Six eventful months: My PSII at HP Labs

completing a project, 10 days at IISc, getting a publication, becoming a graduate and visiting so many places.... eventful six months !! Tomorrow onwards, i'll say i am a graduate. No more a student (well ! at least for now, till i decide my fate) ! Emotions are flowing....mixed feeling...happy for a few things and sad for others. Most painful of all is to leave BITS, Pilani and my dearest BITSian friends behind....how much you try you usually never catch up again !!

I have to rush now... some other time on PS, IISc and of course BITS, Pilani.......my alma mater !


between everything... cheers to a recent computer science graduate from BITS, Pilani... :)

Krazzy 4 : Review

Category: Movie Review
Movie: Krazzy 4
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Rajpal Yadav, Irfan Khan, Diya Mirza, Juhi Chawla, Rajat Kapoor and Sazid Khan
Run-Length: 2 hours (Approx.)

Rating: 1.5 / 5
Verdict: You need not watch the movie even once. You can safely assume that it's bad.

I watched it yesterday. Abhinay theater reminded me of the auditorium of my college. For a few moments I thought I was back to BITS, Pilani..but reality struck soon !

Krazzy 4 has some of the finest modern day actors and each of them has his individual style of acting. But even some individual brilliances can not hide the loose script and out-of-the-place dialogues. None of the actors were allowed their characteristic style by the script. It seemed like they (the actors) were the kings behind bars.

Movie does not take off even till interval. Even before you are set in your seats, it's interval. First half fails to generate interest to sit through the next. Second half is slightly better (that's why movie gains 0.5 ratings :D ). When it ends, you can't decide whether it was a comedy movie or a melodrama. It is a terrible mix of things. Story is okay but converting such a story into a two hour movie is rather tricky that is exactly where the movie fails to impress.

Only thing worth watching in the movie is the item number by Rakhi (for male audience),SRK and Hritik (for all :D). Surely you would not like to pay a hefty amount for just that.
You don't expect such products from the same director who gave us 'Koi Mil Gaya', ' Kaho Naa Pyar Hai' and 'Krrish'. Well ! Just avoid going to theater for 'Krazzy 4' !!

Awesome ooty

Category - Travel
Place - Ooty, Coonoor, DodaBetta etc
Time- 3 Days ( Friday morning to sunday night)
Cost ~ 2000 Rs/ head Mode of Transport - Taxi

20th March night --->

We wanted to go to ooty next morning but didn't have a car till 11 PM the previous night. We tried arranging it from some travel agencies but nobody seemed to care. We went to sleep leaving it all where it was and thought we'll see it in the morning ! As the luck would have it, i got a call next morning from the travel agent even before i woke up and he offered us a Tavera at 8 AM. We didn't let the opportunity go by this time :) !

21st March ---->

So we quickly readied ourselves and set off at 8.20 on Friday morning. We picked up two of or friends from koramangala and hit the Mysore road at around 9.15 AM. After coming to outskirts of Bangalore we took our breakfast. We spent an hour doing that. It was already 11 am by then. Journey was quite good. Weather was quite fine...it was raining lightly. We were enjoying the trip.
We reached Mysore at around 12.30 pm. Our first target place was Bandipur national park on the way to ooty. We wanted to make sure we reached there before 4 pm. As it is open only 4 pm to 6 pm in the eve. We reached there at 3.30 pm, got tickets for a safari for rs 95 per head. Though we did not see something great, safari was okay ! But we saw more animals (including elephants) roadside rather than on safari :D !



Well ! After an hour long safari we headed towards ooty. The next few hours were a few of the best in my life. Mood was upbeat. We were enjoying every bit of natural beauty and splendid weather.
We reached ooty by 7.30 pm. Driver took us to a hotel where we
checked in and had our dinner in nearby restaurants (one group took veg and another went for non-veg :D). We headed back to our rooms and had some serious discussions pertaining to trip plan and ...... :D :D !

(The Veg Group)


<<----Saturday 22nd March, 2008 (Holi - Festival of Colors) -->

We had planned to get ready by 8.30 Am and head to railway station to get a ride in ooty-coonoor train but as expected we were late by half an hour and we reached railway station at 9 am. There were no tickets available for the 9.15 am train. We went to plan B. We decided to visit ooty lake. It again proved to be a fantastic experience. We hired an eight seater motorboat and took boating :). We loved it so much that for a few extra bucks to the boatman we took an extra round. We had our breakfast in a nearby hotel and left for the railway station. We didn't want to miss the train this time round :D .

We got into the queue and got tickets after 40 minutes (There was
a queue even though the ticket window wasn't opened. :D).We were keenly waiting on the platform for the train to arrive. As expected there was too much rush and we had to put some real effort to get a seat. But the train journey was again memorable because of amazing surroundings on the way and in the train :). The man rightmost in the adjacent picture along with six of us made the trip memorable. We enjoyed the ride a lot and reached coonoor at 1.30 pm. rain had stopped.


We first went to Sim's park. It was a beautiful garden with lots of greenery. We even found rudraksh trees there :). With wide varieties of rare trees, plants, a beautiful boat house, lovely world map made up of flowers...it was worth visiting.



Close to SIM's park we saw a girl who had 'Holi' colors applied on herself. Mohit asked her about the place where she got the colors from. It was a shop we had left behind. Still enthusiastic Mohit decided to hunt for colors. After half an hour the fact that Holi colors were not so common on Holi day itself here, dawned on him. We set off for our next destination in coonoor. Our driver cum guide took us to High-field tea estates. The place was amazing or it seemed so because we had never been to a tea-estate. With beautiful Neelgiri in background, the greenery of tea-leaves was a view to die for. We tasted various varieties of tea - Masala tea, chocolate tea, green tea etc on a nearby shop for free. We even bought packets of tea which cost each of us Rs 180. After taking some lovely snaps, we left for ooty.

We arrived in ooty close to 5 pm. We planned to visit botanical garden for an hour but most of us were unwilling to spend an hour looking at plants. So we decided to skip it. We took something to eat. Meanwhile Mohit found a shop from where he could actually bought small packets of Holi colors. We decided to go to hotel. On the way we found 'vantage Point' being screened in a theater. We were so thrilled seeing the box ticket price (Rs. 30 / head...average ticket price in a Bangalore theater Rs 130 ) that we decided to get in. Anyways we had nothing to do after evening.

It was a nice movie. It didn't took more than 90 minutes. We took our dinner at hotel patel which served us a marwari thali. We hadn't tasted such nice food for months. After having dinner and sweet, we left to our hotel room.

Holi hai....

after arriving at hotel rooms...we changed to our worst possible clothes and started holi celebration s :D ! It was more of a formal celebration to begin with but as time progressed, bitsian spirit caught up with us. Well ! We actually spent some 30 minutes playing holi and another hour cleaning the mess created in the hotel room. It was a nice feeling to have played holi despite all those hurdles (rarity of holi colors, suitable place etc). We formed the plan for the next days trip and went to beds.

<--Sunday 30th March ---->

We started at around 9 Am to dodabetta. It is the highest peak in the Nilgiri's at about 2600 meters from MSL. Supposedly we could have great view of ooty town, ketty valley, film shooting points etc using a telescope located at the top of the hill. Alas ! It was not to be. Telescope house was close due to bad weather. But experiencing the even more chilling weather was refreshing :D ! We set out for our final stop, Pykara falls after an hour. On the way we found some cool places. One was Kamraj sagar Dam. We stopped our car roadside and went downhill to the lake. It was a very nice picnic spot. But due to lack of time, we departed as soon as we could.

After a short while on the way, we found many cars parked roadside at a place. Expecting it to be a nice place, two of us (including me : )) decided to go uphill promising others in the car to be back within 15 minutes. What we saw up their can't be explained here in words. You had to be there to feel it. Amazing blue Nilgiri standing tall all around a green hilly forest in a chilling weather ! After enjoying the beautiful natural sceneries for some half an hour we had to get back into the car to finish the trip in time.



We took another break at ketty valley on the way for two minutes.
We reached Pykara around 12.30 in the afternoon. Well ! We were not too impressed by the place. The fall which we found was only a few feet in height ( Though you may not notice the same in the picture). But we spend half an hour at the peaceful place and got back to a roadside restaurant. We had our lunch there and started our return journey towards Bangalore at 2.00 PM.



There is nothing much to write about it though. Yeah..well ! We also avoided an accident with a scooter- close to Mysore when the scooter driver suddenly took a right turn without giving any intimation at all. It was a real close shave. It could have been really bad had the driver of our car been not alert enough to react quickly ! Apart from that, we had a few good discussions in the car, mostly about the state of politics and education in India; and what could be done to better it. After reviewing the trip everyone was happy ! We left one of our mates at Bangalore City Railway Station as he had to board a train (that's why we tried to be strictly on schedule !). We reached home by 10 PM.

So ooty was indeed awesome. It was once in a life time experience. The kind of environment I saw there for three days is really uncommon. Surroundings were green and handsome too. I would recommend a trip to ooty to one and all as soon as it can get !!

Sayonara .....

Placement Tips : Part 1 : Cracking the Aptitude Test

After writing quite a few aptitude tests and having gone through many rounds of interviews, i think i am capable enough of advising fellow bitsians and may be others as well about placements. There are a few things which must be taken care of, if you want to make it really big. Most of the following observations are in bitsian context -

1) CGPA is the first thing, companies look at from your resume. It's always good to be in a top few but you should try to keep it around 9.

2) Don't ever think you should learn each and every thing you ever studied to go through an aptitude test. You should never even try to attempt all the questions. You should always concentrate on the problems which you can try. Don't bother about the ones you never heard.

3) Try to attempt a decent number of problems, concentrate on accuracy rather than speed ( There may be a few cases where speed might be of importance. That you can guess yourself. (It happened to me while writing Oracle Application aptitude test. )

4) Software companies which come to BITS for recruitment, including the biggest names , generally put a significant number of questions about basic C concepts and logic. So learn structural C well. You can practice logical problems as well. These are generally small problems about probability, permutations and combinations, basic mathematics or small puzzles.

If you consider above things carefully, you should easily go through to the next rounds.

Helpful Resources:

1. The C Programming Language : Kernighem and Ritchie

2. http://www.c-faq.com
excellent website for clearing basic doubts about C. It contains a lot of common problems related to C arranged topic wise. It was of great help to me.

3. http://www.geekinterview.com
Contains placement papers of various companies as well problems and their solutions course wise.

4. Puzzles to Puzzle you - Shakuntala Devi
Probably the best book to prepare for logical questions and puzzles.

5. More puzzles to puzzle you - Shakuntala Devi

again a great book !

Graduation Party

It seemed like just another day, even boring then the others. I thought we are gonna listen to a few traditional speeches and then a little refreshment will follow. I had already got to know that party begins on time. And just half an hour delay is not late enough by Bitsian standards. I filled a form for BITSAA membership. It was the first blow which ripped my heart apart. Suddenly a thought crept in mind, You'll no longer be a student of BITS,Pilani. Within a few days, you'll have to leave this lovely town which has given you so many memorable moments.

Then came the VC address and now it was taking it's toll. I somehow managed to stay calm. It was amazing to listen to him. He used apt words to motivate us. Few batchmets too took the opportunity to share a few of their experiences, some sang and a few others told poems. All in all, it was a great feeling to be there. I was sad but i didn't want to be happy either ! It was an unique feeling, something i may never witness again.. I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest ! Then i witnessed the best part :-), snaps with my dear ones, with my wingies and batch mates.

When finally it got over, I was content. I knew, this place has given me much more than I ever anticipated. So many friends, wingies, lovely juniors and above all a humanistic approach to life. This place has brought man out of this little child. I will always cherish those amazing moments. Those were the best days of my life.

6 companies..18 rounds of interviews and a Job !!

21 August: 11.55 pm -

They don't take you if you answer each and every question. If you are a girl, you can get a job even if you don't answer any." says dejected ranga. Then he suddenly says," Cisco results are out. You...Vishal ... Vishal gupta...right!! You made it to CISCO !!"
I exclaimed : "what!!". I didn't believe it. I was trying to confirm it with himanshu that i heard swagat, vaibhav etc shoutingto inform me. Nikhil came rushing thinking of being the first one to inform me. So Vishal finally got a job.

It all started when i got a call from the search giant for a telephonic interview after giving up all hopes for it. I was scheduled to be interviewd two days later. I tried studying a few things and the time came. I got a call sharp at 2. I did decent enough. And a day later we came to know that i too made it to the second short list with 25 other guys.
The next day the employers were on campus. I faced three face to face rounds with kind of expected questions and did reasonably well in the first two rounds while i think, i don't want to talk about the third and the last one. And as expected i didn't make it to the final list.
So the count was 4.

I didn't make it to the shortlist of the next two- one, the most known company in the IT industry and the other- highest paying on campus in IT field. But it was not the end of the world !!The very next day i made it to the database giant's shortlist of candidates. Interview started two hour late than the scheduled time.In the meantime i got to know that i made it to yet another short list- Interview was scheduled at 1. Then started the big day- probably the most hectic in my entire life. When i just either waited outside or interviewed with sharp minds. At the end of the day i felt satisfied and hoped to make it to the final lists as i thought i had done a good job. Mind you, COUNT WAS 12 by now.
But as they say... once in a blue moon, again ?? yes ! I didn't make it to either of the lists again. I didn't lose hope and kept trying. The next day was the day to remember. I wrote the apti cum technical test with least of interest but still I GOT SHORTLISTED AGAIN. The joy was shortlived as I came to know that interview was all about a topic which we never paid attention to. Anyways, i faced two rounds and i'll discuss later how i handled the interviewrs but at 11.55 my wingie informed me that i had made it to the netwoking giant's Final List. So it sorts of happened again with me. I got yet another thing which i was least interested in or i must say which i least desired for. This is fate , this is destiny. I accept it with all true heart and hope it turns out to be as great as anything else could have been.

COUNT IS STILL 15, Got Job too... but what about the other three rounds !! Watch out.

Just Before PsentiSen Began: 28th July, 2007

This is not so usual for Bits,Pilani to face long powercuts. So it came as surprise to us(the old ones) and shock to the parents of newly admitted Bitsians. While trying to cope with hot and humid pilani night, most of them thought this is what their son/daughter was supposed to face for the next four/five years. BITS officials were having a hard time to push through such an embarrassing situation.
Between we old ones knew, this was not going to last much longer and hence were trying to find a way out to enjoy. At 10 we decided to look out for some place to hang out. And imagine where did we land up !! Four of us took benches (of redi) outside Vishwkarma Bhawan to get some REST ! Sooner we realised that they were too narrow to serve the purpose. I suggested we move to Patel Chowk (or say Shankar chowk) to have a SLEEP. Idea was welcomed by all as we quickly moved there but we never moved there to sleep of course. We were quite usually enjoying such an unusual situation and hence rounds of laughter went on till we realised that it was 2 at night. You might agree, sleeping on a chouraha ( Circle) which is at heart of the place is not usual. Finally two of us (not me) went to sleep and other two tried the same but failed. Then me and Aman decided to walk to Nutan to have a 'Morning Tea' since it was 4.45 A.M. We thought we'll come and wake the other two since the morning walkers were passing by. But when we returned they had already left. Then both of us also decided to have a little sleep in rooms. (as electricity supply was normal since 2 A.M.)
But it was definitly another memorable night at BITS and a perfect start to leisured PsentiSem.