I AM ON HUNGER STRIKE!!

Oh! sorry.. The title should be I was on Hunger strike. I m very busy with project.. so didn't find time to write.. I have participated in hunger strike for 24hrs to protest against reservations. It was 2nd day (22/05) of chain hunger strike that was initiated in IIT Bombay. With out hesitating, I gave my name to participate on 2nd day. 17, 35, 46.. These are the numbers on 1st, 2nd and 3rd day.. I don't have the statistics after that but came to know that the response was good.

I never expected that I might involve this kind of activities.. but felt happy that I did it for a good cause. Star News & Times now new channels have covered our protest and there were interviews as well. First time I was on small screen. But unfortunately, I couldn't see my self as that was live show. Pandey gave good points in the interview.. "Arjun Singh should implement reservations in Parliment first.. Ask him to give his minister seat for an OBC candidate" Pandey said. At first I thought passing 24hrs with out doing any activity is difficult so took few novels for me & my friends. Believe me, I read only one page.. Later on didn't find time to read at all. There were brain storming discussions on the issue of reservations. Few professors have also visited that place and supported us. Damn government not caring the striking doctors at all..

Today after reading the news about Supreme Court asking the center to give reasons for hike in reservations, I felt really happy. Here is a mail from my friend Narasimha regarding reservations.. go through it.

Death of Democracy!!

Just by reading the title, one can guess what am I goin to write about. Yeah! its about the hike in reservation. At last protest "fire" has also touched the doors of IIT Bombay. Yesterday, we around 600 students had formed a human chain outside our campus and carrying banners and placards. It was non-voilence protest. We have informed the police about our protest and nothing bad happened as such.. Five to Six News channels have come and of course, few news paper's journalists.. It is first time in my life I have participated in such a kind of move. Sridhar & I coordinated ourselves to hold a banner, "Death of Democracy" was written on it. We stood there from 4:30 to 6:30pm. I really hate this govt. for its act.. I saw the news.. the way police treating the protesting students is horrible..
As the banner shows in the photo... I believe that concentrating primary education is a must instead of post graduate education in India. I came to know that there are some reserved seats which are left vacant every year.. that means there is a lack of eligible students. We can only fill those vacancies only if students are provided with basic stong primary education.. so government should focus on that. There is no point in increasing reservation at higher level.. becoz I have observed that people who are coming through reserved category to higher education are economically good although not rich.. but can get jobs and support their family after graduation. If the reserved seats are increased, the quality of education decreases... our level of talent pool in this country looses its importance globally.. So the global industries move to competing countries like China to hire man power... We say that India is a democratic country. What exactly the word democracy means.. ? I found the meaning in dictionay site.. "The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community".. Where is the social equality in our country ? do you believe that we acheive social equality by increasing reservation ? At least I feel that supporting the backward classes economically if they are willing to pursue higher education after getting through common admission test procedure is the best option available.. I have put my views here.. If you have time to read.. go through the following articles which I have gathered in this issue.. But believe me they are worth reading to get idea about the issue.

1. Propagonda - Which we distributed
2. OBC Reservations: An IIT Professor's view
3. Mail from an AIIMS student

Power cut!

Although there is a new trend of power cut once in 3-4 days for 5 mins recently in IIT, nothing special to describe about that except today's incident. It was around 9:10am. I am not wrong.. its AM only. These days I am getting up "early" in the morning around 8am by missed calls from my friends.. Just because of project meetings.. Sumo calling us early in the morning for project discussions daily.. of course he is just calling us to lab in the morning but.. he himself is not able to make at that time... what ever it is, my way of life changed.. I am now concentrating well on my project... being hectic, not getting time to write here. neway.. its a different part of story.. I was taking about power cut today which made me to find some time to write here.. I started to lab. can u guess ? what would have happened ? wht is the relation b/w power cut and my way to lab ? okk I will come to the matter.. I was stuckup in hostel lift bcoz of power cut. Suddenly it was very dark inside.. I didn't see the display.. so don't know where I am.. I thought of informing my situation to some one. Sridhar striked my mind. I called him. But before he could do anything for me, I dared to open the lift doors with my hands. Thank god! I am already in ground floor.. (came to know when I saw through small gaps). Finally, came out with out much difficulty and cloed the door again the same way I opened them. Thats the story.. I hope this would be my first and last stuck up in lift.

Jack died :((

Jack.. died 3-4 days back when I upgraded my machine to Fedora Core 5 from FC4. The surgeon had no other option than to say sorry.. Got confused ?? Its my user name in Linux box. I removed that account while upgrading to FC5. hopefully, he will come again in my next installation ;-). The new FC5 is amazing.. I worked for 2 days to get mind blowing looks to my desktop. You can have a look if you wish to see my desktop here

Late again!!

I don't know when do I become punctual ? As usual, got up at 9:29am.. was supposed to be present in VIP Lab by 9:00am. I got up by a strange although not a dreadful dream. I don't even want to say sorry to Sumantra... bcoz he asked me to come before 9am. Last time I told that cycle got punctured.. It was 9:50am when I saw the clock in VIP Lab. Sumantra said nothing.. but I saw this mail in my inbox..

Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 09:29:24 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Waiting!

...inside the VIP lab - come fast!
Thanks, Sumantra.

The final day has come!!

For the last 4 days.. I was very busy with many things.. like attending parties.. preparing videos for our valfi.. lab sysadgiri etc. First thing is Job treat from Qualcomm ppl (Kasi, Nami, Uday) & Kal. They gave party in hotel Tunga Paradise in Andheri.. a three star hotel. Earlier they planned to give us treat in Taj near Gateway of India.. but finally decided with Tunga on 27th as they realized that they aren't yet joined in job and filling their pockets. Although the food was not upto the expectations, first time in the history of Comm group parties, alchohol has entered. three of our batch enjoyed beer, vodka (don't know exactly). Strange thought has come to my mind to take a snap with beer glass (as if I m havin it) .

Next day our comm group decided to have a group photo session as Shilpa will be missing us.. (she is goin to Italy to do her project) and she won't be here when we leave. had nice group photo session.. same day I was busy in making videos for our valfi day.. We were in lab till 5:30am.. believe me.. I never worked like that for project till 5:30 in morning.. by the time I reached my room.. partly day light was there.. I could see sky clearly through my window.. Neway.. we really worked hard to create those videos.. So you can expect when this kumbakarna would hav got up on the next day.. of course kumbakarna can't live with out food so painfully, I got up at 1:30pm otherwise I would hav slept throughout the day.. In the evening, we went out for shopping.. all of us bought new kurtas.. then we got an idea to wear kurthas for our valfi day.. Bechari Namita.. she had to buy new jeans for this plan.. we went to Rajdhani after shopping.. stuffed my stomach with Rajastani & Gujrathi food.. The situation was like I can't have anything more.. really a heavy dinner..

The valfi has come(30th, April).. all wore kurtas for that occation.. the plan has worked out.. our comm group was something special in that occation.. as usual, we used our lab camcoder.. unfortunately, the food was so pathetic.. worst part is that no body was following Q system.. It was very difficult to manage.. This is really bad.. I don't know when do people learn good discipline.. Of course, even I am lacking that.. The profile reading has started at around 12:30am. We had some problems to setup projector intially.. I felt sad.. as I know the hard work we paid to make the videos.. but fortunately.. we were able to play with the settings and video has come but not the audio. Then we got an idea to put the mic near laptop.. "something is better than nothing, isn't it ?". We started with Pandey's profile.. he become very emotional when he was asked to say few words after profile reading.. I read Prasad's profile next.. I don't know how much he was able to understand as we wrote partly in hindi. Next was mine.. my profile was stared based on the fact that I am the youngest of our class... (in fact, under age boy to get mtech admission :)). Kalyan has read my profile.. my friends composed it very nice with fun masala.. all enjoyed it.. atleast I enjoyed... I got the feeling like I am lucky to have them as my friends.. though we were not together in the begining, as the time passed, we become good friends and the two years have passed unknowingly.. Only 2 months are remained.. neway.. looks like I am getting senti now ;-).. Last but not the least, Kalyan's profile was read by Sridhar. After this we had small photo session.. to recall these moments after we leave this place.. Next Vasanth's room became our halt to watch the videos we made.. by the time we finished watching those moments, we realized that it is already 6:00am. Once again.. I saw early morning day light through my window when I was sleeping.. I didn't expect that I will see it so early again..

Here are the profiles:
* Uday
* Prasad
* Me
* Kalyan