Summers '08 : The End

July 2005: The time when we came to iitg, it was in our freshers, where our seniors were trying to squeeze out the different shades of the IIT life in 2 hour talk….internships definitely being one of the discussed topics….with seniors discussing their fun and thrilling experiences. It did sound cool at that time….but I didn’t believe it till I got one.

January 2008: Believe me, the prospects of internship kept me alive till this point(any ece student would understand that….),….after this it was like “bas ab ek intern lag jaye yaar…“. This has simply been the most irritating time at iitg. On one hand, Where visits to our seniors room for tips, addresses became quiet frequent…. and on the other hand waking up every hour in the night to check the webmails for any positive(or semi positive…as some would say) other. I guess, this was the only time, when we checked the webmail, more then our orkut account.

Desperation was at its peak, and stupid, irrelevant questions like “What time of the day would be the best to mail,” “should we send mails on the weekend or not“,were asked. Inspite of the admins serious threats…we greedy assholes never stopped and went on spamming, during whose course we shamelessly changed our research interest, countries to apply, our CV,CL,etc. It was usually a set pattern, some used to change it weekly, while some monthly and the cheapest bastards used to change it daily …we had different cv,cl for different research interest so the process of changing was not difficult…MY only motivation to keep spamming was that some of the senior intellectuals of my branch didn’t have one, i remember those days of late feb when we used to sit together in the CC and mail to every country possible, including Bangladesh .

Summers ’08: The process was difficult but it was worth it. These 3 month were no less then an adventure, from the alps of Austria to the German engineering,from the Italian architecture to the French babes, whether it was commenting on pics on orkut or laughing at each others experiences, from bar hopping to chick hunting(courtesy navdeep), I loved it all.

This is the last blog of my intern….unless of course if I could squeeze out some time of the report writing, packing, shopping and the political drama going on the country…I really have a mixed feeling right now….would surely miss this place….but I cant wait to go back to India….to be precise, in “smiley” language

+ = .

As my good friend says….”This last chapter of my internship is called “THE END” ” ……so be it.

How Cheap can you get…..?

This is a conversation between a person and a Iitian, who is curious about how they manage to visit who Europe with less stipend

Person : Beta, how do manage to see Europe with such a less stipend?  Iitian(trying his best not to flaunt… ) : Its easy, we just cut our expenses in food, traveling, accommodation, site seeing, etc.

Person(a bit puzzled.. ): how? elaborate….say regarding acco? where do you stay at night?
Iitian: Well….airports and railway stations are our home, airports are the best, they are safe..coz you need a passport and ticket to enter and are also air conditioned. Free toilets are also available at the airport…unlike the railways…where you have to pay for the WC’s…but we can(actually we do…) use the toilets of the trains standing on the platform. Heritage site is also a good option, spending the night under the Eiffel or near the Colloseum is not a bad idea!!!

Person: And do you see all the places in a particular city?
Iitian(shamelessly…. ): No not at all, on those which are really famous and those which are free….”rest bahaar se photo le letein hain…“

Person : And i guess you must be taking guided tours there..to know about the place…
Iitian : ” Vo jaan ke kya karenge….”… photo lo aur niklo…..important point is that we see the place, take pics and in time put them on orkut…for people to see and comment……who the hell cares why the Colloseum is broken….or what’s the history behind some painting and sculptures…

Person(#$%&*@/….WTF!!!) : How do you manage your food and water…??
Iitian: Bread and jam is our food(for most of the time)….and water..we carry water bottles all the time…..

Person: but liquids are not allowed on planes…?
Iitian : Do you think i am stupid …..carry an empty bottle…fill it from the toilets of the destination….until unless its not mentioned the water is usually drinkable….

Person: Any more suggestions…..
Iitian : Well…i would like my readers to do that…….

P.S: before you get all judgemental on how cheap i am…i would like to say that…these experiences are not of my own….but of a collective group of iitians who have been in touch with me…..thanks for sharing your experiences…

Nuke deal: A dead end?

Thanks to videos on CNN-IBN…which has allowed me to follow the latest news of India..which in general includes..the daily doses of rapes, murders,etc….but the one which is has really kept reporters on their toes is the political battle of the UPA and the left and this time its on the nuclear deal.

While experts like Abdul Kalam call it the best deal India could ever have and to go ahead with it. Even the critics of the deal, emphasize that with the Indian nuclear reactors, which have been loosing out on uranium fuel, most of them, currently working at only 30% of their max capacity, and the situation, which is likely to degrade…India will have to sign a deal..in the coming 3-4 years but with little advantages as this one, then why is LEFT objecting? Is it really the ideology of the left that has been a nail in the development of the country or is it just to embarrass the congress like it has been doing in the last 4 years, where it has threatened at least 4 times to withdraw support from the government. So is this threat just a mere fluke? And why does it has problem only with the Indo-US deal when similar agreements are to be made with countries like France and Russia.

With the US guaranteeing India that it will get the NSG clearance for India, without which India cant make nuke agreements with countries mentioned above. Recently even countries like Australia has refused nuke co-operation without the NSG clearance. Wouldn’t it be better for India to back off from the deal after the US government gets the NSG clearance for it? The left doesn’t thinks so. It prefers to embarrass the congress and question India’s International position of trust and integrity to make international agreements. I don’t know much about the communist ideology….but its surely not working here!!!

Bravo….to our prime minister, who calls himself as an accidental politician and has backed the deal calling it the best thing he would do in his tenure as PM. But should politics be played by heart? I mean…though the congress has publicly backed its PM…but will moods change in case there are chances of the government falling. The UPA has tried to gather support from the other parties like the SP, and it seems that the SP, one time, main adversary of the congress has been drifting towards it. But With the inflation rising to double digits….and hence with the congress being on back foot…it would be tough to decide whets going to happen in the next few days. but the real question is….is the deal worth to sacrifice the government?..and if yes…how will the congress convince its allies like laloo and co…for an early winter election..when the UPA currently has nothing to give for the aam aadmi.

One thing looks quite sure…whosoever will make the first move, either be the left or the UPA, will most likely be the loser. Lets see how Mrs. Sonia Gandhi pulls this one off.

Daily recipe

My morning starts with shutting down the alarm on my lappy. It’s a very irritating song of Raghu Dixshit in which he starts of yelling every 8a.m in the morning disturbing my late night sleep. Unlike the first month, where I used to get up as a diligent student and get ready for some office work, but due course into my internship I found out that there is no strictness about the timing schedule and hence my  early morning slowly drifted towards 10a.m.

After waking up, with a bit of shameless guilt I always promise myself to be on time the next day, and the day kicks off with breakfast (milk, bread, sometimes upma and maggi…the usual stuff) and I reach the office by 11. All the intern students in my department have been given a separate room, so the radio is the first thing i open up, followed by the usuals….gtalk, orkut, facebook, TOI…etc.

After one hour of trying what the prof has told me to do….frustrated me…shifts me attention to planning out my weekends and hence I have been a regular customer of skyeurope, ryanair, bahn.de , wiki travel, google maps. As the time passes by me, chatting and googling around, the clock ticks 2 when I decide to head back to the apartment for lunch and if possible a short siesta. Before leaving I sign out from unwanted sites…but I just keep my matlab window on..with some code(in running condition….) that  my prof gave me on the day i met him and with a note….”SIMULATION GOING ON…DND” and i make sure to spread out some print outs and registers on the table so as to give an impression that something important is cooking up.

Back to office till 3:30 I spend the rest of the planning what to do after office time. plans usually hop around from visiting fan zones, discovering cheap places  to eat….which is then confirmed with my fellow interns on gtalk…….but we usually end up in our own apartments. Bird watching from my room’s window…..checking out orkut albums, naughty videos on you tube is also a good option, but in order to maintain some decency in the department..it is exercised only when nothing else crops up…

With no stringent timing requirments….5:30 seems to be a decent time to walk out of the office so…..with a few bbyes, head phones over my ears….and with a sigh of relief….i head straight back to my apartment….where the unlimited, free supply of net… keeps me going through the rest of the day…….

Intern : Part 2

The Hip Hop Bus

My first weekend was full of ups and down. The thought of seeing whole of Vienna in a weekend….so that I can cover other cities in the coming ones…..prompted me to go for the “Hip hop” bus ride at city center for some 15 odd euro. It was an open top bus….so as soon as the bus started…..I switched my camera on…..and to my surprise…..the batteries had died out….!!!!….and this was just not it….the bus didn’t stop at any place for more then 2 minutes….had to see all the places again…and that to on foot!!!

@Indians

The good thing about Vienna is that…there are a lot and lot of Indians…and the even better part is……you don’t have to find them…they are just always there…..at every station….selling newspapers and magazines. Don’t even bother to speak Hindi with them..coz they will respond either in Austrian or in Punjabi….no Hindi.

Great Driving sense

This has happened to me not once but…thrice…me and some of my newly found Indian-intern friends where standing on the foot path, with no intentions of crossing the road…A car stopped next to us…and the drive indicated that it was waiting for us to cross the road, out of humility we had to cross the road…..Austrian mentality!!!….3 Cheers for them….

Roomy again…

I just found out from my roomy..that interest rates in bank are negative in Austria…..now who is going to believe that….!!!..I just hope they are not..coz I did deposit my whole stipend in the banks.

Intern : Part1

First Day@Vienna

One month into my intern, and still no work to do, being fed up of all the useless reading of those long PDF files, and seeing other people writing their internship experience here i am writing my experience.

Arrived here on 8th morning, and being unaware of the cheapest and smallest way to reach my office………I had to drag my suitcase half way across the city, breaking my back and sweating my ass out . It was not absolutely a bad day…………got to know that my prof would be arriving till the end of the month and was overjoyed to know that i would be paid an whole 3 months stipend. My work was only to read my PDF files till my host arrives….still cant understand why did he called me so early….This could be done in India!!!! Though I didn’t get a warm welcome from his secretary (a Pakistani fellow)….it was only later when I found out that he was fooled by some IITD students last year into buying a domain on the net…so that they could make some college site…which apparently they didn’t!!!

I met my SMALL and arrogant room mate (kgp) later in the evening. “SMALL” because he is exactly about half my size and more thinner then me. I was going to describe him giving more examples from our batch….but I guess I don’t have the authority to do that…lets say….for those who have seen munnabhai mbbs…remember his roomy….my roomy is just half of his size . Just after my arrival ground rules were set. No cooking together………no sharing food…………every alternate day I was allowed to make my dinner before and after 8:30 p.m.

Before sleeping I had a thought…”Is that midget, even human?”

Rest in my next blog…..