Friday, July 23, 2010

Balle Balle!! From Ranchi to Raleigh!! :P

Time really does fly fast. Four years back I wouldn't have ever thought I would end up doing my bachelor's at Ranchi. A year back I wouldn't have thought I would be going to NC State. But yea, things happen in quick succession, and voila.... here's where I am!
People keep telling me, "Oh, so you've also taken the one way ticket to the United States", or even better, "Oh, so here's a true Gandhian.... He said Quit India over half a century ago!". Haha. Funny. Personally, I've never seen the reason to settle abroad because of the opportunities. We have loads of opportunities here, in India. After all, most of the things sold in India with a "Made in USA" tag are probably not from America, but from 'Amjikere' local!!
But yeah, people do like to live in such a place where rules are written everywhere, and its easy, non chaotic and even seems utopic! Relatives here tell me ,"So now you are going to find out why people settle there!!". Yeah, I'm sure its a nice place to hang out, but hey, can you get away after jumping a signal with 50 bucks and no ticket?
I'm not saying you *HAVE* to pass the buck around or that I *LIKE* to do something like that, but that's how things are, and its hard to think of a place that doesn't work this way.
I've got a week more here in India, and then its back to studying computer related stuff again. I obviously am trying to enjoy every bit of what I have here, as I'll come again only a year later for the summer break. And its the shopping that I'm doing now that makes me think, "God... so many things... so many shops... We never had this even like 10 years back...". Real estate, technology, the standard of living, everything has just skyrocketed here.
Its not too much to say that a lot more development is going to happen here compared to anywhere else in the world, and I don't want to miss out on anything going on here in India. There has been an Industrial Revolution, a Green Revolution,... People are going to talk about these years later on as the I.T. Revolution. And India would be the epicenter.
Its very thrilling to say I am leaving in a month... a fortnight... and now a week... but so many different ideas and thoughts seem to creep up in my head. At the end of my masters', the only output I want is to have learnt something new, something different, something that can make things better for people. Even if not in a big way, the smallest of ways would be just fine!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

My First Blog

Well, theoretically this isn't my first blog. The first time I blogged was way back in December 2005 after reading an article about Blogging in the Indian Express at Bangalore. So, I went and sat in front of my P4 desktop, and the pathetic 56k Modem connection I had back then. To say that I was excited would be an understatement - I was both astounded and amazed. "My very own web page for free!", I thought, and sat down to write something about cars. (The only thing back then that was even close to blogging was having your own web page on Yahoo! Geocities.) It was a feeling I had never had before - it was like a six year old seeing a red Ferrari on his neighbour's driveway, or a ten year old laying his hands on a brand new X-Box. At the end of it, I experienced a sense of accomplishment and it felt absolutely wonderful!
The ironic part is that it took me another 5 years to blog again! Weird. Totally weird. I've always wanted to write. To write something with purpose, something that makes a difference, something that would be remembered. May be its all because I've always wanted to be a journalist, but have so often been told, "But your English isn't all that great!". True, true, very true. But hey, that doesn't prevent me from Blogging!
I thought the first blog would be a nice time to give some credit to the people who made me choose the name of my blog, "random thoughts ...". I had two seniors at BIT, Mesra - Shyam and Kalyan. They didn't teach me how to code in Perl, or to solve equations on transconductance (whatever that is!) in subjects like DIAC, but they did teach me something very very important. I remember going to them the evening before my interview for an internship at a financial firm to get "formals", as I had none, and the only advice they gave me was this : "Be random". I don't know why, but I took their advice pretty seriously, and it worked! Even they were shocked it did! Even today, before I go for an interview, a viva, a written exam, or I do anything at all, the only thing I tell myself is this : "Be random".