An Incident in d Lyf of a Guitar Beginner

I started playing the guitar a year back. Well, I m still where I began. I know its gonna take me a long time to be as good as a................. BEGINNER!! Still I always loved this 6 stringed instrument. I would like to narrate an incident which happened where my guitar learning helped me.
My lab exam was happening the other day.  Experiments were allotted to us on the basis of lots.
I picked up a sheet which asked me to set the range for an instrument which would then measure level of liquid in it. It was such a CHEAP experiment. I wrote down the necessary things on the sheet provided for the write up.
When I decided that it was time for the experiment, I searched for a Screwdriver which was needed to rotate a screw which would adjust the reading on the Digital Display. I could not find one. I asked the concerned Lab Assistant for the same who could not find one for me. Time was running out. I tried using all the stuff from the tip of the scale to my room keys to turn the screw. Nothing worked.
Suddenly, I thought about taking out my ATM card from my wallet and using the tip of it to turn the screw. But inside the same slot as my ATM card was  Guiatr Pick! This was Perfect. I used that to turn the screw and oila! It replaced the screwdriver perfectly.

Guitar couldnt have been closer to METAL right??!!!

Now, to how the guitar pick came inside my wallet.

I didnt take my guitar home during the holidays which we got recently. I had kept that pick in my wallet just to show off that i played the guitar, if some guitar landed in my hands from somewhere

Smart or Dumb??

Two days back, a friend of mine ( actually a senior ) asked me to add my blog id to a list maintained by a 2k2 passout. A very noble idea I suppose aimed at bringing the fellow bloggers of BIT together. I myself found a few interesting blogs from within the list. One of them talked about the Reliance Smart mobile connection and the wonderful....er .....irritating consequences of opting for that connection.

Yours truly has himself suffered a lot after he decided to go for Smart rather than Airtel or BSNL Cellone( getting a Cellone connection was something similar to moving Mt Fiji in those days ). And I didnt stop there. I went to the extent of upgrading my connection to Smart Life. I had my reasons. I only made calls home and so, needed a connection which provided low STD rates. Also, the SMS came at a rather cheap 25p/msg. I had a few problems here and there, with the messages not reaching the destination by the time I wanted it to reach. And the occasional " Network Busy ", only that occasional meant once every 2-3 hours! So here I was, without any complaints cause I as still able to call up home, and talk to them for about 10-15 minutes, every 2-3 days.

The real irritating part started a few days back. The only SIN I committed was recharging my credit with a 300 bucks voucher. It was supposed to be a top up card, mine being SMART LIFE. I dialled the number which would let me recharge my phone. The recorded voice said, " Your new Balance is so and so....The services associated with it would be activated shortly". Little did I know that the supposed service that they were going to provide was " Barring of STD facility " as well as undelivered National msgs even though my balance decreased by 25p every time I tried sending a message. I thought or rather hoped that this would be alright in 24 hours. But that was not the case. I could nt call up home from my phone any more. I used my friend's phone to give missed calls and they would call me back. The problem with this the first time was that my mom actually thought that I d lost the phone and was trying to cover it up with such a story of recharging and STD facility getting barred. She even told me that she ll send over some cash to buy a new phone! I asked them to call up on my phone whenever they felt the need to.

This is not the end of the ride that I had to take. I tried calling up the customer care.( I wonder how they call it CUSTOMER CARE when they are least bothered about customer grievances ) They wouldn't answer the phone! When I finally felt that I d had enough, I decided to visit their office and lodge a complaint. I was asked to keep my phone switched off form 8 30 pm to 10 00pm. I still dont get the logic behind asking me to keep my phone switched off. Though it was a Hope against Hope Hopen as Ogden Nash would ve put it, I still hoped that it woul get alright. As expected, it didn't. Now, I could go to them only after my midsems. So the weekend after midsem, I headed for the Smart office once again. This time, I tried to act as if I was the most pissed off person on earth. And I threatened to move court if they didnt rectify the problem by night that day. The utterance of the word 'Court' seems to have done the trick. The time they said by which my STD facility ould be back was 8 30. At 8 31 pm, I made my first STD call for more than a month by my phone.

So the next time someone has a problem with the Reliance Smart ( Dumb ) people threaten to go to the court if your complaints are not heeded for more than a week. Things which may usually take more than 1 month to do will get done in less than 6 hours!

Getting a Life

I was reading the much talked about book, 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, GOt Wild and Got a Life'. The book was in the news for all the wrong reasons. The authoress was criticised for plagiarism. One day, she was being praised for having written a wonderful book, the next day, she was put to shame with accusations of plagiarism. Plagiarism is not something that I m going to write about in this blog. If at all any of my articles are used commercially, I may come under the scanner as well for using a few lines here and there from greats.( A few company names are also there. Hopefully, I m not sued for putting the Google ads in here which can very well make this blog, a commercial venture :P ).

Before I take a detour from the topic, Let me get straight into it. Its the central character of the story that caught my attention. 'Opal Mehta', the studious yung girl, who buried herself under the books and a few classical music lessons to fulfill her lifelong dream, er , her parents' lifelong dream which was forced upon her isnt it? Her parents do assess the gravity of the situation and make amends, but then it is fiction. Reality is way different. Anyays, I m not writing about Parenting either.

Where was I? Yeah, Opal Mehta, the studious girl, 'Padhaku' as these kind of people are referred to in this part of the world. I know that a few of you reading this ( if at all any of you take the pains of reading this :D ) are going to raise their eyebrows and say, " What a Hypocrite! This guy himself is a Padhaku and he is asking the padhakus to get a life !!!". Well, to say the least, I am not a padhaku. I may have been, but that was long back in 2nd semester. I got a life then itself, so I can be no longer classified in that category :). Scoring decent grades should not necessarily mean that anybody is a Padhaku. There are so many factors which are taken into account while putting people into that category, the primary requirement being a very high GPA. The biggest factor should be that he/she should be like Opal Mehta. Controversies apart, this is one book of the very few I ve read that summarizes how guys fail to miss on what life has to offer just because they need to slog to make it BIG if not necessarily happy.

My college has got a few Opal Mehta like characters, who dont have any friends. The people who may talk to them are the LAB partners. THank goodness they got into very good companies which will pay them very high. Maybe, they think thats how their life should be. Without any friends, all their happiness to themselves within the confines of their rooms or apartment or whatever. But let me tell you, being an Ex- padhaku, If I came under the classification even remotely before 2nd semester, I know what I missed in life. I hardly had any friends outside of my classroom. EVen those were very few in number. My ignorance about many guys who happened to be in the same batch as me is testimony to that fact. I realised what I missed and from then, on I ve been happy. I m enjoying life to the fullest, being serious when the need be, being the casual bloke when the situation is such. Well, I guess, I was not thinking about writing about my own experiences here. I was thinking of writing about the loads of Opal Mehtas being created in the world today.

Pursuing a dream, they fail to see what life has got in store. They forget that socialising is one of the essential traits of mankind. Its not that, one should ignore his/her studies, responsibilites or anything serious for that matter. But ain't we missing upon a lot of things just because we fear that failure to make it to our goal . We surely will get a second chance unless, we are risking our lives trying to do it and fail, dont we? THen why should someone miss upon a lot of things that life has to offer? Life is not just about books and work. Its about fun, Its about adventure, Its about wholeness, Its about getting a life. So Padhakus...GO GET A LIFE....!

The Second of its Kind

Once I got into TCS, I had made up my mind to appear for all companies that were good and for which ECE was considered. However, there was limited success with me clearing just one ritten test and failing to do so in 3 others. It had become a routine for me by then. Attending the Pre placement Talks, writing the written tests and declaring proudly, " Company ## - REJECTED!" THough I was telling like this, deep inside, I really wanted to get into some company. Not because the company from which I got the offer was bad, but because of what was being told by people back in TVM which hurt my dad and mom.

THe weekend was going on as usual. I didnt even know as to when GLobal Logic was visiting the campus. The only thing I knew was that I was gonna give it a shot, no matter when they came. On that SUnday morning, my friend came and woke me up telling that the Global Logic PPT was at 8. He did so at 8 30. I quickly brushed my teeth, swallowed whatever was given in the mess
(I dont remember, what or how much I ate ) and rushed outside the hostel, only to find two guys returning from the insti. They told that the PPT was at 8 PM rather than AM!. So I came back to my room and started my routine weekend activities like chatting and reading the newspaper. I went to get a haircut too. AFter that, some of my friends from the otehr hostel called me up to ask whether I would like to join at the canteen. I went to the canteen alongwith them, only to find that it was closed. We marcehd from the canteen to the OC and had food. We spend around 2 hours there and came back to the hostel at around 4.30. I chatted with my friends who were online for another 2 and a half hours before it was time to leave for the PPT. I went there, attended the PPT, liked the company profile. IT was time for the written test.

The written test had 2 sections. Tech and Apti. Apti was of 20 questions and Tech of 35 questions. Both together for a duration of 40 mins. AFter the test, I was not that confident of making it as the paper was relatively easy and I supposed that almost all would ve done as much as I d done. They told that the result would be announced by midnight. I came back to the hostel to complete my lab record as I was supposed to attend the LAB the next morning. Around 12 30, a friend of mine came and told me that I was gonna have an interview the next morning.

I woke up at 7 in the morning. It was Onam, the most important festival for Keralites. I went to the insti at 8 to find out that my interview was at 10 am. I settled down inside the TnP waiting room. My interview happened at around 12 noon. THe interviewers were really cool. Never seen such cool guys ever. THey were really easy going and I was soon in my comfort zone in the HR round. I should say that Rock music was my SAVIOUR there. THe guy had asked me to talk on a topic of my choice for 2 minutes and I chose Rock music. I told what I d written in my previous post over here. It was time for technical and then the management round , all of them through which I breezed through. All the time while giving my interview, the only thing on my mind was the delicious Onam feast which millions of Keralites the world over would ve been relishing on at that time.

I went to see the results in the evening and my name was called out. I had grabbed my second offer! This was the best Onam gift ever. I was really happy. GUess my feelings at that moment should ve been on the TV ad which says , " THere are somethings in the world that Money cant buy".

Heavy Metal

I dont know how far its true.....
Here goes my Opinion anyways.......
Whats so gr8 bout Heavy Metal and Rock Music??

Dis is one question which almost all classical music lovers hav on their minds wen they hear sumthing which is Noise to their ears. Well deres more dan one reason which makes it gr8.D amazin Lyrics, D gr8 virtuosc performances by the artists on their respectiv instruments, d energy dat they provide and much more.For many,its d vehicle of d Satan.For d oders, its d celebration of life.

Lyrics

How many of d metal haters out there hav ever bothered to take a look at d lyrics of these amazin music pieces??
Heres a few lines frm Metallica's song - No Leaf Clover

"Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way"

How many of U out dere hav had dis feeling?
I bet dat an overwhelming majority of d ppl wud hav had dis feeling. To feel that everything was goin ur way till d u realise dat wat went up has to come down.

Wen Brian Adams sings d line " Those were d Best days of my Lyf" U feel it. Can a classical music piece drive d same kind of energy into d lyrics?

Anoder feeling dat all mus hav endured is missin ur dear one.
No song in history sums it up better than Nothing Else Matters

"So close no matter how far, COuldnt be much more from the heart"

Anoder set of magical lines dat come to mind is Pink FLoyd's Time

"You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."

"Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines "


Dese rock also seem to hav d ability to foresee their future in d lyrics....

Syd Barrett ( d man behind d formation of Pink Floyd, sadly though, he had to be removed frm d band due to an LSD addiction which was affecting d band) wrote bout himself in d song Shine on You Crazy Diamond

So did James Hetfield( Metallica ) about addictions in Master of Puppets. He later had to undergo rehab for alcoholism , an addiction which came along as a way to keep himself warm in Siberia during a hunting tour.


Virtuosic Performances

Each rock artist is unique in his way. And each band tries to bring in a unique attribute to their brand of music. This shows dat rock music is a domain where Improvisation is d name of d game and mere imitations dont stand a chance. And dis is one arena where d rock artists pay mutual respect by playing each oders' songs under the tag of COVER songs.
Dere hav been instances of Bands passing unpleasant remarks bout oder bands, but then it just shows d competitive spirit that drives dese artists for more.

D riffs and solos dat d rock artistes create are just out of d classical music textbooks. Only dat these r heavier, louder and faster.Again a pointer dat heavy metal is not NOISE after all. Its a variation of classical music. So in fact , rock music is a gr8 advertisement for CLASSICAL MUSIC!!! any takers for dis??!!

Again , I m not saying that Classical music is bad....


Ppl hav often dismissed heavy metal as repulsive and driving d youth to alcoholism and drugs. Well dat came as a result of blind hero worship. D same has occurred not only wid Heavy metal but Cinema as well. Dere can b a way to enjoy Rock music even without dese addictions.Just enjoy d Music....Its as simple as that.

No offence to classical music lovers or d critics of Heavy Metal but just giv dis a thought....

" When you criticise somthing or put the blame on sumthing, just dont do it blindly, also try to find d positve sides."

As with everything, ROCK MUSIC ALSO HAS ITS BRIGHTER SIDE

A Journey in India's worst as well as best Train

Part 1:

The signal lights turn GREEN, the horn is blown and the usual chaos that happen when a train starts moving follow. Welcome onboard the India's worst train , the 3352 Alleppey-Dhanbad Express.I call it worse coz it drops us off in a terrible place. The way it gets us there is even more terrible. The route that it takes, the facilities inside, the food, all suck.
The train journey is miserable in every sense of the word. The compartments are from a pre independence era so to speak. The fans and lights may not work at times, no water and stuffed corridors. Stuffed in the sense, filled with people, garbage and baggage.This gets worser if you happen to be in coach no. S 1 as the people who dont find room in the general compartment board this coach. The Ticket Examiner is just namesake. His position should be rechristened to " Cash Collector". I m jealous of the amount of money he makes in a single shift.
The journey on the first day is bearable.The journey through Kerala is awesome.We take in the natural beauty of the God'd Own Country. We won't be seeing 
that for another few months. The second morning is the worst. We enter Andhra Pradesh.I m not saying 
that I hate the state, but then, i t is here that the train starts getting crowded. Also, the train starts moving slower than a Passenger train, halting at every instance of a yellow coloured board being placed. The worst part is that the major stations are not reached in time for the lunch or dinner. So , we have to eitehr adjust with biscuits or the food that they serve from the Pantry car. Believe me, its worse than the Mess food back in college.
The only thing that I await for during this part of the journey is Godavari, the mighty river. It never seems to end. "If only they filled the water tanks in the train with 1/100000000000000 of the water in the river...." I think to myself everytime we cross this river. The ceremonial coin throwing is done, each time with a different wish.
Next morning, I wake up just to see that there's hardly any room to lay my feet on the ground, let alone walk my way through the corridor to brush my teeth ( if there is water in the overhead tank that is...) The Train finally makes its way to Ranchi. As the train screeches to a halt, we are ready to get down and move back to college for yet another long wait to go back home.

Part 2:
This time, we board the train from Ranchi. Its the most awaited afternoon of that semester. This time around, we are ever so eager to get onto the train. The train number is a little different. Its 3351 Dhanbad Alleppey Express.
I dont mind calling it the Best Train in India, just because of the fact that we get to home by boarding it......

Mission TCS

It all began in the second or third year in college when the guys around started preparing for placements.Believe me, they started slogging right from the 3rd or 4th semester to get into the so called Dream Companies.I didnt realise that it was a a difficult task to get into one of those great companies.I thought to myself that I won't go through the selection process for TCS because, according to the placement norms back then, we couldnt appear for another company until there was exceptional performance from the batch. I must ve underestimated the TnP chief. He made sure that people walked out of college with atleast one job.There were cases when a few guys bagged 3 jobs as well.
So back to TCS.I went home for the summer holidays with one thing in mind.Bag the best job on offer.But then, the thing called procrastination turned everything upside down.I had to get atleast one job in the first round and that was were it all began.Mission TCS had begun.
But how to go about on this so called mission.I was lost in the wilderness of the infinite number of sample papers that was available on WWW.Then, I decided to enjoy my holidays and slog after getting back to college.That however was not to happen because of the umpteen no. of companies that came before TCS.I ended up attending the PPTs and also appeared for 3 companies, in one of them, I managed to get into the second round of interviews.
Finally, there was only one day to go before the most awaited company for the not so well prepared souls like me.The so called Savior.
The first thing to do was to mug up some 350 odd words that are the frequently asked words in GRE.Mugging up was something out of my comfort zone.So, I decided to mug up a few words and then guess the rest in the written test.It was evening and something that has been very typical of BIT happened.Whenever we ve had exams that were real tough or had CS as its suffix, the power supply had to go atleast for one hour.This time, it was for a couple of hours.It was time to do (IL)Logical Reasoning.All of these were to be done from Barron's.Yes the very book used in GRE preparation.I felt like throwing this poor laptop of mine on the floor coz it was damn irritating to scroll down that 15 MB e-book of Barron's.
Finally, I turned off the comp and went to sleep.The sleep was full of nightmares.A devil coming and asking me to tell d synonyms of all the S**ty words. 
The morning was the biggest.All those guys who didnt even bother to bath during Diwali were seen hitting the shower early in the morning. By the time we reached the auditorium for the Pre Placement Talk, it was almost full. WE somehow managed a seat.The wait for the written test was not to end though .I had the test in the second half.The test was the funniest ever I d written. I believe that the Heiroglyphics are relatively recent compared to the question booklets. The pages were almost torn.As the instructor said" Your Time Starts Now", I opened the booklet, only to see that all the answers were already marked on it. My only task was verifying the numerical problems for accuracy of result.
The test was over after one and a hlaf hours and there was a long wait in the evening to see if I had cleared it.Well i did it, but nobody knew as to wwhen the interview was gonna be. I had it the next day evening.In fact 2 rounds of interview.Technical and HR. THe only question all the interviewers had was, " Will you go fro higher studies?" I stuck to the biggest lie I ever told and that is " No higher Studies".
The results were to be announced the next day.
The result declaration was the funniest thignever.There were so many names to be called out that the TCS guys took turns.
My name was not called for a long time and I was almost on the verge of breaking down when they finally announced my name. I had made it

MISSION TCS had been successfully accomplished !!

A Few Days without LAN

What would life in BIT be without LAN? Well, pretty unimaginable. Not that the guyz and gals of 2k4 and 2k5 had LAN at their disposal during their first one or two years here. But once it was installed, it has come to be the most indispensable thing for all. Maybe more important then food, water, fag and booze ( now that the crazy...er.....the able admins have put a full stop to the innumerous full bottles that came inside the campus, booze goes out of the equation.)

The LAN was gone for 3 days and the only questions that guys had to ask were, " Why isnt DC++ working?" , " What is wrong with LAN?"," What the hell are the admins doing?"

It was real bad without LAN. It would have been ok had it been one of those weekdays. The LAN was gone for the weekend, ( I assume that those morons switched it off on Friday for some AIEEE counselling thing and forgot to turn it on after that )Whatever, there was no LAN and no CS clan wars. How was BIT doing without CS?
Let alone NET or DC++....but CS?? Must have been the dullest days of recent times for all those CS lovers out there.
I missed chatting on DC++, especially since I had got a job and I was planning to go on a chatting spree on the weekend.
Finally, the LAN was back on Monday. What a relief it was!! The CS ips and the TRIVIA hub were back too and now its time to enjoy when LAN is there coz its BIT and as they say " You dont know whats gonna happen in one hour" The LAN can be gone anytime.....

Dream to Nightmare

Ever hrd of dreams turnin into nightmares?

Well dats precisely wat happened wid me dis very day. They made me wait in anticipation of an Interview that was never comin. Atleast, I could hav been informed dat I'd not qualified for the 3rd round. I was asked to arrive early in d mornin. Everybody who were told lyk dis had anoder round. I was the exception to d rule.
Well suchthings happen in lyf. I ll take it in my sride and work towards my goal of provin to myself and everyone jack@$$ who think oderwise dat I m way better than sum of d ppl who made it.

An Obsession Called DC++

There was this guy. Lets call him axbycz. The only thing he did after coming from college was switch on his computer and double click on that icon on his desktop named DC++. Then his world gets transformed. He turns from that shy guy to someone who is that cool dude who can talk for hours together non stop.Everything else became name sake for him. Everything from sleep to food to his passions. He became obsessed with DC++.

Meet Mr axbycz ,who would have won a fortune if there was any reward for maximum time online. A simple software which was meant to make file sharing on LAN easier turned out to be his new world. Since Orkut was also blocked and net connectivity was name sake, he used this software to make new friends , which he would never have done if he were asked to go to any of them personally and talk. He was shyness personified. But then this 50 MB software turned out to be his saviour. He started talking to everyone whom he found interesting. His friends started making fun of him. They were of the view that he logged on just to talk to girls and have fun which was not at all his idea. His idea was to socialise ( though on a virtual platform ) and make as many friends as possible. It didn't matter whether they wanted to remain anonymous or not, he was willing to reveal his identity to anyone who seemed true to him.

This guy was a regular feature on public chat too.And he could not tolerate any sort of abuse showered in public. Since he condemned any act of such kind, some guys started revolting against him. It was an organised assault. One day there were atleast 15 guys who were targetting this poor fellow who just wanted the users to be cultured and it was as though he was doing moral policing. Was it a fault on his part to wish that the people in this college be cultured? That is a question one has to ponder about. And the worst part was that one of his best friends was leading the assault. This drained him mentally. He didnt have answers. However, he still remained loyal to this humble software. FInally things started getting back to normal. He reconciled with his friends. Some of his foes became friends of his. And those who stood by him during these testing times became better friends.

After almost a month of fruitful ( wasted as his friends saw it ) time, the midsems came. However, this guy couldn't think of even a day without chatting on DC++. So he came up with a plan. He decided to do what computers do. MULTITASKING. He chatted for some time, then studied for some time and chatted again and it went on like that. The best thing about it was that he could grasp every thing he studied even though his concentration was on the users window. He still managed to write the midsems in a decent way. Everyone was fearing the worst for him.

ANd finally, one fine evening he turned on his computer and clicked on the same icon named DC++. Then he saw that one of his online pals was online. He was asked by that friend of his to write an article for the ThinK magazine. So this guy thought what to write. He thought of so many things. Finally he decided to write on his new obsession. So here I am Mr axbycz

Vivek Krishna
2k4


PS: This article was written when he was Multitasking!!!!!