pradeep's weblog

road trip to nagarjunasagar

2006-03-28T23:41:00.000-08:00

It was a nice trip [Nagarjunasagar, Saturday 25th March, 2006] and the details in prashanth's words(of course, censored).....

Hey bokes,
We had a wonderful road trip to Nagarjuna Sagar on Saturday. It
was fun except for some untoward incidents/accidents. We started at around
6:00 AM from the campus with 3 bikes(SB/Jags, Banthi/DP n me/Pondy) and a
car (Bolero/Nalli/Bavs/Jenny). We filled out fuel tanks to the brim n
raced out of the city. We had a break at LB nagar cross roads for
breakfast at a chai bandi. Bondas were awesome. We started from there
towards Sagar after 30 min n zoomed/dhoomed for another 45 minutes.
We came across a beautiful place with lake on the right side of
the road n lush green fields on the other. It was picturesque(Look at the
snaps ). We parked our vehicles on the roadside n spent there around
30-45 mins before resuming the journey. The highway was just perfect for a
bike ride. I clocked 90 kmph with my bike ;) n SB n Jaya crossed 100 kmph
mark frequently. Jayram n DP got involved in a discussion (probably jaya
was knitting stories on F1 n stuff n Dp as usual was innocent enough to
believe them) and went ahead without looking behind. SB/Jags, me/Pondy n
the car travelled together for quite some time before taking a break at a
road side shop. SB wanted to have 'milk' at the highway-side. SB,
Jenny, Pondy had some and we hit the road again after that. Jags took over
SB's bike n Pondy drove mine. All this while Jayram/DP were nowhere in
sight.
Jags/SB n Bolero(with his car) zoomed on the highway at 100 kmph
and we (Pondy/me) lost sight of them. After a few kms, we saw a group of
ppl on a kachara road. We slowed down a bit out of curiosity n we saw Jags
waving at us with injuries on his elbow n legs. Jags/SB met with an
accident (bike slipped at a turning on a rough road). There was some
construction going on n the workers over there helped us with water.
Luckily, the nearest town was just 2 kms away. SB's bike dome was damaged
on the right side. But, we were able to start it (everything was working
ok). So we(pondy n me) took both the injured fellas to a clinic in
mallepally(???). It was a small town n there was no signal to our mobiles.
We called up Jayaram from a STD booth n luckily we got hold of him. He was
some 12 kms ahead of us. Apparently, they waited for us in mallepally for
30 mins before continuing with the journey (we were at that
time, some 15 kms behind mallepally).
The doctor did the first aid n gave antiboitics. Jayaram met
Bolero's car while returning to Mallepally n both the vehicles(car n bike)
came back for us. After the first aid, we werent sure whether to continue
our journey or not. But, SB n Jags showed a lot of enthu to continue the
trip. They got into the car n Bavs n Jenny onto the bikes. Jayram drove
the damaged pulsar n Pondy rode Jayaram's Fiero n me, my bike itself. We
reached Sagar at around 2:30 PM. We searched for Punnami(APTDC restaurant)
and had our lunch there.
By this time, it was very hot in the afternoon n all of us were
very tired. We had some rest over there at the guest house cum restaurant
before heading towards the main dam. Personally, though Sagar is just 45
kms from MLG (dont ask me what mlg is !! I'll kick ur butt), I've never
been to Sagar. The sight of the dam n the power station at the bottom was
really good. Poor fellows, car wasnt allowed on the dam n some of us had
to walk for a little while. We were obviously tired, but we were hell bent
upon completing the trip we planned. So we started out to Ethipothala
waterfalls. Its a ghat road n most of it is just a single lane road. The
decision to goto Ethipothala falls turned out to be a good one. The
waterfalls were awesome n the cool breeze flowing there boosted our
energy levels. The evening was quite enjoyable n there were some skirt
babes too. We took some good snaps over there.
Slowly but steadily it got a bit dark. Just when we thought to
start our return journey, the artificial lighting was switched on over the
waterfalls n it easily was the best moment of the entire trip. All our
faces lit up with awe looking at the lighting over the waterfalls. It got
dark very fast n by the time we turned on the ignition keys of our
vehicles, we couldnt see anything without the help of headlights. I think
it was around 7:30 by the time we started our return journey.
We agreed that we should all move synchronously (3 bikes in the
front n the car following us). Since SB's bike's headlight was partly
damaged (Jayaram was riding it), it will follow the other two bikes. So,
we started from Ethipothala waterfalls with Pondy(on Jaya's bike) leading
n the rest of us following him. We climbed up to Nagarjuna Sagar n took a
break. We decided to stop after 45 min drive for dinner. I took the lead n
the rest of the gang followed to what turned out to be the best ride
ever(seriously the sight of 3 bikes n a car following was awesome). In
between , we stopped at a gas station for petrol.
At around 9:45 PM, we stopped at a dhaba for dinner. The 'anna'
over there served us with pulkas, dal n aalu curry. It was good. We hit
the road after a breif while. This time there were lots of Hitech/Volvo
buses coming at us at around 80 kmph in the middle of the road. They were
pretty rash. And Pondy/DP (on Jaya's bike) maitained an average speed of
70 kmph (sometimes touching 80-85 in the middle of the night). Me/Nalli
followed Pondy/DP n at one point of time, Pondy went down the main road
cos of a oncoming vehicle. Apparently, Jaya also had some close calls. We
stopped at a small village n decided to maintain a speed of 60 kmph from
there on. City was still 60 kms away. We reached outskirts of the city at
around 1:30 AM I guess. The ride was fun. Though it was night, there
were many vehicles in the middle part of the ride.
We dropped Nalli at his home in nallakunta and Jenny at RTC-X
roads n headed towards IIIT. By the time we came to IIIT, it was 2:15 AM.
Jayaram left to his house immediately after reaching IIIT. We all were
very very tired by the time we reached the hostel. I had a 5mm thick black
coat of dust on my body at the end of the journey.
I had a good bath in the middle of the night n though my body was
aching like hell, there was one small thought at the back of my mind "We
should do this again with a larger group n to a better place". Next
day I woke up at 2:00 PM in the afternoon n thanked God that it was sunday
n I can sleep more.
There were a few funny incidents too, like the ppl in the car mistaking a
guy with long hair as a sexy chick n later telling the rest of the guys
that they saw a sexy chick on a bullet ('she' was actually a 'he' n nalli,
bavs, jenny mistook that 'guy' with a long hair as 'a sexy chick') :D

---johnny

It was fun driving for 424km in a single day and almost half of it in the dark. Driving on highway at night was worse than I thought, courtesy the Volvo buses. On the contrary, truck drivers were driving extremely well. They never cross 50 and as soon as you dip the light, they take to left and put out their hand indicating you to cross over.
I slept that night in k's room at obh and went home the following morning.

holi

2006-03-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

This year I missed all those wonderful colors of holi. I didnt get a chance to play holi this year. I was neither in iiit nor in warangal, where I used to have loads of colors, water and fun. But the main culprit was my laziness, which didnt allow me to get out my house in the morning. And I didnt see any activity going on in our appartments or in the places around...I wonder why no one in this place plays holi...or atleast I couldnt spot one on the road in front of my house.
Late in the afternoon, I went to sanghi temple with family. It was after a really long time that all 5 of us went together somewhere. It was a long drive but not tiring. The temple was 'ok' but the best part was the drive. Driving on wide roads at full speed is fun for anyone, specially for those who have just learnt it.
On the way back home, we went to meet my grandma in old city. It was after a pretty long time, I met her. And I got to meet a lot of my relatives too. Most of them noticed my long hair and my grandma thought that I was having a 'mokku'(it means I keep growing my hair in the name of god till some wish is fullfilled and then shave it of). I said a big 'NO' to her. I dont want to part with my hair. The last time I went to tirupati also I didnt have my head shaved. Now when my belief in god is diminishing, I cant afford to lose my hair for god.
Driving in old city is nightmare, specially if you are not sure of the way and have to ask for directions at every turn. The good thing is that the people there are very friendly and stop their work to help you find your way. There was this guy who came out from his pan-shop and took the role of traffic constable to help me take a U turn in that thin alley. I could have turned the car on my own after shouting at 2/3 people but his help really made me feel good.
Late in the evening, at around 8pm when we were about to start from my uncle's house, the thing I missed all day finally came. One of my cousins put a streak of color on my face and wished me holi...at the end of the day I had to satisfy myself with that...'yes!! I didnt miss the color(s) this year'. But the water, friends and fun part of this festival was still missing. Next year I'll make sure I plan on time and go to warangal.

alive again - with ubuntu

2006-03-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

wrote this last night....
At last the good things are back in my life. my mobile and system are fucntional again. the best thing is that I have finally convinced my sister to use linux. I've been trying this for a pretty long time and finally I gave up and removed FC3 from my system and used that extra space to copy some movies that I borrowed from jenny. And just 2 days after I did this my sister suddenly wanted to be comfortable with linux, due to some professional requirements.
It was hard to get those cds suddenly. At iiit I used to install from network and now as there was no such option I started searching for those FC3 cds. Finally I got FC4 from vamsee and when I went home and tried, it said first cd is corrupted, you cannot continue installation. After cursing vamsee till my heart felt light, I asked nalli to get me ubuntu cds which people have been getting for free by post. This marketing must have really helped ubuntu a lot. I finally got those free cds and after trying out the live-cd version, I intalled ubuntu. Now I had to wait for another 2 days as I didnt have net connection yet. The airtel guy said that he is not sure if net works in linux as there could be drivers problem if I use a modem. Now I wasnt sure if I could get it working properly in linux. Inspite of working with broadband related products for more than half a year, I didnt know what kind of problems I could possibly face. The last time I used sify with FC3, there were no issues at all as the guy assured me that it would work. I felt lucky for having installed a boot loader and not removed the other OS directly.
After searching in net for a while I finally found out how to use airtel/bharati/touchnet broadband from linux. All I had to do was
$pppoeconf
and after a series of 'next'and 'ok', it asked for the login and password. the next thing I did was open the browser and "htpp://www.google.co.in" and it worked!!. I got used to check if the net is working by going to google as many ppl normally do. I didnt expect it to work for the first time and it did. to login/logoff I have to use pon dsl-provider/poff. I then searched for mp3 in ubuntu :) My sister would kill me if it didnt play mp3 in an hour.
Now all I had to do was
$apt-get install gstreamer0.8-mad
and the rhythm box started playing mp3.

I'm not one of those who belive OS is a religion, actually it hardly makes any difference to me what distribution of linux I am using. I'm happy that after wearing a T-shirt that says "Geek by nature, Linux by choice" for almost 2 years, I've now moved back to linux. "Better late than never".

Things to do:
-> go for gnome 2.14 this weekend and wait for the next kde(3.4/4) release.
-> remove the 'other' OS and make space for more multimedia
-> Upgrade the system to a 64-bit, though I'm not sure what difference it's gonna make apart from creating problems.
-> the first thing to do is to go online and get back to orkut, blog and friends.

cut off from life

2006-01-31T22:16:00.000-08:00

no mobile, no postal address, no net at home which means no messenger, no orkut, no gmail and now even my system at home doesnt work..monitor screwed up, my discman broke, no calls from some friends for long...where can they call? I dont have a phone...
life sux...

a bit of relief...had a great time in vizag last weekend with friends..assy, nalli, jenny, pammy.
Saw rang de basanti last night...nice movie...but the popcorn was stale..threw it away and got some sweet corn
life isnt that bad after all

[fwd by jenny]gyaan on shaadi

2006-01-17T22:30:00.000-08:00

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let
him keep her.
- Sacha Guitry
=========================================================
After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just
can't face each other, but still they stay together.
=========================================================
By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you
get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

- Socrates
=========================================================

A happy marriage is a matter of giving and taking; the husband gives
and the wife takes.
=========================================================

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving
them.

- Dumas
=========================================================

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
=========================================================

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go
to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft
music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
- Henny Youngman
=========================================================
"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."
- Sam Kinison
=========================================================

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than
electronic banking. It's called marriage."
- James Holt McGavran
=========================================================

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the
second one didn't."
- Patrick Murray
=========================================================
It's true that all men are born free and equal, but some of them get
married!
=========================================================
Marriage is the process of finding out what kind of man your wife
would have preferred.
=========================================================
Marry not a tennis player. For love means nothing to them.
=========================================================
Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
- Nash
=========================================================
My wife only has 2 complaints. Nothing to wear and not enough closet
space.
=========================================================
You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
- Henny Youngman
=========================================================
My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
- Rodney Dangerfield
=========================================================
A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
- Milton Berle
=========================================================
Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.
- Anonymous
=========================================================
"I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt
her."
- Rodney Dangerfield
=========================================================

gods debris

2005-12-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not used to reading soft copies of books. I had to start reading this because a friend of mine from next cubicle mailed it to me and started discussing it. So, I couldnt help starting it at that time and I was sure Iwouldnt complete the book. But I finished it owing to the small size of the book and of course it was interesting.

The author, Scott Adams of the Dilbert fame says the book can be described as a thought experiment. It is a dialogue between two persons, an old man, who knows everything and a delivery boy who shortly will. The old man presents a theory and explains concepts of God, free-will, will power, skeptism to the theories of gravitation, light, mutations and personal relationships. According to him god had disintegrated and formed into matter and probability. Hence everything in this world including men, is gods debris.

He explains everything with probability, which he says is an infinitely powerful force, omnipotent and omnipresent. He says "probability is not limited to coins and dice and slot machines. Probability is the guiding force of everything in the universe, living or nonliving, near or far, big or small, now or anytime".

In the words of the delivery boy - "He described what he called the five levels of awarenessand said that all humans experience the first level of awarenessat birth. That is when you first become aware that you exist.In the second level of awareness you understand thatother people exist. You believe most of what you are told byauthority figures. You accept the belief system in which youare raised.At the third level of awareness you recognize thathumans are often wrong about the things they believe. Youfeel that you might be wrong about some of your ownbeliefs but you don’t know which ones. Despite yourdoubts, you still find comfort in your beliefs.The fourth level is skepticism. You believe the scientificmethod is the best measure of what is true and you believeyou have a good working grasp of truth, thanks to science,your logic, and your senses. You are arrogant when it comesto dealing with people in levels two and three.The fifth level of awareness is the Avatar. The Avatarunderstands that the mind is an illusion generator, not awindow to reality. The Avatar recognizes science as a beliefsystem, albeit a useful one."

Towards the end of the book there is a small but interesting chapter about relationship between a man and a woman. The old man says that for a woman, value is created by sacrifice. She thinks that the more a man can give up for her, the more he loves her. This also explains why rich and famous men get all the women. It is not just that women go after money. Giving up a holiday in goa could mean more than giving up a night of television for her. The more you sacrifice, the more you love her. For men, value is created by accomplishment. If a woman loves him, she meets his objectives which he wont tell her and ofcourse she wont tolerate if he sets objectives for her. He adds "A woman needs to be told that you would sacrifice anythingfor her. A man needs to be told he is being useful. When the man or woman strays from that formula, the other loses trust. When trust is lost, communication falls apart."

The book can be downloaded for free from http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/

I'm looking for the sequel to this book, "The Religion War", but couldnt find a free soft copy. If anyone knowswhere I can get this please let me know.

my bike is back

2005-12-23T00:51:00.000-08:00

My bike is back with me now. I just cannot describe how much I missed it for these 6 months. I have some understanding with my bike. I've heard of man and horse making friends and understanding each other. I also share a similar relation with my bike. My batchmates know how difficult it is to start it. They used to call me to start the bike in front of the hostel and once hot it wouldnt give any trouble. Of course it was always the last option for anyone to borrow my bike.
The bike and the college remind me instantly of many ppl. Amal used to call it 'the all problem bike', khare found a new method of blowing into it with his mouth before starting the bike - it worked most of the times, ranta and venki had a small accident, I myself had a few of accidents - one on the chilkur road in the morning at around 5am, one with bavs while going to ims and once I fell on the turning to motorola school near the iiit main gate. vamsee and I were racing to agrids. he was on a karizma. I was losing as expected, but I was in an excited state and didnt slow down near the U turn there. "my favourite turn in iiit", I used to tell my friends. I was not hurt but ended up with torn pants. The bike tore at least 3 of my pants in the 3 yrs it was with me. But still, I love it. All these days I used to go to office on my dad's bajaj chetak(16 yr old) or in the car. But today I realized that both dont match my bike in comfort or speed. Car is comfortable but if there's a jam, I am usually the last person to get out of it, coz of my poor driving skills.
I'll have the bike with me only for a month and after that my brother is taking it away :(( After all it is his bike :((. My parents told me they wont allow me to buy a new one. I have to wait for my brother to upgrade to a car or something and then I can have his bike. Till then I have to adjust with dad's scooter and car, worse if I have to use my sister's scooty which shez planning to bring to hyderabad shortly.
Being the youngest in the house has it's own pros and cons. But I feel there are more of the latter. One is having to use many things that my brother used. Even at school I didnt get to buy a bicycle. I had to share my brother's. Sharing with my brother only meant that I get to use it only on sundays and sometime not even that. It was only after he finished his schooling that I got to own it.
hmm.... For now I am happy my bike is with me and it is all that matters to me now.

my next post

2005-11-21T06:08:00.000-08:00

Stuck up about the topic to write?
Want to make your blog more interesting?

"Nick favours posts that illicit a community response, he likes to see lots of comments. Me, I like to see my posts read by hundreds of people, lots of links, tagging and bookmarking as icing on the cake. In the end I think we agreed the ideal is both. A post is probably most interesting when it is well read AND commented on." Here are top 10 ideas to post by Chris Garrett.

well, the 11th idea is to just quote or refer someone.

guddu is a warrior and I am a wizard

2005-10-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

guddu: http://egirishrg.blogspot.com

My Inner Hero - Wizard!

There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.

How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.

work @ hyderabad

2005-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

it's been 3 long weeks since I've joined in hyd and havent yet started any serious work in office. My working hours for last week were from 10am to 3pm, comprising a 1 hr lunch break, a few snack/coffee breaks - each one around half an hour, 2 hrs around tt tables and the rest(?) I read some pages from Java CR. Added to this are the 3 hours of commuting to office. Not that I'm dying to work my ass off but, I want to do some real work. waiting forward to it...

posting in hyderabad

2005-09-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying my time @ triv. I got this long weekend..Thursday to Sunday..4 days. Planning to go around the beaches and other places in trivandrum. I have been to Munnar the other week-end. It was a nice place. It's supposed to be a honey moon spot and I was there with around 40 people. :)) Jenny as usual did a lot of 'harkate'..but I cant keep writing all of them. it will take a lot of time. Nalli got a couple of leeches feeding on him, but as they were painful we didnt care much about them.
Nalli, jenny, anand, shadab all are fine and the best thing is we all got posted to places of our choice. 4 of us to hyderabad and anand to delhi. he wanted to go to delhi for some personal reasons, but promised he'll be back in hyd in 2 yrs.
I'll be back in hyderabad again on 29th. I wanted to go to other places but somehow I couldnt make myself opt for something other than hyderabad. Probably coz of all the friends I have there. I'm going to stay with my parents and I think I'll have to search for a flat arnd hi-tech city. Going to office daily from gandhinagar would be a problem. hmm..lot of things to do as soon as I get down in hyd.

(training+holiday)@triv

2005-08-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

3 days of training. that means arnd 21 hrs. most of them seminars on s/w engineering and some systems thinking classes and a few soft-skills games...they call it life-skills here. The most interesting one was how to minimize income tax :D. Got an icici salary a/c card and I was told it can be used from all atms without any charge. gr8.
there was some shuffling of batches and hostels. rite now I'm staying alone in my room. expecting a room-mate in next 2/3 days.
the test yesterday was nothing unusual. just like any other test at iiit, I screwed it up. :D zero hopes of passing.

yesterday nite all 5 of us spent the nite in nalli/shadab's room. 5 of us sleeping on one double-cot :)). we planned to go to kanyakumari early today to see the sunrise. It was gr8. After that we saw the vivekanda rock, st. thiruvalluvur statue there. And then moved to some 450 yr old palace. It was amazing with 14 bungalows and 237 rooms. and followed by the same routine boring museum. The next destination was the best part of the day. Some waterfall in tamilnadu..dont remember the name. it's near kanyakumari. we played in the water for hrs under the water-fall and then went upstream to a reservoir and had a nice and long swim. and after dressing up we had hot mirchi, pakoda and a variety of banana bajji, of course al l made in coconut oil...but that made little difference. i cant make out between coconut oil and others unless I see the oil pack or try too hard smelling and sqeezing the oil and tasting it. foodz was never a problem in trivandrum.
we were in a big group(45) and our part of grp was arnd 12 ppl including we 5...all from ap, one from kerala, all mass candi's. we didnt take much time to know each other and had a great time together. The bus part of the journey was also funny. switched off the music system and started singing songs at the top of our voices. and we played the most popular game of 'bus' antakshari. it was the hindi Vs. telugu. I dont know y most of the songs in hindi end with 'ha', but we had a tough time finding songs in telugu with that letter..we were not permitted to sing hindi songs. :( so we brought out the poets in us and created and sang songs starting with 'ha'...only one guy on other side knew telugu and that too very less..so we cud easily fool them...but they too cheated by singing songs starting from somewhere in the middle. it was very funny.
and unlike college we dont have any nerds here. all ppl are very enthusiastic, friendly and always volunteer(without fighting)...no need to force anyone. even the gals. i think the soft skills classes also helped here.

I'm having a gr8 time here.

Since jenny doent blog, i'm posting some of his experiences. then you'll know why 'jenny rox'

day 1(24th): we all were late to training centre...but before entering the hall, jenny went to pee and missed some material, a note-book,pen, file etc. So he went straight to the DCH's (center head) and asked for it. he got them no doubt...but with a bashing from the director.

day 2(25th): except jenny everyone else left early. jenny had to run a good distance in short-cut with the tie and belt in his hands(his usual style daily) to catch the bus for the rest of the journey...so he managed to reach the campus on time...no scoldings that day.

day 3(26th): this time jenny made it. he was the only one who managed to 'miss' the last bus to campus from hostel. so he came there in a mix of walking, running, and lift from some private vehicle. he reached the campus very late. and this time it was the gurard's time to bash jenny. not just coz he was late. he didnt wear his i-card. the guard warned him that next time he'll have to go straight to the director's room and take permission if he were sooo late. after that initial start, jenny moved to the next guard and got scolded again. any guesses?....think......he was not wearing his tie arnd his neck. not wearing a tie is no gr8 sin..but jenny was wearing it on his shoulder..only one shoulder...maybe like a shawl/scarf or like a barber with a towel on his shoulder, hanging from there. in the evening jenny wanted to go into the training centre after coming out, but was refued entry by the guard, coz there was some delegation on the campus...jenny tried convincing him..but he was not allowed to go in.
this is a gr8 thing on our part that our jenny has achieved what none has done till now in tcs. allowing a guard to scold him. normally the dont check anything excpet the i-card at times, and treat the executives with gr8 respect. jenny was an exception.

day 4(27th):holiday: he was lost in kanyakumari =)). we all drank coconut's and threw them and went away, but jenny asked the guy to break open his cocount and was enjoying the kobbari/malai and there we missed him..just like a kid. he didnt even know he was lost. he was with someother group of tcs(it's very easy to find some anywhere in kerala on week-ends) and didnt notice that that was not or grp till we smsed someone from there grp if they found anyone called jenny. the bus had to wait for jenny for a long time and ppl were tensed..if he had money or not to come back to hostel. anyway he finally made it to the correct bus, thanx to the coordinated efforts of the CRs of both the batches.
jenny bought a new short before entering the water near the water-fall and it tore to the water-pressure within 5 mins...thank god he had his undergarments. he was moving arnd with a torn short, and came back to the bus borrowing a towel from someone else.

day 5(28th): the date has just changed and I'm sure jenny is upto something today also...but it's too early to predict. he always beats our expectations. so maybe i'll write it next time.

training@triv

2005-08-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

It was a 1 1/2 day long train journey, but wasnt boring as I had good company. 5 of us were together nalli, jenny, shadab, anand and I. We had a good time in the train eating the loads of the chocolates by guddu. Thanx guddu. and thank you bavs for coming to the station to say byebye.

Nalli got onn the train in deccan/nampally and his mom after all the farewell wanted to see him again. So his family rushed to sec'bad again to see him again :). Firsty I felt it funny, but he told me that this was the first time he was leaving home for a long period of 1 1/2 month and then they got a bit senti.

Jenny is showing his usual 'jennypan', fighting with ppl and trying to help other ppl who are arguing in train. :))

The training center is not much different from our dear obh, except that I miss our dear lan and net. There was a sub-station failure in this part of the city and we didnt have power last nite. It was a tourture to sleep without a fan. The generators only supported the lights in the corridor, but who needs em? had to sleep with my shirt off. if it werent for my room mate I would have removed the other part of my dress too. :P

I'm staying with some guy from JNTU, Hyd. Jenny and anand in one room and ravi, shadab in some hotel. I'm the only one alone in different batch(ppl frm diff batch are not allowed to stay together). All others have company.:(( Anyway I'm spending most of the time in jenny/anand's room, so it wont matter much.

I have to report tomorrow in formals at 8:30am and I came to know that tie is also compulsary for training in trivandrum. And on friday there is an entry test here in training. It is not to get entry into the training :) but if I pass it I wont have to take an exit test..which means I dont have to be serious in all the classes.
They said only 20 out of some 140 studs will pass the test. So I have to wait and see if it's my chance or not.

This weekend we are planning to go to munnar, a supposedly good hill station in kerala.

I have taken a BPL mobile connection.
my new no. is 0 98468 14943
anand's 0 98468 14973
shadab's 0 98468 05188
nalli's 0 93910 17468 (on roaming..so wont be accepting calls, missed calls and sms are welcome)

btw the net cost here is 25rs per hr.

stupid test

2005-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

new love and new job

2005-03-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

While on the topic of new love, here are some ways you can spot it.

1. Someone who has never treated you or anyone (and often skips a meal
himself) suddenly says, "I feel like treating you guys."

2. You see them on the cell phone for 25 hrs/day but you can never
hear them (even though they might be a hand's distance away).

3. Mention anything and they think you are talking abt their affair.
"Hey, that noodle was awesome," you say. "How did you know that X
makes amazing noodles?" they reply.

4. They smile and you see teeth that you never knew existed in human
beings (it's my guess that these are the teeth they later use for love
bites).

5. You hear extensive use of the phrase, "You all go ahead. I have
some IMPORTANT work!"

this is what ppl think at their offices when they remember college days

Gone are the days when we used to talk for hours with our friends.
Now we don't have time to say a HI.

Gone are the days when we played games on the road.
Now we code on the road with laptop.

Gone are the days when we stood to watch birds.
Now we see and hear them in mpeg files.

Gone are the days when we saw stars shining at night.
Now we see stars when our code doesn't work.

Gone are the days when we sat to chat with friends on grounds.
Now we chat in chat rooms.....

Gone are the days where we studied just to pass.
Now we study to save our job

Gone are the days where we had no money in our pockets and fun filled
on our hearts
Now we have the atm as well as credit card but with an empty heart

Gone are the days where we shouted on the road.
Now we dont shout even at home

HISTORY

2005-03-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

History is boring for many...not for me....

The next time you are washing your hands and complain
because the water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think about
how things used to
be..... Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in
May
and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they
were starting to
smell
so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odor. Hence
the
custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting
married.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* *
* * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* *
* *

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the
house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all
the other sons and
men,
then the women and finally the children-last of all
the babies. By then
the
water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in
it. Hence the
saying,
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

* * * * * * Houses had thatched roofs-thick
straw-piled high, with no
wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get
warm, so all the
dogs,
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the
roof. When it
rained
it became slippery and sometimes the animals would
slip and fall off
the
roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

* * * * * * There was nothing to stop things from
falling into the
house.
This posed real problem in the bedroom where bugs and
other droppings
could
really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with
big posts and a
sheet
hung over the top afforded some protection. That's
how canopy beds
came
into existence.

* * * * * * The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had
something other
than
dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."

* * * * * * The wealthy had slate floors that would
get slippery in the
winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the
floor to help
keep
their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept
adding more thresh
until
when you opened the door it would all start slipping
outside. A piece
of
wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying
a "thresh hold."

* * * * * * In those old days, they cooked in the
kitchen with a big
kettle
that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit
the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did
not get much
meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers
in the pot to
get
cold overnight and then start over the next day.
Sometimes the stew
had
food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme,
"Peas
porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in
the pot nine days
old."

* * * * * * Sometimes they could obtain pork, which
made them feel
quite
special. When visitors came over, they would hang up
their bacon to
show
off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring
home the bacon."
They
would cut off a little to share with guests and would
all sit around
and
chew the fat."

* * * * * * Those with money had plates made of
pewter. Food with high
acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the
food, causing lead
poisoning and death. This happened most often with
tomatoes, so for
the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered
poisonous.

* * * * * * Bread was divided according to status.
Workers got the
burnt
bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and
guests got the top,
or
"upper crust."

* * * * * * Lead cups were used to drink ale or
whisky. The
combination
would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days.
Someone walking
along
the road would take them for dead and prepare them
for burial. They
were
laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days
and the family
would
gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if
they would wake up.
Hence the custom of holding a "wake."

* * * * * * England is old and small and the local
folks started
running out
of places to bury people. So they would dig up
coffins and would take
the
bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When
reopening these
coffins, 1
out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on
the inside and
they
realized they had been burying people alive. So they
thought they
would tie
a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through
the coffin and up
through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would
have to sit out
in
the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to
listen for the bell;
thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was
considered a "dead
ringer."
Now if you have read till here then you sure are interested in history. And for the guys who read the first and last line and summarize try again.

more reviews, movies, books, eric bday

2005-03-05T02:03:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...I'm locked in kbj's room right now. That fucker eric got used to lock up kbj in his room and he didnt care to make sure it was kbj. I gotta kick his ass as soon as I come out of this room. anyway let me blog till someone comes to my rescue. can try to write or mail someone but ok let me wait and see who comes to the resuce. till then I'll keep filling my blog. Hope my bladder doesnt burst before someone comes to help. Otherwise, it is kbj's room anyway.

I had my best shot on bavs on eric's bday, ofcourse eric got his share too. he went home on his bday so we got to celebrate 2 days later. Anyway it was like anyother typical iiit bday starting with bumps, then the cake, and then the defalults. Eric got special bumps with the pillar between his legs and me and pondy hanging on to each of the legs for a long time. as usual the best shot was by jayaram. and after that we changed kbj's passwd and had fun till morning. we didnt tell it in the end anyway. poor guy was pleading everyone, but none told him.

5 of us went to sankranthi, we got advance booking and we went for 2nd show. pondy, sb, eric, thunder and me. The movie was very boring. another boring family movie from venki which will surely make a lot of money calling it a family movie. It is yet another of those stupid movies I saw.
But I didnt know that worst was yet to come. The next day I saw Adavi Ramudu. the fact that part of the movie was shot in iiit was no concession. The worst thing was I left the movie undeleted on ragz's desktop so that someone else will also become bakra. But it backfired. Nalli and pammy didnt allow me to go out of the room and I had to see the movie for a second time. FUCK. that was the worst part of the week. seeing that movie 2 times in 5 hrs.
Last sunday I went to radhagopalam with my sis and bro. It was a ok movie without any story, but 'mogudu-pellala saralau' all through the movie.

Today morning I saw the movie Saw. It was a thriller/horror/crime as imdb said. It was good enuf to send shivers down my spine. There was suspense in the movie too.

I read "Love Story" by Erich Segal. I read a lot of good review about it but I didnt feel anything great about that. They say it touches the heart. The book said something like it was for ppl who are in love, or were in love, or who plan to be in love. I dont fall into any category, so maybe that's why it couldnt reach my heart. It was a short love-story, didnt take much time to read it. It wasnt any differnt. The female and the male date, then marry against the boy's parents wish, and then she dies and the boy's family re-unite with lot of senti, senti in it.

I started "Talking Straight" by Iacoca and then gave up after reading about 100pages. I didnt read his earlier book. assy told me that was better than this one. infact it was good anta.

I started reading "Swami Vivekananda - friend of all". It was a small book-let kind of thing that my bro gave me to read. there were a set of about 6 books he got from Ramakrishna Matt and I just started on the first one. It's very interesting to read about such a great patriot and person. Ravindranath Tagore rightly said "If you want to know India, study Vivekananda". Also someone said that - to know vivekananda is to love him, to know him better is to adore him. There was no doubt about these things about vivekananda after reading a part of one of his books. I shall finish them asap.

I wrote to eric to open the door. I couldnt wait for someone to come as I held my bladder too long, so I had to rush.

I have started working on a portal for gdit2k1. shadab and me were working on it. we will decide if we have to continue the work or not in the meeting tonight. i'll ask someone to get a good template for that.

On March 1st me, nalli and vam went to RB. On our way back in a 7 seater, a very funny incident happened. there were other ppl also in the share auto and among them there were these two hero's of the story, drunk and barely in control. It was fine till their place came. they started fighting with the autowala for 2rs. the poor autowala for no fault of his got his jaw punched by one of them. In the confusion that followed one of the drunkard hit a fellow passenger hard for no reason and ran into their campus(indian immunologics campus). The autowala, his assistant and the other passenger chased caught up the 2 ppl and gave them their share of punches. The funniest thing was one of the drunkard, who kept hitting and running and shouting 'dammunte ra ra, ra bey' and when the autowala went near him started running and at a
safe distance started shouting the same dialogue. In the end somehow vam got some courage and went to hit those 2 poor drunkards, but didnt get his chance as those two
drunkards already fled the scene, shit!!missed a chance to see vam in action.

That's all for now. I'll take a nap and wait for nalli to come and wake me up to go for swimming

final sem final part

2005-02-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

CAT's gone, the semester is gone...and in the final semester 2nd mid sem is also over.
yesterday I wrote bioinformatics...it was kinda ok, but today I screwed up compilers badly. after writing pecs I felt slightly better.

gonna plan for the yearbook tomorrow and start working on it. I gotta finish my fyp by this month-end and also pecs project.
Today I had real fun in playing cs. Got good score and my team won. vinod played well and bedi sniper always rocks

I've been reading some blogs ragz,khare,ranta,jaya.... recently and got the inspiration to update my blog. I dont know how long this thing will last but I plan to write a lot in the next one month... The thing is I dont find good topics to write about not i am a good critic or something to write movie review...but after seeing these blogs I felt that you dont need to be an expert critic to write about something or comment on something... so maybe apart from what I did I also gonna include what I feel in this blog.
It's too late in the night now to write more stuff...but I'm waiting for someone to call me to the hostel... I feel bored walking to the hostel alone. So I gonna write till someone starts for the hostel....kesav, manjeet, khare....whoz going to hostel first? I'll come....
Today there was some serious discussions about why ms sucks...and ofcourse..being a ms fan I tried to argue that ms is the best os...blah blah....vardhman was singled out on this topic and 'sab log uski le rahe te'.... I think I'm drinking too much cofee these days...i can still feel the taste of the coffee in my mouth. coffee- one thing I can have at any time..i love coffee...it's been one of the best things that happened to me in iiit- getting addicted to coffee.....love...love...love....the cureent thing that comes to my mind is now love...
what is love?
do we have to love?
if yes why do we have to love?
what happens if I'm not in love?
and what if I'm in love?
is it better to love or to be loved?
do I really miss something in life if I'm not in love?

I dont think so...my life is so complete...I'm so happy..without being in love...most of my friends who have gf's tell that it has been the best thing that happend to them...some of them write it in their blogs too...is it really the best thing? or are they just trying to impress their gals? or just trying to show off?
I think they'll feel bad if they see this...but I dont think they shud really care coz I donno anything about these things and I'm writing whatever is coming to my mind right now....or maybe no one will read this coz this is so big and boring....even then I'll keep writing till someone comes with me to the hostel...oh kesav left :( fat ass didnt even ask me....may be he thought I was doing some serious work....i'm typing too much naa.. may be that .....what do I write now?
yeah about love....but I dont know anything about it...dont tell me i love my mom etc. it's obvious I'm not talking about that kinda love....m****a came....and manjeet went with her.... :(( i cant accomany them, not gonna invade their privacy....khare is my last option....called him....he cant even listen to me...has his headphones on....do I also start on some movie? naa...
hey I got an idea...i saw "my sassy gal" movie today...it was a korean movie with english subtitles....but thanx to jennny I'm used to that kind of stuff...the movie was a good one...love story....i saw someone's review on that...wait I'll read that and then I'll write...
that was ranta's blog the actress looked really cute...and yeah the movie was very senti.....
vardhman came and went... he's going to nbh...so cant go with him....i'll wait for another 5 min and go alone....i'm tired of writing.....

i'm going.....donnno when I'll write again...

next cat

2004-09-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

forget about improving i couldnt even get as many as I got last time. I got 27.5. I think it's the worst that can come out of me. no preparation for this week test also i'll atleast try to spend some time planning a strategy.

Got 2 mid-sems next week. Advanced Mechanics of Materials and IT for Power.
1st mid mechanics I got 5/20. i didnt expect more marks as I attempted only one question but thought the test was for 15 marks. test was from 8-9:30am and I was in the hall for exactly 10min. went late 5 min and came out at 8:15. I solved the problem from the topics I prepared and the rest I didnt even know how to attempt. same was the case with jenny, we both went and came out at the same time.
2nd mid is on this 28th tuesday. shud do well this time.

the other test is on thursday.
gotta do 4 assignments in mechanics. submission date is long gone. will try to complete the assignments this week.

CAT

2004-09-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

77 days to go for cat.
I didnt even start the BRM part a properly and got a mail from ims 'most of you must have done part b'. I think it's time I start my preparation serioulsy. I wrote the first test - ACT1 in ims and got 44 marks, pam 49, bavs 47, nalli 41, if I remember correctly. we were told 45 shud be a good mark.
Tomorrow we have sim cat 1 and I didnt prepare a damn for it. not that I prepared well for any other exam in my life. today night assy, vamsee and I.........say count 1 today.

CAT: last week test report : Spent more time on quant and less on verbal, rc than required. shud try to balance this next time. DI/DS was correctly worked according to time. I spent more 50 mins on quant and I had only 1 hr for di/ds/ver/rc the other 10 min just evaporated reading the paper and thinking what to attempt, what not, what to do next etc. I think I can save this time if I practice for some time. Right now the stategy I'll follow is to do quant first followed by di/ds and then finally ver/rc. I think I shud plan this better after the test tomorrow.
Another important thing is that I left the questions without reading in bulk. I will try my best to avoid this tomorrow. if I leave like that the problem is that I'll have to miss some easy questions without reading. I'll try my best to overcome this in tomorrow's test.
Last week: PS 18/8/16 VA-7/7/5.25 RC-6/8/4 DI/DS-13/3/12.25 LR-7/2/6.5
Target : 45min 8 10

Target is to complete ps in 45 min and try to keep the score. va shud be improved to 8 and rc to 10. it's ok if I dont improve in ps and di/ds. But in va/rc I have to somehome get atlest 15. That means I shud improve my total score by 5/6 marks atlest and all that in ver/rc only. it's ok for the time being that I atlest keep the scores I got in the other 2 sections.
Strategy: 45 min ps + 40 min di/ds/lr + 15 ver + 20 rc
total 120min.
I think I need more time for ver/rc.will decide after the test tomorrow. maybe I can reduce time for ps or di/ds/lr
I'll try to do some reading now and sleep.

FYP: will try meet prof tomorrow about the leadership paper.
g nite

campus placements

2004-09-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

on the blog after a long time....
was busy with placements. as such I didnt prepare much, but I got placed. I was happy with that. Of the several attempts I made I could make only to TCS and I'm really happy with that, though at times I think about the low pay I'm not worried coz ppl told me that the raise is good in TCS so I aint worried bout future and who wants to make big bucks right away?
Infy : assy, imran and I were chatting the night away till 5am and jaya woke me up in the morning for the ppt. I wasnt actually interested in writing it and thats y I didnt prepare for it. but somehow I was convinced and wrote the test and got through it. And for the interview part I was very tired in the afternoon - courtersy the sleepless night. things didnt go right in the interview and I got screwed up. I didnt know what to talk there....not even things like "tell me about yourself". but I was satisfied with my answers till he started with the puzzles questions. I was asked 3 puzzles and I didnt answer any of them. I shud have still managed somehow but I was out of mood and didnt answer simple hr questions also after that. The first interview was a learing one as I framed my rule 'keep ur cool in the interview'.
TCS & Verizon:
CSC:
Delloite:

finished geek code

2004-07-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/IT d- s: a21 C+++ U+++ P+++ L++ E--- W++$ N+ o-- K-
w O? M- V? PS+ PE++ Y+ PGP- t 5? X R* !tv b DI D+ G++
e h- !r y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

geek code

2004-07-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

I started writing my geek code. will put it up in a few hours.... a few hours means a
few working minutes.
right now listening to Bryan Adams "summer of 69"

first blog

2004-07-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

hi
this is my first blog here.