Firstly this post has nothing to do with the movie ”Luck” starring Shruti Haasan in one of her most aphrodisiac performance, though the movie was nothing more than a total clunker. Having merely read one-fourth of “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, I do not find myself in any comfortable position to comment or write a post about it, as it would present me nothing more than a naïve subject. The following post might or might not be linked to the gist of the above mentioned book, but not a single sentence of it has been plagiarized from the book or from anywhere else. This post is about ‘luck’ as I construe it.
Luck for me is ‘random’, i.e it lacks any order or plan or occurrence. Luck can be on your side in the morning for a particular task and can evade you in the evening for any other equivalent task. You wake up on time for your morning class is by sheer luck. Supposedly the alarm clock fails or you are floating in your world of surreal dreams so peacefully that you do not hear it ringing, you will surely miss the class owing your misfortune to luck (or I’d define it as ill-luck). You are walking through a lane with your friend who suddenly slips and falls on a banana peel. This marks your friend’s ill-luck and your good luck because it could have happened the other way around. Luck favored you this time! Similarly if your girlfriend ditches you for some other person means luck disfavored you and favored the 'other person'. You can be the richest person in your town but ill-luck can make you a hapless victim in a matter of seconds. You can be on the zenith today but ill-luck can bring you down in a flip of seconds. Luck can make you win thousands of bucks in a Casino, Gambling or a Blackjack, but the same luck can disfavor you anytime. If you are the most lucky guy in your college you could be walking hand-in-hand with the hottest chick in town, but if you are oh-not-so-lucky kind of a guy you would be doing nothing more than driveling! Luck, undoubtedly is omnipotent and omnipresent but it lacks the orderliness.
People underestimate luck and perceive it as Non-luck (i.e Skills). Skills do define ourselves, our traits and our attributes, but without luck it has value equal to ZERO! Skills + Luck = Success, where "Luck >> Skills", thereby narrating the grandness of Luck! With Skills but without Luck, you can somehow manage to be on the top at the cost of your precious life. However with luck but without skills, you can manage to be on the top but will never have the fear of dying because of that factor called ‘Luck’! Thus, Luck is indeed a potent toxin, but yes it doubtlessly happen by mere chance if you happen to be 'lucky' enough!
The recent bargain which fetched me a 500 rupees gain turned out to be the best deal I ever had. I bought a much needed Hawk bicycle in exchange for my old never-exploited Razorback! This has not only demolished my exponentially rising Rickshaw bill but has also started saving my Time (by making me punctual at all the classes and labs), which I have been utilizing for some work or the other.
The initial week at college went as expected. ‘Department of Chemical Engineering’ yet seems to perplex me in many regards (details later). Even though many things have certainly changed. Our class room has been shifted from CH-102 to CH-201. So has the Professors, excepting the one who blessed me with a B the last Semester in a 4 credit course. The only good thing which seems to have happened to me so far is the Institute Elective ‘IHS03-Group Dynamics’ I have gotten.
Amidst all this newness, I have bought some good Novels which includes “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and “A biography of Benito Mussolini”, which will surely keep me busy for the next few weeks or so. I am also planning to get from somewhere “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins. I also planned to join Career Launcher, situated at a walking distance from the campus for attending CAT ’11 coaching classes.
More than all this, I have been tweeting and blogging lately, rather than buzzing and updating my statuses on Facebook (details later). I have started socializing less with the people, and on the contrary have started giving more importance to the tiny and little things of Nature happening around me, which is sometimes a weird buzz coming out of a bee or a cool breeze hushing past me. All such things have started giving me wonderful sane moments of glory and happiness, rather than the gibes and scoffs of humans. Only this way life seems marvelous to me! No, I am not on the path of becoming a recluse.
The inception of Junior year was neither exciting nor commoving. The Registration bugger was turned Online from this year thereby reducing the workload from filling six colored cards to just two printouts thereby fooling us in regard to "Ragging affidavit-cum-Oath Commisioner dang"! However the nub of these printouts lied in the fact that details had to be filled Online to which the R-Server balked as usual. Somehow by hook or by crook this situation was bumped off, and there all Sophomores were legally set to enter into their Pre-Final year. *Glee*
This time my journey to R was accompanied by Ma, Pa and Sis. Consequently the trip, as expected, was full of advices, emotions, counseling. It all eventually turned into some thoughtful lessons on “How to keep your room clean?”, “How to maintain a balanced and healthy diet in R?” ,”How to excel abiding by the statement, ‘Early to bed and early to rise’?” , and a lot more. The room FT-18 was then blessed by their soulful ingress which soon followed by laying a wonderful calligraphic encryption on the room wall by my sis 'wishing me luck'. A walk through the Civil Lines and delicious lunch at Hotel Prakash with some little shopping followed next which concluded with hugs and kisses and then the Indigo racing away from Jawahar leaving me depondent all alone.
15 odd days left , followed by the lethal End-Term Examinations to conclude my awesome rattling Sophomore year, and commence my Junior year anew. Though I am still afraid of using any replacement for the term “rattling” above, because All’s well that ends well or Nothing is well, until it ends well! Thus, I wish 2-2 ends well too, to make that bountiful replacement.
At this particular juncture of time, an year ago, I remember I had a long-lived crush on Cobie. I mentioned the same in a post with reference to the “Green-Black Chemical Romance” thing. This time around, things have changed drastically. Anyways, I gave a glimpse of the Sem so far in my previous post, where I adverted at one place, “I did not receive any mail from few big names where I was expecting my immersion during the Summer holidays for training purposes. However, I am happy training at my Dad’s workplace at DRDO forsaking those big names, finally. “. However within a fortnight, when I was certain of going with DRDO, I got copious mails and calls, all captivating! Thus, I am in a big fix at the moment. The options available for me as of now are as follows:
Option No. 1:DRDO – and my passion for developing the algo: I will be with my family, in my beloved city and at my Dad’s workplace with all needful facilities, ranging from Hi-Speed Broadband connectivity, Air-Conditioned Rooms, refreshments (Real Juice, Samosas, Sweets, etc available any time), a world class library, Dad’s counterparts well versed with C++ who could help me out any time regarding my project and make me learn a lot, and people who can tell me a lot about Defence mechanism, accessories and structure. All this without any charge or fees.
Option No. 2: IIT Kanpur – and the value of this Intern:There was a Notice put up on our Channel-I long time back regarding some Internship at IIT Kanpur under the aegis of Dr. Priya Ranjan (Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT K). It said, ‘Stipend and Lodging would be made available at IIT Kanpur only, where the trainees would be undergoing training of one month and some Project work thereafter’. Yours truly applied for it without any vacillation, and these are the two replies I got from them :
First reply:
" Dear all, We will shortly announce the results of those who have qualified for the second round .Soon after we shall interview the people on the telephone and finally select the students. Students would be asked a few technical questions on the basis of what do they have filled in the form."
Followed by this later:
“Dear all, Firstly, we would like to apologize for being so late in announcing the results.About 953 students from all 7 IIT's Competed for the Internship program.Our team had a very tough time in selecting the students.
It gives me Immense pleasure to inform you that you have been selected in the Young Engineers Team as "Internees-W" for the Summer Session-2010.The terms and Conditions of the Internship are as follows :
1)Rs.2500 as stipend for the full program.
2) Accommodation arrangements by YEINDIA in a Hostel."
NOTE :Pre Placement Offer shall be provided to those who are found to be extraordinary”.
All this also seems to be an eye-candy. Confusion seems to be creeping up!
Option No. 3: iDubba –and the platform it would provide me:There is an EDC Society at IIT Roorkee which started an “Startup Internship fair” for the students of IIT Roorkee this time. I applied for it long time back by submitting my resume. The team EDC forwarded my Resume to some notable startups, one of them being iDubba, which was “started with an intention to revolutionize the way Television is watched in today’s hi-tech, technology driven World. It’s an online and mobile platform to help users get instant information about what’s happening on TV based on their profile, geography and behaviour. Our aim is to become one stop platform to satisfy all TV related needs of today’s modern man. We are working to build a new generation TV guidance system, recommendation platform and information source specifically targeting Indian users, media, broadcasters and advertisers.”
This is the reply I received from them:
"Hi Abhishek, Thanks for showing interest in our organization. We are glad to inform you that we have shortlisted your resume for internship program at our organization. We would like to have a one to one session either on phone or in person to give you an idea of our project and tasks involved. Let me know when we can have this session."
I gave the concerned person some time slot at which he called me up, and told me about the work which I was supposed to do. The incentives which would be provided included the stipend, accommodation and the certificate of appreciation, plus the perfect work-environment in their Main Center at Noida.
Option No. 4:ClipWeave – the most faint choice:Here are the two mails which depict my tryst with ClipWeave.
a) Mail 1 from Team EDC:
“Your resumes have been sent to ClipWeave. The internship profile of the start-up is available at xyz.com . Please go through the profile. You may get interview calls from the company if your resume gets shortlisted.”
b) Followed by the mail from ClipWeave later:
“Hi Abhishek,
This has reference to your application for summer internship to ClipWeave. We have shortlisted you for the next round. Now, we'd like you to take a small programming test to help us evaluate your skills. Please complete the test by tomorrow evening so that we can proceed with our process.”
I didn’t give any of the above-mentioned Test to which they did send me a reminder twice each after extending the date. I still have ample of time to complete it.
P.S: All the above options are equally good, captivating and confusing. Next few days, I seriously need to ponder over it to decide the best out of the rest! I hope I do take decision wisely.
P.P.S: My Sleeping disorder is yet not in order. All hail Jay Sean, Anya Marina, Papa Roach, T.I, and some random hindi songs.
It has been a dozy, dopy, jerky month. Few more days to go and yours truly move into the last month of this Semester, which would conclude 2-2 (un)happily.
The Semester so far has been pretty hunky-dory as far as my academics and other activities are concerned. Here is a synopsis of all the things I did and the things which I did not do.
What all I did so far … ?
1.I slept a lot, much to the disgust of my parents.
2.I became “the first one in the history of IIT Roorkee to become the “Opera Campus Crew Initiator” at my College”, as Opera people put it. I feel elated.
3.I have finally planned to do an Intern. Though it would be a travesty to do it when one is in his Sophomore years. Still there are many other reasons which are forcing me to do an Intern. I have applied for it at a couple of places. The result is awaited. Though, my love for my family and my dwelling place at Dehradun is persuading me to stick with my Dad’s Workplace at DRDO. DRDO is not bad either. If it gets finalized with DRDO, the topic which I am going to work on is, “Developing and implementing an efficient algorithm in C++ and using Star CCM+ for computation of thermodynamics and geometrical properties of Polyelectrolytes by incorporating different system conditions.”
4.I successfully managed and organized an Online cryptic hunt named, LOGIX 2.0 during Cognizance 2010, the annual tech fest of IIT Roorkee. The appreciations which I received from people all around makes me feel cock-a-hoop. It was a indeed a big success.
5.I am gleeful after securing second position in an event named “Chemomania” during Cognizance 2010 (The annual tech fest of IIT Roorkee). I hope I do get the mentioned cash award and a certificate! The event was structured on the lines of big companies like Shell, Schlumberger, BG, etc, as people told me after which I felt like participating in it. There were three rounds – first, the written quiz followed by a Group Discussion on a given Case Study, and finally the Presentation round and the cross-questioning session. The event was duly adjudicated by hon’ble Professors from Chemical Engineering Department.
6.I also feel elated after the Company I am involved with, i.e “eBullient Info Tech” is about to complete its first task of designing an Alumni Portal for the IIT Roorkee Alumni of North America. The static version of the site is already launched with many things still under construction. Go to site: http://www.iitraana.org. The remaining features would be completed within a fortnight or so.
7.I did write a lot of tweets and buzz’s. I remained inactive as ever on Orkut, except writing scraps to my sweet sis. Facebook, however, still remained my first choice followed by Twitter and Buzz. Though I cannot apprehend the obviousness of finding the twitter fad so low in India.
8.I, yet again got a brand new celebrity crush. This time yours truly has gone ga-ga over Ke$ha (Do check the pronounciation. Her wrong pronounciation narks me off.) . All day and night listening to her songs, watching her videos and publicizing her debut Album, “Animal” says it all. I love the dollar sign on her wrist, and her scrappy hairstyle. You rock, Ke$ha!
What all I did not do … ?
1. I did not manage to get 90+ attendance in any of my scorned courses. With every subject hovering in the range 70 to 75, I managed to keep it 90 plus only in Economics. The lowest being Material Science which is getting as low as 60 (my love for Meta overpowered by my love for Chemical). Though the Prof’s attendance in it is not even 50 plus. *Grins*
2. I did not stop drooling over the opposite gender, and stop flirting with some random people on the Internet.
3. I did not get any position in one of the event named “Freakonomics” organized by ShARE- IITR, which was completely mismanaged, and full of politics and nepotism. The judges were completely unaware of the theories of Steven Lewitt (the author of the book, named Freakonomics). Even the audience was looking for some freaky economics innovation rather than appreciating the stuff which involved Steven Lewitt’s theories. I with two of my friends, Siddhartha and Priyank, presented our views on IPL by incorporating all the theories and hypothesis of Steven Lewitt. Even after this, the judges and audience were not even able to make head and tail out of it, and consequently looked totally dumb. Our way of presenting was also awesome. We awoke the sleeping audience during our presentation. After all this when one doesn’t get anything, one would definitely get annoyed. In fact, ShARE-IITR is a big phony organization doing nothing and just enjoying idiotic bummer amongst themselves.
4.I did not receive any mail from few big names where I was expecting my immersion during the Summer holidays for training purposes. However, I am happy training at my Dad’s workplace at DRDO forsaking those big names, finally.
5.I did not go on a date with anyone. By anyone, I make it clear that I am focusing only on the female gender. Two odd years with no one whom I find *worthy* to take here at R, I think I should rather wait. May be, something “bigger” and better awaits! I am sorry, if that offends someone.
6.Finally, the most important one. I did not begin studying for my Second Mid Term examinations starting from next Monday. I need to begin it as soon as possible before it is too late.
P.S: I also find immense pleasure in congratulating my Dad for winning the prestigious DRDO award for the “Most outstanding Performance”. Indeed, it is seriously a big thing to be awarded infront of famous personalities and scientists. I hope I do learn something from it, and use it for my self improvement. Congrats dad!
P.P.S: Doing and not doing is a darn farce for the some, and not for the other. However for me it was neither of the two. I loved writing it. Moreover I am, yet again, addicted to Soft Drinks. Yes, yes the Summer has come again! Darn! I don’t like it, do I ?
Finally after a long hiatus, I seem to be shooting things on target. The last few words need not be given some serious thought. The crux of the matter lies much ahead.
I had a crush on B. I even had a crush on S. No doubt, the biggest of them was with an A. Then came P, then R, and it all finally got crushed in my chemical romance with the Chemical Brothers. (Mind you all these belonged to the female gender.)
*Back to Normal*
Apart from being literally obsessed with myself, I always had something for the letter A. It all started with an A some years ago. It even continued with the same A for quite some years, but it never ended with that same A after so many years.
Another V-Day coming in the same dull, dry, desiccate R-Land, where I keep humming the Floyd’s Number, “Wish you were here”! Hopes can’t be belittled. Neither they should be. However still I feel wish you were here.
Some wishes can never be made realities. However these days Zeitgeist is pushing me more and more into “Management” thing. Time’s surely going to explain it. No need of making things more complicated at the moment. The crux of the matter is yet to be continued!
Anyways, 4 days after the V-Day, there is one hell of a D-Day. The Day when there is a sudden urge to watch Sitcoms, play Games, listen to a new stock of songs, sleep, and talk a lot. No doubt, the miserable Mid-Terms are around the corner.
P.S: Things otherwise are pretty cool! Many things to write about, however I always end up writing on something that I wish I could read after some 20 years, and then deduce what it was and cherish these very moments. I know these could be traits of insanity!
P.P.S : I wish I could always end up with an A (grades, I mean). Though Pun could hardly be intended here!
P.P.P.S: I wish I could end up with any of these (C, A, B, I, L) immediately after my stay at R gets completed.
P4s: My Management Manic Disorder (MMD) has just begun!
P5S: The full initials of any name were not preferred because of the irrational fear of letting that person know the true identity. However, many could have deciphered it!
P6S: If this post went over your head, let me help you with that. This is just a prologue. Watch out for the rest!
These might either be omnipresent or none of your interest, but I love penning them down.
1. The most felicitous moment of my life was when I somehow managed to enter one of the premier Institutes of the country – IIT Roorkee.
2. The most disconsolate moment of my life was when few days back I realized that “what the hell am I doing in this college?”
3. I hate egoists, egotists, swellheads, and kitschy people.
4. I am a Stoic and suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
5. I prefer listening to some Punk by MCR/Green Day/Sex Pistols over listening to some Progressive Rock or Goth by some arbit human dressed in an uncivilized manner.
6. I did undergo a transformation from Atheist to Theist, following an incident which completely changed my life.
7. I will always remain a misandrist, and could never be a misogynist.
8. I love writing blog posts because I feel when twenty years down the line I will sit down and read all my posts, it would bring me back to this time, and nostalgia would be at its peak. (But the 2012-Doomsday, eh?)
9. I prefer watching Sitcoms over watching some freaking 3 hour long movie, and ultimately realizing that the story was either normally stupid or deliberately obtuse.
10. I am technically, literally and romantically challenged.
11. My first achievement which gave immense pleasure to my parents was me topping the school in 10th. I now wonder – “Those were the days!”
12. I love to show respect for multi-faceted people and all-rounders, and would not in a zillion years respect geeks and nerds.
13. The cutest thing I ever got in my life is my sweet little sister.
14. I love being available on gTalk rather being Busy or writing Status as “DND”. This freaks me out because I feel why the hell would someone be Online and writing DND or showing himself Busy. For that purpose one should prefer either being Offline or Invisible.
15. The first book I loved reading to the core was “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare. I can recall its each and every scene any day.
16. I am proud of being an Alumni of ICSE school and feel pity for those who aren’t.
17. I love being socially active and love joining social networking sites.
18. I prefer drinking Mountain Dew over Vodka/Carlsberg/Foster.
19. I wish to kill all gabby, garrulous, gossipy people surviving on Earth. (Girls excluded!)
20. My Ma, Pa would be the *only* ones whom I would adore blindly and excessively. They would always be my Paragon.
21. I love Dehradun more than any other city, and contrary to this hate Roorkee more than any other city.
22. I would prefer pursuing an MBA rather than going for MS or PhD.
23. My idea of a perfect date would be on the Islands of Bahamas having a candle-light dinner with she saying, “Kuch toh bol!! Tu aadhe ghante se chup hai!”
24. I prefer sitting lonely in my room rather than having idiotic chats in some arbit room on a topic going nowhere.
25. I love my childhood’s ultimate G.I Joe Collection. I still love to make then fight, and in the mean time always making my favorite HeMan to win.
26. I am a Narcissist, and my looks, indeed, are deceptive.
P.S: I am neither a racist nor a sexist.
P.P.S: I aint a Gay. Refer 7. Though I respect the ones who fall under this category. All Hail 377!
P.P.P.S: Crushes are literally destined to get crushed. Trust me!
