I've been watching loads of "One Tree Hill" recently. I really like Peyton's drawings and comic strips. One I specifically admire is "People Always Leave" because I'm somehow able to associate it with my life. Here it is...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
People Always Leave
Hi all,
I've been watching loads of "One Tree Hill" recently. I really like Peyton's drawings and comic strips. One I specifically admire is "People Always Leave" because I'm somehow able to associate it with my life. Here it is...
I've been watching loads of "One Tree Hill" recently. I really like Peyton's drawings and comic strips. One I specifically admire is "People Always Leave" because I'm somehow able to associate it with my life. Here it is...
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Craziest Week - Part 3
Day 5: Tuesday
I was supposed to leave Goa in the afternoon today and travel by bus to Bangalore. However, at 0030 I got a call from home asking me to come to Mumbai by the first available flight to attent to some urgent business. It is said that "A Friend in need is a Friend indeed". This indeed turned out to be true in my case. In my time of need, both Ara and Addu came to the rescue. Thankfully, Addu had a working printer and he also at an unearthly time of 0130 contacted a cab to take me to the airport at 0500. I slept very sparingly. Having had a bath (thankfully BITS has fitted water heaters) I headed to the airport. The entire journey is like a dream to me. I don't remember anything after I took my seat in the airplane. No recollection of take-off, the flight time or the landing.
I had some breakfast at home, attended to the work I had come to Mumbai for and spent the rest of the day catching up with my lost sleep. I also booked a 0615 flight to Bangalore the following day as I had to go to work.
Since I had a 185 rank in GATE, I decided that it would be only sensible to apply to IISc, a prestigious research institute in Bangalore for higher education. Unfortunately the deadline for the online application was Wednesday, and a demand draft was required before one could apply. Unfortunately, it was a bank holiday and I could not get the draft that day.
Day 6: Wednesday
I woke up early and packed all my belongings. My parents dropped me at the airport well in time for the flight to Bangalore. Thankfully, I was awake during this flight, though still a bit groggy. The in-flight entertainment system played a Hindi movie called "Aladin" which I watched. After landing, I took a city bus to my home which took an awful lot of time to reach. Having dropped my luggage, I headed to the nearest bank branch to get a demand draft for my IISc application. Unfortunately, the printer there was out of order, and I had to take a bus to another branch to get my work done. It took almost the entire morning to get the draft. In the meanwhile, a fellow intern from my workplace called me to ask if I would be able to make it to team lunch that day.
My Engineering Manager had chosen that exact day to take my team out to lunch (:-|) I still had not started the IISc application and that day was the deadline. Half an hour after I came in to work, we headed out for a team lunch to a fancy French place called Medici about fifteen minutes away by car. We took our time chatting and ordering food. We started with starters, then soup, then the main course and finally deserts. We had an awesome time, but I was worried about my application. We got back only at around 1630. To my relief, I found that the application page was still active. I quickly entered all my details and completed my application. Phew!
My PS instructor had set the day for my mid-semester presentation and report submission that Friday and I hadn't even started on either of them. I also had to make a project prototype to demonstrate to higher managers at my workplace early next week. I started making my presentation and made a few slides, but was exhausted by then. That was about all I could manage that day.
Day 7: Thursday
Well, I basically spent my day balancing the coding for the prototype I was to demonstrate next week and preparing the mid-sem presentation and the mid-sem report. I had heard that the new PS instructor was very strict, so I had decided to put considerable effort into the report. I also sent the hard copy of my IISc application through courier that day. Luckily, I managed to complete all three tasks by the end of the day.
Thankfully, the presentation went well and my PS instructor was actually impressed with my presentation. She also didn't see anything out of place with my report (phew!!!) I still have to present the prototype (tomorrow) but I am confident that it will go well too...
Thus ended the craziest week of my life (till now)
I was supposed to leave Goa in the afternoon today and travel by bus to Bangalore. However, at 0030 I got a call from home asking me to come to Mumbai by the first available flight to attent to some urgent business. It is said that "A Friend in need is a Friend indeed". This indeed turned out to be true in my case. In my time of need, both Ara and Addu came to the rescue. Thankfully, Addu had a working printer and he also at an unearthly time of 0130 contacted a cab to take me to the airport at 0500. I slept very sparingly. Having had a bath (thankfully BITS has fitted water heaters) I headed to the airport. The entire journey is like a dream to me. I don't remember anything after I took my seat in the airplane. No recollection of take-off, the flight time or the landing.
I had some breakfast at home, attended to the work I had come to Mumbai for and spent the rest of the day catching up with my lost sleep. I also booked a 0615 flight to Bangalore the following day as I had to go to work.
Since I had a 185 rank in GATE, I decided that it would be only sensible to apply to IISc, a prestigious research institute in Bangalore for higher education. Unfortunately the deadline for the online application was Wednesday, and a demand draft was required before one could apply. Unfortunately, it was a bank holiday and I could not get the draft that day.
Day 6: Wednesday
I woke up early and packed all my belongings. My parents dropped me at the airport well in time for the flight to Bangalore. Thankfully, I was awake during this flight, though still a bit groggy. The in-flight entertainment system played a Hindi movie called "Aladin" which I watched. After landing, I took a city bus to my home which took an awful lot of time to reach. Having dropped my luggage, I headed to the nearest bank branch to get a demand draft for my IISc application. Unfortunately, the printer there was out of order, and I had to take a bus to another branch to get my work done. It took almost the entire morning to get the draft. In the meanwhile, a fellow intern from my workplace called me to ask if I would be able to make it to team lunch that day.
My Engineering Manager had chosen that exact day to take my team out to lunch (:-|) I still had not started the IISc application and that day was the deadline. Half an hour after I came in to work, we headed out for a team lunch to a fancy French place called Medici about fifteen minutes away by car. We took our time chatting and ordering food. We started with starters, then soup, then the main course and finally deserts. We had an awesome time, but I was worried about my application. We got back only at around 1630. To my relief, I found that the application page was still active. I quickly entered all my details and completed my application. Phew!
My PS instructor had set the day for my mid-semester presentation and report submission that Friday and I hadn't even started on either of them. I also had to make a project prototype to demonstrate to higher managers at my workplace early next week. I started making my presentation and made a few slides, but was exhausted by then. That was about all I could manage that day.
Day 7: Thursday
Well, I basically spent my day balancing the coding for the prototype I was to demonstrate next week and preparing the mid-sem presentation and the mid-sem report. I had heard that the new PS instructor was very strict, so I had decided to put considerable effort into the report. I also sent the hard copy of my IISc application through courier that day. Luckily, I managed to complete all three tasks by the end of the day.
Thankfully, the presentation went well and my PS instructor was actually impressed with my presentation. She also didn't see anything out of place with my report (phew!!!) I still have to present the prototype (tomorrow) but I am confident that it will go well too...
Thus ended the craziest week of my life (till now)
The Craziest Week - Part 2
Day 3: Sunday
Sunday is a day I used to wake up late at BITS. Similar... Wasn't sure what I wanted to do... Happened to check movie listings and saw that "Alice in Wonderland" was playing at INOX Panaji. Me, Ara and Voldy decided to go and see it. Voldy was hungry on the way, so we had some stuff to eat at Temptations and I had a Chocolate Milkshake (yummm!!!) and took a bus to Panaji. The movie was quite decent, Johnny Depp's acting was brilliant, and being a Disney movie, it was children-safe.
During my stay at BITS, I had always been to Panaji only when I had some sort of work, and it used to get late by the time I got back to campus. For the first time in 3.5 years did I casually stroll the streets of Panaji, actually looking about, exploring and getting the feel of the beautiful city. It was evening by the time we got back to campus.
I hadn't met quite a lot of people yet. Domi invited me to a walk in the late evening. It had been almost a semester that we had spoken in person with each other. As I discovered, a lot had changed. Back then, we were only worried about grades, but now as we stood on the threshold of our life at BITS, there were more important things to worry about. After a nice long walk around the campus (multiple times, actually :P) I finally bid goodbye and headed to my room for some really required rest. It had been a tiring but enjoyable day.
Day 4: Monday
I had still to meet faculty members at BITS. In the morning, I first met DMK sir, Manas bhaiyya and some of the CC staff whom I had worked in close coordination with just a semester back. I also met the entire CompSci gang, Era, swings, Califus, mumble, etc... - from Goa and Bangalore/Hyderabad who had come to visit campus that weekend. Don't know for what reason I treated them to whatever they wanted at Ice n' Spice. Whatever it was, I enjoyed the feeling. After some good nature jabbing and photographing Califus looking ridiculous, we split up for lunch.
Caught up with Voldy, Shadow and Ara for lunch at Shahi Durbar, also met Vigi on the way and had food with him. It was great to catch up with Vigi. We had worked together in running a WoW server one time. In the afternoon, I went to meet BMD sir. We talked a lot about the changes being implemented in campus and about other general stuff. I had already met RSJ sir in his chamber yesterday (yea, Sunday :-O) Unfortunately, I could not meet MB sir.
In the evening, I collected my yearbook (and many more for all the guys I live with at Bangalore) I spent time hanging out at Ara's room watching OMG Music Videos on DC that I had missed out on during the semester. Also downloaded a lot of the latest TV series episodes onto my 8GB flash disk so that I could watch them at leisure when I returned to Bangalore.
Another interesting thing happened today. The GATE results were due, but unfortunately, my admit card was at home, and my parents were out of town, so there was no way I could get my results unless they came back and sent me my registration number. They reached home only late evening and ended my frustration and not being able to get my GATE score. Thankfully, my GATE rank turned out to be AIR 185 (yay!)
To be continued...
Sunday is a day I used to wake up late at BITS. Similar... Wasn't sure what I wanted to do... Happened to check movie listings and saw that "Alice in Wonderland" was playing at INOX Panaji. Me, Ara and Voldy decided to go and see it. Voldy was hungry on the way, so we had some stuff to eat at Temptations and I had a Chocolate Milkshake (yummm!!!) and took a bus to Panaji. The movie was quite decent, Johnny Depp's acting was brilliant, and being a Disney movie, it was children-safe.
During my stay at BITS, I had always been to Panaji only when I had some sort of work, and it used to get late by the time I got back to campus. For the first time in 3.5 years did I casually stroll the streets of Panaji, actually looking about, exploring and getting the feel of the beautiful city. It was evening by the time we got back to campus.
I hadn't met quite a lot of people yet. Domi invited me to a walk in the late evening. It had been almost a semester that we had spoken in person with each other. As I discovered, a lot had changed. Back then, we were only worried about grades, but now as we stood on the threshold of our life at BITS, there were more important things to worry about. After a nice long walk around the campus (multiple times, actually :P) I finally bid goodbye and headed to my room for some really required rest. It had been a tiring but enjoyable day.
Day 4: Monday
I had still to meet faculty members at BITS. In the morning, I first met DMK sir, Manas bhaiyya and some of the CC staff whom I had worked in close coordination with just a semester back. I also met the entire CompSci gang, Era, swings, Califus, mumble, etc... - from Goa and Bangalore/Hyderabad who had come to visit campus that weekend. Don't know for what reason I treated them to whatever they wanted at Ice n' Spice. Whatever it was, I enjoyed the feeling. After some good nature jabbing and photographing Califus looking ridiculous, we split up for lunch.
Caught up with Voldy, Shadow and Ara for lunch at Shahi Durbar, also met Vigi on the way and had food with him. It was great to catch up with Vigi. We had worked together in running a WoW server one time. In the afternoon, I went to meet BMD sir. We talked a lot about the changes being implemented in campus and about other general stuff. I had already met RSJ sir in his chamber yesterday (yea, Sunday :-O) Unfortunately, I could not meet MB sir.
In the evening, I collected my yearbook (and many more for all the guys I live with at Bangalore) I spent time hanging out at Ara's room watching OMG Music Videos on DC that I had missed out on during the semester. Also downloaded a lot of the latest TV series episodes onto my 8GB flash disk so that I could watch them at leisure when I returned to Bangalore.
Another interesting thing happened today. The GATE results were due, but unfortunately, my admit card was at home, and my parents were out of town, so there was no way I could get my results unless they came back and sent me my registration number. They reached home only late evening and ended my frustration and not being able to get my GATE score. Thankfully, my GATE rank turned out to be AIR 185 (yay!)
To be continued...
The Craziest Week - Part 1
Okay, so here I was, working as usual, when I saw the GTalk status message of one of my friends. It said "Goa this weekend!" or something to that effect. Upon inquiring, I found out that some of the students pursuing PS2 (a six-month internship course at BITS) in Bangalore had booked train tickets to go to Goa on Friday evening.
Unfortunately, the tatkal quota was already full, and I was about to abandon the idea of going along when another person on my contact list IMed me and asked me if I wanted to go on a spare ticket she had. Thus began the almost impromptu trip to Goa and the beginning of one of the most craziest weeks of my life.
Day 1: Friday
I was excited, (a couple of months back, I could not even fathom the idea of going back to Goa) don't know why. Anyway, after a day of work and when I was just about to leave, my Engineering Manager (my Manager's Manager) comes up to my cube and starts chatting with me about random stuff... I am anxious to get out and get going so that I'm not late for the train. Anyway, I finally told him that I was catching a train to Goa that day, he let me go after teasing me about what I would be doing in Goa (yea rite!)
It is true that when you want something really bad, the world conspires to help you every step along the way. As it happened, the list was on my floor when I reached the lobby, a bus came just as I reached the bus stop and a second bus was waiting at an intermediate signal, which took me home. It was probably the record time I had clocked to get home from my workplace.
Anyway, the place I was to meet my fellow passengers... was actually 5 minutes away, but the bus I boarded took twenty minutes to reach, thanks to the circuitous route it took, resulting in my ring tone irritating my fellow passengers in the bus as I could not reach my pocket with a suitcase in one hand and the people around me in the jam-packed bus.
The station we were going to board the train at was in the middle of nowhere and we reached there thankfully way ahead of time by auto-rickshaw. After getting the platform number right and making a mental note of how obsessed a specific gender is with cellphones (:P) we boarded the train.
Some idle chit-chat later, the train reached its first station, stopped for half an hour, and surprisingly started moving in the reverse direction (O.o) and maintained that direction of travel right till Goa. We had bought some junk food to keep us busy and we finally retired to bed at about 10 pm (I think)
Day 2: Saturday
Morning chores in a train are always a bore (Note the rhyme) I woke up as usual at 0645 due to the cold morning air. My first fellow passenger woke up shortly after at around 0800. The second at around 1100 (:-|) Anyway, that's not the point. The journey was quite uneventful to be honest except for some music and solving a sudoku there was hardly anything we did.
I have always believed that life is a learning experience. Every second is an opportunity to learn new things. We all learn from our experiences (or we must) both good and bad. We were quite hungry when the train reached Vasco and we decided to have lunch at a restaurant in Vasco itself. Lunch was quite an experience in itself. No... nothing was wrong with the food, I've dined at the place plenty of times in the past. Afraid I can't say the same about the company. Let's just say I found out the true meaning of "We are known by the company we keep." Let's just say I was fortunate that I did not have to interact with certain people for all these three and a half years I spent at BITS (before that day)
Onward.... we reached BITS (I was controlling myself.... My temper does get out of hand very easily and I need to spend considerable energy on keeping cool...) Anyway, I met Voldy at the gate, smiling as always and in his Microsoft t-shirt. I support open source just as much as he supports Microsoft (:P) After settling in, (it was evening already) we went out to Nes to relive our mid-day meal after CG class last semester one last time. Maggi + Iced Tea have always been a pleasing combo and a pleasant conversation with humor surely made the evening fun. We were joined by Ara, Charlie and Pooh. Then we headed off to Mongi to meet Era and KG who had come by bus from Bangalore. Then I went to Addu's room to meet him. I watched a couple of episodes of House that I had missed, and chatted quite a lot with him about new happenings at BITS.
Later, just like the old days, we played a couple of games of Judgement with the gang. It was great fun. I wasn't too keen on dinner, but my friends quite literally dragged me to NC to get something to eat. A pleasant walk later, I was back to bed, dreaming about random stuff, as usual.
To be continued...
Unfortunately, the tatkal quota was already full, and I was about to abandon the idea of going along when another person on my contact list IMed me and asked me if I wanted to go on a spare ticket she had. Thus began the almost impromptu trip to Goa and the beginning of one of the most craziest weeks of my life.
Day 1: Friday
I was excited, (a couple of months back, I could not even fathom the idea of going back to Goa) don't know why. Anyway, after a day of work and when I was just about to leave, my Engineering Manager (my Manager's Manager) comes up to my cube and starts chatting with me about random stuff... I am anxious to get out and get going so that I'm not late for the train. Anyway, I finally told him that I was catching a train to Goa that day, he let me go after teasing me about what I would be doing in Goa (yea rite!)
It is true that when you want something really bad, the world conspires to help you every step along the way. As it happened, the list was on my floor when I reached the lobby, a bus came just as I reached the bus stop and a second bus was waiting at an intermediate signal, which took me home. It was probably the record time I had clocked to get home from my workplace.
Anyway, the place I was to meet my fellow passengers... was actually 5 minutes away, but the bus I boarded took twenty minutes to reach, thanks to the circuitous route it took, resulting in my ring tone irritating my fellow passengers in the bus as I could not reach my pocket with a suitcase in one hand and the people around me in the jam-packed bus.
The station we were going to board the train at was in the middle of nowhere and we reached there thankfully way ahead of time by auto-rickshaw. After getting the platform number right and making a mental note of how obsessed a specific gender is with cellphones (:P) we boarded the train.
Some idle chit-chat later, the train reached its first station, stopped for half an hour, and surprisingly started moving in the reverse direction (O.o) and maintained that direction of travel right till Goa. We had bought some junk food to keep us busy and we finally retired to bed at about 10 pm (I think)
Day 2: Saturday
Morning chores in a train are always a bore (Note the rhyme) I woke up as usual at 0645 due to the cold morning air. My first fellow passenger woke up shortly after at around 0800. The second at around 1100 (:-|) Anyway, that's not the point. The journey was quite uneventful to be honest except for some music and solving a sudoku there was hardly anything we did.
I have always believed that life is a learning experience. Every second is an opportunity to learn new things. We all learn from our experiences (or we must) both good and bad. We were quite hungry when the train reached Vasco and we decided to have lunch at a restaurant in Vasco itself. Lunch was quite an experience in itself. No... nothing was wrong with the food, I've dined at the place plenty of times in the past. Afraid I can't say the same about the company. Let's just say I found out the true meaning of "We are known by the company we keep." Let's just say I was fortunate that I did not have to interact with certain people for all these three and a half years I spent at BITS (before that day)
Onward.... we reached BITS (I was controlling myself.... My temper does get out of hand very easily and I need to spend considerable energy on keeping cool...) Anyway, I met Voldy at the gate, smiling as always and in his Microsoft t-shirt. I support open source just as much as he supports Microsoft (:P) After settling in, (it was evening already) we went out to Nes to relive our mid-day meal after CG class last semester one last time. Maggi + Iced Tea have always been a pleasing combo and a pleasant conversation with humor surely made the evening fun. We were joined by Ara, Charlie and Pooh. Then we headed off to Mongi to meet Era and KG who had come by bus from Bangalore. Then I went to Addu's room to meet him. I watched a couple of episodes of House that I had missed, and chatted quite a lot with him about new happenings at BITS.
Later, just like the old days, we played a couple of games of Judgement with the gang. It was great fun. I wasn't too keen on dinner, but my friends quite literally dragged me to NC to get something to eat. A pleasant walk later, I was back to bed, dreaming about random stuff, as usual.
To be continued...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Where do I go from here?
Warning: This might just be the most random post I've written till today.
It's been 21 years. A long 21 years. I've had moments good and bad, joys and sorrows, dreams... fulfilled and procrastinated. Seen times both good and bad. Made friends, lost them, gotten out of touch, back in touch, lost touch...
I really don't know the purpose of this post. Just putting thoughts down as they come to my mind. As you may have read, I'm currently in Bangalore. Bangalore brought it's own share of joys and sorrows. Brought me closer to friends from college, re-discovered the joy of spending time with older friends with whom I had lost touch.
But there's always been this thought at the back of my mind. What do I do now? Where do I go from here? At this point of time, I really envy the people who have a life plan, or who atleast have courage enough to tread unknown ground. As I was discussing with my professors from college about what they would write in my recommendations for application to graduate schools, one of them actually went on to describe my strengths and weaknesses. He called me methodical and said that I was extremely cautious about my approach to problem solving. There was nothing wrong with his observations . However, I realised that this quality was both a boon and a curse. It enabled me to employ the scientific method in all my decisions. However, when there was uncertainty, I would be left in a complete mess.
I have always wanted to be happy and successful like everyone else. However, even after 21 years, I haven't been able to find out what makes me happy and what success is to me. I have always wanted to be anything, but ordinary. But as my life continues, I realise that I'm becoming just another person who did what others do. I seriously do not see the point of pursuing such a monotonous lifestyle. I want to make a difference. To myself, to others.
I used to live life a day at a time, still do. I need to find a goal in life. Looking back joining BITS has given me an opportunity to taste real life while pursuing an internship in my fourth year. It's shown me that I need to take action, and fast. Otherwise it may just be a slide to the melancholy for me. I see no satisfaction living life as I have been living it in Bangalore for the last two months. There's a need for change, a need to achieve something higher in life than just doing what others do day after day, month after month, year after year.
What I've done these 21 years has been a script handwritten by me and executed to perfection with help from everyone who's been associated with me. Now comes the challenge. The script ends here. Time to make a fresh start, a new beginning. So long all!
As a final note, this post made me realise that I had named my blog aptly back when I started writing it in 2007. This post defines the theme of my blog.....
PS: Most of my Saturdays are spent brewing up this sort of crap... Sad really...
It's been 21 years. A long 21 years. I've had moments good and bad, joys and sorrows, dreams... fulfilled and procrastinated. Seen times both good and bad. Made friends, lost them, gotten out of touch, back in touch, lost touch...
I really don't know the purpose of this post. Just putting thoughts down as they come to my mind. As you may have read, I'm currently in Bangalore. Bangalore brought it's own share of joys and sorrows. Brought me closer to friends from college, re-discovered the joy of spending time with older friends with whom I had lost touch.
But there's always been this thought at the back of my mind. What do I do now? Where do I go from here? At this point of time, I really envy the people who have a life plan, or who atleast have courage enough to tread unknown ground. As I was discussing with my professors from college about what they would write in my recommendations for application to graduate schools, one of them actually went on to describe my strengths and weaknesses. He called me methodical and said that I was extremely cautious about my approach to problem solving. There was nothing wrong with his observations . However, I realised that this quality was both a boon and a curse. It enabled me to employ the scientific method in all my decisions. However, when there was uncertainty, I would be left in a complete mess.
I have always wanted to be happy and successful like everyone else. However, even after 21 years, I haven't been able to find out what makes me happy and what success is to me. I have always wanted to be anything, but ordinary. But as my life continues, I realise that I'm becoming just another person who did what others do. I seriously do not see the point of pursuing such a monotonous lifestyle. I want to make a difference. To myself, to others.
I used to live life a day at a time, still do. I need to find a goal in life. Looking back joining BITS has given me an opportunity to taste real life while pursuing an internship in my fourth year. It's shown me that I need to take action, and fast. Otherwise it may just be a slide to the melancholy for me. I see no satisfaction living life as I have been living it in Bangalore for the last two months. There's a need for change, a need to achieve something higher in life than just doing what others do day after day, month after month, year after year.
What I've done these 21 years has been a script handwritten by me and executed to perfection with help from everyone who's been associated with me. Now comes the challenge. The script ends here. Time to make a fresh start, a new beginning. So long all!
As a final note, this post made me realise that I had named my blog aptly back when I started writing it in 2007. This post defines the theme of my blog.....
PS: Most of my Saturdays are spent brewing up this sort of crap... Sad really...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)