What a new year....great!

Ho ho ho... today is New year's eve!

Well this evening was special...met my best friend,Deepak.... he came home today itself... Oh!How much I missed him in this holidays! No fun in this holidays,no roving in bikes as he was not here....

And when there was the guarantee that I would really enjoy,ha,I am leaving tommorow morning at 5:30...will not even see this midnite to bid farewell to a not-so-bad year and welcome the new year....This is what I call celebrations!!

Happy new year to all of those who reads this post(ok..to those as well who doesnt).

What do I want to do?

This vacation has brought some changes in me-more in the negative sense-and I blame no-one for this change-not even myself!

Many a-times when at night I dont get sleep(that's coz I sleep the whole day),I keep thinking- dont know what crap do I think-bloody me! Among all those crap thoughts this one comes to my mind- "What do I want to do in this life?" At first, this seemed strange to me as I had never before thought of this and I had neglected this for days. But it started happening on a daily basis and then there was no way out- damn!

Sometimes I think what do I to do with this degree... how does studying Phy and Chem,other those subjects, and that cramming up,getting 8.5 or 9.5 or whatever it may be....gonna be of what use? Frankly speaking, we dont do much in college...studying before exams and writing exams and writing some programs. What is this? What kinda thing is this.... writing
#include something.h
main()
{
//something crap
}
then cc and run.... what has someone to do with printing Fibonnaci series or entering details,searching,sorting and those those.... what f*****g things!

When I used to hear of engg coleges before,it always fascinated me and I beleived engineers gonna change the world.... I dont see that now... nor does anyone else changes.

Now what I wanna do? Earning 4 lakhs or 8 lakhs or 14 lakhs per year... 9 to 5 office toad-work... marry, have children and then you are gone? What have you done....

I thought to do something to keep these away..some project kinda thing... but I soon realised I am going to be an engineer... The unwilling,led by the unknowing who does the impossible for the ungrateful. 'Ungrateful?'- yes! I have seen many people now-a-days thinking comp.sc. enggs as nothing!

We do nothing... stare at each girl we find outside campus(inside as well,though the quality differs)- and the girls even play... they think the NITians are dying to take any girl out-damn!

Ha ha...if you are emotionally numbed,creatively starved and socially outcasted...congrats for being in an engg college!

Merry Christmas!

Its christmas and the whole world is in a festive mood. TV news shows all the fun and in spite of the fact that I am not partying or at the least doing anything ,but still then today I am feeling light... I dont know but this feeling has come to me after a long time..Dont even remember when I last felt this way.

Getting SMSes late night yesterday was heartening! Cakes always fascinates me and the TV channels shows all types! But what is all the more pleasing are the gifts and 'gifts' reminded me of a story.......

Jim and Della.Oh! God,Jim was only twenty three and to be burdened by a family. $15 a week dosent go long.

Oh poor Jim! Della's Jim! Her Jim Dillingham! She cant live through Christmas without giving her Jim a present. Now there are two possessions of the Dillingham's...one was Jim gold watch and the other was Della's beautiful hair.

'Jim's gold watch is worthy of a platinum chain...not a leather strap',Della thought. She looked herself in the glass for a second....off went her brown jacket and she was out on the street. Where she stopped was a merchant who traded in hair.She went inside and let her hair fall to its length... here went the brown cascade. $30!!

She was ransacking the stores... atlast she found it..worthy of The Watch!

Jim returned and was shocked. After sometime he came out of the trance...they kissed and wished Christmas. Jim brought out the gift he had bought for Della...hair pins,pure tortoise shell which Della had craved. But now the hair which would have adorned them are gone. "My hair goes so fast,Jim".

Oh,Della had not shown her gift...There she brought out the platinum chain! Jim said-" Dell, lets put away our christmas gifts for a moment,they are just too good to be used now. I sold my watch to get your present. And now I suppose you better put the chops on".

The Magi were wise people who bought gifts for the christ child-they invented the art of giving christmas gifts...But of all those who give gifts,these are the wisest...They are the Magi!!

The wise are the wise because they only love,
The foolish are the foolish who think they understand love!

Dhoom machale!

Yes, after a long time finally I saw Dhoom:2 (the movie). Quite liked the first part,that is, before the interval....I was amazed at the stunts-Hrithik was cool! I believed it could be a movie to be compared to some Hollywood action!

But the second part was bizzare.The story moved really slow and at one point it had reached the saturation point-no action!

But again the movie seemed to take its grip and Hrithik was cool! Again, I thought it was a movie after a long time-a relief. I could not,but,grasp the ending...when Hrithik said-"Koi kisise itna pyar kar sakta hain ki use maar de?" and Ash shot him thrice...I thought the movie ended and I was really pleased-it was the perfect ending to a movie of this sort...But after all,it's a Hindi movie...movies can't end like that!

If the movie had ended there, I would say that it was one of finest new-kind-a movie... But dissapointed!

Its the time to disco!

uhmm....Disco here doesn't refer to "Disciplinary committee".

The website of spring fest Nitrutsav is ready and believe me it's coooool!! Very unconventional- it is as cool as Iris. The first page is a symbol of this....

"They call it a ceremony.Hey!But it aint no cermony.We're a creed gone berserk and we'll have it the wild way.Stampedes and slipping terrains.You still tethered?Repeat message.INSANITY is in.This one's a jungle out here and its ephemeral.....Have a blast till it lasts..!!
Come UNbelong"

We have events like Unveil,Rapture,hard-talk,Gudgudee,Unison, Nrityutsav and many more... Not to forget LIVEWIRE.(Euphoria has done it, Jal has done that too.... Who's next?? Keep Guessing!)

It will be great..just great! Looking forward for 8th March!

Why should NIT,Rourkela become an IIT?

I found this link(click here) when searching for something on Google and was amazingly pleased at this. It talks about why should NITR(the best NIT in India- that's according to me and our Director) be upgraded to an IIT?

NITR fullfils all requirements for being an IIT(infact much better than other institutes). Our institute has an amazingly 650 acres land with fantastic infrastructure and all other things that an IIT should have. Only one disadvantage I see is the lack of an airport in the city(an occasionally functional air-strip is available though) but then even IIT Kharagpur dosen't have one.

Intially when RECs were being set-up(two RECs were being planned) and the contenders were Jamshedpur,Rourkela and Durgapur(The links point to respective NITs)and Rourkela was denied a REC. But after a visit to the city by the education minister of that time, they admitted that Rourkela should have a REC. And now its an established fact that NITR is much better than the other two.

Similarly,in this case also I want to say that NITR needs and deserves to be upgraded to an IIT- if not done so,it will again be a decision to be regretted. Though this decision matters the most to NITRians but then it also means a correct decision for India!

Back Home... What a relief!!

After those hard days back at NIT with all those class-tests and quizzes, lesser no. of films ;-) and then the End-Sem exams, it was not a happening time at all as the hostel life dropped down hugely- it was no more rocking! Well about exams.... let's not talk about it!

Now back home, its time to rest completely and my first day epitomizes "rest". I reached home at 6:15 AM- slept at about 9 Am,got up at 1:30 and after having my lunch(yes- there was custard ;-) again went back to sleep and finally got up at 6:30 in the evening- now this what I call 'resting'!

But cannot do this for the entire winter holidays- have to learn C++ as we have this in the next sem- so some work also needs to be done. Also want to do something for our Tech Fest Confluence 2K7 but any idea havent struck. Mainly interested in Softscape but still now dont have any idea how to do that... Guys(and Gals as well) out there reading this post-any suggestions? I have already registered for The Vinci Code though I have slight chances of winning coz competing against the pre-final guys in programming is really a tough thing to do.

There is also the Tech Fest of IIT Kharagpur named Kshitij(the site of Kshitij is currenlty not working) and I am thinking to join this as well. I have also registered for Tech Kriti( IIT Kanpur's Tech Fest) but dont think will be able to join that one. So its the Tech Fest season in the world of engineering colleges! Expecting a great time! Do expect more on this subject and my prepartion for that.

(Any engineering student from any part of India can register for Confluence on-line. Please so that so that the tech-fest becomes a huge hit as it was last year.)

Update- The site of Kshitij is now working. Click here.

A subtle thought

After mid-sem exams, a very subtle thought came to me and had thought to discuss that with ppl. But unfortunately that didn't happen for some reason and then I thought to write about it. Though now-a-days I rarely do blog and at one point this activity was on the verge of extinction due to many reasons- the primary being lack of free time.

Just think we have some 8 courses of study- English,Maths,Physics, Chem, BET(Basic Electrical Technology), Programming in C, ED(Engg Drawing) and W/S(Worshop) and not to forget a Phy sessinal class as well... that makes it 9. 9 subjects in four and half months! It is but natural that one cannot learn all these perfectly as one wishes to do- with all those class hours and other activities as well.

Clearly, we have to give priority to some subjects over others but then is a even more difficult task to do and a dangerous thing . On what basis should one choose subjects- on the basis of interest, neccesity in future sems or according to grades- coz these do not always correspond to one particular subject. For instance, I love programming(in that way I am unique ;-) and most of the time being sighted studying C or in computer lab)- but according to getting grades this is one of the easiest subject- one easily scores full marks as the evaluation pattern is not so robust for this subject but yes in future sems we do need it.

Let us see another example. Chemistry! The least liked subject and most ppl(including me) open the book only when we have sem or class-tests... even in class-test we do manage to take copies with us. But it has 4 credits- the highest a subject can have! And I doubt if we do ever need it? And yes, I can say for sure, studying chem, dosent improve your problem-solving skills.

In this way, we have to choose subjects and the entire idea to learn various things-termed as "general study" in the first year is completely lost. No one learns ED,Phy is also managed somehow(though personally I like this subject),W/S and eventually sometimes to be an expert in everything ,everything is in doldrums.

What I think is that we should not be burdened with so many things... Instead less subjects, more learning. And I support this beleif fully that department-wise study should be started from the first day itself and we should not wait till 2nd year. I think atleast engg. students can understand my view-point!

Blogging- A rare event

Ever since I returned back to Rourkela after Durga Puja,I was so busy that couldn't find time for blogging...ok, ok not that busy but yes, I made myself busy and sometimes unnecessarily. Then there were many assignments…this “assignment thing” has become a real headache-or should I call migraine!
Then there were too many classes and I had been busy doing some studies- after midsem went “not that good”- I am seen in the library often-as friends tell!

Again this blog is from home as was the last one!

Divali!!! Nothing exciting happened today-not the least. I was bored today as I had never been since the last month- life at home without didi and friends is really boring.

Anyways, now-as-days I am too much into reading books. I read some 3 books in a very span of time- Alchemist, Bill Gates way and Veronika decides to die. All three were fantastic but I had thought to blog my views upon Bill Gates way-which as usual was only “published” in my grey cells.

I will be returning to Rourkela on Thursday- bunking classes ;-) and will agin become busy with bloody assignments- hell to do with these and those profs!

But I love my college and am attaching a picture of our college-it's beautiful.....

At home

Hoo...Back at home is a real pleasure- lazying around with a book in my hand,eating custard everyday,getting up at 11 in the morning(I call that morning!) is not what we get to do when at hostel!

It's good to get a break from the hectic schedule and boring classes.But this time I am very unlucky because I have no contacts with most of my friends and I even don't know whether they are at home or haven't yet come.But feeling good that my sisters have come so spending a good time with them.

I will be leaving soon,that is on 2nd night as I have got classes on 3rd-this bloody system doesn't even allow a 5 day holiday!!

Exams went well except for Physics as it was the toughest part as as I had written earlier that I was not at all prepared.After the exams I come to know how much study needs to be done for getting good marks.Regarding marks-I still don't know that what GPA need to be secured as to be enough-well that can be subjective one but I would like Mr. Ashish to comment on this ;-)

After the exams I have decided to be more sincere regarding studies or else if this continues then the end sem exams will be still worse!

Exam fever!

Exams-the most hated word in the whole world. According to me and many, whoever loves exams must be from Mars!

Exams from 21st September and no preparation till now. I don't undersatnd what's wrong with this crap system! Studies,studies and only studies! Classes-8 to 5,NSS classes and functions. And then we need to sleep, to gossip, to spend time on the internet, see movies- when do we get time to study!

Well, yes this is funny. Though we have a hectic schedule here but one find time to study so as to suffice but somehow we didn't get it for the first month. Now we do study and have to study hard inorder to compensate but still then things are sailing that smoothly. Everyone is trying to cope and fight back but still there is always a backlog. And yes, someone had said- "Time milta nahin hain,nikal naa padta hain". (One dosen't get time,one has to fing it).

English Class Test

Now-a-days we are given many class tests now and then. Though I hate these, we have to give those. We also had a english class test-the subject is Communicative Englsih. As such I like this class-the only class in which I don't feel sleepy(besides Maths).

We were given a comphrehension and based on it there was a question.We knew the pattern in advance and I was expecting a passage on the ways of communications and that it would be intersting to write the answer-filled with my views.

But the passage was about Infosys and its rise named "Narayan Murthy and Infosys". The tilte quite impressed me and I thought to learn much from this. The passage was about how is Infosys "different" from other companies-all about employee-mangament interaction and their views being counted. Then there was a question-"Do you think Infosys adopted a new method and do you think this accounted for the rapid progress of the company?"

Though my answer was yes,frankly I was not at all impressed with the passage about the growth of Infosys. I mean every company does so and every company. I don't think that Infosys was any different(what I concluded from the comprehension). But I do think that Infosys must have had adopted something new but am unaware of what it is! Right now, I am searching for the history of Infosys and try to see if I can fing something new!

We also had class tests of BET & Maths-both were fine. We also have tests of Chemistry- on Monday,Wednesday & Thursday-not at all prepared as this subject is the most boring subject!

Ganesh Puja celebrations

It's the day of Lord Ganesh and it's celebrated with real pomp and show in various parts of the country. Hers this festival is mainly popular among students and it's the students who worship Lord Ganesh on this day in their schools/colleges.

We too arranged for the Puja in our hostel's common room-it was great! The preparations for the Puja had started two days before-collecting money from the boarders of our hostel and planning out things such as what would be the expenditure and at what time the Puja is to be done. There was a group consisting of some 5 people who were in-charge of all the things but anyone suggestions were most welcome and everyone had an equal say in all the matters-this is the spirit of NITians freshers!

The Puja was done at 7 in the morning and though it's always a real pain to get up early in the morning and have a bath but there was an amazing enthu today and eveyone was ready and we got collected in the common room and the Puja was held very nicely and peacefully.

There is also a Puja in the AV Hall of our college but had not been there till now-because we had a cricket match after the Puja and I was the captain of the team- well we lost it ;-))) Not good at playing cricket nor at captianing a team! Will be most probably going to the AV Hall in the evening if I don't feel too lazy;-)

In this respect,our Hall was the the unique one as it was the only Hall to organise the Ganesh Puja in the Hall itself- the other Hall members had to attend the Puja in the AV Hall- ya,ya freshers are the best in this college ;-)

IIT and NIT

(Disclaimer- The information about IITs and foreign universities given here are collected from various sources and no work has been done to check the authenticity of these.)

Lately, I heard that there is a proposal of upgrading our college NIT,Rkl to an IIT-which is indeed a great news for all of us. It brought a mixed feeling in me- both happiness as well as the past forgotten wounds of not getting into an IIT came alive once again.

Yesterday night from some sources I got to know about the atmosphere in an IIT and compared that to with that of a NIT- and concluded why are IITs "the IITs"and a NIT just a NIT and thought of writing about that today. So am I doing!

There are a lot of differences between IIT and NIT. It goes as follows-
Attitude difference. A very important aspect as such. There is a difference between students at the IITs and that in NITs. From the first day itself IITians are said to believe that they are the best unlike that in NIT. Infact we really do believe that we are inferior to the IITians and no one tells us not to believe that-the atmosphere is really very differnet here. Yesterday night,infact, we were discussing about our scores in JEE and most of the students missed by some very less marks-some getting the cut-off in total but missing it in a particular subject. So if one sees that way the people in IITs are not really the best ones-but are believed to be so-some smarter ones may be somewhere else. But what makes the difference is their attitude.

Faculty-student interaction. I heard that in IITs,the student-faculty interaction is excellent. Professors move to the hostels to interact with the students and help them in any way possible way leaving aside syllabus-but also with other forms of education-projects,and other things- which is much unlike in the NITS. Professors here are hesistant to move to hostels.

Scoring well. In NITs,the main emphasis is on getting grades and cramming up things rather than really understanding how can one use that in real life and enginnering-unlike the IITs.

So if really NITR is to be brought up to the level of an IIT,there is a long way to go.

This is purely my own thinking and there is no outside influence governing this. But I don't say that NITs are not at all worth studying in- it's really a good college if a comaprison is made with other colleges-the student quality is amazing here as well,which otherwise is thought to be just okay.

And yes,I completed one month in the NIT today and really it is a fantastic place!

In the NIT

Its 23 days now since my classes begin and have already been fed up-classes are all crap! Its been long time since I have posted-I think I last posted on 21st July-missed blogging as I was so much in to this. I think I would have made some marvellous posts if I got an oppurtunity to do so...I am sorry people missed some of the fantastic posts which were etched in my mind.

Life here is quite monotonous-going to class at 8 in the morning and coming back to hostel on 5 in the evening. Ragging period is over- ragging was very minimal in our college. Yes,Paavani- ragging was like a social interaction here as well as you had told me.

Apart from the academics, too many cultural programmes are held here-almost everyday-mainly the orientation program of various clubs and I have attended almost all. Had thought to write about these in detail as and when they were held but didnt had access to the internet.

Yes, coming to NIT,Rourkela has aroused in me a mixed feeling-at one time it is really boring with all its classes,sessionals,assignments and at the same time really great with its cultural life here.

Leaving for Rourkela

I am leaving for Rourkela tomorrow morning and I must admit it that though I am excited but today, for the first time, I got the feeling inside me that I am going to miss home once again. Though this time, the magnitude of nostalgia will be of course less but still that will persist for some time.

Yes, one more thing is that I don’t know if I would be able to blog from Rourkela. Though Internet connection has been provided for each student in his or her rooms, but I am not taking a computer this time as I will not be needing it intensely this year. I don’t think that we would be allowed to blog from our lab-it’s for studying not for blogging! I will be taking a computer next year and then I can continue posting-but still will try to post whenever I get an opportunity.

I came to know from one of my senior that classes will be from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening with just a one-hour lunch break! God! But yes, there will be a 15 minutes break after each class. Well, for the first I did shop for some formals to wear to college- I hate wearing formals- I am always in my favorite jeans ;-) I wonder if we have to wear formals to college for 4 years or it is just a rule for freshers made by the seniors!

A Wild Post!

This post is about nothing specific. It’s about many things at the same time. Basically it's about the events happening.

24th July is nearing and my excitement heightens as approaches! College life will be commencing soon. But somewhere there is also a nervousness-ragging! Want to see what this “ragging” is all about that it’s so much talked about during the pre-college days.

Learning C! Studies begun before the college has started. I always thought that learning a programming language was boring but learning C is really interesting- though not very easy!

Missing friends! My friends who had come during their vacation are now back as their classes have started. And I am getting bored alone at home. No more roving on bikes till late nights, no more masti hanging around. Sometimes I feel I am alone in I this world. Especially missing Deepak who is now in Bangalore. Deeps, I miss you!

Very few days left for staying at home and then a new life-lets see how it goes!

Mumbai- the rudest city?

I was going to Rourkela in train when I grabbed a copy of Reader’s Digest (July edition) and turned to read the article about politeness and according to Reader’s Digest (RD), Mumbai is the rudest city in the world! It had conducted a survey in some of the major cities in the world and had concluded that Mumbai is the rudest city.

It tested about politeness in three different aspects- a “thank you” said by the shopkeepers when they bought something, helped by someone on dropping a folder of papers and keeping a door open for someone entering a shop by the workers. And they complained about everything in Mumbai.

When being asked by a sales-man why he didn’t say a “thank you” when the man bought something, he had replied that he smiled and asked if that was not enough? Not enough for RD. For you? For me a smile is worth more than a “thank you”- a person giving you a smile is more polite than someone saying “thank you” without feeling it-at least for me this holds true. I have encountered both the situations and I am likely to visit the shop again which returns me with a smile- I do so! But RD has “strict rules” and doesn’t count it for politeness. But RD doesn’t report how many people in New York (labelled as the most polite city) said “thank you” with actually meaning it!

RD doesn’t stop here. It went on. More on labeling Mumbai the rudest city with all sorts of examples.

Now after the Mumbai blasts, I think RD should re-consider what it had written. The way people helped others was really awe-inspiring. After the blasts instead of being in their homes in safety, the people were geared up to help in any way possible. Now this is what is the spirit, the real picture of Mumbai- not what the RD had portrayed and put into words.

Then after this, RD had also written about the brighter side of Mumbai- and had written that the young were found to be more polite than the elders and so the future is bright. RD claims that Mumbai is the rudest city in the world and why can't it take as it had written? What does writing about the brighter side mean? Just to appease the people? No need of that, RD! You have done much favour. Thank you. I was just polite.

I think that RD instead of publishing an article has done more a “lawyer” kind of job and “played” with words.

The Reservation Saga Continues...

During my counselling at NIT, Rourkela this reservation thing again popped up among the qualified students who had attended the counselling. This was because we came to know about the students (the SC & ST candidates) who were allotted seats the previous day. We saw the list of students who were allotted seats in the various institutes along with their All India Rank (AIR). Clearly it was totally obvious that these students were the under performers in the AIEEE exam as was apparent by their AIR.

The starting rank for the ST candidates was 56241(at this rank a general candidate is ineligible for counselling but the ST candidate secured a seat in NIT, Rkl in Electronics and Communication Engineering-the most sought after branch) and the highest rank for the SC was 18446(he secured a seat for Computer Science in NIT, Surathkal and a general candidate can’t think of securing any branch in NIT, Surathkal).

The next day when our admission list was released, it left many students fuming and speaking abuses against the system and it was totally justified. The starting rank was 615 and the last rank was 9939 and all good branches in all the good NITs were filled up in the first day itself and counselling will be continuing till 6th July! As on 4th July, I have found out that nearly all the seats have been filled up and the students who will be counselled further can only expect to get a seat in any college-or I must say not even that!

[Anyone wishing to check about the correctness of these figures, click here.]

There were discussions among students concerning this thing and separate discussion among the guardians as well relating to the same issue. I also got to meet some reserved category students, who had come to collect their admission letters, but didn’t had a chat with them-or I must say didn’t wanted to. Nor for that matter did anyone else! I was just thinking that how is it possible to cheat students so openly and no one even opposing the system!

Discussions were going on in small groups and I was also in one of these groups. Someone said that what was the guilt that we have done that we receive such treatment? At this, I said the guilt is that we are born in a family who does not belong to reserved category. At this someone else said that this reservation system is similar to the situation as giving a “four runs” on hitting a boundary while to some other hitting the same shot is awarded with “six runs”. We laughed with gusto at this joke!

Now is this system itself not a joke? Should we laugh at this system? Or should we laugh at ourselves? Has the quota protests died forever? And are we contented as to what will happen?

Travel,NIT,Rourkela...

I had my seat allotment procedure (counselling) which was conducted by the Central Counselling Board (CCB) this Friday and Saturday. It turned out to be great as I got a seat allotted for studying Computer Science and Engineering in NIT, Rourkela (NIT, Rkl)

I had my counselling in NIT, Rkl itself and reaching the place from my hometown, in itself, is an enormous endeavor indeed! No direct train at a proper time of a day (trains available only at late nights for both to and from journey) and the ten-hour bus journey is a Herculean task because of the hilly terrain throughout the journey.

But once you reach Rourkela it’s fantastic! Clean roads, greenery everywhere, well planned town planning and no traffic problem, no dust and pollution in spite of being the steel city. The city is divided into two parts by a hill-range. On one side is the steel plant with all the pollution, dust, and bustling city life and on the other side just the opposite- pollution free environment, well planned roads, much less traffic and above all greenery-I loved it! The hills dividing the city into two parts blocks all the dust and pollution and so this side is paradise! Anyone wanting to get rid of the busy city life and wants peace has a fantastic option to live for a few days in the residential area of Rourkela.

The National Institute of Technology(NIT) is situated away from the city and so its vast campus provides a serene look and a decent life at the NIT. I was totally amazed by the beauty of the campus- incredible!

The counselling procedure was long and boring but found some of the Bansalites(students of Bansal Classes) whom I knew and so it was not that bad. Also made some new friends who would with me in college-it was a good experience meeting so many students sharing a common temperament. I was pretty sure that I would be allotted a seat in NIT,Rkl in Computer Science, so there wasn’t any sort of thrill regarding this. But there was the excitement of seeing my future college but I had not thought that the campus would be such a pleasure to see and Rourkela such a fantastic place.

I have again to visit Rourkela on 10th July for the college admission and the classes will be starting on 24th July-want to visit Rourkela again but the journeying……

Is the entrance exam system fair?

Exam season is over-a relief for students! This issue about the entrance exams being fair just came to me wildly and I became a bit amused at this thought. I always thought that entrance exams really tests students' ability to the fullest extent. But some wild thoughts came to my mind and on close examining these issues; I discovered some negative sides about the exam thing as well.

First of all there is only one paper covering all the subjects being conducted over a few hours. A matter of few hours and then it’s all over. Can a student’s ability be judged in just 3 hours? Everyday is not Sunday! The performance of a student largely depends on the conditions around and to a large extent on the mood of the student on that particular day. A student is not expected to deliver his best on a particular day- this brings about the first difference among the competitors.

The next thing is that exams are conducted at different centers and the role-played by the authorities at a particular center matters a lot. I have heard from many students about the wastage of time by the invigilators during the exam hours during the AIEEE examination- giving instructions after the exam started and completing the formalities when the exam is in progress. This snatches away at the least 5 precious minutes from the student for no fault of his- usually termed by the students as “criminal wastage of time”. This greatly affects a students’ performance as 5 minutes means 2 questions- good enough to make a large difference owing to fierce competition.

I think something needs to be done regarding these. Rules should be properly implemented at the exam centers and not left to the whims of the invigilators. Moreover, instead of a single day exam, it should be conducted in week’s time. Though it would mean more work for the students but it will reduce such cases as a “bad” day or ill luck- though that complain will still persist by some students who are not that smart for clearing the exam- but that will be appreciated by those students who are in the race.

I know people hold different opinions and many would not agree to this and I say that this is my personal opinion. But I would surely want to know what people think about my point of view.

My stay at Gurgaon

Gurgaon-Delhi’s NCR-is a wonderful place-the skyscrapers, wonderful malls, exquisite food and above all beauty (what I mean are beautiful girls-a treat for eyes!).

I had been in Gurgaon for nearly 2 months after the nine months in Kota. I had been in Gurgaon with my cousin; Mr. Ashish Kumar-who is a director in Tekriti Software- to write my various engineering tests. Initially I was very busy because of the tests but gradually I found more time and visited places-mainly malls.

Back at home, I really miss the malls at Gurgaon and also the new dishes that I had tried there-something which I had never tasted before- Thai food, Italian platter, Subway sandwiches and above all I miss the dominoes spicy chicken pizza.

What made my stay all the more pleasant was the company of my cousin-he is the best! I always want to be like him and for me his every detail- his way of walking, his style, his mobile phone and even his Axe deodorant- all seems unique to me. I always imitate his ways and try to be like him-that’s my fight to idealism. Only one thing that I can complain about him is his irregularity in hitting the gym!

Really my stay was a fantastic one and I look forward to visit Gurgaon again.

9 months in Kota

Those nine months in Kota during which I did nothing but studied all day long. As I had written earlier that I was preparing for my engineering entrance tests in Kota at Bansal Classes. There was nothing else to be done expect going to the institute,coming back and studying- I did this for 9 long months.I hate Kota!

I had been away from home for the first time and frankly during the first month,I immensely missed home and my friends. I wanted to get away from this place where no one knew me and I didn't knew anyone.Intially,I felt very shy-as many others did-during my class lectures as I had never seen so many bright students at the same place. New place,new people, the "newest" kind of classes I had ever attended!During the first few months, I made very less friends-mainly those students with I lived and no more.

But then as time passed,I became more open to things and life-my mentality and my way of looking towards things changed vastly and even rapidly.I became more optimistic and sensible- I have started looking at the positive side of all that happens-in contrast to what I was- looking the negative side of things.

Time flied. And time came to part from Kota and then when I had actually started to love the life at the institute.

And now when I am at my home after 9 long months,I miss Kota. I miss the classes,the chairs,the rush to get the first seat in the class,the jokes cracked by teachers, the usual "Maro Maro" or "Party Party" which we used to shout during the classes at every little confusion that occurred, the TTS(Tina Tea Stall),the nights I spent with my friends studying together, our looking at the girls as if they were some endangered species(girls were few- I hate Kota), the song "Woh Lamhe" which we often used to listen at nights and above all my friends-Pratik,Shashank and Nitish.

I say that I did nothing more than studying during my stay at Kota, but I can say that was fabulous time I would always remember.

I love Kota and I miss it!

Introduction

For quite a few days,I have been reading blogs and was always tempted to start one but could not understand where to start! Now after reading many blogs of different people,I have given to the temptation to writing blogs. And I find this intersting! I had written some random blogs now and then but wanted to write something for myself and continue with it.

I will start by introducing myself. Hi! I am Siddharth Saha, going to be a 1st year BTech student soon(in July) most probably taking admission in an NIT. I had dropped a year after my class 12th examination for preparing exclusively for engineering entrance examinations. Had been in Kota for 9 months at Bansal Classes. I must say the teaching was really good. Any engineering aspirant have a fantastic option to join Bansal Classes.

I have started this blog to write about my view point and feelings about the events occuring in my life and my ides on various issues concerning India... but all this from the next post onwards.