Monday, February 16, 2004
Completely Absurd Thoughts
Prologue: What follows actually started as a mail I wanted to send to my class group from school. I don't really know what happened in the middle, but I realised that this is as good a material for a post as any other; so I am just posting this. As one may quite naturally expect, this is not how my schoolmates read it...I added the required punctuation, and removed the personal references to my friends. (standard disclaimer ;-P). End of Prologue
Well, the "toughest CAT in ten years" is finally over....about the part in the quotes, that's what I heard was said in the newspapers today. Well, I don't know how tough it really was this year in comparision to the previous years, but all I can say is that I found it to be tough - at least slightly tougher than the last time I wrote it in November. It might as well be due to the fact that I haven't done any-, repeat any-thing this time when compared to last time, when I at least did some 4-5 Mock-CAT papers. So, I would rather assign the cause of my finding the paper tough to my not preparing well, than to the paper being set that way by the powers-that-be in the CAT Committee.
I know that most of you must have been irritated by now by my rambling on the toughness of the paper when I could have just gotten (is that a legit word?) to the point and just told you people how I did in the test. I seem to have done well, going by what has been doing the rounds here as to junta's scores in IIT-M at least. I seem to have scored 66 marks from 81 attempts, following the TIME pattern of scoring; it remains to be seen whether the IIMs also follow the same pattern while they evaluate the papers or not.....
Now, the apparantly high score I scored has started a wave of ribbing aimed at me in my hostel: people calling me "God" and what not. I agree that all this must be good to a man's ego, but when you know that not one of all those who say this means it when he says it, the knowledge rather takes the high out of these 'compliments'. Anyway, I am prepared now to accept all the same kind of 'appreciation' from u, dear readers - my friends - as I am sure that most of you mean it when you guys call me a 'God'. So, people, keep all those compliments coming. From my side, I promise you all that I will keep this flow of hopefully-interesting-to-read posts going on and on until I die of boredom....or from any other supra-natural causes resulting from any one of my harassed readers......till then....keep reading......
Epilogue: After having gone through the post for proof-reading before publishing, I noticed a similarity in this post and the one in which I told you of my admission into the Ohio State University: I am shamelessly asking you all to congratulate me on some measly thing I did, something I am sure anyone of you could have done before me. This brings on a philosophical thought process onto me. I shall, however refrain from adding anymore to this post; you can expect some philosophizing from me sometime later maybe. For now, I am the attention-hungry child.....:-P
Well, the "toughest CAT in ten years" is finally over....about the part in the quotes, that's what I heard was said in the newspapers today. Well, I don't know how tough it really was this year in comparision to the previous years, but all I can say is that I found it to be tough - at least slightly tougher than the last time I wrote it in November. It might as well be due to the fact that I haven't done any-, repeat any-thing this time when compared to last time, when I at least did some 4-5 Mock-CAT papers. So, I would rather assign the cause of my finding the paper tough to my not preparing well, than to the paper being set that way by the powers-that-be in the CAT Committee.
I know that most of you must have been irritated by now by my rambling on the toughness of the paper when I could have just gotten (is that a legit word?) to the point and just told you people how I did in the test. I seem to have done well, going by what has been doing the rounds here as to junta's scores in IIT-M at least. I seem to have scored 66 marks from 81 attempts, following the TIME pattern of scoring; it remains to be seen whether the IIMs also follow the same pattern while they evaluate the papers or not.....
Now, the apparantly high score I scored has started a wave of ribbing aimed at me in my hostel: people calling me "God" and what not. I agree that all this must be good to a man's ego, but when you know that not one of all those who say this means it when he says it, the knowledge rather takes the high out of these 'compliments'. Anyway, I am prepared now to accept all the same kind of 'appreciation' from u, dear readers - my friends - as I am sure that most of you mean it when you guys call me a 'God'. So, people, keep all those compliments coming. From my side, I promise you all that I will keep this flow of hopefully-interesting-to-read posts going on and on until I die of boredom....or from any other supra-natural causes resulting from any one of my harassed readers......till then....keep reading......
Epilogue: After having gone through the post for proof-reading before publishing, I noticed a similarity in this post and the one in which I told you of my admission into the Ohio State University: I am shamelessly asking you all to congratulate me on some measly thing I did, something I am sure anyone of you could have done before me. This brings on a philosophical thought process onto me. I shall, however refrain from adding anymore to this post; you can expect some philosophizing from me sometime later maybe. For now, I am the attention-hungry child.....:-P
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Back into the Wilderness....
Ever wondered why people say that 'so-and-so' is back into such-and-such field from the wilderness? Always makes me wonder...I mean, what is the significance of this wilderness? Convention says (or so I expect it to say) that this wilderness is some place where you are lost to others in the world, accessible only to yourself, with no one bothering you. So, is this place really worth being called the wilderness? A place where you are by yourself, able to contemplate and introspect, leading a simple life, away from all (at least most) of the worries that form that shoulder-stooping burden you are, well, burdened with - can you call it the wilderness? So, I guess the phrase should be 'so-and-so' is returning to the wilderness of such-and-such field.
Take the 'real' world, the world 'out there'. Is it really so safe compared to the literal wilderness, with all its wild beasts? I hardly think so. We have more than our share of the wolves and foxes waiting to just pounce upon us at the first available opportunity. I find too much cynicism here in the world and hence more of a lost feeling than when I am with myself, doing nothing - not even thinking. Maybe I am also cynical - well, cut out that "maybe", I am cynical - but, what is it that makes so many of us 'watch out for ourselves'? Beats me......
If you are wondering where this is going, dear reader, I can't help you because I don't know the answer myself. The actual reason I started writing all this bullshit above was 'coz I was coming back to blogging after a long break and was thinking of an appropriate title for this post and hit on what you see at the top - that just got me rolling and since I am stuck here, I shall stop for now. Anyway, I am happy to tell you all that I got an admit into the PhD program in Mechanical Engineering at the Ohio State University. I am pleasantly surprised myself, and of course, I accept all the congratulations that may come my way now - perhaps that is what people call wishful thinking. I can't imagine myself doing all that work needed for a PhD, but maybe I can manage it. But I am sure that I can't ever get used to having a "Dr." before my name.
Well, not much time to blog now, got my CAT tomorrow, and I haven't yet seen anyone with as pathetic a preparation as mine. So I got to get my ass off from in front of the computer and head to some temples and try to get the Big One on my side before it is to late. See ya all folks.......
Take the 'real' world, the world 'out there'. Is it really so safe compared to the literal wilderness, with all its wild beasts? I hardly think so. We have more than our share of the wolves and foxes waiting to just pounce upon us at the first available opportunity. I find too much cynicism here in the world and hence more of a lost feeling than when I am with myself, doing nothing - not even thinking. Maybe I am also cynical - well, cut out that "maybe", I am cynical - but, what is it that makes so many of us 'watch out for ourselves'? Beats me......
If you are wondering where this is going, dear reader, I can't help you because I don't know the answer myself. The actual reason I started writing all this bullshit above was 'coz I was coming back to blogging after a long break and was thinking of an appropriate title for this post and hit on what you see at the top - that just got me rolling and since I am stuck here, I shall stop for now. Anyway, I am happy to tell you all that I got an admit into the PhD program in Mechanical Engineering at the Ohio State University. I am pleasantly surprised myself, and of course, I accept all the congratulations that may come my way now - perhaps that is what people call wishful thinking. I can't imagine myself doing all that work needed for a PhD, but maybe I can manage it. But I am sure that I can't ever get used to having a "Dr." before my name.
Well, not much time to blog now, got my CAT tomorrow, and I haven't yet seen anyone with as pathetic a preparation as mine. So I got to get my ass off from in front of the computer and head to some temples and try to get the Big One on my side before it is to late. See ya all folks.......
Monday, February 02, 2004
Well, I am back in Hyderabad, for some R&R after Saarang, which I am proud to say has finally become the biggest and the best student-organized culfest in India. Anyway, I actually typed out a longish post yesterday about Saarang, but something happened which Mr. Gates would not want to acknowledge much - my Windows crashed, and the post is lost forever. Since I am in no mood to even try to reproduce the lost post, I will just stop at saying that I had a ball at Saarang.
I must mention here about the Unity Concert we had on Republic Day where the Pakistani band, Strings performed on the same stage as Euphoria. That was an awesome show, and it more than made up for the rather disappointing shows we had on the previous nights. Anyway, as happens so often in life, I just had the feeling of deja vu over the weekend.
A friend of mine from school is now in IIIT Hyderabad and it so happened that they had their fest "Felicity" this past weekend. I must say that after Saarang, it felt like kids' shows do after watching Survivor (or something like that on AXN), but I must also say that for a fest that is only three years old, Felicity is good; better than some other fests I know, and wouldn't name. Well, enough beating around the bush (wonder who coined that phrase and what exactly he/she meant then), let me get to the deja vu. Strings performed at Felicity on Saturday, the 31st of January. Unfortunately, the sound system was bad and the acoustics of the arena didn't help at all. So the show proved to be a dampener to me.....anyways, the rather modest crowd of about 900 did enjoy itself at the show. But, I guess being probably the only guy to have watched both the shows was what spoiled the experience for me at Hyderabad - I mean, we had close to 9000 people at Saarang, and the reduction by a whole order in the magnitude of the crowd was the first thing that struck me. Then the poor quality of the sound system was also a big factor I guess.
Anyway, I was talking to the lead singer, Faisal, of Strings after the Hyderabad show, and he himself said that he would rate it at 3 on a 10 point scale if he were to take the Chennai show as 10, which in other words meant "good show". Now, I don't know if anyone from IIIT Hyderabad would read this and take offence - maybe any others can take offence at me being so boastful of Saarang - well, all I can say is that we are all proud of Saarang, and whatever I said above is in no way to degrade the efforts put in by others for their fests; just that fests in Hyderabad at least have a long way to go before anybody can claim to having at least a decent level fest to boast of - personal opinion, and I don't care if I come out as feeling to be a superior being.
Anyway, I must mention here something that was in my previous post - the one which was sacrificed at the altar of Windows. The band Strings made a statement that I think must be given due consideration by the powers-that-be. They said that along with cultural exchanges India and Pakistan should also have student exchanges so that students in Pakistan can avail the higher standards of education in India, as well as to provide an insght into the life of people across the border. I think that it would indeed help ease a lot of tensions if people on either sides have more interaction on a person-to-person basis than just these shows by artists.
And, before I close for the night, I promise to return to the world of blogging once I am back in Chennai....in campus....free Net.....*sigh*.......well, I have a lot of catching up to do on others' blogs.......
I must mention here about the Unity Concert we had on Republic Day where the Pakistani band, Strings performed on the same stage as Euphoria. That was an awesome show, and it more than made up for the rather disappointing shows we had on the previous nights. Anyway, as happens so often in life, I just had the feeling of deja vu over the weekend.
A friend of mine from school is now in IIIT Hyderabad and it so happened that they had their fest "Felicity" this past weekend. I must say that after Saarang, it felt like kids' shows do after watching Survivor (or something like that on AXN), but I must also say that for a fest that is only three years old, Felicity is good; better than some other fests I know, and wouldn't name. Well, enough beating around the bush (wonder who coined that phrase and what exactly he/she meant then), let me get to the deja vu. Strings performed at Felicity on Saturday, the 31st of January. Unfortunately, the sound system was bad and the acoustics of the arena didn't help at all. So the show proved to be a dampener to me.....anyways, the rather modest crowd of about 900 did enjoy itself at the show. But, I guess being probably the only guy to have watched both the shows was what spoiled the experience for me at Hyderabad - I mean, we had close to 9000 people at Saarang, and the reduction by a whole order in the magnitude of the crowd was the first thing that struck me. Then the poor quality of the sound system was also a big factor I guess.
Anyway, I was talking to the lead singer, Faisal, of Strings after the Hyderabad show, and he himself said that he would rate it at 3 on a 10 point scale if he were to take the Chennai show as 10, which in other words meant "good show". Now, I don't know if anyone from IIIT Hyderabad would read this and take offence - maybe any others can take offence at me being so boastful of Saarang - well, all I can say is that we are all proud of Saarang, and whatever I said above is in no way to degrade the efforts put in by others for their fests; just that fests in Hyderabad at least have a long way to go before anybody can claim to having at least a decent level fest to boast of - personal opinion, and I don't care if I come out as feeling to be a superior being.
Anyway, I must mention here something that was in my previous post - the one which was sacrificed at the altar of Windows. The band Strings made a statement that I think must be given due consideration by the powers-that-be. They said that along with cultural exchanges India and Pakistan should also have student exchanges so that students in Pakistan can avail the higher standards of education in India, as well as to provide an insght into the life of people across the border. I think that it would indeed help ease a lot of tensions if people on either sides have more interaction on a person-to-person basis than just these shows by artists.
And, before I close for the night, I promise to return to the world of blogging once I am back in Chennai....in campus....free Net.....*sigh*.......well, I have a lot of catching up to do on others' blogs.......
