IIT-M in the summer - A Delight !

My first few days in the insti were during the summer vacation... totally new to d insti culture n lingo, hailing from a conservative place in south Tamil Nadu I din kno that I belonged to d class called kuntry... slowly I progressed into another class - pseud... hope I reach god level atleast while i leave this heaven..

Talking of heaven, this place is a haven during the summer.. a cool lush green forest in the middle of a hot, humid, grey and polluted city. Providing respite from the heat to my friends outside the campus, it soon became their favourite hangout too! Its only when I experienced this place, did I realize that the so called lesser beings are infact more intelligent than us to live under nature's care, than foolishly build our own habitats that really are disgusting. I agree that man made habitats - buildings, towns and cities are aesthetically appealing and intelligently realized ideas, but they are no match for nature..

Nature is the ultimate engineer and we do have a lot to learn from her... and we have succeeded in the past mimicking nature quite a lot of times. The insti in the summer has lesser junta, lesser pressure, more masti and everything's good... the only drawback being that there's no junta in CCD and Tifany'd during this time. So there's less to watch :(
To sum up, its a true delight - Insti in the summer!

A bad break... for a better blog!

Its all changed! I'm not working. I say bye bye to Tata once again and decide to study. Getting lucky with two admits at IITM for a masters by research program, I step into the world of research. (I won't talk abt my awesomely humiliating performance at the IISc interviews...)

A research scholar and a student of IIT-M now, my thinking, attitude, outlook towards life and my priorities, all have undergone substantial transformation... and I sincerely hope tha same happens to my blog too...

Refresh yourselves... and your browser too ;-)

The VJ is back!!!

I finally get a job! Thank you Tata!

Yes!

I finally got a job ..in the famed Tata Consultancy Services.

Thank you Jamsetji, JRD and Ratan...

Not knowing whether to be satisfied or not satisfied I waited...till March 3rd ... when the Tatas againn blessed me with a job... this time in Titan Industries Limited... a job which would satisfy me more than the TCS one coz it was related to my studies..the kind of job that I always dreamed of!

So I changed my loyalties to the Tata unit headed by Mr. Bhaskar Bhat from the one headed by Mr. Chandrasekaran!

Ultimately, its Tata that matters :P :) !

NI kicks me out! - My first job interview failure

Yes, finally a company came. And came a company that was too good to enter into, a company which I thought would not recruit anyone in this recession hit period, that too from our college and mechanical engineers - National Instruments! But they were there...
On Monday morning...it all started with a delayed Aptitude Test attempted by 160+ from the three departments - MECHANICAL, EEE n ECE.I attempted just 31 questions out of 60 in the given time period of 45 min. Most of the
The results were announced after the lunch at the end of a PPT by National Instruments employees - young men in their twenties! We had expected people from a separate HR department, much more experienced than the ones who showed up on that day - they looked like kids :P who'd just passed out of a college!
PO announces the results -
Group 1 - my name not there... :(
Group 2 - not there... :(
Group 3 - 2nd name. Oh no! Gotta go n change into some decent formals...I rush up with my roomie Braggs who also gets selected, to the room...and then off to the College Guest House where all these GDs and interviews take place usual. About 24 of us got selected. The GD was held in 3 batches. I was in the second batch.

With some talking and a lit bit of shouting (if talking loudly is shouting!) I get through the easy topic: "Higher Studies - MS vs. MBA"

I get into the next round(11 clear it) - Technical Presentation...where I presented on Refrigeration and answered all the questions thanks to my RAC internals that was held just a week ago! It got over by 10.30 Then I was into the last round - the interview. 4 of us had got selected and we got this msg at 11.30 pm...I tried whatever I could the whole night, pulled up an all-nighter and successfully screwed up the interview. Wasn't even able to answer even simple questions. Such was my level of preparation and technical knowledge.....and get thrown out of it! So are Sundar and PKS. Only Gunda goes ahead to Bangalore but then he also fails to get into the prestigious NI! FAILURE NO. 1 :)

Finally TCS saves me! (on Dec. 7 and result on 8th)Thank you TCS :)

Waiting for a good core company to take me in...

The Games Begin

The placement games have begun...the campus is buzzing with true info and rumours causing anxiety and excitement. To all those ready and confident it comes as good as the announcemnt of a holiday, but for people like me who are still in slumber, even a slight mention of that makes us twitch and our stomachs start churning.The feeling of guilt, a guilt that never should have been there, had I sincerely done my studies in the previous academic seasons.

The EEE,ECE,IT and CSE dept. guys were ready for their Hewlett Packard interview on that fateful day! And as usual Mechies were asleep waking up only when their fellow mates from these depts had woken them up at the last minute jus to borrow pencils,belts,etc.(Thats what Mechies usually have with them!)We gave them the customary All The Best sign..and were back to gully cricket, song and movie watching or sleeping...

Out of 400 of these people, 30 had been shortlisted for the technical interview, a small number indeed(going by HP's expectations....)Then they filtered them through the technical and HR rounds of interview and finally selected 11 students from our college...first time in my coll's history!

It was 2 or 3 every year preceding this, but there were 11...a good number by our opinions, but small by HP's expectations!

What does that mean for me and my mechie friends?

We smell a company round the corner!...but no, we can't tell u the time of its arrival...Keeping our fingers crossed?Meanwhile why dont we START studying?

Hmmm! Will think abt it!....

A change in attitude's what I need now!

I Turn Twenty

Twenty times around the Sun...that describes my life's journey PHYSICally (literally too!)...Twenty's the buzz word (atleast for my ears!)...the end of teenage (and of ODI's and Tests for the T20 frenzy !)

29th June, 2009 11:05pm..I turned Twenty!

Statutory Warning : Don't read this if you are allergic to philosophical writing or thoghts :) !

I realised that I had been one of those organisms on this planet that had managed to survive 20 years ... which means I'm one of the fittest. Don't forget Darwin's Survival of the Fittest! "A life as unique as any that has lived and is being lived on this planet of ours" - one sentence to describe my life! The moment signified the completion of one-third of my life going by current statistical life expectancy rates or one-fourth taking into account the developments in the medical sciences...

With the end of teenage comes a word called 'Responsibility'...for the self, family, society, nation and the world...Gone are those days...of teenage fun and mischief...But definitely its not the cul-de-sac...I'll still be considered young by the society atleast for 10 more years (or 20 (again?!!)) as life expectancy rates increase!)...coz 'Young' is the word that fires anyone up! :)

The Birthday Bums - And its the end of B'Day bums if I don't get into a PG course...the last of those hits and slaps on the back that are gifted for fun!

Twenty20 begins...n much will have happened before Thirty30 starts!

Thanking all those friends, relatives and well-wishers (now Which category does Mr.God fit into?) for their Birthday Wishes and All that they've done for me to survive these 20 years!

The VJ

M...um...Bye Indians and Kolkata's Nightmare Raiders

No I am not mocking them...it is me, a loyal fan of Mumbai Indians and the Prince of Calcutta, who is being mocked by everyone around me for supporting them.Yes, being mocked by friends, classmates and even my college juniors(the worst part, isn't it?)!

And the title of this post is not theirs, but mine ... after watching them perish in the Indian Premier League.(M..Um... - for the silence that we fans had to go through after watching them 'lose in ishtyle', Bye - for getting out IPL, Nightmare - for their performance that has being giving SRK, the team and Kolkata their nightmares, and Raiders - for their opposition in all but one match!) So here is the post centred on the laments of a diehard Mumbai Indians fan and a supporter of the Bengal Tiger/Dada.

Mumbai was a team that I thought no other team would stand a chance against. Though their performance wasn't as abysmal as KKR, their batting didn't click at all except in the first match against Chennai. The batting relied heavily on Jean Paul Duminy with Tendulkar and Bravo playing a few good innings and Nayar chipping in here and there. The veteran Sanath wasn't his usual self.The bowling was exceptional - spearheaded by the skilled Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga(known for his yorkers) with Bhajji, Duminy, Kulkarni and Bravo ... even in the absence of Zaheer Khan. The fielding was quite good - it obviously can't get bad when you have someone of the calibre of Jonty Rhodes coaching you.

The wicket-keeping department of MI wasn't impressive even though MI had the choice of three keepers - Luke Ronchi, Yogesh Takawale and Pinal Shah. The keepers' batting didn't show up in any of the games.

They lost all their games in close encounters which shows that that the team needs good finishers during chasing and needs to keep its nerve while defending. To sum up Mumbai Indians were 'so close to victory but so far from winning'.

KKR - a team badly in need of a coach (No! not John Buchannan...I would rather have the team stay without a coach ;) ) and a captain (definitely the one and only Sorav Chandidas Ganguly...none can replace him!) ... things might turn around one they do that. The team has got some good players like Dada, McCullum, Hodge, Hussey and Ishant...all they need to is to gel together as a unit and play their hearts out.

Sympathising with the exit of Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders and wishing them success in IPL-3 is

A loyal fan of Mumbai Indians and Sourav Ganguly!

PS: By the way remove those 'foren waali' cheerleaders for the Mumbai Team...bringing in the decent and desi Mumbaiya gals might help ! :P