26/11 alias INDIA’s 9/11

These are the pictures of Taj Heritage and C.S.T terminus taken by me on 23^rd November, 3 days prior to what they call India’s 9/11. Since then, much has been said and done, be it the political gimmick of stripping the ministers of their portfolios or be it the blame game, the intelligence agencies are playing to shrug the blame of their shoulders. Whatever the reasons, terrorists have successfully made an impact in our minds raising a concern about the security of our lives.

America post 9/11 has taken rigid measures and ensured that no further attacks take place. So,can our country do the same ? Well.one must remain skeptical about this..

I recall a discussion on NDTV Profit in which the ex-commissioner of Delhi police gives the reasons for security lapses. One of the reasons he says is ‘we Indians are the “chalta hai” kind of people’ and we often end up paying a heavy price for this chalta hai attitude.Our science & technology, Ocean development minister Mr Kapil Sibal was more concerned in emphasizing the benefits of technology, though later he made some valid points too.

Overall it was a good discussion in which they decide to give our new home minister, Mr P.Chidambaram a 3 month period to see some noticeable changes.

Lets come back to the reasons for being skeptical, India though the biggest democracy in the world faces acute problems of Poor governance and corruption. The key institutions of the state, notably the police and the judiciary, are major sufferers. Until these issues are addressed( which are deeply ingrained in our political system) any law against terrorism or crime will remain ineffectual…

However, we as the citizens of this country can take some measures. Lets be little more vigilant when we step out of our homes and lets not be the ‘chalta hai’ kind of people which I believe we are, in some way or the other.

amen

My First Fall of My Bike:

How many bikers have the opportunities to celebrate the first fall of their bike before they could celebrate its first anniversary.( my friend just missed by few days)

Well actually, many have but let us see how I got that opportunity…

It was Saturday 26 April 2008 and I was on my way back from a usual visit I pay at Ims (since I have paid them). The sky was a bit dark therefore the visibility was much less as compared to day light and adding to that the cars from the other end were flashing their neon-look lights on full-focus(people still need to know the traffic rules well). The light emitted by them scattered through the windscreen of my helmet further lessening the visibility. Well, a very usual situation, which I face whenever I have my proceedings in that direction. Right from the beginning, I had a notion that the track was wet (but it was not), every thing was all well until I reached the chichalim junction. A little further, on the slope two people had fallen off their Activa. I normally know when to brake, how hard to brake. Therefore, calculating the ‘speed’ to ‘force required to brake’ ratio, I found out that with N slightly greater than 40 [(on speedometer) on a sloppy road with water spilled all over it probably by water tankers hard at work], the force with which I had to brake to prevent myself from running over some one a few meters ahead, the fall was inevitable.

Well, I should consider myself lucky to escape with few bruises and without fracturing any of my bones. Thanks to my unicorn, which has suffered some damage on my behalf (it does hurt when your bike gets hurt) by putting forward its leg guard.

Finally, thanks to the super power above all, probably it was not the time to say good bye…

Happenings “o”8

Happenings,the cultural fest of GOA ENGINEERING COLLEGE seems to have ended the tough tortuous itinerary, which had resulted in last two happenings taking a mediocre plunk. Pleased to see that the committee was successful in weeding out the odds…
The brand happenings seemed to have regained its market stand by organizing a concert by an international band, “The JAL”
Let me narrate you my experience with it…
22 feb 2008: Hoping that the concert will start @ 7.00 pm, my friend and I started at 5.30, following a winding route to Farmagudi, after an early exit from my job.
More than the concert, I was excited to see about my college in a cultural humor, where I had spent 4 golden years of my life.
As we reached, we found that the security was beefed-up and the entry was restricted only to GECites/engicos and people like me, the Pass holders (probably the odds were eliminated here).
The campus gleamed my old memories. The few new add-ons to the campus were Nescafe shop and new stores set up in shopping complex, the “LOLO’S PARADISE” (named after a friend often called lolo) as we had named it, was a common place to hang out…
Everywhere there was a common buzzword JAL. The stage for the concert was awesome.
The concert dusted-off with a band named “LAHEREEN”, taken for granted rather(as JAL was in everybody’s mind) which played for some time with a weird combinations of songs. After a long kill time the much-awaited band, JAL arrived.

Now it was for the band to live up-to the expectations, which had drawn, viewers in mammoth. The band played some songs but soon the expectations died-off as the concert lasted only about 40 minutes. Thus before someone could feel the thump the concert was over…
However, I feel it was a triumph for the council as every thing planned, was executed…I‘ll stick up for council…great job done…

HOW OPAL MEHTA GOT KISSED GOT WILD AND GOT LIFE

This one is by Kavya Vishwanathan, an 18 yr old girl at Harvard University.

The novel is hilarious and portrays Opal Mehta, a girl with extraordinary credentials and her attempts to hit the big time. i.e. to get into Harvard.

A short story with every minute detail put forth in a very emphasis tic manner. The title very well suits to the second part of the novel, the interesting part.The use of vocabulary is extensive. you some times need dictionary to dig-out the literal meanings.

This one depicits, however systematically and professionally u plan out your activities, your ambitions..etc, the probablity of occurance is highly uncertain.whatever outcomes(sample space) u consider, life has a completely different surprise, with an outcome, which was never in consideration. This I did experience in my life.

Overall, it’s a good fun.

Rating: 3/5.

THE EYE OF THE STORM…

Hi friends, as read some books, I thought of lettering some reviews of the latest novels, I have read.

The latest one was “The Eye of the storm” by Jack Higgins.

It’s basically a suspense thriller (don’t worry, I won’t leak-out the suspense) wherein author perfectly blends fiction with reality. I would have had a better visualization if I were staying in London. Anyways, the author wrote it so well that any one can visualize the scenes. I actually felt like I was watching a movie and almost went to all the places mentioned.

It’s based on the 1990-91 Iraq war, wherein Iraqis(Saddam’s people) hire a professional named Sean Dillon for assassination of some top ministry official of Britain, in return of the chaotic situation under which Iraq is been put by U.S and Britain. The novel explains how this man plans assassination, the people he involves into, the involvement of Soviet Union and how his past gets onto him.

It’s a medium sized novel with hardly 250 pages; it might just take a week or at the most a fortnight, depending upon the time you devote to it. Well, I read it while traveling to and from college (its called Capacity Utilization…Lol)

Concluding, I would say its a good one, which give you an idea about how business, crime, politics… etc are interconnected.

I rate it 4 off 5…

Trip to Mumbai: Second visit to IIT

Well I am sure u all must have read Aseem’s post on a trip to IIT powai (if not plz read it) and must have really enjoyed reading it as it was magnificently put-up.

We did have trips after that and I would like to share some inside experience. Yes.. We had an opportunity of staying at IIT this time and it was’ heaven on earth’ experience. The Jalvihar guesthouse at IIT –B is where we had our stay and I would say it was no less than a 3* hotel. It had a fountain at the frontage with swans’ seafaring through a pool of water neighboring the fountain. The calm and compassionate Powai Lake showing its very existence was on the rear side, housing a spectacular lawn. All rooms were on the first floor. There was a dining hall with buffet system (though we always preferred Gulmohar). The hotel authorities admonished us not to venture near the lake late night or we might be in the headlines, the very next day (leopards are the dominating species there).

The room matched all standards. At the front-right, there was a table with a study lamp (of course of no use to us). The room, equipped with a/c, though meant for two, would have cost just 50 more for extra bedding. The windows were huge and curtains hanging from their pelmets showed the glaring beauty of Powai Lake. Just imagine, all this, for just Rs250 a day, but we did have hell lot of trouble to get this luxurious room since we didn’t have the ID cards tagging us as external project students at IIT-B. Therefore, it was not before 4 pm that we did manage to get that room. As we advanced towards the guesthouse we had glimpses of the elite IITians, some of them wearing T-shirts of the respective companies, (google, Microsoft..Etc) they were placed in.

Crack of dawn at the campus was awesome. Since I woke up a bit early, I was the only lucky one to experience it. I had my morning tea and briefly glanced through all the newspapers. The news was as usual with Politics filling up most columns, the news digest with some cartoon (that too political) by R.K Laxman. One of my friends had his eye stuck on Page-2 of TOI (the masala newz). Soon we realized that we have a meeting with our guide at the IRCC (industrial research and consultancy centre) building, so we performed our daily ablutions and headed towards it.

The IRCC attached to the school of management (SJMSOM) was never the less, a paradise. Since we reached a bit early, we managed to have a half maggi and an ice tea. A gorgeous girl at the campus café shop was puffing a cigarette, which left us astonished. Soon after then we had our meeting. With labs being closed that day (as GEC, Saturday is a holiday there), we couldn’t do much there and we left back to our rooms. We had finished with our work at IIT. 2 of our grp members boarded a Volvo back to goa while we had plans to chill out. Therefore, we hired a cab to vicroli where one of my friend’s cousins was staying. We had planned a night stay there in godrej colony, a massive one, with life so peaceful and poles apart from the typical hastening one, the Mumbai owns.

The first chill out venue was CCD at ADLABS’ huma (kanjurmarg) and then we headed our joy towards the most happening place, “Nirmal Lifestyle”, one of the biggest malls in Mumbai. I’ll have to improve my vocabulary to express it in words. Everything over there was very ostentatious. Apart from those glitzy showrooms, it had “sachin’s”, a restaurant owned by sachin tendulkar, with a batsman hitting a six, as an insignia. We were wondering, how much a tea would have cost us there. The mall had a multiplex named PVR, with 8 screens where we planned a movie out. The show was at 10.30 pm so we thought of some window shopping.

Bluffed by the name of the movie “snakes on the plane”, (never knew it would literally mean snakes on the plane) we had no option but to watch it. The movie was so ferocious and inconceivable that I had to wait for the intermission to gulp some air. Also surfing the net was at the back of my mind (there were PCs for surfing and LCDs, which showed trailers of the upcoming movies). Though we couldn’t enjoy the movie, we did enjoy our outing.

The next day we did visited some places, Hiranandani gardens being one of them. Again, you’ll have to take a trip to Mumbai to experience the stuff. We did some shopping and headed back to our place. Later in the evening, we boarded a Volvo back to goa.

The whole trip was remarkable!!!

My last few days…

A sir of mine once told me that the best part of life, which one can have, is in “engineering”, only after your good old school days. Who knew then what one would do in future.

Nearly 7 years later, I am on the edge, counting my last few days in my alma mater.

These 4 yrs have been amazing through out and it is still unbelievable that we are about to ‘pass out’ and will be paid for some wk. I wish if engineering was 5 yrs, then I could have done things that would content me.

I flash back and I remember…

It was my first day to college when I got on a jam-packed bus (we did not know about the bus timings then) and somehow managed to reach.

We were in a group, four of us (of which 2 in r NIT and one in medicine), standing in front of the drawing hall (D4) wondering where our classes will be held.

Just then a senior cornered me and said in an intimidating manner,” I have 2 books, costs 300 bucks and u r buying it tomorrow”. What a bizarre situation, I went completely edgy about it but then thanks to one of the Profs, who just happened to pass by and I escaped. I never saw him again, at least not for a month.

Oh! So this is what seniors do, dupe juniors to their advantage (I never did that).

 

As the SEM passed, we had many new entries (2^nd and 3^rd round, with 3^rd round my hopes of making it into medicine died off.). I say life being a FE is really sick, especially if you are the only odd one from your higher sec and your friends go off to some other destination. By the time, one is accustomed to college and hostel life, the fear of SEM exams starts prevailing in everyone’s mind (scholars excluded).

The 2^nd yr was really gr8. With gr8 professors (m-techs and PhDs from IIT), teaching subjects like thermodynamics, one really feels like being a geek (the fever subsides as

Time progresses. If not, ultimately u land up answering GATE).

The third yr is the busiest and the most happening year. One studies hard as well as organizes events, it is now when your bond with your class deepens and you have a great feeling of being loyal to your class. Last but not the least, u get placed too (if u r lucky enough).

Finally the forth year the final yr of engg curricula is not quite happening but it makes u

Feel very different. U still study and hang out but now Ur grownup and mature. It is now one realizes how a sophomore at the 1^st year is transformed into a professional (well, this is valid for me if not for others). One gets isolated too. Meeting your own classmates u say”hi! Kya yaar, dikhta nahi aaj kal”, while some u may only happen to meet online.

Well I am sure every body (B.E) must have thought of this so I have just put-up the Stuff based on what I experienced.

This is my first post and I hope I have not bored my readers.