February 18, 2009

Firsht Day!

First day of the 8th semester! I was as excited as i was on the first day of college some three and half years ago. So i get to college earlier than class time and find only a handful of people standing in front of class.Then we do the customary hi-hello and wait for the lecturer to turn up. No sign of the lady,so we go roaming. The first stop is the temple where i prayed for a wonderful final sem. Hope Lord Ganesha was listening! With an hour at hand before the next class, what better way to spend the rest of the time than at Yampa? Caught up on the latest college gossip, gloated at being the seniors of the college and all, over chai.

By the time the next class was due to start, a lot of people had finally decided to grace the classroom with their presence. Second hour was Constitution of India & Professional Ethics(,according to VTU syllabus ;)). It seemed to me like i was back in school in the civics class.

Third hour was Advanced Computer Architecture(ACA). The lecturer came in and started talking about responsibility, discipline and how we were going to step into a new life soon. How we would be recognized for our individuality in the industry and how engineering had made us all lazy(how true!). I was waiting for him to stop doling out advice and to come to the point. But no! The sermon went on and on and touched myriad topics, ranging from Darwinism, evolution, spirituality to modeling our life and future. The modeling then found some link with robots and AI. By then, half the people were wondering what was happening! And someone fell asleep. The lecturer woke him and actually asked if the lecture was causing any inconvenience to him!! To top it all, he conducted normal conversation using technical terms and it kept us in splits. One really weird class which i enjoyed! Never seen so many topics discussed in the span of one lecture.

The last hour was that of the strict,action-taking lecturer. Only, he did not take any action for bunking two weeks or bother to scold us. Probably realized by now that it is of no avail! While the previous class was full of entertainment, this one was completely dull. The lecturer simply read out from the notes he had got, stressing on totally unwanted stuff.The way he droned on and on only made things worse. After what seemed like an eternity, did the last hour get over! It is classes like these that make you simply want to stop coming to college. Thank god for friends and the fun stuff we get to do in college. And thank god for the holidays we get once a while! By the way, naaLe is raja! Yay!! Seems Dalai Lama is visiting our college tomorrow. The college is all spruced up for his visit. If you are in JCE, you do not want to miss our old airplane in the quadrangle,replete with fresh coat of paint. Who is going to call it junk now?

February 14, 2009

College beckons..

The 7th semester results came out today and i got back the "distinction" that eluded me the last time! Yours truly is very happy and thought it fit to share it with others. Not that it is a great achievement. Almost everyone i know has got one this time around. Happy that the VTU did not play spoilsport with any of us:)

Since i have a lot of free time at hand, i picked up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged that i had left halfway through, and started reading it. At one point, one of the protagonists says that the most depraved type of human being is the one without a purpose in life. Got me thinking as to what the purpose of my life is! As of now, all that i am doing is living it to the fullest and having all the fun i can. Is that a good enough purpose? I suppose the actual purpose will be clear once i step out of the confines of the college into the so called "big-bad-world".

Speaking of college, it reopened on the 5th of this month. But as per JCE tradition, am yet to set foot into the class. Rumor has it that one particular lecturer is really furious at our indifference towards classes and is gonna take strict "action" when we get there. Like we cared about it for seven semesters! At most, the first internal will be really tough with incomprehensible questions and many will end up with single digits for marks. There was a time, maybe at school and PU college when a single digit was looked down upon. But engineering college changed my attitude towards it coz i became a single-digit-getter myself. I was horrified the first couple of times but got used to it as time passed and even started enjoying the process. It became a norm to score measly marks in the first internal and the third internal would be a challenge of sorts.This semester will be no different in that sense.

Am eagerly looking forward to the first day in class. After all, it is THE final semester. Most of the memories i will take back from college will be those of this semester. But i am not sure if i want to spend all my time in class. You see,after this, i wont have anymore classes to bunk! So attending college, bunking class and watching movies, roaming around and having endless conversations with friends is on the agenda for the semester. You never know, in the process, i might discover the purpose of my life!

February 1, 2009

When Roger Federer cried...

"The stage is set .I hope we can live up to them (expectations) like we did in Wimbledon. " This is what Roger Federer had to say before the match that the whole world was waiting for! Expectations were high and how! He was gunning for his 14th Grand Slam title and then there was the epic semi final that set the bar really high.

Though Federer leveled the match at two sets all, he was not exactly in his best form. The guy did not serve well, struggled with his backhand and made too many errors! Nadal seemed to have endured the strain of the semi final and succeeded in breaking the calm of the otherwise unruffled Federer. It was as if the man on the mission resigned in the final set and just let the match slip away from his hands! I was ecstatic when Nadal scored his championship point. Wish the match had the same result but was a little more gripping towards the end!

But the drama that unfolded during the presentation is something I can't forget. I have seen Federer displaying his emotions after an emphatic win. But today, he cried like he had lost something really dear to him. I can only guess that he wanted to equal Sampras's really badly and was also probably mortified for not trying too hard!

Nadal once again proved that he is unstoppable. He even apologized to Federer for taking it away from him and reminded him that he is a great champion. Spoken like a true champion . I hope that the Federer-Nadal rivalry retains some juice in it because they seem to bring out the best in each other!

Pyar hua ikraar hua!

Before you get a different idea, i must say that this title is here for want of a better one!( And maybe, just maybe,a teeny-weeny attempt at trying to catch the reader's attention) Anyway, the song forms the central theme of an ad that's been on tv for a while. Yepp. The Airtel hello tunes ad featuring Kareena and Saif. Every time i see it on tv, i cringe and change the channel. So i decided to rant a little about it and get it over with!
Agreed that the commercial puts across the gana bolo and get the hello tune easily message effectively. But does it have to be at the cost of projecting Kareena to be dumb? Does she have to make that lame attempt to get the guy's attention while he is busy with his playstation? She remembers that Saif was humming some song the previous day but does not remember which!( It is from one of her Grandad's classic movies, for heaven's sake!) And doesn't the female know how to set a hello tune? Does she have to ask him to set it for her? Wonder why she agreed to be in the ad where she is no more than a showpiece, in the first place! And the most disastrous part of the ad is when Saif sets the tune by bolo-ing the gana into the phone and she gives this oh-my-god-its-a-miracle and you-are-so-great look. Can't the ad film makers come up with more decent stuff? Something like the Nokia ad with Priyanka chopra. It had Girl Power written all over it!