Election Viewpoint

Yesterday, a certain Mr Bhattacharya posted an entry on his blog, where he beautifully articulated that politics at our college is way more serious than it’s supposed to be.

Tasteless mortals and others might view upon that post as an attempt to bastardize the political activities that go on inside the closed gates. In its current avatar, the political scenario is almost always dominated by two secular parties for each post and you have to pick sides. At first glance this seems rather contradictory since the common man (and moreover an engineering college student) is opportunistic and has high hopes and aspirations, but a closer introspection might reveal that many able men/women are already post holders in some club or department. So that takes care of half the eligible people. But what about the rest? Surely they would want to go for the post? There can only be one reason that can explain this. It’s at times like this that you really respect the college. A consensus between nearly 1500 students for 4 posts really shows the maturity levels of the students.

This is probably a perfect example of the “Invisible Hand” that Adam Smith talks about in his Bible for Economics, The Wealth of Nations.

The theory of the Invisible Hand states that if each consumer is allowed to choose freely what to buy and each producer is allowed to choose freely what to sell and how to produce it, the market will settle on a product distribution and prices that are beneficial to all the individual members of a community, and hence to the community as a whole. The reason for this is that greed will drive actors to beneficial behavior.

During the election period, the college is divided into three groups. One of them is a massive group A, with little scope of individual thought process and they mostly follow the crowd (a classic case of recursion in case you haven’t figured that out).
Another is a comparatively smaller group B (split into further smaller groups B1, B2 so on) also with little scope of individual thought process however a little more persuasive. Mathematically (and ideally) speaking, it’s a many to many-many (or presumably two way) communication process where these smaller groups go around convincing the larger groups by giving them logical and seemingly obvious reasons to support them in all their endeavours. Experts in this domain also claim that this results in some sort of “My candidate, my family” feeling.

Apart from this there also exists a blimp C, which comprises of n people (n<10)Nazgul. They trot this dystopian earth with a strong sense of conviction. This attitude is evident from the following two points witnessed by those who aren’t of kin and are confronted or cornered by them:

• Expressionless faces
• A copy of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four in the vicinity

They sometimes receive sympathy during dire times in the form of “It’s a dutty job but someone’s gotta do it” and condolences in the form of gtalk status messages.

Now the seriousness that Bhattacharya talks of is basically oozing from the interactions that these three groups have with one another. By themselves, they are informal and a factory of rumours (often witty and scandalous and sometimes sick) and jibes, but in presence of foreign company, this wit and humour is replaced by:

• Jargon and Threat (if the interaction is between C and A)

• Constitutional talk and Jargon and Threat (if the interaction is between B and C)

• Reassurance and concern (if the interaction is between B and A)

(Reminder: Associative property might not be applicable here)

Mr Bhattacharya’s proposal to entertain a more informal election process in BITS can easily be implemented if action can be taken to ensure that the formal relation between these three groups be dissolved.

This can be easily achieved. All that remains is for the following points to be implemented:

• The use of animals for campaigning purposes should be made permissible.

• Merchandise promoting a candidate should be allowed, this can include caps, tees, sports bras et al

• Utilise the Department of Photography for generating campaigning budget. It is almost inhuman to expect the campaigning to proceed on such a shoestring budget. Clearly a campaign budget of 1200(or 1500) rupees isn’t sufficient to carry out the campaigning activities.

• Candidates should be allowed their own entrance themes while entering the auditorium. The candidates can also seek the help of the Department of Lights to ensure there is a sound-light coordination. Even in cricket matches such a move has been welcomed by the International Cricket Council(ICC).

• For the entertainment of students and publicity of clubs/departments, they should be allowed to make special ads for the audi debate (save Dpeartment of CCTV). Something similar on the lines of the Superbowl ads.

• Lobbyists should be allowed to defend their candidates in the audi debates.

• For the benefit of A, the group C should actually collaborate with B so as to ensure a steady kayfabe. The very occasional Screwjob has be tolerated.

And above all, during Audi ragging:

Right to free speech should be introduced where the candidates can show their true identity to the audience. It’s sort of tough to do with an elite panel interrogating you and then not letting you speak your mind.

KK Birla passes away

As I switched on my monitor this morning, still bleary eyed, I got a scoop of this:

KK Birla, noted industrialist and former Rajya Sabha member, died on Saturday morning at his residence in Kolkata after a brief illness. He was 90.

The chairman of Hindustan Times and several Birla group of industries is survived by three daughters Nandini Nupani, Shobhana Bhartia, who is vice chairperson and editorial adviser of Hindustan Times and Saroj Potddar.

Birla was ailing for the last two weeks and the end came at 7.30 am, family members said.

His wife Manorama Devi Birla died about a month ago.

Reports Hindustan Times

Amongst a host of things, the gentleman also happened to be the Chancellor of our college. Rest in Peace sir. You shall always remain a BITSian.

Moreover, people on campus will realize why this slightly ironic.

On Cricket Quizzing

Image via Wikipedia This summer I represented BITS Pilani at ESPN's Champions of the World, a cricket quiz. Along with Navin. A chance to sit on those toilet seats again at Eagle Studios, Noida while Harsha fires trivia questions at me. Ah, sweet memories of the good ol' ESPN School Quiz days. It seems only yesterday that I was humiliated by those little rascals from PSBB Nungambakkam (who made quite a pair since both of them were victims of Down's syndrome) who edged past our team(2004) or that bugger Aravind Vijayasarathy and Pranav Ramkumar who would subject me to a neatly organized session of bondage, rape and then eventually and almost poetically, murder(2003).

Aravind is now a loving senior at college. A fine example of this love was showcased when he invited me over to his room one and said that he had a gift for me. It was the video of him pwning my tush on national television.

I realized 2 years at a coaching facility which trained me for an exam, whose individual subject cut offs these days fail to get off the mark and then another two years in an institute where every question has to be workoutable (lest the quizmaster wants to be lynched); had crippled me and I was clearly a n00b amidst those fine Bengalis who could probably recognize David Johnson from his baby pictures.

I have realized that any quiz that is to be hosted on television has to be trivia based and should involve no room for working it out. The thrill for the viewer then comes from keeping the score and awaiting that nail biting finish.

We're all horses then.

The ignominy of being knocked out in the first round has hurt me, so I'm here digging into my past, ghoting random bits of trivia about Herbert Sutcliffe and Frank Worrell.

Feels good.

P.S: Everyone in my wing is addicted to Bradman's Best. One of the finest sports books that you'll ever get to read. Do give it a try.

On Quizzing

We recently had the Fresher’s Challenge at BITS Pilani. It’s a quiz cum wordplay event held annually at the beginning of the year to find out the best quizzers in the batch. It also mostly transforms into a confidence shattering two hours. The scores are generally not too high, reason being the transition from school quizzing to college quizzing. School quizzing giants enter the campus with past laurels such as the success ESPN School Quiz, Bournvita Quiz Contest, Limca Quiz et al and are humbled by the level of quizzing at the college level.

Though trivia and obscure statistics is fun, college quizzing demands more of an analytical approach and the overly clichéd Steve Jobs advice of “connecting the dots” rather than memory alone. So why is this done?

Flattening the playing field might be one of the reasons. As Amit Varma elucidates on his blog:

A good quiz question is one in which, even if you don’t know the answer, you can work it out through clues given in the question…

I guess it’s also more to do with the fact that in hardcore trivia (read school or corporate business) quizzes it’s merely about knowing the answer. You either know it or you don’t. There aren’t any brain cells put to use. In such a case, a participant might feel cheated or as my British friends would put it “It’s simply not cricket”.

Quizzing then is also about setting good, workoutable questions. This means that the answer, in most cases should be something that everyone is aware of, however only the worthy can deduce that from the information presented to them.

For example one of the question asked during the Oasis Quiz(or simply OQ) last year was:

“Throughout history, the best pictures have always come in a yellow box.” Whose ad line?

The most obvious answer (probably due to 2 key words Pictures and Yellow) that comes to mind is Kodak, or probably some other variation a similar company. However, on closer inspection one notices something odd. The word History. Clearly Kodak is old, but not that old. Something doesn’t fit in.

The answer is actually National Geographic.

I wont deny that it does take a little getting used to for its so much more simpler to simply blurt out the answers which you are already aware of rather than sit and work things out. However the joy of deciphering the code that makes a good question is unparalleled.

Compared to the South, college quizzing in the North is still catching up. Lack of a high number of quality quizzes might be one reason. Another reason why the south is so good is probably due to the prevalence of the biggest quizzing clubs such as KQA, QFI etc.

Let’s refrain from talking about Kolkata :)

New Media as an elective at BITS Pilani

Electives form an integral part of the academic structure. I would consider myself lucky to be in an institute like BITS Pilani. The vast number of electives it offers its students is almost intimidating. Besides, for some, who landed in Pilani accidentally because they somehow managed to clear the exam, and absolutely detest all the courses that form the part of their curriculum (since everyone might not get the branch of their choice), electives provide solace and possibly a hike in the CGPA(cumulative grade point average).

According to me, the students have as much of a right to demand an elective (given the constraints of the college of course). What I mean is that the college academic board should take feedback from the students regarding what sort of courses would they be interested in. BITS Pilani has a special set of technical electives under the category Emerging Areas(EA). I would love to see New Media under EA. BITS Pilani has a large number of bloggers. While many do it for the joy of typing out their thoughts for the world to read, there are some who seriously need the internet to survive and feel orphaned without digital media. One could start it off as an Audit Course(one which doesn't affect your CGPA and you either pass it or you don't) and then possiby make it a regular course based on the response. As part of the course students can be taken to blog camps in Delhi on a weekend(unconferences are usually held on a sunday/saturday) or probably invite successful bloggers/social media experts etc.

Obviously it goes without saying that the instructor has to be someone in the middle of all the action. Because of this, getting a teacher to the campus is going to be a big problem. I suggest then to organise classes via skype(what better way to lear new media, than to actually use it for teaching). Obviously this is just me thinking out loud.

It's time we start experimenting.

And echoing Rachit's thoughts, we should have our own blog aggregator.

Startup Lunch at Hyderabad-23rd August

Image via Wikipedia

Startup Lunch, the recruiting event which is loosely based on the concept of speed dating, is finally coming to Hyderabad. The scheduled date for the event is 23rd August.

Hyderabad has seen a lot of growth, in terms of start ups, in the last couple of years. Naturally, all start ups require good hardworking people, willing to put in that extra effort to make the venture successful. This event is an excellent opportunity for start ups as well as those willing to work for another.You can also check out the presentation uploaded on Slideshare.

Successful Startup Lunches had been held at Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Delhi (which is going to conduct its third start up lunch soon).

Why should you, as a prospective team member, be part of this initiative?

1. One to many interface - One event, many start ups. Imagine the amount of time you would save by meeting them all in one place?

2. Align with your interests - Given the number of start ups and the interaction with their top management, you can decide which one to go with!

3. It's cost effective and helps you meet other people with similar interests.

Why should the startup be part of this initiative?

1. It's cost effective - Bulk recruiting solutions don’t work and customized recruitment is too expensive. This is the middle path - a relatively cost effective way of reaching a group of interested people.

2. It's targeted - Finding the "Eureka" person is tough. This helps enterprises get in touch with those who want to take the risk.

3. It's convenient- A meeting over lunch, a couple of hours to meet a great gang for working or hanging out with

Startup Lunch is an initiative of Proto.in and is being held on the 23rd of August at the Intellecap Office in Hyderabad. All the contact details can be obtained from the wiki itself.

Being stuck in Pilani, it's a pity I can't attend the event.

For those of you who are content with their jobs and would rather engage in something else, head over to the Google office by 10 AM for a workshop on Cloud Computing! This one is packed with speakers from abroad and biggies back home.

Zemanta

Image by Zemanta via CrunchBase I've been trying Zemanta for nearly three months now. I am a bit frustrated with the number of pictures (creative commons) it offers, however, the service as such is quite interesting. Recommending relevant pictures for every three words, along with useful tags and links. Personally, I think it works better with Wordpress. I can see it to be quite useful for journalists in the future if these guys start including better links (I wasn't entirely satisfied by the links provided).

Entering 3rd Year!

Back at college.

Many seniors that I knew here have left. A fresh batch has arrived. Most of whom are forced to wear formals and are terrified by my hirsute and sometimes slovenly appearance. Almost instantly it feels like the first day of college where almost all the faces seemed unfamiliar. Yesterday, I had entered a class (haven't exercised BITSian flexibilities as far as attendance is concerned, yet) and most of the faces seemed alien to me.

The part that is different this time is that no one is cornering me.

Its my turn now.

Time Traveler!

With 10 days left for my holidays to end, I decided to give my grand parents, who reside in Jammu, a surprise visit.


But before this, I had to spend five days in Delhi. Oh wait a second. Guess I made a geographical faux pas. I had to spend five days in NCR. The need for the correction is immense. From a traveler’s point of view, NCR provides quite an experience. Oh and do add the budget constraint as well as the inclement weather to the melting pot.

Having stayed in Hyderabad for most of my life, I have to say that traveling has never occupied a major portion of my day. The reason for this is because Hyderabad is quite a small city and commuting doesn't really take much time. Its only after spending time in Delhi and neighboring agglomeration that I have discovered what "taking time" really means. My uncle says as I sit there gaping 'Yeah that place is quite close by, just about 9-10 kilometers'

To begin with, Noida has too much crime and Gurgaon has too many rich people. Also, due to the latter, commuting in Gurgaon without your own vehicle is just impossible. Cabs are expensive (as would be the case in any city), cycle rickshaws show too much attitude and take an eternity to reach even the simplest of destinations. And the auto rickshaws’ have absolutely no space to sit. Why no space you ask? Because the public transport is so poorly developed that the working class simply unleashes itself upon any and every auto or shared cab it encounters, like hungry hyenas (sometimes, with shovels). Want a 360 degree turn from Gurgaon? Then come to Noida. Here you will encounter cycle rickshaws wallahs encompassing the entire territory, steering their vehicles with finesse. People are also appreciably less “cooler” if you get my drift. And the crime rates soar high with someone being killed every day (to add to that, Noida is quite close to Ghaziabad border). Thankfully I did not know this, so I had no problems while hopping down sector 34 at midnight.


But as always, life moves on in both these cities.


It becomes a real carnival when one has to travel from Noida to Gurgaon and one has angry friends waiting in Gurgaon. The journey is something I am proud of. My cousins in Noida told me that the journey takes around one and a half hours by a direct bus. Guess they forgot to mention a multiplication factor which equals 2 in this case. Guess they also forgot to mention that the bus would leave me in a jungle from where I’d have to take another bus which was as stubborn as a (pardon the cliché) mule.

It just wouldn’t budge.

Oh but it was a disco, with all that testosterone pumped grinding that I got to experience for those 2 hours in the bus. Too bad that I couldn’t enjoy it for I was too busy clutching onto my wallet with one hand and my cell phone with the other. A true test of resilience and patience. The journey has also sharpened my sensory perceptions. I can distinguish between different types of odour (for my sample space is enriched with a wide variety) more efficiently now.
And so as I waited in Gurgaon that evening after meeting my pals, for time to pass, so that I could take a bus from Iffko Chowk to Delhi’s interstate bus terminus to get my bus to Jammu, I get a call from my mother.

Rishabh, there’s an indefinite curfew in Jammu. You might have to just get
off the bus at Pathankot itself if they seal the border. I’d say reiterate you
trip for the next set of holidays

Sigh! Its 8 in the evening and I’m stranded in Gurgaon. And have 5 more days to spend here.


Photo source: http://chronicleofmylife.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/delhi-bus1.jpg

KCircle comes alive!

The last year has seen Kcircle, one of the oldest Quizzing clubs in India, expand. Today, the meeting place (YMCA, Secunderabad) seems rather tiny, all thanks to the massive participation that every quiz is receiving. The quizzes have too are of the highest quality, with the old and young, the thinkers and the ghotus, the hairy and the hairless, all racking their brains to hit the bullseye. But then that is the spirit of Kcircle. It about participation, its about ethics too, its about working things out when you aren't given much to work with.

But this should obviously not stop any of us to spread awareness of the club. One such way is through having an online presence.
Kcirle's website uptil now?
A miniscule space that resided,dormant on the big web. A page that hadn't been updated since I joined college (and its been quite long folks since that had happened). But, Kcircle now has a spanking new site, which ( I hope) will be updated regularly. It will help in informing many more from the City and hopefully prove successful in cancelling all their plans on Saturday evenings, so that they too can join us for couple of hours of nerve racking quizzing.
The URLs are http://www.kcircle.in/, http://www.kcircle.org/, and http://www.kcircle.net/.

Vignesh Prakash

Vignesh Prakash was a senior at school that I really admired, while at school. It's almost cliched how wacky and brilliant he was. Bringing laptops to school to finish his projects while most of us didn't know what Windows was. The most fond memory I had of his was on the day of their batch's farewell when he jogged up to me with his digicam and put his huge arm around me and asked me to smile for the camera alongside him. According to him, I was one of the very few juniors, "worth knowing".

Years later he buzzed me on Gtalk outta the blue and asked me what I was up to. Upon hearing that I was going to BITS, he told me "Dude, cummon man," and gave me a long list of reasons as to why an American higher education is better than anything India has to offer.

And since then, every now and then, perhaps once in a couple of months, he'd buzz me, just ask me how I was doing and what was happening in life. I can't explain it, but it felt good, when a person, whom you barely knew in school, yet admired, was taking somewhat keen interest in your life.

Last month I found out that he had passed away. I couldn't find any links on the internet nor any sort of information about him. Finally I found a Facebook group dedicated to him by his friends in the US(He was studying at University of Texas and had secured admission at CALTech for his post grad).

I found out that he had committed suicide. For a couple of days, it was all I could think about. There was a very strange hollowness inside me for those few days, where I kept thinking what would drive someone like Vignesh to end his life. From the little that I knew of him, he was exceptionally brilliant and loved the life in the US. Yet his friends tell me that something wasn't right. Whatever it be, I hope he has found his peace. It shouldn't have been this way though.

I mean it, when I say this: I'll miss him.

This is Vignesh's Facebook Profile
This is a memorial page on Facebook

Proto and beyond

Currently, I am like a delocalised electron, shifting from one end of NCR to another.

Last couple of days have been really hectic. Firstly with Proto.in, it was fun. I think a lot of the people there mistook me for a VC, courtesy my attire. The second day was comparatively more relaxed.

Loved the innovation brainjam session that Amit Somani of Google had suggested (based on his own experience at Google). I could see only half of the startups showcased. Missed out on Lootstreet, where my college pal Navin is interning. Apparently it went well. Kudos to them. Lifeblob was another interesting startup that caught my eye. They are an e journal, and records your life history in the form of a timeline. Though initially a little skeptical about it, I later had a slight change of mind. I was thinking that this is something which might be bought by Facebook. But then according to me, this is exactly what Lifeblob should avoid. Facebook, notes also allow tagging, but with all those other applications and clutter around, it becomes crazy, following what everyone is upto.

Proto is also where I met Kiruba Shankar. It was simply amazing hanging out with him.

And there was a quiz. Most of the questions from the prelims were easy, had seen them somewhere or the other, but it was a fun quiz. Proto is also where I met Sumant Srivathsan from the BQC (I introduced myself saying, "I heard you were a student...") and we partnered for the biz quiz which we ultimately won. Samanth Subramanian was the host.

Liveblogging was there, but no wifi, so well, guys were busy connecting their data cables and tweeting from their phones. The results are yet to be announced.

Some really good talks on Day 1. Also for all the blogging, do check out proto4 tags on technorati. I myself blogged about it on Mutiny and WATBlog.

The weather here has been cruel. Not inclement, just cruel.

Then there was the ESPN Quiz. Will talk about that later.

Startup Saturday at Hyderabad

This Saturday, my original plan was to visit Warangal and the neighboring areas. Why you ask? Apparently the Government is trying really hard to convert it into a tourist attraction. Some ministers have gone to the extent of calling it “One of the most beautiful places in the world”. Alright, so I guess he hasn’t travelled much, but I wanted to check the place out nonetheless.

I didn’t.

Instead I decided to go for Startup Saturday which was scheduled to be held at IIIT Campus in Gachibowli. This was the second such meet, with the organising party (who are the same people who organize Barcamp Hyderabad) gauging whether the concept works out in Hyderabad or not.

The meet began on time and within a few minute had enough people to ensure that my neck received enough exercise for the day. With nearly 35 people, including students, professors, Vice Presidents, academics, part time academics, Entrepreneurs, Unsuccessful entrepreneurs (a rather unfair term, for we all learn from our experiencesJ).

Discussions were lively, ranging from iPhone debates to Nirma’s success to importance of filtering in Google reader. Start up Saturday also takes an initiative of inviting entrepreneurs to give presentation and talks. This week it was Suheim Sheikh, the founder of SDG (which is now acquired by 3i Infotech), an Anti Money Laundering software developing company. Suheim’s presentation was witty as well as inspiring. He was also modest enough to tell us that one thing that he felt they didn't do was dream bigger. With nearly 70% of India’s market under them, they should have thought bigger, maybe try to capture the global market.

This is where he brought up an interesting point. Coincidentally, this is the same point that my boss at my internship also highlighted.

Indians are generally very apprehensive to admit that they are the best at something. Because since we’ve grown up, all the theories that we’ve been taught are works of foreign scientists. (Pythagoras apparently came to India and took the theorem back to his native land).

Mr Sheikh was saying that not for a moment did they think that their software was the best there was at that time. Had they given globalising more thought, maybe they’d have been eve more successful.

I was wondering. Apart from lack of the conviction that we can be the first or the best in something, could lack of marketing skills be another reason? Just a thought.

Startup Saturday in Hyderabad:

2nd/4th Saturday of every month at IIIT Campus, Hyderabad. IIIT, Main building. Turn towards the first right in the main building and head off to the third room. 10 AM

Humari Maange Poori Karo

I came back home a minute ago.

I was caught in a traffic jam. So I decided to get off the auto rickshaw and walk the extra distance home. After walking a little distance I saw a few hundred police men and nearly 200 pedestrians look up. Immediately a show called Candid Camera came to my mind, where such phenomenon would be common. Surely this was taking the joke too far, since the traffic jam affected an area up to a 3 kilometre radius. Looking more closely, my jaw dropped.



A man had climbed the billboard. The message was clear.



There was some brouhaha around me and upon asking one of the bystanders there who had been witnessing the commotion I got to know that the gentleman on top, Mr Madan Mohan Reddy, was a resident of interior Andhra and had lost nearly 2 acres of his land. He had tried to contact the Chief Minister many times to seek his assistance regarding the matter, but to no avail. And that this isn’t the first time he’s doing something like this. Already having climbed several billboards this month, this guy is out there to make a point. This particular billboard, as shown in the picture is right outside the Chief Ministers residence at Begumpet, Hyderabad (guess that explains the hundred policemen). Apparently this was a classic case of land grabbing. He realised that the only way to get the CM’s attention is to do something radical. He is sitting (and occasionally standing) there right now, even as I write this article.

My point is; this was what he was forced to do to make himself heard. Upon hearing this, my maid had a glimmer of hope in her eyes. She too had lost land worth 2 lakh rupees and jokingly said that maybe she too should occupy one of these billboards and create a scene. Hopefully, this should give him enough media attention for the CM to take a notice.

Also, quite often what does happen is that these people get beaten up rather badly by the police later. That’s what happened on earlier instances which had a man climb up the flood lights of the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad.

Another point: more than half the traffic blockage had nothing to do with the man. It was the police who occupied half the road.

Update: I was just flipping through the news channels and saw that some ministers have negotiated with him and asked him to come down.

Worn those Microsofts today?

I was out shoe shopping a couple of days back. Whilst at the store my eyes fell upon the brightly hued slippers which adorned the hooks

And while they were cheeky enough to use the name, which obviously implied that these footwear were the softest thing to ever touch your feet, the reference to THE ONE was unmistakable, almost as though piggy backing on its brand image. I could only think of one thing. How long before a Microsoft employee sees it and reports it to the lawyers?

The Microsoft lawyers, though, haven’t hogged the media limelight as much as the Nazgul (popularised by Slashdot), but they too are kept busy throughout the year. My favourite incident being that involving a 17 year old Canadian boy way back in 2004. I am sure many of you will remember Mike Rowe, the young boy who thought it would be funny to start a website called Mikerowesoft.com. But well, the MS lawyers showed him that they have absolutely no sense of humour and asked him to take if offline. After which things got a little ugly and MS surely lost a lot of supporters due to that row(e).

On 7k Runs

This Sunday morning, I was violently woken up by Mumma dearest.

"Lets go for breakfast."

"Wathaf...what? Its 6.30 mumma, come on. Just go back to sleep"

10 minutes later the whole family was in the car. The reason? Mom has a verrry busy schedule traveling to opposite ends of the globe in the next couple of weeks. So, the much cliched "quality family time" issue was brought up.

Breakfast it was.

While taking a U turn near our house, and going up the fly over, we saw hundreds of girls wearing tight white tees.

Ah yes, the 7k run. A premier women's college in Hyderabad had organized a 7 kilometer run as a fundraiser for their silver jubilee celebration. And well, obviously they were playing to their strenghts. I did remember seeing girls from the colleges at all malls wooing guys to attend the event. Anorexic guys who didn't look like they needed a run hounded the stall as if waiting for the girls to perform a trick.

The sight on the D Day was amusing. I realised the shirts were not tight at all. It wasnt the shirt. Bloated beauties...huffing and puffing as they took those giant leaps, inspiring the thousand behind them to follow.

The only problem?

Each one of them were given water packets. They realised since this wasn't an environmental drive, its ok to litter the flyover.

Rocket Science and beyond

Every now and then I listen to “It doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to figure out that….” Or “I may not be a rocket scientist but I know that…”

Rocket Science on Wikipedia leads us to a tiny article, 80% of which is:

Due to the complexity and depth of this area of engineering (requiring mastery in subjects including mechanics (fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, orbital mechanics, flight dynamics), mathematics, control engineering, materials science, aeroelasticity, avionics, reliability engineering, noise control and flight test), it is also informally used as a term to describe an endeavor requiring great intelligence or technical ability. More often, the term is used to describe an endeavor that is simple and straightforward by stating that the aforementioned endeavor "is not rocket science".

This is amusing.

I think that as such the courses one does in aerospace engineering (aka Rocket Science for the layman) do require a high amount of intellect, but then so does training at Langley or John Hopkins. I think it’s the whole feel of having thousands of buttons around you and being responsible for manning something which is so colossal and worth so many billions of dollars (with minimum scope for error) that enables Rocket Science to be revered as the final frontier in terms of intellect. As specialisation increases, we perceive the task to become monumental because we start to dissociate from the field . It just happens that compared to other engineering branches, probably aerospace has a very high percentage of people going into specialisation (for I don't think NASA really wants a jack o all trades).

Speaking of specialisation, medicine also requires it, but then I guess, there are just too many doctors around.

I remember asking my mother, one of the best retina consultants in India today, about what she thought was the toughest job on the planet. True, I did expect a standardized answer. I placed my money on Rocket Science. I will never forget what happened next. She looked at me, and gently whispered

"Parenting"

Updated

This week has been quite exciting. Both my Dad and me got to appear on All India Radio. Dad, yesterday and myself on Wednesday. It was quite an experience sitting inside that sound proof room with the RJ on the other side. The show was for 2 hours and was aired on FM Rainbow(101.9)

2 hours! Prime time 8-10 PM

As Shruti put it:

"Even Rani Mukherji doesn't get that much airtime!"

I used the airtime to express my opinions on a variety of topics ranging from the IIT-JEE (and other exams) coaching facilities and how it really feels to be there, to my early years to what malice I am up to these days. I also spoke about my life at BITS Pilani and how I totally and absolutely love it there. Later, I mentioned the various flexibilities that BITS offers, something which I still feel would attract a lot of students to BITS, if only they were aware of it. Then came the clubs and the departments and how they form an integral part of the BITS.

I also spoke at length about CEL and how it fosters the spirit of entrepreneurship and how Conquest, its annual international B-Plan competition is growing day by day, even as we speak.

All in all, I'd say it was probably needed. More and more people need to know about BITS and how its more than an engineering college.

The best part being, I got to select the songs which would be aired during my stay in the studio. Another point being that, since it was LIVE, my first task was to prevent myself from uttering something for which the Central Government might sue me later, for there are no beeps on live radio :P

They did have a wide variety of songs, I asked for Coming back to Life, Smoke on the Water, Fear of the Dark, Kashmir apart from from Hindi numbers like Doorie and Kabhi Kabhi Aditi(this was more of a compulsion, dedicated this one to some close pals)

On jokes

Have you ever heard a joke so many times you've forgotten why it's funny? And then you
hear it again and suddenly it's new. You remember why you loved it in the first place.
                                           -BIG FISH

Its amazing how this happens to me so many times.

Manto Ismat haazir hai!

Last week, as a finale to the TIMES Hyderabad Festival, they had organized a Mumbai theatre group to perform plays based on the works of revolutionary and bold playwrights Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai and was appropriately named Manto, Ismat haazir hai( Presenting Manto & Ismat).

The plays were in Urdu (as they should be) and were well appreciated by the crowd. On my part, someone who is not well versed with Urdu( read the youth and the Gults), it would have been something of a disaster. Disaster because, the USP of the play was the language used, but as such I didn't find the play to be that great theatrically. The dialogue delivery was a little too quick for an amateur like me to understand, but I guess that's how it goes.

The story was quite gripping( if only I could understand it then) and dealt with social issues such as lesbianism, sexuality and war. And for A Woman of a conservative Muslim family or actually anyone to come up with something like that right after partition is something commendable.

But here's the interesting part, despite the just-above average performance, the hall was jam packed. At first glance it might seem like it was because entry to the show was free.

But there was something else.

The play was directed by Naseerudin Shah. And that really had the effect. It really did. What a crowd. Needless to say the management screwed it up by allowing people to enter through one door(when there were 4) because of the shortage of metal detectors I believe.

But I am pretty sure most of the people came hoping to get a glimpse of Naseerduddin Shah, but ended up merely expecting him and never really seeing him.

Advertising works wonders, especially if you attach a big name to it.