Schönen Tag --- Beautiful Day

Herr Sandeep Sadanandan, geboren am 16.02.1982 in Coimbarote, ist an der Technische Universitat Munchen als Student immatrikuliert.

Yes, this is what I was waiting for the past 6+ months "Mr. Sandeep Sadanandan, born on 16.02.1982 in Coimbatore, has been enrolled as a student of T.U.M". They have made mistakes in Date of birth and also with my Place of birth. Still I am happy with this. Finally I got it done :)

My Insurance too is ready now. I hope they don't come with a new problem. I got my salary for the work done on conference too. Altogether today was a real good day.

Evening, I will be going for "Casino Royale".

Signing off, Sands

Teaching and being taught

Teaching - I would say is one of the most difficult jobs ever. You know something and you want to make some other person get that idea in the right way. Teaching one person itself can be quite difficult. Imagine, how it could be when you have many of them!

Sometimes I feel that being a kinder-garten teacher is the most difficult. To get the students under control itself is a hectic task, let alone teaching. The higher the grade goes the topics become more advanced, the students too will be more advanced. At the same time, in my opinion, the standard deviation too will go high - which means, the difference of abilities of students will go high.

I am facing this problem right now. As I have mentioned earlier, I have about 20 students for Fundamental Algorithms. It's very visible that some of them are very well acquainted with the topics and well versed. At the same time, some other are beginners and are finding it hard to follow. To give the class without making the first group bored, nor getting the second group confused - This is my challenge at the moment. Last week, I got some complaints from them. So, it's time for me to learn some techniques.

I always appreciated all the good teachers I had. Actually they are the ones put the seeds of my interest to become a teacher. When I think from their side, now I am able to appreciate them better. (Thanks to Pramode Sir, CPR, HAM,... the list goes on)

Being Taught

Getting recognised by your teacher is one of the best things which can happen to you. Today my Deutsche teacher told me that I could be exempted from the exam because "She knows that how good I am and she is sure that I am the best in the class". Feels great.

Signing off, Sands.

Excuse me.... & Thank You

[Disclaimer: I am very tired today. I wont be doing any proof reading. So you might find some mistakes and the topics to be completely cluttered]

Once the participants of the conference go back home, I am sure they are going to say "There was this Indian student in TU-Muenchen, he is an excellent gentleman". There is a conference going on in the university and I am one of the staff in the organising committee. It's our duty to take care of the guests/participants. And to be honest, of all the ones, I am doing the best. Of course, the two people from Cameroon and the two from Ukraine are doing good. But the others are simply waste. The two words in the title are the most frequently used words of the day.

There are three groups in the conference staff. One is the German speaking group and the other is Arabic speaking group. Since I don't know both these languages, I am out. It's really surprising that these people are not bothered to speak in English, when they find someone who cant understand their language. The German speaking group does not speak English well, so they could be forgiven. Anyway this is another reason for which I am a single man army and does my stuff well. While doing the work, it pisses me off some of the others just stay without doing anything. But at end of day, when I turn back and look, I am very satisfied. I have done a good job there. As I told, many people have told me directly that I am doing an excellent service to them. I am proud of myself :)

She is a bug in the system. She is the most smart girl I have met. But the smartness is in negative way. Two years back when I met her in Munich Airport, she looked like a nice girl. I thought she was Korean. She is from the land where they have "special gold" (Morocco). There is no special gold. She is the one who wanted to know the elasticity of plastic. She is the one who pleases people by saying what they want to hear. She is the one who acts always. She is the one who lies for nothing. She is the one who calls other girls "bitch" and does the same thing they did. She is JUST THE INCARNATION of Peter Keating.

Back to BUSYBOX

A couple of years, I was busybox. I wonder whether I am again becoming one? I have my research work to do. This is along with the tutorials I should be giving, for which I should prepare the things in LaTeX and give the lecture. At the same time, I am the tutor of these IIT students. (I haven't done anything this week yet). Again at the same time, I have to do my German Course. Above all these, I am the staff of this conference committee. Yes, I am busy. I am the same old busybox, who even needs to write things in a blog!! And I am very happy about all these.

Signing off,

Sands.

PS: I missed someone. !! :(

Immatrikulation and violet light (?)

It seems, finally I will be getting immatrikulated (enrolled as student) on the coming monday :). I just came home and found a letter from the university :)

Some strange observation: I live in the second floor. I came, picked the mail from the mailbox and was taking the stairs. Lights weren't switched on and it was kind of dark. The flap of the mail-cover was pasted to it's main body. I just pulled the flap, and I saw a violet light where the flap comes off the glue !! I stopped for a second and tried it again. Yes, there was a violet light -- very little. But this was really surprising. Next time I go to some supermarket, I should try to get one of the same type to do the experiment.

that's all for now. Life is very busy and I enjoy it :))

signing off, sands.

Life of Pi | A survey problem

The novel which I am reading these days is "Life of Pi". Back in Hyderabad, while I was reading the novel "Perfect" (it was perfectly boring one), Neo had asked me to try this one. And now I am reading it. So, what about it? Actually, there is nothing great till now (page 60+), but I have already liked the book. Here is one small line I actually liked very much.

"If you take two steps towards God, God runs to you". Somehow I found this line to be very strong.

I'll write more, once I finish it.

Now about the class (Fundamental Algorithms). The students are of very varying levels. Keeping them properly entertained is vey difficult task. Doing a lot of explanation will kill the interest of smart students and if I go in a good pace, the non-comp-sci students will find it difficult. How to get the proper trade-off?

What I noticed is that nobody (one or two exceptions are there) is able to think in an abstract way. Everyone wants everything with very concrete examples and stuff. I think, this is because they are not thinking enough. May be they are yet to be tuned to the wavelength/frequency of theoretical computer science.

Those who are slightly inclined towards mathematics, please try to solve the following problem. (Those who have done their bachelors in computer science are enough inclined towards mathematics)

g(1) = 1

g(2) = 2

g(n) = g(n-1) * g(n-2) ; n > 2

Express g(n) in terms of some fibonacci number.
(Fibonacci series - 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... I dont have a F(0), it starts with F(1))

Please try, and let me know the answer. Also tell me how was your approach. And if you are not able to solve it, let me know that too.

Signing off, Sands.

PS1: I am doing this blogging from my office. I should rethink about this action.
PS2: Life is unbelievably busy now. So, just thought of putting things in blog, rather than sending some mails.

Fundae...

Facts are facts,
All for good,
I am happy.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: Do you really think, I am crazy? :)