My tryst with Destiny

Now after such a long hiatus let me pen down some of the most memorable experiences I had as a part of my student life. First of all before I start off this post I would like to genuinely thank my best pals babu and badri who momentarily agreed to my plan for a trip without the slightest hint of wavering or hesitation to the weird plan I chalked out. Finally some more ideas put in by Badri for some slight modifications in the plan and lo behold we all were on a train before we could even realize that we were going on a memorable trip we would remember for the rest of our lives (at least for me it is going to be one, I don’t know about my other two counterparts)
From Mangalore To Delhi
The starting of the trip commenced with our boarding the train at Kankanady terminal in Mangalore. I was feeling a bit eerie on seeing the railway station and even more petrified by looking at the path that led us to the station. Good thing that Badri had warned me well in advance of the impending situation. Once we reached there a little bit of refreshments we were on the train and me and Badri adjusted on the middle berth of the train (that day one of our tickets was on waiting list number 1) giving the luxury of a single birth all by himself to Babu. We slept in the opposite directions with our bodies turned upside down. Badri’s feet were touching my face and mine were touching Badri’s face. The fact was Badri was twitching and moving all the time the slightest disturbance and Badri would roll over. I felt concerned and showed consideration by folding my legs, hind legs, calf and everything to him only to realize the famous fable of the camel moving its master out of the tent by morning I was crumpled to one part and Badri was happily sleeping with ample leg room and of course ample head room.
Enough was enough morning I choose to leave my berth early and sat down the morning passed by to evening with no noticeable event and we getting down the train at intermediate stations to break the monotony of the journey. Babu used to peep once in a while and crack jokes and back to normal morose routine of waiting for Delhi to arrive, now this was one long wait and we found no good company there except for a Delhite there who was giving us good company. He took offense at me calling him uncle (I wanted to be respectful to him seeing his demeanor and his gray beard). But that was in a sportive sense, we weren’t talking much most of the time he was dozing off happily. The night of the last leg of our journey he offered us home made food his relatives had given him in Nashik when we were waiting in the night for a station to pick up something to eat. We sensed that he was not supposed to take up the oil food packed there, but anyway at a time when people would believe that throwing food away is better than to give it to anyone his gesture caught us off guard and we really were falling short of words to say thanks. All the 3 of us hogged like hell and soon finished off all the parathas packed there.

At Delhi for a brief gap and journey from Delhi to Pilani

The next day by about 4:00 PM we were in Badri’s residence happily eating the delicious food served by aunty. One of the main things I will ever recall would be aunty’s sambar for sure, typical madras style sambar. Although we were all weary from the travel we yet braved the languor of the journey to further prolong our journey with me assuring Badri that I will take full care of the luggage only then did Badri dared to venture out of the house. We started off for ISBT terminal in Delhi and true to aunty’s saying that traveling to ISBT was akin to embarking on a KASI YATRA (ISBT is supposed to be the biggest terminal in Delhi) we at one point doubted whether Badri was leading us to Pilani directly which was our next destination. The unending maze of buses and misleading drivers and conductors at ISBT got onto to our nerves as we frantically searched for the Pilani bus. We stood at the main entrance looking at every bus hoping that it will be heading towards Pilani vainly as we stood for hours till about 10:30 the man at desk for Rajasthan buses told us that Pilani bus had already left and none arrived at the main gate, considering the long line of buses it wasn’t possible for the bus to disappear from main gate in so small a time interval. God only knows what happened to that bus. Finally a middle man asked us where we were heading to and we meekly replied Pilani hoping against hope that this guy was heading to the same destination. He then emphatically declared that Pilani bus would have long left by then. True to his word that might have as well happened we felt as if we started out on the wrong foot for the journey and were cracking our brains to work a way out of it. Then he suggested a way out himself. He told he was going to Chirawa a place quite close by to Pilani (this name struck a bell in my mind somewhere in the past when I had myself applied for BITS, Pilani at my father’s behest I had scanned the map of Pilani on its prospectus and this name sounded familiar. P.S.: If vidya ever reads this blog and if my memory still holds ground the other place closeby to Pilani should be Loharu isn’t it??) anyway now since that was the only route left we choose to board the bus he was pointing to us. It all happened in a flash like we meeting him he telling us a way out and within the time I was musing trying to recollect the name from the past and the bus came before us. In the meanwhile as the bus moved ahead I messaged Vidya (my friend from class 12th currently studying in BITS) about the situations she was apoplectic and told us we might find it hard to find accommodation from there to Pilani early in the morning. Somewhere on the way a funny incident happened to which even today Badri and Babu make fun of me recollecting it (I still don’t understand what they found so funny in it). On the way somewhere the conductor mentioned a name I didn’t understand and mistook it for Chirawa I shouted “abe yaar aa gaya chirawa” to both of them and started off with my luggage towards the door. The surrounding was looking scary and there was nothing there other than just a camel. Not even a street light it was like somewhere in the midst of a desert. Now this guy was more sensible than we thought and seeing me he asked aapko chirawa jana hai na kya jald baaji hai and shouted indistinctly arre bhaaaya yeh koi stop hee nahin hai jao picche in the typical rajasthani accent (I like it so much). Now both of these idiots had great fun behind. We finally got down at chirawa at four in the morning and waited there till about six for a bus to Pilani. It was cold out there about 13-18 degrees C. I took out my jacket and waited there along with others. At six a bus came and we promptly were dropped off near BITS main gate. And as we moved close by we were able to hear weird sounds of someone doing yoga at that time and giving instructions on a mike. Gosh at six in the morning and that too at a temperature that was chilly. Babu gave me that same old quizzical look that meant you’ve gotta be kiddin dude.

Finally we went over and realized that guest house was quite close by and vidya had already made arrangements for us there. We were pleasantly surprised by the room it was far better than our guest house. Anyway all things left aside we got refreshed and messaged vidya that we were ready for our stroll across the campus of BITS, Pilani. In the meanwhile as Babu was getting ready me and Badri hogged on an unfairly large portion of aunty’s home made chutney and puri’s. He later made a hue and cry but I might have to make a confession we did grab a large share. Vidya came over immediately and now lets move on to describe how Pilani was…

Pilani

We started off by visiting the famous Birla temple of Pilani. As we entered Vidya told us that capturing photos was not banned here.

And behind Badri whispered that this was the only Birla temple where we can take pictures of the main idol and the premises of the building. It was banned else where in India where the chain of Birla temples was located like at Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur. So we happily went on a clicking spree. Here Badri did something which set the tone for me for the rest of the day at Pilani. Badri lost the camera pouch (The camera belonged to my friend naresh who’s brother brought it from US for him and along with the camera cover we lost a memory chip of 16 MB memory space).

Now for the rest of the day I was pondering over how to break this news to him and placate my firebrand ex-roomie. After this we visited the shiv ganga of BITS (I even recall this from the prospectus). It consisted of a main idol surrounded by a pool of stagnant water. The water was nine feet deep and is cleaned once in a year it seems on the occasion of Holi (all this info is exactly as what Vidya told me).

Behind this was another temple of Hanuman which we visited along with. After this we headed back to around the various blocks like Meera Bahawan to the interior of BITS here we had a look at a school in BITS for higher secondary from where originated each year one of the best bands that marched down 10 janpath for the Republic day. Then we reached the new Student Activity Centre of BITS which was still under construction as Vidya explained to us the various essential features of the BITS student community various departments and branches which completely managed all events in BITS.

And then as we waited in the visitors room of girls block Vidya went over and called my junior from UMRJC (for readers unknown to this term this is the name of the college where I completed my 12th Uma Maheshwara Junior College). He promptly came over and we introduced ourselves and my friends he took me completely by surprise telling all details about me. He even recalled where I lived in ongole told me that he knew me by face. He even recalled an incident where in I and my mother were going together along the road we frequently use for picking up some regular household articles. Man I was bowled, somebody recalled my face from within the so many people one comes across in 12th and that too a senior who meant nothing to him at all, other than just topped in his term for securing the best in EAMCET. So what each time some one scores first, what is the need to remember me so well? I was genuinely impressed and deeply touched by this (by the way to all readers his name is Murthy). This really called for a grand treat. So we all set out to cover the rest of the campus, we went to the BITS museum and science centre. Fortunately or unfortunately it remained closed. Then we went over to a place where we took few refreshments. And there saw some old vintage stuff like the first aero plane owned by an Indian (obviously someone from the Birla clan) the make of the aero plane was not written on it, a vintage car which also was coincidentally regarded as the first one owned by an Indian. We went over and took some cash from the ATM and went on to visit the Asia’s biggest library.

The library was an amazingly posh and huge building built in the sparse rajasthani styling inside with inkling of the maroon royal red splashed at place. In the atrium was an opening consisting of a glass dome from where light trickled in to make the whole building look bright and splendid. We felt as if we were not in a library but in some big shopping mall. It was really cool inside and we even caught glimpses of some BITSians drooping in the halls.

. And thanks to Badri and Babu’s constant pestering I wasn’t allowed to even touch a book although Vidya had found out from the computer query where the civil engineering section was. Was forced to leave the building without even glancing at a book of Civil Engineering. As we came out Vidya pointed to the ceiling of the porch on which some paintings were made and told that the paintings were directly painted on to the ceiling rather than painted on a canvass and pasted onto the wall. This is great this institution had the funds to take up and build such a good library and maintain a good collection of books. Then I realized that our college housed books mainly in the technical division no books on finance and nothing related to biology at all. BITS housed significant volumes on all such subjects. Way to go!! on the whole this was the most impressive building I had seen in BITS.
And then we moved on to the main building where classes were taught in departments divided into divisions called FD-1, FD-2 and so on in BITS lingo. We were surprised to see that the lecturer in class was teaching to one student in the class all the rest remaining absent as there is nothing called minimum attendance rule in BITS. Well every college has its share of loop holes this seemed to be one glaring discrepancy I noticed at BITS. We moved on then to the main building and clicked a few snaps at the main clock tower of BITS and luckily some rehearsals were going on at the auditorium so we had a peek at the mighty auditorium of BITS. Then we moved onto the recently built up blocks of BITS they presented an even more gracious picture of a classroom. Surrounding scenery looked more like a place at IIM. There Vidya explained how they did different mock dramas, enacted plays as a part of their courses. Great place had I stayed there for four years I would have grown nostalgic of it. Here she explained the concept of 10 P in BITS language (any queries about this concept better ask my friend Vidya about a clear explanation of it she knows it better).
Not only that both the BITSians showing us around told us many other aspects and facts about BITS lingo and inside things like the sentiment BITSians associate with the clock tower and so on. Finally we called it a day by heading to C’not for food.

After having food and dessert there we left for the guest house there we chatted for quite some time as Murthy dozed off a bit. We related many incidents which happened there and how the food was at BITS our feeling about BITS. Vidya’s experience about the college and so on…

Finally we bid farewell and left BITS for our onward journey onto Jaipur (and moreover for all the emotions that were running in my brain during this trip there is a separate blog for all that later).

The lesson I learnt from my GE interview

First of all thanking all those who congratulated me for getting into General Electric I felt a deep urge to put into paper all my experiences I had as a part of getting selected for GE. First of all let me explain to all of you guys that I had never ever contemplated sitting for a company as big as GE (leave along getting into it). How would anyone from a college like NITK, Surathkal aspire for a company as big as it and also highly rumored to be out of reach even for some of the most elite institutions like IITs in India???

Well anyway my first impulse when I first heard GE was coming was a wary one I felt I didn’t have the potential to make it to the company. And I had long given up the option and sustained no interest to take up a job immediately after my B.E. I was seriously considering the option of taking up project assistantship to further brush my skills in Finite Element Analysis and all that stuff. (For all my readers who are not familiar with this subject a little introduction. It is a wonderful topic and one I like the most and widely applicable in the analysis of many parameters pertaining to wide range of subjects including electromagnetism, structural mechanics, fluids etc.)

The interview and the whole selection procedure was an experience beyond anything I could ever imagine or contemplate. I had been shortlisted for the interview from a very big group and frankly speaking I was pleasantly surprised that I made it to the interview. The interview was another experience which taught me a lesson which I will continue to remember for a long time. ( I will post a detailed description of my experiences during the interview in a different post). The lesson that I learnt in GE was that I was still an amateur and I needed to learn a lot before I can be satisfied with my own self. I felt more or less that I was being reminded by a super natural power that I was moving too fast without realizing that I was missing out many fine points and was missing out the most important thing required for being a good researcher. I was missing out on perfection. There was a very good article I came across few days before which I should not have ignored so much. I came across it in a community in orkut. I am posting that article directly here.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood
street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door!
He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the
brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all
about and who are you? Just what ! the heck are! you doing?
That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?” The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister..please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” He pleaded.
“I threw the brick because no one else would stop…”
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed
to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said.
“He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t
lift him up.”
Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please
help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy
for me.”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling
lump in his throat He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into
the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the
fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay..
“Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his
wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home
it was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message “Don’t go through life so fast that someone
has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts.
Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us.
It’s our choice to listen or not.

And now I am really going to listen to what God wanted to tell to me from my experience at GE.
All along the interview I felt that I had missed out a lot of fine points while I gobbled up more experience learnt new softwares, more novel techniques. I had missed the essence of everything almost every new technique. I forgot to identify that fundamentals were more important than the technique itself.
And now having realized all this I would like to start off anew again. I will strive to start off right from the fundamentals again and attain perfection again. I would like to thank god thank everyone who made me realize this thing (mostly the people who I am referring to here would be the interview panel of GE). With this earnest but modest confession I will mark the end of one of the most important blogs I have ever penned down onto this page.

(I greatly thank Anil Kumar of the community TB in orkut the person who posted this article and helped me learn one of the most important lessons in my life.)

This article is my outrage and feelings directed at the attack that took place on Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. I was actually shocked and deeply hurt on hearing the ghastly news of a professor being killed in the shootout at IISc.
Although I was associated with this great institute only for a very short time I am not able to control my emotions over what has happened yesterday there. Let me first of all clarify my relationship with IISc, Bangalore. I was awarded the Young Engineering Fellowship Program – 2005 by this institute I considered this a great honor and duly accepted it. The truth being that I was more eager to enter this place than anybody else. I resided and did work there for just two months, but I must confess that this brief period of stay there has been the most enervating invigorating, knowledgeful and inspiring sojourn for me. I had learnt more than just a lesson in my life, I got my first and everlasting motivation to pursue research. For all the rest of my life I might have to attribute that more than green bucks or the research fever rampant now in undergradute students, especially because of the easy gateway it is to many students aspiring to enter US, my experience there and the atmosphere at IISc had motivated me to take up research as my career objective. I never ever realised things could be put in so productive a use. Never felt that people from all over India were given an abode whose sole mission was to encourage intellectual pursuit. The first impression of IISc I got was awe inspiring. And that shattered the myth in my mind about the superiority of US institutions. It gave me the first live proof of the potential and research promise Indian institutions hold.
Today I come across articles which give specific details of how fanatic, militant outfits and perpetuators of crime come and kill a professor for no real reason and cause, and get away in a car. Now this raises several issues, let me discuss all of them.
First of all the lapses in IISc,
1. I do agree and infact sympathise with some matters at hand with authorities of IISc. I might be the only guy here being a little bit sympathetic with guards and the regular security deployed there. But I too draw the line at some point there are some serious discrepancies which still remain a mystery. The agreement here is that security deployed could not have done much to handle such a situation and contain a terrorist attack. What can regular guards with atmost a baton in hand do to handle terrorists armed with automatic rifles. Even fighting over lifes (which I seriously doubt anybody of them might) they will not be able to shield more than one or two bullets before giving away.
But where is the strict security that prevails over in IISc???? where did all of them disappear I distinctly remember being questioned for around 20 minutes before being let inside the campus on the day I landed there. I have seen how all the cars and vehicles coming inside had been registered and let in later. Now a guy in a car comes out and shoots at the professor and leaves the place in a get away car !!!! without being detained and makes an escape now this is highly unusual and unlikely of the general situation at IISc.
2. Now coming back to the central and main question. Why IISc??? what was the reason IISc was targeted??? just because some jehadi bastard feels it is a prospering target or much reputed institution. Now this is the ugliest form of terrorism choosing a place like IISc. What had IISc ever did in general to gain this reputation of being targeted or for figuring on this list of targets.
These are some questions and doubts for which I will be searching for answers.
But I will not be doing justice to this article without making a mention of deceased Professor MC Puri, this is what goes as the NDTV news report I am reading right now on the web When this incident happened there was a girl standing in front of him and he had seen the attacker.He pushed the girl down and shouted that there has been an attack. The girl escaped unhurt while the bullet hit him my heartfelt sympathy and any expression of sorrow that might be able to aptly describe my feelings towards this greatly. A death glorified by courage and his demeanour in the nick of time. I do hope that this is the last such incident to be happening in such a great place.
I don’t know how much of a change this might bring about, I also am not atleast making an estimate of how many are going to read this article but I do pray that even if it is against the ethics and mission of IISc, I do hope that atleast some professors in IISc contribute to making technology that will obliterate these mindless bastards from the earth. Be it space technology, missile anything that might help wipe this race of terrorism from this earth.

I might have to save words now for further posts on the same topic. May this be the first and last of such events this institute might ever witness.