One day in US

Following is an account of a graduate student in US.
I got it in a forwarded mail. Just go thro' it.


"I hear curses...pinch myself...nope...not a dream.
It's my roomie lying next to me and screaming.
He's mad at my alarm going off at 6.30AM.
Well, I can't help it if he sits up all night chatting
with his friends, enemies and any other human being
having a Yahoo ID! Ok...ok...I'll switch it off...
slowly open my eyes, and I see my other
roomie standing beside my bed.... bath towel around his waist,
toothbrush in his mouth and giving me the look. "Wasn't it
your turn to go to Walmart??...We are out of toilet paper!"
Great! Looks like a fun filled day ahead.


After some quick formalities in the restroom, I manage
to find a tee-shirt amo! ng some pile of papers,
popcorn and coffee cups. Thank God (well, actually,
thank my roomie) for the deodorant! Time for a quick
breakfast...as I enter the kitchen, my roomie walks
out munching on a sandwich. "Forget it...that was the
last one", he says half asleep.
"What about cereals?" I ask. "Finished last week...
there's some milk left...". Milk??...Only if I can find
a cup in this jungle. Oh...forget it!
One less breakfast won't reduce my life expectancy. I
finally make my way out of the apartment not stepping on
anyone or anything. As I walk out, I realize it's raining
heavily. All I have on is a tee shirt and jeans. I stand
there thinking of my options. I can either go back to
bed or...hey! There's that guy living next door (don't know his
name...they call him 'the guy with the car'). I see five
guys wearing 5 layers of clothing, gloves, raincoats and
under one umbrella...all walking towards his car. As he
! starts his car and fills up the parking lot with black smoke,
I look at him and give him the best smile
I could. "You need a ride?" he shouts out like a Hindi movie hero.
Well, what do you think?, I say in my mind as I run towards
his car. At least, I got to sit on someone's lap...much better
than those worn out seats. Huffing and puffing, the car finally
reaches school. I see all these people staring as six guys come
pouring out of the car. Hey! Do you think we were having a gay
orgy in here??? I thank the 'guy with the car', when suddenly
I hear this most gayish tune...something like a nursery rhyme
I remember from two decades ago! It was his cell phone ringing.
Downloaded it yesterday, he tells me proudly and
attends the phone. I hear words like..."talk faster"..."day time
minutes"..."gas prices"..."classes"..."Priya needs a ride?"...
"Sure no problem"..."on my way". As I walk towards the fridge (to be
understo! od as our school building which likes to show off its air
conditioning powers), I can see my friend, the 'guy with the car'
pull out of the parking lot and driving off...DDLJ music blaring
out of his 5 W speakers...with other noises from the car making
it sound like a badly made remix....Some girl somewhere needs a
ride I guess.

My brain starts to work as soon as I enter the Fridge. I was supposed
to meet my proff today...oh well...I am only 10 minutes
late and she must be getting used to it by now. After the meeting, I run
to the computer lab and find myself a PC. Man, anyone who walks past the lab
might think that the Chinese and Indians are so dedicated and hardworking
and determined and studious...but only the privileged few know that
while the Chinese are use the lab times to be dedicated and hardworking
and everything else, the Indians are busy strengthening family bonds
around the glob! e. (I would like to take a second here to thank that
cool software that can integrate yahoo, rediff and msn messengers all
into one!). After exactly an hour, I just have one more (out of the
six) e-mail account to check. As I walk out of the lab, I see this
human traffic heading for the exit. My proffs, the department secretary,
janitor...I see all of them heading out. I look down at my watch and
realize its 12...time for lunch. 'Lunch'- a word I knew before reaching
this country. As long as the Civil Department offers courtesy coffee,
I don't need lunch. I see my roomie by the vending machine, standing
there like a lion waiting for his next victim. Finally, it happens.
Two unsuspecting desi guys walk towards the machine.
One of them - a nerd doing his Ph.D. is bragging about his research on
developing an adaptive control chart to eliminate the difficulties
of using a standardized control chart to cont! rol processes to
his friend who is also doing a Ph.D. ,...well, ...to keep his visa status
alive. As soon as they get their chips and cookies out of the vending
machine, the lion...oops!...my roomie goes to them and I see his
hands disappear into the packs of food. Well, at least he knows to keep himself
healthy (or should I say...filled??). After taking a one hour 20 minute nap
in class, I pick up my assignments and head straight for the lab. You
see, the probability that someone somewhere would have sent me
a mail in the last two hours is quite high. And then it strikes me again. I
was supposed to meet a proff for chances on funding. Maybe another
day. After deleting the twenty forwarded mails that reached my
inbox in the last two hours, I walk back home, catching a glimpse of those
flashy cars zooming past me. Someday...I think...

As I open the door to my apartment, I see my roomie sitting w! ith a
bottle of Corona and watching an Amitabh movie for the twentieth
time??!! I tell him something's burning in the kitchen. "Don't worry...its
aalu sabji...its for dinner", he comforts me. Aalu...again?? I ask myself
as I find a spot to place my shoes. "Where's my laptop?", I hear a
shout from the bedroom. "Check in the laundry basket", I hear a reply
from the restroom. "Get off the phone...I wanna use the Internet!"..."Hey,
its boiling in here...which chu**** switched on the heater??". My
roomies...they are all here. "Lets all clean up the place", I say...hmmm...maybe
they didn't hear me. I say it once more..."Lets all clean up the
place", a bit louder this time. "Assignment due tomorrow!"...
"headache"... "midterm day after"..."Aunt's cousin's friend online!"...
come the replies! Oh well...might as well do it myself...



After I make some quick phone calls to my friends
spread over from Alaska to Florida and also usi! ng up the last two
minutes of my phone card to India, I decide its time for bed. I slip under
my comforter cum sleeping bag cum bed spread and slowly doze
off...thinking of sports cars, rock music, hot girls...and all the good things
I used to think about while standing in line for the visa, under the
scorching Chennai sun, outside the American consulate.... Life goes
on..."

To stay or not to stay

This is the last blog of mine on this chronicle of sessions organized in the Careerz '05 (the first time ever Career Fest in the history of IIT Kharagpur). It is really a commendable start-up, so to speak. The last session was on the 'Research Oppotunities in India'. Mr. Manu Kuchhal, Software professional from IBM Software Group and Prof. Soumitro Bannerjee (faculty in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT-KGP, who was honoured with Shantiswarup Bhatnagar Award in 2003) chaired the session. The former talked about the "SOA(Service Oriented Architecture)". That was highly technical and audience was supposedky from Computer Science background. The other one was on 'IT career opportunities in IBM'. He mainly talked about the scopes of a software professional in the Indian silicon arena. Be it hardware or software. It was good indeed to listen to him...but under the belt there was feeling of uneasiness. May be because of the technical jargons which we normally like to keep off from.

In the following interactive discussion with Prof. Bannerjee, he talked about the pros and cons of going to abroad, and his personal experiences in top universities in USA. He made it a point that IITs are far better than most of the US universities except a few, may be except top rung consisting of 25 univs. Yes that is true, as per as senior feedback and usnews go. But he also mentioned that we lack the 'research-group' culture here and we have other monetary constraints. However, research is much more enjoyable and fulfilling in India as there is ample freedom in IITs compared to US prof.s who are more busy in collecting their funds themselves there. Prof. Bannerjee talked about involving undergraduates in the research programs currently practised by univs in abroad.(cited example of UROP-Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, in MIT) In the end he clarified the role of a good research supervisor and how can he help in aligning his student searching for a solution of a feasible problem, in the desired track.

Overall, it was a good experience to listen to multi-faceted people from different walks of life. I think this workshop will definitely help us in broadenning our views and understanding our career goals and aspirations with more clarity. My personal vote of thanks to Arindam, Sisir and all other organizers who untiringly worked for this workshop and made it a grand success!

The World is Flat

Who said that the world is round. I think Copernicus, Galileo and all the band of scientists need to re-think on their theories of terrestial theories. It's the realization that dawned upon me after the attending the series of sessions in Careerz '05. Just now I returned from the session on Advertising by Mr. Partha Sengupta ('87, Mech, '88 IIMA).

He took us through a journey into the ad-world and how actually things are made inside. He talked about people who love to live life and want to make people feel and laugh at ourselves. "Advertising is all about making things relevant to what people do"-this was the simple definition of Advertising according to Mr. Sengupta. An ad-maker needs to understand the culture of the people and what actually connects our mind and soul. He showed us with examples how ads (churned out from our sub-conscious activities e.g. bunking classes, whistlling at girls etc.) turned into either myths or into cliches. The best example in this regard was the one from Coca Cola that was marketted (possibly) during World Cup '96. It showed us how young people live upto cricket in India, with 'mirchi's and stuffs laid beside the Ganges for drying, and people playing beside the banks of Yamuna in Agra, with Taj Mahal in the backdrop. That was indeed a good ad but it flopped. On the other hand, "Thanda matlab Coca Cola" had immense success because that was an insider's viewpoint about India and hence we felt closer to it. The same car was advertised in different manner when it comes to US or India. Car, stands for smoothness to Americans while it is the icon of status and linear-hierarchy in India, and hence campaigning assumes a different color complying with cultures.

But ad-making is not very exciting all the time. A person in the advertising world needs to work very hard.(In fact he presented an ad on that issue too) The bottomline in this industry is to remain open-minded to the society and its changes, to live life fully and observe keenly.....that is the secret in this profession. Mr. Sengupta was mobbed with galore of questions in the interactive sessions as he ommitted the e-advertisement part. Also, in the conclusion he mentioned the paramount importance of children in the Indian mind-set of family, and how recently the ad-agencies are exploiting those nascent opportunities.

Towards the end I had a gut feeling of what I mentioned in the beginning. The world is surely flatenning down. As on Friday we met Mr. Agnimitra Biswas followed by Mr. Prasad and then Mr Sengupta, I found a common aspect in them. It's although very simple and nothing new. In order to be successful u need to live ur passions and do not give away to myths.(definitely with some amount of planning beforehand) It's the linear hierarchy (which we are so well accustomed in India) which is dissolving or have started to dissolve, it's the economies which have started to mingle, and it's the culture that have started to blend so well across borders, that they clearly signal that there is indeed a global change and we need to think on choosing our careers prudently. Ultimately it's not the brand but the individual ambitions to make it big in any direction they want it to be. Yes, being an IITian helps a lot, in terms of associations and initial penetration towards that chosen direction. Kudos to Arindam Mukhaerjee, our Vice-President, Technology Students' Gymkhana, for arranging these wonderful series of sessions!

The Big Leap

It is really a second's dillema until u take a deep breath and jump down the cliff. After that it is no looking back (no equation-solving business) but plunging into uncertainty. That was the picture in the foremost slide of Mr. Prasad, who graduated out of this institute in 1988, with the dream of attaching the tag of "Director" besides his name. With this ambition, he left the secured job of HMT and returned to Kharagpur with almost zero capital to manufacture antennas. He was clearly real excited talking back of those thrilling days with Prof. G. S. Sanyal. That was the biggest leap in his life. Rest is history. It's a kind of moment's desire to boss his own business. Looking back he retrospects on the positive as well as negative aspects that came up his way to success. He shared the roller-coaster drive that he experienced in the corporate world. It is the good friends and the ambition, according to him took him this far. In the conclusion he also pointed out the changing social and market scenarios in India.

It is same idea which I found common between today and yesterday. Follow ur passions if u want to have long-term happiness. Success is bound to follow if somebody honestly strives to reach his dream, may be not today but someday in the future!

Just Do It!

Well, I am not promoting Nike but it was the parting words from Mr. Sandipan Deb, in the inaugual function of Careerz '05. Yes, just now I returned from the Netaji Auditorium. We met there two of our gainfully employed (as coined by Prof. Kalyan Chakrabarty in the Human Behavior in Organizations(HBO) lectures) alumnus, Mr Sandipan Deb ('85 batch of ECE), the famed author of "The IITians" and the director of IBM Global Services, Mr. Agnimitra Biswas ('92 batch of ECE).

It was nice to hear from the persons who have watched the market trends so closely and have felt it. Mr Biswas was talking on "Why is IT so exciting?". He talked about the recent studies of on "market-booms" and their final fate. He nearly scared us by stating the strange co-incidence that after every such boom, be it after the industrial revolution (followed by surge of Nepoleon), or the boom of automobiles (followed by the World Wars), humanity always experienced the peril of warfare in the history. May be we are awaiting another after the IT boom. He talked about the visions one should have in IT and how is it different from traditional professions. He also added issues like insourcing, outsourcing, open-source applications with relevance to the field of IT. The parting phrase was, "IT is less about the technology.... .... and more about the YOU".

Mr. Deb seemed to be a bit nostalgic initially. He talked about his decisions and stakes at life. But his conclusion was 'explore your passion'. Don't do things as if u r doing it for the sake of 'duty'. Explore ur ideas. You might even fail in realizing your dream. But being an IITian u can 'afford a failure in ur CV' after all. Further in this process of failure, you will learn not to repeat the same mistake again. So in the process you learn through the failure. He cited several examples where men from these premier institutes have chosen a profession pole part from engineering. Even he mentioned about an alumnus who became a sergeant even after being the topper of Mechanical Engineering Department. Mr. Deb cited a simple stroy of three stone-cutters. First one when questioned what is he actually doing, his straight-foward reply was "Don't u see I am cutting stones", the second reply, quite innovative, "I am cutting stone for the new building", the third was a visionary reply, "I am cutting stone for the building this new city." In reply to the last question from audience, "What single thing would like to change in the IIT system, if you were given the power to do so?", his thoughtful reply which was surprisingly in tandem with mine was "the mess food".

I found almost all the aspects raised in today's inaugural function were covered in the post-dinner bhaat sessions with AnupamDa in Aachen. It was the same vision that Anupamda talked on. But unlike the parting words of Mr. Deb, I would simply like to extend, "Do whatever you like remaining within ur constraints or limitations." Isn't it?

'My Sassy Girl'

Cute and sweet movie! Just now watched it after an hour of indecision in deciding what to do. My exams are not yet over. Still after appearing for two consecutive days, that too before a short break of one day (tomorrow), thought of taking a break. Dhali told me about this film.

It's a Korean movie. It's about how a boy meets a girl, saving her from fatal accident in a metro station. Story started in a very natural way. The girl is somewhat awkwardly bold and forward, and hence the name of the film. And she is unpredictable too. She wants everything as per her desires. Her poor saviour boyfriend, fell in love with the girl. Several odds came in his way, but not in the way of his love for her. Somewhere down in her he felt a deep sorrow, which got discovered in the end.

The story seemed to be quite new and innovative, successfully depicting the eastern culture and social expectances. Liked the lightness of the movie parsed with comedy and romance. It was really a nice break for me. Thank you Dhali!

Back to business

Yeah!! after a lot of fun and bunch of new experiences, I am back at my own place. Well, myself again in front of another mid-sem examination. Uff!! that is enough of it...isn't it? Preparing for exams has just became my other self. Assignments and exams parse juxtaposing our life since 2002 in this weird place called IIT Kharagpur. Whenever, I set myself in doing something that really reallly interests me, I find exams or 'fultoo' assignments lurking around and distracting me.
After a lot of drama in our CSE dept regarding the SRIC chaos everything is again normal abiding by the universal law of abatement with time. Now all are set for GRE and TOEFL. The wordlist indices bear our degree of mugga virtues at this point.
Mangal Pandey to me, is an utter failure after a long patient wait (for four years) for Aamir Khan fans. Heard 'Iqbal' was good. Waiting to watch it. Already downloaded!
Coming back to acads, AnupamDa is the name of the jackpot whom I discovered in Germany during my internship there. Anything regarding research, ask him! Surely you'll get a suggestive reply within a day after a thorough search over net. Even today i mailed him regarding my term-project on VLSI Testing and Verification, "Power Minimization through re-ordering of scan-chains". He replied me back with the exact paper I would have required for the implementation.
Anyway, its already a long session after my return to Kgp. I think its time to wrap up!

NRW trip

Well, NRW stands for Northern Rhineland Westphalia. This is the name of the state where Aachen is located, alongthwith other major cities like Köln, Bonn, Dusseldorf, etc. This weekend(11th-12th June) we decided to make ourselves aquainted with this state of Germany only. I heard that this is the most dense state in whle Germany. However, to me it appeared, much less populated. The country hosts about one-tenth porpulation, and approximately one-eighth land-area, as that of India. Naturally, my hesitation to call it 'most dense' is quite natural.
As per plan, we went to Köln on Saturday. The city was overcast with clouds. We reached the city at around 11 am. As we came out of the hauptbahnhauf, we met the gigantic dom. This dom is in fact the iconic representative of Köln. In 1945, after the lethal air-raids, around 80% of the buildings in this old city were destroyed. All the bridges over the Rhine were torn apart. But interesting to note that, this imposing dom structure, had hardly experienced any scratches on its wall. Leaving history apart, we decided to have our lunch at KFC(Kentucky Fried Chicken). I wonder whether God has given some special stomach to the german ppl! They served us 3 jumbo pieces of fried chicken alongwith salad for 5,99 €. KKda failed to consume the third one.


Sorry, the account of Köln tour remained incomplete for so many days. And as because I was burdenned under my work, I somehow failed to complete and publish it. Well, to summarize the above blog I should say, we went for the Chocolate-museum followed by Rhine boat-tour . That was really awesome for me. The next day, that is Sunday we went to Bonn and Dusseldorf. We ate Hagen-Dasz ice-cream which is quite famous all over Germany. On our return, a mishap took place. Unfortunately, we boarded the wrong bus, and went to Eupen, Belgium about 25-30 kms away from Aachen at about midnight. Well, due to the helpful bus-driver, we somehow managed to return to Aachen safely at the deadly midnight hour.

I hope to describe my last tour-Paris in the next blog and also conclde my stay in Germany. Till then bbye.