iPod Touch GiveAway by GadgetLite

Everyone who wants to get an iPod Touch for this Christmas season, checkout this awesome giveaway by generous GadgetLite team!
http://www.gadgetlite.com/2009/11/09/free-gadget-giveaway-win-32gb/

EGO - Good or Bad?

Everyone I know, sound this word as if it's got a negative connotation. But, I would argue that EGO is a word everyone should look at positively and if possible, respect the people who have this in abundance ala Noble people. What EGO, to me anyway, a way to let your identity take course of the action and speak it's attitude out to the whole world. EGO is respecting yourself beyond the courtesy and fear of consequences. Lesser people (who have less EGO :)) speak courteously and obey the commands of higher people(who have more Ego) because they fear the consequences and fear that they are inferior. But, really what they are inferior is in their Ego Quotient (EQ). Because, there are more lesser-people in this world than the higher-people, they brandished the word ego to mean a negative implication. But seriously, if you are not self centered and egoistic, you are not really doing anything worth your stay on Earth!

Relationship Conundrums!

I have never been good at relationships and I don't think I ever will be! Doesn't matter though as long as I am able to enjoy my solitary attitude! But, with the limited experience of looking at people around me living in this relationships, I view it as a conundrum!


Now, I know a pair who are in this so called amazing relationship for a few years and yet don't take it forward and I know another set of people who, though spent very little time together, are ready to take the plunge and are ready to take the relationship to the next level.I do not, yet, understand on what basis, do they take this decision to stick where they are or take that leap forward!


Coming to the first case; they miss each other, they make the other person smile, laugh, enjoy the company, make fun of each other, they look like destined to be together (atleast for me though!) and yet they choose not to take the relationship forward. I wonder whether they remain just the same when one of them gets married and not regret the decision they have taken to be "Just Friends!". I wonder, after a couple of years, when they look back at the time spent together, would they ever think, "Oh no, I should have taken the leap forward!".

And with regards to the second set, though they know each other for a very short while (long distant relationship), they were ready to get married and spend the rest of their lives together.I always wonder on what basis have they chosen to take the decision to commit to the other person! They have spent very little time together, they might not know everything about the other person, they might not have had as many quarrels with each other to better understand how one reacts when they are aroused(;)). I hope, with utmost sincerity, that they stick together and have a great life together!


And there is another set of people, like me, who have developed so much phobia towards relationships that they cannot commit to someone and stick to that person for long.  They live in their own rat holes and think that they are so happy alone and stay that way! :-)

I hope, someday, I would be able to solve this labyrinthine conundrum!

Career Directions Since BITS - 2

My mental state in the third year has been utter mayhem. Chaos surrounded my every action. Didn't know which course to take. Didn't know which direction to follow. First Medicinal Chemistry, then Pharmaceutics, then Computer Science, then again Medicinal Chemistry, then Instrumental Methods of Analysis... Uff. I didn't want my life to be like this. I don't even know how I wanted my life to be. But I know that this is not what I wanted. I finished the third year with so much confusion though my cgpa improved like hell without much assistance from my side, I am still spoilt for choice.

Then came the fourth year and first crushing blow in my life. I think it's the only crushing blow in my life. Everything seemed hard and everyone looked ugly. I lacked self confidence, I lacked morale. That was the worst phase of my life. And through it, I have decided to drop that M.Pharm vertical transfer, thus becoming the first (and may be only) candidate to reject the vertical transfer(that is conferred to me after my first year).

Wow. Good or bad, a decision has been taken. A big step from indecisiveness. Final semester of my BITSian life. First job offer. Not much joy though. A thesis under Computer Science professor, known to be a good man. some vetti thrill. got close to some. got away from more. within no time, time has come to say adios. tears flowed down the cheeks, heart wished to stay, mind numbing feeling. say whatever you want, the time you have to leave the place which taught you so much is the unforgettable moment. Packed everything. got into the bus with my eyes moist and my journey into no-dreams land started.

---to be continued!

Career Directions Since BITS - 1

I joined BITS with absolutely no plans and no ideas of what I would end up doing after four years. I joined BITS with that untarnished innocence, village intelligence and little understanding of world-outside. Suddenly, everything looked strange; girls wearing jeans and t-shirts, students operating computer like a TV remote, TT table inside a hostel. Started the first year with the only goal of getting a good C.G. and moving to a better discipline without really realising how difficult it is. At the end of the first year, gradually transformed into someone ambitious, a bit more likeable and amicable. At the end of that year I learnt what attitude is all about, found friendships that will last the life time, understood what career is. But, what it couldn't show me was the direction my career had to take. I was still the same ignorant self, the way I started it. When I got the chance to finish Masters in 5years along with the undergrad, I applied for it, little knowing that it would be another course of direction my career would take.
After two years of Bachelors, I was pursuing a course that was introduced for the first time, was going no where and still unsure about what I should be doing once I am out of BITS. I was with people who are as intelligent as I am, if not more, making career decisions, progressing towards making their life more meaningful and achieving their set goals. I was left to ponder my thoughts of setting dreams and going after them. Then came Practice School and left me wondering which kind of station should I be looking for. Unsure of where I should be heading towards, I followed the herd and went to HDL. Though, turned out to be a great learning experience of my life, it would have been great had I 'decided' to take that decision rather than 'taking' that decision. These 2 months changed the way I was thinking at that time, making me look beyond grades and c.g., forcing me to look at life larger than what I had seen until then. After those 2 months, I compared myself with what I had been at the beginning of my journey, the day I joined BITS; realized that I became a far better person but with the same no-goals scenario.

---to be continued!

Awesome Aesthetics!

I have never seen browsers being beautiful. Only safari came close to visually appealing the consumers. But, Google developed its browser not only powerful but aesthetically wonderful. To make it more colourful, I decided to tweak my bookmarks bar and here's the end result! Ah, it looks amazing!

About Myself!

When you become what you are, you will do what you can do!

After a hailstorm!

There are very few scenes that can match the beauty of a lush green park with beautiful buildings on the back drop after a hailstorm! Such was the beauty that it compelled me to take a fag! ahhh..wonderful smell of nicotin!

To my left -- The beauty through a thick glass!

To my right -- Me enjoying the nicotin!

This weekend

This weekend was kinda different to what I face the other weekends! 

1. I attended the marriage of my wingee and a feather in our small B(M)Pharm shuttle, Mayur's wedding reception! 
2. Travelled to Hyderabad after a long time!
3. Met Haritha, my friend and another feature in that so called shuttle (see above), for the first time after her marriage.
4. Met this cousin of my friend, priya, who supposedly likes my blogs for whatsoever reason!
5. Caughtup with my intermediate college friends and had some timepass!
6. Went to a movie in Andhra Pradesh after so long!
7. Was able to overhear(and understand!) so many people talking about their personal life ;)
8. Entertained thoughts about marriage, life after marriage!
9. More thoughts about marriage! :D
   
10. Experienced life in a PG after 3 years! (Though, I would say, my current life is way better and ofcourse way heavier on my pocket also!)
11. Most importantly, talked to Sudha, who lives in his own world unless you ruffle him to bring back to our world! ;)
12. Have seen a recently married young and beautiful couple coochy-cooing in the A/C train! (different because, I am used to seeing unmarried couple doing this!)
13. Stumbled into my one time BITS- seniors on my journey back to Bangalore!
14. Travelled with people I know, I spent my four years of life with!
15. Didn't play squash! :O (This is the first time I havent played squash on a weekend since I started playing...)
16. I am in some place other than in my own world! I moved out of my comfort zone and am glad that I did so!
    

Gmail in Telugu

ఇప్పుడు మీరు జిమెయిల్ తెలుగు లో రాయచ్చు. ఎంత బాగుందో కదా!

Set Theory in Life!

Whenever I think of relationship, be it friendship, marriage or anything for that matter, I always think of Set Theory! Let me explain. If I call myself set A and the other person set B, there's an intersection area between both of us. There is A-B and there is B-A. There's also U - (AUB) space. Fortunately, I have found some very good friends who realized there's a space A-B and never tried to make A a subset of B and didn't even try to decrease the size of A-B space. 

I have a fear that, there comes a time, when I may have to share my life with a person who might not understand my set theory and try to behave like either A is a subset of B or B is a subset of A or even worse, A=B! Yeah, I know, I am little crazy, but I'm never wrong! :)

What the?

I am confused! As always... I find it hard to concentrate on one thing. I have no goal, no target, no ambition! But I know only one thing. I should live 'happyly'! In this pursuit of happyness, I am torn between doing what I love to do or rather what I want to do at that spur of moment and doing what my parents would approve and throw me a good cash at the end/start of every month! I always wanted to quit the job and wander for a while without any bother about the 'responsibilities!'.


Being pulled by two legs of the 'Y' has never been a new thing for me! I have always been like that! May be, I will always be! Whenever I see a beggar, I want to give him/her a change. But, somewhere it tells me that I should not as they are not really that needy and whatever I donate may not really serve the real purpose(Blame Mathur Bhandarkar!). Trepidity has always been my weakness. I am afraid of failure. Even though how hard I try not to be. I am brought up like that. What to do? I am brought up with the notion that unless I succeed in every attempt I make, I don't deserve a place in the society. Now, what does this society mean to me? Bollocks. Or so I want to think! I want to live with my own ideas and ideals. I don't give a damn about what you think of me! But, at some place in mind and heart, it is a so deep rooted thought that I am to be accepted by my fellow friends! Oh the holy fuck! I can go on and on... By the way... I don't remember why I started to write all this fuck! Get back to what ever you r doing!

Times have Changed - 2

It hasn’t been long since I blogged about how times have changed. Now, the time has come for me to throw in yet another real life incident. This is a letter written to me by my friend Swathi, today morning regarding her son, Kashyap’s admission to Dilhi Private Paathasala (DPP). I am reproducing the letter here as it is.

Hi Ravi,

How are you? I am fine and Pavan and Kashyap are also doing great. I know it’s been long since we spoke to each other. How are things going at your end and how are your preparations going for GD and PI? Why don’t you come for lunch this Saturday? I am sure we can catch up on lot many things.

By the way, this weekend has been one of the most eventful days of my life since Kashyap was born. You know, how I have always dreamt of sending Kashyap to a World Class - International School like DPP. This Saturday, Kashyap and I went to DPP to write the entrance test for 1^st Class admissions. Though Kashyap is well prepared and of course very intelligent, I couldn’t hold my nerves and am feeling very nervous. When we reached DPP, I saw more than 150 mothers gathered there with their children. The scene itself is daunting. Most of them I spoke to are housewives and are taking best care and attention for their children. Since the exam is yet to start, all of them referring to notes they bought with them and revising the course syllabus. But, I didn’t bring any notes with me and couldn’t let Kashyap revise any of the lessons I taught him. The bell rang and I sent Kashyap in wishing him all the best. While Kashyap is writing the exam, everyone is talking about how well prepared their children are. When I heard all that, tears streamed rolling down my cheeks as I felt I have done injustice to Kashyap by not taking enough attention for his entrance test in DPP. As both Pavan and I are working, I though we spent less time with Kashyap than the mothers that have come here. I felt like I am a bad mother for Kashyap as I couldn’t prepare him at par with his fellow test takers. That 2.5 hrs of test duration were one of the most tensed moments of life. I thought about so many things raging from how bad a mother I am, from how difficult the test is, from how Pavan would react when I tell him what all transpired here at DPP to how well Kashyap is feeling inside the test room. Finally, after the exam is over, Kashyap came running to me feeling little exhausted and enthusiastic. From his face, I could make out that he wrote the test well. But, Ravi, you know that these are the days when good is not good enough. We have to be best to be good. After half an hour, a well dressed lady came to us and addressed the parents briefing the admission process post written test. She said that they would announce the results on Sunday evening on their website www.dpp.edu/admissions.

While driving back to our home from DPP, I asked Kashyap about the questions that are asked in the entrance exam. He said the exam is tough, but he could write well. You know, the questions that are asked in the examination are not what I have expected. Some of the questions are what is 13*12, Explain your father’s profession. My God, Ravi, I don’t know what DPP expects from their students. Pavan was sitting at our apartment balcony waiting for us and I narrated him the entire drama.

Next day, we logged in to their website and waiting for the results anxiously. Pavan is pacing in and out of living room, not able to contain his anxiety and I am refreshing the page every 2 minutes. Kashyap went to swimming class and Tennis coaching. At around 8 25PM, the results were out and I started searching for Kashyap’s name frantically all through. I scrolled the entire page and couldn’t find it. By this time, I am almost sobbing while hugging Pavan. Pavan took the laptop from me and scrolled carefully searching for Kashyap’s name. I could see his fingers shivering slightly while scrolling down. And then, all of a sudden he screamed loudly and started to dance. He highlighted Kashyap’s name using his mouse and started dancing again. We screamed with joy and happiness and distributed sweets in our neighborhood. I was so happy that I started dancing too. Kashyap made me proud. Real proud. I never felt as happy as I did on that day. May be, that’s an overstatement. But yeah, it feels so true. Couple of hours later, we received an email from the Head Mistress of DPP congratulating Kashyap and us for his achievement and asking us to be present for an interview, today evening. Now, Pavan is of course elated but slightly more tensed that we might put Kashyap’s future in jeopardy. Both of us have taken day off today and trying to stay as calm as possible and putting our best foot forward for today’s interview. To relieve my pressure, I thought of telling you everything!

I am sure you wish us all the best for what seems to be one of the most important interviews of our life. I am hoping they wouldn’t ask us questions like State Euler’s theory, Define Anachronism, what is the meaning of Asphyxiation. I will write to you tomorrow on what happened today. Got to go now. I am yet to iron Pavan’s suit for today’s interview. Catch you later. Have a good day!

Cheers,

Swathi.

Times have changed

When I got the snail mail saying that I have been admitted to BITS Pilani, I told my friends that I have 'secured' an admission to one of the most prestigious colleges in India. I definitely felt elated by the prospect of joining a very good university with lot of intelligent students coming in and competing among themselves.


After a couple of years, when I passed out of BITS, my friends have emailed me saying that they have 'secured' an admission to Stanford/MIT/TAMU/LSE. They must have felt on cloud 9 too, because they are about to join some of the world's best colleges. But now, I have come across an email from a friend who said '...One of my colleagues has 'secured' an admission into XXX school for his daughter...'. I started to wonder how times have changed drastically and what the phrase 'securing' an admission has transformed in meaning!


In my childhood, there is nothing that I have heard of 'securing an admission' to join a school, of course unless it is THE best school in the country! But now, I have seen so many parents trying hard and paying hefty donations to get their children admitted to 'International' schools with world class facilities and able teachers. A couple of months ago, I have read an article in MINT (my personal favorite) which mentioned about the difficulties NRIs face to get their children admitted to a very good school. As soon as the school administration staff comes to know that the parents are NRIs, they charge heavy fees and ask for more donations! And these days, I have seen schools conducting written tests for parents! (:O)! How ridiculous can it be? May be, by the time I get married and have kids, I might have to join TIME or something of that sort and prepare for these written tests with the same vigor and dedication as I did for CAT and GMAT! I hope, I can secure admission to IIM - A level school when I give that entrance examination for my kid! :)

The way of the world!

Unjust it were to bid the World be just
And blame her not: She ne'er was made for justice:
Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside,
For now to fair and then to foul, her lust is!

CAT 2008 Results

Hello all,


I am the first on net to report that IIMs have officially published the key in pdf format. click here to find it! The results are out here from tomorrow morning.


Note: As of now, the link is broken. Will let you all know, once it is alive.


Update1: The Key is now available. But not the results yet!

Update2: The results are also out and I made it to Shillong and Lucknow