Playing hardball ...

I was going to let this post go, but now I am sort of compelled to write this piece.
Yesterday, something very strange happened ... there was a comment on my previous post about sponsorships and stuff, from a guy named saurabh.
When I clicked on the name, I was taken to my own profile ...

At first, I thought that either someone had gotten hold of my blogger password, or I, might have posted the comment in a delirious state myself ...

Anyways, the trick is simple.
You say you want to post a comment, then click on the "other" option and then paste my profile URL in the URL area and volla ... identity theft.

Though I have a pretty good idea who had done it (dude! I have a counter which tells me which ISP you guys come from), I thought I'd let it go and I deleted the comment, because it was pretty rude in context that the particular individual would go to the extent of spoofing my I.D. to probably mock me or for whatever reason he had ...

For the benefit of all the people reading this, this was the comment that was posted to my previous post.

Hehe, But I've agreed to sponsor 100K more to the Prize money from my own pocket money;) Well, If it dosn't suffice, I'd get it by selling my Computer, Bike and anything and everything I own;) For me, the Inter-College Festival is above everyting else...;)

- Saurabh

My verdict - not cool !

But then, after having deleted the comment, this person had the audacity to come and post the some comment again today - at approximately the same time as yesterday.
This time, I am not deleting the comment. You can read it here.

For your benefit, posting it here also ...

Oops! Somebody has impersonated me on the last comment! I just deleted it, and incase any of you saw that last commnet, I suppose I can assure I am not sponsoring my money on that;)

I don't know whether I am reacting to this in a proper manner or not, but I am pretty pissed.
Hence this post.
I am not going to remove the anonymous comment posting feature, because I believe that everybody reading what I write, should be able to express their opinions.

However, going way out and spoofing an identity, is just plain shameless.
I have a fairly good idea who you are, and you know who you are ... and I pretty much know that you are reading this too !

As for the statement about the inter collegiate event being above everything else for me, it isn't quite so.
The only difference is that I believe that something worth doing, is worth doing well - or not at all.

For people who have no motivation in life, and spend most of their lives just "planning" and who probably don't have what it takes to go and actually do something, this concept might be a bit difficult to grasp.

I am not complaining at all.

From the time the vacations have started, a couple of us guys have been slogging our asses off, trying to get sponsorship for an event, which has no "visible" benefit for the whole lot of us.
At times, we wonder, why are we bothering with all this ...
Things aren't going too well ... but we aren't quitting anytime soon.

It is easier to sit on the sidelines and pass judgement.
I don't blame these people ... I actually pity them.
And these are the same people, who will turn up at the end of the event to collect their "Certificate of Appreciation" for helping out in the event.
I am not complaining ... I have made my peace with that.
As long we get our event rolling, we can carry such people along ...
It has always been this way, and I guess will have to continue for times to come ahead.

In retrospect, I won't say that the entire sponsor hunting endeavour has been a waste.
I have learnt how to deal with people, and I now know, whom I can trust with some responsibility and what are the chances of it getting done.

My problem has been that I trust people way too much. I learnt it the hard way this time.
I may not have turned into a cold calculating machine - yet ... but I think I am getting there.
And I know it is for the best.

It takes all kinds of people to make the world ...

Sponsor hunting ...

These vacations (if they qualify as vacations) have probably been the worse ever ...
Which I guess was pretty obvious after the disastrous exams that I gave before them ...

Anyways, we guys are having our inter collegiate festival in the last week of Jan - from the the 30th Jan to the 3rd of Feb.
After a much smaller event last year, we guys decided to spruce things up a bit - with 5 days instead of the customary 3, and 12 contests compared to the 5 last year.

Naturally, to get more people to participate, we guys even cranked up the prize money we "intended" to offer.
So, from the 19 grand last year, it jumped up to 119 grand this year.

We guys thought, what the heck ... we have lots of time (we've been working on this from the last week of Nov somewhere) - and we should manage to raise the dough.

Now, with only about a month left for the event, and only 46k from 2 sponsors, things are beginning to look a bit hazy.

The reason that the vacations have been sucking so far, more than the fact that we're literally hauling our asses every morning - to go sponsor hunting, is that the response we've got so far is pretty dismal.

We've been trying to analyse the reasons to this and can point to a few, but these are primarily out of our reach.

I just hope things start picking up now, or 2005 will be a year best forgotten.

Hehe ... I intended to put down a blog later about "successful" sponsor hunting, but I don't see that happening now ...
Lets see where this goes ...

Torture on the airwaves ...

The Pakistani's have developed a new torture technique.
It's guaranteed to get any information out, from any human being, or even otherwise.

What they do is, they tap into Doordarshan signals broadcasted every Sunday night at 9:30 pm and tape this serial called "Kalakaarz".
Then they repeat the 30 min episode 6 times to make it a 3 hour long version and store it by day and date.

They also rank it from 1 - 5 stars depending on the intensity of torture the show can inflict.
Then they tie the victim to the chair, in front of the T.V and play the tape.

Apparently, they later realized that making a 3 hour version of the episode was a waste of man power and good ol' tape, because the victims would either surrender within the first 7 minutes, or if they resisted, they would die by the 9th minute of the episode.

Tests show that none of the victims survived after the 11th minute.

So now, they just tape the first 15 minutes of the episode and save multiple episodes on 1 tape instead.
Quite a save, don't you think?

Not having cable has its good as well as bad effects.

The good thing is that you have ample time (about 3 hours everyday more) than your fellow mates to put to better use.

The bad thing is that once in a while, when you just want to take your dinner and sit in front of the T.V. set, you have only one channel to turn too.
And with Doordarshan and its C grade programming, you'd be better of watching the static screen.

Today was one such day.

I happened to turn on the T.V and watch - one complete episode of that crappy show "Kalakaarz" which recently started on DD - and the worst part is, I somehow managed to survive through the entire show (Doing Engg gives you a lot of patience).

The show is about trying to scout for acting talent.
It is definitely in response to the huge successes that shows like Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul have been.
But even though I don't like the way these shows go about doing what they do, at least they have some quality standards.

No offence, but the people who turn up as participants on the Doordarshan show, would not even qualify to be extras in a C grade flick, even if they offered to work for free.

And I have heard, that these participants undergo a number of screening tests before they go on air.

Woah ! Can you imagine how bad the people must be who dont make the cut?
Or maybe no one turns out for the auditions.
So what these Doordarshan people must be doing is, sending out agents to catch people from the street opposite their studios, kidnap their family members and threaten to kill them unless they turn up for the show.

I really, really pity the judges who come on the show.
Atleast we have the remote control.

I know Doordarshan charges a LOT for advertising time ... even on the most crappiest shows, because their TRP is generated automatically.
If you don't have cable, then you're watching Doordarshan - and the number of people not having cable in India is pretty high ...

The only real good thing about this entire crappy TV channel is that you get to watch decent news and the occasional India match, if its being played in India itself.

My entire point being, if Doordarshan charges so damn much to put up advertisements and the people watching the channel is HUGE, why don't decent shows go to it?
And why does it not push for better shows?

It is not that you cannot make out whether a show is good or not till the end.
It's right there - on your face - and its pretty much pathetic.

And most of the shows look like table scraps from bigger distributors (Balaji telefilms) which were thrown out from other channels.

Doordarshan, once upon a time, was pretty darn good.
Remember Malgudi days, Surabhi, Amravati ki Kathayen, Tipu Sultan, etc etc?
They even had Street Hawk (man how I miss that show) and Knight Rider (pretty lame by today's standards, but still watchable)
Now, those were some really good shows - even compared to today's standards.

They should probably dump all the crap they are showing now and revert back to the programming of about a decade ago.
Sure it won't be glitzy and glamorous with pretty looking stupid women who do nothing but cry, bitch and conspire all day ... but I bet it would have class and grace ... and probably more "cable" TV watching audience would even consider tuning into to maybe watch Malgudi days.

And I challenge any of you cable viewing folk to tune into Doordarshan on Thursday nights at about 9 - I think to watch this show called "Aankhen".
Thats probably the only other show which could beat the one I mentioned above.
Writing more about it, would be wasting blogger's bandwidth and mine also.
So, I shall stop right here.

Thank God for the "moddable" XBOX and Bit torrents and the amazing number of people who seed TV shows like LOST, Whose Line is it Anyways, Joey, etc etc :)
And all your college buds who believe in sharing :)
I love you guys :)

The long march ahead ...

As I stepped out of the corridors of the college, into the sunset and the open fields, the Gladiator Movie theme (the one with Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerald) started playing somewhere in the background.

Was I imagining things?

No.
It was really playing.

As my other fellow mates slowly trickled out outside, squinting their eyes at the sight of the sun (or whatever of it remained at this time of the day), I slowly made my way to the fields.

The music was still playing in the distance, but I could hear it clearly.
I walked up to the more sandy parts of the field and stood there for a while.
Then, I dug a hole in the ground with my bear hands ... and taking the five sheets of papers from my bag, buried them in the hole which I had dug and covered them up with the mud.

I stood up (the music still playing), looked up at the setting sun and said "Now we're free"

I had just finished writing my last exam paper for the semester, and the five papers that I had buried, were the tragic question papers - ones which had killed many of my fellow mates and would kill even more (including me) once the results are announced.

However, the time had passed.
We were all free to live whatever life we had left.
As I walked across to my bike, the feeling of relief and jubilation set it in ...

The music in the background had gradually stopped and it was now replaced with a soft sort of ringing, which had gradually grown louder and louder.

Till I realised it was my alarm !

I woke up. It was 6:30 am - and I was in my bed with still one paper to go !
I cursed, got out of my bed, when ...

I heard a thud.
It was me falled off the bed.
I was dreaming about the alarm and was actually having a recursive dream (dream in dream) like the picture in picture feature of many TVs.

Just to be sure, I dug out my cell phone and read the date.
It said, 16th Dec 2005, 3:34 am

Exams got over yesterday.
Phew, what a nightmare !

-- NOTE --
Just came from watching King Kong as a post exam treat.
Wrote a review on it, which you can check out by clicking here.

The Tata Safari Dicor Ads

I had posted sometime ago about the Indian Ad market reving up of late. You can read it here.

Anyways, the TATA Safari Dicor ad is not doing the rounds as it was once ( or maybe I am not watching enough TV ) but I really needed the soundtrack for something.

So, half an hour googling for it, landed up on hundreds of posts and reviews about the ad, but no sight of the ad or the soundtrack.

Finally, thought of checking up the company website and what do you know ?
Both the ads ( though I had seen only one of them ) are up for grabs :)

A mere 2.5 MB with the respective quality also - they are embedded in a swf exe.
So, you can't really monkey around with them unless you have the proper tools ... well atleast most of the people can't, so its a smart move by the company.

Well, atleast have a working copy of it ... one of the best ads ever.
Always brings a smile to my face...

And oh, if you are looking for it yourself, they can be downloaded from :
http://uv.tatamotors.com/safari/gallery/ads.asp

NOTE : Please use Internet Explorer only, the download links don't show up in Firefox !!!
( When will people start making browser independent sites ??? )

Enjoy !

-- Update --
If you're looking for the Bajaj Avenger ad also ( I had written about that too .. ), you can get it from here : http://www.bajajauto.com/avenger/Avenger.zip
It's about 9.7 Meg and at a decent res ( much better than the dicor ads )

Another one of those tp tests ...

Hehe ...
Pre examination wastage of precious time ...
Well not really actually, took me about a minute and a half ...

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

Politics and Religion

I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend how people - completely logical, sane people - make rules to govern the country based on some religion bias.

If you think, this does not happen in India, you should just take a look around.
Most of the things in our country are based on religion bias.

To me, religion should be a thing which you should practice at home. Period.
Don't bring it out.

Your a hindu, he's a muslim, he's a Parsi, he's catholic - who gives a damn?
Where in the world is all this going to help?

Will it help me get a job?
Imagine me walking into a company, slam my resume on the desk and yell "Hey you ! Yes you there! I'm a jain ... now gimme a job!”

I don't know if this actually is possible - but the thought that it could be ... even in the remotest, possible way is very scary.

Unfortunately, this does happen on the caste level - which is just as stupid.
So many times you find advertisements in the newspaper which go:
Vacancy for the post of a professor: 7 (Open 3, ST 2, BC 2)

Not only is this really bad, what it does is turns us Open category people against the reserved caste people even when we previously had no problem against them.

C'mon - if I was a BC and had a certificate, I would be stupid NOT to use it to get a reserved seat in a college or a job.
But what the law in turn does is, gets the open category people pissed off on the reserved category people - and many times people don't spend a minute to realise that its not
the reserved category people which are to blame, its the damn, stupid pre historic laws.

And why aren't they changed?
Because it is suicidal.
Governments go to power to actually stay in power for eternity.
Doing this will make sure, a large percentage of their votes get depleted.

The biggest, most stupidest things that I have seen on Earth - something which walks away with the top prize for the Most Stupidest, Idiotic thing ever - are religious riots.

Hehe ...

It is like we all have a set of Pokemon cards, and we pull out swords and sticks and go at each other's throats because the other guy said that my Pokemon's powers were not good enough, or it was crappy.

Who cares?
I mean ... most of the religious backgrounds are based on mythological - fairy tale stories.
These things never happened.

But amazingly enough, the people who invented them, must be geniuses because thousands of years down the line, they are still effective - people are still fighting over the same, stupid reasons from the time that they were invented.

Somehow, I don't believe when people say that religion teaches you to live life in a nice way.
It does set down some guidelines on what you should do, but at the end of the day, isn't it just common sense?
Does it have to be written somewhere that it is wrong to kill another guy, or steal from someone else?

If you are not from India, you will not believe that we actually have different laws for different religions...
Some laws go like "You are supposed to do this, this, this blah blah ... unless you are a Muslim" or "You are not allowed to do this and this, unless you are a Hindu ..."

How about inventing one which says "If you kill another person, you will actually go to jail. Unless of course, you are a Jain - in which case, you shall be given the President's medal"
That'd be really cool :)

I studied in one of the best schools in Pune.
But, it was a convent school - Catholics being the minorities and so, had some reservations.

I mean, if you think about it, their primary aim is to encourage Christianity - it being run by the Jesuit society.
But then, that is not a valid enough reason to justify a boy with 60% getting into the institute just for being catholic over a non catholic boy getting 85%.
In the junior college, there were even reservation over vocational seats - the situation was that you could get a Computer Science seat only if you were catholic with a decently high percentage or a non catholic with an impossibly high percentage - above 90% which is only possible if you have just topped the boards exams, or are from one of them ICSE schools.
What this does again, is divide the students.

Imagine how pissed off a student would be who scored 89% and missed out a computer science seat just because another guy with 75% got it because of his religion.

In the hunt for an engineering college, I actually came across this college in Solapur, which had reservations for Jains.
I was like "Full on. For the first time, I can get a taste of reservation."

So, me and my dad go on a one day picnic to Solapur to check out the college and apply for it.
However, to my bad luck, the college was not what I expected it to be (it sucked in my POV) - and I probably would have hung myself on my second day there.
So, we came back which brought an end to my "reservation" dreams.

Hehe ... probably reason why I am so pissed off with this entire issue and am writing this.

But on a serious note, I just can't imagine why normally sane and logical people write such atrocious laws.
I mean, it's like a very bad director making a crappy movie and he knows it - because, he can actually see how it is coming out.
But instead of stopping it and improving it, he goes ahead and makes it anyways ...

I mean, c’mon.... grow a brain!

Some thoughts ....

The difficult is what gets done quickly.
It's only the impossible which takes some time ....

Shameless self promotion ...

Hehe ...

Have started this new blog to spread some gyan which I have gathered after years ( 3 and a half to be precise ) doing engineering.

The blog basically talks about Engineering life and different phases of it with how to choose your college or course and then later on to other more 'advanced' topics on submission tips and tricks, what to do for seminars, etc etc.

So, if you are in that field or plan to be in there in sometime, its worth a decko.
Go to : Saurabh on Engineering

Of quality and service ...

This issue has bugged me for ages ...
Ever since I was able to do most of the things myself ... booking tickets, paying the bills, buying and ordering things, I've had this major issue with Indian Companies ...

Most of them .. and I am talking of about the 99% of them ... have the shoddiest service and their product quality is so pathetic, that you could throw your money - literally - down the drain and be happier for that.

People and companies who actually deliver, are very, very rare in India ... and if you come across some person or organisation which truly does this, you should not even think of going anywhere else and never, ever forget about them ...
Recommend them to all your friends, and those who'd care to listen and do the people ( the customers ) a big favour.

Anyways, I learnt the lesson the hard way.
Never - and I mean NEVER EVER compromise on quality, OR the services of a professional to save a few pennies here and there ..
In the long run, you will be the one losing out on your time and money and mental balance in pursuing a jackass who promises you the world, but can't even deliver a decent product if his life depended on it ...

The story actually starts with us guys needing to make the sweatshirts ...
I am going to take real life examples here ... and these shops do exist.

So, we people decide to make our college sweatshirts ...
We had 2 options - Uberoi sports on MG Road and Champion sports at Deccan ( for those of you who are familiar with Pune )

I had previously got some sweatshirts made from Uberoi when we guys were in the tenth standard in Vincents ... and though they were not stunning, they were affordable and okay.

Plus, Uberoi was a lot closer to our college - and hence we decided to get it made there.
So, we go and place the order sometime on the 10th of September for the sweatshirts and give him the specifications.
Mind you, to do this, we actually visited his shop 3 times because most of the times the guy who owns the place - Sanjeev Brar someone, wasn't at his shop.

So, finally when we meet him, we place the order and he agrees to deliver the sweatshirts for 300 bucks on the 18th of September which is also the last working day of our college.
He collects 50% advance and agrees to get the job done even with the ICICI bank type of "Mein Hoon Naa" kind of glance at himself ...

We give him the slogan to be put on the back, which we write ourselves and mention to him that it has to be specifically done in a particular way, otherwise the meaning would be lost.

On 17th of September ( one day before d day ), his father mysteriously becomes unwell and so the guy does not answer any of my calls.
Later, what ensues is a series of calls which are just cut off. At one time, he himself put me on hold - after 8 minutes, when I disconnect the call and recall him back, his daughter picks up the phone and says that he hasn't been to the shop for the entire day.
I had to resort to asking my other friends to call him to fool him into answering the phone - which he did on all occasions.

Then suddenly, in the middle, someone falls off from the 2nd floor of his building, and our sweatshirts again get delayed because he was in the hospital tending to him.

After lots of hassles ... and believe me ... I have NEVER been so harrased in my life, we finally get to see the sweatshirts on the 28th of September.
But to tell you honestly, the quality of the material looked like stuff they use to make tents.

And best of all, he gets the printing all wrong in the back.
Not only does the sweatshirt suck, we will look like fools if we had to wear it.

To cut a long story short, he tried to rectify the printing job, but he got it all messed up and the idiot tried to sell me the story that it would all go away after washing it ...

I demanded my money back, for which I had to drag 10 of my classmates - the huge and hefty kind - to his shop ( thanks you guys ! ) to demand the money which he eventually gave us ( that too using a Post dated cheque which thankfully cashed in later )

Now, after collecting the cheque on that day, we rushed to Champion Sports ...

This is on a Saturday - 5th of November and we place the order for our sweatshirts ...
After a lot of thinking and looking at the hundreds of sweatshirts which Champions previously had made, we place the order for the sweatshirts.

He agrees to do it for 310 bucks and not charge us for the printing ( he has his own printer setup ).
They have an inhouse designer, who designs the print job for us on the comp - and hacks at it till we are satisfied with it, and then creates a template for the print job in front of us.

Champions then calls me on Monday - 7th of November - and asks me whether I could come on Tuesday to look at the temp embroidery job ( college name ) which they did.
I check it out on Tuesday and find it satisfactory and approve it.

Thursday evening -10th November - I get a call saying that the sweatshirts are ready and we can pick it up anytime.
Friday evening, we pick up the sweatshirts and by Saturday, everybody has it.
Boom !

Quick and painless - how to get sweatshirts made in 6 days.
After what I had gone through, this looked like a fairy tale ..
The quality of the fabric is awesome and everyone loved the sweatshirt.

I have very high regards for Champion Sports after this, and could not recommend you to anyone else for sports wear related matters.

He may be slightly expensive - for the more jazzy designs ( ours is a plain black with name embroidered and slogan printed on back ), but you can be rest assured he will deliver on time and the quality would be exceptional.

What he offered us for 310 bucks, made the Uberoi sweatshirts for 300 bucks look like rags to clean the floor with.

Lesson learnt !
Point noted !

• Never ever ever compromise on quality !
• Professionals charge more coz they know what they are offering you.

BUC - Bandwidth under Control

I don’t know how many of you know this, but BSNL has got this awesome feature called “Bandwidth under control” in which, they themselves help you in controlling your broadband usage.

I am using the Rs. 500 plan in which I get a 256 kbps line and a 1 GB limit for a month.
Now, 1 GB per month is roughly 33 MB per day.

I generally stick to about 25 – 35 MB per day, which keeps me in the 1 GB safe zone … however, during exams and submissions and seminars, this limit touches about 55 – 60 MB per day.

So, what BSNL does is awesome …
During the peak time, exams and practicals and stuff, my phone magically goes dead for 2 days.

No phone, no broadband.
This works perfectly.

Coz, during the peak times, when I really need to use the internet, I would be hitting about 150 MB in 2 days.

So, by cutting my phone, these guys help me save up on that.
It’s really awesome you know …

You should definitely give it a try …

Nitpickings with Pune ...

I've lived in Pune all my life, and to tell you honestly, I wouldn't probably want to live anywhere else ...
But of late, there have been a few things, really hurting, which I wanted to yell about.

I don't know if this is happening in other parts of the country, but it shouldn't generally happen anywhere at all.
Anyways, here are a few things which really hurt and I have no idea how I could help to fix.

1. Pathetic Roads
When the it rained recently, all the roads got completely damaged.
I mean - the roads were so bad, and nothing was being done about them ... that someone actually came up with an online petition which was the number 1 active online petition till some weeks ago.

Even now, the roads are pretty bad and if you get out of your house, you are sure to face the brunt.

There is a road behind residency club ( which I have also written previously about ) in which people come to one of the ends.
Stop their bikes or cars, get off, observe the stretch, go back to their bikes / cars, turn around and take the longer route.
The Pune Police has actually barricaded the stretch of road to deter adventurous people from venturing there.

It's already a month since the last of the rains and still most of the roads have not been fixed. Going at more than 40 km/hr for more than 2 min at a stretch is next to impossible and even trying to go above 50 km/hr anywhere is plain suicidal.

2. The Public Transportation System
In Pune, this equals to nothing but the PMT ( Pune Municipal Transport ) buses.
Everytime I go to college in the morning and see the scores of hapless people waiting at the bus stop, and hundreds of people hanging out of the bus, I thank my stars that I have a bike and don't have to depend on the crappy system.

Everytime I see people hanging from the buses, and by hanging I mean - atleast 7 people hanging from the bus, I feel this blinding rage at the apathy of the PMT and PMC.

The true story goes that, sometime ago, there were the six seater rickshaws which would ply through most of Pune.
They were not allowed to move in as many places as the PMT buses were, but they covered a major chunk of Pune.
Of course, they were rash drivers and would stuff 8 people in places meant for 6 ... but they were a blessing.
You could walk out of your house and be certain of catching a six seater within 5 minutes.
They stopped everywhere, and their sheer frequency was such a boon.

Anyways, naturally people preferred them, rather than waiting for the buses.
So, PMT went into loses and they got an order passed via the PMC, banishing the six seaters to the outskirts of Pune.
Their reason - six seaters cause too much pollution.

Later, more buses were promised ...
But I think its almost 5 years now, and nothing has changed except the number of commuters.

All the people who switched over to using the public transportation system ( six seaters ) were stranded.
It's so sad and pathetic.

The government creating a monopoly in a market which it itself does not have the resources to satisfy the basic needs.

3. Power Crisis
I have noticed this huge crisis cropping up ever since the congress government came into power.
There hasn't been a single day where you had 24 hours of pure unadultrated power ( electricity ).

And on top of this, the government has the audacity to offer free power to farmers.
The farmers, naturally happy at the offer, elected these people, and are now suffering the most.

All villages around Pune undergo 9 hours of power cuts everyday.
And as all election promises go, the free power deal was eventually cut off ...

On top of this, the maximum revenues of the MSEB come from Pune and it has always gotten step motherly treatment.
With hundreds of BPOs and software companies and industries in and around Pune, needing to manage power themselves for 3 - 4 hours daily, who in their right mind would want to come here ?

4. Fuel Stations
There should be a rule made in the constitution, which makes it illegal for fuel stations to go on strikes.
It has just been happening too frequently off late here.

These people know that they can hold an entire city to ransom, just by going on an indefinite strike.

The latest thing which happened just yesterday is just short of a joke.
The Fuel distribution centers went on an indefinite strike ( which has now been called off ) because they did not want the Oil companies coming and checking the purity of the fuel they were serving.

Their argument being that the oil companies themselves send them adultrated fuel and come later to check it themselves.
What utter crass !

========================
I don't know, but I sincerely hope something is done.
Sell off the PMT, sell off BSNL, sell off MSEB, sell off everything that makes any difference to the life of the general populous to private companies.
Though I doubt anyone stupid enough to actually buy any of these.
Privatisation, it seems might be the only way out ...

You don't see Mumbai undergoing load shedding of 2 hours daily ... do you ?

A different beat ...

Oral exams or vivas have always been a pain in the rear end ...
And this time, all the timings been missed up ...

We had one AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) Viva yesterday and have another one ( Computer Networks ) tomorrow ... on a Sunday !

Apparently, all the external examiners that come to take orals for BE students are people with jobs - working in companies.

The AI orals, was basically not worth the 3 day effort of cramming the utterly useless Rich and Knigt book.
The people who wrote it should be tied to a pole and stoned ( or booked in this case ) with their own book.
And the people who recommend it to hapless students as 'Good Reading Material' should be tied next, and again stoned with the same book - twice over !
No matter how much I tried, could not get stuff into my head from that book.
It was a frikkin discussion, with 18th century english and language so complex, that would put Ayn Rand to shame.

Fed up, last day, picked up the AI local author textbook and went through it from page to page.
Yeah ... the language was really sucky, and in the end, lots of stuff didnt make sense, but then the satisfaction of having read an entire book is nice :)
Gives you that placebo effect.

Anyways, the external examiner ( bless his heart ) was one of the chillest dudes I have come across sitting on the other side of the table, and everything went off perfectly, awesomely well ...
I had friends gushing "He's so cool ya ..." all over the place :)

Now, tomorrow, on a Sunday, have to haul my ass all the way to college for the Computer Networks Orals, which many people are predicting will be doomsday for most of us.
Again, some person from the 'Industry' is going to pay us a visit and probably, take our case.
Make sure his wasted Sunday holiday is well spent ... eheheh :)

In contrast to that very crappy Rich and Knight book, we have an excellently written network book by Tanenbaum.
Now, this fellow can write ... and very well at that.
The book is peppered with all these interesting anecdotes and examples, which make all the boring stuff network stuff - more interesting ...

But lifes not fair, and we dont have much time.
So, even though I'd have loved reading the entire book - no time.

So, have to sit with the text book on one hand, and make sure to read ONLY the boring part.
Sooo ... anyways, me sitting here blogging with less than 18 hours to go for doomsday, I have kinda given up ...

Watch this space for more news from the grave :)

Painting

Painting
Originally uploaded by saurabhj.

Because the previous place where I posted the image went offline, and Blogger is somehow not allowing me to upload this, I have put it up on flickr and linking it back here...

Take that Bravenet and Blogger ! :)

Some painting ...

Just tried my hand at this new form of art ... err ... yeah .. art ... :)

Did some good old mouse painting and then touched it up with flower and bubbles and other kinds of objects ...

Now, to get back to studying AI :(

[ Please see above post for picture ]

Ad - Sense ...

Wanted to talk about this topic since ages ... but never actually got the chance ...
Anyways, now that I am totally useless with nothing better to do, wanted to take this up ...

Ads ... hmm ...
You get all kinds of them ...
And ad making is not easy ...

Imagine getting your message across in less than 15 seconds ... something experienced speakers cant do in hours of speech.
It is an art ...

How many times have you seen an ad, and gone
"Woah ... Who ever thought of that must be God Damn brilliant !"

I do all the time ...

The only thing going on in India, which we can probably compare on a world level - if you really think of it, are the ad agencies ...

Ofcourse, we have all these crappy, utterly disgusting ads, which make you wanna run to the sink and puke ...
Like all those Fair and Lovely ads ...
I really hate them !
Apart from promoting low self esteem and making women believe that no one will marry you, if you are not fair, they come up with such utter crap like the one in which a mom and her daughter keep showing 5 fingers to each other signifying that a new sachet costs only 5 bucks.
Aaaarghhh !!!
That pissing off ad ran for so long, that I swear, I could have strangled the guy who made it if I ever saw him on the streets ...

And now, that they get a person like Shehnaz Hussain in the ad, who looks absolutely - horrific, their ads have reached an all new low.
I guess she looks like that due to trying out all her products on herself first ...

Anyways, I dont want to talk about all these "crap, waste of air space ads" ...
I want to talk about those extremely slick ones doing the rounds nowadays ... which give you that big grin on your face and that "woah !" feeling ...

I really, really, really love the Tata Safari Dicor ad - the one which reads "Reclaim your life"
The "I always wanted to quit on Monday mornings" line, then the guy in the suit standing alone as the sea of humanity passes him by....
The "I always wanted to ride the waves" line, and then finally the car jumping out with the musical cresendo in the background is just so brilliant !!!
These guys got everything just perfect ... and I just cant get enough of it ...

Come to think of it, Safari has always had very nice ads.
Remember the one with the Canoeing and the "Make your own roads" punchline ?
That was very cool for its time ...

The other really good ad doing the rounds nowadays is the Bajaj Avenger - "Feel like God" ad.
That is also brilliantly done ... just loved it ...
The punchline comes so very nicely in the end, that you cant help grinning everytime you see that ad ...

Another product, which sometime ago had excellent ads, but now they mostly suck is Pepsi.
At one particular point of time, all their ads were brilliant.
The Sumo soccer players one and then the one in which the sky diver feeds the birds some pepsi, were really good ones.
I remember skipping through channels just to catch the Sumo Wrestler ad when it was first aired.

Can't remember it properly now, but wasn't one of their first Indian ads - one in which Aishwarya Rai ( before she became Miss World ) asks Amir Khan for a pepsi, and he jumps around, hopping from one bus to another finally manages to get her one ?
Now, both of them have switched to Coca Cola ... :p

Coca Cola, in comparison, always had bad ads ...
They weren't any smart, but always piggybacked on the star power of Amir Khan and whichever people they could hire ...
Their only catchy ads were about the Amir Khan one in which he pulls out bottles of coke from the well ...

The only other cool ad which comes to mind, even though it gets bugging after a while was the close up one - "Kya aap close up karte hai ?" ad.
It was so different that it had to work.

And lastly, the Pulsar stunt ad, which these 2 bikers show off on Pulsars on a bridge was too slick to be an indian ad.
Very nicely done ...

One thing I would really want to do is be part of the creative team which comes up with the Safari or the Avenger or the Pulsar ads ...

So, incase you have unlimited resources, and are in need of a damn good ad idea, look me up :)
I shall be happy to provide you with my creative insights ...

Tribute to one of the best bands that ever was ...

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

- Savage Garden, Affirmation, 1999

People changing the world ...

Very often, something happens that makes you stop in your tracks and thank God, for just being alive ...
It's the stories of people ... real people, standing up for what they believe in ...
No matter what it takes, and what sacrifices one needs to make in order to go to sleep at night thinking that he / she has done the right thing ...

One such story is of Gaurav Sabnis ... a name which people will remember for a long time to come.

What it takes for one man to stand against a large, corporate organisation, with fancy lawyers and in the end, come out on tops ...

Read the stories out here ... and please follow each of the links in order ...
And follow the relevant links inside each of the 4 posts ...

- Post 1
- Post 2
- Post 3
- Post 4

And the actual blog of Gaurav Sabnis here.

Kudos to you Gaurav.
It's people like you which make the world a place worth living ...

Guess its time to wake up and smell the coffee ...

This post comes in the wake of another natural disaster, of which, the total casualties have already gone into 5 digit figures as of today morning ...

Over the past few months, all that things that are making major news are the things that our planet is managing to churn out ever so frequently nowadays ..

Just recall events happening over the last few months ...
First it was the Tsunamis ... then it was the incessant rains in India, and the two hurricanes in the US. And now this ... the earthquake in Pakistan ...

I mean, we have no where to run, no where to hide ...
We are totally helpless ... at nature's mercy ... can't do anything at all ...
You can atmost, only save your life ... and that too only if you have been warned before hand ... which seldom happens ...

People are just dying ...
The tsunamis killed over 300,000
Hurricane Katrina had about 1200 dead and more than 2500 people missing and over a million displaced ...
Then there were the Mumbai rains which I had the privilege to experience first hand ...
More than 1000 people were killed and I think lacs displaced ...

And then finally, the Earthquake which happened some days ago has .. It has already clocked 30,000 and is still counting ...

It's just plain weird ...
Things have been changing rapidly since 2001 - 2002 ...

I guess our planet is a living, breathing entity ...
It responds in the same way we do ...

Some amount of bacteria and virii and germs we can tolerate ... but when they start to get really pissing, our defense mechanism kicks it ...
Most of the time, the cure lies in throwing out stuff from the system ... thats what the planet's doing I guess ...

This might all be non scientific, philosophical crap ...
But I am pretty sure, the root to all these things lies with man messing around with nature ...

The lives of millions of people have been permanently altered ... and there was nothing they could do about it ...
That was the saddest part ...
There was absolutely nothing they could do about it ...

The other theory of mine is that someone has come up with a weather altering device ...
Something a la 'Golden eye' or 'Under Siege 2' kind of thing ... and is plain screwing around ...
The ultimate weapon ...

But as the second possibility is quite remote and far fetched ... I feel we should probably take some initiative ourselves and do stuff which would make a wee bit of difference ... if not much ...

How about walking down to the corner store instead of taking your bike ...
Or .. how about taking a bike instead of taking your car when you're going somewhere in dry weather ?
What about car or bike pooling ?

Yeah ... stuff like that ... I guess ...

In the end,

PLEASE

Bloggers ...

We're an interesting breed ... aren't we ?
Bloggers ...

Even though I write a lot ( crap .. mostly ) ... I don't read much ..
So, the list of blogs that I read on the right pane might not be as elaborate as it would be for so many bloggers out there ...

But then again, I have been online from 11 tonight ... to now ... that is about 2:24 am ... wandering ... from one blog to another ... just reading ... and honestly, had a lot of fun doing that ... just reading ...

One really funny post that I visited for the easily the tenth time, and still enjoyed reading was : this

I suggest you check that out too ...
You won't be disappointed ...

Slaves to technology ...

Councillor Harmann: Down here, sometimes I think about all those people still plugged into the Matrix and when I look at these machines I... I can't help thinking that in a way... we are plugged into them.

Neo: But we control these machines; they don't control us.

Councillor Harmann: Of course not. How could they? The idea is pure nonsense. But... it does make one wonder... just... what is control?

Neo: If we wanted, we could shut these machines down.

Councillor Harmann: [Of] course. That's it. You hit it. That's control, isn't it? If we wanted we could smash them to bits. Although, if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air...

Neo: So we need machines and they need us, is that your point, Councilor?

Councillor Harmann: No. No point. Old men like me don't bother with making points. There's no point.

Neo: Is that why there are no young men on the council?

Councillor Harmann: Good point.

=============================================

Remember this conversation ?
If you have seen Matrix Reloaded, you probably have ... one of the very key points the movie makes ...

Just a few days ago ( 3 and a half to be precise ), my phone line .. from which I get my broadband, got dinked ...
And, this, as you must have guesses it, starved me out of my internet connection.

Now, I am NOT one of your classic nerds or geeks who cannot do without the internet ... I can ...
But somehow, not being able to access it, check email and stuff, made me restless ...

I could no longer ... just connect and google for something that I didnt understand ...
Didn't know how to do something ? Then was just stuck up there ...
Probably had to pick one of the reference books I had bought years ago and flip through the pages ...
In other words, I was plain paralysed ...

Life was not always like this ...
During my dial up days ( may they rest in peace ), when the prices would pinch the pocket, I could do without checking my mail 3 times a day ...
Whenever got stuck, would pull out some book and actually go through it ...

Just the other day was talking to one of my friends and we were discussing, how we no longer consider accessing the internet as a privelege ... or it being something cool ...
Its a way of life ...

And it confuses me and makes me wonder, how some students doing Engineering have no email account .. or most of them check emails like once in a year, which causes their accounts to expire.

Ignorance is bliss I guess ...
Once you get sucked into all this, it gets difficult to pull out ...

Technology makes life simpler for you ... but then once you have used it, addiction is imperative.
Also, depending on technology, so much, in a country like India, where the basic infrastructure is not strong enough to support technology ... is very dangerous ...

Like, I had to send a parcel to US the other day ... and went to the post office at 8 in the morning hoping to wrap it all up by 8:30
Of course, they didn't have lights ...

I had to wait for an hour while they got their UPS or generators, or whatever they had - started ... because without computers, they could not process my parcel ...
How did they do it BEFORE they started using computers ???

Another place where all hell breaks loose is banks and bill paying counters which use computers exclusively ... and the lights go ...

Had to pick up a draft from ICICI to pay my Engg fees .. and they could not process my request because their central servers were down ...
And they, for the love of God, could not give me a hand written draft like in the good old days ...

Had to wait for four hours for a draft, which I could easily get in 10 minutes from a co operative bank still doing work the old way ...
( I am saying this coz I think almost all Nationalised Banks and Private Banks in Pune are now computerised ... Actually most of the co operative banks are too ... yay !!! )

My point in this entire discussion being ... using technology for simplifying your life, is like tasting blood ( please ... I'm speaking figuratively ) ... it becomes extremely difficult to go back to old ways ...
And if you're in a country like India, and still get roped in, don't forget how to do things the old way ...
Not yet ... anyways ...

The whole people - importance thingy ...

This blog will be on a different note ... I will be deviating from my usual "trying to be funny" blogs ..

This does not concern with any person in particular, but an ideology in general ...
Why do people expect to be treated with importance ?

By this, I dont mean, the regular respect and courtesy which every individual has a right too ... but I mean, people, who feel offended, if not shown respect too ...
Or the ones, who need that constant licking, so that they feel alright ...

I mean, its not the man, but the achievement which commands the respect ... doesn't it ?
How many of us, admire Bill Gates, not for the money he has ... but the way he's earned it ?

In the past, I have come across so many individuals ... professors, people working in Govt Organisations, etc etc ... who want to be so badly treated with respect ...
We had a professor once, who would start off most of his lectures with .. I did this ... I did that ...
And, the entire class had to sit and tolerate all the non sense, only because our 50 marks were in his hands ...

Isn't the importance you associate with a person - in context ?
Like, we have a prof back in my junior college, whom I respect a lot ...
He told us this thing ... which I want to share now ...

I think, his point was, that there is no practical use of doing Trignometry and Calculus and all that stuff if you really wouldn't want to use it ever ...
He said, that if you go to a rickshawala, and tell him that you have a Phd in Mathematics or something like that ... his reply would most probably be ...
"Who gives a damn ? How does your Phd make a difference to me ?"

The point which I want to state is that everything is in context ...
If you were a PhD in Maths and were talking to a MSc, he would be pretty impressed, but I guess the rickshawala wouldnt care a damn ...

For example, when I were to meet my dad's boss in a wedding, is it supposed to make a difference to me ?
He is my 'dads' boss ... not mine ...
Why should I treat him any differently ...

Wanted to add another point of view ... The entire 'standards' thingy ...
A person might be very important ... if you believe in the same standards as he does.
What if you dont accept the same standards which make the person worthy of importance ...

Like, the people who wrote the constitution of India, felt that the backward class people and related reserved sections of the society, should have a quota reserved for them in Educational institutes, because they need it ...

I believe that if a person wants to pursue a course, he should be worthy of it, and be able to get it on his own merit.
Though that person ( who made the reservations ) would be God for some people, he doesn't make any difference to me ... because I don't believe in his standards ....
On the contrary, I kinda hate him ...

Average students who slog hard throughout their lives and end up with 80 - 85 percent marks, get admission in the second best colleges, end up paying 50 grand a year for their degree ... while the reserved category people, with 60% marks get into the best colleges, finish a 4 year course in 8 years ... that too if they are lucky ...

After all, paying a fees of 5 grand a year is peanuts, when your peers are paying 50 grand which also makes up for bulk of your fees ...

All this, just because you are worthy of studying in the college where you got admission, and they, because they have the need to ...

My typical day

[0745 hours]
It is a Saturday morning ...
Quite early for me to wake up ...
Logged on to the internet to check mail ...
The plan of the day : simple
Finish 2 writeups, 6 programs

[0930 hours]
Finish putting the last morsel of breakfast in my mouth.
Time to put the plan in action.

[1127 hours]
Put the finishing touches on 1st writeup.
1 big one more to go ...

[1131 hours]
Finish drawing the margin for the 2nd write up and start writing

[1133 hours]
Call from mom ... She's given her car for servicing ...
Have to go and buy spares and leave them with mechanic

[1203 hours]
With uncle at car shop, paying the money

[1227 hours]
Sitting at granny's place ... waiting to pick up mom from clinic.
Write ups completed : 1/2
Programs writted : 0/6

[1304 hours]
Reach home after picking up mom.

[1348 hours]
Finished lunch
Back to work

[1452 hours]
Call from Mechanic.
The right drive shaft turned out to be of a Wagon R instead of a Zens

[1512 hours]
At Mechanics
Mechanic remembers he forgot to ask me to get something else ...
Mechanic gives a list of more 3 things to buy before tomorrow

[1517 hours]
On way back home with heavy drive shaft jutting out of my Kiney on potholled roads

[1526 hours]
At entrance of society
Rear tyre starts wobbling tremendously ...

[1527 hours]
Rear tyre completely out of air

[1528 hours]
Kick the bike in frustruation

[1530 hours]
Finally at home, with what feels like an hour of dragging a bike with a flat rear tyre.
Dragged bike for distance of 300 mts in about 2 mins 40 seconds
Number of times bike foot stand hit calf : 12

[1547 hours]
Get up after having changed the flat tyre

[1602 hours]
Back in room
Wasting time on the computer
Write ups done : 1/2
Programs written : 0 / 6

[1806 hours]
Dropped mom to clinic on bike

[1856 hours]
At tyre repair guy's shop
Still getting flat fixed

[1908 hours]
Leaving shop
On scavenger hunt for the remaing stuff to give mechanic

[1912 hours]
Standing in front of closed car shop which was open in the morning

[1921 hours]
Still searching for shops which have the requisite stuff

[1955 hours]
Back at home after successful scavenger hunt

[2214 hours]
Just putting finishing touches on 2nd write up
Write ups completed : 2/2
Programs written : 0/6

[2356 hours]
Finishing stupid blog
Expecting many hate emails and comments
Write ups completed : 2/2
Programs written : 0/6
Result : "Screwed" on Monday


"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong ..."

Comments ... Word Verification ...

Just a quick thing ...

I enabled the Word Verification on my comments thingy ...
Seems that the only comments I get these days are by spammers ...

So, for all those of you who still take the trouble of commenting and letting me know that there are people who read what I put up, I am sorry, but you'll have to key in an extra word ...

Sorry, but this step has become necessary ...

aarrgghhh!!!!!!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Read somewhere that bloggers use blogs to remove frustruation ...
My life's a mess ...

I am having one of those mid-mid-life crisis ...
I hope that it gets better soon !!!

Until then,
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There ... feeling better already :)

It's the end of the world ... and I feel fine ...

If you had watched the movie Independence Day carefully, you'd notice that there is a song playing very often in the background which goes
"It's the end of the world ... as we know it ... know it ... and I feel fine ..."

Its sung by R.E.M

Anyways, seriously ... is it really the end of the world .. or am I just being paranoid ?
These have been the worst monsoons ever ... and I have been through the thick and thin of it ...
And the worst part is that it has not yet stopped and does not the least bit look like it ...

It's already almost mid September and the rains seem relentless ...
Mumbai has been flooded for ... I don't know how many times over ...

The infrastructure is pathetic as it is ... but the rains have just worsened it to new heights ...

There is an actual stretch of road here in Pune, which starts from Residency Club to the Don Bosco Bridge ( for those of you in Pune and know the place ) that is so, so, so, so, so bad ... that I swear to God, you would probably be better off taking a 5 km extra long path, just so you could avoid the 500 mts or so of that road ...

I mean, people actually come on bikes till the entrance of the road, look at it and turn back and go another way ...

I had the pleasure of getting stuck on it in my car ...
The only other time, I was so scared was when I was in a pretty big roller coaster sometime ago.

I dont have my camera with me right now, otherwise I would take pictures and post it.

Anyways, the weather has really turned lop sided this year ... and it has happened so suddenly ..
Last year, most of the things were normal .. but now, rain has become such a part of our lives that you wonder why it isn't raining at the moment ...

If I could bring your attention to a very recent movie ... "The Day After Tommorrow" which was completely about the shift in weather patterns and everything freezing over, it does not look so sci - fi now ... does it ?

Saurabh's Seminar Tips ...

Okay, was just doing TP online in the morning ( ya ! I get up in the morning too ) when I got a comment regarding my previous blog ...
And then I realised ... crap ( its better than saying shit ... ) !
I forgot to post my set of tips in my previous post ... which was the main intention ...

However, the previous one was so long and I wrote it in 2 sittings, that by the end of it, just wanted to finish it off ...
So, naturally forgot to write the tips ...

======================================
These are to be followed on your own risk ... I am not responsible for you getting chucked out of the college ... Though it is a remote possibility ...
But just washing my hands off it anyways ...
======================================

Okay, so here goes ...

====================
The first and the foremost thing is that you DO NOT want to ... and I repeat ... DO NOT want to bore the examiner or any other people sitting for your seminar.

If by the end, the examiner is yawning, and has trouble remembering what your topic was, you are pretty done for anyways ...
=====================

Okay, read carefully ...

How you plan to start, and how much time you spend on preparing your start depends on the time of day and the number at which you will be giving your seminar.

If you are one of the people giving the starting 3 seminars of the day, you probably dont need to work on your starting much ...

But, if you are giving your seminar just before the lunch or towards the end of day, or sometime in the middle, when you know, people will be dead ... a little intro video or music will do wonders to your marks.
No matter how stupid your friends think of your effort to put some stupid sound track on the first page, do it ...

It wakes the people and makes them attentive enough to be able to sit through your seminar.
Not to mention the examiers too ...

A friend of mine had his, second last before break and he started with the Kill Bill soundtrack.
Most of the people were laughing when he said that he'd be putting the soundtrack ...
He almost changed his mind, but last minute decided to go with it ...
His seminar probably turned out to be one of the best of the day ... even though he had a not so interesting topic.

And I noticed that almost 75% of the class sat attentively through his presentation for 8 out of the 15 minutes that he was there ...
So, if your start is good, half the battle is won.

========================
Also, make sure that you end well ... its pretty difficult and I found only a couple of people pulled it off ...
Though, this is not as important as starting well ... for obvious reasons ...

Firstly, most of your audience left are your loyal friends ... and the examiners give the marks somewhere in the middle of your seminar.
So, unless you really botch up your ending, you should do fine ...

Just start well ...

=========================
I cannot stress enough for the fact that you should make your seminar interesting ...
No matter what your topic ...

Your presentation does not have to stick to the paper ... it can deviate a lot ...
When preparing your ppt, ask yourself whether you would actually want to sit and listen to it in the audience ...

If the answer is 'NO' ... you're probably going about it the wrong way ...
==========================

Hard work always pays ...
Search, search, search the internet for flashier icons ... and the works ...

Make your stuff look good ... even though it means burning the mid night oil a day before ...
===========================

Using a default template is definitely a no - no.
Almost all the people in my class made their own templates ....
Not only does it give you originality and allows you to make your presentation resemble your seminar topic, you also avoid putting on a template someone else used already ...
===========================

Watch out for the colour scheme ... What may look good on your monitor, may not look good on the projector ...

Try to keep a white bg with black / blue text or the inverse ...

If there is not enough cover in your seminar hall ( like we did not have curtains and there was a lot of light ), you'd be better of using a black bg and white text ...
I screwed up in this regard ... I had a white bg with Blue text
===========================

And finally, my list of things that will get you killed and things which will save your ass ...
( Compiled painstakingly during the presentations )

THINGS WHICH YOU'D GET KILLED FOR
( i.e. things which you should not do ... duh ! )

1. Going technical very early
- Bad mistake ... People who do this, will lose 80% of their audience within 5 seconds ...
Take my word on it ... No one, and that includes even the examiner, is interested in seeing protocols and architectural diagrams ...
Though this is important ( to show that you did some work ) keep it at last after you've said what you wanted people to hear

2. Lots of Architecture Diagrams
3. Not preparing the presentation well
4. No eye contact with the audience
5. Speaking fast

6. Using an auto timer on the slides.
- This is by far the worst you could do for yourself.
Don't be stupid and dont try to show off unneccesarily ...
Advance the slides yourself ... and if it is too much work, bribe a friend to do it for you.

7. Underlining text
- Does not look cool ... not always anyways ...
Try CAPITALISING or making text bold.

8. Bad font selection ...
- Avoid using fonts like Times etc .. they dont look good on screen

==============================
THINGS THAT WILL SAVE YOUR ASS
( or the things that you SHOULD DO )

1. Give more real life examples
- Something that people can relate too ...

2. Use more easy to understand images

3. Do something to grab people's attention at the beginning of the seminar
- Use video, audio, aliens, do a strip show ... anything ...
Just make sure people give you atleast 5 minutes to get their attention full time.

4. Speak loudly and confidently.

==============================
Okay, that was another long blog ...
So, me will again lay off for a while ...

Put up a comment if you need more help specifically.

And if you find this information useful, please consider making a donation to my PayPal account.
( Hey, I just bought a cell ... down by a lot of cash ... need to make that up somehow ! )

Scenes from a Seminar Hall

We just finished our BE Seminars a couple of days ago, and I am still basking in the sense of achievement that I did not screw it up ...

Oh well, some idiot messed with the projector settings and my slides got all screwed and stuff, but other then that, it was mostly okay ...

Getting into the meat of things, I wanted to write about the observations that I had during the 4 gruelling days of sitting and listening to other people talk mostly about subjects which I had no interest off ...

So, here goes ... the people who make up a typical seminar situation ...

1. The Guy Giving the Seminar
This without doubt is the most important guy in the seminar room.
The poor soul, whose worst fear is of public speaking ( even greater than death ), is made to stand up in front of 50 people, who are mostly not interested in whatever he has to say.
On top of that, he is expected to narrate and manage the slides in the 15 minutes alloted to him.
These people fall in the following category ...

1.1 - The under time fellows
These are the people who prepared too few a slides, and probably did not practise enough to realise that they did not fall into the 13 - 15 minute category.
These people make up about 35% of the crowd and finish their seminar, to the delight of all others, within 8 - 9 minutes.
The number of slides are typically just around 20 and the topics covered are generally superficial, and application oriented ( non technical ) which does not allow for more matter, and hence more time for the presentation.

Notable features are lots of pausing and umms and aahhs ... which basically help them get to 8 minutes ...

1.2 - The good time fellows
Most of the people fell in this category. I'd say about 50% of the people ...
These people have generally practised atleast once and finish off their seminars between 13 - 14 minutes.
These people generally, are not very hated and the they have a good mix of technical and non technical information, evenly spaced out ...
These people probably end up with the most marks.

Notable features are generally decent presentations and many a times, elocution like speeches which come off as mugged up ...
Quite a few topics falling in this category are decent and worth listening too ...

1.3 - The over time fellows
These people generally shoot off their 15 minutes.
This species, has trouble, not knowing what matter to cut down and how much to speak on.
Either the person has really prepared the entire seminar on his own ( thus not being able to delete the content that he so painstakingly collected ) or the fellow just copied the entire seminar of some person from another college ...

Notable characteristics are skipping through atleast 20 slides, rushing off so fast that people didnt even get the topic.
And mostly, the ability to cram 40 - 50 slides in the space of 15 minutes.

2 - The Examiners
These people are the most confused people sitting in the hall.
They either know that they have no idea about what you are talking or they 'think' they have an idea of what you are talking.

What students generally worry about is not whether they will be able to answer the questions these people ask at the end of the seminar, but whether they will be able to somehow relate their topic to the questions asked by these people ...

Therefore, questions such as "But don't you need some p2p network to use BitTorrents ?" after a seminar on BitTorrents, or a question like "Tell me the application of Red Tacton in touch screens ..." ( Red Tacton is a method of transferring data by human touch ) are asked.

And the students are left totally bewildered and are lost for words.

We had a examiner who had his head so high up his a** that he asked questions to each and every student ...
No matter if the question was the least bit related ...
Naturally, most of the people trying to answer would be left fumbling and confused ...

This guy would sit back, look at the hapless student and smile ... thinking that he was oh, so smart and clever to ask such questions ...
And sitting at the back, we would think, "What a moron !"

3 - The General Audience
These people make up for maximum of the crowd.
If you can speak well and hold their attention, you can keep them interested for exactly 3 minutes.
After which, most of them go to sleep, or put those ear phones back on ...

In the very rare event, do these listen to the entire seminar ...
And if they do, you can be rest assured that you have done a good job.

4 - Your loyal friends
These people are your truest buddies from the class.
They will turn up for your seminar and even sit through it, patiently, attentively trying to grasp every word that comes out of your mouth - never mind it not making the wee bit sense ...

Nodding everytime you look at them - to give you confidence.
These are the people, you'd probably need most during the 15 minutes ... and the ones to start clapping as soon as you've answered a couple of questions, to spare you from the slaughter ...

5 - The Not So Friendly ...
These people are the ones who have been waiting patiently, anxiously even ... for you to get up there for your seminar.
They prepare, conspire, read your report, so that they can ask you questions which you probably wouldn't be able to answer in the Q & A round.

These ploys generally fail and seldom work, thus adding more insult to injury ...
Interesting attributes include, asking multiple variants of the same question and back questioning, till they get tired themselves, or the person answers with a shrug, and the words, "I don't know ..."

6 - The Plants ...
These are the ones which you pass on questions to, to be asked during the Q&A round.
Probably the only ones you can answer properly ... with confidence ...

These are very easily noticeable, because mostly the questions are very lame, multiplied with lamer acting on the part of the person asking the question ...
This is generally followed by some scratching of the head or stammering on the part of the person giving the seminar, so that it all looks authentic ...

The biggest give away of this entire operation is that the plants are generally seated within a radius of 2 to 3 people of the person giving the seminar ... before he got up to give it ...
Helps in the easy passing out of chit questions ...

Next blog, what to do and what not to in a seminar cum presentation ...

Back on dialup ...

Hmmmm ... ( to be read as a very depressed sigh ... )

After a month of cruising along in what our govt calls broadband ... its that time of the month again when all the past days' "bandwidth spendthrift attitude" comes back and hits you where it hurts ...

I've got the BSNL 256 K home plan, which comes with a 1 GB download limit ...
1 GB ???
Who in the right head comes up with these plans ?
Aren't people not allowed to come in to work drunk ? What about doped ?

Seriously ...
We have night time free ... yeah ...
Or call it early morning free ... from 2 friggin' AM to 8 AM ...
These timings are making a moron out of me ...

Last month, nothing major was happening, so I managed to cut down till about 970 Meg by the month end ...
This time with seminars, all the papers to download and research, and by the end of the month, my XBOX got dinked ...
More research and frantic searching ensued ...
( But I got it up and running finally last night ... yay !!! )

But with 940 MB gone and 4 days to take out on a 60 MB, I'm just holding on ... for a rainy day ...
If any of you'll will need me, I'll be on dial up for a couple of days ...
( BSNL charges 1.2 bucks per MB of download !!! )
It's kinda nostalgic you know ... That 3 tone buzz that comes out of the modem when you try to connect ... the 30 seconds !!! that you need to connect ...
And the best things are the ultra variable connecting speeds ( mostly due to the awesome quality of phone lines that the same morons from BSNL put up )
As of now, I have successfully connected after 7 tries at 9.6 kbps !!!

Thats me signing off ...

And yeah, if you are from BSNL and reading this, please grow a brain !

Me ... geeky ???

This test was actually amusing ...
Hehehe ...

Another one ...

The dirtiness factor ...

When does your room become so dirty, that it actually turns into a feature of that place ?

When your mom gives up asking you to clean it and vows never to talk about it ... ever ...
When the maid starts charging extra, just to enter and clean your room ?
When ?

Anyways, I've got a normal room here ...
Lets see ... one cupboard, a study table ( which is never used nowadays ), one computer table ( which is as dusty as it can be ), one bed, two chairs ( I stole one chair from my dad's room ) and quite a few boxes here and there containing stuff, I mostly will never open again ...

You remember, the only time you "actually" clean your room is when your friends come over ... for the first time ?
The first thing you'd probably hear is how "clean" your room looks ...
Then you go something like ... "Nah ... I just did it today because you guys were coming over"

As more people stream into your room and compliment you on your "cleanliness", "cleanliness" doesn't remain a compliment any longer ...
It seems more like a guilt, for a crime which you committed ...
So, next time they come ... they get to see what your room "actually" looks like ...
And they feel better ... and you become one of the tribe ...

And then there is the "switcheroo"
We guys do it so often, that we have even come up a term for it ...

Switcheroo /vb/ : The act of transferring clothes from one location to another, on the arrival of entities in your room, so as to make more space for people to fit in ..

Now, my room is not that bad ... atleast comparing to stuff you see on US Television ...
You can easily walk into the room ... and you can probably sit somewhere too, once I have performed the Switcheroo ...
But my mom kinda gave up on asking me to clean it sometime ago ...

Rooms never stay clean ( or do they, and I am missing something here ? ), so the thought of cleaning it, is just in the back of my memory ... somewhere ...

But that great pile of clothes on the chair besides me, has started to give me the shivers ...
Hence this blog, and maybe ... just maybe ... I'll venture into that dimentia ... the room cleaning one ...

If that ever happens, I'll update all you people ...
Then we could probably have a party or something ... :)

The wet side of things ...

Today, was a pretty depressing day :(
One of the days, when you just want to quit everything and stay at home ... Not caring a damn ...

Got up to a very dull morning ... Like mornings are nowadays ...
Haven't seen the sun in like - weeks ...

Dragged myself out of bed, and 45 minutes later, on my bike on the way to college ...
Last place I wanted to be at ...

Plus, today was THE monday, the day after the extended 3 day weekend ...
Monday blues at their best !

On the way, it started drizzling ...
You know, that kind of rain which neither stops nor pours ...
Just the slight, very light rain ...
You dont know whether to stop and take shelter or go on ...

Finally reached college ... pants soaking wet ...
Those are the worst things you can get wet ... pants .. and that too jeans ...

Soo, spent the entire day in wet clothes ... and only now, was able to get rid of them and put on some dry comfy clothes ...
Ahhh ... talk about being miserable ...

Feeling my head hurt a lil' ... and think am coming down with a flu :(
And I bet you could swear that this must have been the most depressing post that you've read of late ...

Hope things get better ...
Blame it on the weatherman ...

BitTorrent Seminar Blues ...

BitTorrents ... doesn't that word have a nice ring to it ?
It does, if you ask me ...
Okay, it does only to Broadband users with some unlimited plan ...

Anyways, I have used and abused that protocol for months now ...
Ever since BSNL dataone started and they had the mind numbing plan to give away unlimited internet ... hehehe ... :)

So, when Seminar time came ( something all us BE in Engineering people have to go through ), I chose BitTorrent ...
C'mon ... I've used it for months ... I know all the settings ... Its not much work ...
Right ?

Wrong !!!

I had to slog my ass off ... but it's okay, because the topic turned out to be interesting ...
So, 13 papers, hundreds of websites, 3 interviews, 1 webcast and 3 days of gruelling typing later, I finished my 30 page report on the damn thing ...

I am so confident ... that I already printed out the report without showing a rough copy to my seminar guide ...
How this works out, only time will tell ...

But, I have this radiant glow by this sense of achievement ...

Anyways, have sat to do the presentation now ...
And after spending a day doing the graphics at 800 x 600 for the ppt ( b'coz our college comps are kinda screwy and mess up at higher res ), I figured out that powerpoint backgrounds unstretched are at 1024 x 768 ...
No matter what the display resolution ...

Aaaahhhhh !!!!

Umm ...

What can I say ?
I am not proud of it ... but anywho ...

Sore, tired and broken ...

Yesterday was a rough day ...
I hadn't touched a basketball in ages ... actually no physical activity whatsoever in ages ...

Ended up on the courts ... and at the end of the day, the title says it all ...

We have this tournament called 'Dawn to Dusk' which happens every year on the 15th of August ... and we guys ... the old school team, come together and participate every year ...

This is the 4th year we've played and the results every year, are mostly the same ...

This is an open tournament ... no age limit, nothing ...
So people, from all age groups, from many different districts ... from the School teams to the Sourthen Command and Bombay Sappers team ( both are Army Teams ) take part ...

So, practically speaking, we don't stand much of a chance ...

As usual, we crashed out in the Quarters ...
Actually, honestly, we could have won that game too ...
But everyone was dead from the time the game started ...
I for one, was in a condition to be carried off in a stretcher ...
That was our 4th game in the day, and the previous game that we played was just 10 minutes ago ...

What was surprising was that we got that far ( there were a total 72 teams taking part !!! ) even though we hadn't practised any ...
Most of the guys ( 3 out of 5 ) were touching the basketball in ages ... No practice whatsoever ...

But where we lost out, was in the stamina department ...
If we'd have enough energy, we could have taken that game too ...
We lost by a measly 3 points ...

But I guess ... we all have to make compromises somewhere ...
Hmmmmm ... ( to be read as a long sigh ... )

My Firefox ate my bookmarks ...

Okay ... I use firefox ...
Have been using since the day it has been released and in my opinion ... it is the best browser to date ... ( sorry MS )

The thing I really love about it is the tabbed interface ... the ability to add enhancements ( otherwise called extensions. Plugins are different things ) ...

One of the better features ( taken from Mozilla ) is the ability to search a document while typing ... on the fly ...
No need to hit CTRL + F ... like you do it in IE ...

But today, after I restarted my Comp, all my bookmarks had disappeared without a sign ...
The bookmarks.html file which was about 73 Kb, when I last saw it, reduced to 1 K

I tried many things ... searching for deleted files, even did a system restore ... but to no avail ...
On searching, realised that many people have gone through this dilemma ...

Luckily, found a backup which I had taken in Jan 05 ... so I am almost back to normal ...
But this is a serious flaw and I am hoping they're doing something about it ...

Saurabh's day out with the camera ...

Yesterday was results ... very unexpectadly ... but yes ... we had to wait for 2 hours after college to get them ...
The good news is that I cleared all my subjects ...
I was dead sure of flunking an oral exam ... but by some miracle, passed pretty comfortably in that viva too ...
Marks wise, it was worse than last semester ... and my total percentage slipped down by a percent ...

Anyways, I am more than happy, that all the extra curricular stuff - The College CD, the Imagine Cup, et all ... didn't take a toll on my exams ...

So today, the entire class took a day off ... a mass bunk ...
Our very first official mass bunk, where not a single student sat for class ...
It was a long time due ... its our final year now ...
Yes ... you must be thinking ... class of geeks :)

Anyways, today the IEEE student branch of our college organised their cultural event ... a tech fest kinda thing ...
Though these guys come up with many new ideas ... their implementation needs a lot to be desired ... ( sorry people ... nothing personal )

Anyways, they had this photography contest ... where we had to shoot 3 snaps within our college campus, and the theme was either "Fusion" or "Bliss" ...
Even though bought seem to be the worst topics ... especially for our campus, I chose Bliss ...

So, from 10 to 12:30 ... I went trigger happy ...
Armed with my digi cam and tripod stand ... I scouted the college for snaps which would fit the theme ...

With great difficulty, I managed to click a few ... rushed to my friends place ... burnt it on a CD and rushed to Foto Fast and got it printed ...
All this done by 3:00 pm ... which was the submission deadline ...

Glad to say, that all the pictures came decently on print ... though a touch brighter than I expected ...

I was looking forward to this contest a lot ... coz I wanted to put my photography skills to test ...
Only time will tell how I match up with the rest ...

Photography is an awesome job ... but requires a lot of patience and understanding and foresight ...
Knowing your camera inside out is a given ...
As I learnt it the more tougher way ...

Anyways, I am putting up the 3 snaps which I clicked today ... for your viewing pleasure ...