The first day of 5th sem

After nearly two months of exams and holidays, I returned to my college MS Ramaiah today for the beginning of the 5Th sem. Normally I expected the first class to be taken by a senior professor who would advice us on the importance of this sem and so on... Imagine to my pleasant surprise a young lecturer turned up who actually put this entire Semester into context by explaining how this sem and its subjects are going to determine our future in the Telecomm field.

We had the first class and soon I found myself walking to the canteen. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't recognize many faces on the way. And then my friend said it... the super Seniors or those in 4Th year had passed out. I couldn't imagine how this campus would be without them, now reality was filling in for where my imagination left off.

No Sanjay Joshi to egg you onto public speaking and debate, boosting any nervous participant's confidence with a few words of extremely useful advice.

No Santa and Banta or Mahendra, Dilip and Dinesh DC teams who'd competed with us for two years and had defeated us many times until my DC team learnt from them the tricks of the trade resulting in us beating them in the farewell Mechanical fest.

No Nikki to beat me in speaking Tamil without teaching me any Punjabi.

No Vineet to trace back his and my stay in Bihar.

No Gagan to warn us on the many pit falls of having chosen Telecomm.

No Srikanth and Devadatta to look up to as quizzing geniuses.

No Varun to break into random thoughts and speeches or give tips on JAM.

As I look back I often realise that my second year was totally defined by the above people, people who helped me out tremendously in various parts of college life.

As I walked around, my friend started discussing the freshers party that was to be organised for our juniors. It is then that i realise that the wheel had come a full turn.

“Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: You find the present tense and the past perfect”

Bloging related sites

Was just surfing the net reading up a bit on blogging. Came across this article which pretty much summed up why the whole blogging phenomenon is occurring.

Another great website is problogger. This website contains the A to Z of blogging. Tools, resources, tips so on...

The VTU mobile Ban...

I'd like to consider the ban imposed on students carrying cellphones in engineering colleges in Bangalore.

The Ban prevents students carrying cell phones anywhere on them even if they are switched off...

Now this is a really backward step justified by the VTU on the basis that it reduces indiscipline .A BLANKET ban sound draconian in this time and age. The VTU should have at least allowed us to carry the cellphones in a switched off state.

Now lets be frank here, the blanket ban has significantly increased discipline in my college. No more do I have near unlimited ability to message people in other rooms or cities with ease, no more do out of station students walk into labs loudly enquiring about the health of their uncles, no more do canteen discussions revolve around who's got the best ring tone.

Now for all the good things the cell phone ban has done its done quite a lot of bad ones also. Loads of students including myself travel cross the city in attend college and more often than not the cell phone provides an important communication link to our homes. When Bangalore nearly drowned in last year's downpour the fact that I had an illegal cellphone on me allowed me and my friends to communicate our whereabouts to our families and also helped us to avoid traffic jams!

Also let us remember that engineering students are part of a professional course, this ban would have been justified in schools but we are students who are going to start earning in 4 years time and this ban has made our ability to make our own decisions for ourselves seem irrelevant.

The VTU should rethink this absolute ban and in turn bring about a limited ban regarding the usage of cell phones during class hours.

Lessons from many a bus ride.

I've been travelling to my college for the past 2 years on the local city bus, it was a welcome change from cycling to school which was virtually down the road. The city bus as opposed to a college bus is with a difference. The simpler differences are that a seat is not guaranteed, its not always on time and so on...
But it offers significant advantages too. For the first time since i arrived in Bangalore in 1993 i got the ability to interact with the local population for longer periods than i usually used to.

Firstly, i realised how accommodating the Kannadigas are. I've spent a nearly 13 years in Bangalore and till recently i used to be proud that i didn't know much Kannada. Not only do Kannadigas accommodate themselves and have picked up English and my mother tongue Tamil, nowadays considering the large number of north Indians arriving here in search of a dream IT job, the use of Hindi is also on the rise. No more am i proud of my ignorance of the local language. I Now insist on speaking in Kannada to some of my friends in an effort to learn it.

Secondly, English is not only the fastest way to the top in India it seems to come with the added benefit of instant arrogance. Traffic policemen seem to be extremely intimidated by drivers who speak in commanding and aggressive English. This is balanced out by the way they treat English speaking student motorists.

Thirdly,The people of Karnataka are not as politically involved as say Tamil Nadu,State politics does not dominate the general discussions on the bus as much as national politics. But this is on the decline,the death of the Kannada Superstar Rajkumar bought out chauvinistic Kannada groups on the streets as Karnataka has never seen before. Other examples of rising strength of these group are the renaming of local areas such as Ulsoor to the more Kannada sounding Halasuru, renaming of majestic bus stand to Kempa Gowda bus stand and so on...

Fourthly,Bangalore is no Pub city , don't let the news papers fool you, The majority of Bangalore is not pub going bottle swinging people with "Work hard party harder attitude".For those of you who believe Bangalore is defined by that single stretch of MG road should visit all the other places my bus trips have taken me. Shivajinagar,Majestic, Jaynagar and so on...

Fifthly, Bangalore is not a city suited for students at all. I hope to write a longer post regarding this specifically.

Until my next post...