The celebration of Shakti

Its once again that time of the year when we Bengalis celebrate the Durga Puja ... the festival that harps on the theme of good triumphing over evil. Of course to an innocent bystander this would be no less than torturing a cliche. However, you have to witness the festival in its full splendour to actually judge its true magnitude and the significance it holds for the common man of Bengal.

To the quintessential critic the whole significance of the festival will be lost. True, it involves unimaginable amounts of money being spent on what seems to be paltry, meagre things. However, the fact is that just like the Western world celebrates Christmas, a major portion of the Indian community revels in the "Navaratri" -- on a similar note the Bengalis celebrate Durga Puja. The poor, ordinary man waits for these four days of enjoyment with incredible, even inexplicable, enthusiasm that permeates the whole community. The wait is now almost over and the excitement is just too much for words to describe. One can perhaps find a very close parallel in the IIT Kharagpur Illumination festival. The fantastic structures that are held aloft by bamboos and illuminated by only oil diyas are sheer poetry. During those few hours the hard work of several days culminate in full grandeur and brings a smile to the faces and triumph into the hearts of the KGPian. Similarly, the Durga Pujas work towards uniting the whole community in an endeavour to enjoy and pray at the same time.

Well that's about it for now. Happy pujas...

see you soon

Random thoughts ...

Its been a while I know . But I am back ... finally ...

The rain keeps coming down ... with no intention of ever stopping it seems . The immediate effect it has on us is to lower our spirits ... the effect is undeniable, yet inexplicable . If there ever was a season that could be the exact opposite of spring then this would probably come the closest .

Talking of spring ... this year Spring Fest 2005-IIT Kharagpur will definitely be the place to be. I can assure you all that Kharagpur is going to rock like never before and in more ways than one ... So people, just fasten your seatbelts and hang on .... You can check out the new Spring Fest site at www.springfestiitkgp.com ...

Life is pretty hectic at the moment with all sorts of events that keep happening along with all the academic load . Yesterday , in fact, we had yet another lab test on Systems Programming ... the subject we are taught by the enigmatic Pawan Kumar . The problem looked ridiculously easy this time compared with his usual stuff . However, as it so often happens , it doesn't take much to push an assembly program over the edge ... ( yeah and you thought C programming was the toughest thing that could have been ;-) ) . The bug ,as it turned out ,was in one line ... can you beat that ... ONE F***ING LINE .... and it had me tied up in knots for over an hour .

Well who cares anyway ??? Its history and that's what matters.

The long standing debate has finally been resolved . Yeah you guessed right . Illumination is happening. However, the way the whole thing was handled by the powers-that-be has left a bitter taste in the mouth . The only truth that became all-too-evident from this episode was that however much everyone speaks about student rights , the fact remains that it is a prof-dominated society in Kharagpur and all the fuss about elections and student representatives is nothing but an eye-wash of gigantic proportions . The very fact that we are having Illumination just 6 days before the end-semester exams says a thing or two about how considerate our professors are of the students' problems. Beat this ... the professor who is in-charge of the Students' Affairs says ,when confronted by the students , " ... I am personally not in favour of having Illumination before the actual Diwali .... in case there is a lot of pressure from inside the campus I can at best keep quiet .... ". So you can judge for yourselves ...

Well thats a lot of stuff to digest all at the same time ...

so its goodbye for now ...

Reality bites ...

Hello people ,

I am back to blogging once again after a gap of sorts . Well that was partly because of my new blog "The Ultra Zone" and also partly because the movie season has arrived with the end of the mid-semester exams this Thursday . Well , the gap was a good one and a much-awaited one at that. However , just as all good things come to an end , it just did ... for me at least .

The marks are out for Computer Software - yeah that's the name of one course that I am taking . The results were , I won't say unexpected , but a shock nevertheless . I guess I needed that - a little shaking-up to remind myself of the reality ... and sure as hell reality bites ...

In fact the time I have been having in kgp has been one of the worst at least from an academic point-of-view . Well , I guess that is understandable in one of the premier institutes of the country with the the load of competition reaching new heights ... But that probably is me shifting the blame to someone else for something that I am responsible for ... me and me alone .

I had taken a decision in my life ... the most important decision of my life when I took the plunge into the IIT way of life . I guess I should have been aware of all the trials and tribulations that I would have had to go through . But once I have made that decision there's no way I can change it can I ?? Now its upto me to pick myself up and start with renewed vigour .

After all , "failures are the stepping stones to success" ... or so said someone ...

till next time ... ciao

The Ultra Zone

TheUltra Zone

My new blog ... dedicated to guitaring and guitarists ....

I started learning guitar only in my first year of college . Initially I had a lot of problems picking up anything of note . You can understand that it is very difficult to try and play a song only by hearing it . That was when I was introduced to the amazing software called Guitar-Pro by a good friend of mine Kristoff. It is a tablature editor -- in a layman's terms a musical notation writing software which plays the notes for you as well as you go along . It obviously makes it a lot easier on you when you can hear the song being played along with the tabs .

This blog will contain links to guitar-pro.com , mysongbook.com , etc so do check it out ...

Crossroads

Hello ppl ...

The days of horror are finally past ... I am free once again from the shackles of torture they call "midsems". The dreamy weekend has already begun , replete with all the bleary hours of interminable sleep and the equal - if not more - hours of sitting at the computer doing what you love best . Well , such days are pretty rare nowadays when you get time to think about your life and how things are , and also how you would have wanted them to be . When you come at such a crossroads in your life invariably you find that things are in many ways not to your liking . There are so many things that you would have done ... so many things that you would have done differently .... and some others you would not have done at all .

At such times one usually is filled with an inexplicable sadness , or maybe remorse - in a way - that some things that were in your control did not go the way you wanted them to go because of some hesitation in you - an inexplicable reluctance to follow your heart . On such occasions one usually blames his circumstances for the change of fortune , the events that happened around you are to blame for what happened to you ... Isn't that being a little escapist on your part ?? Aren't you deluding yourself into believing things that were in reality quite different ??? Or are you too afraid to recognise that you were responsible for what happened to your life ... you and no one else ...

I am no different . It is a fact that is really hard to accept , but now that I am on the threshold of entering into the big bad world of the corporate , I realise that there are moments in my life that I regret were not different .

Moments when if I had acted differently I might have been in a totally different place with totally different people ... moments when had I mustered up the courage and spoken to the girl that I had only watched and admired from afar maybe she would have been with me and not with someone else .

I only hope for your sake that the same is not true for you , because there can be no pain that is more than the pain of realising that you are at fault . You are responsible for what is happening and what has happened to your life .

Life gives you a lot of chances , a lot of opportunities . If you didn't take them you know whom to blame.

New Puzzle ...

hi guys .... just came across this puzzle in a website .... check it out and send me ur answers ... here goes ...

You and two other people go to a restaurant. The bill comes to 30 pounds so you decide to split it between you, 10 pound each. The waiter takes the money to the kitchen. He is told he has over charged you by five pounds. On the way to returning the money to you he realises he can make a profit here. He takes two pounds and gives you each a pound back, so you have each only paid 9 pounds each. So three 9's are 27 and the waiter has two pounds, so where has the other pound gone?

nicely framed is it not ???

enjoy :)

Mid sem blues

hello ppl ...

the exams always bring out the best in people ... and i don't mean just academically .... just saw some of the funniest ads on LAN and that did help release some of the pent-up stress ...

today i had an exam i didn't know much about ....just one more in the seemingly endless list .... well needless to say the frustness levels in my system are now at such a level that every pore in my body is crying out foul ...

first came ANT ( well for the not-so-enlightened that stands for Advanced Numerical Techniques ) how deceptive names can turn out to be !!!! well the teacher is enigmatic to say the least giving us no clue whatsoever what kind of questions he can set ... can u beat this - he did not make us solve a single problem in the class room and this is supposed to be a course on numerical analysis .... but when it came to the exam he gave us a paper that one would have found hard pressed to complete if given 4 hrs time instead of just 2 ....

then the pawan kumar story began ... he is a renowned professor for his style of teaching and his style of giving grades .... but someone forgot to mention the fact that he sets papers that would have put FIITJEE maths paper seem like kindergarten stuff .... of course he gives grades peacefully but giving such a paper can do one's confidence no good .... and the icing on the cake is that he takes 2 of my 5 courses .... well i need all the luck i can get ....

that's enough of me for the moment ... gotta have some sympathy for u poor souls reading my blog and being bored to death ....

ciao

To be or not to be ...

hello ppl ... feels good to be back ...

the all important question in the minds of all responsible kgpians is whether we will be able to have illumination this year or not ...



let me bring you up to speed ... the fact that diwali is on 12th of Nov and only 6 days before the end-sems is the issue here ...

its a plain fact that having illu at that time is atrocious on the students as a lot of effort goes into the preparation for the event ... however the profs will not budge ... they want to have it on the date of diwali in order to preserve "tradition " ... the simple fact that no hall can possibly risk investing thousands into illu when they cannot be sure of inspiring all the inmates of the hall to work ... and in which case the very event becomes uncertain ... cannot be understood by the profs ... they would rather not have illu than have it on another day ...

the event that is unique to IIT Kharagpur being obliterated due to the obstinacy of some of the figureheads of the student-body they proudly call Technology Students' Gymkhana .... It might as well be called the Technology Professors' Gymkhana for all we care ... as the reluctance to make any allowance to the student community becomes increasingly evident ...

in times such as these one comes to realise the futility of having a student body with elected office-bearers ... when they ultimately become no more than pawns in the hands of the profs ...

the axe hanging at the head of the showpiece event of the campus is for all to see ...

we can only hope that it does not fall ...

of tidal waves ...

Hello ppl ...

its nice to be back ... the midsems are obviously taking a toll ... but anyway i got some time off and here i am typing away ....

well not much happened in the last few days except that Tsunami ( japanese for "tidal wave") ,the 8-member ensemble band ( don't ask me what that means !! ) from the American Navy came over to sleepy Kharagpur and gave a terrific performance ... u ppl must be wondering why i call IIT KGP a sleepy place ... well it was sunday afternoon and at that hour it goes pretty much without saying that the majority of the junta is asleep ... well the band did their tuning and gave a great performance ... although most of the crowd can be attributed to the fact that the band had 2 female members ... well ... need i say more ... :D

well that's all for now ... gotta go and mug ... ;-)

see u ppl ...

one more hectic day ...

hi ppl ...

i am getting the time to post a message after quite some time especially since midsems are near and the sf work is hotting up ...

for better or for worse ....

brochures are here ... great news ... as the process of continuing contact with companies can be started with fervour ... the initial hurdle has been crossed ... its now up to us to make it count ...

interestingly enough i got a mail from our very own saunak(a.k.a local train or P Basu ) sent me a mail asking me abt all the stuff that is going on ... and expressed his eagerness to contribute to our cause ... cheers to u ... way to go !!!

the hindi week is starting and the hss department is going berserk ... trying to organise simple things like creative writing and antakshari ... needless to say our secies would have done a much better job ... indeed they would have been the sole in-charge of all these events .... instead my phone keeps ringing ...

well that's pretty much it ... not much time left for the midsems ...
hope they go better this time ...
ciao

RP hall day 2003


this is a pic of me ... trying my hand at the guitar ... :D enjoy


reflections ...

its really nice to think during the week that there is a weekend to look forward to ... a weekend to sleep to ur heart's content .. a weekend to indulge in your favourite activities without ever having to worry about the proximity of a class test or the approaching of a deadline ...

kgp life is essentially incomplete without any of these things ... the burning of midnight oil in anticipation of the upcoming assignment submission ... the "loaded" hours of group study a few hours before the midsem examination ... the incessant bhaating sessions ... this is what kgp life really is ...

however it is not difficult to believe that the campus life in kgp was even more "hoo haa" before the widespread arrival of computers ... the students used to really revel in those years ... with Chhedi's , arun's and golc being among the more favoured haunts ... of course i am only conjecturing - speculating ... the real picture must have been far different and much better ...

now one has to just visit the campus to get an idea of the effect that computers have had on the IITians ...

scholar's avenue lies deserted in the eerie light of the blinking street lamps ....
the corridors inside the halls are empty ....
people are all inside their rooms glued to the computer screens ... the clattering of keyboards a mute testimony to the changing attitude of students ...

people say a lot of things about the plus-points of technology ... how easy our life has become because of the boon of technology ... how difficult it would have been otherwise ... how the world has become a small place ... communication being revolutionized by satellite technology ...

but when one comes to examine the situation more closely they would notice the paradox ... technology is actually taking people farther and farther from themselves ... at present we would rather rely on tools like chatting and mailing to communicate with each other ... rather than meet someone face-to-face ...

have these changes really been for the better ??? or are we only deceiving ourselves ???

time will be the best judge ...

life's like that

hi ppl ... remember that hilarious column that used to appear in Reader's digest of the same name ... well today was just the opposite ...
just like a normal day when nothing seems to be happening out of the ordinary ... well if ever there was a day like that then today was the day ...
Spring Fest work is going on as usual ... the heads are putting their hearts and minds to the job at hand and the results that can be acheived out of this concerted effort is simply mind-blowing ... in fact in a place like IIT Kharagpur where the cutting edge of competition can often rob an individual of all the will to fight , of all the motive of one's existence ... SF comes like a breath of fresh air ... like a sip of ice-cold water to the parched throat of a weary traveller , SF is the elixir of life in the desert that is KGP ...
the exposure that one can never dream of getting ,SF can provide to one at the snap of a finger ... lets take an example ... we in an engineering institute who are fed up with the technicalities of a higher education in india often look for a managerial opening in a bigshot company like , say , HLL or ITC ... getting through their inerview is like a godsend ... but i as a second year got this unique opportunity to meet in person , the marketing manager of ITC ... well the experience was simply astonishing ... a mere second year with no idea whatsoever what goes on in the big bad world of corporate big wigs pitted against each other ... getting a chance to speak on equal terms with one of the highest officials in one of the biggest conglomerates of India ... it was something i will never be able to forget ...

well enough of self-aggrandisation ( what was that !!! ) for now ... lets take a break from the chain and sit back and relax for a moment ...

let the might of your compassion arise / to bring a quick end / to the flowing stream of the / blood and tears ...

ciao

Of phreaking and hacking ...

hi guys ... its good to be back ...
yesterday was the day we were all eagerly waiting for ... the live demonstration of hacking in vikramshila by the i-SiG group of which our very own ravemz is a part ... hacking is a word which fascinates anyone and everyone ... it is the sense of power that it brings with it that makes it so attractive ...
in actual fact though hacking is not such difficult thing to do ... but like many other things the secret is a well kept one ... hacking is a domain that very few get to traverse hence the curiosity factor is at work ... it is a dark world world of mystery and magic ... where ppl get to break into others computers and wreak havoc ... that among other things makes up the overwhelming "popularity" of the word ...
the fact remains however that ... to quote Spiderman ... " with great power comes great responsibility " ... hacking is definitely a very powerful tool with the help of which one can mess up another's world very easily ... hence the importance of realising the downside of hacking or the "underworld" ... as long as it is harmless it is fine ... coz after all who would like to have his/her world tampered with by strangers ...
bye for now ...

signs ...

hiya ppl ... i am back after a long lay-off ( all of two days !!! ) ... writing the bullshit that u have come to associate so closely with this blog :D ...
well life in cal is so cool ... no worries no tensions ... and now as soon as i am back in kgp i am back to the ways that a gsec is expected to follow ... all the interminable meetings ... the equally interminable doubts that keep surfacing for no earthly reason ... the doubts that weigh on my mind so much so that sleeping well becomes a problem ... the load of expectations can become scary at times ... whether this year's Spring Fest can be as good as the last year's ... whether we will get the necessary funds ... things which seem so mundane ... but which carry an importance so huge that they simply cannot be ignored ...
it is all so uncertain ...
and yet so uncannily important to one's well being that they refuse to simply become sidelined ...
no matter how hard u try ...
no matter how fast you run ...
the reality will always come back to haunt you ...


hehehehehehe ... scared you did i ??

with all these psycho-sounding stuff anyone would ...
maybe i am losing it ...
maybe i am not ...
only time can tell ...
only if you are prepared to wait that long ...

we will meet again ...
till then ... its good bye ...

sweet home calcutta

hi guys ...
here i am , on the road again ... i am going back home after more than a month ... sumthing unthinkable even a year back in my home ... mom , dad and grandma have kept such a close vigil on me thru my so-called "formative" years that for them the fact that their dear (grand)son would stay away from them for even a moment was unbearable to them ... that was the reason why you could see me haunting the phone booth everyday queuing for hours on end to catch a few moments of conversation time with them ... but now those days seem a distant memory ... at the moment my parents feel lucky if i call at least once every week ... it is so difficult for me to keep these schedules u see ... the crushing weight of studies a burden so heavy that the smallest phone calls seem to be an atrocious extravagance ...
is that the truth ?? or has the overwhelming nature of my "extra-curricular" activities has taken its toll on my 'acads' to such an extent that i am ashamed to face up to the reality ??
perhaps it is true ... perhaps not ...
it is up to me to find out and make right ...
till then it just weighs on my mind every single moment ...
so much for introspection ... a lot of bullshit ...
so much for soul-searching ...
so long ... farewell ...

the steering goes berserk ...

hello guys ...
today was another of the frust days in the life of a GSec soc cult ... what with the glorifying nature of the post ... the tastes it brings with it has an overwhelming tinge of the bitter ... the work of Spring Fest 2005 is another day old and we are not even close to anything concrete ...
For any fest the brochure is of course numero uno on the priority list ... and this morning we had the satisfaction of saying that it was on the way to print ... with two of our most reliable heads on the way to cal even the most pessimistic among us were harbouring a few hopes that SF might finally be on its way ... but the disaster that is this year's steering committee happened yet again ... and we were left scratching our heads in amazement ... how easily the whole mood of the sf core team can change from quiet optimism to downright despondency ...
mistakes that they made were made again ... that was the initial spark that lighted up the whole debate ... of course to ask why the scoms could not come up with the smallest suggestion that would have averted this would have been met with the same characteristic cynicism :"...you people think you have become big studs ..."
this brings me to question the very fabric into which Spring Fest is sown ... what is the need to keep these people on the team when the whole purpose of having them ... that is to offer advise ... is not served ...
this is a question which must have passed through the minds of all the people on the sf team ... however the answer is not that simple ...
we are all lesser mortals in the path of the juggernaut that is the Spring Fest ... whether we can live up to the expectation ... whether we can withstand this stress ... is something that only time can answer ...
well that's it for tonight ... sorry for boring you ppl ... but that is fast becoming a habit ... isn't it ??

Of assembly and lab tests ...

hiyaaa ppl ... i am back with some more soul searching and some food for thought ... well i had an exam today in the subject 'Systems Programming' ... well it might sound straight out of an Isaac Asimov thriller with all the hi-fi hacking and phreaking stuff but its pretty elementary really ... what with all the gibberish and low level programming ... Pawan Kumar was up to his usual tricks ... but your heart really goes out to the guy ... the brilliant but eccentric genius who never ranked out of the top ten in his 3 attempts at JEE ...
leaving that aside i had a chance to meet the Dean of Alumni Affairs tonight ... he is a really cool guy and pretty sensitive to the needs of the students as well ... nice experience ... could not talk much ... but sure to catch up with him in the future ...
that's enuff for now i guess ... i have pretty much scared away all of u for good now with these mindless posts ... but neway i have only just started ... remember ? ;-)
ciao

A journey to nothingness

hello ppl ... this is my first attempt at writing a blog anywhere let alone about myself .... so forgive me if it is a load of nonsense but here goes ...
today was another of those days when nothing seems to go right for you and just when u had given up hope ... a sudden something pops up in front of you and startles you with its sheer unexpectedness ... it started off in the morning with me reaching class late ... somehow managing to stay awake during two back-to-back and amazingly "sleep-inducing" lectures of the unpredictable pawan kumar and still not getting attendance ... then attending a tedious budget meeting ... apprehensive abt the possible outcomes ... but the sudden relief when everything gets passed in the blink of an eye ... gives u hope that all is not lost ... there is hope yet ...
i guess i bored u guys enough ... so lets call it a day ...