Why don't we study @ IIT Bombay

Today there was an online survey by Insight (IIT Bombay's news letter) about why don't we(students) study, surely we use to study during our JEE days but everyone will agree that now they don't study that much which they used to earlier. Same case with me too.

So  why don't we study that much ? i'll try to answer this taking me as reference. I studied hard in my 11th and 12th days, we all did. All that was said to us was "beta 2 saal padh lo, IIT main ho gaya na to 4 saal main kewal 2 mahine padhna padega" (son, study for 2 years, if u get into an IIT u'll just have to study 2 months in your whole 4 years.). Well i at least took it very seriously indeed :P.

During JEE days, each exam was not just an exam, it was a preparation for JEE. Now each quiz is independent. what has been asked has a low probability of being asked again. Every mid semester exam is just half way through and end semester is the end of that subject for most of us.

In those days if you were bad at a subject you tried hard to improve it as it will affect you ultimately. but here if you are bad at something generally it gets ditched. There are better things to do rather then study a subject which will last only for 4 months and you have no interest in it. Take an example, HSS courses, how many of us remembers what have we done in them actually? We just mugged up many slides and wrote in the exam paper and forgot about it the very next day. This is true for most of us and not all. There are people who like HSS courses as they are different from general theory courses of Engineering and can be refreshing sometimes.

We generally study one day before the exam. Why ? what do we do all those other days ?
As a typical freshmen in CSE department i had lectures every morning and labs twice a week in afternoon. In the evenings there is either NSO /NSS or some sport in hostel ground, or worse Chatting on a social network. Nights were the most amazing!. Dinner and then 'mafiya' (The game every freshi plays) or some card games. Some nights were for roaming in the institute exploring and some for b'days of wingmates and friends. Where was time to study in such a busy year? Ohh yes i forgot the people who are cult or sports enthusiastic. Nightouts for some competition or other is very normal.

As a sophomore i became a bit free from the previous year. But lazy, more lazy. And that laziness combined with a laptop full of new TV shows ruined my sophomore year academic wise. but yeah the fact that this is the first time you have department courses matters, as you discover do you like your branch or not. You can not make a complete decision but still many of us do. And don't forget the race for PORs. MI techfest, Ecell etc. many people are busy in these activities.

Now the third year. I have no idea what other people do in this semester. I was so damn busy in acads, yes acads :P that i didn't realize when the year passed. Night outs in labs, continuous work, assignments, projects and reports. So many assignments that the schedule became from lectures->lab->assignments->sleep. Sometime even not sleep. Frankly i got so busy in assignments that there was no time to study for the exams other then the exam days themselves. Count the work of people who hold some PORs. They were literary screwed.

Final year. More than half way through it and did nothing this whole semester other then placements study and tests and PPTs of company. Interest in everything else reduced (projects and assignments) and all concentration was on placements. Well that is supposed to happen I guess.

To summaries I a guy who had no POR for whole IIT life, no extra circular activity interest  and on an average i never studied even one hour per day for my courses. For people with some regular interest you can imagine yourself.

Now lets finish the year in terms of activities.
Starts in july, just began, have some fun i'll study later on. with in 3 4 weeks before you realise, quizzes  Then again, quizzes just got over, i'll study later.Starting of September some competitions, mid September Midsems and then Gyrations, surbahar, Some GCs, Theater Fest  etc. Finally its dushhera, diwali, quizzes, and projects submissions, October finishes in them. Nov Now you realize you had done nothing this whole semester and then it comes to mind, "let this semester go i'll study in the next one". End semesters from mid nov and thus our sem emds.
Even Sem: Techfest (at  least till now), then quizzes, then Election Phase I, Midsems, Elections Phase II, PAF, Quizzes, Valfis, and endsems. Whole semester gone, without noticing :P

Disclaimer:  I do not say here that one can not study at IIT Bombay, I am just listing my thoughts. People still find time to study, to research, some of the best student projects are from IIT B. Be it 'Pratham' or 'AUV' or 'BKB'. It's all about interests and what fascinates you. If you are passionate about something or other their is an opportunity here.
:D

A tribute to my Teachers !

I have been blessed in my life with a lot of wonderful teachers, first of all my mom dad and didi but this post is not about them. This is about some of my other teachers who have a big hand in shaping my life and helped me in the making of who i am today. I'll start with my primary school teachers and den move on the ladder.

1. Prema ma'am : She was my class teacher in Ukg (prep) class. One of the very first person in my life who saw a potential in me and always worked hard on me to refine me. I was a talkative kid in class so she even complained to my mom abt that. but never the less onw of the best teachers a child can have in such a young age. 
2. Nuppor Ma'am :  I was new in the achool in class 5. About after a month she came to teach us social studies. In general if u ask a random kid that he/she likes SSc or not the answer will be no, but mine was yes, a big yes. Because of her i loved the subject. She always asked questions about general knowledge and i generally had answer to all of them. I still remember she specifically asked this question to me in class, who is the general secretory of UN. Of course today i wont be able to answer this ques but that time it was a child's play, Kofi Annan was the answer. U can imagine how much impact she would have had on me for having utter faith in me that this kid will defiantly answer my question.
3. Venu Ma'am : She was my science teacher in 5th and class teacher in 6th std. Again a wonderful teacher. She did activities in call which were mentioned in the text book. As a class teacher she made her talk in English by imposing fine. Also everyone was not afriad of her but respected her to much. I respect her from bottom of my heart. She will never phrase a kid randomly but yeah motivate each kid and it dosen't matter that you are a class topper, if you had done something wrong you had to face punishment. I remember her most sever punishment where she wrote a note in diary of 7 students which had to be signed by their parents where she had asked to stop TV privileges of them for at least 7 days because of their misbehavior  in class. All the students actually completed that punishment and mind u at that time TV was a big thing for all of us.
4. Murgan Sir : My math and class teacher for class VIII. He taught math like never before, had a south accent but still everyone enjoyed his teaching. This was the time when Math became my favorite subject leaving Social Science behind. He never scolded anyone by hand but yeah i remember he once shouted at me for talking in class and that whole day  was sad because my fav teacher has scolded me.
5. Mukesh Sir : Again my class teacher, in X class and math teacher in X and XII. Students feared him. He was a terror and famous for his scoldings of students. My first month in X and he slapped a guy standing in front of me, made the whole class silent, the loudest one i have experienced. But I never feared him. I was a decent student and so never feared any teacher much. But I respected him, Excellent teacher of math. He had the best ways to teach and made the subject interesting. 
6. Pooja Bansal : She was not my school teacher but she was my math teacher in class XII in bansals jaipur. The only reason she is here is because one line she told me once which changed my life. The reason i was able to crack JEE was because of her one advise. I went to her and said "Ma'am marks nahi aate maths main (I don't score well in math exam ). Kya karun ? (what to do)".  She was in a hurry but replied to me "U dont solve questions completely. U leave them in between seeing that calculations are going lengthy. Complete your calculations and u'll see the difference." She was correct.  Seeing my face and not my paper told her where i was wrong and she corrected me. I started following her advise and in the next exam suddenly my maths marks doubled. all of my friends were also shocked and said as a joke"Kya ghutti pila di tujhe PN ne ?? (did PB gave u any special tonic to perform well)".

                      There are a lot of people whom i have not mentioned here but still were very important teachers in my life like Ambika ma'am in class 7th, Devedi sir (Sanskrit teacher!), Vaani ma'am (cem teacher) and many more.

Ads i'll never forget (Part 1)

Ads, they use to be fun when we were kids ...
Nowdays I don't watch TV much that is why not up to date on new ads...but here are some of the ads I really enjoy !

First the ad which we all remember ! A symbol of growing india in that era..

Next a very funny one by prasoon joshi !

The 3rd one is a very bold move from advertise industry, aamir khan in a girls outfit ! these series of adds actually made thanda ka matlab coca cola

moving on, an add that reminds me of my childhood !



following this is the add which uses the most popular sport in India, yes cricket! but still the lyrics are just awesome !

do let me know if you like these links or they brought a smile to your face ! 

part 2 after a short while !

I made a mistake !

Yes I made a mistake in the past year. A big one !
I recently realized it. One of my friend made me realize it. since then i can not get this thing out of my head that how i could have possibly make such a huge mistake without realizing !

So what was my mistake ?
before i answer that let me tell one thing about me. I am a internet addict, more of a social networking addict. That means I chat a lot and i keep in touch with people over the internet. Recently i got a new nickname from my friends , chatore (a person who chats a lot!).

Now the mistake.... I thought that the people you chat with are your real friends.
I really admire my friends. I owe them so much ! but last year I didn't communicate well with any of my school friends (actual ones). it took me very long to realize that i didn't even knew where they were this summer. :(. What happened to me during this time ? I got distracted. I got involved in chatting with random people whom i never met or met once or twice. I got so involved that i started believing that those are my real friends. I didn't keep contact with my school friends and even collage friends.
Things changed for me in that period. My priorities changed and also my behavior. I became more and more arrogant and demanding for time. I ,who never had fights generally started having a lot of fights with people i chatted with and even friends of mine. :(. I screwed my endsem papers just for the sake of chatting with people i thought were real friends of mine. I wasted my useful time!

And all of this for what ? Suddenly i realized everything in my life was messed up. so messed up that i cant even tell my friends about it, because i had lost contact with them. :( It took me time to recover from all those shocks and fortunately my friends were there to support me in that time. I had thought i had lost everyone but somethings are for life. some relations are so pure that they never change.

Now i am back. The old me! It dosen't mean i wont chat, it means I'll chat with people who are my friends and not make friends on chat :P. I'll go out more often with people and not just chat with them. I'll try to make relations in life which are not just virtual but also real ! One can not eliminate the online part of social network from his life in this era but one should not eliminate the real aspect of it from his life. Its more fun to go out with friends, watch movies , play games , have meals with them rather then sitting in a room and just chatting.  Moral of the story : their is no such thing as chat friend!
I apologize to everybody, those who only chat with me  and think i am their true friend (sorry i am not, its a fact). and to those I didn't kept contact for long, I'll make sure i make contact from now on.

Its start of a new year and a new me!

Open for comments and discussion !

Awesome childhood is awesome !!!

i was born in 1991.
how lucky i was ! It was one of the best time to get born. it was an awesome era when i grew up. All new things were just coming up in India. Be it the economic reforms of 1991, be it the IT and computer boom, Telephone and Mobile, or even retail sector....but the best part was the rise and fall of the Cartoon network !.

I love cartoons
I used to watch them so much that my eyes used to get red. But now i can not watch even a single new cartoon of cartoon network.
in our times the cartoons were comedy, hilarious and funny Who can forget Tom and Jerry ! or uncle scrooge (Duck Tails) or Scobby Dobby Doo.
Now most cartoons are all about fighting and i dont know what else...even this is liked by kids. I guess cartoons surely attracts every kid.

I also enjoy watching News....yes news :P
i watched Aaj Tak when it just started. It was a 30 min news show on Doordarshan's Metro channel. It came at 10 in the night. In those times sleeping at 10 was considered late, but if you are watching aaj tak  my parents never said that shut down the tv and sleep. :)
Then in the beginning of the new millennium things changed for the TV too.. Many new channels came up. Aaj Tak became a 24 hour news channel and i loved it. but it remained good only for some time. I enjoyed the time when there were new new news channels were coming up. But then they became so many ! and the quality of news became so bad !
This day i can not watch aaj tak , which was one of my favorite channels.  Surely rise and fall of news

In all while we were growing up many new things were also growing, some became very good, some remained same, some not that good and some got extinct :P

But yeah ! awesome childhood is awesome ! i feel i was born in the best era !!!
  

First Day at a MNC

A bit late on my blog but now i'll try to keep up

So around a week back i joined a MNC as an intern for this summer. The first day was an introduction to the company. I noticed a couple of differences in the culture over there as compared to what we are generally used to.

So the major difference was that in my collage everything we use to do was open source and free. it  was linux , scilab, our codes or other software we use. our thinking was also always like open source. Whatever you think, what ever you do let others know. let them also be benefited by your help. 

Here the rules of the game have changed. Everything you do has to be confidential. You shall not share and information which is important with anyone else. its like secret keeping, even the work it different. The environment is good but you have to wear formals and all everyday.

In all a different experience , the time will tell was it good or bad.

Third Year

This one is all about my experiences in the 3rd year of my collage life. 

When I was in my 1st year I asked my mentor "Which will be the toughest semester in these 4 years of engineering ?". He replied and i quote "The toughest semesters w/ ill be the 5th and the 6th ones. You'll get a feel of what is the department all about in 4th semester but those will be the sems which will surely test you.". 

He was so correct. Fourth semester we had 3 department courses, horrible grades, but still peaceful semester.
In Sem 5 we had the famous course of 'Operating Systems'. I guess everyone was sure that it would be the toughest course that we'll ever do. It was not the toughest course we dd but surely the toughest lab ever. Spending 12 - 14 hours continuously in a lab is no child's play. But we survived. I got a 7, bit on the lower side in the grade but I learned a lot.. 

We did system programming  for the first time in our life so it was all very new and a bit difficult. Then we had to do all this in C. C is not that easy language, there are many constrains. But this lab made sure that we learn to make our way out in C. Debugging large piece of codes which no one else could interpret. Many night outs in NSL (New Software Lab, Old CSE, IIT Bombay) which is also our mecca for all the programming :P. Finally OS ended, on a high node with the professor saying that ours was the best batch that he ever taught. :).

But Sem 5 was just not all about OS, we had DBIS and Computer Architecture also. We did a project in DBIS, 7 days continuous work , day and night. It made us forget everything. Even the fact that our end sems had ended and we should have fun :P. We completed this project after our end semester examination were over. It was the best project I did till date. Learned a lot and also the first complete running project.

Thus ended Sem 5 and began Sem 6. Courses were not that important this semester as was the fact that we had 4 labs in this sem, the most we ever did. So i began sem 6 with 4 theory courses and 4 labs, only one extra course. 

The first half of the semester was very relaxed. We came to know that there will be no strict deadlines but continuous evaluation. In AI lab grading will be done on the basis of the amount of progress you make every week, in compilers lab we had to submit 6 assignments 1 in every fortnight. In ERTS lab the pre midsem portion was just some easy assignments and few quizzes.  The post midsem was scheduled for project work. Networks lab was almost the same as all tthe prev. yrs labs, 1 3 hr lab every week and we are done!. It all looked very easy and satisfactory. Till the midsems it was. compilers, AI, Networks and ERTS were all easy. Then midsem ended and started the fever of sem 6. suddenly we were bombarded with a series of assignments and projects. This time not only we had to code but code well. The coding was not the major problem as was the report submissions, demosntrations, documentation and all. So many reports and submissions that it looked like it will never end. we will surely miss deadlines.

But We survived all this. Nightouts, sleepless days and nights working our asses off. making reports, finalizing codes to be submitted. documenting our work. We all worked in parallel. One person in one area. One made presentation while the other did the documentation, one did the report work while the other coded. In between we had our quizzes also where we just survived. 

I can never forget that day when I had 7 submissions in 48 hours. Day 1 morning, Extra course programming assignment demo, in the afternoon ERTS presentation, evening, network's project demo,  in the night a 3 hour exam. On day 2 morning 6 am, documentation submission of ERTS, in afternoon ERTS Video making and in night AI report submission. Two back to back night outs, some sleep of 3 4 hours in this whole time and then we had to prepare for our exam on the day after that. 

Whoa ! what a sem it was !. This whole year changed all of us. Now we are not just students of Computer science and Engineering but we are developers!. I can proudly say that because this was my aim when I came into IIT, not to just pass out as a student from here but to be a developer when I put my feet outside of this campus, into the real world. 

I can easily say that I enjoy coding more that  theory now. This is what has changed me in this one year. My confidence in my programming skills has grown as the skills themselves. I did programming in C, C++, JAVA, Assembly Language, PHP, SQl, and many others in this year. and not just beginners programming but moderate to advance level. 

Surely one thing is still left in all this, programming contests. Hope that next year this will also not remain vacant :).