Simply Memoirs ...........(previously: memoirs of last 5 semesters at IIT)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

laptop gone - probably bad karma

Strangely I don't feel sad after the theft of my macbook in train.
Probably it's bad karma afterall!

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Turn white hair into black again !

The cure for white hair is large amounts of real raw natural vitamin C and other raw animal nutrients. Some websites will say copper or b vitamins.
Begin with breakfast. Alternate native guava and native papaya for breakfast. Always couple with coconut juice and thick coconut meat. The coconut meat is fat and will help you absorb more vitamins from your fruit. Say if without the fat you only absorb 30% but with the fat you absorb 90%. The fat can also be raw fertilized egg yolks or raw extra virgin olive oil or raw gata / coconut milk.

best home remedies when it comes to the grey beard treatment is to include curry leaves into your daily diet. Furthermore, you should also try to mix some curry leaves into a small amount of coconut oil and boil it, before straining it and allowing it to cool down before massaging it into your head and beard

The Indian gooseberry is another well known home remedy ingredient when it comes to grey beard treatment and all you need to do is cut the fruit into pieces and dry them. Once they are dried, you can put them in coconut oil until the solid matter becomes powdered and proceed to apply it over the hair and beard. When seeking treatment for grey hair, vitamin tablets prescribed by your doctor could also be of great help.

Indian Gooseberry  Indian gooseberry or indian gooseberry is the foremost and an excellent natural remedy for premature graying of hair. Gooseberry is a natural tonic for enriching hair pigmentation and growth. Dry the gooseberry in shade and boil in coconut oil. This will result in the formation of darkish oil that is useful for preventing and treating graying of hair.
Gooseberry water is the water in which you soak pieces of gooseberry for one whole night. This water is beneficial for premature graying and also aids in hair nourishment.
You can even use the oil directly on your beard. Massage your face with the oil. Adding few drops of almond oil will add more luster and shine to your beard hair and face.  Curry Leaves  Curry leaves consumed liberally can also help in preventing and treating graying of hair. Curry leaves provides strength and vitality to hair roots. You can either take the leaves in the form of spicy condiment or squeezed in buttermilk. You can also boil these leaves in curry leaves and used the resultant oil to massage your beard. This prevents growth of grey hair.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

FoodieBay ties up with Pankhudi

FoodieBay has tied hands with Pankhudi Foundation to generate funds for the NGO's cause. Starting November 11th, FoodieBay will contribute Rs.3 to Pankhudi for every new visitor who hits FoodieBay.com.

www.foodiebay.com is an amazing website, which lists more than 1200 restaurants in the New Delhi NCR area with menus, contact numbers, ratings and reviews. The website is sorted by zones and subzones in Delhi, so that you can easily find places in and around the locality you live/work in.

Perfect website when you are looking for a menu to order food from or when you are just looking for a new place to eat and want to check out their wares beforehand.

VISIT FoodieBay and help generate funds for underprivileged children.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

inspiring and mind-clearing speech

Good
Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to
you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving
the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become
something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days
in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one
of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your
stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be
like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about.
I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly
alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining.
Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.
Where
do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old
twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them
jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A
story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for
birthday party â€" several months in advance â€" just for the day they
will cut their own birthday cake.
I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades.
People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and
bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second
half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the
spark?
Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is
nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to
guard against storms.
To
nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and
achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is
possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to
company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are
from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success
and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force
everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't
the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up
for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore.
Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold
Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes
them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy.
They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If
you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to
interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you
practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you
cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level.
Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a
random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be
happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are
you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don't just have career or
academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I
use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your
health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There
is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is
no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable
if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far,
life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run
with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there
is no point coming first.
Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your
striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you
may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited
and alive, will start to die.
One
last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One
of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One
student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the
yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere.
This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my
job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions
on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense
criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how
will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really
temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If
we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500
weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few
classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not
programmed devices.
I've
told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too
seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms
in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must
be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness
and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment
will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If
things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely
difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this
failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel
miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers
rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades
â€" how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But
it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.
Disappointment'
s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been
frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially
relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve,
sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the
right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I
thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took
me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement,
and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a
bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the
time involved â€" movies take a long time to make even though they are
watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result
â€" at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan
â€" I had my third book to write and even something as simple as
pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help
you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously.
Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness
- this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our
country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces,
pedigree find it easier to make it â€" not just in Bollywood, but
everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few
opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to
make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement
in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and
ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people
luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and
understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by
Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the
strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers
that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get
literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have
two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let
unfairness kill your spark.
Finally,
the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older
you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice
cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot
like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique.
What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be
different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict
as your goals may not match with others.And you may drop some of
them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball
by the time they have their second child. They give up something that
meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that,
the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first,
and then others.
There you go. I've told you the four
thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation.
You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your
life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to
not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone
gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college.
But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the
same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only
through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not
just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really
need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something
cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Neend nahi hai ankhon mein

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Take a pause..... and ponder

So today is the day when i will take a bird-view of my life again.
Life is good.I am going okay.
Preparing for CFA 1,and then will be heading to London to learn more about business and making contacts.Looking forward to having a good time in london and kathmandu.
Will have to start preparing for FRM/CAT/GMAT once i come back.
Want to get into an Indian B-School this year.If that's not possible then Intl B-School next year.That's my deadline to myself.

Love is still fresh in life.
Be it from family or somewhere else!
My lil sis has entered in to RAT race.
but i guess its an important lesson in life that one has to take to appreciate the luxuries of life.
Mom dad are happy.
I am trying hard given the circumstances.
Want to stablise everything after 2/3 years.
Then i will follow the hidden passions/hobbies and will venture into newer and surprising territories.
My first priority is to stablise first,for that some more pain is in store and going by my experience, i am more than happy to bear it all.Because beyond this hill,a valley of roses is waiting for me.I know for sure ................

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Indicators

Technical indicators :
leading -leading indicators are trying to gauge price momentum from relatively recent price action, these indicators tend to generate frequent buy and sell signals and are therefore normally used in ranging markets.
lagging -Lagging indicators on the other hand are created to give a picture of where the market has been, and therefore where it is likely to continue to go.they generate less trading signals than leading indicators.
The more sensitive the indicator the earlier you will catch the move, however the more false signals that will be given.

Moving Point average:
The simple moving average is the most basic of the moving averages and is calculated by taking the past x number of points averaging them, and then plotting the resulting line on a chart.
Critics of the simple moving average argue that it is too simple in the sense that it gives the same weight to each point in calculating the moving average. The problem with this it is argued is that the more recent data points deserve a greater weighting in the formula as they are more relevant to the future price action of the instrument.

Impatience

To be ambitious is a good thing, but when boundaries between being ambitious and being impatient begin to blur, you know that you are in deep soup.
I guess its a trait which is common to a lot of IITians(i would say around 50%).
I have been in college for around 5 yrs and i enjoyed the relaxed pace of life throughly.I knew there is going to be an end to this beautiful journey, but instead of concentrating on end, i grabbed every available tiny pearl of happiness and gleefully pocketed it in my endless list of sweet memoirs.
Life out here is very different.
Industry don't love IITians as they are impatient.
They assume that they deserve more and go for it.
This results in high attrition rate and less respect.
I guess faithfulness and continuity are more important in an industry setup as compared to a flash of brilliance.
My flatmate epitomizes this thinking.
Sometimes i feel pity on him as he is too focussed on thinking about the water quality available at the next station, instead of enjoying the last remaining water drops at his disposal.In this unending process, i think he has forgotten a valuable lesson in life i.e. "LIVE IN PRESENT".

Reversal Patterns and trading strategies

An Introduction to Chart Patterns - Double Top and Double Bottom
A double bottom is also a reversal pattern in the futures, forex, or stock markets which is the exact opposite of a double top.

First lets look at the a common trading strategy for the double top. For confirmation that a double top has actually formed and that a reversal in the uptrend is at hand, a common strategy is to look for declining volume going into the second peak and rising volume on a break below the bottom of the trough which has formed between the two peaks (support).
Once these things line up a common trading strategy is to enter the trade on the break of support with a target which is equal to the distance between the bottom of the trough and the top of the two peaks projected downward from the bottom of the trough. The stop order is then placed just above the last peak.

Enter-after two troughs are gone, at the level of third trough
target- highest difference
Stop- second top crest

Charting Patterns: The Head and Shoulders Pattern

A Head and Shoulders pattern is defined by one peak, followed by a higher peak, which is then followed by a lower peak, and finally a break below the support level established by the two troughs formed by the pattern

Upon the break of the neckline support level the chart pattern is said to be in place so this is where traders will commonly look to enter a short position. Their target will be calculated by measuring the distance from the head of the pattern down to the neckline and then projecting that distance downward from the breakpoint of the neckline. The stop will then be placed just above the right hand shoulder of the pattern which is considered resistance. The idea here is that once the neckline support has been broken sellers will theoretically remain in control but if this does not happen then you are protected with a stop loss just above the nearest resistance level.

Enter-where neckline intersects the curve
target- highest difference
Stop- lower second shoulder crest

Charting Patterns: wedge pattern
which forms when the market makes lower lows and lower highs with a contracting range
trend wedge tendency result
up rising same reversal
down rising opp continuation
down falling same reversal
up falling opp continuation

Enter-upper line lowest point
target- upper line highest point
Stop- lower line lowest point

Typically seen after a big move in one direction in a particular financial instrument, flags and pennants represent brief consolidations or pauses in the market before a resumption of the trend in which they occurred.

Enter-upper line lowest point
target- upper line highest point
Stop- lower line lowest point

Charts and analysis

Price charts
Line Charts
Bar Charts
Candlestick Charts

The more times that price has touched a support or resistance without breaking through it the more “valid” that level is thought to be.

Multi time frame analysis
The same concept applies when looking at support and resistance. In general the more time frames and the longer the time frame is that a support or resistance level shows up on the more “valid” that level is considered.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

DOW THEORY

There are two basic methods that traders use in determining when to enter the market when trading the stock, forex, and futures markets, which are
Fundamental analysis
Technical analysis

Dow Theory.

The Markets Have 3 Trends
Trends Have 3 Phases
The Markets Discount All News
The Averages Must Confirm Each Other
Trends Are Confirmed by Volume
Trends Exist Until Definitive Signals Prove That They Have Ended

Finance Fundamentals

Hi
I have been in the firm for past 8 months.
It has been a unique learning experience.
I have got lot of new things in life, both
on personal and professional front.
Latest news in that i am preparing for CFA june,2008.
I am also reading a lot of finance.

So some of the posts from now onwards, will be on a topic.
I am also trying to learn trading fundamentals.
http://www.informedtrades.com/trades.php?page=freetradingcourses
this is a very good resource.

I will be copying and pasting some of his stuff in my next posts :).

LIfe changing speech

Speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the commencement ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.

"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good. Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut-out. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre at my job if those other things were not true. You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.

So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.

Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Life is complicated

Sometimes i feel life is a puzzle.

There is a pattern i am seeing in life.
Things start simple and they turn complex gradually.
They turn so complex that they start to hurt you after some time.

Job -- Start with love at first sight.Everything is so new.You like the change.
Away from the college life,away from damn blood sucking exams, money in pockets.
But slowly monotony,deadlines creep in.Ppl leave.You don't get recognition for what you do.Things become complicated.You don't love you job anymore.And Boom.You don't want to do it anymore.You want to move away !

Today, Saurabh really opened my eyes!
What the hell am i doing ? Do i want to become a slave ?
I will have to think smart. Make my goal. Make my plans.
Achieve much more.Read much more.Accumulate as much knowledge as possible.
Sky is the limit.I am not serious, that i can easily make out.
I have to be balanced. I want to be balanced.I will be balanced.

Today is the first day of my new life.I will make sure that i get what i deserve.
Here are my resolutions:

1.Start the day with energy.
2.Do the work fast, show the work slowly.
3.Take out time for study.
4. Leave office early.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Chod aaye hum vo galiyan!

So here comes my tribute to kgp (in terms of Hindi songs):

First day: Ye kahan aa gaye hum ?
mera gaon mera desh
(chip chip barsa pani....pasine ne waat lagai !)
Second day: Itna sannata kyu hai bhai ?
First month: Ye dosti hum kabhi nahi chodenge
First midsem: Loveology mein first baaki sabmein fail (lowest marks in elec in whole batch :D )
First Endsem: Mera jivan kora kagaz kora hi reh gaya!
First result: Jindgi ke safar mein gujar jaate hain jo mukaam ....
Second sem: Yahan ke hum sikandar
Second Endsem: Haari baaji ko jeetna humein aata hai
Second result: Ye kya hua ...kab hua ...kaise hua ...
Third sem: Saathi haath badana...
Third endsem:Ye jivan hai...Is jivan ka yahi hai ..yahi hai
Fourth sem: jindgi mein jinda rehna hia to kaamkar pyare..haath jod ke sab ko salam kar pyare
Fifth sem: Yarri hai imaan mera ..yaar meri jindgi
Fifth endsem:Aaane waala pal jaane waala hai ..ho sake to isme jingi bita do
Sixth sem: Apni to aise waise ..jaise ya taise ...kat jaayegi
Seventh sem:Kabhi alvida na kehna ...
Seventh end sem:Jindgi hasne gaane ke liyehai pal do pal
Eigth sem: Pehla nasha pehla khumar ...
NinthSem: Chitthi aayi hai ....vatan se chitthi aayi hai
Ninth midSem:Alvida Alvida ab kehna aur kya ...jab tune keh diya alvida
Ninth End sem: Talli ho ke girne se sikhi humne gravity
Tenth sem: Saala mai to sahab ban gaya!!
Tenth endsem: Jindgi ek safar hai suhana....jindgi ke safar mein gujar jaate hain jo mukaam ..fir nahi aate ..fir nahi aate

Here is my cgpa graph(in reference to above songs):

To wind up,Top ten things i miss about kgp:
1. Smell of CS department and sys lab
2. DC++
3. Friends/Wingies/??
4. sleepy mornings!
5. My room
6. long walks
7. my wing gym
8. Playgrounds
9. Juniors
10. Simplicity

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Nanihal

When i was a child(5-15 qualifies that!), i particularly enjoyed going to my nanaji's place !
It is a remote village in UP near kanpur,its called KOTRA.
It has river betwa flowing through it.
I particulrly enjoyed my time going to that village.We used to go to station called AIT by train.
AIT station is fmous for its awesome big gulabjamuns !!
Then from there we used to ride tanga for arnd 3 km to catch the bus to kotra.
The bus used to be filled by villagers, who used to look at us with awe(u know we were shehari babus!)
My mom used to buy me orange candies(5 paise each). I was generally amused when i saw a man for the
first time selling a gold chain for 5 rs!As the years passed i realised that all that glitters is
not gold :)
So there was a stange feeling whenever i used to ride that bus. It always seemed to me that plants and
trees on the roadside are happier whenever i am coming to KOTRA and somehow seemed dejected when
i was leaving kotra.(I still try to check this...whenever i go to kotra!!I guess no amount
of scintific knowledge is going to convince me that it happens due to wind...Me like to
be an emotional fool!)

So in village i was initiated with lavish love tht my naniji, mamajis, mamijis ,servants...infact whole
village used to shower on me! I could enter in any home in village and come out after
having sumptuous meal.
I have two brothers of my age in kotra- ajay and dipu.
We used to form an inseperable gang of three.
I still vividly remember how we all friends used to play RAMLILA in vinay's bada(the place
villagers ties their cows!).Makeup done with earthly paints and home made bow and arrows used
to give me the greatest pleasure of all time.It was so simple yet so cute...
We used to make tractors with the potters using mud.Then we used to race with those tractors.
We also used to play lattu(spintop) .There is this very interesting game in which u try to break
opponent's lattu by spinning ur lattu on it.
Then there was our dipu nanna who could have easily made to discovery channel.Unafraid of any
living creature, he used to grab them.Be it a frog,dog or a cow dipu nanna was king of all.
I still remember my mamaji(who is no more in this wicked world :( ),used to say to me-"Don't go
to the terrace to fly kite in afternoon,u will catch loo!!"
My father is very adventurous. Not only he used to fly kite, he is just an aquaholic.
Every morning he used to got to river to swim with his gang of villagers and i used to go
with him.We used to swim in the river for hours !!
Afternoons were spent in making that magical manjha(thread to fly kite).
Me, ajay and dipu used to spend hrs making the powder by powdering tubelight glass with
stone in a remote mandir outside village(mom used to freak out when she used to
see me crushing glass with gay abandon!) .Then we used to make homemade chulah and used to boil
saresh(animal fat) or potatos or rice(as it was not permitted at home .. children shouldn't play
with fire!).Then we used to mix the color,powdered glass and the glue and make a paste.
It was such plasure to rub that paste on the thread.
And it was sheer pleasure to see our manjha working, cutting kites one by one !!
Couldn't describe the joy i used to get out of those adventures.

Then we used to play tikka(It's an interesting game).Basically its a game where cards are the
two sides of a matchbox.Each card is called tikka. Its played like as follows:
1. Players hold their tikkas as a bundle,so that thay are not able to see which tikka is on top.
(As blank side face players).
2.Player1 puts the tikka at the top of his pack to the floor,showing which brand of tikka it is!
After that,Player2 also puts his tikka at the top of his pack to the floor,
showing which brand of tikka it is!If his tikka matches the tikka placed by player1 then he takes all the
tikkas accululted till now else the games goes on till a match is found.

So we all used to roam around whole village searching for the tikkas in afternoon on the roads,like crazy ppl.
Some of the ppl used to have 10000 tikkas with around more than 500 brand names , Can you beleive that ?
It was share ecstasy when we used to win tikka.
My mamaji used to go to chaupal to play shatranj and whole village used to
accumulte at chaupal to see what's going on in the game?
It was so simple !

I used to go to all mandirs with my naniji in village.
I used to enjoy standing in the trolley of my mamaji's tractor.It was sheer fun,infact big occasion for me!

Playing the cricket with cork ball on "the field"(cricket ground at kotra).
On debut I hit my first half century in 'MOOLCHANDRA CRICKET ANNUAL CONTEST' and took four wickets as well
in a 15 over match.My side consisting of kids(one of the weakest teams!) won.I hit the first six of
the tournament(i was 14 i guess then), and the ball got lost.Whole of the spectators came running to the pitch and
patted on my back.That was a special proud moment of my life.I simply treasure that moment.
After that,I came to know what instant stardom meant . Everybody in the village(speacially boys),seemed
to know me.Unknown ppl came to me and shook hands.It was sheer ecstacy for 3-4 days in my life !

Slowly the winds of change have swept both jhansi and kotra.
I have also reduced the frequency of my visits.
At both places,most of my friends have grown up and got entangled with life.
But me still a child at heart and i visualise all the good old days,whenever i visit KOTRA or jhansi.
Fortunately my childhood days overlapped with the golden ages of the both places.
And i owe my connection to my roots to those days.I know what the world is all about?I know
what is unadulterated happiness....I know who i am ..I know who i will be ...I know......

Bachpan revisited!!!

As i sit amid the high rise buildings@ bombay on my cosy falt @ 10th floor.
I see a tiny-tot on the second floor of another high-rise 25 floor bldg.
I see him looking down and wondering what's the world like ?

I seriously pity the childhood of Gen-Z children.
As far as i remember my childhood was full of 'real events'.
The TV exposure was limited to Ramayna,Mahabharat and ofcourse Heman.
Days were uncomplicated and soul was uncluttered.
I have spent about 12 years of my childhood from 5-17 in a joint family.
And it was helluva fun....
I still vividly remember me and my cousins used to get up at 5 am for Prabhatferi,
so that we can eat awesome punjabi moong ka halwa.One more privilege to be the only Brahmin
family in otherise punjabi mohalla!
My mom and dad never forced me to study.It was something which came naturally to me.
I was no bookworm..may be used to study 1-2 hrs a day!
Anyways back to the PrabhatFeri, I made lot of friends during those ferries and i used
to feel very good.We used to go to the mountaion after the prabhtferi,for a brisk walk.
Then all of us,after eating our breakfast in supervision of grandma(mind u it was not on
table and chair, we used to sit on floor or on jute mats!),we used to go to Grandpa's sweets shop.
My grandpa was a honest and hardworking man.Quite an enterpreneur himself,he came
from village empty handed and managed to have a bustling sweet shop with 4-5 properties
spread all over jhansi.He used to give all of us one rupee each everyday and we used to
look forward towards our pocket money greedily !
After eating hot,tounge-burning gulabjamuns from the kadhai itself(oh! gulabjamuns from
kadhai are like from heaven),we used to head off to cricket fields.Having 5 brothers
automatically made us a team with the eldest one being captain.He had lot of contacts all
over jhansi.So after playing numerous matches(ofcourse bets were placed on matches!).
We generally used to have abt 20 rs as net profit.
So then we used to come home have dinner and bath and then we used to bring abt 40 comics
(yes 40 comics!!) on rent.(25 paise/comics).Afternoon 12-3 used to be spent on comics(and
that explains why i believe to have good hindi skills!).We used to play cricket in hatha(an enclosure) or
pebbles(we call them unties or kaanch ki goli) with various variants like nakki-dua,tonti,gola(ofcourse all
were gambles!).Later on we used to play cards..especially flash(a version of poker), and ofcourse it involved money!
We used to play it in empty houses,schools,mountains etc etc...as gambling was prohibited at home,
especially for kids.What a thrill,we used to experience as kids!!

Then evenings were like happy moments straight from heaven.We all used to fly kites(sometime my father
used to join us in flying the kites!).The thrill of numerous penches and the uncertainities of the fate of
a kite in sky were enough to keep my aderanline pumping throughout the evening!We used to have
all kind of kites bharra(the one which makes sound when u pull the thread quickly for shot duration of time),
dagga(a big kite),punchlla(the one having a tail).We used to loot kites as well!

I think the fear and greed specially played a part in enjoying the activities.
In the night we all used to sit with mohalla guys and our eldest brother used to give us 'gyan'.
He used to tell jokes in such a fashion that even raju srivastav wil go to tatters in shame !

So that was how my usual day was spent at jhansi.

I have another set of fond memoirs of my childhood time at my naniji's place,a village
near kanpur called 'kotra'.And then we will move on to my teenage life.

I will tell u abt that in next post !!
bbye

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Bombay: City of Dreams

SOrry for not posting for long time ...
but hey i am back !!!
Well...the life has taken major turn and i am no more the student wandering in IITKGP campus but a professional :)
I can draw many similarities between my present life and my past life.
But the bottomline is that i was happy and may be i am happier now !
So I am in Bombay and lemme give u brief sketch of what the next posts are gonna be like!!

0. Chod aaye hum vo galiyan!
1. Bombay and the local trains
2. My tryst with Analyst Training
3. New bubbles in soda of life

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Dedicated to someone special

In life,we don't always thank all the ppl who have left some indelible b'ful memoirs.
I think i haven't thanked her till now,for the oodles of tiny-but-beautiful moments that we shared!
You don't always find in words exactly how u feel(more so in the words written by other people)...but today i just found the perfect match !
So here is my dedication to this 'special' person (Its the 6th opening of bleach..b'ful lyrics!)

Your fragile, folded wings
are just tired from the pure blue sky
you dont have to force your smiles for anyone
its okay to smile... for yourself

hearing your sweet voice didnt always hurt
its too late to block it from the inside
i want to take back our time
but luck and karma are against me
there are no words, but your eyes
cant hide what you want to say i dont even know anymore...
try to bury it deep down,okay?
we dont need the sky if were free to swim
even if you wont talk about yesterday
i'll still be there to meet you tomorrow

your fragile, folded wings
are just tired from the pure blue sky
you dont have to force your smiles
for anyone its okay to smile... for yourself

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Never Say Die

Sorry for posting lately!
But i was busy with just winding up the things and making sure that i get my degree right on time.I got 'A' in grad-viva(the highest grade!).So things seems to work out well.I generally post when something important like a milestone happens in my life,
something to remember, something to cherish!
Now exactly 1 month and 7 days are left before i leave this place...i am turning hot and cold with flurry of emotions.
I think i have seen,understood and fought(with my inner demons) in this short span of life as much as anybody else can boast of,on this planet.I have been to the point when once i thought life is not worth living,but thankfully i had some special ppl in my life who stood by me,even my selfconfidence ditched me.Anyways i always say 'Never Say Die' and i think that's what matters in the end....If somebody say what will be the single message that i would like to leave to the ppl in the world..it will be just three words--'Never Say Die'..infact i can write a whole essay on these three words...but for the sake of poor reading souls..let's put that thought to the rest for now!

Once upon a time,
I used to sail on clouds
Fairyland on horizon
Vibrant colors-full of promises,
used to lure me away and causing me to sway
Intoxication was akin to marijuana
so addictive,yet so unreal.
Always felt promise-land is somehere near,
and Holy-grail is mine
Don't you fear!

Success is a folly
Failure is your ally
Ah..a failure is worth multitudinous success-stories
True faces glimmer in silhouette of soul
I was Gullified that logic is everything
Perenially believed Cause causes effect
But truth says rational fools rarify truth
I run around among hullaballoo
trying to catch fireflies in deep woods
Pungent smell sticks to my hand
cuing me of my falling
I devise ways to preserve the scent
Superior olfactory sense whispers in my ear,
Don't you let it go,it's the 'ultimate perfume'

I can't breathe but i learn it.
I can't learn but i persist.
I can't persist but i remember.
I can' remember but i smell.
I smell the scent and something sparks.
Something catches fire and turn to ashes.
Don't you worry! I am a phoenix.....

Thursday, April 05, 2007

The may be .........last hurrah

Its time to turn nostalgic.
I am not a very sentimental person but uts truly been 5 wonderful years.
I have got what i expected 5 years ago and may be a lot more!
Anyways yesterday was our grandviva.For new ppl let me explain what's it all about!
A student is locked in a glass room with 8 professors.And then starts firing of questions about whetever you have learnt in degree for past 4/5 years(that means whole degree course is syllabus!).Mind you it has 2 credits and ppl get F/RE also!
Process is more like a stress interview and sometimes turns into hialrious as well.
I had a grandviva last year as well,so i knew what to expect.
I am no more shy of speaking in public appearances or presenting a ppt or one to one sessions(numerous ppts,project evals and ofcourse grandviva owe a lot of thanks from my side). I have more memories of viva going hilarious than awry!
In my viva in 4th year i was not able to tell full form of NP(shame on me,i am a computer engr!).But this time all went well as i was very well prepared.
Anyways after great gv,i was ecstatic and wanted to have a great night as well.
So i called all cool friends for a party(we call it dood party!),basically it is a booze party with all final year dual degrees from comp sc.So we 16 ppl went to LS bar(thanks to my smooth event management and zeal).
And then started the rounds of the amusing stories of the grand vivas in relam of flowing booze,to cursing,to shayaries and paan and drunkard shoutings in campus to wind up the ceremony.
Intoxication was just right...not loosing the perspective and lighten up of the things.I also noted that when after boozing a lil if u speak at the top of your voice for prolonging periods then effect remains for a longer time !
Anyways we all were intoxicated in the bonds of pure friendship,this final year has brought a lot of us very close to eachother than ever before.This might be the second last "dood party" of our college days.We will cherish these memories and may be will miss forever the gala time we are having presently in our lives!
Here are some pics from the fold:

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Life??

A hint of dazzle on the horizon
Like a new life giggling in womb
It turns bloody
and innumerable shades and colors come to fore
it seems like life
full of surprises and promise
full of zest and queer
It seems like sand slipping out of hand
The color turns into a dazzle
Surrounding turns warm
a cobweb of kinships begins to weave
spirits become intertwined
heart recognizes the aroma of the warmth
Life begins!
Tender plays cajole the soul and
never thought something can be so pious
innocent,innocuous and free of adulation
The tiny sprout dare to reach sunlight
Fool dreams of becoming giant redwood oneday
Darkness begins to engulf
Contests begin,The struggles commences and continues
Somewhere something snaps and warmth fades away
Journey seems arduous and roots rot
Oneday beautiful fairy comes,shows the way
Birds chirp and soul enlightens
Traveller falls in the vicious circle
Journey goes round and round
Destination becomes blur and world becomes vague
New cobwebs get built,sanctity gets lost
Wait for inevitable starts
Two imprints left on the sand
and tide washes it away !

Friday, March 30, 2007

The treat

Yesterday was great !
I had a great time at our job treat....
This was the first time i ever enetered in a 5 star(Taj,Kolkata)
It was simply awsome ...glittering floors...shining jhoomars ....everything just perfect causing me to visualise the grandeur maharajas used to have in their halcyon years..
We left kgp at 8 am and believe me Tavera is better than scoropio...though the morning was dull n foggy and i was just getting accustomed to lots of new faces ..
It was a nice feeling to interact with ppl i dunno before ..
So we reached our destination and i made an indelible,no work all play dood kinda impression on my senior who had flown from bombay to meet us ...but it was fun to ask questions ,out of which not a single one was realted to work ... i asked her abt tennnis table,xbox in office,net access in office,intra net messenger,discs,pubs and places to roam around in weekends,weekend tp,office tp,fun in life@bombay etc etc :D,
cafeteria etc....it was hilarious...
Anyways we got to meet lot of wonderful,talented and successful ppl and it was inspirational to talk to them and know their thought processes.
Though it was a shame that i don't drink hard stuff as bottles of red/white wines
were pretty tempting(Moreover my mom says strictly no to drinking...so ....unlucky me )!
We had a lot of banter coming back and i grew more comfortable with the ppl around !
It was exactly what i expected...may be a bit more :) !

WHO AM I? Continuation of the post below(My orkut profile copied shamelessly...i hate typing ....arghh)

I am an eternal optimist.
My fav quotes-
"Never say Die"
"BOOKS ARE THE MOST WASTEFUL SOURCE OF INFORMATION"
My fan-friend ratio is just about 1/4..check-out urs?

If you wanna waste ur time..have a look..........
Dublin internship pics n vids:
www.zorpia.com/ash4u8iit
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4081699291423131102
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=965868025757343674
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7669668516076702416
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3426605617562671152
relationship status: single
birthday: December 26
age: 23
here for: friends, activity partners, business networking
ethnicity: asian
humor: clever/quick witted, friendly, raunchy
sexual orientation: straight
fashion: casual, contemporary, trendy, urban
smoking: no
living: alone, with roommate(s), party every night
hometown: jhansi
webpage: http://kevan.org/johari?name=ashisht
edit
wishlist: lamborghini.com wishlist en.wikipedia.org wishlist kournikova.com wishlist tourismthailand.org wishlist ducati.com wishlist
edit
passions: 1.Finance{LATEST interest :) }
2.Programming in order:
java c++ c perl vb... a new addition vc++ and .net as whole ..if microsoft would have made it platform independent,i think it would have been the greatest boon for developer community....but i am not seeing it coming in near future :(..though MONO is trying to do it!
3.Cooking :)
sports: football and cricket and workout(if it is a sport)
i was a zonal athelete and cricketer once upon a time !
activities: Surfing:CRICINFO>INVESTOPEDIA>MY MAIL>TOPCODER>!!
Rest:I do a bit of everything
books: core java!!!,premchand novels,lotr,da vinci code,digital fortress,the alchemist,the day of jackal,catcher in the rye,Shock,
Sidney shieldon novels suck,
jeffery archer rocks.. presently reading some PG Wodehouse's work.....
music: SAVAGE GARDEN,shakira,nelly furtado,johnny cash,ar rahman,linkin park

i like to listen meaningful hindi songs...some penchant for romantic hindi (kumar sanu)songs also developing..courtesy(guess who)??
tv shows: Lost,Prison break,Apprentice,Joey,Two and a half men,the O.C.,naruto(japanese anime) in decreasing order of liking!
movies: Any scary horror movie or mushy romantic movie and ya i like spielburg movies eg.
Munich,TCM,Blair Witch Project,Before Sunrise,After Sunset,My sassy girl(fav romantic),ddlj,kkhh,sadma,lotr
cuisines: sliced toast with mashed potatoes and spinach(sandwich),margretta pizza
My beloved mother's and mine non-spicy category.(hey,i am damn good at cooking!)

personality test

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	46%
Accommodation	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Interdependence	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Intellectual	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Mystical	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Artistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Religious	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Hedonism	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Materialism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Narcissism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Work ethic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Self absorbed	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Conflict seeking	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Need to dominate	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%

Romantic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Anti-authority	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Wealth	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Dependency	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Change averse	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Cautiousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Individuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Sexuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Peter pan complex	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Physical security	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Physical Fitness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Paranoia	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Vanity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Female cliche	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
rarely irritated, positive, tough, non phobic, fearless, likes the unknown, self reliant, high self control, confident, trusting, strong instincts, prudent, optimistic, willful, likes parties, prefers a specialized career, takes charge, altruistic, strong, high self concept, adventurous, practical, thoughtful

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Change in the blog access!

I have been at this wonderful place for abt 5 yrs now..
I think time is now ripe to move on,to a new place where i am going to unleash all the energy i have managed to gather in my life.
Also time is not only a great healer but also knows how to make secrets obsolete.
I have managed to keep my blog near virgin for about two and a half years,just because it was too private ...it had lot of my secrets and its kinda peephole into my brain,heart and soul.
Though i must admit that i am bit of a hypocrite but in a positive way...i might say lot of things which may sound really awful but when it comes down to execution ..i am really a good mama's boy(Lot of ppl can testify that...based on their real life experiences)...Afterall how many ppl will leave the opportunity to come in physical contact with ??...(ahem ahem...:) )...
Now i think i have changed a lot as a person and as a human being so this blog mere represents my transition in last 2 n half years....Though the process has been arduous but i thoroughly enjoyed it!
i always say NO PAIN NO GAIN .....and i will always rate a self-made clerk over a business tycoon who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth...
Anyways the aim of the post was to announce that flood gates are open to my blog and visitors will see a higher google/technorati rank along with increasing number of visitors to my personal diary(which sometimes reminds me diary of anne frank !)

Monday, March 12, 2007

Pics of the most elegant & fault tolerant software i have made

I am toying with the idea of making a website where i can have a really cool looking my own website(involving flash and ajax and ofcourse touches by dreamweaver)....My old website is like an old wife(very dependable but not cool looking!)...I also want to put whetever i have done in last 5 years on this website as the advantages are numerous as i discovered in my third year intern!
Anyways here are the snapshotts of the software that won me a prize yesterday(its my first one in VC++ ...over 10000 LOC)

MIthun--The EverGreen 'Never Say Die' Phenomenon

I came across this hilarious and somewhat really thought provoking post .
Simply Awesome!

http://greatbong.net/2005/09/09/mithunism-the-religion/

DO READ IT !

luck smile yet again!

As you might have noted in some earlier post that i like to drench myself in pouring rain...i got a chance again to do that two days before when me and rajiv were returning from tech market and really it rejuvenated my zest for life!So once agin i wil reiterate-'If u feel mundane and montonous life is slowly killing the kid within ..get out in the rain without any fears and u will surely feel very close to mother nature!'
Hmm
I have been a lucky guy throughout my life and i thank almighty and my parents for their good deeds(i am reaping their hardwork'd fruits).So the latest news is i have enrolled for CFA level 1 in Dec 2007.Will be giving GMAT after two years(accumulated some material for that as well)..
Gotta prepare ...accumulated lots of study material...cfa original..schweser...and lots of books...i am also trying to study some basic finance course.I love risk management course which i am doing from VGSOM(because it provides me a different way to think apart from comp sc way!)
I want to prepare both for level 2 and level 3 as well before december.As i am student now so i want to carry on the momnetum of studies and achieve as much as i can in education in next 5 years.
I won a software development competition yesterday at OPTIMA-2007,IIT Kharagpur.The software was good but i wasn't particular enthusiatic over participating in competition.But my dear WINGI magaal helped me very much(infact out of the way) ,to make sure that i participate.
I had usual problems with winrar,viruses,no ppt,no software at presentation site,.net run time non-availability and totally unprepared and flustered approach at podium.
But still i won bcoz My software is really good :D...got 12k bucks ...earned arnd 170$(arnd 8k buck) on kasamba(as a freelancer) will be getting cheque next month ...now my own bankout has swelled up to 1.55 lacs in last year or so(not bad considering i am a student ) !!
Anyaways i liked a gal in the contest and i even talked to her(dinner) and tried to get some friendship thing going.But later i have got to know that she is commited.So still my search goes on and on!
I think she is too good a gal to even miss as a friend(anyways i am not ready to be commited for atleast three years from now !)i like her way of talking!...So i will definetly give a call to her (anyways increasing ur friend circle is always good!)
Gotta do some serious work with my mtp today !
Signing off in zealot mood
AT

Friday, March 02, 2007

babel and being cyrus

Its not everyday u get to see quality entertainment
I was fortunate enough to have a perfect entertainment day !
I watched:
Naruto HC
Babel
Being Cyrus

will rate Babel>Naruto>Being Cyrus

though all movies were good

Lost will watch in night when i will go to lab !

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

registered to technorati

just registered my blog to technorati !
let's see what happens !

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Digha Trip

It was a prolonging desire in my heart to go to Digha.
When ppl used to ask me-"Have you been to digha?"...I had to say a little ruefully-"No, but i amay go soon".Living in a wing where there is not a lot of enthu for the trips(infact,we have had no trips in last 4 years...can u believe that?)..Only sometimes me and rajiv crib a lot abt these things...other seems to be in their own worlds(call it rooms/pcs)...
Anyways we might go for atleast one trip i.e. to aquatica /calcutta.
I just came back from an absolute awkward exam of real time systems (timings:6-8 pm)and it seemed to me that i just wanna crash on my bed(i slept for 5 hrs the night before)...In pops a gtalk message..."buddy packup! we are going to DIGHA..taxi booking done"...Even though i was tired,but i pounced on the opportunity and at 3 am we headed to DIGHA.
Its abt 130 km from kharagpur..and takes about 3 hrs to reach DIGHA.Through the foggy night me,khadgi,skm,akm,mohit we 5.... did all kind of bhaat and by 6 am early morning we were at new DIGHA beach(Thankfuly we made the right choice..old digha beach is not that great ...as that is not a beach anymore....!)
We had football and cricket gear with us ...also i think DIGHA is one of the most picturesque beach i have ever been to..weather was just ideal ..
After watching the sunrise at 6 am and breakfast ...we played football for arnd 2 hrs....by 8 am we had perhaps tried all the ways to play football..so as to conserve our energy levels.After the footer we headed for a drinks(narial-paani) break and resumed to play cricket till 9:30...By 9:30 we were all sweating and ready to take a plunge(Some chic/aunty group was also in the waters now..reminding us that water is now ideal to take a plunge in).
As i am the only guy in the group who perhaps has had the luxury of most exposure to females/relationships..so barring me everybody wanted to dive in the ocean.I joined the wagon and we played bit of ball throwing,swimming and floating(using tubes) in the water.The greatest thing about the sea is that u have waves...which provide u with the enormous pleasure,whenever they thud against your body.
By 11 am most of the ppl baaring me were shivering..so we came out took a sun bath and by 12 we were again in the water ..this time we identified another grp from kgp and then started a fierce round of water polo..mohit(being the only person who is a decent swimmer,was our ace striker!)...we were totally exhausted by the end of the game(as ppl summoned all their reserve strength gained at kgp sitting idle :D ) and by 1 pm..we were tottering on our lags.
Ate lunch...and slept like babies under trees..cracking jokes etc....
Watched evening sunset and returned ...
By 9 pm we were at kgp..
I was so exhausted that even after a 12 hr sleep.... i can still feel a sweet ache in my body(and i call myself an athelete in my cv!!)..
Anyways it was a trip to remember and memories to cherish....infact that's what life is all about ...isn't it ?

Friday, February 23, 2007

how open minded am i ?

You Are 64% Open Minded

You are a very open minded person, but you're also well grounded.
Tolerant and flexible, you appreciate most lifestyles and viewpoints.
But you also know where you stand firm, and you can draw that line.
You're open to considering every possibility - but in the end, you stand true to yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

Friday, February 09, 2007

placements!

So what is the thing that fuells a youngster to get in to IIT ...prepare for JEE...burning the midnight oil and making a lot of sacrifices in due course...
The answer is the quest for a secure and bright future.......
I will suggest all the ppl who really care about their first placements....Don't come IIT Kharagpur as it follows a philosophy of not allowing companies with non-India operations to recruit(the rule is better phrased as -'Dedicated to service of nation and damning students to worse!').....
Two rub salt on the wounds ....placements at IITKGP started on 5th december as compared to 1st dec at IITM ,3rd dec at IITB,IITG and 4th dec at IITR.I haven't seen a more student unfriendly approach anywhere.
Anyways this debate can go and on ...but the soul purpose of this post is my experiences of the placement process and some of my first interviews in my life !
First of all i would like to suggest that there is no better show than "The Apprentice" ,if u want to learn the art of selling urself along with all real life education ofcourse!
At IIT kharagpur,we generally send our CVs prior to company visit by mail (about 10-15 days in advance).Then a shortlist is sent by company based on CVs and then in-campus selection process of shortlisted candidates begins on D-date.
Fortunately,During the horrendus 9th semester i poured whole 2 days to get my CV up-to-date and appealing......... i tried to compress info as much as i can in 2 pages . I even prepared a 1-page version of my CV.I must say that i have done a lot of work in last 4 years and that is clearly evident from my CV (i didn't realise this before and was even wondering ..what to write in my CV?Will I be able to even fill 1-page?)....though fortunatley,i have kept myself away from all posts and politics but i have managed to participate and win a lot of events in my life.
The result was that,i was shortlisted for almost every comapany,i applied for ....(barring Fair Issac) for on-campus selection process.
Generally at IIT it is the norm that good companies try to come as early as possible ...so by the 5th day if u aren't lucky to end up with a job ...then in high probability u have mised ur dream job(though i agree some exceptions are there!)
So on 0th day(5th dec) i was shortlisted for two firms-HLL(FMCG firm) and a leadingInvestment bank.....now i knew beforehand that i have very slim chance of making it to HLL but a fair chance at other.Here are the descriptions of the selection process with both the firms:

HLL : At 8:30 pm sharp they wanted to have a GD at VGSOM.I didn't sleep properly the night before with anxiety and anticipation.
Also i was preparing for ibank till 3 am...but as soon as i wore my formals for the first time in morning ...i felt confident and energitic.I had zero expectations from HLL(as i am computer science graduate)...so i decided to follow a zero pressure approach....Pleasently,i found MSR Swati is also there for interview(i wouldn't say that i have crush on this girl...but she is considered among the best beauties on-campus :) )....So i asked HLL rep to put me in the same panel as her ...we were given a topic for GD 'Organic vs Inorganic'.....It was hilarious ......i was applauding each and every point made by miss swati and HLL guy was looking at me unbelievingly that this guy is flirting with a gal in the first GD of his life !!
Anyways ....HLL only took 2 ppl finally (as is their history!)....and i was kinda happy that i have removed the first obstacle between me and ibank.......

Ibank:There were three profiles for which that ibank came to our campus.
Fixed income analytics--involves soft skills
Exotic derivatives--didn't have an iota of idea..what's this all about!!
Real estate--(they didn't even tell in their notice that this kinda profile exists!So the lucky ppl who forgot to fill the profile ...got this !!)

Anyways given my track record,i decided to go with FIA...which was my best bet (as of lot of other computer science students)!!The competition was fierce in this profile as compared other profiles..due to two simple reasons....First,this was a well defined profile with its head of operations also coming in for interviews...Secondly,Lot of talented,high cg ppl from comp sc,mathematics and exceptional soft skills were shortlisted here !The ratio of the number of ppl appearing to finally selected was lowest in this profile eventually .....and I think this was the profile where really the cream ppl were shortlisted as compared to other profiles where recruitment process was not very convincing ....i thnk i had the lowest cgpa among the all candidates shortlisted....but i knew it doesn't matter anymore ...it all boils down to who performs best during the interviews.I was confident that i will fare well during interviews ....as i like to think that i have good knowledge of OOP and prog lang like C++ and Java and more importantly, i was prepared.
I sailed through first interview with the head and controlled the interview for most part!The interview lasted mere 8 minutes to be precise !We were told this is going to be the last inetrview ....so i was kinda relaxed thinking that i got thru but life always spring surprises and that's where its charm lies......after half an hr ....phone rang ...we(me and dhali) were at cheddis eating maggi confident that we got thru....they called us for another round of interview called HR interview !
So finally 8 ppl were shortlisted among arnd 30 ppl for second round of interviews with 5 cs ppl,3 maths and one aerospace.....ibank has a philosophy of diversity ...
So my probability was 1/5 of getting selected finally
The 2nd interview was kinda unexpected and Dhali went first inside unexpectedly ...he came out of the interview room ...visually ruffled and hassled ....he told me---'I don't know an iota about finance and neither do u......i think this is a wasted opprtunity!'....My heart sank ..but my best friend helped me yet again ....he told me the uncomfortable questions he was asked and suggested me to atleast get those answers before embarking on HR interview process.........
Fortunately ,i had phone number of Ashish Gupta who is working at ibank and was my btech batchmate(I am a dual that means i will get a btech and mtech both at the end of 5 years !)....I rang him at 1 am....got him out of bed and asked all about his job......put all the data in the ram of my brain and went in ........................
I did OK during the interview(I will post interview details some day later)....and by the time i came out i was about 90% sure that i have made it !
My batteries by the end of day were all worn put and at 3 am i was feeling like a zombie in formals ! I came back to my room and slept anxiosuly.....At 6 am my phone rings....i picked up phone after only one ring despite in deep sleep(i was anticipating that ibank might give a call to me!!),but it was Mithun.....he asked me whether i would like to go to see the final results ..I was too tired to get up...as there were two other firms on 6th december .....so following my philosphy of zero expectations,maximum happiness....i told him-"umm......i am feeling sleepy...i have another company at 8:30 am ...for god's sake lemme sleep else i am gonna die today".....
At 6:30 am my phone rang again and i heard angelic voice of my best friend-"i am in front of notice board .....U have been SELECTED!!!!"
My joy knew no bounds ....i asked him-"what about u ?".....his reply came a terse negative ...so i felt a bout of disappointment ....we have been together for 5 years now ....and now we will have to get seperated....anyways He got placed in MIcrosoft a day later ......and i wish him very best knowing very well that he deserves absolutely best in this world !!He is someone i really admire (and i admit myself ....i think i admire perhaps noone else in this world !)......
So I landed a job of my dream...investment banking ...finance...software.....bombay(my fav city)....in front of IITB(the greatest hub of pirated entertainement in the world :D )......and absoultely minimum stress during placements ofcourse (I was lucky enough to get placed on 1st day afterall ! )
I take this opportunity to thank the almighty who couldn't have written the script of my life any better ....my family for their unflagging support and faith during tough times,when i was doubting my own abilities...and finally to my best friend Mithun for these wonderful 5 years and his inputs and teachings(which he has unknowingly imparted to me :D )......

Monday, February 05, 2007

So what's next in life?

hmm i was waiting for this from the time, i set first foot at this dreaded place !

I came here with zero knowledge about computers and leaving perhaps with my knowledge bag a touch more than full....i also learnt a lot about myself ...my limitations and the strategies which work best for me in the game of life ...personally on emotional level,i think i haven't changed much.
I am still a cold-hearted guy thanks to refusal to my first proposal 15 years(This means i was 8 at that time !) back in life and "true love" in my heart has died.....may be it will rise like phoenix some day ...u never know ...and i never bet against surprises in life :D !!
Well i had a lot of things going on,in my mind some months back !
I was torn between being a software engineeer then a manager and finally an enterpreneur and the other choice an IAS....I think i have arrived at a decision......

I have dropped idea of being an IAS... primarily because i like to believe that i am a honest men specially with money meant for poor ppl....and in my lifetime its difficult for me to see Indian beuraucracy undergoing seachange....and i don't see a way i am goiing to fit-in(ofcourse...i am assuming i have capability to clear UPSC :D)...What this will do that i will be transferred from one place to other all my lifetime...These observations are based on meeting with two DMs...
and I think i will not be happy to be in their seats!

I will like to be in field of finance for the rest of my life ....I have even started to think about a long term plan...I would like to do an MBA within 5 years from now(preferably ISB or thru GMAT)..though i am not against CAT as well...but somehow i feel i will be wasting my time studying in India for two years.
I am looking forward to join ibank and prior to that i will have a fair understanding of their derivatives market working ..thanks to the risk management course and financial mgmt this sem.I am also planning to get NCFM certification prior to joining them in 4-5 modules atleast.
I have a plan that while working for ibank, i will be in great position to prepare for CFA.....In three years i should be able to landup with CFA certifiaction....(but that will require some smart time management!).....by the end of 2-3 years from now i would like to get admission in a very good B-School and i want to study finance/investment banking ....So in 5-6 years time from now if i plan correctly and play all my moves correctly....I should be having the most sought after qualifiactions in the world.......I know these are mere dreams ...but are very feasible ....After all if u don't dare to dream ...u won't be able to realise them ...
finally after 5-6 years after that ....i would like to start-up a new firm(hopefully by then i might have lot of networking and ample amount of experience,robustness to fuel that start-up to life !!)...So conclusively, by investing 10-12 years of my life,I am just increasing my odds of succeeding ..by investing time to collect the relevant tools (btw i am 23 now)!
Don't u think my dreams are nothing but larger than life??But i sincerely believe if u dare to dream and put hardwork along with zeal and enthusiasm....You can get the most precious pearl from the deepest depth of the ocean-- called world !
The ultimate aim of my life is to bring a seachange to masses of ppl in India ...I really want to do something for them and i think in this way i should be able to bring change to ppl lives and make a difference....I see a lot of selfish corporate houses in India presently ....they might be giving employment and wages, but that's their need as well ...so i don't see that they are doing some generous work .....Basically that's generosity produced from corporate selfishness....
I am not saying that i won't be selfish ....but i will care for those ppl as well ,who might not be my employees....I want to change the face of india at its grass-root levels i.e villages...but it all boils down finally to population control...Definitely will be doing something positive to tackle this problem in future(may be a massive campaign.....bombarding all forms of media.....helping to pass a law....anything anything .....stop this population from rising!!)
I think my ultimate motive is as noble as can be thought.I am willing to do hardwork.I am willing to remain humble.I am willing to do all what it takes.Oh Lord!Give me the strength and fate to realise these seemingly impossible dreams !

Friday, December 08, 2006

The story of 9th semester!(again a long post worth reading)

The ppl who have read the story of the last(8th) semester might suspect that was the greatest roller-coaster sandwiched between 4 months,but this one the 9th read "Demon from dungeons" is surely giving a stiff competition to previous semester(both in terms of excitement,twists and emotional spectrum).
So it all started at a place far away from my motherland in a b'ful country,called ireland.My gf broke the news that she is going to get engaged and after mulling a lot about my present status of life,capability and responsiblities...i finally decided to let her go!
It seems that it was too easy for me but actually it was very tough...it might have been impossible if i happen to be in India at that time but the gegraphical difference and some new challenges in my life at that time realy helped me to reduce the intensity of blow....and i became single again but mind u not ready to mingle :) !
I decided that this is going to be the most important year in my life...as ppl say the make or break year ...the result of all my efforts in my life are going to culminate finally to the kind of job i land up with(as i have no inclination for further studies)!!Quitely i was pretty confident in my abilities but still i believe that life is a sine curve ..it has troughs and it has highs as well (so was not sure what part my fate will play)!

But as soon as i landed at Bombay on fateful 20th july ..i immediately fell in to the trough of life !Like always it was my best friend MithunD whose invlauable suggestion saved virtually my life !
I was supposed to join institute on 20th july and infact that was the day i was landing in India.The Profs in department decided to deal this trend strictly this time and latecomers from foreign internship were to be punished severly.
When i was online on 21st at Mumbai,Mithun suggested me to get some medical certificates along with me else i will be in deep soup!!
I landed in kgp on 23rd jul and came to know that there exists a real possibility that i might not be able to register for this sem!!Immediltely i was under extreme stress and was unable to sleep .....i went to BC Roy that day and also got an extra medical certificate.......I was panicking at times and met our FACAD with extremely pale face ...showed him medical certificate with my zombie like face and health and he just said-"Yours seems to be a genuine case...u r allowed to register!!"
My joy new no bounds,it seemed that gods have smiled on me yet again....When i came out of his office..just after closing the door ...i leapt in air with a silent WOOOOOHOOOO(Oh god!if he happened to see me at that time,he might be tempted to tear his hair apart)
This again reinforreced my belief that in IIT if u try to f*** with system ...system will definitely come and get u (courtesy:Chetan Bhagat source:Five Point Someone)!!

Anyways in panic mode i chose all the wrong subjects in the semester!
All the subjects involved assignments and term projects along with an extremly tough design lab project and obviously a ten credit master's project!
Total 29 credits !!
I chose following subject and i will give here the story of each and every subject...

NLP-natural language processing--This is the course i took because the prof. has history of not caring about attendance and projects.But things went wrong immediately....
the peace course turned out to be a bit too tough to handle and also assignmnt and 40% weightage to project made the course a bit tricky read "a difficult pill to swallow".
It was really a pain in ass to formulate the project for this course among all the kind of other projects going on in life !Then i mined a published paper and decided to implement it all again and get results !Though this is not an ideal way of doing a term project but i know the ppl who had cheated more than us...infact ppl directly used commercial s/w ...got results and showed them in presentation !
Finally after lot of scripts etc project was ready and after a good midsem i managed to study noting for endsems and finally surprisingly grade 'B' in the subject(i was expecting a D to be precise).

VLSI Testing and verifiaction--This was my third mistake i.e taking a subject of ISG(our facad).
Anyways it was completely poles apart to the likening of my tastes and somehow we managed to finish the project and I finally got a C.

Object Oriented Systems--This course by RK was pretty much a peace course for me as i like to believe that i know abt OOP as well as anybody but still i learned a lot form the course ...Numerous assignments were really irritating and also by god's grace we managed to finish a big extra assignment at end !
Such was the amount of load at the end that i gave my barclays capital test at 7 pm ...prepared the OOSI seminar till 4 am and mugged up economics till 7 am ....gave economics test from 7:30 am to 8:30 am, ...presented a seminar successfully(and also helped mypartner in preseting it :) ) from 8:45 am to 9:15 am.Didn't feel like studying for endsem for this exam and got an 'A' finally!

Economics--This HSS breadth was more of an underdog for me.I didn't wish to take this subject as my breadth,but somehow i got it.Since i was the only student from 2002 batch to take this subject ...it do feel awkward at times...sitting among all the juniors...with no familiar face in the class .I decided to follow 'attend the classes sicerely' for this subject.And the strategy work b'fully ...didn't have to put much effort in this subject and also didn't write much bullshit in exam(as compared to other HSS exams) and landed up with a cool swanky 'A' in the subject.

DesignLab--I was assigned a really strict prof with the design lab and since our curriculum is based on MIT so this is kinda necesaary evil of 4 credits...I was assigned to make a GUI graph library ...so far so good...i liked the idea and really wanted to make this thing extra special
So i learned whole VC++ from scratch and in the process learnt a lot about the visual studio.net.
I had to design the architecture of the software so that there are minimum possible bugs and low coupling among the modules.Also it was a really good experience to go through all the graph algorithm in deep when i didn't do an advanced graph theory course.

I wil post the snapshot of the software later.But i assure u that its one of my best creations till date.
By midsems i was just making the prototype of the software and was really frustrated with non availability of a graph layout algorithm/code on the internet.My supervisor for the project awarded me a zero for the effort till midsem and i was given a warning of getting an 'F' in the project.But i knew in the back of my mind that i will be able to finish the project just in time and might get an EX.Finally i managed to get an 'EX' after writing 10312 lines of code!!!

Master's project--The story of how i landed up with my present master's project is really an amusing one :) ! The story goes like this... that once upon a time i was working on binary decision diagrams(for poor non-technical souls... in short,it means a tough problem!) during my btech project ..and i was really pissed off working on that and hated my guide to waste my resources on such a wasteful project....so when i came back from ireland ..i was pretty sure that i am gonna ditch my old guide for a new prof.
But that simple old fellow is really a true gentleman...when i entered his office to break the news ...he smiled on seeing me and said-'Welcome Back,which project would u like to work on this time ?!' ...I was caught totally offguard....I hurriedly blureted out-'ummm....Sir to be frank with i don't like working in VLSI...i would love to work in field of networks...ur other research interest'....he smiled and said-'OK! i have got a new research scholar ...he is working on P2P ...u should contact him and formulate ur project'....so he put the ball in my court now ....
Unfortuanately ....guy suggested me a project which after reading some papers i was convinced is gonna take atleast ten years in india(groups at MIT and Stanford are working on distributed network simulator for 10 years now!!!)...on top of that he suggested that i shud have joint guides ...i told the problem to the other guide that this project is simply infeasible in 1 year and a dead end is inevitable down the road ...He tried to convince me that i should work on this project and he will defend me in the panel ...but i knew the writing on the walll and decided to revert back to my old simple guide and started working on process parameter variation...
New troubles were awaiting me on this project.....we simply didn't have the tool required to do what we wanted to do ...i corresponded with the reasearch team at univ of michigan who were working on the same thing and tried to work with CADANCE at AVLSI lab ...but all the effort turned futile and 1 month before the end of sem we were still stranded at the same point where we started the project.....
I met my guide and told him the problem that the tool HSPICE isn't licensed at IIT and hence i can't do this project ....so he suggested that i should do C programming and write my own tool to do this from scratch(now mind u .... the work is not easy !)I am a comp sc student and i was asked to look at the chip fabrication details,leakage current etc and formulate models/low power models and then code and then get results ....It's a herculean task even for seasoned campaigner in this field(EDA companies precisely do this withteams of hunderds and earn millions of dollars).
Luckily...i though smart and got the code of the PHD ...and modified it for my use ...ran monte carlo simulation...got results.... and on the D-day panel was gasping that i did so much work in just 4 months :)...i was awarded a cool EX finally and i was elated(I am really lucky !)....So as ppl say ...all is well that ends well!!

Conclusively,It was simply an awesome feeling when this semester ended ...We enjoyed the most in this semester in ourt IIT lives .....we worked extremely hard and partied almost every evening at Park/LS/PD ....me pondy sengu dhali and occasionally ravia formed the cool gang ...discussing...loathing...laughing at the ordeal called 9th semester....
I would say the biggest thing which this semester gave to me was to give me the quite confidence ,that i am ready to take anything head-on in this world.I am not afraid of extreme workloads,pressure,stress anymore ....as i have found the key to 'art of living' :D......
Comments are welcome !

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The internship post :UCD,Dublin,Ireland--part 3

So here comes the third part........ the fun and frolic part ....before that lemme give a list of things i bought
1. a 7 mp samsung digicam for dad
2. An ipod shuffle for sis
3. Nike tracksuit for me
4. Adidas shoes for me
5. Numerous clothes for sis
6. A sunglass for dad
7. Toys for siblings
8. 1 lac bucks for my dearest mom :)

I will again go to europe this summer,i think my whole experience has been excellent and i would love to get away from the scorching heat of indian summers.

Given the amount of time i had and limitations about visa i had enough time and money to cover the length and breadth of whole ireland and i utilzed weekends to visit every picturesque/historic place in ireland.
Ireland is a very b'ful and mind u .....an expensive country and fortunately,i enjoyed the best weather in ireland :)
I had a network of interns and the ppl i knew in each and every city of ireland i visited ...so i saved on accomodation and in numerous ways by the invaluable tips they gave to me.....

Here are the trips:
I visited the following places:
1.Howth
2.Dublin castle
3.galway
4.aran island
5.phoenix park
6.cork
7.bray
8.cobh

Weekend 1:
Spent in getting used to the place and also looking out for room etc

Weekend 2:

Weekend 3:

Weekend 4:

Weekend 5:

Weekend 6:

Weekend 7:

Weekend 8:

Weekend 9:

hope pics talk more than words
next post will be the last in series ......and will try to look at the intern in conclusive manner

:)

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