oh my god relieved !!!!!

Oh my god I am really relieved. Yeah , i am an athiest , so no god and all but still the feeling is all to relieving. Actually I was supposed to have our microprocessor lab exam this weekend.Now the whole episode was really funny. I was under the impression that , I have the exam in the third batch on the second day of the exam. So as any normal (additional stress on the word please) IITian , it was against my fundamental principles to start the mug two days in advance.Coupled also by the fact that we have end-sems in less than two weeks, I had no thoughts of mugging for the lab in advance. I was all set for the usual slog at 11 or possibly 12th hour. So had my evening grub and went out for my stroll with Ishan(my friend and our class-rep). Now in the usual course of the conversation, it so happened that this exam topic popped up and I just tested his knowledge by asking all sorts of questions. We were all under the wrong impression that I being roll no. 24 was definately in the third batch that happens to be on the day after tomorrow. But alas we have some vacant roll no. (people who do not join the institute but register initially). So it dawned upon us that perhaps , I would make the cut for tomorrow too.Now this was a teaser from Ishan, but it really send my head spinning.I had not checked in first place the schedule.So on my insistence we went to the lab to confirm the exact schedule.And goodness gracious, I was the last on the first day itself.Now that was really painful.Not that I had lost any study time or anything, but still it send shiver down my spine.Such a thing had never happened, I have to be on my guard from now on.No more excessive dependence on the guy-next-door-class-rep.So I came back and took all the material for the course.Now the problem was that I was the only person in my entire wing to have the exam and none from my group had an exam tomorrow. Now the problem really struck me with all its magnitude.I mean studying for a lab is no big deal(can say so because atleast i fared decently in all labs till date), as compared to the subject itself.But doing lab exam study alone is really a painful thing .The inspiration and the drive are sorely missing and above all I was missing our wing stud Das , who usually steers us of rough weather.So took some fundaes from him , but the major workload was all my dish.Somehow mugged for 20 mins. Then came the big surprise. Our class-rep called the prof. for something mundane and got the news that the exam will be just a written one as the micro processor kits were not working. And no exam for tomorrow. All will have a single written test at a date to be announced later. Oh my god ,really that one hour was an ordeal.Got mightily relieved.................One of those things that can perhaps happen only in IIT.But for the ordeal it was really stimulating and exciting. Now for the end-sem mugging................Wish me luck for my end-sems(I am really counting on them).

Fightin americans.......................

So the Americans are still slogging it out in the heat and dust of Falluja. Yes, my guess is that they will eventually conquer it too, but how much premium will those loyal to Sadr put on their heads? This seems to be the last big city out of the Amercan reach. And with Bush sitting pretty at the white house, the offensive will only escalate. I think the Americans vote tilted towards the Republicans out of fear . So now Bush schould not start his hate campaign but try to get some international backing and improve his foreign policy. So much so for Bush...........

3 weeks for the mini-crucification!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it’s me again .had two days of inactivity. Lethargy has creeped all over. So shaking it off I have to start afresh tomorrow I mean today. This sem has again passed of in a jiffy. We got LAN connection this sem. As one of my friends rightly said the only thing he did this sem was to search for movies on LAN effectively and efficiently. So that’s about it, but really this sem was comparatively less crushing. I mean yeah workload was there. But management seems to have improved a bit. For a few subjects bulk has increased drastically, but the really surprising thing is that they do not call the shots rudely this sem.(this is for those who understand our lingo).

Got a lot of plans about holidays, in December. Real bad thing is that hardly any of them will see the light of the day. I dump them here only and all I do at home is sleep and eat. Hopefully this will change for the better this time. Obviously the stakes are higher this time. I was happy to see that the E.Mech. Lab passed off peacefully. The micro. Lab remains another pain. But the real struggle will be the end sem. I generally do not perform when it matters most here, the end sem. That has to change this time. Ya, I know that’s a tad difficult, just as expounded by the meaning of “quicksand” in the movie replacements. So gotta get back to winning ways. Hopefully will be able to pull through this time at least. It’s the classic case of now or never for me. If I am able to pull through this on I will be in the hunt here during placements next year. Otherwise for all practical purposes I will have to think seriously about my future? (Ha-ha…….)

So some serious study is in the offing. I dunno till when will the enthu last. I get pumped up, but lose motivation too quickly. Somehow, I have to bring in the required enthu and make it last, if not till eternity at least till the end sem. Till then I hope things will fall in place.

Hmm….

So I am back again .Yeah yesterday and today were painful. I had a lab exam in E.Mech. Well I would rather avoid talking about the subject i.e. E.Mech. , cause I reminds me of experiences that are extremely difficult to describe. Almost all of them are regarding my pathetic performance. So any way I had this exam at 3:30 p.m. today. So as any “normal” IITian I completed my lab report at 5:00 a.m. (boy that was quick!!!) today. After that I had to go through all those experiments and try to make sense of what they mean. If only I had paid more attention to the experiments, when they were actually conducted. But then this has been the way labs have been going for the last two years. So I tried to do my best by sleeping at 5:00 and again starting to mug at 9:00 a.m. somehow managed to get a decent picture of all the experiments. Still was dreaded about a couple which I knew were grossly as well as relatively time consuming and demanding.

And as it turned out, I got the most peaceful of the experiments. The moment I read the aim, I knew I was through. It was really quite simple for all the stress and tension. So completed the formalities and got drenched in the rain. (Yeah, rains in Chennai, really!!!).

Other than that, the usual stuff. Got irritated at the republican victory and that too by 3.5 million votes. The really bad trend is the emergence of centre right governments the world over. Everywhere from Latin America to Europe to Asia, this wave is spreading unabated. So it is naturally for a liberal centre leftist like me to be saddened. Let me give you an insight into the American election’s distinct feature. The democrats are present only in the western and eastern coast. While the entire middle America is washed in a republican wave. The blue regions are totally overshadowed by the vast expanse of the red patches. This is something the democrats have to really stare hard at. They are losing their appeal to a lot of sections. The fact is all the more painful because southern states like Florida have 70,000 odd Indian-Americans. Add to that the middle Colorado with 11,000 and the eye of the storm Ohio with (38,000+) Indian Americans. Though most of the Indian Americans are in northern or north eastern regions (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and, new Hampshire etc) that are traditional democrat strongholds, still a discomforting picture is emerging. Due to most of the sops that republicans are offering to the affluent, they have been able to wean off most of the well-off Indian –Americans. So where does it all leave us. Last time it was almost 50-50 for both. This time republicans lead 51-48, thereby implying that America has moved to the right. So democrats have to pull up their socks. Real target is middle and more prominently South America. The last two democratic presidents have been from south, Clinton from Arkansas and carter from Georgia (I think I am right). For that sake republicans repulsed very well as Bush is from Texas. So the answer lied in grooming a strong leader from south, a bit more aggressive and one who will not shun away from religion talk. Yes it’s important for democrats to get back to the evangelical Protestants, not to indulge in any appeasing but ensuring that they do take democrats as a serious option.

Well this is what happened in 2004. lets compare this with what was the score in 2000(Al Gore) and 1996 , 1992 (Bill Clinton)
So democrats have to pull up their socks and try to do something drastic to win over the american mainland, that has been under the firm grip of republicans since a very long time.

2004

And of-course saw the smashing pictures of congress-elect bobby Jindal. Why do we Indians always have our chests swollen whenever we see an Indian connection? Bobby hardly speaks of India, and his election will not do anything positive or negative to us. Still the media will make a hero of him. I here would like to clarify that this view is based on the general perception and not because he’s a republican. I think we generally feel proud if any person achieves something and has an indian connection. I mean cut the crap, I would rather heap praises on a complete stranger who has compassion for my nation , than someone who has fame and power , but is unwilling to use it for furthering my nation's causes.< style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);">
Well I was generally browsing today when; I got an interesting article on, < style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);">the whole issue of M.K. Gandhi not being a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. An interesting article on the Nobel site, bears testimony to the true legend of our nation. http://www.nobel.se/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html

Women hold the key ..........................

Today was reading about the power that women play in US politics. Deviating a little bit, I was really surprised when I read the opinion page of Hindu a few days ago. I was downright surprised with Hindu making a desperate pitch for Kerry. Agreed that we Indians will generally favor a democratic government in US of A. but one of the only newspaper (according to me), that was still unbiased till now was clearly taking sides. It was an interesting article, quite thought provoking. So let us analyze the role of the American women voters on the outcome of the presidential elections. Let’s take America’s population to be around 125 million. Say a 60% voter turnout out of the registered voters. Despite this, many analysts believe that on the judgment day, women voters will outnumber their men counterparts by a whopping 8 million. Boy, that’s a great number no doubt. So frankly speaking it’s the women voters who will by and large dictate the outcome of the presidential elections. In India I doubt women voting in excess of men (I am only taking into account the genuine votes, not the rigged ones a.k.a. official figures). So I guess women in U.S. have a better bargaining power.

So let us see the factors that women will have on their mind as the queue on Tuesday. Both Kerry and Bush have a strong point in their favour. Bush obviously scores as a more aggressive, kind of masculine leader (well perceptions are wrong my dear friend). So he (apparently) appears to be a better choice to these women. These “security moms” believe that Bush will provide a better security and deal with any crisis with an iron hand. Believe me the Belsan tragedy has only increased this notion amongst these women. Actually speaking women traditionally supported the democrats. Particularly during the Clinton administration women voted heavily for the democrats. Actually both the candidates lack the charisma to influence that was the hallmark of Clinton. So it’s a game wide open. Also Bush’s wife Laura is giving him a good support as are his daughters. Contrary to this Kerry’s wife and his two daughters are not matching up to the standards set by the first lady.

So much so for Bush, but Kerry too has some points up his sleeve. One of the foremost is the issue of abortion. Bush cannot let go off the 5 million evangical Christian vote pie. So his stand is against abortion, whereas Kerry has stood for it. So Kerry stands to gain from this stand. Many women organizations also have thrown their weight behind Kerry for the same reason. Against this backdrop, another crucial factor is the percentage of single women among the eligible women voters. This figure currently stands at 20% and will mostly back Kerry.

So all in all it’s an interesting contest. I am also waiting to see what happens and above all to see exactly the pattern of voting followed by the American women voters. Well now that will be interesting to decipher the results.

another crap quiz!!!

So another crap quiz. Really not in a mood to discuss it right now (it’s a real pain). Over time I have found out that nothing hurts as bad as a bad grade. That is the sole worth of whatever work people put in (I of course do not belong to this group).so cutting the crap aside I today want to give an insight into the IITM campus. I will put up photos very shortly.

It’s quite difficult to describe the campus as after two years even the most unusual sight has become all the more familiar. As entered the hallowed precincts of this educational abode, the thing that captivated my mind was the rich forests and the scenic canopy of trees that is breathtaking to say the least. Agreed that you will crib and say that all educational institutes worth their salt do have wilderness in the vicinity, but this is different. The refreshing campus of 630 acres has a lot of very old trees, especially the banyan ones. To top it all spotted dear are as common as stray dogs are in Indian cities. Initially I was also surprised but then these deer have adopted very well and are a sight to see (of course if you are not used to seeing them every now and then). The icing on the cake is of course the black-bug. It is one of the endangered species according to the WWF. The campus is roughly triangular (so it is a pain to go to the main gate from hostels or department blocks). There is also a lake in the campus. All in all it’s, one of the best campus in the country.

There are 13 hostels (to the best of my knowledge). There is a girls hostel and then there are all sorts of hostels like U.G. hostels, P.G. hostels mixed hostels (ya it has U.G. and P.G. both), MBA hostels, married student hostels etc. etc. a new hostel for freshers is under construction presently. The environmental lobby is quite strong over here. Ours was the first IIT to ban the use of powered vehicles inside the campus (to my great dismay). So we have to slog on with our rickety bicycles to every place inside the campus. The institute has started electrical buses, but frequency is not up to the mark. Will add up later.