I gave my party at Pizza hut. It was supposed to be from 7:30 but in keeping with the tradition, almost everyone came late :p

Anyway, after that we had fun, ate, played the usual pranks (secretly putting chilli sauce is someone else's Miranda etc)

Some people have alreday become sick of pizza. I beought back enough pizza for five meals so I'll also be joining that club shortly I guess.

I got my second semester grades about an hour after the previous post. The grades were one grade below my expectations in all the subjects thanks to the conujunctivitis before the endsems. One day of depression followed but now I feel better after talking to two of my friends.

Today I had probably my longest chat session and got to reflect on a couple of my thoughts about several issues concerning internships and plans after graduating (MBA vs higher studies, MS vs PhD).

Tonight is the first "proper" party... In all the previous parties we split the bill. This one isn't and its at a nice but slightly expensive Arabian-Indian cuisine restaurant. Its ironic.. at some restaurant.. a dish called "appam" which cost a few rupees per piece in Kerala cost about fourty rupees here and there are lot of people (including a lot of North Indians) who buy them. Its ironic that we take so many things for granted. Anyway......tommorow I would be giving a treat at Pizza Hut to basically whoever is in my batch in Muscat.

I'm really starting to enjoy my online internship now. The internship is basically in a company based in Noida..they have a small market and want to track the visitors visiting their site and also to find out which sites the traffic is coming from, so that they can display their advertisements to get maximum coverage with minimum costs .. the company director looks at the interface, asks me "can this be done?" then i spend some time doing this, then he says "good... can you try to analyse this and make the result come on a seperate page" etc.

I got my second semester grades about an hour after the previous post. The grades were one grade below my expectations in all the subjects thanks to the conujunctivitis before the endsems. One day of depression followed but now I feel better after talking to two of my friends.

Today I had probably my longest chat session and got to reflect on a couple of my thoughts about several issues concerning internships and plans after graduating (MBA vs higher studies, MS vs PhD).

Tonight is the first "proper" party... In all the previous parties we split the bill. This one isn't and its at a nice but slightly expensive Arabian-Indian cuisine restaurant. Its ironic.. at some restaurant.. a dish called "appam" which cost a few rupees per piece in Kerala cost about fourty rupees here and there are lot of people (including a lot of North Indians) who buy them. Its ironic that we take so many things for granted. Anyway......tommorow I would be giving a treat at Pizza Hut to basically whoever is in my batch in Muscat.

I'm really starting to enjoy my online internship now. The internship is basically in a company based in Noida..they have a small market and want to track the visitors visiting their site and also to find out which sites the traffic is coming from, so that they can display their advertisements to get maximum coverage with minimum costs .. the company director looks at the interface, asks me "can this be done?" then i spend some time doing this, then he says "good... can you try to analyse this and make the result come on a seperate page" etc.

Hmm. I'm spending a lot of time chatting nowdays. Yesterday night I went for dinner at one of my school senior's house.. he also did his BTech in Mech from IITK.

Yesterday I tried making french fries (yum!!) by myself but unfortunately my mom found out (the frying pan was still hot when she came) and then she fried me for cooking when she wasn't in the house.

Today evening I'm going for a reunion of our batch.. at the beach.. should be fun :)
I managed too convince two others to give parties so now hopefully the parties will properly start. So far just the one party.... a floppers party at Pizza Hut (floppers means we split the bill).

The CBSE 12th results came out today... and a girl topped in my school for the first time...the world is doomed ;) hee hee

Something is wrong... this is supposed to be a vacation... which means I should feel bored two weeks into the holidays but that is not happening!!

I got an ADSL (broadband) connection yesterday and its sure is much faster than my earlier dial up.. I end up getting about 45 KBps consistntly. I uploaded some of the pictures that I took at Bangalore at
http://cherian.siteburg.com/gallery/lucent/

Now I have to go for an interview but this interview is a different kind of interview since I am not applying for anything.... will write about it later..

Something is wrong... this is supposed to be a vacation... which means I should feel bored two weeks into the holidays but that is not happening!!

I got an ADSL (broadband) connection yesterday and its sure is much faster than my earlier dial up.. I end up getting about 45 KBps consistntly. I uploaded some of the pictures that I took at Bangalore at
I'm almost done with the first task of my internship which involved writing scripts to track clickthroughs and making a conversion matrix etc.

I went shopping this morning after breakfast...ended up buying a wireless microphone... I have no clue as to what I'm going to do with it. After shopping I had a 'Zinger Supreme' at KFC.

Tonight again I'm going to hang out with friends at the ice skating rink, followed by dinner at McDonalds. My mom and dad are both complaining that I am restricting their access to the comp.

I just went for a hair cut... and I was thinking.. why dont we have combs which have some kind of blades which cut one's hair while one is combing? That way, one doesn't have to go all the way to the barber shop and also the hair never grows long... hmm ok that would add 'comb' to the list of dangerous items.. incidentally this time when I was at the Cochin Airport, they actually confiscated my sello tape (Scotch tape) saying it was not allowed. Come on!! How in the world can you hijack a plane using Scotch tape??

........ and the partying begins. I hope to meet all my schoolmates who are here at Pizza Hut, Al-Khuwair tonight. Should be fun.. lots of news to catch up on and of course the pizza :D

I cancelled one of my internships (the one with BEC) since I expect to have to go back to Delhi to officially get the schol. Now I'm going to start with the online internship with HytechPro. Just got my first project which I have to start working on tomorrow.

The biggest problem with having a comp right next to one's bed i that you don't get enough sleep... today I woke up at 6 but instead of going back to sleep I started checking my mail and one thing led to another and I didnt sleep after that.

I had downloaded a large number of the pages from the IITK intranet. Today I spent mostly going through all that... went through about 400 websites and got to know some interesting things about people/departments in IITK. Incidentally this is the reason why I was in the CC during pretty much all my free time in the 1st semester.

I reached Muscat in one piece but Im feeling extremely tired. I finished setting up the hard disk I bought from IITK and I'm able to access whatever is on it.

Yesterday evening, after 11 years, I got to watch "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for a second time. After that I watched the highlights of that epic match between India and England when Kaif and Yuvraj shot to fame. After that I took a train to Cochin then flew to Muscat via Trivandrum. Only problem was that they would allow only 20 kilos as luggage, so I transferred some stuff to my hand baggage which meant I had to lug around 13 kilos on my shoulders.

I transferred the pics I took at Bangalore to my comp. Next I have to resize them all and find a place to upload them. but for now I'll take a nap :)

I checked my mail yesterday after a 2 day break and spent three hours reading and replying to emails.

My flight to Muscat is at 7 am tommorow where I will land and a lot of my schoolmates will be waiting with knives and forks demanding treats.... talking of treats... this is for all those at IITD/IITM/IITK/my schoolmates whom I know... treats are a very small scale affairs... and the (Maurya/Chola/Oman)Sheraton is definitely not the place for treats :p

And this is to the two souls at NIT Trichy who got GPAs of 10.0 and 9.8 and also to the insti topper at NIT Suratkhal.. the three of you MUST throw three distinct, non-simultaneous parties when you come to Muscat and I should be in Muscat when there parties are on.

Hope to upload the pics I took at Banglore and IITM in a day or two, once I find a place to upload. Now its time to go and once again start packing :((

Just a note.. I will be in a place where there is no net access (but lots of food to compensate) For the next two days so if you want to send me a message, you can sms me from

http://home.iitk.ac.in/student/cherian/hutch.php

My number is 9839358865 There is something wrong with my hutch SIM... it doesn't charge me for SMSes...so if you leave your mobile number, Ill definitely sms back. Thats it for now.

Just a note.. I will be in a place where there is no net access (but lots of food to compensate) For the next two days so if you want to send me a message, you can sms me from

http://home.iitk.ac.in/student/cherian/hutch.php

My number is 9839358865 There is something wrong with my hutch SIM... it doesn't charge me for SMSes...so if you leave your mobile number, Ill definitely sms back. Thats it for now.

Aaahhhhhhhh. Finally after a long journey from IITK to IITM to ISRO, B'lore to Coimbatore to Palghat, I get to sleep for a longer period in a bed which doesn't happen to be in a 3AC compartment.

I'm back home at Tiruvalla, a small town with a lot of NRIs, where USA is referred to as "America" , where the options after 12th are assumed to be either "Medicine" or "Engineering", where life is a whole lot quieter than it was at IITK.... I no longer hear the 150 Hz drone of my hard disk spinning 24x7. But there are several Internet Cafe's here and the cost is like Rs 40 an hour.

So far the results of the Lucent interview haven't come. All twelve of us were told that the results would be sent after we left Bangalore but that was on the 7th night and today I think is the 10th and it still isn't out.

Super whew!!!!!

A hectic three days.... had a lot of fun... three days of Pizza Hut parties and a presentation and interview in between.

All the three groups made the presentation in typical IIT style.... We were supposed to present it at 11 am and the presentation was finished at 10:50 am.... that too thanks to a nighout at Sify... all twelve of us sitting in the cafe hunting for info on satellites and ideas and pictures of both these. The ideas came from different sources, one of them strongly resembling a concept from 'Die Another Day'

Whew! We were constantly worried since we hadnt started.... but then we found out that everyone else was also in the same situation.

We were shown around the ISRO Satellite centre... we were taken to the Vibration lab, this lab, that lab, a space exhibition... Some of the others found out that I was carrying grub in my pockets and ended up hogging whatever I had. We got to see a satellite from the INSAT 4 series to be launched in August '05.... was pretty interesting.

The whole stay was quite nice... the only thing I didnt like was the security (cameras, mobiles and even calculators and floppies weren't allowed in the labs). But we all got a whole lot of ideas 90% of which were crazy... like the girl from NIT Trichy (the one who stole my pizza) suggested that we clear space debris by launching bhelpuris at 25,000 kmph.

The mess at the ISAC guesthouse was jinxed..... I would always be among the first to order but somehow or the other, the others ended up getting the food first.. and the menu is fixed for all. Life is NOT AT ALL fair. And the rest of them were nicely grinning at me and eating their food while I waited. To top it all off, yesterday morning, I went real early, ordered and signed for the bill, waited for sometime, then went to wash my hands. When I came back, the Madam who had stolen my pizza two days back was sitting my place eating MY breakfast. I had to order again and had to contend with watching her eat MY break fast... and on top of that she says "Stop staring at MY food". Come on!!! That was my breakfast! I ordered it! Nooo its not fair. And the others didnt do anything... they just kept smiling watching the show. Soooo mean!!!

Aaahhhhhhhh. Finally after a long journey from IITK to IITM to ISRO, B'lore to Coimbatore to Palghat, I get to sleep for a longer period in a bed which doesn't happen to be in a 3AC compartment.

I'm back home at Tiruvalla, a small town with a lot of NRIs, where USA is referred to as "America" , where the options after 12th are assumed to be either "Medicine" or "Engineering", where life is a whole lot quieter than it was at IITK.... I no longer hear the 150 Hz drone of my hard disk spinning 24x7. But there are several Internet Cafe's here and the cost is like Rs 40 an hour.

So far the results of the Lucent interview haven't come. All twelve of us were told that the results would be sent after we left Bangalore but that was on the 7th night and today I think is the 10th and it still isn't out.

Hmm I could get used to living in the ISRO guesthouse.. nice room with AC etc and to top it off, Pizza Hut is right opposite to the ISAC along with several cybercafes :)

Went for a walk... Banglore seems like a nice place. Anyway... time to go back and meet the others..

So far two of the girls and four of the guys have arrived.

The two girls and one of the guys are total clowns (like me). One of the girls stole my pizza and a slice of my garlic bread during lunch today! Life is soooo unfair. The others should be here by 8 pm tonight.

I spent the morning watching Cartoon Network in my room but then I thought "ok if I go back and tell people 'I went to the Indian Space Research Organization and watched Cartoons'" ... well.... it wouldn't sound too impressive ;) so I stopped watching that and went around the place

We have been divided into three groups to make presentation on proposals related to satellites. So far all of us have had loads of fun fooling around. I met a guy, Kasturi Rangan from NITT who apparently studied in my school in Muscat till 8th.

I want to meet a couple of people at Bangalore (a few classmates from school and an ex-IITK student who is at IIM B'lore) but it seems unlikely now :(

Ok time for me to get back to thinking about a satellite proposal.

I'm in my Mom's cousins house again, back from IITM. IITM is a bit different from IITK... for starters.. the hostels are a long way from the in and out gates.

Anyway... better be going to catch my train.....Next stop : The ISRO Satellite Centre after a (hopefully) good night's sleep :)

I managed to reach Chennai in one piece. Train journey was ok.. there were lot of kids in my compartment so I fooled around with them... of course after all the fooling around I didnt tell the parents that I was from IITK.... anyway... the kids ended up singing a lot of nursery rhymes... the most favourite one being Hickory Dickory Dock.

Presently am at the house of my Mom's cousin... who is working at Coignizant .. and this is being typed on her Toshiba laptop which has got a very hifi keyboard layout which I am trying to get used to.

Anyway... next stop : IIT Chennai to meet some friends :)

Another day to go. I finished most of my packing. I moved my comp to my neighbour's room since
a) it was distracting me from packing
b) it was taking up space in my room
I had plenty of one sided waterfight, even had one today morning and now I am feeling pretty tired. I finished transferring quite a bit of data to my second hard disk. Lots of things I want to do... like a gliding trip tomorrow but I don?t know if I will be able to do all of them. Guess thats all for now.