5th Sem, done and dusted

Well. As the title suggests, 5th sem results just came in (a little unexpectedly, arriving a day ahead of schedule). This was incidently the 1st time papers were being checked digitally, meaning scanned copies were scoured through by the prying eyes of teachers through a complicated though efficient software, so that every corner and nook gets rewarded for the pupil's efforts. First impressions  - Great, keep it up.


As for the results, can't really complain as for the 1st time in 5 semesters, all three of us passed with Honours, with me a bit overachieving. Any ways, I guess results and exams don't seem interesting enough anymore,  especially taking into account the fact that I had surrendered myself to a strict programme of pressure studying, similar to the "Concentration camps" that coaching centres put up together in order to prepare students for pre-boards and board exams across the country.


On a more positive note (for me at least), the coming week marks the starts of even-free days in the college, meaning full-on crank up studying, something I crave for.


And that's that for today....Ciaos....:-) 

Back Again

Well, I guess it's been a while. So I'll just begin by saying that another semester has passed seamlessly with us progressing to the 6th stage of our engg. studies. A lot is on my mind right now, so it'll be fair to conclude it with the self-promise to write more often..

Ciaos for now...

A failed attempt at 'Darshan'...

Well. We all occasionally make mistakes that midway through them, or afterwards, definitely wake our senses. This is the story of likewise for me. 

Sem - 5th
Most Recent academic achievement - Completed CT-2 (Called Mid-Term tests, or MTTs)
Mental Status - Peach
Date - October 1st, 2011
Place to go - Dongargarh, C.G's sacred Durga temple sits proudly on a hilltop there
Possible (and likely) problems - Lacs of pilgrims...
Time of departure - 19.15 (ex Hostel)
Time of Return - 02.30 

Well, after 2 years of part-stay in the hostel, out of the blue - came the idea of joining my comrades for their annual trip to Dongargarh during the Navratras (not the Rama one, folks). The idea is simple. It's just a fun trip for most, although I have to admit a few of them are really serious about the 'Bhakti'. 

#AIM :- Pilgrimage and safe return back to base

 

#PROCEDURE  :-
1. Board a packed local train after dinner.
2. Survive the seemingly never ending journey of 62 Kms (Yes I calculated it, CG's present CM's home Rajnandgaon is exactly in the middle at 31 Kms).
3. Ten minute walk to the hill base, the last 5 of it barefoot if you like.
4. Start a 2 hour, 1100 steps (from what I've heard) climb.
5. Escape!!!


#INFERENCE :-
Yes, as you would've probably guessed, we (meaning half of us) never quite made it past step #3. Everything went right up until then, and despite the local train - crouching us, denying us breathing  and standing space - we made it in 1 piece. The trouble began when the police, with an otherwise healthy view to avoid congestion on the stairs, blocked the crowd at the base for over half an hour. That sparked the crowd to force their way, and despite the attempts to control them, the mob caused an almost stampede situation, a situation that I thought was best to escape out of and save my life. After all, there's no point in sacrificing your life by making foolish decisions, is it?

So, handing out to my unscathed friends whatever was left of my supposed offerings to the Devi, I made my way out somehow and was pondering over what to do next -  considering I had deposited my footwear at one of the local "Seva" stalls and these stalls gave you your footwear back in the same way as anywhere across India - on giving back their token - when I received a call from my room-mate Nirmal, who had also escaped, and decided to wait for any more escapees from our 15-man strong group. 7 in total, we decided that there wasn't much point in sitting there in the chaos and time was up for us. 


We took the token back from the person responsible, got back to the stalls and wore back our footwear, and this is really where portable Internet rocks...:)


I quickly did a search for train listings and found one train in the next couple of hours back home - but only in 10 minutes. Barely able to stand, we gathered ourselves and ran at full speed to the station. Once there, we did what I normally never do - not purchase a ticket - and boarded the train's unreserved compartment. 


This is where the vast disparity between various categories of trains and their operating priorities comes into light. While the forward journey in the local train took a whopping 1.55 hrs(D: 20.50, A: 22.45) at an average speed of 32.3 Kmph, the return leg took just 45 mins in a super fast train(as they're called in India; D: 01.20, A: 02.05) at an average speed of 82.6 Kmph. Any ways, back at the base, I had yet another 1st in a single day (or wait. It's a new day, isn't it!) - Jumping the college main gate. You see, through 1st year, I've had requests to jump out of the hostel (quite crazy, it is..) and go to have Poha, a local breakfast favourite, right in the middle of the night. Crazy as it sounds, still I'd have to be a fool if I didn't admit a secret fantasy about jumping walls and gates - Especially when you've been locked in; it's human.

Now that that fantasy was fulfilled, I felt some satisfaction. 
Finally, before calling it a day, one final task. Drank gallons of water - After all, we were dead dry after our 8 hour, 125 Km "Mini" expedition!!!


#RESULT :-
Well, the mission didn't exactly go according to plan, but I did manage to bring home some 'prasad' and learnt an important rule which I henceforth wish to follow diligently -

"Never, ever, ever try to visit a sacred tourist spot during a festival

It's like walking into a reign of fire"

A Haunting

An eventful day. Eventful in the sense it's the 1st time I'm publishing events that took place on the same day. Hope that this run can continue.

Anyway, the day started with the 1st day of vocational training at CMC Bhilai. Yes, Java, it is.
2 and a 1/2 hours of it followed by breakfast consisting of Dosas. Its quite amazing how dramatically my food requirement has gone down in the past 2 years. There was a point when I was accustomed to late morning starts and breakfast on the bed but today, it was all about slugging at 05.30 AM. Damn. Owing to my disability with driving two-wheelers, it was all down to one kind friend to shuttle me. The course was exactly as I had hoped it to be.

Afterwards, slept quite unusually for an hour due to that unscheduled early morning workout.
But from noon onwards, it was all about playing games - If you know what that means.

After what seemed like a never ending day, the evening took us (hostelers) to some horror file show - "Haunted" was up in town at Adlabs and being a Wednesday, it was time for the weekly bargain - Balcony seats for a meagre Rs. 40.
To be frank, the movie didn't scare the hell out of me but had a few riveting moments.

To sign off the day in style, an ice-candy treat from seniors is always welcome.
More Java to follow... 

A Lovely Day...

What's your idea of a perfect day? Rain, thunderstorms, or the Sun shining brightly. Well mine's all of it. I finally had my day yesterday. I know people would call me crazy - Bathing in the Sunshine of a hot summer day, with temperature likely to cross 40 deg C as the day progresses. But it's just perfect - A hot, sultry day, with humidity less than 20%, making the sky sparkling blue and the sunshine all the more dazzling. 

I don't hate rain though; India's annual monsoon season is one sure thing to look forward to, but its days like this which make you admire the beauty of being on Planet Earth. The Sun radiating with all its might on a nice Summer day, the tree leaves shining, new as they are having just been born in the spring, and the people with all their vibrant clothes. Spanish people know what I'm talking about, don't you?

This wasn't the 1st and certainly won't be the last day like this. More to come and expected wholeheartedly...

Internet worries - ended, finally !!!

Well, one and a half years of waiting is quite a good enough time. Finally, time for change. That's where people power comes to good use. So, after waiting for 7 months for the BITWIFI to work, we finally turned towards the good old BSNL for help. The result - a 3G card supporting data speeds up to 3.6Mbps. Some teething troubles later, its working pretty well. More regular blogging to follow, I guess...

Linux Mania

Its Gandhiji's 163th death anniversary today - Not a day to be particularly proud of but still, we Indians are obsessed with dates. So, the Mahatama is forgotten after mandatory morning chat shows & late night reminiscences. After all, its Sunday - The day to recharge your batteries after another week of toiling in the college, although this week proved a little kind on all engineers, with the Republic Day holiday falling on Jan 26 nicely breaking up the week into 2 segments. Its also my roomie Vaibhav's b'day. 

  "Happy B'day once again, Mr. Verma"

Anyways, Linux fever has been spreading for the past few days and today proved a very productive day indeed with loads of downloads and new hands-on experiences. As if Maverick Meerkat wasn't enough, Ubuntu updated itself to Natty Narwhal - version 11.04 from 10.10. On top of that, my Wifi is also working now on Ubuntu so that should be fun. The Linux fever actually seems to have grabbed the entire CSE dept. with teachers repeatedly talking more n more about large-scale deploying of Open source software & Ubuntu now being installed across all systems of the CSE labs (almost). Can't blame them, though, with software licenses beginning to cost even more and more amidst all this recession. Actually, I think its quite a clever move as Windows XP as an OS is starting to get more n more outdated amongst all this open source furore. Add to that the innumerable viruses attacks that the college computers have to endure everyday with all those flash drive insertions - which contain - well we all know what.

The only downside is that the Linux lectures held every Saturday have very low attendances as people are more interested in dashing off to their PGs and if possible to home (outstation students) then attending what would form a very important part of their professional careers...