Moved!

Blogger SUX! Their Blogger bot deleted my blog five times! :( Plus they dont enforce security on their domain names - someone was able to redirect my blog address to point to a stupid ad site!

So i`ve shifted to WordPress. It has even more features than Blogger, like Widgets! My new blog can be found at thevc.wordpress.com . See you there!

Kurukshetra 07

Kurukshetra 07

It started like this. We at CEG wanted to start an event that would encompass all departments, all branches and start something different from what was already existent. What we decided on was we wanted to create a synthesis of engineering techniques, skills and thought processes, for while engineers think differently from doctors and scholars what is more important is that engineers think differently from each other as well. How a mechanical engineer approaches a problem is vastly different from how lets say a civil or computer science or an electronics student would perceive it. We wanted to create a stage nay a battlefield for the exponents of various engineering techniques to showcase their skill, their stamina, their drive to win for what can be better for the engineering community as a whole but a test of strength, a test of character, a test of will. The name Kurukshetra practically chose itself for the event. Like any proper war there will be a lot of smaller battles. These battles are going to take place in the areas of MODELLING,DESIGN,PRESENTATIONS,SOFTWARE QUIZ and MANAGEMENT. The mother of all batlles is going to be in ROBOTICS of course.As you can see our battle arena includes a nice blend of tests. There are not only the events where you are expected to get down and dirty, sweat and make things work;but also events where you are expected to be suave and poised and cool and calm. Kurukshetra tests not only your qualifications as an engineer it also tests your resolve to be one and your qualifications to be a representative of the engineering community to the rest of the world.

MODELLING opens you to a world of creativity- the chance to do a Cindrella act if you will(You ofcourse would be the Fairy Godmother!!). Take the junk given to you and fashion something useful from it and u have got it made in modelling. You think that is too easy fine then come up with your own product and bring it to real life.DESIGN will test your knowledge of curves and lines. You think your a Ford in the making then head over to Kurukshetra and we will see if you measure up. You have a new design for a water powered rocket or do you swear by CAD when it comes to designing? If the answer to that is yes then you know where to be from Jan 4th - 7th.

Are Robots your cup of tea? DO you have a BOT that is versatile, that can wrestle, that can race, that can find its way through a maze?? or Would u like to make one?? Then head over to CEG from 4th to 7th of Jan next year.Budding Professors in the making, Innovative Social Workers, The Messiah to Industries who is going to solve their problems. Are you any of these? Do you have a cogent manner of representing your ideas and concepts? If yes come and impress our judges and walk away with huge cash awards. IF your answer is no, well come anyway and learn from the masters how it is done!!

Software is making it big in the world out there - Fact. Well our online programming contest is guaranteed to grip you and haunt you. Try it!! Or if a little B&E is what you have in mind then try our Access Denied and show the security experts who you are!!Circuit Debugging masters, people who have an amazing amount of physics stored upstairs, people with a penchant for coming up with crazy,complicated solutions to simple problems - you have found a safe haven here. Come, Participate and Win in our TECHCHALLENGE.

Quiz - the first open quiz in the history of this 200 yr old college(The K! Open Quiz) and the only individual event in the entire 4 day event(The Lone Wolf), make this "a sure to be" truly memorable eye catcher. Come and get a piece of the action. You think you know more about the words Bull and Bear than zoologists!! You think you can pull a chestnut out of the fire?? Have you been tempted to play the market but have not had the capital?? Well Dalal Street is for you then. Try our stock market simulaton event and you will swear by it for sure. You think you have the panache, the suaveness, the skill to market your products to anyone in this world?? Well here is your chance. Sell your plans and products to our judges and walk away with pockets overflowing!

Well No symposium is complete without Workshops and Guest lectures and Kurukshtra is no different. Come to Kurukshetra and interact with top professionals and veterans from various branches of engineering and management. Listen to the GURUS tell you what to do. Glean all you can from them for they are sure to make you a better engineer more than anything else.

All work and no play makes a Jack a hebetudinous boy. We wouldnt want that now would we!!. So to spice up life we have the TECH HUNT(that is a technical treasure hunt that guarantees to keep you in a heightened state of excitement). We also have ALCATARAZ(try breaking out from the hell-hole that we push you into with your brains and raw knowledge that you possess as your only tools of redemption).Get back to the basics and have some fun. Try our gaming section if the processor up there gets heated up. Do you dream about being a mayor of a city or a superhero ?? Well then here is your chance to be both!!

Well, people all we have left to say to you is "FALL TO THE MATTRESSES".The rules of engagement are simple.This is a No Holds Barred, Winner Takes All war.
Let the Battle Begin!!!!
For further information contact - http://www.kurukshetra.org.in/

My Life!

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.8
Mind:	6.1
Body:	7.1
Spirit:	4.2
Friends/Family:	4.7
Love:	2.9
Finance:	7.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Wake up CS!!

I was recently talking to Sivaguru on what an absolute waste this sem has been [well, not counting 30 odd problems at acm :)]. All we did was study and that too in a very very laid back manner. Both of us agreed that studying was one thing best left to the AB Batch. They`ve got people who`ve made it their life mission in get geth cgpas. Well we have our very own Raghuram but whats one guy compared to fifty odd people all bent on merciless academic domination!:P

We did have our projects this sem - but both projects were none too technical - just above average! And compared to some legendary projects that have been done by our seniors, what we did was absolutely nothing! We really need to improve our technical knowledge..

We were talking about what our seniors had done in our semesters- from Lenin anna who wrote a new compression algorithm to our present fourth years who had already started rocking the world of online programming contests!

I was going through a few of my seniors blogs and sites and i was totally amazed. Total information overload! I knew my seniors were cool but i didnt imagine they were this cool.
Consider Prashanth Mohan. He`s created a software that allows people to pool their internet access times and thus maximize usage of free downloads of everybody`s account. Awesome!!

Another amazer, is Ravi Shanker. Placed already in Yahoo!. He`s developing a Judge for the online programming contest in a language i`ve never heard of till now. And i`m supposed to be the nerd! :P

So Siva and I have resolved to do something technical this sem - lets see how long this resol stands :P. And to all the mega- padips in AB Batch( though its unlikely in the extreme that they`ll ever read this ), WAKE UP! Cgpas are not the only things that matter - you may have extreme brain power but that isnt going to help u **** when ur going to be placed! So apart from the spirit of CS and all that, do it for your own careers! CS is one amazing stream where u literally learn your trade - evything u do here is gonna reflect in your career. So please wake up!

B.A.C.K!

After getting the blogger people to restore my blog two times( their server keep deleting my blog accidentally :p ) and changing the site redirection from some wierd church site, I`m finally back with my blog! To all the people who actually missed my blog( and actually told me so), thanks a lot!

Today was Sparks 2006, and it was absolutely amazing. I initially had my doubts about my juniors but i was absolutely blown away by the amount of hard work and effort that they put into Sparks( the news of which, incidentally, i got from Sivaguru and Nitin, since i was too busy with Brain Scan to get into Sparks this year ). Sparks was an amazing success and we had a record participation - over 800 students from various schools in and around Chennai registered for the events! This was no mean thing, for they had to beat our set`s record 453 turn out( which we managed even in the dingy MBA Audi - [ for outsiders, thats about a quarter of the size of the audi they got today] ). Kudos to the Juniors!

And since the semester is almost gonna close, i`ll make my usual statements - this sem was ok, but not as good as the prev ones :). Learnt a lot about people this sem. How to manage people who irritate u like hell. How to manage people u dont like. How to manage the people u like too much ( this one`s esp hard :) ) How to manage people u like but who dont like u and how to manage people who u dont like but like u! This sem`s been all about relationships and the complex webs that result thereof. [ Refer to Srikant for his famous A,B,C,X,Y,Z theory on realtionships with gals :D]. Had lots of really bad mood swings this sem - causeless periods of undefined depression. Was talking to a senior about all this yesterday - his advice "free ya vidu" !

Then i realised how much being close to a event kinda clouds your judgement.. sometimes u need to step back and look at the bigger picture - Looking at which, I had a lot of fun this sem! :D. Organising Brain Scan, going to Shaastra ( a lot of my class guys went to that for "fringe benefits" - ask Nitin and Srivatsan(M) for detailed explanations :p ), getting involved in Kurukshetra and thoroughly making a mess of life in general!

P.S If on reading this, u understood nothing , don`t worry. Even i cant understand what i've written on reading through it again. But for those close friends who do, thank god i have u guys!

Oh, for Medieval Times!

Of late , i`ve been dreaming and wishing for the medieval times to be back. Yes, u heard me right - the times of war, dictatorship and the slash and burn. Of late i`ve been so disillusioned with all the hypocrity, the ego , the backstabbing and just plain meanness of this world that i think it wud be paradise living in the old times. The single greatest thing i love about those times is that they called a spade a spade. Here, we have so many versions of hypocrisy that it becomes diff to follow! Worse still is the fact that people believe that they are being actually clever in being a hypocrite! I asked a friend of mine, he said that noboby does thing the straight way these days and that i`m also not expected to!!

I hate these snide hints that people give each other. In the olden times, people knew their borders - if they were close to a guy , they asked him outright for favors, and if they were`nt , they didnt. But today.. people ask u stuff as if its a huge boon for u to help them! What is wrong here?

What was bravery in those times is foolishness today. Honesty and frankness is out of style. The two things i loved best about those times was Honesty and Chivalry. One of my friends again suprised me one day "Don`t u know chivalry is dead?". Is it?

One more thing i loved about those times was that everybody had a purpose - everyone had their assgined jobs, and they did this to best of their ability. Today? Doing their best is the last thing on anybody`s minds.. i dont mean that one shud be the best in what one did.. but at least one shud have a passion for what one does..

One thing i lack is the ability to sense when people mean one thing when they mean another. I`ve been trying to get this skill for some time now, but no matter what, i always end thinking something while the other person "means" another! I totally dont understand the concept of "leading upto stuff", "hinting stuff","since i said this, i meant this"!! Why cant people just talk straight for some time!! :)

On reading this again, i find that i started with one topic.. but ending with quite another. Hope i make sense.

And thanks to Smrithi for this really novel way of a postscript!

Of Books And Music

Books and music have always had a lot of influence on my moods and beliefs.. Books in particular have always had the ultimate effect on me.. I would read a book, and it would totally change my mood.. A good book would leave its impact on me for at least a week... Each time i read a book, i totally identify myself with the main character.. You should ask my friends, how involved i get when i read a book :).. I wud adopt some of the beliefs of the character.. It wud kind of change me..

Since childhood, my idols, role-models have always been literary characters, rather than real life.. Holmes, Dumbledore,Ruzhyo.. all magnificient characters.. I have always felt within each of these characters was a perfect way of living a kind of life.. each different, but perfect..

I treasure books.Ya, I`m a GRADE A certified bookworm! Proud of it! Books have always been my release..

Movies are another story altogether.. I`m not a movie buff. I dont eagerly wait in line for the next movie and see it first day, first show. Yet, movies have this profound impact.. to me, the dialogues and the sound track carry the whole impact of the movie.. My fav movies have all made this HUGE impact on me.. Lord of The Rings, The Matrix, Gladiator,Ocean`s Eleven( and Twelve), Kaaka Kaaka, Padaiyappa..

I loved the Lord of the Rings for the principles it denotes.. these are not seen on such a scale today..

The Matrix for the way neo comes back.. to me thats the ultimate expression fo hope...

Gladiator again for the principles.I LOVED the soundtrack in the film, the soundclip at the last is one of the most peaceful i`ve ever heard..

Ocean`s Eleven and Twelve- partly for the comedy and for showing Life is a challenge.. I LOVED the dance across the laser field in second film. Awesome!

Kaaka Kaaka - for the beautiful way it shows love.. and for jyothika`s character in the movie.. Ultimate romantic film for me.. I watch the clippings again and again and again..

Padaiyappa - This i love just for the super star..A classic rajni film, its got so much of his style that i love.. And for the "MINSAARA KANNA" song - ultimate!

P.S Watched too less films this sem. Maybe thats why my life feels out of balance! :)

P.P.S People who read this post, please comment! I need to know if u think i`m a raving lunatic :)