My private little D-Day

The clock struck 12, thus attesting entry into yet another day. But this day has something huge in store for me that’s rendering me sleepless. I lived a categorical paradox that very moment. On one hand I was extremely tired and the cold climate made sleep more beckoning than ever. On the other hand I was having an internal fight to allay fears and stay composed. Unable to resolve this internal conflict, I stared at the ceiling with my eyes wide open, as if some invisible spirit scared me to death. I wasn’t staring for long before drowsiness stole over me and my tired eyelids closed sending me off to dreamland in another couple of ticks. Peace prevailed till 6 AM when my alarm woke me up. My eyelids felt very heavy. So not even bothering to lift them up, I slowly slid my fingers under the pillow and pulled off the stunt by snoozing the alarm. I don't remember what I did, but it never rang again ;-). Just as I was treading the boundaries of dreamland, I was shaken awake, this time neither phone nor alarm but my mom tossing out the words "something...'IIFT'...something"... The very next moment, some invisible springs propelled me with immense force into a sitting posture. It was 7 30 am and I had to be present at masab tank by 8 30 am. Given that I was in hyderabad, fears of traffic jam kept haunting me as I rushed hastily. Thanks to my mom, I was at the venue before 8 30 am. Just another instance when she made my life easier.

As I was waiting in the hotel lobby, I pondered over the journey to this turning point in my life. The entrance exam to Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT) was the first MBA entrance exam I ever wrote. The paper level being moderate, cut-offs were expected to be on the higher side. I kept my fingers crossed till Dec 9th when the final shortlist was out and Goodness Gracious! I managed to slide in by scoring just a mark above the cut-off ;-). The months December and January were primarily characterized with “tightening the strings” and “bracing the heat” to edge closer to attaining enrollment in the much coveted institution - IIFT. And finally it was feb 3^rd – my D- Day and there I was, at Hotel Golconda, the venue for IIFT interview process. Once again I was lost in my thoughts before I was abruptly brought back to the present when a man in black entered the lobby, and furnished two papers containing the list of participants divided into two groups. Be it a boon or bane, my name was first on the list, another big thanks to the initial I bear- "A". (:pray)

We were summoned into the Group Discussion (GD) hall at 9 20 am. Two women, both ultra-cool, were inside. No matter how polite or humble these moderators are, they always command their own share of respect, which originates from fear : P. The lady in a pink salwar suit, briefed us with the schedule of the day. The punctuality this B-school people displayed, really amazed me and I have my own reasons to believe that in today’s world punctuality is the main pillar to get successful. Here is how things went... 9 30 am - The lady in the pink clad salwar came to the fore again, this time to announce the topic for essay writing." The impact of Free Trade Agreements(FTAs) on developing economies like India"... Having been informed by the faculty at T.I.M.E that FTAs have been IIFT's favorite topic, I conscientiously prepared for it. Hence, I was comfortable in the twenty minute stretch provided for essay writing, except for minor problems concerning coherence of the content. Essay writing was followed by a five minute break after which the curtains for GD were lifted. "Is nuclear power the best way of generating power to meet the ever increasing energy demands of India?" was the topic. Before the start of the GD, the moderators laid out a clear protocol for the GD, according to which each person will be given two minutes to speak on the topic. I was asked to start the GD and I was more than happy for that, because the knowledge sessions at T.I.M.E covered nuclear technology thoroughly. I analyzed the issue from various points and contributed in every dimension. It took around twenty minutes for all of us to convey our ideas after which an open discussion was called for. It was a very smooth discussion without a trace of aggression from any of the participants. I was very much contended with my performance in the GD.

It was around 10 30 am when we were out of the GD hall, waiting in the lobby for the Personal Interview (PI) seemed to be the next course of action. I was called in around 10 45 am for the interview. "God...Bless me please" were my continuous prayers to the almighty. I mustered all the courage in this world and pushed the door slowly and saw three gentlemen engrossed in taking out our CVs from a bundle. I wished them humbly and took the seat I was offered. Suddenly another gentleman with a black briefcase walked in, as if he was about to strike some magical deal with the Mafia (too much of movie knowledge put into use here :P). The other three gentlemen stood up and wished him and I followed the suite too. They discussed among themselves and an older gentleman, who was one of the first three I noticed, left the room. The remaining three settled down and apologized to me for the disturbance, thus hinting that they were going to kick start the interview formally. "How do your friends call you?" asked a gentleman as he was going through my CV. This question was totally unexpected thus reiterating the fact that in B-School interviews you have to expect the unexpected. After all, it wasn't a difficult question. I replied "Saga, Sags". Then another gentleman, pointing to the man who gave a surprise entry with the briefcase said, "The gentleman beside me is very much interested in knowing what cloud computing is. Could you please tell him what that's all about?"... “Wow... What’s this? Am I betting on luck today?”, thought I. A million thanks to my project guide this time, she explained it to all of us, when Swetha one day asked "M’am, what's cloud computing?” Going by conventions, thanks is in place for Swetha too. I did a good job in explaining it to the panel and I was happy that they were convinced. Then they asked me to explain about the last book I read. I clearly explained how Bertrand Russell criticizes religion in his book, Why I am not a Christian. After exchanging some glances among themselves, they said they were done with the interview. "Is that all?"...My heart started pounding with fear for they neither looked at my CV properly nor did they ask me much in the PI. I thanked them and left the room reluctantly. I forgot to close the door properly and it closed shut with a loud thud. “Huh! That's fine”, I soothed myself and walked to my fellow participants where they were eagerly waiting to know how my interview went after which I narrated every bit of it to them.

Dwelling on the experience of the day I was extremely satisfied except for the PI because I really didn't get a chance to demonstrate myself…Now that it's all over, I can’t really complain and I should be happy that I answered confidently to whatever they asked. One major impediment in the way of getting admission into IIFT is my written score in the entrance exam, which is abysmally low and the weightage given to written test is a whopping 65% .So, I have to keep my fingers crossed and I am ready to accept anything. Whatever be the outcome, I am satisfied with my performance on D-Day and it was an enlightening experience. The final verdict is yet to come and I sign this off on a very optimistic note. Hoping for the best!! Wish me good luck folks.

Cheers,

Sagarika J

2 States

"Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married.

In India, there a few more steps:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.

Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.

Girl's family has to love boy's family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.

Girl and boy still love each other. They get married."

These were the welcome lines by Chetan Bhagat in his new book "2 STATES". There was a sense of déjà vu when I read those lines, one that reminded me of umpteen indian movies. But the hearsay that it depicts the real life story of the author himself aroused widespread excitement and anticipation. I, like most of the people tried to grab that book as early as possible (which unfortunately couldn't happen :P). I managed to complete the book just two days back. It was a smooth read. Infact, this is the book I have read after a long gap of around 5 months. Like every trivial movie, the pair struggles to convince their families and the climax is also as expected with parents' loosening their stance and consenting to the marriage. But there is something more to just this trivia. The book showcases the maturity and commitment shown by these two IIM-A graduates in every walk of their life. It also potrays a slackened relationship between a father and a son and also how they just make it up in the end. It shows the agony of a young man and his repugnance towards the regional barriers and his dream of doing away with these discrimination on the basis of states(This disgust of Krish is intensified with their parents rejecting their marriage proposal for a simple reason that Krish and Ananya are from "two different states"). It was funfilled read. And Oh yes, The author did well in creating punjabi and tamil nadu ambience and what more I virtually lived in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi for whole three hours!

I don't say it is an outstanding book, but you can consider it for a read when time permits.

...And I'm back!

It's been like ages since I wrote here. Writing is such a wonderful experience and I don't know how I lasted without writing for this long. Woo! These words sound like a passionate lover's confessions. Uh! Atleast the comparison was worth it. Into the last innings of engineering life, things haven't changed much except that there is a pressing need for introspection. "What did you learn these four years? What do you want become in life? Where do you want to see yourself in five years?" Sure, these are most trivial interview questions. Even if you are not certain as to what, why and when you could still get through in an interview by feigning someway out. Right now I feel it's high time I woke up to the truth and had a concrete plan for my career. Oh, I want to study further. OK.What next? End up in those so called "creamy corporate jobs"? For now, that seems an alluring option. But, there should be something more to just that. May be at some other point in time(which is very near), I need to do deeper introspection as I have some obvious and mundane things to do now (MBA exams, GD prep, Project etc etc..). At the moment I am slogging out with my btech project (Always thought this would be fun :-( ). After all, fours years of your college life is going to be reflected in your project report. Wish me good luck people!!!

And yes, I totally forgot. If there are resolutions I am going to make in the coming New Year(There a few resultions I am definitely going to make :P) - being faithful to writing is going to top the list!

It's 8 AM now and I have my project mate Swetha waiting for me so that together we could do some crazy things in the lab. :P

See you soon!

The era of e-greetings

With the ever increasing technological realms, the tentacles of communication are spreading as widely as never before making our lives more and more sophisticated. In this process, many facets of our day- to- day life have endured a vast change, out of which, one aspect seems to stand in a unique position. The advancements in communication technology have exorbitantly changed our perception towards "conveying wishes to our near and dear ones on any special occasion." Wishing our beloved ones on any occasion is common now and was also common in the past but the process of wishing i.e., “the greeting culture” has undergone metamorphosis. This fact is evident from our actions

                                  Delving deep into this... Dec 31st, the day on which the entire world sings unanimously to welcome the New Year, I was waiting for the clock to strike 12 so that I can start wishing my friends in a row through the magic gadgets “cell phone” and “computer”. “This year I am going to wish all my dear ones”, I thought. As soon as the clock stuck 12, I eagerly started calling my friends and the calls also started pouring in. This went on for about an hour and then I checked and re-checked the contacts on my cell phone to make sure I wished all my friends. But, that somehow didn’t my stop my excitement, which made me turn on my computer and start sending the “E-mail greetings”…This went on till I felt I reached everyone. Once I was done with wishing all my friends, I relaxed in my cozy chair. Then the tender silence settling after the new year  bash embraced me and diverted my thoughts and took me into the reminisce of my childhood, the sweetest part of anyone’s life. Slowly my thoughts dwelled on the New Year festivities in the past, which made me feel nostalgic. New Year extravaganza then began around five to ten days before the 1^st of January or even before. Well, this was mainly due to the remote access to the sophisticated and so called “wish passing” electronic devices like “mobile phone” and “computer”. The ways of greeting were different then… It used to be a lot more enterprising. It used to start right from purchasing the greeting cards or sometimes using your creativity to make one, gathering the postal addresses, affixing the stamps and posting them on time. It was an onus, but the fact that the fruits of our efforts go in the way of engrossing and enthralling our loved ones, always made the efforts worthy, which is almost extinct now. Next came the fantasy job…waiting for the greeting cards from your friends and relatives. This indeed was much interesting as much of time was spent anticipating everything right from the color of the greeting card to the sender and later on the adoring everything about the card. And above all, the experience of sending and receiving greetings left some cherishable memories. I, as a kid always reckoned New Year as “festival of greetings”. 

                                       “One fine day, I was opening a greeting card sent by my uncle, when the door bell rang. Another greeting card, thought I. I waited for my mom to open the door. Nobody was opening the door and the bell kept ringing.” It was only then I woke up to realize my thoughts transformed into dreams and now I am back to my senses. It was not the door bell, but it was my cell phone ringing. Well, “indeed another greeting- This time an electronic one”, smiled I. Then, I felt thankful to the gadget in my hand as it finally helped me achieve the objective of “greeting” all my kith and kin. I was satisfied.

                 In a sense, technology wins laurels for driving us effectively from colourful cards to electronic wishes, without creating a gap. We are still far away from bidding farewell and from forgetting the colours of the greeting cards. In spite of adoring the traditional greeting cards, we have welcomed the e-greetings culture greatly for only it can ease the time congestion created by the very same technology.

 

Staying united holds key

The open air plaza of our college, the most favourite place for all the students that is always bubbling with some activity, looked gloomy.

There was silence despite the large presence of students, teachers and others who gathered there. It was a week after the terror attack on the country’s financial capital – Mumbai.

Everybody was haunted by the wild images of suffering, tension, battle, defeat that were being telecast on the television for the past few days.

The silence of everyone was in fact revealing a lot that the heinous attacks have ‘numbed’ the financial capital of India. Perhaps it is insufficient description of something which has shattered hundreds of families across the nation. These in fact have ‘numbed’ the entire nation”. I could read the feelings from my friends faces that though Mumbai witnessed this cruelty the pain was taken across India irrespective of region and religion.

Needless to say it is Mother India who silently sheds tears of agony, pain for her bereaved and suffering children.

Now it is over but there is no end to the suffering as the damage has been done. On the positive note the last few days have led to another emotional episode for all the Indians as a whole because we were reminded that we are the children of one mother – India.

There was a candle light vigil to pay a tribute to all those who laid down their lives. We prayed that the souls of all those brave and unfortunate rest in peace. And after that there was a unanimous word in the air that we should cancel all the celebrations including the scheduled Freshers Party, which remains in the memories of every student during their life time.

Our decision to forgo the celebrations may be only a drop in the ocean but we take it as an initiative from the entire student community to repel these kinds of attacks. And I agree that we being the face of tomorrow’s nation, mere repulsion is not sufficient.

“United we rule, divided we fall” goes a saying…So, we also emphasised on the concept of staying united in the wake of these kind of attacks and also acting responsible for what is happening around us at least as a token of respect for all those who laid down their lives to save us. With every student transforming as a more responsible individual, we can drive away these attacks and the day when we can restore the entire glory of mother India is not far away. Jai Hind!

click here for the link of the original article

Seniors are friends and mentors too :)

“These four years will definitely be the best in your life,” said a father to his anxious, tensed and perplexed daughter on a fine morning, exactly two years ago.

The child was much tensed as that was the first day of her engineering college life. Those words still ring in my ears as I was the, then anxious daughter. The reason for anybody’s worry at that point would be mainly about facing new people, getting accustomed to a completely different environment.

Needless to say, the main worry would be “Ragging”. Even before you enter the college, people give you different images about ragging. Weirdest thing is that the collage of all these pictures is a terrible image which portrays ragging as a menace where students grapple and succumb.

But, here came the most relieving paradox for me and also for most of my friends.

What we endured was totally different from what we expected. The ambience is the college was not as we expected it to be, but it was one of fun mixed with a friendly reception by seniors and other friends. Soon, the unknown fears were swept away and the best days began. I tell all these things now, because a new season has begun. And another lot of fresh and tender who are in the same confusion as we were then, are going to begin their Engineering journey.

This is for them. To tell them that the worst part of engineering is not ragging but the best part is that seniors are here to help you, be with you through your thick and thin. So, put all your fears to rest. Get geared up to begin the best journey you have made so far i.e., into the never ending “Fun Land”.

I call it the best not because my dad told me but because, I am living it and I am totally in love with it.

this article got published in The Hindu date :  29-9-08

http://www.hindu.com/edu/2008/09/29/stories/2008092950340400.htm

 

 

Sunny days

" SUN Campus Ambassador Induction Program " One thing that hits my mind all the time and indeed a semantic drive for me all these days. Personally, I think there is no need to tell more about this as it was simply an "experience of a life time". We learnt loads of exciting things, understood some really elusive geeky stuff, conceived the fun n joy in taking up responsibilities and above all, made friends for life.I compare all these things to a cadence that eventually forms a melody. After that fun-filled experience,the greatest thing i learnt is "The true
essence of synergy"(as communities are a bridge to open source) and I carried the
same spirit back to my college.

Well ! These were the contents of my diary last month but all the memories still ring afresh in my mind. I returned back to my place. My instinct told me to blurt out all my experiences and share my new gained wisdom with my friends.But then there is always a second side for the coin. My worries started piling up as -"how would my friends take it?" Would they love all these things in the way I did, or would they
simply start a blatant argument saying that "It's not our cup of tea." This pandemonium is my mind could not make me wait till the next day and so, called a few of my friends and started telling them what I desperately wanted to share without even giving them a chance to talk. ;-) .. Well, those were my levels of enthusiasm !! I don't know whom to thank but the fact is that all my friends started echoing "well,these things sound really cool !! We would love to be a part of this". I joyfully confess that it came out as a big piece of relief.

And the very next day in the college, I could not wait myself to share the same stuff with the remaining ones and thus proposed the idea of SUN club for like minded poeple, The Open Source Lovers ! .I was
totally taken aback by the huge response. People showered a lot of interest and showed extreme eagerness join as members of the Sun Club. This altogether gave a new phase of happiness and hence the "SUN" started shining all over our campus.


Then on .. days passed by .. My friends started anticipating the first tech talk
immediately. So, we came up with a bang with an official seminar on "open source" on the 14th of
August. The good thing did'nt stop here.The response was really impressive that guys from all
the disciplines turned up. I don't say we left no stone unturned, but even then it was
a great reciprocation from all the students. After the successful completion of my first seminar, many people
turned up to me saying that they seriously want to launch themselves into open source
projects.

Even my Vice-principal " MRS.INDIRA " was happy by the tremendous response and so she suggested the official inaugaration of the SUN SUDENTS CLUB @ AUCE to mark its importance and
also make it first of its kind in and around our region. The day of Inaugauration of SUN CLUB (2nd September,2008) arrived, and we could count lots of audience for the inaugural meet. Many people
conveyed their deep gratitude to SUN microsystems for giving them an opportunity to participate in these kind of events and above all giving them a scope for working
under the banner of the company. SUN ruled the hearts of the people. The theme of the event was "USE, LEARN and SPREAD"(i copied this phrase from
Abhishek ;-)). Finally, from that very day, we started drawing a plan for the "SFD" and today we are ready with a final plan :-)..

Thanks to my friends who have extended their support right from the beginning and i ll get back with our plan for "SFD"
celebrations in my next blog.

My best wishes to the entire SUN CA community. Lets forge ahead,hope and make SFD a
great success.. :-)

Cheers!!!