I remember what my Professor said sometime back - Going Away from Mumbai, any other city would make you feel sleepy and lazy and I think his words are quite true. LA as a city has a pretty laid back lifestyle.. People seem to have lots of time on their hands.. they're not in a hurry to do things which is quite contrary to what I expected from LA. btw, LA has hardly any high rises as this region is earthquake prone. People are pretty warm over here. They greet you even if they don't know you! One thing you'd notice as soon as you land in America, is the roads and the traffic rules. The amount of respect given to pedestrians is no where like in India. Any car/bike has to stop 100 mts in advance if you see somebody crossing the road. Roads are awesome. The city is well planned.. everything is at right angles over here.. so if you need to go from one end of the city to the diagonally opposite end, you would have to take like a minimum of 2 buses. btw, transport system is pretty screwed up over here. Buses take infinite time to reach destination as they have infinite stops. It took me like 3 hours to go from one place to another for a distance similar to Dadar to CST. Pak gaya us din :( LA is not such a safe place to live. You would hardly find anybody on the roads after like 8 o clock :( LA is notoriously famous for shootings and stuff. So its not a 24hr city either contrary to what I expected :(

Cars are awesome over here too :) You'd find all kinds of brands from all over the world over here. Ferrari's, Lambourghinis, Toyotas, Hondas and what not. And yeah.. I found Ferrari's too, something like 10 Ferrari's on the same street which is called Sunset Boulevard which is supposed to be one of the most posh Streets in LA. I haven't gone to Hollywood yet but I've seen the Hollywood symbol though :) from Sunset Blvd. Apparently entrance fee for just stepping inside Hollywood is 20 USD. I've checked out the beaches too.. Santa Monica is near to LA. Beach was good :) Much more cleaner than Bombay beach. I needn't tell you about girls and bikini's and stuff. You should be imagining those yourselves :P

btw, about girls.. they're so gorgeous you know. The standard wear for girls over here is Mini's and Micro mini's and everybody seems to be Hollywood material :) One girl passes by and you think how beautiful she was and instantly there comes another girl who is better than the first one and this recursive process goes on and on and on. Unfortunately there are hardly any girls in my Masters classes though :( But girls in Undergraduation are like real hot. Apparently there are parties everyday in the sorority homes (thats where the UGs live), they really do enjoy their undergraduation :)

USC has an amazingly beautiful campus :) Professors are warm, you can call them by their first names. A lot of emphasis is on assignments with very less weightage to endsems and midsems. Projects form a major part of the course. You get assignments like class and they're due next week. People generally solve problems by themselves. And the courses here are more towards making sure the students learn concepts rather than covering lots of portion. Like my prof. over here was amazed that 2 courses in USC have been covered in just 1 course at IIT. IIT has a lot of brand value over here. Especially IIT Bombay. Everybody instantly gives you respect as soon as you say you're from IIT Bombay. USC as such is a very costly univ, so i advice you guys NOT to come on your own funding. In general, come over here only if you have Schols.. or else life becomes miserable.. its like you have to keep in mind every dollar you spend. If your working over here, like an RA or TA.. you get paid handsomely and instantly you feel like everything is cheap but if your getting money back from India, you tend to convert everything into Rupees and that scares the hell out of most desis over here.

I think this is becoming a really long post. I'd rather end here. But you know at the end of the day, you feel like India is the place to be. US is just a lot of hype. There's nothing more than that. Life as such is pretty boring out here. India has much more fun things to do than out here.. And IITs are a special place. As far as I'm concerned.. IIT as an engineering institute ranks much higher than most top 10 univs in the US. I hope you guys are fine back at home and envy you guys for being back in India, enjoying the food, cricket and stuff :P

Can't find any subject to blog these days :(

God! I know you listen to my prayers :)
Jus give me enough money to buy one of these :D

Been to Nagaon, Kashid & Murud beaches yesterday. A M A Z I N G beaches :)

Cute Girl :D
Notice her big eyes & open mouth :)
Shooo shweet rite?
:)

I wonder, how do ppl remain 'committed' for such long times? In the first place, why do they even let themselves into a committed relationship?

Personally, I can't get along with any particular girl for more than a month !! Post first date,  it is ideally the girl who breaks up first :D More often than not,  the relationship turns cold after a period of time..

It is the initial stages of a relationship (when you meet the girl for the 1st few times either online or otherwise) that are most exciting. I term this period as the 'Period of Laying the Groundwork'. This period can extend from a  couple of days to an entire week, if the girl's heart is a chamber of secrets & broken relationships..

The whole of the second week goes into trying to talk her into a first date, mebbe even push the coffee bill somehow on to her purse ;) (Works out more often than not :D). Contact hours generally vary from 14 - 21 hours per week either through chat or via phone. It is most essential at this point of time, that you recollect the fundamental law of relationships -




So make sure you have the mobile bills covered in your budget for that particular month. In this context, I may also advice you here, to avoid a long distance relationship on the pure basis that STD calls cost more :P

         


         

(Click on the thumbnails for better resolution images)

I'm not a pervert! ( Ha ha.. I wouldn't have shared these pics, if  I was one )

Jus wanted to show off my photography skills  :D

Some real emotions are captured only when the subjects in question,
have lil clue that they are being captured :)

ps : Smbdy wanted a babe's pic.. So this is for you :)

& Couples, beware of my camera 

Mood I was filled with angels, angels of premium quality..
Stared at many a beauties :) , could capture only some :(
One of them is the girl in the above picture. The pic 's blurred but she's cute.. aint she?

@ Girl in the pic : If you ever come across my blog, honey.. This is to let you know  that i was  actually dumbfounded by your attractiveness.
<Yes! I'm out of words :D>
Free for a Coffee tonite?

Feels good to be tagged by my chweet sis & that too at such a high position!
Honestly though, i'm  not sure if i am worth it..
All i can say is THANK YOU Yashu :)

Dedicated to one of my closest friend at IIT, N. Vijay Kiran aka NUKE.
Records show that he was last seen online at 11:03 AM IST, 16th November.
Nuke hanged himself from the ceiling of his room, thus commiting suicide.
---------------

Personally, he was one of my best friends at IIT. He used to share every little thing with me. Jus can't believe he had the guts to take his life in his own hands..

I gotto know this guy after shifting to H13. Although we were from the same place, Vizag.. we hardly met each other during 1st year (ofcourse, we were in different hostels). Highly ambitious person, he kept high standards for himself. He used to pack his time table with lots of work. He was someone who always was preoccupied with work. A peculiar thing abt him was, he used to take hours to eat his food!

I last saw him on 14th November; he came to my room to ask my bike.. I myself had to submit my BTP report, so had to turn him down. Later he called me arnd 11:30 the same day, and that was the last time i ever heard his voice. We shared a close friendship & unfortunately we have'nt met quite frequently in the last 20 days . I was busy with my acads and neither did he drop by my room. Mebbe if I met hime smtm, i might have talked him out of this silly idea to take his life.

Yes! It was academic pressures that made him take this extreme step. As i said b4, he set high standards for himself. His passion for computers and his Academia collided big time. He was the wrong person in the wrong branch. He was extremely talented.. No doubts.. but when it came to handling pressure, he crumbled..
Studying one night before an exam wasn't his cup of tea.. ultimately he ended up screwing his exams.
Handling Umang/Learning more Comp fundaes/working on his comp related projects was simply so huge a burden, that he couldn't cater time for his Acads.. This led to his backlogs & unfortunately this semester, his backlogs increased more.. Nov 16th was his BTP presentation, and him not being able to finish it led to this crazy idea..
So who is to blame for this?

His parents ? Himself? IIT Authorities?

Everybody has equal share in his plight..
Parents were critical about his bad grades. He made things worse for himself. He couldn't choose between Academia & Computers. And as far as IIT Authorities are concerned, the recruitment of students into IIT has to change. Untill and unless, the option of choosing a branch post-IIT-first-year is implemented, students like NUKE will suffer.. He simply hasn't liked studying physics. His death should open the authorities eyes and they should consider, increasing the flexibility 'to change' branches. All said and done, that wouldn't happen.. would it?

Ppl who clear JEE are highly talented . Yet, they some how find themselves in a loosing position which is quite alien to them. Most of ppl were toppers in their own schools. But when such a lapse occurs, IIT authorities should take care of such students and they have to nuture them. Mebbe sth like a psychiatrist might do some good to improve the mental health of such students.

UMANG was sth he really loved. He was proud he had made it himself. It was sth which instilled happiness in his heart. I guess the days, he spent writing UMANG script were his most happiest days .. We used to spend hours discussing what features UMANG should have. Recently he took a BTP topic under a Kresit prof. He was really focussed to crack this sem & his BTP. Somehow, things dint fall into place.. But seriously, dying isn't the way out.. It doesn't solve anything! Funny, he couldn't understand this. Ironic that he concluded, there wasn't any UMANG left in his life.


I still can't beleive he couldnt find a way out; still can't beleive he thought taking his life would be the only option. Yest. I saw her mom crying her heart out. No mother should be put through such trecherousness. This world has lost someone valuable.

May his soul rest in peace.

I have this bad habit, I keep postponing things uptill the end !
With so much work already done,
I still couldn't avoid a night out to finish my BTP Report :(
Anyways, now its done :)
& I'm really happy & satisfied :D

Exhibhiting one of the most exquisite pieces of 20th century
engineering perfection, this FERRARI Modena 360 is next to god :)




IMHO, this road car is one of the most sweetest things on earth :)