Memoirs of my tryst with HoD!

It’s the last one week of my intern and I am already done with the much hyped Technical Presentation. With just a fraction of work remaining, I can at last heave a sigh of relief.
I never thought I would do such satisfactory “Analytical” work in Heat Transfer, the course in which I heavily messed up the End-Sems to pull out a C grade from the jaws of an ‘A’. No wonder that’s one Q-paper I preserve till date, for the sheer way it left me clueless and pretty jobless in that 3 hr endsem. Anyways I would diplomatically refrain from going into the details of the project which was psuedly titled “Analytical treatment of Circuit Breakers to study Heat Transfer in its components”… Cuz I very well know you don give a rat’s ass about my project and more so, what I did in it!!

Just about some 10 weeks back I remember I was this f***ed up, internless, hopeless, jobless, aimless, pathetic guy making my rounds to the HoD office every bloody morning in desperate attempts to get myself a decent intern. The GE offer letter was quite a surprise and left me thinking that it was too good for me!!! But going back and just imagining the daily torture I suffered in the hands of the HoD left little doubt in my mind about the same. This guy single handedly made a Hell hole out of my life. The b*****d had me doubting my own capabilities, with my self confidence already down in the drains. Some of his notable face to face Quotes include:

“I will make sure you get (the intern) at the end” with special stress on the END part!!!

“Don’t worry... people above you (CGPA wise) will get, people below you will get… then it will be your chance!!”

“Believe me!! I will get you a summer training!!” where?? In your patented company Guindy Machine Tools!!

“Why staying here (in insti)? Go home, we will intimate you as soon as you get an offer!!” When??? Well you sure must have meant next year dear Sir!!

Damn!! the lone mental picture of the guy still races my blood to boiling temperatures!
But the thing that matters: I got an intern, and a good one at that!!
Don’t they say:

Its only those tough enough to fight through the night (read HoD!!) shall stay to see the light of the dawn!!

Shailesh R Nadar
10:44 pm, Jul 21, 2008.

Mad Mad Bang Bang!!!--The tale of two cities!!

Its been 5 months since I last posted... I almost forgot I even had a blog. Sometimes life, in my case intern renders you so jobless you start writing again.
Life (mine) is as miserable or as happening or as rocking as it always was... the only thing that had changed is the location... It used to be Bombay, then it was Chennai, now its Bangalore.

I have stayed in Chennai for the past three years and here in Bangalore for two months.
Abt the things I like better in Bang.
1) Ultimate cool weather (Being a resident of Mumbai and studying in Chennai) I d never slept under blankets during summer!!
2) Wide footpaths... understandable development was late and hence more planned.
3) Though its not a problem for me in Chennai.. being a tam but ppl in Bang almost everyone understands Hindi(added advantage!)
4) Lot of decent neighbourhood to stay in and city is far better planned with whitefield being a completely indus area. and is blessed with possible expansion in all directions.

The things I miss:
1)Biggest and the Best--- The Campus... the hostel and the times of lying idly on your chair watching sitcoms!!
2) The down to earth bus fares... Used to paying Rs 5 from IIT to Chennai Central i.e. 12-14 kms or roughly 1 hr of travel time. It seems unfair to pay double that for one fourth the distance.
And the small private vans!!! well they suck big time.. they thrust in 40-50 ppl in a small van.. don the traffic police notice it.. Try doin that in Chennai!!!
3) The Beach... a stroll on the Beasant Nagar beach and you forget everything... Even the torture in the hands of the HoD, or even the way you wrote your open book Finite Element Method End sem.
4) Retail prices slysha cheaper than Bang(I aint sure abt this) and way way cheaper than Mumbai (which is unfairly costly) with comparable facilities and a added advantage of a clean Beach.
5) Though it wont seem at the first look... infra is surely better. I have never been thrown of my feet standing in a bus and hit my head on the roof of the bus anywhere else in India except in Bang.. Not even during the times of travelling in the crapiest of the buses in Chennai.
6)I am pretty sure(not fully though) in most of the buses in Chennai its written in English... but ironically and shockingly i hardly find any buses with a speck of english in Bang..
Finally,
Being a tam, I have a psychological attachment towards Chennai and an instinctive attachment towards Bangalore... and well home sweet home "Aamchi Mumbai".

Shailesh R Nadar
4:15 pm, Jul 12, 2008.

Campus (not) calling…Yet bye-bye Mumbai

So, it is time to bid good bye to home yet another time, Yet it was somewhat different from the last six times I left home..

Summer vacations are always difficult.. With three long months you become quite settled and develop a sort of ‘inertia’ and it tends to become difficult to move again.. Unlike winters in which u start packing again almost as soon as u completely unpack..

Still this time it seems different and unfortunately difficult. By the end of the hols there is always a sort of hollowness partially overshadowed by a sense of euphoria. Hollowness coz you are leaving home… And Euphoria coz the campus awaits… Towards the end (of the vacations of corz) the campus seems to call, and it really does, every single time except for this time..

I strain myself to hear, but it still doesn’t call, for reasons known to my brain but reasons which my mind refrains to accept… I know what awaits me!!! More pressure.., more tension… more responsibilities!! And above all, I take with me a mind already crammed with annoying possibilities and ideas. Damn!! The three months (or 78 days to be precise) seemed so simple, so smooth so welcome.

With barely 6 hours left before my train to Madras departs… I know I have little choice… I better know its bye-bye home for the next four months. A friend of mine says I always force on a smile on my otherwise expressionless face… I know that when I reach my hostel, I will force the same smile, only that it will take me more effort this time around…

Shailesh R Nadar
4:55 pm, July 23, 2007.

Letter to a betrayed mate(oops!!... sorry Prez.)

Dr Kalam,
This is Shailesh, from a corner in the western part of the country, one of the many young minds you successfully ignited!! I feel sorry for you deserved a much better sent off.... I feel sorry for you were ruthlessly betrayed. You were the best till now and in times to come. No wonder you flip-flopped.. you are a scientist after all and not a politician.. But great!! that you stood your ground in the end. Don worry about presidentship. You, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam being The President of the Republic of India was a honour to the post itself and not vice versa. You did what no one did... and probably would never be able to do as a president:
You won a billion hearts,
Inspired a billion minds.
But you were too upright to please the rotten rasculs of the Congress... Doesnt matter... for no one cares. The most coveted position in India has just become more coveted(for you had occupied it). Tommorow you may not be the President but will still remain the the only man who dreamt and taught us to dream of a Developed and a Better India. We love and respect you (as we would always do) becoz you are Kalam... not because you are the President.. Finally HATS OFF TO YOU Mr Kalam. I am proud to have walked the Earth with a man of your stature...
GO KALAM!!! YOU ROCK!!!

Regards,
Shailesh R Nadar

8:18 pm, 26th June, 2007

Breakfast… at Mummy’s

IIT till now has given me many things I never dreamt of, and made me something I never was, memories I will cherish all through life and blah blah blah c’mon u know what crap follows!!!

Bottom line- It has given me a lot (too many to name)!!!

But remember everything comes at a price, only that the price (or one of the many prices I paid) this time was my “breakfast”. Dats precisely wat happens when “the probability if u having breakfast” starts depending on factors like

- the time u wake up
- climate of the day
- food in the mess
- ur moood! and blah blah…

BIG DEAL!! U may think. But it has played a huge role in reducing my

already pathetic weight of 59 kgs by more than 9% (9.32 to be precise!) to 53.5 kgs in two years. That may seem insignificant to many.. but it took me 18 long years to gather those 59 odd kgs.

Big bro (until two years back) used to get scolded (a lottt!!) for matters regarding studies. But somehow I managed to beat him in the degree as well as the volume of the scolds for reasons ranging from ‘carelessness’ to ‘singing out loud’ (shouting- dats wat Dad says it is!) and ‘not bathing in time ’ to ‘idleness’ (see lil’ bro’s diversified family business!!). to the present hot topic for the last two weeks-

“Not eating properly back at IIT”

This blog is written out of the exasperation, anguish and guilt arising from the repeated interrogation and cross-examination (by Mom and Dad) about my eating schedule at IIT. Sometimes it becomes rather difficult with Mom (who is endowed with argumentative skills of a criminal lawyer) when she traps me with my own words!!

Will someone plz tell ‘em breakfast at mess, is not ‘steaming dosais with milagai podi (the best sidish ever known to mankind) coupled with neatly cut boiled eggs with the right amount of pepper and salt sprinkled and a glass of cold milk luring u to gulp it down.’

It is walking to the mess in the hot sun, standing in line with a steel plate eagerly hoping that the vadai would be less salty and the idlis will be a bit softer. Its hoping against hope that the sambhar would be less spicy and the puris would be less elastic. Moreover there is no ‘Mom’ standing beside to make sure, I eat every bit till the end.

Thats “mess” for you!! My friends!!
But…

For the next two months,
Mornings will be yummy!!

For I shall have,
Breakfast at Mummy’s…

-- Shailesh R Nadar

7:15 pm May 24, 2007.