ARBIT - 1

#Baccha quizzes, major quizzes , surprise quizzes , assignments , mid-sems , not to mention the monstrous END-SEM . The horrible reality of exams is at us ,hard in the face, here at IITK.Not three weeks have passed since third semester started for us and already, you can catch dozens of guys flocking to the library in huge groups . For a change , I cannot criticize them , for I am studying too (though not as much so as to go the lib). We can call it mugging even, I guess.
#Even as much as I want to study hard , I am finding it pretty hard to set aside even two uninterrupted hours for study . Frankly speaking , third semester has been lots of fun . Have started playing tennis on a serious scale. Am going jogging in the mornings; if not everyday , atleast five days a week . Have lost three kgs . Become a "marketing executive" of antaragni - our cult fest. Book club work is tedious,but not exactly boring.....yet. Am preparing quizzes to host in the coming weeks . And cricket .
#Am trying to help the new batch students in adjusting to their lives here .
#Our team comprising of Dhiru-bhai, Pranay and myself came fifth in an insti-level DumbC competition, thanks to a nice effort in the rapid-fire round .
#Have been watching a few old Tamil films . Thalaivar ( for the non-tamil chaps , Rajnikanth) rocks in MULLUM MALARUM . His conversation with Sarath Babu after he is fired is worth special mention . Especially the " Kettta payan sir avan " dialogue ) .
#Saw a decent english film called "Hooligans"
#Read the amazing ' Life of Pi' . Have finished the first two books of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series . Eagerly waiting to lay my hands on the third . And of course, have read HP7.
#Presently reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini .
#I don't have any specific reason for writing this post other than the feeling that it had been a long time since I had posted anything here .

INFORMAL INTERACTION - RAGGING IS STRICTLY BANNED !!!

Complying with the directives of the Hin'ble Supreme Court of India, IIT Kanpur has formed various Anti-ragging committees and squads for overseeing the implementation of the verdict with immediate effect ; regardless of which , ragging continues to happen in this campus, only , under the name of informal interaction between seniors and juniors . Though I have refrained from actually ragging the students (making them do obscene impersonations,etc., etc.) , I have tried to know the juniors better by asking them their hobbies and interests . From what I have learned from these conversations with the bacchaas (as the first years r called here) and from what I have heard from my friends, I describe some interesting students :


#One horribly skinny chap who had won four gold medals in gymnastics at the international level . This explains the lack of our olympic medals to some extent I guess.
#A guy who had written more than hundred poems in hindi, but didn't have a single friend to show them to . From what I hear , it took a long time to get this out of his mouth .
#A guy whose hobby was reading novels -he had read less than ten - was a big, big fan of harry potter and didn't know the name of the sixth hp book. Some hobby.....
#Another guy's hobby was watching movies . In his own words he saw more english movies than hindi ones; but couldn't name more than four english films . One more guy's hobby was to make friends. Chap must have been bitten by the orkut bug .
#Four guys till date have given this reply when asked what they do in cricket : "waisey hi , kheltha hoon ! " .
# Thera Hobbies kya hai?? : Novels padtha hoon . Favourite author kaun Hai ?? .......SHERLOCK HOLMES .

PHONE and PHOTOGRAPHY - THEKKADY , KERALA .

Thekkady was the first place we went to on our Kerala trip this summer . The place was bleddy brilliant , but the mallus seemed to be pretty determined to keep Indian tourists out of the place, except for the filthy rich of course . Every single item on sale there was exorbitantly over-priced . And I feel it would be rather better not to talk about the hotels there, which were targeted mainly for the foriegners . Still, there are a few good "home-stay" places available which rent out rooms at an affordable rate . The GreenView Homes was one such place , where we stayed for two days . This picture was taken in the backyard of the place . It is my sister on a hammock . You might think I have altered the picture on photoshop or picasa or something but no, I haven't and I don't know how in hell I got the blue-ish tint . The second one is an edit of the original ; this is the firs time I am experimenting with black and white . Wat Say?