfortunately we were forbidden from talking inside the lab, with video cameras fitted for surveillance. We were not even supposed to look anywhere except the computer screen, but I managed a look on my left, a few times :P Even she looked at me sometimes! Blush! :P Actually I was not sure, whether to look at her so as to pass my time or to stay focused on the test. Before I could decide about that, I decided to use the loo. (This was allowed only until 30 mins before the start of the test, i.e. till 3pm). I drank some water too, just a sip and was seated again in front of the computer screen.

Finally it was time to start the test. I started with my strongest section, Quant and did well in it, then moved on to DI and last Verbal. Time just flew past. This is what I guess Einstein calls relativity. After coming out of the center, I was overall happy with my performance. It stayed that way for a couple of days more, until I realised that some CAT aspirants had attempted almost the entire paper. The paper was simple but that simple? Had the CAT standard diluted so much? Only time will tell.

Nevertheless, CAT09 was over and I decided to enjoy the rest of the stay in Bengaluru. We were invited for dinner at my cousin's place. That night, I had ice-cream without even caring that I hadn't fully recovered from cold.

Tuesday, 1st Dec
I had two discount vouchers of Westside, thanks to Girish and Pratik, so I decided to do a bit of shopping. At Westside, on the commercial street, I purchased two formal pants and one jeans for myself and some stuff for my sister. My mother also did some shopping in FabIndia and then it was time to do what I had been long waiting for. We brought 3 zinger burgers from KFC, out of which I had one and a half. Had lunch at home and a nap after that.

When it was evening, it was time for the grand dinner at 'Coastal Express' as promised by Chhaya Aatya and it was really a grand one. Thanks to Aatya and Uncle for such a wonderful treat. We ordered so many varieties of fish and chicken dishes there. Aah, and the Virgin Mary drink! Later that night, I got boils on my hands and legs, I wonder whether it was due to the drink as I was the only one to have that drink and those boils. Anyway, after I applied the lotion, I was okay next morning.

Wednesday, 2nd Dec
We again did a bit of shopping at Maleshwaram street, two sarees for mammi and some handicraft idols of Krishna and Radha. E-zone disappointed us as the 1 Tb external HD, I was searching for wasn't available at a reasonable prize. Nevertheless, at lotmart we bought 3 formal shirts, well actually just bought one and got two free!

In the evening we went to the chemical plant owned by my relatives for the inauguration of a new lab there. My mother and I both loved to see the plant and had a good discussion about the process with the main supervisor. Then there was the pooja and the dinner. I loved the drive home when Aatya was driving.

Thursday, 3rd Dec
We returned to Goa by flight. It was the first 'international' flight I had boarded, well it was Bengaluru-Goa-Dubai flight! :P I enjoyed the take-off as much as I have always enjoyed. As we rose above the clouds, the scenery was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. My faculty of wonder perceived the clouds to be similar to waves of snow on a vast ocean and a little further, I felt they better resembled a softee ice-cream and sometimes plain vanilla icing on top of a gigantic cake. I was busier enjoying all this, than 'Kambakht Ishq' on a small screen in front of me. The flight was smooth and in about an hour we landed safely at Dabolim.

It was a fun trip to Bengaluru, though my DIGICAM went unemployed. I did not find time to click even a single pic in Bengaluru, and also it was stored safely in the cargo luggage, during the flight, when I actually wanted to take a few shots. Nevertheless, it was a great trip!

Blitzkrieg '09

2009-10-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well the story has grown old... So let me just upload the pics and avoid the bak-bak!!

Celebrations at domino's after winning Around 7k.
"Office Office", the event Girish and I won... :)

Thanks for the treat @Girish and Pratik, the megawinners!!

Prizes bagged by our group were Paper Presentation first and second place, Quiz second place, Office Office FIRST place, Sudoku second place... \m/ BPGC rocks!!

Laughter challenge

2009-10-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well I have no intentions of participating in any laughter challenge. Just thought I would post a collection of jokes I liked: (Courtesy- Reader's digest)

"He: “There are an awful lot of girls who don’t want to get married.”
She: “How do you know?”
He: “I’'ve asked them.”"

"Two astrologers met each other in the street on a particularly cold and bitter day.
‘Terrible winter we’re having,’ muttered one.
‘Yes,’ replied the other. ‘It reminds me of the winter of 2057.’"

"Judge: ‘How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?’
Prisoner: ‘How do I know, your honour? I haven’t heard the evidence yet.’"

"The frantic-looking lady came rushing out of her house into the street and cried: ‘Help! Help! My young son has swallowed a coin and is choking. I don’t know what to do!’ Everyone looked the other way, except for a middle-aged gentleman who rushed into the lady’s house, found her young son, turned him upside down and shook him until the coin fell out of his mouth.
‘Oh, thank you!’ cried the lady. ‘Are you a doctor?’
‘No madam,’ replied the middle-aged man. ‘I’m from the Income Tax Department.’"

"A small farm boy was milking his cow when all of a sudden a bull came charging towards him. As horrified workers nearby watched, the boy calmly continued his milking. To everyone’s astonishment, the bull stopped a few inches from the boy, turned around and walked away . ‘Weren’t you afraid?’ one of the workers asked the boy. ‘Not at all,’ the boy replied , ‘I knew this cow was his mother-in-law.’"

"Husband and wife were in the midst of a violent quarrel, and hubby was losing his temper. ‘Be careful,’ he said to his wife. ‘You'’ll bring out the beast in me.’ ‘So what?’ his wife shot back. ‘Who’s afraid of a mouse?’"

"The editor of a small weekly newspaper, annoyed at legislation that had recently been passed, ran a scathing editorial under the headline: HALF OF OUR LEGISLATORS ARE CROOKS. Many prominent local politicians were outraged, and tremendous pressure was exerted on him to retract the statement. He finally succumbed to the pressure and ran an apology with the headline: HALF OF OUR LEGISLATORS ARE NOT CROOKS"

"Late one night, a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs. ‘Give me your money,’ he demanded. Indignant, the affluent man replied, ‘You can’t do this—I’m a politician!’ ‘In that case,’ replied the robber, ‘give me my money!’"

"A judge looked severely at the defendant and asked, ‘How many times have you been imprisoned?’
‘Nine, you Honour.’
‘Nine? In this case, I will give you the maximum sentence.’
‘Maximum sentence?’ said the defendant. ‘Don’t you give your regular clients a discount’."

"After they had brought their first baby home from hospital, a young wife suggested to her husband that he try his hand at changing diapers, ‘I’m busy,’ he said. ‘I’ll do the next one.’
The next time the baby was wet, she asked if he was now ready to learn how to change diapers. He looked puzzled. ‘Oh,’ he replied finally. ‘I didn’t mean the next diaper. I meant the next baby!’"

"A poor man sat begging outside a temple. ‘In the name of Bhagwan give this hungry man some money to fill his belly,” he cried. “Bhagwan will bless you.’ But the devotees gave him very little. In disgust the beggar left the temple and sat outside a country liquor shop. ‘A few paise in the name of Bhagwan,’ he whined. As customers came out of the shop in high spirits, many dropped rupee notes in his bowl. Thanking God, the beggar said: ‘Hey Bhagwan, truly inscrutable are thy ways! You give one address but live in another.’"

"A doctor was called in to see a rather testy aristocrat. “
Well, sir, what’s the matter?” he asked cheerily.
“That, sir,” growled the patient, “is for you to find out.”
“I see,“ said the doctor thought-fully. “Well, if you’ll excuse me for an hour or so I’ll go along and fetch a friend of mine - a veterinarian. He is the only chap I know who can make a diagnosis without asking questions.”"

"Manager - “From your references I see you’'ve had four jobs in the last month.”
Applicant - “Yes, sir, but doesn’'t that shows how much in demand I am?”"

"Teacher: “Who were the first human beings?”
Pupil: “Adam and Eve.”
Teacher: “And what nationality were they?”
Pupil: Indian, of course.”
Teacher: “And how ho you know they were Indian?”
Pupil: “Easy. They had no roof over their heads, no clothes to wear and only one apple between them - and they called it Paradise.”"

"Fred at last could see a way of making a fortune. He had trained his parrot, after month of hard work, to tell jokes. At last he felt ready to cash in on all his hard work, and took the parrot down
to his pub. ‘This is my incredible joke-telling parrot,’ boasted Fred. ‘
Go on ,’ jeered the pub regulars. ‘We’ll give you ten to one that your parrot can’t tell us a joke.’
‘All right,’ replied Fred. ‘I accept your bet.’
But try as he could, Fred was unable to make the parrot talk — let alone tell jokes.
On the way home Fred shook the bird and shouted: ‘What do you mean by keeping quiet? You made me lose a ten to one bet!’
‘Don’t worry!’ squawked the parrot. ‘Tomorrow you’ll be able to get fifty to one.’"

Born with a silver spoon in the mouth

2009-10-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have cultivated the habit of accomplishing important tasks at the eleventh hour. This has worked in most cases. But now I am faced with a new Herculean task of improving my vocabulary for which I am ready to leave no stone unturned. In a nutshell, there is no point for you to read any further as I will harp on some random jargon in this post. To hit the nail on the head, this post is not meant for amusing my dearest readers; it’s meant to aid me in memorizing some idioms and phrases.

I have always obtained and hope to obtain in future too the Yeoman Service of my highly intellectual pals; significant one among them is a friend who has the gift of the gab combined with an oily tongue as evident from the lip-service he gives to the faculty to get his work done. By hook or crook, by fair means or foul he always strives to get as many marks as possible in all the exams. He never has second thoughts when he decides to open a book. His room is always helter skelter with books, but he doesn’t care about it.

Last three years which I spent with this man of letters has led me to believe that by the sweat of his brow he can bear in mind anything that he wishes. It is not possible for anyone to push him to the wall when it comes to mugging up stuff. Over the years he has also learnt to plough a lonely furrow when the situation demands. But whenever he finds a hard nut to crack, he puts his head together with his hostel room neighbour. He never sails close to the wind by not solving any problem in the textbook beforehand and yet keeps his fingers crossed when we ask him how many marks he expects after the exam.

It is quite easy to pull the legs of this non-social creature, which rarely leads to quarrels and even in such cases it is easy to pour oil in troubled waters. Once he was caught red handed reading a book, which he till date denies touching. Looking at the picture if you can smell a rat, you are right. I could keep the pot boiling if I wanted but let me put my cards on the table. I gave him an applied thermodynamics book to read and led him up the garden path and threw dust in his eyes by editing the picture. But this guy always lets the bygones be bygones and never tries to pay off old scores. This guy always keeps his nose clean; however, he will almost always fight tooth and nail if his faith in his Lord is questioned.

Coming back to the point where I started off, I have derived immense inspiration from this man of spirit and have decided to pull my socks up to improve my own vocabulary. So when we got an unexpected vacation of two weeks due to jaundice outbreak in campus, while others painted the town red, I decided to make hay while the sun shines. Or would it be more appropriate to say that I am fishing in troubled waters? For the past few days I have been successfully burning the candle at both ends to ensure that I make the most of these days. Also I turned over a new leaf and started reading some books and newspapers. There is no hard and fast rule, but this generally helps to improve your vocabulary.

A walk to remember

2009-09-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Two months since my last post, and my readers seemed furious with me for having kept them waiting so long. I had to blog tonight, even though it meant staying awake as late as 3:00am. Well that's the earliest I sleep actually ;) Thanks to my totally messed up schedule. Anyway back to the post.

It was a walk to remember, a stroll along the beach with Amey, Girish, Anand and Pratik. Early morning (9am is early according to my time zone) we met and after a light breakfast at Hotel Kamat started off to Benaulim. Rain God was kind with us; light drizzle was fun to get wet in while we played with a ball and a frisbee. We let our bags and belongings have the shelter under the tent built from my umbrella, lest Pratik would have to buy his 4th cellphone in 3 years!

Then we walked and I kept my Digicam busy. The shells, the starfish, the dead snake and the supposedly poisonous jelly fish (if you touch them you would get boils on your hand) were the main attraction.

Well, the last one is a jelly fish. We decided to poke it with a stick to see what's inside :P

That reminded Pratik and me of a butterfly, it reminded pintoo of something else!!

We continued our walk and Pratik suddenly dreamt of a Jeannie. Watch the video below.

The walk helped us build a good appetite by the time we had crossed Sernabatim and reached Colva and so we decided to have lunch at a nearby shack. It was the right time to try out new dishes, each of which rocked; fish was really tasty.

After a splendid lunch we took a bus to KTC and walked to Natural World, had a tasty scoop each and then returned home, tired but happy!

Last Fortnight in Mumbai

2009-07-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

All good things come to an end and so did my Mumbai stay. If I am asked to weigh what I gained during the internship against what I lost (a few kg weight thanks to travelling) I would definitely say I have gained more in terms of knowledge, experience and confidence.

Surviving for two months in a city like Mumbai, in the traffic, in the rains, in the waterlogged streets, and without having had to pay fine/bribe though I had risked not purchasing bus tickets on two occasions, deserves an applaud. (Clap, Clap, Clap!) A few memorable instances besides the scrumptious KFC ‘Zinger’ 100% Chicken burger that I ate are cited below:

Time: 14^th July 2009, 14:09:42

I have to complete editing the video of my project work and realise that I don’t have sufficient time for it, as today is the last day of my internship. I hadn’t got accommodation in the campus; I worked till 7pm and then left for my uncle’s place in Vile Parle where I stayed. So I took a hasty decision to stay overnight in the lab with my project engineer, Mr Kaviresh Bhandari. It turned out to be a good idea because it was raining heavily and it would have been really difficult to reach home that evening thanks to the water-logged streets.

Time: 14^th July 2009, 21:29:17

After having my dinner in Tansa Mess, fully sponsored by my project engineer, I returned to the lab to start working on remainder part of the video. I needed a high configuration desktop with Windows-XP to run the software. I had done all other work on my Vista laptop and for the first time I was using the lab desktop. I had installed the software on the previous day and started my work. I estimated that I would need 3-4 more hours to finish my work and after that I would watch TV series or movies for the remainder of the night. Suddenly I receive a shock as my project file refuses to open, a few minutes later I realise that the desktop is virus affected. I try to shift my work on the next desktop but I realise all the comps are affected by the network virus. The realisation that this would mean a waste of all my previous efforts chokes my throat.

Time: 14^th July 2009, 23:25:13

I don’t realise whom to curse for all that had happened and finally decide that a better solution would be to start making the video all over again, which also meant I had to scrap all my plans of watching BBT and Prison Break.

Time: 15^th July 2009, 05:46:07

After slogging for six hours, I am finally done with my video. I pack all my project stuff into a box, label its contents and keep the box in a corner in the lab, wondering when next it would be opened. I also burn a copy on a DVD of all data regarding the project for the lab records. I show the video to my project engineer who is happy.

Time: 15^th July 2009, 07:35:50

The rains have stopped and the morning is smiling at me. After bidding adieu to my project engineer, I take a bus back home. It turned out to be the third time I had kept a night out for making a video, a memorable one in IITB.

As this is my last post on summer internship in Mumbai, here are a few guidelines if you are new and plan to spend a few days in the city. If you have to travel by local train, don’t take the shortcut and jump across the tracks to go from one platform to another, use the fly-over or you might land up in jail for a fortnight; cops wait there to catch and fine you if they see you leaping over the tracks. (READ MORE)

TCs also wait on the flyover to catch you if you are travelling without a ticket. They are specially trained to smell fear hormones emitted by those who don’t have tickets. It is best to purchase a monthly pass for train, which is quite cheap and you don’t have to stand in the queue daily to buy tickets. In case you see a TC and you don’t have a ticket, just walk boldly past him with a gentle smile without trying to avoid eye contact with him, probability is higher that you will not be caught than when you try to slip past a corner by avoiding his sight.

For bus travel, it is best to purchase Rs 20/- daily ticket with which you can travel unlimited for the full day in any BEST bus up to Bandra. Buses have two doors, one at the back and one in the front, only the back door is used to climb in and the front door to get down. And you have to stand in a queue at the bus stand if you want to get a seat. In the rains, it is better to purchase a small polythene bag worth 5 bucks for your mobile lest it gets wet in the rain and you lose a thousand bucks. There is no need to go to gym, if you are traveling by bus, just make it a point that you travel standing [:P] And yes unlike Goa, there are special buses and trains for ladies only; in the first week I had almost jumped into one before realising this fact.

It Finally Happened

2009-06-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

After a long time, it finally happened. Before I tell you what ‘it’ is I have to tell you the background. So read on!

This weekend we planned to go to Elephanta Caves and also roam around a bit at Churchgate. Frankly, I am not much interested in history, so as expected I didn’t love the caves much. A few pics here and there, especially of monkeys, a snake and shops there, meditated a while there; but what really rocked our moods was the boat trip while going to and coming back from the caves, which are located on an island. This was the first time I had adventured into the sea; luckily for us, it was not raining that day; but the currents were still strong and they almost threw me off my feet a few times while I tried to stand on the deck and take a few pics. We decided to go on the top deck by just paying Rs10/- extra which were worth the amount of fun we had there. The driver even allowed me to manoeuvre the boat for a while, (when it was docked of course :P). The view was amazing, awesome, breath-taking, overwhelming, (even MSWord Thesaurus won’t provide me enough words, so let the pics say the rest. For higher resolution pics see my orkut album).

And yes, the boat trip begins and ends at Gateway of India and Hotel Taj. Earlier that day we took a few pics there.

After returning from the boat trip my friend did a bit of shopping at the Fashion street, we had ganne ka juice and went and sat at Marine drive for a while. Just then there was a drizzle, light enough for us to enjoy getting wet in it and strong enough to cause the rainbow behind us. My friend and I (both mechanical engineers) had a good discussion on how tetrahedral shaped concrete slabs, piled on top of each other, would help to disperse the stresses caused by splashing sea water tides and prevent the wall from falling. For nature lovers like me, apart from bird watching :P there were variety of crabs, (no pun intended here if it exists) and in all sizes. And finally I think I have told enough things to tell you what ‘it’ is. Unfortunately, ‘it’ happened. My DIGCAM battery got discharged, I had not charged it for a long time! I cursed myself over a hundred times for letting ‘it’ happen. So I could not take any pics at Marine Drive.

When the sun was almost about to set, we decided to retreat. I had a hamburger at Wincy and took a packed local back home. It was neither BCC, FCC, nor hexagonal packing; but worst kind of packing I have ever encountered, the density was highest I assure even without any calculations.

On Sunday we went to Juhu Chaupati, which was not much different from Colva beach, only it was more polluted as the tides brought with them polythene bags in addition to sea water. However, some things that you won’t get to see at Goan beaches are the Bombay Pav Bhaji and other chat stalls, the kalakhatta, chana masala, fruit decoraters, flute-sellers and the state-of-the-art fortune tellers, not humans but robots! (See the pic). We transformed our jeans into shorts and enjoyed the splash of waves for a while and then fed our hungry bellies at the Chat stalls.

3rd and 4th week in Mumbai

2009-06-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last two weeks literally flew past and taught me to enjoy each and every moment I live, like listening to the songs on a small TV screen in the BEST buses I travel rather than complaining about the noisy polluted streets or using the decent speed net to make 500 friends on orkut instead of feeling bored in the lab when I seemed to be making no progress on the project. Too many funny and interesting things I did and won’t be possible to blog them all, but to cite a few, I used intelligent guessing ‘correctly’ after a long time (last I used it was during GCET) but this time to shop for a given list of vegetables which looked like cubic equations in two variables- appearance and shop.

Shopping reminds me I went to Lamington Road and hunted for a few electrical items I needed for my projects, in baking afternoon sun for more than 2 hours and next day I realised that IITB has a supplier who delivers the needed goods at the lab the very next day, what a waste of energy at Lamington street, a simple phone call would have done the job! I also enquired on some online stores through emails for some materials but didn’t reveal my identity or purpose why I wanted them; they refused to give me more info about their products until their company’s MD talks to me personally, (and they insisted on this); I get a sick feeling that they thought I am a terrorist and informed the intelligence about it when I refused to give my number! If I showed you the mails, you would agree why I felt so.

Anyway I finished watching third volume of heroes and then realised I too have a special ability, for example I learnt how to control the weather- by just expecting it to rain, I could stop it from raining, (my ability is that whatever I expect never happens, if I were to expect a 100 things, 101^st thing would happen; all teams I expected to win 20-20 world cup matches lost). By the way, the long awaited rains finally came down unexpectedly on Saturday night when I was fast asleep. And yes, I got sore throat and cough and next day read on news that swine flu cases were reported in India including in Mumbai (so I ‘expected’ that I caught swine flu :P). Also I survived an explosion in the nearby fuel testing lab, 3 were killed and 4 are still in coma, (I am talking about insects, not humans ;) And yes, I got a haircut only in Rs25/- from the barber who claimed to have given Aamir the Ghazini haircut, (Aamir is apparently another boy who lives in a nearby galli- this clarification the barber gave me after the haircut). “Conditions apply, I forgot to read them!”

At home, I helped my uncle file his income tax returns (I hadn’t used excel for anything worthwhile for a long time), finished watching three movies of star wars (and talked about it with a friend who I later realised was talking about star trek!), and next day I fought five angry, barking, street dogs alone without any jedi sword. I even got scolded by a watchman for touching a gate (how could I possibly steal a gate, I am still wondering!), went to the Infinity Mall in Andheri and saw a not-so-famous TV serial actress there, so didn’t bother to take her autograph or a snap with her. I watched 'MEE SHIVAJI RAJE BHOSLE BOLTOY' a marathi analogy of 'Lage raho munnabhai', here we have Shivajigiri instead of Gandhigiri, got bored with Sudoku, so tried it’s brother ‘Kakuro’, and finally (after a long waiting) something happened in the elevator that changed my way of thinking and writing, I am probably following Pratik’s footsteps, a bit different though, this time it’s a girl next floor (more details in the next post if further developments take place, P.S: I hope I wasn’t hallucinating!!)

Bandstand- Week2

2009-06-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

After my exams finished on 14^th May, I was all set for my internship in IITB, for which I was supposed to leave for Mumbai on 17^th, but then I changed my mind and postponed it to 23^rd. It was one small decision, which changed the whole story of my internship. Had I reached on 17^th, I would have finished all the formalities before 20^th and I would have got hostel accommodation as well. But all hostel rooms got booked by 21^st and I had to stay at my uncle’s place at Vile Parle and travel everyday spending a lot of valuable(?) time and most of my energy in it. I wished I was Isaac Mendis, I would have painted my future and known the outcome of my decision beforehand. Or if I was Hiro Nakamura, I could have teleported into the past and changed it! (Courtesy: Heroes!)

Anyway, apart from travelling there was no other inconvenience I faced, thanks to my uncle. And the highlight of the week was ‘friendship’ with my four year old niece, the cutest girl I know, a blue-eyed fairy she is. Playing with her I felt like I lived my childhood again. We played “Cook and the kitchen”, “bat-ball”, “teacher-student”, “mummy-baby”, “going to the beach”, and with puzzles, dolls, cars, her cycle, etc. I went to such an extent that I got an idea for my internship project from one of her toy :P See this post

On Saturday, Divyanand, Ankit and I decided to take a break from our regular schedule and roam around a bit. We went to Bandstand in Bandra and it was finally time to put my Digicam to use.

After seeing the pics and the video, if you feel that this place is a bit familiar to you, then you are absolutely right, it was here that a part of the song “kabhi- kabhi aditi” from “jaane tu” was shot. If you can’t still recollect, see the video again, and watch carefully the para- “Tu khush hai toh lage ke jahan mein chaayi hai khushi...”

When we climbed the stairs we realised that it is basically a hang-out for couples, we saw a few live smooches, etc etc... :P We rubbed ours eyes enough number of times for the next few minutes. I was in two minds, I looked at my Digicam, but finally I decided to respect their privacy. Then we changed our focus from the couples to the beautiful scenery. The whole atmosphere was so pleasant and calm, altogether different from the noisy city life. My friends sat on the stones to enjoy the breeze, while I kept my fingers, eyes and Digicam busy. The sea was the same as it is on Goan beaches, but the rocks replaced the sand. I didn’t bother to go into the Geology to find out the reason, but just sat down and enjoyed the serenity.

It was time to leave, but we were not aware of the excitement that was awaiting us, it left me wondering whether Essel-World was in Bandra. We were waiting at the bus-stop for a bus, but decided to take an auto instead. We were four of us, a guide-cum-friend called Thakur had joined us. Rickshaws normally take just three passengers, but we were happy to find a chap who took the four of us. That’s what we thought, until the driver found another customer a little ahead and then we were five passengers excluding the driver in the auto!!

For the first time on Mumbai’s streets, traffic made no difference! Even when the road was blocked, the rickshaw kept moving. How?? Well, the lane had a divider, the left side was blocked, and to our surprise the driver drove on the right side of the lane, and that too in full speed... lol! He almost banged into four girls trying to cross the road, and remarked “Sorry se kaam chalega?” Divyanand, who was sitting uncomfortably against the exit door, suddenly burst out “Dhire chalao bhaiyya, meri aadhi gand gaadi se baahar hai” :P The whole ride was full of sparks and bursts, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing and took a pic as well.

We finally reached Bandra station and I caught a train to Vile Parle. There I did a little bit of shopping. I bought a kit for my project called “Technica”, which consisted of many small metallic bars and pipes that could be joined with bolts and nuts to form various assemblies. I also bought a game called “Bullet Train” for my niece and she liked is so much that she exhausted the battery within one day :P

First time in Mumbai?

2009-05-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

I had been to Mumbai before, but never alone. And I was supposed to spend two months in IIT Bombay for summer training. I had got a project in Aerospace Engg Dept.

Waise I am not a good travel guide, never tried that before, but I am sure my experiences would be useful for a first timer in Mumbai. Here’s the preparation that I did, apart from the mental preparation of staying away from home for two months. This is what I packed in my bag apart from clothes: My shaving kit, toothpaste and brush, soaps for taking bath and washing clothes, my digital camera, alarm clock, cello-tape and scissor, pillow cover, laptop, mobile with charger, calculator, pen, refill, pencil, passport sized photos, ruler, umbrella, a keychain, RJ45 and LAN cables, towel, comb and most important, I took printouts of two maps that I thought would be very useful, Mumbai city map and IITB campus map, which I would always keep in my wallet. They did come handy in the first week especially. Apart from this, one may take other things like a notepad, an emergency address-book in case your mobile gets lost, itch guard, medicine tablets, etc. I had a total of three bags, one with lappy, one handbag and a main luggage trolley.

Thik hai, packing-shacking ho gayi, but you can’t leave your home until you get the necessary instructions from your mother! Like don’t eat or drink anything on the roadside and take care of your wallet and other belongings when you are travelling in local train, etc...

My uncle from Mumbai was in Goa for a few days and would be going back by car, so I went with him. It was a tiring journey of more than 13hrs. I stayed at his place at night and next morning my cousin gave me a flavour of travelling in Mumbai city. We travelled in auto-rickshaw as well as local train to reach another uncle’s place at Vile Parle. I was to stay here till I got hostel accommodation in IIT campus.

It’s been over a year now since I know to drive, and I always thought I am a good driver, until I saw the traffic here during the rickshaw ride, especially while crossing the narrow lanes and penetrating the pedestrians who walk on both sides. The pedestrians have become immune to the honking and don’t give a heed even when the vehicle is one metre away from them. I believe they have wrongly interpreted the saying, “who can harm the man whom god protects himself”.

And what do I say about the local train journey. The compartment was fully packed and we had two bags each, me and my cousin. I didn’t understand what happened in those 20 secs, yeah the train stops for only 20 secs on each station and people get out as well as get inside in that much time. I had studied long back that two bodies can’t occupy the same space. But I had also been watching Heroes where D. L. Hawkins could pass through walls and objects. I began to wonder if I too had some amazing abilities and whether I had passed through men when I had boarded that local.

The next day I went to IITB in my uncle’s car. I met the Professor Pant, who’s a very nice person to talk to and I became sure that I would get a very good experience by working under his guidance. I also met the project manager who gave me a report of the previous work that had been attempted on my project area. I grasped it quickly and the same night I had my own idea ready which I would present to the professor later. The summer interns were given a separate space to sit in the lab and of course we had high-speed net access. :)

Back to off-campus activities, I learnt how to travel in bus and local train on my own within two days. It was a bit tiring journey but it helped me get a feel of Mumbai life. I’ll always preserve the tickets of my first journey.

The traffic is pretty much unpredictable in these big cities. Just one independent variable (distance) is not sufficient to know the time for riding between two cities. A drive that can take 30 mins with less traffic can take over 1.5 hrs the next day in midst of traffic. In fact there is a 3m wide lane which connects Andheri station to bus stand, to walk 10m it can take 5min.

So I usually reached home at 7pm on an average and watched heroes until it was dinner time. Exhausted from the day’s work I would fall fast asleep by 11pm. That’s how I spent my first week here, six more to go.

How Engineers Cook

2009-05-17T04:12:00.001-07:00

Well, this is an old collection. Just thought of sharing it here. This is how we engineers cook our food.

First the raw material is purchased from the vendor. This involves a bid from various vendors and the best quality eggs with least price are chosen.

Next step involves a thorough quality check of the raw materials. The raw material have to pass various tests, like in this case the viscosity might be an essential factor. Here Ostwald viscometer showed the viscosity to be 29 cP. As it was in the range 25-30 cP, the quality check was passed by the eggs.

The raw materials are put on various machines and heat treatment is given to them to produce required shape. Heat treatment is one of the crucial stages in processing as the material's strength is determined by it.

Then the finishing operations are carried out. They take care that the product has been given proper surface finish.

Then comes packaging and delivery. Here special importance is given to aesthetics as customer first tastes the food with his eyes and then eats it with his mouth.

The finished product is sent to the market.

The customer purchases the finished product and puts it to appropriate use. He then sends appropriate feedback to the manufacturer who then modifies his process accordingly if needed.

Quotes and Sayings

2009-05-16T23:05:00.001-07:00

The semester exams were over and the holidays had just begun. I was 3/4th engineer. It was time for a small get-together with all my friends in Damodars- something that had been waiting for long. So we had a splendid lunch at Hotel Anushka in BPS club, Margao. Then I had to leave, before others went to Baskin Robbins and Sernabatim beach I was told. It was a great day.

The next day, with nothing more interesting to do, I happened to open an old book of mine- a collection of sayings and quotations that I used to collect when I was in 10^th Class. I had a great time going through them. I chose a few nice ones to share with you all:

1. Courage is strange; it means you must be ready to die for what you wish to live for.

2. Of all the things you have, select the best and then reflect on how eagerly they would have been sought by you, if you did not have them.

3. Some people change their ways when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.

4. Those who hate you do not win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

5. Faith is like water- It will carry you, but not unless you swim.

6. Experience is a good school, but the fees are high.

7. The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.

8. The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

9. If you want others to keep your secrets, first keep them to yourself.

10. The actions of men are like an index to a book. They point out what is most remarkable in them.

11. The reason why worry kills more people than work is that people worry more than work.

12. Don't count how many moments you spent together, count how many memories each moment left.

13. Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts, but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.

True Love

2009-05-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

When you are in true love, all you can think is about your love. All you can see is your love, a lot of movies have used this concept. But I neither intend to discuss a script for a movie here nor am I going to write about my latest crush. [So do I have one? ;) ] Nevertheless this is a true incident that happened with me...

My cousin had been to Mysore and had uploaded a picture of a giraffe she had taken. Here it is:

It so happened that I had to answer my CAD exam the next day. I had been studying a chapter on FEM (Finite Element Method). I LOVE IT!! Actually I had also done a project in FEM using ANSYS in this semester. When I saw the picture of the giraffe I pictured a Finite Element Meshed Model of giraffe. For non-mechanical friends, presented below is FEM in two lines.

This is a model of a rectangular plate with holes. In FEM basically the whole plate is divided into a number of small elements and required analysis is done. (Now have a look at the giraffe!)

So I had to conclude that if Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head, then the guy who invented FEM must have seen a giraffe when he got the idea!!

Cheers!! So Please Protect Wild Life, who knows which species will inspire the next technological reform? ;)

Spill the beans

2009-04-10T10:53:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back I started blogging and I am pleased to see that all you readers are loving my posts! Especially my last post, received a lot of comments. So I need to thank you all for sparing your valuable time for me. Indeed your comments mean a lot to me and encourage me to post better stuff next time!

A lot of guys and gals also asked me how I edited the photo of "BITS dome on coin". I am sure all of you would love to have similar photos of your own. So I have decided to spill the beans! Yes! But only if 20 different (non-anonymous) friends ask me to reveal the secret... :) So what are you waiting for? Post a comment! No gain without pain! And this is very less pain, lots of gain formula :P

One more lifeline added, if you are a follower of my blog, you can just paste your email id in the comments. I will email you the secret asap :P So that makes it even simpler I guess :)

Then you can have your own images and I promise it's going to be fun! Till then, here are some more photos of mine...

This photo is to be posted to Sonam Kapoor along with the flowers and love letter. Wish me luck friends...

I saw that dream after watching a horror movie...

My personal car- my BMW...

Why so serious???

Someday I will become a Popstar...

Har kisi ki aakhon mein mere jaisa banane ka sapna!!!

Rangoli... :)

M F Hussain making my potrait...

My different moods... ;)

When my hostel room flooded, I didn't complain, I enjoy swimming

The day that was April 1st

2009-04-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

I have had hundreds of ambitions in life but never dreamt about being a lawyer. May be because I thought I am not so good at lying/ fooling people. But my opinion changed on 1st April 2009 when this happened.

We have a students' blog in BITS started by the journalism department where all BITSians are welcome to post their ideas that they would like to share with other BITSians. Recently they decided to start a "Pic of the day" competition. BITSians can submit pics that they have clicked but it should be based on the theme of the day. At the end of the day, the best pic will be declared as the winner on the blog.

So I submitted this pic and did a lot of propaganda that BITS dome will now be seen on Indian Rupee. "Few specimen of the coin have been kept in Student welfare division for students to view and the details can be read on Hindu newspaper dated 01/04/2009." I had not expected anyone to believe it, because since morning a lot of guys/gals had already been fooled by other pranks and when pesticides are used over and over again even pests become immune to them.

But strangely enough a few guys did fall for it. Guess they were first yearites!! One of them asked me how long it would take for the coins to come in public circulation. I told him within a month we would find these coins all over India and even bus conductors might exchange them for change. At the end of the day, my pic did win the title of POTD (Pic of the day). Yoyo!!

Now if most guys guessed that the pic was photoshoped, where did I fool them? Everybody praised my editing skills and said I am pro in using photoshop. Someone called me the topper of Multimedia Course. They still think I used photoshop. Lol! I used a website that offers a variety of effects. I just had to upload the pic of the dome and it automatically put the pic on the coin and published the pic.

So did I fool you or not?

Congress ka Jai Ho Campaign…

2009-03-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

I remember a popular story I had read when I was in primary. An idol of some god was being carried on a donkey’s back. All villagers were bowing down to the idol and the donkey thought they are bowing down at him. The Jai Ho Campaign of Congress reminded me of this story. A patriotic song like “Jai Ho” will evoke feelings inside any Indian and Congress thinks it is smart to use it for campaigning.

5 years back when BJP were in power they had committed the same mistake. They had come up with “India Shining Campaign.” They had spent an estimate of $US20 million on it and finally had to admit that due to their overconfidence and wrong slogans they lost the elections. Women dressed in sarees playing cricket made no sense to the voters. Congress is trying their luck by following the footsteps. Though they have made a more sensible advertisement, the issue remains the same- shameless use of government resources for electoral purposes. Lage Raho Congress!! :P

Let me make it clear over here that I am not a fanatic of any party. In fact I believe with the popular saying: "Politicians and diapers have one thing in common --- they both should be changed regularly and for the same reason!"

Manish Tiwari, Congress party spokesperson, said, "If one party deserves the song to be played during campaigns it is the Congress party because of its image." Seriously I have no Comments about this...

As for the opposition, they have no other work but to ridicule the actions of the government. Corollary of Newton’s third law says, for every action by the government there is an opposite opposition reaction. "This song will ensure their defeat because it will remind every Indian that millions of people still have to stay in slums because of faulty Congress policies," Prakash Javdekar, a senior BJP leader, said.

As for us voters, we can only wait and watch the consequences of the elections. As far as they say, “Democracy is where any two idiots outvote a genius”.

Crazy Ambitions

2009-03-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

As if I didn't have enough confusions in life, one more got added into the list today. My ambitions in life have changed from time to time, some persisted for a few months, and others lived only for a few days. As far as I remember, my first ambition was born in our History class (probably 5th STD) when we were taught about the life of Gautam Buddha and Lord Mahavir. :P There I was sitting in the first bench, dreaming to be the 25th Tirthankar. I wanted to meditate, go in a forest, sit beneath a tree, probably erect a shivling there and do tapascharya! When Lord Mahadev would appear before me, I would ask him to fulfill my secret wish! :) I am not joking. I had been watching TV serials like Om Namah Shivaay, Jai Hanuman, etc. during those days. :P

I had made plans to collect sufficient sand when I go to Colva Beach and bring it home. Going to forest seemed impractical, so I had decided that during the long summer vacations, I would carve the shivling out of the sand and keep it on our terrace and sit there and meditate. :P

Well that was long ago. When I look back at those days, some of these ambitions seem too childish; almost always evoke a hearty laughter or at least a smile on my face, while some of them drive me into deeper thoughts. One of them is still alive. I have always wanted to see India in the list of developed nations, before I die. I have no idea how difficult this is. But I have wanted to make my contributions in this noble cause.

Today a thought occurred to me, I wish to go and spend some years of my life in a village, and give in my best to develop it. I would strive to bring electricity, water and food in every home and educate them about contributing to a developed India. I want to live life which I haven’t ever dreamt about. And I don’t mind if I have to collect cow dung or if I have to sleep hungry in cold beneath the plain sky. I want to experience how millions of men and women do it. Probably then only I will realize how lucky I am to have such a luxurious urban life and so many people to care about me. Then only I will learn not to complain for what God chose to give others but not me.

THE ACADEMY AWARDS

2009-02-28T23:18:00.000-08:00

After a successful journey of almost one week in my life (since my last post), I present before you a few of the Oscar winning moments during the week.

The nominees for the most delightful moment are: Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 oscars, some really heated arguments and jokes exchanged with Pintoo, leap into the swimming pool after 1 long tiring week, driving our ALTO after almost one month.

And the winner is: “some really heated arguments and jokes with Pintoo”

Speech: Pintoo is one of my beloved dudes in campus. Arguments with him can last for hours together and almost always are ridiculous and idiotic, yet they have sometimes made me laugh more than I have ever in my lifetime. And the best part he appreciates some of the most pathetic PJs I have cracked. The other day I said the center of mass of his body will shift if he wears his new heavy wrist watch and he will lose balance when he jumps from one tree to another ;) err... he’s our Makadman!! And he liked the technical joke! Hehe! :P By the way, having posted all this in public, I guess I'll have to face one more heated argument (which might get physical :( ) when he reads this post!

In the category of moment of achievement, the nominees are: completing DMV assignment at 2am after some really painstaking efforts, writing my first ANSYS code successfully, topping CAD in Test1 convincingly, Winning the 16^th Trophy in RanchRush (that’s my favorite Yahoo game- see my orkut album for details). And the winner is “Topping CAD in Test1 convincingly”.
Speech: Getting a score of 57/60 was undoubtedly a dream come true when the average is just 25. Scoring more than double the average marks is a big achievement as far as academics are concerned.

The nominees for the most memorable moment are: Antony’s birthday treat at Royal Darbar, 8 guys in 1 Taxi NFS ride from Royal Darbar to BITS, Playing a pun on Antony by telling him he was OPRE topper, Watching “How can she slap me” videos. And the winner is: Watching ‘How can she slap me?’ videos

Speech: In the Dadagiri show on Bindaas channel, Esha the goddess slaps Ravi and he returns it with full force. (You can see the videos from youtube). There are some lolest videos on DC (a place to download all kinds of stuff from, in BITS) :P and the whole campus watches them and has intense discussion on mainchat. This time almost everyone agreed it was Esha’s mistake. She deserved a harder slap.

In the category of fiction, the nominees are: first kiss with my girlfriend (issshhh…!!!), driving our Alto at 100kmph, taking a 10m leap at the swimming pool and the award is bagged by “First kiss with my girlfriend.”

Speech: Fiction refers to some of the dreams that I might have

seen, either asleep or awake. : P

Almost all the times (including this one) awards in this category have been bagged by daydreaming. Well the kiss lastest for just about 20 seconds, but left memories worth 20 years. Err… and those 20 seconds will require at least 20 pages to describe, so I’ll post it some other time. :P Enough for now!

Idle Mind is Devil's Workshop

2009-02-23T00:37:00.000-08:00

A Quick intro:
(1) Why the name Random Variables?
That's because I have planned to post some Random Stuff on this blog... :P

(2) Why "kaamdhandona"?
I always believe that Humans can stay busy if they choose to be or can stay idle if they choose so. The point I want to make here is the choice is in their own hands! What inspired the title of this blog "Kaam Dhando Na" is obvious from my above statement. (For Konkani-illiterate guys, it simply means I have no useful work to do...)
It was also my long quest to start a blog that finally gave birth to this useless crap on the net (as if I didn't have enough!!)

So what do you basically do when you are idle? Eh? You Fart?? Well that was unexpected!! But most people whom I know, think of means to waste their time, ob! And then they do that thing! But I am not like that. I only think of how to waste my time, and having arrived at a conclusion, I realize I have wasted enough time thinking and I get back to work. So that's exactly what I am going to do right now, I am going to get back to my work and post something more interesting when I become idle next time! Hang on!