‘Twas my B’Day and Life’s just on @the Pinnacle…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Birdwatching, Blogging, College, FIITJEE Pinnacle, General, It's My Life, Linux, Photography, Quizzing, School Life, Shutterbugs, Technology
Sorry to intercept your flow of feeds from several blogs around cyberspace with this distantly familiar web page with a forgotten author(s), but well, my blog did miss attention from people everywhere including me. And so did I. Loads of things happened since June, when I last made any kind of an update, (not referring to the blogroll) on the blog. Anyway, its nearly 2 months since then, with a few sharable events.
- Uma Leaves to NIFT B’lore
You people must have read this previously on the blog that Uma is not between us anymore. She left this place on the 24th of July. Anyway, things have been fun there as per what I hear from her these days. I am quite sure things must be very different in an all new place where someone has to get used to not having those family pampers in all it’s bounty amongst many other things. After all, it is kind of impossible to fit eighteen years worth of an eventful lifetime in three suitcases and one tiny little skull! (This line is by Uma herself!) And it isn’t everyday that your bestest friend in the whole world leaves to another place and sudden change in how often you speak or the detail in which you tell things just doesn’t feel right. There is immense nostalgia for so many things in her head for now. Just wish her good luck. She is finally studying what she wanted to, something very few people realize in time. You people MIGHT hear more from her once she gets her PC there.
- My Birthday
Yes, I turned seventeen last Thursday, the 28th of August. Not particularly eventful, except that I almost had my hips and my back broken. Had dinner at Chopstix, an amazing place near Siri Fort Auditorium. More on that later, but then nothing really worth too much mention. Coming to gifts, my parents decided not to buy me anything that could engage me, like for instance books, or new hardware for the PC, etc. I didn’t turn up at Matrix-Ecomm 2008, @ MSM as these days I am more serious about getting into IIT and doing well with my subjects than I ever was before.
- Got a new puppy!
Yes, I now am a proud owner of a month old Pomeranian puppy whose name is still in the beta testing stages. It’s biscuit brown in color and is really small, soft and cuddly. It feels like a lovely toy. When it first entered the house, I thought of naming it on people whom I really consider as dogs, but then eventually I fell in love with it so much that, now I don’t want it to remind me of dogs anymore! It learnt barking just a week ago. Anyway, a few pictures should be enough to have all of you green here…
Suggest me some cute and catchy names please… And, before I forget, its a GUY!
- Had another meet at Basant Lok
Had a really fun meet at Yo! China with Abhishek, Roshan, Ayush, and Uma before Uma left Delhi. The meet was ornamented with PJs and fun talks followed with window shopping at Om Book Shop.
- Upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS 64bit
I used Gutsy(7.10) previously, and upgrading wasn’t really hard and it isn’t as bad as some people claim it to be. Heck, I have even heard of Linux enthusiasts migrating to Windows Vista after using it! On the contrary, it is zippier and the experience really isn’t very different from what I used before. The bug fixes and performance tweaks and other minor changes make it a release with nothing much to be excited about, but then you wouldn’t regret an upgrade. With better hardware support, I finally got my ancient HP 1100 printer working with Ubuntu.
- Movies I saw this Summer
- The Dark Knight - Awesome! A review is scheduled soon. Take my word, it isn’t your normal superhero flick.
- 21 - “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” An amazing watch again. really brilliant camera work and direction. The girl was good too. MIT is reason enough for many to watch it.
- The Man from the Earth - An unconventional movie which is nothing more than a gripping discussion between university professors. Simply brilliant. I wish I could write this movie a review.
- Sicko - Micheal Moore. Period.
- Disney’s Mulan - If you liked Pocahontas, you should find this one okay.
- Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dam - Had seen it long time ago, but saw it once more and I still find it just as good.
- Pulp Fiction - I guess I would be the only person on the planet to hate it. Before you hurl curses and other vegetables on my taste in movies, just know that I really love South Park, Friends and even Simpsons. I just hated this movie. Even with the subtitles!
- Goodbye Lenin - Another recommendation by Uma, just like many others in this list. Was fun.
- Stranger than Fiction - Fabulous. Really witty and engaging. Suttle yet a powerful comic storyline. Amazing direction! This was Roshan’s recommendation.
- Following - Christopher Nolan zindabad!
- Sarkar Raj - Copied storyline or not, the movie is a refreshing watch. Brilliant camera work. Wonderful dialogues!
- Khuda Ke Liye - Angering plot. Makes you wonder - just how many problems could you put on one family? It might frustrate you a lot. But nice music scores, especially those in the background. Good camera work and filled with appealing/pleasing colors.
Would love to go on in this list, but there are other events to cover.
- Photography Expedition at JNU
Or perhaps a get-together that Uma, Roshan and I had planned in JNU with our cameras. Had a fun time laughing, throwing lame PJs, bickering, birdwatching, trailing in the woods, getting caught in the rain, eating canteen food, and even watching a movie in the end. Will dedicate a post on this. ‘Twas a memorable time spent there.
- Columban Open Quiz 2008
Went with an all new team consisting of two ex-DPS Damanjodi students and Sourabh from the previous team. Reached the semis, and were tanked out after that. Wasn’t really good as I heard that many questions were rip offs from other quizzing events. Too bad I couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Was kind of boring this time. I don’t think I would dedicate a post on it now.
- @the Pinnacle
Our JEE syllabus is almost complete now. really gearing up for 2-2.5 months of review sessions. Solving the entire 25 year IIT-JEE archive end to end making sure that everything is crystal clear. CBSE based exams are bugging in the middle of all this and to my surprise (read: shock!) it isn’t seeming as easy as swatting a fly this time. Nonetheless, the situation seems to be in control, but then I do need to take a long term Sanyaas or a penance to the sins committed against IIT-JEE prep last year. This year, I plan to waste very little of my time in the least no. of competitive events. Delhi students need not start celebrating yet, as I might surprise you! 
Tons of changes at school. Will write a lot about it too. Also, upgraded to Wordpress 2.6…
For now, please don’t unsubscribe to the feeds or don’t get rid of my blog’s link yet. I would keep it active for a very long time for now.
Admissions, Socialising and Everything else
Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under General, New Delhi, Quizzing, Shutterbugs, Uncategorized
After six agonizing months of NIFT’s lethargic tests, results, formalities and procedures I finally had my counseling a few days ago.I finally know where I’d be spending the next four years of my life and that would be <trumpets and drums> NIFT Bangalore </trumpets and drums>. I’d be doing Fashion Communication- better known as Communication Design-there.
After all the R&D on what seats go where (Its actually become a new hobby of my dad who is now planning to write a research paper on it), what was my best bet and endless disaster planning for worst case scenarios, NIFT unexpectedly opened four new centers and new courses at old centers this year.You’d think that the NIFT admin would care to put a news that big up on the website, but then going by the maintenance levels of the website I am assuming they aren’t aware of the fact that they have one in the first place. Until now there were only 36 seats for FC in NIFT so it was mostly out of my reach and my best bet was Accessory design-better known as Product Design-at Bangalore or Hyderabad.I was clueless about the new developments until they switched the projector on to show the seats available.When I saw FC seats in Bangalore I wondered if I was still in the speech-induced-stupor I’d been put into listening to the talk by NIFT people.Turns out that I wasn’t and I finally got the second best thing that I could have got in NIFT, the first being FC in Delhi.Although there was one single seat left in (stinking)Mumbai FC it was thankfully taken by the girl just a rank above me.May her soul rest in peace.
So now gearing up for four years of hostel life.I am enjoying my last few days of blissful ignorance about how bad it can be.I have been getting a lot of 10-tips-on-survival-in-tropical-forests-and-college-hostels from concerned family and friends. But I guess I am going to have to come up with some custom made tips on survival in NIFT Hostels soon enough.About how to deal with no dry clothes(which we’d probably have to wash ourselves)scenario, unfinished assignments(Ah not again.Had enough of them in school) and not-immediately-fatal-yet-barely-edible cafeteria food (Wouldn’t really mind it. Would help me shed some weight).
And for those people who think in NIFT the most difficult thing one has to do is deciding between halter necks and a spaghetti straps, a mighty senior put it very aptly on an Orkut community:
NIFT will not spare you any time for extracurricular activities.NIFT will screw up your sleeping cycle.NIFT will turn you into a pathological insomniac.NIFT will make you lose weight.
There is no glamour to NIFT. It is pretty regular. So cut your preconceived notions short , really short.
Knowing that I’d be leaving Delhi and a lot of people I have always wanted to know better behind, I’ve taken a leaf out of the books of social squids like Prashanth and have started talking to people leaving my comfortable spot from beaneath a rock where I’ve been hibernating forever.
So I had two really memorable meetings with Prash and the much-fabled Roshan Shariff-currently studying in University of Alberta in Edmonton,Canada.There was good food, some really kick-ášš movies, aimless wandering around in JNU and some discussions on everything else.Me and Prashanth finally got round to showing our Quiz, Crossword and CodeX question papers to Roshan. Although he got just about everything in the quiz right, we managed to stump him with the Crossword and the Codex.No amount of appreciation from anyone else could be as gratifying.Sporting the all-knowing and mysterious Mona Lisa smile that comes from making and hosting crosswords and Quizzes, in front of a guy who has made some of the most mind-boggling crosswords of our time was pure bliss-the sort that one feels only when they fit into that old pair of jeans that hadn’t fit for the last 3 years.
Then we had the historical first ever Pan Delhi Geek Meet at Piccadelhi in PVR Plaza. Although the meeting didn’t “pan” out as grandly as the organizers had envisioned-due to low attendance-it was still a very interesting meeting nonetheless where I got to meet some of the members of the geek community I knew only vaguely and two really interesting people from IBNMS who surprisingly had been through LuminaR and recognized me.The worst part of the meeting was that people had broken into small groups of their own with people at one end of the table wondering what the people at the other end were finding so funny.But we did have some nice discussions and conversation which compensated for the overpriced food.Hope we’d have more of these at a more hearing-what-your-neighbor-is-saying friendly places where the music wouldn’t be loud enough to drown everything else out.
These are probably my last few days of freedom before forever hence I am utilizing this time by doing nothing - the one activity that I’d be dying to do in a month’s time.
Have a lot to post a lot about everything else before I leave civilization. Hope I get around to doing it.
Bluegenemaid
<flotsam> Beauty lies in the lies of the beholder </flotsam>
TATA Crucible Campus Quiz 2008: Yep, I was there too…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Downloads, It's My Life, New Delhi, Quizzing, School Life
Before you guys start pointing all kinds of fingers on me and question me on how the hëll I actually got there as I am a high school kid, let me tell you that it was another play of Jugaad. I will write a detailed report of the entire quiz, but for now, be happy with all the questions that Onkur and I compiled together. And yes, Onkur was there too…
It was one of the better quizzes I have attended. As always, Greycaps, headed by Giri ‘Pickbrain’ Balasubramaniam organized it and did not disappoint us in this business quiz. So Onkur and I were compelled to compile (nice alliteration…) the entire quiz, from the preliminary rounds, to the finals including all the visuals in a neat .zip archive for all of you to download…
Click Here to Download the entire Tata Crucible ‘08 Delhi Regional Questions Archive
All those who missed it, surely missed a big chance. It was every bit worth all the effort we put in to attend a college quiz. Sadly though, it wasn’t us but IMT Ghaziabad who won the Regional Finals… 
