2011 --> 2012

To put is simple, 2011 was awesome! It was a prologue to the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

Dec 31, 2010 11:59 PM : I  was awake just like many others in the city waiting to wish my friends a happy new year, update statuses on Facebook etc., I was just a student who was likely to become an Engineer by 2012 among at least 3,50,000 engineers India produces every year.

Jan 1 , 2011 00:05 AM : So, now 2011 was officially born and I have a year ahead of me to look forward to. To be honest little did I have the idea that come September, 2011 my status would change from being 'unemployed' to 'To be employed soon'.

2011 - A Recap


January to April : Bleed Blue !

The first month of the new year started a little slow with hectic schedules in college and exams. But being in India one thing is assured, you will have cricket match throughout the year. However, this wasn't an ordinary tournament. It was ICC World Cup, 2011. Not starting as sure shot winners, India went on to clinch its first world cup after 1983 on April 2, 2011. The victory was dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar (the best cricket player ever). I truly enjoyed watching India's performance.

April to May : Birth of Lokpal protests and Birthday

Cricket being a religion in India always united people. But immediately after the world cup was over something new and unexpected emerged that united the whole of India. It was a 75 year old man named Anna Hazare who led the protest to bring a bill called Lokpal to tackle corruption in India. The whole country was amazed to see the public response to the campaign. The political class in India went on cold feet. But we didn't know that whatever protest happens Lokpal Bill won't get passed, at least in 2011.

May 20 - Had one of the memorable birthday with my friends! :) Really happy to have great friends.  

June : Step into Senior year! 

This was month of rigorous training for placement drives that was expected to come in the month of September. One such interesting training was provided by FACE and a mam from CTS!

June 27 - It was the starting of my senior year or final year. It meant that I had successful completed 3 years of Engineering. What a milestone. :P

July to August : Tour and Technical Symposium 

This two months have been the most memorable months in my entire college life, perhaps to many of my friends.

Tour 
====

An integral part of one's college life is having serious fun. And whats more interesting than spending a week together with all of your classmates? We went to Kerala - God's own country. :) Officially called Industrial visit, this tour was great! Munnar was mesmerizing and travelling with friends was absolute fun. Even rain couldn't stop us from enjoying. Several troubled relationships got united and even cracks emerged between few people. After all those are elements of any tour!

Technical Symposium
=================

Even before going to the tour, the one thing which we planned were to host a National Level Technical Symposium on behalf of our college. It was scheduled on August 11 and 12th. Everyone of us got busy  with some works. I basically became the 'Technical Head' for it. In fact I designed my first major website for it along with my friend Santhosh Kumar. (http://www.cyborgs2k11.com/) the link will cease to exist after June 2012. As a remembrance I am posting a screenshot of it below.

The website was basically written in PHP, HTML 5 and My SQL for backend. It allowed me to explore those technologies. Apart from it I organised the Bug Buster (Debugging) event and wrote an interface to conduct an online examination for the same. :) It was during this time I met a Geeknamed Muthu Ganapathy (a Junior student of our college). I was kind of inspired by his sincerity and dedication.

September : A major milestone! 

September 5, 8:30 PM -  It was really a day to cherish. I got placed in Tata Consultancy Services, a leading IT firm in India. A truly emotional moment to call my mom and dad to say that I got placed in a Company. :)  In fact that night, a voice in me said that what you have learnt is less. You got a lot to achieve and learn.  After all 'Known is a drop and unknown is an ocean'. That night went on to become a driving force in deciding my future plans.

October to November : Exams

No one in Indian Education System can escape the fear of Exams. And I am no exception. It was the last major semester exams that needs to be cleared in order to guarantee a degree. The penultimate semester took the best out of me to learn a hell lot of portions within a short span of time. Barring the Digital Signal Processing, everything went fine. Hope the first week of 2012 gives me a good news about that paper. ;) One good friend of mine met with an accident during this time. It was our long time plan to do a project together but unfortunately that would not happen. I pray for his good health and speedy recovery.

December : Project

Now as I write this article, I am currently given the opportunity to do my project at Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute. This entire month I have been busy with that work. And I hope to successfully complete my work by March of 2012.  

2012 - A new Beginning! 

Well I am sure that I am gonna see a lot in 2012. In fact its going to be a turning point in my life. Lots of challenges ahead and I am looking forward to meet those. From this year I have got to fully stand on my own without much support from my parents which takes me to the next phase of life.

I wish you all a Happy and a Successful 2012! Keep smiling. :)

Regards,
Vivek Venkatesh G

PS: Hope there is a 2013 and I update my blog on Dec 31, 2012...:P 

Got the much awaited book!

Finally got the book 'Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography' which I wanted! Thanks to Flipkart for its prompt service. :)

 

Buy this book in Flipkart,

http://www.flipkart.com/books/1408703742?pid=2nx3f24tgf&_l=CJHVEqJO3veuHytbACc9dw--&_r=7Xjkv%20VtDg1aDHsmodr_Rw--&ref=aad451b4-b35a-42fb-b248-3ee909387c25

Currently amidst my exams, so couldn't read this book. Looking forward to read this soon. Awesome hardcover. Will write my review soon after I read.

PS: Would like to write an article on Flipkart soon! One of the best customer Services

Technology and Facilities - No Constraint

Still there are many small towns and villages in India, where there is a lack of basic facilities for education. It is very difficult for children those who are really willing to study and learn. Several social and economic factors adds to this menace. I personally feel that technology and basic facilities must not be a constraint for those who are willing to learn. So, we as the future Indians, must make sure that we somehow identify such villages and places which are deprived of these facilities, and take the best possible efforts to provide it. Especially with the Computer Technologies and e-learning technology at a boom, it is now possible to setup some kind of a "development center" to provide technology amenities like Computer, Internet etc. The standards of facilities in schools must be raised and everyone must be provided a par education. Government alone can't do anything as managing a country of more than 1 billion is very difficult. But contributions from its citizens can help a lot. I may be saying what several others are saying, but I feel I need to do something. May be at present I don't have much earnings, but I feel after some years I would be able to contribute my part. :)

Hoping for a developed India soon,

Vivek Venkatesh

Happy Diwali

I wish every Indian brother and sister out there a Happy and prosperous Diwali !!

Writing our goals

Everyone of us wants to achieve something in this world. But it is very common for us to feel bad they we are not doing anything fruitful to make our dream come true. The implication from this is that it is very easy to dream but on the contrary it is very difficult to accomplish it. I am currently facing this kind of a problem. When I analyzed what I am doing I drew a big blank. I have somehow fallen a victim to procrastination. Recently I came across an article by Anthony Fernando on his website Dare to Dream, http://www.anthonyfernando.com/2007/01/17/staying-on-track/ , which I would like to share with you. In that he suggests us to have a written goal, in that process he wants us to be more specific with our goal, and keep it with us. So every time we take an action we have to classify it as either Opportunity or Distraction. We must try to avoid that action if it proves to be a distraction. This is a wonderful little article by him. :)

To put it in a nutshell,

Take the time to write down our specific goals. Whenever we come across a new opportunity, read our goals and ask ourselves, "Is this an opportunity or a distraction?". Take action accordingly. 

Why education is very important?

For everything in this world we use a tool. For example, to clean our tooth we use a brush which is a tool, to cook food we use various utensils as tools, to move from one place to another we use a car which is a tool. Similarly we need some tool to develop and enlighten us and that is the EDUCATION. Without some form of education we are just like any other creature in this world.

There are two types of education - Formal education and Informal education. Formal education is the one which we obtain by going to schools and colleges and the informal education is which we get by experience and not going to colleges or schools. We got to have at least one among these two. However putting into perspective the two education I feel Formal education is more vital; that is because with informal education we only have a Vertical expertise (that is we specialize in only thing and barring that we don't have a broad horizon of knowledge) whereas with formal education we can have an Horizontal Exposure (Knowledge that spans through a wide range of spectrum i.e knowledge about many things) and in the process we can develop Vertical Expertise.

Sometimes we get the sense of feeling that this education is only a hindrance to my ambitions and I got to be a drop out of the school to reach heights (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg did so, and so will I). But the fact is these are just illusions. The probability of achieving without proper education is very very less and we must be wise enough to understand it. This makes me remember the quote said by Mr.Dhirubhai Ambani (Founder of Reliance industries) 'Without education I became the No.1 in India.  But had I got education, I would have been a numero uno in the world  by now.' In fact those persons who came to various high positions without formal education have made it a point that their children get quality education from top universities in the world. So it is our duty to get the best out of our education. And remember that every single thing that we learn will help us in one or other way at any particular moment in our life. So our education never goes waste. Spiritual experts says that our 'gynam' (meaning Knowledge) will always be carried over by our soul, gets accumulated and helps in the process of evolution.

Multiple Voices in a Democracy

Multiple voices are an essence of any democratic establishment. In fact the crux of the system itself is that a new favorable solution would come only via these various voices. At this point I would like to bring the current situation or to be more precise the confusion that is seen in the current regime of Indian Politics. By saying Indian Politics I mean that it is inclusive of all parties.

First we had an Anna Hazare who started a movement for demanding the implementation of a regularly denied Lokpal Bill. When he had started a fast which no one would have imagined it would later on turn out to be one of a revolutionary movements of all time in India, on par with what had happened in Egypt very recently barring the violence. From a truth perspective it was a great success, in fact it managed to unite the people of India as it was during its Independence period. The government had no option but to accept their demand for a committee to overlook the issues in drafting the bill plus their wish for the inclusion of "civil society" members in it.

Although the fast was a success the progress after approximately three months haven't given much satisfaction. The government members and the civil society members have been at loggerheads ever since the first meeting. While such a situation is now existing, we have got another fresh controversy building over the "Godmen" Baba Ramdev's fast. While skeptics of him continue to say he is a proxy of some opposition parties, the government shocked the nation by a brutal attack on the supporters of him at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. All these happenings are unfortunate and I personally feel it is a tactic of Divide and Rule that is being played by some influential politicians  who somehow wants the Lokpal bill to be stopped. All these fiasco must somehow end and we must now put our efforts on speedy implementation of Lokpal bill and make sure that it doesn't have any loophole rather than putting ourselves in a difficult situation. Well in this case, whether these "Multiple voices" are doing good or bad, only time can answer..