The party is over!

Life is back to normal. Spring Fest is over and the professors are on the rampage once again( no offence meant).Spring Fest was over on sunday night.I also had to complete my assignments on sunday night after coming back from the arena. To make matters worse I had my classes from 7.30 today. Four hours of lectures! It was virtually a battle to keep my eyes open throughout the class. On top of that we have been submerged by a huge bunch of assignments which we have to submit by next week. And I have still no clue of the topics. I guess we have to resort to our old habbits of co-operation and co-ordination in order to survive this ordeal. I think that the profs are bent on driving us insane.You must be thinking how did the Spring Fest go?That is reserved for another post.

A lovely time ahead!

Well I guess I am becoming pretty irregular in posting new messages. However I am still getting used to the idea of typing down my feelings and experiences. A new week has started and the weekend is already around the corner. This time we have an extended weekend which is due to the Spring Fest which starts from thursday evening. Friday being a holiday we have no classes till monday.
Myself not being particularly addicted to english rock,metallic or in a more generic sense English music at all, this Spring Fest will be a low key affair for me. In all probabilty bands like Indian Ocean, Parikrama and Srings will be arriving. I plan to restrict myself to the quizzes and the Guest Lecture series. Apart from this the usual sight seeing goes without mention. Staying in a place like Kharagpur our eyes are starved of beautiful faces of the opposite sex. This is the only time of the year when the students get an oppurtunity to do so. This is mainly because of the fact that many outstation participants come to kgp during the fest. The usually deserted roads of kgp become clogged with students of different colleges.
What we kgpians rue during our entire stint at kgp is the lack of city life within the campus. Night bhaattings often revolve around the central theme that our fellow brothers in the other IIT's get to enjoy life much more than us. Barring Roorkee which has recently acquired the status of IIT the rest are all located within or in the vicinity of a major town. The student community feels that we have been segregated from the mainstream. For example take the case of IIT Delhi. It is located in the heart of Delhi, bordered by JNU on one side ISI Delhi on the other. Even the Delhi University is not far from the IIT campus. The students not only enjoy their hostel life but they can also avail of the facilities of the nation's capital.
The one question that repeatedly comes up in such discussions is why IIT Kharagpur was started in Kharagpur. About fifty years back when the first IIT was set up there was plenty of land available in both Calcutta and Bhubaneshwar( these are the nearest cities of some national significance barring Jamshedpur). So why was IIT not set up in either of these two places. Instead an old detention camp near the Hijli station was chosen as the site of independent India's first IIT. All the theories that it symbolises the emergence of a new and self dependent India rising like a phoenix from the ashes of colonialism do not much interest the students. The idea of a Gurukul type of learning as we have seen in the blockbuster movie Mohabbatein is pretty impractical in today's world.
From the academic point of view too, the location of Kharagpur is a major disadvantage. Many eminent researchers and teachers often shirk at the idea of coming to kgp. The same might be applicable to many companies which do not visit the campus. The idea of taking a flight to Calcutta, catching a train from the eternally crowded Howrah station and then taking a taxi from the station to the campus can scare any person out of his wits. Instead dont you think that it is far less cumbersome to go to IIT Chennai when it is only an hour's drive from the main airport? Atleast I would have chosen to go to the IIT which would offer me the least cumbersome travelling experience.
IITKgpians miss out on the city life. There can be no doubt about this statement. Yes, there a number of extracurricular events which are regularly held in order to keep the students busy. This leads to the all round development of the individual. All these points are acknowledged and accepted but it remains a fact that the junta out here is very frustrated. I have often heard many of my friends and seniors saying they will never return to kgp, leave kgp, they are so upset that they are not willing to come back to eastern India at any cost. The reasons for such comments are diverse but the the village like atmosphere in and around this lovely campus plays a certain( might be minor ) role in this. As a result the average kgpian is a pretty frustrated lot. As has been rightly pointed out by Mr. Sandipan Deb in his book " The iitians" students in Kgp are desperate to somehow get a degree and leave this place for good. Hardly any of us would like to stay here after completing our courses. However, there are plenty of good things about IIT Kgp as well, which makes it one of the best enginnering colleges of the country. I guess every coin has two opposite faces and one can not do anything about it apart from accepting it.
Spring Fest is the only time when we get a feel of the actual college life so typical of a city. It brings cheers to the faces of all and the students( myself included) forget our petty frustrations of assignments,seminars and enjoy to the hilt. Many go home, specially those hailing from Calcutta or Jamshedpur. But even they enjoy , don't they? Their source of enjoyment is from meeting there near and dear ones.
Even I have also gone home during the spring fest last time. However as I am unfortunately in a dual degree course( 5 yrs duration) and my friends in a btech course I shall be missing them next year. So my plans are to roam around with my friends as much as possible.
Hoping this Spring Fest will be a grand success!!!

A terrific beginning

Well what a start to the week!
Classes on monday start from 7:30 in the morning.
Usually i dont have a very deep sleep. I wake up almost as soon as the alarm starts ringing irresepective of the time I go to bed the previous night. Alas it was not to be.
Though I slept at about 2 in the morning I fully planned to attend the next days early morning class. However I dont know how I overslept by about 2 hours. I was shell shocked after waking up, so I checked my alarm. I could not even remember when I switched it off! I checked the watch again and I found that I was just on time for the third class. Somehow after completing all my ablutions and a hurried breakfast, I managed to enter the class on time.
To make matters worse I came to know that attendance was taken in the class I missed. Usually attendance is not taken. However sometimes when I guess the prof is really in a very foul mood he takes attendance just to instill fear in out hearts.
This was not the end of my ordeal.
A statistic test was held in my first class of the morning and as usual I failed to answer any question satisfactorily.
And now having no more classes for the day I am blogging my way to glory!
I guess I have to pull up my socks in time if I want to survive all the courses.
Well, this is just the start of the week!

An Introspection

Classes for the eight semester have just started.
This semester we have a depth subject named " Optimization and Heuristic Methods".
The contents of this course are mainly Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks,Simulated Anealing
and Data Envelopment Analysis. The main is focus is on Genetic Algorithms. Some of my fellow
classmates have already done a course on Genetic Algorithms. So i guess it would be a cakewalk
for them atleast in the inital stages. Everything the professor taught looked like greek and
latin to me. I expected the same of the other students who were dealing with the subject for
the first time. However to my utter surprise i discovered that this was not the case. They were not only picking up lightning fast but they were also arguing with the prof. When the prof finally decided to call it a day a feeling of despondence had already overtaken me.
On a slight bit of introspection i came across these possibilites.
class
1) The students were really brilliant.Moreover, I am not good enough and hence I was not
being able to grasp the concepts being explained in
2) They had already studied the subject( before coming to the class) so as to impress the prof.

Now knowing the students and the very nature of IITians I can safely rule out the second option.
That leaves us with the first option.
There is no doubt that all the students are exceptionally bright and meritorious.
When one stays in a highly competitive and meritorious environment one often comes across a question ( atleast thats what happens to me). Whether I am good enough to make a mark or in some cases atleast survive among such highly intelligent and motivated people. One's self esteem takes a heavy beating and one starts doubting his own capabilities. This becomes one of the most depressing thoughts which starts troubling one throughout the waking hours. In extreme cases one loses his or her self confidence and then he is doomed.
Under such circumstances loooking back at past achievements might restore one's mood. However for many people the question comes back to haunt you again and again.
I am not impying that I am facing such serious problems but the fact remains that no one can disagree with the fact that atleast once in his lifetime a person faces the ephemeral question
" Am I Good enough?"

A boring day!!

Well only two things of some minor importance happened in an otherwise a boring day.
For the first time in my career i have decided to take an additional subject.
I have always believed in the saying that one should always take the minimum
necessary number of courses to obtain a degree unless, one is really interested in a particular subject. I never dared to take any additional subject with the fear of overburdening myself. Moreover i have never developed any special liking for any of the subjects I have encounterd so far.
So you must be asking then how come I took an additional. that too in my 8th sem.
Well the course I am taking is named "Market Research". Actually this course has many topics
which come under the purview of my fourth year Btech project. So i thought that it is better
to attend some classes and understand the concepts rather than going through some thick books
which are pretty hard to fathom. This will also reduce my anxiety, tension and some amount of work just before the submission of my project report. Moreover I dare say it might enhance my knowledge base.

The other notable thing is that i finished the book " The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.
I had read a number of critical reviews of this book in many sites. This book is the most famous
work of PAulo Coelho.Very frankly speaking I did not like it much. It was too small to my liking.
Though the concept was good, the book finished much too quickly. I felt that there should have been some more narrations about the adventures while crossing the desert. However this a widely acclaimed book and the opinion is purely personal. The reader might not agree with me but I believe in the freedom speech. No offence meant.

On a lighter note a weekend has just started and I plan to play lots of table tennis and watch a couple of movies. On the academic front I would have to catch up with some long pending project work.
Signing Off!!

Life is life, fight for it!

I came across a wonderful passage written by Mother Teresa and quoted in the book " The City of Joy" by eminent French author Dominique Lapierre.
Thought i should share it with you all.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is a beauty, admire it.

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is costly, care for it.

Life is wealth, keep it.

Life is love, enjoy it.

Life is mystery, know it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it!

- Mother Teresa

Dont you think that life is precious enough so that you should fight fot it?

Hotel

I came across a book named Hotel by Arthur Hailey.
This book describes the intricacies of managing a big hotel. The author brings out the personalities and sometimes erratic behaviour of the various customers who come to the hotel, with aplomb.Various types of malpractices prevalent within a hotel system have also been dealt with masterly.
The book has a lucid free flowing style.All in all it's a good book.
However the book is not thought provoking.It's a feel good book which seems to lack the deepness of thought.
It will not have an everlasting impression on the reader's mind.

An Introduction

Well, this is the first message I am posting which i guess will mark the beginning of a lot more to come.
I think i should first tell a bit more about myself than the profile.
My name is Debprotim Dutta
I am presently pursuing an undergraduate engineering course from The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur(IITKGP).
I am at present in my fourth year of the Mtech Dual Degree course offered by the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
Apart from the interests mentioned in the profile i keep a close watch on the recent socio economic developments in the country as well as throughout the world. I am an avid follower of not only cricket but also football,hockey and tennis. I love playing and watching the game of table tennis.
My interests include reading novels and other articles on relevant topics, chatting with friends,quizzing and surfing.
I do watch both English as well as Hindi films quite regularly.
I am in love with only one girl. Her parents named her Aishwarya Rai.
I have created this blog in order to express my thoughts and feeelings about the various things which i come across my life. This will include my opinions about the books which I read, some political developments, sports and many other topics.
I hope the readers will love to browse through my experiences as well as my opinions.
Comments and constructive critiscisms are always invited.
I expect to make a number of friends through this habbit of blogging.
Though i had been reading a number of blogs for a long time, i never got time to write one of my own.
I guess i can attribute that to my lazzy and lethargic nature.
Anyway better late than never.
I hope to post messages pretty regularly.