Nostalgia

This is one word I like the most. We are forced to part with our near and dear ones, those we love for various reasons. In the end its just memories of them that stay with us and inspire us at times. My stay in iitk is nearing its end and I believe its a good time to reflect upon the bygone things. I am planning to write something interesting that happened or about events (right from my kindergarten days) that turned me into a better person or how I've evolved with time or about my friends and mentors. I am not sure of how far should I go as being too honest may hurt some and it benefits none. Anyway, I'll try my best. Planning to go like this.

• Toddler life.
• Life at Chidambaram.
• Life at Neyveli / Days @ Jawahar.
  
• Life at Vellore (??) / DAV Days.
  
• B.Tech. Life.

I am not going to write much about my stay in iitk for the moment. May be, I will give it a shot after 6 months or a year.

Why, oh Why Team India?

In a country where everyone has an opinion on everything and all have some advice for the captain and the coach on how the team should play, Why, oh Why Team India? I still support the Men in Blue as this WC exit takes nothing away from them. Their characters are without any blemish (see the case of Flintoff!!) and almost all of them inspire us in someway or the other to have better life (be it the fighting nature of Saurav, the discipline and humility of sachin, will power of dravid,..). I really dont understand what more a fan can want from this team. Results do matter to a large extent but the pleasure is in the means. Our bench strength has improved to a great extent compared to what it was 2 years back. Failure is part of the game and an average Indian citizen in no means has an idea about the pressure the team is in. Its just a game at the end of the day and clearly by game, I mean its not a life or death situation. There are many other things to worry about in this country.
Good Luck to the other teams!!

FWD:: Poem by Mother Teresa

======================================================

This poem was written by Mother Teresa and is engraved
on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta.

=======================================================

People are often unreasonable, illogical, &
self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish,
ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends
and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be
honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy
overnight: Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be
jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget
tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be
enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and
God; It was never between you and them anyway.

Nainital

Had a great trip.
Night 0:
As usual, we started late and after a hectic 13 hour journey with some breath-taking views along, we reached Nainital at around noon the next day.
Day 1:


We headed for Snow View located atop the Sher-ka-danda Ridge by cable car.

Had a good view of snow bound Himalayas including Nanda Devi and Trisul and it really was wonderful to see snow covered mountain peaks while the temperature reaches as low as 3 degree Celsius.
The trip down was equally thrilling with cable car accelerating and us experiencing the force of gravity from altitudes of around 25oo m was thrilling. Had some fun there too.
Came to know of a small fall near by and on our way, encountered snow at lots of places. I really pity the driver who came with us and kudos to his patience for putting up with us that too after driving for more than 14 hours non-stop. On seeing snow, we changed our plans and started playing around.
At last, we headed for the falls and though we were traveling for the past 18 hours none of us were tired and we had a lots of fun in the falls. It was a too small a fall to take bath and hence we just played around and took some snaps.
We decided to call it a day and at around 7 pm reached our cottage and gave the driver the day off and we started roaming the city. One huge advantage for Nainital over other hill stations is that it is far less polluted and the large lake at the center of its town add to its charm by a huge extent.

Day 2 :
Well, we couldn't see all the things as we planned. We missed out on visiting Jim Corbett National Park as we ran out of petrol and found that the shops in the entire town are closed till noon because of Holi. We just had to wait for about 3 hours during which we saw a couple of kids playing around and were happy to join them.


Saw a steep hill near by and went for a trekking for around 2 hours and covered around 4-5 km distance and around 500-800 m altitude.

We then headed for someplace where there were geysers. Saw this fall and was stunned by its beauty. It was surrounded by mountains on all sides and the water was freezing and damn pure.Yeah, we changed our plans again and had a good bath there.

We then started our trip back with lots of good memoirs, great scenarios and large bouts of vomiting including yours truly.

On the whole the trip was awesome and we had lots of fun. Though nothing went as per plan and we did miss out on a lot of places. But that was how it was supposed to be, wasn't it?. It gave a much needed break for me. Its good to be back in the campus.

Nainital - Prelude

A couple of things are preventing me from starting my thesis till March 8th. Made a decision with other friends here to go to Nainital this weekend. We decided on it in a matter of few minutes and it really makes you feel comfortable when people don't ponder over things a lot and have fun. Will be celebrating Holi in Nanital then. Planning to spend the remaining 4 days by reading something about economics or derivatives. Well, I wanted to get a feel of them for more than a year now and somehow things didn't click. Will make up for it in the 4 days following the weekend. Life seems to get much complicated and much more challenging!! I am having fun.

Happy Holi!!

PS: Finished reading Spouse. A must read for everyone who wants to have a better spouse and be one. Started reading it more out of curiosity. The most important take away was "to get married for the right reasons" and I wonder how many people in India understand that.

Art

Today got a CVS update from Dr. MC which ended like this.

"Enjoy! This was the last bit of art that was left out from the simulator."

I think seeing your work as art is the pinnacle of dedication.I often hear techie guys (mostly software people) complain about their work and show off their irresistible need to go into the managerial line as they think techie work is boring and they don't want to get their hands dirty. What we need is, probably, a change in attitude to see our work as an art and not just another number crunching or coding job. Most people who lament were once passionate of the same "art". What has changed them? May be their job profile. May be their financial/family needs. But I seriously believe that we must see our profession as an art and get our masterpieces out of it.