One month to CAT

Signs that an examination is just around the corner (atleast in IITR)

1. The weather will become just the ideal weather. Moderate temperature and maybe rainfall

2. Someone will get a book or a movie that u were looking for the past few yrs. Worst case- Someone will get a TV show, a sitcom like Friends or a Soap like Orange County which u cannot stop watching before completing

3. There will be no electricity at night when u start studying.

After a long absence, I m back. Many factors contibuted to this absence and time is not one of them. As I had holidays, I had lots of time but as IITR doesn't have internet in the rooms, blogging means coming 2 floors down to the bhawan CC and waiting for ur turn. This is too much work for a lazy guy in festive spirits and holiday mood.

Just next day after holidays, we had our mid-sems. 5 papers in 2 days. Sheer torture. It never ceases to amaze me that after every exam, I have to redefine rock-bottom. I mean rock-bottom should be an absolute term but I discovered that it isn't.

The question after mid-sems is what to do to get over them. I took one night off playing Counter Strike with a bunch of friends from 9 pm to 7.30 am. That was gr8 fun.

I remember promising that this post will not be a depressing one with the festive season going on. Hence, no further discussions regarding TS, CAT and studies.

I used the 10 days holidays to re-read Lord of The Rings. Over 1000 pages but certainly the book of the century. There is a law that Books are always better than the movies based upon them. So if u think that LOTR the movie was superb, read the book. Although there are many differences in between the book and the movies, I would like to point out a major one. In the book, Gandalf is the lead character with Aragorn being lost without him. The character of Aragorn acquires king like qualities as the book progresses. In the movie, the character of Gandalf is a bit overshadowed by that of Aragorn. Maybe because its risky to have an old wizard as the lead as compared to a young king.

On the movie front, saw Raging Bull *ing Robert De Niro in an oscar winning role. The movie is intense but a bit slow. I guess biopics are like this only. However, I prefer Al Pacino over Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro is good as a cold, calculating character like Vito Corleone in Godfather II. Al Pacino rules in roles requiring passion and communicating through eyes. I can't forget this dialogue at the end of the movie The Recruit when he looks at Colin Farrell and says You gotta give me one thing. I am a scary judge of talent.

2day there was a lively discussion between two of my friends abt why ppl pretend or why ppl fake throughout their life. The discussion started at the lunch table and continued after that too. I was a spectator throughout as I hate talking while eating. The inference was that usually ppl are so bound by the social system that they are unable to do what they really want to do. They have to keep delaying working on their passions till its too late. Hope I don't end up like this.

I just remembered that I mentioned an interview in my last post. The interview was for the post of Co-convener in our Techfest - Cognizance. When I got to the interview board, they politely informed me that the post was taken (I didn't get the logic behind it) and they would interview me for the post of Event Manager. The interview was a farce lasting only 2 mins. This might sound like a loser lamenting that he lost out because of a conspiracy.But as I am not doing nething for ne event next semester, maybe I could find time to do something which I wanter to do for a long time like Learn French/German or Guitar.

PS: Just tried posting comments on few blogs. Blogspot has started this thing of word verification. It is such a problem as sometimes the words are clustered 2gether making it difficult to distinguish the letters. Its almost like a Psychology Test in which u see what u want to see. One day I got lm with l and m so close that I couldn't decide whether it was l & m or h & n. Not to say that I failed the word verification. Made me think that am I some kind of online bot.

Can't Think of a Title for this one

How would you feel if u see 5 months of ur patient work being destroyed inch by inch within 15 minutes in front of ur own eyes. It would tear you apart from within. I had the misfortune to have this terrible experience.5 months of hardwork, toil and satirical remarks from friends all coming to nought. Before you run away with ur imagination, let me specify the incident I m talking about. The incident being discussed is me getting a haircut.

About six months ago, I decided that I'll try a long haired look. After getting a haircut on April 16 (I remember the date because it was my bro's birthday next day and he asked me to get a haircut), I started this quest. Month by month, inch by inch I could see my quest becoming a success. There were many detractors with the usual statement being - This doesn't suit u or Dude! Get a haircut. But I liked the feel of having the long haired look even though it meant regular baths, combing hair every time u leave hostel and continuous barbs.

Then disaster struck. I had to appear for an interview. Firstly, I thought that I'll go without pretending and being who I am (that's what you are supposed to do in an interview) but then realized that the long hair might be a hurdle in clearing the interview. Hence, I had to go for a haircut and see six months of my hard work come apart in front of my eyes.

For the interview, I had to dress up in formals. With short hair and in formals, I was almost unrecognizable from my look of a day ago. The remark that stung me the most after that was a friend saying : Now you look human.

Now head banging to GnR, Maiden, Metallica etc no longer has the same fun as it used to be. Head banging reminds me that finally our campus has its own rock band "Drop Dead". Just last week we had their two performances with gr8 numbers like Alive (Pearl Jam), Fear of The Dark (Iron Maiden), Megalomaniac (Incubus), Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day) etc. Head banging was so much fun then with shoulder length hair.

Now I have 10 days of Dussehra holidays. I can't go home as I have CAT prep and the institute authorities have very kindly decided to schedule our exams the next day after holidays. But with most of my friends staying back with the same reasons, it shouldn't be that bad. Seems I won't be able to have home-cooked food before Dec.

Coming to food, the student's council for mess decided not to serve bread in the mess for one month to break the monopoly of bread vendors (some price hike or something). To add to it, we are being served daliya three days a week. I don't get this. Starving students to break the monopoly of bread vendors seems to be some modern day version of Satyagrah

It has been a long post but the coming to the most integral part. Movies. I say Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi. I found it to be an abstract movie with interpretation of conduct of characters varying from person to person based on his/her perception. But it is a good movie.

With Real Madrid making a strong comeback, the next week should be a perfect one.

Just One Last Thing : My neighbour, Bong has become a zombie since his eons old computer (having the processing power of a modern day calculator) has finally stopped working. Now he roams the corridor on our floor and enters the first open room. Once he enters a room, the room occupant is sure to lose atleast half an hour of whatever he is doing. With me being his neighbour, I suffer the most. But being a good guy (don't smile), I don't mind his habbit.

Calvin & Hobbes

Convocation Day

Finally, the day most ppl dream of since entering an institute was here. The fifth annual convocation of IIT Roorkee. Time to see the seniors I haven't seen for the past semester and some I might not be able to meet for a long time. The nostalgic stories of fun, pranks etc and time to move on and leave this place for one final time.

Some juniors and friends asked me whether I will come back to attend my convocation. This question made me think. I agree that Roorkee as a place hasn't been good. Horrible weather, long classes, lots of bureaucracy, no social life etc. But are these the most important factors in deciding abt a place ? In Rke, I met lots of the ppl who changed me for better or for worse. I had the most fun I think I could have had with friends. I remember a quote I read somewhere "Experiences can be good or bad but memories are always sweet". The summary being, I would love to come back for my convocation if possible and meet once again those ppl.

I was celebrating as Convocation meant one extra day of holiday or so I thought. The classes of Wednesday have been shifted to this Saturday. This means a single day weekend. This is pure torture.

I just received a story forwarded to me by one of my friends. Its a long one but very good one at that. Hope u like it as much as I did.

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be main-streamed into regular schools. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the Perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?" The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child." He then told the following story about his son, Shaya:

One afternoon, Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"

Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya father understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.

Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."

Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should atleast be able to make contact.The first pitch came and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the ball and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted,"Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya, run home." Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.

"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash different ways of living and believing and then wonder why the world is going to hell.

Funny how I can be more worried about what others think of me than what I think of me

Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law states that

"If anything has to go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time and in the worst possible sequence"

I suppose everyone can identify with this statement atleast once in his/her lifetime. The past two weeks have proved me that this is the most applicable law in day-to-day life.

Firstly, exams. Somehow profs are always able to find the portion I am not so good at and ask questions from it. The second part of the statement also cames true with 5 papers in 2 days. All the tough papers are on the first day and the easier ones on the second day.

The exams ended on Thursday. Thoughts of relaxing and watching some soccer crossed my mind but ESPN/Star Sports have stopped live telecast of La Liga (Spanish Football). With Real Madrid losing three matches in a week, my friends are not losing any opportunity to make fun of the Galacticos.

Continuing with sports, tennis has gathered many new supporters here with Sania fever spreading around. Federer was invincible as ever even when he played below par. Hewitt and Agassi both could take only one set each off him. Can't wait for Australian Open to start.

On the positive side, I watched the complete Lord of The Rings again. Somehow, we got an uncut version with one and a half hour of extra footage. Enough reason to watch the trilogy again. More than 10 hours later, I realized that LOTR is one of those rare movies in which eveything is perfect from casting, dialogues, cinematography,story, direction etc. Now I am back to reading LOTR again.

CAT preparations are going on at a decent pace. Quantitative Abilities is proving to be my nemesis in Mock CATs and I am working on it.

Time to go back and mug up some Quants and listen to some music.