Anxiety pulls me back to blogging

Well well, yes I am back to blogging business, actually been pulled back to writing by my anxiety and anger. This proves to be good timepass in these times. So, the situation is that I am going to the IIT Kanpur’s techfest “Techkriti 2009″ for the Robowars event where we will be builing robots and make them fight in the arena, we are a team of four members and we still haven’t done anything. Not even started yet, with the college fest starting from 12th February. Leave that, there are many more problems regarding the registration which will confirm and make us believe that we ARE going to kanpur. Though it feels like a big deal that we are going to such a place for participation in this national level event, but there are equal number of tensions in the mind. The other team members don’t even seem to care!!

There are so many expectations and dreams regarding the environment there and the kind of fun we will have. I just hope that we don’t mess up big time.

Wish me luck!!

Pleasures of pithoragarh

 

 

Recently I had a chat with my friend who resides in a beautiful but a lesser known hill station called as “Pithoragarh”. He was obviously talking about his hometown and telling me about it. So, you might imagine that why a city so beautiful is not so popular among Indians, that’s because it takes 7-8 hours to reach this city from the plains that is Haldwani and the journey is not only lengthy but also tiring and troublesome, even some people who stay there find it difficult. The city, situated on the border of both, China and Nepal is only 180 Km. away but just compare the time taken to the one in plains and you will come to know. Actually the main path starts after crossing almora from which they descend into a valley and then climb up round and round on the top of the mountain on which it is situated. Not only this, a truck or a trailer takes about a week’s time to reach the main city. Isn’t that awful??

I sometimes imagine, if living there is so difficult, then why the heck do people stay there? Well, you haven’t noticed the weather and surroundings there, which is probably like heaven. There is also a river going through the city which makes it even beautiful. There is a construction of an airport going on there though a helipad already exists. The kumaon people here are all self sufficient and almost no poverty exists, unlike the plains. This also obviously leads to a lesser crime rate which is negligible, and even if any crime occurs at any point of time, the news of it spreads like wild fire throughout the city and people all over protest or take action against it. This I think makes you feel like a part of family from which the people are so bounded with. Though less of Indian tourists are found here but Englishmen can be seen here and there. They, I feel have an access to almost any kind o geography, Haha.

Anyways, do tell me if you live there or have seen the city and tell me your views about it. Though I haven’y had the courage to go there but have a longing feeling to see this beautiful city as soon as I have time!!

An education I long for…

Yes, this is a major point of concern for me not only in the field of engineering but also each and every school or college, be it a science stream or not, all we are focusing are is the theory, most of us haven’t even seen practically what we have been studying theoretically for years. This happens mainly due to lack of infrastructure and corruption. I recently learnt of a CBSE affiliated school in which there were no labs or lab assistants, nor a particularly rich library, neither a librarian. The teachers too hired were not B.Ed holders. Those who were, said that they are not paid at the scale which CBSE has prescribed, they were made to sign at false payment receipts and given lesser money. When the CBSE school Inspectors came to inspect the school they decorated the school with temporary labs, books and teachers like anything. The person who inspected the school was given “gifts” rather bribe like he was their saviour. This is the basic foundation of the students to becoming a FARZI engineer or a farzi person with a farzi degree. CBSE is trying to renovate the system by giving more weightage to practicals but I don’t think these are getting really affective as the teachers are still strained to complete the course which has been set up by them. I think there should be a dynamic or flexible kind of course which the teachers are free to teach. They should not be chained like the present ones are.

Now, that was all about the school part, I’d now rather come to the colleges. Most of these (mainly those which are state university affiliated ones) conduct practical exams like it’s just another day i.e. bring your books and copy the content into the practical copy, the external examiner is taken on a JOY ride on the meanwhile and given snacks or gifts. Talking about the results, my 1st semester results came just before the 2nd semester exams had started…now wouldn’t you like to say ‘WOW’. This year almost 14 universities in Uttar Pradesh technical Univ. sprouted out of nowhere, it doesn’t matter whether their students are placed or not. I’ve heard that almost 500 colleges in some or the other corner of U.P. are affiliated to the UPTU. I’ll check it on their website some day. These colleges in a hurry to take in more students develop infrastructure which will take much more time to develop than they think. Students here are packed into rooms which are much smaller than the size in which they should be made to live.

Yes, It happens only in India!!!

Reservation policy – It does need a review

So finally my holidays after completing the first year are over and it’s time to pack my bags and to begin my journey back to my college at nainital, where I have heard that it’s raining a lot. I’ll be reaching there by bus and finally wondering about the new faces I am gonna find there i.e those of the first year who will be butchered by us!! Yeah and finally I hope to see some good one’s cause there’s lots of reservation here at uttarakhand technical university…with at least 30% reservation for women and then freedom fighters, army personell and Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes follow which are ultimately added by “Other Bacward classes”. Huff!! thats lot of people you know!! Surely people who do not deserve the college get the position and occupy excessive seats. That’s really pathetic and shows that the educations system of India is so flawed. This however exists not only in the education system but in all parts of the society.I suppose that it would be better if we put a reservation for the poor rathar than these things as people do take advantage of this. Though anti-reservation protests are going on all over the country but I don’t thing that it will make any difference to the government as all it cares about is their vote bank.

An amusing anti-reservation Ad

Just as this advertisement suggests it is a black dot exposing the dirty politics going on in the country just for sheer personal gain. Reservation was originally incorporated in the constitution just for the purpose of uplifting particular classes from their economic and social condition in the society which was really pathetic. India today has obviously changed a lot and their condition too has been changed in fact they are in much better condition now and placed at very impoprtant places in the society.

Here is a really good article in wikipedia based on this topic. check it out: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India

Amazing Poem

 

An Engineer’s Valentine

by Matthew Dalton

I was alone and all was dark
Beneath me and above
My life was full of volts and amps
But not the spark of love

But now that you are here with me
My heart is overjoyed
You’ve turned the square of my heart
Into a sinusoid

You load things from my memory
Onto my system bus
My life was once assembly code
It’s now like C++

I love the way you solder things
My circuits you can fix
The voltage ‘cross your diode is
much more than just point six

With your op-amps and resistors
You have built my integrator
I cannot survive without you
You’re my function generator

You’ve changed my world, increased my gain
And made my math discreet
So now I’ll end my poem here
Control, Alt, and Delete

source: -  www.netpoets.com

Hey that was an amazing poem fit for people like us!! I just loved it, so thought of just putting it up.

I just imagine sometimes…how do these guys have so much of creativity…

The engineer attitude

I notice a great contrast between the behaviour of a  person coming into an engineering college and the one going out of it after completing 4 years. The one coming into it is more like the “I don’t care about the world and what’s going on in it” attitude while the one coming out, is much more aware about this world and what’s cooking up in our country. I have noticed some of my batchmates watching Wrestling, cartoons and other stuff on TV I am really bored with and consider it to be too childish for such an age. There are very few ones who care to watch News channels, which is a complete rarity. Other’s are so obsessed with bikes, cars and cricket that they don’t have time for any kind of emotions and serious stuff (in fact none of them ever gets serious in the hostel). Life is fun and a joke for them all the time. Coming to girls, almost all of them talk of wooing them and only about 3 out of 10 are successful and know what they actually want. Many of those who have taken up Computer Engineering, haven’t  seen a computer in life before, it amuses me too much. I wonder how are they going to cope up with it in the coming 3 years. Actually, when I was in the state counselling I saw that Computer Engineering was filled up instantly in every college and people considered it to be the “supreme branch” which I still don’t know why. Though, I suppose other branches have better prospects and probably Computer Engineering is going to be a  saturated field in the next few years. There are already so many institutes like NIIT, Aptech, SSI, IIJT etc….etc…. coming up. 

Those who are in the 3rd and 4th year seem to be much more mature,knowlegeable and serious, they know what’s coming up in the corporate world, what kind of jobs are in the offering, and the “It is time we engineers rock the world” attitude. It feels simply great to talk to such people. They are worth having a discussion on a particular topic or on a current affairs news which is going on in the country, unlike most of us 1st and 2nd year students. All they would discuss about is cars, bikes, wrestlers and cricket. This makes me really SICK.

The first day in college

I still remember my first day in my college…had so many expectations and the feeling of being FREE at last from the stupid school “Discipline”. But little did I know what was to await me…22 days of getting ragged!! Well, there was more discipline to be followed, but I won’t take it in bad light becoz that was just sheer fun…sitting in our rooms and discussing what happened with each of us today was altogether a great feeling which is never to return now.

It is hard to bear though

The first few hours were totally safe and quiet as the parents of the students were roaming about and helping them set up their rooms. I had 2 room partners, (since we have a 3 in 1 room) who were at first so busy reading their 12th class Chemistry and Physics books that made me go “EEW!” and create a inferiority complex in me as to why am I not so studious and think of reading something which I couldn’t as I had not purchased any textbooks. Ultimately I ended up playing games on my mobile phone. As the few boring hours passed by and parents started to recede from the hostel and finally when all of them had gone (probably), our door burst open with a loud “THUD!” and in came a gang of seniors screaming about and directing us to do as they say. For an hour or so they instructed with their rules which we were to follow until the freshers party and informed us of the mess timings etc. One of them was to bend down at 90 degrees and never make an eye contact with the senior. This thing , I suppose has become a trademark in each and every engineering college in India today and is rather obsolete, they should come up with better Ideas you know   After that turn by turn endless of them came pouring in and taking our so called “Intro’s”. There were also some strange and funny poems which we were supposed to learn (I loved listening to new of them everyday, but cant remember even a single as of now).We were made ”MURGA” or cocks if we made some mistake or did something against their their wishes. This was really fun, though painful.

Others may critisize the fact that ragging is bad and it lead’s to depression and blah blah blah…..but I must say, at the end of the day I realized that it is necessary, for the following reasons :-

1. It did really improve and change my personality to some extent and made me calm and a better at listening to others.
2. It helped me more mature by uplifting me from the childish school character.
3. We definitely need someone over us to press us, against the suddenly achieved “freedom”, so that we do not turn towards the bad elements of life. It is definitely necessary in a fully residential college like mine.
4. It gives us a purview into the corporate life which we are going to face in these few years.

So, ragging, If taken in good light, and in appropriate proportion is good for us. However, excessive of it also leads us to suffer, we should rebel if it takes the form of bad elements or crosses its limits.

Facing the competition

Here I am to let me speak out my views and experiences on the way Engineering as a career is shaping up in our nation and how the students go about it.The fun and the college life is always remembered in one’s mind and I am gonna pen it down here on my blog for everyone to read as I go through this journey.

One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems dis

–Albert Einstein (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. 1879-1955)

So, before all the B.tech stuff, it all starts with a bad and nervous 2 years of preparations of competitions with your studies of Physics , Chemistry and Maths and those sleepy coaching classes and tuitions and late night studies at home (which the students barely get time for). It is another shaking fact that almost 3.2 lakh students apply for IIT-JEE every year and only about the top 7000 make it to the institute.. and feel that they have conquered the world. And the one who tops the test with a rank 1, really becomes superhero. It’s like journalists running after him for an interview. Coaching institutes trying to woo him for allowing them to put his name on their advertisements etc. etc. It’s too much I would say, they’d do anything for fake publicity. But they do give a good teaching and guide you to your way. Although I have seen some students have a jump in their ranks after joining these institutions, but I think it is mostly due to their own hard work. Teachers can only give you an inspiration. And after passing the competitive exam students tend to think that B.tech would now be an easy thing. But these 4 years of their life is going to change the way they look at the society and get them ready for the corporate world waiting ahead for them and IT IS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT.

Those unlucky ones who do not get to see the IITs go for the AIEEE where there are another bunches of students waiting for the competitions for entering into the government colleges like the NITs and IIITs.