Sumo's Back !!

Feels great to be back after a long hiatus. Had gone to Pune and hence, could not write on the blog. Pune seems to be quite horrible at this time of the year, at least it was when I visited. The days are extremely hot and plus there is the added burden of power cuts which adds to the agony. A four-hour power cut is third degree torture for God's sake!!! I dont know what' wrong with MSEB. I am told that power cuts in rural areas last for 8 hours!! Can you believe it?? To top it all, a few weeks ago, in an MERC meeting, MSEB had the audacity to suggest that power cuts be imposed in Bombay and the resulting surplus power be diverted for MSEB's use. Thank God, Tata Power had the sense to veto this ludicrous suggestion outright.

Watched a drama and a couple of movies in Pune. Nothing much to write about. Strictly timepass fare. Good enough to evade the power cut, but just about.

Congratulations to M on starting his new job. Hope he does well. My joining date has been declared as 28 th July, so I have a long wait.

CIAO.

BURP !!!!!

Was invited over to M's place for lunch on Sunday. Central line trains were pretty tedious but it was good fun otherwise. Had a lot of fun at Mangu's place, esp. during the card-playing sessions, thanks to an over-zealous JD failing to realise that playing cards are ambigrammatical (Hope this is the right word !!) and, can be read from the other side too!! Food was great and M's parents and sister made sure noone went hungry.

Later, I went to do some shopping for monsoon footwear. Although my size is 11, size 10 can do, albeit its a tight fit. At least I dont have to go and order for specially made shoes or go about searching high and low for them!!! ( ;-) -----> VV)

Had my project viva today. Hardly felt like a viva, though!! We are so used to sitting in PHS's cabin that it now feels like a second home and we are never uncomfortable there. Plus, there is the added advantage of having an external who has no idea of what GA is!! Kinda makes my job easier!! HehHeh!!

Went to SC's place after the viva. Once again, a sumptuous lunch, excellent hospitality and AC in this sultry weather!!! WOW!! SC, M and their respective families, you guys rock!!! Everyone managed to poke some more fun at JD and his non-flattening stomach. :-) Got some excellent songs from SC's comp on my flash drive. Will help me on my drive to Pune tomorrow. Went to BCL later and got a few books. An Agatha Christie, and 2 Keatings. Oh, and yes, a British Autocar too!!! Should hopefully last me for the stay in Pune.

Mind's blank, got nothing more to say so will sign off. Next post probably on Monday.

CIAO.

Rating Sem VIII

This is how I would rate the curicullum for Sem VIII.

Point system is out of 10. Points are alloted for the following :

1. Interest in the matter
2. professor rating
3. easy in studying (assignments) during college
4. easy in studing for the exam
5. nature and satisfaction over the exam paper.

1. Construction Planning and Management: 8|8.5|7|10|5
2. Quantity Surveying Valuation and Estimating: 5|6.5|8.5|3.5|9
3. Soil Dynamics: 8.5|9.5|10|9.5|9.5
4. DDRCS: 8.5|10|5.5|7.5|3.5

Thus I give the following subjects the following rating

CPM : 7.7
QSEV : 6.5
SD: 9.4
DDRCS: 7.0

This gives SEM VIII an overall rating of 7.7

Nemore additions and suggestions ?

*** Note that this rating solely represents the view of the author.

Parineeta's too Cool !!!

Whew!! Finally, my work in the project has come to an end. Came back home at around 1700 hrs and promptly went off to sleep. 1830 hrs. saw me land up at Liberty to watch Parineeta. Lovely movie, excellent camerawork and stellar performances. All-in-all, a must watch for anyone who eschews good stories.

Got to go to M's place tomorrow. Someone please help me keep my eyes open!!! YAWN!!!

Who's bothered about the Project??

I had talked to PHS yesterday and he had asked me to be there in college by 1100 hrs. I dutifully reached at around 1055 hrs. What to do - I guess some old habits die hard!! I still have to learn to be "fashionably" late, a concept PHS is no alien to. Well, he certainly proved that today by making an entry at 1215 hrs. After a few deliberations about the project, it was decided by me with some help from SC and RS, that working on a project was an extremely silly thing to do, esp. the day after your last engg paper. So we decided to go and watch KKHH (which, BTW, is certainly NOT Kuch Kuch Hota Hai).

1550 hrs saw us land up at G7 for a 1515 hrs show, but what the hell!! At least I am a few kms away from college!! Movie was good for a few laughs and I certainly thanked my stars that any of my friends from the opposite sex was not with us. The show got crappy at times but then, what do you expect from a Balaji Films product?? I mean, c'mon, guys in coital poses with cats??!!!!!

After the movie, M spotted C and A and we rendezvoused with them for a while. All in all, it was a very nice first day of my vacation. Here's to a few more days like this one, albeit, with some work actually done!! (Heh!!Heh!!)

CIAO.

Ahhhh!!! College!!!

So...finally, the exams are over and so is the extreme torture that we all had to endure for four years. Now that engineering is finally done with, I suppose we all can now sit back and look fondly at the days gone by and eschew the memories, both good and bad. V suggested that I write about what I will miss and what I will not abt college. Found this to be a good idea, so here goes....

Things I will definitely miss

• Catching the early train to be in time for the 9 am lecture.
• Fighting for my favourite seat in class.
• Hoodwinking the profs into playing into our hands.
  
• Flashing gems of so-called easy logic which, I suppose, only I could understand.
  
• JD's laziness (Oh, and mine too!!!).
• SC's discourses on food (esp. non-veg.).
• JD's mauling by V and P.
• M's presence.
• Conversations between SCH and PHS.
• IMPLOSION!!!
  
• C and A's cartoon-like romance (no offence meant!!).
• Quizzing with S.
• Sitting in PHS's cabin for hours together.
• Mini get-togethers at Vrindy's (and Shetty's too!!).
• Site Visits (esp. Satara, Khopoli and the Airport).
  
• Motley Crew.
• Nirmiti.
• Sem. Hall.
• Mr. A. P. Kadam.
  
• PHS' and the mosquito's lectures.
• Car discussions with C.
• RS' chimp-like antics.
  
• My most special friends (S and R).
• SPCE

Things I will definitely not miss

• RAH's lectures.
• Class politics for CR.
• Tated as CR.
• BDD and Applied Science.
• The two instances my shoulder got dislocated.
• G and AM's singing.
• MMM's afternoon lectures.
  
• Project Grp. formation at the end of Sem VI.
• RCOE's fests.
• RRR.
• Exams.

Phew!! Thats it!! Thats all I can think of now. Anyone wanting to add to this list is free to do so in the shoutbox. I have not yet bid my final adieu to the college yet. That will be when I finally finish with my project, though only God knows when that will be (Probably, even he doesnt know!!). Hail PHS!!!

CIAO.

Message for the Last Day of Exams

Four years ago, we made a tryst with destiny.
And now, the time has come when we shall redeem ourselves,
Not wholly or in part but very substantially.
Today at this 15th hour, when the world sleeps,
BE Civil shall awake to LIFE and FREEDOM!!!!!!

Too Bored to Blog

I had thought that the extended periods of staying at home would allow me to do some regular blogging. But, I was mistaken. As I no longer go to college, I dont have much to share. Its the same boring routine everyday. Study, read paper, study, eat, sleep, study. So I dont think I will be able to blog regularly, at least until the exams are over.

I am sooooo bored!!! Sigh!!!!!!

College is officially over!!!

Long time since I last wrote here. But its been a very hectic submission time and its finally over! Yes, you read right! My engg. submission days are finally over!! I am over the moon with joy. We are also done with all our vivas for the first time in our engg. life and believe me, it feels good.

I had my last interaction with the mosquito today for my Structures viva. So this will perhaps be the last active mention of the mosquito on this blog. Feels so sad that college is finally over. Anyway, I had a very good viva today and the external played into my hands by asking me about the programs I wrote for the batch. Methinks I cracked the viva. That is a very good feeling and I am quite elated to leave with a good impression. Thnakfully, the mosquito didnt ask me much, with the external hogging the limelight.

Most of us in the Structures batch went to Silver Beach after the viva to celebrate our liberation from college. We all had a whale of a time there what with the boys having a good game of football and the girls making do with a frisbee. We were joined by GD and R from the Foundation batch. All in all, it was a grrreat day for all of us and surely one we will remember for the fun time we all had together.

There's nothing much more to say as my mind has gone numb with a mixture of joyous and sad emotions. So I will just sign off. More in the next post, which will follow soon after!!!

CIAO.

And The Sem VIII Exams Begin!!!

Just gave the CPM viva yesterday. And boy, was it a harrowing experience!! PVP, one of the old guard of the college was the external examiner and he certainly made sure that no stone was left unturned in the quest to make us realise how grossly underprepared we were. It was a bloodbath right from the beginning, when I entered the cabin of PHS, our internal. Even PHS, who is normally the big bully of the college, was reduced to trying to defend his teaching in front of his former professor!! It was nice to see a reversal of roles for once. Anyway, I hope that everyone gets good marks in this viva.

Last Wednesday, everyone in the class had a collective bout of malaria in the afternoon due to the mosquito's test. Boy, was that test lengthy or what!!! To add to it, we had absolutely no time to prepare for it so we were groping about blindly in the dark. Plus, there's always the DDCS submission, which is going to be another headache for us. God save us from these profs!!!!

Dante's Inferno of Hell

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Extreme
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Well, I got the link for this test from Ranj's blog

Awaiting Final Submissions with Trepidation

Well, now that the CPM submissions are over, it's time for all of us to concentrate on QSE. RRR is ready to create trouble at the slightest provocation so, I suppose, we should all beware of her malicious intentions. I have got quite a bit of QSE to write so I will be quite busy for the entire day tomorrow. So much for hoping to watch the F1 race in peace!!

Had a pesticide spraying session at home today so we all went out for dinner. I must say it was a welcome change from the same old routine of write-eat-write-write-write some more -sleep(maybe)!! Balwas provides very good food and I am thankful that there are such hotels in Bombay which can cater to my palate. Ice-cream at K-Rustom's was the cherry on the cake.

Passed through Marine Drive while returning home. There was quite a big crowd gathered at the Police Chowky under the flyover where the rape incident took place on Thursday. There was tension in the air and a couple of riot control vans were also parked in the vicinity. Some locals were holding up placards saying "Rapist More should be hanged!!". Well, I dont quite agree. But, I certainly feel that such people are a menace to society and they must be severely punished by the law. I mean, come on, is it no longer safe to walk with your friends on a well-known public promenade at 4:30 in the evening???!!! Thats ridiculous!! That means all our sisters and female friends are at risk. This will not do. I feel the Dep. CM should take interest in such pressing matters rather than try his hand at moral cleansing by banning dance bars! He will try and make students attend kirtans next, while his state police force goes around raping a few more innocent girls! The Govt. is beginning to misuse and misdirect its power and its high time we, the people, did something about it. In the meanwhile, here's hoping that More is not seen for a long long time in public, at least, not until he is no longer capable of committing such heinous crimes, if you get what I mean. ;-)

The Structural mosquito is back with a vengeance!! His first bloodsucking session is scheduled for Wednesday. God help us!!!!

CIAO.

First Submission is Done!!

Hmm...its been a long time since I have blogged. 13th of April seems such a long time ago. Still, this was to be expected, I guess, going by our experiences in the previous 7 sems. Actually, as compared to the earlier sems, this one seems to be pretty tame!

Nothing awfully interesting to write about, though. The past week has been full of submissions, especially the CPM one. I never expected PHS to take such a devilish turn, especially towards the end of the semester. RRR looks like an angel when compared to him. At least we are able to bully her into reducing our workload! Over here, it works the other way round.

Well, quite a few good news regarding placements in our class. Only 6 ppl remaining to be placed. Hope we touch 100% this time. This will set a nice benchmark for the rest of the college. Finally we will be able to lay claim to some record. Hope that day materialises. Till then, I keep my fingers crossed.

Alongwith the submissions, the malaria epidemic is also spreading rapidly in the class. The Structural mosquito continues to haunt us with his never-ending lectures on designing efficient water tanks, which he probably wishes to infect!! God, I hate mosquitoes!!! Buzzzzzz!!! Get lost, you ##%^@%^$#!!!

Read an interesting anecdote in Mid-Day on Sunday. One reader had sent in this one.

Scene: Economy class of a London-Frankfurt flight. A negro businessman is sitting quietly working on his laptop. A 'prim and propah' spinster, stylishly dressed, is seated next to him, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Finally, she calls the air-hostess.

Lady: Excuse me, but could I have another seat? I am not exactly very comfortable here.

Airhostess: Why, Ma'am, is something wrong?

Lady: Cant you see who I am seated next to?

Airhostess: Well, Ma'am, I think we are fully booked but I will still go and check.

(goes and returns after 5 mins)

Airhostess: As I thought, there are no seats available in the Economy or Business Class, but we do have one seat in the First Class.

Lady: Well......can I??

Airhostess: Ma'am, as a rule, we don't allow passengers from Economy class to upgrade to First Class, but this is an exception. I understand the problem and we can make an exception in this case. We surely cannot make any human being sit next to someone so disgusting. Sir, if you will please take your hand baggage, a seat awaits you in the First Class!!

*******************************************

Lets end this post by recording my thanks to Mandela, Luther King Jr. and all those other great ppl who championed the cause of the blacks to achieve an equal status in society. HAIL THEE!!!!

CIAO.

(Me 2 lazy 2 think of Title) :-D :-P

Well, all the unplaced guys from class had come to Grant Road for placement interviews and also came over to my place on my request. That is all, but TP. Poor guys had not even had lunch and were absolutely famished. Unfortunately, I was able to tell Mom about their arrival only just before they actually came due to which, the extent of arangements she could make was limited. Still, I hope that the frugal snacks at least gave them enough strength to last out until they reached home.

Today, not unusually, was a bad day. MMM droned through all the lectures of the morning and made me wish I was never even born. And if that was not enough, Mom called during the break saying that I was urgently required at the Passport Office, as they had not included one form requiring my signature in the envelope containing the forms, making up the application.

After a mad dash to the Bengal Chemicals building, the clerk now told us that alongwith proof of date of birth, proof of place of birth was also required. Now, I had applied for a duplicate copy of my birth certificate in my local Municipal Office, but had not yet received it. The clerk was not ready to accept the municipal receipt as proof and insisted on having the birth certificate. Then, it was a mad dash to Nana Chowk in Grant Road. Dad kept up a frentic pace in the car and had Mom petrified. We reached Nana Chowk in 12 minutes and took another 10 to secure the original copy of the birth certificate. Another maniacal spell of fast driving by Dad saw us reach the Passport Office in just 9 min! Now, that stupid, errant clerk was forced to accept the application as she could not find any more faults in it. Yaay, what a moral victory!!

Hope the passport comes soon, though. I need it before I have to join my company. Nothing else of significance took place today. At least, I cant recall anything important. So I am signing off now.

CIAO.

Sumo Speak

hi guys i am over here tooo. more in next BLOG till then BYE.

madmangu

Sumo Speak

hi guys i am over here tooo. more in next BLOG till then BYE.

madmangu

Its Submission Time !!

Well, the dreaded time of every semester is here. The profs have now started hounding us for submissions. RRR was the first to start off, with the foundation batch being at the receiving end for most of the time. I mean what does she think of herself? Its very easy to ask us to repeat us the assignment but does she realise that her's is not the only subject we have to study? I suppose not! These young profs seem to feel that just because they were harassed during their days in college, they owe it to the system to set the record straight. Pathetic attitude, I say! Well, there's just one sem left. Now that we have lived through 7 semesters, surely we can scrape through another.

The BE farewell was held in college on Thursday. But our gr8 profs couldnt resist troubling us and hence, decided to keep lectures. Well, I have become used to this by now, but I sure hoped to have some respite from this rigmarole for the farewell day, at least! Alas, it was not to be! Practically everyone carried a change of clothes to college that day as it was extremely hot as well as humid in that week. So much for travelling light on that day! After the lectures on that day, the profs came to class and addressed us. SYM was the best of all and he gave some pretty pertinent advice. The rest were all mediocre and didnt offer anything substantial through their speeches. RAH actually thought it was a lecture and went on rambling endlessly until they were low murmurs of discontent from the back of the class. MMM droned about in his typical style, but thankfully, kept it short.

After changing into our dress clothes, we boys returned to college from the hostel, fearing that we had taken so much time to get ready that the girls msut have reached before us! But then, girls will be girls, right? Expectedly, they were not there and actually did not turn up for a good 45 minutes after we had arrived in college! Everyone from the class looked resplendent in their snazzy outfits - the guys in their blazers and the girls in their sarees. After we posed for a lot of photos as if all were brainless models, the programme started but it turned out to be a dampener.

The class then congregated in the Sem Hall to have a private jam session. It was extremely successful with most contributing to its success. We all chuckled at the stupid guys from the rest of the college wilting away in the heat, downstairs in the quad, while we were enjoying ourselves in the air-conditioned comfort of the Sem Hall. LOL!!

Nothing much took place after that. We all had dinner and started feeling tired. R and A wanted C and I to fetch their bags for them from the department. Their excuse? They couldnt climb one floor in their sarees! And people call me lazy!! Anyway, they made such pathetic faces at us that C and I decided to go and get the bags, if only to avoid being stared at weirdly for the rest of the evening! At least that was my reason!

We all went home after that like good kids. Thankfully, I got a lift to the station in C's car alongwith A. I reached home at around 2230hrs, and promptly flopped onto my bed and slept. After all, I had to get up my energy for the extra lecture arranged by MMM the next day, had'nt I?

CIAO.

Misuse of Membership

Looks like Jaidutt has not understood the reason I invited him to be a member of my blog. I have invited Jaidutt and Mangesh to be members of this blog so that they can comment on my life from their point of view, however stupid my life may be! This membership is certainly not for putting up some copied info from other sites and blogs. I request Jaidutt to desist from doing this and concentrate on actually writing something original. Please Jaidutt, I wanna know your views and not someone else's.

Howland student builds model of century-old dam

Andrew Hallett has known of the Howland dam all his life, but he never truly understood the history, inner workings and exactitude of its design until he had to build it himself. At one-eighth scale, that is.

"It was designed real well considering that it's stood for almost 100 years now," the Penobscot Valley High School senior said Thursday. "For the time period in which it was built, it's a very good job."

Not that the fledgling civil engineer thinks the dam is perfect.

"There could have been a couple of changes to it that could have made it better," Hallett said. "For example, they had to make the cement spillway by hand, so I don't think they reinforced it too well. That's why it has little cracks in it - and a couple big ones, too. Other than that, the people there have kept it in perfect condition."

The 18-year-old's attention to detail and apparent design talent made his 4-foot by 8-foot model of the dam a winner of the 2005 Civil Works Model Competition. The contest is held statewide by the Maine section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

He received a plaque from Adam Meyer, a project manager with Engineering Technologies Inc. of Bangor and a society member, during a SAD 31 board meeting Wednesday night.

The society holds the contest annually to inspire high school and college students to pursue civil engineering and related arts and sciences, Meyer said. The contest requires students to do models of local landmarks to scale.

"What better way," Meyer said, "to inspire people to pursue this than to have them go out and replicate the design of something around them?"

A lifelong Howland resident, Hallett's first choice was the dam. To understand its design, he toured it several times and interviewed 20 to 30 people to grasp its maintenance and history, he said.

Building the model took about 80 hours, he said. He used wood, cardboard, plaster of Paris and joint compound, among other things, to make it.

And he is quick to point out that he had help. PVHS physics teacher Ellen Simone guided him through the construction and contest entry process. Fellow student Randi Rackley contributed her painting skills and helped create the model's landscaping.

Another student, Matthew Osborne, did much of the heavy lifting. "If I needed an extra hand holding something, he grabbed it," Hallett said.


Howland student builds model of century-old dam - Bangornews.com Staff

Engineering students provide water to Thailand Village

And what are we doing these days ??? Completing stupid assignments :(


A group of engineering students traveled to Thailand over Spring Break to help bring a small village clean drinking water. They have returned, deeming their project a success.For months prior to their trip, engineering majors David Cihocki, Robert Cucugliello, Mason DeFrank, Justin Pusey, Christopher Yanavich, Diana Garcia, Steve Hazel and Dana Kaminsky worked on a two-mile long PVC pipe with the help of engineering professors Yusuf Mehta and Jess Everett.It was installed in the village of Pateung, Thailand to ensure the villagers would have access to clean drinking water. Before the installation was complete, they ran out of clean water by early afternoon everyday.

"The project was a success," said DeFrank, a junior civil engineering major.

"The primary thing that we went for was installed and running by the time we left."

The group, along with the help of the Pateung people, installed the two-mile long pipe in a trench down a mountain side. It leads into a 1,000-gallon storage tank which is equipped to supply the people with clean water all day. The villagers helped the students by digging the trenches.

"The villagers got a mile of digging done in a day," said DeFrank.

The students stayed with the villagers in community homes in the Southeast Asian village, which didn't turn out to be what they were expecting.
"It wasn't quite as primitive as we thought before we went," said DeFrank.Although they have no running water, a majority of the 75 houses in the village have electricity. However, most houses have only one outlet and one light bulb per house. Some of the wealthier people have televisions and even satellite dishes.

"When you see all that, you question why we're here. But they still lack basic knowledge," Hazel said. "I felt justified in our project."