Getting back in the game

I think I'm wasting my life and my holidays. I haven't written anything in a long long time. I thought I would do something good with my holidays. Have started squash coaching and finally started gym today but I haven't been actually doing anything. Our sitcom plan is on a hold now because my fellow dumbass creators are not in town :), no offense. I really need to start writing something, to start creating something. I seriously need to get back in the game. Science has stopped fascinating me, also interesting me. Atleast that's what I find these days. I'm not missing studying at all during these holidays although I do miss IIT. I miss being in IIT in a regular semester, although I don't miss studying.

The confused me

Today, while taking a break from viewing quantum mechanics lecture videos, I went down for some water. I met Benjo who asked me what was up. I told him that I had this presentation of a b-plan competition coming up in which I had been selected for the finals. Our team still hadn't done anything about it till now. He asked me if I wanted to do an MBA after IIT. I told him that I don't know. Right now, I find all the available prospects like MBA, MS and going for a job crappy. I told him that at the end of the 4th year, I'll go for whatever I find the least crappy. It's not like me to be usually negative but it was an honest answer. The thought that I find all the paths that IIT leads to crappy is a scary one which worries me most these days. I like viewing quantum mechanics lectures on internet even though I do it very irregularly, I love the idea of winning a B plan competition but I haven't worked for it. I would love to become a prof. but I absolutely hate studying. Every day I come to my hostel after classes (or wake up realizing that I missed all the classes), I hardly do anything. I have rough idea of things which I want to do that day but no plan. In the end, I just end up searching arbitrary things related to our b-plan on the internet for about 30 minutes and then start watching 'That 70's show', loving the show but hating myself for watching it all this time. I suspect that my posture of lying down on the bed while I start working is one of the culprits which contribute to my being unproductive. I started today sitting on the chair and keeping my laptop on the table, and I think it has helped because I felt like writing something here today. I feel better that I wrote this as it was a good way to let out my confusions.

Great day

I'm reaching the end of a great day. Met a pretty girl today, finally went to gym after 5 days, read about 120 pages of 'The last lecture' by Randy Pausch - a Carnegie mellon university prof. which has turned out to be quite a great book till now. Had wanted to read it for a long time but the paperback edition came recently only. Although i have a sore throat and feel a little feverish, but it still feels great. Haven't had a great day for a long time. An episode of 'That 70's show' would make it even better but have to sleep now. I'm thinking i'll go to my 8 o clock drama class finally. Have been thinking about it for a long time but always end up oversleeping :)
Let's see if i attend this one.

On spin offs and 75% attendance

Recently, while going through the websites of foreign universities, I came across an interesting term called spin off. In almost every department of every good university's website, a list of 2 or 3 spin off companies is given. From what I gathered, this term implies a tech-company which got started by a successful project undertaken by one of the students or faculty of that university. An example of this would be www.bostondynamics.com. This is a spin-off company started by a group of MIT students and it makes very animal like robots which can be useful for a lot of purposes.

This led me to wonder whether it is easy to start a spin-off company from IITD. The answer I reached was, not surprisingly, no. After coming to IIT, the first thing I noticed that there was a desire to excel in the students in one field or the other. They would go for night outs for their plays and dance practices even if that meant missing classes or getting a low CG, because in IIT, that was their forte and they didn't want to give it up. Now let's say I have an idea for a project and I will have to spend as much time as I can in making it a reality. I decide to skip the dumb classes which are a pure waste of time and work on my project. But no, there exists a rule which says I need to have 75% attendance in every course if i wish to pass it. The 75% attendance rule is the worst thing that can happen to a person who wants to concentrate his/her energies on anything other than getting a good CG. I can't register for less courses because it would be a sin not to complete my degree in 4 years. I had once thought of completing my degree in 5 years, so that I could do it in a relaxed way and read as many novels and take as many trips as I want in that time. Apparently, it's a bad idea or atleast that's what I was told.

The administration is busy inventing new ways on how to make the 75% attendance rule stricter. I even heard there was a proposal of changing the 75% attendance rule to 90%. C'mon guys. If you really want us to attend classes, get good profs, make the classes interesting and make the students realize that what you are teaching has some practical importance. Scaring the shit out of people by telling them that CGPA is everything may make the students attend classes and mug up for courses but it cannot make them interested in a course or learn anything. Even if they do learn something, do we really want a generation of professionals who hate their job? I'm sure the IIT students have lots of interesting ideas that can lead to a lot of good spin-off's, which will also make IIT rich and improve the infrastructure and the quality of education. But our system needs a serious overhaul if that has to happen and 75% attendance rule is the first thing which has to be done with

Should I drop out?

I'm frustrated with academics now. I hate getting up at 7:00 every morning to go to a class that is really boring and also, I hardly understand anything. My passion for physics and engineering is going away slowly. If any IIT aspirant is reading this, then you better be prepared 'coz if you are not interested in what you're studying right now, then I can assure you that you will definitely not be interested after coming to IIT. Even if you are interested there is a good chance that you will lose your interest, unless it is really really strong. If you do lose your interest then the only way of continuing in IIT is either you forget your passions, accept that this is what you'll have to do if you want a high-paying job, or you just try to get good grades by putting in the least effort, copying practical readings, taking chill courses (which give good grades).

I'm not doing any of that right now, well, I have copied readings once in a while but I don't wanna continue with that. I think maybe I should drop out, but it's a tough decision, because I don't know what I will do after it. Would I go to another college once again? If yes, then which one? If no, then what will I do after it? And what about the hostel life and my friends. I have made such good friends here and I enjoy living in the hostel so much that it would be very difficult to leave all of this for an uncertain path where I may not meet people who become such good friends and connect with me so well. I do realize that in life if you want to do something, you need to take risks but I would be much more willing to take them if I took them for pursuing something I am really passionate about. Else, it would be more of stupidity than risk. So for now on, I think I'm gonna continue with IIT and attend 8:00 classes all 5 weekdays and try to listen in class :( But I am trying to find my interest and I hope to find something in which I'm so interested that I can quit IIT for it

Wanted: Cheap Coffee houses

Coffee houses are cool. They are coming up in droves in Delhi, NCR and other metros but there seems to be one problem with all of them, they are bloody expensive. Coffee houses are supposed to be places where the young can chill out, relax, have coffees and hang around with their friends. But, generally buying a Rs. 50 coffee is not acceptable to the average college going student. Agreed, they have excellent coffee, but I believe the same coffee can be served at half the price and still the profits can be covered up by the increase in volumes. A very small percentage of college going crowd prefers to hang out in Coffee houses like Barista or Cafe Coffee day. They're generally filled with the people who are earning. C'mon guys. Coffee houses should be young, McDonalds doesn't sell it's burgers at the same price as it sells in U.S. or Europe. We desperately need coffee houses catering to the average Indian consumer.

It's good not knowing

This world is a beautiful place. Even though there's crap happening all around but as they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. It's just the way you see things that make them good or bad. One of the things that I find really amazing in the universe is that you don't know what's about to happen. If someone, by chance has the gift of finding out what is going to happen in the future, I suspect he would be a very sad person. Even the most pessimistic person in this world is not 100% sure that bad stuff is going to happen to him. There's still a little chance that something good can happen. Although, that is another thing that his pessimism will not allow him to appreciate it.

It's just good, not knowing what's about to happen. It's happening to a lot of people around the world everyday - you think that you have life all figured out, when it suddenly strikes you in the face and something totally unexpected suddenly happens. It just tells you that no one has life completely figured out. Everyone is surprised one time or the other. That, I feel is beautiful. And I don't think we are supposed to figure out life completely. If we ever do, it would be a sad day in the history of humankind. Although, I think that god would not let that happen. Life can't get too boring. Just believing that whatever shit you're in, you'll get out of it if you believe you can. This is where god is important. God gives so many people the faith that they are gonna come out of shit some day. Even if you have a little bit of optimism to appreciate that happens to you, I think you'll do just fine. As a tribute to Steve Jobs - Stay hungry, stay foolish.