Sunday

My typical Sunday: 

After hours of staring at my computer screen, clicking on random keys, moving the mouse frantically left n right, I take a break to glance at the time. 7:00AM...  half an hour left for the mess to open.

Basically, after gaming the entire night on my laptop, I go and eat a couple of delicious cheese omlettes for breakfast a

nd then sleep through the rest of the day.

This Sunday:

Annoyed by some noise near my ear, I pick up my cell and glance at the message. "7:00 Alarm. Wake up. Walkathon!!"

Hmmm, it felt nice to be asleep throughout the night and wake up on a sunday morning. The cheese omlettes tasted just as delicious.

I donned a white shirt and blue jeans and 

headed towards KC. A group of students and members of the Disha Club were gathe

ring 

to have a walkathon around Manipal supporting child literacy. Around 10 children from neighbouring schools had also joined in and were leading the march. 

It was fun, as everyone sang nursery rhymes, catchy childhood tunes and entertaining hindi songs while marching around town, holding up banners and placards.

The Director was also present for the walkathon, and humorously added that he was always thinking of ways to get students up n about early on sunday mornings since he always finds his campus so deserted when he is up for his morning walk.

The walkathon was organized from KC to EDU buillding and back to IC. At IC, members of ADA performed a short play demonstrating why education was necessary. We also watched a short documentary showcasing the students studying in nearby schools, and their hopes and aspirations. Overall it was a very well co

nducted event, my first walkathon, and an enjoyable experience.

It was now 12 in the afternoon. For those of you who don't know me that well, I'm quite afraid of blood. I don't know how i developed the fear, but its a part of me now; even a pin prick is sometimes successful in making me dizzy and sweat profusely. And another thing about me, is that I try to conquer my fears. So on this very Sunday, the NCC corps at our college were organizing a blood donation camp in collaboration with Kasturba Medical College.

I registered myself for it, and stood for about an hour and a half in the queue, waiting to get my blood tested to see if it would be donation worthy. The initial test was a pin prick. A medical student seated at the desk noted down my weight, and then made me sit down. Next, a small prick is made on the tip of a finger, so that blood comes out slowly. This blood is sucked into a capillary tube, and spread on slides for various tests.

All throughout this procedure, i was fine. As soon as i got up to go to the next table, my head started spinning. I started to counsel myself. "Dude, stop it.. you know you're fine, nothings gonna happen" etc etc... No result. I was sweating profusely and very dizzy. I made my way to the table n chair and put my head down. After about 20 mins of resting and consuming a lot of water, frooti, appy fizz and maaza (all free btw) i finally felt better.

At the second test they test the blood pressure. Mine was 100/60 i think; and normal BP is 120/80. I later learnt it was on the lower side since i was sweating for a long time.

Next i made my way to the bed and lied down. One of the doctors came and cleaned a region on my arm, and stuck a needle through it. For the next 15 mins there was this slight sensation, as if a mild pinch at my arm. But it was not as painful as i had imagined in my head. It was rather painless. Surprisingly and thankfully no dizziness or sweat accompanied this experience. Had a few snacks 

and made my way to KC canteen to have a mega lunch at 3 in the afternoon.

Now most would think, phew, 2 good deeds in the day, enough dude..

But then, at 5 in the evening there was another walkathon demonstrating against terrorism. This too was just as enjoyable as the one I had in the morning. However, instead of singing nursery rhymes, we were shouting slogans like: "Youth against: Terror" and "Youth for: Peace". After a lot of shouting and almost losing my voice, I completed this walkathon too.

                                    

We ended it by lighting candles to show our support to the innocent victims of countless terror attacks in our country.

This would have to be one of the best Sunday's of my life as yet.

Happy Valentine's Day :)

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Hope all of you cherish peaceful, enjoyable and memorable moments with your loved ones.

Good news for bangalore...

Well well well... Its a surprising turn of events, but it seems that officially, Shri Ram Sena(SRS) has called off the Valentine Day protests in Bangalore.

The leader Muthalik of course tried to save his face by giving almost baseless reasons. He has "specific information" that people are going to create trouble for his activists. How intelligent!!

Muthalik concludes, saying that the purpose of having called the protests was accomplished. Now he and his views are popular all across India and 50% of the colleges have directed their students to refrain from celebrating Valentine's day. Now, here's someone who's full of himself. NEWS FLASH Mr. Muthalik; Colleges directed their students not to celebrate in order to protect them from the brutality of your activists. It wasn't in the name of "Indian Culture".

It is a victory for all the youth organizations and other groups that have voiced their opinions against the narrow mindedness and hooliganism practiced by the SRS. Also, I think that http://thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com deserves a special mention. It has helped to mobilize and unite majority of the urban youth by creating this online campaign.

However, with all the good news for Bangalore, it is a slightly sorry scenario for other places in Karnataka. Anti-SRS organizations were planning and focusing everything on Bangalore. Now a couple of days before Valentines Day, the SRS has shifted its focus to all places but Bangalore. Lets hope this Valentines Day will not be the "UGLIEST" as predicted by many.

Our great leaders...

Yeah Right!!!

The highly orthodox vedic-age views and tomfoolery which constitute the Indian political scenario, have been brought out by a recent incident not far from here... On 24th Jan, a dozen guys from the Sri Ram Sena (SRS) entered a bar/restaurant and assaulted the women sitting there. Reasons??

• Not dressed decently ( Implying the lady wasn't covered from head to toe)
• Mixing with men of other faith (Last time i checked, India was secular and free. Right??)
• Consuming alcohol. (And surely people over 18 yrs of age can drink legally. Be it men or women.)

BUT NO. Its against the Indian culture. Caste system, purdah and male domination should be maintained.

Here's an interesting quote:

It is not our culture. If it goes this way I don't think India will progress

-Ramadoss

(Union Health Minister)

I re-he-he-he-healllllyyy don't think so. Its orthodox people like these ministers that fail to help in India's progress.

You see not everyone sits comfy in their offices, doing nothing, accepting bribes for illegal stuff, orchestrating scandals and conspiracies, travelling VVIP everywhere and having a servant for every small task. Normal people, the general public; they work hard to sustain themselves and their families. And since they are doing work, they are entitled to getting a break, having fun, be it so if its whilst chatting over a few beers. There is nothing wrong with that.

We've seen a lot of  "Jago Grahak Jago" ads on TV. I guess we need to make a "Jaago Minister, Jaago" series, and telecast it especially for our oh-sooo-not honourable ministers.

It is a disgrace that people like Pramod Mutalik (national president of Rashtriya Hindu Sena) are even tolerated as human beings, let alone being respected and promoted as a leader.

His immediate reaction to the incident: "I apologize if such a thing as happened. The mode of execution was wrong."

The group of guys were actually meant to assault the men who brought the women in.

Some of Mutalik's statements and activities are so absurd!! He hailed and celebrated the Babri Mazjid demolition. He supported those involved in the Malegon blasts because they were fighting "Islamic Terrorists". When standing for elections, he said in his speech that he doesn't want "non-Hindu" people to vote for him. This guy is a time bomb waiting to explode. He has over 100 cases filed against him within just 8 years. The law should put an end to such religiously biased people, who are creating communal tensions and disrupting public peace in a secular, all-religion-accommodating country like India.

The CM of Karnataka is equally hopeless in this case, as his stint as CM would lie in jeopardy if he condemned the RSS which is part of his coalition group.  And of course nothing is more important to a minister than his "kursi", not even the people that elected them.

Therefore, as expected of the CM, he agrees with the Sene Activists and condemns "pub culture". However, this does not mean that the government will stop issuing new licences or cancel existing ones. There is no restriction on friends, family and couples attending pubs.  WHAT THE HELL IS PUB CULTURE THEN?????

Once again  none of the politicians have an answer to that question. BUT, nonetheless, they are against  PUB CULTURE.

For the record, I hate Indian Politics. The entire System. I neither support Left, Right or Centre. However, I wish to point out that the BJP has withdrawn 54 cases against Pramod Mutalik and yet claim nothing to have to do with him. This is not a pro-Congress comment, its just Anti-political.

And also the wierdest demands are being fielded by organizations these days. They want India to be called a religious state, not a secular state. They want India to be registered as a Hindu nation in the UN accounts. These are just to name a few. Whatever happened to a secular India, where people befriend people because they are people and not because they are of same caste or religion or other crap.

I would like to end this post by appealing to the youth of this great nation, not to fall into the traps of these "religious institutions". We are educated, civilized people and have the power to shape our country's future. Let us take upon ourselves the need to educate the rural masses, for they are the ones that unknowingly support these inhuman, restless, jobless and good-for-nothing religious activists. Thank you.

Kafe with...out Koffee

Everyone has one of  these days occasionally. Bored, jobless, nothing to do, no movies to watch, no new TV shows out, no games to play; u get the drift.... And then you decide to go out with friends and hang out in a "cool" place like CCD or Mochas or the like. Well it could be friends, a friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, cousins or whoever is free and fun to spend time with.

Now, everyone reaches expecting to spend some time having fun in a nice cosy place, with soft music playing, and the smell of coffee and cakes adrift in the air. It isn't a gathering to celebrate something, but just to randomly hang out and chit-chat. So no one's thinking of ordering a lot. Maybe a drink each just so you wouldn't be sitting in there without ordering anything and giving the staff a good reason to kick you out.

Now imagine that you are in a group of 4, and all order a drink. Hot coffee, Blackcurrant blast, Devil's Own, Toblerone Shake. All drinks are brought together and put in front of you. As one person speaks others listen while sipping on their drinks and it goes on, until you realize that in almost half an hour all of you are almost finished with your drinks. You realize, you cant sit there another 2 hours without ordering anything. The waiter will simply bring the bill, implying subtly, that you need to go!!

Well, worry not. Here are a few useful tips...

• Keep sipping from your glass occasionally. Doesn't matter if its empty. Just make the right gulping actions.
• Add imaginary sugar from an empty sachet into an empty coffee mug, and pretend to stir it with your spoon.
  
• One person keep an eye out for those waiters, and always sip your imaginary drink while looking at them.
• Compliment the cafe you are in, amongst yourselves, loud enough for passing waiters to hear.

And last but not least,

• Please don't all of u stir, or all of u sip at the same time while looking at the waiter. Act normal people!!

Credit for the material goes to my cousin Prerana who made my stomach ache by enacting these and many other humorous ways to prevent the waiter from bringing us our bill.

Serious Stuff!!

Usually, I'm never serious, and I would hardly appear to be someone who would be thinking about stuff which I am going to be writing about.

Its what we, the current generation, plan to do once we finish our graduate degrees. There are two broad options as most people see it; go for higher studies or start working. Now here's the drawbacks in both situations.

Let me start with the latter.

Now everyone knows that the world is in a phase of economic recession, with stock markets crashing, companies shutting down, entrenchment, layoffs, cost-cutting measures and what not. In the words of our Home Minister and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, India isn't facing recession but rather a slowdown. 

Whatever be the case, it is very clear that getting a good satisfying job won't be easy, and the pay wouldn't be what it used to be either. 

Apart from this, most elders would advise us to finish all our studies first, and then start working. There are two reasons for this from two different point of views.

From the elders' point of view, they seem to think that once we stop studying, we will lose our rhythm, and therefore not be able to pursue further studies with the same fervour, as we would do, if we continued studying. While there is a certain amount of merit to this point of view, how many of us actually study all throughout the year?? :P

Secondly, from my point of view. The things we study in college and the things we are made to do at work, are so completely different, that going back to studies after working would seem like taking a step backwards. The two project experiences I had in the past two summers have taught me, that not much we learn comes into use practically. Also the working environment is so much different than college and actually quite better in some respects. Like generally office hours are from 10:00 in the morning (so much more sleep if office is close by :) ), Saturdays are holidays, etc. (speaking of software companies in general). After being in a healthy work environment, the mind will never be willing to go back to the confines of a classroom to listen to lectures which will eventually not come into use.

So bottom line is that going to work is not a viable option, unless its a family business or you start your own firm or something like that. Your placement won't be justified because of the tough economic period.

Now we come to the option of pursuing higher studies. For us engineering students, we have MBA, MS and MTECH. For all 3, one common problem will be the substantial rise in number of candidates appearing for these exams.

Those interested in the technical aspect would like to go for an MS degree from a foreign university. Now as tempting and awesome as that seems, the whole affair is very expensive. Most students in the past, who went on scholarships, would work over there along with studying, so as to meet their needs for boarding and lodging. With the people of United States alone, having lost 2.53 million jobs in the past year, we cannot go there and hope to get lucky with finding a job near college.

I have never been a fan of MTECH for no real reason. It just never appealed to me. But i guess, its a good option for those who want to work in core companies of their field. Getting a specialization in their field, will help tremendously.

Lastly we come to MBA. Indian MBA degrees, especially from reputed institutions are priceless. This will be the examination, that in my opinion will see the largest increase in candidates. It is within the country, therefore lighter on the purse-strings, it is a very good CV-booster, and lastly, the course duration is long enough for the economic crisis to have passed(hopefully).

My uncle, a retired Navy officer, would always tell me, "why are you choosing between MBA and MS; do both..." and I would always laugh it off, since I was purely interested in MS. But I guess with the changing times, doing an MBA first and then going for MS doesn't really seem such a bad idea.

Comments anyone??

Blogging... My second attempt...

Hello everyone. For those of you who know me well, you know how lazy I am.

However, blogging seems to be a very constructive pass time and therefore i shall try once again to be an active blogger. My last blog reached a massive total of, an unimaginable, an unforseen and amazing... 2 posts. Lets hope this blog actually reaches a massive, unimaginable, unforseen and amazing total. :)

Now, many (actually hardly anyone) would wonder why I created a new blog, instead of just continuing in the old one. Well there is this thing of mine, where i am unable to continue something that I've left for a long time. Whether it be in-game characters in MMORPG's or, well blogs, I always have to start afresh if I take a long break.

(MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)

Enjoy!!