Blogroll updated

Blogrolling finally got its act together and I finally expanded my blogroll to include some good blogs.

People say hello to Deepak, Chinmay, Siddharth, Mayuresh and of course Sardar Patel Quiz Club

Jhopadpatiikutta Crorepati ki Jai ho!!!

The next time I see the list it is Slumdog Millionaire sharing space with movies like The Departed, The Return of the King, Gladiator, Schindler’s List, Braveheart and The Godfather.

This is what me, Jinju and Debu would call a Scam.

Staying Grounded

Every once in a while something happens to you that makes you feel really really happy that you are what you are. It can be a secret admirer, a great song you composed which everyone loved, the thought that someone cannot get enough of your blog or as it happens to be in my case, a couple of quizzes you totally owned.

Well it doesn’t always happen that the person in question immediately starts walking three feet in the air and gets that superior smirk on his face, but sometimes it does. The trick is to remember that no matter what you do, there is always someone out there who can do what you did with so much more ease.

So in spite of the fact that I know my quizzing quotient is pretty average as compared to some, I like to get that fact drummed into me, which is one of the reasons why I try to attend every quiz organized by the Bombay Quiz Club. Now these guys are everything I would love to be- professionals from every sphere who make sure that they take time out for their passion and always make an effort to attend every quiz on the planet. And organize some too.

The Bombay Quiz Club meets once every 2 Sundays with one of the members organizing the quiz for the day. They follow a league system with the members scoring a certain number of points according to their team’s position in that quiz. Slowly the leaders emerge and the top 8 become seeded players and from then onwards they have a clever randomizer software which makes sure that there are no two seeded players in each team and whoever has the maximum points at the end of the season wins the league.
In Chinmay’s words, there are usually a hundred questions asked out of which you recognize 7, mumble out something related for about 3 can guess the answer to 2 and out of that one answer turns out to be correct and that’s the thought that keeps you happy throughout the day.

I went for the quiz for the first time in August 2008 and got lucky the first three times. Because of strong partners I ended up finishing first in the first 2 quizzes and second in my third quiz. I was really happy because I felt I had it in me to join the elite league of “Super-quizzers” when the fourth quiz came along. Well many of the seeded players did not turn up and to my horror, I was made a seed.

No points for guessing what followed in the toughest quiz of my life as we were utterly humiliated and stood so far back in the points tally that suicide seemed to be the only honourable way out of our collective shame. But I remain grateful because the quiz made me realize with painful obviousness that far from being a great quizzer, I just get lucky a lot of times and sometimes the luck just runs out. I took back a valuable lesson that day and if after that I ever felt the need to show off, I remember that fateful day and sober down pretty fast.

Its important to be proud of your achievements but it is even more important to realize your limitations and work towards improving yourself. So anyone out there with the same problem could do with a session at Bombay Quiz Club.

The Reject Part 2

Now its the University of Minnesota who no longer require someone with my less than competitive qualifications.

Sigh.

My first Reject

With the good we have to take the bad. Close on the heels of my first admit from UT Arlington, comes a swift reject from Texas A & M University.

They say,

Your application for admission to graduate studies has been received and reviewed throughly by those most concerned with your admission. After carefully considering your application file, we regret to inform you that we cannot offer you admission at this time.

The departmental evaluation of your application indicates that your overall profile is not competitive with other applicants. If you need any additional information,we ask that you contact the department to which you have applied.

So basically what they are saying is as Chaukya puts it is Fucccck Offfff.

Honestly I would have loved to get an admit from this college but I was prepared for the reject as their track record in accepting Indians is not great. So far from producing a deeply contradicting feeling to my happiness at getting the admit, the reject has just made me say “Meh I have 7 more to go”.

I will of course update about the results of those colleges.

Will Rohit get an admit to the college of his dreams? To find out return to A Dateless Diary.

The First Admit

Applying to the US for higher studies is a decidedly strenuous process. GRE and TOEFL are a cinch when compared to the troubles one must go through to send the application materials by post to the universities.

Then follows a nervous wait as one keeps checking the inbox to see if there are any new messages, only to be greeted by ones from the college IEEE committee telling one that Mr. So and So would be giving a talk on This and That and this will surely be an enriching experience….. blah blah or by a certain Mr. Mbutu aka Mr. Okiri from Nigeria asking if one can be his business partner and help him retrieve 27 million dollars from the Reserve Bank of Tanganyika or something.

The wait certainly paid off for me as I got my very first admit just over half an hour ago. Its not much as admits go. University of Texas at Arlington is my last choice no doubt. However the first admit will always remain special. They were the first ones to give me any “Bhaav” so to speak. So I thank UT Arlington from the bottom of my heart for judging me capable of being a part of their institute. Now that me going to the US is just a matter of securing the Visa, I’m going to take it easy this semester (if I can take it any easier!). Anyway I can now safely lecture juniors on GRE and stuff because I have got my ticket.

I hope this first admit is leading the line of eight more. But no matter which university I get into or which one I go to, UT Arlington will always remain in my memory as the one that gave me my first tangible opportunity to believe. Here’s to more of those moments!

Why Chandrayaan

A long time back I wrote a post criticizing the need for Chandrayaan. A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of attending a talk on “Chandrayaan and Beyond” by Dr. P. J. Bhat, a senior scientist at ISRO. The talk was about how Chandrayaan conceived and the technical hurdles faced in putting the lunar module into orbit around the moon.

A student asked a very pertinent question – Considering the various problems the common man of India is facing like hunger and poverty, how can the crores of rupees spent on the mission be justified?

The answer actually brought back memories of a essay topic I came across preparing for the GRE. Should countries focus their attention on solving the problems of today? Or should they try to find solutions to problems we would face in the future. The answer I came up with was that the problems we face today are becuase of negligence of governments yesterday. In order to not let history repeat itself, we must focus our attention towards anticipating future problems and try to solve them.

The Chandrayaan question had a similar answer. Every major technology we use today has in some way or the other descended from space exploration technology. Cutting edge really is so out there. So eventually the common man will reap the benefits of this mission.

The other point is that while we can imagine man zipping across the galaxy and conquering space, it has to begin with a small step. We are still not so advanced a species that we share our technology with everyone else. Commercial considerations still play the major role in deciding our priorities. If India has to keep pace with other countries on all fronts, this is the only way to do it.

A great success like Chandrayaan which has been achieved at a relatively low cost and a very low rate of failure is something to be proud of. Until we develop a world government and have one body deciding every future aspect of space exploration, Chandrayaan is the way to go.

Back

Its been a long time. What with the GRE, TOEFL, computer crash, university applications, a visiting cousin and pure laziness, I couldn’t bring myself to update the blog.

But here I am and I hope I can keep up the blogging.

P.S. Priyanka is the hottest woman in Indian cinema today (courtesy Dostana).

Sem 6 clear

We finally got our sem 6 results today. After a tantalizing wait (because most of us wanted to know if we cleared Power Electronics) I got a call from Vineet saying that results were out; this at 10.30 at night (bloody hell).

Sabdaman went to check out the results and told me I had passed and Debu told me I got 69%. Not bad considering that many people failed in Power Tronics. And I am at least consistent because I have made 3rd rank in class my private domain.

Thank God Chaukya got only 4 kts and in spite of his delibitating jaundice he will stay with us this year. Amazing performance by Debu who scored 64% (rounded off man) and is in the top 15 of the class. He thought he was going down. So also did JD who cleared 10 papers. The wounded Tamilian strikes. All the best to Pari.

Most people cleared so let the good times roll on.

Congrats Abhinav

Thank you very much Abhinav for making the country proud. Winning India’s first individual Gold in the olympics is an honour every athlete would have craved, but you beat them to it. Your personal coach from Germany and a private shooting range would have no doubt made it simpler. No doubting your skill though or your ability to cope with pressure. It just makes me sad that most of our other athletes train under apalling conditions and simply lack the funds to garner more medals.

I hope you do the right thing by investing all the money, which the various state governments have announced for you, in building a world class sports facility in the country. You don’t need the money. Make yourself the cornerstone for India’s future olympic successes. Its the perfect time. I hope one day will arrive when we will not have to blink our eyes with surprise when it is announced that India has won a medal in the olympics. I hope I live to see that day……..

P.S. :I wonder if I can win a gold for India too. The spirit of the games demands that any athlete who is good enough, can participate. (Unless he or she is charged with doping, like Monica Devi.)