First Law of Bridge It's always the partner's fault.
I am extremely grateful to Alexander Graham bell for his wonderful invention called the telephone, without which yesterday's very positive conversation with the professor from UT - Austin would never have been possible. And I am also very thankful to ARPAnet (I think) which is the foundations of the modern day internet without which students (including me) would have found it extremely difficult to apply for higher studies.
The point is, yesterday's telephonic conversation with the professor went very well (according to him). I wouldn't say so for myself. I had given him the timings of 9pm - midnite to call me up. And so we made all the calls we needed to make before 8pm itself!!!. I sat down at 8:30pm with all the necessary materials - my official letter of admission, some details about my project, the research work he is doing, some questions that I could ask him and all that. I was actually playing a game on the comp, with the telephone rite in front of me. I was actually so engrossed in the game, that I didnt notice the time fly by. I had also turned on the Air-Conditioner. Apart from being hot and sultry, my condition of Hyperhidrosis made me very sweaty, with my nervousness also playing its full part in it.
The phone rang around 10pm, the familiar long distance ring tone being the sharpest trigger in my mind at that time. And it was him!!!. He introduced himself, explained his research areas - including VLSI design, testability and fault tolerant computing. (I am sure half of the topics he mentioned would go over your head. It did over mine too, initially.) Then he said that two of his Ph.D students are finishing, and he wanted to fill the gap. He continued by asking what my research interests are? My hands were already on full blown sweating at that time (the AC being of no avail, except to chill me) and it curiously also started to sweat near my head and ear (where I was holding the phone) The most annoying thing was that it went into the speaker of the earpiece and created a lot of static and I couldnt hear properly (with his American accent also being slightly difficult to understand). Anyway, I continued on on my broad areas of research interest. And my commitment to do a Ph.D and all. He replied saying that he is willing to give me a Teaching Assistantship to fund my education there. He was particularly (I suppose) impressed with my scores (CGPA, which was pretty high.)
That went decent, I thought. Anyway - to a good nites sleep. The worst part was me not understanding his accent. At many times during the conversation, I had to make him repeat a lot of sentences. Watching n amount of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and an equal number (or more) of English movies does not seem to have helped at all. I seriously dunno what I am going to do
He did seemed to thought very good of me, for the next day, there was a mail from him staring at me, saying that
I have decided that I would like to offer you the position in my research group if you are interested. I am assuming you are seious about doing a Ph.D. You would get a TA position for the first year which would provide you with a salary and would cover your tuition and fees.
So there....I shall be sending my acceptance letter today or tomorrow. And I suppose that culminates my forays into the pursuits of gaining admission into Some good US university
Branch's First Law of Crisis The spirit of public service will rise, and the bureaucracy will multiply itself much faster, in time of grave national concern.
I have unforgettably not been able to be on the blog scene for a long while; not that I have been busy with regards the stale but workable academic work, rather, the fact is what others would call it a writer's bloc, and I would put it in a more amusing neological expression as blogger's bloc. But now, I do seem to have a lot to think about, consequently a lot to write about.
Firstly, I seem to be getting somewhere, with respect to my getting aid for my studies at UT - Austin; a professor there has sent me a mail, saying that he is interested in me, and would like to talk to me over the phone. (Unable to express visually an internal expression of elation in the net-world here).
Secondly, me donating a precious red liquid, what some would call blood, what I would call a life-saver, tomorrow. If i do that, it will be my third time after joining this university (third time overall anyway). Donating blood is a nice experience anyway, gives a pretty warm feeling in the heart, and is just as painful as taking a sample for blood testing. Once the needle penetrates your outer epidermis, you wouldnt feel as much as even a mosquito bite. All I keep thinking about during that 20 minute process (yes, it is necessary to keep your mind occupied to prevent you from seeing the bag of blood being squished frequently at regular intervals, and yes, it takes only that long, sometimes lesser) is to imagine myself in the world of my favorite game.
Thirdly, my project advisor has asked me to start writing the dreaded project report - though it also signifies that my project is near completion - or that my advisor is satisfied with my work. But I have to see if the viva comittee also has similar ideas.
Fourthly, even though exactly outperform in the GD and interview, I just saw the scores on my CAT exam - and they were beyond my wildest expectations. My percentile is 98.25% and I scored about 45.89% (which translates to about 68 correct answers). My performance in the individual sections are also pretty good. 58.93% in verbal, 48.22% in DI and 30.3% in quantitative ability. I never did expect that much in my CAT 2003. It just goes to show that CAT is not that difficult - only the following parts (GD and interview) are. So anybody serious about IIM should prepare seriously about it.
PS : If you have, by any chance wondered why the tone of my writing looks a tad more sophisticated, it is purely the inconsequential result of the reading through (with a roving interest, I may add) of an Alister McLean novel aptly titled The way to dusty death. If you ever manage to get the hands on one of his books, dont ever put it down. And you will understand what command over the English language ever means. And the plots are good too, but what he does manage to achieve with his wonderfully constructed sentences would spellbind you.
Boyle's Other Law The first pull on the cord ALWAYS sends the drapes in the wrong direction.
Bangalore, namma Vooru For the Non-Tams, that means, Bangalore, my city (or something like that). Neways, this is my recount of my travels and travails there (including the me screwing up my Group Discussion and Interview there).
I started on Sunday nite (while the exciting India - Pak match was going on, and India just started to thrash Pak.) What lied ahead was a long sleepless nite (I am not particularly known for sleeping while sitting, especially in a bus. The only time I can sit and sleep is in the class, though I try as much as possible to avoid it.) All I got in the final bargain was 2 hours of broken sleep in the 7 hour journey. (Lucky are those people who can sleep anytime, anywhere.) Landed in Bangalore at around 5 am, and went to the National games village, where my dad's colleague was there. I went and slept immediately - for an additional two hours. Left the place around 9:30 am, after making a couple of phone calls (to tell my mother that I reached safe - these are certain formalities.), went to the campus of IIM-Bangalore by auto.
My first impressions of the city - Nice city, lot more trees than Madras, but as hot as Madras (weather wise) and much hotter than Madras (non-weather wise ;-) ). Lots of spanky new buildings, an agglomerate of gleaming glass and grey/white concrete, sometimes coming together in fluent shapes, sometimes in oblique angles. Buses - they seem to be a good way to travel, but for an outsider, it will seem very difficult, with Bus numbers in Kannada and sometimes English, and place names, purely in Kannada. Autos are a good bet, atleast they dont fleece you like in Madras. (Personally, I hate autos). Traffic is very bad, its always overflowing and seems unregulated. At present, they seem to be constructing a lot of flyovers, and the many vehicles being diverted compounds the problem there.
My session at IIM-B lasted for about two hours. First there was the Group Discussion. The group we had were all freshers, 7 of them, with 5 IITians (2 being my class mates). I did decently, considering the fact that it was my first (and hopefully last) GD. It was the interview I screwed up bad - they asked some economics questions, and I didnt do them that well, fumbling the answers, and they kindof deduced that I was not much interested in Management. So that ends my inroads into Management.
Went with 3 of my friends to Brigade road - nice line of shops (and people too - remember me saying that it was hotter than Madras.) Went over to Barrista's at MG road, had a cuppa cold coffee, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around. Walked around the place a little more and had amazing ice-cream at a sweet little Corner ice cream shop.
Then we split up and I went to a friend's (friend of my cousin) place, at Indira Nagar (and for the first time after 6 months, watched HBO and Fear factor - remember CAS). The train - to Chennai was at 11 pm, for which I landed up at the station at 10pm - call it paranoia or something. After getting into the train, I slept and the next thing I remember is somebody waking me up at 5 am, telling it was the Central, just as it was pulling into the station. The rest, as they say is Geography (or is it History - watever, it doesnt matter).
Sudhon will be going there for his IIM-B interveiw next week, and I am sure he will have a more juicy experience to recount.
The success of any venture will be helped by prayer, even in the wrong denomination.
When things are going well, someone will inevitably experiment detrimentally.
The deficiency will never show itself during the dry runs.
Information travels more surely to those with a lesser need to know.
An original idea can never emerge from committee in the original.
When the product is destined to fail, the delivery system will perform perfectly.
The crucial memorandum will be snared in the out-basket by the paper clip of the overlying correspondence and go to file.
Success can be insured only by devising a defense against failure of the contingency plan.
Performance is directly affected by the perversity of inanimate objects.
If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges.
The lagging activity in a project will invariably be found in the area where the highest overtime rates lie waiting.
Talent in staff work or sales will recurringly be interpreted as managerial ability.
The "think positive" leader tends to listen to his subordinates' premonitions only during the postmortems.
Clearly stated instructions will consistently produce multiple interpretations.
On successive charts of the same organization the number of boxes will never decrease.
Just at the eave of my leaving my beloved city to go to Bangalore, for my GD and Interview session there. I do not have much practice or knowledge about what will go on there. All I have with me is my faithful confidence. That should pull me through. Wish me luck, though I dont think I will put much effort in it.
The thing I am more worried about is that it is after about 10 years that I am going to Bangalore. I hardly know any place there, no relatives either. All I am depending on is a colleague of my father, and a few friends of my cousin. After the interview session is over, I do plan to go around the city, as much as time permits, till my train there leaves at around 10:45pm.
On a separate note, I went to the Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. It was one of the best three and a half hours I spent in the afternoon. What astounded me was the amazing graphics. Some notable graphical elements and camera movements are the following :-
The first time, the camera sweeps around into Minas Tirith - its just breath-taking.
The sequence of the lighting of fires, in order to warn Rohan - the way you move from one fire to the next - its just amazing.
The visualisation of the Barad-dur tower and the tower of Cirith Ungol is too good, especially when the signal goes from the latter into the sky - Wow.
The march of the Orcs, and their stand before the walls of the city - their huge army being shown in a bird's eye view.
Their attack on the city - and the city's counter-attack, especially, when the camera follows the path of a projectile thrown by a trebuchet.
The ride of the Rohirrim, with their flanked march - is excellent.
Gollum, of course.
The battle on Pelennor Fields - the cinematography and choreaography is just amazing.
The portrayal of the Dead people's ghost's which overruns the orcs and proves decisive in the battle.
Thats all I can think of now, more later. There were some boring aspects, which I would not like to elaborate much - I dont see any point in doing that. Bye.
PS : My computer is up and running, faster (just slightly) than before. Though, on a sad note, I was unable to install Linux.
Boyle's Observation A welfare state is one that assumes responsibility for the health, happiness, and general well being of all its citizens except the taxpayers.
The graduands dinner of 2004 is being hosted tomorrow. (Of course, yours truly is going to attend it - who would want to give up the chance of dinner, which, incidentally is not free, because we paid quite a sizeable amount when we signed up a declaration for becoming a member of IITM alumni organisation.). This dinner, comprising of speeches for an hour (will I be able to stay awake???) followed by the dinner, will probably come about as the first step in the process of leaving the portals of IIT, for all the graduands. (The last step, I think is the Convocation, wherein we get our certificates...) I am sure a lot of memories of my four year course in IIT will be triggered, a lot of new things learnt, going through a new facet of life, enjoying aspects which otherwise I would have never felt, reading the brains of the cream of the student and faculty circles. I could go on and on. But I reserve it for another day, another post. But I hope to have a good time. The day after tomorrow, namely Saturday, I am planning to format my entire Hard Disk, and reinstall Windows. Now you would think, who in their right minds would want to do such a time wasting and risky process. I agree. But there are certain aspects which you have to consider first.
My comp is now 3 years old. Have been running with the same OS for more than 2 1/2 years, without it having not crashed at all, (I am thankful to Microsoft for that.) and a parallel stripped down Mandrake 8.2 (Stripped down, because I didnt have many packages on hand that I could install, so it was just a white elephant on my Hard Disk). I had never formatted my entire HD even once before. My hard disk had become quite bloated, struggling for space and RAM and processing power, so this process was inevitable. I didnt dare to do it before, as I had downloaded more that 100 MB of stuff, got lots of softwares and songs from friends and net, and I didnt want to lose it. Now that I have a writer, I am going ahead with this plan in full steam. My plan of action :- (It is going to be slightly techie, but definitely not geeky)
Obtain the necessary CD's first - The OS (Windows XP) , Red Hat Linux 7.3 (I chose such a low version because I didnt want to allocate more than 2 GB for it), some CD-RW's for the backups, essential softares - Office, Visual Studio and other miscellaneous stuff.
Uninstall all softwares on my system (except Nero - for burning backups), and write the skeletons (whatever files are remaining after uninstallation) on the CD - RWs. Write any downloaded stuff, drivers, misc. and songs also (Luckily, I had already done that)
Boot with the bootable Windows CD (If you wanna have the Win - Lin Combination, always install the Windows OS first), remove the primary partition (which originally contained the Windows OS), create a new partition of the required size and go ahead with the Windows installation.
After successful installation, install the drivers for any new hardware, and updated drivers for your motherboard, graphics cards, sounds cards, modems etc. Also install DirectX 9.0b (the latest version), any Windows patches and updates (believe me, there are a LOT OF THEM).
Now you can create the secondary/extended partitions, using disk management mentioned above. If you plan to install Linux also, leave some space unallocated (my case, its 2 GB; nowadays with 80GB hard disks, u can afford to leave 10 GB for it).
Boot with the Linux CD - no 1. (If you are a newbie to Linux, I suggest you start with the Mandrake flavor of Linux - it is much more user friendly and easier to install. If you know your way around Linux, you can go for Red Hat, which is tad more difficult, and confusing. Be warned) Just follow the instructions and install. Note that Linux (especially the later versions) gobble up space and system resources like anything. Dont for it, unless you have a P4 2.x or a Athlon 2x00 processors, running atleast on 256 MB or memory. Also, dont install all the applications mentioned there - You wouldnt be needing even half of those. (I plan to use it mainly for those cute games in Linux). Wait until it finishes.
There you go, now you have the Win-Lin Combination. Enjoy.
Note that installing Linux will create a Linux Boot Loader for choosing the OS (it is usually installed on the Master Boot Record. So if you want to remove the Linux OS, all you need to do is the command fdisk /mbr for 98, and fixmbr in the recovery console for XP and 2000. This process will rewrite the boot record so that the Linux Boot Loader is overwritten and it now points to Windows. (This recovery console has to be installed separately. See windows help for that). Then You can delete the Linux Partitions using the ever faithful Disk Management.
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. It is recommended that you contact your graduate adviser as soon as possible. It is a pleasure to welcome you as a graduate student.
YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS - I HAVE BEEN GRANTED ADMISSION INTO UT @ AUSTIN. WOW O WOW. THAT WAS LIKE MY MOST PREFERRED CHOICE. I AM GONNA ROCK
This gives me more than enough reason to work day and nite to finish as much of my project as possible as fast as possible....
Though now, I have to send a couple of mails to find out who that Graduate Advisor mentioned in the status is.
Me in the most happiest mood ever
An update
After lot of thought, I have decided to show my face (and face alone) at the interview and grace the GD session for IIM Lucknow scheduled for Monday (the 22nd) at 11:30 am. I have decided to show them what it is like to go without any preparation. I have decided to show them how to screw a good chance of getting a seat in one of the IIM's. I have decided to show them what it is like to be on the other side. Note that I may not be able to accomplish all the above things.
Anybody there in Bangalore.????
Boultbee's Criterion If the converse of a statement is absurd, the original statement is an insult to the intelligence and should never have been said.
I seem to have this little known condition called Hyperhidrosis. Basically, what it is is excessive sweating in the hand, legs, face and all other areas. But in that aspect, I must say that I have only a mild version of it. I sweat a lot in my palm and more so in my legs.
This is not a condition that would bother me a lot socially, but rather affects a lot of others who do come in contact with me, and it also affects me physically. Firstly, people (by people, who know that I sweat a lot) hesitate to shake hands with me, and those who don't soon find out after extending their dry hands and get returned what is usually a partially moist hand, the source of which they may not exactly prefer. Secondly, any document I touch gets that soiled look soon. And any book I read for a while very soon attains a well-read look and feel. Thirdly, people downright refuse to let me play games on their computers - after I play for five minutes, there will be dirt and sweat on the arrow keys, the WASD keys, the Right Ctrl, the Right Shift - the ones mostly used while playing games. The mouse also develops a similar grimy collection. Even as I am typing this now, my fingers have already started feeling soggy. I can literally sqeeze my fingers to show the sweat emanating from the sweat pores (Not a welcoming sight, isn't it.) Luckily the keyboard at my home is protected with a protective layer of Keyskin, without which I would have buried it long ago. In fact, on the keyskin, the afore-mentioned keys have already got their permanent yellow coloring.
A more important problem for me is the sweating in my foot. The reason being that, after I cycle or walk even a short distance, my feet becomes soggy - and then my slipper starts acting slippery. (Now you know the reason behind the nomenclature of that particular piece of footwear). This slipperiness causes a great problem for me - I often twist my ankle because of this, I am unable to run after buses for fear of flinging my footwear one foot in front of me (Leather footwear are the worst culprits), I collect a lot of dirt on my feet, and they are eternally dirty - no amount of washing seems to remove them.
That is the statement of my problem. Unfortunately the solution is neither trivial nor permanent; and there is no purpose heading towards it.
Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have had a nice week and hopefully looking forward to a nicer weekend - what with an extremely tense match coming up tomorrow and all that. I thank DD for providing the transmission from Ten Sports - for all the CAS viewers.
Boston's Irreversible Law of Clutter In any household, junk accumulates to fill the space available for its storage.
I dunno to how many of you this may have reached. If it has not, then please take the fun in reading this.
Collection of wonderful definitions
Cigarette : A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end a fool on the other.
Divorce : Future tense of marriage.
Lecture : An art of transferring information from the notes of the Lecturer to the notes of the students without passing through "the minds of either".
Conference : The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.
Compromise : The art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece.
Tears : The hydraulic force by which masculine will-power is defeated by feminine water power...
Dictionary : A place where divorce comes before marriage.
Conference Room : A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everybody disagrees later on.
Classic : A book which people praise, but do not read.
Smile :- A curve that can set a lot of things straight.
Office :- A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life.
Yawn :- The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth.
Etc. :- A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.
Committee :- Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.
Experience :- The name men give to their mistakes.
Atom Bomb :- An invention to end all inventions.
Philosopher :- A fool who torments himself during life, to be spoken of when dead.
Diplomat :- A person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
Opportunist :- A person who starts taking bath if he accidentally falls into a river.
Optimist : A person who while falling from Eiffel tower says in midway "See I am not injured yet."
Pessimist :- A person who says that O is the last letter in RO, Instead 0f the first letter in word OPPORTUNITY .
Miser :- A person who lives poor so that he can die rich.
Father :- A banker provided by nature.
Criminal :- A guy no different from the rest... except that he got caught.
Boss :- Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early.
Politician :- One who shakes your hand before elections and your Confidence after.
Doctor :- A person who kills your ills by pills, and kills you with his bills.
Borstelmann's Rule If everything seems to be coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane.
When it rains, it pours That statement perhaps summarizes the joui de vivre that is the current state of mine. This week has been a very good week for me.
Firstly, I do believe that I have got an admission from the University of Washington, where I had applied for a MS in Electrical Engineering. But I am going to do what is called Inverse Bumping in the IITlingo - i.e.refusing their offer of admission. The reason behind what you may think as a foolish decision (After all, who would want to give up an offer of admission, with aid) is that that univ is a slightly low ranked university, and it doesn't have a history of IITians going there; even though it is rolling in funds and does seem to have done some good work. I will still have to ponder over it. Also, you may already know of the RICE offer. The third reason being that, a proferssor from the University of California at Santa Barbara has contacted me, enquiring whether I would be interested in doing a Ph.D under him. The group he heads there is a pretty big group, and has done lots of interesting work. Probably thats where my mindset is, rite now. If I do confirm it, I mite end up going there with, hopefully, a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship.
Even though I would like have liked to continue in Biomedical Engineering, the hint of the offer from UCSB seems to be better. But if I get offers from Georgia Tech or John Hopkins University or University of Texas, Austin, I would have to forget this offer too. Lets not the hopes too high up, anyways.
Also, I would like to take the time to mention that even though I got rejected by IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Calcutta, I have got an acceptance from IIM-Lucknow. I know it is not too much, but something is better than nothing. But I may not go to the Group Discussion and Interview Stage at Bangalore. Yesterday (Friday), I undertook the journey to the amusement park that goes by the famous name of MGM - Dizzie World, a place about 25 km from the city of Chennai. It was a part of a treat given by certain colleagues of mine, who ended up contributing about 2.5k towards it. The gumbal that went there totalled 13. I was the last one to join, but it was never an unlucky event.
Though late to reach there, due to communication problems (Imagine, in the age of cell phones, people having communication difficulties), we ended there only at around 12:30 pm.
We subjected our bodily possessions to many intense rides, one after another. By the end of a total of 6 rides, 6 of the guys conked out. There was no hope of rescuing them until the lunch we had. The entire evening was spent in the Water world, which was just a big pool, with slides to splash down in. I spent a couple of hours swimming there; that reminded me to get the swimming card at college. I just love swimming. Except for a couple of untoward incidents, the whole day was peaceful, and worth the day spent there.
Then we returned home, tired and exhausted. For all those who did celeberate the day of colors, and for all those who sat at home brooding over it, my heartiest wishes to you all.
Borkowski's Law You can't guard against the arbitrary.
Firstly, I will bore you with bad news (for me atleast). I have been bumped (aka rejected) by MIT, on the grounds that there were too many other students who have applied and that it was not possible to select all of them. But the real reason that they hide behind the veneer of the rejection letter that they sent by the snail mail, courtesy the The United States Postal Service, was that my marks/grades/scores were not high enough. I truly accept that. It is well known in my college community that to get into MIT, it is necessary to have a Grade Point Average ( /10) above 9.5, which is no mean task by itself, and it would also be helpful to have two or three research papers in the field that which you are applying. Me satisfied neither of the criteria. So there.
If anybody wants a sneak peek into what an MIT rejection letter would look like, can do so with a special request.
Also, it may be possible that my inroads into the grounds of management studies at the prestigeous IIM's may have be foiled by the examination that is the CAT. It appears that I have not been called for the next stage of GD and Interview, when I checked in the website of IIM - Bangalore. I am not wholly sure of this, though my fears may come to hold truth when I recieve the official score card from the above mentioned Institute.
Doesnt matter. I wasnt much interested in Management myself, having only spent approximately 1300 Rs for the entire process (The CAT Application takes a sizeable chunk of 1100 Rs of that, a 30 Rs went for xeroxing a book of problems owned by my friends, and the remaining went towards transport charges for the two CAT's I belled).
There is some good news; whether it entertains you or bores you is upto you to decide. An email that arrived from the University of Washington, Seattle, congragulating me on that I may have recieved something to signify that I have got admission. I assert that I have no such thing in my hands, to my knowledge. I had applied for an MS in Electrical Engineering in VLSI/CAD. But the fact is that this is a slightly lower ranked universities among the ones that I had applied. But it seems to be expanding its group and lots of work i being done here, and it is rolling in funds. Lemme just wait and see. On a completely unrelated note, a group of students, who have got very pissed of with the way things are done in IIT, have put up a notice, exposing the gross realities of the happenings and events in IIT which many of us have found to our displeasure. It also talks of starting a revolution/strike if things are not taken care of by the powers that may be. It did prove to be a quite interesting reading, and will sure be the discussion topic for some days to come, what with the elections close at hand (this weekend).
There was also a very interesting quote that they had put up, aimed at that powers that may be regarding their wanton misuse of power to spoil this institure. It read, as I recollect from my memory :
When a man enters the army, they give him a gun and ask him to lose his brains. When he quits, they take away the gun too.
