My Life at iiitb Part 3

Continued from....... My Life at iiitb Part 2

21st July 2008, 9 AM. Officially, this was the first class in my Masters. I missed it as I got admissions only after the class. Anyhow, I was happy that I am in the institute, and I don’t have to return and wonder what to do now.

Its 11am. Discrete mathematics preparatory course, as always, I took a back bench. I was in the impression that the courses would be taught by professors, the lectures will be interesting, and not like they were in BE. The lectures in those days, were just a matter of attendance, and were also strictly optional. Here the scenario was very different, you don’t attend the classes, and as a result, management won't allow you to write the exams.

Prof. Srinath comes to class, and starts the class with the classic problem. What is one? How do you define it? Yeah, I remember the problem, but there is no solution for it. One is just an abstract number. The class was good, and interesting too; very much to my expectations of a good institute. Now lunch, and then comes the disappointment, introduction of video lectures by Prof. Rajaraman in the course of AIDS. Oops, I spelled it wrong, its ADIS. All the courses were of 2hr daily lectures, for 3 continuous weeks, with only 1 day weekend, and packed with almost every alternate day scheduled for test.

The night was fresher’s introduction; I missed out all fun (I was not in campus that night too :( ). Everybody told that it was fun, and it was pretty evident from the photos that it was actually fun.

The next day, I was travelling again, this time to Koramangala, to get my laptop. Easy friends, I didn’t miss any classes that day. It was really very hectic travelling on Hosur Road, especially in the evening on a weekday, though we all are so used to it now that it doesn't really matter to us.

The first test was scheduled for Thursday. And believe me, the test was the second most unpredictable thing. A. Being a theory subject, no one had done much of book reading, and b. The test was all multiple choice questions. Welcome to iiitb, our TAs said to us. And, then we had a test every other day, even late night programming tests. There are a lot to say, but I would like to cut short it by only saying that those were the busiest days of my life. I had never thought so much about studies. Plagiarism, Segmentation Faults, nightmarish ADIS test preparation, also the C test preparation, KSMs, there is a lot to talk, but if I go on writing all, it will be like 3-4 parts of the same section, and hence I’ll stop this by just giving you memories of all. The pre-semester ended on 9^th August 2008, leaving us with 1 full day, to go and enjoy the weekend. The 1^st semester was to start on 11^th August. I’ll update the next part – the one describing the adventures of 1^st semester – one with Algorithms, and Object Oriented Design, with Java, not to forget PDS, and DevSquare Assignments, most likely by tomorrow morning.

My Life at iiitb Part 2

Continued from....... My Life at iiitb Part 1

Well, well.. Balki's birthday was celebrated with all pomp and show, the regular traditional way as always followed by a regular and normal iiitb student :).

Now, it’s time to resume the journey.

In the previous post I described how I got selected to continue my educational adventures at iiitb. 15th July 2008, the journey to iiitb started from Baloda Bazar (My home town). The route was to go to Bhatapara, board on to Ahmedabad Express at 12:15 PM which will reach Nagpur at around 6:30 PM. From Nagpur to Bangalore, I had to travel by Sampark Kranti Express which arrives at 10:20 pm. We reached Bhatapara Rly Stn. as per the schedule at around 11:45am, anticipating the train when the notice comes, that Ahmedabad Express is running 5 hrs late. Now what to do, the guy at ticket counter advised me to board on Chattisgarh Express at 3pm. This will reach Nagpur at 9:30pm, a handsome 50 minutes before time. I enquired if I need an extra ticket, the guy on the enquiry counter asked me not to worry, and carry on till Nagpur. A Bolt from the Blue - A (lady) TTE inspector came for a surprise check. I had asked Shailendra Gupta (My friend, who was to travel with me till Warangal) to get tickets for me from Durg Station. The inspection was after crossing Bhilai Nagar Station, and for people from Bhilai, you can estimate the heights of my bad luck. For people not from Bhilai, The Bhilai Nagar Station, and the Durg Station, is not more than 5 kms apart. And I had to pay Rs.250 as Fine, and around Rs.105 towards Fare, from Bhatapara to Nagpur. So, this was the second shock on the day. The Great Indian Railways, I must say. Chattisgarh Express was stopped on the outskirts of Nagpur Station, just to give a clear signal to Sampark Kranti Express. Now, myself, and Shailendra were to spend the night in Nagpur, and then, take a suitable train the next morning. Congo Express seemed suitable for me, as Samarth (also joined iiitb) was coming in that train, and I was also getting time to spend with Sonal. Shailendra left for Warangal by morning 10am train (I don’t remember the train).

Sonal and I burned some 8 DVDs, which consumed maximum of our time (around 30 mins per DVD) that day. It was a day of both joy, and worries that what will happen once I reach iiitb. Some people know the whole of the story why I was in worries, and I don’t want to discuss it over here. Anyhow, as Sonal was leaving for Bhilai, we reached the station at around 11:00 pm. His train was at 11:30, and my train was scheduled at 1:20 am. The Great Indian Railways, I repeat. My train was full 180 minutes late. I sitting almost alone on the platform, dozing every now and then, worried about luggage, and a whole set of things. The late train started becoming later, but covered a lot of time in between. It somehow managed to reach Bangalore station 2 hrs late. Now, it was around 1 am. I was at majestic, and I needed to travel to Marathahalli. I was at my brother's home at around 3am, and the morning, I was at iiitb.

Wait friends, it’s not yet over. Story abhi baki hai mere dost. I’ll continue with the pre-semester tomorrow. I need to sleep now, as I am making more spelling mistakes that Microsoft word is quite likely to start abusing me, on misuse of the spell check facility. Till then, good night to all of you :)

Followed by My Life at iiitb Part 3

My Life at iiitb Part 1

So... it’s been a long time I posted something... and tonight, I think it’s the occasion I should blog on... The first anniversary of my presence at iiitb...

Officially, the journey started on 30th March 2008, when I went to Bhopal, for the written test at merit track assessment centre. On 18th April, I got the news that I am 1 stage closer to the campus. The interview dates shocked me, as I had my exam on Distributed Systems Design dated 6th may, and the interview was very next day. What I was happy about was that I was not alone, and Sonal was also coming with me. We booked flights to and from Nagpur, around 250 kms from RCET Bhilai. The exam was to end at 2pm, and the flight was at 8pm. we had loads of time. Still we planned that we would finish the exam by around 1:30, as we needed to reach Nagpur ASAP. The paper was a bit lengthy, and we somehow managed to delay our exit from the exam hall till 2pm. then we moved to my room, where we collected our bags, and finally left the city by 2:30pm.

Still we had 5 hrs, and the average speed required was just above 50...

Stomachs grumbling, we decided to stop by A1 dhaba, on the outskirts of Rajnandgaon. This took another valuable 75 minutes of the 300 we had. Making us to travel the 210 kms in no more than 200 minutes..

Thanks to Sonal's terrific driving skills (he actually touched 130 while driving Daewoo Matiz), God as there was no traffic jam on NH6 (we faced a short; 15-25 min jam in our return 2 days later....), and of course, nothing happened to us, and to car too. Well, we are on time in Nagpur airport, and I m about to begin my first air journey. It was 8pm Indigo flight from Nagpur to Bangalore, via Mumbai. I really can’t describe how beautiful Mumbai looked when we landing there bathed with the yellow light, not to mention taking off too. We reached Bangalore at 00:10, on 7th may. We took a taxi to my brother's place at Marathahalli. In the morning, we both appeared for the interview at iiitb. To describe how the experience on the road for the traffic, being a first time commuter in Bangalore streets, will be very boring (as we are used to it). The interview went good, for both of us. We had a nice time in Bangalore. Next day, 8th may 2008, we flew back to Nagpur, as we had another exam - Neural Networks and Fuzzy logic waiting for us... on 11th may.

On 19th may, just 1 day before my last exam - Wireless and Mobile Network Architecture, I received a call from iiitb, that I m in, though with a sad news that i m alone, Sonal’s not selected. Irrespective of the fact that I had not started studying, I had some more fun for the next 4-6 hrs. We were asked to report on 18th July, 2008. That was a very interesting journey too. That will follow soon, may be in another couple of hours, after celebrating balki’s birthday of course… :)

Followed by My Life at iiitb Part 2

Was not able to vote this time too..

16th April 2009, first phase of voting for the 15th Loksabha began today. I again missed the vote coz I m in Bangalore, and registered as a voter in Baloda Bazar, Dist. Raipur (Chhattisgarh). (I missed the first vote during Nov. 2008 state elections in Chhattisgarh).

Many people miss their valuable votes like this. Electronic voting machines were first used in India in 1982 in a by-election at the Parur assembly constituency of Kerala. The General Elections in 2004 was conducted totally by Electronic voting machines. It was a big improvement to the traditional Paper ballot system.

About 7,700 tons of paper was used for printing of ballot papers in the 1999 general elections, whereas 8,800 tons of paper was used for the purpose in the 1996 general elections. With the electorate going up steadily, more than 10,000 tons of paper would have to be used for this general election if there had been no EVMs. (Source: Mid Day).

These days, everyone in the country who is eligible to vote has a Voter-ID card, and the use of cellular phones have been reached to the remote areas of the country, the election process can be done online, so that no one misses their vote. By doing the process online, I don’t mean that the Government should create a website, and say, visit to the website and cast your vote....

The following can be done: All the polling booths are connected to a central server - as in the Railway reservation system, or the Bank’s ATM Network. A database can be maintained to keep track of all the voters in the country (That means maintaining a HUGE database). The voter will go to the polling booth, the voter-ID card will be checked, and then he will move to the Voting Machine. On Voting machine, he will key-in his Voter-ID, and the contestants for the voter's constituency will be displayed on the voting machine. The voter will cast the vote. Hence, even the people living away from the places where their names have been registered in the electoral lists will be able to cast their votes.

My First Blog

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Welcome to my blog..
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