Ten Commandments for the Indian Engineering student

Are you an Engineering student in an Indian college? Don't worry even I had a bad day today.


So amidst all those 'cool' Facebook posts and funny satirical tweets that outrage on how the system should be and how everyone else is wrong, here are ten things you should always keep in mind. You are going to hate these. You have been warned.


1. You will get to interact with seniors in due course of your first year in college. You will carefully avoid those who are marching towards the library with books in hand and go disturb the one sitting with his girlfriend. He will ask you to 'chillax' and take things light. That's because he wants you to get lost and not disturb him. The right person to contact is the one with the books. He will provide you with the right advice. It will sound something like 'CGPA is important.'




2. In due course of time you will join/start ohmygodsofunny Facebook pages like 'Even-We-have -an-Engineering-college tips'. They will have coolmax posters that say stuff like develop your aptitude. Bunk classes. Have fun. But they miss some essential advice. CGPA is important.


3. You might be extremely interested in research. To the levels that you actually cultured ants for your sixth standard science project instead of saying they all died because your mom mistook it for Bournvita. So, you will end up doing tens of projects and millions of lines of code. While you are busy with all this you will grow up thinking you are superman. But CGPA is more important.


4. You will prepare with your fullest dedication to answer any question under the roof during the interview. But your preparation is not complete if you don't have a satisfactory answer to the question, "What is your CGPA?". Because CGPA is important.




5. Are you a programming wizard? Can you solve any problem in under 10 minutes? How many languages do you..? Wait, before that, What is your CGPA? Because, CGPA is more important.


6. You would have won gold medals in three consecutive math olympiads. But, CGPA is more important.


7. Your fellow classmate who asked you what is the difference between C and C++ two days before the test would get a Boston admit when some BPO would refuse to interview you. Because, CGPA is more important.


8. Your parents would think you are not working as much as your next door neighbor as he would end up with better grades because he 'refers' to Local authors only. Hey because at the end of the day, CGPA is more important.


9. You would think some basics on research and may be a paper would cover up for your drop in CGPA because you couldn't cut a pyramid into three equal parts. You will spend an hour filling your CV with accomplishments you think are going to make your profile look like Vidya Balan's gorgeous smile. But to start up with research and cover up CGPA you need a good CGPA. Because CGPA is more important.


10. You might choose to ignore all the above. But remember this alone, CGPA is important.

Cats, Dogs and the class that was..

#include< stdio.h >
#include< conio.h >


Right. I got carried away there since it was about 'C' batch.

Now, that everyone's done with cursing me, read ahead. I thought of starting this post in a light tone (please wait, don't close the page yet). I don't wish to make you all watery eyed with this post of mine, which you might become, if you have the will to stand one whole page of rants.


No post about C batch would be complete without mentioning the legendary Chandru, Raju, Murali and best of all Somu .No post would do justice to them in a single page so there's always that Reversible Irreversible post to speak all about these people which faithfully serves as a chat-room till date.


Though I'm reputed to absent myself from classes good enough to be forgotten (well, for those who have, I'm that sober number 25 who exists) I presume I've attended enough classes and I KNOW I've spent enough time with you guys to share something by putting this post in the best possible way.


There have been quite a few emotions and laughter stands tall among those. I had some of the best moments ever with you people. Amith was the first guy from this batch i got introduced to.  Pranav , Padmanabha and the iPhone-wala-who-shares-my-name were three people who were part of all the fun that I had ( though VK was a part of 'almost' all the fun since he disappeared for obvious reasons , I can't refrain myself from mentioning him) I've developed a liking for these three which I know would last for years to come and if not reciprocated your asses will be duly kicked.


And there came Kiran and his brainchild, the C batch group (EPIC C batch group) came in as a blessing. And my count of friends increased, atleast in my facebook account :D Thank you Kiran. And I got a very good friend, Bhavishya, the co-admin. Sure to stay a friend for long.


Speaking of FRIENDS, How am I ever going to repay you Arpita, for that book? That is making my weekend awesome-blossom.


And that group led to discussions and apparently we're going to have a get-together today. This is such a good idea because we fail to meet in class since not a single day has gone when C batch showed its full might to the attendance registers. 


And our classrooms, I love both of them. hall no. 73 (Vivek, remember its SEVENTY THREE) and the cinematic 111. i have always waned to sit inside a classroom with a theatrical architecture. Promise. Though 73 never had continuous electricity and 111 has always had broken desks to which Vivek added one more, I nevertheless loved the classroom more because of what happened and not where it did.


Those assessments where we had no clue whatsoever about the questions and even more clueless about the answers we wrote were indeed fun, not for the profs though.


Now here comes a series of statements which you must completely skip, or you'll wish you did once you complete reading through.


Though all we learnt from Chandru was to consider, assume and Yevaluate and most importantly not to sit both , I had the best laugh in his classes.


Though all we learnt from Murali was never to learn about Semiconductors, it is priceless to see his mock face when he asks a question that he knows none would dare answer.


Though we learnt never to annoy English ma'am by opposing her, lest we might get a six min lecture for a two min speech, I loved her classes.


Though we learnt nothing but the fact that no chemistry teacher can ever make a student study chemistry without mocking the teacher or the subject, I had some of the best rib-spraining, stomach-spasming, eye-watering laughter in his class. Special thanks to Padmanabha. Pranav knows why.


Wait, i'm losing track of the subjects we have. 


*Refers syllabus book*


Yeah, EG.


Though he used the worst grammar possible, I tend to mock him the least as he's the only one who teaches ( Not, the fact that I'm scared that he'll fail me in the 3rd assessment and will do so in the finals too because he'd feel he had not punished me enough)


Though in FOC classes, wait what am I doing? I've never attended FOC. Yet I can start it with a 'though'.


Though I never attended FOC and those who attended wished they hadn't , it probably was fun for those few. I'm forever grateful to Pranav, for the 4 or 5 marks that I'm getting in the internals is just because he took the pains to sit through hours of FOC. Take a bow for that.


Though the series of dumbwitted 'thoughs' is over, you may want to continue reading inorder to completely get a grasp of my joblessness.


By the time first assess got over, I got settled in the class and was content about the class's contents.I didn't imagine I would feel this way in such a short period of time.


I love everyone of you guys. Even though I haven't spent quality time with most of the 94 of you, i wish i 'd get a chance to connect wit all of you. I'd remember the names and recollect this wonderful class whenever someone mentions one of your names.


And I really wish Mohideen,Arpita, Sharmila, Sowmya, Nivedita,Ivaan,Giridhar, Ranganathan, Swetha, Praveen , Madhan and myself end up in the same class for the coming semesters.


I feel awful that Pranav, Padmanabha Vignesh and Bhavishya wouldn't be in my class. This guy here will miss you four BIG TIME. 


There are so many others whom I couldn't mention because, its too many people, its already such a long post ( most of you'd've slept twice or thrice already) and the author has been sleep deprived for the past two or so weeks.


Not to forget the monkeys and dogs that visted our class very often than we did.


To sum up, these 4 months were something that I would cherish forever. I hope you guys would remember me (of course you would ;) ) and this post would be something that connects us all.


PS: Sorry if I'd been rude or plain annoying. I'm too good a package and I come at this cost.


PPS: Pliss Ignore the PS ;)


PPPS: I hope the C lover of the C batch doesn't find any errors with the opening statement :P 


With tonnes of love and a tiny drop of tear,


Vignesh, Yeah that number 25 :)

Obama,satyabama and appa-amma..

Truth is the hardest thing to believe.


We often misunderstand things to be one, while they come out as the exact opposite of what one imagined. So is the case with the arrival of the American first man/first black American man, Barrack Obama, to India. Most of the common men,by which I exclude Mr.Singh and his corrupt associates, believe that the arrival of the President of the states would make a change in the economic situation of our country. Well,that is not going to happen. 


He says, " Apart from the dreadful incident two years back, the Taj stands as an example for the nation's strength and it feels great to address the gathering from the very same place."


By which he actually means, "I'm glad that I was not elected President two years back and I really regret that Bush did not arrive when Terrorism went haywire two years back at the very same place".

Even after dodging all the questions and enough blaming of Pakistan,Iran and numerous other countries who don't understand what he says because they don't know English(as if the people who speak English give a damn) the media says he is discussing counter terrorism with the PM. He might as well be discussing, the terrorism at the Mumbai cine-plex ticket counters on Diwali day, which won't be revealed on account of being highly classified government info. You can't get this info even via wiki-leaks and that's why I provide you with Vicky-leaks ;)


He says America and India have come more close than ever, which invariably reminds me of Vadivel who tried to shift Delhi to South India. While Indian engineers,doctors and businessmen are waiting outside the embassy for their visas he's busy swiping his 'Visa' and dancing to Bollywood numbers in two piece( A shirt and a pant of course)


He's supposed to have signed a $10 billion deal. Well,there goes the money for Barrack/Manmohan campaign for the next elections. And this indeed would seem as a parody of the government reports. But believe me, Wiki might lie, Vicky won't.


Here, that I have included Satyabama for it sadly rhymes with Obama or so I think it does, I'm forced to make the following statements. The only Satyabama that I know of is the group of institutions run under that name. Which is a paradox. Let me tell you why. Its been portrayed as the strictest institution and its the scale which other colleges use to compare their levels of strictness with. Bite me. Its fun to be there as said by few friends who apparently belong to that chain of institutions.


The food, is immensely awesome and classrooms spacious and provide the perfect environment to sleep unlike the ones 'm forced to sit for 8 hours everyday. 


I know you wish that you could've ignored the Satyabama part completely. There goes my rating into the drains.


And my appa-amma who are not even remotely interested in whether I write about Obama/Satyabama or the annoying next door mama, are indeed interested in the Internet bills that the mailman never forgets to deliver unlike so many other important letters. And that ( and not my train of thought which hit a dead end) is making me stop with this.


Truth indeed is the hardest thing to believe.

What not to do as an engineer..

This is a post I write for a blog that I'm a proud co-author of.The place where I originally wrote the post is this Engineering Revealed :) . Swathi (Sti),Prem and myself work as a team :) Swathi writes at All that you wanted to know. Visit and follow those as well.. 




                       Growing up, I never thought of becoming anything but an Engineer.Those were the days where families like mine provided only two choices,Engineering or Medicine.There were times when people would hold my hands as a kid,draw me close and ask what i wanted to become when I wanted to grow up and before i could come up with an answer they would give me choices: Engineer or Doctor? I'd say with a really big smile that I wanted to become a Computer Engineer.I still do not know what i was thinking at all those countless moments I chose to be a Computer Engineer.Though the choices seem so narrow and absurd today,it appears that I really wanted to be an Engineer, or let me put this way, I did not want to become a doctor.There were times we used to ask each other in class what we aimed at becoming.Usually the first day in every grade that I came through was meant to be self-introduction classes.There were teachers who revised alphabets for the whole of first week,which thankfully stopped with class six.Coming back,those self-introductory classes too found me choosing Engineering.I looked up at people who proudly proclaimed that they wanted to become police officers,pilots and collectors.Well,in short I grew up thinking Engineering is cool and Engineers are super heroes who saved the day.As the wheel spun I entered high school and I  thought it was time to decide on career,whatever I thought it meant that day. Through the ages,I took up a liking for Mathematics and Science,Physics to be precise.But then,like for Mechanical Engineering anything that moved did not inspire me.I thought all Aeronautical Engineers became pilots or astronauts and I ruled it out as I wanted to become neither.Higher Secondary school and I had to choose between three streams Computer Science,Biology and Commerce.I definitely did not want to become a Doctor and hence Bio was out.I had no clue about Commerce and hence I ended up choosing Computer Science.There came THE point where i had to pick a college and course.That was either probably one of the worst decisions I made or I turned a wonderful opportunity into one such devastating choice.This will be answered in the future.I picked Electronics and Communication Engineering(ECE).This was(is) supposed to be the creamiest of the courses and everyone I knew were doing ECE and I did not know which one to choose! And I admit I picked Electronics without being sure of what the consequences would be.That crashed for  numerous reasons,or I presumed it did.Now I am here after having chosen something that I wanted to become,Computer Science Engineering.

Inference(s):

The first line of this post is the best lie an Engineer can come up with.

You can see that the choices I made were based on what i did not like and not on what I liked.This is something that I wouldn't advise you to do.Thankfully the accidental charm lasted till higher secondary atleast till it came crashing down at college.

Always think of science as means of living and not as a part of life.Science in itself is a life that is visible only to those who live and admire it.Happy,honoured and proud to be one among the many.

Commerce is for those with lesser marks is a complete bullshit and I badly want that myth to change.Commerce is a brilliant field and people die to become experts and attain excellence in that field.

Always have short term goals,work on them.

Do not make choices when you are happy or emotional.

Hear everyone but listen only to the learned.

Have passion and never lose hope.Follow these two and you'll be thankful one day.

Never assume anything in your life.Failure and reality slaps you right on the face.

As a being,one have to endure failure at some point or the other.Cry but act upon failure.

Constantly try to achieve excellence.Success will follow.

Fall in love with Mathematics or forget being a good Engineer.

Swear to contribute atleast the slightest to the field you study.Never forget your teachers and most importantly the lessons you learnt.

Life can only be understood backwards.Never try to connect the dots beforehand.

Appreciate science.

Learn,love and live.

Always remember what not to do as an Engineer..

PS:You'd have noticed that the words Engineer and Engineering begin with caps in the entire post.The stress is to stress that I love Engineering and I'm happy that I call myself an Engineer.I cannot imagine myself doing anything other than Engineering.I forgive myself for all the poor choices I made.. for life is, but a learning process.