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Its going to be a bumpy ride!!!

Four years back, this transport was my least preferred mode of transport. But now, everything is bus. Not to forget, I travel in bus to college (which is 40 km away from Chennai). Lets talk about this college buses later. First, the PTC buses!!! The most important issue in bus traveling is time. If you don’t have time, then bus should be your final option. The time for buses can be classified into two – the waiting time and travel time. Sometimes (atleast to me), waiting time has been greater than the travel time. This waiting time had made me to miss parts of a movie and also had made me to watch a movie.

If you come to my bus stop, where bus frequency is low, you wouldn’t consider going in a bus again. Not just because of the waiting time, but the huge crowd in the bus that could very well make you smashed potatoes. After reckless traveling and stamping at other people’s feet, you would finally reach your destination fully drenched.

Sometimes I have seen conductors shouting at the passengers. If you think that what he is doing is wrong, then think again! In that bus, you can observe perfect discipline although you might loathe the conductor. No one would stand in the foot-board, no one would peek out of the window.

Now Govt has released a large number of deluxe buses (Thanks to them). These buses are good and also provide more comfort than the normal buses at just an extra cost of money. But there is one problem with this bus. It wouldn’t stop at all the stops. Today morning, at the bus stop, I bid goodbye to a bus just because I saw a deluxe bus coming right after it and this deluxe bus bid goodbye to me and sped off.
If you too think that buses in Chennai are worse, then think again! Buses in Chennai are very good compared to other states.

College Buses:
Now coming to my college buses, there is nothing much better than my morning bus ride to college. A very smooth ride in a bus driven by a driver who forgot where the accelerator is and a pleasant place near the window is all you could dream. I wish these buses would change one day (atleast for the driver who thinks he is driving a bullock cart). Anyway, our buses are supposed to change to hi-tech buses. We were shown a sample piece of hi-tech buses (with semi-sleeper) and even with TV and whoosh! All was taken away within a week.

The evening ride from my college to home is just opposite to my morning journey. I travel in a different bus and this bus driver (who forgot where his brake is) makes sure we are undergoing a roller coaster ride. Atleast, the roller coaster wouldn’t throw you off your seats. But our bus driver makes it possible. Everytime I get into the bus, I dream like this: the bus cleaner coming to us and saying (just like the head creature of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie), “Its going to be a bumpy ride!”

300 – A review

Last sunday, I went to this movie called 300. Months ago, I watched the trailer. It was excellent. Hence I agreed to the movie at once I heard that its 300 we are gonna watch. I was sure that I made no mistake. What a movie! It was great watching it.

Spoiler begins here

Plot:
The movie started with a dramatic intro about the Secret Spartan Army – how the Spartan people are trained into soldiers once they reach teenage and how they grow up in the wild, thrashed like a slave, hunted by wolves and beasts. In the end, the fittest survives. Leonidas is one among the brave and who survives after many obstacles he faces and also earns himself the title of Spartan king after killing the deadly wolf in the cold hills.
The Persian king Xerxes, who claims himself as the King of Kings and also as the God of Gods, sends a messenger to King Leonidas to offer him a chance to surrender to him. Leonidas is not a coward to surrender. He has gone through many obstacles in the past and if its death that he wanted to face for the country, he will proudly accept it fighting for his country than seeing his countrymen being slaved and tortured. He kills the messengers at the spot and thus initiates the war.
Leonidas is not a king who believes in myth. He believes in planning. He believes in strategy. He lives as a warrior. But the customary principles of Spartans was they should go and consult the Gods before going to war. The priests (who were bribed by Xerxes) insists that Leonidas is doing a wrong thing and also interprets Oracle message to him that they should not go to war. Meanwhile the council minister Theron was also bribed and he is also against the war.
Despite all this, Leonidas heads for war with 300 of his best men, claiming that he is going for a walk with 300 bodyguards. The remaining part of the story depicts the actual war that took place in the Battle of Thermopylae and how the 300 survived for three whole days against the million Persian army.

Spoiler ends here

Characterisation:
King Leonidas:
Leonidas is a brave warrior and a mighty king. He heads the 300 soldiers against the million Persian army. He was not born a king. He was born a warrior. He doesn’t succumb to emotions for emotions can make a warrior bleed in his heart thus weakening him emotionally. Gerard Butler plays as King Leonidas. He has worked hard and has played the character.

Queen Gorgo:
Gorgo is the wife of Leonidas. She is a loving wife and a brave Spartan woman. Sparta is a land where women hold equal rights and Gorgo holds the place as the adminstrator of Sparta when the King is at war. Lena Headey plays as Queen Gorgo in the movie and has portrayed the character very well.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Who should definitely watch the movie?
1. If you have watched Troy and liked that movie.
2. If you have a true passion over Greek mythology and Greek history.
3. If you love movies on war.
4. If you liked Lord of the Rings movies.
5. If you are a fan of Age of Empires game.

The movie has a lot of violence and even then, you won’t feel it. Blood will be portrayed like red paint and you will see nothing but art. But not just for violence, but also for partial nudity, the movie is A certified. The movie could’ve been watchable by audiences of all ages if some of those scenes were missing.

But altogether, the movie was damn good and worth watching ten times. Go and watch it!

Quotes from the movie (modified):

Persian Messenger: What is it that makes a woman to speak?
Queen Gorgo: Because only the Spartan women gives birth to real men.

Messenger: No one threatens a messenger! This is madness!
King Leonidas: Madness???… This is Spartans!

Theron: The news has come that Gods do not wish this war to happen.
Leonidas: Yes I am not going to war. I am just going for a walk. These are my 300 bodyguards.

Leonidas: Hey you? What is your profession?
Achilean Solider 1: Blacksmith sir
Leonidas: You?
Achilean Soldier 2: Sculptor sir
Leonidas: Spartans! what is your profession?
Soldiers: Warriors!

Persian soldier: Spartans! Drop your weapons!
Leonidas: Persians! Come and get them!

Leonidas: In the end, even the Gods will bleed!

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Oh! Is it???

I am back again to do one of my favourite pastimes on the net – blogging. My PC wasn’t working for the past week. The problem was actually only with my RAM. For some reason, when I checked with my friend’s RAM, the system still didn’t boot and I was made to believe that there is a huge problem. But lets not care about it anyway.
Its not only the computer problem I realized but there were also some other. Here are a few things I realized lately. I realized that…

* I am not partly vetti but I am 100% vetti.

* Maths hour is the best time to write records and observation rather than hostel.

* The semester has ended and all the books are still new to me.

* In all the unit tests that were conducted, I had only two options – Bunk or Flunk! The other option ‘Pass’ is currently disabled and option ‘good marks’ is deleted.

* I made a record in my writing history by completing a record in one day.

* I completed an assignment which I would have never done even in school life.

* Blogging is a better option than studying.

Out of Service!!!

Hi friends, I wouldn’t be blogging on for sometime. The problem is with my computer. The problem which I thought was just due to hard disk is turning out to be a huge problem. Will try to get it working fast!!! thanks for all ur comments… keep checking for updates! Will be back soon!!!

Culturavaganza – Part II

It is not unusual for me to blog on the events that occur in my college. Here I go again, now on INSTINCTS 2K7 – SSN Inter College Culturals.
In the first place, Instincts 2K7 was not as good as Instincts 2K6. I personally feel so. There are various reasons. But Instincts 2K7 was not bad. Here is how it went.

Instincts was conducted on March 8,9,10 at SSN College premises. There were a lot of events that took place, but I am going to elaborate only on the events that I personally witnessed.

Day 1:
In the Inauguration, R.Madhavan (cinestar) presided over the function and opened the door to Instincts. We were shown amazing presentations on Instincts – my college seniors rock at this.
Check out these videos.

Then we headed to the main stage where we waited for Light Music Group prelims but knowing that its gonna take a lot of time, we watched Adzap. Its the usual Adzap. Got fed of watching Adzap. Some people come with very creative ones. But watching fifteen teams performing Adzap is not an easy thing to do. So we headed to the main stage again and watched Light Music Group (prelims). It was good but how long can one enjoy music when you really want to take rest?

Day 2:
We decided that we would stay in the Informals event which was excellently hosted by CRK. But then, Pechupotti event lured us into the seminar hall, where around 10 students fought for the honor. A student who was actually very quiet sitting beside me won the first prize. Veteran film director S.P.Muthuraman was the chief guest for that event. He gave a good speech which thankfully and hopefully ended after one and half hour.
We then witnessed Sports Quiz. Ofcourse, I am not good in this Quiz thing, but it was a good time pass after all. Light Music Group finals was waiting for us in the main stage. So we went there and had a rocking eve with excellent performance by all the college teams and also a wonderful performance by the host team. Singer Karthik and Music director Joshua Sridhar were the chief guests and also the judges and they entertained us along with announcing the prize winners.

Day 3:
Light Music Solo was going on in the main stage. But we didn’t bother to stay there for a long time. We went to Informals, but very soon, we diverged our attention to Shipwreck prelims which was going on in the nearby hall. We didn’t watch more than two contestants but from the two contestants we watched, I believe (if I am not wrong) that the guy who spoke as Pamela Anderson would have won the first prize. Very soon, we found ourselves at Informals again, this time to witness Mr & Mrs.Instincts. We heard that Variety Entertainment was going on in the main stage. But Mr & Mrs.Instincts seemed to be more entertaining. After this event was over, the entire crowd headed towards the main stage to witness the Dual dance events – Solo and Group. After the enjoyable solo performances, we witnessed three solid hours of non-stop group dance and fun. The onstage dancers set the fuel to the offstage dancers and by the end of the event, almost the entire audience was dancing to the tunes. Two dance masters (unfortunately, I dunno the names) who choreographed for hit movies like Pokkiri and telugu movies were the chief guests and also the judges. Like the previous year, Instincts 2K7 ended with the final year having a gala time at the main stage.

P.S: If you are wondering who the “we” are, it varied from time to time

Also check out the sponsorship video.

FINS – An overview

On March 2,3,4, the IT dept of my college (SSN College of Engineering) hosted FINS (FORUM ON INFORMATION AND NETWORK SECURITY), the first event of its kind. It is a workshop on networking and security. Let me brief you on what happened on that day.

Day 1 (March 2, 2007)
We had test on that day. Until I reached the college, I believed I would be writing the test. But then I had to bunk the test. Yes, we (Arun Kumar, Arun Balachandran and myself) could have attended the test. But here we got a reason to bunk the test for which we didn’t study and so we did. After registering and paying money (we had to pay Rs.300/-), we had to wait for a while for the program to start.

But then, four of our class girls planned to attend the seminar as well. As girls normally do, they got OD for the day, and luckily we managed to get OD as well. So we had to miss the first part of the seminar which is also a boring part – The Inaugural function.

There was a pretty decent crowd. It had around 200-250 participants (in and out of college). The participants from the college were 95% of IT dept and 5% of CSE dept. The other participants were either from other colleges or from some industries.

Networking:
The Day 1 concentrated on Networking. Mr.Thiruvaazhi, a staff of IT dept briefed us on networking. He was good at teaching and since he is a staff who takes on networking, he was superb when it came to teaching about networking. We learnt about IP address, the different layers of TCP/IP. We were shown presentations on the different topologies of network and the problem in each type of networking. We also learn the difference between a MAC address and an IP address. It was all really interesting.

We had to miss some part of the seminar (or didn’t miss) due to some work in our dept and as we were actually bunking the entire day, I decided on bunking the lab too. The latter half was on the geographical scope of networking (the architecture, the media, Interconnectivity hardware). As we left home, I already decided about blogging about the event (as I did).

Day 2: (March 3,2007)
Network Security and Ethical hacking
The Day 2 was about Ethical Hacking and network security, the one that everyone wished to learn. It was to be taught by Mr.Koti Reddy, a very good trainer on Hacking. But before that, we were taught some interesting stuffs like ARP, Routing table and how to check whether another computer is alive in the network.

Then Mr.Koti Reddy came. He was a guy who seemed to concentrate only on business and nothing else. He was firm in his teaching and he had his own style of teaching. He had three laptops connected in a network and he taught using a lightpen. In one laptop, he loaded a software called DigitalClass, which he used it like a blackboard, to teach classes. This software has major advantages over a blackboard as we can switch to a new page without having to clear the previous content. I already started dreaming about every lecture being taught in this way.

In another laptop, he loaded VMware, a software used to load many OS in a single environment. I was shocked at the speed of his computer as he simultaneously loaded three or more OS in it. He didn’t need to start with the basics as Mr.Thiruvaazhi did the honors for him. He started with the difference between an internal hacker and an external hacker and he went on to draw diagrams on how an e-mail or an information or an application is sent to another computer via network and how it is being sent via the different layers.

Did you know…
The e-mail that you actually send is torn into pieces and sent individually.

He continued on how the hacker can access data and by which way he can access it. This guy was good but sometimes it seemed too dry (since we had to miss some part) and because of which again we had to miss some parts.

The final part of the day ended with what Ankit Fadia taught us. Ankit taught us only how to do it, but Mr.Reddy went a step further in demonstrating us. With that, the day 2 ended. Actually, it didn’t end there. The session got over at 6. Out of the four buses scheduled to take us back home, only two buses were there (which didn’t even go to any of the nearer stops to our home). Not to forget, I returned home only at 9 pm.

Day 3: (March 4,2007)
Cryptology and Information Security:
I got up late that day, 6:30 pm, I know its not too late, but it was late enough to miss the college bus. Knowing that I would be missing atleast the first session, my mind started going lazy and I went to the bus stand to catch the 519 bus (which would go direct to the entrance of my college) at 8:30 and found it at 8:45. It was either the bus driver or the bus schedule was lazier than me, the bus started at 9. Man, I was missing Cryptology!!! Since it was a deluxe bus, and I was the first one to enter the bus, I took the pleasure in enjoying yet another ride to our college.
I reached at 10 and I knew I had missed the first session as I could spot students who were lingering outside the audi for refreshment. Thank God I didn’t miss anything. The first session was just a preview and the question of “why we need information security?” was answered. I got into the part where Mr.Thiruvaazhi started teaching how cryptology came into existence. The story went to Julius Caesar where he implemented something known as Caesar squares.

We were told about the hashing functions and how it is done and the problems faced in the techniques. After a tiring second day, this seemed to be refreshing and time sped off fast. Time sped off faster when Mr.Pandurangan, a professor of IIT, took over the final session. He was enthusiastic, energetic and got the whole audience into his attention. He poised out the problems faced in Information Security and he also provided the alternatives to solve the problems which inturn would lead to another problem. Time didn’t allow him to discuss more about it.

The Day 3 and thus the three day workshop came to an end with the valedictory function. It was the same valedictory function one could see. I was shocked when they awarded the certificates to everyone who participated. Poor principal, he had to greet everyone with a smile, shake hands with them and award them with certificates. “Shall we ask him whether it pains?” was one of my friends’ question.

It was a good three-day experience and I would like them to conduct more workshops. Not to forget on March 7,2006, Mr.Ankit gave a short seminar on Internet Security. Almost a year later, FINS conducted this workshop and both were near our college culturals!!! A co-incidence???

First day of my College life – Flashback

Everyone remembers their first day of college life. Yes I do. I thought of writing this since after I read Shruthi‘s post. Here how it went for me.

August 19th, 2005.

The Journey
I woke up so early that day than I usually do. It was at 5 am. I got ready and at 6 am, I was in the terrace welcoming the already risen morning sun. It was my first day of my college, SSN College of Engineering. This day was the inauguration day, where students go along with their parents to college, and they welcome the freshers. My dad was out of station. So my mom, my uncle and my aunt came along with me.
The function was to be held at 8:30 am. We started at 7 in a car, driven by my uncle and I took the pleasure in enjoying the ride. There was nothing much on the pathway though. This road is soon to be called the IT corridor and it is still under construction. I took nothing but a bag and a diary. This was only my second visit to college. The first visit was to register my name at the college. On the first visit, the road seemed too bulgy. But this time it was pretty smooth.
After half an hour, which seemed like an hour, we finally reached the college. Wait, its not SSN College I am talking about. Its Sathyabhama University. There is still much distance to cover. After passing several other colleges (there would be more than 10 colleges on the way), we finally reached the destination at 8 am. The entrance was short unlike Sathyabhama. During the previous visit, my mom and I had to walk around a km to reach the admin block. Now thanks to our car, we reached the auditorium (where we were asked to get down) in quick time.

Inauguration
The auditorium’s exterior looked beautiful. It had beautiful lawn outside. Many parents sat comfortably in the lawn and many had not even entered the hall. The auditorium had a beautiful aisle in the main entrance and we found ourselves seats at the back. I looked around the audi. It had a big stage (with around eight empty chairs) and had a neatly furnished decorum. The audi was almost full when I entered.
During the first half hour, they showed video presentation about SSN College (the CD which they distributed for advertisement). I had already seen it but since it was too boring, I had no choice to watch the video. Mr Shiv Nadar (chairman of HCL and SSN) was giving a brief speech about the college in the video. The chairs were then seated by college dignitaries and the next two hours went with almost everyone in the stage giving speech and then a speech by the student presidents was all it had. The college dean gave a nice and humorous speech. The no of interested people became lesser as time passed and I already spotted two students sleeping in the well cushioned chair. Just when we thought the speech was over, the college Dean invited the parents to give theirs view about their son joining SSN College. And pingo! As guessed, another half an hour passed.
It was 11:30 am already and the inauguration ended with a vote of thanks and national anthem. We, the students were instructed to stay, while the parents were asked to receive sweets and leave the college. The dean assured the parents that the students would reach their home safely after the college ends after seeing so many worried faces. While going outside, I heard a parent shouting at his son, “Look! Everyone has brought bags! It seems only you have come empty handed”.

Meeting friends
Outside the audi, I spotted Arun Kumar finally. Then along with him, I met a guy whom I instantly recognized as Shree Venkatesan. He was my schoolmate till 10th.
After bidding bye to parents, we three started to canteen. It was a long journey (as it seemed to be). I was not hungry when I reached the canteen. So I was content with just Chappathi. As if Chappathi wasn’t enough, we ordered lime juice. Shree Venkatesan left us to meet his friends. At the juice stall, I met two other guys introduced by Arun – Cilvin and Ayya Durai. They were from the same department as mine (CSE) and I was already glad to meet many friends. Also I met Balaji (another of my schoolmate) and also many others. Something really weird happened at the juice stall. The guy who was making juice (what do u call him?), added the lemons directly to the mixer and then he filtered it. I was like, “Excuse me, It seems you have made a mistake, Is that how you make a lime juice?”. Arun’s expressions were the same.

Class Sorting
We got back to the auditorium as a gang where the sorting ceremony was to be held (he he). Sorting ceremony here means the students would be allotted their respective classes. Ofcourse the list was presorted. We all took a single row. The auditorium was less full now but still the atmosphere hadn’t subsided yet. The ‘A’ section teacher incharge came forward and started calling out the names belonging to his class and as the names were read out, the respective student got up and occupied the place that belonged to ‘A’ section. The proceedings went on. Arun sprung up from his seat almost 10 times (everytime when the name ‘Arun’ was read out) but sat back disappointedly when it wasn’t his name. Finally Arun was sorted in ‘B’ section. Almost everyone from my row had left. I felt like I had to wait a long time to know the class that I would be in. But it didn’t take long as my name was called in the ‘D’ section list.
I went around the auditorium and spotted a seat second to the corner seat among my classmates. Immediately, a guy took the neglected corner seat. The names were still being read out and I didn’t take any effort in looking around at my classmates to check if any known guy is there.

Instructions and Interaction
After the sorting ceremony was over, we were given instructions about our block (which is way beyond the canteen) and about the ragging. “Yes, the rumors are indeed true”, I thought. We were asked not to socialize with the seniors at the beginning (hmmmmm, so what do they expect?). Various clarifications were made. I learnt that there is no dress code in the college.
Then we were made to wait for a long time. I got bored to the silence and started looking around. I looked ahead of the guy sitting to my left and found two familiar faces – Aswath and Aswin (who are also my schoolmates). They were sitting together in a row parallel to mine. I just greeted them from the distance and hopefully, they responded. The guy to my right was also maintaining silence since the beginning and he didn’t respond other than a nod. But I was hearing non-stop chattering from two girls behind my row. It seemed as if they were friends from school and they continued their non-stop talk in English. I didn’t know their names and neither did I take any effort to find it.
I was searching for Arun among the ‘B’ section students, when the guy to my left suddenly broke his silence. He introduced himself as Kishore from IT dept. He looked innocent (believe me, he is not an innocent anymore!) and started asking questions to me as if I own the college. After clarifying doubts such as “are mobiles allowed inside college?” and also frightening him by adding, “the seniors would take the mobile”, Kishore started asking more questions. For one of the question, the guy in the front suddenly turned back and started speaking to us. He introduced himself as Jambunathan from CSE (was pleased to see many CSE guys).
Then the hostel students were asked to leave and do the proceedings (do they do that even in a hostel?). The rest were given a paper and asked us to fill the nearest landmark to our house. Then the bus incharge went around the audi and telling the students their bus routes by just looking at the landmark. I was astonished by his memory power because there were 40 buses in our college and he remembers each bus route. We were asked to leave after the bus routes were finalized.
As I got up, I was searching for any known guys, when suddenly I heard a voice calling my name. I turned around to see Suresh (again my schoolmate) whom I knew pretty well from the tuition classes. I was glad that there is someone in my class whom I know pretty well. Finally, I spotted Arun and went along with him to the college bus stand. On the way, I heard that there were many (around 15) from my school and I also met them at the bus stop. We stayed together and chatted.

Journey back home
Arun and I had to board a different bus. I boarded a wrong bus (no, the bus incharge didn’t give the right bus route). I had to get down and board the only remaining bus (which was told would go to my place by the same bus incharge). As I previously thought, the road wasn’t actually smooth. It was the car which had made the ride smooth. Now the bus driver seemed to do the impossible by flying on the road and jumping. And as I thought, the bus dropped me (which I forced myself to) at a place, which is atleast 2 km from my house. I didn’t even think that the first day of my college would turn out to be too exhaustive. Once again, lime juice came to the rescue, for a 2 mile walk.
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Dawn – A rap by me

I have written a rap for my blog after such a long time. Just wrote whatever came into my mind (he he)… I hope it is nice.

One fineeee morning… at some point when it was dawning
I looked at the streets, it was dark and deep.
I decided to stay on my own way; in the house… yes you can say
That I am a coward… Just because I preferred to choose a safer path?
No it is not, the lights went out; the room was dark, I just hit the clock.
I can see what you think. How can morning be dark? Whats up doc?
I had no clue and I had no choice but to go out and see
In search of light, in search of truth
In search of hope, the answers are just a moment away
I walked and walked all down the dark and creepy way
So dark, that the misty winds seemed so white
Like a ghoul trying to get me in the morning-night.
I started running; it’s the run of my life
I could hear voices, a voice so soft…
All I need is to run, and never look back
All the way on the so-dark track
I reached a dead-end, which I couldn’t see
The voice grew louder, I turned back to flee
A sudden gush of light was all I could feel
My eyes were blinded, it was so real.
It can’t be a dream, yes it can’t be a reel.
Far across the distance, a faint figure appeared
It looked into my eyes that looked so seared
“I need your life”, came a voice so sleek.
“Please move away, I can’t give you what you seek”

It was same fine morning… at some point when it was dawning
I looked at the streets, it looked warm and welcoming
I decided to take a walk in the fresh morning light…
Yes it was a dream, atleast it seemed so tight.
I stepped into the neat street and observed the scene
It looked so warm and fresh like it can never be seen
People welcomed me into the outside world with a smile
A smile so comforting to walk, I need not bother any mile
The road never seemed to stop, atleast it was so bright
It seemed so perfect, it seemed so right
All I could see was the path of wisdom and the path of light.
The birds chirped and twittered my entire path, it was all set
The roses fell down and it looked like a red carpet
This path is nice, maybe this is the unchosen one
Just at this moment when everything seemed to be fun
A voice came again, a loud one now,
“Please give your answer papers and leave the hall! Quick!”
“No ma’am, I can’t give you what you seek”
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