A Memorable Memorial-Day Misadventure

When last I blogged proper, I was back in Atlanta, at Georgia Tech finishing up my second semester. Now that that's done with I'd chosen to move to Boston for my summer internship. I wasn't quite in love with Tea Parties but it's a place I've never been to, was significant in the American Revolution (yes, I'm a history buff) and thought I should have a look around when I had the chance.

It's only been a few weekends but the very first misadventure was on the very first weekend. Now, being that it was Memorial Day here in the US, we had the Monday off. Little did I expect that the bus drivers had the evening off too. But more on that later.

To get a printed subway+bus pass in Boston, you absolutely have to use a vending machine at an MBTA station, and my trip began with the singular goal of finding the same. I left my place in the one of Greater Boston's suburbs on the one (and only) bus that plods this route to the nearest station (that's Alewife Station) around 3.30pm having spent the whole of the morning on Skype with someone I'd missed talking to for quite a while. My plan was "get off the bus, run in, buy the ticket and run back out to hop on the same bus back home". Like they say, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Mine was no exception.

The moment I alighted and procured the pass, I headed back out to find that the bus had already left. With an hour to go until the next one, my only option (OK, I could have held my horses and waited) was to look at the subway map and figure out where to venture first. The name Harvard sprang out prominently on the same Red-line subway and I decided that was my first stop. So off I went to Harvard. Right outside the station, I found myself staring at - what I then assumed to be - a church campus of some sort with walls all around. It was only after I'd walked around the perimeter once that I headed in to find that this was indeed Harvard University's main campus! So I walked a while around the place, snapped a few pictures with good ol' John Harvard (his statue atleast), took in the beautiful scenery and headed back to the station. In all my infinite wisdom, I somehow concluded that I wouldn't make it back to Alewife in time for the next bus, and knowing full well that the last bus was at 6.50pm (thank you Memorial Day timetable) I headed on to MIT's T-stop (Kendall/MIT). For the uninitiated, the 'T' is how Boston's residents affectionately refer to their transport network - I'm sure that 'affection' is quite relative though.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had a decent campus, but nothing quite that awe-inspiring as I'd come to expect, and it wasn't endowed with the same architectural wonder or natural beauty as possessed by Harvard either. The one saving grace though, was the location. Right across the road on one edge of campus, you'll find the Charles River waterfront. Not that Harvard is any different in that respect. With the breeze blowing and the sails fluttering in the wind, it's quite a wonderful place to spend an evening gazing upon the water. And entranced by the entire scene I stood, not quite keeping a track of the time I'd been spending. So I ran all the way back to Kendall station and took the red line back to Alewife all the while praying to make it in time for the final bus at 6.50pm.

The timing was actually perfect, but right before Alewife, the subway train pretty much stopped in the middle of nowhere for 5 whole minutes and I was greeted by (the rather distressing sight of) the rear end of the bus speeding away right when I arrived at Alewife's bus berths.

Seeing as how there was no other bus back home, the only way I was getting back was with help from my new house-mates (who proved rather unhelpful at that time of need), or taking a taxi. Now the reason I didn't take just any taxi here was because Georgia Tech (being in Downtown Atlanta) had trained me to be paranoid about safety and the taxi stand at Alewife looked rather shady to say the least. So, following directions from my supervisor/manager at work I actually took the tube back to Harvard station and got a bus that got me to Arlington center, which shaved off a few miles. In the meanwhile, my phone's battery was on its last legs, having started off at around 60% and having served me well throughout the day over 4G and GPS. Got a taxi cab to show up all the way from another suburb and the taxi driver showed up just in the nick of time before my phone finally died ("You couldn't get a taxi in Arlington? Seriously").

During my ordeal, somehow my manager and my apartment-mates had gotten in touch with neither knowing for sure where I was (remember I was not touching my phone for fear it would switch itself off). Fortunately I arrived back home ($40 poorer) just before both parties took to their cars and began searching for poor old me. The one thing I will never again do is venture out late in a new city when I know that public transit stops early that day!

Stay tuned for my second and third weekend's sightseeing in coming posts.

Back to musical madness..... The latest performance

College reopened last week and I'm back on the keyboards again with our college's orchestra. Pulled together a show for a national workshop organized at college within a week (with practice sessions till 8pm each day). Followed, of course, by long drives in hellish traffic that would have my left foot numb by the time I got home.

Here follow a few videos of some songs we performed on stage at the event. One of the videos has a chunk missing because the person using the camera switched it off at the wrong moment, and the remaining songs can be found on youtube if you check under the "More from grajasekar" section on the right side of the video on youtube itself.

And I'm the main keyboardist in the maroon silk shirt by the way.



























And a professor of ours decided all of a sudden, at the end of the show, to sing a song on-stage. Had to provide some on-the-spot chords for the song he sang.

Here goes:





Gotta work on something much better for MITAFEST.

Singers are welcome to leave their names in the comments section of this article or on the comments section of the respective Youtube pages.

College Chronicles: Part 5

Happy New Year Everyone! (Yes, I delude myself that my readers comprise the greater part of the college demographic)

Here I am once again with my ramblings and musings about the semester in college just past. After the mad rush to finish portions in the 4th semester, the 5th was relatively tame.

As the sem began, there were whispers all over campus, hushed voices speaking as if the matter at hand if heard would end in them being hanged for treason. Soon the voices grew louder, until I finally found out about this one word that had spread like wild fire. Docomo. The ad for the same, though initially catchy, has ceased to amuse me of late. You can only get so much mileage from an ad that goes Tu-too-do Tu-too-do. With college goers the phone has a permanent place right next to the container that holds the person's brain. Though the contents of said vessel might not be present, this accessory always is. It stays near the ear as if a bottle of Fevi Kwik had stuck it there. Hence it was that Tata's 1 paise per second promise with DOCOMO struck a chord with everyone on campus.




Talking about Docomo, some people I knew (or thought I knew well) made it clear, all of a sudden, that they would rather avoid me like the plague. Their reasons all the same were pretty LOL-worthy (me being me, me having not lent a record to them one fine day 2 years back). The things some people make note of... tsk tsk. Fine by me if schoolkids in college couldn't cope. Well that's a story for another day.



Sir Centum Sundaram was up to his usual part-time job of bulletin board updates, aided this sem by Vigneshwaran "Project boy" ;) Shanmugam. Most people have gone CAT crazy. No, not the feline kind, the kind that gets you an MBA if you're lucky enough to make it through. T.I.M.E sure is minting money this season with the economic recession getting everyone worried and driving people to CAT Coaching classes in droves. I think I'm one of the few left in class who aren't attending any coaching (or are too lazy to do the same :D ).



Vague hints like these which would perplex us mere mortals exist in a certain brilliant man's notebook. This man is Jayaram alias "Baja" (don't worry, sounds like a rowdy but he isn't). For his brain, problem solving comes as easy as cutting butter with a heated knife. Whatever he says is seasoned with practicality, I salute you sir for that!



This monkey has one leg missing. Apparently, he/she frequents the girls' hostel. Perhaps the like-minded monkeys in that building provide good companionship. Observe the specimens (a.k.a Aishwarya and Abhinaya) below as they devour a packet full of sweets and savouries. Enna oru paasam, adengappa..







The above article and several like it were a source of untold misery and suffering. What are they you ask, ye who are technically less inclined? These are microprocessor trainer kits, ones where you enter code and it displays a result. For one thing, they didn't work half the time. Second, there were too few of them left after many successive generations of engineers in training / monkeys :P had had their way with them. Third, learning assembly code is a pain in the posterior. Aspiring engineers please note, thou shalt not be given an i7 or Core 2 duo microprocessor and be told "Ye shall go forth and program". You'll get a crappy 8051 chip at most if you're lucky to try your hand at coding for microprocessors. Opening these kits was the equivalent of prying open Pandora's Box. Don't get it? Read on.

Besides all this, we had to submit a project as part of the above described lab course. The way people split into factions, talked in hushed tones, trademarked their ideas etc was all so funny. It was the cold war all over again. There wasn't even a research grant up for grabs and folks here were acting as if this was Intel's Innovation Challenge.

Below you see two souls weary of the day's battle rest their tired selves.


A little snap I took, watch how these naughty boys ;) boldly raided the seniors' snacks during a lab session. Cheers brothers!




Took a great deal of effort to put up a good show as part of the IEEE's 125th anniversary celebrations which were held in our college. Several days of practice with some friends, combined with our HOD's zeal and relentless vigour made it all a grand success.






Had more work at hand (quite literally, cos I'm a keyboardist for my college orchestra lol) when Sivaranjani, our intra-college culturals, came along. The displays of dance, comedy and music on stage all went well.



What you see above is part of my class participating in the "Pongal making" Contest. Wood was burnt, smoke was made, eyes began to water, people screamed into the microphone. But whether pongal was made, I cannot say. For I was fortunate enough to avoid tasting any department's cooking. God is Great!!

There was one Industrial Visit (a camouflaged class picnic :P ) to Bangalore.... ooops Bengaluru this time around. It was the peak season for Swine flu and I opted out of it. The majority of the class took the trip despite the professors having their reservations. Most everyone who went came back with a severe cough. Our class topper got herself admitted, and the continuous coughing and sneezing got so bad that even the faculty dreaded coming to our rooms. Several of us (including yours truly) sat the entire day with surgical masks on to atleast prevent getting a cold, though masks offered little protection from H1N1. Anyway, my friends got me this little trinket when they returned from Bengaluru. Thank you very much!!



Sadly a certain department in the college embarrassed itself (in Tamil, we'd say "Bulb vaangitaanga") by setting off some crackers right in front of our department thinking our IV had been canceled, only for us to have our trip confirmed at that very moment. Thanks for providing the fireworks for our celebrations, kids (read: douches). :)

Celebrated our friend, Aishwarya's birthday:

right before we burnt a hole in her wallet in the name of a treat.

Seven wonders of the world? Bah, humbug. We have the Seven Wonders in our own class:




Some of us, meanwhile, took the USE HELMET signboards around Chennai too seriously. Colour-matched helmets and raincoats, all this safe road user needed to complete her air-tight attire was a pair of maroon gloves. I shall leave you to speculate upon the individual's identity.



My mode of transport to college - my good ol' car - had served me well many a day. This month, however, it's time had come. This was it's final meter reading right before it was sold:



It was still in excellent condition, but I was sad to see it go and get replaced by a newer vehicle :'( .

And thus went another semester filled with fun, frolic and foolishness. In another few hours the sixth shall take over. A new year, a new dawn and a new semester. Let the madness begin!

IEEE 125th Anniversary - Cultural show

Our MIT campus of Anna University recently hosted the IEEE Madras Chapter's 125th anniversary celebration. At the end we had an hour's worth of music and dance programs.

Here are some videos of the part where I was playing the keyboard with some of my classmates singing on stage.

(Yes, I had to sing a line or two too, but please don't let that ruin the rest of the song for you ;) )

College Chronicles - Part 4

Its been about two weeks since my 4th sem exams came to an end. I suppose its time to look back upon the semester gone by.

This sem was supposed to be the time to relax - as a friend of mine put it - "We'd be having more free hours than classes". Boy, was he (the little guy in the middle with glasses ) wrong.
And how wrong. Things went wrong even before reopening day. Initially reopening was scheduled for December, giving us something like 4 days of vacation (why did they even call it a vacation) before college began for the 4th sem. Lo and behold it poured forth from the sky and one of our exams was postponed to a much later date, leading to a delayed opening in January. Then we had a week or so off for our department's international level conference TIMA followed by Madras Institute of Technology campus' Silver Jubilee celebration (another 4-5 days). Besides that, we had a gala time during the weeks that the government decided to declare holidays here in Tamil Nadu "in protest against the Sri Lankan Government's handling of the Tamil issue." They started calling it Ceylon jubilee, LOL.

Right before the reopening we were shit-scared of the results, cos the kinda feedback we'd given to some professor, we'd expected half the class to fail. Thankfully, most of us passed, though the grades were noticeably lower.

There was one saving grace however, in the form of MITAFEST - 2009. I was on the writing team for the event's website. Gave me a chance to write my heart out, and almost all the stuff under the Events section (among some others) is what I had written. The website is still up at www.mitafest.com. The event itself was something else!!! Celebrities were popping in and out of college (who cares!), people with faces painted, quizzers and orators, fashionistas, dancers, singers and gamers - whatever your forte, you had a stage to showcase your talent. To top it all off, highlights included the concerts by Anuradha Sriram and Karthik with renowned instrumentalists accompanying them on stage (I procured the videos via a friend). The atmosphere was saturated with excitement.


We had some fun in the Transducers Lab too, even took time out between experiments to catch some snaps.


The little guy with big brains, Mr Sundaram, kept up his routine act of writing "Today Aps Class" this semester too.






Remba padicha idhaan aagum (study too much and this is what happens) --->

You start seeing rhombuses and geometric shapes where you never thought you would before.


Once all this was over, our HOD left no stone unturned in ensuring we knew the urgency of the situation, that we were short of time. Alas our skulls were too thick for this vital piece of information to permeate, though this was on expected lines :D . So we ended up having classes even on Saturdays - and full days at that. Every free period was taken, we were so busy we didn't have the time to scratch our arses. Lab tests and assessment dates overlapped and intertwined. Projects found their way from the "We'll definitely do it" to the "trash the idea" bin. Industrial visits were canceled too.

Now the general student population had a hard time in our department this semester, but our representative was a day-scholar Jayaram a.k.a Baja. I pity the tough time he had. The professors grilled him for free periods like lions fighting for their share of the kill. No one would let go of their piece of the pie, so poor Baja was caught in the crossfire. I suppose he got depressed and did this to his hair (yeah, he's the one in the center with the strange haircut).

I'm just kidding though, he and our girls rep Karpaga did a marvellous job arranging classes and even a guest lecture in the midst of the shitstorm.




On a personal note, I hit a rather quirky odometer reading in my Accent. 34567 , refer the photo for proof ----> .

The sem dragged on, and the portions piled up after each assessment. The erstwhile rumours kept us supplied with enough gossip, especially bits of paper like this one below.











When asked to confirm above mentioned and other worthwhile rumours, most people shied away. Some said "no, nothing of that sort", others would go "oh, really!!". Still some important people like the Professor below would say "No, Comment".



The exams were soon looming over us, and all other thoughts were left behind. While some of my classmates were cooped up and performing the ancient art of "combined studies", I spent time alone in the evenings (when I was free from the arduous task of wasting time) in the below room (no that's not my room). It was once my cousin's room, and you guessed it right, he was an Aishwarya Rai oops Aishwarya Bachchan fanatic. Just click play and it will loop the slideshow. No wonder I studied so slowly this time around.......



Some people were studying really hard as evidenced by the following pictures. Our ex-rep and "project boy" Vigneshwaran takes a nap with his book still open, while the Dragon (yeah right, a.k.a Sardarji) Praveen wakes up from his reverie on a table to find the camera in his face.




















And so began the torture. From April 27th to May 11th, sleep was a scarce commodity, atleast for me. You may observe the below photograph, it shows you my best friend and saviour during this period (Gave me wings alright).














This picture on the right was one of those moments of nostalgia I had on the morning / night / midnight / unearthly hour before an exam (try guessing what subject from the picture). This little cup was something which I had used long long long ago when I was in Kindergarten. The big mug you see in the background is full of another of my saviours - coffee. Coffee and Red Bull kept me awake the whole night sometimes. With not an ounce of sleep in my body. Surprisingly, I wrote my exams pretty well even with the abject lack of sleep, neither did it affect my drive to college each day before the test. Rather brash on my part you say? Brash??? No, no, no, not at all. "Suicidal" would have been the right word. :D

In the midst of these god-forsaken exams, my house was full of relatives too, what with there being a close relative's marriage in Chennai. Had a nice time, though I ended up studying only right before each exam day cos of the above mentioned marriage.

Thus passed the wonderful, glorious, god-given opportunity to prove my mettle (yeah, everyone's a critic) and now beyond me stands a month's worth of holidays.

This sem there was a personal milestone for me - I turned 20 this March, now no longer a teenager, so took a trip down to Le Royal Meridien to celebrate. Here's a snap of the cake (this was one AWESOME cake).


A few upgrades to the PC, plenty of sleep, a number of IPL matches, and a cheesecake later, here I am concluding this long long article, reminiscing upon the sem just past.



<---- A well earned (says me) break at the Taj, Mount Road after the exams.












Yours Truly,
The Lone Wolf

A bit busy again.... Exams

I'll get back to posting a lot again in a week or two. I'm reeeeeeeeeaaaalllly busy right now with my semester exams.

Looking forward to getting back to blogging my brains out soon!!!

Note: This just means I won't be making a daily update for the next 9 days. But the updates will still come once in 2-3 days. So keep a watch.

When I return to blogging after this short period, I'll be writing a big article about a little piece of paper that caused me a lot of misery a year or so ago. It'll be a nice read, I assure you.

A successful launch - and a first among Indian Universities :D

Here's a PTI report on the launch of India's RISAT-2 and AnuSat. The RISAT-2 has an Israeli built module that apparently gives it an extremely high resolution eye-in-the-sky capability, but authorities are still denying its a spy satellite.

AnuSat is a micro-satellite that was built by the Madras Institute of Technology, a constituent college of Anna University (the guy who wrote it put in 'affiliated to' in the report, that ain't right). That's where I study and for once, I'm proud of it!!! Three cheers to the students and professors who put their heart and soul in the project.

At the end of the article I've put in a video of ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair, speaking after the launch.

RISAT and ANUSAT satellites placed in orbit

Press Trust of India / Sriharikota (ap) April 20, 2009, 11:58 IST

Aiming to bolster India's defence surveillance capabilities, ISRO today successfully launched its first all-weather spy satellite that will help security agencies keep a watch on the movements on the borders, from its spaceport here.

The PSLV-C12, carrying 300-kg Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and 40-kg micro educational satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO's Satish Dhawan space Centre here at 6:45 am and placed into 550 km orbit around earth.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, weighing 230 tonnes at the time of launch, soared into a clear sky from the spaceport here, about 90 km north of Chennai.

At the end of the 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

RISAT has all-weather capability to take images of the Earth and would also be beneficial in mapping and managing natural disasters, such as floods and landslides, besides amplifying defence surveillance capabilities of the nation. It would also help keep track of ships at seat that could pose a threat.

As per specifications, RISAT is different from previous remote sensing satellites as it uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), equipped with many antennas to receive signals that are processed into high-resolution pictures.

The 40 kg micro satellite ANUSAT, the co-passenger of RISAT 2, has been built by Anna University, to demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations.

ANUSAT, the first built by an Indian University, is a 'store-and-forward' communication satellite that will help transfer confidential academic material and also monitor drought and wasteland, urban planning and other studies.

RISAT2 has a lifespan of three years and ANUSAT, one year.

Different from previous remote sensing satellites, RISAT2 uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), equipped with many antennas, to receive signals which are processed into high-resolution pictures.

The SAR, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, equips RISAT with defence capabilities. The SAR payload can take images during day, night and in all weather conditions, including under cloud cover, a capability that Indian satellites do not have.

Nair said ISRO has "big goals" to achieve this year, referring to the line up of ISRO launches. "All this put together... It is going to be almost like the fireworks season at Sriharikota."

Today's is the 15th flight of PSLV, which has so far launched 30 satellites-- 14 for India and 16 for foreign countries -- since 1993.

PSLV had also launched the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on October 22 last year.

MITAFEST 2009 Photos

MITAFEST 2009

Here's a little slide show of the pictures from MITAFEST 2009

MITAFEST 2009 - an article from THE HINDU NXG

Memories to cherish

EVENT MIT’s MITAFEST ‘09 was a star-studded event with some sizzling performances. -MONISH BAAL

“Where were you, MIT, all these years?”; “Thanks for making my college life very memorable; Still in the eyes.” These were a few of the scraps received on MITAFEST09 profile in Orkut. I got goose bumps again while reading all these comments.

Rocking and rolling

But the first time was when Karthik and his high voltage rock band pulled a string in their electric guitar. Well, I was almost electrocuted. Karthik’s Indian Rock show on February 20 was the highlight of Mitafest. Did you ever think numbers like Aasai Nooruvagai, Orumaalai, Pettai Rap could be rendered the rock ‘n’ roll way? We thought Tamil lyrics could never merge with rock ‘n’ roll but Karthik showed us how. Chairs were immaterial, as there wasn’t a soul offstage whose feet weren’t in action. I tried to stay away from it, being an organiser, but couldn’t hold up; after just two songs I jumped into the crowd. I really need to thank Karthik and his band for making my final year in college a cherished memory.The other celebs at MITAFEST sparkled brightly.

Actor Vedhika melted the dudes while director Vishnu Vardhan and stunt master Kanal Kannan brought the house down with their wit. With workshops at every college cultural, MITAFEST had its share too; but only the best. Director Mysskin shared his passion for filmmaking in the filmmakers workshop while SS Music sweethearts Paloma and Gibran showed us their ingredients for charm in the VJ workshop. Other major events were the bike show, Chennai City-wide Treasure Hunt, Dindigul I. Leoni’s side splitting Tamil Pattrimandam and a romantic concert by Anuradha Sriram. The event rolled to an end with a Fashion show judged by with ace designer Vivek Karunakaran judging SRM the winners and actress Shruthika as Ms. Levi’s. In a nutshell, “Great celebrities, awesome concerts and earth shattering dances”; that was MITAFEST 09.

Monish is a Final Year student of Aeronautical Engineering at MIT.

MITAFEST 2009 - A job well done

The highlight of the entire event would surely be those awesome concerts by Karthik and Anuradha Sriram. While Anuradha Sriram wowed us all with her voice, every single person was up on their feet dancing to rock renderings of popular Tamil and Hindi songs.






Four days of fun, frolic and excitement. Kudos to the organisers for the jolly good show put up at MITAFEST 2009.

Personally, I had a nice time writing a lot of the stuff on the MITAFEST website. Hope MITAFEST only get's bigger and better from now....

FOR ANYONE LOOKING FOR VIDEOS OF MITAFEST 2009, those will be going up soon (within a month or so) on youtube or any other suitable video-sharing service. Once they're up I'll embed them in a post on this blog too..... Yes, I'm waiting for them as eagerly as you guys are.