About Tests, Projects and Presentations

I still remember the orientation day, 7th August 2006, when we were handed over the time table for this semester. That was the day when I stuck the time table in front of my study table, looked at it and smiled. Wow! Only 5 lectures a week.

I still remember people talking in the MBA lounge, "I'm not going to send this time table back home; they're going to laugh at me. It's so light!!!"

Talking at the macro-level (please forgive my business jargon), the first two weeks were continuous visits to Ikea, Mustufa, Little India and China Town, to buy all sorts of stuff to "settle down". The next two weeks went by finding friends in whose house we can have dinner and finding places where we can party this Saturday.

Then CSO showed it's existence, which is the Career Service Office. The next two weeks were how to dress, how to talk, how to get a job, and all the how-to's which we thought we were experts at, and various company talks and the scolding that followed after that for not dressing properly, for asking stupid questions and so on.

And then started the academic things. Every prof started telling the dates of their mid-term tests, presentations and project proposal submission. Top it all with no knowledge of what has happened in the class.

I've been cribbing a lot. On almost all replies to "kya chal raha hai" on orkut, I've said, "padh padh ke pak gaya hoon". And on one such reply, I decided come'on man! what's up with all this cribbing! And so I've been watching movies since then :-).

So have a test tomorrow, but writing this blog. Easy one though. Group study has helped. And then another one next week. Will have to study a lot more for that. Hope things turn out well.

Sunday, 1:59 am - Can't study any more

Some days, you surpass your expectations. Today (well, yesterday actually), is one such day. I had a study marathon. Started at around 11 in the morning. And have been studying since then. Except the few meal and tea breaks in between and the two hours when I dozed off over my book. I think 2.5, but you get the point. Seriously, got bored now.

Have two tests on Tuesday. 8 chapters for each. Around 300 pages for each. And given that most of it is just pointless fart about the so-called geniuses of the fields, it's all the more "interesting". Well, if Nike saved a billion dollars by partnering with one of it's suppliers, how do I care. But then again, I guess I better start.

The tests will be MCQs. I'm not surprised when you say, "now what the heck is that!". "Multiple-choice questions, duh!!!!", that's what I was told when I asked the same thing. It's sounds more like MC Quotient, if you know what I mean. How big of an MC you can be when you don't know anything! (assuming you can quantify the MC factor. Well, many people are bigger MCs than others so I guess you can.)

Gera made his patented dhabawaali chai. Read the Maxim with some sexy models and sleazy jokes. But the tension continues.

Recipie

I had written the following article for Xpressions (e-mag at HTSL). Earlier I was a bit concerned putting the same thing here, but then I read the disclaimer ;-).

Disclaimer: Like I care...

Well, I do not agree with most of the viewpoints mentioned in the Peek-a-boo about "Guys'n'cooking", which I'm sure was written by a hard-core feminist female.

Guys are experts in whatever they do. And when it comes to cooking, they are no different. Here is one example. I call it by numerous names - besan bread, tawa bread, "bread" sandwich (a "vegetable" sandwich has bread slices sandwiching the vegetables; here it's the other way round) - so call it whatever you want. A real quick thing (well, not so quick considering boys have much less time to cook than girls who can cook 5 dishes in 20 minutes but take 5 hours to get ready for a 20 minute coffee).

Anyway, so considering the format of the recipes listed till date in Xpressions, I should mention ingredients with each measure correct to the milligram (must be girls writing them, isn't it). But in the true manly style, I just put however much of whatever is listed below (mostly depending on my mood).

Ingredients:
Bread, Besan (gram flour), Onions, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Capsicum, Spinach (essentially any vegetable that you can eat semi-cooked);
Water, Oil, Salt, Green chilies, red chili powder (and other "obvious" - as claimed by most females - stuff like that).

Method:
Mix besan with salt, red chili powder, and water to make a semi-liquid of viscosity approximately 14.971 Pascal seconds (never mind, just see if it is sticky yet flowing). Add all the chopped vegetables (you have to chop it, "of course!" - again a female statement).

On a pan (tawa; preferably non-stick), put some oil (for girls - few table spoons; for guys - never mind) and let it heat up (for guys only - come on!!! you had to light the gas!!!).
Now take a slice of bread (obviously, you won't be using the whole loaf), dip it the mix, make sure you carry along some vegetables on one side of the bread slice and put that side down (for guys - carefully) on the pan. May add a little more oil (for guys - 1.5 table spoons). Now on the other side, add some of the mix so that it's kinda uniform on both sides. After sometime (for guys - you have to be a little psychic to know when the other side, which is not visible, is cooked and not burning; girls are psychic anyways) turn it over so that the other side gets cooked as well.

And it's done.

By the way, my "female" friend told me that the first time you put the tawa on the gas, whatever you're cooking on it sticks anyway (whether it is non-stick or not). The next time, it gets heated and so it doesn't. Silly isn't it, irrespective of what temperature the gas is on; must be some girl-thing.

Tips for a better taste:
- make sure that you're drinking beer while cooking it and that you spill it unknowingly into the besan mix instead of water. Smoking as well - cigarette ash adds a good flavor to it.
- make sure that you eat it while you're cooking with ketchup and beer.
- make sure that you enter the kitchen when it is in its cleanest state and you leave it in its still cleaner state (I know all the guys get the meaning)
- make sure that you waste enough gas (my "female" friend will not agree with that, she has to cook the entire thing on a "sim" flame; and while we're at it, what the heck is sim, why can't they just write low flame, high flame and off flame uhhhhh)
- burping while you're eating triples the taste
- make sure you... well; the guys are smart enough to do anything anyway.

If you're a guy, and you've reached till here, you're probably a great cook already. So you don't need this recipe.
If you're a guy, and have jumped to the end after reading the title/first Para, please click the "Info desk" to know the numbers of pizza guys and order some.
If you're a girl, apart from that the spam-mail cliche that girls don't listen applies to you, you now also suffer from an unprecedented hatred for me. So please read the disclaimer again.
Others pick any one of the above conditions.

Aftermath of the inverted smile

I don't usually write the ekam songs on my blog for reasons relating to copy-right act of 20xx (when the songs will actually be released). But I wrote this one. I don't plan to compose this song probably because it's too true. I've written enough of true-to-life songs which are usually damn sad.

In fact, I was once involved in a discussion that how sadness appeals to people much more easily than does happiness or laughter. In other words, it's pretty easy to make anyone sad, but very difficult to make them laugh.

That's all I have to say for now.

The Inverted Smile

Living in a cage, dreaming for a run
Happy that they laugh, I'm but a pun
The insensitive humans, parasites of mine
God I wish I could pray with bread crumbs and wine

Strangled on a leash, I hide all my tears
I smile for them, wary of their fears
My friends laugh at me, call me asinine
God I wish I could pray, with bread crumbs and wine

Food and fun you give me free
But a cage for me you bind
God I wish I could pray, with bread crumbs and wine

Kick me when you want to
Wagging my tail, I come back to you
And even when I find some happiness
"Heed", you say and I come back to you

Stay away from them you say,
They are not your kind
I'm but a puppet, in hands without a mind
God I wish I could pray, with bread crumbs and wine

Majulah Singapura - Getting used to the Lah!!!

A break from the lecture and someone says, "your website is so outdated" (or something like that). That really made me realize, boy it's been some ages. And now that I am in this new country, I have many things to write about as well. So here I am typing my way through the same break. Thanks dude :-)

So, Singapore. Let me crib a little before I actually get down to write the good part. I'm sure, Namit will be nodding his head with the I-told-you-so look on his face throughout the first part ;-).

Weather - damn it's humid. Thanks to the AC buses though. But one advantage of this is that girls wear really skimpy dresses allowing some comfort to the eys.

Nowhere to go - if you're not partying, you're getting bored. There's hardly any place where you can go to "ghoomofy" unless you like the lights. Tried Sentosa, which is a beach (well, it's a lot of things actually). The beach is so artificial that it looks artificial...errr... whatever. There are few other things in Sentosa like under-water aquarium, dolphin shows (basically the things that a Singpore Tourism guy will tell you). But they are too expensive for poor students like myself and hence out of reach.
So only way out is party with your friends and that's what we've been doing at least for the last two week-ends. Let's see how we countinue here after.

Lectures and assignments - no comment. Of course, they are boring. The only classes I've enjoyed till date are my guitar classes. Think, should do BMus or something.

Food - who the f*ck said that SG is the food capital of the world. Well, he was right, it is; you get a lot of variety but hardly any taste. More so, because I'm a vegetarian. I know you'd go - man, you're missing something in life - but whatever it is, for me SG is not a great place to eat. But, it's better than US (though my favourite Pizza Hut is too damn expensive here) as you get a lot of Indian restaurants (note quantity only, not quality).

What remains is the good part - college campus which is WiFi, MBA lounge which is ACed (heaven in SG), and - repeating myself - partying (that includes guitaring by the way). And that reminds me that I haven't joined any group/band here. There's a group called GENUS - Guitar Ensemble of NUS. Have to join that. And I'm also playing on the International Day on Sept 8. There are few singers as well in the batch.

As for my other frustrations. Gillman Heights, where the real unlucky ones of NUS get an apartment, is pathetic. Someone uploaded the pics of Gillman and they were really awesome, or so we assumed. But the moment I entered with the 30 KG suitcase in the room, I was so damn disappointed. It sucks here. Namit did warn me about not taking Gillman, but per him, it was good as per Indian standards. But no, I disagree. I lived much more luxuriously in Bangalore than in Gillman (in terms of apartment quality only, forget other comforts). Probably I was expecting a little too much after seeing the apartments in Phoenix.

And what else, lecturers are funny, trying their best to make the course interesting but no one has succeeded in getting my attention. I'm studying only because I have to.

Classmates are good, some really knowledgeable, many posers, some transparent. Nice diversity, lah!!! (That's Singlish BTW, "ok la", "sit la", "there is no class today lah!"). But it's nice to have such people around. And it's really funny when you know the truth :-). You enjoy like crazy.

And that's about it la! Will keep writing more as and when I get commens like the above one ;-)

1 Singapore dollar = 29.115148 Indian rupees

This is what has been open in my Firefox since last week or so.

On Tuesday 23rd, sometime in the afternoon, when I was fully convinced of cherishing C++ for the rest of my life, my phone rang with an international number on the display. Is it Santosh (my colleague), no, why would he call me at this hour? (human nature - negatives come to the mind first) Oh shit! Did I do some major mistake while fixing 8354? Someone in Embraer is really unhappy with me? Did a plane crash or something?

"Hello"
"Hello, is this Mr. Singhai?"
"Yes"
"Hi Mr. Singhai. I'm calling from National University of Singapore. I'm pleased to grant you admission in NUS for MBA full-time program. So would you take the offer?"

When I said that I was fully convinced of cherishing C++, I meant that. And that's when I got into thinking should I say yes or no. (If you aren't aware of my confusions, trust me, you're better off not knowing about them. You need to search for some other blog to read.) On expressing my errr...s and ummm...s, she offered to call me the next day. But then, I decided what the heck! "Yes, I'll accept."

Was just browsing for new messages in the NUS Admits group for 2006. Got this one really nice quote! I think it's also a song called "Sunscreen" by Baz Luhrmann. So apt for my confusion ;-)

From a very famous speech by Mary Schmich, later popularized by Baz Luhrmann.. I quite like this extract:
"Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know, didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know, still don't."

Anyway, so coming back, I resigned yesterday from Honeywell. Will be relieved by mid July. Manager's happy, so going out won't be as troublesome as some might expect. As of now the plan to stay in Bhopal for around 15 days before flying to Singapore on 3/4th Aug. Orientation from 7th. Classes from 14th.

Bought Lonely Planet for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. (I thought Brunei is somewhere in the mid-west. So kinda happy that I bought the book. At least, I won't be as illiterate as I was till now.)