deLfT ExpeRIenCe!!! [To be contd]

People, Its been 6 months since my last post. Its 5AM in the morning and this post which was long over due will be out today in any case. Was at a party till now. Not sure how long I can stay awake, have a class @ 8:45 in the morning. Even though I've not changed much in last 6 months my co-ordinates surely have changed. Am in Delft now chasing my dream, pursuing my Masters @ TU Delft, The Netherlands.

Netherlands

's famous for dairy product, especially for cheese.. Yeah I know everybody would

know this. Talking about the people here, they are very straight forward. If they don't like you they would tell it right on your face. If they cannot do something they would say they can't do it. 'Will try' 'may be I'll do it' are not the part of their responses. Dutch are very very punctual. 15:00 is always 15:00 and not 15:05 for a Dutch. Dutch male/female are athletic, very tall and strongly built. Females are really attractive.

Enuf of the place..

Am liking being back as a student again. Its lil bit different this time compared to my Bachelors. New friends, new place, different mode of teaching, new ways of tackling problems, different lifestyle etc etc etc....

DelFT??

For the people who don't where D

elft is, its in The Netherlands. Ring any bells? Holland!! n

e had informed them about our flight]. Still, that was a nice feeling. Hadn't heard from any of my friends where they were received by the people from college on their arrival at the place. Then we were taken to our college stall [a small setup by TU Delft] where we were greeted by the faculty/International office members. We did get a backpack filled with food and drinks. Also, we received keys to our apartments. This part of the 'introduction week' program was called 'meet and greet' program.ow? Orange coloured T wearing cricket team in the world cup..? Did you get it already? If still having a problem please get a

map or revisit your middle grade geography classes. :) Netherlands is a Dutch speaking nation. Delft is a small city. In fact, very small. All the cities here are kinda miniaturized as country itself is pretty small.. Know what? you can travel across the country in train in just '3' hours. It must be as big as Goa.. As far as the history goes, most of the Netherlands was submerged under the water. So these people pumped the water into the ocean, constructed a barricade and have brought the land up. That why you'll get to see canals running all over the places in any city in Netherlands. Marine technology is very much advanced here and its one of the most sought after course.

It was 20:00 hrs when we lan

ded in Amsterdam. Another half an hour before we collected our luggages. Would you believe if I say that there were personnels from college [TU Delft] to receive us @ the airport. Yes, I'm not kidding. There were 2 seniors [students from 2nd yr Masters program] wearing TU Delft T-shirt and campus tag holding a placard waiting for the new students. It felt good to having been received by the college. They even knew when/how many of us were coming [Of course w

Introduction week???

What's this introduction week, you wonder? Our first week in Delft [till Aug31st starting Aug

22nd] was termed 'Introduction week'. During this week we didn't have any classes but we had lotsa activities. This week indeed tur

ned out to be 'introduction week'. I did meet lotta people. I met my country men/women

and people from other parts of the world. This provided the needed opportunity to know people especially from other nations whom we wouldn't have talked to or would have taken som-time to talk to. You can say it was a week for socializing.

What really happened that week?

All international students were divided into different groups, each of 12 students. Care was taken that no two students from same nation ended in same group [Of c

ourse its not possible to have this configuration maintained for all the groups as Chinese and Indians dominated the international student population]. Each group had a mentor who was a second year Master student. There were events like salsa workshop, Dutch food tasting, city market tours, Quick fix food, DJ nite, Live band plays etc etc.... There were sessions organised to explain about the usage/working of health/hospital facility in Netherlands and in Delft, session on presentation skills, Belbin theo

ry and Hofstede theory. Sports session was conducted to display the range of sports/games our Sports club facilitates.

Then we were given a topic on which all the group members were asked to discuss and do the presentation or play act or a video or compose a song. The topic was 'Multicultural differences'. This's when we really got to know about the things that were never common in India but they were in other places. It was a fun exercise [Of course it got boring when we were to discuss the same thing for hours :)]. We did make short videos bout the differences in traffic rules and the public's mentality about the traffic in different nations and embedded them in slide presentation.

Great place for over all personality development

I was amazed to see the

range of sports that I can train myself in for a very cheap price. Training in games like f

encing and golf are rarely seen in other universities. Not interested in Sports but interested in cultural activities then TU Delft has something for you too.. Cultural center supported by TU Delft is pretty good. Want to improve your writing skills, improve your oratory skills, wanna be a good story teller, wanna tap you feet to Salsa, wanna impress your girl playing guitar or your guy by playing drums, wanna know how to click good photos using your crappy camera? Then cultu

ral center is the answer for you. You can get trained in any/all of these by being a member at a throw away price.

Are you a geek

and not interested in any of the above then TU Delft is a place for you too.. How?? TU Delft is one of the very few universities to have the following

• Sophisticated nano science labs to develop nano structures
• Class-1000 foundry to fabricate your IC
• Wind tunnel to test the plane you design
• Research nuclear reactor to observe the cause-effect at sub atomic levels
• Very good relationship with the industry
• Top notch professors in certain fields
• Really sophisticated and advanced researc projects going on

Be a geek or wanna enjoy while you learn, TU Delft is the place to be [Might be one of the, but for me it is].

To b cntd.... Dunno whn :)

Str8 4m d NURV...

['I' in the following post not only applies to me i.e. Ajay but all those who feel that it talks about themselves]

Its not new for me to question myself every now and then about the number of hours I do nothing useful in a day. Every time I wonder I realise that most of my day goes useless. Time spent in traffic, tea time in office, lunch break, time spent in non sense talks, ogling at the idiot box [even though most of the time I don't realize what I watched] and sleeping dead for long hours are some of the activities that are not so useful and not necessary sometimes take up most part of the day. If time spent in these are summed up for the entire life I would live [assuming I would die @ 60] it would result in a staggering time-number. It will sum upto around 25years of my life span. It like 40% of my time is going useless [not that rest 60% goes very useful].

There are Lotta things around us that need immediate and most of our attention failing to do so might result in a bleak future.

For example: Indian politics. I talk about how bad our politics and politicians are, talk about the loop holes in the system, corruption happening, talk about slow progress, wrong policies by the govt. But what so funny is I just talk and talk and talk. And the worst part is I know that nothing's gonna change if I just sit here and criticize about all these and do nothing about it. Its like a 'Barking dog'. The bark will diffuse in thin air and the things move on as they were. Either I should quit criticizing and accept the reality or should do something to change the things. Sitting and blabbering/criticizing [just to convince people around me that I know something] won't do any good other than adding upto to the time I spend useless. I don't have a voter's ID and I never voted. So its very silly of me to blame a person who wins in a election and comes to power to do nothing but just eat up nation's resources. Either I should have voted against him or should have chose whom I believe would do something if not everything or should simply shut up and accept what follows an election.

I know for sure that I am in a better position to feed at least one hungry soul 2 days a week. But I never did it. I neither contributed to an orphanage or NGOs or any such funds that would help poor/poverty ridden/ downtrodden. Its so selfish of me. I justify my act saying that I don't trust these organisations and the donations I make would never reach the needy. Saying this I don't even help the needy directly. What a crackhead I am. I am surely not going to take anything with me when I turn into ash or decompose into the earth. I don't understand why is this crave for materialistic life. There's absolutely nothing wrong to have a desire of materialistic life but also there's nothing wrong in donating something after or during the process of achieving my materialistic life.

I am safe and I would not be there to witness the consequences of global warming so I need not worry is such a cheap' thought. Why should future face the consequences of my 'kriya karmas'? I need to realise this and should contribute the tiniest to reduce the global warming. Least I can do is to reduce the deo usage. I need not drive a 4-wheeler to office when I'm traveling alone. Car pooling is always a better option.

These are few of many things that need my attention and I spend 25 years of my life just doing nothing. Its so shameful. Worst part is I realise all these and still don't do anything about it. I shouldn't blame on things when I know that I can change those things [if I act] but I'm just lazy enough to do anything to change them.

THE Palace!!! Trek to Kalhattigiri falls.....

It was 3 weeks since we were in 'so near and yet so far' situation, again we were ready for another exciting, exhilarating and exhausting trek. This time our Jack Sparrow wanted to trek to Kemmangundi from BabaBudangiri [Both in 'Chicka'magalore district in Karnataka]. The route was unknown and captain wasn't even sure of the existance of the trail. We booked tickets [KSRTC- 'Volvo' this time:)] from Bangalore to Chickamangalore for Friday night. Journey lasted for around 300 minutes and we were in Chkmglre by 5AM on Saturday. There are no direct buses to Budangiri from anywhere I guess.. There's only one bus from Chkmgl to budangiri which leaves whenever the driver feels like placing his ass on the driver seat. The bus usually leaves around 7:30AM [if its full else god knows] and probably will make 2 trips in a day.

We had lotta time to kill before the bus moved but all of us wanted to reach budangiri ASAP so that we could avoid trekking in the heat of the noon. So we looked for alternatives like Jeeps or taxis. Budangiri is around 35 kms from Chkmglr [Road's gud but route's bit curvy and hilly]. It was too early to even find a Jeep. We had to wait till 6-6:30 AM. In the meanwhile Rikshaw guys offered us their service of dropping us in budangiri. They were kidding I guess. Imagine 4 people in a rickshaw traveling 35kms in the route which would take a jeep easily 90 minutes even when road's pretty decent. We would have had to push the rickshaw through 75% of the route. Then a Ambassador guy offered his service and we laughed @ his offer saying him that its was impossible for him to take all seven of us in that car. We thought it was just not possible. But, for our surprise the car could accommodate all of us. We had to shell out 600 bucks for the drop.

Trek Begins..

We reached Budangiri at 8:20AM. Weather didn't require us to wear any jacket or sweater or whatsoever. Even at that altitude & not too late in the morning it wasn't even near to cold. Good for us but it meant that noon will be hotter and would make our trek tiresome and we would get dehydrated sooner. It was a beautiful view from budangiri. We could see mountain ranges and clouds far below us. We felt like we were on top of the whatever... We started following the trail not exactly trail but a road till it ended. It was around 3km walk I guess. This walk ended with a lake [man made] & a small temple next to it. There was a pole and a huge grinding stone next to the temple smeared with red coloured fluid. We all guessed it to be blood of an animal which was offered to the god. People find some or the other reason to build a temple and kill animals. Actual road or trail ended here..

The place was all barren with patched of forest, that meant no shade!!! It was 9:30 when we left the lake & temple. Since we didn't want to lose out on time all of us decided no to take a dip in that lake which was dirty with mud. We were heading to the top of Kalhattigiri falls where we would camp for the night. The nearest landmark to this was a PALACE. Yes, you read it right 'A Palace'. It was king Ashoka's summer palace. It was a 7 floored palace with white marble finish [Thinking of Taj Mahal... Hold on to your imagination], huge fountain at the entrance & a beautiful multicolored chandelier. Ok, ok, will come back to palace later. We headed in the direction of the palace based on inputs from captain Jack and 2 other commanders in control of the mission as they were here at this place once before.

We walked for a km or two when we saw a trail. This trail would be harder to find if anyone visits during winter or rainy season as the land would be covered by pretty long grass. It was dry and was burnt when we were there this time. So it was relatively easier for us to figure out the trail. We walked for couple of hours before we could hit a stream. We rested for few minutes and had let some protein sneak into our stomach [Oat meal bars, high energy bars, protein supplements etc etc.. :)]. We started again and it was already around 12pm and few of us were hungry and were waiting to reach the palace and then the camping site so that we could call the trek off for the day.

Now back again on trail I was desperately waiting to have a look at this palace. We saw our trail turning right. 'After turning right we would see the palace' said someone who had been to this place already. We were relieved. We took the right curve and at last we saw it.. The PALACE.. There it was standing tall and strong with white marble finish & beautiful fountain.. Did you really believe when I said that? Non sense.. in a place like this where there's no proper trail you shouldn't expect a palace with chandelier... :) Even though it wasn't a palace as per my description we were very relieved to see something closer to civilzation after walking for 4-5 hours non-stop under scorching sun.. The biggest relief was that we were not lost we were on track to Kalhattigiri falls. Rested here for 10 mins and then it was an hour walk which deviated from the trail to the mouth of Kalhatti falls... All of us were tired and hungry and relieved. It was almost 2PM. None had energy to jump into the water but sit n sit n lay down.. Even though we were hungry the walk had left us lazy and tiresome and it took us 20-30 mins before we decide that we would have our lunch....

Continued in next post........

wHo aM I.....?

It seems I'm here since the blast of the dot. Don't know how I came here or who dropped me down. As a matter of fact no one knows it. Since then I've been wondering and wandering and wandering and wondering going through almost all the phases of what intelligence terms it as 'life'. I've seen millions of species come and go, millions being tortured, millions being extorted, millions being exploited. The journey has been fascinating, adventurous, painful & exhausting.

Days were ended with nights & nights with days, months then years & centuries rolled on, climates switched, geography changed, continents drifted, lakes formed, glaciers melted, some oceans dried up n some formed, temperature became bearable, rained for years together... I'm lucky to witness all these I should say. Amazing experience. Witnessed 'C-H-O-N' fusing to form first life form. Then came little bit bigger ones then a bit bigger n they kept getting bigger. Was awe struck when I encountered a dinosaur for the first time. It was humongous compared to others. When you witness something like this you would wonder about their origin and their creator. I was curious too. Who won't be? It wouldn't have been easier for human to co exist with these walloping predators. It all looked like a plan when these creatures were destroyed by the shower of fireballs just before human came into existence. But, whose plan was it? Who architected it...?

I was with them when they lit the fire for the first time. They were very curious and scared to witness fire. Obviously anyone would be when you see a thing that cannot be touched and not tangible but is capable of destroying things. Some used it for good & some for bad. Its in the nature of humans. I saw humans starting to settle near the river beds, started growing plants, understood the nature, worshipped it & they feared it for long until an intelligent being showed them how exploiting nature would do them good. They started detroying forest, polluting water sources, killing life forms to an extent where some became extinct. I saw humans getting greedier day by day but could do nothing about it. Some tried to use me to teach the ruthless. Some understood, learnt from me & changed and some were out of my reach.

I still remember when India had used the concept of zero as a number and not merely as a symbol for separation during 9th century BC where people in India treated zero as any other number and used it for practical mathematical calculations. Pingala an Indian scholar & his contemporaries used Sanskrit word 'sunya' to refer to zero & void. The Greeks had asked themselves 'how nothing could be something' questioning the usage of zero as a number leading to philosophical argument about nature and existence of zero and vacuum.

I had the oppportunity to encounter all the great kings [the ruthless & merciful], great administrators, shrewed politicians, great spartans & samurais, mathematicians, artists, scientists, astronomers, psychics, selfless people and many more. Some butchered the mankind, some upheld the oppressed & worked for a cause, some never bothered about others, some led revolutions. some fought & died, some became slaves for no fault of theirs, some tried to spread humanity & some hatredness, some invented and some discovered, some lived for a purpose and some died useless, some questioned the beliefs & some blindly followed, some gave birth & some took lives, some were physically blind and some mentally, some were selfless & donated allbut & some were selfish & to own [conquer] all.

Wondering who I am or who I might be..? 

Some sung me, some shot me, some killed me, some painted me, some tainted me, some filmed me, some lied about me, some tried to destroy me, some wrote me and some carved me. I am present, past and will be future. I'm indestructable. I might be available in various flavors, I'm there but you cannot touch me, you can learn from me. 

I'm 'HISTORY', I'm 'TIME'.

I wish they are here....

The following writing isn't my original creation. It is inspired by a movie.

Would you believe if I say that there are human beings [immortals] amongst us who have lived for more than many centuries & have never died, who have witnessed the first fire, who have witnessed the first death, who have seen the formation of glaciers, creation of religions, who have survived the age of dinosaurs, who were history makers once upon a time, who have seen the atrocities of many dictators and kindness of noble kings? Do you find it hard to accept even the notion of existence of such immortals?

Sounds science fiction? If you are a believer of "Anything's Possible" then this shouldn't be a sci-fiction. Nothing is believed to be possible unless its being discovered or invented. There could be men living amongst us who have lived for centuries without getting aged or dying at all. They might be one of those whom you see on news channel as missing persons who could never be found. They might not want to let others know that they are immortal just because none of us would believe it. As they know they are immortal they might not want to get attached to a person or a family which anyone would find difficult to leave or see them die while they never age. So they might not be a kind of person who would be interested in having a family or having habit of socializing. They would rather prefer to stay isolated.

Just for a moment imagine that these immortals exist. What would you wanna ask them or what would you have to say to them? They would have acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge by now since then. They would be like live encyclopedia. They would not know about their origin though as their memories would see just barren lands stretching across thousands of miles whereas their eyes would see the modern buildings & roads & parks etc... It would be impossible for them to co-relate their origin.

I wish this comes true, that one day I meet these immortals.

So nEAr Yet sO fAr... A tALe of wRong rOUtes!!!!

I thought we made it this time and was waiting for a scream [outburst of joy & satisfaction] from d one who made it to the top of the hill first but that scream never came and was heart broken to hear "Wrong route!!!"..........

This weekend 7 of us thought of flagging our presence on top a hill called 'Ettina Bhuja [EB] [Shoulder of an ox]. It was a good idea to have a change from this polluted n ear deafening environment. EB is around 35Km far from a very famous [in and around karnataka] holy place called 'Dharmasthala' [Land of Lord Manjunatheshwara].

We left Bangalore at 11:15pm [KSRTC bus, Friday] headed Dharmasthala [DS]. We had no problems in getting tickets to this place even though we booked the tickets same day. We reached DS at 6:15AM the next day. Weather was not so cold but a jacket would be necessary [if not for DS, surely for EB].

None of had really been to Ettina Bhuja before. We had prepared ourselves by reading printouts of some blogs on EB by people who had been to this place. The route to the tip of EB was supposed to a easy trek according to some in our group. We carried two tents capable of accommodating 8 ppl, food for the night [MTR ready food], some vessels, Snacks, chocolates, bread-butter-jam [for lunch & breakfast], jackets, bedsheets, torches & salt for leeches.

Actual trek starts from a place called shishila. Its easy to find a bus or a jeep to this place from DS. We managed to get none of them though. We had our breakfast [@6:30] in a hotel in DS & headed to a place called Kukkhoda [18Km from DS and on the way to Shishila]. We reached Kukkhoda in no time and took a jeep to shishila [We had to pay Rs200 for the jeep ride]. We were all red & brown by the time we reached shishila [@8:15AM] as the road to shishila from Kukkhoda was under construction and it was all red soil throughout which is expected at this part of Karnataka.

Actual trek to EB would begin from a place which is around 7Km interior to Shishila. We could have taken the jeep till this place but since we were all enthusiatic & professionals [:-)] we decided to walk to this place and we didn't even took a guide. We started from Shishila at 8:20AM. What we thought would be the last house before we hit the trek trail was never the last house. We knew from the blogs that the trek trail starts after crossing last house. Each one of us carrying were carrying a backpack weighing minimum 4-5kilos [most of the weight was coz of 2lt water bottles that we were carrying] and in addition to this we carried tents in turns which weighed 5-6Kg each.

We knew that we would hit Kapila river where we had planned to take bath but this river never arrived soon. After a walk for 90minutes or so we came across Kapila river. All of us were relieved. At last, source of water & the beginning mark for the trek. We were on right track we knew as we reached the river as expected. We took bath here. River wasn't deep with water about waist height.

Filled out bottles and left the place after taking bath as soon as possible as we had planned to reach the top ASAP. After walking for an hour or so we came across a falls. Eve though there was no trail leading to the falls we managed to get to the bottom of the falls by making our way through and plants. We were there for 10-15 mins and were back onto trekking trail. Soon we found out that the trail wasn't a easy one as expected. The forest was thick with the land covered by dry leaves, small stones & loose rocks sometimes. Wearing shoes, jeans and full sleeves is advisable as we came across many thorny plants. I was wearing sandals for the trek like a dumbo and had to pluck 5 thorns outta my toes today.

It was 12:30PM now but we couldn't feel the heat as we were always under shade. Thanks to thick forest & long trees. This turned out to be our disadvantage as we never knew which direction we were headed. We just followed the trail. We hit a point where the trail ended & we were lost for the first time. After a discussion for few minutes about the possible place where we could have taken the wrong turn we trailed back for 10mins and took the other trail which we believed was the right one. 30 mins passed & guess what..... We were lost again. Rested for few minutes this time. The trek was getting more adventurous now. It was about 1:45PM now. I started feeling tired. It was more because of carrying weight I guess. Trail was not much tiring till now for few as they are regular trekkers. But for me, I was just waiting to see the plain land where we could unfold our tents.

We started our journey again. We hit a small stream this time where filled our bottles & continued. The trail got steeper & steeper which made all of us feel that 'we are almost there' but the steep never ended. At last, we could see the trail ending and a very steep land leading to open space. We started climbing. The path was slippery as there were many loose rocks and the weight on our shoulders made it more tougher to climb.

Few enthusiasts from the group reached the top. I thought we made it this time and was waiting for a scream [outburst of joy & satisfaction] from the one who made it to the top of the hill first but that scream never came and was heart broken to hear "Wrong route!!!". What was more devastating was that we could see that the hill [Ettina Bhuja] which we thought we conquered was standing right in front of us. Goddamnitt!!! we thought. We had climbed the hill opposite to what we were supposed to climb.

All of us sat there, heart broken. It was 2:45PM. All of us decided to have our lunch and then figure out the possible route to EB. We had bread butter-jam for lunch. It was already 3:30PM. Few of us went to explore the path to EB and after few minutes we were behind them continuing our quest to conquer EB [which was not so tough trek]. After a walk for 30mins, guess what.. We were lost. Everything was against us that day. Every effort to be on track went futile. It was already 4:30PM when we decided to head back to the "last house" and then back to Bangalore. Even though we never came down through the same route [most of it] which we climbed we reached the "last house" by 6PM. None of us had enery to walk 7Km to Shishila. More than energy none of us had enthu after a very disappointing walk throughout the day. We inquired about the jeep till DS from that house. Jeep was there by 6:30PM. We wished adieu to 'Bhuja' & headed DS. We thought it was over but nope.. Jeep broke down this time at about 14Km from DS. Luckily we managed to find a bus.

We reached DS, did 'Devara dharshana'. Had free dinner at temple & headed back to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore @ 6:30AM [Sunday].

Even though we couldn't reach the top of Ettina Bhuja or camp over there or put a camp fire or see the sunset from there or the sun rise in the morning the trek was a adventurous and memorable experience... It was fun

Swami NarayanaTemple, Toronto

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Photography is one of my hobbies which I've developed recently [around 6 months... Following are some of my fav snaps which I've taken using my Olympus E-410 DSLR...

Charminar	Early morning in Hyderabad
Late Evening in Hyderabad	Lord Buddha in Hussain Sagar
Roger Waters' Concert	Mysore Palace gate
Mysore Palace	Palace in the eyes of an artist
Grand Canyon	Las Vegas
StigMa	sTigMA-2