The Lone Warrior

This one is about a Warrior Prince who loses a battle and almost his entire army.But The Lone Warrior(...he's alone in the battlefield ... left wounded by the enemy and he pretends to be dead disguised as an ordinary warrior...) doesn't loose hope and strikes back. Its similar to - "It doesn't matter if you loose A Battle, what matters more is to never loose Hope and win The War"...

Do comment on it...since this is my first attempt at narrative poetry!

THE LONE WARRIOR

Drops of blood from his wounded arm kept trickling down
Turning the earth to a shade of red from the usual muddy brown
Alone he stood gazing at the lifeless torsos of his faithful men
The ones who stood to protect his kingdom had numbered a thousand then

Completely destroyed now, he had forsaken everything he had
Only to save his subjects from the all that were evil and all that were bad
Cruel was the enemy, unkind was fate and harsh were the Gods to him
But he went on - to save all he could, even though the chances were dim

But save all that he could was his life and something else
and all that his ears could hear were the sacred temple bells
Bells that echoed the essence of life, invoking the spirit within
To go ahead and Fight! Standing by the principle through thick and thin

His heart pounding with desire to avenge and mind as calm as the sea,
The warrior rose up from the blood soaked battlefield as swiftly as a bee,
Buzz he did not, sting he did not, and climbed up gently on his horse,
Buzz he would,sting he would, after he wins the battles and finally the wars,

And as you and I expected, the Lone Warrior, not the faint hearted, struck back
With the help of his intellect, body and the supreme spirit taking the enemy aback
Using what he called 'sparks of noisy fire' he wreaked havoc in the enemy's camp
making their superior agile horses and mighty elephants go mad and tramp

The 'sparks of noisy fire' was a gift from his friendly neighbouring kingdom
in return for all the kindness that he had showered over them and for his wisdom
They called it 'firecrackers', and the Warrior called it gift of Providence
As you may have guessed - 'something else' was nothing else, and hence,
Some call it hope, some call it tenacity, some call it belief and some call it faith
But all those who win say - 'Never ever ever ever give in'...fight to death!

THE END

The last quoted words are from SS(one of my seniors)'s reminiscence talk...the Best Outgoing Student-Medal of Excellence for this Academic Year...I liked the style in which he delivered them...so I copied that. :) Sorry for the plagiarism SS Anna!

My Worst Ever Internals

Operations Research and Automated Manufacturing Systems saved my face...I managed to get a 7 out of 8.

Heat and Mass Transfer (Remember Vaaranam Aayiram Surya!) and Mechatronics were bad with a 5 out of 8.(Again missed a 6 in Mechatronics by 1 mark! unlucky :( )

Machine Dynamics was okay with a sixer(6) (But managed that by 1 mark this time, got lucky!)

Control Systems stole the show...3 out of 8...had the teacher given me a mark more I would have atleast been on 4!

EVS - Sir was unkind this time too (probably this had more to do with my handwriting :) )..gave me a cold 4.

The toppers in each were obviously at 7 or 8...

Overall..worst performance... second time I flunked in my internals (The first one being in Maths in III Semester)...need to buck up before the hell breaks loose...But all's better said than done..Hoping and praying for the best!

Got any tips on how to control Control Systems from giving me nightmares...a paper in which even some of the best in ECE Department performed poorly last semester? Then please do share them...

On my handwriting...

Here's what people have to say on my handwriting :

The first kind:

'Looks uglier than your face' - My mom
(This one makes me feel better because I'm the kind of person who goes mad with happiness and looses sleep if someone grades my looks as 'average'; so I get too happy to know that there's something worse than my looks!)

'The person who corrects your answer papers must have been a sinner; he's/she's the kindest person on earth' - My friend

'Even a hen scribbles better than you'- My classmate

'You could have written it neatly in a better handwriting' - The kind teacher!(You are not a kind teacher......you are GOD!)

The second kind:

The marks say what they've chosen not to say!

The third kind:

They are those Gods who give me the marks as well as don't say anything! These ones are those that corrected my X and XII board papers, most of my school and coll teachers...Thank you sirs and mams...the Mech Don is indebted to you for ever!
They also include the other people who struggle to decode/decrypt my handwriting...Thanks for your concern and kindness...You are the best codebreakers and the most intelligent people on planet earth!

My take on my handwriting:
In Tamil they say - "Your handwriting is like your headwriting (something that's written on your forehead - Destiny)".
My handwriting reflects my
mindset - I am a confused person
disliking - I am lazy and don't like to write
interest and enthu level - When I like something my handwriting gets better!

My handwriting was pretty good in smaller classes when I used to get prizes in handwriting competitions (Hindi, English and Marathi)...maybe writing changes like your looks and attitude too (Earlier I was chubby, goodie-goodie and smart,my handwriting was chubby too...... now I'm lean, baddie-baddie and dumb and my handwriting is the same!)
But I don't worry coz
1. I'm in elite company..even the guy whose face gets printed on the most wanted currency notes had a bad handwriting...
2. You don't use the pen and the paper anymore...its the digital world of keyboards, pads,OCRs and touchscreens!

And I do convince my mom to award better marks to students with a bad handwriting like me...The Don likes social service (esp. to people who face the same problems as me!)

To find out if There's some correlation between handwriting and destiny keep following 'The VJ''s Blog...

Next post on my internal performance!

Manuiz and MathMagic

Manuiz

Manuiz was a first timer at PSG Kriya - a Manufacturing Quiz for people from the Mechanical, Production, Industrial, Automobile and Aeronautical background conducted by the Production Department students.

For a first timer, Manuiz was superbly organised - The quantity and the quality of questions and participants are enough to prove this statement. There was a prelims round (2 per team and nearly 50 questions) where some 30-40 teams participated and then 6 teams were shortlisted for the finals.I and P were lucky to be among those 6.My classmates SR and SP were also in the last 6.

The final round was conducted by the QuizMaster NK of final yr. Production dept., PSG Tech. And there were8 people to support him..mainly second and third years as Scorers ,Timekeepers and Operators.There were 7 rounds(the fifth round eliminating two teams)
..the longest domain Quiz that I had seen..held for one and a half hours.The question setter had painstakingly chosen and presented the questions in a lovely format.The difficulty level ranged from sitters to very difficult ones...from Mechanical Reasoning to Manufacturing Process Sequencing in types...from simple MCQ no pass rounds to risky gambling/bidding rounds for multiplying or decimating your score!

In all, Manuiz was a successful event both for the organisers (and for me too!)
I hope they conduct it every year with new features and additions...

And the special part was that the QuizMaster finished the Quiz just in time so that I could attend the finals of MathMagic...more about it follows:


MathMagic

MathMagic was another first timer at PSG's Kriya..the name says it all - 'Its all about Math' - one of the most hated subjects in the world!

I was not planing to attend it. But after the Manuiz prelims, we had another half an hour for the CAE workshop to begin...wondering how to while away the time I and my friends decided to take the Audio -Visual Quiz. But one of my friends Snu was too eager to attend this MathMagic event.He fooled us and literally pulled me and another friend to this event saying he was taking us to the Audio-Visual Quiz!

And I was afraid of Math...no not since my school..I was good in Math at school till 10th std....but in 11 and 12 I changed...It was Math that prevented me from getting admitted into the famed NIT's and IIT's (not that my Physics and Chem were excellent :P )...so naturally I was afraid to enter the hall and write the prelims test!

But when somebody pulls u in front of so many people, u can't say No! I had to do what Snu wanted us to do!So, I decided to give it a try...and we wrote the prelims. We came out of the hall in 45 min(i hr. was the time given...but we were getting late for the workshop...)The questions were interesting and kept us engrossed for minutes. I would have stayed for the whole 1 hr. if I didn't have the workshop.The last question was very different(not the typical math problem) - It went like this :
What is your favourite theorem/proof? Give reason why it impressed you(for 5 marks)...I wanted to tell about Fermat but I wasn't quite sure of it...so I left it unanswered like the many other questions!

When I was having a lunch I received a call saying I was selected for the finals of MathMagic..since I was outside it wasn't quite audible and I had to call back and msg. the organisers for the timings and place!The timing clashed with my Manuiz finals..so I called them back to ask for a special late entry ! and I was permitted.

The Manuiz stretched upto 95 min. and I thought that MathMagic would have got over by that time(great escape I thought!)...but just as the Manuiz got over I received a call from a MathMagic organiser teling me to be there within 10 min...I was the last finalist to go on stage!As soon I reached the place, I was greeted by a guy and he asked if VA was my name(When somebody disturbs you by calling you and messaging you for umpteen no. of times...you'll defintely remember that name! But these guys/gals were cool and patient...)

I get onto the stage

I was asked to introduce myself. Name, college, year, department and then I said "Honestly! I am bad at maths and don't have much knowledge about it too! It was my friend who made me come here and I consider myself lucky to get selected for this round...so please be kind to me!"

The examiners/judges

The faculty(they were the judges and the examiners too) were definitely kind to me...there was a mam who kept on encouraging me and kept on giving clues for every question that I was unable to answer(She made me answer them, instead of telling them herself!)...and there was a sir who made me reason for every answer(I was never made to give up...they kept on guiding me and even provided algorithms so that I could get to the answers easily!)

The Questions

The questions ranged from sitters (those were for me because of my special requisition!) to extraordinary ones...from finding the units digit of exponential terms to identifying dirac delta or impulsive functions(The question for this was - what is the function that describes the pain when you get hit by somebody?... Cool na!) to whether mutually exclusive events can be independent? ...to operators that can be used to obtain shadows ( Convolution was the answer...I made the grave mistake of not listening to my Control Systems teacher ..she was teaching about this topic a day ago!)

I fail to answer a sitter :(

There was a question on Permutation and Combination which I failed to answer..I blanked out..reasons:
1.P kept on calling me when I was onstage(he called because the Kriya policy says that both the team members must be present while receiving the prize money..so he needed me urgently).When a mass weighing one pound vibrates and jumps in your jean pockets, you cannot concentrate!
2.There were too many gals in front of me in the hall...and being a Mechie student I was without them for 2 3/4 yrs. in my class..so there was this fear of standing in front of gals and getting humiliated :) !
3.I didn't remember anything about P&C...so I had to think and solve it on the spot...

MathMagic rocks!

MathMagic is an innovative event that makes mathematics look more glamorous, funny and interesting!It made me browse about Maths on wiki the whole day and turned me into a Math Addict...
Keep continuing the good work PSGians! Hope you succeed in your mission of creating more Mathaholics!

PSG Tech - 'To and Fro'!

The cause

Almost half my class had left for that on Thursday night.A few had left for IIT's Mechanica'09.Some of us stayed back..coz we weren't the Aaruva Kolars(Eagerness Defectives)...n we hadn't prepared for any event like the others...we didn't make a water rocket, a glider and our contraption was in a dilapidated condition.I hadn't attended a single Tech Fest (except the online events) outside my college and this was something I was ashamed of.After consulting our seniors, a few of us had finally decided to visit PSG Tech and participate in their International Technical Festival Kriya'09...our target was a workshop - no prep needed..just go there, pay up, sit and listen, get a certificate and come back!

The 'To' part :

We set out at 2:00 a.m.(we brushed and bathed at 1.30 a.m. in the morning...our earliest morning!) from the hostel so that we could reach PSG by 8.00 a.m.As usual I was the last one to get ready and my friends (there were 5 of them - SRaj(SR),Araj(A),BondaKoli(B) and Pakki(P)..SunaPana(SP) being a day scholar came directly to Aarapalayam) had to wait another 15 min. for me. The ASO of the hostel and security inquire the reason for getting out at this odd hour and then let us out.Two policemen on a bike also questioned us (well...I look like a Don!) and advised us to take care of ourselves after they came to know that we were college students.

In the bus, I was sandwiched between P and B...poor P! I thought...I had a habit of falling over the person sitting next to me when asleep and B's snoring was intolerable(It could be heard 10 rooms away in my hostel!)...but it happened the reverse way that day...B was quiet and it was P who kept on falling over me!
For an hour we teased and talked about the topic that most guys in a coll are interested in talking about (You Know That! - The Gals) and we fell asleep...

When we woke up we were in the land of the Cherans...from Singanallur we boarded a bus to Peelamedu ..got down at PSG Tech...some of what happened in PSg in my next post...

The 'Fro' part

The delay in getting our certificates made my friends wait for 3 more hours(from 5 to 8 in the evening they waited so that I and P could get our certificates and return back with them...so I was the reason for their getting late again!)...We reached Singanallur bus station by 8.30...they waited again so that P,B and I could dine (the others had already finished that in PSG)..finally climbed onto that bus to MDU and then we don't remember anything...woke up at 2:30 and found ourselves at Aarapalayam and reached hostel back by 3.15...The End!

The Mech Don turns into a Net Mechanic

Well..I assume you might be knowing the Mech Don if you've been following my blog...That's none other than me!

I recently ventured into this job of a net mechanic...if you've been wondering what this is about, let me explain -

One of my friends had asked me for an Orkut proxy (coz our coll server blocks it..curse the Comp Sci & IT dept. guys/gals 4 that!) that would work and I suggested good old power.com - the all in one site...but it seems my friend had already tried it and the login was blocked by the server! Another of my friends from the same small remote town named Villupuram had the same problem ( Coming from a big city in Tamil Nadu named Karaikudi I always had some sympathy for those people from small towns like Villupuram )...so I decided to help them out...It always feels so nice to lead someone to waste his/her time on such activities ( why should only you waste your time on orkut, let everyone do it...nice policy of mine na? ).

So I set out to find some proxy sites for them...But I knew that this would be futile( but definitely profitable for Larry, Sergey, Eric & Co.!) since both these friends of mine were the most active users of orkut(One had 21 friends and the other jus 2 in the friend list..i had coerced him to join)...besides there was this goal of wasting their time too...

I wasted 4 hours on this(I had postponed my book touching ceremony for the second internals for this useless work ... my friends know me as the Lazy Fellow, always finding excuses to avoid work and study...I hadn't touched my books since the first internals)... and found out two very slow proxies that worked(almost useless!), but I awarded this Net Mechanic title to myself after I found out how these innocent souls could allow themselves to get spoiled through orkut using power.com itself...

I had to rob my friend of his privacy...I made him disclose his username and password so that I could use it to identify the problem...he didn't mind as long as I didn't trouble him asking him to enter the username-password everytime and I started the mechanic's analysis...(I have always been awestruck by the speed with which bike and car mechanics could spot the problems and then make a plan to burn a hole in your pocket...my dad's ill - maintained scooter n car were enough to teach me about them!)

I could not find any reason or cause as to why it didn't work for them but worked for me...so I set out searching for those useless proxies...& finally when I discovered that I had wasted hours on it I decided to focus my attention on power.com itself...I first logged in using my account and then observed carefully...then I used my friend's account and observed what happened...the only difference I could notice was the ID on the address bar which I thought made all the difference between my login occurring and their's failing...so I copied the address that was displayed after my login and pasted it on the address bar after logging in with my friend's account...and bang went out that window declaring 'Restricted Website' and lo! my friend's power.com page was on the monitor...

So this was the Eureka moment for this self-acclaimed one-time Net Mechanic (Mech Don in reality!)...this might sound like a small child's accidental trial and error method discovery for all those professionals out there..but for a networks illiterate mechie it was a moment of joy...and if you know why this happened please post a comment explaining me the reason for this in a short para...I had wasted so much time on finding proxies while I could have thought of this idea earlier...

And to T and RJ...those two not-so-Orkut-crazy friends of mine whom I wished to get spoiled, go my Special Thanks...for making me a Net Mechanic!