Enoddu(My) Thathappa...

My greatest strength and my biggest weakness. A soul for whom I have the highest regard, by whom I have been pampered the most and for whom my love has no bounds – My grandfather, whom I lovingly call Thathappa.

From the day I was born, till today I have been lucky to have him around for teaching me values, for pampering me and giving me more love and care than I deserve.

My source of inspiration, my pillar of strength. Spending hours with him when amma and appa would go to work when I was a kid, listening to stories about crows when I was fed food by ammamma or atha after coming back from from my nursery- “Happy Hours”, carrying me from home to the nursery even when I was big enough to walk - inspite being scolded by everyone else, teaching me names of all the buildings on the way to school and quizzing me about it on the way back home, accompanying him to pluck flowers in the morning after he wakes me up, brushes my teeth and make me prostrate before the lord, his stories of “paingaliye” at tea time, the times when he would take me for rounds/walks in the garden, sometimes for horse-riding at leisure, buy me things on the way back – these were a few, very few fond memories that I could pen down on summarizing my childhood days with my thathappa.

His sanskrit and math lessons when I was in primary school, his routine of taking xerox of my answer scripts given at school which he still preserves, the excitement on his face when I give him any report card and how he insists on me giving him a copy of it, his enthusiasm to visit all my schools and colleges even at the age of 87, my good-luck-charm grandfather who would accompany me to all my admissions and be lucky for me, and the life's lessons which he gives me even today are going to stay with me for a long long time.

There are a few things, he does, that makes him get scoldings from everyone but I am always the lone fighter for him inspite of knowing that there is some truth in what other's say. In a way, I pamper him today just like how he pampered me years ago when I was a kid. History repeats. Doesn't it? How can he still have the perseverance to walk for miles to pay the electricity bill, go to almost all banks in the layout or carry a few kgs of vegetables heavy enough for anyone of his age, I still wonder. I save him the trouble of walking when I am at home by making him my pillion on my gearless bike. His dialogue of “Kutti kaalathu lendhu pazhakam” never ceases to be fired even though the earth has revolved more than 75 times since then. Sometimes in this world of Kalyug, it is bad to be good. Inspite of this, he shows his care and love to everyone equally, strangers included, which even raises a few eyebrows at home. His recently developed love for food, coffee and chat gets him a few scoldings but I am always there to pamper him by secretly having chat with him or making coffee for him even though he had one a few minutes back.

I have always felt he should have been an engineer – probably a mechanical engineer on seeing his love for carpentry and playing with nuts and bolts. He is repelled by technology, be it operating a phone(something my grandmother has mastered by now) or even a computer for that matter, considering the simple lifestyle that he has lived for all these years. The typewriter is one of his best friends.

The values he has inculcated in me, the power of prayer that he has taught me, his teachings on how to live life both in times of happiness and difficulties, the things that I've learnt in life just by seeing the way he lives his life, are imbibed in me forever.

From his childhood stories, I have noticed that he has had a very tough life initially. Not enough funding for a pair of spectacles or for a few books, the numerous diseases which troubled him at a very tender age, the sacrifices he made for his family,his sense of commitment for family, the hardship he faced to learn typing and short-hand and master it and using that knowledge working extra time, managing work life with little income but no regrets, makes me feel that life should have been more easy on him.

His white and white dress code in his young days, his black umbrella that would hang on the door in the Sangeetha house, his love for children and telling them stories, his religious attitude and perseverance to learn almost all shlokas byheart (he still continues to do this), his debating skills on arguing with anyone and everyone except me are his signature characteristics.

It makes a huge difference to me when his face lights up on seeing me home or when he comes to me and talks about the void when I am not at home. I would only pray that our bond gets stronger and the lord gives him more happiness to live a happy life and he continues to take care of all of us, just like how he has been doing for more than half a century.

Luck By Chance...

"With great power comes great responsibility". I realized the power of this quote after being a part of the Student Activity Committee in college... With the workload of assignments,projects and tests, there were additional events to arrange,additional responsibilities and additional meetings. But, there is always good to balance the not-so-good.

We had Onam celebrations at college on a pretty grand scale. I tried something which I would have never dared before in life. Gave a shot at Thiruvatharai kalli. We had lighting of lamp/inaugration by director sir in the morning. Wearing the Onam saree to the class,sharing the responsibility of depetalling flowers, putting pookalam, eating some Onam food items,dancing twice(on popular demand) for Parvanendhu and playing tug-of-war ending up on the winning side were some festive memories that will be cherished. The collection of Onam pictures are uncountable. So many many memories captured..

Our mega responsibility of arranging the freshers' day party was fun. We were aided by friends who helped us really put the show together. The party started with performances from iMtech and then moved on to dance by MTech batch with seniors testing our skills by making their presence felt on stage extempore. The performances were followed by some non-stop music and dance for 3-4 hours. The DJ did a pretty good job and we were all set to celebrate hard, venting out our frustrations on the excessive workload here..The food was special with some yummy delicacies and awesome desserts..

The biggest event I have organized in life,so far, would undoubtedly be Foundation Day. It is one of the milestone events in college celebrated on 15th September every year. Our college was instituted on this day. Preparations began with sitting down with seniors and discussing on things to be done, preparing a schedule, a budget and above all choosing volunteers. An event of this magnitude needed some really dedicated volunteers, so we sent out google doc forms to everyone and got a pretty good response. The next few days were spent on concentrating on minute details, taking care of guest hospitality facilities and assigning tasks for volunteers. 10 days of work had to be potrayed in a span of 2 hours. We had guests from various genres. Dr Bombay Jayashree was one of the big names among the guests of honour. We met the IIITB Chairman for the first time in college that day. We had Prof Ananth, Director of IITM who gave a really inspiring talk.Captain S. Prabhala,Mr N Ravi Shanker,Mrs. Uma Reddy and Mr Virupaxagouda G Patil were the other guests of honour that day. I got an opportunity to anchor the formal event, something that I've always done and would always love doing. After the formal event, we had a short and sweet cultural programme, which everone thoroughly enjoyed. It went on well. The programme was followed by photo shoot session with the guests for SAC members, something that was one of the most special moments of the event. After the snacks, I was asked to accompany Dr Bombay Jayashree to her friend's place after which I could go home. WHile going in the cab with her, I realised why was this lady so special and so repected. Her humility and grace left me awed. Taking her blessings, I was about to leave when she escorted me to the gate. Such was the stature of this musical genius. It was a great experience in putting a show like this, meeting people so motivational and above all working with people from college who help you put up an event like this.The volunteers did an extraordinary job and we managed to have a successful event,yet again. Seeing smiles in the face of the people after an event gives me the highest satisfaction.

Small events like SpicMacay always crop up once in a while. The blood donation camp was a pretty big success with 50 donors and great enthusiasm. Festivals like Janmashtami,Ganesh Chaturthi,Dasara,Diwali came along with small celebrations at the food court. Rajyotsava Day was celebrated magnificently with a series of programmes lined up.There were speeches,games,movies screened, great food spread out during the day. I was also fortunate to be a part of the panel discussion conducted by NDTV titled "Does India respect Science?". The trip to the Infy campus that is a stone throw away, the travel in the golf carts within the campus, interacting and taking a photographs and autographs from Narayan Murthy, Harsha Bhogle,Prof Balaram(IISc Director), Vasundhara Das and Sonia,a student from NCBS, having a sumptuous meal at the Infy campus and getting back to college will be cherished memories.It was a very different and pleasant experience to be there on TV asking a question to such an esteemed panel.

Another memorable experience was the trip to Swanthana as a part of college's Aikyam group. I was very apprehensive about the trip since I had never tried something like this before. There were a lot of thoughts and questions running in my head. On November 18th morning, we were around 15 of us who went to Swanthana. After some yummy breakfast at Maaji Sagar, we boarded a couple of buses to reach Swanthana at Sarjapur Road. We went into a room filled with little girls, each with a disability. A few of them could not even express what they want. There was a group that had come over to serve breakfast for the little girls. We started off petting them, feeding them the food, playing with them etc. Personally, it was a very enriching experience. I started off with feeding a few girls with idli/sambhar. Once they were done with that, Mallika,Tarun and group told us the names of the girls there. We took the kids out on their wheel chairs. There was a girl,extremely naughty and was tied to the bench. Once she untied herself partly and I untied the other, she stuck around with me. She was tagged the "Heroine" there. The spark on her face when I put nail polish for her cannot be expressed in words. After spending some time with them, Tarun showed me the rooms they stay in, the activities they do etc. A few of the drawings done by them were very impressive. There was a girl who was in the incubator and had undergone a surgery recently. It seems she is extremely brilliant.I took a little girl who would hardly be around 9 months into my arms. She had been operated since she had some extra growth in her head. On carrying the kid, I really felt the urge to get her home. What made it even more difficult to part from her was that she refused to go to the others when they tried taking her from me. A few super seniors too joined us there. Once we came out, the super seniors had a ragging session followed by a treat session. We took a few snaps during the treat for memories. We went to Total mall on the way back,had lunch at Adigas and came back singing in the bus.This visit really left an impact on me. A thought of giving back to the society in some way, a thought of being thankful to God for being so blessed.

The next couple of days were filled with enjoyment. There was HP's and Sumit's birthday. The VFS tension was always there somewhere in the head.There were a few treats in between like the seniors on getting placed, Sridhar's on getting scholarship etc. Exam time was nearing. Loads of demos and submissions were on. The project had to be complete. We had a few very long nights spent in completing tasks. The few days in between the enjoyment and exams flew quite fast. The exams came and got over in around four days. The networks and communication paper was a mystery. Nothing of what we really studied actually came and that took all of us by surprise. With two sets of papers with some different questions, luck had a part to play. The next was DB paper. It was interesting to write the paper and was quite like what we expected. The algorithms paper was Greek and Latin to us, but with GNS setting it,that was sort of expected. The last one was JSP. We had a nice time pulling the legs of C++ students who had 4 hours of exam whereas we had just one hour. We thought it would be a cakewalk but I guess we were a little over confident. The JSP paper was a bigger surprise with questions least expected appearing int he paper. But that did not bother us much because what followed was freedom. Or so we thought.

I bid good byes to Preethy who had to catch a train after pulling her out of the exam hall so that she can reach the station on time. That evening we went for Alkas and Ravindras treat. Had a great time free from all tensions at college. The night after that was very very special. The December birthdays had their cake cutting followed by song singing session. The memories of semester end was very special. The next morning I left college to be back home. By the projects did not let that last for long. I had to go to college the next day to do the algorithm project. There were more people leaving that evening to go home. So that meant more send-offs, more visits to the bus-stop. The dinner after those send-offs was quite weird. After sitting on tables with 15-20 people,eating,laughing and pulling each other's leg every time we have food, this time there were 5 on the table, talking but minus the entertainment factor. The next morning, we sat together and did some project work till lunch after which I came back home.

Finally, it's holidays. With JSP project and the algorithm project to do in the holidays, I thought we could manage to have some peace and enjoyment. But midway of the holidays, we get a shocker with OS assignment. By the first look, I could not even understand what we had to do in the assignment. No wonder seniors always warn us saying it's a nightmare. In the beginning of holidays, I put in some work into the home work. But then I sort off took it easy. A hectic life awaits int he second semester. Why not enjoy the holidays by eating,sleeping and facebooking. So that's pretty much how the holidays are going...

A new semester awaits...More work..More stress..But am sure we are going to create more memories at IIITB..

A new beginning...

It was Friday the 13th!! I had to report to my new college with the set of documents,fees and the mandatory medical reports. Amma and Appa accompanied me on the first day to give me the moral support that I really needed. The 1001 questions and apprehensions kept bouncing inside but I managed to stay normal. It was a blessing to find Abi and HP on the first day and suddenly we sensed the connection. Apart from that, we met a lot of new friends who thought the three of us knew each other from a long time.

We took some time to get used to speaking to everyone in class but was a good start to the MTech programme. Just as Kabir had warned me, we had loads of test initially. I remember taking around 6 tests in a span of 10days. They were scary initially but we got used to the system and started moving with it. Our early morning walk to the chai shop, being the first customers for breakfast in whichever place we decide to go, the walk after the breakfast and some study time were moments which we can probably never get back.

They were exclusively attached to Prep Sem memories. The three of us slowly started mingling with the others. Preethy was another addition to this group with whom I can share all my joys and sorrows anytime. We had an official photo shoot session from college which was the first time we clicked umpteen number of photographs with friends. The class picture, the IIIT-B formation were the highlights among from many photos in groups..It was event better to see that in the batch book. The batch book had the contact information of all the 158 students with their experiences and background.

The days rolled on with studies,tests and fun. And before we could realize the Prep Sem was almost done. It was the first mega event at college..Time for SAC nominations. I gave my name and was very keen in being one of the four members. I had always been doing these things in college before but with greater power,come greater responsibility.

The first task as a part of the SAC campaign was to give friendship day cards to all my classmates asking them to vote for me. That was HPs brainchild but I was helped by Abinaya,Preethy,Niveditha,Mitali,Gaurangi,Sruti and of course,HP. The idea was aprreciated by all and felt great to have friends like them. They took time to help me make cards and we worked like machines that day. The next day was friendship day.I started my task right from the morning distributing cards to everyone though I had some trouble initially identifying a few faces. This assignment has helped me identify all the 157 people in class now. We also went to St Patricks church that day and attended a mass. In the evening, the mission of distributing cards continued which also carried on to the next day. Apart from that, I made a few posters to be stuck,got a speech ready along with an online poster.

We also visited a temple close by on the first day of the first semester. The tests tensions had reduced but we had to grasp more in class. We had grand Janmashtami celebrations at college where we volunteered to help the seniors out with the pre-preparations.

I was nervous about the elections but my friends always stood by me assuring that all is going to be well.We had a group discussion a day before regarding "Whether SAC has the real powers at college". The discussion ended on a high note with each of the nominees stating their stance and pointing out a quality in them that would help them win the title. The D-day finally arrived..Seniors had warned me not to prepare long speeches as there would be no time to deliver anything there. they were so right. All we could there was so stand,smile, say a sentence and come back when there were loads of comments on us being displayed in the background.

The best thing for me apart from the getting votes was the title song of "Lakshya" being played during the voting time for me..Each of us had 4 votes, 2 for a guy and 2 for a girl. We had a ball at the SAC elections. My heart was beating initially since the vote count were so close. After some time, i took the lead and felt relived. I was super excited and satisfied when I ended up with maximum number of votes. I realised the appreciation and responsibility that I had got from my classmates and senior SAC. I was renamed SAC since then. I sometimes get worried that people may forget my name in two years.

The next superb thing that happened to me was the Yahoo Hack Fest 2012. I had been there attending them in the past two years but never really created a hack. I was again alone in registering but found nice company in Sagar and Vamsi. There were many seniors who attended the event too but we preferred to stay alone. We also met two guys from Hyderabad who coded with us. I learnt a lot from this experience and learnt that I can say without sleeping for almost around 24-30 hours but some credits also go to the Red Bull they gave us. All in all, a great learning experience at Sheraton.

The next week saw me sleeping almost in every class, thanks to the lack of sleep and addition of SAC responsibility. Independence day was around the corne rand I had a blast organizing things with fellow SACs. The speech that they helped me prepare, which I delivered was the highlight of the day for me. The praise we got after the event and some criticisms too were great lessons to take forward. Appa,Appa,Thathappa and Aishwarya visited IIIT-B that day. We had a nice time together. Friends and family pulling my leg together was something that I got used to after some time. I dropped them till the bus stop after some photography session. I came back, had rest, went out with friends for Tushar's treat and came back to watch Rang de Basanti at college. Was a great great day at college, both personally and professionally.

After a few days of normal first semester classes, it was along weekend. I went home, caught up on all the sleep that I missed in college, spent quality family time, got pampered at home and had some great moments with family.

These days am torn between deciding where I enjoy more.. At home with family or at hostel with friends.. And when the day is a combination of the two, like today, it is all the more exciting and happening...

Hope all the fun continues and I learn more and more from people and college over the next two years...

A memorable end...

I have had a month of one of my best holidays in life and then a month of new college life... I would try summing all of that here..

One of my best holidays... It was not about visiting Paris or holidaying at Manali..It was only about spending time with friends, some very close and some whom I knew since school.. That one month of holidays post my bachelors saw me visiting many new places with old friends..

Bonded the maximum with school friends, sometimes for long drives, sometimes to Goli or CTR,sometimes just gossiping and recollecting the old times and sometimes going back to the place where we created memories,KENSRI school.. School friends know maximum of our secrets and the some of the most embarassing moments we've had are in school.

I still remember the spark in our teachers' eyes on seeing us after a long time. I was so nervous to take an appointment from one of my all-time favourite teachers,Renu Ma'am for all of us to go and meet her. I gathered some courage to get that done and am so glad that I did it..I was overjoyed when she said she managed to take time out since it was me asking it.. May be I was one of the favourite students of my favourite teachers. Meeting Srish Sir and listening to his words of wisdom again after five years felt great...The way the teachers received us,remembering each of us even after so many many years and after seeing so many batches made me realise why teaching is such a humble and noble profession.. I salute each one of them today since they all have a huge role to play in what I am today.

I also took some time out to spend with really close PU friends who had left am imprint on my life forever. The moments I spent with them those two years at MCC was priceless..We had fights, we made up for it, had fun and some great learning experiences together.. Relived them and spent some time gossiping about our current lives and what we intend to do in the future.

Last but not the least, I spent a lot of time with my MVIT friends during holidays. We would all part away after three to four years together not knowing when we will all meet next. A few of us had planned what we wanted to do ahead in life and a few of us wanted some time to figure out where life is taking us. I was stranded somewhere in between these groups. With four companies in hand and a decent scope to go abroad, with GATE results not too good,but not too bad either I had too many options to confuse me.

With so many options but none so appealing, I tried hunting for other options. Attending the IIT-B interview made me feel great. But, my friends, who knew me the best, told me not to sacrifice on my course just for a college brand. And I am so glad I listened to them. With minute hopes of getting in one of the IITs for some inter-disciplinary course, I had a solid option in hand. IIIT-B. A major advantage was the faculty and location while the only thing bothering me was the high fees.

The confusions on the career front did not stop me from enjoying with friends. The time came where we had to give farewells to friends one after the other. All the memories would flash in front of us when they say good bye with heavy hearts. i always used to picturise my farewell that time. Fortunately, I would be close to home. The thought of not knowing when we would meet after sharing our joys and sorrws together for a few years seemed difficult. But there is a new hello that awaits every goodbye.

A month just vanished in partying,shopping,enjoying,relaxing and bidding our goodbyes. After discussions with dozens of friends and well wishers, I had taken the decision to join the International Institute of Information Technology,Bangalore for my Masters. In the last week of holidays, I made it a point to meet my group of friends and family. I always anticipated a hectic two year M Tech.I

There was a lot of emotions going inside me personally. I had met almost all my friends in the Facebook page but the apprehensions always existed. Would I be able to fit in a place like this? Would I get like-minded people with whom I can share all the things happening in my life and share my feelings? How would life be away from home? No more easy-going way to get things done,no more pampering..More responsibilities, more dedication towards studies... How would they manage at home without having their chauffeur in her Pleasure to drop them and do things for them? Loads of questions bouncing inside me but I chose to remain calm outside..May be that would make them feel better...

Reloading Memories...

Had written this long back.. Just adding it to the collection..

Just seems like yesterday that I walked into the portals of this mega-institution, Sir MVIT. Four years have flown by and here I stand, bidding goodbye to teachers, friends and well wishers. The mixed emotions of excitement, fear and happiness of entering into a new world, all seem so vivid. And now when everything seemed so settled, it is time to go.

I went through the same drama that almost all of us have to go through to clear the entrance exams and get admission into an engineering college which is certainly a tough ask. But, I guess that few months of torture were soon erased by some golden years filled with fun, frolic and friends.

Orkut came as a boon to me, way back in 2008, when I got to know my prospective friends through a community, Sir MVIT 2008-2012. Thousands of us would share our apprehensions and take a shot at predicting what would be in store for us at college once our classes start. We found some amazing seniors online even before joining college who would advise us to “Just Chill”.

I remember our Freshers’ Day at college when we were greeted with speeches, speeches and more speeches. Few of them were very inspiring but we were more excited in catching up with our so-called online friends. Our first day was occupied by meeting few new people, giving each other an introduction and looking forward to spending time together at college.

The time came when we walked into the institute not knowing anyone and scared to fall prey to the evil called “ragging”. But as MVIT claims to be a ragging-free campus, we were not very fortunate to get ragged but found some great seniors along the way with whom we had some memorable outings and some great knowledge-exchange during the club activities at college. We had various competitions and clubs at college which allowed us to interact with seniors and get to know them. They would patiently reply to our queries, advice us when needed, sometimes, convince us that we are at a great place and something great is in store for us over the next four years. And now, I realize how right they were.

From being in a class with students from various branches in the first years, building an ever-lasting bond with friends for a period of 10 months to moving to a new class with new friends and creating some un-forgettable memories for life , the journey has been a roller-coaster ride.

Every semester begins with us making resolutions to have more fun and taking a few weeks to get used to the new subjects and new teachers. The few weeks soon turn into a month and we welcome our first internals. Suddenly, the fun subsides a little and we are busy collecting assignments and trying some group studies to get a decent score making it easier for us in the future internals. And by the time we breathe a sigh of relief, there are more internals, more assignments and more record work. The semester just flies away by the time we finish all the tasks that we have in hand. The final few semesters added a few more exams and tests to our kitty ranging from placements to the GATE and the GRE.

But the classes, internals and assignments have never managed to keep us away from having fun. Spending time in the canteen, going out for lunch together, just sitting under some roof talking about random things and the millions of birthday celebrations with friends have all stacked up to give us our bible of memories. We often sit in class looking at the teacher wondering what is happening around and when we reach saturation, we just prefer to mass-bunk. That had to cut down over the years due to some punishments and some black-mails, but the mass-bunks have helped us create memories to cherish.

The time during our exams would be the peak season for the Xerox shop owner outside college when everyone realizes that they have no notes and sometimes no textbooks to prepare from. That would see us running to the xerox shop where we will be greeted by a long queue of friends already waiting for their Xerox. The arduous task of writing records, the improvement tests when we did not have an average and sometimes making our presence felt in class after lunch were some tough asks that we managed to pull off. The group studies, phone calls for clearing doubts and the messages of “How much you finished?” would give you a feel of how I see the exam season. I was fortunate enough to interact with so many people during my extracurricular sessions of elocution and paper presentations. Anchoring in college throughout the four years gave me the privilege to meet so many guests, interact with many teachers and make new friends.

The endless seminars, symposiums, talks and workshops that I attended made me more enthusiastic and gave me an opportunity to meet inspiring souls whose lessons would always stay with me.

Organizing fests in college constituted a major portion of my life at college giving me some of the most enriching experiences. Kalanjali, Fourth Dimension, Silver Jubilee Alumni Meet, ICUBED events and a few others taught me how important it was to get beyond the books and try something which may not give us extra marks but would give some unforgettable memories.

There are so many people who have encouraged, supported and guided me to get here. I would like to thank each of them from the bottom of my heart.

On a closing note…

From tomorrow, there would be no classes to miss, no race against time to get up and be on time to college and no friends to gossip with about the zillion things happening around us. We would have to transform from being carefree students into responsible adults. And what I would miss the most would be the hands in my lunch box, the friends in my group, the calls on one birthday night, and most importantly so many memories to cherish forever.

Twists and turns...

It has been more than a month that I've been away from writing and too many htings have happened for me to pen down. Starting with a enriching experience preparing for a seminar on Security In Ad-hoc Networks to the pressure of completing the final semester project in a few days life has given me a series of twists and turns,both good and bad.

We were entrusted with the task of presenting our seminar on the 14th of May and we were more than excited about it. We sacrificed a few classess to prepare for the project and did the best we could to get things in shape. With politics in groups, rifts in the team and various added tensions on who has to do what, I only hope we continue to enjoy in addition to get things done smoothly in our team. We were all excited to present our technical seminar and certainly did loads of last minute changes to get things to shape. We planned and executed it well but I guess it was too much for the audience and the judges to digest. they could not take in so much of technical terms in one shot and were a little out of track. But we completed our seminar and were very happy with ourselves but individually and as a team. We also celebrate Roopa's birthday on the 15th of March with a fruit cake and she was really happy with the surprise.

Our next trip was to the RVCE fest, 8th mile on the 16th of March. We had mainly been there to watch the Sir MVIT fashion team perform. Ankit requested us to be there to cheer him and we were more than happy to scream for the college team. The drive to and fro was personally my favourite time. We had planned early and managed to pack some food to munch on the way. We strolled around the campus with the group comparing their college to ours and I tried my best to stand up for my college which has given me four golden years of memories. We also found time to help the team to drape their sarees and make sure things were in place before we joined the crowd to scream our lungs out. We snaked on some dosas(from the 99 varieties dosa-counter) and cotton candy before we drove back home. It was a memorable experience and probably my first visit to a college fest with my very own friends.

The next few weeks went smoothly with not too many activities apart from attending classess and doing some project work. We would barely miss a few classess to sit and chat in the canteen. Most of the classes were worth attending and we managed to sit in class.I also got busy applying to variuos colleges all over India with my satisfactory GATE score. With two weeks of no drama in life, somethign big was certainly in store. Kavya decided to give her birthday treat at Empire Hotel,Church Street. We all had a nice time hogging food,pulling each other's leg and having a blast. A trip to Harish's place followed after a sumptuous meal. We managed to play TT, listen to music and re-lived all those times when we met to make a video for kavya on her birthday and watched that all-nostalgic video that made her cry two years back.

April 5th saw appa visiting Bangalore, thanks to the long weekend. With internals from the next week and hectic schedule post that, I thought one trip to Mysore was very much on the cards. We visited Mysore that weekend and I had some great moments there. Viewing Raghu-Chitra's marriage videos and albums brought back memories at Palakkad. Post that something epic happened.I got a chance to watch a movie in the theatre with cousins. A cherry on the cake was when the movie was TITANIC in 3D. I had never watched the movvie in 2D so this was a very enriching experience. The way the movie was shot and the story really impressed me. Staying up late in the night and chatting is always the tradition in Mysore. So,Ravi and me let the couple leave and we caught up on so many news in those few hours before crashing. The next day was Periappa's star birthday and I saw and helped Chitra preparing all those delicacies for Periappa. She cautioned me on life ahead saying Enjoy your life as much as you want now..You never know what's in store later in life. We all had a nice time chatting before leaving to catch our evening train.

The weekend ended and the second internals season kicked off. With pre-preparation in advance and questions in hand, I managed to perform decently in the interanls though somehting that had never happened happened. I got my reality check when I realised that I have attendance shortage in simulation by one class and will not be allowed to sit for internals. I was pretty dejected since I had given it my all to prepare for that particular subject. But then things just moved on. We ave the other internals and I am still waiting to give my pending internals.I remained at home the remaining week and spent some family time finishing pending works at home and cathcing some fantastic IPL matches. We also had a family lunch out to celebrate amma's birthday which was in the coming week.

I planned to start going for morning walks with Mama with the intention of giving him company and benefitting from it myself. We also made a lot of day-out plans with friends which did not really kick off. But when it clicked, it was big! We planned for an all-girls day out to spend some time together and have lunch outside. I was very determined to make this happen and I took the reponsibility of informing people and talking to the hotel authoriteis for reservations. We finally had a great time with 16 out of 18 girls turning up. Post lunch at Asha Food camp which had an awesome ambience, we hit Mantri to click a few more pictures together. After some quality time together we all got back home.

I am also given the opportunity to anchor in the College Day function, which would probably my last show at college as a comperer. These four years saw me anchoring so many programs under great people, but this one sends down some chills down my spine as this is the last time I will get to co-ordinate things on stage and present the program the the guests and audience.

Not much has happened post then but a hectic month in store for me with interviews and tests in variuos colleges for M Tech admissions. With externals,project work, graduation day and interviews, it is high time for me to give IPL a break and pull up my socks to run my own race.

Little things in my life..

After all the drama that the leap-year February started with, I longed for some space for myself to sit back and relax..To savour those little moments spent with friends and family...To read my friends' experiences with me from my diary and smile away to glory..I am sure a few years down the lane the same text will make some tears roll down my cheek. And, I am glad I got this time.

After a 10-day long break, I started attending college pretty regularly. The tension of submitting synopsis, applying for revaluation and finishing some small formalities in college were all done. Now, it was sometime to have fun in addition to showing some dedication to our final year project.

We started the serious task of getting acquainted with MATLAB with learning and googling some basics of Image Processing,Image Acquisition and Neural network toolboxes of MATLAB. We started expanding our knowledge on neural networks by watching some tutorial videos by Prof. Sen Gupta from IIT Kharaghpur. It did a lot of good to us. We then prepared a small powerpoint presentation to see what exactly we understood in the topic. The ppt however, is still waiting to be presented.

Sudden thoughts of leaving college soon tempted us to take loads of pictures together with friends in class. The bonding between us seemed so strong all of a sudden. We enjoyed all those moments by capturing them in a 104*64mm digital camera.The next few days were just days spent in fun and frolic, with each day giving me a different reason to smile coupled with some very calculated bunking of classes.

The first workshop of this semester was on Cloud Computing organized by the teachers, conducted by Atharvan Workshop Group consisting of NITK alumni working at Google,studying at IISc etc. The workshop was one of the most awaited events in college but somehow, failed to reach up to our expectations. We were pretty excited initially with what they promised to be a hands-on experience. We, around 6-7 friends, sat together waiting to learn something new. The first couple of hours were spent in setting up our systems and installing the required softwares like eclipse. We were then given a brief theory on importance of storing essential data and using it efficiently. Map-Reduce function was beautifully explained with some practical examples.The session ended for the day with some more examples being discussed.We were asked to tell our logic using the MR function. We,friends, took some photos in some of the prettiest places in college since the college was absolutely empty that day. We had a exciting ride back home clicking pictures on moving bikes.

The next day was certainly special. Since we did not have too much expectations from the workshop ,we thought we would all have a nice ride to college in our bikes. For the first time ever, I decided to take my bike to college. There was a sense of excitement and nervousness in me. My friends perfectly supported me by leading or following me and ensuring that I was on the right track. I had an awesome time that day.The workshop had some interactions on the cloud and hadoop framework. The guys who were presenting seemed too good for us and there was a disconnect in the hall. The workshop diverged from the theme venturing into some general ideas and a FAQ session of anything related to the cloud,not necessary the topics covered in it.I was busy with some interesting conversations with friends towards the end of the session since we had all reached saturation point by then.

We had pre-planned to do some project work that Sunday.It is a little weird to sit in college till 5 even on Sundays but it was all worth it. Yes, we certainly did some serious project work that day. But what was even more special were those little things that happened during the course of this serious work. The decision to have lunch at Maa Bhagawathi Dhabha, the risk people took of sitting behind a novice rider like me, the yummy hot paranthas there which I always crave for, the rickety ride back to college through the virtual dangerous roads(I saw only stones and sand there), the deep conversations we had generally about life to take a break from the project stress,the umpteen number of times that I was the victim of leg-pulling by my group mates, the fun of riding with very less petrol ready to take some risk of even pushing the bike if it stops mid-way were just a few of some priceless moments that day. I guess I would rate that as one of the most satisfying days in college.

The next week was a pretty usual week with all of us attending classess, copying down the important questions for the first internals this semester and thinking of the things-to-do post internals. We even managed to do a group study that weekend for simulation which I guess was a mix of some studying, some gossiping and eating some yummy things. I guess I was looking forward to have an enjoyable Sunday evening. I put all that I had after that group study so that I could dine outt with Raajay the next evening. I successfully tricked him too not letting him know about our exams so that he would come home that weekend. One and a half hours of some motivational talk left me even more confused about what I should be doing next in life. But it was special because it somewhere left me thinking that I should go ahead and pursue a Masters in the US. I hope my mind does not change soon and I stick to this decision. Keeping my fingers crossed for it.

The week that followed was a perfect blend of some studies and fun. I had one of the most frustrating evenings on the eve of the second day of internals. I just could not read the Storage Area Networks book. It all seemed like Greek and Latin. Luckily, I had already read Testing beforehand. Group studies,once again, came to my rescue. The two hours before internals, I guess, are the most productive times since everything just goes into the head so smoothly. I managed to finish the never-ending paper just in time. Testing paper was a cake-walk due to which I walked out of the hall 20mins early. The next day was declared a holiday for the final years which gave us some time to take rest after a hectic 2-day period.

The next day was Holi. I had made up my mind to have a very memorable Holi this year with friends. No one knows where we all destined to be this time,next year for Holi. With initial glitches in the planning process, the outcome was a super success. I managed to have a colourful Holi after many years. I remembered those days in Mumbai when we were small kids trying to fill water into the balloons to throw it on friends. But, now I guess we are "big" kids. The balloons were replaced by eggs and dark colours. Two-three hours of fun can never be penned down in words. After playing with colours,water,eggs and what-not at Harish's place, we decided to drop into Ankit's place and meet aunty. She made some tasty pakodas and jamuns for us. After snacking on those, it was time for me to get back home and clean myself. It was certainly a tough ask to get rid of all the colours smeared on me. That Holi evening,Kavya and me also visited in the temple to seek Baba's blessings amidst a huge crowd of people.

Post internals and post Holi, it was time to come back to the serious affairs of life. With hardly a couple of days left for the seminar, we all started slogging to put our best forward for the seminar. We had the official photo session this Saturday for the final years which would appear in Brindavana this year. I still remember going through the college magazine on the admission day and here we are, 4 years later, so close to see our photos appear in the magazine. With many of us carrying our cameras that day, we almost captured all those moments for us to smile back later in life. There were photos being taken all over the place in college from 10am to 1pm.

There is now exactly two days left for us to complete our seminar and present it.With almost equal division of labour, we are working tirelessly to get this presentation in good shape. Keeping fingers crossed for the 50-marks presentation that kicks off tomorrow...

This month gave so many many little things and moments which I would forever look back and cherish!! Reminds me of the Vodafone ad!!

The Little things you do for me
And nobody else makes me feel Good
Little things you do for me
Making me smile when no one else could.
That's why I like to sit next to you
and Hear your mad stories, I know they're not true
and I like that we share a secret or two ..Together..
Little things you do for me..

And it finally happens..

The D-day arrived closer. We were invited for the Mehendi ceremony by the bride's side giving us a wake up call saying 'Oh yes..Raghu's wedding is only few hours away'. I would rate this as one of the BEST Mehendi ceremonies that I've been a part of till date. The cherry to the pie was when we got to know that the professionals were called all the way from Namma Bengaluru to decorate our hands. We entered and saw Chitra's hands and legs beautifully decorated with a great Master piece. Her hubby's name was hidden in her Mehendi on one hand and a lovely couple was drawn in the other.Aishwarya and me did not spare even the men putting Mehendi. We were constantly entertaining them talking about Bangalore, the unique delicacies and destinations in Palakkad and they shared their experiences so far in Palakkad. One of the best jokes I've heard till date was from them. In the railway station, they asked an autodriver, "Bahar ka raasta kahaan hai?" and the driver not knowing Hindi innocently replies, "Yahaan koi bar nahi hai"!!

The Mehendi session was coupled with some amazing songs chosen by Shruthi and a well planned photo session. We finally managed to strike the correct pose that the photographer was instructed to take by Chitra.. :P Now if the Mehendi was this memorable(that too without the hero,Raghu), I can't wait to tell how interesting the wedding was! Too much happiness is not good. So we got a perfect balance to it over some petty issues that evening from the elders which I guess we kids(hero included) battled out by expressing our anger in the terrace to each other.

The next day was when we had to go to the hall for the Vrutham(We've managed to make tons of pronunciations for it pre-wedding). What followed was rituals,customs and traditions..The Nischiyatathram was scheduled that evening and on demand I wore a saree. I still do not know how to take the comments I got from the elders for wearing the saree.They were all certainly happy but then I could sense a smirk and few of them actually told me that very soon it is your turn to be sacrificed(as a few people put it). We visited so many temples in the village with all of us walking behind the groom's car. I managed to do all this circus in a saree. It felt great to be doing small things in the ceremony right from smearing sandlwood on Chitra to giving her those heavy, cutely gift-wrapped box of goodies. The photo session followed the ceremony,somethng I am sure Raghu loathed. But he just managed to put that smile on his face as he had no choice. He again showed me how important it is to stand up for yourself if you think you are right. Amidst all traditions, we got to spend some quality time with our cousins. My sister and me still managed to sneak sometime in between with the busy boy to commend,gossip and bitch about both people and things. Guess that was the last night of his bachelorhood which we really wanted to treasure. All those late night calls and pulling his leg about zillions of things in private would soon cease. But there is always light at the end of the tunnel. This guy who always claimed to be a kid is now going to have some added responsibility.We finally bid our goodbyes at midnight and went to the annex to catch some sleep.

We don't know about the groom, but we had a sleepless night; not because of nervousness like he would have, but because of all those mosquitoes and the biting cold in a place like Palakkad which did not spare any of us. We all wanted the night to end soon and put an end our miseries. Ravi joined us that morning. We managed to get up and get ready soon to arrive in time for the entertaining part of any wedding. The Kashi Yatra, the Malai Maathal and the Oonjal followed. God, Raghu was in a state that we could never have expected to see him in.I am still waiting to commend your costume designer and make up artist! With kajal and forehead full of a zillion things, around 4-5 kgs of garlands all over,he had a manage a smile for the cameras. I can never forget the local accent(which I was missing in Palakkad) in which your friends described your make-up."Yen maams,nyapakaa idhiya?" :P The next few hours were filled with rituals and customs. It was even more difficult to see Chitra's state with not only heavy garlands over her, but also a heavy,pretty hairdo and heavy sarees draped around. The time had come and our big brother tied the knot with ofcourse our help :P

The wedding was followed by some chit chat in the afternoon after which we had the entertaining Nalangu. Guess this is another place we unite customs with some fun. The scenes of Chitra saying "Please come" in Kannada (not knowing what it is) to invite her hubby for the games and singing an awesome song perfectly suiting the occasion certainly showed she had won half the battle. The games were fun filled with some Antakshari in between. I surprised myself by singing some Bollywood songs in public. I am someone who is horrible even as a bathroom singer. Kudos to the audience there for bearing with me(though I was soft enough not to shoo anyone off). That marked the official end of the wedding ceremonies. It was time to get back home and catch some sleep. I was half dead that I could not even participate in the conversation between Ravi,Vijay and Aishwarya. I just occasionally managed to say "Laugh Laugh" whenever I heard them laughing.

It was the closest I have got to see the emotions of people in a wedding. The groom's feeling of accepting a new responsibility, the bride's feelings of accepting a completely new home leaving behind all those people who were so dear to her, how the two families accept each other and welcome the new bride home. The experience was certainly priceless.

I thought this was the end to the celebrations, but what followed was even better. We were all making plans for a good outing. Something that was pending for a long time was "Meenvallam" and I am so glad that we all made it happen atleast this time. The long rickety drive on the pathetic roads leading there pulling each other's leg was awesome. The memories of climbing the rocks to reach the waterfall, doing all sorts of circus to get there,trying a hand at stone-throwing in water, the photos we managed to click there will be cherished for a long long time. The big brothers took care of us so well. They managed to complete the trip with some toddy which did not taste that great. We also went to the usual "Malampuzha Dam" which is a toursit attraction in Palakkad. I still wonder what is so special there. Nevertheless we managed to walk in the hanging bridge,having ice cream and have a long walk around the park leaving the newly weds alone for sometime. Too much good is not good. The bad in my life came in the form of VII semester results.I was extremely unhappy with the 79.3% that I got as it was the first time ever that I got below 80% in engineering.Everyone around made me feel good by saying that it is a par score, and relatively it was a very good score but I was very displeased with myself. I still am. But the happy atmosphere around made me forget about my results for sometime then.

That pretty much summed up our trip in God's own paradise Palakkad.Pulling each other's legs and bidding our goodbyes, it was time to get back home.I was equally excited about getting back home and going to college to see how it is to be in the final semester. For the first time ever, I got my hair straightened(thanks to Meghana) and walked late to class(my new temporary hairdo being noticed) losing my first hour attendance. But it was again a hectic day. I got back home and it was time to pack up to go to Mysore for the reception. We reached there the same day and spent some family time together.

The next morning was another special day for the couple. I was lucky enough to accompany the groom to check out the reception venue and get small things straight to make sure everything is in place. It was really heart-warming to see this guy so responsible and arranging something like this single-handedly.I also accompanied the bride to get her ready and look her best at the reception. My day was made there itself. But what followed was even better - the reception. Ravi had successfully managed to convince all the other cousins to make it to the reception and yes, they made it on time(actually much before us).Again, the routine collection of gifts, clicking photographs and pulling Raghu's leg followed. The cake cutting and the dinner was mind-blowing. The next day was full of bidding good-byes, first to the guests and then to the couple. An eventful week has passed so quickly and it was time to get back to the usual routine.

Going back to college after bunking for more than a week felt great. The feeling of being in the last semester started sinking in. The moments spent with friends these days seem priceless.The week also saw us attending placements,writing the GATE not so well,meeting up at Harish's place for a great lunch marathon, running here and there to complete a synopsis for the project, bunking classes and sitting in the canteen pulling each other's leg(mine the most)and worrying about other things like the future,seminar,project,elective,revaluation etc.

I got to capture all these moments probably in my diary by asking my friends' to document their experiences with me. I am so certain that the next few months will fly so quickly that all the fun we are having with each other now will soon tranform into memories which we can only think about and smile to ouselves.

Going back to the roots..

Exeter was certainly something that I had given a serious thought about during placements but did not really put too much into preparing for it few days in advance to match their job description. Being one among the shortlisted 7 was a pleasant surprise but the interview which followed was a big flop. A part of me was hoping and praying that I make it to Exeter but another part of me knew that I was just making castles in the air.

The Exeter results came after a long wait and was surprising that the only EC student from the shortlisted students made it to the company leaving behind all the other 6 CS students. But by taking it in the right way and not being too upset about it, I decided to move on. The next few days saw me starting my gate preparations by setting a schedule to have an idea of how to go about preparing for GATE but unfortunately I never executed it. I have accepted the fact that it is going to be a tough ask to clear gate in the first attempt with my level of preparations that spanned for less than a month.But I got a little busy in taking notes from one of my friends who went for classes and is much more determined to crack it.

The execution was even more difficult since the thought of a family vacation at the end of the month was planned. The times went in dreaming of the things to buy, things to shop and then in executing all the plans. Going on a shopping spree for wedding preparations was something that was 'zara hatke' from the usual holiday time pass.

Something that was more memorable was shopping for the groom's costumes. I got the exposure of shopping for men's traditional wear throughout commercial street and then we went on to Mantri mall. Shopping at 'Manyavar' was special since their level of hospitality and treating customers was something I have not seen in many places. The day of shopping along with the cousin who was getting married, for 8 hours to buy a few dresses for the wedding reception was something that will always be memories to cherish few years down the memory lane.

The time for vacation to God's own paradise, Kerala and visit to our native place, Palakkad finally arrived after another exam for being eligible for the RBI internship. The wedding season at home has finally caught heat with the groom arriving 15 hours late from his expected arrival, the elders at home singing old,devotional and classical songs and noise all around 24*7. After the arrival of a few more relatives, the house will be more like the marriage hall with chitter chatter all around.

It seems like the VII semester exams just got over yesterday and the holidays just begun. But it is almost time for the results to be out and the new semester to begin very soon. With more rules to be incorporated and the usual scene of all of us lamenting over the rules of going to college on all days even in the final semester continues.With some torturing project work ahead with choosing a topic to research on, writing the synopsis, the project report etc along with very little time left to enjoy college life and bid our goodbyes to our friends, the ultimate semester awaits.

The last season of having fun with friends bunking classes,the last semester in BE and the climax of the memorable moments we've spent over four years is something all of us will certainly look forward to..

A busy mind is an angel’s paradise…

Apologies for the one month break..

What kept me away from my recently discovered hobby, blogging, was my mind that was busy processing so many tasks every second. This usually happens only for a week or two every six months. Thanks to my externals at college. One of the most stressful times at engineering is the external exam time. We fool around during the entire semester only to be left with humongous amount of syllabus to cover in the last fortnight before exams.

May be a year or two back, this was even more stressful as this practice was relatively new. Now, I must admit it has become more like a routine. Yes, agreed that it is not a very healthy sign but we can always be optimistic about it looking back in time believing that it taught us to manage time better and put the allotted 24 hours of a day to great use.

The exams season kicked off after the first season of placement which went on from September to November. TCS was the last bird I got in hand post which there was nothing more in life than exams. The last two lab internals of engineering went on well as I was lucky enough to pick quite easy programs. Good that I was able to pass through the last two lab exams quite easily, but it was scary to think about the lab externals that followed. I always believe that life is a cycle of good and bad, ups and downs. I was hoping a tough lab program does not end up in my kitty after an easy-going internals.

The last few official days of the semester went on by filling exam forms online (the recent addition that VTU adopted consisting of various loopholes), finalizing marks of all the internals and last minute discussions on which units to do for the externals. It was strange that it took us quite some time to identify easy and tough chapters since we sailed though this semester with important question for internals and bunking classes giving placement as a reason.
The lab externals started off with Computer Networks followed by Programming the Web a week later. We did continue the tradition of group studies a day before each of the exams giving us a different dimension to studying; enjoying each bit of knowledge we gained at the last minute. We have barely attended a couple of labs in the semester and there was a lot to catch up. The externals luckily went on pretty well. The viva that I answered was very satisfying considering the fact a day of preparation negated the effect of few months of not studying and executing in the lab. Another reason why labs were memorable this time around was that I managed to type all the programs at home once before the D-day.

Hmmm…that was a pretty happy start to the exam season but what followed was a huge task of preparing for at least 5-6 units thoroughly in each of the allotted 6 subjects. I had full internal marks in all the subjects but I doubt if I had anything in mind about each of the subjects. Climbing a mountain sounded easier at that point. The last minute preparations included choosing the easiest 5-6 units, deciding which units to do when, making notes from the various materials and notes available both online and offline and the most difficult part was understanding concepts, mugging a few, trying to remember a few and leaving a few.

The day of the first theory lab external this semester came and there were a lot of apprehensions. But there was some assurity since we had all devoted almost 3 days for the subject. The OOMD paper was just satisfactory since the questions, though easy had very short answers which were allotted 10 marks each. A not-so-bad start but could have been much better.

Our second paper was SA. We had only one day to prepare for and the patterns that we had to study we very very confusing. I managed to learn a few theory units well thinking that they would probably help me in the externals to at least get a 60. And, am glad it did. The moment we were all given our papers, a common reaction was staring at each other for such a weird paper. None of the expected questions were noticed in the paper. The paper consisted of questions from the topics which were most likely to be skipped while studying. But with some guts, I managed to make up my own answers and fill my answer paper. I only prayed that the corrections would be lenient.

My 21st birthday came in before my next paper. I was left with no choice other than dating my books which did not go on very well. With one day left for preparation, the PTW portions seemed a little difficult. Though, I must admit that it was one of the most colorful subjects we have studied in this semester. The image of the “purple” cover page still stands fresh in memory. The paper consisted of a few unexpected programs which were manageable if we took some time off to think and code. The theory questions were manageable and overall it was a pretty satisfying paper.

The next paper was ECS, one of the most deadly subjects which I had to give an exam on. The book, though pink, failed to instill any interest for us to study. The language used by the author, a PHD at a very young age was very tough to relate to. Simple language that was complicated to understand due to a few grammatical errors in a high-funda English. With only one day to prepare for an exam such as this was very less. A few people could manage to study only 3-4 units owing to such short time for preparation. I was extremely tensed about this paper because my preparation was very bad. I luckily managed to go early to college and group as much as possible a few hours before the exam and that gave me some confidence. The time arrived and we were given the question papers. If SA was bad, ECS was horrible, probably nothing worse could follow. The paper was so framed that we could probably guess one part of the question and were totally clueless about the other part. I only wanted to write the paper soon and get rid of the hall because this paper caused so much disappointment.

The next day went only in thinking about how bad the ECS paper was and what impact it would possibly have on our marks. With 5 more days before the next exam, I managed to devote some time for the last paper after which I resumed my preparation for the JAVA paper. The Aradhya notes that I took from a friend was very helpful. I managed to read the fat prescribed books since after a long time I had actually bought first hand books. The reading was never ending though it was manageable considering the time we had in hand. The study holidays before JAVA paper also saw us go for a family dinner after ages and we had a great time there. The day of the exam saw us revising the concepts we learnt in the past few days. The paper was easy with most standard questions but I personally had an ok-ok paper. I guess I could have done it much better. What went wrong though is something I still have not figured out.

With one day in between exams and holidays, we were all busy dreaming about holidays instead of putting our hearts and souls into studying for C#. Though I always found this subject a hard nut to crack, I managed part A pretty well, again thanks to pair-study at home. I regret having neglected part B by not devoting full concentration to it because that was one reason I screwed up my paper. When the paper came to our hand, it was filled with both expected and unexpected questions. I was pretty happy with my Part A performance, but on having to attempt the Part B answers, I was pretty clueless. I just managed to write my own cooked up answers waiting to get out of the exam hall taking me to freedom.

Finally, the 7th semester exams were over. I breathed a sigh of relief. A couple of days in holidays were spent at home chilling out, trying my hand at watching some Hollywood movies, something I have never done before, but am glad that I like it now. The Christmas time saw me decorating the tree at home with bells, light and candles. I was pretty pleased with my work, except the fact that I missed out on wine and plum cake. I remembered those Pulse pre-preparation days when we went to college during holidays and our teachers treated us with yummy Christmas savories.
The next few days were followed with heavy shopping owing to the fact that shops at Commercial Street and Brigade Road were giving us heavy sales for Christmas and New Year. I managed to buy a sari, a salwar and loads and loads of window shopping. I was happy spending the New Year at my neighbor’s place playing games, cutting a cake and having a nice time with new friends unlike my other boring New Years’ Eve sitting at home in front of the Idiot Box.

The next two days were for catching up with friends, one for Kavya’s Birthday surprise and the other for treating Revanya after three years for all the help and love she has given me over the years. The next day was an important day since we were starting off a new season of placements in the New Year. It was Exeter that visited us on Jan 3rd.

Jan 3rd was very special for me for many reasons. The occasion of meeting my friends after two weeks was special. The laughing and the talking in the new block, the PPT presentation by Exeter group and the first ever subjective written test at MVIT placements followed. The experience was nice whereas there were mixed reactions about this format.

The tests ended and then I had one of those days which I wished everyday was. The drive in the car to a remote dhaba(Sri Maa Bhagawathi) with friends, the hogging of hot hot aloo paranthas, the plans of imaginary trips to Shirdi with our gang, pulling each other’s legs after quite some time all seemed too good to be true. The lessons from the Cracking the Interview book by Akshay, Kartik, Krithika and Ankit (who was never interested in the session) and how they pulled my leg for my stupid, sometimes dumb and sometimes over-technical answers...I thought these were the moments I would always cherish. But what followed was even better; something that I never expected in my wildest dreams.

I was shortlisted for the personal interview. I was in the top 7 out of the 83 who wrote the test. I agree that I missed a golden opportunity by not performing so well in the interview, making silly mistakes inspite of having the right answer somewhere at the back of my mind. But, I am sure this experience gave me a lot of self-confidence and belief. The results of the interview are not yet announced and I am really keeping my fingers crossed. But let us put it this way… Everything happens for the good...ALL IZZ WELL!!!