Branching Out!

Below is a mail my brother wrote out to a freshie-to-be. I found it extremely well balanced and (5 yrs after counseling) made me realize that this is what the profs. were trying to tell me back then.
[Produced verbatim, without his permission :P]
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Some ground rules that one should know before you make this decision:

- JEE AIR is just a number. It just says how better you are over someone else to solve some types of problems that appear in the JEE exam. Many people in IIT have that intellect. Many. And that is irrespective of what their JEE ranks are. There are some (many) utterly dumb people crowding the double-digit ranks.. and there are some brilliant people inter spread in the lower ranks.. even 1000+
- The "stardom" that you get with your JEE rank either single digit or double digit will last you well till the end of the first semester and will vanish completely by the end of the first year. A completely new magic number called "CPI" takes over and it decides the amount of respect (a.k.a. 'bhaav') you will receive amongst your IIT peers. At that point, AIR and department become inconsequential.
- The intelligence required to succeed in IIT (and beyond) in the true way is much different than that is required to succeed as a student. (more on this later)

Conclusion: Try not to confuse your AIR with department just because everyone else is doing so.


Q1: What IIT Engineering Branch to select?

1) Follow your gut approach:

All wise people say this. And in many ways I can see how they are right. All engineering fields and sciences are quite similar at the core. Either people invent or they discover. But "the process" and "the media" is what makes some people click in some field over other. To truly succeed in any field (be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace, Civil or Metallurgy) one requires the same qualities - hard work, understanding of the fundamentals, patience and passion to pursuit challenging problems.

Everyone has some ideas in mind about what one wants to do in life. A good strategy is to look at all these departments w/o bias and select one that will get the best in you. (By bias, I mean "what fields others are chosing","Where is the latest trend?", "What is most paying" etc). I will explain all the departments in short and explain with examples how some people have made the best of the opportunities in their specific fields and how so many others have "wasted" their chances.

Moral of the story: If you chose something that you like, you will likely innovate and thus excel and shine irrespective of what the rest 50 in your class are doing. If you are passionate enough, there is a treasure everywhere in IIT. 95% of your batch mates will not mine it. But you can - if you want to!

Metallurgy: For some reasons, this department closes the last. 95% of the people are disenchanted and are more eager to get out of IIT even before they get in. However, there are exceptions. Every year about 5-6 of these Metallurgy students do stellar work. In Materials, Plastics, Silicons, and in so many technological items of day to day use. I have some friends who are in Stanford and are working on SUPER-EXCITING problems. Their work also affects Genetics - a field that might be the next HOT thing. So essentially, people who have made the best of the opportunities are doing exceedingly well. People who did not study at all in 4-5 years have left Metallurgy. Unfortunately 95% of the batch is such. The reason is that there are no "regular" jobs in this field. Either there are 5-6 PhD positions in top US universities or nothing! So the reason why this department lags in "AIR ranking" is because of lack of regular "MUNDANE DAY-to-DAY jobs". Ironically, most of the people from this department are pursuing "MUCH MORE BORING" and "MUNDANE" jobs in Software and IT.

Civil: You know what Civil engineers do. A couple of my colleagues have started construction contracts. May be earning in crores. Some of them have joined large construction firms and are managing huge business. Again almost 90% of IIT students who didn't chose to make the best of this opportunity are either doing mundane but well paying jobs in IT, Software or Finance.

Aerospace: This department has let down many of my friends though. Despite lack of jobs in this department, many students join this with high ranks too, because of the glamour of airspace. Again, lack of regular stock jobs. Hence almost 80% people are dis-interested from day 1. Some people have got disappointed with DRDO and ISRO in the past. Haven't heard many people doing PhDs, probably that is because US doesn't encourage Indians in this field (?)

Mechanical: Many mechanical people remain in Mechanical Engineering. There are many jobs in India too. This field is of course pretty exciting too. Involves a lot of physical hard-work as most of the people work in Car Manufacturing units and other factories.
Characteristics:
- Huge opportunities for people who want to make it. Esp. in the field of Robotics, Autos and even Aerospace.
- Starting salaries are low (but there is a huge potential if you prove yourself)
- As a mechanical engineer (even from IIT) you are likely to join at the bottom of the pyramid. This is because most of the companies in this field are old and orthrodox. (This is different to what happens in IT, CS, Finance or business). However, a good candidate is likely to grow very fast and manage HUGE responsibilities at a young age. Something that his/her colleagues in CS, Finance can't even imagine. A friend of mine who did his MS from UT Austin is managing a complete product end-to-end of his company (something related to robotics).
- Another friend did a PhD from Stanford and works on a close start-up in Bangalore. Very intelligent fellow. Says the work is pretty exciting. I can get you in touch with him.
- Another friend has started his own robotics company and is helping set up some Birla plant. (I am unsure of the details).

Moral of the story: Difficult for all the class to succeed, but some dedicated folks have done much better than even most of the CS batchmates

Electrical Engineering: Much more jobs, huge opportunities everywhere. Communications technology is still booming and will continue to do so for a while, I guess. Microelectronics will never exhaust. The machine is getting faster and faster and smaller and smaller. Many people remain Electrical Engineers. Good jobs and exciting start-up and research opportunities.

Computer Hardware Engineering: Strong Industry. Many jobs.
Computer Software Engineering: Strong industry and likely to remain so. Abundant jobs. And the Boom is still continuing. Look at Facebook, Twitter. and I am sure there will be something else.
Computer Science: Computer Science is the mathematics/science behind computers. When I took up CS, I was only partially aware of how exciting this was. Very theoretical and conceptual. Less practical and difficult to see the immediate impact of these theories. I was lucky to be in this department and I loved it.

So on one hand, you have so many people who have done brilliant things in all fields and on the other hand there are many people who have not made use of their Computer Science & Engineering education too (although it is supposedly so sought-after).

So PLEASE think what you would LIKE to do.... more than what opportunities are available.

2) Follow the people approach: For many people and most of the times, this approach makes sense. People know what thing is good on an average and they are good at predicting it. There is absolutely no doubt that the % jobs are in exact order of the AIR based rankings that departments get. Eg. There are abundant Computer Engineering jobs, there are many Electrical Engg. Jobs. There are fairly large Mechanical engg. Jobs and there are dwindling Civil, Chemical, Metallurgy jobs.

This is the reason why most of the people from Civil, Meta, Chemical want their IIT degree as a stamp and then get out into consulting or management or finance. For most of them, their IIT education is a waste.

Due to this, one merit in following the AIR based department choice is that if you chose a department what is well sought after, you are likely to be surrounded by more number of sincere and motivated people. Eg. Whereas almost 20-25 people in my Computer Science class were really good, only about 3-5 people in Civil, Meta, Chemical will be really interested in their fields of engineering.

But trust me: Everyone who was motivated enough, is doing very well.

Q2: IIT education: A General Bachelor of Business Administration OR an Engineering Degree

Today most of the IITans, are not doing engineering at all. They are either into consulting or finance or other forms of general management. They either go straight to IIMs or spend couple of years and do an MBA either IIM or International.

The best and the brightest of the lot who pursue this option also have excellent academic record and either a PhD offer from US univ or a good Job in their respective fields (Civil, Meta, etc). However, you will find that this route is occasionally followed by everyone to 'wipe out' the years spent away at IIT.

Anyways, for this reason it is good that you are chosing IIT Bombay. IITB and IITD give more wholesome education than any other IITs.

Q3: 4 yrs B.Tech or 5 years Dual Degree
Some facts to dispel certain Dual Degree conceptions:
1) Will I not be an IIT B.Tech?
- Of Course. You have 2 separate degrees. B.Tech and M.Tech. The B.Tech degree is "the same" in all forms and features to the B.Tech degree that a 4-yr student gets
2) Are Dual Degree students treated differently at the campus?
- This might have been a valid question 10 years ago. Today, with 60% of the students as Dual Degree students, the question is moot. The Dual Degree students are only clubbed together with Roll-Number. Rest everything is same at least for the first 3 years. Same courses, same instructors, same grading scale. Occasionally these days, it is the Dual Degree student who is the class topper despite his/her "low AIR rank"

Con: The only negative of the Dual degree is that you will graduate 1 year later than everyone else. So suppose, you plan to do IIM straight out of IIT or you want to do anything other than engineering straight out of IIT, then you are better off doing 4 yrs. instead of 5 yrs.

Pros:
- You get to spend one more year at IIT and make use of the Dual Degree program to learn more about your specific field of interest.
- Much more course flexibility offered. You can tailor your degree to your requirements. Eg. I specialized in Computer Science Theory. A Electrical Engineering friend of mine was interested in Physics. He used his last 2 years to do dedicated research in Physics despite being from EE. Now he is doing his PhD from Berkeley in Physics!
- 2 year Dual Degree project instead of a rushed 8 month B.Tech Project. B.Tech project gives you 8 months to work on something. Dual degree project however, is designed so that the student can explore, research and innovate in 2 years with complete attention of the faculty.
- I am not trying to market this program :D but during my Dual Degree Project, I have seen my guide move aside other students waiting in queue to meet him, so that I could meet him! Most Dual Degree students enjoyed this privilege.

If one is not in a hurry to graduate (or pay off loans or start earning) AND one wants to really give justice to the science/engineering aspect of the IIT education, I would strongly recommend the Dual Degree program.

MNS!

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I did some number crunching to try and figure out the MNS effect.
MNS put up a candidate in 11 constituencies - 6 in Bombay District, 3 in Thane District (Thane, Kalyan, Bhivandi) and one each in Pune and Nashik. Other than the Kalyan PC, the NDA (SHS+BJP) couldn't manage any other seat - a fact obviously attributed to the fact that Raj Thackrey had some issues with his cousin.
Some numbers are shown below:


Quick Observations:
The NDA was massively affected in the PCs in which MNS contested.
MNS contested 11. Won 0. Second in 2. Third in 9.
SHS contested 06. Won 1. Second in 3. Third in 2.
BJP contested 05. Won 0. Second in 5.

The margins of defeat for Kirit Somaiya (Mum NE) and Ram Naik (Mum N) [both BJP] were heart wrenching. Infact, in 7 of the 10 seats the NDA lost, the margin of defeat was less than the votes polled for MNS. (Combined voteshare is the 2nd last column). Hence the following questions arise:
Q1. Did the MNS solely eat from the Sena BJP vote bank?
Q2. Would the absence of the MNS candidate have resulted in NDA taking these 7 seats?
Q3. How did the MNS become such a force to reckon with? Is its Son of the Soil movement find takers across the urban landscape?

Fact: In the Municipal Elections in Mumbai, Thane and Pune about an year back MNS showed no dent in the Sena votes. All wards together about 400k votes went the MNS way in BMC polls '08. However this election MNS managed 800k votes in the 6 Mumbai Seats.

Fact: The semi-urban seats of Palghar, Maval, Raigad, Baramati, Shirur and Shirdi (seen above) in the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik triangle, where the MNS had no candidate - were dominated by NDA. (Other than the fiefdom of Baramati, ALL the other 5 were bagged by Sena + 1 Indp)

Q4. Raj Thackrey claims Sena should be satisfied that he didn't have candidates in other parts of the state, else a similar fate awaited them. How true would this claim be?

Remarks:
1. There is little to substitute good work. Priya Dutt, Milind Deora and Eknath Gaikwad were known to have worked well. They romped home clear - MNS or no MNS.
South Mumbai (Lalbaug, Parel, Dadar, Matunga - all supposed Sena / MNS strangleholds - lie in their domain. Though Assembly wise splits aren't available yet, I suspect each Assembly seat has to be favorable to win by wide margins.)

2. I defined a rough metric for a good candidate. I prefer a

• Younger Candidate,
• A more educated candidate and
• One with less Criminal Cases against him.

These were chosen since they were easily available on the affidavits submitted by the candidates. Of the UPA, NDA and MNS candidates the one scoring highest on any metric got 2, the second got 1 and the last one got 0. The net scores (out of a maximum of 6 and sum of 9) are seen in the last column of the above table.

An interesting observation is seen:
In 10 of the 11 constituencies, MNS candidate were atleast as good as the NDA one. In 6 cases the difference was significant (2 or more). Again, in 6 seats the MNS candidate fared better than even the UPA candidate - on this metric.
A lot of people around me voted MNS looking at the individuals.

Raj's choice of candidates, IMO, was a significant reason for votes going to MNS way. Explains the meteoric rise of MNS from the BMC elections an year ago - where Sena and MNS had similar candidates.

3. Although I don't have handy data to prove this, I have a hunch that the NDA + MNS vote share this election is significantly higher than the NDA share in the last election. Which means that people came to the MNS fold from places other than the NDA. Given that, both SP and BSP had a poorer showing in Mah. this time around, it would seem that those votes would fall to UPA. They mostly did - but maybe some voted MNS.

My Conclusion:

• It was a smart choice of candidates that helped Raj more than anything else. Sena giving tickets to equally notorious fellas didn't help them. Both could learn a lesson.
• In atleast 3 places though UPA vote share is far less than their wins reflect. Given that UPA otherwise crumbled in the Pune Nashik Mumbai triangle, they should thank their stars.

Finger-ing

Thane was among the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra that went to polls today. And after missing out on the Corporation elections an year after turning 18, I was determined to vote this time around.

However, the party positions and choice of candidates led to an interesting predicament.

History: For the last 2 decades, Thane has been consistently with the BJP-SS combine. The rise of Anand Dighe thru 90's ensured that the Late Prakash Paranjpe won Thane comfortably in '96, '98, '99 and '04 (until his demise in Feb. 2008).

A few factors have completely altered the political equations this time.
1. The (engineered?) accident of Dighe, means Thane has no single organizational center.
2. Prakash Paranjpe was very loved for being a cultured and clean person in a populace dominated by Middle Class Maharashtrians. (He died due to Cancer in Feb. '08).
3. Following delimitation, the middle class voters of Dombivili, Kalyan were moved to Kalyan LS Seat. These were staunch BJP supporters but did vote for the SS candidate (given Paranjpe's image and so on.)
4. Raj Thackrey commands sizable youth loyalties.
5.

Come '09: I would expected to be dictated by Family, Social traditions to vote BJP-SS. However, I am largely satisfied by the UPA performance in the last 5 years and very happy that they had balls in the N-Deal faceoff!! The only major disappointment was Affirmative action.

However, I am not of the opinion that party affiliations should override the candidate's suitability when voting. And you too wouldn't want Dr.Sanjeev Naik to be your MP. His affidavit says he is 12th pass, but has no qualms about attaching a Dr. before his name. (Some unaccredited US group has conferred this degree.)

I don't even want to get started on the SS candidate.

The only gentleman-politician candidate with a real chance of winning was Mr. Rajan Raje from the Mahrashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
1. He is LLB from Bombay University - a farcry from both.
2. He figured 16th in the SSC Merit List (unconfirmed)
3. He has no criminal cases against his name - unlike Naik and Chaugule.

The clinching reason for me was the fact that while he might agree with the MNS philosophy he has never been associated with any rioting, vagrancy. So for me it came down to choosing between:

1. A good candidate belonging to a party with a off stream agenda or
2. A candidate with questionable character who would most likely bring the UPA to power.

Party vs Individual : What would you do? Let me know

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Edit:-

The panwalla shop gossip indicates that MNS might play spoilsport and even trump SS in the Thane Assembly Constituency!

A for Apple

The following was posted as a comparative analogy in the debate involving IIM A vs. IIM B vs. IIM C. Smashing read eventhough it might not make too much sense nor help anyone take a decision on the ground :) [Donno who the original author is .. but what the heck!!]

An MBA is like a marriage. You're happy and excited when you're getting married, but it doesn't take much time to realize you were better off as a bachelor.
So in that sense the institute is like your wife. You are stuck with it once you're married.
In this case... your spouse is always going to be more famous than you and as much as I hate to say this "you shall be using your wife to further your career!"

Continuing this analogy a little further... since most of you have met your wives not more than once or twice, this essentially is an arranged marriage for you. (The smart ones ofcourse believe in love at first sight),

So the people in this group are lucky enough to have the option of marrying A or B or C. My friend from IIMC compared these to Aishwarya Rai (A), Bipasha Basu (B) and Celina Jaitley(C). The choice is yours whom you want to marry. However there are a couple of small little issues:
1. You have to share your wife with 300 other people.
2. You can't marry all three of them,

But that essentially is the choice between A, B or C. You could marry Ms. A and introduce your wife as being world famous in India. One who is undoubtedly "the most beautiful woman in the world". One whose face is recognised throughout the world. Essentially she represents the Indian woman to the world. Or... you could marry a certain Ms. Basu with whom you could have a lot of fun! But you'd often end up saying "Well.. she's beautiful in her own way." Or... you could marry Ms. Celina. No doubt she's beautiful but one for whom you would have to say "So what if she can't act. She has the potential!"

Public Works

Work on the IIT section of the Vikroli Jogeshwari link road has been on at full throttle the past few months. Any public infrastructure project in this region has taken thrice the sanctioned schedule time but right from the outset the Gandhinagar - Y Point stretch has been different.

The moment the Gurudwara was moved the intent to get stuff moving was apparent. And within 4 months, I am happy to say that I have travelled on the newly laid lanes on either side of the old road. (A guiding map can be seen here.) However the way the lanes are laid out is inefficient, atleast to a passerby. The new lanes are completely disjoint from the old ones and (in places) at a different elevation too. From Gandhinagar to YP, there is a huge chasm between lanes flowing in the same direction. As a result the roads have taken up a greater area than the area usable to traffic. However I am positive that the planners had an excellent reason to design it such.

But to be frank, I have felt (and been telling it to anyone who lent me an ear) that the traffic scene had shown a significant improvement since the same time last year even before the new lanes were opened. Frankly, the situation (beyond YP) on the downhill was never really too bad. It was the other lane that posed an uphill task. The reasons were clear to see:
1. Bad state of roads leading to slowing down of traffic.
2. Frequent breakdown of heavy vehicles that found it hard to negotiate the stall-start-move a couple of feet-stall routine on that stretch.
3. A signal at YP that was adhered too 30 secs. too late, coupled with
4. traffic streaming in from the Maddu Mess lane leading to general indiscipline.

In the last year, they managed to (howsoever temporarily) fix the roads.
But the turning point was the closing of traffic from inside IIT-thru YP-towards Andheri and in parallel preventing the traffic from maddu lane to move towards Gandhinagar. With 1 fixed and 3 & 4 eliminated, things in the past few months were genuinely good. If I experienced traffic on the uphill (near Suncity / Vodafone), I routinely bet with myself that a tempo or larger vehicle would have broken down right in the middle of the lane somewhere ahead - which it what it almost always used to be.

Point being that I am genuinely satisfied with the BMC, MMRDA on these fronts - [1. Improving existing road conditions; 2. Getting 2 new lanes up and running] - and would like to pause to applaud them.

However, in the last few weeks I noticed a really disturbing trend. Since vehicles exiting IIT through YP can't take an immediate right towards Andheri, they move a hundred feet left and take a U-turn in front of Phule Nagar (BEST bus stop). A passenger vehicle exiting IIT is likely to be in the left-most lane. Hence the U is neither quick nor clean. An Alto can cause significant disruption in both directions.
Similarly, the exit of the Maddu mess lane into the Gandhinagar direction is blocked using simple concrete bricks. Persistent nudging at them by Bikes and Autos creates a breach. All it takes is 4 bikers to wiggle through over and around the bricks, and before your eyes the break is big enough for a rickshaw to pass. Santros, Boleros and tempos follow within minutes.

Its really disheartening to see people (either campusities or visitors), and I can cite a few other examples of we behaving such. How hard is it to realise that there was a reason the police didn't want you to go towards Andheri after exiting IIT through YP. Ditto for those wanting to go from Powai market towards Gandhinagar?

How does the Police (given the weak dividers that fall apart in 15 nudges and the unruly traffic) maintain any flow on the road?! If at the end of the day people in Powai (both IIT campusities or those living near the Market) are experiencing incessant honking, layers of dust and smoke it is likely to be thanks to someone they know, rather than the government.

I will try and get some pics. or maps to make the point more visual. Also, the condition of the roads will only be tested in the monsoons. On that front the MMRDA isn't off the hook yet. There is a lot the government can do, but the locals too need to stand up and act sensibly.
In the mean time, this article compares Indian Urban Roads (in New Delhi) to London and Tokyo.

Fundae!

Well with the CAT results, I am surprisingly being sought out to dish out CAT Fundae. I happened to write a couple of articles for a web portal - Test Funda.

The articles can be found:
1. 10 months to CAT ’09
2. Verbal Ability

If you happen to reach the end of the articles, do let me know how you find them.

Debate!

Life is general has been good to me in the last few months. (I hope I don't have to regret it though .. )
NLS Quarters, Bro came, Mihir got married, Got placed, Dada got married a few times over :P and to top it off - CAT results (Here and others)!! Eventhough just before the results came out, I had realized that my performance was better than I earlier thought, the actual result was unexpected.
The past month (****!! Its a month already) has been a blur. It was heartening to know that so many people genuinely care about you and take efforts to wish you well. While a thank you is definitely called for (and procrastinated) this post isn't about that.
Its about:

BCG	IIMs
+ Great Job	+ Good Formal Education now
+ Firang MBA later	+ Relatively cheap (fees)
+ Job in otherwise bad times	+ Land a job when the good times return
- Have to continue education when times turn	- Lose out on Intl. exposure

I have left it at even keel at the moment though I have a few reasons on either side :D but (to the few people who read this) I want to hear from you - What according to you is the best course of action?!

One Vote!

For all the Pre-JEE single-mindedness; 13th May 2004 is vividly etched in my memory.

Walking down from StarCity Theatre (not that I was watching a movie, thats just where my class was), I passed the returning office of Mumbai Central LokSabha Constituency - Ruparel College. The buzz of LokSabha results was everywhere & by the time, I reached home - I was happy that it was to be the last election I wouldn't vote in.
It wasn't to be. I didn't vote in the Corporation Elections & find all the roads digged up for no apparent reason. No direct implication here but it was high time, ''One Vote Doesn't Count" refrain to stop!

The past 4 years have given me & hordes of students ample reason to cheer and boo the Government of India - be it the YFE Movement regarding reservations in IITs, the recent faculty reservations in IITs, indiscriminate opening of IITs themselves or (on the other side) bold steps to further the cause of (what I believe is) a good Nuclear agreement, a bursting economy that is dishing out some meaty stuff, pretty peaceful & secular 4 years, an aviation sector, a telecom boom, & so on ...

While, all these issues primarily concern the urban middle class - thats the only set of people I expect to be reading this and most unfortunately, thats the set of people I expect to be only reading this. Blogging, lakeside chatter is all good but its high time we take up the only constitutional right that we have - Vote!

Consider this -
Thane is the second largest LS constituency in the country but had a 40.53% voter turnout. Thats like bottom-20 (excluding J & K) among the 543 LS Seats. (Source: Election Commission - LS 2004 - report). If it wasn't good enough, in the 2008 by-polls the turnout was estimated at 26%.
The turnout was equally bad for most other urban centers of this country - Mumbai South (44.2%), Nagpur(48.59%), Pune (47.82%), New Delhi(44.59%), Bangalore(54.26, 49.42%), Madras(45%,47%,49%).
As a result, it is possible to win a LS seat when less than 1 in 4 of the electorate supports your candidature. No wonder we think that the government barely listens to us.

Whatever be your personal agenda - coming LS elections are a good way to get started! But since, we might have them anytime from October 2008 to May 2009, atleast get your self registered as a voter. All it requires is to have a permanent home - I guess we all manage that.

For Maharashtra - This is a good way. Fill out the details & a postman will come to your doorstep to get your signature. [Honestly, I don't know how successfully does this translate into getting your name onto the voters' list - but lets have a little faith.]
Other states would have something similar is my guess.
Whoever reads this, do take this effort for your own self & then for the nation. Do urge others to register as voters asap, the government takes a while :P to get things done.

With my DDP written, I seriously plan to follow up on ways of getting oneself registered & will post back - but in a democracy everyone needs to pitch in. If you know something / someone that can help, do mail me.

A few Links in public interest:
1. http://mumbaicity.gov.in/htmldocs/elintro.htm
2. http://www.agnimumbai.org/ew1.asp

Can a guy & girl be just friends!?

They were strange post-midnight discussions between friends - when we stumbled on the Ladder Theory. Google for it or check out www.intellectualwhores.com .
2 ladders diverged at the first look,
I took one .... & that has made all the difference.

Watched Rang de Basanti again, today! & much like my other posts, I am confused :)
India, celebrated 60 yrs. of Independence, earlier this week!
My earliest memories of Independence Day, were those of painting Flag Hoisting every August - in the painting class - year after year, an incremental number being the only change. Clearly, as a 6 yr. old, the country as an entity didn't mean much to me, other than - it inspired a lot of fervor.
Over the years, it tickled something... but no sooner had I stopped drawing tricolors (about the time when the number touched the golden 50), than the cynicism largely set in. The past years, have meant an additional holiday, mandatory school parades, additional JEE / Agarwals' classes, or possibly a Malhar - as the case may be. I got perturbed this Wednesday, as I went on some errand to a slum in Thane. Lying in the only square feet - those kids would call a playground - the faith persisted. Some kids had put their ingenuity to test, and had laid out a rangoli in the shape of India - on an extremely uneven ground.
Why was it, that I felt the strongest for my land, when it gave me nothing more than air to breathe (in the years '89-'94, which were among the bleakest in nationalistic history), yet when the country spends a great deal on educating me - I take the midweek break to sneak in a few extra word-lists [& :P] , so that I GRE well!

Earlier today, we watched 3 laborers cut their way through the LT lawns, with an almost medieval lawnmower. It was then, that Sangram brought up the topic of relevance of IITs, Engineers, IITian Engineers to India and so on.
Till before Paris, I was of the opinion that any great innovation made by NRIs in USA would eventually tickle down to Indians & make their life more comfortable. Clearly, I was wrong.
India - has her own set of problems. And, obviously grant commissions in Firang Lands, wouldn't pay to find solutions to our problems. With the case at hand - probably a good automated lawnmower is not an answer, we are looking for in India. Where would the 2, who fed themselves and their families, from their daily wages go? - if we replaced them with a mower than needed just 1 man to man. While, it would clearly be in vogue to have ultramodern devices all over IIT, just like in INRIA, in aping western countries we have missed the point. As sangram pointed out, unfortunately many corporate houses, probably have already purged their payrolls - in order to keep up with 'global' standards.
In the same vein, CTARA (at IITB) is probably the most relevant center / department of IIT Bombay.

And at 60, (coincidentally the age at which Government employees retire) India needs a fresh look at the problems facing us. & A generation needs to reawaken! I have no idea, where the winds of change will flow from (or for that matter - if they will). The easy way out seems like the very easy way out! Just forget that the problem exists, and its existence will stop paining you.
But I guess, things have to change.

Koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota, use perfect banana hota hai.

I have no idea, whether I will have the guts to be a young gun of India or whether

Yahaan pe system ko badal ne ki koshish karo, to system khud tumhe badalta hai.

But, among the best part of the movie, was its touch of realism - each of the hero dies a non-heroic death. Revolutions apparently make no promises & the Satyandra Dubey's die .... but they give no arrival notices either.

But then, political revolution (which might be around the corner) might not come just yet. Yet, the technological needs need addressing as well. The generation can come up with solutions - that address real problems. With thrice as many people per area as France, India's problems are plenty & I don't even know where to start!

Water

Watched the movie, Water, last night.
Its one of the Deepa Mehta, element n-ologies, that was nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign film, as a Canadian Entry.
While I had specifically decided to enjoy the movie, as it unfolded and not be critical of it, a few themes got me thinking over and over again.
So, I shall attempt to pass this off as a GRE practice essay, since I am desperate to pen down my thoughts, lest they get lost in the jungles of IIT thoughts.

The movie deals with, the widows of Benaras and their oppression, in the late 1930s. The whole setting is wonderfully reconstructed, though I didn't really figure out what Water had to do with it.
It no doubt had a commanding screen presence and makes an appearance in many scenes. It probably also symbolises, the Hindu religion, that although expansive and well-defined in its flow, can be skillfully shaped up, to the needs of those who read the scriptures - the Brahmins.
It might represent the time-frame of a widow's life from the instant, her husband's ashes meet the waters till the time she (or her ashes) drown themselves.
It could stand for innumerous tears that are suppressed.
Or it could be something different altogether.

While, female oppression, is something I have already blogged on, in this movie, its much more potent. Unlike, Dor where, the widow did love her husband & missed him, Water speaks of girls, not even in their teens, widowed before they met their husbands, for whom they could have no possible affection. Also, while we feel sad for Meera, what happens to the playful Chuhiya, only about 7 yrs. old, is graphicaly brutal. The setting of the ashram, with the same grief multiplied in each inmate, is gripping. (That Chuhiya constantly reminded me of a niece, I absolutely adore, didn't make it any easier.)
But, I shall give my feminist rantings a rest.
A smaller but visible undercurrent, is the Gandhi effect. Gandhiji is still remembered largely, as a leader who catalysed Indian independence. With, independence being a 2 generation old thing, and Gandhiji's relevance in present day India, almost forgotten (except, for the rib-tickling Lage Raho...Munnabhai), Water atleast reminds us, of the kind of impact Gandhiji made in a social context, then. With a miniscule screen time for the person himself, the director still manages to talk about Gandhi as a harbinger for change. All along, we are reminded, that a messiah will alleviate the pain, that we see the lead actors suffer.
One of the lines, that the character actually delivers is

For long, I thought that God is the ultimate truth. But now I know, Truth is the ultimate God.

While, one may routinely pass the above as another of Gandhi sayings, it is in the context of the movie, (with Holy Texts being used as tools for discrimination) that you realise the substance. The movie, with a central character searching for herself, as she is lost in the crowds milling for a look at Gandhi, is the most realistic picturisation of his mass popularity. Seema Biswas's acting in the closing minutes is amazing. Her confusion, desperation, will, yet uncertainty are beautifully potrayed.

Eventhough, the above themes, hurt me, for the discrimination was brutal, it never got personal. Thankfully, my family and I, have been fairly modern in their viewpoint. Widow oppression, is wholly detested. 1 UP! My both maternal grandparents, have been Gandhian in their thoughts and actions, for their whole life. My grandmother, continues to stick to his principles till today, and we have imbibed some of the easier ones from her. 2 UP!
But, what bothered me most, was the Brahminical angle to it. While, I am a non-practising Hindu and have at best vague ideas, as to what it means to be one, I have always been proud to be one. I prided my brahminical roots, for their intelligence and awareness. I dismissed anti-Brahminical movements as mere jealousy, that was mostly based on medivial happenings. This movie shook, some of them to the core.
Water, starts with a quote from Manusmriti, that screams of discrimination. The movie ends with stats, that refer to him. The movie is littered with things, he has setup! While, each refers to some distinction, a look beneath the surface, doesn't paint as bad a picture.
Lets take, a case in point. We learn, during the course of the movie, that Manu allows, a widow only 3 forms of life. A Sati (death in the pyre of her husband), or a life devoid of earthly pleasures, or (subject to consent of the family) a marriage to the younger brother of the dead husband. While it seemingly, subjects the widow to the mercy of others, it also ensures that she is not left uncared for. In a male-hounding society, it gave the widow a slight immunity against being subject to humiliation. So in principle, the laws of Manu, seem considerate, if not fair.
What has over the years, (and repeatedly so) gone wrong, is the interpretation of the laws. I never thought, that the learned men (read - Brahmins) would skew the vedas to mean things diametrically opposite, of the original intentions. As one of them says, in the movie "It is a blessing for the widow, that she gets to sleep with a brahmin. A Brahmin can sleep with any woman." This is clearly, not what Manu had in mind, while setting down the basic rules that govern Hinduism.
Over centuries, such traditions would have amounted to the most blatant and widespread misuse of power, that ever has been.
And as per Hinduism, there is no action that ever goes unaccounted for. Each action has to be redeemed and its fruits (bitter or sweet) to be consumed. Hence, in light of such atrocities, the overwhelming anti-brahminical sentiments that are running amok all over the country start to appear just. Suddenly, I feel the collective guilt weighing me down and a black smear spread all across my ancestry. The current domestic situation, doesn't really allow me to talk about this to my parents :P and clearly, its not something that my extended family will take kindly to. But, as my senses open to an outside world, I realize that the quiet manner in which all brahmin bashing is endured, doesn't reflect a strength of character but rather an attempt to passively accept the conviction for ancestral deeds.
In an ever-shrinking world, where you require every possible support to make you stand up for what you are, and carve a niche for yourself, a fundamental constituent gone rotten, is very disturbing.

To Book or Not too Book ...

is the Million Dollar (well, atleast 15$) Question, hounding me for the last month or so!
Well, the book in question is (the only book, being talked about) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows & the book in the title, refers to the verb - 'To book'!
The Harry Potter frenzy has whipped up to such a cresendo, that not buying the book on the first day, or not racing your friends to its end, is not an option. To all the true fans, it will just be a matter of shielding yourself, from the effects of a spilled out suspence - which hits you from all possible media. While I have already accepted, that some nasty (who shall thereafter not continue to be my) friend, will message me the ending, I wouldn't surprise me if some tabloid or Times of India (same difference, really) screams out "XYZ dead", to sell a few more sunday editions.
As bad luck would have it, the book releases, about 6 hours before I am due at the Airport. As worse luck, would have it, these are 01h00 to 07h00, on a Saturday Morning. (For, Paris on a Saturday Morning, read my posting about Amsterdam .) Also, stuck in an Economy Class seatee, is not how I wanted to be glued to the book, as such. Hence, I am forced to read the book, after landing in India. This puts me at a major disadvantage compared, to others, who will have a clear day's 'work' behind them, by the time I land.
Now, comes the critical evaluation of either sides of the above question :-
Even if I manage to lay my hands on the book, the instant I land & start ploughing through it, that very instant (which, will clearly annoy my parents no end. It isn't a pretty site, when you emerge from the terminals and jump into the arms of Harry & Hermione, instead of Mom & Dad), I shall have known the suspence latest by Sunday night. I shall, be left with the glory of reading through the climax, as others are chewing through every detail of it, in a indefinite loop. By the time, I climb out of the Deathly Hallows, my mom will wanna send me to the Gallows & no one will want to hear anything, I wanna say about the book either. It will be a Catch 22July, alrite.
If I manage to calm my excited self and restrain it from preplacing an order for the book, I shall manage to get one for myself, a few days late. While the person who lends me the book, shall have his/her sadism by forcing me to ingest every detail of the suspence, before I can start, I get the book alrite. As I predict, once the initial cheer surrouding the Hallows, dies down, the book prices shall dive. Good Chance, that I can buy the same book in a proper shop, for as less as 300Bucks or better buy the entire 7 book set, for something like 1500 bucks.
How much, am I willing to pay to live through the Hallows, a day after everyone else & thereafter look at annoyed parents and no cheer?
How many loud suspences and intended hints, am I going to ignore, willing to endure and for how long, till I finally manage to read the book a week or so, late?

... is the question?

Another Teen Movie

[The following has been written with a viewpoint of someone who has read the book -- For the rest, its a college adventure movie :D]
While making a movie out of a massively successful storyline & compressing the largest Harry Potter novel so far, into 2 Hours and 17 minutes, is no mean task but (inspite of knowing all this,) I am more than mildly disappointed.
In case, you wondered, I watched Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, 1^stDay Last Show in Paris. A big Yeah to that!
To those, who think HP is abra-ca-dabra go take a hike!
To those, I promised to see the movie with, apologies, but will see it again with you anyway.
Also, incidentally, after giving Goblet a skip in the theaters, I have watched each of the others in different city - Pune, Bangalore, Bombay & now, Paris :D
I can't stop gloating :)
So basically, in an effort of squishing 800 pages of the book - the director ends up practically nowhere. One thing that the movie stands out for, is the measure of growth that the Daniel Radcliffe, as Harry & Emma Watson, as you-know-who ;) , have shown. Unlike, Goblet, where Miss Watson, had everyone from Krum to Me to many others floored, she is much more subdued. Except for a scene, where she applies a bit too much of lipstick, she's back into the mould of a best friend, who looks averagely good & not the school beauty, who sits besides you in class, but is being asked out by International Quidditch Heroes. I miss her bushy hair, though (No Pun intended - its how JKR describes her).
Among the other cast, Uncle Vernon looks hugely comical, Gwarp is fitting, Bellatrix is unnaturally loud ...
... & is part of a bigger problem, that I think the movie suffers from. All characters in the movie, have gone overboard to fit exactly into the mould JKR designed. Dumbledore, as I saw him in the movie, wasn't the same as I had mentally pictured him to be while reading, but that was OK!
This movie, has Umbridge having all the associated imagery to recreate the toad visualisation that JKR creates in the book. In a movie hard pressed for time, panning her obscenely pink office a couple of times, is a huge waste. While she might have exactly imitated the book, the added visualisations with her toadiness overdoes it. While her characteristic, 'Hem, hem' is perfectly timed and astutely executed, its an irritant as the movie progresses. Among the most frequent complaints about HP5, has been her time-consuming character. The movie doesn't help itself, by coping this part.
Similarly, with Bellatrix! It is necessary to speak of her evil laughter a few times over to get the message across, it is sufficient to display her laugh just once or twice.
While, the reason Order, as a book is vastly different from its predecessors (also, among the reasons it is complicated), is that it speaks of the Gray areas between the Dark and the Light. It shows James, in a nasty light. It speaks of Umbridge as a misguided but loyal follower. It speaks of Aunt Petunia, doing more than just feeding Harry on leftovers.
The movie blunders each time.
We are never given a chance to like Umbridge. James' arrogance as a 15 yr. old is portrayed as Harry's strength in repelling Snape. The Howler sent to Petunia is still an unexplained element. In case, JKR resolves it in Hallows, the movie HP7 will have a null pointer.
In the concluding minutes, Harry's anguish at learning the prophecy was done with, in a snap. It speaks, of Dark Lord marking him as an equal & neither surviving while the other lives. While, picturising it would no way have been an easy task, Harry's contemplations by the Great Lake, bring out the man in the boy.
What the movie succeeds in doing, however is capture the difficult scenes, well. Fudge's tinkering with the Daily Prophet uses nice techniques. The Department of Mysteries creates an aura of the unknown. Characters of Lupin, Sirius, Tonks, McGonnagal, Ron and Hagrid are self-assured. Voldemort is unnecessarily disfigured. We hear that Tom was a pretty handsome boy. Luna Lovegood, is a revelation as McDreamy. Ginny isn't positioned to be Harry's love interest in the next. Quidditch is sorely missed. But the lack of too many outdoor scenes, create a nice Dark tinge to the whole movie.
What we are left with, is our jock, with a couple of great pals, in a school with an evil teacher imposed on them. They decide, that something secret is cool and rebellious, since they have a point to prove to the world. He manages to snog a girl, in the meantime. They goof up and land in a soup. But our friendly neighbourhood jock, has to star in subsequent movies & with a little help, saves the world alrite. The evil teacher was wrong, all throughout & is duly punished. Another Teen Movie - a few JKR details, don't hurt!

Advice

Never hand out, unsolicited advice. Doesnt work :D

S'il Vous Pee

This post of mine, is another of my attempts at elongating a weekend, fast coming to a close. Anyway, the following mail forwarded by Sudeep, caused a genuine chuckle. Read on...

Seems God was just about done creating the universe, had a couple of left-over things left in his bag of creations, so he stopped by to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden. He told the couple that one of the things he had to give away was the ability to stand up and pee. "It's a very handy thing," God told the couple who he found hanging around under an apple tree. "I was wondering if either one of you wanted that ability." Adam popped a cork!! He jumped up and begged,

"Oh, give that to me! I'd love to be able to do that! It seems the sort of thing a Man should do. Oh please, oh please, oh please, let me have that ability. I'd be so great! When I'm working in the garden or naming the animals, I could just let it rip, I'd be sooooo cool. Oh please, God, let it be me who you give that gift to, let me stand and pee, oh please."

On and on he went like an excited little boy (who had to pee ).
Eve just smiled and shook her head at the display. She told God that if Adam really wanted it so badly, and it sure seemed to be the sort of thing that would make him happy, she really wouldn't mind if Adam were the one given the ability to stand up and pee. And so it was. And it was...........well, good.
"Fine," God said, looking back into his bag of left-over gifts.
"What's left here? Oh yes, multiple orgasms..."

Basically, while the recent tell-it-all streak, shall not extend to multiple orgasms, I shall contain myself well within the 1st 85% of the mail, of which I have experience, and in spite of the sting in the tail (read: kick in the balls) of the mail, I found the 1st Adam part of it pretty hilarious.
The mail made me pretty vividly imagine, a excited Adam all gung-pee about his new powers that he could spray about. Think about a 5 year old, jumping with joy at a new water-gun gifted to him & you know what I exactly mean.
The mail also brings out, Eve's reticent nature and her ability to grin in joy (or helplessness) at how relieved (pun intended) Adam is at the power to stand up for himself and express himself. Everyone has experience, at their moms/sisters/daughters sitting tight in the car while we merrily pop out of the car and pop back in minutes later.

On a lateral note, the following picture sums up how evil I feel, each time I can use my Adam-inherited powers. Can you possibly, imagine Susie in place of Calvin, doing the same? Hell NO!
Calvin might not be able to hit Susie with a single snowball, but when it comes to matters that matter, he is bang on target!
Similarly, I was intrigued & interested at the public urinals, I found at street crossings in Amsterdam (seen below). So simple, minimalistic yet efficient and complete, they exactly sum what standing up and peeing is!
While, I hadn't seen something like this before, Deepak D. aka DudDa, interjected saying they can be found in Bihar - Surely! DudDa, we had no idea Bihar had open urinals :P

Sold Out!

Falling in line, with Deja News (Google Groups), Blogger, Picasa, del.icio.us, Orkut and some more, I have sold my Blog and hence my Soul to the coffers of Google!
Henceforth, a couple of Google Ads will feature on this blog, and Google promises to pay me some loose change, in case people click on them.
So its an earnest request, that you view the sites that Google thinks are relevant to my blog, links of which appear on the top banner of this blog.
While I had made a deliberate attempt to veer clear of Google running my life, at every instant from GMail to GTalk to Orkut to Picasa to Blogspot ... Sangram told me how lucrative the whole thing is. And since Google is privy to all my mail, [orkut] Crushes ;), and so on, I might as well, get paid for it.

Pata nahi - Frankly it was a very tough mental choice, though trivial.

On a hand, this Blog although publicly readable, is something that I regard as a pretty personal notepad. I often take pains, to change the template of the blog to suit my taste. As a result, granting the machines at Google, the access to decide what goes on my blog, was like splattering fliers for Dog Biscuits, on a lovingly designed kennel (France effect - Dogs abound).
On similar lines, I never ask someone to explicitly visit my blog, don't publicize it (other than a 1 line mention on my homepage & Orkut profile), don't send out new post notifications. Everyone who comes here, does so with free will and implicitly asking them to visit the Google Ads, seems worse than doing the above things, which I don't.

Anyway, very humanly, the greed for supplementing my Intern Income ;) got over me at that instant and hence, if you may, please visit the advertisements linked above and help share Google's wealth among the less fortunate, who religiously practice the religion called Googling and more so, turn more people faithful, everyday.
If Jesus can provide for the Bread and Wine, so can Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Cheers to it!

ahh..

Even if you are 'Lakhon mein Ek' there are still 60,000 of you. That I think, is the major problem in this world :-< !

Blame the Stars !

This is what Peter Vidal had to say about Sagittarius, today :

This is an ambitious period but, first of all, you must satisfy your emotional goals. It’s time to mend fences if there have been any arguments. Romantic hopes may call you away from home before long. The people you’re attracted to at the moment may be from very different backgrounds.

Of all the things - Sangram had to read this out to me, 1^st thing today morning!
Thankfully, I don't believe in Inter Planetary misalignments ruining my week - I am more than capable of doing it myself.

I have noticed that as(s)trologers - have 4 prime areas of concern : Romance, Career, Health, Financial Health. They choose one of the 16 subsets generated by permuting the success / failure in each of these and assign a zodiac sign to it. Good chance that every man thinks - that Bingo! his week had been well-predicted.

& coming to "The people you’re attracted to at the moment may be from very different backgrounds." .. I think I might just start eyeing French Chicks ;)

The movie - 'Dor' ;

& little More !

While the rhyme up there is on the lighter side, the rest of the post will not necessarily be :)

I am just done watching the movie - 'Dor'.
While I must agree that I had heard positively about the movie, I had no idea what the movie was about.
The movie starts and doesnt take too long to introduce the main cast :-
Gul Panag - I never knew much about her, other than the fact that she landed some pageant crown, some years back. With minimal beauty accessories in the movie, she is still very beautiful. She plays Zeenat, a self willed teacher from Himachal.
Ayesha Takia - I always knew she was ravishing, but she manages to act here & not appear a misfit in a rural setting as a Meera.

Zeenat maries Amir, just as he leaves for Saudi, while in parallel Meera takes a tearful farewell of her husband, as he leaves as well. Meera finding herself, being shoved into the background & behind the veil, as the doting husband leaves, is a perfect foil to Zeenat.

Other characters, like the commanding in-laws of Meera, the stern grand-ma, the effervescent girl and few others are seen around.

Their lives collide when, Amir is indicted for murdering roommate Shankar [Meera's Husband], while in Saudi & the put on the death row. Only a pardon, by Meera can save Amir [according to Saudi laws].
In search of this pardon, Zeenat leaves on a journey to Rajasthan, that is portrayed very beautifully. The interaction between the two leading ladies in the backdrop of a very conservative Rajput family, forms the major of the later part of the movie.

At this point, I will stop from making a movie review and stress slightly on the few things that twanged my heart strings - while watching the movie.
That the happy starting and romancing, between the two couples would end was obvious, the depiction of Meera's stress disturbed me a lot. Call me a sissy or whatever, the scenes following the death rites were brutal to say the least.
Her resignation to her fate and compliance with the traditional norms of the family structure bring about an inherent imbalance in the family structure. Very subtly, the issues of a widow being forced and expected to remain sad - as a mark of loyalty - to the memory of her late husband are brought up.

While clearly, the urban Indian society has come far from this speed breaker, & that contemporary girls cant be granted even a percent of the innocence of Meera, I over the years have come to accept atleast to myself, that certain inequalities still persist. While I have no idea, how my parents would have treated a girl child, I do see many parents [of guy-friends + gal-friends] still making a marked distinction between the two.
I am sure, never was the utmost importance of the academic career of any guy friends, ever questioned. I am pretty positive that wasn't the case, with most of the girls, even those - who mingle and wander amongst us.
Similarly, never was I expected to devote valuable [& justified] academic time to do housework, something that I find out doesn't translate on to girls in equal measure, even now.
I was shocked a few days ago, when I came to hear of, that a professor teaching in IITB still held the view that - 'Beti engineering kar ke kya karegi?' !

Every time, any girl confides in me something about her family - I am like 'Aise bhi hota hai kya?' . Suddenly, I feel so very advantaged that am a guy. Most of the things that have been so very obvious to me over these years, apparently are not equally obvious to some parents, wrt both genders.

The icing on this cake turns out to be - that my classmates are being confronted by their parents about getting married, at regular intervals. YA RITE !!
Just that, there comes a time, when one can no longer laugh it off !

[Disclaimer: This neither explains nor justifies all that actions that contemporary girls are known to indulge in, which are still very deplorable. The above post talks only about the inequality in a family structure. I have not come across, nor do I expect to do so, any such example in college setup.]

Happiness Reloaded !

A few weeks ago I had shared the essay I wrote about, 'My Idea of Happiness',
as an assignment for the Design and Analysis of Algorithms course.
Strange but true.
Well, below is the feedback given by Ranade Sir on the classes' 'performance'
on this assignment. Not is it one of the best analyses of an IITians psyche,
that I have seen, its heartning to see that some professor would take so
much time out to contribute to the students' growth!
Not Surprisingly, one of the most lasting images of contentness, that I have
seen is that of Sir himself, sitting at Shack reading a book, golden rays
streaking all over him.
In his time, to a stray observer, Newton would have appeared something similar
to an Oxfordian, instants before the apple hit him.

Here goes the mail ::

Here are some comments on the Happiness assignment.

I will begin by describing some of the major issues raised in your
essays.  I will then describe why I gave this assignment -- why I
think more students should relate happiness and academics.  Then I
will talk about job satisfaction and competition.

WHAT YOU WROTE: SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS
First, the most important source of happiness reported by many, many
people were family ties -- happiness in just being with your
parents/siblings as well as enjoying specific family events and get
togethers.  As it turns out, this also tops the list of what makes me
happy.

A number of people did say that academics/solving problems gives them
a kick and in general makes them happy.  Several also said that
accomplishment makes them happy.  These two are of course different --
you may be happy with accomplishment because it is noticed by your
family and friends; the study/work needed for the accomplishment might
not have made you happy -- just that you have the persistence and
mental strength needed to complete a task once you undertake it.

Several people also mentioned hobbies such as music that made them
really happy.  There seemed to be some disappointment that they cannot
pursue the hobbies and some hope that after they are settled in life
they will devote time to their hobbies.

Finally, there were also several who said that the competition in IIT
makes them nervous and prevents them from enjoying what is going on.

ACADEMICS AND HAPPINESS
The first point I would like to make is that it is worth asking
yourself whether you are happy with academics.  By this I dont mean
the grade you get -- but whether the material you learn is itself
causing any excitement in you, whether you are feeling that you are
learning anything of significance, or whether you are seeing anything
beautiful in what you are studying.  The beauty/excitement in
academics is not always easy to see, however.  Anyone can see the
beauty in snow clad mountains/flowers/ocean.  To see the beauty in a
computer you need to be able to look under the surface a little bit.
But once you do see this beauty, it is as exciting as natural beauty.
Anyone can see the excitement of being able to play tennis well or
play the guitar well.  I hope you can also see that being able to
design good algorithms (or analyze them or program them) is an ability
as hard to cultivate -- it has as many intricacies and frustrations as
there are in playing tennis or learning music.  But it is also as
satisfying.

Being able to relate happiness to academics has a few other important
side effects.

JOB SATISFACTION
I feel that as an adult it is very important to get a lot of
satisfaction out of your work.  After all, you will spend about 10-14
hours every day on it.  Note that satisfaction is different from
salary/promotions/prestige.  You may have salary/promotions/prestige
but may not really like your job.  If this happens, then you will have
to look elsewhere for your real happiness -- remember you only have
8-6 hours for it outside your work.  And that time is also needed for
many of your natural responsibilities as an adult (including
maintaining the family ties that are important to us).

If you developed the ability to see beauty and excitement while you
are a student, you will find it easier, I think to see beauty in your
job too.  This ability I am talking about is not related to CSE -- it
is the general attitude of looking under the surface, looking for
patterns and order etc.

I dont mean to suggest that you should learn to be content with your
job -- by all means aspire for promotions/better jobs/salary.  But
decide for yourself whether the Narayan Murthy's of the world
accomplish a lot because they like their work intrinsically or whether
they work (even without liking it much) because of the money/prestige
involved.

COMPETITION STRESS
Many of your essays report that academics in IIT is very competitive
and causes stress and hurry and so on.

I think there are reasons to ignore competition as well as reasons to
pay attention to it.

Competition usually focuses on external attributes -- how many marks
you get rather than what you have learned.  To keep things in
perspective, note that your relative standing in the department will
play a smaller role after you finish than the role played by what you
really have learned.  So it is worth focusing on what you should be
learning -- are you learning the ideas/techniques being taught --
never mind what others are doing.  Again the message is similar to the
one before: focus on the material you are learning, see the beauty in
it and so on, rather than worry about the marks.

Of course, you cannot ignore competition and marks entirely.  For the
simple reason that most of us have a tendency to get lazy -- some kind
of spontaneous decay.  So competition keeps us on our toes.  It asks
us "how come he/she gets so many marks while I cannot, am I just
lazy?".  If you think you are working hard, then you could ask
yourself -- "how come he/she gets more marks and understands
everything faster -- is there something more he/she sees in all this
that I dont?  Is it because he/she is having more FUN with this than I
am?".  If you can ask such questions you will be able to make
competition work for you than hurt you.


CONCLUDING REMARKS
I am not an expert on happiness, or on people's motivations,
personalities and abilities.  So what I have written is to be taken
with a grain of salt, and as an inexpert opinion.

Yes, I have in fact seen people who can do work that they find
unpleasant just because they have will power that keeps them going.
However, most high acheivers I have seen have made their mark because
they love their work.  The first step to loving work later in life is
to develop the ability to love academics right now.  This will require
efforts on the part of students, and also, I am sure on part of
faculty.  If more students participate in this process, the better it
will be.