The Chronicles of a Happy Life

Feeling senti today,
I asked the sage a question.
Isn’t it sad,
that after all the years we had,
Not many friendships and memories with
the departing I have?

Deep in thought with brow furrowed,
a question in return asked he
How many among our own, have we?
Dodged it with some light talk,
joked some more about little things,
but the thought weighs heavily on my musings.

I do have a a lot of friends,
and an even greater number of acquaintances.
I’ve been the tutor of a seventy and hundred,
and am at least known by the rest of the kindred..
but out of all these people now and here,
how many of them hold me dear?

The Farewell function was organized today. Aditya Maheshwari gave a systematic itinerary of his life here and said all the right things. Imran gave a hearty, humorous speech abt his experiences at iiit. Vishal Mallik sung the song - “Sona jaisa roop hai tera, chandi jaise baal’, originally sung by Pankaj Udhas. Piyush Bhargava told the story of his song by the way of popular Hindi songs.. He was simply awesome! Khurana tried to be nostalgic. The Director asked the graduating students to donate their caution money to the scholarship fund. The Dean was in his element. He even spoke about Gaurav Jain (my batch) for a while! Prof. PJN gave the best speech. He spoke really well. The following is all of the speech that I could remember:

“Aditya spoke as if somebody had died here. That is strange since it is only when you leave an educational institution and start living in the real world, you are truly born! You spoke about Prof. Jayanthi, Prof. Jawahar and me… I did a little calculation on my own - You guys stay here for eight semesters and do an average of five courses each semester… there are 100 of you and so all of you have earned a total of about 8*5*100 = 4000 grades here… out of which more than 1100 grades you have got from the three of us combined! for so many courses you have endured us. I’m worried.. you have done so many courses under us.. how will you face the real world?!.. These memories will stay with you forever.. The frustration of getting bad grades due to attendance… the wish that you had attended that one more class.. etc. In short, I would say that you can take students out of IIIT but you cannot take IIIT out of the students. Good luck and goodbye.”

I can’t end it better myself. Farewell!

IIIT is in the grip of Election fever. Today morning the list of contestants was announced for the four councils of Cultural Council, Campus Life Council, Sports Council and the Felicity (our fest) council. Elections for the post of Placement Secretary are also due sometime soon.

Elections mean different things to different people. For me it means a lot of awkward moments and cynicism at its max. It’s pretty awkward when I’m in a group of friends who are strongly and visibly pro-X (a good friend) and anti-Y (another good friend) and the elections come up in conversation. I feel like a Nazi spy inside the White house and that feeling sux esp when I couldn’t care less about the election. It’s even more awkward when X himself, asks me “Rastogi, are you going to vote for me or for that f***er Y?”… I’ve never figured out how best to answer that question :(

Cynicism because that’s the feeling I get when people start discussing political strategies on the mess table. Loyalties are traded for favors, running mates are picked more for their apparent ability to pull in a large fraction of their batch in the favor of the candidate than for their relevant talent.. the list goes on. I must admit though, the elections have brought IIIT closer even while splitting batches (esp the seniormost batch) apart. The M.Techs and MSITs who were treated as outcasts till very recently are now being actively courted by the UGs - lot like the Dalits eh? (no offence intended)

Some might find my concerns frivolous and some ‘enterprising’ ppl might even consider this post to be politically motivated, but IMHO, elections suck.

Don't know why but today I suddenly remembered…

Sports day back in school. I never won a prize. It's not that I had a problem with sports. Sports and I had a very good relationship. I didn't bother it and it didn't bother me. I've have fond memories of sports day though. The best part about it was the holiday. We got a holiday on that day and one after that for celebration! Then there were all those weeks of preparation, when some, if not all the classes were cancelled for sports day practice. As a kid I hated attending class. I either knew everything beforehand or had absolutely no interest of knowing even a little about that subject. Thus, eventhough some hated standing in the hot sun and doing stupid actions with their arms and legs, I loved the time outside the class.

In class 7, I joined the school band. We were the cool guys. We would play music in a shady corner at the back of the ground while the entire school sweated, marched and did contortionist physical exercises in the hot sun! The teachers would consider us talented ones. Every year, the princi (principal) would come and scream at everybody - the teachers for not maintaining enough order, the house captains for not making their house listen to them, the houses for not listening to their house captains.. but for us he only had the highest praise. He considered us to be the talented ones and hence to be treated with respect. And oh, at the end of the day, we got a prize too. After all, the band was a monopoly. I always pitied the announcer! "And this years band trophy goes to….", the princi would annouce, "the Sulonia school band!". The band would play a victory tune while the band captain went forward to collect the prize, while the newcomers would be scratching their heads and looking at each other. It was the standing school joke!

With such great advantages, you would think that there would be tremendous competition to get into it. No such thing. I guess, most people were too innocent and foolish at that time. Even I got into it by fluke. (One fine day at the beginning of class 7, we were all called into the assembly hall and asked to choose an elective amongst music, band, technical drawing and some other crappy thing). I was terrified of the music teacher and his bunch of classical songs. None of my close friends were taking technical drawing and I didn't even know what it was and so I chose band. I now regard that as one of my smartest decisions ever!)

I played the flute. I can still remember a few tunes. I could play the drum 3*3 roll I guess.. but not anthing else. I really admired the buglers. However, it required too much work and they were closest to the big drums which was really loud. Plus, the flute was more sophisticated, so I stayed in the front rows.

In class 8, I digressed to join the military unit. We were a bunch of around 30 kids who were given actual military training by a retired army general. That including rifle shooting, various army signals, karate and lots of other things. I had to wake up at 6 for that blasted thing, every Sunday morning. We did get to go on exciting camps though. In fact, I was introduced to rock and roll for the first time in one of these camps! A friend of mine was totally crazy about the music. It was a very old tune.. don't even remember it now. I do remember thinking that my friend was just being phony to pull my leg! I guess it took me the 'pain' of engineering, to truly appreciate it.

Speaking of camps, my fondest memory of a camp would be the one where I went with Hemanshu, Parth, etc. It was the first time I left my parents. For the first time, I cooked! One day, all the children were divided into three groups amd were given the responsibility for preparing one meal for all of us. We were given the responsibility of making soup, sandwiches and custard respectively. We also had to make sure that our dish gets finished. As would become a familiar experience in later life, most people ran off and I was one of the few left in the team. But I really enjoyed making tomato soup. With no TV, no phone, often nothing to do but think, one would think that a child would get bored. I did get a little bored but overall it was a lot of fun. I only regret that I didn't go to more of these camps.

Oh! What is life if full of care,
with no time to stand and stare.
Wordsworth couldn't have been more right!
It's a pity that childhood's gone
and life is no longer so fair.

I have been a truly absent-minded professor today. This is what happened. Yesterday evening some ppl from ug1 asked me to take a tute. I decided to take it the next day, i.e. today. That night (or should I say morning?) at 1 am, the clock tooltip showed Thursday, so I sent a mail then saying that I’ll take a tute on Friday, and I got ready to take a tute today at 9. Surprisingly, some ppl actually turned up and oblivious of everything I started to teach. After around 15 minutes of the best teaching I had done all semester (I did prepare well for this class), somebody enlightened me with the morbid truth. I felt terribly stupid and embarassed. Anyway, the girls made a few phone calls and soon the class had the modest strength of 30-40 students. Confident that not many more would have come even if the tute was as scheduled, I decided to continue. A truly ‘doh’ experience!

That is the question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I just don’t know whether I should do an MBA or not. See, here’s the thing: I’m decent at technical stuff. I’ve got fair grades in iiit. I like programming and there sure is a lot of money in this industry. On the other hand, I’ve been thinking like an MBA all my life. I’ve always been interested in management books. I’ve been reading ET since class 8. And there is even more money after MBA.

As for changing the world - The world is always changing, it always has, even before the computer industry happened. Plus, why should I be bothered with changing the world anyway? I just want to be rich, NOT famous and have all the time in the world to do what I want to do. Let the world stay the same!

Then there is my dream of starting my own company. But that also fails to serve as a guide because my chances of doing that don’t increase or decrease whatever I do.

At some time, some placement counsellor in REC Trichy told a guy, whose blog I read, that jobs were like marriages. He said, “your job is like arranged marriage. When you start looking for the woman/man of your dreams, you want everything, family, money, beauty, booty, minimum siblings, maximum property, education or cooking skills etc. And no one ever gets that one in a million special person they’re looking for. They try real real hard, but they never really make it. And then finally after months, years of hard work marriage happens. Sometimes in all the wrong ways. And then it all doesnt matter anymore after a while. Years down the line, you dont care two hoots about all that you wanted and all the wonderful alliances that didnt happen. You just praise the lord for what you have. And its the best thing in the world as far as you know.” The guy got into IIMA, btw.

This philosophical stuff made great sense to this guy. However, it makes no sense to me. It’s not a solution. It’s just a lot of philosophical garbage that sounds nice and is quotable but does not tell me anything except that I shouldn’t even be thinking of this question!!

I’ve brooded SO much on this topic, irritated most of my friends with this discussion and yet I’m no closer to this answer. I’m not very bad at both things too. I have a decent shot at getting a good tech job and an almost equally decent one at getting a seat in a good college.

Some feel that whatever I do, it’s important that I be happy. But that’s no help since I do not know how happy I will be in both places. Programming and hanging out in ultra-modern offices in casual wear is a lot of fun at 20, but will I still be happy doing that at 40? Maybe at that time I’ll wish that I was in a suit orchestrating the fates of entire companies, nations even, with my fingers on a stock-broking terminal.

A friend recently accused me of being more ‘business-oriented’ than ‘tech-oriented’. He said that I’m more known for finance and other such management stuff than for any technical achievements. He pointed out that I didn’t even do honors in Vision like all well-behaved tech-oriented geeks do. My Dad is from IIMA. Like father, like son. Thus, he concluded that I was better off doing MBA. But that’s asinine.

Dunno what I’ll do. Thank God, at least I decided about not doing MS!

Btw, Siddhu, you were right about ‘That 70s show’. I’m over FRIENDS but I’m now a hopeless addict of that show. Damn you!!

WLAN was back in a day after writing my blog. I suppose that proves that God does exist :) I had missed the net so much that I stayed up the entire night when it came back. I watched a movie, surfed a lot, chatted a lot…just didn’t want to stop and sleep. It was pretty childish, actually.

Sorry dear readers, for not blogging for such a long time. Just didn’t feel like it… After a long time, I read all my favorite blogs and finally decided to write this one.

Ravi has a great style of writing.. Trust me yaar, this is not ‘dhobadam’. When Ravi talks, you feel like you are reading.. and that is reflected in his posts. Blogs were invented for ppl like him. I hope he writes more often. He even reviewed my blog. It was a decent review. He was not stingy in giving appreciation where it was due (well, he can’t help it if he didn’t find anything good in it, can he? :P) and didn’t hesitate in criticising what he felt where he felt it was needed.

Ravi, I didn’t review other people’s blogs because I felt that I was superior to them.. I did it because I thought it was a nice idea and that people would like to read it. Also, my poetry is for that very reason. I agree that I’m neither Wordsworth nor mythalez, but writing poetry is fun! I had’t done that since school, save for a single poetry competition in between… so I guess I’m making up for all the lost time.

Anyway, it’s good that you commented. It’s always nice to get feedback. I have learnt a few things abt blogging in my brief journey.. I’m putting them down here to serve as a small lamp on this dark, unfamiliar road. [No feeling of superiority intended]

1. When you write about some people, they will definitely read your blog
2. Even ppl who think you are full of crap, take you too seriously ;)
3. It’s fun to start trends, but one must resist the temptation to boast about them.
4. It’s even more fun to reply to a comment (esp if it’s anonymous) in exactly the same way as it was written :D
5. People do read this blog, I must be careful not to hurt anybody
6. A blog is a good way to get back at people
7. Some like it hot, some like it cold while some like it in the pot nine days old… not everybody will like your blog.

I got an A- in a subject I had completely given up on… Unfortunately I got to hear this info at the same time as Mr. A. Now, I will have to bear the brunt of his caustic, sarcastic snides for a long time.. I hope that at least their quality improves so that I can genuinely laugh at them! I also got a B- in a subject. I won a bet because of that :) I hope the guy pays up :D

Ppl who don’t like my poetry can stop at this point :P

Why do we have to say goodbye?
or put a fullstop to each sentence?
Can’t our dialogues just hang or lie,
to be resumed when we are again in each other’s presence?
And so never really die
or be interrupted by an acquaintance,
and all of us have just one never-ending conversation?

WLAN is not working. The past 2.5 days seem like years. I feel totally helpless. There is absolutely nothing to do in my room. Everything requires the internet! So blogging from the lab.

It’s been a really long time since I last used the lab. I’m experiencing a mix of nostalgia and angst. The same slight frustration when you find that your pc is being used by your pc partner, being surrounded by a lot of people speaking loudly in a language you do not understand (I don’t mean to offend anybody, please just understand that I’m terribly frustoo right now)… Then there is the struggle of finding a pc with a guest login on it. If finding a pc with a ‘ug3′ login does not qualify as detective work, figuring out the password for such a login when you have found it certainly does! If one does manage to login, there is not only the frustration of working on a bullock-cart PC but also the frequent reminders that it does not have any of the configurations that you have grown.. oh! so familiar with!!! Oh, how I yearn for my love - SAGARRASTOGI! (No, I’m not Narcissus, that’s just the name of my room PC) And I don’t even want to talk about the chairs X-(

In fact I had so little to do that I actually completed today’s assignment a full five hours in advance, something I had not done since first year. Its a very weird feel sitting here in the lab, bloggng and listening to Maiden (May God bless Natraj) while most people around me are frantically working to complete the assignment on time.

I have a CG assignment submission tomorrow - …absolutely no intention of doing it :(. I have to do some Felicity work (Yes, it lingers!).

The internet is down
There is nothing to do but frown.

Waiting for wlan to be up,
I’ve been forced to joined the lab club.

Watching a movie, surfing the net,
It all requires the computers to connect!!

The room is silent, boring and dull,
Why did it happen, I begin to mull

Oddly enough the network works on linux
Hollow and wicked seems the laugh of the tux

Silly and frustoo this poem is
unfortunately so deep is my sorrow’s abyss.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading blogs lately… so here’s what I think of some blogs. I’ve included only blogs of ug3. If I’ve missed any blogs.. please let me know.

Rao Was reminded of Bombay Times. Seriously! The last post is bitchy. IMHO.

rama Inspiring. Abstract. Poetic. sleep! Not necessarily in that order :D

Kitty An interesting read.. it’s probably what a blog is supposed to be by definition - a web log.

Mani A newbie. His blog is a lot like Abhishek Bacchan. After all, both our creations of very great men :) As a fan, I sincerely hope that he doesn’t get lazy and have his blog go the same way.

Su Su seems to me like a noble king ready to anything for his subjects (or a trade union leader, in the dean’s opinion, hehe) I don’t think I’m qualified enough to critique royalty just yet :D but neway here goes - nice posts, but must post more often. Junta must definitely read “First Encounter of the First Kind”

Axe SETI should be interested.. hehe.. Ok ok I agree that it was a lousy joke. He writes nicely, but like in most things with him, in a highly detached manner.

Arvind Krishna What a chuppa rustum!! He writes stort stories (methinks they are in Jeffrey Archer’s style)

Pati The first guy from our batch who started blogging seriously. His is the most hopelessly romantic blog I’ve seen :P Lucky dog!

[Gyan's blog] He’s told me that it is not for public consumption. If anybody finds the link.. please do share it with us :D

A lot of newbies… I’ll review them once they have a sufficient number of posts.

Ankit; Gautam; Gundu; MIT; Dharam; Shiben; Ravi;
Nayak

Oh btw, if you feel that I’ve been unjust or plain cruel in anything below, please don’t hesitate to tell me.. and since a lot of ppl have asked me this.. guys, I really did write the poem, “Thoughts of a hopeless romantic” on my own and no, it really is not based on any particular girl/incident.