The Engineer Syndrome

If I say the last few days have been hectic, it would just be an understatement.

4 project presentations in 2 days is the synopsis of the situation.

And Oh, My! did I enjoy it!!! To the hilt!

I attribute it to the engineer in me.

Why the Engineer? Such is the conditioning of an engineering student and that is what gave me that High.

The last minute ppt preparation, report perusal, the 11 th hour project hunt (and I mean quite literally! After almost 2 hours of feasibility study on a project, we decided to change it at 11p.m the day before the presentation) I enjoyed every bit of them.

This is what I call the Engineer- Syndrome, the 11th hour adrenaline rush!

We engineers are known for quite a number of syndromes, and I found I could add this to the list as well. We do things Just In Time and somehow things work and most of the time they work the best! Minimum effort, maximum result, now, that is what I call efficiency!

(May be others do it the same way too, but I found all engineering graduates inevitably belong to this category subjected to a 5% error on my hypothesis)

I remember getting a forward message during my Engineering days(and I find it is being circulated even now!).

You give a 1000 pages book to a lawyer and ask him how many days he would take to finish reading it and he would say may be XX days, You ask the same to a doctor and he would say YY days, You ask the same to an engineer and he would ask, "when is the exam?"

Managing Examz

I have finished the initial set of exams after my first trimester and these are my valuable findings :

1. You can always attempt a management exam , except statistics and accounting, without actually studying for it. All these years of your existence would have given you some insight into the subject to pull it off! There is always an option for new theories. Management is all about innovation.

2. Open-book exams are not really helpful unless you actually know which page (or which book?) to open.

(Blink!).

3. A manager should always update herself with the latest technology.

Mobile phones are out, smart phones are in.

Earlier concept of management : getting work done through people.

Modern existence/survival theory in management : getting work done through Google. (I told you, it's easy to formulate new theories).

4. Group discussions are confined not only to classrooms. Take them beyond classrooms to exam halls.

5. Thank God it's relative grading. Make sure you know everything your neighbour knows.

PS: Note the time I am posting this. Exams can still give you sleepless nights

Just a thought.

It always appears to me that my image in the mirror is different from that in any of my photographs. It could be for the good or for the worse. At some occasions the image in the mirror is better and at some the photos.

But for any one else it is the same. They look the same to me in person as in their photos.

After hours of thought I have come up with many reasons, but the the one I found the closest to my heart is this :

My image in the mirror is the way I see myself, whereas the photograph is somebody else' perception of me!

Photograph is just a moment in the past. It is past tense, but the reflection in the mirror is the present. Even as I analyse it, it has replaced itself with the latest version. My mind is not even given enough time to retain a copy, it has to work on the continuously updating images.

Try it!!

How much do we really know ourselves.

We are the closest to ourselves, yet it's so less that we really know about us. :-(

Don't take my word?Find it out yourselves.

We were given an assignment recently to reflect on our values.

The activity was extremely difficult and confusing.But it has surely got me pondering..

Perhaps you could try it on yourselves too.

Dig deep into yourselves and find out that single value that drives you. Your core value. The value that affects all your decisions and of course your actions.

The game is not over :-)

Then justify your choice of the value with your actions. ie, Give examples of your actions which identifies with your value.

Simple is it? Give a deep and honest shot!

And may be you could share it with me too :-)

:-)

I met a student today whose reverence and respect for his teacher touched me a lot. :-)

He was to give us some presentation and his first slide was a dedication to his professor who had taught him the subject. A gesture which really made me very emotional.

And I am happy to say that the student is one of our lecturers here. :-)

I have arrived.

Well, finally I'm here.

Had always looked forward to being here and am happy that finally I'm here. ;-)

So perhaps the coming blogs might some how be related to NIT-C and MBA.

Ah!! That reminds me, let me put across my MBA experience so far.

I seriously believe an MBA is better done after an initial industry experience. It helps you connect so much with what you are studying. I do that. For everything I learn here, I try to find some sort of an example or relation from my previous life! And many a time, I can find it. :-).

Hey, but all work ex people in the class could be really boring yaar.

It is those people right out of college who are the real charm of the class.

For one thing, they take me down a year or two or more along my ageline ;-), but more seriously they proclaim aloud the innocence and naivety of life. And I simply love being around them, happy that I can share their zeal.

And about the pedagogy, what more do I say than that I have never looked forward to attending a lecture though the subject may not be my favourite ones. :-).

As they rightly claim they teach us such that we don't even realize that we are being taught.

What I find the most attractive about the course is that we are taught how to think. We are taught to be better people. We are taught to understand ourselves better. We are taught to relate to us and to everyone around us better. But what gets me wondering is why this delay yaar? Why did it take all these years for our educational system to give me these wisdom? Some may disagree, blame my choice of institutions. But the fact is that there have been people like me affected. It would have made a lot better if in our school curricula we were taught at least HOW TO THINK.

Perhaps everybody should be doing an MBA. Or atleast every professional.Management is something we all do throughout our lives, then why not be a little scientific? The course is hectic, but it is not tough. It requires hardwork and daily effort, but it doesn't have tough equations or formula.

Well, really looking forward to the time here.

10 June,2010

Feeling very nostalgic and depressed and all.

The monsoons always bring to mind the reopening of schools.

New bags and umbrellas and water-bottles and all. Isn't it a treat to watch the lil ones go to school.

Give me some sunshine

Give me some rain

Give me another chance

I wanna grow up once again

The lines are playing in my head in a repeat mode.

I really wish , I could go back in time and live some older time.

I remember looking out of the window ,in some high school class, at the heavy shower.

It was one of those typical moments were everything else froze, the professor and the class and all, only the rain drops moved.(And I remember, it was the Physics class of XI)

I wish to go back to school, to that class

I miss those days.

If any of you dumbos are reading this- I miss you guys!!!

The only tension those days were getting more marks and the pimples!!

I miss the gang,the canteen,the fights and so many things. These are cliched words!!!

But when it comes to nostalgia, everyone long for the same , I guess.

Raajneeti

Raajneeti is a good movie.

A change from the stereotype bollywood.

But, with Prakash Jha , one has to expect that. All credit goes to him for weaving the archetype Indian political Saga around the Mahabharatha backdrop. He has brilliantly etched out the characters by taking points from both these epics. The Pandavas and the Kauravas, Krishna, Draupadi and Karna reincarnates on the celluloid with a tinge of the traits of politicians we can identify with.

The next shower of bouquets naturally goes to the exemplary star cast.

For veterans like Nana Patekar and Naseerudheen Shah, there is nothing more to prove.

One is simply held back by their performance everytime and this time is no exception. Nana was simply superb. The character being subtly exertive, I would say. As for Naseerudheen Shah, the cameo was too short.

We are used to powerhouse performances by Manoj bajpayee and Ajay Devgan and the audience is not disappointed this time too.

Katrina had little much to do. Perhaps the director just found her apt for the Sonia Gandhi outlook and expected her to be the crowd puller considering her status today in the industry.

This is yet another movie which has explored the potentials of the actor within Arjun Rampal.

I liked his character for two reasons. One the one hand he is the angry young politician and on the other a very innocent and loving family man. And Arjun has portrayed both these traits only too well. The affection between him and Ranbeer is so palpable.

And finally, for the showstealer. Who else but Ranbeer kapoor. As they call him,'The outsider'!

His character is too thrilling, with way too many shades. His expressions,his looks,just the ultimate.The silent mastermind who designs all the plots, who pulls all the strings.

All in all, a great movie

The farm bug!!

I used to wonder why people are so crazy about their FarmVille points and why they put up the 'help' posts.I get the reason now. Once you are hooked to it, it becomes an addiction and let me confess, I AM ADDICTED,atleast for the moment.

But the veterans tell me that the addiction doesn't last forever.(Thank God!!I get bored quite easily.)

And I find the erstwile FV addicts put up status like "I dont care about your farms, crops" "I don't want a farm" etc... ;-)(So, there is an open door,I guess)

So in this vicious circle newbies like me replace the dormant farmers!!! And the cycle goes on and on and on!!

Something, I noticed- the addiction is contagious. Once you are hooked, you tend to get everyone around you hooked too.That is how I got addicted and I have been successful in getting quite a few addicted!!!.Those who play or have played FV know that it's a survival tactic.

It all started for me when my brother flew to Canada to do his MS(in Mechanical engineering,supposedly!!!).

Perhaps he missed our greenery and flowers and all and took to setting up a farm for himself over there.

But the country and climate was not so cooperative to his sentiments,I guess.

So he begins his great online farming and starts sending requests to everyone on his contact list including me and what started off as a submission to his pestering becomes an addiction and I continue with the tradition - adding more neighbours and posting my farm status and so on...

In our tryst with FV, me and my brother realize that we have started farming at a time when all our friends have almost quit.

Now to find farmers of the same level is quite a challenge.But, luckily as I said before, we have gotten everyone in the family to be bitten by the same bug ;-).Some relief!!

We ,very religiously, harvest our crops in time, send gifts to each other and help each other's farm.My Brother wakes himself early enough to do all these before he goes to University.

We discuss at lengths on how to improvise and beautify are farms,makes demands for gifts and so on.

Ofcourse critics like my sister always have a say!Like asking me to go out and atleast water the garden!! But, why bother these pests,I say! These days everything is online!!!!

5 Basic needs of Man!!

1.

2

3.

4.

And above all......

5.

Old Wine in Mexican Bottle!!

Las vegas casinos, a well toned Hrithik and a Mexican beauty, other than these the plot and the story is too familiar. But I must admit, the picturization is too hollywood and the movie gives an overall Hollywood feel. Hrithik Roshan looks awesome.The dance sequence is brilliant though it reminded me a bit of the Bourbon ad featuring Hrithik.

It is obvious who the target audience are. Every Bollywood movie these days is aimed at International audience but they all have an element of Indianness in them. In Kites, I guess it is limited to a few Indian actors and a song or two.I guess Kites would require subtitling in Hindi.

Overall treatment of the movie is good, but there is no substance in the story. Too familiar for us,I'd say. The plot is the same. May be a variant of Qayamat se qayamat tak set in US and Mexico!!!

I got the same feeling like the one I get watching the Garam Masala Version of Boeing Boeing!!!

But atleast Priyadarsham admits he Remade them!!

The vanishing act

'Extinct' till now, had been a word meant to be used only in relation to the prehistoric times.
We have grown up learning that the Dinosaurs were extinct long ago, that DODO was a bird that lived long ago and so on.
It didn't ,then, evoke any feelings similar to that I feel while I encounter these terms today. While reading those lines in the textbooks of high school classes the only feeling that played in the back quarters of my mind was that of curiosity as to what they would have been like.
Today,we all know that there are only 1411 tigers left in the world to be saved,thanks to MS Dhoni!.The figure is slightly exaggerated it seems.But what difference does it make.They are endangered, nonetheless.
Tiger, a slightly familiar name amongst the lot, I guess.
Ever paid your ears to all those other names in the list-The Giant Panda, Lion Tail macague,the Nilgiri tahr to name just a few from among the ever increasing list.
We have been aware of this for a long time,it seems.
But what happened in the meanwhile is the appearance of some new names in the list and disppearnce of some, not names but the creature itself, without even giving a slight hint.Even before their names could apear in these lists,they have vanished.

Tigers,leopards,civets, dolphins.Does the names ring a bell.Too common, too familiar, right?I am not naming the animals I know.These are some of those many unfortunates on the brink of extinction.It is they who evoke that disturbing feeling.
They are too familiar, too close to us to be endangered.
Perhaps we took them too much for granted.
It feels like a dear friend,a close relative,a long neighbour is going away, for the good. Never to be seen again, no emails, no calls.Literally, about to be vanished from face of the earth!
I can give you 2 more disturbing names.Parrots and sparrows.Even more disheartening,isn't it?They were our next door neighbours.

And did you ever realize the fact that Vultures are no longer around.Warning bells rang for quite some time.These scavengers,it seems, have feasted their way to extinction according to a latest report. A toxin in the foodchain has taken its toll on them.

Now how do we explain to the next generation what those creatures that circle on and on in a battle scene in the movies are.

The prominent question that remains is who is next.

All our natural resources,animals, plants will disappear right under our noses and we wouldn't have noticed it.We would have been too busy to realize that things we have grown up with are no longer around us.
For the next generation they would just be fossil remains or photographs or history.Perhaps they would just become part of bed time stories for the kids to come arousing their curiosity.

"Once upon a time, there used to be this small thing called parrot.It was green in colour....".And then how will we describe green?

on a heavier note ;-)

The phenomena of 'life and 'death' have always intrigued me like it does most people.
And nobody can give any precise information except that death is a certainity in life.But nobody actually knows what happens after death or what happens before birth.Only theories and guesses supplemented by theology and philosophies,but no hard core evidences.But lack of evidence is not a reason for not believing in it,is it?For life and death unfolds before us ,every moment ,as inevitable truths.
These are perhaps two transcient states.(Yes,again a 'perhaps'!).May be we pass on to the same dormant state after death like the earlier amniotic state.

Sometimes going by 'The Book'definitely helps.It can ignite a spark of curiosity.It can encourage the mind to pursue the possibilty.It urges to'Think!'
Relegious scriptures tell us about the soul being indestructible.It actually supports a life after death,no matter which relegion,whether it is resurrection or the reincarnation.

And yes,I do beleive in it,that death is not the end,but the beginning of an eternal journey.

These are just rumblings of an ever curious mind!!!

On a lighter note ;)

why do you think there are BGMs in movies..
well , here is what I found out.. ;)
1) So that when the camera zooms in on a particular face, the audience can figure out if the character is supposed to be the villain,or the hero,or the victim of the misery or perhaps the ghost
2) So that when somebody is tiptoeing or juming over a wall or doing some such clandestine activity the sound of his/her heels is not heard
3) so that the audience can make out what the director intended to convey in a scene,humour or tragedy or horror
;-)

What is so special about 25Feb??? ;-)

There was a time when I used to wait for it to be the 25th of feb.
I would start the count down from the New years day and eagerly wait for the day.
More than the gifts and cards,it thrilled me more to find out how many of my friends and other close people actually remembered.
Of late,the thrill has been fading.Maturity I guess. ;-)
And since last year,I had been dreading the date.I some how wanted time to freeze, so that it wouldn't be 25th feb this year.But the truth is ,I can ignore it,I can overlook it,but today it's the 25th feb of another year. I am one more year older and the fact is staring back at me from my mirror!!!How I hate being on the other side of 20.

But yes!even today all my friends and close people have made my day!
The best thing I like about birthdays is that it is a day when the world comes calling at you,literally ;-)

Amidst all the routine greetings and messages,I have noticed that few things haven't changed.Not that I am complaining.Nonetheless it was amusing to note.
I woke up today at midnight to the same voice who has been greeting me birthday the first for the past few years,ever since we became friends in hostel.
The same people needed to be reminded to wish me(They know the date,but have to be reminded that the date is actually that of today ;-).Since their wishes mean a lot,I didn't mind asking for it.And then, it is not my birth I am celebrating,but their being my parents.)
And finally,as usual my brother called me up at midnight,but had to be prodded to wish me.These sort of wishing and all are a bit embarassing in the family,to receive and to give.;-)

Thank you all, for your wishes

'Kollifying'English

Q : What do people do on twitter?
A : They tweet!

Q : What are people who tweet called?
A : Tweeple.

Q : And where do i get all these information from?
A : Tweetipaedia

In the past few years , perhaps, more words have been added to our lexicons than before.Though only a few have made their way into the official lists others still find their place in our conversations.
Words like orkutting,tweeting are still informal while those like Banglored have made their way into the Oxford dictionary.

With new inventions and changed lifestyles came either new words or new contexts for many already existing words.
Like 'to chat' might have been used only to mean 'to converse' till sometime back.But today it largely means to chat on the 'net'.



Also words like 'padipist'(to mean a nerd) led to the development of regional variants of English like 'Monglish'and the like

English evolved from the German and latin languages and borrowed into its arsenal a whole load of foreign words and phrases.It developed for itself a grammatical structure and absorbed into it all the new terms that were popularly used.Just when we thought nothing could harm its newly acquired status there lay another axe waiting to slay it.

With service providers competing with one another for charging lesser and lesser per alphabet,the mobile users have been chopping the language into tinier and tinier bits.The complete jargon of letters,yet succeed in making their point.



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ADDENDUM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.....
This is in the context but slightly stretched out.But I am adding it for the lighter touch ;-)
I am reminded of two words whose usage I have been able to put in new contexts over the years.
The first one would be 'bit'.
I graduated from the 'bits' of paper in the nursery classes to 'bits' as units of digital information in my engineering college(GEC).
But GEC also taught me another bit. A bit which I could use in exams! ;-)

'Release' is another such word of interest for me.
We all know what the verb means.
Since my college days,again,they held a new meaning to me.Specially on fridays.That of a movie being 'released'.
The niceness about the word ,however, vanished soon. ;-(
It held a different meaning for me in Bangalore,and that too, coincidentally on the same fridays!!
My weekly software release!And it came to be a dreaded verb.
Thankfully,I am 'released' from that scene.

As I rack my brain,perhaps, more such 'bits' would fall down.I shall be updating this blog as and when I encounter them.
.......

MNIK

The movie is an answer to all those who think SRK emotes too much and KJo can work only on romance.
Well,being smitten over and over by SRK is not a new experience for me.
As always he is the best,but I won't speak much about it.(Too overwhelmed that I hardly have any words ;-) )
Let me take this opportunity to express how I feel at having been able to watch such a great movie,not only for SRK,the SRK-KAJOL-KJO trio pack,but greatly for the huge message the movie portrays.

The creator or the creation??

From time unknown,Man has been questioning his existence.
He has been forever trying to find his origin.
Yet,even centuries later,the quest remains incomplete.And like everybody else,I am curious too

I don't know if there is a specific reason we all exist.It could just be the game of a superior intellect.There was a time when we thought ourselves to be string puppets at the hands of the creator.The strings break, the game over.Today can't we relate the idea to an Xbox or Playstation game.The string may be invisible.The game however is controlled by the Player outside.The time expires,and the game is over for the actor inside.Tomorrow as we conquer greater avenues of wisdom,perhaps a novel explanation would arise.

Scientists fervently are searching for that God-particle which actually gives life.Today science can create everything, except life.Robots can be made to look like and do things as perfectly as any living being.Yet,what is that differentiates them from us?The spark of life!
Can we ever create that invisible yet prevailing inexplicable screen called soul??
In this search for that ultimate truth are we actually privying???

Let us assume science(or God?) actually gives life to what we call the robots,then are we actually paving way for the next stage of evolution.From neandarthals to apes to homosapiens and then to robots?Is it then, the part of a greater design??
Are we then the Creator or the creations??

We can never be the Creator,it could only be our thoughts or intellect.Perhaps a part of that superior intellect manifests in each of His creations.

All Izz Well

Good things happen to good people.
This is an adage I've heard often.
And it had me doing things which I judged to be good so that I'd be good and good things would happen to me.
However,I could find no changes in the way 'things' were.
Life just went on as usual,bringing in its wake, both pleasantnesses and unpleasantnesses.
Then I read somewhere that expecting good things to happen to good people is like believing a lion not to eat you because you are a vegetarian!

Now!!Was I confused.

Somehow,I don't beleive that either of the above sayings is more credible than the other.
To me both are true.
You cannot expect good returns unless you have worked for them.Miracles don't just happen as such.You reap only that which you have sown.

And the best thing I have noticed in good people is their attitude.Let the sky fall upon them,they remain unfazed.Troubles,difficulties the terms merely don't exist for them.All izz always well for them!!

Facing fears

What is the greatest inhibition on our way to winning our desires.
Fear, I would say.
We are all scared of something or the other,right?
We all have fears of varying degrees for various things.
And how can we win over fear.

The best,or perhaps the only,way I would say,will be to face it.
Face your worst fears.Don't run away from them.
Easier said or blogged than done,I know.

Might not be a great example but here is a tiny incident which will definitely give me the power punch next time a fear holds me back.
I had always been scared to ride a vehicle.I knew how to ride.I had confidence I could ride well and I even had a license.Still,a very weak twine from within always held me back.Then,one fine day, with some encouragement and support, I managed to take my 2 wheeler out.It went fine.I thought it raised my confidence level.But the fear had been stll lurking inside and it manifested as recurring nightmares.Every night I would see one or the other images of me and my Activa falling down.Somehow I would force myself to give one more try the next day.And one day,as if reliving my nightmares,I actually fell with the vehicle.I still remember how i felt.It was exactly the same fear I had in my nightmares.I knew if I let that fear win this time I would never touch a vehicle again.I gave it a shot again and yes it did help a lot.My fear has subsided greatly.And I can be sure of it by the decreased frequency of my nightmares!

Sometimes, a simple incident like this becomes an eye opener when thought about deeply.May be the rules can be applied elsewhere too.