“Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him”-Barrack Obama
The statement was a shot in the arm for the visionary leaders who envisage a vision of India as a superpower by 2020. But they fail to realize that before we can claim a role of superpower, we need to empower our people. Today more than 50% of population lives on less than Rs 20 a day (official figures still show it 26%). The concept of holistic growth and inclusiveness is a far cry from the present Indian system of governance. The hasty legislations have become mere paper tigers. In the absence of proper machinery and infrastructure, many policies like the right to education and setting up of green tribunals are yet to be implemented.
The pompous inauguration of T3 terminal of New Delhi, built in record time of 37 months, lays out a red carpet welcome to all our international guests. At a time when our Human development index is nose diving, child malnutrition is on a rise, we are more worried about getting Indira Gandhi international airport into the top ten airports of the world rather than addressing the problems of the poor.
The constitutional ideals of sovereignty, secularity and democracy are in danger. In the north J&K curfews and stone pelting have become a regular occurrence. The short lived calmness in valley has ended with the mindless shooting and Killings by the paramilitairy forces. Down at Haryana, Khap panchayats are running a parallel judiciary system openly defying the laws of the land. The principles have natural justice have been thrown out of the window in the name of honour of a group of people.
Delhi is busy with arrangements for CW2010. Common wealth games in India was to project india to the world. In this regard a string of welfare and poverty allievation programs should have been taken up. Atleast an effort to alleviate poverty in NCR should have been taken up. Instead they turned a blind eye to it and went on a spending spree to pep up the city for the International event. The RTE act which has the potential to change the future of India has not been implemented owing to lack of funds. I wonder how they were able to pump in crores of rupees in City planning and beautification.
The Bhopal gas tragedy was back in news after 26 years thanks to the inconsequential judgement in Keshub Mahindra case. The government in a bid to console the people of Bhopal gifted them a toothless Green tribunal to resolve any future accidents of such sort.
AP seems to be on a downward spiral under the reign of Rosaiah. Ever since he took over after the shocking demise of YSR, the funds have dried up and its reached near bankruptcy with many welfare schemes being stalled or restricted to certain regions. In a bid to garner the necessary funds for welfare programs, govt came up with idea of selling licenses for liquor shops. What a gem of an idea! Getting funds for welfare programs at the cost of health of its subjects.
The roads of India are one of the dangerous in world. Lack of
i) lane discipline
ii) Safety infrastructure
iii) Stringent rules
have led to accidents which take away lives of 350 people a day. That is equivalent to an plane crash every day. Instead of improving the safety standards of existing roads, the road ministry is busy making up plans of laying another 43000 km of roads and thus laying more deathtraps.
For sure our economy is robust and is leading the world out of recession with its vast experience in monetary and fiscal policy making of a nation of a billion. But it is also a selfish and witty one at bullying the poor and making way for the rich to prosper.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Friday, December 11, 2009
CTS placement
6th Dec:
After the hectic morning with CAT, evening was also equally busy. I had to pack up for ettimadai. I had a placement process to attend the next day. I packed the best of clothes in my wardrobe, hoping to wear them for the interview if I made it through the apti round. I was ready bu 6 PM. Left hostel by 6:30 pm for the station keeping in view the frequent traffic jams in Bangalore. I picked up my friend on the way and reached station by 7 pm. I had my dinner at comesum and waited for the train. The train arrived on time. But it left after a half hour delay. I slept around ten PM. Thanks to my sony zapper, I had a sound sleep. Later I came to know that my friends couldn’t have a sound sleep as an old lady was crying all through the night.
7th Dec:
The train reached Coimbatore at 6 AM. We got a taxi and reached ettimadai by 7 AM. I got ready by 8 and reached the panthal(a tenthouse for 1500 people) by 8.30 Am. Every participant was given a bar code. It was funny to have a bar code. Bar code is usually given to a commodity. Here we were being identified as commodities and CTS was out on jumbo shopping spree. A lady in suit and boot came up with a boring one hour long pre placement talk. It touched upon all the important points that would woo the prospective candidates. I wasn’t interested in any of them as in the first place I have no plans of taking up a job and secondly I can never work in a company like CTS spending hours together in crammed up offices. Surprisingly the presentation was without a vision or a mission!! Probably they were too interested in wooing us the students than talk about their company in detail. The talk went on till 11 Am and then we were packed off in buses to IT block. We were allotted classrooms in IT block to take up the test. Over there we had to wait for another one hour during which we were told to fill up a sheet of questionnaires. It had the following questions.
Name, tenth and 12th percentages and B.tech aggregate percentage.
Q: strengths and weaknesses
My Ans:S: Will power,perseverance, Adaptability
W:Impatience
Q: What do you think are the requirements for a software engineer?
My ans: I don’t remember the answer
Q: What are your short term and long term goals with CTS?
My Ans:
Short term goal: To continuously upgrade my skills and be part of many a successful projects
Long term goal: To consistently deliver quality services and build a strong and dynamic CTS
And a few more question which I don’t remember.
The test started at 12 PM and went on for another 70 minutes. It comprised of three sections called as
Quantitative aptitude
Verbal ability
Attention to detail
It was not all that difficult to crack but one had to be quick to go through all the questions. We were told the results would be out by 3 PM. About 1500+ people wrote it . Their claim that they would be out with results by 3 PM was impossible. We went to the mess and had our lunch and spent time at cafeteria hoping results would be out by 3 PM. We waited till 4 PM and then went back to our rooms. People had already started preparing for interviews but I was in no mood to study after the gruelling CAT prep . I went around the campus enjoying the cool breeze and scenic surroundings. If CTS recruits me it would most probably be my last trip to this beautiful campus. I still regret not taking up a course at ettimadai. The results were out at around seven thirty in the evening when we were about to leave for dinner. Long namelists(like the ones in railway waitlist) were stuck up on the hostel notice boards. There were hoards of people all around it. I could get a glance of a few sheets but I couldn’t find my name on any of those. But most of my friends found theirs and were enjoying their moment of success. I decided to check my result after dinner. After a quick dinner , we rushed back to the hostel to check if our names were up on the list. Thankfully the crowd had reduced and i could easily skim through all the lists and finally I found mine . I was on panel 29 at 8 in the morning. I was happy that I got a morning slot as I didn’t want to spend nervous moments waiting for my chance. But later I realized that I was the last one in the panel. So I had to endure the long wait. However I would have the advantage of knowing the interviewer and type of question by the feedback I got from people going before me. We got back to our rooms . I spent an hour going through the interview questions to get a feel of the questions being asked. The questions being asked were very basic and sometimes the answer was too obvious. That gave me a lot of confidence. I decided to just go through basics of the subjects which I had stated as my areas of interest.
I spent about three hours with my interview prep. I went to bed by 1 Am
8th Dec:
I got up at 5:30 AM and was ready by 7. I arranged my file ,polished my shoes and left for breakfast by 7:45. The breakfast comprised of distasteful idlis.After the breakfast we proceeded to the IT block. There were in total 50 panels for interviewing over 900 people. The interviews were going to take place in classrooms itself.
It took me sometime to find out where my classroom was. One of my classmate was also on the same panel. Each panel interviewed 9 people per slot. The interviews started 1 and half hour late. Once interviews started , all that we were waiting for was the feedback from people about how their interview was.
The first one to go in was an ECE girl from Coimbatore. She was asked about VLSI and some easy HR. I was happy that he was asking about VLSI as I was quite comfortable with that subject. Next in was an MCA guy with a red tie!! He was asked about the projects done so far. Each interview on an average lasted 10-15 minutes. By the time my turn came I got a fair idea about the interviewer and sort of questions being asked. I hoped that he didn’t change questions for me. And thankfully he didn’t. Herez how my interview went on:
Me: May I come in
(Interviewer(I) gave a slight nod with his head and I walked in as dignified a manner as possible)
He extended his hand for a shake hand.Initially I thought he was asking for my file.After the shake hand I sat down.
He went through the answer sheet and my response to questionnaires and noted down some info from that into another sheet.
I:Okay vaishnov. Tell me about your life so far ie I want to know your family background,schooling,extracurriculars,how u ended in amrita, what did u do in dese 3 years,ur projects etc.
Phew that was a really long question and I had already forgotten what were the points he wanted.
I started framing up the starting sentence.
I wanted a punchline to start with
However that didn’t happen. It was a boring start
Me:
I am from Andhra Pradesh. My dad works in an Public Sector undertaking and hence gets transferred frequently. So I got a chance to do my schooling in different parts of country like kerala,tamil nadu,Andhra and delhi. This gave me an opportunity to understand the different cultures and work with different kinds of people. Coming to amrita errrrrr happened something like this. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper and decided to apply for it and on the basis of my AIEEE rank I got a seat in Amrita Bangalore. My three years at amrita have been wonderful. I got opportunities to interact and work with great minds. I have been to many fests, seminars, workshops and recently I organized Rubik’s cube workshop. It was pretty successful with around fifty people attending it.
I:What workshop you organized?(I guess he didn’t know what a rubik’s was)
Me: Rubik’s cube sir. Its a logical puzzle involving a cube with different colours.
(I guess he didn’t understand what I blabbered)
I:tell me what subjects you studied in your previous sem
Me:Sir. In 7th sem we had subjects like Cellular, management,embedded,biomed,microwave etc.(I purposefully left out VLSI as I didn’t want him to ask any technical questions)
I: Management! What did u study in management?
Me: Sir, management course plan was something like this. It starts of with basics of economics and then goes onto analyse relationship between price demand and supply. We also learnt various HR fundamentals like motivational theories,leadership skills etc.
I: U have one more management subject next sem?
Me: Yes sir.
I:okay. I think you had VLSI last semester. Can you tell me how to detect faults ?
Me: I told all diffrnt types of faults and causes for a few of them. He seemed satisfied with my answer
I: can u explain me chip’s life cycle?
Me: (I didn’t understand what he wanted)Sir u mean the fabrication process??
I:yes yes
Me: I explained something something.
I: Where is silicon wafer used in the process?
Me:Sir, In making silicon layer on substrate.
He asked the question again and I gave the same answer
I: Okay. Now u can leave. All the best for result
Me: Thanks to you and cognizant for giving me this opportunity
I left the hall and phew! it was a great relief.
I went to mess at around 1. Couldn’t find any of my friends. Had lunch and went to my room for a short nap. In the evening went for a stroll. The results were out at around 9 PM. 541 people were selected. The registration numbers were being announced in alphabtcl order. First Amritapuri CSE,ECE,EEE,EIE,MECh. It was a really tense moment for me. Next up was BANGALORE CSE. There were heck a lot of people from CSE and my wait prolonged. Then came ECE. I had to wait a bit longer as my reg no was after 73 people. And alas my number was announced. It was a cakewalk for me as at no point of time I felt I was tested . It was just a matter of getting through the process with a cool mind. That’s how it was for me.
After the hectic morning with CAT, evening was also equally busy. I had to pack up for ettimadai. I had a placement process to attend the next day. I packed the best of clothes in my wardrobe, hoping to wear them for the interview if I made it through the apti round. I was ready bu 6 PM. Left hostel by 6:30 pm for the station keeping in view the frequent traffic jams in Bangalore. I picked up my friend on the way and reached station by 7 pm. I had my dinner at comesum and waited for the train. The train arrived on time. But it left after a half hour delay. I slept around ten PM. Thanks to my sony zapper, I had a sound sleep. Later I came to know that my friends couldn’t have a sound sleep as an old lady was crying all through the night.
7th Dec:
The train reached Coimbatore at 6 AM. We got a taxi and reached ettimadai by 7 AM. I got ready by 8 and reached the panthal(a tenthouse for 1500 people) by 8.30 Am. Every participant was given a bar code. It was funny to have a bar code. Bar code is usually given to a commodity. Here we were being identified as commodities and CTS was out on jumbo shopping spree. A lady in suit and boot came up with a boring one hour long pre placement talk. It touched upon all the important points that would woo the prospective candidates. I wasn’t interested in any of them as in the first place I have no plans of taking up a job and secondly I can never work in a company like CTS spending hours together in crammed up offices. Surprisingly the presentation was without a vision or a mission!! Probably they were too interested in wooing us the students than talk about their company in detail. The talk went on till 11 Am and then we were packed off in buses to IT block. We were allotted classrooms in IT block to take up the test. Over there we had to wait for another one hour during which we were told to fill up a sheet of questionnaires. It had the following questions.
Name, tenth and 12th percentages and B.tech aggregate percentage.
Q: strengths and weaknesses
My Ans:S: Will power,perseverance, Adaptability
W:Impatience
Q: What do you think are the requirements for a software engineer?
My ans: I don’t remember the answer
Q: What are your short term and long term goals with CTS?
My Ans:
Short term goal: To continuously upgrade my skills and be part of many a successful projects
Long term goal: To consistently deliver quality services and build a strong and dynamic CTS
And a few more question which I don’t remember.
The test started at 12 PM and went on for another 70 minutes. It comprised of three sections called as
Quantitative aptitude
Verbal ability
Attention to detail
It was not all that difficult to crack but one had to be quick to go through all the questions. We were told the results would be out by 3 PM. About 1500+ people wrote it . Their claim that they would be out with results by 3 PM was impossible. We went to the mess and had our lunch and spent time at cafeteria hoping results would be out by 3 PM. We waited till 4 PM and then went back to our rooms. People had already started preparing for interviews but I was in no mood to study after the gruelling CAT prep . I went around the campus enjoying the cool breeze and scenic surroundings. If CTS recruits me it would most probably be my last trip to this beautiful campus. I still regret not taking up a course at ettimadai. The results were out at around seven thirty in the evening when we were about to leave for dinner. Long namelists(like the ones in railway waitlist) were stuck up on the hostel notice boards. There were hoards of people all around it. I could get a glance of a few sheets but I couldn’t find my name on any of those. But most of my friends found theirs and were enjoying their moment of success. I decided to check my result after dinner. After a quick dinner , we rushed back to the hostel to check if our names were up on the list. Thankfully the crowd had reduced and i could easily skim through all the lists and finally I found mine . I was on panel 29 at 8 in the morning. I was happy that I got a morning slot as I didn’t want to spend nervous moments waiting for my chance. But later I realized that I was the last one in the panel. So I had to endure the long wait. However I would have the advantage of knowing the interviewer and type of question by the feedback I got from people going before me. We got back to our rooms . I spent an hour going through the interview questions to get a feel of the questions being asked. The questions being asked were very basic and sometimes the answer was too obvious. That gave me a lot of confidence. I decided to just go through basics of the subjects which I had stated as my areas of interest.
I spent about three hours with my interview prep. I went to bed by 1 Am
8th Dec:
I got up at 5:30 AM and was ready by 7. I arranged my file ,polished my shoes and left for breakfast by 7:45. The breakfast comprised of distasteful idlis.After the breakfast we proceeded to the IT block. There were in total 50 panels for interviewing over 900 people. The interviews were going to take place in classrooms itself.
It took me sometime to find out where my classroom was. One of my classmate was also on the same panel. Each panel interviewed 9 people per slot. The interviews started 1 and half hour late. Once interviews started , all that we were waiting for was the feedback from people about how their interview was.
The first one to go in was an ECE girl from Coimbatore. She was asked about VLSI and some easy HR. I was happy that he was asking about VLSI as I was quite comfortable with that subject. Next in was an MCA guy with a red tie!! He was asked about the projects done so far. Each interview on an average lasted 10-15 minutes. By the time my turn came I got a fair idea about the interviewer and sort of questions being asked. I hoped that he didn’t change questions for me. And thankfully he didn’t. Herez how my interview went on:
Me: May I come in
(Interviewer(I) gave a slight nod with his head and I walked in as dignified a manner as possible)
He extended his hand for a shake hand.Initially I thought he was asking for my file.After the shake hand I sat down.
He went through the answer sheet and my response to questionnaires and noted down some info from that into another sheet.
I:Okay vaishnov. Tell me about your life so far ie I want to know your family background,schooling,extracurriculars,how u ended in amrita, what did u do in dese 3 years,ur projects etc.
Phew that was a really long question and I had already forgotten what were the points he wanted.
I started framing up the starting sentence.
I wanted a punchline to start with
However that didn’t happen. It was a boring start
Me:
I am from Andhra Pradesh. My dad works in an Public Sector undertaking and hence gets transferred frequently. So I got a chance to do my schooling in different parts of country like kerala,tamil nadu,Andhra and delhi. This gave me an opportunity to understand the different cultures and work with different kinds of people. Coming to amrita errrrrr happened something like this. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper and decided to apply for it and on the basis of my AIEEE rank I got a seat in Amrita Bangalore. My three years at amrita have been wonderful. I got opportunities to interact and work with great minds. I have been to many fests, seminars, workshops and recently I organized Rubik’s cube workshop. It was pretty successful with around fifty people attending it.
I:What workshop you organized?(I guess he didn’t know what a rubik’s was)
Me: Rubik’s cube sir. Its a logical puzzle involving a cube with different colours.
(I guess he didn’t understand what I blabbered)
I:tell me what subjects you studied in your previous sem
Me:Sir. In 7th sem we had subjects like Cellular, management,embedded,biomed,microwave etc.(I purposefully left out VLSI as I didn’t want him to ask any technical questions)
I: Management! What did u study in management?
Me: Sir, management course plan was something like this. It starts of with basics of economics and then goes onto analyse relationship between price demand and supply. We also learnt various HR fundamentals like motivational theories,leadership skills etc.
I: U have one more management subject next sem?
Me: Yes sir.
I:okay. I think you had VLSI last semester. Can you tell me how to detect faults ?
Me: I told all diffrnt types of faults and causes for a few of them. He seemed satisfied with my answer
I: can u explain me chip’s life cycle?
Me: (I didn’t understand what he wanted)Sir u mean the fabrication process??
I:yes yes
Me: I explained something something.
I: Where is silicon wafer used in the process?
Me:Sir, In making silicon layer on substrate.
He asked the question again and I gave the same answer
I: Okay. Now u can leave. All the best for result
Me: Thanks to you and cognizant for giving me this opportunity
I left the hall and phew! it was a great relief.
I went to mess at around 1. Couldn’t find any of my friends. Had lunch and went to my room for a short nap. In the evening went for a stroll. The results were out at around 9 PM. 541 people were selected. The registration numbers were being announced in alphabtcl order. First Amritapuri CSE,ECE,EEE,EIE,MECh. It was a really tense moment for me. Next up was BANGALORE CSE. There were heck a lot of people from CSE and my wait prolonged. Then came ECE. I had to wait a bit longer as my reg no was after 73 people. And alas my number was announced. It was a cakewalk for me as at no point of time I felt I was tested . It was just a matter of getting through the process with a cool mind. That’s how it was for me.
CAT experience
6th Dec ’09:
After a year of start stop preparation, here I was to write CAT. My centre was RVCE. It is one of the prestigious colleges in Bangalore with state of art infrastructure. Hence I chose it as my centre. I arrived at centre at 7 AM. My dad had arranged for a cab to make my journey to the centre smooth and comfortable.
The security guard informed that entry opens at 8:30. So I spent a boring 1 and half hour in the car. I wasn’t even allowed to explore the sprawling campus. At 8:30 we were allowed to go to the computer centre where our test was going to be administered. There were four labs in which were allotted for the tests. My lab was on the first floor. After a half hour wait in queue a prometric guy allowed us to get in after checking our credentials. I deposited all my belongings at the security and moved to the lab. At the lab, there was a problem with my ID proof. I had taken my college ID as ID proof. My DOB was wrongly printed as 240588 instead of 89. This caused a problem and I was asked to get another id proof. Luckily I had my driving license to prove that I was born in 89. This brought in some nervousness . After that, I had to go through some biometrics and verification for the 3rd time!!
After the three layered check in process I was allotted my seat(S 15). I switched on my PC and there were over a dozen passwords which were keyed in by the proctor before the test interface came up flashing my photo that they took at check in. For another half hour I had nothing to do except for staring at my photo on the screen. At 9:45 were allowed to go through a tutourial video about the test interface.
At 10 Am , the test started off. We had to agree to the customary NDA before we started with our test. The first set of questions were from quant. It was a mixed bag ranging from sitters to complicated questions. It took me around 55 minutes to get throught he quant section. Next up was DI but I decided to skip it and move to verbal as I was tired of calculations that I had done in quant. But verbal gave me no respite. The RC were at its best and to make things difficult , the options were too close to eliminate. None of the options I was sure of. I had to go with a few guesses. Other than that, Parajumbles and Fill in the blanks were of moderate level giving me an opportunity to rush through and make up for the lost time in RC and quant. By the time I was done with verbal section I was left with around 40-45 minutes for DI. The DI however had a lot of sets and required much more time. I had to let go a few sets involving complicated calculations. However the remaining sets were direct and it wasn’t difficult to arrive at an option. On the whole , my CAT experience was like a roller coaster with certain highs and lows. Jan 22nd will determine what were in majority..highs or lows?
After a year of start stop preparation, here I was to write CAT. My centre was RVCE. It is one of the prestigious colleges in Bangalore with state of art infrastructure. Hence I chose it as my centre. I arrived at centre at 7 AM. My dad had arranged for a cab to make my journey to the centre smooth and comfortable.
The security guard informed that entry opens at 8:30. So I spent a boring 1 and half hour in the car. I wasn’t even allowed to explore the sprawling campus. At 8:30 we were allowed to go to the computer centre where our test was going to be administered. There were four labs in which were allotted for the tests. My lab was on the first floor. After a half hour wait in queue a prometric guy allowed us to get in after checking our credentials. I deposited all my belongings at the security and moved to the lab. At the lab, there was a problem with my ID proof. I had taken my college ID as ID proof. My DOB was wrongly printed as 240588 instead of 89. This caused a problem and I was asked to get another id proof. Luckily I had my driving license to prove that I was born in 89. This brought in some nervousness . After that, I had to go through some biometrics and verification for the 3rd time!!
After the three layered check in process I was allotted my seat(S 15). I switched on my PC and there were over a dozen passwords which were keyed in by the proctor before the test interface came up flashing my photo that they took at check in. For another half hour I had nothing to do except for staring at my photo on the screen. At 9:45 were allowed to go through a tutourial video about the test interface.
At 10 Am , the test started off. We had to agree to the customary NDA before we started with our test. The first set of questions were from quant. It was a mixed bag ranging from sitters to complicated questions. It took me around 55 minutes to get throught he quant section. Next up was DI but I decided to skip it and move to verbal as I was tired of calculations that I had done in quant. But verbal gave me no respite. The RC were at its best and to make things difficult , the options were too close to eliminate. None of the options I was sure of. I had to go with a few guesses. Other than that, Parajumbles and Fill in the blanks were of moderate level giving me an opportunity to rush through and make up for the lost time in RC and quant. By the time I was done with verbal section I was left with around 40-45 minutes for DI. The DI however had a lot of sets and required much more time. I had to let go a few sets involving complicated calculations. However the remaining sets were direct and it wasn’t difficult to arrive at an option. On the whole , my CAT experience was like a roller coaster with certain highs and lows. Jan 22nd will determine what were in majority..highs or lows?
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
BHARATH-A 20Yr Sojourn
CHAPTER:4
Cochin was a wonderful place right from people to the weather. One good thing about cochin was most of them knew English. Even a butcher knew English! Yes , kerala was truly a highly literate state.
My school "chinmaya vidyalaya" was located in vaduthala. Malayalam was a compulsory subject. However the school authorities relaxed the norms for me. I was allowed to study 1st standard Malayalam in the first sem following which I was supposed to shift over to 3rd standard Malayalam in the next two sems. The school had a semester system,where in we had 3 semsters. Each semester ended with a term exam. Once that exam was over the next sem exam didn’t test on the portions that were already tested in 1st semester. This made things lot easier. The workload was reduced to a great extent. Even the school ended by two. This allowed me to take up some extra curriculars. My dad arranged for a music teacher, though I don’t remember having any keen interest for music. We had to get a harmonium as the music master wanted that as a pre requisite for teaching.
Daily five to seven, I had music classes. It was a big bore. I just went through the moments. I learnt a few ragas and songs for a couple of months and gave up after that. One of my dad’s associates owned a theatre. He used to arrange for movie tickets on weekends. I remember seeing Jurassic park over there.
At school I was completely at ease, Thanks to the cosmopolitan nature of my class. There were people from different places in my class. I had a friend by the name of Abhishek. His father was owner of “Bheema jewelers”. He used to come in chauffeur driven fiat car.He called me amul baby as I was pretty chubby those days. One more good friend of mine was Kartika. She helped out in completing my notes whenever I was absent and helped out a lot during exams.Then there was ameena who I admired for her beauty and brains . She was the topper of the class.
One of my best friends at cochin was shankhar. My mom was strict with regards to my performances in exams. I always feared the results. It was Shankar who used to come to my rescue, most of the times making me understand that I had actually done better than a section of class and there was no need to worry. There were times when he went upto my mom and told her not to scold me. He was one nice guy I regret losing contact with.
Apart from the regular subjects we had crafts, drawing , PT and bhagvad gita. I struggled with drawing and bhagvad gita. Drawing classes were a nightmare . The drawing sheets and crayons were horrifying images for me. In craft class we made various decorative pieces which I still preserve. PT we mostly played dodge ball. Cricket and football were out of bounds for us. It was only for high school.
My mom took great pains in learning Malayalam and then teaching me. She learnt it from the doordarshan teaching channel!! And it began yielding results. I got decent marks in the first semester exams and I made a smooth transition to 3rd standard Malayalam. Bhagavad gita was really tough. There were 18 chapters and we had to by heart the whole thing and recite the ones the teacher asks. That was a daunting task.
My mom kept herself busy by teaching in a school for mentally challenged. She also learnt car driving though my dad was reluctant to let her drive. We got a sunny and my mom used to drop me at school on that. I enjoyed the drive along the railway track to school.
On independence day, I got my first opportunity to venture into extra curriculars. Having learnt carnatic music for sometime I sang well. So I got a chance to sing “Hind desh ke niwasi”. There was also a fancy dress show and I dressed up as Nehru.
I made couple of friends at HPCL quarters. But I didn’t get to spend much time over there. Occasionally we ventured to the marine drive. The scenic backwaters was a view worth a watch. There was a floating restaurant over there. My other hangout spot was driving park, where I got to drive pedal jeeps and scooters on real roads. It was like real life complete with signals and zebra crossings.
My dad made frequent trips to pune for attending training programs. He got me chocolates from the famous nathu’s sweets over there. I relished them a lot. My pet collection widened with a mini aquarium comprising of fishes and snails. My dad also got a special kind of birds which didn’t fly. We could hold it and play around and they made no fuss about it. But over a period , their wings got strengthened and they managed to fly away.
The love birds met a sad end. One of them died due to ant bites(Bloody ants..i hate them!!). After a few weeks the other one died when a cat attacked and devoured it and left only bones(sob..sob). The fishes were often attacked by the snails. The snails squeezed the fishes to the walls and the fishes died of suffocation. All these were sad moments and we decided not to have any more pets.
My dad wrote CAT and various other MBA exams. He managed to get a seat in Philippines to do MBA. But he let it go as he didn’t want to leave me(love u dad ).
Two years on there was a sudden change in mindset of my dad. Those days I was pretty dependent on my parents and I guess most of them would be at that stage. But probably I was a bit too dependent. I didn’t know how to tie lace(I still don’t know :P), how to wear a shirt and other silly stuff. This made my dad think of putting me in hostel so that I could learn to do things on my own.
One of my dad’s colleague's son was studying in 8th standard at vijnana vihar in vizag. The friend(jobless fellow!) suggested my dad to put me in the same school as it gave good value education and was disciplined.
There was an entrance exam to be written for getting into the school. And believe it or not .. there was a crash course to crack that exam!! Amazing! people make money out of every damn thing. After my fourth standard I left my great school and friends at cochin. I moved over to vizag and underwent the crash course for half a month. It was a horrifying experience. We were packed into small dark classrooms and made to attempt loads of questions from dawn to dusk. I had made up my mind to fail the test at any cost. But god had different plans I guess. As even my worst performance got me into touching distance of getting admission. I just missed the cut off. My grandfather was Assistant police commissioner at vizag. He put some influence and got me a seat in that dreadful place. I was disappointed as all my plans failed and I had to stay away from my parents for 1 year. It was something I had never imagined of.
My hostel experiences and stay at vizag shall come up in next blog
Sunday, November 8, 2009
THE SUNDAY THOUGHTS
Its been two days since I have seen the sun. There’s been a constant drizzle that’s been knocking my mood off. With three days to go for my end sems to kick off, here I am with nothing else to do but blogging.
Here are a few thoughts of mine that I want to share with u people out there.
I happened to go to a one year old’s birthday party. The joy and happiness that was there over there still lingers on. First birthday is always a special occasion for a child’s parents and family members. I am glad that I got an opportunity to share the joy.I wish there was a flashback option in life to go back and relive all the wonderful moments.
Moving on, this is with regards to the mad football maniacs. I don’t understand the point behind supporting clubs/teams which they can no way connect with in their lives. Being a cricket Fan is a different thing as it is very much part of our life in India and we have people hailing from our places representing the team. But in football you have people from unknown countries playing it out endlessly year after year all for nothing. The intense fan rivalry that is prevalent just irks me. I have no qualms with international football, but club football is something that I hate.
Last but not the least, I came across this startling fact that google keeps tab of all our online activities of not just 1 day or month but 4 long years!! This is a blatant invasion of our privacy and can prove to be serious security threat in case of internet banking and other online transactions. Here are some more details about it. Google has this feature called dashboard where it keeps track of recent visited sites, downloads, mails etc. This it claims it does to show the users relevant advertisements. But it can be misused if it gets into the wrong hands. This is something google must stop.
Friday, November 6, 2009
SACHIN-THE MILESTONE MAN
"Cometh the hour, cometh the man"
And the man is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Whenever India has been in deep trouble, its often SRT who comes to the rescue. His two decade stay in International cricket has caused no dearth in thirst for runs. He still dismantles the most lethal bowling attack with ease. His 9 centuries against the best team in the world bears testimony to this fact.
On 5th December 09, the whole world was waiting for the 17000 th run fom sachin's blade. And the moment came when sachin went past the 17k mark. On the other end was Suresh Raina with 1700 odd runs. Such has been sachin's vast experience. He is the messiah of Indian cricket. Even the young blood aren't able to replicate what sachin has done so consistently over the years.
Once sachin went past the 17k mark, people were out planning celebrations. But sachin had his own way of celebratin and that is do what he likes most ie score runs. He scored at a phenomenal rate and the aussies were left gaping at the marvelous strokeplay. He paced his innings perfectly and shifted gears seamlessly.
On a pitch that looked flat as a carom board, Scoring runs was not a problem . But what made sachin special is his meticulous planning of the innings. He made sure the required run rate always hovered around the 7 mark even though wickets were tumbling at the other end.
In 1999 at Chennai , sachin played a similar innings and took India almost to the finish line but his mates faltered and ended up gifting sachin a defeat. I am sure those memories were back haunting him during the last four-five overs. Ten years down the line nothings changed. Sachin departed and his teammates marched behind their great commander.His consistency in giving his wicket off to debutants also remained intact as he paddle scooped a gem of a delivery into the safe hands of Mike hussey.
The 175 will remain a memorable one for the hyderabadis. We are lucky to live in this sachin era. As he moves into the twilight years of his career, I wish him all the luck and hope to see him score a double ton in ODIs.
ATB Sachin!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Nuclear Disarmament
The world today is ravaged by wars and terror attacks leaving thousands of earthlings’ grief stricken. It has had a humongous impact on mother nature. During the cold war era, there was a race towards stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction which included nuclear war heads. U S and Russia were the two heavy weights in this nuclear arms race.
In due course many other countries like Britain, France developed nuclear technology. In order to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) was proposed by Ireland and finland .It was opened for signature in 1968, 189 countries signed it. India, Pakistan, Israel and North korea are not parties to it. India did not sign the treaty as it was discriminatory in nature. However india’s nuclear policy shows that India has no intention of waging a nuclear war.
India’s nuclear policy states the following
• Maintaining a credible minimum nuclear deterrence
• No first use
• Non use on non nuclear weapon states
• Voluntary moratorium on further nuclear tests
The contemporary world has become perilous and the threat of nuclear conflict has intensified. Nuclear technology in countries like Pakistan which is among the top ten countries in failed state index, should ring the alarm bells world over. In a country where government doesn’t have strong control on its territory could easily be a safe haven for terrorists. The commingling of terrorists and nuclear weapons will be a deadly mix to handle world over. It could lead to nuclear terrorism(NT). NT denotes the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in acts of terrorism. The situation in Pakistan merits immediate international attention. The whole world must come together and persuade Pakistan to forego their nuclear technology else all wear efforts to curb nuclear proliferation will turn into a damp squib.
Nuclear weapons in Iran could lead to opening up of doors for the Middle -east to nuclear technology.
The first step towards disarmament should start with US and Russia which together have nearly 5000 deployed nuclear war heads. Many steps have been taken in the past for reduction and regulation of nuclear warheads. Prominent among them are
• SALT(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) in 1972 to freeze ICBMs and SLBMs
• START in 1991
• SORT(Strategic Offensive reduction treaty) in 2002 to reduce nuclear warheads to 1700-2200 by 2012
However with the Bush regime(2000-2008) gave no heed to the treaties between US and Russia. Tensions heightened when US supported the NATO backed Georgia to confront Russia. However Obama seems to be making amends to the mistakes made by Bush. His visit to Russia (6-8 July 09) reignites the hopes that we are heading towards nuclear disarmament. Their respective leaders agreed to limits their warheads to 1675 respectively. As aptly said by Obama that every seed knows its time, the seed has been sown for nuclear disarmament and hopefully it begins to show results soon.
In due course many other countries like Britain, France developed nuclear technology. In order to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) was proposed by Ireland and finland .It was opened for signature in 1968, 189 countries signed it. India, Pakistan, Israel and North korea are not parties to it. India did not sign the treaty as it was discriminatory in nature. However india’s nuclear policy shows that India has no intention of waging a nuclear war.
India’s nuclear policy states the following
• Maintaining a credible minimum nuclear deterrence
• No first use
• Non use on non nuclear weapon states
• Voluntary moratorium on further nuclear tests
The contemporary world has become perilous and the threat of nuclear conflict has intensified. Nuclear technology in countries like Pakistan which is among the top ten countries in failed state index, should ring the alarm bells world over. In a country where government doesn’t have strong control on its territory could easily be a safe haven for terrorists. The commingling of terrorists and nuclear weapons will be a deadly mix to handle world over. It could lead to nuclear terrorism(NT). NT denotes the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in acts of terrorism. The situation in Pakistan merits immediate international attention. The whole world must come together and persuade Pakistan to forego their nuclear technology else all wear efforts to curb nuclear proliferation will turn into a damp squib.
Nuclear weapons in Iran could lead to opening up of doors for the Middle -east to nuclear technology.
The first step towards disarmament should start with US and Russia which together have nearly 5000 deployed nuclear war heads. Many steps have been taken in the past for reduction and regulation of nuclear warheads. Prominent among them are
• SALT(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) in 1972 to freeze ICBMs and SLBMs
• START in 1991
• SORT(Strategic Offensive reduction treaty) in 2002 to reduce nuclear warheads to 1700-2200 by 2012
However with the Bush regime(2000-2008) gave no heed to the treaties between US and Russia. Tensions heightened when US supported the NATO backed Georgia to confront Russia. However Obama seems to be making amends to the mistakes made by Bush. His visit to Russia (6-8 July 09) reignites the hopes that we are heading towards nuclear disarmament. Their respective leaders agreed to limits their warheads to 1675 respectively. As aptly said by Obama that every seed knows its time, the seed has been sown for nuclear disarmament and hopefully it begins to show results soon.
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