I am an Engineer

Some days back, the thought of writing something on the blog flashed in my mind and it appeared as "Diwali blasts off in office". Now my mind is again pushing me to write. What to write and where to start????? Few events seem good to write about now… "A day in my brother's home", "Am I indecisive?", "Don't loose your mobile on weekends" or can it be "Engineers work smart". Yes. I will present this to you now. "Engineers work smart".
You might have read many jokes about Engineering's life. No girl friends, always thinking logically, deep thoughts all the time. This bog is something like that. No no…. don't think I am saying "No girlfriends and no parties!" This is an entirely different story. Keep reading….
It was another typical morning in college hostel for me and Gokul. We were playing with our computers powered by the broadband internet. I got bored of downloading movies and games and went to download fonts for a change. A single search in Google revealed a good website with hundreds of fonts for free.
Wow!!!!!! Its Time to squeeze the internet bandwidth. The devil came out of my mind. But wait a minute. How to download??????
A simple calculation to provide the effort required to download all the fonts from the website…

• Right clicking on the font,
• Choosing Save Target As,
  Press 'Ok'
  After the file is downloaded click 'Close'

…will take an average of 5.67 seconds.

And there is this moving to next pages too.
Suppose there are 100 fonts and time to download each font is 2 seconds. The total estimate to download all fonts will be around 800 seconds which is 13.5 min approximately. I am not ready to waste the time. So I looked for an alternative method.
There came Win HTTrack website copier. The devil is still awakening. With the mention of the link of the homepage in it, there came the whole website to my desktop…. with all the FONTS. All work done in 5 minutes.

"We Engineers don't like the "Follow the steps" way of doing work.
We have an open mind always looking for alternatives and try to make one if nothing is found.
We like creation more than execution."

Now comes the next task. How to extract these hundreds of fonts? Opening and extracting each file one by one is not the way I like to work. I am an Engineer. I like to explore new things rather than examine existing things. I started exploring newer ways. A sudden thought flashed. Why not write my own program to extract all the files in a single click. I can customize the program to allow the user to choose the folder with the zip files and the destination where the files are to be extracted. Sounds cook! With no other work to do, I placed my hands on the keyboard.
My hands grabbed the mouse and keyboard and the monitor obeyed my commands. Visual basic is open. The folder location controls have been designed. The interface is complete. Now is the important part to be done. Implementing the zip operation. I have no idea how to do it. Do I have to learn how zip technology actually works? Do I have to study the algorithm of it? How can I implement this myself?

"There are two ways of doing a work.
You can work harder and harder
Or you can work smart"
We, Engineers like to work smart.
Implementing the actual algorithm is working hard. So what could be the 'Working smart'?
My mind looked at the controls and references section of Visual Basic. There might be an inbuilt control that handles zip operations in windows XP. There has to be something like that.

I searched the whole list of controls and references available and still couldn't find one for zip operations. Now my search extended to the Internet. Still no controls. My mind looked for other options. Luckily, the search in the internet showed that the infamous WinZip is providing add-on for performing zip operations from command prompt which means you can extract files by specifying it in the command prompt itself.
The intelligent brain clicked. I can call this add-on from my application, which will in turn extract the files I choose. This is great. With the analysis and design completed, coding is not far away.
Its time for lunch, but nothing can interfere my work and so the lunch is forgotten. The codes went on and on and so was the time.
At last with few hours to spare before the sun sets, the application is ready.
Project successful.

And now for the guest of honor to show my creation, I invited Gokul who have no idea what I was doing all these hours. I explained the objective and logic of this Zippo project. Then I presented a live demo of the project by extracting 100 zip files by a single click that too providing the user the ability to choose the source and destination folders.

Gokul's face went brighter and brighter every minute seeing my invention and suddenly it changed…..
This is when it happened. The end of all. The time to end this story and say the moral to all engineers.
……. Gokul's face seemed thoughtful and he gave me a puzzled look. I know he is thinking of something obvious to him but couldn't put it clearly. He was starring at me for sometime and he said THAT….
"Isn't this already available?"
I gave a plain but clear answer, "No".
He took the mouse and started selecting all the zip files in the folder. Then he right clicked it.
All this time, I was wondering what he was trying to do.
He went to the WinZip menu and clicked "Extract to". It asked for the destination. My face started to pale. "No! Not that", I said to myself. He gave some destination folder. "Please!!!!!!!!! I was trying this for hours. This mustn't happen" Then he clicked "Ok". (((((((((((((DOOM)))))))))))))
All the zip files were extracted to the destination folder.
My marvelous Zippo Project was already implemented in WinZip. Please with his work, he smiled at me and left.
He came!!!! He saw!!!! He screwed it up!!!!!


Moral of the story:
Its nice to explore new things. But before that, examine if its already explored.
Don't search for Ghee when you have butter at hand.

Gone are those days…. But not our memories

Gone are those days
When we come late to class
It just meant the class started earlier

Gone are those days
When one person talking
Its 66 persons sleeping(Save a few)

Gone are those days
We wait for girls to finish the assignment
To copy them at the last minute

Gone are those days
We need to get out of class
But on duty in the attendance

Gone are those days
We long for the next hour to come
For the lecturer is boring in the present hour

Gone are those days
We want functions once in a week
For we can go on duty for the rest of the week

Gone are those days
We want the HOD to take action
By placing the request before the Secretary

Gone are those days
Someone will talk about Simran
When the lecturer wants to talk about C(She)

Gone are those days
CAT doesn't mean Continuous Assessment Test
But Class Amusement Time

Gone are those days
Life can never be better
When CAT marks are said as not to be considered for internals

Gone are those days
When project centre will be very busy
People getting ready to kill each other(in Quake)

Gone are those days
When exam is one and a half hours wait for
Three hours chat in the canteen

Gone are those days
When celebration comes with great sounds
feeling claps on your backs(pothu maathu)

Gone are those days….
But not from memories

More memories to share...
more feelings to realise…

but no more time to dream….
Work at hand pushes me to end this.

So
To be Continued…..

Diwali blasts off in office

Diwali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The festival of lights!!!!!!!!!!!! It's supposed to be candle lights. But for me, it was the usual, solar and Neon lamp lights!!!!!!! I celebrated this Diwali with my employer Infosys. Pulled off from my dreams of celebrating the Diwali with my family and enjoying the holidays with my friends, I was made to stare at the computer screen for yet another day that too on Diwali. While everyone was busy firing up the crackers, I was booting up my safe Windows XP. With everyone watching television shows, I was watching my reports giving results that are testing my brain to the max.

The fine day started as usual, with me waking at 8. I can recall my mom waking me by 5 in the morning to take oil bath. With a sigh, I got up to take bath. And once daily customs are over, I took my new dresses to the pooja room and prayed as I would have prayed with my parents and sisters on Diwali day. One thing that went missing is mom shouting at me watching TV though I was called many times to come to pooja room long time back itself. And only way, I will move is switching off the TV. I brought my mind back to this fine day with me alone performing the pooja with no camphor or bell or even agarpathi. Obviously, I forgot to buy any of these. But I didn't forget to buy the most important thing for Diwali. Crackers. There was my 200 wala and atom bomb waiting for me to get fired. I said, don't worry! Your purpose will be fulfilled soon.
I took the crackers and went downstairs with Gokul no interest in it. So, I gave him the post of photographer while I am playing with crackers. I lit the thread of the cracker with Gokul taking snaps as and when possible covering me in all directions. But the crackers were in a NEVER GIVE UP mood not firing up for a long time. I tried lighting it many times, but in vain. At last I lit the cracker directly and there went the boom with the 200 wala crackling up the entire street. Diwali has begun. Another of my usual Diwali ritual completed.

Its time for the next part of the day. Its OFFICE time. The walk was a short walk as any other working day but waiting for half an hour and no company buses turning up, I realized I have to get the town bus. Work in office was a brief one with me and my colleague working on our reports and testing on others and the day went off very fast. Of course, not to forget mails from our team members wishing for a Happy Diwali with a note at the last saying "I know you will be working in office by now anyway". I could just laugh at it. But our Project manager was kind enough to bring Diwali sweets for us and we enjoyed Diwali at last with sweets.

And to make me forget that I am away from my friends, many of my friends called me from the morning itself and I also called some who missed out in the evening. The one who was in the same solitude situation as me on that fine day, yet having the thought of wishing me was Muthukumaran. He had called my home in the morning (Indian Standard Time) but I couldn't answer it as I was held up in office. That's really very nice of him. Thanks to Yahoo! I am having my daily chat with him from office. The last but not the least to wish me was Keerthana. Actually I called her. It was just around 8 PM but she sounded fast asleep. She was blabbering in her sleepy voice, not even aware of who is on the phone. Silly though, she must have said the words hundred times that day, that she told "Happy Diwali" even without hearing what I was saying to her. To finish of the fine day, I blasted two atom bombs on the street and let the shock shake the walls of all houses in our street. The Diwali went quietly without any more crackers and I indulged myself into sleep to make a fresh start for next day's office.

HAPPY DIWALI

Look before you leap

Typing fast is good. But typing fast without realising what we are typing is dangerous. I learnt this with a very good experience today. I was working from the morning and was tired of work. Atlast,I thought I could send a joke to the friends in my team. After selecting the joke, I was selecting the emailaddresses from my address book in Outlook. I have created distribution lists for addressing various groups already. So it was easy for me to send the email. I simply clicked some friend's list and the SI team list. SI team is the distribution list I created with persons in my project team who all joined with me. It is a very good joke. It is about Madras local tamil language used in Windows menu and errors. A sample of it is:

Open = thora naina
Close = moodikko
Abort, Retry, Ignore = Ishtam illati uttudu
Yes,No,Cancel= ippa innaa sollikeere nee
General protection fault = allam Gali
Access denied = Kai veche, keesiduven

Laughing at the joke, I sent it with a belief that my friends can also enjoy the laughter.

Within a few minutes, I got mails from two of my team members, thanking for the joke. I felt happier. With little satisfaction I might have had, then there came the problem in the form of a phone call. My phone at my desk started ringing. I picked the phone casually and answered it, "Hello, Jeykumar". It was someone whom I do not know. He was asking how I got his email address. I don't know what he was talking about and he also asked if I am in SI. I dont know why he was asking all these. I said "Yes" with a great curiousity. He then asked where I am sitting as he could hear my voice. I had no idea why he is asking this till now. Then he asked, "Did you send the mail about Madras technology?". Damn. Now I got what went wrong. This person is from SI department but not in my team. I have sent the joke to him instead of addressing just to my team. But how can it have happened??? The thoughts ran so quickly in a second and I found the answer in a few seconds. The distribution list I created included not only my team members but also others in the SI department. Which means that I have sent the email to about 360 persons sitting in this building and everyone from new software engineers to the project managers will be reading it by now.
By this time, my head started spinning. I recovered myself from my thoughts and apologized to him for the disturbance that might have been caused to him. When I was about to relax, he added that the mail will have reached Murali who is the head of the SI department. Oh! my god. What have I done to myself! I was completely worried that the Department head may call and shout me for sending jokes to the group. After hanging up, I became a bit nervous. But then, I consoled myself saying this is our company. Mails like these must not be a much problem. And then the phone started ringing again. This time it was another person with the same question? He advised me not to send jokes to the group ID. I thanked for his advice and silently hung up the phone. Oh! oh! What can I do? And then there was ringing in my phone again. I am sure it must be another person asking, "Madras Technology?" Please..... Not again!
I picked the phone and it was a member of my team. Phew! I said, "Hello! da". But his question was again, "Madras Technology to SI team?????". I started my answer immediately, "That was a mista.... sorry...". He stopped me in the middle and said, "I also mailed to the group once and got call from someone advising not to do this". Great. I have a company with me. I told him proudly that I got TWO calls. We laughed and soon replaced the receiver. My immediate step to make an end to this is an apology email to all the members for sending the joke. I did it immediately and was happy this will make an end to this problem. And it did. I didn't get any calls after that. I got relaxed and thought I should never send email without checking the addresses carefully.
Now I got a mail from a member of SI department. I got tensed and I opened the mail. To my surprise, this nice person was telling that the joke was interesting though and he enjoyed it. Great. Mails like this tempts me to send another mail to SI. But we should learn from our experiences and I am not going to mail any joke to the SI team group email address. Nice moral on a very nice day it is. Happy ending always here.

Spiderman 2 - A peek

Its our friendly neighborhood Spiderman. This time, he is back to fight new villian Doc ock. If you think the story is going to be another explosive and demoltion plot, think again. For the film promises more emotional scenes rather than pure action.
Attention!!!! Sequel makers of super hero films, this is a film to remind you that people want something more than simple action. We need a story line with more emotions. The Story writers have made their part very well by giving a very good storyline to the new adventure of spidey.
Peter Parker struggles to run a normal life. He loses his job, misses classes, gets lower grades. All because of his inner being responsibility, Spiderman. He is on the verge of losing his love. Its time for our hero to make a choice. Its either Peter or Spidey. The spidey suit is put in the garbage(Oh! spidey).
But how can the superhero film run without Spiderman? It cant. Right. Spidey is brought back into action by the villian Doc ock, a multi-tentacled menace. He makes a deal with Harry Osborn, Peter's best friend to get Spidey in exchange of metal for his project.
Things go faster and higher then with webs flying all over the sky. The most remarkable scene is the fight between our spidey and doc ock on the train. Like the trailer rightly says that the hero will be revealed, spidey is revealed. But then, public promises to keep the identity secret. Choo chweeet of them.
The film is more of revelations with Peter confessing the cause of his uncle's death to his aunt, Hero being identified to Harry and MaryJane and Harry looking at the green goblin's suit in his father's(first part villian) room.
At last, our hero holds the hands of both his love and the web. If you think this is a fairy tale that ends with "And they lived happily ever after....",you are wrong. The director drops a scene with Harry and Green Goblin giving a hint that The game is not over and the web will spin again.With Great powers comes great responsibilities. And spidey tops the chart once again.

Ups:
*The action scenes are more realistic and camera movements will take you to the ultimate spin.
*The storyline touches your heart and melts your feelings along with pumping up the adrenaline.

Downs:
* Makeup was forgotten and Kirsten Dunst looks older in many scenes.* Spidey falling from some 100 storey building and just saying "OUCH!" is too fictional even for a super hero.
* The dialogue at the end was not at all nice with Mary Jane just saying "Go get it tiger" to our spiderman. Some importance could have been given to make some impression creating dialogue.

Infosys!!!!!! Here I come

Its time to become a professional. Its time to work rather than playing and watching TV. I am going to Bangalore to join Infosys. Already I am not blogging much and I wonder whether I will have time to blog at all. Dont worry folks, keep watching and I will surely be back with more blogs whenever I find time.

Where Am I

Sorry for not blogging for a very long time folks. I must not say I was very busy all these days. Its the laziness in me. Also no more free internet here. So really frightened that the phone bill will raise my uncle's temper ( I browse from my uncle's computer only) to the max. Anyway, I will keep blogging here afterwards.

Wasting time

If life is a waste of time,

and time is a waste of life,

then let's all get wasted together

and have the time of our lives.

Source: Unknown

I am a studious person

Its time to divert all my concentration to studies now. The semester exams are nearing. Its on April 7th and I haven't prepared anything for it till now. I just realised that there are five subjects and i have not studied much of it. Days are gone where our staff will give the questions and we will study the answers in 1 to 2 hours. We have to study everything. That makes me cry. Anyway, I am a strong willed and confident person. And I can make it easily. So bye friends. Dont disturb me. I am studying... I said I am studying. So you too start studying....

Yeah!!! Yeah!!!! I am still here

Here is my message to everyone, who thought my blog is dead. As I was a bit busy with the college work especially the placement work, I couldnt find time to sit alone to write in the blog. Atlast, Here I am writing a short note to say

"I AM BACK"

The final

It is now or never. It is the final project presentation. The external was from Kongu engineering college. With a lot of hard work, we completed the project on the previous day only. I even designed a single setup file that will help to deploy the project in any sytem easily. One thing I didn't finish is the Project presentaion slides. I was too tired to work on it and wanted my projct mates to make it. They somehow managed to make some slides but still it is incomplete.
The worst part started when I found that I have to setup another server to show the redirection module. I wanted a system with two com ports which is only in Cisco. We went there immediately and with great luck, found one and started setting it up. I wanted to make sure that our main server is running properly. But to my worst fear came to life when I found that my project is not working. Someone have changed the date and the component we are using is expired. I thought I am lost. I felt some bad feeling in my head. i was in the height of tension. To add fuel to the fire, the external was firing questions to the students and all are standing unanswerable. He was complaining every project and he was not satisfied with most of our friends project.
I started checking the codes again and again, still couldn't find the error. Frustrated, I checked it in other system. The biggest problem I found was that my project will work only on Windows XP. We dont have any system with two com ports and Windows XP installed. I then turned to the current problem. I was working on the code tensed. our HOD came to me and asked whats the problem. When I told him what has happened, he was shocked. He was so kind to give us the permission to show our presentation at the last. After a lot of confusions and tensions, I made the code back to working in an hour. Phew! Atlast, I did it.
Our slot came only in the afternoon. When we started the presentation, Tirupur was talking first. He first started blabbering and then slowly he picked up his words properly. Even our HOD was helping us in the presentation by explaining the significance of our project. He then asked what tool did u use for text to speech. When we answered Microsoft speech, he was not convinced and compained that the speech will be of American ascent and we have to use Indian english. Again tensed about his questions, we somehow managed the situation. When we took him to show the project demo, he told us that he wanted to hear the voice. When we told him that he have to move to the next lab to hear the voice, he again complained, but this time for fun. Then he went to the next lab and heard the message. He found it interesting. He said that the first message was very clear than that of the second message. My friend replied, "sir, the first message was my voice and only the second was computer voice". We all laughed and he went out to see the next project satisfied with us.

Thanks to our HOD for helping us in finishing our project successfully.And of course, Thanks to our junior friend Gangadran for giving his modem to work on our project.

Project completed successfully. Deployment ready. Hurray!!!!!!!!

Farewell party

This time its our immediate juniors giving us the farewell party. Though the party was not of a much organized one, they called us all individually in the project centre to come to the mini auditorium. We were all busy with the project work as the final project presentation is nearing soon. Anyhow, we couldn't turn our juiors down. So we all went there and was really surprised to find all the staff and even our HOD waiting for the final years. This is the only one occasion we have made the satff waiting for the students. We happily took our seats in the front row.
The function started off with speech from our Principal and placement officer. And then the session was handed out to us. The juniors asked some of us to share a few unforgettable moments with them. I feared this will be another session that will make me feel embarrassed. Luckily, it was not so. Anoop stopped with a few words followed by many of my friends who talked only for a small time.
But we found something missing. Someone is missing. Me and Anoop were wondering about it a lot. And then we found out who it is. It is none other than Arun, so called mullu the Secretary. We want him to say a few words to our staff. So we pushed him to the stage. He was speechless for a while and then talked about the college. He was talking exactly like our college secretary. Atlast, he made his punch dialogue. Instead of wishing the students for success in their career he wished the staff for success in their future. The whole crowd started laughing.
And then came the big event. The next game was "know your campus" and Me and Rahini are called to represent the CSE department. When the game started, they were asking ridiculous questions like how many wells are there in the college or how many racks are in the library. Whatever the competition is, CSE will always be the best and this is of no exception. The question to us is "what is the total number of computers in Lab2?" for which I answered 33 correctly. Also, we answered 5 to the question, "how many water tanks are there in our campus?". I really dont know where these 5 water tanks are placed in our guess.
But with the help of my friends, we got the first place. CSE rose to the heights once again...... Our juniors wanted to do something different about the dinner. So instead of the traditional dosai or chapathi, they have ordered only puffs, cake , cool drinks and ice cream. That was really great. I helped myself with 2 puffs, 2 cakes, 1 icecream and some 3 cool drinks. It was fantastic.

But one thing, I found different was no one was emotional on that day. Maybe, everyone got matured atlast......

Thank you my junior friends for giving us such a wonderful party. Where ever we go, you will always be in our heart.

Infosys fever

This blog will be short and sweet. It wont be long boring you. It defines everything I am happy about.

I AM PLACED IN INFOSYS, BANGALORE

Dont loose heart when a silver leaves your hand, may be gold is waiting for you next.

A pleasant dinner with my friend

I was in a very busy schedult today with the project still incomplete, documentation still not verified, Infosys coupons not printed, Video for slam cd not taken and of course breakfast not eaten as usual, I had a pleasant surprise tonight. Also at the right time to take me off from this hectic schedule, my sweet friend messaged me that she is coming back to Pollachi with her friend. She have already mailed me about her friend. I was reading her long mail yesterday for more than half an hour. That was touching. I realised how deep she believe in our friendship. Now today, she has brought her friend too. After a brain storming discussion with our placement officer for about 3 hours, I was exhausted. Luckily at the exact moment, there was my friend calling from her cell phone. They are coming to college in few minutes and there they came very soon. We had a chat for a while and decided to have dinner at the hotel. We had a small but delicious dinner. I was relaxed. I was happy to be put off from that heavy work. Thanks to both of my friends for helping this poor chap relax for a while.

Neo is trapped

"Neo is trapped between the real world and the machine world". Its the effect of some mistake made by neo showing his power to the higher officials. As you may have already read the part 1 which is "My Name is Neo", I realised I am the one. But the one is in trouble and dont know what to do. I have told you that I passed through the login page in our college website with out any autentication. Neo should have kept silent about this. But Neo is always a trouble some. He did a stupid job which is the worst thing to think of. After successfully entering the page, I mailed (worst) to our head of department explaining completely about the work. I even told him where they have taken the code from. The greatest stupidity is mentioning my name in the mail.
On the next day, the HOD did a excellent job of taking a laser printout of my mail and sent it to the faculties who did that page. When I went near the computer lab, the Agents (faculties) got hold of me and started the enquiry. Neo is trapped. I was trying my best to cool them. But Smith (Paval Raj) was not ready to hear me completely. He made his statement that I should have told him personally and left without any other word. I then talked to the other agents for a while and somehow escaped.
Neo, you must be careful here afterwords.

"Where there is a beginning, there is an end!"

I cried because I couldn't cry

Now its time for some of our friends to share their unforgettable moments in the college life, and the first person to get to the stage was my friend Soundarya. She is the bravest girl in our class. She used to be easy taking in most of the problems she comes across. And the most important fact is that she was informed to be over-qualified in two of the campus interviews we had in our college.
She came to the stage and all our eyes are fixed on her. She started with a louddddddddd greetings to the dignitaries. Me and Kannan thought she will swallow the moc kept ifornt of her mouth. She was speaking as usual. She was talking in English like a typical English lady. She was explaining why she joined this college. With every word she spoke, her voice was getting lower and lower. We could feel her going emotional every second. Me and Kannan were sitting at the edge of our chairs. We were embarrassed seeing her emotions. See is about to cry on the stage.
We dont know how to react. We felt some pain in our heart. We were holding each other arms so tight. I wondered whether I would cry. She was saying, "I will miss you all my friends. I dont know how I am going to live without you all". I am on the verge of heart attack. This is too much. I was begging for someone to make her come down. Me and Kannan were completely speechless. I could not explain what I felt. I was hoping somebody will pull her out of the stage and make me breath. She started crying. Oh my! I couldn't stand it anymore. I looked at Kannan and shouted, "Please get her off the stage. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." Atlast, she made her way down. Phew!!!!! But it was not over.
The next one was Huzefa. He was totally blabbering in English. Everyone on the stage was laughing. He was a clown. Then after sometime came Sangeetha from IT department. Oh my! She started talking in Tamil and it was normal at first. But within a few minutes, she started talking high about our chairman, and was addressing him as 'Ayyiah", thats how he was called every few seconds. My ears were paining. My head started spinning. When I saw Kannan, he was worse than me. His face looked pale. He was about to cry. I couldn't take any more, I ran out of the auditorium as fast as I could. I want to save myself. I went out and drew a breath of fresh air. What a relief!
I stood wondering why all these people are talking like these. Have they gone mad? They are out of their mind. I dont know why people go such emotional on pity things. We are not leaving for ever. Just a small gap. Just a change in life. Why cant they accept even these small changes????? I kept on wondering about this. May be I am not right. May be I am not reacting properly. I felt like I would cry. I am going to cry because I cant cry when my friends cried.

Bidding Adieu

I was in my Blazers. Looking smart as usual. With the best fragrance surronding me, I entered the project centre. I was stunned to see lightning flashing continuously inside the project centre. It looked like the sky has come inside with thunders blasting in the room. It is the day the college is giving formal good bye to us, the final year students. We were all in formal blazers with girls in sarees. Everyone were clicking photos calling each other. As soon as I entered the room, I am also pulled in and was posing for photograph with all my friends. The photo session was going on and on and no one was ready to go to the auditorium where the farewall party was arranged. Anyhow, our HOD found the only way to make us out of the project centre was to lock it. So he sent the assistant to lock the door. Without any choice, we all went to the auditorium waiting for the function to begin.

It was not much of a farewell function at the first. It had the usual essence of the chiefguest, Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary and the Principal giving speeches for a long time which made many of us to snooze. Then came the part I do not want to forget in my lifetime. Our placement officer was reading the placement report and all persons who got placed will receive the offer letter from our chairman. The persons were called in the Alphabetical order of the companies which made Hexaware to be read first, followed by GES and then Integra micro systems. 9 persons were infront of me receiving their offer letters one by one. My heart was beating fast. I was tensed how to get the offer letter. And then my turn came. I saw our placement officer in the podium letting out a naughty smile. Oh! Oh!!!! He is going to comment something. And then he said, "Here is the one to be placed first in this year. Here is the one who started the race". And I felt lighter than ever. I felt flying in the clouds. He is blowing me up and up in the air. I can see everyone watching me now. I am smiling like I have never smiled before. I felt great at that moment. You have achieved something that your friends and relatives can be proud of. You have done something that your dad will be happy when he hears about it. Your mom will be in tears of joy hearing you. I went to the stage and I am in the best of my life. I felt happy I have joined this college. I felt happy I have a loving placement officer who is always with me. I thank everyone who have made it possible for me to reach the stage. Thanks to you all.

My name is Neo

Living in the world of computers, sleeping under wires, dreaming about computer viruses, waking infornt of a computer screen........ I have become more of a computer hacker. I am Neo. And I realised I am the ONE.
It was a busy evening as usual with loads of work to complete with still my mind wavering what to do. My friend was using my system, and was browsing through our college website www.drmcet.org. As he went into it he met a section C++ tutorials which was accessible only within the college and not outside. Anyhow he got frustrated when a Login page blocked his entry. He turned to me and asked for any guess for the password. I tried a few times and was not successful. But something clicked my mind, the way the login page was working told me that it is not the usual. Something is wrong with that page. The error was coming in a alert box rather than in the HTML page. I found that the authentication is on the client side which means it is javascript. Which means I can see the source code directly from the page.
The wavering mind got a job to pass some time. I took a look into the source code and computer part of me saw algorithms and keys rather than alphabets and numbers. I spent some quarter of an hour starring at the code and my mind grabbed the authentication algorithm behind the page. I am not Anderson, I am neo.
The stone blocking my path is the encrypted value of the password in the page. The password we type is encrypted to produce a number which is compared with the value of the correct encrypted password. All I have to do is guess a password that will produce the correct encrypted password. my fingers kept on pressing the keyboard with my brain passing the combinations to it. After half an hour of mind work, the page ultimately cracked. I realised that I can do something. But still I was not fast enough to dodge all the bullets. I found the login page accepting the password, but I have not reached the page I want. It showed an error 404. I got frustrated. Something has gone wrong. Though I could break the authentication, I am not in. What happened. I wanted to know the reason. And then the truth showed itself. The filename where the login page will lead to must be of 8 characters and there is a strong probability that the default page name might be used in it. What can it be??????? My mind traced it and found what it should be. My fingers went to press the keys, M A I N P A G E .html........

ENTER

And there I am watching the C++ tutorials without logging in through the login page. I realised who I am. I am the ONE....................Free your mind, Neo

Shocking news

This is a shocking news. A real shock. Electric shock. I felt like holding a wire with current passing through it. I wonder how many record breaks I have made in college. And this one is the master record, no one can break it for some time. This record shows that we are computer geeks and spend most of the days and nights starring the computer screen. We are using computers to the maximum. Our computers are running all the time. So what is the proof? The record is the proof. So what is the record? THE ELECTRICITY BILL FOR OUR ROOM THIS MONTH IS Rs.874.50. Thats the highest electricity bill paid by any hostel mate in the history of MCET.

As I have finished writing this blog, I am switching off my system. Bye. See you when I switch on the system.

Hostel day

Today we celebrated our hostel day. This is a celebration organised after so many years in the hostel. And its worth every bit. We enjoyed it completely. Similar to any function in our college, I got into the act of helping in organising the events. Me and veerasekar got the duty of organising the games in the morning. There were Eating competition, Pot breaking and Tug off war. The eating competition was really funny with competitiors eating more than 8 hostel idlis which they always hesitate to taste on other days. Tug off war became a real war with warriors making greatest strategies to win the game. We the final years were really smart that we made wonderful strategies to win the first round and we also made it. Anyhow, the strategies didn't work in the second round and we lost the match. Pot breaking never became success and not even a single person was able to hit the pot though a few came very close to it.

Culturals were in the evening and I wondered what to do as I am not participating in any of the events. Suddenly, I saw mini the MMTC camera man and he offered me a real good job thats suits me the best. He gave me the digital camera and asked me to help him in shooting photos during the entire session. I agreed it immedaitely and took on the job of Photographer. I was clicking on and on and covered every person invloved in the function. Before the culturals we had Tamil Debate from Thiru.Solomon Paapiya and we enjoyed it very much. The best part that interested me is my friend Subashini spoke in the debate. She was excellent in the speech and showed all her talents which made me wonder why we didn't realise of her talent before. Even the starting words from her were very sharp and hit the opponents very much. She gave a wonderful meaning for the howling word "Kadalai". That was fantabullous. One important thing I learnt taking photos is that a photographer is the only one who can move around the stage anywhere and any time he wants. I was moving through the stage freely and was standing in the middle of the stage for a long time. I felt as if I have become a great photographer. Ha ha ha ha........... Now someone there, please sayyy 'Cheeeeezeee'

Seven placed in Hexaware

Seven of my friends got placed in Hexaware Technologies. Anoop, Muthu, Vani, Soundarya, Vinodh, Vivek, Rajasekar got the job in Hexaware. We must feel proud that 7 out of 9 students got through the interview. Though myself not getting through the GD disapponts me, all those worries are forgotten when we hear our close friends placed in the company we dreamt to work with. Hats off to you guys and girls. They will all be seeing each other and enjoying the future together. I am afraid to face those days coming that I will have to face without you all. I will miss you so much. Anyway, I am sure we will always keep in touch with each other.Congrats......

I lost my dream

There are moments in life that you never want to happen. They are something you never want to lose. Something that you were expecting a lot. Something that has been in your dreams for months. But something will not happen for all. I lost something I wanted the most. I lost my dream.Its campus interview from Hexaware Technologies in KCT. We are expecting the visit of Hexaware to our college before the starting of the last semester and we got the opportunity just now.

There were four steps.

1. Aptitude test,
2. Group discussion,
3. Technical interview and
4. HR interview.

I prepared well for the aptitude test. Though I was confident of my aptitude skills, I dont want to be over confident and kept on practising till the night before the campus interview.The day came and I wrote the test very well. Though I dont know some 10 to 20, I was sure that what I have did will mostly be correct and it seemed almost true. I cleared the aptitude test. Then came the worst part for me. Our group for GD contained toughest members like Huzefa, Darwin, Rupesh, Vani etc. Anyhow I was thinking of the GD sessions we had in our college and was sure of clearing the GD. ........................................................................... I really dont want to talk about what happened inside the GD hall. All I can say is I failed completely. I have to be blamed for my own loss. I lost my dream. I lost my dream of getting the job in Hexaware. The dream is lost.

But still in my inner mind, I have something that can get past these sorrowful things and make me work to the best path always. And I call it HOPE......I can easily recall the words of the Architect in the film The Matrix Reloaded, "Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness". I have Hope and I will win.

Founders day

Founders day in our college became a party for us last night. Cultural programmes started by 7 in the evening and we all got our seats in the front. As the show started everyone was danceing. Staff tried to control us, but it was useless. Nobody took care of them. Then they came mechanical staffs. Still no chance of silence. Even our CSE HOD came. He also have to return in vain. But as long as he stood near us everyone was calm showing our respect to him. But soon he turned to leave we are back in excitement again.

All these time, I was just watching. I was not in the mood of dancing. Watching the dance. With all my friends dancing and blocking my view, I went straight infront of the stage to wath the show. Something shocked me. All the girls of my class are also dancing. And to add to the surprise the secretary wife was the one motivating the girls to dance. When the final years were called to the stage to perform a dance all of us including me went to the stage. I was somehow determined of dancing now. But as the final years gathered at the stage the stage was completely packed that left us no place for dancing. We stood for a while and returned back. The girls were smart.(Atleast this time). They formed a circle on the stage and started dancing. It was good. And the fun continued for the next dances also. Seemed everyone was enjoying by dancing and i was enjoyng by watching them dance. Haa haha hahaa.

The toughest job

Today afternoon, I found out the toughest job. Its not programming in machine language nor remembering the source code of linux kernel. Its WASHING. Oh my! I have not been to home for more than two weeks and the dirty dresses piled up to a small mountain in the hostel. Determined to wash it myself to save some money from laundry wash, I took the clothes in a bucket and armed myself with bar soap. First it was easy. A T-shirt, my shorts, my.... shirt...... sports t-shirt............ and so on. Slowly it became tiring. I was sweating as if I am lifting a huge boulder above my head. Phew! what is this? I couldn't even wash few sets of dress. After hard work for about 45 minutes, the washing was over. I thought of my mom who washes my clothes at home. I am wondering who is strong, me or my mom? Whatever the answer may be, I have to practice washing clothes or else I will be in BIG trouble when I go to work in Bangalore.

The duo party

The get together parties started some time earlier back. Tirupur was our first destination. Then Nithyanandhan's house. This time it was a duo. Two in one. Raja and Saravana gave a party in a combined manner. So on that great day, we went to udumalpet by bus. Bikes were waiting for us outside the bus stand. Raja, Ranjith and Logs brought their bikes to escort us safely to their home which was less than a kilometre distance from the bus stand. I heard a voice shouting that it will be nice to walk over to Raja house rather than driving. We all agreed with it like the goats follwing the other goat.

So the bikers picked a few of us not to return empty to their home. Then suddenly I realised what was happening. Sivalingam who actually suggested the walk was sitting in Raja's bike and he drove off. Oyeeeeeeeee!!!!!! We were shouting as Raja went fast. We decided to take care of Sivalingam after we get there. Rasna was waiting for us in the doorstep and we took two glasses saying that its a duo party so we must have two.
Then we saw the movies Kaaka kaaka and speedin Raja's computer. Enjoyed a lot. Lunch was waiting for us upstairs. We had it and anoop was sitting near me. I suddenly thought that I have to keep an eye on my plate or else something will get missing soon. But fortunately, it was not my plate and it was the dish in which the food was kept started missing its contents. And Anoop plate and stomatch are where it got smuggled. According to my calculations he had 5 cups of Paayasam still looking for more. But he was no match for another person sitting before me. One and only Ramakrishnan. Anbarasu just asked him why he was eating slowly. The reply was "I am on diet. I am just tasting the dishes". That threw the heart of everyone.After a great lunch, we went back to Raja's room and started watching movies again. There was some photos sessions there and we are all tired of eating. We relaxed for a bit.

Then Thakali called us to his for the night. So some of us went there while others had fun in the park. I really missed it a lot. Anyhow Raja's treat was too much for me. I felt that I ate too much that day. The food was delicious not only because of the spices in it but also because of the kindness with which it was served. Really a memorable day it was.

I love u Buzzzzzzzz

It was a funny experience. As usual, I was signed in my yahoo messenger. Me and Anoop were working in Photoshop. We have to finish the job on that day itself. While we were working Vani came online and buzzed my messenger. Anoop was afraid that I will start the conversation. Vani is our friend and me and vani used to chat for a long time. He immediately closed the window and resumed the work in Photoshop. She buzzed again. Anoop got iritated. Now I immediately closed the window to reduce his irritation. After some time, there was Vani buzzing again. This time Anoop really got angry and told me that he will scold her if she buzzes again. I laughed and we continued our work. At last we have finished our work. Anoop went out of my room to refresh. Now Vani buzzed again for the fourth time. Then we chatted for a small time. I teased her that I am going to watch The Matrix Revolutions which she haven't seen even once. Then we stopped chatting for some time.
Vani always like to buzz in the messenger and she buzzed again for the FIFTH time. Oh! oh! This time, Anoop, Tirupur and many of my class friends are sitting near me. Suddenly a mischevious plan rolled into their head. They pulled me back and held me tight so that I cannot get near my computer and started the fun........
I can see X typing "I". I know what it is. Then he typed "L". Its that only. I got sure. I struggled. But nothing could break the tight hold of those big guys. And it went "I LOVE U" Oh no! He pressed the Enter key. i went through my computer, passed to the internet data center, got mixed in the internet, went to yahoo server and then marched straight forward to Vani's desktop and there it displayed "I LOVE U".Here we were all watching the screen intensively, waiting for her reply. As expected her reply was "WHAT?" Then X typed it again. Now we will get some interesting reply. Everyone was holding their breath. "Come on, Vani. Its not me. You know that", I said to myself. Then came the reply.
"WHO ARE YOU?".
yessssssssssss!!!!!. Thats Vani. She is somewhat smart. I was laughing. Others were dejected. They were thinking of some other replies. But they didn't seem to give up so soon.Mow Mr.Y took the keyboard. He started typing great words and putting words directly from his heart which I know he got from his personal experience. But Vani is really smart. She is sure that its not me. He kept on asking who was chatting with my id. She told them that the words were not on my slang.A great war took between Vani and XYZ. I was laughing all the time. XYZ cannot succeed a bit. Vani is strong that its not me. After half an hour of our chat, we were hungry. I told thats enough and to my surprise they were also tired. "Ok! Thats enough!", they said and the war was over.
In the night she agani came online and I acted as I dont know anything about what happened. We chatted for a while, but I didn't say who were chatting with her.The fun continued the next day in our class. She has told the news to most of the girls and everyone was asking me and tirupur who the culprit is. We were too strong not to divulge the fugitives name. We had fun on this for the whole day and even on the next days.Now it all over. Tirupur was found to be the person and he took the entire responsibility and saved the other XYZ persons. Too generous of him.In the greatest war of all chats, I emerged as the winner. Vani the trusty friend made me win and XYZ can do nothing but surrender. She knows more about the true friendship. Whatever they told her, she was sure that it was not me. Thats Vani, my true friend.

Offer from Integra

The decision is not yet made. But now its time to make the decision. I have got the offer letter for appointment from Integra Micro Systems yesterday. Still dont know what to do. The main constraint is that only after 6 months of training and another 6 months on probation the job will be made permanent. And the salary increase will be made only at the end of first year. The two year bond still troubles my mind much. Our placement officer has told that I may not be allowed to attend on campus or off campus interviews arranged with the help of college. Though thats not much a problem, still there are hopes that Infosys and Hexaware will come for off campus interviews.I am worried that I haven't tried on these companies and confused whether its ok to settle in this company itself.
Life throws challenges daily. Everytime it gives a choice. Its up to you to choose one. Better make it soon and pray thats right......