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- Just another chunk of raw matter waiting to be processed by the system; So that I can call myself an engineer :-/
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Sunday, December 5, 2010
1:00 PM | 
Ranted by
Sumiran |
There are two things certain in life: change and death. In an MU engineering college though, the former is not so certain :-/. So for the brave ongoing souls who survived FE and SE, this college has still some more in store in the most dreaded year... TE!
(No don't get confused trying to click on the TE link... its linked to this page only :P)
The 'RK' way:
MOV AX, STUDENT
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
MOV TRASH, AX
The 'AVN' way:
Take 'n' number of routers where n = <student's roll number> Mod <random(1,6) chosen by a fair dice roll>
Take 'x' number of LAN cables where x = [n(n+1)/2] Mod <height of 6th floor / length of 1 LAN cable>
Tie the LAN cables in a star topology with the 'n' routers, each of them tied to the 6th floor window grill in a linear fashion with one free end around the student's neck.
Geronimo!
The 'SND' way:
Isko... TE ko... ek phainaite state maschfhischine mein daalne ka aur epsilon transition maarne ka. Aur jyaada shaanpatti nahi karne ka haa.
The 'JR' way:
Make Powerpoint slides live while teaching in class and ignore the autocorrect that capitalizes the first letter of each query, making any perfectionist twitch like crazy!
The 'NR' way:
function validate(TE)
{
if(TE.name.length < 2 || TE.name.length > 40)
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(!TE.email.contains('@'))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(!TE.email.contains('.'))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(isNan(TE.age.value))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(isNan(TE.address.pincode.value))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(all_the_above_is_validated)
{
alert("TE dies writing the code for validation the whole night");
return false;
}
}
The FE way:
Upload lots of fun-pics of class outings on Facebook and remind the TE of the awesome careless time he enjoyed two years ago.
The SE way:
Try to carry on the TEs' legacy of ragging and enter the FE class in lunch break and get shooed out within 17 minutes by some random newbie professor.
Seriously guys... EPIC FACEPALM!
The BE way:
Do what they do best: still keep scaring the juniors about placements and GRE and CAT and MS and Universities and Companies and future in general while the TE is still struggling to come to terms with two research papers and eight assignments for termwork :-/
Trademark MU way:
Question 1 is compulsory and it has been taken straight from some ghati textbook's Appendix C which was bought on udhaar from the bhangaarwala at Kalina.
Attempt any four of the next six questions. Any resemblance of these questions to matter contained within the syllabus is strictly co-incidental.
Bonus: The 'committee chairperson' way:
"IEEE meeting at 9:00 AM tomorrow"
(stored as a template broadcasted to the committee every night :P)
Sigh... halfway through!
Damn! Only half the journey left :'(
(No don't get confused trying to click on the TE link... its linked to this page only :P)
The 'RK' way:
MOV AX, STUDENT
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
PUSH AX
POP AX
MOV TRASH, AX
The 'AVN' way:
Take 'n' number of routers where n = <student's roll number> Mod <random(1,6) chosen by a fair dice roll>
Take 'x' number of LAN cables where x = [n(n+1)/2] Mod <height of 6th floor / length of 1 LAN cable>
Tie the LAN cables in a star topology with the 'n' routers, each of them tied to the 6th floor window grill in a linear fashion with one free end around the student's neck.
Geronimo!
The 'SND' way:
Isko... TE ko... ek phainaite state maschfhischine mein daalne ka aur epsilon transition maarne ka. Aur jyaada shaanpatti nahi karne ka haa.
The 'JR' way:
Make Powerpoint slides live while teaching in class and ignore the autocorrect that capitalizes the first letter of each query, making any perfectionist twitch like crazy!
The 'NR' way:
function validate(TE)
{
if(TE.name.length < 2 || TE.name.length > 40)
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(!TE.email.contains('@'))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(!TE.email.contains('.'))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(isNan(TE.age.value))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(isNan(TE.address.pincode.value))
{
alert("Sorry you don't exist");
return false;
}
if(all_the_above_is_validated)
{
alert("TE dies writing the code for validation the whole night");
return false;
}
}
The FE way:
Upload lots of fun-pics of class outings on Facebook and remind the TE of the awesome careless time he enjoyed two years ago.
The SE way:
Try to carry on the TEs' legacy of ragging and enter the FE class in lunch break and get shooed out within 17 minutes by some random newbie professor.
Seriously guys... EPIC FACEPALM!
The BE way:
Do what they do best: still keep scaring the juniors about placements and GRE and CAT and MS and Universities and Companies and future in general while the TE is still struggling to come to terms with two research papers and eight assignments for termwork :-/
Trademark MU way:
Question 1 is compulsory and it has been taken straight from some ghati textbook's Appendix C which was bought on udhaar from the bhangaarwala at Kalina.
Attempt any four of the next six questions. Any resemblance of these questions to matter contained within the syllabus is strictly co-incidental.
Bonus: The 'committee chairperson' way:
"IEEE meeting at 9:00 AM tomorrow"
(stored as a template broadcasted to the committee every night :P)
Sigh... halfway through!
Damn! Only half the journey left :'(
Labels:
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
After seeing all my helpless seniors wage a pointless online campaign with Facebook and Twitter updates against the dark terror of the sixth floor, I decided to chip in with a remake of a old but classic joke...
Here is what truly happened...
God was in the process of creating SPIT. And he was explaining his subordinates ...
"Look, everything should be in balance. For every happy student there has to be a sadistic teacher. Look here my fellow angels, here is the branch of EXTC. I have blessed them high cutoffs and an intelligent crowd. But at the same time I have given them labs without decent equipment. Here is Electronics. They have no complains about the teachers of the labs. But they are forced to spend four years studying about nothing more exciting than transistors and tube lights. Here is IT. I have given them understanding lab assistants, a canteen staff that delivers food to their labs, with every bit of student freedom. But at the same time, I have given them a strict and no-nonsense Head of Department like Deven Shah. So you see fellows, everything should be in balance."
One of the angels asked... "God, which is this branch on the sixth floor?"
God said "Aha...that is the crown piece of SPIT. Comps! My most precious creation. It has an awesome intellectual yet non-nerdy crowd. Super cooled AC labs, an awesome and picturesque view from the sixth floor, Up to date and decently powerful PCs with students having Administrator login to Windows, a really nice and down to earth Head of Department.
The angel was quite surprised "But God you said everything should be in balance."
God replied "Look at this 'Prof' I gave them. Nimkar makes the students sweat in those same AC labs, makes them want to jump off those same picturesque and scenic windows, forces them to work in Linux only and even their beloved HoD is unable to control this wild monster!"
Here is what truly happened...
God was in the process of creating SPIT. And he was explaining his subordinates ...
"Look, everything should be in balance. For every happy student there has to be a sadistic teacher. Look here my fellow angels, here is the branch of EXTC. I have blessed them high cutoffs and an intelligent crowd. But at the same time I have given them labs without decent equipment. Here is Electronics. They have no complains about the teachers of the labs. But they are forced to spend four years studying about nothing more exciting than transistors and tube lights. Here is IT. I have given them understanding lab assistants, a canteen staff that delivers food to their labs, with every bit of student freedom. But at the same time, I have given them a strict and no-nonsense Head of Department like Deven Shah. So you see fellows, everything should be in balance."
One of the angels asked... "God, which is this branch on the sixth floor?"
God said "Aha...that is the crown piece of SPIT. Comps! My most precious creation. It has an awesome intellectual yet non-nerdy crowd. Super cooled AC labs, an awesome and picturesque view from the sixth floor, Up to date and decently powerful PCs with students having Administrator login to Windows, a really nice and down to earth Head of Department.
The angel was quite surprised "But God you said everything should be in balance."
God replied "Look at this 'Prof' I gave them. Nimkar makes the students sweat in those same AC labs, makes them want to jump off those same picturesque and scenic windows, forces them to work in Linux only and even their beloved HoD is unable to control this wild monster!"
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The day you write your final term paper and walk home, the walk isn't like before. Even inanimate things as you walk down the lane to your house feel like they are singing the song of liberty. The evening at home is the high point. Especially when you have nothing to do. It takes great pleasure in sitting idle and planning to do all the nothing you want in the next 2 days (The days after that, well, are for the IV :P). Today as I sit looking back the entire semester, it feels like an old story. That happens every time. But of course, is no less dramatic than a Bollywood pot boiler. So I decided to sit down, this evening after the last exam and actually analyze what goes into a semester.
It all starts with few boring weeks. These days you see new teachers come in and teach new subjects. You make your priorities then. You know the subject you need to slog. But you can do nothing the semester. Forget about studying it. The days are characterized by silent and low attendance days. Probably taking some time until people recover from post-vacation shock and accept college as a grim reality of life. The days move on and you wonder about when are the first test and assignments going to come in.
Then comes the main course. The most hectic part of the semester. You are loaded with lots of assignments you wish the teachers spaced out. Photocopy machines, Digicams with high-res, scanners etc all contribute to our survival. Student co-operation is at its height. Assignments are divided equally and mailed to each other after solving. Free lectures no more mean canteen, music, sleep, flirting with your special one or the gymkhana (apart for some few... well). Everyone sits down to make good use of the one hour to copy down assignments or journals in a blitzy speed. Practicals are finished early with a purpose too. The night is mostly spent awake trying to honestly try out some assignments on your own. But they are inadvertently end up spent chatting with fellow hum-'suffers', cursing the teachers and the workload they dump on us or aimlessly surfing random sites on the net or your favorite game all night long. This is probably the reason people arrive latest for the morning lecture during this phase. Or probably not attend it at all.
The next phase is the slowly ending dreamy end sem phase. Suddenly all your journals and lost experiments/assignments come down to haunt you. This is probably the time your room is turned upside down to find and file that Maths tut you misplaced last week somewhere on your desk (or maybe was it the cupboard?). The end sem date haunts you like doomsday. Studying and teaching pace in college drops quite sharply with teachers either finishing their portion or giving up all iotas of hopes to do so with the class clapping mid-lecture for no reason or entering class late at regular intervals of five minutes for the first fourty five minutes of the lecture. (Those who try to enter in the last fifteen minutes are unceremoniously shooed off with an "Attaind neaxt leckture"). Soon the phase ends. You manage to complete all your presentations and assignments (Magically. Without any problem. Always.) as you get ready for the end sem date.
On judgement day you arrive in the morning with a bag full of 6 or 7 brown paper covered neatly labelled files containing all your good and bad deeds ready for submission to the devil (Not God. This is engineering. Its hell.) who judges you with either an
A+ : (you were a nice lap dog throughout the semester baccha)
A : (you are smart but you dont impress me)
A- : (you suck. But you have a good company of friends who got A and A+s)
B+ : (You did all the work on time)
B : (Well atleast you helped me get the projector up to the sixth floor)
B- : (Yes, you SE Comps? with a finger wagging towards you)
C+ : (Just for kicks)
You leave college with a feeling of having left a large truckload of emotions written on A4 sized sheets that you numbered with pencil (and neatly circled them... for last hopes of a grade-upgrade) the night before. You confirm practical dates and leave for home. Half the Semester is over!
Then comes the early part of the prep leave. You sit and plan how much to study and when. You make a nice txt file and leave it on your desktop. You mug up expected readings and lines of code (that you make sure are in your FTP folder... just in case) for the practical exams. A typical viva that happens is something like this: (It happened to me in mech last year :-()
Ext dude:
There is only 1 hanger and 1 load.. what to do if I want 2 hangers and 2 loads
Me:
In that case you will have to calculate the sum of each of these 2 moments and.......
Ext dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do ?
Me:
We will need to take individual weights of each hanger into consideration and add them to the loads
Ext Dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do ?
Me:
Actually then we dont need to do anything coz we have adjusted the zero load tension in the spring and what readings we take is a difference and automatically adjusted
Ext Dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do?
Me:
*Gave a long scared stare*
Ext dude:
Gives me a cold hard stare.
Ext dude:
If I replace this UDL like crank with a UVL, what do I do then?
Me:
That doesnt matter... all zero load adjustments are done when I adjust and take the spring balance reading without any load
Ext dude:
Another cold hard stare
(I wanted to cry...)
Ext dude:
Varignon's theorem? Law of moments? Difference?
Me:
In full josh gave a complete and technically correct and mathematically bhari definition with high tech english and a non-hesitating accent
Ext dude:
Okok.. you can go.
Ive realised that the best judge of how much are you going to get on a viva is the final words he uses. "You can go" means you have been given a jeevan daan.
"Ok. You can go" means he is passing you in the viva because you are so hopeless that you are anyways going to fail in the written paper.
After the practical phase ends, starts probably the longest part of the semester. The long preparatory leave. PL stands more for 'Probably Loafing' than 'Prep leave' :P. You start a subject. Finish reading half the first chapter in the morning, a quarter in the afternoon. No sorry evening. You sleep in the afternoon. And you plan to study the whole night but end up surfing/chatting. The next day you realize there are a whole 4 days before the exam again to study. Why not put it off till then. This continues for all subjects. Your blog is nicely updated. Your literary skills beckon you when you need them the least. Even boring flash games on the internet start to amuse you. You are a hopeless case.
And then the last phase that drags on for a month is the actual exams. The day you come home after an exam you say "Im going to study so hard for the next paper, Im going to top." Full of resolve to study well, you go to sleep early. The next day you wake up late. You realize that there are three more days left. You spend the morning loafing and the afternoon sleeping. In the evening you open the book and manage to finish half of the easiest chapter you find. You plan to wake up late and for the first time in the semester, spend it constructively, staying awake 4 hours past your bed time, completing maybe half a chapter more in the half an hour you actually study then. Before going to sleep, you say: "Im going to study well and not repeat the mistake I did for the last paper." The next day you get a shock with only 2 days remaining. You complete reading all the chapters once, but like always "ek aur baar revision kar lena hai". At night you say "Im going to study so well tomorrow, Ill complete the portion." On the eve of the exam you magically complete all that looks important to you. The evening you wake up from your exile and finally call someone to ask them how much they studied. You sleep tensed and say to yourself. "Unlike last time, Im going to give the paper well. I definitely wont get a KT".
And then the next day you give your paper with countable marks adding up well beyond 40. You go home happy and look forward to the next paper. It goes on... and goes on... until a month later you see the the ray of hope and the exams get over.
And then you spend the final exam evening writing a blog you remember you last wrote a long time back.
Damn, Im so tired today I guess Ill edit and post this tomorrow. Yay! Sem 3 done. "Im going to study so well for Sem 4 that Im going to top!" 8-)
It all starts with few boring weeks. These days you see new teachers come in and teach new subjects. You make your priorities then. You know the subject you need to slog. But you can do nothing the semester. Forget about studying it. The days are characterized by silent and low attendance days. Probably taking some time until people recover from post-vacation shock and accept college as a grim reality of life. The days move on and you wonder about when are the first test and assignments going to come in.
Then comes the main course. The most hectic part of the semester. You are loaded with lots of assignments you wish the teachers spaced out. Photocopy machines, Digicams with high-res, scanners etc all contribute to our survival. Student co-operation is at its height. Assignments are divided equally and mailed to each other after solving. Free lectures no more mean canteen, music, sleep, flirting with your special one or the gymkhana (apart for some few... well). Everyone sits down to make good use of the one hour to copy down assignments or journals in a blitzy speed. Practicals are finished early with a purpose too. The night is mostly spent awake trying to honestly try out some assignments on your own. But they are inadvertently end up spent chatting with fellow hum-'suffers', cursing the teachers and the workload they dump on us or aimlessly surfing random sites on the net or your favorite game all night long. This is probably the reason people arrive latest for the morning lecture during this phase. Or probably not attend it at all.
The next phase is the slowly ending dreamy end sem phase. Suddenly all your journals and lost experiments/assignments come down to haunt you. This is probably the time your room is turned upside down to find and file that Maths tut you misplaced last week somewhere on your desk (or maybe was it the cupboard?). The end sem date haunts you like doomsday. Studying and teaching pace in college drops quite sharply with teachers either finishing their portion or giving up all iotas of hopes to do so with the class clapping mid-lecture for no reason or entering class late at regular intervals of five minutes for the first fourty five minutes of the lecture. (Those who try to enter in the last fifteen minutes are unceremoniously shooed off with an "Attaind neaxt leckture"). Soon the phase ends. You manage to complete all your presentations and assignments (Magically. Without any problem. Always.) as you get ready for the end sem date.
On judgement day you arrive in the morning with a bag full of 6 or 7 brown paper covered neatly labelled files containing all your good and bad deeds ready for submission to the devil (Not God. This is engineering. Its hell.) who judges you with either an
A+ : (you were a nice lap dog throughout the semester baccha)
A : (you are smart but you dont impress me)
A- : (you suck. But you have a good company of friends who got A and A+s)
B+ : (You did all the work on time)
B : (Well atleast you helped me get the projector up to the sixth floor)
B- : (Yes, you SE Comps? with a finger wagging towards you)
C+ : (Just for kicks)
You leave college with a feeling of having left a large truckload of emotions written on A4 sized sheets that you numbered with pencil (and neatly circled them... for last hopes of a grade-upgrade) the night before. You confirm practical dates and leave for home. Half the Semester is over!
Then comes the early part of the prep leave. You sit and plan how much to study and when. You make a nice txt file and leave it on your desktop. You mug up expected readings and lines of code (that you make sure are in your FTP folder... just in case) for the practical exams. A typical viva that happens is something like this: (It happened to me in mech last year :-()
Ext dude:
There is only 1 hanger and 1 load.. what to do if I want 2 hangers and 2 loads
Me:
In that case you will have to calculate the sum of each of these 2 moments and.......
Ext dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do ?
Me:
We will need to take individual weights of each hanger into consideration and add them to the loads
Ext Dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do ?
Me:
Actually then we dont need to do anything coz we have adjusted the zero load tension in the spring and what readings we take is a difference and automatically adjusted
Ext Dude:
Yaya I know, but what to do?
Me:
*Gave a long scared stare*
Ext dude:
Gives me a cold hard stare.
Ext dude:
If I replace this UDL like crank with a UVL, what do I do then?
Me:
That doesnt matter... all zero load adjustments are done when I adjust and take the spring balance reading without any load
Ext dude:
Another cold hard stare
(I wanted to cry...)
Ext dude:
Varignon's theorem? Law of moments? Difference?
Me:
In full josh gave a complete and technically correct and mathematically bhari definition with high tech english and a non-hesitating accent
Ext dude:
Okok.. you can go.
Ive realised that the best judge of how much are you going to get on a viva is the final words he uses. "You can go" means you have been given a jeevan daan.
"Ok. You can go" means he is passing you in the viva because you are so hopeless that you are anyways going to fail in the written paper.
After the practical phase ends, starts probably the longest part of the semester. The long preparatory leave. PL stands more for 'Probably Loafing' than 'Prep leave' :P. You start a subject. Finish reading half the first chapter in the morning, a quarter in the afternoon. No sorry evening. You sleep in the afternoon. And you plan to study the whole night but end up surfing/chatting. The next day you realize there are a whole 4 days before the exam again to study. Why not put it off till then. This continues for all subjects. Your blog is nicely updated. Your literary skills beckon you when you need them the least. Even boring flash games on the internet start to amuse you. You are a hopeless case.
And then the last phase that drags on for a month is the actual exams. The day you come home after an exam you say "Im going to study so hard for the next paper, Im going to top." Full of resolve to study well, you go to sleep early. The next day you wake up late. You realize that there are three more days left. You spend the morning loafing and the afternoon sleeping. In the evening you open the book and manage to finish half of the easiest chapter you find. You plan to wake up late and for the first time in the semester, spend it constructively, staying awake 4 hours past your bed time, completing maybe half a chapter more in the half an hour you actually study then. Before going to sleep, you say: "Im going to study well and not repeat the mistake I did for the last paper." The next day you get a shock with only 2 days remaining. You complete reading all the chapters once, but like always "ek aur baar revision kar lena hai". At night you say "Im going to study so well tomorrow, Ill complete the portion." On the eve of the exam you magically complete all that looks important to you. The evening you wake up from your exile and finally call someone to ask them how much they studied. You sleep tensed and say to yourself. "Unlike last time, Im going to give the paper well. I definitely wont get a KT".
And then the next day you give your paper with countable marks adding up well beyond 40. You go home happy and look forward to the next paper. It goes on... and goes on... until a month later you see the the ray of hope and the exams get over.
And then you spend the final exam evening writing a blog you remember you last wrote a long time back.
Damn, Im so tired today I guess Ill edit and post this tomorrow. Yay! Sem 3 done. "Im going to study so well for Sem 4 that Im going to top!" 8-)
Sunday, November 22, 2009
"Chal yaar karke dekhte hai... should be nice TP".
The next day, we three musketeers of our class, Priyank, HP and me registered for the IEEE Xtreme coding 3.0 challenge. The coming week being loaded with assignments, journals, submissions, tests and the works, we conveniently forgot about our commitment. The Thursday before the Super Saturday, we were reminded of it. We had to report in at 4:30 to college. The event began at 5:30. "Would you prefer an overnight stay?", we were asked. "Eh, what on earth for?". "Its 5:30 AM" came the reply.
"Abbe nahin pagal hai kya? I'm not coming. Khadde mein gaya coding voding."
"Abbe haan re. And it isnt officially decided ke Saturday ko extra lectures canceled hai. I need to attend EDC warna mera attendance tapak jaayega. Baaki sab beech mein I'm ready to come in and go out."
"Khadde mein gaya. Im sleeping at home. Subah saade paanch coding karne ke alawa koi kaam dhanda nahin hai kya?"
"Listen guys, this is going to be the event of our lives. Think about it. We are the only guys from SE to take part in this. We all know how much we love coding and hate DSF. This is our chance to prove our brains and our capability. Just imagine ourselves finishing at a respectable position. We will be the talk of the college. Glory and fame will be ours. We shall OWN! We shall be the envy of all Mumbai colleges. Good fortunes are calling is. And you guys say 'Ill call back later'?"
"Haaaaaaan fine we are coming."
I slept early on Friday. I woke up at 4:00. We three monkeys reached college at a very respectable 4:45, only to find that those staying back at night were still snoring heavily in the lab. The competition was supposed to go on for a whole 24 hours. Yep. 14+5 problems to be solved in this time frame. That was too less, considering that when you leave a lab in the hands of some SE and TE students without a proctor to be seen anywhere, most of the time is meant to be spent fooling around.
5:30 dawned slowly and everyone woke up from their sweet slumber spent on the long benches of the lab. We three maniacs got down to our laptops and started reading problem statement after problem statement, looking for the first one we could comprehend to. We were lucky with one, but got stuck on the others. Other teams too had similar progress (or the lack of it rather :P). At 6:30, there was a round table conference in the middle of the lab. "We work together, submit together, win together". The resolution was passed unanimously and with motivating war cries of the 'Hallelujah' caliber, everyone rushed back to their computers. An hour later, there was no hint of a 'team'. Random people working together breaking the barrier of 'teams' on different programs made work pretty easy. By 7:30, everyone managed to submit about 3 more codes successfully.
I guess engineers are allergic to sunlight. This is because for the next 12 hours until 7:30 in the evening, we werent successful at anything. But the day was something to cherish. We ordered food from Vrindavan and had it in the very lab where it is a strict no-no. We joked around and bitched about the evil professors while sitting with legs stretched on the on the very table from which they pronounce their verdicts of death. It was a day to remember.
As evening approached, everyone was visibly bugged at not being able to crack a code since morning. Half of them gave up and left. The few brave men including me, Priyank, Manish (illegally, for our sake... he wasn't even an IEEE member :P... Kudos to him), Pranit, Swinburn and some BE guys decided to stay for longer. The clock kept ticking. We got some codes partially running with small errors. Slowly and steadily we got a few codes accepted. It felt motivating to be back on the right track. We ordered dinner and had a hearty meal.
Back to work, it was never as encouraging before. We knew we had nothing to lose. We decided to give it everything we could till we get some more entries right. Our ranks stood at a respectable 40-50 amongst 700 worldwide. At about 2:00 in the night three of us decided to slip out to the SP-Jain Hostel's night canteen to get some midnight snacks. Roaming in the campus at beyond midnight is an unforgettable experience!
Finally at about 4:30 we realized that time was now a factor. But we were numb to it. Awake for more than 24 hours at a stretch, CODING, we realized what sleep actually meant. A final touch to another code that finally worked, after being rewritten 4 times by 3 different people paid off. We stood at a global rank in the range of 30-35!
At 5:00 I finally understood the obnoxious problem statement 14, which no one looked eager to code as no one had worked on it before. Even I slumped on the prospect of writing a fresh code. I stretched myself on the long table. The very table on which I had given a successful interview for FACE. The table on which I had royally screwed up a viva. The very table on which I have sat down taking notes dictated by a certain intimidating DoRK. The very table over which we had argued over lab and PC allotment for Nirmaan events. I realized that I had never seen the ceiling of the lab before. I enjoyed a blissful fifteen minutes of semi-consciousness, forcing myself not to sleep. I finally got up and strutted to my laptop. I looked around. Half of us were asleep. Only Manish and Swinburn were working on a cruel piece of code that refused to work. Finally everyone woke up, and at 5:25, decided to call it a day.
As I walked out of college, I realized that it was the same atmosphere as it was when I entered college. The tranquility of Mumbai early in the morning (mmmmm....), the mild early November chill, the dawning rays of sunlight egging us on to go fight another day. As I walked back, I realised that now there is no minute left on the clock of which I havent spent in college. We had made the computer lab our home for those 24 hours. Coding pretty successfully and finishing at a respectable position apart, I was proud of what I just did.
Damn, after two years when this competition is held again and I'm in BE, Im GONNA DO IT AGAIN! :-)
The next day, we three musketeers of our class, Priyank, HP and me registered for the IEEE Xtreme coding 3.0 challenge. The coming week being loaded with assignments, journals, submissions, tests and the works, we conveniently forgot about our commitment. The Thursday before the Super Saturday, we were reminded of it. We had to report in at 4:30 to college. The event began at 5:30. "Would you prefer an overnight stay?", we were asked. "Eh, what on earth for?". "Its 5:30 AM" came the reply.
"Abbe nahin pagal hai kya? I'm not coming. Khadde mein gaya coding voding."
"Abbe haan re. And it isnt officially decided ke Saturday ko extra lectures canceled hai. I need to attend EDC warna mera attendance tapak jaayega. Baaki sab beech mein I'm ready to come in and go out."
"Khadde mein gaya. Im sleeping at home. Subah saade paanch coding karne ke alawa koi kaam dhanda nahin hai kya?"
"Listen guys, this is going to be the event of our lives. Think about it. We are the only guys from SE to take part in this. We all know how much we love coding and hate DSF. This is our chance to prove our brains and our capability. Just imagine ourselves finishing at a respectable position. We will be the talk of the college. Glory and fame will be ours. We shall OWN! We shall be the envy of all Mumbai colleges. Good fortunes are calling is. And you guys say 'Ill call back later'?"
"Haaaaaaan fine we are coming."
I slept early on Friday. I woke up at 4:00. We three monkeys reached college at a very respectable 4:45, only to find that those staying back at night were still snoring heavily in the lab. The competition was supposed to go on for a whole 24 hours. Yep. 14+5 problems to be solved in this time frame. That was too less, considering that when you leave a lab in the hands of some SE and TE students without a proctor to be seen anywhere, most of the time is meant to be spent fooling around.
5:30 dawned slowly and everyone woke up from their sweet slumber spent on the long benches of the lab. We three maniacs got down to our laptops and started reading problem statement after problem statement, looking for the first one we could comprehend to. We were lucky with one, but got stuck on the others. Other teams too had similar progress (or the lack of it rather :P). At 6:30, there was a round table conference in the middle of the lab. "We work together, submit together, win together". The resolution was passed unanimously and with motivating war cries of the 'Hallelujah' caliber, everyone rushed back to their computers. An hour later, there was no hint of a 'team'. Random people working together breaking the barrier of 'teams' on different programs made work pretty easy. By 7:30, everyone managed to submit about 3 more codes successfully.
I guess engineers are allergic to sunlight. This is because for the next 12 hours until 7:30 in the evening, we werent successful at anything. But the day was something to cherish. We ordered food from Vrindavan and had it in the very lab where it is a strict no-no. We joked around and bitched about the evil professors while sitting with legs stretched on the on the very table from which they pronounce their verdicts of death. It was a day to remember.
As evening approached, everyone was visibly bugged at not being able to crack a code since morning. Half of them gave up and left. The few brave men including me, Priyank, Manish (illegally, for our sake... he wasn't even an IEEE member :P... Kudos to him), Pranit, Swinburn and some BE guys decided to stay for longer. The clock kept ticking. We got some codes partially running with small errors. Slowly and steadily we got a few codes accepted. It felt motivating to be back on the right track. We ordered dinner and had a hearty meal.
Back to work, it was never as encouraging before. We knew we had nothing to lose. We decided to give it everything we could till we get some more entries right. Our ranks stood at a respectable 40-50 amongst 700 worldwide. At about 2:00 in the night three of us decided to slip out to the SP-Jain Hostel's night canteen to get some midnight snacks. Roaming in the campus at beyond midnight is an unforgettable experience!
Finally at about 4:30 we realized that time was now a factor. But we were numb to it. Awake for more than 24 hours at a stretch, CODING, we realized what sleep actually meant. A final touch to another code that finally worked, after being rewritten 4 times by 3 different people paid off. We stood at a global rank in the range of 30-35!
At 5:00 I finally understood the obnoxious problem statement 14, which no one looked eager to code as no one had worked on it before. Even I slumped on the prospect of writing a fresh code. I stretched myself on the long table. The very table on which I had given a successful interview for FACE. The table on which I had royally screwed up a viva. The very table on which I have sat down taking notes dictated by a certain intimidating DoRK. The very table over which we had argued over lab and PC allotment for Nirmaan events. I realized that I had never seen the ceiling of the lab before. I enjoyed a blissful fifteen minutes of semi-consciousness, forcing myself not to sleep. I finally got up and strutted to my laptop. I looked around. Half of us were asleep. Only Manish and Swinburn were working on a cruel piece of code that refused to work. Finally everyone woke up, and at 5:25, decided to call it a day.
As I walked out of college, I realized that it was the same atmosphere as it was when I entered college. The tranquility of Mumbai early in the morning (mmmmm....), the mild early November chill, the dawning rays of sunlight egging us on to go fight another day. As I walked back, I realised that now there is no minute left on the clock of which I havent spent in college. We had made the computer lab our home for those 24 hours. Coding pretty successfully and finishing at a respectable position apart, I was proud of what I just did.
Damn, after two years when this competition is held again and I'm in BE, Im GONNA DO IT AGAIN! :-)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Yes guys, even in this hectic and action packed engineering life, given some time (preferably PLs), looking back and contemplating about life, one does tend to get emotional!
This post is dedicated to those people who we meet once in our lifetime, in an occasion, and have a friendly chat out of nothing to talk about, looking ahead at the occasion at which we met.
I met that guy Keith at DJ Sanghvi during a robotics workshop in Sem I. It was a sleepy lunch break with the room deserted. The cell phone geek that I was, I was happily tapping away reorganizing stuff on my cell phone, while listening to music. This guy taps me from behind with a gentle "Hi." and a casual "Do you mind if we share our playlists"? He had the same cell model as mine, but the black music edition piece. I casually told him that I had 'broken' into my piece and by changing the serial number upgraded it to the music edition a few months back, and then to the internet edition. From then onwards our talk went skyward discussing about GameLoft and Psiloc and LCG. It felt amazing to have met someone who could comprehend those terms. As well as nod assertive to "Psiloc stuff is great. But the cracks are hard to find.", "LCG rocks in terms of simplicity and knowing what WE want" and "SymbianSigned is the worst ever thing to come into existence on this earth".
Out talk ended that evening with "chal phir baaki ka baadme transfer karta hoon, sorry, net se le lunga. gsm0.com na? ok chal then. Bubye!".
Till today I regard him as the biggest cell phone enthusiast I have been privileged to meet.
This one is for that guy Ketan, I met in June when I had to go to the RTO to get my learner's license done. He was a year younger to me, fresh out of his 12th, waiting for admission. In the three hours we were waiting in the long queue, we discussed the education system (or the lack of it, rather), the quota system, and the stupid exams. I relived a year of my life talking with him about the 12th standard life of a Science student. He said he wanted to get admission into my college in another branch, or if not then some NIT. I went home from the RTO dropping him by halfway to his house, saying "Chalo then, see you in SP", but I havent yet. Most probably he went to an NIT. But talking to him felt like talking to a year younger reflection of me!
About a month later I was waiting as usual for the driving school vehicle to come and pick me up, so that I can drop the previous batch student to his house, have a round, pick the next guy up, who drops me back.
I lay yawning against a tree near the road when I saw the car appear. I walked ahead. The car came closer. I was a bit worried as it wasn't anywhere near slowing down. The very last moment, I jumped back, and stumbled over a stone, and fell butt-down on the footpath like I was sitting. Three seconds later, I got my jolt to awaken from my afternoon siesta and stand up. I cute girl flung open the door and kept crying out "Im so sorry. Im so sorry. I just didn't realize. Did I hurt you ?". This felt like a scene straight out of five point someone. The honest soul that I was, I decided not to be a noob and replied that I was perfectly fine. No harm done. She sweetly asked me my name as she proceeded to the rear seat. Me in my just-waken-from-sleep-and-into-another-dream state forgot to ask her her name. She had adjusted her class timing for that particular day only, unfortunately. Her smile was dreamy. Her voice was hypnotic. What I could make out of her eyes through the rear view mirror was the cutest pair of eyes, ranked #1 I had ever seen. (The ranking changes everytime I see another girl :P. But this one stayed for quite a while!).
I drove slowly. Raising the clutch slowly. Pressing the accelerator gently. Giving each small turn an indicator, I dropped her home.
I may fall head over heels for the innumerable girls I see everyday (I can hear girls saying "men will always be men" :P), but she retains the unbeatable rank of being the first girl I dropped home in a car ;-) !
The final friendly stranger I can think of, is again someone I met thanks to my driving school (well Ive spent more time waiting at the RTO, at their office and at the juhu galli signal than driving). It was graduation day. Thanks to a trip to the hospital and lots of college work, I was prepared to go to the RTO for my final test just recently in early November. This time I met another guy (well I didnt ask him his name too :P) who had just graduated from RGIT the previous year. He was placed in PCS but was waiting for his joining date. In the meanwhile he was working in a call centre (and was not ashamed to explicitly state that :-) ). We shared the same passion about driving. We wanted to GIVE the driving test (after hearing lots of stories about "form le ke watka dete hai") because we wanted to prove that we could drive well. We followed F1 and worshiped the same driver. He gave me so many valuable insights to campus recruitments and the future of an engineering student from Mumbai university. Well, he was a reflection of me 3 years into the future!
One queer thing I noticed is that my parting message with most of them was "See ya then", or "Bye bye", oblivious of the fact that we were probably never going to meet each other again. It felt like meeting another random person from this human race and relishing the fact that "hey, its a human I've met!". Simple talk and pointless conversations were never so memorable. They keep reminding us that hey, in this big large world, there are some humans too ;).
This post is dedicated to those people who we meet once in our lifetime, in an occasion, and have a friendly chat out of nothing to talk about, looking ahead at the occasion at which we met.
I met that guy Keith at DJ Sanghvi during a robotics workshop in Sem I. It was a sleepy lunch break with the room deserted. The cell phone geek that I was, I was happily tapping away reorganizing stuff on my cell phone, while listening to music. This guy taps me from behind with a gentle "Hi." and a casual "Do you mind if we share our playlists"? He had the same cell model as mine, but the black music edition piece. I casually told him that I had 'broken' into my piece and by changing the serial number upgraded it to the music edition a few months back, and then to the internet edition. From then onwards our talk went skyward discussing about GameLoft and Psiloc and LCG. It felt amazing to have met someone who could comprehend those terms. As well as nod assertive to "Psiloc stuff is great. But the cracks are hard to find.", "LCG rocks in terms of simplicity and knowing what WE want" and "SymbianSigned is the worst ever thing to come into existence on this earth".
Out talk ended that evening with "chal phir baaki ka baadme transfer karta hoon, sorry, net se le lunga. gsm0.com na? ok chal then. Bubye!".
Till today I regard him as the biggest cell phone enthusiast I have been privileged to meet.
This one is for that guy Ketan, I met in June when I had to go to the RTO to get my learner's license done. He was a year younger to me, fresh out of his 12th, waiting for admission. In the three hours we were waiting in the long queue, we discussed the education system (or the lack of it, rather), the quota system, and the stupid exams. I relived a year of my life talking with him about the 12th standard life of a Science student. He said he wanted to get admission into my college in another branch, or if not then some NIT. I went home from the RTO dropping him by halfway to his house, saying "Chalo then, see you in SP", but I havent yet. Most probably he went to an NIT. But talking to him felt like talking to a year younger reflection of me!
About a month later I was waiting as usual for the driving school vehicle to come and pick me up, so that I can drop the previous batch student to his house, have a round, pick the next guy up, who drops me back.
I lay yawning against a tree near the road when I saw the car appear. I walked ahead. The car came closer. I was a bit worried as it wasn't anywhere near slowing down. The very last moment, I jumped back, and stumbled over a stone, and fell butt-down on the footpath like I was sitting. Three seconds later, I got my jolt to awaken from my afternoon siesta and stand up. I cute girl flung open the door and kept crying out "Im so sorry. Im so sorry. I just didn't realize. Did I hurt you ?". This felt like a scene straight out of five point someone. The honest soul that I was, I decided not to be a noob and replied that I was perfectly fine. No harm done. She sweetly asked me my name as she proceeded to the rear seat. Me in my just-waken-from-sleep-and-into-another-dream state forgot to ask her her name. She had adjusted her class timing for that particular day only, unfortunately. Her smile was dreamy. Her voice was hypnotic. What I could make out of her eyes through the rear view mirror was the cutest pair of eyes, ranked #1 I had ever seen. (The ranking changes everytime I see another girl :P. But this one stayed for quite a while!).
I drove slowly. Raising the clutch slowly. Pressing the accelerator gently. Giving each small turn an indicator, I dropped her home.
I may fall head over heels for the innumerable girls I see everyday (I can hear girls saying "men will always be men" :P), but she retains the unbeatable rank of being the first girl I dropped home in a car ;-) !
The final friendly stranger I can think of, is again someone I met thanks to my driving school (well Ive spent more time waiting at the RTO, at their office and at the juhu galli signal than driving). It was graduation day. Thanks to a trip to the hospital and lots of college work, I was prepared to go to the RTO for my final test just recently in early November. This time I met another guy (well I didnt ask him his name too :P) who had just graduated from RGIT the previous year. He was placed in PCS but was waiting for his joining date. In the meanwhile he was working in a call centre (and was not ashamed to explicitly state that :-) ). We shared the same passion about driving. We wanted to GIVE the driving test (after hearing lots of stories about "form le ke watka dete hai") because we wanted to prove that we could drive well. We followed F1 and worshiped the same driver. He gave me so many valuable insights to campus recruitments and the future of an engineering student from Mumbai university. Well, he was a reflection of me 3 years into the future!
One queer thing I noticed is that my parting message with most of them was "See ya then", or "Bye bye", oblivious of the fact that we were probably never going to meet each other again. It felt like meeting another random person from this human race and relishing the fact that "hey, its a human I've met!". Simple talk and pointless conversations were never so memorable. They keep reminding us that hey, in this big large world, there are some humans too ;).
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