By-Two Kaapi in an oilfield

The weblog of Abhilash Ravishankar, India.


Here I blog about my personal experiences [posting rarely]


At my tumblelog Intoxicated by possibility I blog about my opinions/likes/dislikes [posting heavily]


When 'future' comes one step closer...

1100 hrs yesterday
Any sane person would obviously know where I would be found, what I would be doing , but not 'till when I will be doing it'. Ok, if you still didnt understand what I am talking about, you better start over.

I was in a deep slumber, with no random thoughts in my mind(!). Then my mother wakes me up saying that one of my closest pals out here called up saying that he would come over to my house. And there it was, an awakening from the heavens. Arise O' mighty Norse ruler, coz you've got company.

1215 hrs
We were riding together to Karanji Lake, a newly renovated lake cum aviary. It supposedly boasts of India's largest enclosed aviary (if that's true, then India better grow up!). There we were strolling around the lake, going through the aviary....musing upon crazy experiences in our respective universities (he's an IITian). As the past goes one step away, the future comes one step closer. And then, like a crazy bunch of fools, we were thinking about our futures. What to do after dragging ourselves through 4 pathetic years of undergrad !? Hmmm..coming to think of it , we weren't crazy after all, coz what we were upto went into the realm of 'ideas'. It is said that average people discuss about people, but great souls discuss about ideas. (Sorry for bragging! If you are disgusted, make a move, pardner!).

Ideas...well here's one
Start a mobile service which offers 2 choices
1. As usual, make billed calls
2. Make a call, absolutely free! (the only condition being, you might be interrupted by ads.....maybe at the beginning, end, and one sometime in the middle)

Howzzat! Crazy, whacko, well, thats how ideas are......
More such crazy ones at Why Not?

Here's a news clipping from 'The Hindu':

CHIDAMBARAM, AUG. 27. The President, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, today said that if universities consciously strove to give entrepreneurship orientation to students the unemployment problem could be tackled.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the triune celebrations in Annamalai University here.

Mr. Kalam said that every year three million graduates passed out about 300 universities and most of them sought government jobs.

The triumvirate of the university — Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar and M.A.M.Ramaswamy — who had done yeoman service to education were the greatest entrepreneurs. Candidates graduating from the university were endowed with two qualities: the courage to take up challenging tasks and an inclination to start small-scale industries. Mr. Kalam said the prosperity of the developed countries was not only because of big corporates, but also due to efforts by small entrepreneurs.

Flawlessly, one would arrive at the keyword 'Entrepreneurship' from the above speech.
There we were, two friends sitting on a stone bench, dreaming of being entrepreneurs one day.....to change the face of India.....to put a smile on the faces of people who have no reason to live today.

Yes, it is the people of my generation who have a huge burden on their shoulders, to push the elephant forward, to make it an undisputed force in the world. I am ready for it, and that's no it, i shall get as many as my compatriots to hepl me do so.
Viva India !

You are what your dreams are

Clarification:
The usage of the term 'dreams' above and in the rest of this article refers not to goals and ambitions, but the manifestations of the sub-conscious mind when in a sedentry state commonly called as 'sleep'.

Ah!
If only dreams were to materialise the next morning.....or..atleast in the near future. Well, it happens only in Utopia i guess.

OK...now what I dreamt of, ordinary mortals do not deserve to know for they hath no intellect.

But for the legacy to continue, I leave a small clue. Any member of the human species that can figure it out deserves to be in the elite league of immortals.
The Clue:
" Hold on Dorothy..coz. Kansas is going bye bye " + me = ?(the person whom i dreamt of).

PS. If you happen to be one of 'da Bomb's; you ought to crack this coz u termed me so.

Down with flu...

Here i am thinking that 12 midnight is late in the night to be awake.....

My bio-clock has totally screwed up after a week's stay back home. I am under this strong ilussion that 2300hrs is the right time to go to bed and getting up anytime after 0930 is a sin! Am really pondering what happened to those days when sleeping at 0400 hrs and getting up at 1200 was the usual regime....

Presently down with flu....reading a couple of books....

More on the alien's thoughts coming up

Mama, I am coming home

Well,
Metallica said "Where I lay my head is home", I say "Where I lay my heart is home".

And back I am in a place I am so fond of calling home. - Mysore.
Less posts on this blog as I savour my every moment at this place.


A cold night, standing outside my room.

A cold night, standing outside my room.

If you can see this pic decently well, you should try href="www.flickr.com">Flickr, and add some snaps to your blog.

Hopes Down !

Hope : The quintessetial human delusion ; simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and greatest weakness.
- The Architect to Neo in the Matrix trilogy


So, true ! I have kept on debating upon the inner philosophy of the Matrix with my pals ; but suddenly, now I realise that the core at the zenith of human philosophy contains the above statement. I had hopes........hopes to make some decent grades.....hopes to go some place......hopes n hopes n hopes. They were my greatest strengths, I never realized that they were also my greatest weakness. Now, I envisage nothing. Things are looking foggier ( not just because of the winter ).

Block!


Paradoxical or equivalent ?

Hmmmmmm......
Well, I made up my mind this evening that I am surely going to blog about this issue tonite. So here it is.

First of all, the whole of this blog is based upon the well-known philosophy of " The Genius of the AND and Tyranny of the OR". Anyway, let me put across my interpretation of the above philosophy. As the statement itself conveys, using AND is the mark of a genius, whereas using OR is that of a losers. How? If you believe that you can do A AND B, while everybody think that it is stupid to think like that and believe that they can do only A OR B; then you are a genius. If you believe that quality AND quantity can coexist , while most of the mortals here dont, you are a Genius. It is this unsurpassable spirit of man (applies to less than 1% in the world) that has led to the exponential progress throughout the ages. Dichotomies do not exist, man creates them. It is all in the mind. Free it.

OK. Now the second part, Well...I am in a hopeless state in one of my subjects whose exam falls 2 days from now. If I study hard, i mean REALLY hard, and i am lucky, i mean REALLY lucky; then I have a chance to make an A grade in it. But...then there is a movie tonite. I hear that it is a really good one. Now according to the basic philosophy of management, you never get results unless you work REAL hard. Now , if I see the movie, I'll be losing 3 hours + about 2 more hours sleep because of the strain. My best option would be to sit and STUDY. The Genius of the AND says , why not both ?

Sounds really paradoxical at the first instant. My conscience says "Dude, sit and study. Just dont get carried away. This is your last chance. It is now or never.". I reply back - "Hey there mister. I believe in the Genius of the AND. Why cant I do both?". I dont see sense anywhere. Both these seem so fair enough and logical. I pondered over it for a few minutes, wondering whether it actually is a paradox?

And i pondered whether these actually are the same?

When realization struck me, I was heading towards the movie hall. I watched the movie, came back thinking how asinine I would have been to miss such a cool movie. Now I am studying, REALLY hard ( i hope so!). But then , I just realized my obligation to blog, and am currently doing it.

What conclusion did I reach ....obvious isn't it. Both the scenarios are equivalent. How ? The mystery is solved easily when you actually think carefully and more deeply about " The Genius of the AND". I realised that the second scenario was just another subset in the bigger set that the former belonged to. As i earlier said " Dichotomies do not exist. They are created by the human mind. "
I put restrictions on to my mind that I can do either - Movie or Study for an A. Thinking superficially will obviously yield the result - "It is bufoonery to say that both are possible ". But a careful thought, and one shall realise, one shall question the very orhodox belief that one only of them is possible. Grow up! You can do both!

I believe in the Genius of the AND, and the tyranny of the OR.

Maybe, I may fail once; but I am willing to risk that failure coz. I know deep inside that I can do better with this belief....that I am a more happy person with this belief...

Murphy's laws

Science doesn't get better than this.
Just came across this wonderful collection of Murphy's laws.

Dig this, before you go into the link

If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious


A cool collection of Murphy's Laws

Robotic Inspiration

I always say

"You might call it coincidence; but I call it Providence".

I believe in Providence; i believe that whatever happens in this world (which itself is maya) , has a 'Purpose'.

So, it was when I went to CRIS (Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems) to meet my professor; inspite of having an exam the next day. Unfortunately, or I should say forunately, the professor wasn't there and he was supposed to come after 15 minutes. I thought I would wait. I strolled around the lab, when I came to a place wherein my professor had stuck up 2 emails which he had received from 2 students who have just passed out and are now in their graduate programmes in the US.

The mails thanked the professor for infusing interest in Robotics in them. One of the students now at USCR spoke about US professors perplexed at the huge churnover of VLSI / Communications engineers from India, and very few in other multi-disciplinary areas. The mails were truly inspiring, i should say. I never had any ambitions of getting into VLSI / Communications, but this really put another piece in the jigsaw puzzle that my mind is. I truly feel Robotics , Intelligent Systems, Cybernetics, Simulation are high-end areas in the future, where I would like to pursue further studies.

Going by the state, I might want to do a course on Artificial Intelligene when i return back to BITS after the winter break. One day, there would be a brilliant-yet-safe AI robot built by a team of brilliant scientists and engineers; and I would be in that team !

Yup, If I continue my graduate studies in Engineering, Robotics & Intelligent Systems it would be....

Chauvinism in the wing ;-)

Ha ha ha !!
Some sort of new enthu among our wingies...gave birth to a new community in Orkut(Are you on Orkut? Ask me for an invite.) called Male Chauvinists.

If you ask me, i am not at all a Male chauvinist.....I am all FOR females ;-)
But then, did not want to spoil the enthu in the wing.
The starting of this community created a stir in one of the wings in the girls bhawan, with they ridiculing the community in theirs. I chose to bring the heat down, and wrote a big essay on what i percieve as Male Chauvinism, and how i can call myself a male chauvinist in that context.
Coupled with that was a small punch for that posting of theirs. Read it all at the community.

Whew! Make me think how more hopeless a person can be in life. Doing all this worthless, pointless things. Anyways, everything so far has been healthy fun.

More to come, I presume.

Compres off to a bad start

As expected....i am off to a shaky start in the compres. Hope to scrape through.
More rumblers coming up.
Gotta shutdown the computer and study !

LinuxSecurity - Why do you run different operating systems at home?

LinuxSecurity - Why do you run different operating systems at home?

A wonderful survey report on a site.....sure does reflect very truly what people have in mind.

Well, my answer is Linux for Network Security....Win for games.

If you are not running Linux...go get Linux

Missing out Linux Bangalore

Check out a brilliant series of postings
and also for all those linux non-users; you better read

http://atulchitnis.net
http://www.comversations.com

Just another brick in the wall

At times, I realize the utter insignificance of what I am doing at his place.....whereas in the complementary set of time I feel heavenly, i feel that I am doing what no man has ever done.

Ultimately, I realize that I am just another brick in the wall, though simultaneously I concur that every man is created for a purpose. A man does what he does, until his destiny is revealed. I am waiting for that moment.....and I asking WHY the moment has not yet come.


I am just a dreamer....I dream my life away...

Well, as I sit in front of my comp listening to the song "Dreamer" by Ozzy Osbourne; the whole of my wing studies bigtime for the exams.

I read the blog of a person who is pursuing his B.E.- EEE here at BITS Pilani (he is about to passout , though ). He is at the very crossroads of his career.....dreams of being a MBA from the IIMs.....fails in CAT 2k4.....takes time to recover from the shock.....questions the very dream of his to be a MBA.....and then...BOUNCES back.
for more read http://srinathnagarajan.blogspot.com

As i read through the blog, I could foresee myself in that situation 2 years down the lane.
I dream, as Ozzy says, of better days. I dream of being an MBA from the IIMs....but then i question the very basic dream of mine to become an MBA by losing whatever i did in my 4 years doing BE Electrical and Electronics Engineering at BITS Pilani. The voices of scores of my teachers, relatives and well-wishers since my childhood saying "Abhilash, you are a born scientist!" echoes in the back of my cranium.

My story is of a guy who was inclined to pure sciences from a young age....comes over to this place called BITS Pilani...gains a lot of interest in business, management, entrepreneurship, finance, strategy; and now is caught in no man's land.

As on of my friends said, the best way to go about it is "Ask questions to yourself"
I have been doing this since ages. I am a deep thinker internally. Maybe the problem is I raise a lot of questions to myself!!!

As the clock ticks, so does the mind of the ali3n......

Time to ghot n ghot n ghot BUT ....

Well, the compres are round the corner.
Gotta ghot n ghot n ghot. This is bcoz of the sole reason that my performance this semester has been relatively hopeless.

But then.....there are other factors.
The newest craze to hit our wing - Counter Strike. One amazing game, which can keep everyone hooked in front of their computers for a minimum of 2 hours.

Then there is good ol' Virtua Tennis.

The new movies pouring in.....

Man...this is on heck of a week!!!

Get Firefox

I just read this excellent review of Mozilla Firefox(MF) in BW and downloaded MF.

just check this out
http://atulchitnis.net/diary/showentry/246
And
And

And do get Firefox.....and take back the web.

http://www.spreadfirefox.com

" I hate MechSol "

Well, its 2113hrs in my watch right now. Tomorrow 0800 hrs is the Mech Sol test. I haven't studied a thing. All that i have been doing thru'out the day is sleep, surf, eat , and read 'BusinessWorld' ! I have come up with this crazy theory.....which is a slight modification of the popular one that goes around.
If i slog today n study i might score what i should score. But if i completely take it easy, i might score 10 marks less, which i might make up to atleast 5 by fluking ! ( i have this gr8 sense of intuition, u see !). So, why study ?!

Choice is an illusion

The ali3n is in a very pensive mood, as he sits on the cranky wooden chair in his room and taps away at the keyboard.

The human has no choice in life....life is an illusion....choice is an illusion.
I will quote a real-life example that happened today.

Here I am chatting with one of my good friends....she asks a question "What was that?". Now, based on the last 3 lines i have typed in.....I can assume "that" in her question to be 2 things. If i choose one of them, that means she is very ignorant; if i choose the other, it is normal of a layman. Given she is a very intelligent girl, what do i go for? If i had any choice, i would have gone for the second one.

But then, as i said, choice is an illusion. I do not understand what came over me..but i chose the first one. I made a total mockery of myself. And the rest, as they dont say is forgettable.

So, it is ultimately that life comes up with interesting situations where it seems you have to make a choice........but in reality you are predestined to take one path.........and you take it. But then , for you, it looks like you have a choice..........even if you believe in my version that choice is an illusion, you have to make a choice, though that choice is predestined.

Seems like a paradox ?? It isn't.

Think.

Gr8 Diwali !!

It was a fantastic Diwali...

Though i was pretty zonked in the afternoon, my spirits started flowing well after a good bath.
Had some yummy food in the dhaba, some close shaves at the cracker-bursting place in C'not, some real good time at the dance floor in the wing ..... good enough.

Wish you all a very very happy deepavali !!

Wow! What a night

Phew! I am totally exhausted ....
2 hours of mind-blowing music .......
music remixed to the core ......
live remixes......true DJ style ....
songs on request .......
From Bhangra to Indipop to Rock to Rap to Trance to Dance ....

Well, I didnt go to any dance bar ( of course, there is none in Pilani.)
I was in my wing in the hostel!!
We created a dance floor in the wing; music was live remixed by a brilliant software got by Ankur God ( the man solely pumped enthu into everyone ).
DJ brushing his CD to shouts of "Are you there with me !"..we had it all.

Well, we also shot a patriotic video !!











Fedora Core 3 out

Hey, Fedora Core 3 is out.....all those linux geeks like me must have already downloaded it.
I am right now downloading it.

chek out http://fedora.redhat.com

More reviews on FC3 to be up on this blog.

Tests done!! NFS UnD 2 Demo is out

OK...done with one bad bunch of tests.

NFS Underground 2 Demo is out .... Brilliant with a graphics Card, else pretty slow. The modeliing of the digital girls int the game is purely amazing, it may put God himself to shame !

Pondering over a Group Discussion Topic in a class today - " Love marriages are better than arranged ones."
Interesting, nah? Seems like this is an age-old topic...but thinking on a more serious note, there seem to be a lot of valid arguments on both sides.
Love Marriages appear better because one knows his/her partner in and out before marriage. So he/she can look out for the qualities he/she expects .
But marriages, in place like India are not just about a couple , but it is something between 2 families. So, arranged ones seem more acceptable.

The ali3n is thinkin....

How important is technical competency for an entrepreneur ?

As I was just pondering about how bad this sem is going , i fell into a blackhole....thinking deeply and deeply.. I landed at this question. A guy who has traditionally been very good at technical stuff, now realises that his destiny lies in becoming an entrepreneur; he starts loving management etc. at the expense of his technical studies which he is currently pursuing. Does this have any adverse impilcations on his future plans ? Should he retain his technical expertise( implies being the best in a domain ) or can he slightly let it loose, in order to develop several other vital skills which are necessary for an entrepreneur ? Well, the ali3n is still thinkin .......

Whew! CP is done

After a seriously spirit-sapping preparation for one of the most dreaded yuck courses this sem - CP2..... finally the online is over.

Some late nite coding practice with AOM ( my wingie), helped a lot to breeze through one problem. And the Gods were with me, as Providence shone on me to help me solve the second problem. At the end, all that matters is I am back in business in CP, after a truly dismal performance in the first 2 tests. It doesnt matter whether I 'really' am a gr8 programmer or not ! ;-)

I am now down with some really bad fever n fatigue. This really scared the wits out of me before the online coz. I felt so damn tired, I could hardly eat an apple. As I type this out, I am enveloped by a sweater, a muffler, a cap etc.. Just hope that I am okay by tomorrow, else a makeup is on the anvil for ES !

The Alien has landed

So, the ali3n (what i call myself) has finally landed on the blogging arena....after a lot of years pondering whether to start blogging or not. I consider myself to be amazingly work-free, hence this effort. Keep watching this space, i say!

Disclaimer

This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

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