Exam khatam
Yep, they're finally over. Actually, they got over almost four days ago. Then what have I been doing for the past four days, and why haven't I been posting? That is precisely what I am going to tell you right now.
The past four days have passed swiftly. They have passed in a flurry of excited and hectic post-minor activity. Activity that is going to be described in this post in meticulous detail. So all of you who, keeping in mind my earlier entries, came here for light, humorous prose, must leave now. For this is a most atypical entry, mostly for my own purposes of recording what I did immediately after the minors. Of those of you who come here with stout hearts, and can not be dissuaded by the above given warning, I ask but one thing. I ask them to heed the following advice. Go to the kitchen. Now. And get yourself a light, maybe even a moderately heavy, snack. I warn you, this is going to be long and boring.
My minor tests ended on the 9th of February, at about 9:00 in the morning. It being a fine day, me and some of my equally vela friends decided to play some cricket. We played for about 2 hours. 3 matches were played in this period, but only one of them was interesting, probably because I got out very early in the other two. The interesting one, however, more than compensated for the non-interesting ones. We chased 43 runs in 5 overs, my contribution being a healthy 35, off 17 or 18 balls, including 5 magnificient sixes (4 off Mr. Upayan Mitra, and 1 off Mr. Jivitej Singh Chaddha). After that I left for home, as I had a doctor's appointment to keep. On the way, I witnessed a dog being run over by a Santro, and that dampened my spirits quite a bit. But a wise man once said, "It is impossible to keep a good man down.", and within an hour, I was back to my usual, post-minor, buoyant self. That is not to say that I am a selfish git, who doesn't care about dogs dying under Santros. Just that I don't allow them to upset me much.
A quick trip to the hospital later, I was free again, wondering what I could do with the rest of the day. Thinking, I decided that I should go watch a movie, having not done so for a considerable smount of time. A few quick calls were made, and then I found myself heading towards Priya, to meet a few friends, and to watch Black. It turned out to be the best decision of the past four days. The movie was a superlative one. I'll come back to it in a while. After the movie, I went over to a friend's place, and picked up Angels & Demons, a book that I had been wanting to read for a long time. When I came back from my friends place, I was very tired, almost completely exhausted, and really needed to catch up on some sleep, having stayed awake for almost 42 of the last 48 hours, and therefore, as you would think, I slept.
On the morning of the 10th, I got back to my usual, boring schedule. College at 9:00 in the morning, till 5:00 in the evening. With the minors out of the way, assignment submission deadlines and extra classes suddenly seemed to be everywhere. In IIT, the examination days are actually the ones when you don't have to worry too much about assignments, and classes. You just have to worry about showing up on time at the exam, and about not flunking. But as soon as the exams finish, assignments and practicals seem to abound, and there is mass panic and hysteria everywhere, with people trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, and till when it has to be done. It was in this environment of confusion that I realised that I had a CSL 102 assignment due. It looked like a simple one to me, so I didn't take much notice. But when I started on it in the evening, after classes, it seemed like I was going to have a problem. It was a very simple algorithm, but the program took a long time, about half a minute, just to compile. And when I executed it, at first it seemed to work perfectly, but as the numbers involved grew, it started taking time. The large numbers involved convinced me that I needed a more efficient algorithm, as did my TA's (Teaching Assistant's) constant cacophonous, South-Indian shrieks (Take the sentence "You have to reduce the time-complexity of your yalgorithm, yotherwise it will take ya lot of time.", and repeat it about 20 times a minute, in a high-pitched cracking voice, and you have an idea of what I was going through as I was writing my program.) The more efficient algorithm eluded me, and I left for home at about 7:00.
Friday was the last day I had to submit my assignment, and I had to miss most of my classes, so that I could sit in the CSC (Computer Services Centre, for the uninitiated), and think of a more 'yeffective yalgorithm'. It did finally come to me, and I was successful in sending the program to my teacher by 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to skip lunch though. Thankfully, I had something to look forward to, which was Aasra-2005, a rock-concert being put up at IIT, to help the Tsunami victims. It was scheduled to start at 4:30, and therefore I missed my class at 4:00, and reached the venue on time, but, like all big events, a little bit of delay was inevitable, and the show started at about 5:00. The first band to play was Joint Family. They played well, but not as well as the next band that came up. Braindead Schizos, they called themselves. Then there was a brief performance by Artists Unlimited. I thought one of their self-comps was absolutely wonderful. I met quite a few people from school, the notables being Ms. Aditi Mehta, Ms. Tara Kaul, Mr. Rishi Kant, Ms. Anuva Seth, and Ms. Avani Malhotra. I also met a couple of friends from AIIMS. I wanted to see the Mumbai band Zero perform, having heard a lot about them, but when they didn't come on to play till 9:30, I left, because I wanted to go back home and watch Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring, which was on TV. On the way, I stopped for a while at Barista with my friends, finding time to order and consume a Chocolate Excess (which, due to shortage of funds, had to be shared among 4 people). By the time I reached home, I had missed the beginning of LOTR: Fellowship..., but I managed to catch some good parts nonetheless, before dozing off, on a mission to regain all the hours of sleep I had lost during the minors.
Today was a wonderful day. It being the first non-college day after the minors, I woke up late, and had a lot of fun lazing around and doing nothing in particular. I finished Angels & Demons, and had lunch, and listened to some good music (I have been listening a lot to The Kids Aren't Alright, by The Offspring, very nice song), and then went out to play badminton in the evening. Now, as soon as I finish this post, I plan to watch The Incredibles, having managed to procure the CD from one of my friends.
Now, let me come back to the reviews. Two of them. Here they are.
The first is the book I have talked about in this post, Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown. A very nice book. Lots of information. Tons of hidden meanings and double entendres. The usual Brownian dose of secret-societies and obscure symbology. Definitely worth a read, if you have the time and inclination for such books. If you can, try to get hold of it immediately after a minor, when you don't much mind what you are reading, as long as you are reading something interesting. The plot is very well constructed. The ambigrams, especially, are amazingly ingenious.
The second is the movie I saw two days back. Black is a wonderfully made film, and I will not hesitate in stating that it is by far the best Bollywood movie I have seen in the last couple of years. It is a very depressing movie. The plot is a totally new concept to Indian Cinema. The camera-work is brilliant. The movie succeeds brilliantly in what it sets out to do, not only on the strength of the sadness and depression that are integral parts of most of the scenes of the movie, but also on the basis of the sheer magnificience and depth of cinematography. The movie has a profoundness to it that cannot be explained in words. Definitely a must watch, for the amazing story as well as for the creativity and skill that go into making it. Do make sure, however, that you mentally brace yourself for the depressing story, if and when you go and watch it. This is not shallow fare. The theme is completely new, and the narrative, though a bit repetitive in places, boldly goes where no Hindi movie has gone before.
Something tells me that the movie is not going to do very well in India. We seem to have a history when it comes to shunning beautifully made, meaningful cinema.
The past four days have passed swiftly. They have passed in a flurry of excited and hectic post-minor activity. Activity that is going to be described in this post in meticulous detail. So all of you who, keeping in mind my earlier entries, came here for light, humorous prose, must leave now. For this is a most atypical entry, mostly for my own purposes of recording what I did immediately after the minors. Of those of you who come here with stout hearts, and can not be dissuaded by the above given warning, I ask but one thing. I ask them to heed the following advice. Go to the kitchen. Now. And get yourself a light, maybe even a moderately heavy, snack. I warn you, this is going to be long and boring.
My minor tests ended on the 9th of February, at about 9:00 in the morning. It being a fine day, me and some of my equally vela friends decided to play some cricket. We played for about 2 hours. 3 matches were played in this period, but only one of them was interesting, probably because I got out very early in the other two. The interesting one, however, more than compensated for the non-interesting ones. We chased 43 runs in 5 overs, my contribution being a healthy 35, off 17 or 18 balls, including 5 magnificient sixes (4 off Mr. Upayan Mitra, and 1 off Mr. Jivitej Singh Chaddha). After that I left for home, as I had a doctor's appointment to keep. On the way, I witnessed a dog being run over by a Santro, and that dampened my spirits quite a bit. But a wise man once said, "It is impossible to keep a good man down.", and within an hour, I was back to my usual, post-minor, buoyant self. That is not to say that I am a selfish git, who doesn't care about dogs dying under Santros. Just that I don't allow them to upset me much.
A quick trip to the hospital later, I was free again, wondering what I could do with the rest of the day. Thinking, I decided that I should go watch a movie, having not done so for a considerable smount of time. A few quick calls were made, and then I found myself heading towards Priya, to meet a few friends, and to watch Black. It turned out to be the best decision of the past four days. The movie was a superlative one. I'll come back to it in a while. After the movie, I went over to a friend's place, and picked up Angels & Demons, a book that I had been wanting to read for a long time. When I came back from my friends place, I was very tired, almost completely exhausted, and really needed to catch up on some sleep, having stayed awake for almost 42 of the last 48 hours, and therefore, as you would think, I slept.
On the morning of the 10th, I got back to my usual, boring schedule. College at 9:00 in the morning, till 5:00 in the evening. With the minors out of the way, assignment submission deadlines and extra classes suddenly seemed to be everywhere. In IIT, the examination days are actually the ones when you don't have to worry too much about assignments, and classes. You just have to worry about showing up on time at the exam, and about not flunking. But as soon as the exams finish, assignments and practicals seem to abound, and there is mass panic and hysteria everywhere, with people trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, and till when it has to be done. It was in this environment of confusion that I realised that I had a CSL 102 assignment due. It looked like a simple one to me, so I didn't take much notice. But when I started on it in the evening, after classes, it seemed like I was going to have a problem. It was a very simple algorithm, but the program took a long time, about half a minute, just to compile. And when I executed it, at first it seemed to work perfectly, but as the numbers involved grew, it started taking time. The large numbers involved convinced me that I needed a more efficient algorithm, as did my TA's (Teaching Assistant's) constant cacophonous, South-Indian shrieks (Take the sentence "You have to reduce the time-complexity of your yalgorithm, yotherwise it will take ya lot of time.", and repeat it about 20 times a minute, in a high-pitched cracking voice, and you have an idea of what I was going through as I was writing my program.) The more efficient algorithm eluded me, and I left for home at about 7:00.
Friday was the last day I had to submit my assignment, and I had to miss most of my classes, so that I could sit in the CSC (Computer Services Centre, for the uninitiated), and think of a more 'yeffective yalgorithm'. It did finally come to me, and I was successful in sending the program to my teacher by 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to skip lunch though. Thankfully, I had something to look forward to, which was Aasra-2005, a rock-concert being put up at IIT, to help the Tsunami victims. It was scheduled to start at 4:30, and therefore I missed my class at 4:00, and reached the venue on time, but, like all big events, a little bit of delay was inevitable, and the show started at about 5:00. The first band to play was Joint Family. They played well, but not as well as the next band that came up. Braindead Schizos, they called themselves. Then there was a brief performance by Artists Unlimited. I thought one of their self-comps was absolutely wonderful. I met quite a few people from school, the notables being Ms. Aditi Mehta, Ms. Tara Kaul, Mr. Rishi Kant, Ms. Anuva Seth, and Ms. Avani Malhotra. I also met a couple of friends from AIIMS. I wanted to see the Mumbai band Zero perform, having heard a lot about them, but when they didn't come on to play till 9:30, I left, because I wanted to go back home and watch Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring, which was on TV. On the way, I stopped for a while at Barista with my friends, finding time to order and consume a Chocolate Excess (which, due to shortage of funds, had to be shared among 4 people). By the time I reached home, I had missed the beginning of LOTR: Fellowship..., but I managed to catch some good parts nonetheless, before dozing off, on a mission to regain all the hours of sleep I had lost during the minors.
Today was a wonderful day. It being the first non-college day after the minors, I woke up late, and had a lot of fun lazing around and doing nothing in particular. I finished Angels & Demons, and had lunch, and listened to some good music (I have been listening a lot to The Kids Aren't Alright, by The Offspring, very nice song), and then went out to play badminton in the evening. Now, as soon as I finish this post, I plan to watch The Incredibles, having managed to procure the CD from one of my friends.
Now, let me come back to the reviews. Two of them. Here they are.
The first is the book I have talked about in this post, Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown. A very nice book. Lots of information. Tons of hidden meanings and double entendres. The usual Brownian dose of secret-societies and obscure symbology. Definitely worth a read, if you have the time and inclination for such books. If you can, try to get hold of it immediately after a minor, when you don't much mind what you are reading, as long as you are reading something interesting. The plot is very well constructed. The ambigrams, especially, are amazingly ingenious.
The second is the movie I saw two days back. Black is a wonderfully made film, and I will not hesitate in stating that it is by far the best Bollywood movie I have seen in the last couple of years. It is a very depressing movie. The plot is a totally new concept to Indian Cinema. The camera-work is brilliant. The movie succeeds brilliantly in what it sets out to do, not only on the strength of the sadness and depression that are integral parts of most of the scenes of the movie, but also on the basis of the sheer magnificience and depth of cinematography. The movie has a profoundness to it that cannot be explained in words. Definitely a must watch, for the amazing story as well as for the creativity and skill that go into making it. Do make sure, however, that you mentally brace yourself for the depressing story, if and when you go and watch it. This is not shallow fare. The theme is completely new, and the narrative, though a bit repetitive in places, boldly goes where no Hindi movie has gone before.
Something tells me that the movie is not going to do very well in India. We seem to have a history when it comes to shunning beautifully made, meaningful cinema.
posted by Manu Saxena at 9:44:00 pm
1 comments
1 Comments:
I could have, but usually just once a day is sufficient for me.
I know the pic in the profile is weird, but then it is much better than what I look like now, with my short strange hair.
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