PHANTOM of the Opera

A long time since any activity on this blog…..but it has to be today…..of all the dayss....

Today I sat in a ROLLS ROYCE PHATOM!!!!!!!.Yes I took a ride in it, probably the most expensive car we cud ever think of(i hope not....i plan to buy a mclaren F1 in the far future)...it was on a promotion spree for the mobile store in our college campus…..God knows what connection is between a 5 crore masterpiece and some crappy mess of similar looking cell phones and utterly confusing talk plans…..

Still who cares….as far as u get a free ride in your own college campus in a Rolls Royce……..oh yes u do feel like a king!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here goes….we were studying in the library(seriously…we were)…and Ashish calls me…..come down fast to RRC…..fast…come fast…Rolls Royce….ride free…free ride…come fast….and I was on my way….we reached there…Ashish and the others waiting with sparkling eyes….chatur updated us on the experience ….he went in the rolls for a ride already….we all were waiting…finally after a lonnnnnng minute we see it coming towards us….first slow…then suddenly accelerating very fast….car stops….some girls and guy come out….we pounce in the car…I was left waiting due to foto sessions…but I got the front seat….we climb in…there are buttons to close doors. They are too heavy and hinged in opposing manner….so electronics doing the job for us.The car starts…we take a left turn….the guy blasts the stereo with a promotional track and shows us how to take reverse using proximity sensors…and a free demo of how ur car can be rear ended if u have an asshole driver at wheel….n number of sensors cannot help u….an Indica bumped at the back….indica’s bumper seriously damaged….rolls left with a small scratch and slight mis-alignment of the bumper.

Ride ends with a small trip thru the petrol pump in front of the college…..lots of awestruck looks….and finally when we arrive in the college…theres a huge crowd waiting….felt as if we were kings getting down the rolls…(too imaginitve I guess….but happens when u r in a Rolls…a whole new world inside there)….well how was the car is the big Q…and I am no Jeremy Clarkson to comment on it….but still

The car was awesome royal,quiet,heavily loaded with gadgets and screens and controls and auto doors and mirrors and wood and leather and 100 years of Rolls Royce 'hand crafted' heritage and a blasting sound system and also an ASSHOLE driver

We managed to see the features of the car in live action.....the rolls wing logo going under the bonnet when the crash was detected (a typical feature of the Rolls Royce cars).

At the end I was left with the same feeling Jeremy Clarkson had after driving Bugatti Veyron.....I will never be able to afford it.....and is it really worth the money???

Do u pay 5 crores for the car or the aura that comes with it...the Rolls heritage....the umpteen man hours that have gone into it...the fanatic attention to details...the perfect combination of cosmetic and scientific excellence?????????

Well u pay to be a part of the elite who have driven on this planet in the ghostly coffins(all rolls cars are named after ghosts).U pay respect(read crores) to humans who have dedicated their lives to create the feel of a "ROLLS ROYCE"....

Beginning of the End - One Last Time

Been long since I have written. Thought of it many times but didnt. I wont be able to live up to the standards of the last few posts but here goes....

The End has begun. My submissions are over, and am waiting for the exams to begin. Its that time of the year again when everyone is thinking of the amount of syllabus that is left to cover for the exams...For some it is the time to begin the revisions... for many, like me, it is the time to realise that we have insufficient notes and start hunting for them. But this is for the One Last Time.

Four years have gone by and it doesnt seem like a long time, but feels like a lifetime. When we began, we couldnt wait for it to get over and now we want some more time - not for the college work ofcourse but for the time we spent with friends.

We can split our entire life into 4 lifetimes - 1st the school life, 2nd junior college (albeit a short lived one), 3rd engineering college (or whatever course you do), and then the life after all this.

My school life was spent around the world (2 continents and 3 countries) - 2 years in Qatar, 2 years in Canada and 4 years in India. (I know that it adds up to 8 years, it is not a mistake. The remaining 2 years were spent between India and Qatar, not exactly sure how much where.) Out of these I hardly remember about Qatar and a little bit about Canada. My actual school life began in 1997 at St. Lawrence, Vashi where I met some of the best people I would ever meet - Sunny, Deepak and Aarohan. Thanks for being what you are. But the school life ended. Some friends were lost forever, some friendships were forged forever. But the memories remain.

The 2 years of junior college went by like a breeze. Got to do stuff that you couldnt do in school (like bunking lecs and going for a movie or openly flirting with girls). Had fun but didnt last that long. The college life ended too. But the memories remain.

Then came Engineering. The 4 years of copying assignments, completing the journals and doing the submissions on time. The running after the dumb profs for getting the experiments and assignments checked (here the hindi proverb applies perfectly - 'Kabhi Kabhi Gadhe ko bhi Baap banana padta hai'. I used to count the semesters as they got over ( i m sure every1 did).

And now the End of this life has Begun. But this End will be for the One Last Time. The new life that awaits us has no end. It ends only with our life. We have learnt a lot in our previous lifetimes and now we have to apply it. We shall be on our own now, no teachers to guide us and no dumb profs to act smart.

We got a few more days left but it seems too little. I want some more days, some more of the senseless waste of time that we did at leisure, some more of the carefree times spent with the friends, some more memories to cherish.......a little bit more....

But we have no choice. The new life awaits us. We have to greet it with Arms Wide Open and make the best of it. We have to face the End and a New Beginning..........for the One Last Time.

END of the BEGINNING

This post is by Rohan(arrows), and I am posting it here because Rohan was too lazy to do so, but anyways, the post is what matters and undoubtedly it is another masterpiece after the last one Sunny posted.

“After the game king and the pawn return to the same box”

This is how I perceive my subsistence these days. Who am I? I am anyone of you, and yet distinct. I am like any other student who is counting days before he calls himself a Graduate, and yet I have an identity that can’t be assigned to anybody other than me. If you have not guessed it as yet; I am one of those constituents of the game who has realized that the game is nearly over and the distinction of identity and stature is subtly losing its existence.

We all played this game to the best of our ability, the game we call Engineering. Some played it straight-forward like the Rook; some tried twisted ways of the Knight, a few chose to swagger around like the Queen, and many were satisfied with the simple ways of a Pawn. Everyone equally engrossed in the pursuit of an objective which could provide the best possible clarification to and assign a cause reasonable enough for, his existence. By the end of this phase of life that is but just the beginning of what they call life, we are all related to each other by one euphoric sentiment “WE PLAYED”.

Lingering somewhere in the memory (which is by now perfectly tuned to function only for a stipulated amount of duration at a fixed time of the year) are those days when we stepped into this hallowed institution of engineering for the first time. Those were the times we had to stick together out of no choice, as the only savior of a drowning man is the man drowning besides him. Never had we then perceived that in one of these drowning men we will find the steadfast hand of a friend. At the end, for some friendship remains a virtue for others just a means to reach the end. In either case they cherish the moments of bliss when they could actually understand the profundity of this emotion.

From the horrors of mechanics to the mechanics of (managing) horrific profs we conquered it all. Some found their calling in Nirvana (Kurt cobain fans) some found nirvana in the intriguing circuits of Boylstad. The listless faces (of students) gazing at the excruciating ‘external’ (sometimes ‘internal’) metamorphosed into enthusiastic bundle of nerves with the onset of sports and cultural fests, only to surrender that zeal again to the inevitability of results. The vicious cycle of term end-submission-viva-university exam seem like a mundane affair by the end. From high school sweet hearts to newly discovered made-for-each-others many found themselves shot by the cupid and others just found a reason good enough to keep them happy for being neglected by the angels. From moments of self-denial to moments of feeling I-am-god we’ve all been there done that.

A thousand different stories yet we all relatively stand at the same point in our respective lives. A point where the world is waiting for us with its arms wide open. A point from where the lessons learnt in classroom will be applied to real life situations, where answers to practical questions will certify the gained knowledge. Equipped with the same eagerness in heart and fire in the belly here we stand all set to go. This is the point where the beginning meets its end.

As for the future, I am just reminded of these lines which say all that I would like to say to all my colleagues and juniors.

It’s something unpredictable,

But in the end its right;

I hope you had the time of your life.

The most valuable waste of time

The most valuable waste of time is how I can best describe my four years (almost four as on date) of engineering in VJTI. So what did I do in college today? A question that remained unanswered daily after I reached home from college. For years, it didn’t bother me much, because it was the time to cut loose, let my hair down and simply have fun ‘JUST LIKE THAT’. Until today when I want to pen down, what it was like being in VJTI and doing all that was done, I make an attempt to find the answer.

What did I gain? A day in college was always like an open forum for discussions, where topics varied from the most unpredictable ‘University Exams’, to the most sensational ‘Good looking FE Chick in college’, to the most fascinating ‘theory of machines taught in the lecture’, to the most spell binding ‘Diction of a professor’, to the most mysterious ‘loss of words in an assignment’ and finally to the most trivial ‘bad taste of the tea in canteen today’. Issues never thought, planned or intended, but simply there for the heck of it. Ideas flooded in from the optimistic, from the pessimist, from the authoritative, from the sly, from the class clown and others straight from mars. Some ideas came out of choice, the others because there was no other choice.

At the end of it, there were a zillion perspectives left to contemplate, which were often overlooked until today. The four years of mere wasting time has left impression in the form of multi dimensional thinking. Engineering has given a new dimension of analysis. Earlier there were always two ways of doing anything: the right one and off course the wrong one. Quite like always, engineering is path breaking in the sense that, it may not necessarily be wrong if it is not right. It can neither be right, nor be wrong as the same time. The justification follows: Copying assignments is not right but not wrong either, if you know no one is going to read them. Bunking lectures is not right but not wrong either, if you know how well read the professor himself his. The above mentioned are very obvious material benefits, but otherwise too, that is how life is…. You may not be doing what is wanted of you, but you will still be acknowledged for not doing what you are strictly not supposed to do. And this is just one aspect of it……

Thinking that grew into the evolution of individuality, a thought and a very predictable behavior. Today, the smallest of contributions to the discussion are individuals, people I call my friends, people I can trust, people I look up to for advice and people whom I can call in the middle of the night just to pull off a joke on him. In the process of taking each other’s case, we have bonded so well that our expressions are beyond words. We can laugh together at the mildest of smirks or, for that matter, absolutely nothing. At the same time we can feel the agony; generally referred in terms of failure to get a girl for those who don’t have one and loss of wealth for those who have managed to get one or more.

Individually, we are ideas, notions, visions and loads of fun together. For the spectators, we are a force, a team that organized equal volumes of fun with festivals, submissions, PL’s, vivas and even results. We, better known by the brand, BE Mechanical, have managed to add value to the institution and ourselves. At the end of four years, who are we? How do we recognize ourselves? It is plainly just a sentiment too difficult to be talked about or even written here.

Time is often considered money. Here in VJTI, we have splurged all our money (time) in having the most priceless moments of our life. And all this happened so incidentally, when we were simply finding ways to kill them. Today when all the smoke is gone down, we are left with an individual, an idea, an emotion and NOSTALGIA.....and the most valuable FRIENDS.

Can’t believe that the Law of Conservation applies here too…. “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can be converted from one form to another”. We have succeeded to convert almost everything into fun with minimum losses... and guess what friends our conversion efficiency simply ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!

RAIT- The wonder Years

Hi guys, this post comes after a very weired time in my life, the last one was an outcome of a very depressed and frustrated state of my mind. Anyways, am back to normal, alive and kicking and yes getting bored and wondering what to do next and always ending up lazing arnd rather than dng smthng constructive.

But thats not the point I have in mind as I write here. This one is completely dedicated to my friends, my collegge friends as well as Sunny Junaid and Rohan. But since I have written about Rohan Sunny and Junaid in a previous post, I would tlk more abt my coll frnds here.

So guys, first of all thanks for being there(a typical line when u want to show gratitude, but nthng better than this). As the last sem is finally beginning, a strange realisation of the past always fills me when I am with u guys. All those moments we have spend together just keep playing as if a vdo being played repeatedly.

Earlier I never cared to enjoy the moments we had together in coll, for me coll was not more than IEEE and robotics. But since the last sem when I have 'retired' from all these activities, theres plenty of time to have fun, at least to be with u guys. I think I have started recognizing u guys a bit better, all because now I bother to care.

But as always I am late in dng good thngs, here I am realising all this when coll is about to end. The other day me and Abhishek were wondering how many of us will care to stay in touch after our coll finishes. And I really found the answer hard to fathom, that is when I realised how little I know about my frnds with whom I spend most of my time of the day. But still at least I know that I will care to stay in touch.

I was just browsing thru the pics and vdos we have shot in our engg days and I realised we all have changed a lot, physically of crse(from those timid FE's to care free BE's), but many other aspects as well. All of us have reached a new level of understanding, the pitty fights have reduced, they have transformed to hard core wars:). I have started appearing more in front of the camera, rather than always preferring to take pics. Most of us are 'committed' now. We all have graduated to gvng surprise birthday parties to everyone, most of us have stopped bothering abt results(except me, i never cared abt results), the meaning of coll has changed from a place to study(atleast we made sincere attempts for the first two years to do that) to a place to just escape from a harsh wrld outside and go inside a cocoon, a shelter with frnds arnd and a sense of protection and warmth.

Ppl have strted acquiring the status 'busy' on messenger, courtesy the permanent status 'committed'. I must tell u guys this committed status comes with a lot of packages attached. For eg. lots of profile fotos for orkut, to share on messenger. Ppl have strted going on shopping excursions just for 'her' or 'him'. These things were just dreams in FE and SE. But times have changed and they have changed for good. All these situations have kind of tied us tighter than we were before, made us more tolerant of each other.


And all this while I feel like I am a bystander, I never lived those moments of initial bonding with u guys, I was always there, but never connected. Again no regrets for that, I never wanted to get too involved with ppl, I always feared our friendship wud end before it even began.

But all that time has gone and has taught me a lot, u guys have taught me a lot. Thanks for all that. This might look like a farewell message, but honestly guys, every moment we spend tgether, seems like smthng is cmng to an end, which I want to hold onto, but cannot. So just wanted to make the most of the moments left, just wanted to thank u guys for being a part of the most wonderful years of my life.

NO MORE PROGRAMS AND ALGOS- BACK TO BUSINESS

Studying a silly subject on computers was always the last things I would have wanted to do from the day I had taken up MECHANICAL engineering. Subjects like C, C++, Data Structures, SQL, Visual Basics and now CAD/CAM have always stepped on my weakest nerve. And after 7 grueling semesters, each containing programs and algorithms of varying sizes and blood sucking capabilities, it is FINALLY over.

And what a way to end this ‘percentage lowering factor’, just the way it has been always. 50 marks of CAD (Computer aided Design) and I attempted as much as half of it. Frankly speaking I didn’t even know bits and pieces worth 50 marks including options and of whatever I knew I was so jaded to heave it down my pen.

Of the COMPLETE one hour that I prearranged to write my last rites of computers linked subject, I could only manage to do so in the most untidy handwriting. Even a lame passerby (I mean the supervisor) gave me a bizarre look the moment he saw me scribble some crap on a very good quality Mumbai University Answer Sheet.

The reason of my complete disinterest in these subjects is purely because of the thought that ‘If I were to do all the computer programming, what would the computer engineers be paid for?’ I can’t see this happen to my friends from computer engineering.

However some might claim that a basic knowledge of computers can be handy for any person, but why the f*** do we have to do hard core programming. And to top it all theory straight from mars which only aliens can comprehend from typically available notes and Xeroxes. Ok fine, I know to run my computer, understand standard application programs, play the most complicated of games and also format and reinstall my PC. Isn’t that good enough for a Mechanical Engineer?

The worst part of this story is that; Mechanical/Civil/Electrical Engineers are constantly subjected to repetitive dumbing down by Computers/IT/Electronics/Telecommunication Engineers. I recall of what once a neighbor of my friend once told him after he got into VJTI Mech, “Kyun beta marks kam mille the jo mekanikal (mechanical) liya, kumputar (computer) ya IT nahi milla kya. Mekanikal ka koi scope nahi hai”. I don’t say that computers is bad and mech is the best. The point I am trying to make is that a mech engineer does not get the respect that a computer engineer gets just because there isn’t much money involved into it. Truly this false belief is shaken by the placements figures of my batch. The placement percentage is very high (with almost everyone placed) and extremely fancy packages as compared to what a computer/IT based company would offer.

So all you fellow mechies (if any reading it), the world is waiting for you (Looking at past activities, Pune would very soon have more than 5000 acres of automobile industry waiting for all of you.). For all those who have taken mechanical engineer for the love of it, the opportunity is just the Mumbai-Pune Expressway away.

To end it - Computer Programming for me is FINALLY OVER. I am back to my business – I call it – Mechanical Engineering.

Bricks in the WALL

This post comes on the onset of another important and punishing time, the PL's. This implies that the most boring and demanding times lie ahead, but also the most useless efforts have gone by. Yes I mean the VIVAS.

As always I was the least prepared (by my own standards) this time, but this time I also cared the least. Dunno why, but as engineering is coming to an end, I am becoming more complacent in my attitude towards scoring marks. Not complacent towards studying but towards the exams and all the crappy systems and procedures.

I tried to figure out an answer to this in the past week. These answers raised more questions than before but helped me to feel free from the little feeling of guilt that was coming along with the complacence.

My first two vivas were a cake walk. The great HOD was not present during my viva and the external was fed up with her which was evident from her looks and mood.

The last viva’s preparation was very tiring, irritating, boring. Was not in a mood to study at all, had been awake all night, not studying just doing faltu time pass. The viva was as expected, no luck this time, was kind of screwed.

The last one forced me to think, are we really “learning” something? Isn’t there a fundamental difference created by us between learning and studying? Are the ppl from whom we are “learning” worth it? Or are they too, just another victims of the rotten system tat has been invented not to nurture creativity and skills, but to suppress them and promote social justice and equal opportunity. Aren’t we mere puppets of this system, we being sacrificed to portray to the world that INDIA is progressing FAST?

The ppl who “teach” us, are they worth being called professors? The meaning to the word teacher has changed such drastically that today good for nthng assholes who don’t have anything to do, who know they don’t stand a chance in the competitive industry, so they “teach to earn a living”

So the primary importance is earning not teaching. Anyways, is justified in todays money centric world. But aren’t we all responsible to make it money centric as well. Our misuse has made money a thng which is damned and condemned for everything wrong that happens. Isn’t it our own incompetence that’s to be blamed? Haven’t we made money more important that morals, values and work? Money after all is not an evil, it’s the value one man can pay another for his knowledge, productivity, creativity, all of these becoming extinct owing to the monotonous “general” procedures of inculcating knowledge in every “different” human being in the “same” manner.

And be it any profession, I thnk the worst impact is on the education related fields. Considering the scenario here I just remember the pink floyd video for another brick in the wall. Where kids are being tied to their benches in a factory similar to a car production line, a monotonous growth procedure being laid on them by a teacher.

The whole scenario looks so similar to a MASON building the wall around the centre of creativity and talent, the bricks being the teachers who are used, the MASONS are left for u to figure out.

I still remember the day my friend Chintan Shah told me, u will find a Vikas Nahar, a Deepak Gupta and a Chintan Shah everywhere u go. Just the faces will change, the personalities will be the same. If u can deal with all of them today, tmr will be easy. Thanks Chintan for that wonderful lesson.

Sometimes things just look so out of place that I start thinking this way. The problem being that I just think in this way, when things are out of proportion. Under normal times, we just accept things as they come, compromises driving us, general procedures ruling our actions.

I hope i will be the one to break this WALL some day.

The end of the penultimate ERA

Today was a very boring day by the normal RAIT standards. Well i guess the reason was that we finished 4 submissions and a project presentation in 2 hours flat.

A big scar on the RAIT lab ass club(i am sure there exists one.......where they discuss how to make others lives like a piston inside an engine)

The day started with my project presentation.......a managable affair and was easier than i expected, except some stupid questions........but thats normal in rait.

The first time i regretted doing something with a bit of perfection and standard was today. I took my synopsis prints on a coloured page in coloured text(one page for 15 bucks!!!) and the rest of the pages on royal executive bond paper(ya ......laugh.......i know i am a fool).

And at the end i realised my project guide was interested the most in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT page. Nothing else in the synopsis mattered as much as the that page, infact he didnt even took the trouble to at least look at the diagram and the small technical part i included. Just the certificate and acknowledgement part was all that mattered. And this page was full of self praises by a inferiority complex struck HOD who is trying to acknowledge her efforts in alloting the PG's a week before the presentation, which should have been done 2 months ago.

Looking at this lady, i feel i have a very bright future, i can bet on anythng that i will be dng much better than her, will be much happier and sober in my behaviour and ofcourse i will not have the unmatched quality to utter crap with such confidence. Phd in WCOM comes really easy these days it seems, u just have to keep uttering crap abt the morality(which is away from her by miles) and the customer satisfaction that shud be maintained by the service provider. The commercial and philosophical part of a wireless network is much more important than the techniques, this is what i could infer from her teachings.
All the lectures i survived and managed to stay awake in her class, i could draw only one conclusion at the end, she was discussing how frustrated she is with her cell phone and her unfortunate service provider. How she wished we all were swapped with the HUTCH guys, whom she wished to just torcher to death by her unmatched capacity to utter crap.

Just imagine, a person having the only weapon in his personality, to keep uttering nonsensical and unrelated thngs, she can talk endlessly on anythng, which shud not be said at that instant, at that time, and to those ppl.

i really respect her for teaching me what not to do and be in life, without u i would have commited horrible mistakes in my life and wud have never realised that one day i will become 'YOU'. so thanks to her once again for this early caution.


Anyways am glad that finally an end to the penultimate round of useless submissions.......These are the times which make me happy that engg is finally coming to an end............but there are a lot more instances which leave me wishing that time moved slower than................perhaps a formula 1 car( c there i go, good i am back to normal)

The Memory Remains

This post comes after a long time........ i guess owing to lot of happenings in my life and most of all my laziness to type.....but here i am after arnd a month ready to vent out all thats gng on in my mind or rather just writing abt thngs which are diff to discuss with anyone coz of lack of time and ...........oppurtunity.

To strt with i think the GOA trip steals the show hands down.............that place is just magical......just try finding one bad thng abt GOA.......i guess every RAITian will have to rack his brain like never bfore(of crse a very scarce practise in RAIT).Not just the beaches there are awesom, but the whole air i guess is stimulating to push urself to the max of everythng......fun, frnds, absolute raantigiri and of crse high speed police chases(some will know what i mean)

As this was the last trip in my student life(i just hope not), i was in a mood to have the max fun possible wit the most amazig ppl i have known for the past 3 years. All lthese guys have in a way shaped me to a different 'ME'. When such guys are arnd fun comes as a package which did this time as well. the trip had its ups and downs but all in all a great memory to cherish later with some phyical marks on my body as well(owing to my bike riding skills).

As the GOA trip was abt to end, i guess i experienced this for the frst time in my life, fear of losing smthng behind there.............what i am stil trying to fathom. Maybe it was the fear that i am losing a part of me in GOA, leavng back smthng i cannot hold onto, the more i try to hold onto the more it slips. The tght that such days are over, never again will we get to live these moments gave the trip a new meaning altogther. Sadly i realised this as the trip was ending and not when it begun.

Anyways whats more imp is that i atleast realised it, considering imp thngs often slip of my mind when they need to be considered. just cant do anythng though rather than just remembering the good times, waiting for the pics and vdos which my asshole frnds havent gvn me yet and falling in love with DIL CHAHTA HAI all over again for bng such real take on every aspect of life.