Vijay Chidambaram V

Moved!

2007-01-31T21:10:00.000-08:00

Blogger SUX! Their Blogger bot deleted my blog five times! :( Plus they dont enforce security on their domain names - someone was able to redirect my blog address to point to a stupid ad site!

So i`ve shifted to WordPress. It has even more features than Blogger, like Widgets! My new blog can be found at thevc.wordpress.com . See you there!

Kurukshetra 07

2006-12-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

Kurukshetra 07

It started like this. We at CEG wanted to start an event that would encompass all departments, all branches and start something different from what was already existent. What we decided on was we wanted to create a synthesis of engineering techniques, skills and thought processes, for while engineers think differently from doctors and scholars what is more important is that engineers think differently from each other as well. How a mechanical engineer approaches a problem is vastly different from how lets say a civil or computer science or an electronics student would perceive it. We wanted to create a stage nay a battlefield for the exponents of various engineering techniques to showcase their skill, their stamina, their drive to win for what can be better for the engineering community as a whole but a test of strength, a test of character, a test of will. The name Kurukshetra practically chose itself for the event. Like any proper war there will be a lot of smaller battles. These battles are going to take place in the areas of MODELLING,DESIGN,PRESENTATIONS,SOFTWARE QUIZ and MANAGEMENT. The mother of all batlles is going to be in ROBOTICS of course.As you can see our battle arena includes a nice blend of tests. There are not only the events where you are expected to get down and dirty, sweat and make things work;but also events where you are expected to be suave and poised and cool and calm. Kurukshetra tests not only your qualifications as an engineer it also tests your resolve to be one and your qualifications to be a representative of the engineering community to the rest of the world.

MODELLING opens you to a world of creativity- the chance to do a Cindrella act if you will(You ofcourse would be the Fairy Godmother!!). Take the junk given to you and fashion something useful from it and u have got it made in modelling. You think that is too easy fine then come up with your own product and bring it to real life.DESIGN will test your knowledge of curves and lines. You think your a Ford in the making then head over to Kurukshetra and we will see if you measure up. You have a new design for a water powered rocket or do you swear by CAD when it comes to designing? If the answer to that is yes then you know where to be from Jan 4th - 7th.

Are Robots your cup of tea? DO you have a BOT that is versatile, that can wrestle, that can race, that can find its way through a maze?? or Would u like to make one?? Then head over to CEG from 4th to 7th of Jan next year.Budding Professors in the making, Innovative Social Workers, The Messiah to Industries who is going to solve their problems. Are you any of these? Do you have a cogent manner of representing your ideas and concepts? If yes come and impress our judges and walk away with huge cash awards. IF your answer is no, well come anyway and learn from the masters how it is done!!

Software is making it big in the world out there - Fact. Well our online programming contest is guaranteed to grip you and haunt you. Try it!! Or if a little B&E is what you have in mind then try our Access Denied and show the security experts who you are!!Circuit Debugging masters, people who have an amazing amount of physics stored upstairs, people with a penchant for coming up with crazy,complicated solutions to simple problems - you have found a safe haven here. Come, Participate and Win in our TECHCHALLENGE.

Quiz - the first open quiz in the history of this 200 yr old college(The K! Open Quiz) and the only individual event in the entire 4 day event(The Lone Wolf), make this "a sure to be" truly memorable eye catcher. Come and get a piece of the action. You think you know more about the words Bull and Bear than zoologists!! You think you can pull a chestnut out of the fire?? Have you been tempted to play the market but have not had the capital?? Well Dalal Street is for you then. Try our stock market simulaton event and you will swear by it for sure. You think you have the panache, the suaveness, the skill to market your products to anyone in this world?? Well here is your chance. Sell your plans and products to our judges and walk away with pockets overflowing!

Well No symposium is complete without Workshops and Guest lectures and Kurukshtra is no different. Come to Kurukshetra and interact with top professionals and veterans from various branches of engineering and management. Listen to the GURUS tell you what to do. Glean all you can from them for they are sure to make you a better engineer more than anything else.

All work and no play makes a Jack a hebetudinous boy. We wouldnt want that now would we!!. So to spice up life we have the TECH HUNT(that is a technical treasure hunt that guarantees to keep you in a heightened state of excitement). We also have ALCATARAZ(try breaking out from the hell-hole that we push you into with your brains and raw knowledge that you possess as your only tools of redemption).Get back to the basics and have some fun. Try our gaming section if the processor up there gets heated up. Do you dream about being a mayor of a city or a superhero ?? Well then here is your chance to be both!!

Well, people all we have left to say to you is "FALL TO THE MATTRESSES".The rules of engagement are simple.This is a No Holds Barred, Winner Takes All war.
Let the Battle Begin!!!!
For further information contact - http://www.kurukshetra.org.in/

My Life!

2006-11-26T00:43:00.000-08:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.8
Mind:	6.1
Body:	7.1
Spirit:	4.2
Friends/Family:	4.7
Love:	2.9
Finance:	7.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Wake up CS!!

2006-11-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

I was recently talking to Sivaguru on what an absolute waste this sem has been [well, not counting 30 odd problems at acm :)]. All we did was study and that too in a very very laid back manner. Both of us agreed that studying was one thing best left to the AB Batch. They`ve got people who`ve made it their life mission in get geth cgpas. Well we have our very own Raghuram but whats one guy compared to fifty odd people all bent on merciless academic domination!:P

We did have our projects this sem - but both projects were none too technical - just above average! And compared to some legendary projects that have been done by our seniors, what we did was absolutely nothing! We really need to improve our technical knowledge..

We were talking about what our seniors had done in our semesters- from Lenin anna who wrote a new compression algorithm to our present fourth years who had already started rocking the world of online programming contests!

I was going through a few of my seniors blogs and sites and i was totally amazed. Total information overload! I knew my seniors were cool but i didnt imagine they were this cool.
Consider Prashanth Mohan. He`s created a software that allows people to pool their internet access times and thus maximize usage of free downloads of everybody`s account. Awesome!!

Another amazer, is Ravi Shanker. Placed already in Yahoo!. He`s developing a Judge for the online programming contest in a language i`ve never heard of till now. And i`m supposed to be the nerd! :P

So Siva and I have resolved to do something technical this sem - lets see how long this resol stands :P. And to all the mega- padips in AB Batch( though its unlikely in the extreme that they`ll ever read this ), WAKE UP! Cgpas are not the only things that matter - you may have extreme brain power but that isnt going to help u **** when ur going to be placed! So apart from the spirit of CS and all that, do it for your own careers! CS is one amazing stream where u literally learn your trade - evything u do here is gonna reflect in your career. So please wake up!

B.A.C.K!

2006-10-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

After getting the blogger people to restore my blog two times( their server keep deleting my blog accidentally :p ) and changing the site redirection from some wierd church site, I`m finally back with my blog! To all the people who actually missed my blog( and actually told me so), thanks a lot!

Today was Sparks 2006, and it was absolutely amazing. I initially had my doubts about my juniors but i was absolutely blown away by the amount of hard work and effort that they put into Sparks( the news of which, incidentally, i got from Sivaguru and Nitin, since i was too busy with Brain Scan to get into Sparks this year ). Sparks was an amazing success and we had a record participation - over 800 students from various schools in and around Chennai registered for the events! This was no mean thing, for they had to beat our set`s record 453 turn out( which we managed even in the dingy MBA Audi - [ for outsiders, thats about a quarter of the size of the audi they got today] ). Kudos to the Juniors!

And since the semester is almost gonna close, i`ll make my usual statements - this sem was ok, but not as good as the prev ones :). Learnt a lot about people this sem. How to manage people who irritate u like hell. How to manage people u dont like. How to manage the people u like too much ( this one`s esp hard :) ) How to manage people u like but who dont like u and how to manage people who u dont like but like u! This sem`s been all about relationships and the complex webs that result thereof. [ Refer to Srikant for his famous A,B,C,X,Y,Z theory on realtionships with gals :D]. Had lots of really bad mood swings this sem - causeless periods of undefined depression. Was talking to a senior about all this yesterday - his advice "free ya vidu" !

Then i realised how much being close to a event kinda clouds your judgement.. sometimes u need to step back and look at the bigger picture - Looking at which, I had a lot of fun this sem! :D. Organising Brain Scan, going to Shaastra ( a lot of my class guys went to that for "fringe benefits" - ask Nitin and Srivatsan(M) for detailed explanations :p ), getting involved in Kurukshetra and thoroughly making a mess of life in general!

P.S If on reading this, u understood nothing , don`t worry. Even i cant understand what i've written on reading through it again. But for those close friends who do, thank god i have u guys!

Oh, for Medieval Times!

2006-04-16T03:16:00.001-07:00

Of late , i`ve been dreaming and wishing for the medieval times to be back. Yes, u heard me right - the times of war, dictatorship and the slash and burn. Of late i`ve been so disillusioned with all the hypocrity, the ego , the backstabbing and just plain meanness of this world that i think it wud be paradise living in the old times. The single greatest thing i love about those times is that they called a spade a spade. Here, we have so many versions of hypocrisy that it becomes diff to follow! Worse still is the fact that people believe that they are being actually clever in being a hypocrite! I asked a friend of mine, he said that noboby does thing the straight way these days and that i`m also not expected to!!

I hate these snide hints that people give each other. In the olden times, people knew their borders - if they were close to a guy , they asked him outright for favors, and if they were`nt , they didnt. But today.. people ask u stuff as if its a huge boon for u to help them! What is wrong here?

What was bravery in those times is foolishness today. Honesty and frankness is out of style. The two things i loved best about those times was Honesty and Chivalry. One of my friends again suprised me one day "Don`t u know chivalry is dead?". Is it?

One more thing i loved about those times was that everybody had a purpose - everyone had their assgined jobs, and they did this to best of their ability. Today? Doing their best is the last thing on anybody`s minds.. i dont mean that one shud be the best in what one did.. but at least one shud have a passion for what one does..

One thing i lack is the ability to sense when people mean one thing when they mean another. I`ve been trying to get this skill for some time now, but no matter what, i always end thinking something while the other person "means" another! I totally dont understand the concept of "leading upto stuff", "hinting stuff","since i said this, i meant this"!! Why cant people just talk straight for some time!! :)

On reading this again, i find that i started with one topic.. but ending with quite another. Hope i make sense.

And thanks to Smrithi for this really novel way of a postscript!

Of Books And Music

2006-03-27T03:29:00.001-08:00

Books and music have always had a lot of influence on my moods and beliefs.. Books in particular have always had the ultimate effect on me.. I would read a book, and it would totally change my mood.. A good book would leave its impact on me for at least a week... Each time i read a book, i totally identify myself with the main character.. You should ask my friends, how involved i get when i read a book :).. I wud adopt some of the beliefs of the character.. It wud kind of change me..

Since childhood, my idols, role-models have always been literary characters, rather than real life.. Holmes, Dumbledore,Ruzhyo.. all magnificient characters.. I have always felt within each of these characters was a perfect way of living a kind of life.. each different, but perfect..

I treasure books.Ya, I`m a GRADE A certified bookworm! Proud of it! Books have always been my release..

Movies are another story altogether.. I`m not a movie buff. I dont eagerly wait in line for the next movie and see it first day, first show. Yet, movies have this profound impact.. to me, the dialogues and the sound track carry the whole impact of the movie.. My fav movies have all made this HUGE impact on me.. Lord of The Rings, The Matrix, Gladiator,Ocean`s Eleven( and Twelve), Kaaka Kaaka, Padaiyappa..

I loved the Lord of the Rings for the principles it denotes.. these are not seen on such a scale today..

The Matrix for the way neo comes back.. to me thats the ultimate expression fo hope...

Gladiator again for the principles.I LOVED the soundtrack in the film, the soundclip at the last is one of the most peaceful i`ve ever heard..

Ocean`s Eleven and Twelve- partly for the comedy and for showing Life is a challenge.. I LOVED the dance across the laser field in second film. Awesome!

Kaaka Kaaka - for the beautiful way it shows love.. and for jyothika`s character in the movie.. Ultimate romantic film for me.. I watch the clippings again and again and again..

Padaiyappa - This i love just for the super star..A classic rajni film, its got so much of his style that i love.. And for the "MINSAARA KANNA" song - ultimate!

P.S Watched too less films this sem. Maybe thats why my life feels out of balance! :)

P.P.S People who read this post, please comment! I need to know if u think i`m a raving lunatic :)

The Second Sem - What happened to the magic?

2006-03-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

Well, the second sem started in a pretty normal way with the usual classes and labs. We didnt even have to shift much- our new classroom is in the main building itself. The great change came about in the form of the Saturday classes - a curse to our carefree lives. We were`nt able to go for movies, etc. The days became hectic.

In my new class, the only friend from the great F batch was Vinod. The class was full of hostelers ( about 85%). Worst of all, there was Raghuram in my class - the guy(!) who always studies(literally). The guy comes to coll with 10 kg worth of books everyday - u cud develop your muscles lifting his bag! And he`s always studying and worse , expects everyone else to be like him. All he knows about are studies and marks and uh, statistics!

No wonder the days didnt seem to go by quickly. Another huge thorn was our English class. Ask around in my class and u will find the level of unbridled enthusiasm(!) we have for this class and our wonderful teacher! Other than that, the other teachers were ok and math madam was superb!

Gradually, we developed into a group- Sivaguru, Srikant, Srivatsan,Sanjay and myself. About them:

Srikant - This is one guy who is always cracking jokes. Around him, u just cant be glum. His brain is top-rate (esp digital design- how do u do it da?). On the off side though, there is his sick sense of decency..

Sivaguru - This guy is one role model for how u want to be. He studies well, has great sense of humor and doesn't go after gals. He is THE MAN if u consider quiz..esp sports quiz..

Srivatsan - This tall, thin guy is an example of walking, talking math - u cant beat him at it. He is well known for putting mokkai incessantly( we think this is a trait of those from his school... ex:sunil..). Besides that, he is very jovial and always helps his friends. A guy with a lot of connections..

Sanjay - The gentleman. This guy is soft spoken and smart and amazingly brilliant. He has this quirky sense of humor that is.. well.. hilarious. His one minus point is his tendency to worry about marks( after -effect of sitting near Raghuram?)

One minus point of hanging out with these guys is ppl think u r brilliant - one prime ex is our e-mech class. Siva and Srikant wud do the probs and by virtue of sitting between them.. so wud I :). The diff is they know how to do the prob while all i know is how to copy really fast..

The other two ppl who made a great impact on me this sem is Nitin Natarajan and Narayanan(Nari for short).Nitin is this guy who though an nri, doesn't act like one( now dont ask how an nri acts..) He`s brilliant at sports, volleyball in particular.. and is very keen on sports quiz and music..

Nari is an enigma - u try and try to understand him .. and u cant. Everytime i think i reasonably know him.. he goes off and does something completely reverse.. I thought he was a silent guy.. u shud have seen him at the freshers.. :)

I managed to see three movies this sem [ :( ] - paramasivam,aathi and Kalvanin Kadhali - only the latter was at a theater with frens.. paramasivam was ok, aathi was bad and KK was worse!

Whats wrong with this sem is that unlike the last sem, when i managed to balance both acads and fun( thnx to lenin anna), this sem, i find myself not doing both.. The second sem is simply not as much as fun as the first!

The Treat

2006-02-26T06:07:00.000-08:00

Long live Yahoo groups! The group I had started in Yahoo groups, 2005ceg, has crossed 150 members! The moddies of the group, JK,Hari,Rahul and I decided to celebrate! So we went to adyar.. and gorged on delicious food till we could eat no more! The photos follow..

2006-02-26T06:03:00.000-08:00

Jayakarthigayan(JK) and Hari at the treat..

2006-02-26T05:50:00.001-08:00

At the treat..:)

2006-02-26T05:48:00.000-08:00

Manick doing it in one gulp..

The First Semester - looking back

2006-01-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Time flies so fast – the first semester is already over! It was absolute fun!

Semester started on August 18th. I remember our very first class very well – it was Engineering Graphics (EG). Mr.Parthasarathy took our first class – in the beginning it was fun, he asking us lots of questions and getting enthusiastic responses from us. But the professor droned on and on and on, not getting anywhere near the subject. Finally, five minutes before lunch, he told us that what he had told us was an “abstract intro” to engineering graphics!

From then on, college got better and better – I met Hari, a real gem of a person. Hari and I soon became friends. If it were not for him, some periods of college would have been unbearable. The next lucky thing that happened was the Pathfinder programme organized by the Student Quality Club (about the only good thing they did all semester). It was there that I first saw Lenin Ravindranath – the fourth year college topper who has influenced my life so much. After the meeting, I went home and checked out his profile on the net – it was amazing. He had found the perfect balance between work and play. Till then, my idea about college was that it was the next stage of study, sort of next school. He (or rather, his profile) showed me that college had much more to offer , and that one could be active in all the exo-academic matters too and still get good marks!

I joined the Computer Society of Anna University, at first merely to see the organization that was headed by Lenin. After attending the first meeting, I sort of understood how the Comp Soc is the largest, richest technical organization on campus. They were all sort of family in the Comp Soc – everyone knew everyone else and there existed a splendid understanding between them all. I liked the Society immediately and started to participate in all the events conducted.

There was Eureka at first, which made us feel at home in Anna University. It was a sort of Quiz, Dumb Charades, etc combined. Shivaguru (read genius), Arun (read tech guru) and I participated in the Quiz, got selected for the finals and won second place in the Quiz!

Then there was the Treasure Hunt – it was the first treasure hunt I had participated in, and it was absolute fun! It war raining in the morning – we arrived late and found that the others had already overtaken us. We wandered around not finding a single clue till twelve. Then we found the clues at a rapid pace and managed to finish second!

We had our first assessments in the 3rd week of September. The questions were ok (to be optimistic). Most of us did moderately well. The thing with our math sir is that if it is not neat, he’ll cut off half mark here, half mark there and so on. If you go and ask for marks, he’ll put the marks readily. God knows how he corrected our sem papers!

Then came another cultural event, Agni. Agni was lots of fun. We participated in some of the events but for the most part, we were watching the seniors participate in the events. There were lots of events like Harry Potter quiz, math quiz, business quiz, etc. Event management was cool! Everything was carried out perfectly!

After Agni came the great Brainscan. It was an event that was conceived and carried out by Lenin. There were various questions like alphanumeric codes, lateral thinking, etc. It was superb! Hari and I managed to get into the finals. The final problem was to complete the paper within two hours. It was tough! We managed to finish most of the questions and we won by a smaaaaaaaaaal margin! It was great! They gave us a beautiful cup plus super cash prizes!

Then came the other small culturals like resonance, SME, etc. It was not possible for us to attend these coz we were already running low on attendance. Still we attended the Prodigy 2005, the culturals conducted by the Computer Science department. It rocked! The event management was out-a-this world! Every single event started and ended in time! It gave us an idea of effective time management, how to host an event, etc!

Then on October 29th was conducted the event, Sparks! It was great fun working with the seniors (especially raghav and asad) to conduct the events. I managed Jam (Just-A-Minute). It was superb, since I got super-enthu team-mates like Ganesh, Srikant, Srivatsan, Bhavna, Nisha, Akila, etc. On Sparks day, we had a lot of problems, mostly technical – the comps didn’t work, the software didn’t work. But Comp Soc is not the largest technical org for nothing! The problems were soon fixed and even though we were a bit late, the events proceeded smoothly. We had participation of over 400!

After Sparks was over, we had a spate of assessments – the teachers wanted to finish off the second and third assessments in a hurry. So we didn’t have time for anything else for a while. Like the boxer who has received a punch between the eyes, we wandered around in a trance. At these times, my friend Sunil was a big help – his main characteristic is utter disinterest in what the teacher may be doing. We really enjoyed the last days with him. We would be playing something – bingo, hangman, something. Madam would be glaring at us. I would nudge Sunil – “dei, maam is watching us da”. His reply “so what?” We had lots of fun though we did get caught sometimes. But then, what is a single grain of salt in a sugar mixture?

Finally, the sems came. We went, saw, and did ok. All except chemistry, that is. That was a HUGE flop. The compulsory question was “The entropy of the universe is increasing. Comment”. I felt like murdering the question-paper setter! What does one write about for sixteen whopping marks!!!!!!!!!!

And we were further infuriated by Raghuram, our class super-padips saying that it was a very easy paper! Urgh!

Well, we finished our exams and went in a hurry to whoop it up in the holidays! Looking back on the sem, it was superb overall! Hari and I had a lot more fun than most people. We were always on the look-out for something new, so we ended up experiencing lots! Well, I hope the next sem will be as much fun! But then, it will be. This is College of Engineering, Guindy!

Human Being - the greatest mystery on earth

2005-11-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

I learnt a lot about my classmates this week – Learnt not to judge people too fast or too harsh, for one thing.. Some Ravanas in my classes turned out to be not so.. Other Ramas turned out to be Ravanas.. My opinion of some people underwent a complete spin.. started to see others in a new light.. Dark words need not mean a dark mind.. A sauve manner does not point to a good mind… Getting to know people way better now!

I`m Back!

2005-11-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

Finally, I`m back after a gruelling week - our second assessments got over today.. Let me lay out the last week...

14th November - Had our Fundamentals of Computing Assessment(FOC).. Did ok.. The questions were so good, like 'What are the phases of C?' - this vague question was marked at five marks(five out of twenty five.. one fifth!).. most of us just sat around wondering just what this meant.. someone asked the teacher and received a most encouraging reply.. "Write whatever U think is the answer"! We spent some more time wondering if we could squeeze some meaning out of her answer :). When we compared notes after the exam, each one had written a diff ans..

15th December - Had our Physics practicals , the last one for this term.. I worked feverishly trying to complete all the experiments that i should have completed :) Did it by 4.15 ( the pracs are from 1.10 to 4.30).. by that time, the attendants were already giving me wierd looks..Nobody works on their experiments after 3.45..

16th December - Had our workshop class - the last one.. Finished welding.. the viva was a joke.. asked us same questions, received same answers.. Yet each of us got diff marks for viva.. Komedy! Apart from that, spent the entire night trying to finish engineering graphics (EG)...

17th December - EG madam didnt turn up that day.. spent the day at the drawing halls doing cryptic EG problems.. The next day we shud have had the Physics second Assessment.. got postponed..

18th December - RCC Lab.. We discovered how to send inter-network messages.. chatting the whole time.. Went home early to study for physics.. studied late into the night..

19th December - The Last Assess.. did it moderately well.. My eyes were watering during the test.. lack of sleep.. Came home.. Asleep for three hours..now blogging.. Now, isnt that a busy week?

Sunil`s Art

2005-11-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

We recently discovered that Sunil, our wise cracking friend, is an extremely good artist! Check out his creations displayed below and see for yourself! ( For best viewing pleasure, save the files on your hard disk, rotate them, zoom and see!)

2005-11-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

Sunil - his self designed Logo. In the Background is perfect mini replicas of famous landmarks. Zoom and see

2005-11-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

Sunil - Modern Art ( He wont tell me what it means)

2005-11-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

The genius Sunil on one of his passions - Egypt

2005-11-11T08:36:00.001-08:00

The awesome tiger - by Sunil

2005-11-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

More modern art by Sunil - On Yin and Yang

2005-11-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

Sunil on various animals

2005-11-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

More art by the Art Genius - the human body

2005-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Modern Art by my friend Sunil - See if you can see the map

Sparks 2005

2005-11-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

Sparks is an event conducted by the first years of Anna University, for school children. This year, Sparks was held on 5th November. It was a grand success! Over 400 students from over 30 schools participated! Check out the Sparks 2005 photos!

2005-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Won BrainScan - recieving the trophy from the chief guest

New Yahoo Group - 2005ceg

2005-11-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

Created a new yahoo group for the 2005 batch of CEGians. Borrowed the idea from team csau :). This will be a common place for us to share jokes, ideas, anything!

Click to join 2005ceg

2005-11-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

Brain Scan Poster

2005-11-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

Brain Scan Trophy!

BrainScan 05

2005-11-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

BrainScan '05 was a contest conducted by the Computer society of Anna University(Comp-Soc). It combined all the usual puzzles - it had anagrams, sudoku, cipher, how stuff works, everything! There was a prelims consisting of around 78 questions.Check out the Brain Scan Prelims Paper . Eleven teams were selected from all the participants. Hari and I participated and got through to the finals.

The finals consisted of solving about 25 questions within 2 hours. There was a crossword also - but with a twist, the places where the answers went were not specified! We skipped the crossword but finished almost everything else within the time limit. We compared with the other teams and found we had done reasonably well. We were expecting to finish in the top three.

The results came yesterday - we had won! We got a beautiful cup and cash prizes to boot!

India take 4-0 lead over Sri Lanka!

2005-11-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

Congratulations India ! I don't remember the last time they won 4 ODIs in a row!! The Sri Lankans put up a tough fight - getting premier wickets at the right time. Indeed, if it had not been for Dhoni and Raina`s mature knocks, India would have lost very badly!

Dhoni and Raina played superb knocks - controlled and mature. They did not take risks and throw away their wickets even when the pressure was great. Dhoni, in particular, controlled his natural high hitting tendency and played safe , getting runs steadily. At one point, they had to get 47 runs from 48 balls - but they didnt let the pressure get to them. They put up a great patnership that saved India!

The way Dhoni finished off the match - two sixes in a row, spoke of his style and power! It was ultra-cool!

The remarkable aspect of this series of wins so far is that there is a new hero in each game. So far, Sachin, Dhoni, Dravid and Pathan have shown the way with the bat and Pathan, Bhajji and Agarkar have done so with the ball. Simply put, we have more match winners now than ever before. We shoudn't forget that Kaif, who hasn't played so far, is a match winner in his own right and so is Yuvraj, who is the one chap seemingly struggling for form.

Hope the Indian team get a 7-0 series win! (hey, its not a crime to be optimistic!)

Sriram's Log

2005-11-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sriram's Log

This is the blog of one of my school friends, Sriram. He`s doing his B.E computer science at IIT Madras. He got an all-india rank of 92. Needless to say, he rocks! Sriram is a quiet, efficient and extremely brilliant guy. His blog completely reflects his personality! Its very informative.

Of Sweets and Sponsorships :

2005-10-29T03:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Senthil anna and Raghav anna decided to go to Sri Krishna Sweets to get sponsorship for Sparks(we`ll talk about sparks later). Vivek and I decided to tag along, to watch two masters at work. We first went to Anto anna`s rooms to get sponsorship brochures. This sounds like a simple task, but it wasn't. The hostel block 4 was located in the middle of nowhere! And thanks to the rain and the wind, trees had been uprooted at various places and the street lights were gone. It was a dark, dark journey into the hostel - Raghav anna kept us amused with his version of Anniyan`s background music ( You never get bored with this guy around ). At the hostel, we were met by a angry caretaker, who for some reason, got it into his head that we were spending the night there and kept repeating "Day scholars are not allowed to stay in the hostels after nine!"

Anyway, we reached Anto anna`s rooms - man, the rooms were superb!(compared to first years hostel rooms). With a computer, surround sound and a cool breeze (it was on the 4th floor), it was coool! We got the brochures and caught a bus to t.nagar to Sri Krishna Sweets` main office. On the way, Raghav anna kept us in splits with his jokes! He really has a sense of humor! Senthil was a little like Lenin anna(the coolest!) - quiet,modest with a great sense of humor.The way Lenin anna and Senthil anna talk was amazingly similar!

We reached the office, where we handed over the brochure to the manager. In the office, two people were playing the tabla and the Veena for ambiance! It was superb. I mean, in other places, they usually use a cd and stereo but here, it was the actual thing! There were also some very beautiful paintings on the wall - The whole office exuded grandeur!

Our work being done, we turned home. I went with Senthil anna till saidapet, from where i caught a bus and returned home.The trip was total fun!

The website of a prodigy

2005-10-29T03:08:00.000-07:00

Gursimran.com is the website of Gursimran Arora, who is the one of the coolest teenagers in India! Her website is ulta-cool. She has been featured in all(well, almost all) the leading newspapers. She has done websites for many corporate companies. She is a good writer too. Read about her article on the World cup Match between India and pakistan. She rocks!

2005-10-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

In black and white

Why are most of the modern 'thrillers' trash?

2005-10-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

I picked up a thriller(supposedly one of the 'best sellers') from my lending library, flipped to a random page and scanned. What i read made my sick. The entire page was about gruesome torture, lies, deceit.. i flicked over to another page and found more of the same stuff.. What is happening here? Why have ppl developed a taste for torture and melancholy? Dont ppl like good sunny humorous books - leave the humour , at least books which have a sunny atmosphere? This reminded of Smith`s lines in the movie 'Matrix' .. "Man does not feel complete without misery.."

Lenin Anna`sPictures

2005-10-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

These are lenin anna`s pictures from his stay in US. Superb Pictures!

Lenin Ravindranath Pictures

raghav's diary

2005-10-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

raghav's diary (like anyone wants to read..!!)

Now here is a blog as a blog should be. This guy is my senior at college. He uses wonderful language, not just in his blogs, but in the way he speaks as well! And like he says, he`s a master at talking effectively to audiences! And lenin anna, who is one of the coolest,greatest persons i know, is himself a fan of Raghav!

Ghajini

2005-10-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

We went to see Surya`s latest film,Ghajini , at Sathyam. As usual, it was on a ‘nalla naal’( ayudha pooja). The film was superb – the songs were amazing. Surya and Asin had acted superbly – Nayanthara`s acting was sad. Her role in the film in comic though – she keeps double crossing everybody! Both Asin and Surya look great throughout the film – the romance scenes were superbly done! The comedy was great too – the scene where kalpana tells sanjay about his supposed love for her, the scene in which she invites him to do an ad, the scene in which she tells him that her ambition is to become richer than her chithappa(uncle) were out-a-this-world! The fights were excellent , with surya using his amazingly flexible body to whack the baddies! A superb film,. on the whole!

The treat

2005-10-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

I gave my birthday treat to my friends at Snow Park, a restaraunt near my home – in velachery. That place has seen us for two years – all our treats, meetings,etc were held there. Had great fun! We gorged on ice creams!

2005-10-12T05:09:00.001-07:00

Sarvesh, at the treat

2005-10-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

At the treat (myself) - kalaichitanga!

2005-10-12T05:08:00.000-07:00

At the treat- Prashanth

These two weeks!

2005-10-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have rushed by at phenomenal speed – it had everything, from joy to sorrow, from assessments to films!

Watched Anbae Aaruyirae(Ah..Aah for short). Its a very humorous, very entertaining film. S.J.Surya knows his double-meaning comedy, all right – the movie is full of them. But they are funny. Our class students(about eight of us) went to Udhayam and watched it – Vibin, our class genius, kept us all in splits with his own punch lines. On the whole, it was a very enjoyable film( if you watch it with friends and dont mind double meaners too much..)
Watched Ghajini – wow, what a film.Will comment on it later.
My birthday was on oct 3rd. Was wished by all my friends. One of my friends called me up at midnight and wished me!
Had birthday treat on 10th – reason for delaying it till then ,was , some of my friends had assesments, etc..
The treat was a blast – have an ultimate silly reason for remembering it..

Soduku - medium puzzles finished

2005-10-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Ah, I`ve finally finished 3 medium grade sudoku puzzles. It was very interesting and very entertaining! I finished the first one in 2 hours, the second one in 1 hour and the third one in 40 min flat! I know this is still more than what the average person takes, but hey, i`m only starting!

Sudoku

2005-10-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

Just finished a Sudoku puzzle! It took me three hours to finish! However, it was very satisfying, figuring out the logic behind the numbers and their places! Very entertaining! Totally cool!

BioMotionLab1.7

2005-10-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Stumbled on this from an optical illusion site. The Bio Motion Lab is totally cool! You can set sex,mood,wieght,state of mind,etc. It`s totally cool. Try to imagine the figure without the lines!

The BioMotionLab1.7

Orkut

2005-09-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Orkut by lenin anna. The site is amazing! You have groups there on virtually every topic imaginable, right from hacking to A.R.Rahman songs! Because you can only join when you are invited by an existing member, the community is full of friends! Lots and lots of great information is available here. Its in affliation with google, so you can use your gmail id to register at orkut. Its a very informative site!

orkut

The Treasure Hunt

2005-09-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

I recently participated in the Binary Search, which is sort of a treasure hunt. It was part of the Eureka programme, which was conducted by the CSAU(Computer Soceity of Anna University). The Treasure hunt was cool.

It started at 9.00 am on Wednesday on Vinayaka Chathurthi day. The deadline for submitting the clues was five that day. Our team, which consisted of Shivaguru,Vivek,Hari and myself, arrived there at 9.30. We kept searching for the clues. However, the team which was first seen the clues had ripped off the clues, so we couldn't go on after the first clue. We informed the organisers(Ram Chakravarthy, Naveena and other seniors) who promptly stuck the clues at the building again. We got to our second clue at eleven and by twelve thirty, we had found the first six clues. We took a break for lunch and then cracked the sixth clue, gettting our seventh clue.

Then we randomly found clues nine,ten, twelve and thirteen(there were fourteen clues in all). We ran astray on the tenth clue and couldn`t find clue eleven. Finally, minutes before five, we found our eighth clue and headed to the Science and Humanities Block to submit out consecutive ten clues.

It turned out we were tied with another team with the same no of clues. so both our teams were told where the eleventh clue was, and told to bring as many clues as we could in half an hour. Both our teams brought back two clues. However, another team which was not in the tie-breaker, came up with three clues and bizarrely, the organizers gave the prize to them! However, we accepted the judges decision in good faith and came home, having gone through a great experience!

We knew the campus well now - the clues led us to various places of the campus - the kotturpuram gate, the post office, the xerox shop, the auditoriams and lot more! It was a superb experience for us!

2005-09-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

At home. This is the first photo i`m posting on blogger.

The Quiz

2005-09-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Recently participated in the quiz event conducted by the CSAU. It was superb! Shivaguru, Arun Goud and me participated in the event, which was part of eureka. Actually, we never even expected to get pass the preliminary round! However, we got through due to Shivaguru`s brilliance and Goud`s technical knowledge. We were the top team selected for the finals!

At the finals, it was very competetive. The State third topper,, Shivraj was in a team and they were superb. In the first round, out of the six teams, three were equal and leading. In the second round, two teams, shivraj`s team and us, were in the lead.

Then came the buzzer round. We lost heavily in the buzzer round, with shivraj`s team and another team answering the questions with lightning speed!

Shivraj`s team was truly amazing. Shivraj answered two questions brilliantly, putting his team out of our reach. Shivaguru answered a super bonus question at lightning speed, earning us a hefty bonus that put us in second place!

The questions were superb and well-researched(Especially one about hewlett and packard)! Some questions completely stumped us!

Hats-off to the CSAU for conducting The Semi-Tech Quiz in style!

First two weeks at anna university

2005-09-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

Starting a blog. Got the idea from lenin`s blog. That guy is the coolest! Well, this is my second week at anna university, and so far, it has been great! Great campus,great friends and great seniors!

What superb orientations! Apart from the official one held by anna university, there were two held by our seniors - from rotaract club, and student qualtity club. The one held by rotaract club was good - we got clear info about CGPA, our teachers and and some great advice!

The orientation held for computer science students by students was superb! Our seniors have achieved so much! Yet they seem so down- to -earth and were entirely willing to spend their time for us first years!

It was there that was i first saw Lenin and Karthik, both super achievers in CEG. Lenin has been recruited by microsoft. He turned down a Trilogy job!!! He is presently university first and has a CGPA of 9.782. Besides all this, the guy has participated in so many extra-curricular events!(and won them too!)Talk about super-achiever!

The other guy , Karthik was equally impressive. He had presented a paper in NASA! He too was involved in many extra curricular activities, yet maintained a great CGPA! Amazing, to say the least!

The seniors made us feel totally at home. They answered our questions(silly and otherwise) about various things. I already feel as if i am been part of CEG!