Sweet & Pure

The coo of a new life

2011-11-17T23:23:00.001+05:30

Silent footsteps,
Dark alley,
The flurry of rustling leaves.

Ticking of time,
Silence.
Quite.

Endless road,
Alone.
Solemn.
And Grim.

Suddenly,
A flap of wings,
And, flight to freedom of an Owl.

Meow of kittens playing around,
Snuggle of puppies sleeping.

The Moon shining: Brightly!
And
A faint smile.

1.06 Eelake-sons - Beats

2011-11-11T06:27:00.001+05:30

Part 1.06 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read the other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

Elections at BITS Pilani are the most boring afffair ever.

No anti campaigning.

Duh!

Run by goons called members of the election commission (GEC: La Elakeson Commissien Goone) the only interesting thing is speculations on who will be sacrificed this time. As a tradition every year these GECs pick up a random candidate and cancel his (always) / her (the only motive of ‘her’ is to make this statement politically correct) nomination.

****

This year’s election was between two (for the lack of a better metaphor) tigers. Let’s call them Tiger A and Tiger B. Now Tiger A had always worked hard, he was a CBT (Tigris Beste Collegie... Eh?) and a GSA winner. Tiger B on the other hand was a sincere tiger, keeping everyone happy.

As you can see it was going to be an interesting election.

Tiger A and B started a widespread and massive campaign. Roping in as much support as they could. Everyone had to choose sides. I did too.

Then came the much awaited audi-ragging.

In an audi-ragging the GEC choose a panel of chipmunks to rag (question the validity of the manifestoes) the Tigers.

It is still an unproven rumour that Tiger B ate one of the chipmunks. Tiger A was seen handing over bribe to head chipmunk.

Two days before the voting the GEC made the ceremonious decision to declare that Tiger A was in fact a Chihuahua. Read as, cancelled the nomination of Tiger B.
We (I and 2000 other BITSians) decided to not vote for the Chihuahua resulting in a victory where No One won and rest is history!

****

One day I got a call from Sashi.

Come to IPC, its urgent. Really urgent!

Wondering what could have gone wrong I rushed to IPC. As I entered I could see Sashi smiling. In a very cautious way he pointed his finger towards the corner seat.

There she was. Sitting in a white dress, the light of the world. Anamika.

I had to talk to her today.

Gathering my courage. I tiptoed along the aisle. Silently taking the seat beside her (yes, it was empty ). She had opened the new social social networking site, Facebook. I was on Facebook too. (Orkut was the way to go those days). While I was making my mind on the best words to strike a conversation, I noticed she was facing some difficulty with her computer.

I offered my two words, “Go to network settings and disable the proxy.”

Continuing, “Network settings will be under.....”

She cut me off, “Done that. There is some real problem with the DNS server here in resolving the local addresses. As long as you use the IP address for local sites you will be okay.”

She closed her session. Got up. Took her bag and left.

~~~~

In next part, the heat of Academics.

In real life:
If you are really interested in what happened in the SU elections, read my post http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/2009/07/year-after-none-won-elections-at-bits.html

Why?

2011-11-10T14:42:00.000+05:30

I do not understand why,
I need to know you,
Not as you?

Why can’t our friendship be,
Without,
Fear of knowing,
Without,
Fire of misunderstanding?

Why can’t I know you,
As you.
And not,
As someone
You,
Try to be.

Why do I have to wear a mask,
To
Have you,
To talk to you,
To be with you?

Why can’t you accept me,
As me?

Why do we have to,
Worry about
Others?
When all that matters to me,
Is
You!

What do you have to
Hide?
What do you
Fear?

Why can’t we be together,
As us?
Why do we have to,
Meet behind
Cloaks?

Why?

1.05 Crash! Bang! Boom! - Beats

2010-10-19T20:22:00.005+05:30

This post was due long, long ago. Apologies to all who were following the series.

Part 1.05 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read the other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

It was as if someone had slowed down time. I saw her move a lock of hair from her face. She went to the first floor. I involuntarily followed her. I caught a familiar but irritating smell. I ignored.

I hid behind the shelves. What if she was a senior? I peeked through the gaps. She and her friends were leaving. I stepped back.

CRASH!

Something heavy hit my head. I had collided with someone standing on a stool behind me, ending with a thick bound volume on my head. I quickly muttered an apology, handed over the book and ran out.

She had disappeared. I could not find her.

****

Within a week on campus the walls of the Messes were full of notices of club/dept. interactions. My language is horrible. So, EPC, EDC, Symposiarch, HAS, HPC and HDC were ruled out. Didn’t even think about Music Club, DOT, Arbits or Jhankar as acting, singing or dancing was out of question.

Finally, I decided on ACM. I could always become a GBM. Their session in the LTC turned out to be more of a promotional affair than a recruitment session. Later, they asked the interested people to assemble in the LTC-QT. After the 2 hour session on Newsletters, Free Windows DVDs and confusing tech related stuff, I was feeling drowsy. Anyway, I stayed. Not because I was a techie kind, but because the girl from the library was also there.

Someone passed a paper for everyone to write our names. She was the first one to pen it down. Nice! When the paper came to me, I glanced at the top.

Anamika, 9772018000, 2008B5PS....

I couldn’t read more. It had started raining.

The halls had been locked. We sat on the stairs. Someone suggested a game of Mafia.

What?

It took some time for everyone to understand the rules. I was a mafia in the first round. I pointed my gun at Anamika.

BANG!

Two more mafias had joined me. Anamika was dead. We had won. She was the village leader. :)

****

I didn’t get in ACM.

So, I joined DOSA. The biggest department. Department of Spectators.

BOOM!

The SU elections arrived. There were loudspeakers everywhere. Jeeps. Pamphlets. We couldn’t even sleep at night.

Ok. Ok. Enough! Now the reality. The SU Elections at BITS turned out to be the most mundane of their type. Pamphlets, posters, promotional material of any kind were prohibited. No, campaigning at night. Huh!! Ever seen an election like this?

~~~~

In next part, the unusual SU elections.

In real life:

The first floor of the Library is the home of Journals. The old ones were archived and bound into thick volumes. The smell in the library was of old paper, which is an integral part of the archives section. And, 9772018000 is my number.

A Magical Drop of Water

2010-04-05T00:01:00.004+05:30

Stage Settings:

A Park. Afternoon.
Rows of multi-coloured dahlia on the left (Red, yellow, orange, purple etc. Bright colours).
An empty park bench in the middle, with a tree on each of its two sides.
Green grass elsewhere.

Characters:

Poorva: A Girl,
Ishaan: A Boy,
An Old Woman: Of Course a Woman!

[Curtains Up. Enter Poorva and Ishaan. They are seen walking towards the bench. Both have a magical wand.]

Poorva: The way you put that hex on Avantika was awesome. She looked so funny with her hair all frizzy.

Ishaan: She had first tried to curse you behind your back. Then she tried to slip in a lizard in your bag. That was so not right.

Poorva: Oh! I thought you hexed her because you didn’t like her.

Ishaan: It’s true that I don’t like her. She has such a high air around her. But unlike you, I don’t go around cursing everyone I don’t like!

Poorva: What? I hex people for fun? How can you say such a thing?

Ishaan: That day in the café you gave Nishant a bleeding nose!

Poorva: That was because he took the last vanilla pastry I so much wanted. It was so mean.

Ishaan: [Chuckles] And what about Srishti in the library yesterday, the awful acne that you gave her?

Poorva: She had this week’s copy of Witch Vanity with her! I had to see the feature ‘Crelovera: More than magic for your hair’

Ishaan: And still you say that, you don’t hex anyone and everyone who crosses your way!

Poorva: I never hexed you!

Ishaan: That is because I have never pulled any tricks with you. I knew you were called the ‘Hex Queen’ before I met you.

Poorva: That’s crossing the line Mister!

[Poorva pulls out her wand and throws a spell at Ishaan. A red light is seen emerging from her wand. Ishaan blocks it with his wand, which produces a green light.]

Ishaan: Is that all you can muster?

[They have reached the bench. Poorva sits.]

Poorva: That was just a tickling charm. I do not hex friends.

Ishaan: I am honoured your Majesty. [Bows]

[Poorva again tries to put a spell on Ishaan. She points her wand at him. This time a blue light emerges from her wand. Ishaan effectively blocks it, this time with an orange light form his wand.]

Ishaan: Tch, tch…. A nail growth curse. You are losing your touch!

Poorva: [Giggles] Like I said. I do not curse friends.

[Ishaan sits beside her.]

Poorva: [Continues] Wasn’t I talking about Avantika? I thought you fancied her.

Ishaan: Uh? Didn’t you just say that I did not like her?

Poorva: I was just testing then. I know you fancy her, don’t you?

Ishaan: No…no! I have already told you, I find her too high headed. What does she think of herself? And, then she doesn’t like you.

Poorva: Now what does that mean?

Ishaan: Nothing… nothing…. Umm…. just that you are my friend and she is not your friend. So, effectively she cannot be my friend.

Poorva: Yes you are my friend. My best friend……

Ishaan: [Cuts in before Poorva can finish her sentence] Poorva, I wish to tell you something.

[Ishaan conjures a bunch of flowers with his wand. Not seen by Poorva.]

Poorva: Me too. Me too. I will say first!

Ishaan: [Hides the flowers] Ok, ladies first.

Poorva: Actually, Siddharth asked me to be his date for the President’s ball tonight. Do you think I should go?

Ishaan: [Hides the flowers further] Go if you want.

Poorva: You don’t mind right?

Ishaan: No… No. Why will I mind?

Poorva: Yes, why will you mind? [Fumbles] Actually I just remembered something. I have to take back my book from Naina. I will be back in a minute.

[Poorva hurriedly walks away. Exit Poorva]

Ishaan: [To himself] Why will I mind? I am just a friend…. Best friend but still a friend. [Throws the flowers on the ground. Lowers his head and hides it in his hands.]

[Enter an old woman. She is seen carrying a handbag and knitting. She walks to the bench and sits beside Ishaan.]

Old Woman: [To Ishaan] You like her?

Ishaan: [Surprised] Like whom?

Old Woman: [Slowly] The girl… The girl who was sitting here. You love her don’t you?

Ishaan: Yes. So what? She doesn’t love me. I am just a friend for her.

Old Woman: How do you know, that she doesn’t love you? Did you ask her?

Ishaan: She is going to the President’s ball with someone else. She hates politics!

Old Woman: You are just making excuses. Have you ever told her about your feelings?

Ishaan: I was just going to, and she asks me if she should go to this ball.

Old Woman: Did you try to stop her?

Ishaan: How could I? Who am I to stop her?

Old Woman: If you are no one, then why did she ask you about the ball in the first place?

Ishaan: I don’t know. I am sure she doesn’t love me. I should just try to be friends with her.

Old Woman: How can you be so sure without asking her? You should first express your feelings to her. Here take this potion. [Pulls out a blue bottle from her bag and gives it to Ishaan.] Drink it before you tell her about your love, it will help.

[Ishaan takes the bottle and eyes it suspiciously.]

Old Woman: [Continues] I must take leave now.

[Exit Old Woman]

[Enter Poorva]

[Poorva walks towards Ishaan. Ishaan stands, waves his wand and the flowers disappear. He turns back and takes a sip from the bottle.]

[Poorva reaches the bench]

Poorva: There was an Old Lady walking away. Never seen her here before. Do you know her?

[Poorva sits]

Ishaan: Errr…. Where is your book?

Poorva: Which book?

Ishaan: Your book! You had gone to take your book from Naina!

Poorva: Oh! I couldn’t find her.

Ishaan: Is it important? You can borrow mine.

Poorva: No... No, it’s not urgent.

Ishaan: Poorva, you remember I wanted to tell you something.

Poorva: Yes.

Ishaan: I want to tell you how special you are to me. The night the poison dart hit you, was the longest night of my life. For the three hours that I waited before the Operation Theatre I thought that I had lost everything. It was then that I realised what you meant to me.

[Ishaan takes Poorva’s hand in his hands]

Ishaan: [Continues] Every morning the glimpse of your face makes my day. If I don’t see you I feel a part of mine is missing. You complete me.

[Ishaan stands]

Ishaan: [Continues] I wanted to tell this to you earlier. But, I could never gather the courage for the fear of losing you. Then I realised, that if I didn’t tell you at all, then someday I will surely lose you.

[Ishaan kneels on one foot, conjures a bunch of roses with his wand and gives it to Poorva]

Ishaan: [Continues] Poorva, I love you. I love you day and night. I love you more than anything in the world.

Ishaan: [Continues] Poorva, I don’t want to force anything on you so you can answer no. Do you love me?

Poorva: No….

[Poorva stands]

Poorva: [Continues] No….No…No…No… That’s not the answer. [Giggles] I just wanted to try saying it.

[Ishaan stands up shocked]

Poorva: [Continues] Yes…. Yes…. Yes, of course I love you. Couldn’t you say this earlier? You idiot! [Softly] Of course I love you! Of course I do!

[They embrace]

Poorva: I am so excited! I want to tell everyone! I have to tell this to Naina! Now!

Ishaan: What?

Poorva: I will meet you at the aviary in the evening.

Ishaan: Aren’t you going to the ball?

Poorva: You seriously thought that I would go?

[Poorva winks. Leaves hurriedly. Exit Poorva.]

[Ishaan jumps and conjures fireworks from his wand in excitement.]

[Enter Old Woman. She walks towards Ishaan.]

Ishaan: It worked! It worked! She loves me! She loves me!

Old Woman: What worked?

Ishaan: The potion you gave me worked. Poorva said yes!

Old Woman: That bottle? [Points at the blue bottle on the bench] It has mineral water for my troublesome stomach. [Smiles]

[Curtains down.]

****

My submission for a creative writing assignment. The original pdf submitted is attached below.

****

A Magical Drop Of Water

Download

ICL 2010 Solutions

2010-03-22T21:39:00.007+05:30

ICL 2010 was conducted during Apogee 2010. The coding contest involved solving output only problems. Use of any programming language was allowed. These are the solution sets for both, The Finals and Advantage rounds.

Finals Solution Set:

ICL 2010 Finals Solutions

Download Finals Solution Set

Advantage Round Solution Set:

ICL 2010 Advantage Round Solutions

Download Advantage Round Solution Set

ICL 2010 Final Round

2010-03-19T11:53:00.003+05:30

ICL 2010 was conducted during Apogee 2010. The coding contest involved solving output only problems. Use of any programming language was allowed. This is the problem set and judge input for the final round conducted on site.

Problem Set:

ICL 2010 Question Paper

ICL 2010 Advantage Round

2010-03-19T11:33:00.009+05:30

ICL 2010 Advantage Round Question Paper

1.04 The Beauty and The Gulab Jamuns - Beats

2009-07-26T00:50:00.002+05:30

Part 1.04 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read the other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

I left my room at 6 o’clock. VK#129, was the dreaded destination.

People should eat in their own messes. Why had the senior decided to take a tour of RB Mess on the first day? Why was he in front of me? Why did my sambhar fall on him? Had one of the three things not happened, I would have been a free man now.

I prayed he would not be there. I nimbly knocked at the door.

He was there. After, making me sit inside. He said, ‘I will make you wash my shirt!’ And went out.

I saw some Hollywood actress adorned his desktop wallpaper, I didn’t know who. I wondered where he had gone. Probably, to bring some washing powder.

The mystery was soon solved he entered with 2 of friends.

‘Your intro!’
I mumbled my name and branch. I guessed as soon as I gave my proper intro they would shift to something else. So, better keep them engaged on intro as long as I could.

‘What is this? Don’t you know the format?’
‘No’
‘Didn’t anyone teach you?’
‘No’

I wondered, if I will answer all questions at BITS as ‘No’. Getting me to a proper intro took about 20 minutes. Wow! Only 40 minutes till dinner, now.

There was a knock at the door. Someone entered carrying two plates of Gulab Jamuns. Everyone in the room jumped on them, except me of course. But, he moved them out of their reach.

‘These are for the cutie pie here’
No one had called me that before!

‘It is drugged.’
‘It contains ....

More, warnings continued. I reasoned. They can’t drug me now. There is no way to carry me out unnoticed. And, they can’t have me lying unconscious for long. And, anyway they all had jumped at the sight of the Gulab Jamuns.

I took two.

‘No, ragging for you if you finish this plate.’

I counted. 7 more. WTF, 7 again? Anyway, eating is better than ragging.

It was dinner time. I was granted leave.

****

I had no more room for dinner. I decided to take a walk to the library. It was there that I saw the most beautiful girl ever. She was with two of her friends. I could see her hair swaying in the light breeze.

Ok. Ok. It was not so dramatic, there was no breeze it was the fan. But, she was attractive and her hair looked beautiful.

~~~~

In the next part, club interactions and finding out more about the girl. Next post will be from campus. :)

In real life:

I still wonder, whether those Gulab Jamuns were really for me? And, the room VK#129, is my room during my second year at college.

1.03 Scary Ragging - Beats

2009-07-20T12:26:00.002+05:30

Part 1.03 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read the other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

Later on we came to know that, we were allowed out of hostel throughout the night.

Next morning, I had my interview with Dean, PSD. In his office the assistants had properly pinned up my application to BITS. To, my horror I noticed that my three page letter about errors in BITSAT was also there.

Last thing I wanted the Dean to see was that letter. The assistant handed me my application and ushered me in the Dean’s chamber.

‘Good Morning, Sir!’
‘Good Morning indeed.’

He took my application. Hopefully my morning would be good and he would not notice the letter.

‘Did you pass boards this year?’
‘No’
‘I see you appeared for BITSAT last year too. Did you apply for admission?’
‘No’
‘Did you clear last year’s cutoff?’
‘No’
‘Did you take any coaching?’
‘No’

I could see him making some marks on his clipboard. I hoped he would ask me something that didn’t have no as an answer.

‘OK. About your hobbies. Do you sing, dance?’
‘No’
‘Do you like listening to music?’
‘No’
‘OK. Do you have any questions?’
‘No, Sir’
‘Very well. Then I think you can leave.’
‘Thank you, Sir!’

7 Nos and my interview was over. Why did everything had to be 7? The good part was he didn’t see my letter.

****

After lunch a few seniors came to our wing. They assembled us in one room.

‘You!’, pointing at me a scary looking senior said. ‘Give me your intro! You know the format right?’
‘No’, I lied. Though, I had rehearsed it last night.

Somebody knocked on the door. I opened it. Rakesh entered wearing shorts.

‘What are you wearing?’

Before Rakesh could muster any answer, the senior continued.

‘Is this the way to come before seniors?’
‘Where are your manners?’
‘I will make you sit on the overhanging there and change your clothes!’
‘Go! Change and come.’

Rakesh left.

‘Now, you give me your intro.’

I mumbled my name and branch. Opened the door and rushed out. I was trembling. Will there be any repercussions? Thoughts like Raghvan Committee, Supreme Court Order, SWD, Warden were swarming in my head.

Sashi came out.

‘You scared those guys in there. They sent me to make sure you don’t complain.’
I smiled. Said, ‘Can I? They didn’t do anything to me.’

I went to my room. My watch showed 5:30 PM. Half an hour till my meeting with the senior from mess. But, this time I would be alone.......

~~~~

In the next part, the kind of ragging I didn’t expect.

In real life:
For part 1.02: I did confuse one senior as a fresher and addressed him as ‘तुम!’. But, thankfully the coming of our warden saved me from the awkwardness of the situation.

1.02 What’s in a name? - Beats

2009-07-15T00:55:00.007+05:30

Part 1.02 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read the other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

The fiasco at the mess earned me an invitation to the senior’s room. Ah, this on day one?

My mind raced looking for alternatives. I could not go at all..... Would he remember me? Or, I could go just before a lecture....

But, he solved the mystery for me.... ‘Meet me tomorrow at six, before dinner!’ .... 7 magical words, my death sentence.... I nodded my head, I could barely nibble my roti. Reason: I had choked....

Back at my room, my roomie offered some advice.

‘Meet the warden’.... Tell him what? I dropped sambhar on a senior and was too dumb to apologise?
‘Use the SWD anti-ragging service’.... He hadn’t ragged me yet!!

To get my mind off I went out to meet my wingies.... They were already busy talking in a group outside....

A quick intro took place. There were six of them.....

Som, Mech.
Indu, Mech.
Sashi, Mech.
Vidhu, Mech.

What? Can this really be a coincidence..... Did the BITS guys believed in numerology or something?

Rakesh, B.Pharm.

This drove the final nail in.... it reminded me of my Hindi Classes. All names were synonyms of ‘Moon’.... ah..

There was one guy left, was he too shy? I tried to be friendly. I placed my hand on this shoulder.

‘Dude, what are you afraid of? What about you?’

‘Ravi, Bio and Pharmacy.’

Finally, a ‘sun’. Already, telling everyone B.Pharms as dual? He seemed discouraged. I felt, I should cheer him up. Others had fallen silent.

He added, ‘4th Year.’

What? Another senior? I promised myself, I would wipe out the word ‘Dude’ from my dictionary... Waiting for my predicament, I could see the silent smirks on the faces of my wingies.

I silently prayed to each and every God I could recall..... God you are not blind nor deaf nor dumb....

No, he was not. I could hear God’s voice....

He was speaking to me, ‘Warden!’

‘Yes, God but the warden in not here! Please save me!’

‘No, not the God. Idiot! The warden is coming! Run! We are out of our rooms at 10 in the night!! Run!!’

It was not God. My wingies were shouting. Someone had spotted the warden on his rounds. We ran into the closest room..... The senior disappeared into the toilet.

~~~~

In the next part, my meeting with the senior on whom I had dropped sambhar and my first taste of ‘Ragging’.

In real life:

In reality rather five of my wingies were Mechites. Two of them had names which were synonyms of ‘Sun’.

1.01 Looser’s Day Out - Beats

2009-07-12T05:47:00.006+05:30

Part 1.01 of a multipart fiction about college life.

Read other parts by going to: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats

~~~~

Note: The spelling and grammar mistakes are intentional.
Extra Note: Any kind of mistake is intentional.

I entered BITS with a high head, after all I had got admission to the bestest college in the country.

****

At the reception.

At the reception counter the official asked us to line up. He demanded everyone to take out some document. I fumbled in my folder. Luck was on my side. I got the paper out first. Partly to jump the queue and partly to impress the beautiful girl in front, I held the paper high above my head. The official looked impressed. He took my paper. As he read it the smile on his face changed to a frown. He pointed at the board above, ‘Can’t you read? Yours is the next counter!’

****

At the orientation.

I was gaping with awe at the grand Auditorium. The girl in front of me turned back to talk to someone, he was not there. She saw me and said, ‘You don’t wear braces. Why is your jaw hanging?’

The VC was explaining about the flexibilities. I was sitting at the back. He said, ‘You all have got this timetable booklet. Didn’t you?’ I instinctively raised my timetable and shouted, ‘Yes, Sir!’ Everyone around me turned to look at me as if I had done something funny. Luckily, the VC hadn’t heard me, he was too far. I sunk lower in my chair.

****

At the mess.

There was a long queue. I so much hate queues!!! :( As I approached the food the queue turned into a crowd. To escape out I held my tray higher, was a bad idea though. My sambhar fell on the guy in front. I was lucky it didn’t fall on me. But, not much he was a senior.

****

Three brilliant strokes of luck in a day. I had never been luckier. Still I messed up. I wished I didn’t get lucky anymore.

Beats: Rhythm of College Life

2009-07-12T05:42:00.005+05:30

A multipart fiction about college life. Resulting from my loss to the tiny desperate writer within me. Since the victory was not complete I will write this in small parts. As and when the writer surfaces.

To Read,

Just look for the tag ‘Beats’ on my blog, or

Goto: http://sweetnpure.blogspot.com/search/label/Beats.

A year after NONE won the Elections at BITS-Pilani: Part of Chronicles of my freshman year at BITS

2009-07-11T06:21:00.005+05:30

BITSians are the elite few who get the option to vote for ‘None’ in the elections. And, right in my freshman year ‘None’ got crowned the President of the BITS Students’ Union.

The Students’ Union (SU) election was laced up with every type political excitement possible albeit in a controlled environment. The hum of elections started even before the nominations were filed. Friends of a particular candidate for the post of SU President (Prez) very sweetly offered us (us being me and my freshmen friends) advice and help regarding college matters. They obviously didn’t forget to mention the academic laurels achieved by their friend at the end of their pep talk. We were reminded to keep mum about the friendly advice as campaigning was not allowed till then. This was my first interaction with college politics. The election for the SU Prez took many interesting twists and turns thereafter.

After the nominations were finalized, the fight became more bitter. There were just two candidates running for the post of Prez. With each passing day supporters of each candidate pulled out a new trick to woo the electorate.

Then came the legendary Audi Debate, better known as Audi Ragging. Hey, I always wanted to shout out slogans for the candidate I supported but the EC had issued a strict warning against any such chanting. Since, I did not wish to be thrown out I satisfied myself with clapping extra loud for him. Eventually, towards the end people did break out with loud cheers. Though to my joy, I did see a clear winner emerge in this verbal battle.

Regionalism obviously doesn’t appeal to the well informed mass here, but as indigenous as BITSian can get they devised a new way to play this card. Someone accused a candidate of wooing voters on the ground of regionalism. Ah! We all thought how cheap! Here is someone asking for my vote since I belong to his state, how wicked. More accusations flowed in. Then poof came the Election Commission (EC) with its cane. Out came a verdict with warnings of heavy retributions in case it was disobeyed. The EC had put up a blanket ban on the campaigns of a candidate.

Hah! We got a sigh of relief. No more campaigns for the weekend. Not that we were troubled, in anyway. The rules of EC are very strict here. A toe out of line here or there and EC makes you invisible from the whole scene.

One evening we heard strange rumours about EC banning a candidate from contesting the election. Well, we didn’t believe in them. Out of two candidates if you throw out one, then there is no competition. Next day there were notices all over the campus stating that the rumours were indeed true. Ah! This hurt, when in reality no one I knew had ever found any of the accusations to be true.

Then was the night of uncertainty. A motion to dissolve the entire EC was moved in front of the present Union Council. It failed, as it required a support of four-fifths of the Council for such a motion to pass. Though, members of the GBM did sign a referendum for the cause. It would have easily amassed the required two-third votes overnight. This, seeing the enthusiasm of the GBM which clearly didn’t see merit in the actions of the EC. Eventually, the referendum was useless as the motion had already failed before the Union Council. I vaguely remember that the motion had got 8 of the required 10 votes in favour; 4 votes were against it in the present Union Council of 12 members.

So, under these circumstances we cast our votes. But, then God always has his will. There were two options in the electronic ballot. One with the name of the remaining candidate, and the other saying ‘None’. But, no one really believed that ‘None’ could win, after all why will someone sweat outside the polling booth to just to say that he/she wanted a headless Union Council.

But then, I saw people standing in queues for over an hour just to cast a vote for ‘None’. There was someone who had misplaced his I.D. card and had come with the registration slip to cast his vote. There were SMSes floating around, warning dire consequences of a re-election if ‘None’ did win. But, who cared the GBM had got an opportunity to vent out its emotions and out it poured.

At the night when the results were announced, no one could actually believe it. ‘None’ had actually won. Hundreds of people broke out in a joyous march, singing ‘Singh is King’. Incidentally, ‘Singh is King’ is the first movie of BITSian life for my wing.

I don’t know what it was. Whether, people saw the EC as tyrannical or it was a sympathy wave or people got trigger happy with an option or it was just the true support for someone. But, what I saw was that people had clearly exercised their option to choose.

Standing here, a year after what I feel is that, it was not a simple victory for ‘None’. It was a loss for BITS. There had been two exemplary candidates with great visions and neither had won. Who knows who could have won between the two, had both contested? It was a close call any day.

Firefox is so cute!

2009-07-10T19:40:00.004+05:30

Firefox is so cute!
I want it as a pet,
Opera as a ring on my finger,
Safari as a pinup poster, and,
IE for the kid who still wants his lollypop!

Open Source Evangelism

2008-11-16T10:14:00.005+05:30

The first time I installed Linux on my computer was right in the first week with my desktop. I was in standard VIII then. The installation was a failure, I had only one of the two installation disks required. But, the installation interface had enough charms that, today I am writing this post using an open source browser (Firefox 3) running on an open source OS (Ubuntu 8.04).

Earlier, if I ever told anyone that I used Linux, I would get comments about Linux not being user friendly. If I told them I use Red Hat or Mandrake/Mandriva I would just get blank stares as if I was talking French. But, that was 5 years ago.

The time has changed now. Today, we open source users no longer need to be on the defensive, we can directly go for the kill. Now, when someone asks me why I use Linux, I reply by asking them to state one reason to use Microsoft Windows. I do get a few feeble responses even today.

First one being the old cliche that Linux is not user friendly. I counter this by telling them to use Ubuntu for 5 minutes. Most people end up saying that 'Wow! This is similar to Windows!'. There are many words of appreciation too, like the system menus being better organized in Ubuntu. The power users find the concept of multiple workspaces awesome. Though you can practically have all of these in Windows too but it would take a lot of customization, and most people would rather not to do that. So, this usually ends the debate on which OS is more user friendly.

Next point which I normally get is about availability of softwares for Linux. I fire up the package manager and people are baffled by the sheer number of pacakages available. There are open source equivalents available for any proprietary software you can think of. I normally bind up the discussion with a demo of the Desktop Cube on Compiz.

The number of Ubuntu users around me is constantly increasing. But, I would like to see a day when people would use Linux as their primary and only OS, and not dual boot it.

The next open source software I am going to talk about is a clear winner around me. Firefox 3, has become the de facto web browser. Basically, the reason behind this is that the only competitor here is Internet Explorer 6.

Firefox has charmed people with its tabbed browsing, alas the first version of IE with tabs is IE7. The number of addons available to spice up Firefox is mindbaffling. There is a addon for almost anything you can think of. And, if you are hungry for power just keep Firefox light and addon free.

I feel lucky to be born in an age when the popularity of open and community based products is growing leaps and bounds, VLC, Wikipedia, Firefox, Fedora and Ubuntu are just a few examples. These have grown from small projects to become a significant part of our lives today.

A rendezvous with a SMT and Stars

2008-10-29T19:13:00.008+05:30

Let me assure you in the beginning that,

I am not going to talk technical gibberish in this post.

If I say 'Diwali is the first that I'm celebrating outside his home' is makes some sense. 'This Diwali is the first that I'm celebrating outside his home' makes more sense. But, when I say that it is the translation of 'यह पहली दिवाली है जो मैं अपने घर से बाहर मना रहा हूँ।' then you would say that I have lost my mind.

So, let me introduce you to my partner and translator for the evening, Google Translate. I had been using it for quite some time. It is a really nice service and came to my rescue quite often, like when I tried to register a GMX email account.

Google Translate gave me a very sweet and nice translation of my last post on Deepawali. Have a look at the translation here, the original post is here. To not strain the translator let us not look at my poor poetry.

The first line of the post was a perfect translation.

यह दीपावली मेरे लिए नई है।

This Diwali is new for me.

Had it been the only criteria for judgment, then Google Translate would have been the perfect partner. But, as it is, it is not the only line it translated. The second line brings in some trouble, Google messed up with the person in this sentence. With the first half being in First Person, Google shifted to Third Person in the second half. It translated 'यह पहली दिवाली है जो मैं अपने घर से बाहर मना रहा हूँ।' to 'Diwali is the first that I'm celebrating outside his home'.

Rest of the translation was not a complete joke. Google Translate threw up marvels like 'unity in diversity' for 'अनेकता में भी एकता'. And, it is not the only one, 'festival of victory of good over evil' for 'बुराई पर अच्छाई के जीत का त्यौहार' is another example.

After, looking at the translation I realized how complex my mother tongue Hindi is. I am amazed at the fluency at which I(we) can understand it. Thank God I am not a computer. But, Google Translate is one! And, the chances that computer makes a mistake is almost zero. So, I was abashed when I read Diwali as the 'festival of lights and sanitation' appear in the translation. The moment I hovered my mouse on the text I got the reason, it was the literal translation of 'स्वच्छता व प्रकाश का पर्व'. Technically I can't blame Google. But, I would have liked 'festival of lights and purity' much better.

A little more exploration told me that Google does take context into account, it translated 'शुभ दीपावली' into 'Good illumination'. Now, where does that come from? It had been writing 'दीपावली' as 'Diwali'.

When I delved further I found out that Google Translate is based on STM or Statistical Machine Translation, a machine translation paradigm which was conceived as early as 1949.

I decided not research further and came back to Google Translate to experiment. Next I tried, English to Hindi translated search. Here, we can key in some words in a language and Google translates them in the language of our choice(the language has to be on the list) and searches for pages containing the translation. Google does not stop here but also displays the the translation of the search results in the original language keyed in.

Now, this was going to be fun. I fired up the search with keywords 'Amrita Rao' in English to be translated and searched in Hindi. Here are the search results.

Wow! The translation was perfect, and 1,44,000 Hindi search results! I should not have been surprised, after all she is a big star and Hindi is picking up space on the web. But, there were a few bloopers like this one.

Now, vanity started to creep in and I tried my name but Google could't even translate it. Poor me!!

Incidentally, what surprised me was that the search about Amrita Rao had relevant items even on page 19, but when I keyed in Shahrukh Khan then, though the number of results were more but, the second result on page one itself was out of context. It was not about Shahrukh Khan at all.

Moreover the first result showed that the web is not too friendly towards him.

Since, I will write only sweet truths here I wont discuss this any further on my blog.

So, my evening ended with writing this post and the idea for a new post.

नई दीपावली

2008-10-28T04:03:00.005+05:30

इस दीपावली आप खुशियों के दीप जलाएं,
यह दिवाली आपके जीवन में नया प्रकाश लाये,
आप आगे बढे और अपनी मंज़िल को पायें,
ईश्वर से यही कामना करता हूँ की हर दीपावली आपके जीवन में नई उमंग लाये।

शुभ दीपावली

यह दीपावली मेरे लिए नई है। यह पहली दिवाली है जो मैं अपने घर से बाहर मना रहा हूँ। घर से दूर यहाँ BITS में सबकुछ थोड़ा अलग है पर ज्यादा अलग नहीं। भारत में यही खूबी है, यहाँ अनेकता में भी एकता है। फिर दिवाली तो राष्ट्रीय पर्व है।

इस दिवाली में जो अलग है वो हैं पटाखें। इस बार से मैं दिवाली पर पटाखें नहीं छोड़ूगां। यह कोई अचानक लिया गया निर्णय नहीं है। मैं काफी दिनों से यह करना चाहता था, पर पहले यह थोड़ा मुशकिल था।

दीपावली स्वच्छता व प्रकाश का पर्व है, इसपर प्रदुषण फैला कर क्यों इसकी स्वच्छता को भंग करें। दीपावली बुराई पर अच्छाई के जीत का त्यौहार है। इस पर हम ध्वनि और वायु प्रदुषण फैला कर बुराई क्यों करें। आख़िर इस शोर मैं रूपयें फूंक कर क्या मिलता है ? मुझे पटाखों के द्वारा फैलाएं जाने वाले प्रदुषण की हानियों के बारे मैं लिखने की ज़रूरत नही हैं। इन्हें हम सब जानते हैं, क्योंकि यह हमें स्कूलों में पढाया जाता है। हम जानते हैं यह हमारे और समाज के लिए कितने खतरनाक हैं।

सही दीपावली पटाखों में नहीं बल्कि अपने और दूसरों के जीवन को प्रकाशित करने मे हैं। खुश रहने और दूसरो को दुःख न देने मे हैं। आज समय नही है की हम दूसरों के बदलने का इंतजार करें। आज समय है की हम ख़ुद को बदल कर लोगों के लिए उदहारण प्रस्तुत करें।

आइये हम एक कोशिश तो करें । आशा है आप इस बारे में सोचेंगें ज़रूर ।

दीपावली पर्व है रोशनी का, प्रकाश का,
इसे शोर का प्रतिमान न बनायें।

आईये हम सब मिल,
एक नई शोर मुक्त उज्जवल दीपावली मनायें।

शुभ नई दीपावली

(कृपया मुझे मेरी वर्तनी की अशुद्धियों के लिए छमा करें।)

Finally!

2008-10-28T03:45:00.009+05:30

Finally, this Deepawali my blog is up.

Starting this blog meant a lot of work. Work which was not difficult but very tiring. First things first, I had to choose a blogging service. Of a wide variety of available services I narrowed down to WordPress and Blogger. The choice until now was very easy, since I had a previous experiences with only these two services. But, now came the difficult one WordPress or Blogger. I tried to make my choice easier by looking for available blog URLs, but both proved to be equally oversubscribed. Of more than a score of choices I tried I didn't get any on either. But, I couldn't be more elated, since now I have a blog with a name which I can identify with myself, 'Sweet & Pure'. I will post why later.

Amongst WordPress and Blogger, I decided on Blogger because of the amount to customizations it offered to users for free. The Blogger template is completely customizable, moreover there are loads of free templates available on web.

Now, I had to choose the template. I made this choice easy by just choosing the most downloaded template. And, now came the part I had been dreading, customizing the template. But, Blogger is a lifesaver customizing the template was a cakewalk. I was done in half an hour. Though there is some work left to do, but this template is nice for the moment.

And, finally the real part, writing a post. What could be easier than writing about how I got my blog up. I had just finished the job.

Now, I hope to keep posting on my blog regularly! I have buckets full of things to talk about.

Right now, I have just dusted my room and am feeling dead tired. I will just write one more post and sleep. I have to wake up at 8:00 am today if I want to have breakfast! ;)

दीपावली स्वच्छता व प्रकाश का पर्व है

2008-10-28T00:57:00.003+05:30

दीपावली पर्व है रोशनी का, प्रकाश का,
इसे शोर का प्रतिमान न बनायें |

आईये हम सब मिल,
एक नई शोर मुक्त उज्जवल दीपावली मनायें |

शुभ दीपावली

2008-10-28T00:56:00.001+05:30

इस दीपावली आप खुशियों के दीप जलाएं,
यह दिवाली आपके जीवन में नया प्रकाश लाये,
आप आगे बढे और अपनी मंज़िल को पायें,
ईश्वर से यही कामना करता हूँ की हर दीपावली आपके जीवन में नई उमंग लाये |

My First Post!

2008-10-28T00:52:00.000+05:30

Ah! Finally I have started off my blog! I have been planning this for days, but today seems to be the right day.

Happy Blogging to myself!!

About Me

2008-09-28T01:09:00.004+05:30

I thought I can blab on endlessly about myself, but you won't have to endure much.

So in short,
I am a First Year student of M.Sc. (Hons) Mathematics at BITS, Pilani. I did my schooling from DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, Ranchi, yes Mahendra Singh Dhoni also completed his schooling here.

I like reading books, English and Hindi alike. I used to collect stamps, but emails put an end to it. I even used to draw well, but now that ability remains specifically for scientific diagrams and figures.

As, a person I think a thousand times before taking a decision but, when I take it I stick with my choices to the end. I either like things or do not like them, but when I like something I am dedicated to it. Every thing is black and white for me with no grey areas at all. Throughout my life I have lived on my values, and things which tried to interfere with them had to go out of my life.

I am very much into traditional Indian values and culture (including superstitions), but being a scientific man I do apply my rationale and sense on things. So, I am a nice blend of Science and Religion, notice the capitalization. When you will talk to me you will find me to be either an atheist or a pious man but not both at the same time. Even my mother is surprised by this. But, I personally know the reason. You will find me what you think you want me to be, I am always the same. The same logic applies for everyone, you believe a person is what you think he/she is not what he/she really is.

To not make it an overdose, let me stop. I will write a complete post about myself someday.