STORY OF LOKPAL

                 Finally , after a long wait of 42 years the Jokpal , oops the Lokpal bill was finally passed in the Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament . It is such an amazing bill that the government should be praised for bringing such a STRONG bill to fight against corruption . As an outsider you should not be reading much into the presence of Chidambaran , Karimozi and other politically "honest" leaders striving for the passage  of the bill in the fight against corruption . It wont suprise me if Raja issues a statement from Tihar jail supporting it .


1 The Government has decided to keep the CBI under its wing . When asked by the opposition as to why they would like to do so , Kapil Sibal comes up with the apt reply . "The BJP does it and so shall we " . Talk of clear conscience politics , but again the Government is supreme.

2 On the issue of PM , the Congress is ready to bring in the PM into the fold only because the opposition wanted it . But then the conditions are that no one will know who complained , what was the complaint and what happened after that . But then again , no complaints.

3 When the issue to be debated should have been politics , the main bone of contention for the Parliament , the supreme and most "enlightened" part of the country , was reservation . On a day when they were supposed to be discussing how to stop corruption with an effective bill,  they were discussing reservations . How do reservations come into the picture when you discuss corruption . Do you mean to say , people of corrupt based on communities ? Is reservation in the LOKPAL necessary for overall development of different communities ? Well, the Parliament knows  best.

4 The Congress has managed to bring a really strong Lokpal Bill . In this , all the complaints will be addressed by the CBI under the strict guidance of the Government . After all , our politicians are so honest today . Once asked , did Raja not explain how Chidambaram was a part of the entire 3G scam !! The point that people are ready to believe him is a completely irrelevant point.

I could go on and on about the sailent points of this amazing bill . And the best part is , the leaders of our country say , this bill should not be brought about in any sort of hurry . Does anyone remember that we have already waited 42 years ( yes, you got it right .. 42 years ) for this bill .

    Enough of sarcasm . Getting to the point , the mere passing of the Lokpal Bill will certainly not result in the reduction in corruption . The very basis of corruption lies in the fact that we are all ready to pay out to get our work done . Which of us is not ready to hand out cash to get our work done ? It is our moral values that have to change . To quote a friend : "Anna Hazzare seems to be doing a really good job . But if he succeeds how will I be able to survive . " This is the mentality that has to change . Its at the grass-root level that we have to rectify . Corruption has seeped into our society like the roots of a tree and to remove this , it will take more than a bill . It needs a deterministic effort from each and everyone of us to eradicate this SOCIAL EVIL . Every journey begins with a small step . This one step is necessary to clean the country of this Social Evil.

    

Hackfest

Hackfest

Hackfest is an event conducted as part of Shaastra , the technical festival of IIT MADRAS . You can more details at hackfest@shaastra. I was one of the people responsible for organizing the event and let me assure you , it was one "hack" of an event.

I was thinking of having a sort of a conclusion post for Hackfest . But then , I started wondering why Hackfest was conducted in the first place . I mean , why do we take all the pains in the world to get mentors to come here and give talks . Select over a 100 participants and then stay awake the whole night for 3 days during Shaastra ? I tell you , on this side of the fest it's easy to say , because I wanted to !! Ask any of the organizers that question during the event and you will hear a very different answer :p.

But coming back to the point, why exactly is Hackfest conducted . As Yuvi Panda , one of the mentors at this time's Hackfest ( a former Hackfest participant :)  ) put it , Hackfest is all about making friends . To quote him , "You are fooling yourself if you think you come to hackfest to learn hacking . This place is more to find like-minded friends , get to know those people and stay in touch with them . " . This is one field where collaboration is very essential . The database of knowledge presently is so huge that you need help from others . And that's where Hackfest was good . It helped people make more friends . Be it the mentors or the co-participants , they were one big group of geeks who were willing to give up sleep to code!!

Hackfest has always been about interaction. People interacting with mentors and forming bonds that stretch a lifetime . This time , I am pleased to say that Hackfest sucked less than it did last time :p . We managed to get the workshops running much faster than last time with a delay of only 1 hour ( which is awesome considering that  last time , it took a delay of a day to set them up ) . We did have a few problems with Arduino but then they were sorted out too. We had an amazing three days . Each night was fun and the early morning's even better . All the random talks that we had were insane.

What more could a geek ( note the usage of geek not nerd !! ) , want from a technical festival . It was inspiring to learn from these mentors ( a special mention of Vishesh here .. his enthusiasm was mind blowing ) . They had so much of knowledge and all the fun that we had was amazing . Overall we had a lot of fun and I hope I can some day say I share the same amount of passion for CS field as they did ! It was really nice knowing them .

As for the participants, I can't say much but I hope that they enjoyed the event that we worked really hard to set up. We would love to have all of them back for next year's Hackfest :) . 

PS :

1 All those mindless talks that we had did give some amazing links . At one point , Vishesh came up with this hilarious page where someone actually used science to prove that Santa Claus does not exist . Read more here . And to add to that , we then found a rebuttal to that here

2 Whatever you do , if you have anything to do with CSE , then don't read this . I promise you that once you have read this , you will only have complaints on why you wasted your entire life !! I mean , come on , can we really do all that in 4 years . 

BDAY in a Hostel!!

Hello people ,

Well this post is about hostel life . In fact , if you have never stayed in a hostel or if you never plan to , this would be the time to shut down this tab and pretend this post never existed for you. But if you have lived in a college before , you will relate to this post.  But before you read on,a small warning ...

*** Caution :  This blog post contains disturbing images  . See at your own risk . And don't tell me later that I did not warn you . If you still have complaints , well I cant really help you.***

It's time for the one day that you "used" to look forward to the most in a year. You would go to school feeling special and all your friends would treat you the same . You had a party at home and it felt nice when everyone wished you . You would be the Center of Attraction. Well , all this changes once you come to college.

Once you are in hostel , well a lot of things change , this being one of them. You don't look forward to the day . You start dreading the stroke of midnight because that brings with it, the horror word B****S . And then you are taken to the cleaners for ...... well  I have no idea why this is done in every hostel , but it's a age old tradition and its followed with full participation .

It would have been okay , if it ends there . Well, for your information it does not . After that comes the Cake Smearing Ceremony . Yes , you read it right .. its the Cake Smearing Ceremony rather than Cake Cutting Ceremony. Don't believe me , I will give you proof :

I am not sorry for the pic .. I had already warned you ;).

Well, now people would have to be really mad to say ( for all the TBBT fans ) "O Krishna !! I have to get some of that " .Trust me when I tell you this, you will enjoy it .Also there are a lot more people in the wing .. so you get to do the same to all of them and ITS FUN !! ( a evil grin on my face as I say this .. someone's BDAY is just around the corner ;) .Plus , how many of the birthdays do you remember that you celebrated. I can promise you that all the birthdays spent in the hostel will be the most remembered ones EVER. And the reason, your friends.

Well , I can go on and on about my friends . And it would become an extremely long and not to forget boring post , if I named them all. But it was thanks to them that I had an amazing time. Thanks to everyone for the Cake Smearing and the B****S . My time will also come soon :P . But for now , I really need to be getting some pain killer and going to sleep . So ADIOS till next time people .

PS :

@Readers ( if any ) : If you associate with the above in any sort of way , I would love to know about it .

Yahoo HACK U IITM 2011

                        This post is dedicated to the experience at Hack-U , an event held by Yahoo every year in IIT MADRAS . One crazy day of coding , brain storming , food hogging ( no one will accept it but people do come here for the GRUB .. corporate bribe ;) ) . Its an awesome fun where people gather in a lab for a day and just code . Any interesting ideas that you might have and you want to implement it , this is your destination .

Just back from a 15 hr period of coding and believe me when I say it , the ATMOSPHERE is amazing . You don't need coffee to stay awake when you see all the people out there , coding away to glory ( A quote "picked up" from Vikram ) . And with all the fun that we have along the way , this is something more than just a coding event. Its a real entertainment.

Now to the idea : Well with all my team mates being the nerds ( never talk about yourself is the policy here ;) ) , even the hack has to be of same type . Well , the basic idea was to have some sort of a engine which given a field and the university , gives the most popular list of professors related to that field. Not a very difficult thing to do but something that we have enjoyed making ( again , It's not finished it but who does not like bragging a little bit ).It was real fun coding with all the people in the room ... Anuja , Madhavi , Devesh , Nitin and Viki mama. It was one hell of a day and it was LEGEND .. wait for it .. . DARY :).

Well, I have to get back to the lab around 10 again so I better be heading off.

PS :

• At the time of starting , we had no idea of the GRUB . Lets say , now the less I speak the better. People who came looking for grub never found anything worthwhile !! :p.
• The only reason that I am writing this blog post at 3:40 in the morning is that it was always my wish that I have a blog post that is written early in the morning . It makes you sound more crazy than you really are :p.

A Tribute to the WALL

The Indian Wall, Rahul Dravid is one of the most "respected" Indian batsman of all times. You can always find people who would criticize Ganguly , Gavaskar , Sidhu , Kapil Dev . ( sorry cant include Sachin Tendulkar in that .. then it becomes personal !! ) And the reason for that , he has earned it over his long illustrious carrier.

A person who was asked by his coach to concentrate on his keeping because he did not have the technique, turned out to be named the batsman with the best technique for a period of 10 years in the Indian Batting lineup . That itself speaks volumes of his character and his talent. There have been many instances where people have had to fight over their place in the Indian team due to weird ideas of the Selectors . But none more than Rahul Dravid. I mean people , seriously , HE CAN PLAY ANY FORM OF CRICKET.

He was the person who India turned to when they wanted an extra batsman in the side. He was the one that agreed to play in South Africa inspite of being dropped for no reason from the ODI side . This was a man who has always faught the odds to be where he is now. And the best part about him , he is retiring while he is on the top . HATS OFF to Rahul Dravid .

A true performer in every right , he has time and again proved his critics wrong.People said he was no good for ODI cricket , he is retiring after scoring more than 10,000 runs . What more could you ask for ? People said he did not score at a proper rate . For all those people can look at his records , for the period of 1999 - 2005 , he has averaged at almost 80% strike rate . For a number 3 batsman in those days , it's highly commendable . And consider the effect his batting had on his partners . Once you know that you have a batsman at the other end who can play on , it gives you a sense of confidence . So,should Dravid not be given credit for the higher strike rate of Yuvraj , Kaif and other Indian batsman with whom he has shared countless partnerships.

Courtesy Cricinfo : Dravid is a misfit who thrived . This is a perfect statement for Rahul Dravid . He has records that ( I really cant say it .. ) , that even Tendulkar does not have ( and I doubt he can ever have .. I did not just say that !! )

• Involved in 2 300 run partnerships - the only person ever to have done so
• 2 MOM's more than Micheal Beavan , the man considered to be the ODI specialist .
• He has the second fastest fifty in Indian history ( IMAGINE THAT !! )

Lastly , it was a treat to watch Rahul Dravid bat . The sheer elegance of his drives , the total controlled defence and the always "attempted" Douglas Murriler scoups are things that we will miss. From now on , there is only going to be a Dravid's defence .

My tribute to the WALL.

A frustrated rant

Ok , this is it . This is the moment when I start blogging . You want to know the timing :

I have a quiz tomorrow that I am meant to be studying for . There is a whole lot of stuff that is still to be done for Hackfest ( a long story .. for some other time ) . But here I am blogging away with the little precious time I have left before the OS paper envelops me in its grasp and drags me into deep sorrow for wasting what looks like a very difficult time ahead .

There could not have been a better time . My first quiz of the semester that people have been warning me off since I joined here . Somehow , when you keep things in prospective , this semester has not been so bad .

Agreed I have had dengue , been spending more time doing assignments than playing , spending more time reading feeds rather than on FB but still there is the silver lining that I can now think of . I have finally managed to start my blog . And irrespective of how much I score tomorrow , I will have something to cheer about :) .

Adios people .. Will post soon ( next quiz on Monday ;) )