Chronicle No. 19

Had a hectic day yesterday, what with all the classes to attend and the quiz to prepare. We started off with OOC. That was taught by a very nice looking half-Bong, half-Russian female from the Kolkata branch of the company. She taught quite well, actually. It was not mentally taxing to sit for her lectures as was the case with the other visiting faculty. Then, came Japanese and Life Skills. One bombshell dropped during Jap class. Jap viva is on Monday. Its study time once again!!!

Dont know how I will complete the quiz with VRS. The situation calls for some serious multitasking. I got to get back to the quizzing now.

CIAO.

Chronicle No. 18

Got my mid term results yesterday. I scored 3-5-3. Thats Tech-LifeSkills-Overall. Grades out of 5 each. Guess, I could have done better than 3 in Tech but I dont think the system is flawed. I mean, I deserve what I got. RR got 3, and surprisingly, VRS got 2. I guess all the SPCE guys continue getting 3, for that was the case in Coimbatore with the rest of our gang too.

We start with the actual Comps stuff today. 3 sessions of GUI and one of Effective Communication. Lets hope at least this stuff is taught well. I would like to design a really nice interface for my project.

Preparations for VRS and my quiz are in full swing. Sometimes, we think that it may be impossible to get enough questions ready in time for the quiz. But, I think we will be ready on D-day. Promise to put up a few questions out here.

Chronicle No. 17

Made good use of the holiday yesterday. First, it was sleep then, a late breakfast. Lunch was at the tasteless joint that is our canteen. Went for a movie after that. "Chocolate" was good (read review in next post).

Then, time for the quiz preparation. We managed to make up the Elims questions in the short time provided to us. We will have to research for the Finals questions during this week. Hope the event is a success.

Dont know today's schedule yet. Will have to find out and then adjust the quiz preps as per that.

Chocolate - A Review

Went to watch Chocolate in the local movie theatre yesterday. It's a story about a group of friends who go about evading the law with innovative moves that leave one spellbound, albeit temporarily. They are unwittingly helped by a lawyer to go scot free. All in all, the movie is completely a game of wits.

The movie starts off well. The movie has a taut feel to it. Never does one feel bored in the movie. However, the narration is jerky and right until the very end, the viewer may find it difficult to understand what is going on. There are a few unexplained points, as well, but then, all in all, its a good effort.

Performance-wise, Anil Kapoor as the eccetric lawyer steals the show. His every move exudes an intriguing sense of style. He displays a variety of qualities, which makes his character a pleasure to watch. Of the five friends, Irrfan Khan and Suniel Shetty do a credible job. Suniel Shetty exudes menace in just the right amounts and Irrfan is too good when it comes to portraying a brooding character. Arshad Warsi is, as usual, bankabla with perfect comic timing. He also puts in an earnest histrionic performance. Emraan Hashmi has broken his uninterrupted run of smooching his heriones in every movie. This one, in fact, has his character yearning to find a girl. Tanushree Dutta seems to be there just for the eye candy. Already, in her first two films, her characters have been sleazy. She should be careful, else she will also be typecast in the Neha Dhupia mould. Oh, and yes, some acting classes are surely recommended!!

No particular individual stellar performances, as such, but put together, the movie gels wells. Go, watch it!!!

Chronicle No. 16

Phew! Finally, I have finished with my midterms. T'was a good exam and I feel that I have done well but one never knows the right answers out here. All the options sound right. I hope that the people who correct my paper think like me, else I am done for!!!

Didnt do anything significant during the day after the exam. Had a bit of testing, but the faculty seemed bored so he left us early. I took advantage of the opportunity to catch 40 winks. ;-) After all, school students do need to sleep for 6-8 hours, dont they??!!!

Japanese, as always, was fun. The Japanese songs the faculty plays for us are funny to listen to, but their music is quite lively. All in all, its a good way to ease the mental stress that develops due to the Tech classes.

Chronicle No. 15

That's it!!! Less than 24 hours left for my midterms. Now, its officially time to panic!!! Actually, I am hoping it wont be as bad as engg. We had a review session taken by a Trivandrum faculty today and it was really nice. He cleared quite a few doubts I had and now, I am beginning to feel a wee bit more confident. I am hoping for the best.

Had a chat with the ILP centre co-ordinator, D today. She has given me and VRS permission to conduct a quiz here next week. Yaay!!! VRS is from BITS Pilani. He is also a UC semi-finalist. Hope the event will elicit a generous response. The other thing D told me was that I neednt be very happy even if I got a Bombay base branch posting. That's coz a lot of cities come under the base branch and I could be even sent to a place like Bangalore. Well, I sure hope not!!! MATC, my future is now in your hands!!!

Chronicle No. 14

Got some good news today. Our midterms have been postponed to Saturday. That's a whole 24 hours extra time!!! There is a God after all!!!

Had Testing today. Same faculty as SDO. Bored chap, gonna go to Deutscheland soon. Comes in 15 min late, "teaches" for 15 min and then, we have to sit in the class for an eternity before we are "authorised" to get out!!! When did I ever get out of college?? No, wait!!! I left college and got back to school!!! Yes, that must be it!!!

WC was boring as usual. Different tones of writing. That' all. Ho Hum!!!!

Chronicle No. 13

An unusual day today. Only one scheduled lecture!!!! Actually, the problem was that the faculty was not feeling well and hence, had to take the day off. That gave us plenty of time to complete our second deliverable of the project.

We had our first session of Technical Writing today. It was strictly OK. Personally, I feel that life skills sessions should be more fun. Just sitting and listening to how stupid letters must be written is like visiting college all over again. Believe me, its really frustrating!!!

The last session was an impromptu French session. The French faculty was very nice and it was good revising La langue belle!!! I have spoken to the ILP co-ordinator here and she is willing to let us have extra French sessions after hours. Lets hope that this works out.

Chronicle No. 12

Had the second consecutive of DBMS today. As expected, boring!!!! These faculty will make good parents. I mean they are soooo good at singing lullabies that their children will never have any problems sleeping. An instant sleeping pill anyone???

The day ended with Japanese. T'was a nice session and we got the results of our first class quiz. Thankfully, I did pretty well. Hmm....thats "Arigatou Gozaimashta" to "Matsuimoto Sensei"!!! (BTW, all are free to try their hands at translation in the comments section at the bottom of this post.) It seems that we have to answer a quiz at the beginning of every session of Japanese, henceforth. Guess, that's the only way we will "condescend" to revise the previous session's work!!!

We have Testing tomorrow, and we start with Written Communication & Effective Technical Writing. Why do I feel as if I never left college??

Salaam Namaste

Went to see Salaam Namaste in a theatre called Maharaja in the main city. Dolby stereo sound et al. Price?? An incredible 20 bucks for balcony!!! I couldnt believe my eyes.

The movie starts off quite well with the narrative building on the interactions (live and via media) between an RJ and a chef. As expected, they meet, like each other, fall in love. Then, the unthinkable happens!!! The guy asks the girl to live with him so that they can test out their compatibility. Girl agrees, they move in together, have fun, and screw all over the place. So far so good.

Then, comes the bombshell. RJ is preggers and our chef freaks out. A false abortion later, the convo leads to the usual "Where is this going?" talk. The only problem is that our chef doesnt wanna marry. Oops, wrong decision!!! RJ breaks up and continues to live with him!!! Some long drawn minutes later, chef realises his "mistake" and proposes marriage to RJ and they live happily ever after. Sniff, soooo touching!!!

The movie seems to be trying to convey a very pertinent message in today's world. It tries to show live-in relationships in a more acceptable light. However, the movie loses its track after the interval. Too many complications are introduced in the form of the RJ's friend and a blonde who befriends our chef. Even the chef's principles seem to be skewed. After resisting marriage for so long, his resolve suddenly changes when he sees the sonographic image of his unborn child!!! How's that for fickle-mindedness? And as usual, in the ending, the RJ and the chef agree to marry and live happily ever after. Acc. to me, a better ending would have been the case where the RJ rejects the chef's proposal for marriage and goes her own way. Maybe, the chef can be her child's father but, he can never be her husband. But, I guess it takes guts to make such a movie.

Performance-wise Preity Zinta is OK. Her cute looks pep up the first half, but she certainly deserves to be hidden in the second half, even if you consider the pregnancy of her character. I feel an actress like Rani Mukherji would have been a better choice for this role. Saif seems to be improving with every movie. His comic timing is perfect and you can feel his anguish in the serious confrontational scenes. However, he must take on a greater variety of roles, or he stands the risk of being typecast. The character played by Javed Jaffery is avoidable and can grate on your nerves. He tries to imitate Feroz Khan and fails miserably. He kinda reminds me of ARK!!!! And whats with Abhishek Bachchan as the bumbling doc?? Almost the entire scene seems to be copied from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.' s Rachel pregnancy!! AB jr would do better to concentrate on the more serious movies. C'mon, he has all the chicks after him, hasnt he?

Chronicle No. 11

Had an OK weekend. Went to watch Salaam Namaste in the city on Sat. Then, it was the mall for us. We had a nice time simply going around the place and soaking in the crowded atmosphere.Finally, it was feeling like home. Dinner in the Food Court above the mall was nice and we felt like we had FOOD!!!

Yesterday was, however, a dampener. It rained throughout the day with great gusts of wind for company. It was next to impossible to get out of the villa. At least we managed to get out for lunch. Otherwise, it was a very boring day and we spent most of it playing cards.

Today, it was back to business, as usual. T'was the last session of PG&E. Then, we had three continuous sessions of DBMS. Again, the faculty was someone from the bench, who had no prior experience of teaching. I dont know when these guys will start giving us trained faculty so that we can actually learn something.

On Friday, we got to know about our secret friends. Turns out that mine was a girl!!! I was also writing for a girl!! I ended up getting a Reynold's Metallix pen for my efforts. Neat deal, isnt it??

Chronicle No. 10

Managed to finish half of the project deliverable due on Saturday. Feeling very sleepy now. Thankfully, there is a PG&E class in the second session. That will liven up things a bit. Today, we will be getting to know the identity of our secret friend, after a whole 5 days of suspense. Lets see who is mine. Will certainly mention him/her over here once I get to know.

The other 3 sessions are all SDO. The guy who's supposed to teach us is treating it as an informal interaction session. One thing's certain, though. I still dont feel as if I am out of college. The only silver lining is that SPCE has trained me to take on anything head on.

Chronicle No. 9

Had three sessions of Systems Design Overview today. Then, it was time for Japanese. Its an extremely confusing language, especially because it has its own script. thankfully, they are not teaching us the script. As regards SDO, the guy was simply not made to teach. He spent most of the time narrating his experiences in the company. That made the sessions interesting. Else, it was simply back to college.

We finally managed to register our accounts with the company server. Now, I hope they will not have any problems in crediting my salary to my account. I am certainly keeping my fingers crossed.

I will have to sit up at night today. Gotta to meet a Saturday deadline. SPCE revisited!!!!

Chronicle No. 8

Got a call from S yesterday. T'was nice to talk to him after such a long time. We caught up on the good times and yapped on like the days of yore. He's invited me to visit him in Calcutta after my ILP gets over. I shall certainly be considering the invitation.

Got SDO classes now. God knows what that thing has in store for us now. I guess I will just have to wait and find out. I also have Japanese in the end. The worst part abt Japanese is that you are expected to bow down low, and that can be extremely irritating, esp. to a lazy guy like me. Good thing is that its only for 15 sessions in all, and we dont have to learn the Japanese script.

Gotta go for classes now.

Chronicle No. 7

Got my employee no and bank documents yesterday. Now, I have a full-fledged salary account. The only problem is that there is no salary in it!!!

The axe has finally fallen on our plans for merriment. Today, we had our first project work meeting. We have to design a software for a Software firm!!! Can you believe it?? First submission deadline is Saturday, the next being Monday. I can still remember waving goodbye to my glorious Sunday, as it floated out of the window!!! Guess, I will have to get used to all this.

In the beginning, when I got here, there were very few people who wanted to go to Bombay. But, as the days pass, I find that this number is steadily increasing. Even today, when I am introduced to a new colleague, the dialogue goes something like this.

Other Guy : Hi, I am xxxxxxx from xxxxxxx, xxxxxx(mostly Calcutta here).

Me : Hi, I am Sumedh from SPCE, Bombay

Other Guy : Oh you are from Bombay?? Where in Bombay??

Its as if those guys know every inch of the place. And the other question me or RR often get is "Have you seen any filmstar/shooting in Bombay??" Oh come on, gimme a break!!! I would rather catch the 7:53 Virar fast rather than watch some stupid filmstar give 50 takes to get a simple scene right!!!! The guys from Calcutta seem to looooove their city, and are vehement supporters of Dada. The guys from Delhi are extremely snootish, however. But, all that attitude changes when you give your place of origin!! Its as if there's Bombay and there's the Rest of India!!! Hmmm......sad, isnt it???

Chronicle No. 6

ILP seems to have started off completely now. We have just submitted 2
assignments, and things are beginning to get hot. Deadlines have to be
met and unfortunately, they are not flexible any more. Also, the hours
of sleep we get out here are dwindling steadily. Well, in that sense,
I am thankful for all those stupid drawing sheets and assignments
given to us by our @#$%# profs. At least, they have taught me to stay
up at unearthly hours and go for days together with low amounts of
sleep.

Bombay seems to be in the grip of some more heavy rainfall. It makes
me homesick to watch the news on TV about the floods in Bombay, or the
fire in Jaslok. Nothing ever seems to happen out here. The only hip
crowd here seems to be the cows. They seem to occupy every inch of the
road. I certainly wouldnt like to drive out here. Coming from me, that
is really something!!! ;-)

Had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to get here to write this post. I
hate the morning net slots. Thankfully, we will be back to the evening
slots next week.

Chronicle No. 5

Had a gruelling 3 in 1 session of Requirements Engg today. We were supposedly taught by some esteemed faculty who had been specially brought in from Chennai!!! All she did was to ask us to read from the meagre handouts and explain the concepts ourselves. The only thing we learnt from the session was how to make the Data Flow Diagrams. That was mainly due to the threat of a deadline issued to us by the faculty. ;-) Guess nothing else will make us work that hard. HeHe!!!

We also had a Personal Grooming and Etiquette session today. That was very interesting. It kinda livened us up, especially after we had woken up to a very gloomy day, full of rain, complete with sound effects. Guess, I AM going to experience the mandatory cyclone before I leave this place for good, after all!!! Anyway, back to PG&E. It was a very nice and introspective session. However, the presentations reminded me of the tacky apparel ads often seen on the local cable channel. Hmm....guess you cant have your cake and eat it too!!!

Nice lunch today. Fried fish!!! Yummy!!! Although it was Rohu, which I am not exactly used to, I certainly didnt mind. It was a nice change after 2 whole days of tasteless, veg. food. Chicken Biryani awaits me now for dinner. :-D

Tomorrow's a working day. Will have to get up early in the morning again. The very thought of that makes me sick!!! Lets hope tomorrow will be a more interesting day.

Chronicle No. 4

Had a long session on CO today. Was taught by the same chap who taught UNIX. Lets call him ARB. His priceless quote during the UNIX session - "I have not worked much with Windows and I dont know much of UNIX!!!" Today, too, it was the same situation. He was supposed to come and teach us CO but ended up learning a lot about the way a CRT functions from the participants. For him the rest was all "cryapppp"!!!

We had gone in a group to the Nandankanan zoo yesterday, coz it was a holiday for Ganesh Puja. Huuuge place that. Langoors line the road at every corner, waiting to pounce on the edible assets of some unsuspecting passerby. The biggest attraction there was the tiger. Both varieties were bred there and mind you, they were big. The white tiger was the biggest of the lot and we got quite a visual treat when we got to watch him bathe in the heavy rain that has been lashing this place for the past couple of days. Unfortunately, I could not capture it on film for posterity, lest the rain ruin my camera. Oh, what a waste!!!

It seems we are to learn Japanese. The two batches after mine get to learn French. I would have dearly loved to revise French and see if HC had done a good job in training us in school. Well, you cant have everything.....lets hope that they will at least put me in Bombay for my posting.

We will be having these internet sessions every evening till the 10th. Hope to be able to blog regularly until then.

Chronicle No. 3 ( on an IBM ThinkPad) :-D

Had the first net session today. We have been allotted individual IBM ThinkPads and they are extremely good. Feels good to work out here. Am slowly getting used to Bhubaneswar. Its a nice enough place if you decide that you are not going to expect any facilities out here.

Had Systems Approach to Consultancy Lecs today. For the first time, I was interested throughout the lecture. It mostly preached about how you should uphold the squeaky clean image of the company ....Blah!! Blah!!! But it was good!! :-)

Got nothing more to say. The only thing I dont like out here is the company policy of wearing ties on weekdays. It can get very hot out here in Bhubaneswar and there is also the humidity. Hope the weather gets better in October. The locals say that it gets very cold towards Oct end.

Lots of Bongs out here. It seems that the official first language of the ILP here is Bangla. Kinda reminds me of the conversations between S, R and A during those golden days. Sigh....those were the days!!!

Chronicle No. 2

Here goes my first Sunday in this God-forsaken place that is Bhubaneswar. Actually, I don't mean to be demeaning to the place or anything but, home feels sooo much better!! Well, whatever, I HAVE to spend 2 months out here, so might as well, enjoy the place.

The training has started off completely now. We have done a bit of UNIX, which will be wound up tomorrow. I guess I must thank PHS for making us do our C programming in UNIX. That has really helped me a lot. Hmm....must message him tomorrow for Teacher's Day. In addition to the Comps stuff, they are teaching us "Soft Skills". Its like going back to school!!! They teach you how to talk, eat etc. They are even teaching us a foreign language. The only problem is that the workplace is about 1.5km from our villas and the buses are available only at odd timings. No bus=1.5 km walk in the hot sun/dark, unlit road strewn with cowdung. How very romantic!!!

Went to the old city today to see the Lingaraj Temple. Lovely structure. It's indeed a Civil Engg. marvel. The carving on the main dome is extremely intricate and goes right up to the top, which is around 12 floors away from the ground. The temple complex has 1001 temples inside it!!! Loved the architecture and got quite a few good pics. Then, we went to see the Orissa State Museum. Nice small place. The only thing interesting are the small stone sculptures they have sourced from Orissa and Bihar. Extremely beautiful carvings. Definitely worth a dekko.

Well, I hope JD awakens from his slumber on Sundays to condescend to write something. And, I hope I never sail in the same boat as him. Me and not checking mail for more than a week?? Aaargh!!!