Saturday, March 22, 2008

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

stuck and still waiting...

A week more to go.

I'm at my home in Mysore now. Came over

this Sunday(16th morning). No particular

reason. Its been over two months since

I've been home so felt like getting

back.
The state of Kerala is facing the

heaviest showers of recent times, quite

unexpected at this time of the year.

television news report describe sever

loss of grains and other crops to

farmers for whom this was the harvest

season. The 15th of march was no

different.


Kuttimukku fields on 14th, the first foggy morning in two months

I woke up by 10a.m. (pretty early for my

holiday standards). Went to college

after(??) cleaning up. Booked my tickets

and came over to pack my bags for the

trip. Hari (my brother) had asked for the

computer to be brought back home as he

would be finishing off with his C.B.S.E

board exams next weekend, only to enter

a long vacation of roughly three months.

I had bartered Sethu's L.C.D monitor for

my CRT one, thus reducing the bulk of

load drastically. It was quite easy

packing up the whole computer and

peripherals and I finished in about two

hours...

It had started drizzling by 3p.m. There

was a time about a week ago when we had

prayed for a little of rain, but "

ooparwala jab bhi deta hai, chappad

phaad ke deta hai" and thats centum true.

Its been raining for three days now,

with continuum.

My bags and the card box got wet and the

papers were peeling away from the Box by

the time I reached home(at 5a.m next

morning).

The journey home was pretty

eventful. First to mention is about Mr.

Shajahan, a logo and web designer from Ernakulam on

his way to Nilambur. He had had serious

troubles the whole day, missing the

train for which he had booked a ticket,

getting out late from a crucial meeting

and finally ending up next to me en

route! We had a nice little chat midst

of which he laid out a proposal to do

some off-campus web designing for him whilst

carrying on my studies. Seems

interesting, novel, unexplored field

from my point of view. Shall be giving it a

try soon.

Then at about 40kms from Mysore, the

bus had a punctured tire. The

driver soon set off to change it with

locally available tools and some which

he had carried with him( obviously, he

should, its Kerala R.T.C anyway!)


A patient wait for about 2 hours and I

was home at 5 against the usual 3a.m

arrival.

Shall be returning to Thrissur in

two days. Still hoping positively that

the university may postpone the exams

buzzing off

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Book Review- Swami and His Friends

Swami and his friends is an exquisite work of literature by India’s renowned writer R.K Narayan.
An amazingly fluent story line, pictured in the wonder world of Malgudi, an not-in-atlas-not-on-globe place, grips the reader's interest from the very first page.


R.K
The story, starting from the childhood chronicles of Swaminathan, then a kid of first grade, travels through a world of thoughts, that belongs to the innocent mind of Swami which clogs his path on every venture he takes up with infinite doubts and counter-questions. The description of a kid's world by an adult writer in near approximate accuracy is worth applause. Swami, shy and fearful in nature, is overcome by numerous flows of emotions in different day to day situations we often come across. The story clear casts mind’s unpredictability and a kid’s ingenuous attitude along with his sincere attempts to display equitable support to his friends who are on heated grounds.
Rajam and Mani are Swami's two inseparable-at-heart friends. The trio plan up for very many adventures, that every teenager of their age sincerely wishes to do ( if not possible in reality).



R.K Narayan sketches a world that whirls around the indecisive nature of Swaminathan, who is easily carried away by momentary notions of mind, thereby finding himself in grave peril that puts a question mark on his very existence. The story however takes an abrupt ending, much to the disappointment of the reader at a scenario of mixed feelings.
to know what adventures " Swami and his friends " got themselves into, how their bond of friendship became all-the-more strong after every enthralling event, and finally to know what happened in the climax that gets the reader in dismay, go grab this book from your library or a shop nearby, sooooooon.........

Friday, March 7, 2008

Its Back , Its here!!

The bells have rung. The clock strikes Twelve. Its time to battle!!

Calicut University yet again in action. This time its us, the Fourth Semester B.Tech students who have to battle against the University in the war where the only principle valid is " Survival of the Luckiest".

Third Semester University Exam notification has been released. It "ensures" that the exams may commence from 25th March. Thats just Eighteen days from now. No, I'm not frantic, just a bit agitated that the time given is so less.

18 days are to be spent for split attack on the heavy metal barrage of syllabus. Covert operations like "bits" or "exchange" is seemingly impossible in this battle field. Only way is to fight tooth for tooth , eye for an eye!

Now frankly, I've just got two eyes to give off and there are 6 exams, which ensures the fact of messing up the rest 4 papers, and probably the first two as well, guaranteed. :)

There is DSA( easy to type on a keyboard! ), i.e, Data Structures and Algorithms, STLD ( Switching Theory and Logic Design) and ECS( Electrical Circuits and Systems!). The most dreaded subjects of the Semester. These enemy fighters have been awarded the medals of " Largest Supply Provider", " Minimum Marks Mera Hai" and various other ones.



Our brave comrade Gabbar Singh, who fought against the universities of North India long time ago stated this quote in his movie Sholay " Jo dar gaya, samjho wo mar gaya". This is what my policy is going to be. Nopes, my knees won't buckle, my hands won't shiver and definitely I wont stink from sweat.

If not as mighty as the University, we aren't feeble either. The pre-war prep has begun. The trumpets have been blared, and the sirens are waking up every dozing brain in the vicinity. The hands that carried cigarette butts and "uppu soda" glasses during the entire semester, while idle chatting at Pallimoola, shall now bear the mighty pen and shed one's own blood into the waiting answer papers. Oops, getting way too carried away with the campaign.( Mental note: Play less of "Rome: total war". :) )

I had been to college today. Our hang out, Appachan's corner, was devoid of almost all the Second year guys, the regulars. As my feet took me towards Mech tree, the situation was no different. CCF(Centralized Computing Facility ) was in the clutches of First years and MCA people who were relishing the fact that we are about to face our doom. The sarcasm showed when they beamed at me.

Only people I met who belonged to the same rein were Sailesh, Tony and Merlin. Alas! what was happening to Tony! There he was, sitting with the DSA text by Ullman, concentration heavy on his eyeballs, as though burning the papers with this intensity. The three did not notice me as I walked towards them. It was Sailesh, taking a break( for a brief yawn) who saw me first. His face was devoid of the pleasing smile, and wore a sombre look. Teaching them both was Merlin, looking up at me over the rims of her glasses with dispassionate interest, probably perturbed by my interference.



Wars have psychological influences, they say. The aura was intimidating. My hands reached for the hereditary DSA textbook passed on to me from elder brother...

Guess I won't be here for a brief period from now.. Until we meet, pray that I survive the shelling and encounters with the University and return home, my bloggerworld, with all physical organs intact!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

A Giant Leap Year ahead!!



The day was 29th February year 2008. The only leap year in our b.tech life.
As decided before hand, almost all of us had worn black attire to mark this auspicious day.

(It is said that leap year is the time when its girls' turn to propose. At least I'm sure I wasn't proposed neither on this day nor on the valentines day that preceded it!!)

We were smoking our brains out deciding what to do to make the day memorable. There were suggestions of mass bunking(as usual!) for the entire day and going for a movie, having a gigantic snack-time at Wimbies and many more. As I could remember, It was our ex-rep Sailesh who came up with the idea of going all the way to Kaiparambu, where Vidya Engineering College is situated, to attend Perizia, the tech cum cultural fest organized by the computer Sciences and engineering department.

Despite some initial hesitation, we finally decided to give his plan a try. Soon a crowd, numbering between 20 and 30, stepped out from the ongoing Environmental Studies class( yes, we do have this!!).

As was obvious, the gathering of "blacks" caught everyones' attention en route. It so happened that, at Shakthan Thampuran Bus Stand, three people from our group strayed off to have some snacks. Not realizing their absence, the rest of us boarded a bus to our destination. The trio, upon their return were making frantic inquiries about us, when an elderly looking man asked them(obviously noticing the dress code)," Are you among the black cats who just left now??"



We reached Kaiparambu by 12 and waited for the three individuals to catch up. Getting to the college was no piece of cake as we walked the 2 km stretch leading there under the scorching sun. A cargo jeep soon came by and some of us could manage a lift in it till the college. The rest, however, continued tirelessly.

Events at the college were ion full swing as we reached. Hiran came to meet us upon informing. Some of our seniors were already present, participating in various technical and otherwise contests. The participation was free and so I gave my name for Quiz, Programming in C and Mobile Photography, along with others.

Quizzing was never this easy. I was in and out of the lab where the event was being held even before I realized. One or two correct answers and that was it!! The words " You are terminated Mister" beamed at me!!

Next in line was the Programming Contest Preliminaries. Almost all of us took part in it. Vinu, Raman and myself were lucky enough to get through into the finals along with our seniors and some other guys. The final was a nightmare and the question was waaaaaaaaay out of my logics!! Sat for about 3 quarters of an hour and finally wrote the following and came out:

#include
main()
{
printf(" good luck with the event! with love from GEC Devidas\n");
}

:)


It was for the first time that I was participating in a photography contest. This event was more thrilling than the rest, frankly. The task was to click few snaps and present any two that were related to the event "Perizia". Here I include the photos I submitted:





Meantime Rushdie and gang were busy preparing for the Ad-Zap event. While we were "busy" with the programming finals , rest of our company left the place to Neetha's home. We soon caught up with them for the photo session that followed. Neetha's identical twin sister, Neema was also present.

The day had , unknowingly become, memorable with all these unexpected turn of events. There were certainly some newbies among us who would other wise restrain themselves to the class. And surprisingly, there were more girls in the group than us!!


Not all are here!

Another page added to the diary of GEC memories, bookmarked to cherish!!