Oye! Its New year! ('Resolutions' time? :p)

Hey friends! Its new year time again! So wishing you all a Very happy and prosperous new year. May this new year all your dreams turn into reality and all your efforts into great achievements.

Resolutions! (anyone?) Well I do! (strange?) During this time of the year I do make resolutions and then try my best to keep up most of them ( note : try only). However from this year onwards I’ll write these resolutions on this blog of mine. . .and would analyse after 365 days (if its not a leap year though!) on how much I was successful in living upto them. Ok so here goes a small list of my resolutions:

1. I will never loose hope and will always be highly optimistic. (Starting on a pretty serious note.)

2. I shall try my level best to enhance my knowledge in my domain (point to be noted : my domain), which will range from Hack-tips (next Ankit Fadia?) to Web-D and programming skills (XML in my hit-list!). (However no clue on what is going to be the fate of my conventional departmental and core courses . God save me from them!)

3. I will try not to spend too much bucks on insti canteen from the following semester. NO more maggis and late night paranthas. Only Bournvita (still thinking: hot or cold?) (This will not only be a relief for my parents but also good for my all-time bad health, as my mom says. I’ll try living upto that, but cant swear on that mama.)

4. I will love all those who matter to me more than ever before. (Yes I will!)

5. I will apologize and forget all my so-called enemies. (“Enemies” is a harsh word though. “Bad friends” seems good. Unfortunately met few such people this year, and unfortunately got into few hot-steamed arguments, but fortunately I do apologize and forgive all of them, and fortunately will refrain myself from such happenings in the future too.)

6. I shall try to be more tactful and factful. (By the way as far as being tactful is concerned, I have shown such traits by fighting debates on net on some booming issues, and have turned out to be victorious. Thanks to my sheer intelligence! Ahem ahem! However as far as being factful is concerned, Engineers don’t need to worry on that. They do have lots of facts and never ending theories and laws. I hope this to exponentially increase in the days to come.)

7. I will try to minimize my laziness and will try being punctual. (Ah! This year I will try not being late to my lecture and practical classes. In the last sem, there was not even a single day when I was on time or in time. Always coming after the Prof had delievered the gist of that day’s lecture. Consequently had to sit like an idiot with everything going OHT(Over head transmission) for me. Laziness? Who really cares!)

8. I will not laugh unnecessarily and will stop acting like an idiot knowingly. ( Had to tolerate few consequences of the above habits of mine this year. . . and they were big blunders. An example is here :read. Somehow just saved myself from these few embarrassing situations.)

9. I wont call a nerd a 'ghissu', not tease anyone and not even pull anyones’s leg. (Never ever I dared to do such things in my school days. Was always calm and quiet (not like the usual nerd though), but hesitated being a part of such activities. However things changed here drastically and I love being a part of such idiotic stuff. Cant make sure whether I’ll live upto this resolution of mine or not?).

10. I will find out why the Google people unexpectedly removed their logos and Adsense feature from my blog. (I even got their letter in which they congratulated me for subscribing to this feature of theirs . . .and even promised me to send few dollar cash. . but then now its all over I guess:( )

11. I will keep on trying, trying and trying till I ultimately achieve what I actually want. (No doubts on this!)

12. I will be a radiator to all those who wish to be with me. ('Radiators' in terms of Preety Sheenoy, a great writer, is a person with whom when you finish interacting you feel happy, positive and recharged. People feel happy to see them. They look forward to interacting with them. Radiators are fun to be with, upbeat and full of life. Ahem ahem J)

13. I will keep myself away from all the bad habits of this world, including fagging and boozing. (Yes! I will never indulge myself into this crap! Hmmm! This time serious.)

14. I will call you up everyday. (Guess who?)

15. Oh yes! Forgot about grades and CGPA!. . .(Ok will write about this next time or next year :P)

16. Try my best to keep up most of the above mentioned resolutions! (I am a bit apprehensive of this fact but i guess, I would J).

P.S. "Ghajini" might not be a treat for this New year season. Rather go for “SlumDog Millionaire”(no takes on this either!). The best way is to go for an outing with your friends or family. However if still not interested, then switch on the Idiot box you’ll find something good to watch. . .by the way Oye! Its New Year!

"Downfall" or a "Rising" ? ("Something" is "Grinding" my "Aspirations")

It was yet another boring, monotonous and tiresome journey from Roorkee to Dehradun (after reaching where I could proudly announce to my friends by replacing my Orkut tag line as “Back Home” or Facebook status message as “Abhishek is back home”. I always feel proud in doing that. Dunno why?). The only thing to enjoy during the journey was a new stock of lovely songs I was listening to. Papa Roach, Led Zepellin and Kyle Minogue entertaining me all the way with their sweet voices (does Papa has a sweet voice anyways?). Indeed this time I wasn’t alone, I came with a brand new title (a title which I can neither be proud of nor be ashamed of). I have added yet another feather to my cap by entering into the Royale Club of “Seven Pointers”. Ya people I am indeed a “Seven Point Someone” (anyone remember Five Point Someone?). Huh! The first reaction of my dad on this was – “Great going son!” (I am still trying to search out for the hidden truth in this statement. Was this a sarcastical one or did he really appreciate me for being a member of that Club?). The day I’ll unveil this secret, I would be up with yet another blog post mentioning that. What else can I do except this?

The things I have been relishing at my home include the food (God save us from the Mess Food which we have been tolerating for last one semester!), and the ride on my wonderful Blue Coloured stylish, attractive, scintillating, lustrous and Metallic "Honda Activa". Compare a ride on a motor-driven Honda Vehicle on the awesome streets of Dehradun to a ride on a Pre-Historic times Vehicle, called a Bicycle in the 365 acres of IIT Roorkee campus and the Civil Lines nearby! For one you will have to burn your thousands of calories and for the other you just need few litres of petrol! Anyways both have their pros and cons! So no need of getting into that debate. The thing which needs this debatable approach is the concept of relative grading in Colleges.

One feature of IIT that I dislike is the concept of grading. CGPA ("Cumulative Grade Point Average") is what it is. The first time I heard about it was through Chetan Bhagat’s novel “Five Point Someone” (actually he wrote it for people like us. . .lol). That time I wasn’t aware of the way it is calculated. It has got lots of Mathematics involved in it. Anyways I learned this Mathematics in my first sem and deduced that it is one of the worst way to judge a pupil’s abilities. A pupil getting a 74 on 100 is equally brilliant to another one getting a 74.5 (0.5 mark cant differentiate their intellect. Can it?). However if judging according to the grading terminology, a 74.5 one gets a Grade A+, and the 74 one gets a Grade A. Now lets talk a bit Mathematics involved in it. So if the course is a 5 Credit Course, the one lagging the other by half a mark will lag by 0.21 (if the total credits are 24 for the sem). So if one become an 8 pointer the other is destined for becoming a 7 point something persona. And ya this categorization does become a lot of headache when you just miss out by a small amount in fulfilling the eligibility requirements for any organization or whatsoever. Hence you are literally robbed by this CGPA concept. However they say everything in this IIT system depends upon your CGPA. Now I say or rather abbreviate CGPA in my own terms, as :
“Courteously Grinding Pupil’s Aspirations.”