PUZZLED????!!!!!

26^th January, 2008

Time: 9.00 a.m.

Place: My home.

Situation: I’m still sleeping happily on my bed and my mom is busy with work. After some 5 to 10 minutes she comes to me and wakes me up. I get up go to the wash room, brush my teeth and come to the living room. My dad was not getting ready for office and after a moment I realize that it’s a national holiday (Indian Republic Day). Great. All family members at home. After that have breakfast, have a bath and all that daily routine.

Time: 12.00 noon.

Wow. Its republic day plus weekend, so special programs on TV. Saw 2 movies simultaneously.

Time: 4.00 p.m.

No nice program on TV. So boring.. ok lets sleep now..

Time: 6.30 p.m.

Get up again and have some snacks and again sit before tv.

Time: 11.00 p.m.

Ok. Enough of TV now and I retire to bed. And when I lie on my bed that I start thinking about it, it was my country’s republic day but I behaved as if it were any other holiday. Was it fair on my part? Don’t I love my country? Yes, I do. But why then, didn’t I feel the day as special? Was I being to selfish and concerned only about me, myself and my family? Or was I behaving similarly to what people call Gen Next??

On 26^th January, 1950 our constitution came into existence and our 1^st president took his position on that day. And every year after that a grand parade is held in New Delhi, and the president takes the salute from the different regiments of the army, navy and air force. And all this celebrations are covered live by different channels these days. Is this day all about hoisting flags in government offices and special programs on TV? Every one would say No.

Then what should we be doing? Should we just sit idle and talk about the greatness of those leaders who sacrificed their lives for the independence or should we just forget about the past and get along with our daily lives as usual? I thought about it for a long time but I dint get any answers for my questions.

I’m an INDIAN by heart and am proud to be one. But, why then do I feel this bemused and totally at lost of thoughts as to how I should be celebrating republic day. I do realize the importance of the day but I don’t feel like celebrating it. May be doing my work sincerely and thus contributing to the growth of the country will mean in the true sense celebrating it. Or may be if I help the needy, or if I free a child laborer, or contribute to the education of a poor student, may be then will I feel like celebrating that day.. Till that period of time I think I will have to sit like this and think about how to celebrate the republic day..

MERA BHARATH MAHAAN..

PROUD to be INDIAN..

WORDS

Words, words and words all around. Words, they can do wonders. They say silence is divine but I feel otherwise. Silence may suit to only some situations but may prove contrary in many other. Words on the other hand have the power to change hostility to friendship and vice-versa

Words of affection can save a dying man or at least give him happiness before dying.

Words of concern boost the morale of a person.

Words of inspiration can make a person win a losing battle.

Words of love can repair a broken heart.

Words of spirituality can bring back the belief in ones’ self.

Words of cheer can lessen the grief of a person.

Words of praise help us to put in more effort into a job.

Words of guidance show the right path to those wandering aimlessly.

And last but not the least

Words provide a best way to let out ones’ feelings; be it happiness or sadness.

The 'ALMIGHTY'

When you are happy, you thank him.

When you are sad, you blame him.

When you are in fear, you remember him.

When you are in grief, you pray to him.

Yes, I’m talking about GOD. I just don’t know if he exists or not and I don’t know whether I believe in god or not. But one thing I believe is that god is nothing but ones’ own consciousness. When we do something wrong, we feel guilty and this feeling makes us fear that we’ll be punished by god. And when we help others we feel good about it and feel that we are blessed.

In spite of all the efforts put in by man some things are not in our hands, it may be luck or something else. But it’s a fact that some things are beyond our control and we believe that those are handled by god. God is nothing but the belief that someone is there beyond, helping us, guiding us in the right path, punishing us for our sins. This belief may be beyond ones’ reasoning capability, but what’s the harm in believing it when it doesn’t hurt anyone.

One thing I don’t understand is why people fight in the name of religion. What any religion teaches is to have faith in god and pray for your sins, but not to fight with others. For me, all religions are one. Each religion may have its own way of praying to god, but all religions teach us good things. Hinduism is about idol worship which teaches us to close our eyes and meditate before the idol and confess our sins. Islamism teaches us discipline, Christianity teaches us the happiness in sacrifice. Each is different in its own way but the underlying motive behind every religion is to love all and help all.

Even if a person is an atheist, during his lifetime at one point or other he/she would believe in god. Being a theist doesn’t mean sitting for hours together and praying for god. It means doing things sincerely and helping others to the extent possible..

After writing this post, I still don’t know if I believe in the existence of god or not. But even after this discussion when I go to a temple I just close my eyes and pray. And I know that god lives in that belief.

Happy Days...

Engineering, a period of just 4 years which leaves memories worth a life time.. It’s that period of time when we come out of our teens and start becoming individuals with our own views and interests, that period of time when we start knowing the world beyond ones’ home and college, that period of time where we find friends for our lives, that period of time where we need not study hard and get ranks, that period of time when we can bunk classes and sit and have long discussions with friends on useless topics. Its truly the golden period in a students’ life.

My engineering days were also filled with fun. These days gave me loads of memories some were good, some were bad, some sweet and some sour. But when I look bac to those days I love each and every moment of it and I’m thankful to all my friends fr giving such memories..

First year in college.. getting used to new environment.. making new friends.. tensed about what seniors ll make us do as a part of ragging.. enjoying the physics and chemistry labs by doing anything but the experiments.. being caught by seniors and doing all weird things.. those drafting classes where we used to draw everything with just a scale and pencil instead of using all the apparatus needed.. cracking jokes on seniors.. imitating the lecturers.. then come exams immediately followed by results.. comparing with others and feeling bad or good…the best part of year was the freshers’ week where we played games which we played in our childhood.. the freshers’ party.. the first time I went out with my friends to the exhibition and bargained fr everything.. and again exams and the first year was over very soon..

Second year.. the feeling that we were seniors and need not be afraid of anyone.. the fun we had in electrical labs.. started giving birthday parties.. ragging the juniors.. the lumbini park experiences.. the musical greeting card which dint stop singing in de sir’s class.. started copying for internals for the first time in our lives.. being scolded by shiva reddy sir.. one by one cell phones started emerging in everyone’s hands.. music and maths clubbed in m-III class.. those classes where we pretended listening to classes but were actually chatting this and that.. the tension for answering viva.. the ds lab exam, which I and bunny did very badly.. going to saris home fr completing mp lab report and all those incidents thr.. partying after last exam.. the fights for organizing the freshers’ party.. the tour, which I couldn’t go.. those stalls which we maintained for the infinty..

Third year.. started with my bday.. fun in cg class or as a matter of fact all classes.. gre’s of friends.. bookings fr vishnu’s notes.. sitting in the bus stop and chatting fr hours.. copying the sql queries frm one another and showing to sabitha mam.. alc exam.. never before seen violence of vitnu, fights with ushi, less speaking but more friendly sari, laughing over silly jokes by mature girl rani, as usual chatting and making funny jokes which weren’t funny with bunny, pony games with ansi, teasing sessions by rag, kewl comments of suj, punches by santh.. loads of incidents in this year.. almost everyone had cells now.. exchanging mesgs during classes..going out for movies.. all those seminars in seminars in the seminar hall.. erudites meetings.. frequent pani puri eatings.. chandramukhi effect and the cooking experiments in my home.. coachings fr cat.. preparations fr samanvaya.. organizing infinity2k7 .. giving farewell to seniors..the hurry to complete wp lab project..

Final year.. Preparing fr placements.. getting jobs.. parties all the time.. no studies.. problems with adjusting to new hod.. ram kumar sirs lectures filled with anthusiasm.. fun during internals.. longing to get dream jobs.. dreaming about the salaries we would get.. missing sac.. antakshari sessions between all girls in the lab.. scoldings from sudha mam.. sitting in the classroom fr hours and chatting… the rush fr uml lab reports and the happiness on sirs face when he saw all of us giving reports.. enjoyment in vitnus home.. photo sessions.. canteen meetings.. frequent visits to po..and some more yet to be revealed by time..

Many more memories exist some I’m unable to recollect at this time, some which I don’t want to reveal. These are the “happy days” in my life which’ll never come back, but ll always be remembered. One sentence to conclude this post aptly..

“ENGINEERING LIFE ROCKS.”

Journey to DELOITTE

After finishing engineering everyone would like to get a job and settle in life. I was no exception. In this cut throat world of competition let me put in words my journey from dreaming for a good job to getting a good (if not the best) job.

3^rd year 1^st semester: The placement season had just begun for my seniors. With each day passing there were a number of surprises and shocks. Some people whom I thought will be ending up in good jobs dint and unexpected people got great jobs. This was the time we came to know about the procedures of written test and interviews and many other things that mattered in the process of getting a job. The semester passed leaving all of us with little bit of information.

3^rd year 2^nd semester: No sooner did the semester start we all started getting tensed and consulted our seniors as to how to prepare to get a good job. The first thing most of them did was buying puzzles by SHAKUNTALA DEVI. It was considered as a guide to write the written test of ‘infosys’. And the next book which ought to be with everyone was word power made easy by Norman Lewis, not to mention the quantative and verbal ability books by R.S.Agarwal. By the end of the semester almost all of the students ended up buying atleast 2 if not all of those books. Then around in mid march we had a two day workshop by tcs and career launcher guiding us in the preparation. Cl people also conducted a mock written test which I did horribly. Though the test was conducted to boost our morale and make us accustomed to the pattern of tests, it proved otherwise. It was after two days that we learned that not only individual performances but the performance of the whole department was well behind the other departments. The scene, however was opposite in the actual placementsJ

Then came SAMANVAYA 2007. It was an event organized by the placement office and the seniors. It consisted of technical and hr interviews. Though I did well in the hr, my technical interview was quite horrible. This left me pretty confused as to how I will be doing in the main interview.

Holidays: Though generally holidays were meant to be full of fun these holidays were different as immediately after them, our placement season would begin. I wondered whether it was because of the tension or because of a habit of getting used to studying 1 or 2 days before exam, I dint study that well. What all I did was revising C, C++ and java. But I was a bit confident that if I could clear the technical round, I could clear the hr round.

July 12^th, the first day of placements:

Finally the D day. Visiting company: Infosys, cts. Though I wanted to take the tests of both the companies, I just wrote the written test of cts. Being a student of the prestigious osmania university everyone told me that there was a guarantee of getting a job, so why not try for getting a better one. And that’s the reason why I did not attend the interview process of infy.

As expected I got through the written test of cts. The interview process would be on the following day. So I sat in the assembly hall waiting for the written test result of infy. Most of my friends got through the test as well.

13^th july, the day of interview:

As was the case with everyone I was much tensed. The interviewer asked me both technical questions and some puzzles. After the interview I felt that I did considerably well and I was waiting for the results to be announced which was to be done in the evening. The results were preceded by the placement officer. He first announced the results of cts. The whole auditorium fell silent and a couple of minutes later the whole list was read out and My name was not there. For a few seconds I went blank and then I told to myself that there a number of companies left and I could get a better job. And when I turned around I saw a number of disappointed faces. No one talked except for the ones who got selected. It was followed by the announcements of the results of infosys. By, the end of that day around 160 people was placed and the rest were left there jobless and thinking about what might have went wrong.

Then came wipro which I dint attend, which was followed by DeShaw and co, which was considered as the best job(had to be coz the pay is 10.04 lacs). I dint get through the written test and it recruited just 3members.

The next company was Intergraph. I dint know much about the company and was completely confused as to whether to attend the interview process of the company or not. Finally I decided to attend and took the test. I got through the written test and went to attend the interview in their office the next day. The first round was a technical round. There were two interviewers and they asked me questions on almost all subjects I read till then. After coming out of the room I felt that I dint do the interview to the level expected and I thought I may not be called for the next round. But, to my surprise I was called and I did my hr discussion well and I think the balance turned in favor of me when I told them what I knew about the company. This was followed by a round of both technical and hr questions. The day ended leaving me in both minds as to my performance in the interview. The results were announced the next day and I was one among the 3 students, the company recruited. I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy coz I got a job and sad bcoz I couldn’t sit for all the companies from now on. The next company which I could attend is analog devices, and I couldn’t clear the written test of it.

Oneday in mid august:

Visiting company: Deloitte.

This company was well known and many students applied for it. Of around 300 students who wrote the written test, only 26 were short listed for the interview and luckily I was one of them. The first round of the interview consisted mostly of hr and a little bit of technical questions. The second round was full of technical questions. My first round went on very well and the second round was very bad. After having finished my interview, I had to wait for about an hour for the others’ interview to complete. And finally the results were announced. Only 6 members were recruited and the representative from the company started reading out the names. 1. 2. 3. 4. and the 5^th name was mine. Everyone sitting beside me started congratulating me. It took a few minutes for the news to sink in and I was elated. I got a job which many considered as a dream job and I was very very happy as it was a job which my dad wanted to me to get into. And now, after nearly 5 months from that day I still feel happy and am really proud to be given a chance to be a part of “DELOITTE”. I still have to wait for another 4 months to really know how it is being an deloittian and till then I ll enjoy my engineering life thoroughly..