FIRST REAL WEEKEND

Started with my job at accenture, mumbai this monday. It is my first job n it was one hell of a week for me as i'm not habituated to attending classes from 9 to 5. During college days rarely the lecturers would come to d classroom. So every day ending in "y" was like a weekend. I dont say dat weekends r not fun but wen every day becomes a weekend....d real weekends r no more special.

This week was rather different compared to d college life. The induction program fr d first two days, then d training fr d next three days, rising early in d morning n going early to bed everyday, travelling by local trains, being a part of d Mumbai crowd, concentrating in d classrum (which i hv hardly done in d past 4 years)...It has been a hectic week over all.

But i'm relishing d holiday after facing d heat fr d entire week. There's a sweet feeling aftr al d hard wrk. I was unaware of this feeling al these years...They say college life is fun...i agree...but mebbe corporate life wil b fun too...not on d weekdays but d weekends atleast..!!!

Do we need more IITs and IIMs

Our govt has come up with an ambitious project of setting up 8 IIT's and 7 IIM's. The govt supports its decision by saying that currently only a miniscule number of students get the privilege of studying in these institutes.

So simple. To fight scarcity, production needs to be increased.

The govt also has a view that why should only a few states in the country have such institutes. Why deprive others.

Uske state mein IIT hai toh mere bhi state mein chahiye.

Does this move of the govt make sense ? The already existing IIT's face a shortage of faculty and infrastructure. From where are they going to bring faculty for 15 more institutes. Also setting up each IIT will cost the govt Rs. 750 crores and each IIM Rs. 250 crores. Does our country need more engineering colleges ? The situation of some of the engineering and management institutes in the country is so bad that even a student just clearing the passing marks in the exams can get admission. A large number of seats in these institutes remain vacant. Then why set up more institutes ? It will only lead to brand dilution of the premier institutes. How will it look like when every 4th engineer in the country will be an IITian ?

Instead of setting up more IITs why not use these hundreds of crores of rupees for the improvement of the already existing colleges like RECs and try to bring them to the level of IITs. This will solve the govt's problem of providing quality education to more students and also prevent the brand dilution.

Blog...but WHAT ???

Today, while having dinner i was just thinking that it has been more than 20 days since i have not blogged. Initially i created the blog page with a lot of enthusiasm, posted a couple of articles and then...everything over. No activity since then. I knew dat this is going to happen. Kya karu...koi achcha topic hi nahi milta likhne ke liye.

Came back to the room after dinner. Logged on to orkut. The thought came back again....started thinking of a good topic to write...gave it some thought....back to orkut.

1 hour passed...was reading the newspaper...The thought came back again...Again started thinking of a good topic...gave it some thought....back to the newspaper

another hour passed....still reading the paper...this time the urge to write something was stronger...started the Pc....connected the internet and started reading friends' blogs so as to get an idea...read a few blogs...still not getting any idea...frustrated with myself. Why cant i conjure ideas as so many other people do? Why am i the dumbest of them all? Why do i have such a poor imagination? searching for answers to so many questions in my mind..urgghh.it feels so creepy. Said to myself "Forget it. Blogging is not my cup of tea."

Put on some music...Shine on you crazy diamond (part 1-5)...i guess listening to this instrumental is one of the best ways to waste 13:30 minutes of life....still hunting for a topic...lost all hope of getting one

Feeling drowsy...my mind is not responding...lets keep the thinking for some other day...!

Gilly deserves more

After all the furore surrounding it, the Tri-series has finally come to an end. Although it was a long series, Dhoni and his men shortened it by a match.
This series was filled with some significant events like the "Bhajji-Symonds row", Tendulkar scoring his first ODI century down under, India winning an ODI series on Australian soil after a hiatus of more than 20 years.
But the most memorable one for me will always be Adam Gilchrist's retirement from the game.

Gilly is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) players world cricket has seen. He is the one who revolutionized test cricket, started a trend of scoring at a run rate of 4 plus in test cricket. Everyone knows the statistics and Gilly's strike rate in different forms of the game which truly reflect his greatness. Unfortunately, his farewell from ODI's was a low-key affair. After the final ball had been bowled I sat glued to the PC waiting for the presentation ceremony expecting a grand good-bye for the best wicket keeper. But no such thing happened. Just a short speech by Gilly, that's it. Even today morning i opened TOI with hope of spotting at least 2-3 articles by former cricketers, but TOI (as usual) disappointed me. Not even a single line related to his retirement had been included.

Such a small adios for somebody who has been voted as the "World's Scariest Batsman" in a poll of international bowlers !

Some things are good, some not so good

The time has come. Its hardly 40-50 days more in VJTI hostel. what next ? another place, maybe in mumbai or maybe some another city. But life wont be the same again. Life was never the same 4 years back when i came to this place. I vaguely remember the first speech by kaka (read Prof. Nakhare) in Saraswati Vachanalaya. I remember him referring to hostel as "home away from home". I dont know how many times i have laughed thinking about this phrase. Can there be any place as good as home ?

Looking into the retrospect, these 4 years of hostel life have flown just like the cold wind. Cold wind which feels so good during the summers and stings bitterly during winters. Sometimes you miss it and at other times you hate it. Hostel life has not been much different. I'm still in the hostel, there is still some more time to be spent in this place but i have already started missing it.
For the past 4 years i have been bitching about the poor maintenance of the rooms, bad infrastructure (absence of or broken beds/tables/chairs in some rooms), pathetic condition of the bathrooms and toilets, no proper electricity boards and switches in most of the rooms, the yelling watchmen, the irascible clerk and the rectors, the mess food, and i cant remember how many more things.

On the other hand there are a lot of things this place has taught me;living away from home, living with people from diverse backgrounds, making own decisions, the value of money, sharing your room with people who are as different from you as Bhajji from Symonds, dodging the watchmen after late night movie shows, etc.

There are things about the hostel i'm gonna miss in future, things which i wont get the experience of anywhere else in the world. There are memories which will remind me of the friends i made in hostel, the late night marathon chat sessions, birthday bumps at 12 in the night, the walks on the cricket ground after dinner, the sunday dinners, watching cricket matches in the jam-packed TV room, watching movies together on the PC, one night stands during exams, the non-working ceiling fan above my head...

These are priceless memories which will stay with me forever...bring a smile on my face...a tear in my eye !!!