Its My Space

2012-01-18T23:10:00.001+05:30

A very well-written post!

http://sahajapatel.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/an-arranged-happily-ever-after/

Why this kolaveri?

2012-01-06T22:49:00.008+05:30

This is the third time I am writing this post! Wow! The person mentioned here must be something! :D Or maybe, this is symbolic of my growing maturity :P The first time, I was angry and frustrated. After a few days, I calmed down, but still felt hurt. Finally, today I can look back and smile at the wonderful moments I had.

I work on NIC and iSCSI boot drivers. So, most of our issues start with system doesn’t boot, which means you cannot do anything more, automatically achieving the P1 status! During one such critical issue, I had to work with a guy from Costa Mesa. Let’s call him Ryan (I like this name better than the one he has). This issue was getting very hot with the clients and the upper management wanted results, immediately. We have very minimal debugging tools here, honestly speaking, none. So, we have to entirely rely on our gut feeling. This obviously needs a lot of experience and sound knowledge, which I happen to lack. And that is why I was suggested to work with Ryan, who was already analyzing this issue.

I was under a lot of pressure and I woke up early (evening for them) to ping him on chat. I was nervous since Ryan is also one of the top guys and he had not replied to my mail. Surprisingly, he replied immediately. He expressed concern over me getting up early just to work on an issue. He punctuated it with a smiley! That’s right. He put this :) And I knew, I would have no problems working with this guy. We got working on the issue and Ryan even stayed up the next day, just to help me.

I have to give it to him. He is a great guy. Despite the miles between us, he sensed that I was totally freaked out and gave me a day off, just to compose myself. Unlike many others I have worked with, he would keep up a friendly banter which kept me awake during the late hours. This showed in our work and we were able to root cause the issue within two days. It turned out to be somebody else’s mistake!! But the deal wasn’t bad because I had found a very good friend. Ryan is a very humble man. Absolutely modest and down-to-earth. What I like the most about him is his sense of humor. Ryan not only comes up with good ones himself but also has the rare virtue of being able to take a joke on him. He would also laugh at all my jokes, good, bad and ugly.

The issue was resolved, but we continued to stay in touch. He called me his 3 am friend. He even told me about his evil MIL! :D He loves his wife and daughters and I am proud of him for that. I would in turn tell him about my work and my life. This was going good. And then, somehow he stopped talking to me. Yeah, I don’t know why, but he stopped answering my pings. This was strange because, no matter how busy he was, he would always make time to reply to me. He would tell me if he was busy and we would plan to talk some other day. I ignored his ignoring me for some time, assuming he must be on a really tight schedule. However, he never tried to contact me. Honestly, I don’t know what went wrong, no idea whether I had hurt him or upset him in any way. Ryan believed in talking out things to sort them. Somehow, he must have felt that I did not need an explanation.

Ryan, you will always remain one of my good friends. However it ended, I will at least not regret that I did not attempt to revive our friendship.

New Year New Approach

2012-01-06T21:25:00.004+05:30

Happy New Year everybody!!! I hope all of you had a lot of fun bringing in the new year. I did :) We had a theme party. The theme was "Your Wackiest Best" but many of us got confused and finally it looked more like fancy dress :D

I never made resolutions. I thought it was lame and anyway I was not going to follow it so what's the point in resolving? Negative right? So, this time I have decided to start the year with a positive approach. I will set targets for myself, I will make promises and try to fulfill it as much as I can.

To begin with, I have a well defined goal.
* Learn to drive: Yes, I want to be able to drive a car, by this month end! In fact, I will register for the classes tomorrow.

Now, the more general ones.
* I will be more patient and tolerant. I will try to keep my temper in check and I will think before I speak.
* I will make more time for my friends and stay in touch with them.
* Finally, I will take better care of myself. I will watch my health and diet. I will try to stay in shape. I will respect and believe in myself and never lose confidence. Last but not the least, from now on, I will enjoy each and every moment of my life!

That's all for now. Hope you guys too start the year on a positive note :) Cheers!

Booked

2011-03-20T17:12:00.008+05:30

My parents are two very different people. My mom is shy, home-happy and always planning for a rainy day, where as, my dad is a flamboyant, party hopping, live-for-today person. Hence it comes as a surprise, to even me, that I might have inherited something common from both of them. And that wonderful inheritance is the love for books! Again, my dad preferred the serious kind of books like Ayn Rand, Frederick Forsythe, Leo Tolstoy and my mom was a big time M&B fan! :D She likes books which focus on human relations and emotions. I seem to have taken after my mom though I swear I haven't touched a single M&B book till date!

My mom introduced me and my sister to books at a very early age. But it was my uncle who actually led us right into this magical world. He would always gift a book on our birthday and whenever we did something commendable like winning a competition or scoring good marks. He gifted us our first Enid Blyton and since then we haven't stopped reading. Enid Blyton could make stories out of nothing. I mean she could describe the most simple thing in the most beautiful way. Once I was reading The Famous Five and the way Blyton had described how beautiful the day was made me actually go out and appreciate the bright sunshine and cool breeze! And she always had some nice message in her books. That's the kind of books I would want my kids and every other kid to read.

I haven't read many authors in my childhood and this was mainly due to lack of knowledge. My parents were from small towns and I doubt whether they had read such books in their childhood. So, to me Enid Blyton was the only one who wrote books for kids. But my uncle enlightened me again ( I seem to be making him a kind of Fairy Godfather now :P ). I started reading Nancy Drew by Carolyne Keene and there was a time when I thought I would become a detective too! Agatha Christie is another author who amazes me. Her mysteries are so straight-forward, that is after she explains the solution to them. It is always based on cool, simple logic and you end up feeling 'Oh! Why didn't I see it!'

As I grew up I read a lot of books like Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Peter Pan, Robinhood etc. But honestly, I can't remember them so well. Later I read J.K.Rowling, Meg Cabot, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham, Chetan Bhagat, Dan Brown and others. I agree I am partial towards chick-lit, but I do try to read all genres of books. However, it was only recently I noticed that I seem to have enjoyed women authors more than men. May be, its the books I have read or may be its because women are so good at humor. It is never cheap or vulgar and though we women are known for our vanity, we are sporty enough to laugh at our own mistakes.

When Harry Potter released, nobody expected it to be such a huge hit. Those days, we would look up the best-sellers in the newspapers and harass our parents to buy us those books ;) We read 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', the second book in the series, first. I was so mesmerized by the magical world created by the very talented J.K.Rowling, that I refused to read the final book in the series just because I didn't want the magic to end. I couldn't hold my curiosity for long and the mixed reviews added fuel to my fire. I ended up reading the book at one go and I was pretty impressed. I somehow felt Rowling had lost her touch, somewhere in the middle, when she sounded like she was writing for a movie rather than a book. Nevertheless, her last book made up for it, having twists and turns in every chapter, though I felt the final showdown could have been better.

Meg Cabot's 'Princess Diaries' is like a teenager's dream. Sweet and good for a one-time read. I flipped through her other books and felt it was more of M&B kind, so I skipped them. Sophie Kinsella is my discovery, I mean nobody suggested her to me. I happened to read her 'Can you keep a Secret?' and loved her style of writing. Again, her comic timing is very good. I also liked her 'The Undomestic Goddess' and 'Twenties Girl'. I have a affinity towards best-sellers and that's why I wanted to read Pearl.S.Buck's 'The Good Earth'. The book is very inspiring and believe me, once you have read it, you will have more respect for the good Earth. Oh! I almost forgot to mention Danielle Steel. I cry every time I read 'The Mirror Image'. 'Daddy' is another great read. Keep a box of tissues next to you when reading Danielle Steel :P

I haven't read all the books in Stephanie Meyer's Edward-Bella series. Yet, I strongly suggest anyone interested to read 'Twilight' and 'Midnight Sun'. In 'Twilight' Bella narrates how she falls in love with a vampire. 'Midnight Sun' is the same story, but, from Edward's perspective and it remains my favorite book till date. It is a small book, in fact not even complete, yet, I love Meyer for this! It's fascinating to read how the two characters perceive the same thing in so different ways. This book made me fall in love with Edward and 'Edward' is my definition of The Perfect Soulmate!

Shopaholic series - Sophie Kinsella

2010-11-22T23:22:00.005+05:30

The Shopaholic series has 5 books in the following order:
* Confessions of a Shopaholic
* Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
* Shopaholic Ties the Knot
* Shopaholic and Sister
* Shopaholic and Baby

Rebecca Bloomwood is a finance journalist and a compulsive shopper. Just a small 'SALE' sign sets her off. Despite having a load of debts she cannot stop herself from buying stuff. What starts as innocent browsing ends in buying things she doesn't even need. The whole series is about how expensive her shopping trips turn out and how she manages to get her life back on hold. The other important characters are her best friend Suze and the love of her life Luke Brandon.

Sophie Kinsella's famous series has also been made into a movie. But the movie combines books 1 n 2 and Luke Brandon's character sketch is tweaked to make him the ideal boyfriend. But the book presents a realistic view of relationships in the corporate world while retaining the humor element. Becky's friend Suze, who is with her through thick and thin, is the ideal Soul Sistah. As usual, the author excels in conveying a girl's feelings and at times you almost feel like going on a shopping spree yourself! A highly-recommended chick lit coz after all

The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.
-- Marcelene Cox

Small dreams!

2010-11-18T22:26:00.007+05:30

A list of some of the things I would love to do in my life. I am confused whether I should keep the ones I have done in bold or the ones i haven't. I think I'll keep the ones I haven't done in bold so that they are in my face when I look at this list! :D

Learn a form of dance may be Salsa
Open a library
Visit the Taj Mahal ( I know despite being an Indian I haven't seen it yet but I plan to)
Watch a match in a stadium
Attend a concert
Lose 5 kgs
Get my hair colored
Have a holiday abroad
Learn to speak a foreign language preferably french
Fall in love
Bake a delicious cake
Have a night out with friends
Have a penpal
Own a house and decorate it the way I want
Participate in a satsang and sing bhajans with complete devotion
Make a scrapbook like the ones they show in movies/TV
Learn to drive
Dance the whole night on New year
Sleep under the stars
Call up a friend randomly
Learn to waltz properly
Sponsor a child's education
Write a blog
Watch the sun rise
Sing for someone
Have a best friend (apart from my sister)
Buy a best seller
Watch a movie first day first show
Take part in theater - as an actor or work backstage
Have a pet again
Attend a reunion
Dance at a friend's wedding ( a baraat would be nice)
Play with snow

Wedding bells!

2009-12-11T13:11:00.006+05:30

Nope not my wedding! But my cousin's! :)

Finally one by one my cousins are agreeing to get married. Sadly the wedding dates always clash with my exams. This time was no exception. My cousin decided to get married the day I had my lab exam!! But as they say all is well that ends well.
Why go to the end so soon? I'll start from the beginning.

2009 was slowly making way for 2010. And we thought the year would just pass away with the usual exams, tension, no fun mantra. But Surprise! Wedding bells started ringing for my cousin and we all were very happy for him :)

Everybody started making plans. The elders decided all girls would wear a saree for the wedding. Our immediate reaction was "What?!?" The thought of wearing a saree scared us because it was a first for most of us. But the sports that we are, we took it up as a challenge.

The great challenge of managing a saree for a whole day!! :D

Soon began the shopping spree that left the boys and men of the house impatient to be done with the wedding!

Now, there aren't a lot of customs in our caste. Its just a few rituals after which we have a lot of time to chat with guests. Since it was a second generation wedding, the youngsters took it up on themselves to make the wedding a memorable one. We planned a kind of sangeet a day before the marriage.

We had a 6-minute dance and I must say I have never practiced so hard. Then we had a few songs and a dance by other invitees. But the highlight of the evening was a skit specially made for the would-be couple. We made a spoof on how they met and life before and after marriage.

This skit is rather special for all of us because everyone chipped in with their idea and we had a lot of fun during its making. Needless to say the skit became a huge hit and we had people praising us for it long after the wedding :)

Amidst all this I totally forgot that I had an exam the next day. Before I knew the D-Day arrived. I fretted about my lab exam. I knew I wasn't prepared for viva. Heck I wasnt even sure about the programs! We were called in and I picked a chit. Relief flooded me when I opened it. I had got the easiest program and I quickly executed it. Since nobody had finished I was called for viva. But lady-luck smiled on me again. The external asked me conceptual questions which could be answered by any student who had understood the subject well. The questions required me to apply my brain than give out textbook answers. Both, me and my external, were pleased with each other and I walked out of the lab in 30 minutes flat!!

Immediately, I rushed home, changed into the saree and was on the venue bang on time! :)

The wedding proceeded smoothly. Finally it was time for us to leave. But we brats stole the bride and refused to let her go until the groom promised to pay up :D when our bargaining ended it was already 2 a.m. Nobody wanted to believe that the celebrations were about to end but it did, leaving us with heavy pockets ;) n lots of memories! :)

Crush Me!!

2009-11-15T12:58:00.013+05:30

Yes!! Its happened again! I have a new crush!! :)

I am the teacher's pet and as usual i was called to do some volunteer work. Why is it called volunteering when we are actually forced to do it?? :O Anyways i went to meet the lecturer and there i saw this cute guy who also happened to be volunteering!! Lucky me! :D The lecturer said he was an ex-student and was helping us.

One look at him and i knew i had a new crush! He watched me come in with that cute smile on his face. He was with his friend whom i hardly noticed ;) He quietly listened as I spoke to ma'm. To my surprise he took a dig at me, with that smile full on. I retaliated. Even without being formally introduced a friendly banter ensued between us. Just when the fun had begun i had to leave wondering if i would ever see him again..

College went on for a few days and our study holidays started. One day the same lecturer called me. There was an alumni meet and nobody was ready to volunteer since internals were coming up. Feeling too lazy to go to college I gave her the same reason but to no avail. After a bit of emotional blackmailing the social worker in me said yes.

I went to college at 8:30. The function was supposed to start by 10:30 and nothing was ready. I was asked to take charge of the registration counter along with my friend. There was utter chaos with people arranging chairs, hanging flowers, moving things.. As i wandered about helping here and there, I was asked to assist two guys who were putting up the banner. I walked to them. The guy fixing the banner asked for a pin. I looked up, he turned to me, and i saw the same impish grin on his face and heard the same whoop in my heart!!

He was wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. My favorite combination! Sigh! :)

Again, we did not acknowledge each other verbally. But I knew he remembered. To my delight he asked me whether the banner hung properly and all i could say was "umm.. yeah"!?! Why does it always happens to me? :( I just cant get the right words out..

We spoke a few more times, with him asking me, in full sentences, to do this and that and me responding with yeah,sure, okay. Arrghh!!

Finally people started arriving and I went to the registration counter. Once I stood there, it was back to business. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the ex-students who were there despite the long gap and their busy schedules. I met the first engineers who graduated from my college. They were really sweet. In between I had my guy checking on me and this time I managed quite well :)

By noon, me and my friend were still at the counter while everyone else went for lunch. We were starved. It looked like we were forgotten. Thankfully two guys from mech came to our rescue and offered to stay there while we had our lunch. We thanked them sincerely and went towards the dining hall. It turned out that we indeed were the last ones for lunch. There were a long queue with a group of guys towards the end.

We were not sure what to do and then I saw him. He was standing in the group forming the rear of the queue. He saw us and at once he invited us to join the queue. Me and my friend looked at each other sheepishly thinking whether it would be right to break the queue. But he didnt relent and we had to give in and join them. I faced him to say thanks.

He looked me in the eye and for the first time I noticed his eyes. They were dark brown. His eyes twinkled with the dimples in place. It suited him really well!

The noon dragged on and it was time to leave. I did not see him again and there was no chance to say bye. But like they say "Kabhi alvida na kehna.."

The guy will stay on as one of my best crushes and brown eyes will always remind me of him!!

Acharya Devo Bhava!

2009-09-21T08:45:00.004+05:30

Honesty is an important word. Be honest to God and be honest to yourself.

I have always been a good student. Regular and obedient. I am the kind of student who thinks Acharya Devo Bhava (A teacher is equivalent to God). But of late i dont feel the same.
This is because the lecturers are no more honest to their profession. They just see it as an extension of college life.

Usually colleges employ students who are just out of college. The students themselves would not have understood the subject and they are made to teach them. Such lecturers end up being trapped in a profession they hardly like and dont even care about. When students ask them doubts they feel insulted and try to take revenge on them or start buttering the students so that they wont ask any more doubts(sic!). The teaching profession has become a joke due to these kind of lecturers.

Then in my second semester I went for CAD tuition. Shankar Sir taught us CAD. He was such a committed and student friendly lecturer. He would take continuous classes. He called the 9 to 12 pm batch the devils batch! :) He would not mind repeating a solution or concept any number of times. He was very patient. I remember calling him at 6:00 in the morning, on the day of my CAD exam, and he answers my call and clears my doubt just like in class without a hint of irritation in his voice. No wonder he got so many awards. What a brilliant lecturer he was!

Next, I have to talk about Manjunath Aradhya Sir. I have attended his classes for quite a few subjects like Data Structures, Electronic Circuits, OOPS, Microprocessors and now Java. But the man just amazes me with his understanding of each subject. Honestly he doesnt teach according to our syllabus and his classes may not help us for our internals or exams. But he sets a firm foundation and prepares us for our career ahead.

I have seen many lecturers who just mug up lines from the text book and blurt it in front of us. But Aradhya sir teaches us the concepts. Every line he says has to be clear and rational.
For eg, many lecturers just tell us Java doesnt support pointers. But Aradhya Sir explains that pointers are supported in Java but they cannot be explicitly created by programmers because they might use those pointers to access private data thus hampering data security. I know it may not be clear from my words but Sir can convince anyone!

Every class i attend makes me think he is so knowledgeable. He knows so much. He could have easily joined an MNC and made lots of money. Instead he chose to impart his knowledge to thousands of students who can share it with so many others. His honesty and dedication to his profession increases the respect in me for him.

I have heard many mechanical engineering students saying Shankar Sir is nothing less than God for them. The computer science and information science students echo the same for Aradhya Sir. They have communities dedicated for them on orkut! I ll always remember them for being the two lecturers who rekindled the lost respect for lecturers in me.

back to blogging..

2009-09-05T10:10:00.009+05:30

As i get back to blogging i realize i have already started 7th sem! That is a long gap between my posts. But my life has been such a wonderful ride until now that i hardly have time to pen it down :) There have been a few bumps too and i think i have managed them well :)

I ll start where i left off. The sixth sem CG project - Graphics Editor. There were very few people who were designing a graphics editor. Out of them, our main rival was The Boys Team! Yup, am not kidding. TBT had kicked off the coding much earlier than us and knew much more than us. We, The Girls Team, wanted to do a better project than them. We had to start from scratch at a very short notice. That is how began the competition which kept egging us on and finally resulted in TGT winning over TBT!!! HURRAY!!! Our project was much appreciated by the students and the staff :)

The success of the project made me work hard for the semester exams. I concentrated hard on maintaining the highest score. But the semester exams turned out to be such a shock that i almost thought i wont pass! Thankfully i got a distinction :) but i couldn't top :( In fact, i wasn't even in the top five!! Not the one to give up, i shall regain my position this time for sure :)

The academic issues will go on. But i shall remember sixth sem for another reason. I had the maximum fun during these days. I always had a regret that i was taking life too seriously. This belief was enforced by the fact that i had nothing to write in my blogs except my college life and exams.

And then things changed or rather i changed!
I got invited to a reunion and i met my school friends. Slowly my contacts developed and my social life improved.
Our family went on a one day trip to Sripuram and it was beautiful. The next day i bunked internals!!!
Next Came The Raghu Dixit Concert! The guy is just amazing! 3 hours of great music and entertainment. I felt young again :)
My confidence grew by leaps and bounds and soon I was organizing a reunion! Can you believe it? I expected a really poor turn out. My friends encouraged me a lot making me thank God for the wonderful wonderful friends that i have. Quite a few people made it and i had another feather in my cap.
These and many more things made me fall in love with life all over again!!! :)

”Live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days you will be right!”

food for thought

2009-04-05T13:41:00.005+05:30

the last week has made sure that i ll be pretty busy in the coming weeks!! :)

6th sem is supposed to be the most enjoyable year of engineering. that's bcoz the final year students hardly come to college and by 6th sem you would have got to know your classmates and everyone else in the college much better. much like saying 6th sem ppl will be the 'laadle and dulaare' of the college!! ;)

but that's hardly the case in our college. my classmates are still at loggerheads with each other and the lecturers seem to be possessed by gabbar's atma! no companies are interested in recruitment and vtu has decided to kill us with their revised syllabus!! moreover there was supposed to be an inter college fest in our college which is on d verge of being cancelled!

heh heh.. i jus love complaining!!! :D

however i must say 6th sem is quite challenging. we have to build a graphics package for our computer grahics lab using opengl. the catch is we have started learning opengl this semester! hail vtu!! :) but i really really really wanna code this thing all by myself. so i have been going through a lot of tutorials and stuff. and when i am about to start on this project we hav internals!!! well, that's my college life for you.

but hey i have a social life too!! ;)

last week it was my friend's birthday. i have known her since school. she is the ideal friend with a genuine personality. it's always a treat for me to go there since i get to meet most of my school friends. on my birthdays its just cousins and family. so this is one opportunity for me to spend time with my friends. it was a lot of fun!!! :)

and as usual now its time for me to log off. i cant post the favorite songs list today. but i ll surely post it next time and i ll update more often as i ll be working on my project real sooooooon.....

sleepy sunday

2009-03-08T15:04:00.007+05:30

it is a sleepy sunday. normally i get up at 6:00 a.m. so that i dont miss my college bus. so on sundays i take the privilege of getting up late(that's somewhere around 9:00 a.m.!! )

one look at my table and i thought i would faint! i am very possessive about my study table and the mess on top of it woke me up properly!! i got to work immediately. seeing me cleaning, mamma joined in and we managed to reset the whole place.
that's a whole morning gone!!!

i just finished my lunch. thinking of new excuses to postpone studying for the internals... ;)
mamma is glaring at me! i better get to work!!!

sixth sem

2009-03-07T16:12:00.006+05:30

finally i have started off with sixth sem. we have our core subjects from fifth semester. so we need to really concentrate on all subjects henceforth.

this time vtu decided to release the results quite early. i got 78% and i have scored the highest in the entire computer science branch!!! yipppeeeeee!!!!! (welll.. i told u am a nerd!! :) ) remember my dbms lab exam where in i forgot the 2nd normal form?? well the examiner decided to forget it too!! she has given me a whopping 50 on 50!!! God bless her!! :)

the classes move at such a slow pace. it's a torture sitting through them. the only bright spot is we have classes only till 1:00 pm i.e., only till noon.

we were supposed to have campus recruitments this year. but due to recession most of the companies aren't taking freshers. a very bad situation for us..
this made me think of higher studies. most of the people are going for it anyway. thinking of taking up the gre. i am not so sure whether i ll be able to answer even 10% of the questions asked in it. even if i make it somehow (miraculously) i am too attached to my family to leave them and go abroad...
its a tough life!!! :(

lets think about the problems later!!!

we have our fest coming up in may. our college has been conducting a small fest every year. this time my friends and seniors want to make it big!!! they are thinking of conducting an inter-collegiate!!! yooohoooo!!! :D
but our khadoos princi has different plans :( yet we aren't going to give up so easily!!
student power zindabad!!! :)

thats all for now. internals next week. back to business...

d best vacation ever!!!

2009-02-02T09:27:00.009+05:30

itching to give a blow by blow detail of each day of my vacation!! :)

i was actually going through my cousin's snaps while she was on a trip to chikmanglur. those sixth std kids give way too funny comments!!! hahahaha...

5th- 9th Jan:
coming back to my vacation, we had this training which i still dont wanna talk about. it wasn't bad but nothing to write about either! ;)

13th Jan:
then i went with my friends to garuda mall! its not often that i go out with friends. so the day was very special. we went to 'the scary house' which by the way was not scary at all!! :P later on we went to coffee day right next to garuda! dont even think of buying choc milkshake over there coz its way too expensive!! :)

14th- 17th Jan:
we went to my native- mangalore. we went in a tt- tempo traveller. again a lot of fun!! :) i got to see some age old rituals being performed over there.

17th Jan:
the day we were travelling back to bangalore and my sister came down from bombay!!! we didn't sleep the whole night!! we kept chatting, checking out the things she had got from there, teasing her.. i love my sis!! she is the best in the world!!! :D

19th Jan:
we went to sridhar gudda, near rajarajeshwarinagar, just my family. there is a nice temple n then you have lots of stairs and if you go at the right time you can see the sunset, which lasts for just a minute or so.

31st Jan:
my parents' marriage anniversary. its the 24th year!! :) we had a big party. its going to get bigger and better next time!!!

1st Feb:
it had been some time since d last 'cousins only' get-together! :) yesterday we took an impromptu decision and all of us went out to this new place called 'rasa' in malleshwaram. beautiful ambience with torchlights all around. but the food and service could have been better. but anywhere with my cousins is definitely a big hit!!! :D

2009-01-30T22:10:00.005+05:30

It has been a long time since i posted anything. that is because my vacation is going on..

Hols started on Jan 1st. I invited the new year by partying hard and dancing harder!! ;) Later we had a soft skills training program by infosys ( cornerstone consulting something something :) ) It was on for 5 days and i enjoyed myself. After that i went to my native but just for 2 days. Had to rush back home. Finally my sister is back from her training!!! :) It feels like she had never been away from me!! Chatting, fighting, roaming around, late nights, giggling, movies.. we havin been doin all of that and more! Life is going great for me!! :D

p.s: this is just the brighter side of my life.. i got to know my results will be out by next month and college reopens on feb 5th!! :( who cares?? :P

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-02T20:49:00.006+05:30

My first post of 2009!!! Wish you all a very happy new year!!!

Finally am done with the exams!!! Yippeeee!!!!

Exams really tire me out. I hate getting up early or staying up late. Basically am lazy! :)

But 5th sem exams knocked the wind out of me. The syllabus was changed for our batch. So we cant bank on previous year papers. To add to our woes, the model question papers wern't released this time. So we didnt have a clue how the papers would be. That's all I can write about exams right now.

We have placement training this time. 5 whole days in college! :( College reopens in Feb. So we have about 20 days. I have a lot of plans for this vacation. I am not sure how many will be actually put into action.

I watched a movie yesterday. It's called Miss.Congeneality. Old one. It's about an FBI agent - Gracie Hart, played by Sandra Bullocks (my favorite), who handles a case related to a beauty pageant. The case needs inside info about the pageant and the FBI assigns this task to Gracie. The twist is Gracie is so not lady-like. The movie goes on about how she solves the case and meanwhile discovers the woman within her. It's a nice movie to watch on a lazy afternoon.

2 more days...

2008-12-08T15:47:00.003+05:30

Have ada lab exam day after tomorrow, that's on wed. I am prepared with the programs. We had ada theory last semester and we have the lab this semester!!! So no point in studying too hard for viva. Basically I aim to get 45 or more in my lab exams. I will get 40 if I execute the program correctly n viva? Kay sera sera!! :)

Haven't really concentrated on the other subjects. We have only a week until 18th. Dunno how I'll study so much. Let me finish this lab. Later on i ll make a proper plan!

Photoshoot anyone?

2008-12-04T12:24:00.008+05:30

Hi, I just finished my dbms lab external yesterday. I got the first program which is really easy! :) We were asked to generate report for one table using vb. I finished real quick and as usual I was the first one to finish (people who are commenting that I finished fast coz I got an easy program can keep your comments to yourself! ;) )

Time for viva. The external was really nice. she asked me all the normal forms. I started off well but I forgot the 2nd normal form! :P I told her I would come back to it later which both of us conveniently forgot!! She asked me plenty of questions like functional dependency, join dependency, multivalued attribute, aggregate functions, dknf, pjnf and many more. Phew! I was really tired by the end of it...

Since she was really nice, am expecting above 45 on 50. Hope my marks exceed my expectations!! :D

I was just looking at my friends' photos on orkut n facebook. It's fun to look at them in their weird poses and to read the even more weird comments! :)

Even my cousin who is in sixth std is on facebook n is more active on it than me!! :)

I enjoy browsing through my friends' n cousin's photos. Pics of them at their friend's place having a cozy get together, making a birthday gift, celebrating someone's birthday, on a trip and so on. I am not much of a outdoor person. I like being by myself but I do like being with my friends too. My sister calls me an ambivert.. Maintaining the right balance between friends and family is a tough job!!

At present I am very happy for my friends who are enjoying their life and sharing their fun moments!!!

who are these people???

2008-11-27T11:53:00.005+05:30

I have been following the terror attack in Bombay. Those who haven't had a look at the faces of the terrorists, please take a peek. You will be shocked to see that these so called terrorists are mere youngsters, in their twenties. Some of them still in college and the others fresh out of college. To see them holding AK-47 and imagine them shooting at innocent people recklessly is unbelievable!! Is this what modernization is all about? Finding out new ways of killing people??

Who are these people? Have they done anything for the country or for the world? What right do they have to destroy what they have not created? These mini-terrorists, who are just out of their teens - what hardship could they have faced?

If all problems could be solved just by wielding a gun and shooting off aimlessly, are we fools to battle it out?

Billions of people struggle through their lives, sweating it out to survive, supporting their near and dear ones. Millions of jobless graduates, handicapped unfortunates, wronged innocents, yet they hope for a bright future. They dream of making it big one day, of building a home, of securing a promotion, may be a vacation abroad, of providing good education to their kids, of playing with their grandchildren. Who are these people to shatter their dreams and smash their hopes?

They are cowards who cannot face a single challenge in life! Are the university exams enough to scare them? Those suicide bombers are the most idiotic or should i say the most intelligent of the lot! They are not even alive to see the damage they have inflicted!! Pah!!!

I think I have wasted enough time writing about these worthless people!!

Last but not the least I salute all those brave people who laid down their lives for the well being of commoners like us. May God bless their souls and give their family strength to overcome this tragedy. May their souls rest in peace!

brownies!

2008-11-24T20:35:00.003+05:30

We got a new microwave oven recently. I have been wanting to prepare something in it. So finally I searched the net and found this easy recipe for brownies.

5 Minute Brownies:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa

1. Cream sugar and butter together.

2. Add eggs and Vanilla. Mix well.

3. Stir flour and cocoa together, then add into the egg mixture. Stir well.

4. Grease a glass pie pan and then coat with sugar.

5. Pour brownie mixture into sugared pie pan.

6. Microwave for 4 1/2 to 5 minutes.

My mom is in charge of the kitchen at home. But she has never used a oven before. So, me n my mom set out to prepare these brownies. We mixed the butter and sugar. Both of us were excited. In my eagerness, i weighed and put the cocoa powder right into the butter sugar mixture.

We were in a fix coz we had to mix the flour and cocoa and add it later.

My mom is very sweet. She said it was ok and anyhow everything had to finally go into the bowl!!

And then we added flour. Soon we realized we hadn't put the egg-vanilla mixture!!!

Trying not to laugh and encouraging each other, we added eggs and vanilla essence.

We put the mixture in the oven and waited anxiously. We had used the oven only for re-heating. It was the first time we were actually cooking something in it.

After 5 min, we took out the brownie. Though it didn't taste anything like the brownies we have at restaurants, me and my mom enjoyed it thorougly!! :) Now we plan to make it often so that we can surprise my sister when she comes from Bombay (obviously with one that is prepared properly! :D )

P.s: Please add all the ingredients in the specified order.

abnormal?

2008-11-23T13:30:00.003+05:30

it was a busy day yesterday. my school friend had a psychology test and she was supposed to take the subject with her. i went along with her to bishop cotton womens college. nice college but not too impressive. i would say my engineering college is better than that!

she went in at 10:00 a.m. i sat down with the other subjects!! i started talking to the girl next to me. after a few short replies she got occupied with her cell. the guy sitting next to me started breaking his knuckles. after some thinking, i started the conversation. he was from tanzania, east africa.

he was very soft spoken and was doing his masters somewhere i couldnt hear. he said he was in bangalore since 4 years. there is this special quality about people who come from a different place. they start exploring and finally end up knowing more about the place than the localites. he spoke very good english with the right amount of slang and expressions. had a very good time interacting with him.

i was called in twice and was given a questionnaire each time. now the questions in the paper were most annoying. in the first sheet, for each question, i had to tick the choice with which i strongly agreed and put a cross for the choice with which i strongly disagreed. here is an example:

poetry should :

a) depict reality of the society
b) describe loveliness of the subject
c) provide entertainment

i agreed with a and disagreed with c since poetry should be written for a cause and the loveliness of the subject would come through even if the poet didnt mention it. ok that was easy. now try this.

God can be reached through:

a) social service
b) devotion
c) hard work

all three seem equally good. i agreed with c disagreed with b coz if u help yourself and help others then even if you dont do regular puja God will definitely like you.

but the results wernt so pleasing. i got a low value for belief in religion and God and also a low value for aesthetic sense which is interest in fine arts!!

similar dumb questions were asked in the second paper. there were five choices: strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree.

1. you are on time for appointments - strongly agree
2. you feel rushed - agree
3. you work within deadlines - agree
4. you feel guilty while taking rest - disagree

the next part was the same question asked in a different way.

1. you take apointments casually - strongly disagree
2. you feel relaxed - disagree
3. you work at your own speed - disagree
4. you often take a break after continuous work - agree

my analysis says i take work casually, m patient, moderate, calm, dont take jobs which cause physical pain?!? what sort of analysis is this??? does anyone know??

anyways my friend got really good marks 29/30!!

we went for lunch later on. we know each other since school so it was wonderful chatting about old times. we have made a lot of plans to keep in touch and meet regularly. hope something materializes!! :)

princess in love!

2008-11-21T12:12:00.005+05:30

this is the third book in the princess diaries series. princess diaries is all about mia thermopolis, an ordinary girl in Manhattan, who suddenly finds out that she is a princess. the series is the journal of a girl who confides all about her home, school, family, friendship, love to her diary.

although i have read the first two books in the series, i liked princess in love the best. being a hard core romantic myself, i enjoyed the book immensely. mia juggles her life between school and princess lessons. to add to her woes she is head over heels in love with michael, her best friends brother. michael is a genius, who has got into one of the colleges in the ivy league. poor mia, apart from being a princess, also flunks algebra despite her mom being married to her algebra teacher. tough life!

mia is someone with whom i can easily identify myself. she loves this guy, who she thinks, is perfect! she feels she is neither pretty nor brainy enough for him. everytime i like someone i have this feeling that the guy will not like me back. this is something almost all teenage girls feel, when they have their first crush or when they fall in love. but with years i realized no one is perfect and there is something special in everyone. as we move on with mia we realize that true love does exist and someone somewhere is waiting for us!!

to all the girls out there who like someone and feel that the guy is too good for you, first of all stop thinking that you are not worthy of the guy. he might be this cool and popular guy, who is good at everything. but there is something special in you too. its just not possible that you are rubbish at everything. so search your soul and find out what you like the most. for eg, if you are good at singing, nurture your talent. be proud of your singing ability. this will boost your confidence. try out new things. as you overcome your weakness, you ll realize that you are, if not better, no less than anyone less. :)

oh i have moved far far away from the topic. coming back, though i wouldnt say every girl would like this book, but i strongly feel its worth a try! :)

study holidays!!

2008-11-18T18:20:00.003+05:30

yeah quite a boring title! but m happy about the holiday part :) finished the third internals. had cn today. i was quite impressed by my preparation. :) exams start from 18th dec. i hav dbms labl on 3rd dec and ada lab on 10th dec. i am not too happy with the ada lab date coz we dont have ada theory this sem. its going to be a pain to study for viva! i'll have about two weeks time after practicals. hmmm... a tip for all those people who are taking up their engg exams for the first time this year...

1. prepare well for your lab exams. study the theory well coz it will not only help you for your viva but also prepare you for your theory exams.

2. always aim to score a century in maths.

3. go through previous year question papers.

4. keep reading blogs of vtu students! its the best preparation you can ever get!! :D

havn't chalked out any time table as of yet. i have this habit of preparing timetables n then not following it! heh heh!! thats a characteristic of people born under virgo. well they are supposed to follow the time table too! lets c...

feeling calm and relaxed. i think i ll listen to some good music, purge my mind (which means have a good sleep heh heh) and then plan something.

provoked!

2008-11-15T16:52:00.003+05:30

i watched provoked thursday night. aishwarya, as the battered wife, is simply marvellous! the movie is truly an eye opener. i cudnt even watch the scenes where her on screen husband naveen andrews tortures her. i had shivers down my spine when he threatens her with a hot iron! my heart goes out to all those women who suffer at the hands of such arrogant fools!! please dont mistake my feelings as feminism, it is humanity!

dat was yesterday. i spoke to my sis just now. she was telling me the story of dostana on std!! for all those single kids out there, this is the way it works. along with your sibling u get a heavy phone bill free! :D

k for those who havnt forgotten, yes, i have reached my target! ch 14 over n out. so what if its a bit late? :) there is one more chapter left. no targets please. actually, i didnt post yday only coz i hadnt finished studying. i was too ashamed to say i didnt reach my goal. anyways better late than never. wont be blogging until tuesday... bye for now.

no mood to study!

2008-11-13T18:20:00.003+05:30

if there is one thing i cant stand its ignorance!! i hate not knowing. n then there are people who annoy me with their gyaan! its always hard for girls to keep up with technology coz we have lots of other things to discuss.. for eg, fashion, daily soaps, movies... :D on a serious note, we have a lot of other responsibilities, no offense meant to the boys. but i insist that guys have a lot less work than the girls and so they have a lot of free time to devote to R&D.
on top of that we have exams. n i have this strange urge to know all about photoshop, torrents, microwave cooking :) i have my internals from Monday n believe me i havnt touched my books! i need to score well coz vtu takes aggregate of our marks 5th sem onwards. aiming for a 80+ percentage. k dont laugh! i know its tough but not impossible. kehne mein kya jaata hai? :)
off to work towards my aim! please pray for me! :)

today's target: study ch 14 in cn

mission accomplished!

2008-11-11T08:33:00.003+05:30

i hav been trying to customize my blog. finally i have it d way i want. its simple, neat, clear n d color scheme is soothing! can't help bragging sometimes heh heh!! :D a big thanks to whoever designed this template n to all those people who design such wonderful widgets! someday i intend to do the same!!
nothing much going on my side. these vtu people should be sacked. or better still they must be made to study engineering. den they'll realize d mess they have created! our exam dates are not finalized, d model question papers are not released and d syllabus is out of this world!! i have my 3rd internals next week.
computer networks is such an interesting subject. but somehow i manage to lose marks!! :( i ll have to write cn n os this time. not decided about dbms.
there are rumours that our exams will get postponed! according to the current time-table our exams start from 16th dec n end on 31st. that means no exam on jan 1st!! :D but if it gets postponed then theory exams start on 26th dec n end on 7th jan. i have a lot of plans for my holidays. hope vtu doesn't play spoilsport!! keeping my fingers crossed!!

haule haule...

2008-11-10T10:42:00.008+05:30

heard d songs of Rab ne bana di jodi! love d song haule haule ho jayega pyaar... :D its d best in d album. then there is tujh mein rab dikhta hai, male version by roopkumar rathod n female version by shreya goshal. shreya has rendered it beautifully. phir milenge is a song made out of hindi movie names. just an average number. finaly we come to dance pe chance n its sort-of remix dancing jodi. d less said d better! all in all not worth a buy if u ask me!

haule haule se hawa lagti hai
haule haule se dava lagti hai
haule haule se dua lagti hai haan...

haule haule chanda badtha hai
haule haule ghoongat ut tha hai
haule haule se nasha chadtha hai haan...

tu sabar toh kar mere yaar
zara saans toh le dildaar
chal fikar ko goli maar
yaar hai din jind-di de chaar

haule haule ho jaayega pyaar chal yaar
haule haule ho jaayega pyaar!!! :)
haule haule...

i luv disney princesses!!

2008-11-09T12:37:00.003+05:30

dbms internal

2008-11-06T18:51:00.002+05:30

today we had dbms internal. i was quite nervous in the beginning. as i went inside d lab i felt a bit confident. i picked d chit n gave it to my lecturer. i got d 2nd program. felt so relieved!! the other lecturer asked me which program i got in the first internal. i told her the 1st program! dat set her going,
"she always gets easy programs!! "
what was i supposed to say? yes mam, pls change it n give me a difficult one!! :D
she said it so many times, may b her nazar lag gayi! i made a few typing mistakes n since i normally don't make typing mistakes, i was unfamiliar with the errors. but after some time i managed to correct them.
finally i was called for viva. the questions were easy n she asked expected ones...
1. whats normalization?
2. whats a constraint? types?
3. whats update anomaly?
4. what are the advantages of normalization?
5. 1st n 3rd normal form?(thank God for dat coz i dint know d 2nd nf!!!)
dats it! one down. i hav ada lab internals tomorrow. off to study!!!

2008-11-05T18:00:00.002+05:30

i hav my dbms lab internal tomorrow! d queries r k. m not at all prepared for viva! hope everything goes well!

pink it is!!!

2008-11-04T19:32:00.006+05:30

m not pink-crazy :P but lyk all gurlz i lyk pink n these phones r damn cute!! :)

Nokia 6111

Nokia 6101

Nokia N72

Nokia 6085

half-day!

2008-11-04T16:50:00.003+05:30

had a half day at college today. it is so boring to attend college after a week long holiday! we had cn in the afternoon, we got it cancelled :) i hav frenz in other colleges who tell me they hav never attended classes after lunch since second sem. what boring ppl! :P i seriously think u can hav as much fun in classes. d lecturers talk so funnily! for eg, once in os class sir, he is from dharwad, was goin on about operating systems n computers n we were busy talking. suddenly he looks at us n asks " do u know prem? " we were taken aback n started wondering who prem? which prem? d kannada actor or director? some new student or lecturer? n he repeats " prem! mainprem!! " n den we realized he is asking about mainframe systems!!! :D we had such a good laugh!!! makes me think why ppl bunk college n waste money on useless movies wen we get free entertainment in college itself! :)

i hav lab internals dis thu fri. dbms on thu. d queries r k, bit worried abt viva. no sweat for ada lab coz no viva ;) everyone has decided to stop attending college from next week. our exams start from december 18th n practicals will be between 1st to 15th. i m usually so under-informed (does dis word exist? :) ) about all these dates. thank god for my frenz who keep me updated. but wid vtu changing d dates n syllabus everyday no one can get a clear picture! so dats it. hav to complete my records n start studying!

2008-11-03T15:34:00.002+05:30

its been some tym since i posted my last msg. last week has been a holiday week. totally freaked out. i watched golmaal returns, nowhere near d prequel. but still it was fun going out for a movie wid my cuzins. did a bit of shopping during d weekend. its my cuzin's birthday today. wishing her d best in d world!

i also completed reading a few novels. tym for me to move towards my textbooks! ;)

Heyyyy!! Its Diwali!!! :)

2008-10-27T12:05:00.004+05:30

Diwali is one of my fav festivals! Lots of sweeets, crackers, diyas... But this time diwali isn't so fun coz my sis isn't here :( she is on some dumb training program for her job!! Miss u sis!!!

Yesterday i went to some mall near my place. They seem to be coming up everywhere. I went shopping for clothes. But there wern't any good ones so ended up buying a single kurti. All in all it was fun window shopping!! ;)

Looking forward to the evening. We havn't bought any crackers. Going the eco-friendly way! ;) But its fun to watch all those fancy crackers and rockets lighting up the night!! I Do Love Deepavali!!!

My parents are telling about the way they used to celebrate diwali. Their faces light up when they talk about their childhood! Today is dedicated to my parents! :) I am going to watch a very nice movie with my parents! will give you the review tomorrow!! byeee

Rainy day!

2008-10-26T12:32:00.003+05:30

Hi, couldn't blog y'day! Had a lot of fun. There was a seminar on first aid at our college. We learnt a lot of things. For eg, mouth to mouth resuscitation (though i don't think i wud like to practise it on anyone!:P) They called a boy to show us how to tie bandages and it was hilarious!! :)he had a fracture, jaw injury, broken leg and a drowning accident all within half an hour!! Later we had to give a feedback, sort of informal vote of thanks and of all the people they had to choose me! Somehow i knew it was coming, so i was sort of prepared. When i think about it now i feel it wasn't so bad after all :)
Later in the evening i went out. As always it had to rain when we started! I didn't mind it initially as it was drizzling. But then it started pouring and i was totally drenched. Its been a long time since i last went out in the rain and i enjoyed every bit of it! :) so thats it about y'day. Now i need to go and help mom in the kitchen. Will come back later and write all about it! :) ciao!!

Day 1 of my blog!

2008-10-24T19:35:00.003+05:30

Its been a busy month for me. Lot of moving around and tests all around the week. But i feel i have managed well :) Here is where your star sign counts i guess! I was born in september and virgins are said to be perfectionists!! I might be a very good example. I like to keep my life simple and uncomplicated. Be it my books, my table, my room or my friends i am always organized.

I am not much of a speaker. In fact i talk only when its necessary. I dont like people who keep yapping all the while! The idea of a blog appealed to me and here i am blogging to glory!! :)

It was a good day at college today. I did my test well. We had a half day so came home early. All i wanted to do was create my blog. Now that i have done it i am quite pleased! :)

Mission Accomplished!!

Hey my first post!!!

2008-10-24T17:29:00.000+05:30

I have been thinking of creating a blog for a really long tym!!! Finally i have made it!!! :)