31 Oct

Congress following the footsteps of the British – Divide and Rule!!

Congress following the footsteps of the British – Divide and Rule!!

Doesnt seem unnatural though, Italians are close friends of the British no doubt. But this is limits if Sonia Gandhi, of Italian origin wants to stick to the age old principles of the British of Dividing India into castes and Ruling over us. And we as usual are fighting amongst ourselves as they would most love it. What else can one say that the government is so hell bent upon introducing the quotas instead of such a huge outcry from the educated citizens all across the nation. We may never have seen such a huge uprising of the nationals since Independence.

I was totally enthralled by an illustration made by an imminent personality from the IIMs at a debate on a news channel last night. His words were- " Suppose a child has polio. He has no way out but to use crutches to make his way around. He is dependent upon those crutches for the rest of his life. What the government must plan to do is to organise mass immunisation drives to eradicate polio from its roots. But instead, what the government has decided to do is to let polio exist and spread, let more and more people suffer from it, and that we will provide crutches to the people suffering. This is what has been happening with the reservation schemes in the country till date. Instead of trying to eradicate the caste system and their backwardness from the very roots, we are helping them to stay backward and be dependent on the reservation system for the rest of their miserable lives."

What an example. Mind blowing. Hats off to you sir!!

Here are some amazing statistics that were also uncovered in the same debate by imminent personalities like the Former Director of IIT Madras, MBA Genius Arindam Chaudhauri. Over 60% of the seats reserved for SC/ST/OBC in premiere institutes go vacant every year. This because of the fact that inspite of the reservation, the students of these communities are not clearing the minimum passing marks for entrance. What a shame that atleast over 45 seats in IIT Chennai go vacant every year in the reserved category. What if those seats could have been occupied by someone in the merit category. We are spoiling many lives, careers, futures and the country because of this.

Another amazing statistic that I never imagined could be true – The last census that was made to actually find out the number of OBCs/SCs/STs in the country was way back in 1931 – that too conducted by the British. Right now no one knows how many OBCs exist in India today. And on these figures, and depending on a constitutional grant that was given out in 1964, the government is deciding to establish reservations in 2006 for the next 25 years!! Well hats off to those who maintained that file since 1931. I had absolutely no comment when I came across this, but was just able to give a mocking laugh.

What a pathetic state we are in. When will we ever grow up from this caste/religion/race/colour battles among ourselves and realise that the human brain is much more powerful than all that. And all humans are bestowed with a brain that is equally capable, no SC/ST/OBC reservations on brains made by GOD!!

31 Oct

My brother’s engagement

My brother’s engagement

My Bro was back from the US for a month on Holiday with Marriage/Engagement plans.

twas a hectic time, with sickness and lots of work to do and lots of gurls to check out for my bro, phew! I had one hell of a time.

At the same time I was caught up with this Student Ambassador Interview and The Inter College Fest Parichay and The Microsoft Student Projects Program Launch.

Totally worn out when the week ended 16th Movember! And my applications to US universities were taking their own time!

Finally we fixed up a girl for my bro (rather he fixed it for himself) and had his engagement on the 30th in a Local Mutt, attended only by the closest of kin

November 16, 2005

31 Oct

The Microsoft Student Ambassador

The Microsoft Student Ambassador

All of a sudden, the Microsoft Student Ambassador nominations were called in and 14 champs sent in their nominations. It was a couple of tense days till the list of shortlisted champs were announced.

5 champs were shortlisted for the interview round. I was one among them!

Tensions were high, no one knew wht the interview round had for us. Questions were being asked abt the interview, but no answeres were being given anywhere!

Finally,  the fateful day came, or rather the fateful evening. I had made no special preparations. I just landed at the Takt office in time for the interview. The interview was rather only a test of temparment to be an Ambassador than a test of knowledge.

WE were all advised to improve our tech skills since we are ambassadors – this gave us the clue that we were all thru!

And true it was, the next day,  we were all happy to see Kevin carry 4 Ambassador kits into the meeting room. Only the outstation guy was ousted due to his attitude. The rest four bangaloreans made it thru.

And good times prevailed… The princi was happy, my family was exalted, my name featured on the college notice boards.. was one week of a great time!

Check out my profile on the Microsoft Website:

http://www.microsoft.com/india/msdn/academia/Ambassadors.aspx

Sunday December 11, 2005

31 Oct

The TOEFL – One wasteful exam!!

The TOEFL – One wasteful exam!!

The TOEFL is one real cheap exam. I really wonder why universities actually ask for the TOEFL scores after we have got our great verbal scores from the GRE!!

Hardly a couple of hours of preparation and I was out with top honors! 227 – 283

November 11, 2005

31 Oct

A week long holiday!

A week long holiday!

Hindu ho ya Muslim, Deepavali ho ya Eid

Chutti Denge to ham sab tyohar manayenge!

It was a week long holiday! Thanks to the generous RNSIT Management, and the Education Board, which granted 4 days extra leave due to bad weather!

Yes Bad Weather in Bangalore, FLOODS to be precise.. I was so happy.. Finally some calamity in Bangalore, due to a minscule amount of rain.

And it was Deepavali, and i had lots of chores lined up to do! I had postponed so many chores due to my GRE and the Hands On Lab .. so got the time out to complete them.

Lots was happening on the Champ front, The Student Ambassador Nominations being called in, it was time for a Champ’s greatest recognotion. All the Champ’s nominated themselves with great enthusiasm and hope.

And of course – The Academic Projects and Imagine Cup 2006 Registrations being thrown open.. There was a lot of noise getting generated by the student developer community!

I painted the Store Room roof with a water proofing compound to prevent seepage. I made Pizzas on the occasion of Deepavali. Reviewed my dad’s stamp collection and stored them up in neat new boxes for later review. Phew!! This is one hell of a week. And still I am half done!

And still have my TOEFL on the 11th!! Have to prepare for that.

November 2, 2005

31 Oct

THE GRE – One Fateful Exam

THE GRE – One Fateful Exam

Date : 26th Oct 2005

One Fateful Day, I had spent over Rs 6.5k for this..  if it dint go well.. I would be shattered!

The day of the GRE. And you could call me the least prepared examinee! I was so unprepared that i wasnt even getting tense.

My friend too was taking it the same day. Her preparations were pretty much exhaustive.

Everything went well. The exam was over. I was a bit lucky, got lots of questions i had seen before. So i sailed pretty smoothly. And i was shocked to see an out of out score in Quant!! Unbelievable!

So the day went about bragging abt my high quant score to all my relatives and friends!

The next day –  Back to daily life again, it was Thursday, but luckily nothing to write for the Java Lab. It had been over a week since i last attended college. All my classmates congratulated me. I was elated.

October 26th, 2005

31 Oct

The .NET Hands On Lab

The .NET Hands On Lab

After long toiling in the College Computer labs and running around from pillar to post for getting things done for the BDotNETSTudent Hands On Lab on the 16th Oct. Two weeks i had spent for this. And ultimately we had just three labs instead of four since one lab did not configure properly.

And what next, I had to conduct the proceedings in one entire lab the whole day!! I had not prepared one bit for this. Thanks to Bhaskar, the Champ from PESIT, i could somehow manage three sessions through the day.

Since it was a Sunday, no faculty was coming. This got the Princi worried, since outside students were coming. SO he called up my place at 8AM to tell that he would be coming to college to start the proceedings. I was completely awed having my Princi call up my home!!

The events went on smoothly though we delayed the start a bit and overshot our time, it was a great day altogether

AT 6PM, it was all over, the Certificates were distributed, CD’s were given away, the labs were handed back to the incharge and we were done for the day!

The next day – The NEtworks Lab, writing its record and observation book, and the daily life resumed.

Wednesday November 2, 2005

31 Oct

The Joe Wilson Meet – Grand Ashok!!

Joe Wilson Meet

The preparations for the Joe Wilson meet had although started online long back.. all official planning was done saturday night.. and the champ meet extended till 9:30pm.. probably the longest we have ever stayed together… but it was great fun.. the whole crowd is coming up as a single friendly unit… Mom is out in mangalore so i was free to stay out late and so went with Sunil and Sharath for dinner and came home at 11…. And after all this.. all we had done was just the planning… we had our agenda laid out for the meeting with Joe Wilson… All work was to be done after or during the UG Meet on sunday…

September 24, 2005

31 Oct

Reservations & Quotas

Why do we need reservations for Backward castes and SC/STs in higher educational institutions like IITs and IIMs which are the nations pride and other Medical insitutes that are churning out world class doctors and engineering colleges that are producing renowned engineers and in other fields as well? 

Is it that god has given the people of the backward castes with lesser brains or that they are incapable of scoring in exams on par with others?

Well thats what the government seems to think. And the people of the backward castes are shamelessly dancing around that they will be reserved a seat in an IIM no matter what marks they get. It is such a shame to the Human race that the government is telling them that ‘you’ dont have brains and they are happy about it!!

If the government so feels, let it give financial aid to poor students. Let them pay the fees of the deserving students who have the brains but lack the finance to take up an MBA at an IIM. But why should merit always bare the brunt? That is only because the government is chasing after votes of the backward communities by luring them with pleasures like these. My message to the backward castes: It is not a favour they are doing to you, instead they are showing you down in comparison with the rest of the world. Do you like that?

The government doesnt want to provide financial aid to the poor students since they dont want to spend any money on these issues, because they want to keep the money for their own selfish guilty pleasures. What they dont realise is that in the long run, the nation is going to pay such a huge price that we will never be able to recuperate from the damage. INDIA is falling and unless we do something about it today, there is not much hope left for the educated in this country. Better book your tickets to US, UK, AUS etc..

We are not against the Backward castes. We are with them, and they do need the extra sops because they have been down trodden since the ages. But hey, that must be limited to school level. Once they finish school, they are as well educated as any in the world and as mature as to decide what they want to do in life. If they so want to become doctors, can they not compete with the masses and become legitimate doctors and get great name and fame to the country? Frankly, if you become a doctor through the quota scheme, then how long will you survive being a doctor, with no knowledge, no grasp of the subject and failing influence over your patients. I am not saying that doctors from the quota scheme are incapable, but the system itself has made them think that they are incapable and that they need the reservation in order to pass an exam. Message is, if you are from a backward caste and can read and comprehend this post, then better stop thinking that you are in anyway less than the others in the world and start competing because you can win, without the reservations.

Here is a classic example: VTU, Karnataka introduced a subject titled ‘The Consititution of INDIA and Professional Ethics’ to the 2006 batch of Engineers. It is definetly a great idea by the University to teach us what are our rights and what are our duties to the nation. But what they did with it is that they changed the scheme to an objective type with a 2 level grading system. You can either PASS or FAIL in it and the marks you get in that subject will not be revealed. Hence it became a trend that we study only for passing because we know that no matter how well we score or how bad we do, we will still reach the same goal as long as we get the minimum passing marks. Having this attitude, even the topper in the university will only concentrate on this subject as much as to pass it, since there is no point in trying to score a 100% when it doesnt matter one bit, eventhough he can score very well if he really puts his mind to it.

Get the idea? That is what has been going on with the Reservation system. The backward castes are guaranteed a seat or job provided they have very little marks compared to the others among the general merit. So if a student even wishes to study well and get good marks, he is stopped by the reservations telling him that it doesnt matter how much marks he gets, he will still succeed in gettin that seat or job. So why will he study?

Thats my point on the reservation system prevailent in the country. The government is dividing the students, who will be the future of the nation into castes and religions. WE stand in unity. Dont let this happen. We have a country to save. After reading this post, im sure even the backward community will support our cause.

31 Oct

Virtual Earth

Virtual Earth

Guys, Virtual Earth is here!!

Dont know what that is ???

Then i suggest you first check out this link: Local Live

Its the next generation to Google Earth! Why ??

Here are some tips to Why I recommend Local Live:-

Search What and Where

Unlike traditional online search engines, with Windows Live Local you can find information based on a specific location. You can search for both What (such as a specific business, a point-of-interest category like museums, or a type of store) and Where (such as a place name or an address), just What, or just Where. If you don’t specify a location, Windows Live Local filters your search results based on the current map view.

Use the Search Results Panels

Search results are displayed in search results panels on the left side of your screen and as pushpins on the map. The title bar for each search results panel is the same color as the pushpins for those search results, so you can quickly see which pushpins belong to which search results list. By default, you’ll see up to 10 listings at a time in the search results panel. To see no more than five results at a time, change the setting in the Options panel.

Get Details About a Listing

Search results show up as pushpins on the map and in a search results panel on the left side of your screen. The color of the pushpins matches the color of the title bar of the corresponding Search Results Panel. The number of each pushpin matches the corresponding listing. For each listing, you can view a pop-up that contains abbreviated information and a printable details page that contains more in-depth information.

Get Directions

You can get driving directions from any point on the map to any other point on the map. The Start and End points can be street addresses or specific points. The route and directions are displayed in Windows Live Local, and you can e-mail them or print them out for offline use.

Using Bird’s Eye Images

Bird’s Eye images provide a high-resolution, low-angle aerial view of a small area. Each image covers a specific area and has two zoom levels. Unlike the Aerial and Road map styles, Bird’s Eye images do not provide continuous coverage.

Change the Map Style

With Windows Live Local, you’re not limited to a basic road map. You can see the world from a variety of viewpoints. You can choose from the following map styles:

  • Road map—A typical street map style that shows streets, highways, landmarks, and so on.

  • Aerial photo (labels)—An aerial photo map that shows buildings and other geographic features as they are seen from space, but also includes labels for streets, highways, and landmarks. The default Aerial photo style includes labels.

  • Aerial photo (no labels)—A standard aerial photo map without any of the labels—just as you would see the world from space.

  • Bird’s Eye—A brand-new, low-angle, very high resolution view of locations all across the United States. Now you are no longer limited to seeing the tops of buildings—you can see the sides of buildings from up to four different directions!

  • Creating a Custom Pushpin

    You can create custom pushpins in Windows Live Local to show specific locations. These pushpins are added to your Scratch Pad and you can share them with other people.

    Use the Scratch Pad

    You can use the Scratch Pad to save and share your search results, addresses, and custom pushpins that are most interesting to you.

    Printing Routes and Directions

    You can print your route and driving directions from within Windows Live Local by using the Print Options page. This page allows you to customize the amount of information to print. To open the Print Options page, first create a route. From the Directions pane, click print.

    Create a Permalink

    A permalink is a permanent URL that encapsulates the current state of your Virtual Earth browser window, including your map view, the map style, zoom level, open searches, and Scratch Pad contents. Creating a permalink is a great way to save and share your Windows Live Local experience.

    You want an example:

    Here is a birds eye view of the Statue of Liberty

    Now isnt all that just too COOL!!

    Then why are you still reading this post. GO ahead and explore the world, from your desktop!

    PS.: Virtual Earth is presently limited to only US and Canada maps only. More areas are being added constantly and you can be seeing Asia and INDIA by 2007!

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