Saturday, March 28, 2009

Earth Hour 09

Well, Today the world will shut down all unnecessary lights for an hour in support of the Earth Hour 2009.

A great step, where individuals, societies, and corporates will shut down unnecessary electrical appliances as an expression of their resolve against climate change.


(That's GOOGLE supporting the Earth Hour)

A lot of statistics for the Earth hour 2007 and 2008 show how much electricity would be saved . According to the statics in Times of India published today, during the 2007 event which began in Sydney that year Energy consumption reduced by 10 2% for one hour which has an equivalent of taking 48000 cars off the road for a year. In the 2008 hour which saw participation of more than 400 cities lso reduced consumption by huge amounts.

BUT can we really save the world by switching off lights for one day (actually 1 hour)???

The best example of blatant wastage of electricity that I have seen would definitely be my neighbor's room in the campus (none other than Shree Shree Ankit Govil-for all those who don't know about him can know more about him here ) . He had this real irritating habit of leaving the light and fan and laptop on even during the long hours that he wasn't in his room (for obvious reasons!!!) .We even tripped the electricity to his room in anger, but he didn't change much .The only time his lights were off were when he pretended to sleep and was busy chatting .Sometimes he even left it on when he went off to sleep .Ab isse zyaada kya wastage.

Well that was just an example, but you can see wastage of natural resources everywhere. From the lights on the roads that are lighted all during the day to the wastage at shops and malls etc The justification is same-"We are paying for it why shouldn't we use as much as we want??". I think these people would give the same justification even when there will be no electricity left??

Why do we just switch off electricity only for one hour on only one day of the year...baki 364.25 days ka kya???


Think about it

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Life @ ST : Aaj ka joke...


Aaj ka joke courtesy Ranjot..(original source unknown..)


Pehle Ali Baba aur 40 chor the...

ab sirf Ali baba aur 30 chor bache hai....kyon??
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socho socho...


socho socho...


socho socho...



think yaar..kafi aasan hai...



socho socho...


socho socho...


socho socho...
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Well the answer is





Recession yaar...Cost cutting :P

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

You might be an Engineer if

You might be an engineer if you prefer the phrase

' there [are/can be] n number of [ways/reasons/possibilities/...]'

over

'there [are/can be] [many/several] [ways/reasons/possibilities/...]'


Courtesy: the status message of Rishi Mathur, one of my PS mate @ ST.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Elections 2009

Well...its election season and yesterday some Congress people had come to our house (we thought they had come to campaign...aur mere hostel ki yaddein tazaa ho gayi)..but they just gave us a calender with photos of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and a third person who I assume to be the MLA from Hauz Khas constituency. That was most probably the first and the last time we have seen the faces of our representatives for the next 5 years.

And again in the evening there was an ad for Congress Party on the TV. It was a completely LOL ad. The achievements of Congress it showed were

1) It showed a black and white video of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru unfurling the national flag at Red Flag. It also announced that Congress was the party that got us independent. They forgot to mention that Congress was the only party that existed at that time...and people who didn't believe in the Congress idealogy had no other party to go to....

2) Another clipping of Mahatama Gandhi with his Chakra. He was also a party member. Again trying to take credit for independence of India.

3) Indira Gandhi with the slogan 'Garibi Hatao'..though even after so many Congress governments at the centre they haven't been able to reduce the 'Garibi'.

And that was all....uske baad ki koi achievement nahi..koi kisi ka naam nahi....Maybe there is no achievement they can show or no great leader since Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi....

And the party that is trying to project itself as the party of the youth has no achievement since 1980's. Yeh hamare desh to aage badhayenge.....what a joke.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

A song for those good old days..

Aaj aise hi purane gaane sun raha tha..aur yeh bahut hi apt gaana aaya...

Dil Dhoondta hai..phir wahi fursat ke raat din...

Monday to friday subah 9-5:30 tak office aur phir ek aad ghante ki travelling...srsly miss those days in the campus..agar aur kisi cheez ke liye nahi...to sirf is liye ki aaram se so to sakte the...kya chilled out life thi woh...

Friday, March 20, 2009

Maut ka Flyover

Wells that is what the media has dubbed the Dwarka flyover...

And in the past few days there have been a spate of accidents on the flyover that connects Dwarka suburb to the rest of the city...And after 7 people have died in 6 days on this flyover...it does seem to justify the name...until you pause to think whether these accidents are cause due faulty construction of the flyover only.

Even media seems to be divided on the issue. While one of the TV channels lead a tirade against DDA, the Delhi Development Authority, which has built the flyover for making only 2 lanes on the flyover while another channel blamed it on speeding(which happens to be a more correct conclusion).

I lived in Dwarka before we shifted to this place and it was while we were there that the flyover was being built. The flyover was built over the heavily populated Palam village. They had demolish houses too close to the main road in Palam which was actually just a single road in each direction. So how is it DDA's fault that they could not get the state government to allow them to demolish more houses. They had to make it over the existing road...which is what happens on most flyovers.

The channel also blamed the DDA for not putting enough signboards to warn motorists about the turns. They also pointed out that there were no cat eyes at the edge of the roads on these turns. They now want the DDA to build speed breakers near the curve, thus indirectly agreeing to the fact that if the motorists slow down they will be be safe. Also, the last time I had visited Dwarka, there were cat eyes on the curves, though some of them might not have been working. But there are enough signboards warning motorists about the dangerous curves and telling them to slow down.

And when DDA has given the speed limit as 30 kmph on the flyover because of the curves, are they at fault if people don't follow them.

The media also blamed the DDA for building the side of the flyover which were not very high. Now if that media team has never seen a flyover before and don't realize the the sides are built of a standard height. Then how is it that they feel that only the walls of this particular flyover are low??

The second channel blames it on speeding, and in a innovative way of proving that driving at 50 kmph on the flyover is safe. One of their reporters drove on the flyover at a constant 50 kmph and did not come even close to skidding...That also proves that the accidents definately happened to bikers who were much above the speed limit...not just the one given by DDA for the flyover, but also the overall speed limit for Delhi.

Another channel laid out the blueprints of a lot of flyovers in Delhi and was busy telling viewers how many of them were unsafe and not correctly built...Well...should the Government break them all down??

And when there are so many accidents on straight streches of road...because of over speeding... And most of the vehicles being built these days...you don't even realize how fast the vehicle is going...a speed of 80-90 kph also seems like 50-60 kph. And if you drive at 50 kph in Delhi...which is very rare considering the number of traffic jams that occur in the city...you will soon realize that everyone(incl the autos) is overtaking your vehicle..And then most people feel ki jab koi speed limit nahi follow nahi kar raha to why should I??

You also need to see how beneficial it has been for the lakhs of people who stay in Dwarka.I still remember during our boards, we used to take a margin of an hour when going for the exam before the flyover was built.There was no surity of when the railway crossing (over which the flyover is built) would open.Now its a comfortable life...

I am not saying that only those bikers were at fault, but then if you over speed at any curve, you can skid and crash and the curves on the flyover are no different...thats the only conclusion I can draw from the whole incidents.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

PS at ST: The StarCast

Well..it has been a couple of months since PS II started...and ab to sab logo se jaan-pehchan ho gayi hai..And like minded people have ganged up now..So I thought I'll introduce you to some of the friends I have made @ PS.

KP aka KumarPrashant-I think KP was one of the first guys I had met when I had joined Goa...College mein to zyaada interaction nahi tha...but PS mein to khoob acchi dosti ho gayi hai...KP ke mast waale funde hi generally hamara breakfast time ka discussion hota hai.

Somanchi aka Shashank Somanchi-My namesake, he is by far the quietest guy among all BITS trainees. Campus mein we lived in the same corridor and there too...he was the quietest one. I still remember the late night movies in Abhay's room and in the middle (a half asleep) Somanchi coming in and requesting us to reduce the volume...
I think he is the reason that afternoons mein ST mein neend nahi aati...because we keep mailing each other the entire afternoon and our conversation generally begin with "I am feeling damn sleepy...Whats up at ur end??"

Akshat-He was the sole reason ki hamara Embedded System Design ka project complete ho paaya tha..3 baje bande ki train thi..aur 11 baje bhi bhai lab mein baith kar project complete kar raha tha..I think that gives you a fair idea of this guys dedication.
Aaj kal to zara Gymming-shimming chal rahi hai...aur ST ke LAN par mast links with lots of movies dhoond kar bhi share kar raha hai.

Sanket Jain aka Sankat-You have to hear his PJ's...bilkul below poverty line wale. Breakfast ho ya lunch ya Lunch ke baad Sanket Jain ke phatte sun full time on.There is no way that you will not laugh at his jokes.
Both of us are in the same group, so kisi ki bhi treat hoti hai to hum dono ko bas ek doosre ka sahara hota hai...And because me, Sanket, Rishi and Krishna share a pantry so we keep meeting between meals too...

Rishi-Ab iske baare mein kya boloon-he is the only guy from Pilani who has been placed in Cosmic Semiconductors(Agar aap BITS waale ho, then you surely know what I am talking about). A guy with a great sense of humour, he can match each of Sanket's joke with one of his own.

Mayank-This guy is also Sanket's roommate, subah shaam Sanket ke phatte sunta hai. Thoda asar to hota hi hai..though PS mein sabse tough life inhi ki hai..he stays back at ST till 7:30 PM to work everyday. Shaam mein ek din inhone socha ki Gym jaen thodi der. Waha pahuchne se pehle hi inke mentor ka phone aa gaya and his mentor tells him "Where are you..itni lambi break le li hai Next time I will not call you up, I will directly call your PS instructor.." Well uske baad se Mayank bhai se GYM ki shakal bhi nahi dekhi hai..

Ankit Agarwal aka ANkitag (Thanks to his ST internal mail ID)-Well, inke baare mein aap samajh jaoge when I tell you that he was the one who had written the acknowledgement I had posted in the last post. Jab Sanket missing hota hai, to uski kami Ankit poori karte hai. Yeh bhai ab to employees ko kisi tool ki training de rahe hai..

Sudipt-Iske baare mein kya kahoon after all he is the man who has got calls from all 6 IIMS. Inke mentor ne inhe kaam de diya hai and a deadline of 2 months..aur keh diya hai ki usse pehle mere paas mat aana...agar pehle bhi khatam ho jaaye to bhi mat aana.

KrishnaMohan aka krishna-Another IIM guy he has got 3-4 IIM calls and he is also Sanket and Mayank's roommate. Even after 3 years at Pilani, his Hindi is a gone case..And one of the very few people I know who doesn't eat potatoes...I can't imagine how he survived in Pilani for the last three years.

Ritesh and Ranjot-One of my school friend at Pilani has told me earlier that two of his good friends had also got ST...so they were two PS mates from Pilani who I knew before the first day atPS. They have breakfast at PG so we generally meet them at lunch.And Ritesh is one of the 8 people from BITS who has got an admit from Stanford..PRO banda hai...

And whenever we sit down together for a meal, it feels like sitting down at the campus mess..and not just because the plates are similar, but because wahi harkaten karte hai...wahi ek doosre ki taang kheechna...wahi ek doosre ka din kaisa raha uski kahaniyan sun na aur bade bade plans banana.
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And that sometimes makes me feel nostalgic remembering the things that these are the same things that we used to do at Goa too...in fact mealtimes used to be the best times of the day for having animated conversations, Ankit Govil ko mess ke across chilla ke taang kheechna..and ek doosre ke mast wale funde sun na.

Ab bas table aur table par baithne waale different hai...waqt...bas waqt badal gaya hai...aur kucch nahi...


(but don't worry bhai log...phir waise hi baith ke timepass karenge kabhi...)

Monday, March 16, 2009

ST.ST: The Acknowledgement

Well, its time to start working on the mid-semester PS reports, infact at ST, we were told to complete the report before the week long closing at our PS...but hum bhi to true BITSians hai...on the last working day..out of the 25 people a ST, only a minority had even started working on the report...

Jaise hume bola gaya tha ki sabko thank karna hai acknowledgement mein...but ek bhai saab ne isse literally hi le liya hai...One of the creative guys at the PS came up with an great acknowledgement page (sabko thanks kara hai usne ;) )

Check it out (btw I have removed names of company people and PS faculties from the report to protect their privacy :P )


Acknowledgment

My sincere thanks go to the many people at ST Microelectronics, Noida who helped and encouraged me during my time within their department. In particular --------------, Director, India Design Centre as well as Dean PSD, for giving me the opportunity to work with the ST team in India. I am grateful to Co-ordinator of the PS program at ST for facilitating the smooth conduction of the PS II program.

I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisors who have supported me throughout my training program with their patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my Bachelors degree to their encouragement and effort and without them this report, too, would not have been completed or written.

I am indebted to my PS II faculty, who evaluated my work at ST from time-to-time. Also, ---------------- and others at ST, for their willing support, advice, and hard work in many aspects of organizing and conducting the WiCkeD workhop.

In my daily work I have been blessed with a friendly and cheerful group of fellow students. Sanket Jain, Kumar Prashant, Shashank Tandon and Rishi Mathur and others have provided good arguments about Analog Circuit Analysis and helped me regain some sort of fitness: healthy body, healthy mind. Kumar Prashant often made sure none of us starved and none of us went thirsty (or sober). Sanket Jain kept us entertained with his huge repertoire of anecdotes and stories. Rishi Mathur amused us with his dry wit. ------------- has impressed me with his willingness to learn how to use Virtuoso Schematic Editor which I now consider to be in his capable hands. He also kept me on my theoretical toes with her questions.

Beyond Electronics (which sometimes seemed to be nothing more than a distant dream) -------------and ---------------- have been companiable housemates for many weeks as well as colleagues and possesses the greatest quality in housemates. Thanks chaps, keep up the good work.

Finally, I thank my parents and siblings for supporting me throughout all my studies at BITS.
"
Ping me to know the name of the great guy who has written this Acknowledgment. :P

Friday, March 13, 2009

Things I am missing most

Vishal has written a mast waali post about the things he is missing about college...

check out the post here


Monday, March 2, 2009

Jaane do

Aaj bahut dino baad radio par yeh gaana suna...has been one of my favorites...simple lyrics and simple music...and about things that generally happen to normal guys...

Jaane do by Agosh

Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do

Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do
Itni si baat pe aasma hillaao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do
Jindagi haseen hai mastiyo ka scene hai
Gadbadi jo hogi to hogi, jaane do
Jindagi haseen hai mastiyo ka scene hai
Gadbadi jo hogi to hogi, jaane do
Socha socha kahe ko kosana
Vo kisi ki car mein bait kar chali gayi
Jaane do
Jaane do
Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do

Garmiyo ki chutiya sardiyo ki chutiya
Holiday home work, jaane do
Vo haseen ho gayi hum jaawan ho gaye
Phir bhi na team work, jaane do
Heh hey hey hey
Soch lo baby
Meri mano aur jaane do na
Heh hey hey hey
Dekh lo baby
Phir phechano aur jaane do na
Sochna sochna baalo ko nochana
Kyu, to
IIT exam mein funde gol ho gaye
Jaane do
Jaane do
Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do

Ladkiyo ka rootna aapne dil ka tootna
Kismeto ka footna , jaane do
Aur phir ministero se lekar thanedaro tak
Sabka humko lootna, jaane do
Heh hey hey hey
Soch lo baby
Meri mano aur jaane do na
Heh hey hey hey
Dekh lo baby
Dil mein thano aur jaane do na
Sochna sochna baalo ko nochana
Kyu, are
Jisse pyar tha kabhi
Uski shadi ho gayi,
Jaane do
Jaane do
Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do

Jindagi haseen hai mastiyo ka scene hai
Gadbadi jo hogi to hogi, jaane do
Jindagi haseen hai mastiyo ka scene hai
Gadbadi jo hogi to hogi, jaane do
Socha socha kahe ko kosana
Vo kisi ki car mein baith kar chali gayi
Jaane do
Jaane do
Choti si baat ko dil mein lagao kyu
Jaane do
Jaane do


A bit about the band 'AGOSH' :
In 1994, two Mechanical Engineers from Roorkee(Shaleen & R. Anandh) and a Chennai-based mathematics graduate dropped dreaming dreams; they sipped ``chai'' but were drunk on music. After some firm handshakes, a band was born. Mechanics and Mathematics went out the window. The trio broke their studious cover and with lyrics based on "typical-middle class mentality" formed a music studio called "Aqua Regia" (chemically speaking, its three parts hydrochloric acid, one part nitric acid and dissolves GOLD). They renamed themselves as 'AGOSH' n then came out with an album named 'Paisa'.