Am i patriotic? or is it an illusion?

In the recent past, I have had many arguments regarding this that I decided to pen my thoughts about it. I  believe that many people in this country live under a false impression that they are patriotic. That does not mean that they are traitors or that they betray their country. There is a third class in which people actually are neither. This issue is not pertinent to our country alone but to all the countries in the world. Confusion primarily arises with how each person relates to patriotism. Uncertainty prevails when people get confused between patriotism and a sense of attachment to one's region. The feeling which arises because of an attachment to a particular region is based on familiarity and comfort.If India is involved in a war tomorrow, I will pray that India wins the war with least amount of damage possible to its own country. If there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan, I will definitely want India to win with all my heart. But, if there is a cricket match between CSK and MI, the notion of the country breaks down and I will want Hussey to smash Harbajan singh all over the park. This is a feeling I get due to the attachment I have for my region        ( India and chennai). Now does this mean that I am patriotic? In my opinion, no.

Of course, patriotism is an abstract feeling which can mean different things to different people. But I think that patriotism is something which is a step ahead than the rest. Your action must be beneficial to the country in some way. It might or might not be a sacrifice on your part. But in most cases, it might end up being a sacrifice on your part. The most obvious people are the army people who put their life at stake for the sake of the country. There are others who fight to make the country a better place. It can be those who volunteer to go to villages to teach and make them educated. But there are also people who do the same things for the sake of a community service on their resume. There are many sincere police officers who join the force the make the country a better place and there are also people who join the force for the bribe money and also people who join without both positive and negative intentions. We have so many researchers who come back to India leaving lucrative jobs abroad to make the research culture flourish here. There are also people who come back home because they want to live with their familes and relatives. Almost all of the people who are working in the governmental jobs do it for the safety and perks and almost no one wants to work for the benefit for the country.

So, we can conclude that its not the profession or the destination but it is the intention of the individual which determines patriotism.Most of the people assume  that people abroad are less patriotic than the Indians here. So i ask a fundamental question. What is the difference between a person here and an Indian abroad in terms of patriotism? or rather, what have you done or what are you planning to do extra for the country? The answer I get from most of the people is " I pay taxes to my country. Thus i am benefiting the country". Now taxes , if i can crudely put it, is the rent you pay to use the country's resources. This is analogous to saying " I am a patriotic tenant because i pay my house rent every month". If we assume a  hypothetical situation where people are not expected to pay taxes (like the UAE), will you still pay taxes and contribute to the country? No. I am not denying however, that if one lives here and succeeds, there are other indians who are going to benefit out of it. If I successfully start an industry, there are going to be ancillary industries nearby, employment opportunists and the area might develop. But was it my intention to develop the area in the first place? no. I started an industry for my profits and development was a byproduct. Similar to how an airport will develop the nearby areas. One more small instance would be as follows. I want a flight ticket to travel abroad. If Air india and emirates offer similar prices, almost everyone would choose emirates because it offers better comfort. But if everyone chose Air india, wouldnt the state of the airline be much better?

 The above examples need not necessarily mean that one is not patriotic. But it certainly does reflect the thinking of most people regarding patriotism. The most important duty one needs to do if he cares about the country is to stop producing children. If our country's population were about half the population now, we would have been in such a better shape. If uttar pradesh was to be a separate country, it would be the fifth most populous country in the world!!... yet, we remain hypocritical about that and we assume that patriotism mean we need to support our country whenever someone criticizes it. I personally think that patriotism is where your country benefits and you do not. If i start an industry here and earn a profit of Rs 8 when i could have been getting Rs 10 elsewhere, i am patriotic.

Now that we have  to a certain extent defined what patriotism means according to me, I will say that I am not a patriot. Aspiring to be a researcher, i truly and sincerely wish that India flourishes in all fields and research especially. I also intend to live most of my life in India. But if for India to succeed, i should put my head on the anvil, i am not willing to do so!.... But are you patriotic? only you can decide for yourself...

The thandiyandamol trek --- died and reborn !!

This trek happened in our fourth year of college ( 2012) while we were pondering places to visit during Saarang.  We had initially decided to visit the Himalayas but ended up voting against it which left surya in a fit of anger... ( We had to go and convince him later to come by putting a lot of senti :P)... After a barrage of mails, where usually nothing productive happens,  a group of 8 of us left for Coorg. To those unknown, coorg is a famous trekking place located in Karnataka and is also well known for its coffee ( which Surya bought for 4 kgs.!!).. So we left on  the 21st of January in the night...

We played wolf throughout the entire journey which resulted in passengers and the TTR threatening to push us out of the compartment.. Having reached mysore on 22nd, we took a bus to Madikeri, the capital of Coorg district and booked a room in Hotel Hilltop, where we just slept and played a game of cards that day...

Day 2 : The Thala cauvery and Abbey falls trip

Thala cauvery near madikeri is the place where the river cauvery takes birth... Thala cauvery is situated on a hilltop where one side of it is the kerala side of the hill and the other is the Karnataka side of the hill. 

After a brief stint of scenery and photoshoot we ventured for a short trek in a the hills around thalacauvery.

Surya with his antics :P

Our way to the trek as captured by Manda (AKA Aravind)

After a short trek, which resulted in many of us being very tired, we fell asleep in the car. In the evening we visited the Abbey falls.. It is supposed to be very ferocious in the monsoon times.. but was a good visiting place nevertheless.. 

Day 3 : The thadiyandamol trek

This was the day we had gone to coorg for.. Tadiyandamol mens the highest peak in the local Kodave language. At a ht of 1740 m, Thadiyandamol is the second highest peak in Karnataka. It took us half the day to reach the top and the remaining half to scale it down. At the end of the end of the day we did indeed manage to scale the mountain top albeit with a lot of curses... Once we reached the top, the temperature was nowhere as close to that on the ground... It was extremely breezy and cool and we were relishing the succes of having scaled such a hilltop. After reaching the hotel, we eat as if there was no tomorrow and slept the enitre next day..... Its a  trip i would remember forever. ...

A game of wolf at 1740 m..

The Ramdev issue

The eviction of Baba Ramdev from the Ramlila maidan is a testimony to the success of the protest hosted by Baba ramdev...It is not only a testimony to a Yoga Guru attaining political significance but also that of a huge awakening by the people of India....First it was Anna Hazare who undertook sathyagraha for the implementation of the Lokphal bill...After assurances from the government, the movement was called off by Anna hazare...However, since the government delayed the implementation of the Lokphal bill, baba ramdev was " forced " to undertake another fast..But this raises an array questions......
Why wasnt Anna hazare evicted when he underwent the hunger strike?How did the concern of a terrorist attack on Baba ramdev arise suddenly when there was none until ramdev siad he was calling off talks with Government?Why did Anna hazare hesitate to join Baba ramdev when the vice- versa dint happen?
Is Baba ramdev using the series of corruption issues against the Congress as a platform for his political career?

It is another huge embarrassment for the Cong govt which is already reeling under the ever arising scams..The UPA-2 has become popular for the amount of corruption it has been proven to have done...CWG , 2G , Kargil ( Aadharsh) ,  ISRO deal, Maran ( Media has termed it as 2G part 2).....There is no doubt that the government is rather lax in dealing with the issue of black money...That might be because many of their ministers are those who have stashed money abroad......

Ramdev on the other hand has gone from success to success..Having had a paralytic attack in his childhood, he cured it by pranayam and has since then achieved milestones in Yoga. His free yoga to everyone in his centres and on youtube are examples of his contribution to Yoga. Apart from his Yoga, Ramdev also talks a lot on patriotism , self respect and confidence in many of his sessions.. He has always been open in his political ambitions. He was once quoted saying "Why should i enter politics when all the ministers are already at my feet??"..Through  his yoga, ramdev has managed to get the supporters of thousands of people.. Sathyagrahas across the country when ramdev was fasting in delhi is proof for that...But seldom do people know that Ramdev is a owner of an island abroad and his assets estimate to roughly 1500 crores.....However, one can always say that ramdev has never claimed to be a sanyasi...His saffron dress alone doesnt lead to him being a sanyasi. And now, with congree treating him as a representative of the people in the issue of anti-corruption, its not long before baba ramdev announces himself offcially in the politics....

Pained in life....my Undergrad research at IITM

"Happiness is like a cat. If you coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap." - William J. Bennett....

Well....happiness at least as far as research is concerned is a bitch.....if you coax it,it will avoid u...if you don't pay attention, it will return to bite you harder...As they say" pay back is a bitch"...Having been at the receiving end of it, i can quite confess that its so damn true....After years of working your heart out, you are left with nothing in hand.....

These typical undergraduate research projects are the result of both curiosity and necessity..Many people who enter into IIT are confused as to what to do in their lives and i am no exception..So one needs to set out and explore various researching options before a decision on one's career is made.....The curiosity part of it is to identify one's interests.....( Something i dint do while selecting my undergrad stream)...and the necessity part of it is for getting admissions into top Ivy league universities...Everyone's dream...Just like how a management guy would dream of an IIT + IIM combo......

But what one fails to realize is that the magnitude of research done by a person is not determined by the number of research papers published by the guy but the quality of those papers. And one should always research about the topics in depth and not start a project generally just because the topic is the hot area of research currently...

After spending about a year and a half of slogging, you come to certain conclusions about research...

1. Never expect rewards...once you have achieved your results,it will take you about a year to year and a half to get it published and by the time if anyone  else publishes it --------> :P

2. Almost all research you would be doing in the lab has no direct connection whatsoever with your daily life...

3. In spite of putting the extra efforts, you invariably get paid much lesser than your peers who chose the management line..

4.Seeing all your other friends who had started projects along with you give up, your enthu levels go down drastically and you are left to drag along...

5. After about a year of research, one  might get fed up with the kind of work he is doing leading to increased frustration levels eventually leading to misunderstanding between you and prof...

Sadly the weakest link when it comes to doing part time research in the undergraduate situation are the MS scholars and PhD scholars with whom we work with....These people are usually dumb buggers who don't care about research and come into IIT just for the sake of a degree....However, i don't deny the fact that there are a few people who are really oriented towards research and work with dedication. They are just difficult to spot and our case stands out to be the best example of Murphy's law.......

Once u start working under these MS scholars, u become their slave..doing all sorts of meaningless things and by the time by the time you start to have a feel of research and wear your thinking caps on, the bad time begins....

The MS scholars do not understand the ideas being put forth by us and arises an ego clash...U overcome these scholars and present your idea to the prof and he is impressed...He now asks you to work with the MS scholar to generate results....BANG...The MS scholar ensures that your life is screwed..

You still manage to get results and present it to the prof...the prof is happy and asks you to write a paper to be published. You become so excited that your work has paid off at last..but wait for it..he rejects your attempt at the paper and asks u to work with the MS scholar to generate the paper...Screwed again..The MS scholar comes out with such bizarre responses like " I have personal work for three months...Come after that, i might try looking at it".." or..i am going out of station this week end..come next month.... "..Again u try to overcome the MS scholar and go to the prof repeatedly..He becomes very irritated and throws us out the lab....  Story ends there...

Fault lies on both the sides of faculties and students..

Students must be more patient in general and profs must realize that the time has long gone when someone did research for pure passion and expect no results...At the end of the day, everyone wants to keep their profiles shining and appealing....Substance is important true..But a little bit of glamor is necessary too...

I wasn't trying to put across any advice...its just my sad story....

Intern @ AL

Well....There goes my summer in a nutshell...Intern....
It was May...the end of the most peaceful semester ever possible in the META department...And as the saying goes , every cycle of prosperity has to be followed by a cycle of depression...There it was...The most hectic three months of summer...A silver lining in that darkness was that i had two of my friends along side with going through the same struggle...

After spending the first 10 days of my summer with my sis , i started off to do my intern...Two weeks @ Ennore and Six weeks @ Velli voyal chavadi....The first day at Ennore totally put me off...I had to travel by first train to the beach station and then take a bus from there...The worst part was that, only one bus would go to the factory and it had a frequency of 45 mins....So we all met at the beach station and caught the bus and went to the Manufacturing unit at ennore...Our intern there was from 1pm to 4pm....Not all that peaceful as many of u think....Scores of other engineering students were with us...Our job, have a look at the campus...I have to say something at this point of time...I was very happy to be doing my intern at Ashok Leyland, an automobile giant as far as India is concerned...We had got our intern there due to Mosqui  (Shivram) 's influence...So while all other students were standing in a big queue to collect their timetable, we generally roamed around the campus...It was then that we went to the Metallurgical shop , where we met the head of that dept....He was not used to students generally roaming around and he asked us our purpose...
Mosqui " We are students...blah blah..... They are distributing timetables..blah blah...we wanted tohave a look..blah blah...."

Head" Why dont u have your timetables??"

Mosqui" blah blah....The place is in total chaos....."

The head was taken aback...Who would dare to say that a chaotic situation is on to a senior person ?? None but Mosqui....

One peculiar thing was that...no one would be allowed to go out of the campus b4 4 pm....meaning everyone would stand in queue s to go out at 4....Very irritating..

The rest of our two weeks passed uneventfully owing to cyclone laila (company was closed for 4 days) ... 

That was the end of our intern at Ennore...

In comes Velli voyal chavadi...True to its name, it was a small industrial zone miles outside chennai....We had to board a train from central at 7 am in the morning...Imagine Mosqui getting up so early...He would sleep in the train..thats a different issue....Still..i had to get up at 6  and take bath everyday morning..A feat i never ever perform even in my semester days,let alone hols..

The train journey was for an hour during which we generally solved crossword and Sudoku and talking abt the football world cup... In the company, breakfast , tea and lunch would be provided and we were assigned works for the time....We learnt a lot really about solving crosswords and meta....ya well that too...our day would get over at 5 and we all would board individual AL busses....I would reach home by 6.30 or 7 and that would be the end of my day...A lot of my time in the summer was done travelling and not working for my intern....

At the end of or project, we went around the Materials Engineering Dept and the HR building to bid voyage....It was then we were having a conversation with the HR manager...

HR manager " Goodto c u guys working..Did u have a good time here?? What did u learn ??"

Well normally one would answer that he learnt how to use machines..how to apply  theoratical science to reality etc etc...

But Mosqui " I learnt abt ZAC coatings ...." :P :P

HR manager dint have any clue of what was happening...smiled ruefully and left...

I seriously dunno wat would have happened if Mosqui was not there along with us...would have been one hell of a summer... 
  

Vettai karan.........Hunting the masses!!!!!!!!

Major disasters which shook the country in the year 2009: Swine flu, LTTE war, Indians being attacked in Australia and Vettaikaran…….

This film was supposed to be Vijay’s launch pad for his entry into politics……..But little would he have imagined that it not only meant curtains for his political career but also for his acting career….It was not even torture…it was sheer cruelty metted out to the people…

The film starts with the “hero” trying for a police job inspired by a police officer and he migrates to the city for his college…He “ACCIDENTALLY” brushes past anushka in the train station and his romance starts there….The film supposed to take a lighter turn here wit some jokes astonishingly agonizes the audience with their pathetic sense of humor which includes the hero imagining himself having kids with the heroine…(It would have been more interesting had he shown the way in which these kids were born :D:D)…And this part was actually taken from Dhoom……lol

And then there was this song….”Naan adicha thanga matta….”…A better version would have been “Naan nadicha thanga matta….”…..And there was a still in which the hero’s image splits up into five, giving 5 images of vijay on the scree….Was it actually on the screen or was it my head which was spinning???? I really couldn’t differentiate…….

Then he goes to his college all determined to become police officer and there again a scene copied from another film…this time it’s the beautiful mind…….Now Anushka’s bike gets stolen and the hero brings it back only to realize that anushka had lost it by purpose and she actually loves him…..GRRRRRRRR….At this point of time the entire audience were really irritated…This movie was getting onto their nerves…..I guess even the hero wouldn’t have believed that the heroine was in love with him…And then the usual.The villain is a womanizer. .He lusts for hero’s friend…Surprising coz all his movies have the little part for the heroines were they actually shout in pain and cry wen the villan tortures them…….Anushka was denied even that…..and all she does is come sometime in between wearing skimpy clothes, looking amazingly hot, completely drenched in water and shake her body and disappear back into the curtains…..as I was saying…so the hero beats up the villain. Now the villain’s father gets angry and he is now in war with vijay. .Vijay defeats the astonishingly stupid villain…..I mean…that villain is the most feared guy…..and all he does is sit and watch wit an awry smile, vijay demolishing his empire…….

Yeah…I nearly forgot…..the waterfall scene….man….that guy jumps around 300 ft in the water and he is hurt only in the leg..that too by a tiny twig…..The interval comes up there…and after the interval most of them were remaining outside the cinema hall…..They refused to come in!!!!!!!

And another thing…..this guy burns the one of the villain on his face….the next scen…that guy has his body covered and face left open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And after all this amazingly mundane fiasco, the villain is shot by a blind police officer…

Don’t ask me how…it just happens……

Phew….when the film was over…everyone was rushing out of the theatre…..It was prbly a film where they had to pay and then endure pain…….Was there any relief at all in the film?????

Yeah…Anushka…….Anushka saved the day for all the guys….but for the females?????LOL…..

The mastero!!!!!

hi folks...writing a blog after a long time.........was i really busy???Well....actually i was too lazy to put myself on the chair and type this out....:D

So our topic of discussion today????Hmmmmm...Let me c........

One thing that prbly catches the attention of most guys,next to girls of course(That's a given if u r in an estrogen starved campus :D ),is cricket.....Over the years cricket has evolved into a religion,an obsession.The first thing that strikes us wen we talk about sports is cricket and half the ppl dunno that hockey is supposed to be our national sport....(I came to know of it only yesterday :D).....

Cricketers bravely contest in the elections and win hands down without any prior knowledge about politics...thats bcoz of the enormous popularity that cricket has given them.........Its something like Pamela anderson becoming a mathematics professor just bcoz she knows a lot about curves :D........

If there is one thing that can unite all the people of this country without any discrimination on the basis of religion,its only cricket.........Not even mallika sherawat can do this....trust me :)

So do these cricketers deserve the kind of adulation that they receive from the people?????If anyone deserves it,its none other than the mastero himself....The great sachin ramesh tendulkar........The pride of the Indian batting line up...........With close to 40,000 international runs under his belt,he is set to make a record none can ever break........

So Wat's so special about this post????You might think that its just another crazy fan of sachin worshipping his batting......You are wrong there......This was the innings that made me just another fan among the millions of fans he has acquired...........

Innocent unless proven guilty.......My case is similar

People used to think that sachin was the fulcrum of the Indian line up......And whenever he hit a century ppl were praising it so much.......I used to scorn at them....I thought "Its absolutely normal for a batsman to hit century...that's why they are paid so much,you god damn ppl......."

Wat i failed to realise is the fact that even though lots of other ppl in the Indian line up itself have a lot of talent ,its his style and technique that everyone fall for....Take dravid for example...he has got his own bit of talent........You bowl any ball at him and you can be sure that the ball doesn't cross the 30 yard circle........

There are many innings that showed his class,now that i think about it......Take his 186 against NZ.......It was a run riot by Sachin and Dravid against a hapless NZ bowling attack.....Then there was his 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup........An incident i remember is that when akram was bowling,Sachin hit a lofted shot towards mid on..it was a plan to get sachin out......but razzaq had pre anticipated the ball and he moved forward a bit too much and ended up missing the catch....It was then when Akram shouted "Do you know whose catch you have missed?????"

That's what sachin means to India and wat he means to the rest of the world.....

What makes highly feared is the fact that he is really versatile....He can be a demon hooker.he can be a slogger and he can play the supporting role and he can also accompany Dravid in testing the bowlers' patience by not letting any ball cross the bowler.......

Guess am testing all your patience by not even talking about the topic i wanted to talk about :D:D:D

Well.......It was a regular coll day that day and i came to my room after a toiling day only to see Australia blast the heck outta Indian bowling attack....I moaned in despair...."Another thrashing....Whenever will these guys have some shame and start playing well?????" i thought......

The target set was 351 and India started well and reached 66 before the monkey in shewag took over and made him chip one straight down the fielders throat.........Tendulkar started scratchily in the beginning..nudging a few.......As time moved on he grew in confidence.......But so did the Australian bowlers as wickets kept tumbling at the other side..The worst part was that the bowling attack consisted of all fresh faces....it was like playing with an Australin b- team....And still we managed to create a fiasco out of it...It was finally at a score of 162/4 and an asking rate of nearly 8,that brought the pair of Sachin and raina together........I would like to add a piece of word here about Australian fielding......They fielded as if every run as the run between victory and defeat....and Pointing especially.....man he was jumping around the field like he had never done before.......I have guess that he thought he was in a gymnastics competition and not a cricket ground..........But nothin could stop sachin...it was simply his day.....he drove the ball,flicked it,paddle swept it.....he could just do no mistake.....and his consecutive sixes straight down the ground showed that on that day Sachin meant business.....And like a caring father,Sachin mentored Raina and slowly Raina started to open up.....With both of them firing on all cylinders India hoped that they could script a historic win....The Australians looked an upset bunch....

Once micheal Kasprowich said after Sachin's magnificent knock against te=hem in Sharjah" We dint lose to the team India.We lost to a person called Sachin"

Raina paced a beautiful innings as his mentor thrashed the aussie bowling apart at the other side

Raina's innings was one of balance...He lofted the ball in the air when reqd and maintained a calm composition......But when he lofted it ,it sailed way past the boundaries.....With raina playin the second fiddle,Sachin was a happy man......

Ricky pointing????

Well he would have been consistently reminded about the Johannesburg incident where Gibbs single handedly chased down the target of 434.....No...Sachin was in a better form.......Sachin was like a raging fire.........But sachin's happiness would be short lived as Raina would loft one too many in the air to offer a simple catch to the keeper.........But Sachin kept on attacking on all fours and when the scoreboard said 19 reqd of 17,Sachin had done almost all the work.....He attempted the lofted paddle sweep only to be decieved by a slower ball and the ball ended up right in the hands of the fielder.......With 19 to win off 16 balls,India miraculously managed to make a complete mess of it and lose the match.....Ultimately Australia's dedication and commitment paid off...A knock of 175,prbly his best ever considering the situation wasnt enough......he rose to the occassion and it was simply wasted....Wat an innings......I had the previlege of watching one the gratest ever batsman play one of his greatest ever knocks..........Memories of the 1999 test match against pakistan returned to haunt him as India was in a similar situation when sachin got out that time too......16 reqd with 3 wickets in hand and they managed to lose it..................

Most of us went to bed that night crying........Prbly sachin himself was crying......What an innings and what a waste it became......