Two Months completed in Coventry

Its been two months since i have been in Coventry. I really didn’t want to write this sentence on a blog, but fact is “I am busy”. Heres my usual routine: Mornings, start making breakfast, usually its tea and toast butter or jam, and sometimes wheat flakes. Then a cold walk to the college, lecture upto one o clock, with a break halfway, then lecture again after lunch, upto five o clock, if its a full day. Or, its assignments whole day and then talking to mom and dad in the evening upto 6 o clock. Eight o clock is cooking time again, spagetti or some kinda rice usually, but yeah, i do cook dosa or pudla once in a while, my flat-mates are south Indians, and they make awesome original sambhar, without using any of that sambhar powder!! No one works here on weekends. Saturday is working day for me, with laundrette work, and some grocery shopping if required. Yeah i am online almost all day, yeah i do chat with friends, but thats all i do along with studying and writing assignments. Christmas nearing, lets see how it goes by.
bye for now, have to fold my clothes.

Posted on: 18:05 GMT

Postcards from Coventry

This is where I stay in Coventry, its called Singer Hall, where Singer Cars was founded. It was the Singer club till mid 1970s after being taken over by some other company
Thats Jaguar Building, where most of my lectures takes place.

This is Liv 54, a pub meant only for Coventry University students, went there for the entire freshers week, was complete fun !!

The Farewell - 1000 viewings on YouTube

Yeah !! The Farewell has exactly 1000 viewings (means the video has been seen 1000 times) as of now on YouTube !
Heres the link to that video again.

Well, as i mentioned in the earlier post, i am adjusting to the new environment here in the UK. Its getting colder everyday and winter will be here soon. But i feel at home now!
My first module starts tomorrow. Lets see how things go from tomorrow.

of burnt cabbage and perfect pudla

After two weeks of landing in the United Kingdom, i have finally begun to settle down. The first week was International Students’ welcome week, where i met new people, and enjoyed a bit. Went to the Warwick Castle, and last Friday, i shifted to my term time accommodation, where i started to settle down, well, atleast for an year now.

The last week (second week in the UK) was Induction week, where we got to know a few of our professors and the way studies will take place. and this Friday Saturday and Sunday was cooking induction for me, and i am quite happy that…well…I CAN COOK !!!

Made cabbage for dinner on Friday, Mixed vegetable Kolhapuri for lunch on Saturday and pudla for dinner. 1% of the cabbage got burnt cause i used the wrong vessel for cooking it, but the masala was perfect, and yesterdays pudla (thin pan cakes of onion+tomato in gram flour) were perfect. And as every one knows, it takes time to achieve perfection (perfection को improve करने मे time लगता है ).

Mr. Big Mouth

Before you read the blog...plz glance through this....
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/indvaus/content/current/story/312735.html

I don't understand whats wrong with the Australians. I believe the folks below the equator think reverse...or maybe bcoz Australia is so far down.. that wo log sirf GIRI HUI BATEIN KARTE HAI....
Ponting has had the notorious reputation of shooting his mouth off at press conferences... but dude, u gotta grow up.... in the above article, he mentions the Aussies wud be better off playing against India wid SACHIN-SOURAV-RAHUL trio than without them.... big joke...thats a clear cheapshot...
I dont understand what he wants to prove wid a statement like this... Whether he thinks he can pressurize the Indian Selectors into not playing these 3 greats, or whether he plans to affect their confidence, either way, he must understand, that perhaps after scoring more than 35,000 runs between them, such people r IMMUNE to cheapshots like these....

No doubt the new and youthful team did a gr8 job in T20 WC...but 50 over games r a different ball game...(actually its a bat-ball game), and so the experience-youth-confidence combination is gonna be hard to beat..
DRAVID, free from the onus of leading the side, wud be eager to score heavily....

DADA, wid his classy drives and powerful lofts, wud be as solid as ever at the top...

and ofcourse,
SACHIN.... what to say of him.... Is in gr8 form, and i m sure Ponting wud eat his words and choke on them while he is chasing the balls to the boundry.....
On the other hand, Ponting himself is not 100% fit...and Hussey and Watson r out of the series...so when Ponting thought of winning the series, an Andaz Apna Apna dialog popped up into my mind...

"Abe saale, pehle koshish ke kaabil to ban...."

However, looking at the recent India matches..(not T20), I feel you dont need good bowlers of fielders to get these 3 legends out... All you need is ppl like this....

So knowing the fact that ICC has plenty of these species.... I am sure that this series is gonna be a gr8 one...... Do enjoy the cricket....

104 - TOW The Workaholic Me

104 - TOW The Workaholic Me

Well, the title to the post (and also my orkut display name) is justified by the fact that i posting here after a gap of more than 1 month....
In my last post, i mentioned my schedule.....well, soon after i posted it, my timetable went for a toss...training began to get extended, tests started becoming exceedingly tough.....no gym, swimming pool seemed non-existent and tennis was out of question.... My primary goal was redefined....going back to the basics....FOOD, CLOTHING AND SHELTER.... If this goes on, pretty soon i mite end up like this....

I made it a point to hv a heavy breakfast, coz lunch time was as fickle as the Indian cricket team's form....1.30...2...2.30....sumtimes no lunch at all...just a sandwich....I even had tough time finding some moments to grab a cup of coffee(yes...even though its free, i didnt drink much...)...and dinner was just like a midnight snack....Here, I can't resist quoting a dialog from Andaz Apna Apna.....
"Aisa hi chalta raha, to 1 din mere hi patte bich jayenge......."
However, I realized that all this was coming to me naturally..... We had an allotted lunch time....every1 took their lunch around 1 pm.....but it was just my ass that was not willing to lose contact with the chair in which i sit.... It was not like I was being stopped fm going home at 6.30...but I liked staying and working late...... I enjoyed sitting and staring at the code in my computer, making it look like i am actually gonna come up with a breakthrough snippet in a short time...even though in reality it was just like a Brett Lee bouncer, going about 10 miles above my head.....

Whatever it was , i realized that there was always a voice inside my head saying...."A few more mins., and I'll complete this part....." or "Let me do this much and then I can hv a nice lunch....". But each time, those few mins stretched to long hours....and even though my body wanted sum time off....it was mind that kept resisting.....
Even in my sleep, i keep thinking about CAA(thats what i m working on..)...which files to include.. how to solve particular erors...which identity card file to update...which DICO file to modify...n so on...(this is CATIA CAA jargon...just read n forget...actually i m disobeying the IPR privacy policy....but who gives a damn.....)
Thats when it struck me.... I was slowly turning into a workaholic...... (seems pretty abstract, considering its only my second month at work...) Now you all wud be wondering....how come this self-proclaimed workaholic found time to write all this crap....the answer is simple...I got a couple of days free....coz a project is always initiated on a Monday, so I got 2 days to relax....pretty cool huh????
Well, not for me.... I am getting restless to start my project asap..... thats how bad the situation is.... I hv realized 1 thing......the more I try to get out of it, the more I am gonna get deeper into it...so for the moment, I feel writing abt it wud help..... lets c how it goes........I hope i dont end up like this......

P.S.... For all those who thought I will lose my PJ skills due to this, be ready to be disappointed..... all this work and very little play is leading to all the PJs being bottled up and stored inside my system.... so if ne1 does nething to let it lose, then GOD help them........I wont take any responsibility for the consequences......lol......

Its amazing what men can do....

Gail: What is life?
Howard Roark lifts up a fallen branch, bends it in the form of a bow and says - THIS
Gail: Strength?
Howard: no...the fact that I can make something useful with my hands...thts life...

-The Fountainhead(by Ayn Wand)

I am not a fan of this novel...But this is my favourite part in The fountainhead...
For the uninitiated, Howard Roark, an architect, is the hero of the novel. He looks for creative satisfaction. While Gail, a businessman, looks for power.




Its been more than a month in the factory...I have seen the transformer come to life. From the very first conductor being wound on the winding to the stacking of the core. The transformer is currently in the assembly stage.
Looking at it, I cant help think about what a bunch of men could do if they put their head and hands together. Ofcourse only a couple of men are gonna receive the accolades, but deep inside we all know tht it wudnt be possible without us...And I keep using the pronoun "us", inspite of the fact tht I haven't done anything tht wud add value to this transformer...I am trainee...I am expected to observe...Then why am I counting myself as one of them?

Even observing something come to life is exhilarating...
The thought tht this transformer would touch lives of thousands of people itself is so fulfilling...It might make electricity available to villages, It might help run an industry...There are endless possibilities...In every which way, it would help them to make their lives better...

Today,we(Akshay, Komel and me) were having a discussion with one of our seniors as to how ppl in the software industry were earning more than us. I stressed on the fact that core engineers should work in the core engg rather than in software...I would still give up a job in a software firm any day for a job in core engg.(no offence meant to the software guys)

Its not tht I enjoy the job or anything...I still hate gettin up early in the mornings (a lot of guys do..check out the comm on orkut! There r more than 2 lac ppl in the I-hate-waking up-early comm)...I still hate working 6 days a week...Maybe I wud do an MBA in future, maybe I wud start sumthing on my own, wht the heck, I might even join a software firm...But I would still maintain tht seeing something come to life in 3D will never cease to amaze man...

Tell me... as kids didn't you enjoy planting chili seeds or mango saplings...Tell me...didn't do rush to the balcony in the morning to check whether the bud has bloomed into a flower? I hope you do these things even now tht u hav grown up... If not, Pls do...
I have seen the windings and the core being assembled into a transformer...Some lifeless copper and iron getting converted into something really useful...really beautiful... I feel proud... I feel satisfied....I feel amazed...sometimes I feel like God.


Its amazing what men can do, isnt it?

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