End of B.Tech

My B.Tech has ended.
Wednesday, the second of May in 2012, at quarter past 6 in the evening, the last report was sent. And that's when my academic activity for my B.Tech ended.

Right now, it is taking time for the feeling to sink in. For the first time, I have no academic work and none to worry about next semester. In fact, there's no next semester to worry about. No more assignments, quizzes, project deadlines, exams. I'm free!

Officially, I have completed all academic requirements for my B.Tech. It sounds really cliched, but I'm an engineer now!

4 years of a roller coaster ride, just came to an end. And now, I realize how much I have gotten used to the ups, downs and thrills! I'll miss my B.Tech.

I Have a Cold in this Biting Cold

It's winter!

Yes, my semester is over and it is time again for holidays (by which I mean the time when I can work from home). December has set in. The sunlight is weak. The winds are chilly. The mercury is dropping lower and lower. The perfect time to curl up in the armchair in front of the fireplace and read a Victorian ghost story. Or perhaps write a poem about the icy weather outside. Or wear a travel cloak and walk through the snow storm.

Imagination is sweet. This is Delhi, cold enough to be irritating and yet not cold enough that it could fit my imagination of the "cold winter days". And to cap it all, I have a bad cold. With a sore throat and running nose (and not to forget the tons of pending work), I no longer want to look at winter from the poetic view. I'm dreaming of some place in the tropics where I can look at the azure sky and enjoy the sun and sand. Possibly sitting on the beach and reading a novel about sea adventures and shipwrecks. Taking a boat and going to some uninhabited island and spending some time alone there fishing. And then cooking the catch in a fire when darkness falls. What a life!

I just had a look at a recent Google Easter egg. To see it, just go to www.google.com and type "let it snow" in the search box. And see what happens. Snow starts falling and frost forms on the window. After a while the search button changes to "Defrost".

The thing is, I generally like exploring these Easter eggs a lot. They add a nice touch of fun to technology. But I somehow didn't like the timing of this particular one. Google can really be insensitive sometimes!

The Last Summer Holiday at IIIT-D

"The holidays are about to end."

Those are the 6 words I'm literally dreading for the first time. It's 27th today and my institute reopens on the 1st of August. That leaves 4 days. 4 days to switch from the relaxed holiday routine to the strict demanding life of a student. 4 days to complete all the sleep I want and some extra for the next 4 months. 4 days to decide which subjects I have to take next semester. 4 days to think and finalize my B.Tech Project (BTP). 4 days to go over the entire summer once again in my mind...

This summer was so much different than the previous two of my college life. I did not do multiple projects like the previous summers. I tended to sit at home most of the time and remain online. I didn't go to IIIT-D as frequently as in the previous summers. Yet whenever I went, I made sure to have a glass of Nestea (Nescafe's Lemon Iced Tea). This was my last summer of undergraduate life and it is painful to accept the fact that there might not be anything called "Summer Holidays" ever again.

I tried out some things this summer which I hadn't done for a while or which were completely new. Web designing and image editing was something I had last done in school. That time I had used Dreamweaver and Photoshop. This time it was Microsoft Expression Studio and GIMP. It was a different feeling to do something like this, when all I had ever done here was programming and making presentations. A new thing which I started was learning the Japanese language. I had a keen interest in all things Japanese since a long time, and decided to learn the language on the suggestion of a friend. Hopefully I will not be needing subtitles for watching anime in the near future.

One of the best experiences was volunteering for the B.Tech counselling. This time it was done over two days. It was fun advising the parents and students who had mixed opinions about IIIT Delhi. Once again, I realize painfully that this is something which I will miss next year. I also applied to be a mentor to the first years (another last time). The orientation is tomorrow and unfortunately I have a bad cold since yesterday. I'm not sure if I will be able to attend. I hope I can.

I had a lot of sleep this summer too. Well, next 4 months are going to be pretty heavy. Might as well stock up on some sleep. And I loved this slow and relaxed way of life and wished I had spent the previous summers like this too. That's a regret I have. I wish I hadn't been a workaholic.

There were lots of things I couldn't figure out even in these 3 months. I still don't know what to do after this year when I pass out. Should I go for higher studies or do a job? I haven't yet figured out my true area of interest in computer science. There are a group of areas I like but none as of now which I can say is my true interest. I haven't yet finalized my BTP. More important, I couldn't decide which courses to take the coming semester. For the time being though I have decided to stop thinking of all these. This summer I had to face a lot of disappointments (other than the ones above). Thinking about them constantly makes it worse. I don't want to do that. I just want to forget it.

Overall, this summer was far from being a perfect summer. There were islands of happiness surrounded by the sea of gloom all around. It can hardly be called productive (in the workaholic sense of the word). Yet I still think it was the best I have had. I learnt lots of important lessons which I wouldn't have had otherwise. Some of it was painful though and I still mentally wince when I think about it.

I'm reminded of a quote (and the main theme) of an anime called Kino no Tabi (Kino's Journey). It says, "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is". I can apply the same here.

This summer was not beautiful, and therefore it was.

Celebrating Holi Online

Since I have so much work this weekend, it leaves me precious little time to actually celebrate Holi. We didn't even celebrate Holi in college this time. So I'm longing to go out tomorrow and enjoy like a child, mixing colours in the water, preparing water balloons, pelting unsuspecting people with them....

Back to reality. I know it won't happen. I mean I might go out, but enjoying like a child is out of question. So here the Holi sms I sent to my friends this time. In fact I was searching for a geeky/nerdy Holi sms (or even something connected with Image Processing), but couldn't find one. So had to compose one myself. Here's it.

#FF00FF, #FFFF00, #00FF00, #000800, #0000FF, #FF00FF, #800080, #C0C0C0, #FFA500 ...and millions others. They add colour to our computer screen (and indirectly to our lives). Let's dedicate tomorrow to them. Wishing you a very Happy Holi.

PS- If you still haven't got it, these are the hexadecimal colour codes for HTML. And there are 16 million colours.

This probably shows that I now consider working on the computer as my life. And this is a message that is geeky/nerdy and has references to Image Processing too. I guess this Holi will be spent online, but that doesn't mean it cannot be fun!

A very Happy Holi to all of you!

A Tale of Feelings

(Recently I read a story written by a student of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The uniqueness of the story was that it was written entirely using questions. I had never come across anything like this before. It made a profound impact on me - both the style of writing and the story. Unfortunately, I didn't save a copy, and the Google group where I read it no longer exists. Not wanting it to be forgotten, I am writing it down here, to the best of my efforts, in the same style. If anybody can locate the original story, please leave a comment)



(Plagiarism Clarification - In short, this story is not my original. I'm posting it because I liked it. Full credit to the original poster. For those who would accuse me of plagiarism: I couldn't cite the link because the source doesn't exist anymore.)

How bad would you feel is you missed a test? How bad would you feel if you missed it because you came 15 minutes late? How much more bad would it be, if you were there in the institute all day long (and had come specially for this class), and then came late? And that you were late not because it took time to travel from home, but because you were a bit careless?

How nervous would you be if you woke up and realized that you are not at home but in the lab? How much more, if you realized that the class had started 15 minutes before? How stupid would you feel descending the steps to the floor below and walking up to the door of the class? How ashamed would you feel pushing open the door, facing the course instructor, looking up at his face and asking permission to come in?

How sad would you feel when you saw his tired and disappointed face? How shocking would it be to find out that he had planned a surprise test for that class, on which he had spent so much effort designing? And a kind of test which you yourself liked very much? How hurting it would be to hear the fact that you wouldn't be allowed to give the test? That you would have to leave it this time?

How angry would you feel on hearing this? How mad would you be at the whole world? How fed up would you be with yourself for missing something you loved? And that too just because you were working hard last night and didn't get a chance to sleep?

How sorry would you feel meeting him after the class is over? How surprised would you be to see that he is not angry with you at all? That despite your own mistake, he is ready to forgive you and forget this incident as if it never happened? And he encourages you to think ahead and not give much importance to that which is past?

How reassured would you feel when he suggests you to try all the questions (even though it would not be graded)? And he smiles at you and gives you a printed copy of the test when you merely requested a soft copy?

How glad would you feel to find out that he is a rare person who cares so much about you and your future? One who feels that it is more important to learn and know the subject than merely perform? One who understands your passion and commitment to learn and encourages you to stick to it? And finally, one who realizes how much you would have loved giving the test and lets you do so (although officially it would be ungraded)?

How happy would you feel to realize that he is the rare person who believes in you and appreciates you as you are?

How lucky and fortunate would you consider yourself to have an instructor like him?

And Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson

The title is a bit misleading. But this was the first thought that came to my mind when this incident happened.

Yesterday I had a double DCF (Digital and Cyber Forensics) Class. The first one from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. And the second one from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM. Now DCF is a course which I really like. Don't mistake it for the fact that I get the top marks in the course; I am just average. But still I really like the course. It is just one of the rare things you like even if you are not the best in it. One of the other reasons might be the kick I get out of fancying myself a "Computer Forensic Scientist".

Anyway, during the second class, a discussion on recovering data from file systems was going on. The subject was no doubt interesting to me, but then I didn't have any sleep last night. And inevitably I started the downward slide to the sleepy state. Had I not been interested in the topic discussed, I might have fallen asleep immediately. Thankfully though, interest can fight sleep to some extent. And thus, I floated in and out of sleep.

I vaguely remember something on file carving was going on. And then a discussion on the difference between file recovery and file carving. And then when I opened my eyes, a Wikipedia page on file carving was projected on the white-board. That's when it all happened. Something seemed to catch my eye. Near the bottom of the page, in the references section, it was written "Simon & Garfunkel". Wow! All of a sudden I had forgotten how tired and sleepy I was. I couldn't believe that Simon & Garfunkel were forensic scientists. There had to be an explanation for it. Maybe they had worked on it while in university and later moved on to being full time musicians. Or maybe, just maybe, Mrs. Robinson did have some sort of forensic connection. I mentally made up a note to check out the popular culture section of the forensics article.

Sadly this was not to be. It seemed I had made a mistake. Unable to read through my blurry eyes, my brain had assumed the best prediction. What was actually written was Simson Garfinkel. And thus, I came crashing down to reality.

What an anticlimax it was. It would have been so much better and interesting had the duo turned out to be forensic scientists. It's little things like these that make studying anything interesting. It's things like these that can make a person come out of sleep. Anyhow, right now I am back to reality. But I am still wondering how Mrs. Robinson would have reacted had she read this...

Napping in Class

Yesterday night I was doing a literature survey for an upcoming course project. As literature surveys often take a lot of time and I don't feel like stopping in between, I decided to continue into the wee hours of the night. The effect was visible today. Thankfully though, I didn't have any heavy classes in the morning. And since project ideas were being discussed, the interest managed to keep me awake.

After lunch I went back to the empty class room, switched on my laptop and started downloading the list of papers I would have to study. It was around 3 PM I guess, when my mind started to flash the danger signal - urgent sleep wanted. At the same time, using my laptop on high performance had the effect of a mild heater in a chilly room. In short, perfect conditions for sleeping (except for a bed). I don't know when exactly I fell asleep, but the next time I looked at the time, it was 3:45. I had fallen asleep while browsing the internet. With my head on the arm rest of another chair! Disoriented for a while, I went and had a cup of coffee. Caffeine finally restored my thinking abilities to normal and I hurried to attend the Machine Learning class.

Looking back at this incident, I wonder what would have happened if a class had been going on? What excuse would I have given? I remembered this particular comic.

I won't go on to explore the detailed reasons why I fell asleep or find out the probability of falling asleep in class though. Truthfully speaking, I am extremely thankful that I had that nap. I had Machine Learning next (the last class of the day) and somehow, felt more active in class than ever before.

All I can say is, having a nap in (an empty) classroom helps a lot!!!