The Graduate Student Dilemma: Part1

This is an interesting phase in every graduate students' life I guess. When we apply to universities for grad studies in the US we have no clue what we will be getting into. What we learn in the process of getting our prestigious degree named Btech or BE or BE(Hons.) we feel we have every possible knowledge of the respective field. Then we look at our projects and we mention that field in our SOP in which our maximum projects lie and quote names of some professors and a couple of their research papers (which sound interesting by reading their name!!). We get an admit, we feel we have conquered the world.. and we come to the US!

After coming here, everything is different! Professors are big shots in their field and batch mates range from people like us to married people having few years of industrial experience (in short Uncles). Seeing the variety of courses offered we get confused as to what to take and what not. Mostly in first sem we take courses that have funky names.. advanced powertrain controls, mechatronics and what not. During the course we get to know its nothing but math, only math: matrices, numbers and differential equations and ex tensive use of MATLAB!

Towards the end of first sem, we are in a process of selecting our next semester courses, and unknowinly we get our nam

es: controls guy, fluids guy, design guy etc. I am a controls guy! According to what kind of guy we are (which has nothing to do with bachelor's education ..gone are those days.. move on!) we start taking courses and start searching for internships for summers. Grad education suddenly feels expensive when we have to pay second sems tuition and we realise the fact that we got admit so that PhD students would get funded!! The "conquering the world" state of mind slowly fades away.We take up independent study projects with the sole hope of getting money some day!

Up till now we hardly know what we want to do. Seniors say, if you want to do a PhD, its better to stay and work for a prof in summers. If you want a job, get an internship and convert it. We say.. I don't know.. Let me keep my options open!

We fight, we attend career fairs, we apply to companies on the job portal and finally sooner or later we secure internship. Some profs tell their students to do a PhD and they will pay them.. such get converted into a doctoral student. Others fly to their respective company towns. (Some face a problem in their background/ DNA checks due to insufficient sample of hair etc, but even they fly one day! :P)

We say after internship, after getting some experience in the company/in a university lab, "I will be in a good position to decide what to do" and with this notion we start our third sem. Many people turn their heads off the PhD option as they either have converted their internships to full times or do not consider themselves as "PhD Materials", or have a greater vision of "starting up" something, or the sole reason is monetory. Some people like me are still confused and say.. PhD karni hai yaar, agar accha project mila to! Job as a back up to rakhunga! Ghanta backup! Excuse for having no vision in life!!

Coming next..... This decision / confusion phase comes from intense discussions on telephones during the summers! What happens next.. Stay tuned!

(*pics taken from PhD comics)

I have your Eclipse secured!!

Being an Automotive guy, being 20 miles away from Detroit and not going to the North American Auto show would the the dumbest thing on earth that i could ever think of! Everything was planned and me, Prasad with three other gals, Krutikka, Avani and Sofia decided to drive down to Detroit in Prasad's Coupe. Coupe is basically a two door 4 seater car where the people sitting on rear seats have to sneak in through a minute gap between the front seat and B pillar... Design doesn't make sense but the car looks sexy!

So after lunch we drove down to Detroit. GPS is a necessity while driving on US roads (There is no one on the road to ask for the way.. if you take a wrong turn.. so following the GPS lady is the most wise thing you can do!! ). We fixed the GPS holder on the windshield put the GPS into it, typed in the destination and got going. At the destination crowd was huge (in American sense.. don't compare it with crowd in Dadar Kurla local!!). We did not get space to park the car in closed parking (Mistake 1.. lack of patience shown in waiting for parking space.. ob.. we are mechites.. cute cars were waiting for us!!). We drove down a couple of miles form the destination and got a parking space on the road (anologous to P1, P2 in India) where we parked (Mistake 2!!.. never park on open roads in Detroit!). We were in a hurry, all excited, and made our third and final mistake.. took the GPS out, kept it in the glove box.. but forgot the holder on the windshield itself. (Mistake 3!!)

The exhibition was interesting, but what happened after that was more exciting. It was 6pm, pitch dark outside and chilling cold. After seeing all the models, satisfied and excited about the progress made by the auto industry, we started walking towards our car. Prasad and Sofia went ahead while me, Avani and Krutikka were a bit behind. It was foggy and we could only see the blinking headlights of the coupe. I was wondering why Prasad was not bringing the car ahead and picking us up rather than waiting at the parking spot for us to arrive. We din't know something was waiting for us there!!

As we reached I realised.. it was worse than I had thought. Up till now I had only heard "When you go to Detroit you HAVE to get mugged, not CAN or May Be.. but HAVE TO!!" Today I experienced it. The front window was shattered and our GPS and MP3 Player was gone!! And there was a note on the wind shield with a name and number on it. It said..

"I have your Eclipse secured"

We had no clue what it meant and we called on that number. A voice replied that he was a cop and was waiting for us at the spot. He has our MP3 player and called us at a lodge on M10 highway from where he would direct us to the police station. We decided that I and Prasad would head to him while the gals should take a taxi and go home. But as we reasiled that the taxi would charge $150 from Detroit to Ann Arbor it was a chorus.. GM!! chup chap peeche baitho!! :P

As Prasad was ready to head to that place, a second thought came to my mind.. what if he is not a cop and what if he wants to mug us?? Its risky! I proposed calling 911. Poora filmy hai na.. mein bhi waisa hi soch raha tha when Prasad was calling 911. Things got more interesting. We mentioned about the note to the police and even they had no clue what it meant nor they knew the name of the person mentioned. Further 911 told that there is no lodge or police station on M10!!! Now it was but natural to call them at the spot for investigation but we hardly had any clue where we were and hence we called them near the Auto Show building.

In the mean time that "eclipse"guy called thrice. Maine kaha.. koi cop itna to free aur concerned nahi hoga ki teen teen baar phone karega!! (Indian Mentality.. kya karu!) So we concluded that he is not a cop and started avoiding his phone.

We waited for long before the cops arrived. I got down the car so that they would notice me when Prasad made me realise that getting out of the car on the crime scene is not advised. They can straight away shoot me!! kya country hai bhai!! Exaclty as shown in movies they came sneeking from behind, ensuring we were not armored. After taking their permission, we two stepped out.

I handed the note to the cops. They had a look at it with fullest suspicion.. and to make it worse the saw blood stains on it!! They asked whose blood was it, I was speechless!! Bhai muze koi idea nahi tha!! Itne me Prasad came there and told them that it was his blood as he had cut himself while cleaning the broken glass. Furiously the reciprocated "Do you have any clue what it means to give a blood stained chit into a cop's hand!!!" Hamari to poori phat gayi thi.. Pahile se itne problems n now the cops are firing us!! WTF!!.

We apologised. They investigated, registered a report and told us to follow them. I thought there would be some formalities that are needed to be done at the police station untill I realised that we had reached an accident scene. Ab ye kya naya panga!! A cop got out of a car and approached us.... We were quietly staring at him as he was walking towards us. He came and.... handed me our MP3 Player!! Dude.. I realised.. this is not India bhai!! Cops are actually so much caring!! Before I got a chance to thank him he disappeared at the crime scene!!!! I was looking at the MP3 Player in my hands and then suddenly saw the words "Eclipse" carved on it!! It was its make!! :D :D

All of us laughed. We finally decoded what did that note meant! Driving back home on a highway at a speed of 70 miles/hr, with a window broken and -15 deg centigrade outside was in itself a different experience!

And above all that we were fortunate that the cops didn't realise that we were 5 ppl in a 4 seater car!!

Déjà vu

This could be a case of déjà vu for Pune. As swine flu cases are rising day by day in the city, the state government has enforced provisions of a 112-year-old law that came into force because of an epidemic during the British Raj. It was the year 1896 when bubonic plague had struck Pune. It was the worst period the city had ever experienced in its history. About 300 to 400 people used to die at a time and it was difficult task to cremate all the bodies. The act empowered the government to take any decision to control the epidemic. Powers included taking possession of suspected patient, controlling places of crowd and examining any individual or any place without permission from a legal authority. The appointed officers took advantage of the situation and used to humiliate, torture and beat people, including women, which led to unrest amongst the junta. That time Chafekar brothers came forward as saviours which lead to the assasination of Gen Rand and helped in bringing the situation under control.

This time its little bit different. We would not need any Chafekars to kill any Rand. Under the act, the officials can forcibly take suspect swine flu patients for screening — but it does not apply in the real context because anxious people themselves go to hospitals without doctors’ references. Just a sneeze and there is a sure visit to Naidu hospital (the only hospital where Swine flu is being treated).

It all started with the arrival of an exchange student from Chicago. Abhinav Vidyalay english medium school was the first school to report swine flu patients. Daily the positive cases were increasing rapidly with growing panic in Punekars, esp children.

There were two groups of people in Pune. One who felt there was nothing to get afraid as it is just another type of influenza and the other group was taking all sorts of precautions to prevent the spread. The former group came up with statictics like, the mortality rate is just 0.01%, and making people remember the outbreaks of more dreaded diseases like SARS and Chikungunya. But they failed to understand that the infective period of H1N1 is from a day before you can see the symptoms to 4 days after, with symptoms just same as normal flu and hence deceptive. At early stage it is curable by Tamiflu, a drug which has to be taken only when tested positive. If someone takes it as a preventive measure, then the virus can develop resistance to the drug increasing the chances of getting infected.

The nightmare worsened after the first death. The two prevaling groups started merging into the latter. Panic increased. One more hospital, Sasoon, was granted permission to check patients for the flu. More and more people started queueing up at these hospitals and the authorities started facing crunch of the medium in which swab was to be preserved. Although these two hospitals were not adequatly equipped the govennment was resistant in allowing private hospitals to do the testing. And without any permission private hospitals would never take a risk of dignosing any patient, esp after the first death.

The death toll is rising. Today the count is above 10, with age groups ranging from 9 months to 65 yrs. It is forecast that the virus would prevail for atleast a year after which it would make a sesonal appearance. Now a couple of private hospitals have been granted permission. There are preventive measures excersised by the citizens. Some of the household measures include- chewing 1 clove a day, inhaling clove oil camphor fumes, eating raw garlic, onion, ginger, drinking hot milk with 2 gms of turmeric, eating lots of vit C fruits and washing your hands thouroughly for atleast twents times in a day (as this virus remains active for 8 hrs and could be residing on hard surfaces like tables, door knobs newspapers etc).

Malls and roads are deserted. One can clearly see the difference ib the crowd on one of the busiest roads in Pune. There are hardly any people seen outside. and whoever is seen is seen with a mask on. N95 masks esp prepared for swine flu protection is not available in Pune. People are buying normal surgical masks for 10 bucks which were normally sold for a ruppee. Children are not permitted to go out to play. Schools are shut down for a week. Janmashtami celebrations in the city have been unanimously cancelled and people are taking care to avoid crowds.

As on one side we are gearing up for our beloved Ganeshotsav festival, with scluptures and decorations going in full swing, on the other hand people are apprehensive about carrying out this festival on public scale, just hoping that Vighnaharta will come our rescue.

A Ride to Remember!

Last weekend dad brought home, for a test drive, the world's cheapest car, The TATA Nano. Though its named Nano, the 623cc, MPFI, 4 geared car with a 2 cylinder engine on a single balancer shaft (for the first time in car history) can very easily accommodate five people. It is peoples car, perfect to drive in crowded cities like Mumbai, Pune, and can easily attain a speed of 100. It is an example of cost effectiveness and one really feels amused when he sees the places where the cost is reduced. After seeing it we realise we have so many unnecessary things plugged into our car just to make it look royal. For a couple of days, this engineering marvel was at my doorstep, I and can literally feel that our "market value" was increased. :D
It was Saturday morning and we decided to take a ride to my granny's place. As I unlocked the door, a couple of children came running and started looking at the car, as if they are seeing some UFO in the society. Uncle Uncle it is the same car that was shown on the TV the other day na.. they asked my dad! Wow!.. its soo small n cute.. their facial expressions could easily reflect their thoughts about the car, and the desire to take a ride in it. After observing the car inside out they suddenly remembered their unfinished cricket match and left.

Nano chalavtana yenari maja kahi veglich! (there is a diff joy in driving Nano!). Chalavna he kriyapad ithe hatyaar chalavna kinva chalval chalavna ashya arthana vaparlay.(idea given by manjo) This was the day, when I actually wanted to stop at the signals. Nano cha mukhya upayog vahan mhanun n karta, vahatya rastyat madhyabhagi kondala karun, pradarshanat thevleli vastu asa kela! With each and every guy on the road looking at us (actually at the car), I felt that our bhaav in the city has suddenly increased. People in front of us were turning their heads back and staring, and people behind us wanted to overtake. That day I actually let people complete their desire of overtaking! :). I heard a wife sitting behind her husband on a Pulsar saying with a largest ever smile I have ever seen.. "Aiiyaa.. kittti goad!!..Aho apan gheu na Nano." (So cute.. we will also take it!). Teens had similar expression.. "Abbey.. Nano dekh saale.. sexy hai!" and the girls who were clinging to their boyfriends on bikes, after seeing us, made them reduce their speeds from 100 to 10 Km/hr and sat in a posture that was comfortable to look at the small car. Children were literally peeping out even from cars like Scoda and Benz to have a look at this piece.

Driving slowly, we reached my granny's place. Now it was pensioners time to have a look. People over sixties gathered around bombarding questions at us.. "Kay ho.. on-road performance kasa ahe?" (what is the on-road performance like), "Kay 1 lakhat milte ki vadhliye kimmat, amche kinai, bara ka.. chiranjeev mhanatayt ghyavi mhanun!!" (Is the price still 1L, my son is planning to book one). Tackling all the questions we finally went home and had dinner with my grandparents.

The next day we went on a ride to Girivan. Its a place in mountains, nearby Pune, where we have a plot. The surrounding area is developed by a private company and made it a tourist attraction. We had some work at our plot and after finishing it we went on a mountain hike. As it was Sunday, there were lot of people. We parked the vehicle and got mixed with the junta. Without they knowing we were behind them, I heard a group of people chatting.. "ara Nyano ali bagh dongarat... chayla Ratan Tata cha kooni bhau banda distoy aalela!!! Chadli ki r pan choti gaadi!! (in a rural accent.. 'see Nano is in mountains.. I think some Ratan's Tatas relative has come'). I couldn't control my laughter and started laughing. They soon realised that it was our car and we had heard whatever they were speaking... and went in other direction. (I shouldn't have done that.. but it was so involuntary!)

Well after these two days, when I think of them, I feel that its a real marvel that the Tatas have given to India. I feel proud that we have got such great visionaries, and it does motivate me. Something regarded as impossible 10 yrs before, is seen on roads today. It was just like a very beautiful college gal walking down the streets and the pedestrian teens commenting on her!!!!

Water Crisis..

Place: Pune, Maharashtra

Day: 25th May - The monsoon is predicted to arrive on 6th June - Pune weather report
5th June - Monsoon hit Western coast, might delay its appearance in Pune
10th June - Monsoon may be delayed by a couple of weeks, rains expected on 25th June

Today: 12th July.... No rains in Pune!!!! Sharad Pawar declared draught situation in the city.

This year two world records might have been created... 1) Draught condition in Pune after around 51 years and 2) Maximum number of times weather forecasting went wrong!!

Its raining heavily everywhere around Pune, but not in the city. Today's condition is very bad. There are two dams which are primarily used for supplying water to the city. One has existing water storage amount of 5% and other 0%. Zero percent!!!! That's something I never thought can happen in Pune. Every year, in a news paper called Sakal, I see a picture of a farmer sitting on his arid, cracked land looking at the sky (I think, they copy past the same picture every monsoon!!), but this year I saw a happy farmer, and worried Puneites queueing up for water tankers. Accha hua.. hum apne aap ko bahut khush naseeb samazte the... ab bhugto saalo!!

The corporation stopped water for hours, people had to fill tanks and keep water ready for morning programs! I remembered my second sem in BITS where we had a similar water crisis... par us waqt authorities ko gaaliya to de sakte the.. ab kya karen!! Today we have to find our way out. My mom, being the secretary of the society, made a schedule of how to save and use water that was stored in the tank effectively. She was very involved with all this situation, and I said.. humne 6 mahine aisi situation me nikale.. tum log to 2 din me hi frustrate ho rahe ho!!.. She called me to accept this challenge of managing this crisis... obb..I backed off!!! :D (pata tha mom kitna kaam kar rahi thi.. its really laudable!) As I am going abroad now, I am learning to cook... Lekin ab 1 hafte ke liye chutti... coz if I start cooking, I will use all the stored water in one shot... and that will not be acceptable to anyone! :D (one benefit of water crisis)

Something more was there to worsen the situation...Borewells were drying up (8 wells in our society are completely dry!). Ye kam nahi tha ki.... MNS attacked the water tankers (obb for no reason) and the tankerwallahs called for an indefinite strike... LOL!! ab woh bhi paani band!! After many many phone calls, and meeting with nagarsevaks n all, finally the strike was called off.. but now knowing the situation the tankerwallas demanded Rs 3000, Rs 4000 for one tanker (which is generally for Rs 200). We had to pay!! :(

Now the situation is better. Its still not raining that heavily, but yes, the rains have appeared in the city. Corporation has resumed the water supply every alternate day and tanker wallas have also come down to 800-1000 Rs. ....... n I have started cooking!!!

Dasvidaniyan!!

Though its said that the "church is still there.." the life has to go on.... There has to be some day when we have to take a step ahead. For me it was this friday.. my graduation day. Four years before I embarked on the engineering voyage and within no time I made it as a successful (??!!) Mechanical engineer. The years passed like minutes and there it came.. the Friday.. where I bid adios to my undergrad engineering and took a small step ahead. Today when I sit and close my eyes I feel there has to be something dedicated to all my PS mates at Merc, for all the fun that we had, for all the 'phattas' and 'pulling of each others legs' we did and for all the emotional sentiments we exchanged... This is it.. cheers guys!!

It all started from my birthday. It was the very first time when we all went out together.. and since then some sort of wierd and unusual things have occured. Latchumi turned nonvegetarian on my birthday treat. We had heard that she was famous for her monologue "I will kill you" when someone would really really irritate her.. Last sem I guess it was for Sankalp after three months... Suyash (which was later famous as the BAD BOY) made her to say it within seven days!!! :D. and then it repeated nearly everyday :)

Next was Chaitanya.. with his Titanic story. On his birthday he narrated the whole story of how he proposed his girlfriend..rather how SHE proposed HIM over a titanic movie! It was so unique and unusual that he filed its copyright. We were listning to his story outside foodcourt where Alekh got a grasp of my cell phone and called a girl from my list which he declared as my girlfriend!.. LOL!!.. Latchumi coined a name for me based on her (not to me disclosed here!!! :D) and the very next day it was printed on my nameplate, written on white boards and told to all of my mentors.

First couple of months was the time fo MS/PhD admits. I remember Suyash comming and telling... "Abbey UIUC aa gaya!!". We congratulated him.. then he went to his place.. refreshed his inbox.. again came back.. "Abbey Wisconsin aa gaya!!... Wow.. 2 admits in one shot.. The next day he got Purdue.. and we had treat slots getting booked for weekends. Poor Mayank, who had applied for MBA, used to google "MDI Final 2009" atleast twice a mintute for all the five months. Finally in the month of may he got an admit from MDI. \m/

Our day used to start over a coffee at 10 in the morning. Next we used to meet at 12 noon for lunch. Then after eating handful of sauf.. which according to Latchi we (boys) shouldn't because of some reasons :D :D, we used to go for a walk. First month we used to get out from the service entarance, but it seems that management came to know about this and they stopped us from using that way. Now we had to 'sign-out' and then go. It used to be "a walk to remember" where generally only Latchumi and Vaishnavi were heavily teased by me Mayank, Suyash, Vivek and Chaitanya (Sorry di, for all that :) ). Hmm.. some of Latchi's secrets were leaked when Vivek read all her cell messages..and told everything to us.. without she even knowing it!! (ye padhne ke baad vivek ka kya hoga!) A walk till the church and back was really some of the great times which we spent together. Our days were full with lots of weirdo incidances. Once over an afternoon coffee Suyash told the story of how he conveniently fooled one of his friends by telling him that Vivek is filing a patent. Now Vivek, as we know him for last four years, filing a patent was a BIG thing. We pity that poor fellow who still belives that it was the truth :D :D... Hey but guys.. hold on.. It can be... Vivek is really on his way to file one.

We got together so well that we felt these six months as a split second. With all the outings, treats, chatting, coffee discussions and debates, which would end in the famous "Mein nahi manta" dialogue (iske age bhala kaun kya kahega!!!) from the one who has exhausted with all his points, the time went very fast. And then it came.. the last friday. We decided to gather at Mayank's place for a night out. We played cards, DumbC, watched T20 and chatted for a long time. We had planned for a ceremony, which BITS never does.. Our convocation. and hence had bought some caps. We drew a Benz logo on it and everyone signed every other cap. Then at the stroke of midnight, when all world goes to sleep, we all went on the roof (lekin ladkion ki wajah se beer ya champagne kuch bhi nahi laya tha!), toasted for our successful graduation and threw our caps in air. It was the moment when I felt that I have achieved something in life. This was the time when I realised that now I am a degree holder, a responsible person.. this life has some market value. This was the time when I felt ki ab spoon-feeding bas.. ab tum is kaliyug me akele phek diye gaye ho..and you have to find your lamp, you have to sketch your path and you have to make your decisions.

Ab DCH to banta tha.. and then at the day break.. it was the time to part. Me and mayank were leaving on the same day and Suyash on the very next. All started to leave Mayank's place by 5:30. Suyash by mistake left his file upstairs.. As someone went to collect it, he unconsciously said.. "Abbe kal diyo!!!".. but soon realised.. there was no "Kal" now. It was the time when we all really felt that its over.. we have to move on. The best part of it was that everyone had achieved what they desired... be it the admits in top schools for higher studies or jobs in various prestigious companies like Mercedes, WelsFargo or Shell. Everyone was happy, contended and ready to take the next step in life.

These past 6 months were some of the most AWESOME times that I have spent with my friends. Today for some of us, its really difficult to accept the fact that we will be going in different directions, there would be no more pulling of legs, no more "mein nahi manta" debates, no more "kya baat kar raha hai.. saale" monologues, no more "yay am back" messages and no more discussions for deciding who is the one.. Oops or Chandru !! :). But as I said.. the life goes on. Though we might not meet again (till Latchumi's marriage... apne dad ko jaldi bata de yaar!! ), still via net, gtalk we would definately remain in touch. For all my friends... ye zindagi bhale tumko kahi par bhi le jaye.. phod dena!!.. all the best and scale new heights!!!
Cheers!!

(Dasvidaniyan is a russian word meaning.. Good bye and See you soon :) )

Coorg