Happy Diwali

Wishing every one a Happy and Prosperous Diwali and a wonderful new year.

The great history quiz

After getting a good score in PCM in class XIIth, I decided to go for engineering. The admission process had its share of dramas and finally after multiple stay orders and judgments from all courts going up to the Supreme Court (yes, only the President was spared from giving his opinion on the admissions issue), the classes started. Due to late starting, the first semester was more like a first quarter and got over within three months. It was time to get the journals graded. Among the subjects we had was a subject called Computer Programming 1. Now, I hate programming and hence this course was going to be a tough one. Of course, with the help of good friends in the batch, I did manage to complete all the programs. So it was with great satisfaction of having completed all the programs that I made my way to Prof. Pandey for grading my journal. He looks at the first program and mentions to me that there are lot of errors in the flow chart. The flow chart that I had drawn was not tallying with my program. I need to correct it before I get it checked. Off I go for correcting it. I return back and he finds some more errors in the same flowchart. So again I get apprehended for my mistakes and am told to make the corrections once again. Making the necessary changes once again, I head to him for grading. This time, I am quite confident that I am right. Boom...he checks it and lets me know that the mistakes have infact increased this time. "Yeh tum kaise manage kar sakte ho. Har time kuch naye galtiyaan laate ho". By now, I am quite worried and the thought does come to my mind of having no grade in CP1. After making some more changes, I head to him for the fourth time for grading the same program. This time, I get lucky. There is one more student ahead of me sailing in the same boat. This student is from the same native place in Uttar Pradesh as Pandeyji. Pandeyji asks him some questions about the historical significance of Lucknow. Being next in line, I am asked for my opinion on it. Since I have a good knowledge of Indian history, I am able to answer it. What happens next is a quiz on Indian history. Mr. Pandey asks me questions from history and for every five correct answers that I give, I get a program checked without any questions on it. Soon, I have managed to not only get my entire journal graded without any mistakes pointed out, but I have also got A+ in CP1 (or should it be history 101?). After getting my journal graded, I ask Sandeep to have a look at my programs and flowcharts and let me know my mistakes. There are a whole bunch of them and no Professor would have given me even a B+ for that. But I guess I was lucky. Since then, I have got plenty of journals graded, but it was never as fun as the CP1 with Pandeyji...

First class in the United States

After completing my B.E., I decided to follow the M.S. option. I gave my GRE in my 7th Semester and finished the application stage towards the end of that semester. The 8th semester saw the admits and the rejects coming out. It was in this term that I decided to opt for Drexel University. This university was located in downtown Philadelphia and had a good Telecommunications program. I finished the visa interview in June and in the month of September, I found myself in Philadelphia. Our term started on the 24th of September 2007 and I was eagerly waiting for this day. I was having a class on the first day itself. It was going to be DSP lecture by Dr. Walsh. All excited about it, I made my way to the class. I used to think that I was quite well versed in DSP. After the first lecture, I knew I was completely wrong.
So the first lecture starts and I am finding it very difficult to comprehend what Dr. Walsh is talking about. May be I was not that used to the accent, but I just couldn’t understand a thing what he was speaking. Sagar was sitting next to me and once or twice, I thought of asking him whether Dr. Walsh was speaking in some new language that I was not aware of. It was a weird situation where I knew something about the discussion, but I just couldn’t understand what the prof was speaking. This was a lecture I will never forget.
Fortunately by the next class, I had some exposure to people speaking fast in American accent. I could manage to understand what Dr. Walsh was saying. I managed to do decently in his course and ended up with an A-. It was certainly a relief to get through his class, especially after the experience in the first class. My first class in the United States is something I will always remember.

Mr. Professor kumar, a typical professor in an engineering college

This is a poem which was composed by me and Alhad during a lecture in our third year of engineering. KBC 2 was about to be released that time and there was lot of excitement about it. All the channels regularly ran promos of it. There was another promotional spoof making the rounds at that time. It can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQCKHtt3wl8
The tune of that song as well as the other promotional ads is the inspiration behind this work. Hope you like it. Please leave comments/brickbats...



Yeh hai Mr. Professor kumar,
Bachpan se inko tha padhai se pyar,

Badi mehnat se mili inko engineering me admission,
Char saal ke badle lage aath saal for graduation,

Twelth me mara tha inhone bade style se ninety,
Engineering me inhe lage bahut saare KT,

Bahut niraash the, baar baar yaad aati thi nani,
par professor kumar ne kabhi haar nahi maani,

One day, while recollecting his technical knowledge,
Unke dost ne unhe pucha,
Kabhi professor ban ne ka socha,

Professor kumar bade soch me pade,
engineering college me ek professor bane,

Fir professor banke inhone dhoom machayi,
Har lecture me pucha, woh nahi aayi??,

engineering ke funde ko ulta ghumaya,
answer nahi aaya to student ko khopche me bulaya,

aaj bhi yeh, aaj bhi yeh karte hai dil se sikhane ka prayas,
bachchon ka hota hai future bada satyanash,

jinhone sikhe inse engineering ke funde,
exam me mile bahut saare ande,

par jinhone prefer kiya classes lagana,
exam me mila bhaiyya, umeed se dugna...