Ramblings of an Insomniac

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Weekend at Ganges!

The end of mid terms also endowed us with a break of 2 days. After a round of quickfire planning, we zeroed in on using our serendipity for visiting Dehradun, Rishikesh and Mussourie

Rishikesh

We got down the train at Haridwar and started for Rishikesh, our first destination. With Ganges in a full flow, I was enchanted by the natural beauty of Rishikesh. It was like a movie setting..the river flowing deep and quick amidst the tall hills. Nature enthusiasts that we were, we decided to do River Rafting on Ganges. Having never done anything close to river rafting before, all of us were very excited to get going in the river. But a first step into Ganga sent chills down our spine, literally! The water was extremely cold.

We got on to our raft (made of rubber), and started rowing our way to glory. It being a very hilly terrain, the river took many twists and turns through our journey (of arnd 10 KM). The best parts of rafting were at places where the river became very fiery and quick. It was exactly as we had expected..our raft jumped and heaved over the water which was moving very rapidly. A small loss of balance wud directly throw us into the river! Finally, after a very eventful journey, we ended up below the Ram Jhula, the bridge built at some distance to the very famous Lakshman Jhula. Both the bridges are supported only at the ends, built over the river.

After visiting the 13 storeyed temple in Rishikesh, we left for Dehradun for the night.

Mussourie

Situated at around 32 KMs from the city of Dehradun (capital of Uttaranchal), Mussourie lies a good 6000 ft above sea level. It is also one of the oldes hill stations in India. It is completely commercialised and also has a variety of hill schools like the Woodstock school, International school, etc. Whereas the former charges 3Lakhs pa for students, the latter houses children from foreign countries (of foreign embassies, etc).

Kempty falls is a natural water fall where the water originates from inside a mountain. Fresh water beckoned us and we obliged by getting down into the small pool of water at the foot of the falls. And guess what! We were completely numbed by the coldness of the water. The water was so cold that for the first five minutes after we entered the water, we thought we lost our hands and legs for good! Having cold water fall over one's head from over 100 feet is a memorable experience :-D. Later, we went to the Laal Tibba (highest point of Mussourie), from where we could see the Himalayas in all their glory. We could see the snow capped tops of the greater Himalayas, which were nearly 200 KMs away. Apparently, on the other side of these mountains was China! It was an awesome view to see the majestic Himalayas from so near. It definitely inspired me to visit Kashmir and Shimla. Will definitely visit them before I get out of IIML..

Dehradun

Unlike my perceptions of Dehradun as a hill station, it is actually a full blown city with almost all the modern amenities. The city is very similar to Pune in terms of being located just below a hill station. The city also houses the very famous Doon School, where children of politicians and Film stars study.

Sahastradhara is another water falls located 18KMs from Dehradun. We met a different kind of place there...a Cave! This is a naturally formed cave formed due to water droplets originating from inside the mountain. We had a great time trekking into the slippery cave and getting wet from the continuous downpour of water.

A memorable experience akin to the one I had a couple of years back at Ooty. I would love to visit another hill station, especially in the Himalayas..

Monday, February 06, 2006

From History to Mythology..

First, the history:
Watched Rang De Basanti on the 2nd day of the release. A very well picturised, well edited movie with a good storyline and music definitely make RDB worth watching atleast once. And yeah! Soha and Su were hot! Though I donot intend to give away the story nor want to delve into reviewing the movie, my 2 cents contribution to prospective RDB watchers:
1. Watch RDB unless you really hate history related (in particular Independence related) movies
2. Watch RDB if u want to see less of Aamir-worshipping and more of the actual movie ;-)

Now, to mythology:
Read a few parva of the greatest Hindu epic of all-The Mahabharata.
Unlike when I was a kid when I didnot question what was happening on the screen (courtesy, Mahabharat..the serial), this time around I read it with a critical view. I must say, I found Mahabharata more interesting than most books I've read till now. Coming to think of it, I found that Arjuna-the hero of the epic actually had serious competition. There are many characters who possessed qualities and skill equal to, if not greater than Arjuna. For example-Ekalavya, Karna, Abhimanyu are some warriors who, by the twist of fate (or should I say, were made to) lose their lives.
They say there is no emotion in this world which has not been dealt with in Mahabharata, and I don't mind supporting this view.

Back to the present:
Had my birth-day last sunday. I celebrated my birthday twice, once to welcome it and once to bid farewell (ya, and got bumped big time both the times-once by my hostel mates and once by my classmates :-D)
Got my mid term exams in a few days. My 2nd term results proved to be a bit better than my 1st term. Final placements are starting in another month, so the whole campus is gearing up for them (we, the first years, handle the whole of our senior batch's placement).

Sunday, January 15, 2006

The Bomb Hoax

Now that I have ensconced myself for enduring this biting cold weather, it is time I update what is happening (actually, happened) in my life for the past one month

Term 2-The Culmination
After a very busy pre-mids in term 2, our post-mids was surprisingly, and refreshingly much less hectic. Of course, I started to get a taste of what it is to be a freezer ;-). Holidays beckoned me with wide arms after our end terms concluded, and I was more than happy to embrace them.

Though it was a short break, the break was very rejuvenating for me. I went back to Hyderabad. After one and a half years, I met many of my IIT friends, both from other cities as well as those doing their MS away in the US. We welcomed the new year with pool, bowling and a party.

During our return trip to Lucknow, I had a hault for a few hours in Bhopal. I decided to do justice to the time by visiting a few places in Bhopal. I must say Bhopal immediately caught my good spirits. A neat city with a great potential of becoming a metro was my ending impression about it.

The Bomb Hoax
Now, for the real drama.
I boarded Pushpak from Bhopal to Lucknow. In our compartment, we found an unclaimed bag lying in the throughway. Though initially no one cared about it, someone pointed out that the bag was lying there unclaimed for more than an hour, and that it was also very heavy.

A commotion started in the compartment, and the TCE was called to check out the matter. Some dare devil sleuths including yours truly decided to open the bag and check out the contents. There were mixed suggestions about the adventure. Nevertheless, the TCE finally conceded to our request and allowed us to open the bag.

The Bag
We lifted the bag, took it to the end of the compartment, and started rummaging its contents. We had a shock of our life when we found that below all the garments in the bag, there was a circuit made of intricate wire connections and had some sort of bag below it. Every one immediately ran away from the bag.

Though, deeper analysis of the circuit revealed that it was the property of an electrician. It was a pre-connected circuit which was probably meant to be used for some machine.
We finally concluded our adventure deciding that the bag was owned by an electrician, who was perhaps stuck up some where else and could not collect his bag.

Back in 'ell
And guess how IIML welcomed me? With a temperature of 3-4 degrees in the morning, where I was just coming back from a place where the temperature was close to 20 degrees.
A hellish experience ensued the previous night, after our hoax incident, leaving me craving for warmth at the end of our train journey.

All this apart, I made a fresh beginning to the new term-both physically and mentally. The seniors' saying-"The worst part in IIML is over, in the form of Term 2" made me particulary relaxed.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Movie Reviews with a difference

After my mid terms got over, I decided to relieve myself by watching a few movies. It occurred to me, why not watch some science videos for a change. It was then that I watched a string of science videos. Here are some of them:

Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time
Hong Kong Airport
Pyramids-The Giza
Super Massive Blackhole

Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time: This is a documentary made on Stephen Hawking's very popular book by the same name. A picture is worth a thousand words? Watch this movie and you'll understand. The movie takes the viewer through the life of SH along with the discoveries made by him.
Ever Wondered: what Event Horizon is? (boundary of a black hole. Once you cross this, there is no escape)
What singularity is? (point where space and time cease to exist, which is the centre of a blackhole)
what happens if a person is sucked into a blackhole? (ever heard of fast forward of time?)
is the univ actually expanding? and will it contract again? (meaning will we rise from the grave and go back to the womb?)
For any astronomy enthusiast, these questions are bound to raise the curiosity levels

Hong Kong Airport: Can we blast mountains, create land, build the tallest two-railed bridge in the world, build underwater roadways, overhead highways over extremely busy roads, double deckered bridges, all for the sake of an airport? The Hong Kong guys thought they could.....and they did! And that too in a record time of 8 years where it was deemed impossible to do it in not less than 12 years.
This is a video that is bound to make the viewers drop jaws. The Hong Kong International Airport was built as a substitute for the crowded and infinitesimally small Hong Kong Airport already existing inside the city. As HK is an already overloaded city, it was decided that two small islands just outside the coast of HK will be levelled, joined and converted into airport land. It was also decided that the project will be completed before the 100 years treaty of UK with China expires, after which China will take over HK (back in 1998). Hence the work was begun for the airport in 1991 and was finished within 8 years

Pyramids-The Giza: This video takes the viewer through the building of Giza, the largest Pyramid in the world. The protagonist of the story is one of the masons, who devoted his life for the structure. Khufu, the king at that time decided that a structure has to built that will remain as the biggest structure ever built, hence embarked on this gargantuan task. After an integrated effort of close to 40,000 labourers, the structure is built, which consists of three chambers.
Unfortunately, the shine and glamour of the structure (because of its limestone covering) has been eroded through its lifetime. Apparently in its hey days, the structure looked as if it had a golden coating, especially when viewed during daytimes.

Super Massive Blackhole: Can you guess how the galaxies were created? Because of the super massive black holes (SMBHs). This video tells us that all the galaxies in this universe have their centres as super massive black holes. Ironically, the galaxies are created because of these black holes. Seems that once upon a time, there was only dust and gas (in astronomy parlance) whirling around blackholes. Slowly, the gas starts to revolve so fast around the black holes (in the process being sucked up) that it pushes the outer layers away. This results in the outer layers moving away from the control of these black holes, which in the due course of billions of years, form the galaxy.
So at the centre of all galaxies lie the dormant SMBHs, which given a chance, will eat away the whole galaxy. The next logical question will be: Will these SMBHs become active again? Accd to researchers, in a few billion years, the Andromeda galaxy is going to collide with our milky way and will result in utter chaos reawakening not one, but two SMBHs (remember, Andromeda also has a SMBH!).

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Manjunathan.....a Satyendra Dubey of IIML

B S Manjunathan, an alumnus of IIM Lucknow, was brutally murdered in a petrol bunk in UP. He was working for IOC and was on his duty at the time of his murder. The petrol bunk he was in was closed previously on the grounds of adulteration of petrol, as was declared by Manjunathan. On getting tip offs that it was re-opened, he reached the place to investigate the matter, only to get murdered.
This case similar to the murder of Satyendra Dubey , an IIT Kanpur alumnus, in Bihar. Manjunathan was murdered because he was doing his duty as per the IOC rules, while Dubey was killed because he was a whistle-blower in the Golden Quadrilateral project. Both of them stood up for their values and integrity.

What can anyone do about this?

The role of the media: For one, the media can do a lot about it. Media is so powerful that it can bring down governments or make a pauper into a page 3 celebrity. It should bring into its focus incidents like this and make the world know about it. The more the number of people who know about it, the more the possibility of someone doing something about it.

The role of the government: What can the government do if it itself is involved in it? Surprising? Bunk licenses are given by the government. Hence it is no wonder that this is a case where the bunk license was obtained with the concerned government official having a good share of his bribe. It now becomes mandatory for this person to stay quiet (if not support) the bunk's cause.
An increased transparency in government dealings with private dealers would be one step towards eradication of corruption.

The role of ourselves: So what can we, as helpless, powerless or voiceless we are, do? It is actually the reverse. We, as enterprising young bright minds of the country can do anything. Instead of satisfying ourselves with cushy corporate portfolios, we should lend a hand towards eradication of corruption, hence help in the progress of the country. Think in this direction and the path will automatically open up. There will be numerous instances in one's life where we actually add up to the corruption (if not at the receiving end, at the giving end). I am not asking for another "Indian", but only not to encourage corruption.

I feel we should always try to uphold our values, whatever the situation may be. If we have to sacrifice something in the process, we should be ready to do that. As a car cannot run far on adulterated petrol, so cannot a country develop on corrupt people.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

My Summer Internship @ Ernst & Young

I got placed in Ernst & Young for my summer internship due next year. My project will be in the TAS division of the company. I may get placed in one of Hyd/Bang/Chennai, though other options are not out of consideration.

It was a field day for all of us on Sunday. The placement processes were in full swing with companies having their own criteria and methods of selection. Some people got surprise shortlists, and some others who were expecting shortlists did not get them. Companies make sure they recruit students matching the profile they are looking for.

I need to mention specially about our seniors (second years). Hats off to them. They are the people who are running the whole show, managing all the processes without any hiccups. From liasioning with the company professionals to handling food and other necessities, it was a co-ordinated and integrated effort from the part of the seniors.

The placements this year have broken all previous records that were made at IIML. This could be attributed to two reasons:
1. An excellent overall job market scene in the country
2. A very good batch profile for the first years
A lot of companies have come to the campus for the first time this year, thus making it even more better for us.

It was a day of mixed feelings on Monday when the Slot One results were declared officially. Only a small portion of the batch got placed in this slot(which is the trend across all IIMs). Slot One saw a majority in financial companies, a lot of marketing companies being lined up for the remaining slots. It is only a matter of a few days before which everyone gets placed. In the end, everyone emerges as a winner.