A Great Experience

Participation is always more important than winning
Nothing could have been more precisely said, as I realized today.
Well, for the past one month I'd been feeling restless in classes. Nothing interesting was being done with my time and I assure that the vlsi classes are seriously considered a waste of time widely in my class. While most students use the time for the finishing of their record and observation works, I used to read story books. This was definitely an enjoyable pastime for that one hour but my active spirit could not just rest satisfied. Then dawned the idea of working on a project. Conveniently my dept announced an intra-college project presentation event. I had a relatively acceptable idea to work on and it has been a seriously great learning experience.
By "learning experience" I do not mean the technical learning alone. The concept involved was very simple- something that anyone who has attended a couple of micro processor programming classes can finish in a matter of probably three to four days. We learnt a lot of things which would be actually useful for life. A person can very well finish his/her lifetime without knowing how to program a microprocessor. But any adult who was born and brought up in a city must know the whereabouts of every nook and corner that matters in that city. This is precisely what we learnt very well. We got lost in several roads and ended up in places we hadn't even heard of, while getting the components to be used for the circuitry. But it is a fact that I wouldn't be relating this as a pleasant experience if Mr.Martin Cooper hadn't invented the device in my hand that I used to call up people who knew the area and reach the destination safe.
Then came the tryst with the dept lab attendants who are not quite enthusiastic about entrusting the students with their precious components. Here our guide helped us a great deal. He deserves a seriously large amount of gratitude from us for all that he has done for us. For one thing he did not shirk our idea away as silly or unrealistic. His attitude always has been that of "we shall try it out. it will be a study." Also his presence in the lab while we were working with the circuit was very useful so that our doubts were cleared then and there. He seriously has a computer-like memory and is specialised in many areas of ECE. We were lucky to get him to assist us.
The next hurdle was with the circuitry itself. There were a lot of technical problems related to the interfacing assembly language code and a detailed explanation of those would be boring for u readers. After several hours of code cracking, the circuit started working finally! A few accuracy problems were there. We could have left them as such. But we didn't and we increased the code complexity and ultimately on the night before the presentation, the code didn't work at all!
I was a half-zombie that night ( actually yesterday ). In addition, the knowledge of who would be judging the event gave me a very unpleasant feeling for we have not had a pleasant teacher-student relationship this entire semester.
Anyways I had a blind belief that if we did the coding again today morning it would work for sure. And thank heavens it did!!
Well the presentation was not entirely successful. We did have several glitches and forever there resided an inferior feeling because the other participants ( all seniors ) had greatly-packed and fully functional end products as exhibits. We were presenting our circuit on a breadboard!! Most of them had won prizes in several inter college events in the state with the projects they were presenting and ours was nothing compared to those.
Still, everybody encouraged us. I am infinitely thankful to all my seniors and teachers who encouraged our work saying that this is just the beginning and it is a very good one at that. It really boosted our spirits.
The viewing of other exhibits also added a great deal to our knowledge. We also got to communicate with many seniors and even some juniors. A really pleasant experience!
Ultimately at the end of the day the list of teams getting through to the next round was announced and as expected we were not in the list. But we got participation mementos and we left quite contented and determined to win the next time.
The greatest part of the day came when we were waiting for the bus in the stop. I got a call from a classmate asking me to meet the not-so-pleasant prof who was the judge. We went back to the college expecting a scolding for wasting time on such a silly venture. Wonder of all wonders!!! He gave us a gift!! A portrait of a landscape.. And he encouraged us to improve a great deal and assured that if we work on this very idea (that I have rated as silly) for the next couple of months, we could have a completely functional working product which would be commercially very useful. We just couldn't believe our senses of hearing and vision! This very prof used to scold me and my teammate for absolutely nothing on an almost daily basis just a month back. Also two other very much knowledgeable and experienced staff members were there to encourage us.
Things couldn't have been better for us at the end of the day. :) We went straight to the hostel then and informed our other teammate as well as the other girls there.. Wow!! What fun we had, relating the experience to them !! Our happiness when shared really was multiplied a great deal!!
It does sound like a story with an "all is well that ends well" theme right?? :) :)

Another Issue of Religion??

Terror has become synonymous with religion, in all aspects. By religion's terror links, I do not mean only the saffron versus green crescent fracas which has been on since before I was born. The latest religion of the world has been struck by terror. Cricket- the universal religion- or so it has been claimed to be by many- took a hit from gun-men's bullets- at the place which used to be part of our Motherland a six odd decades ago.
The facts of the matter, I need not present, for there are approximately 5 to 6 news channels which will air, 24X7 at least for the next couple of weeks, the video grabs of the terrorists shooting out at the Srilankan team which was touring Pakistan, with excited journalists in the foreground narrating the happenings and posing questions like " Was this a failed abduction plan?", "Will all the gunmen be caught?" never omitting the newly evolved punch - "SMS your comments to ------ ".
First of all, I was dumbstruck when I saw those videos of men (who must not have seen life before 1980 at the least) shooting freely at the van, hurting many, killing half a dozen cops and two civilians, while they themselves got away scot-free, on MOTORBIKES!! Wow!! What a protective nation Pakistan is, of its fearless citizens like these gun-wielding men!
The cricket grounds of Pakistan will not meet foreign shoes' soles for the next couple of years at the least. Well, this should not bother those brave youngsters, should it? After all, they have put a temporary stop to the development of a mere game that was threatening to be a universal religion. And no religion other than their own one should flourish, should it??

Momentary Jabber..

Oh, Pussy! How do I
Go about taming you?
A game it is.
An alluring one at that.
A unique case-
Of the nation
Versus me?

The Insect- the last
White one out of
Pandora's box, peeps
From within. But that,
Is not the lone quencher-
Of a nationwide thirst-
To don the professional suit.

Counter-Revolutionary

Reading maketh a man-

Most of the people who would be reading this blog entry will be staunch believers in the above adage. Still there are some who would term experience as being the best teacher of life. Experience does teach us a lot about how to live our life, in the environment that we are accustomed to. But if a greater, more comprehensive knowledge is needed on a variety of issues that we do not come across in our daily life, there is no option but to read.

Friends, this is not a boring formal post on the reading habit. This post has been inspired by the churning of the stereotyped opinions in my mind about issues like slavery and communism, due to a couple of books I read recently. So, if you believe that slavery is not humane or communism really gives everyone equal rights, read on..

"Slavery- the greatest sin ever perpetrated by human beings on earth. Abraham Lincoln was a God's messenger to the slaves; he freed them from the tyranny of the South Americans." - my history books told me this much. But there is a flip-side to everything and this fact was proven by Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind". This is the first book that showed the Yankees( the North Americans) as cruel specimens and the blacks as being safer under their bondage as slaves. There are a handful of lovable blacks who remain loyal to their masters even after their emancipation. The reader's heart simply goes out to them. But there are a few instances which did make me feel that the slaves were what they were because they were rigorously trained to be so. After all, what would a man-controlled machine do if it is taken out of its comfort zone and asked to work on its own?? They were taken out of the African Jungles, given food, clothing and shelter and made to work. The book portrayed slavery as a kind of a mutually beneficial establishment between the blacks and the whites. But the author failed to convince me of its benefits, solely because, in a few scenes, the slaves are physically tortured to do the masters' biding, heedless of the slaves' individual opinion. For instance, the house niggers are asked to work as field niggers and they are scolded for refusing to do what they were not trained to do. After all, they were nothing other than poor brainless machines programmed to do just certain specified things. Ms. Mitchell did churn my heart a bit but the final opinion was definitely against slavery. They could ve been given normal human rigths when they were taken out of the jungles. That part was a snag in her justification, though.
We the living- Ayn Rand... This book definitely showed the uglier face of communism of which i was unaware previously. Though I am no political wizard who knows the nuances of the policies of the various parties, I did have a nescient soft corner for any party that was anti-religious. This book, showed that how much ever one feels like sacrificing himself for the sake of the people, there are certain limits- certain things which cannot and should not be sacrificed by anybody gifted with human life. One's aim in life, personal likes and dislikes and the spending of one's time are all individualistic and subjective characteristics. If any change is effected in these aspects, without the whole-hearted assent of the person, it would be the end of his life and the reason for his living. Basically human beings should be clear and firm about their purpose in life and should not sacrifice their hearts' desires to get down to a level where all are equal, for there is no such thing as equality among human beings each of whom is distinct in atleast one aspect from the other. Sacrifices for the sake of humanity have been done by great people like Mother Teresa. But that was her calling in life. It cannot be everybody's calling to serve humanity. If an average human sacrifices his desires to help others in distress, it results in more distress because he ends up feeling more pitiful towards himself than towards those who were suffering. Also, the book highlighted the abuse of power by the hypocritic communists in the USSR. Hats off to Ms. Rand for boldly bringing out such a candid book!

Serene Snaps taken by yours truly in God's Own Country...

Beauty of Fall

Royal Slumber

The Fastest takes Rest

Trivandrum

Kochi Lake

Harbour @ long shot

Landscape @ Kochi

The Queer Indian Epidemic- with no Cure so far

"Unmarried young couples seen exchanging pleasantries in public on Valentine's Day will be forcibly married. If they resist, the girl will be forced to tie a rakhi on the boy's hand."
- Pramod Muthalik, Head Goon, Sri Ram Sene

A wave of shock and anger spread among the entire youth clan in India. News Channels had a good time (and TRP of course ) interviewing youngsters on their opinion on such a declaration. "Boy-Girl relationships are not classified into just husband-wife and brother-sister! There exist several beautiful friendships!"- the cry rang out from the young Indians. I was not quickly angered by Muthalik's statement. On the contrary, I was initially amused at the parochial mindset of Muthalik. I dismissed him from my mind as a person who knows nothing of a good friendship that can exist between a boy and a girl. "He does not belong to this millennium! He'll learn his lesson soon." , was all that occurred to me.

But I was not at peace, for, there was something about his parochial attitude that nagged me constantly. It was not anger. It was... I could not trace that out for a couple of days. Then, it struck me. Walking into my class ( which has an invisible partition at the centre ), after ten days of holidays, with memories refreshed, the hidden feeling became clear. Well, Muthalik's party is not the only narrow-minded group that does not believe in a casual friendship existing between boys and girls.

I have been in a co-educational institute only for the past one and a half years. It has been too short a time to know the mindset of boys and co-exist with them amiably. I do not have a habit of making enemies out of boys. But I do speak out openly sans inhibitions, argue openly if I find something to be unjust and I seriously lack one characteristic that describes most girls as "SHY". I remember my tamil teacher in high school being bewildered when we asked her what is "naanam" and why girls should feel it, looking at boys, like in those poems present in our textbooks. I still haven't gotten the answer for that question.

Out of these last 20 months, the first few months were spent in getting to know the names of all my new classmates and assessing them roughly. I did develop quite cordial relations with some boys. Two were actually very good friends of mine. The friendship's prow took a blow from an iceberg which chilled out one of them exactly a year back .

My lack of patience when dealing with hyper-sensitivity made the next few months intolerable. A firm decision was taken. I decided that continuing a close friendship is meaningless when both friends know that they are of different wavelengths. Staying close would only harm whatever respect each had for the other. So came the declaration, of a formal 'hi-bye' relation, from yours truly. But the friend couldn't understand it. And thus sunk the friendSHIP totally, in a span of one year.

Now my class exists, in an imaginary bubble of happiness of girls communicating only with girls and boys only with boys, unless there arises a definite need like borrowing an observation note ( when there is utmost tension and humility seen in the faces of the members sitting at the corners of their benches, nearby the partition, as they do the formidable task of calling out to someone from the other side of the partition, with giggles ringing out in the background).

At least, I am happy that I am not the only soul who is unhappy with the situation. Today, a friend of mine was discussing about solutions to this issue (despite another questioning the need for them). I do not know if solutions are being sought on the other side of the partition.

This situation exists inside almost every classroom, as far as I know, in my college as well as in some others.

I am in search of the Elixir- not one that will make me immortal, but one that will make my life in the next 2+ yrs more tolerable to live.

An Evolution

Innocence as the veil
Was torn to reveal
The nitty-gritty
Of a world dirty.
Is it true? Can it be?
Why did I not see-
People as they are,
Their souls with many a scar?

Candid, I was at a loss,
Speaking my mind was gross.
Losing a friend
Who minded my trend,
Failed to hinder
The spirit of blunder.
Blunder it was to be blind-
Blind to the tact of mankind.

A trait so discrepant,
A heart so buoyant.
Penchant of the sensation
Who earned American reputation,
Affected the guileless soul-
Change- plays well its role.
Lack of tact , obsolete.
Adult soul nigh complete.