Just Crap

1. I don't like it when large major roads slowly turn into small streets. The big roads should come to an abrupt ending ... without losing their importance.


2. I hate this : To popularize the film songs, the actors giving a lecture in the cassette. For eg. Mohanlal gives a lecture "Hello friends, I am Abdulla... His highness Abdulla". Then some crappy explanation to the song which is going to come. Sathyan Anthikkadu does the same for "Achuvinte Amma" - and it is 2:14 minutes. Why can't they simply play the songs?


3. I feel uncomfortable in getting a call while traveling in the UBahn. That is time to relax - at least for me... I want to be away from the network.


4. I am surprised, when in a crowd or something, when my hand hits some one.. or when some clash with somebody... or similar situations, I say "Entschuldigung" where as they say "Sorry". Well, I don't have any issues ... but always surprised about it. Actually, I should be saying English and they German... it always happens the other way around..


5. I feel odd (later) when I stand and watch some HOT beauties I see on my way. Today there was this burning hot girl standing in front of the library ... while I was coming.. I just stood there for a moment.. - just to look at her. [ithoru rogamano doctor? ;) -- is this a disease, doctor?]

Happens to be the 10th post in August. No wonder people stopped commenting for my entries. The blog stinks probably -- with SO many posts.

Signing off, Sands
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It was fast

Just now I got my new battery (NOKIA) delivered. When the package came, I was wondering what it could be.

After registering with NOKIA last week, I was not sure whether I'll actually get a battery replacement – as they didn't send me any confirmation email. For the same reason, I thought the registration to be failure and did that once again.

May be I'll get one more battery!

Signing off, Sands.

The whining baby!

Warning : Contains bragging.

In my childhood, my parents never forced me to study. They left me free all the time. My father used to tell my cousins and all other children - that they should study English and Mathematics very well. All the other subjects came along automatically. Apparently, I was good in everything except Hindi and Social-sciences.

Today I was with these 3 PhD students from maths department. We had to do some calculations - very simple ones - a few multiplications, additions and divisions. I was surprised by the speed at which they did it. They were way too slow.

They all had to take paper and pencil to do the calculations, they took actually much longer time that I took. I know there is nothing to brag here - doing basic math with 4 digit numbers, in your mind - is one of the simplest things. But when I out-did 3 PhD maths students, who had done 4-5 years of formal math courses, it really surprised me. Made me happy too :).

So the basic math which my father used to emphasize - was actually very important. I knew it always :) ... [There was one more thing he used to tell - that one should always _DO_ math. Only by doing homework/exercises one can gain expertise. Since I was too lazy, I always pretended as if I haven't heard that part :) ]

And about the title : Yeah, that's me. Lately I had been going through quite a bit of tension. I have been cribbing all the time. Not that everything is smooth now.. just that I am getting used to things. Don't want to crib anymore. As the saying "A diamond is nothing but a piece of charcoal which did well under pressure" is true, all is good for me.

Actually, for the first time, I confessed my feelings/worries to a colleague. Then only I realized that he too is in the same boat! So, let me stop whining and have a jolly trip in the ocean of uncertainties, with my colleagues who share the boat of tension with me :)

Signing off, Sands.

PS: News Update : German improvement by leaps and bounds. Had the first full-German conversation without any English word nor an unnecessary pause between words/sentences.
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The Obvious

As anyone would guess, this year too I invited my friends and gave a small "sadhya"/feast. It all started like this.



Then with the hardwork of Rajee, Anup and Myself, we prepared Sambhar, Kalan, Olan and Aviyal. Of course, there was Payasam too :)

This was the last moment I remember, after that whatever were in the bowls ... simply disappeared. I am happy that all of them liked the event and food.



Not at all in a mood to write!

Signing off, Sands.

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"The" Mistake

Asking a lady her age... unforgivable mistake. So what is that I did just now? This was even worse.

I was coming through the main hall of the building. I saw this man and a lady sitting opposite to each other and having tea. From the first glimpse itself I knew they were from Pakistan.

Went over to say "Hello".

I: Hello, I'm Sandeep.
He : Hi, I am xxxxxxxx.
....
....
......
.....
....
....
......
.....
I: So, this is your mother?
He : No, She's joining here for her PhD....

I turned blue/red/white/pale... and all fifteen colors of the rainbow.

I started cursing me... why on earth did I ask that? I could have very well asked - "who is this lovely young lady?"

Somehow I found myself getting back to the conversation and asking her about when she's starting and all those stuff! Just normal conversation.. and I escaped fast!

Lucky me... she was not his girlfriend!

I know this is a very common mistake. I know someone who asked the same question about some one's girlfriend. Still... did I have to?

Signing off, Sands.

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Payment for having fun!

When I went with the summer university students, I had wanted to write down my experiences. On second thoughts, I felt that it might be a little boring for my readers.

Now just after the farewell party, I cannot avoid writing. It was so good to be their tutor. I really had so much fun with them during the trips. Even today too... :)

Today at the hotel, as I went in, they all welcomed me so well, and the way they behaved to me literally flattered me. I didn't find any reason not to believe them when they said (praised) Karolin and I were the best tutors and they were expecting us for more trips.

Yes, of course there would be a good share of exaggeration and all - still even 10% of what they said ... is more than enough to make my day. Below is a picture of the whole group.


Now I am looking forward to the Indian students who will be here in another 15-20 days. I am going to be their "mentor" .... that scares the hell out of me. Indian students who come for sandwich program usually fight a lot (for girls) among themselves. Especially this time they have a girl among them... I hope, I would be able to keep peace. Also that they will be good to me as long as I am good to them. And I always will be. :)

There is a mallu (person from Kerala) too - I am a little worried about it. Because that would give others a chance to think that I treat him special - that is exactly what I don't want them to feel. I should be really fair.

Bitter experiences... : Even when I was really fair to all my classmates at GEC, many of them thought that I was an agent working for BVB-Gang! :(

Signing off, Sands.

PS1: I was paid a not-so-bad amount for tutoring these students. I was actually having loads of fun with them.

PS2: I am seriously thinking about a trip to Morocco - may be in a year.

PS3: [Album Here]

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Sun rises late

Two months back, sun used to rise pretty early - about at 5 in the morning. And I used to wake up at 6 in the morning. Now, sun rises a little late - about at 6. Should I too get up late? at 7.00?

Yes or no, I too have gone one hour back, about which I am not very happy. Time to revamp.

~~~~~~~~~

The weather is pleasant today. There is a small wind, 19 degree temperature, a little cloudy. I went to jog - lately I am really serious about my tummy. My plan is to reduce at least 80% of it before September 27. I'd have to struggle.

~~~~~~~~~

With the new keyboard, I am a little slow. Typing takes longer time. And right now, I am busy. Or else..... I'd have written lots of boring stuff! ;)

Signing off,
Sands.

PS: Do all bloggers have a word verification - before publishing the post?

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Applying for a VISA!

It's been 9 days since I blogged last. Didn't feel like blogging at all. There weren't many things happening either.

I finished my German 4th level with flying colors. Went to the largest Beer-house of the world which sells largest number of beer per year.

It was fun - teacher and 5 students. Unfortunately, there weren't any girls/ladies in the course this time. We went to the beer-house, had lot of food, beer and fun! I guess, teacher and yours truly were (very) slightly drunk.

I should say, this was the major event which happened last week.

~~~

I am planning to attend a workshop to be held at Dublin in September (5-7). I need a visa to go there. I am a big failure in these bureaucracy related things. May be not a failure - because I always do things successfully. But definitely not good at it - very unprepared.

Yesterday morning I suddenly decided to apply for it ... without postponing further. Went ahead and started doing the necessary. I was totally upset the way I was unprepared(not anymore). Even though I struggled to get all the necessary documents properly, I managed to reach the office/consulate just 15 minutes before it closed (12:00). Successfully finished the work.

After all I wasn't that bad :)

Time out. Gotta go to the university. More later.

After a long time, I am going to contribute to the FSF... Hooray!. Details later.

Signing off, Sands.

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Mera Naam Saara Hein!

It was in the train, I saw her. All members of my tour-team were getting introduced to each other. She said "mera naam saara hein". Wooh!!! I was surprised - just because she comes from Morocco and I really didn't expect her to know Hindi. Of course, I had underestimated "Bollywood-effect".

Yesterday, I went as one of the tutors for the summer university students. There were actually two small groups in the team - Arabic and Russian ones. My colleague took care of the Russian group. She was from Ukrain, so she knew Russian.

The Arabian group was with me. Should I mention it.... all of them were girls. ;)[why don't I change?]

To my surprise, despite of their Arabic origin, they kept speaking in English. (What I have noticed is, most of the Arabic speaking people keep talking in Arabic even when there are persons who don't understand it).. Hint : GULT

The whole thing was good. The Englisher garden visit, the meadows, lake, beer garden, Chinese tower and hmm.... yeah, the beauties lying around in the garden (in bikini ;) )

I have a lot to write. But running out of time. Today we are taking the students to the Castle of Herrenchiemsee. Have to move now!

More details and pictures later.

Signing off,
Sands.
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Programmer's Dilemma

Guess what? After a long time, I am into full-time coding. For the past few days, I am coding for about 7-8 hours a day.

The language is MAPLE. It is actually a mathematical software system or for the beauty of it, let's call "a computer algebra system". To be frank, I haven't liked the syntax/grammar that well. I guess, it's just a matter of getting used to.

Programming is not easy too. Because you need to know quite a lot of math to use this. Till now, I have managed fine.

I had to use some finite-field stuff - which is incidentally very poorly done in Maple. I just thought of writing a wrapper class/module. Started with it and got defeated badly. The reasons for failure were - 1) I am not crystal clear with all the details of finite fields. 2) I am still not an expert in Maple.

Now, coming to the title.

Whenever I have to write a reasonably big function/program, I think for quite some time. Even after I am done with thinking, I would be hesitant to start. I will just go around and around for quite some time. It takes a lot of energy to pull me back to write it. I guess it is like "chewing the cud". Taking the program structure from mind and chewing and re-chewing it - to confirm everything.

Another funny thing is that, after writing the code, I will read the code very many times - checking for syntax/logical errors. Again I am hesitant to try compiling and running. I want it all to go in a single go. Rather, I don't want the compiler to find the smallest silly mistake.

What would the compiler think about me? - if I don't find and correct it myself? ;)

Just now, I am done with a big chunk of code - a set of functions for core of the program. I finished it and waiting to get enough courage to run it. I have read it a couple of times and it looks perfect and is shining after the polish.

Still... shall I try it now or after a break? This is my dilemma. If I try now and find some mistakes, then I wont be taking any break. Anyway I'm running it now.

I guess, cross-checking the algorithm and code, before giving it to the computer is what makes me a good programmer. Careful coding is always better than trial and error. Less bugs more fun! :)

Signing off,
Sands.

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