Pros ti̱n Itháki̱

A long journey, of laziness, of procrastination, of effort that went only so far as to achieve what I was happy with, not so far as to amaze the world. Well, I guess that’s just me. Its been one semester into my Masters at Cornell and frankly I’m quite amazed. It was quite the surprise when last April I got an admit into Cornell University.

I like to believe that I am like Dimitar Berbatov in my approach to life … Berba once said of his style of play on the football pitch

I am a relaxed guy. I play that way and I can’t change my style. I watch games and see guys who panic on the ball – they look so nervous. I can be calm, because I sometimes know what I want to do before the ball comes to me.

Like he says, I feel that when life dishes out a situation for me, quite often I intuitively know how I need to deal with it … and then I deal with it the way i want to deal with it. Quite often the way I need to deal with it may be horribly misaligned with the way I deal with it ! Well again, I guess that’s just me.

So yeah, coming back to the Road to Ithaca … for that’s what the title reads. The admit from Cornell has made me believe that there is a place in this world for languid, fluent laziness to co-exist with the huffing and puffing road to excellence. I am amazed by the work rates of some of my fellow Cornellians (read Ved). (The guy goes ninja on stuff quite often.) I just can’t.See i’m off topic already. Again.

What it tells me is that there seem to be more people out there like me who have an alarming sense of nonchalance. Nonchalance as seen by the eyes of the world, that is. Nonchalance is often misunderstood as negligence, and that it the worst pitfall for someone as nonchalant as me.

It began with me, in typical nonchalance, giving the IIT JEE in 2007. All I knew going in was that I was good enough to crack the exam. And that’s just what I did. Nothing more … none of the fireworks that some of my friends set alight. Just good enough. Then began a journey through 4 years that will always be described as the best in my life. Never making an effort to actually excel. I always played to a target. Demonstrate adequate mastery of the subject. Amaze in an internship. Get the prized admit. On hindsight I might say, maybe a slightly better CPI wouldn’t have harmed my chances. But then, in order to actually get that, I would have to slightly compromise on the other joys of life. I don’t think I can do that ! Well again, that’s just me.

I can say for sure that I, personally,  value the experience of all out Alcher, all out quizzing, sort’ve all out Inter IIT and a borderline, average 7.52 as much much more than dropping or reducing intensity on something among Alcher or Quizzing or the Inters to scratch an 8 (maybe). I always knew that when it came to an internship, if I can catch one lucky break with a borderline CPI, then my work will speak for itself. I knew I was playing on the edge with a CPI that makes most people think “He knows some of his stuff, but not most of it.” But by playing on the edge, I got to do the things I love, the things that I will be able to cherish the most, all the way to my grave (or ashes, or that cryogenic chamber, or that scientific experiment, or that museum, or whatever else may be IN by then ). Those thing being Alcher and my experiences Quizzing and Swimming.

Well playing on the edge in my first semester nearly threw me off it !! I was left barely clutching the very edge of the edge with a 6.84 and the plan was already going awry !! Well (luckily) another semester in and a much more decent performance in it, and the plan was back on !! But anyways, fast forward to the lucky break. The summer of 2009 afforded me an opportunity to work at TIFR. And that has definitely been my lucky break. Dr Prabhu took a gamble in me (definitely a gamble I have to say). And luckily my work was up to the mark. I remember  discussion I had with him towards the end of that summer. He told me to work at a good research university the next summer and then go on to one of the top graduate programs later on. I was hopeful, but not too sure, since excellence in academics is definitely something a top graduate program would look for. And all I had, was, as I say above, borderline mediocrity in academics.

The TIFR intern made me a bit more sure of myself … and then another lucky break at TU Delft. towards the end of the intern at Delft, I spoke to Prof Urbach about the three odd months i’d spent there. Surprisingly he said my work was good, and also mentioned that I should stand a pretty good chance if I applied to the EM Masters Program !! That gave me an added boost … one (supposedly) killer SOP later … I seemed to be set on the right course … The plan seemed to have worked … and I was on the Road to Ithaca … which is by the way the title of this post …

Endsems…

It happens. The nights get chilly. The days get shorter. In a far corner of India people begin to realise their worst fears. Teeth begin to chatter and it has nothing to do with the cold lithe wind blowing in through open doors. People begin to get closeted in their rooms that again having nothing to do with the chilly outdoors. The sports fields lie vacant. The doors of rooms refuse to open even for a minute of Bakar. There spawns an unholy chill inside people. It starts off as an emptiness in the bottom of the stomach, a hollow feeling of nothingness. It is then augmented by a flurry of gut wrenching quiz results. The hollowness rises into the head and the knowledge little as it may leaks out. The frightening piles of notes gathered over 4 months of lectures (taken down by someone else obviously) seem even larger (as if that was possible!!!). Illness seems to strike me just then (How convenient!!!). Desktops of some (read 327) have on a paused movie or soap which is promptly played as soon as someone knocks. ” Yaar movie dekh raha hoon !! “. Some others (read 324) keep the doors of their room open while sleeping just to show the world ” I’m sleeping …. so now dont say I am the biggest Ghissu!!! “. Why not just say yes sometime ?? Because after all everyone knows the chill that sooner or later creeps up into the head and makes you wonder ” Why didn’t I start this earlier!!! “. But then its generally too late to recover. But so what!!! Then comes the happy realisation of it being the last week of semester. You realise that 5-6 days more of saying ” C**d gayi yaar aaj toh!!! ” and you’ll be ready to self destruct all over again next semester!!! It’s a new experience for me every semester. The 1st sem was more of the try-to-dip-your-hands into-every-bowl-IITG-offers kind be it Techniche Manthan Alcher Inters blah blah only to realise you missed the one the professors had held forth. The second was more of a recovery mission involving a spirited start to sem only to find out that working in Alcher was much more fun. Once Alcher got over it was soaps all the way till the sem self-destructed. The self-destruction of the third semester was mostly niteouts and then sleep out the days. So as I realised I am not responsible for my semesters its the timing of these things that conspires against you. It just doesn’t let you get a good sem in. Live with it!!! Its much more fun this way.

C**d gayi yaar aaj ke paper me !!!!

Alcheringa 09 ….. Its coming

Its coming to sweep you off your feet ……. MI08 its an open challenge

Dreamtime is descending on the Northern banks of the mighty Bramhaputra.
Be there ……
Jan 29 to Feb 1

How I got to 4003 ……. a journey through my first year.

Its been like a whole week into the sem now. Classes are now very different. Gone are the days when 5-6 people linked only by the location of their rooms went to classes together. They knew not the others “really” . I mean beyond the others names and where they were from, there was not much they knew about each other. Probably, one more thing they knew about each other during those early days of healthy, good for the world in general fresher-senior interaction, was “frequency” . More than that they knew nothing. They had just entered a world oblivious to the joys of DC++, of LAN gaming, of Techniche, of Manthan and of Alcher. When they came here they probably hadn’t seen the varied hues of human nature. They got to see that in these very people, accepted their faults and now are the very best of friends. There is the pseudo-dominant soft at heart insecure guy. There is the one who feels he’s always right and won’t accept not knowing something even if its staring down upon him with the barrel of a gun pointed at his temple. There’s the one who whines at the drop of a hat and yet he’s probably one of the most cheerful guys too, Ironic!! There’s the one who is too melodramatic in stuff he writes, be it status messages or be it scraps to a certain someone wishing her on her birthday. And there’s me, insecure probably, a tad overconfident sometimes, maybe a bit outspoken and too sarcastic sometimes. There’s the football, one track mind if I ever saw one . But thats all just perception. What counts is the strongest possible bond, that of friendship, the everlasting kind. And it’s not that the bond has been untested. Late February 08 saw the bond being stretched to its limit. After that what has been established is that it not going to break. The year saw lots of stuff happening, some mentionables and many unmentionables . How some people used to being pretty much the best in anything even remotely related to academics suddenly realised that maybe thats not all they were made for. Some rediscovered the author in them which had been lost since about 6th class i guess. Many others discovered that they had amazing reflexes …… headshot after headshot ensured that . Some discovered that they could down 650 ml of a pretty dilute solution of ethanol pretty easily. Well all of them discovered that they aren’t and never were the best academically. They accepted it and moved on because they still remained better than most. Or maybe they didn’t give a damn. And then they lifted themselves up in the 2nd sem and got much better academically. So infact they all did give a damn even though none actually admitted it to the others for fear of being labelled “Ghissu of the Lobby”. [This distinction lies as of now with the guy who lives bang in front of me!! ]. And then after 3 months of absolutely amazing fun at home. They returned……. and I got to 4003

The Ruin of IIT’s (The Story in Numbers)

There are 1.2 billion Indians

Approximately half of them are supposed to be in the 0-25 age group

that gives us 600 million young Indians

these 600 million are fairly evenly distributed among the 0-25 age group

so about 3/26th of them in the 17-19 age group

that gives us around 69 million indians on the cusp of turning adults

of these only 35% are educated upto the 12th standard level

that leaves 24.25 million Educated indians on the cusp of turning adults

only 40% of these are in the science stream at max

so that leaves 9.7 million Educated indians on the cusp of adulthood who study science

only half of them actually think of engineering as a career

that will give 4.85 million Educated Indian Soon-to-be Engineers on the cusp of adulthood

Only about 30% know their selected branch of engineering really well.

that will leave 1,455,000 Young Indian Engineering Graduates of real calibre

only about 15% go in for higher studies beyond their bachelors degree

that will give 218,250 Young Indian Engineering Graduates Who go in for post graduation

of them half pursue an MBA

that will leave 109,125 Young Indian Engineering Post-Graduates

At the Maximum 5% of them complete a Doctorate

That will give about 5,450 Doctorates in The aforementioned long long classification of Young Indian Engineering Graduates of Some Calibre who pursue and succesfully complete their post-graduation upto the Ph.D level

Of these only 10% will go into the academic field

That gives 545 teachers who are Indian Engineering Graduates of Some Calibre Who have succesfully obtained a Doctorate

But wait i haven’t finished

of these only 20% actually teach in India

The Brain Drain is real dudes ……….

so that leaves only 109 blah blah blah ……..Doctorates teaching in India

of these lets say 40% teach in IIT’s (the “Brand” That’s on its last legs thanks to a certain Mr.Arjun Singh)

so that gives us 43 IIT professors every year

Great!!

Problem is that there are going to be 15 IIT’s plus ofcourse the All – Womens IIT

So 16 IIT’s

That gives every IIT less than 3 new Professors every year

And of course my dear Mr. Arjun Singh do profs ever retire ???

Can an Institution of the level of an IIT (what level people will ask 5 years down the line)
survive on getting just 3 professors of high quality every year ?????

Whew that was tiring

Hope i made my point!!

A shot at putting my thoughts to words

Risin’ up from the ashes,
The spirit wandered free,
It had been a long time since it had soared,
A long, long time………….

It had been given the freedom by its kin,
But it had not yet realised that fact,
It refused to break the shell and fly,
It seemed that it wouldn’t ever, but it did,

When it did break free at last,
It seemed too used to its self-induced confinement,
It refused to leap, to fly, to soar,
Like the free bird, like the whistling breeze,

Tis’ not that it didn’t feel the call of the wind,
Not that it didn’t see the glorious rays of the setting sun,
Tis’ just that it had decided to ignore the calls,
But it was destined that the spirit was to soar,

From the thing that wouldn’t,
From the thing that feared,
From that which refused,
It was meant to move to something better,

The thing that wouldn’t mind,
The thing that overcame its fear,
That which gave it a go,
The spark was kindled,

They were just embers in the ashes,
Winds of change blew over ‘em,
The embers glowed bright,
The glow was now scintillating,

It had needed only that spark,
That single brilliant pinpoint of energy,
And that spark was you,
It didn’t recognise the spark when it was next to it,
But it has recognised it now…………..

-The Confused Cranium