It happened that night..

"Life is shit.Out of the plethora of things that i could have done as a software engineer, why did i have to get something which has never been done before in my organization? No one to bail me out of this situation. Boy it's so fucked up. I must have done some terrible sins in my previous life to get such a himalayan task." And it went on and on. If any of you guys haven't been able to get a clue as to what i am talking about, be patient as i would explain in detail.I am working on a BI tool called Cognos, which is the most happening thing in the BI market. Indeed it is a very exciting tool with lots of amazing features. And don't for one second get the impression that i don't love working on Cognos. Life seems so perfect when i keep on getting results with this tool. But the problem arises when sometimes you get stuck. It is that time when you truly understand the meaning of the age-old saying "Life is not a bed of roses".Since our team is the first one to work on this tool, we have been assigned the task of mastering this tool. And so it often happens that when things go wrong ,we spend sleepless nights trying to figure out the problem,in absence of any help. And believe me if anyone ever had the experience of working on something which no one has ever done in the organization, he can better understand my situation(Of course both the excitement and getting mad part). Ok enough of Cognos fundae,let's return to that night.It so happened that i was stuck on what seemed a very simple user requirement, for the past three nights.Every night i was trying everything possible to crack this nut.But this one seemed really tough.I was going completely crazy.To add on to that i had got the deadline from the end-users, which unfortunately was the very next day.Believe me no one would have wanted to be in my shoes at that moment.I was depressed and frustration was clearly written all over my face.I was cursing everything that the Almighty ever created. Believe me the situation was real bad. But then i tried to calm myself down and decided to go out for a small tea-break . And then it happened. And i am so glad it happened.

I was still quite pissed with the entire situation and was shaking head violently to show my frustration.And then she saw me.Kate saw me.I was actually surprised to see her that late in the office.She too seemed to be stuck in some problem and she was just concentration personified.I could see the determination in those dark eyes.I stopped for a moment and started observing her from some distance.I was so lost in her that i completely lost track of the time.She looked so beautiful and captivating. The mere sight of this heavenly beauty seemed to have erased all my frustrations.I thought of quickly moving out before she got suspicious.But it was as if she had hypnotised me that i stood my ground and kept on staring her.I could see that she was herself trying very hard to solve some problem.Often she would get very excited at the prospect of finally successfully solving the outstanding issue. The optimism and anticipation in her eyes would quickly convert into dejection, but soon she would recover and go for the kill again.And every time she seemed more determined than ever before. As if she was saying ,"Bring it on.I am game for you".It was getting more interesting and riskier by the minute.But she was too focussed to notice anything else around her and i was just too much involved in this entire scenario to leave it at the climax.I saw her making so many attempts after that.Forty five minutes later,she had finally achieved and her persistence had finally paid off.With a thump in the air,she rejoiced as if she had won the World Cup. Suddenly she was laughing and humming some catchy tune.It was so much fun watching her.But then suddenly she turned around and saw me.I was caught red-handed staring at her.She shot mysterious looks at me.I thought that i was as good as gone. Oh shit,my angel would think of such horrendous things about me. Shit she would think that i am a stalker.I for once wished that the earth may crack wide open and take me in to save this embarrassment.I was cursing myself like anything, when she looked at me and gestured to find out what exactly was i doing ? I gestured back that i myself had no idea about that. She just laughed and all of a sudden the world again seemed a better place to live in.Though i was enjoying this light situation,i was cursing myself internally and wanted to quickly run out of the place.Before i turned around, our eyes met and remained glued to each other for quite some time.Though we didn't utter a word,our eyes did most of the talking.I was in seventh heaven now and then she smiled,lowered her eyes and looked with those passionate eyes again.I realised that all of a sudden i was feeling extremely rejuvenated.Though i wanted to stand there forever, the unexpected appearence of the watchman forced me to quickly return back to my seat.

As i sat on my chair,alone,i pondered over the sequence of events that ensued in the last one hour.I thought over what happened and why all of a sudden i was feeling so happy about myself,when i was so fucking frustrated an hour back.Without a word being spoken,she taught me something that i probably wouldn't have learnt that easily.One should enjoy every challenge in life.I know it sometimes gets really frustrating, but only when a person has seen the darkness of the night can he appreciate the light of the day.She taught me to give your 110% to everything you ever venture into and not to give up till you have finally achieved the goal.

And that was it.That night i kept braving all the odds and persisted to crack the problem deep into the night,till i finally succeeded and believe me there is no feeling than the feeling of having overcome all obstacles to achieve your cherished goal.That night i got to sleep very less , but it was so very peaceful. And rest assured i thought of my angel every passing second.Really something great happened that night!!

PS: Her real name is not Kate :).

Is it the end if NITTism?

"The outside state quota in all the engineering colleges under AIEEE would be filled on the basis of All India Ranks, rather than the state quotas from this year..".I still vividly remember seeing this piece of article a couple of months back in a newspaper and soon after that i was lost in the pros and cons of this critical decision.Being an ex-student of NITT, i started thinking about the effect of this move on NIT's in general.

Nostalgia gripped me and took me deep down the memory lane to my school days when i was slogging day and night to get into NITT - my eternal dream ( I never seriously tried for IIT's).Since my brother had already gone through the AIEEE route,i had a fairly good idea about the admision trend in various colleges and the rank one needs to get there.It was heart-breaking to see students from some states with much inferior ranks easily getting the best colleges , while guys from states like Andhra,Rajasthan,Jharkhand,Bihar etc. settling for much inferior colleges and much inferior branches inspite of having much-much better ranks than guys from these more privileged states. Believe me it used to hurt a great deal!! It was such an irony to see that a Mech guy from Andhra was having better rank than most of the Computer Science guys of these states.I used to feel sorry for that guy!! I even had a dislike for the system because they would be allowing NRI's through the DASSA quota, even though they were less deserving because they never went through the struggle of cracking one of the most competitive exams of India. So, reverting back to the moment when i saw the above mentioned news article , tears of happiness rolled down my eyes. Justice and respect for merit at last,i thought.

Then i thought a little more about this decision and how would this influence my alma-mater. First thing that came to my mind is that the academic standards of NITT would increase by leaps and bounds. NITT would be flooded with nerds( Just kidding!!). Finally NITT would start to challenge IIT's more consistently.This new batch would take NITT to the zenith of success. I felt so good to think that the future of our NITT is in bright hands. Inspite of that i had a hollow feeling inside. I kept on pondering further before the answer struck me.

"NITT is like a mini-India" .We NITTians take pride in the unity in diversity as part of our NITT culture.It's amazing how individuals from every nook and corner of the country converge to this temple of education and become friends forever , cutting across all the barriers of caste,creed,religion,region etc.The best part in NITT apart from the education is the plethora of people,cultures and customs that one comes across.I personally from my stay in NITT feel that i know India better know than i could have ever known without this enriching experience called "NITT". It is the diversity that adds colours to NITT's culture. And with this new mode of selection that diversity would surely take a beating.From my experience in the engineering field and the trends over the past few years, i am pretty sure that many states would get wiped off from the scene and NITT would never be the same again.It hurts for me to envision such a NITT.

Apart from this aspect,this new mode of selection also misses one very crucial point.They have opened the doors for thousands of students of AIEEE factory who are being trained day-and-night by the top coaching institutes in cities.But what about the less-fortunate guys of the less-fortunate states who don't have access to such high-quality of education.The AIEEE board,i feel,haven't considered the non-uniformity of opportunities available across India.They are sadly mistaken to assume that the quality of education in the FITJEE's, NARAYANA's etc, in the big cities is the same as the insufficient technical education in the schools of Nagaland (Just a vague example).

I being a student and one who has already personally gone through both the sides of the coin , know how difficult it would have been for the AIEEE board to make such a tough decision. I don't know whether this is a right or wrong decison. All i can say is that this is a tricky decision!!

PS: These views are my perspective on the entire AIEEE scenario now. It is not aimed at any person or state in particular, it is just aimed at the system.