New task or old task

Some people like to do only what they already do well. Other people prefer to try new things and take risks.

Of the two options - doing things again which I have already done well and trying new things, I will like to choose to try new things and take risk. There are several reasons behind my choice which are explained below.

First of all, doing some old thing which I have already done in a remarkable way is surely a boring task to do. To do that task in a superior way, I must have done that several number of times. Without performing that task more than once, I would not have got mastery in that task. Therefore, if somebody tells me to do that task as I can do that well, I will simply refuse to do so. Because I will not get any new experience by doing that same task. I cannot taste something new by again executing same problem. Instead, if I do something new challenging work, I would rather gain a new experience. For an example, in my office, I have already mastered one algorithm. I have solved many problems by dint of that algorithm. So my boss tends to give me only those tasks which can be solved with that algorithm. Here, I am not able to experience or learn some other method of solving problems. Therefore, I wish to take another problem which can be solved with some other method.

Secondly, by doing some new things and take risks, I can gather much knowledge. If I continue to do some old thing, my knowledge gathering will be stalled. To me, if someone does not increase his/her knowledge, then he/she is stagnant. That kind of people will be of little use to the society. By involving with something new, by taking risk, we can acquire precious knowledge. This knowledge will help us to lead a better life. We can also pass that knowledge to our posterity. For an example, while driving I try to explore some new route. Most of the days I end up circling around same point. But, sometimes I found one quick route to go to some place. If I would have taken same route every day, I could not have known that such route exists. So, my knowledge about the routes increased by taking a simple risk. Like this we should take risk and try new things in other fields of our daily life too.

Finally, to perform any task, some amount of skill is required. That skill will be developed, when we do that task again and again. At some point the skill will be at apex. Then, there will be nothing to develop to perform that task. So, to develop another skill, we have to try new thing. In today's society, to survive smoothly, multiple skills are needed. Because, may be, some day or other the only skill someone developed will be obsolete. That day, the person will have nothing to do to earn his/her livelihood. If he would have tried new things beforehand, he would have grown some other skills which might be useful in stressful days. For an example, in the time of recession, all bankers and software engineer lost their job in USA. But, people who had mechanical engineering or construction engineering knowledge, continued to survive. So, if a software guy would have learnt little mechanical or civil knowledge then he would have little sorrow on those days.

Therefore, to make a gist, it is advisable to try new things and take risks because by doing so, we can make ourselves and our society better in many ways.

Large or small company

Some people prefer to work for a large company. Others prefer for a small company. Which you would prefer?

If I would have been given a choice between working in a large company and a small company, I will definitely choose to work in the small company. There are various reasons behind my choice. Those are summarized below.

Firstly, in a small company there are less number of people. If there are less number of people around, there will surely be less number of opinion over a matter. Therefore, it will be easier to come to a consensus in a small company. On the other hand, in large companies, there are more people who will throw their own opinion and it will be tougher to decide one policy or something like that. Moreover, in small farms, as there are less people, it is possible to pay attention to everyone's opinion. Nobody will feel left out there. But, in large industries, it is almost impossible to do so which I personally don't like. In fact, who does not want to share his/her opinion? So, in small companies, scope of contribution in terms of decision making, is much better.

Secondly, every well-established company should have a well-structured team, be the company small or large. Now, in large companies, generally in lower level, people are asked to do some regular work like filling XL sheets properly, maintaining data etc. These works just take time. These require minimal special knowledge or brainstorming. On the other side, as there are less number of people in small companies, everyone has more responsibility. Everyone has to be focused on building team. Somebody has to do some low profile jobs, but he/she too has to take some responsibilities towards building team or towards betterment of the company. This task of taking responsibility will eventually teach many traits to the people. People will get experience more form this. That will help them in real life also.

Finally, as small company does not spread in the market more, they have less dependency on current situation. But, the large companies have such dependencies. If situation goes wrong, then large companies will collapse all of a sudden. Employees in large companies will lose jobs. But, small companies may not suffer much in some adverse situation as they had little correlation with current market and hence they have learnt to stand on their own foot. For an example in the time recession many large US companies like Goldman Sachs, Deustche Bank, underwent bankruptcy. But, then also small companies were alive.

So, to summarize, for having a better place to contribute, a better working environment, a less dependent job I will prefer to join small company. 

Learning facts vs learning ideas

It is more important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts.

I totally agree with the statement that it is more important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts. I will explore various reasons behind my agreement.

First of all, students are very quick to grasp anything they read, listen or experience. Now, there are number of facts they come to know in course of their study. They can learn or memorize all of them. But, many facts may have similar underlying ideas or concepts. So, if the students start to assimilate those concepts instead of the facts, they can gather more knowledge in same time. For an example, the questions - "Why ice floats in water?" and "Why parachute does not free fall?" has the same answer which is the principle of buoyancy. That means, those two facts have same underlying ideas. So, if a students understand that principle correctly, then he/she does not have to waste time to learn those facts separately.

Secondly, facts are temporary. Those will not be asked anywhere except during the examination. Student should learn something from the ideas or causes of those facts. From that ideas he/she can make impact on his/her own life. For example: a student can readily learn about Abraham Lincoln's personal life or his credits. But, it is necessary to understand the ideas of Lincoln's or what made him Abraham Lincoln or what was in him which brought revolution in the history of USA. If a student can capture all the periods of his failure and how Lincoln overcame those failures to get success, then he/she would be possessing more wisdom than anyone. Moreover, the student can implement those roads of success in his/her life.

Finally, memorizing facts is very much painful and confusing. Student can gradually start to lack interest as learning mere facts may seem dull to him. Then he/she will study just to pass an examination. Proper motivation of education will be destroyed then. Schools will then create many Encyclopedias instead of scholars. This is dangerous for society. Because, to evolve society or make improvement within society, people who have practical knowledge are need. People who just have memorized some bookish facts are no use of the society.

So, to make education proper, to convert students to responsible citizens, to make our livelihood smoother, stress should be given to grasp ideas and concepts instead of facts in schools.

Mode of travel

Choose one of the following transportation vehicles and explain why you think it has changed people’s lives.

·         Automobiles

·         Bicycles

·         Airplanes

There are many modes of transportation which have evolved in last few decades. To me, the transportation which changed people’s lives most is Airplanes. There are several reasons behind my thought which are described below.

Firstly, now-a-days airplanes is the quickest vehicle for transportation. Previously people used to rely on motor vehicles which took much time to traverse required distance. Now, if someone has to go somewhere very urgently, within a short notice then he has to move fast and airplane is the best possible way to do so. If he availed other automobiles, then he might not reach destination in time and it would be a big loss to him.

Secondly, to cover long distances like from one country to another or one continent to another, airplane is the first option which comes to our mind now-a-days. As airplane made this travel easier, the relationship between two countries has been better in many ways. For example: now countries can do import-export business between them very quickly and in much simpler way. Moreover, other countries’ political characters are now able to make a frequent visit to a country. US president Barack Obama’s recent visit in India is one of the example of such growing relationships.

Apart from that, people can travel to other countries very easily now. Previously, to visit foreign countries, ships were the only means to do so. By visiting other countries, we experience a different culture, different lifestyle and so on. As, people are now able to travel to other countries very easily, it is also profitable to countries having heritage sites like Cambodia, Vietnam; natural beauties like Switzerland, France; cultural diversities like Egypt etc. So people are now visiting foreign countries to have some lifetime experience and Airplanes only are making that possible in an easy manner.

So, to make gist, Airplanes have changed peoples’ livelihood as a whole. Distance is not a matter of bother due to advancement of airplanes.

Money - what should we do?

Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or is it better to save your money for some time in future?

When people earn money then he can do two things with that money – either he can spend all the earned money towards enjoyment or he can spend the minimal amount and save the rest for future. I would prefer to keep a balance between these two. Basically to me it is better to follow little enjoyment and much saving when we are young and the reverse when we grow old. There are several reasons behind this opinion.

First of all, when we are young, we are full of energy. If we start enjoying too much, then definitely all the earned money will drain out. There will be nothing left for future. Now, for future money is indeed needed. Because, the fact that today we can earn does not guarantee that this earning is permanent. So, to make survival sure for the future, at younger age we should largely save the money we earn. On the other hand, if we are old, there are very less to think for the future, unless we think about posterity. But to me, old people should not restrict themselves from enjoying the money they earn and should leave their next generation independent.

Secondly, when we are young we should also think for our family and their well beings. We should prepare for their sudden illness, children’s education and so on. If we expend every penny behind enjoyment, then we would have nothing or very little left to execute those and we may face problem then. So, for that we should not expend unnecessarily much for our enjoyment. At old age, children will mostly be adult and they then can live their own. Moreover, children can take care of their parents. So, that time, if we earn money then we should not hesitate for enjoying.

Lastly, money is never all about only enjoyment or saving. It is something bigger than that. There is a huge part of society who cannot earn money as much as someone needs for livelihood. If we think that we have much money for enjoyment, then for some moment we should stop and thinking their situation, we should utilize some money towards them – like donating in some trust etc. That may also be some sort of enjoyment, when we will think that we are contributing toward the mankind.

So, in a nutshell, money should be attempted to save as much as possible when the future seems to be wider because nobody can tell what will happen tomorrow.

Back after one year

So, after a long time I started expressing myself. Don’t remember really, when is the last time I wrote something. Anyway, lot of things happened in the previous half-year. I will state those one by one:

1.       Last visit to Chennai (probably): Pb was about to leave qualcomm in a few days. So I thought I should meet him for the last time. I had one holiday on Friday. So, I grabbed the opportunity immediately. As usual I went Chennai by bus. The bus delayed a lot and I reached Pb’s place at around 8 AM which is much late that regular. I remember that day we bought fish and cooked it for lunch. It was delicious. We thought to watch some movie, but that time there was no good movie running in any nearby theatres. We had our dinner at Xtreme Barbeque. It was a quite good experience for me. We watched “Bonkubabu” in youtube together at night. Next day I had to return. We had out dinner at Sea Breeze which was costly but excellent. Specially I liked the ambience. Though we did not do any special activity like going outside or watching movies but it was really a good change for me.

2.       Going Home: At the end of May I went home. Lar time I went on February. This time I went on Friday and came back on next Saturday. Didu came to our house. So it was much fun. She came there on week before I came. On Saturday afternoon masi also came to our house. So it was more fun with Rima, Bonnie and all. There were lots of foods certainly. It was my mother’s summer vacation. So, there was no point to become bored. Everyday there was at least couple of special menus. One day I went for my Puja Shopping. I bought two sets of shirt-pant (with my father’s money ;)). Next Friday I went to my masi’s place. She cooked a lot. And everything was hell lot delicious. So, at last, it was time to leave. With a broken heart (once again) I had to come back to Bangalore. This time my flight timings were little bit odd. I had flight at 8 pm from Kolkata which landed at around 10:30 in Bangalore. Though I reached my apartment safely. Next day I and Nilanjan went to Tommy’s place to his newly shifted apartment. We had our lunch at Decker’s lane. The lunch was more than better if not the best. We came back at evening and prepared us for regular weekly grinding in our respective workplaces.

3.       Celebrating excellency award with the team: So, this was my first experience of getting acknowledged in Synopsys. Though my credit in this process is very less, but who will stop me from celebrate? It was a half day outing with my team. Everything went as per plan. First, we went for bowling in Amoeba, Garuda Mall. We really enjoyed this sports. I scored a good 130 which is a respectable score. Swarupda scored perfect tens in his last five hits. His ability for this sports was worth watching. Next we had some mild snacks. We were not preferring to have much food as we were preserving space for the grand dinner later. After bowling, we went for the movie “Now You See Me 2”. We knew from the beginning that this movie was not upto the mark. But we did not have much choices left. Still, the luxurious cushions in the movie hall gave us comfort and the movie was okay-okay type. In the interval, Joydeepda and Swarupda bought some pop corns in spite of our relucatancy to eat. Needless to say, me and Abirda did not take much of that pop-corn.  As soon as the movie finished we hurried to “The Market” restaurant which I booked beforehand. We reached the restaurant in time. Upon reaching we told the receptionist that we had booking for dinner. But to our utter surprise she told that there was no booking made in my name. There was little confusion between us. However, in the very next moment manager came and resolved the issue by making our seat arranged in one place. The buffet was most awesome among those I have ever visited. It had variety of menu in every course. Prawns in starters was too delicious to describe. Pizza also was excellent. In the main course each and every item was worth to taste. We all liked the ambience also. Seriously, our test buds got recharged in this restaurant. We finished our grand dinner at around 9:30. After that we (Abirda, Neha and me) took one cab and came back home with lots of good memory.

4.       Visiting coorg: Just after my team celebration, I had plan to visit coorg with Pb and his friend Himadri. I met Himadri twice before this. So, he was not total unknown person to me. Pb came to my place in the morning and we had to take bus at night from Mysore Road Satellite Bus Station. We went there by means of metro. We ate a lot in a nearby A2B. When we got into the bus we realized that the situation was horrible. Someone vomited on a seat and unfortunately Pb took the seat. However, he changed his seat but his pants caught the foul smell. However in this circumstance, we reached Mercera bus stand at around 5:30 AM. We booked one hotel beforehand. But the hotel receptionist told that we would be alloed only after 8:00 AM. So, we started to roam here and there. We asked some local cab drivers about the cost of sight-seeing. After eight we occupied the room. The hotel room was upto the mark. 

We booked a cab from the hotel’s contact. That day we plan to visit Thala Cauvery –  the source of river Cauvery, abbey falls and some nearby places. Thala Cauvery was about 100 km from hotel. The road was around the hills. The journey was too good. On the way, we visited one temple. The more we were nearing Thala Cauvery, the weather was getting bad. It was becoming foggy outside the car and visibility was decreasing gradually. Though the driver was very skillful and he drove us safe to Thala Cauvery. We did not see much there as we heard lot of praise of this place. But, the weather made the environment quite amazing. After enjoying Thala Cauvery, we started to climb downhills. We had our lunch in Green Restaurant. There the food quality was quite good and they served a good amount of food in one dish also. We were hungry that time and finished all the foods. After our lunch, we headed for Abbey falls. The way to abbey falls was too muddy. And it started raining then also. We had to walk a few meters to reach at the spot. We avoided the poring with the help of umbrella. The view of abbey falls was mind blowing. In a small area, Cauvery was down pouring in full force. And the roaring of the falls thrilled us. People were taking selfies (as usual) with the falls as background. We had little difficulty while coming back as the rain got heavier, but the pleasure of viewing the falls neutralized the effort. Next we went some park which was not worth visiting and it was raining also. So, we came back to our hotel. At evening we went out for a walk. There was one big spice shop and chocolate shop. We headed for those. Though the chocolate shop was closing at that time as the shop workers were bound to mosque. Spices in the shop was good to smell. But we did not buy anything. Next we had our dinner in a nearby restaurant. We order one curry which was full of tulsi leaves. This was too funny. Overall dinner was not bad. After dinner we came back to hotel and went on sleeping.

Next day we went for Rafting, Dubbare for elephant safari and one Budhist monastery. Water rafting was good. This is my first experience of the same kind. At one point the guide threw every one of us out of the boat. Obviously we all had life jacket. This was also a good experience. For first few seconds it was little bit scary. But when everything settled down, I started to enjoy. After rafting was completed we changed our wet clothes and headed towards Dubbare. In dubbare park there was nothing much to see except some deer. To make the situation worse, it was also raining quite heavily. So, we did not spend much time here and told the driver to take us for lunch. In lunch we ordered one chicken starter and fish meal. In fish meal there was huge amount of fishes. We relished the dishes. Having our lunch, we went for the Budhdhist Shrine. The shrine was situated in a calm place - outskirts of the main city. We liked the place and took some pictures. There we three took one tender coconut water each. Next the driver took us to a spice shop. But we did find very small things to buy. After that our cab driver cropped us near bus stand. That day we bought plenty chocolates. Those chocolates really tasted excellent. At around 8:30 PM we had a light dinner. On 11 PM we boarded on the bus which was bound for return journey. Overall this tour to Coorg stamped a sweet memory in my memory canvas.

5.       Going team lunch with Bogdan: Bogdan Moisa is our team-mate in office who works from Romania. He is very close to us. He visited Bangalore few days back. Whenever I heard the news of his visiting, I was very much ebullient. Not because I got an opportunity to meet him, but because we will have another team lunch. This time we went Shigri Global Grill in Kalyannagar for the lunch. This was my second visit to Shigri. The first one was also with my team-mates on the eve of my welcome lunch. This time, we visited on Eid. With us, we had our PV team also. The restaurant was very much crowded. That day we had an offer which stated like “by giving extra 30 bucks you would get unlimited pepsi”. So we readily availed the offer. I started starters with high energy. As usual I was finishing starters specially the prawns. Abirda and Sourasishda also was eating like anything. Unlike other times, this time I put a bit more emphasis on main course. The main course was quite good. I liked the sweet chicken preparation. I ate too much rotis which was also very good. In desert, rabdi-jalebi was too good. I took many of them. At around 3:30 PM we finished our lunch and came back to office.

6.       Jog falls: On the eve of 15^th August, we got an extended weekend as 15^th August was on Monday this time. We (me, Nilanjan and Tommy) planned to go Shimoga in this long holiday. The primary to go to Shimoga was to visit Jog falls. It is the highest falls in India. On Friday night we saterted our journey from Majestic. This time we booked Airavat club class keeping in mind my previous horrible experience in Rajahamsa. Our bus was at around 11:57 PM from Majestic but it started with a delay of 1 hour. Though it was good for us as the later we would reach Shimoga, the more will be the chance to check into the hotel.

We reached Shimoga, abbreviated from Shivamogga at around 7:00 AM. From Shimoga bus stand we we directly went to hotel and they allowed us to check in. The hotel was value for price. Entering the hotel room, we quickly took bath and got ourselves ready for day’s trip. We asked the hotel receptionist about how to go Jog falls. And he told that he can book a car for us. We agreed him and he readily booked a car in which, after having breakfast, we started a long mesmerizing trip to jog falls. The hilly road to jog falls was one of a kind. There were lots of trees at both sides of the road and that scene was seriously enthralling. There were two cities on the way – Talguppa and Sagar. After completing around 2-hour journey, we reached Jog falls. The view of jog falls was scintillating from far. The clouds were rising above from the point where the falls water was touching the ground. I have never experienced that scene in my life. Though there were stairs to reach at the bottom of the falls, we did not take the risk to go down as the number stairs was around 1150 and if we go down it will be very difficult to climb those stairs. We stayed for couple of hour there and then got back to our cab. We told our driver to stop at good hotel. He took us to one hotel. It was good if we forget the fact that the foods were too spicy. We ate a lot there. After lunch we headed for Ikkiri where Aghoreshwara temple is situated. The temple sculpture was quite similar to Hampi. We were there for around 45 minutes. After this we again headed for Shimoga. We reached there around 5 PM. As there was quite daylight, me and Nilanjan decided to take a stroll around the city by walk. Shimoga is well decorated city. One surprising fact is, there are lots of doctors in Shimoga and also lots of clinics. Don’t know what made the population of doctors so higher there. Anyway, while walking we had coconut water, sweets, sugarcane juice from different shops and all of them were excellent. They gave one huge glass of sugarcane juice in just Rs. 10/-. After one long walk we came back to hotel. We had one light dinner at 9 PM. After coming back, we made next day’s plan.

Next day, we planeed to visit Kelathgiri, Kemmangundi, Mulayangiri and Babubudangiri. Mulaygiri and Babubudangiri is on Chicmagalur district. In Kelathgiri, there was a temple beside a falls. Many people were taking hoky bath in that falls. Kemmangundi is situated somewhat in higher altitude. There, weather was too misty ans it was raining periodically. Basically there was a park and around that there were many viewpoints. But we were unable to view anything because of mist. After Kemmangundi we tried to Mulayangiri and Babubudangiri, but the road was blocked due to heavy rain. So,we had to return from midway. We had our lunch in one roadside hotel. That day, at dinner, we went to royal orchid hotel where they were serving buffet. The buffet was low price and quite good too. I especially liked the fish pakoda and gobbled a handful of them. After filling our tummies, we went back to hotel. That day, Deepa Karmakar’s gold medal vault match of Rio Olympic was there. We watched that very enthusiastically, but to our utter despair she finished in fourth position.

Next day was our last day in Shimoga. That day we had to visit Tayevarekoppa tiger and lion safari which was situated only 9 km away from Shimoga. We took an auto and went there at early morning. Before that we checked out from the hotel. The safari cost was only Rs.70/- per person which is very low. Safari was quite good as we saw tigers and lions. Some were roaming unchained. We also had opportunity to see tigers’ mating. The safari was of one hour. There was also a zoo. We spend another one-hour roaming in the zoo. Next, we had our lunch and headed for Bangalore by another Airavat club class with sweet memoirs in our hearts.

God of small things

For the past 6 hours except eating and responding to nature’s call what I did was to feel the taste of one exceptional outcome from Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things. It was not a day when I would expect to finish the long pending novel because it was a week day and usually on these days I remain busy pressing keys in front of a dumb box. It became possible because I had to attend a tremendous boring seminar “VG Training day” where I had to do literally nothing.

So coming to the point without much transgressing, I would state that the novel was one of those kinds for which whatever praise you do, falls short for that. In a nutshell, Mrs. Roy circled the novel around a ‘one-egg twin’ – Esthappen and Rahel and their childhood. Let me not go into deeper of the content of the novel, rather I want to say about different aspects running in the background of “God of small things”.

In the novel the writer mainly highlighted the thinking methodology of a child. Many times we do not care for the thought process of younger ones. But those innocuous children also think wisely in their own way. Their quality analysis of events sometimes surpass the older ones. The viewpoints of those twin like “Everything that counts, counts.” or “It is best to be prepared to be prepared.” or “Anything can happen to anyone.” were much thought provoking.

Another thing which struck me very much in the novel is the character of Velutha. He has been depicted as a lower class boy whose passion is hand crafting. He has been portrayed as a solid and rigid character who can overwhelm anybody with his charm. In the later part of the novel author pictured Velutha as true “God of small things”. Undoubtedly he is the “God of loss, god of small things”.

Minions: pros and cons

Just now watched the prequel of couple of despicable me, minions with souvikda in gopalan signature mall. We went there directly from office. This is my third experience of watching movie in multiplex after despicable me 2 in bangalore and penguins in kolkata. Surprisingly all the movies seen by me in multiplex are animation.

Anyway, talking about minions, in few words , it is far better than despicable me 2 but not as good as the first version of same. After watching the previous couple of parts, it is clear to everybody that minions are a weary-language-telling, obscure-things-performing a total funny species. In Minions, which is basically a prequel of the series, they were bound to find a leader. Throughout the movie they searched for their captain but failed to find so. And finally, they found the despicable Gru who would be the future leader of minions.

The first half of the movie was really well. That depicted the true funny natures of minions. They were surpassing various obstacles wittily in course of finding their leader. They found one but that proved to be a treacherous lady. The encounters with the lady in the very first half of the movie was on the funnier side. But in the second half, to me, the movie makers messed up a little bit. They engaged minions in too much artificial, imaginary fighting which should not be the main theme of this movie. Moreover, the fightings had neither any intelligence part nor any humorous elements which two are most important characteristics of minions as highlighted in previous minion movies.

Drawing attraction of general public and subsequently making more money from it might have added little sour in the taste. In this context, I have some thoughts about this type of sequels or prequels. Despicable Me was an excellent movie undoubtedly. But Despicable Me 2 was a super-flop. iMDB rating of it bolsters the fact. Now, the producer wants to make a new movie but he is not sure of its outcome. He got the idea in his brain but is little hesitant to launch it in industry. So he applied a wrapper of previously popular movie and shotted it. So what is the result? He produced a mixture of oil and water-two things which will never mingle. My point is that, minions is like a mixture of some mutually repelling characteristics. Those high voltage fightings can never suit to minions. Whenever someone is making a movie he should have enough confidence on his idea. But I found a somewhat less confident creator in Minions.

Thousand Splendid Suns

This is the second novel by Mr. Khaled Hosseini I have read after “The Kite Runner” and for the second time he literally baffled me with his extremely awesome writing capability as well as portraying deft. This is the novel where one can enrich his knowledge about how the political scenario of Afghanistan has changed from time to time and what scars the situations have left on the Afghan people. This novel also makes us aware about the conservative and patriarchal Afghan society where women had very little freedom of words as well as action.

There are four frequently discussed characters in the novel – Mariam, her husband Rasheed, their neighbor Tariq and Laila. The novel portrays the socio-economic instability of Afghanistan through growing struggle of Mariam and Laila. Mariam was an illegal child and so her father left her, but he had feelings for her. Mariam grew up under the care of her mother. After her mother’s death, she had to get married with Rasheed, owner of a shoe-shop. In Rasheed’s house she had to face severe mental as well as physical torture which she bore quietly. Laila was a young girl residing in their neighborhood. Laila loved Tariq from their childhood. However Laila lost their parents and Tariq also moved far away from her due to the ongoing political situation. Later, Rasheed married Laila as he and Mariam could not produce any child. But, Rasheed’s growing torture on them became intolerable and Mariam killed Rasheed afterwards. After that Mariam surrendered her guilt and sentenced to death, Laila married Tariq and they lived happily after.

In the entire novel Mr. Hosseini left us many messages from which we can learn different aspects of life. The life of Mariam or Laila simply tells us that life is all about a fight. If someone gives up the fight, he or she will perish. Mariam and Laila in their life fought tremendously to cope up with the situation. They ever did not give up hope of what they wanted. Another thing Mr. Hosseini pointed out that there is nothing which can replace our motherland. Mariam always remembered the place where she grew up. Laila and Tariq returned back to Afghanistan though they were leading a smooth life in Pakistan. Surely, the comfort and pleasure which can be cherished in residing within the place where someone is borne and brought up can’t be felt anywhere else. This eternal truth is the main understanding of the novel which the writer has drawn very efficiently throughout the entire “Thousand Splendid Suns”.

To kill a mocking bird

To kill a mocking bird is a literary masterpiece created by Ms. Harper Lee and she also grabbed Pulitzer for this fictional novel at ‘60s. The novel basically highlights the dark side of severe racism practiced in European culture that time. The story is centered on Mr. Atticus Finch, a lawyer, her daughter Scout and a negro Tom Robinson. The main side characters are Atticus’s son Jem, children’s friend Dil, their neighbor Boo Radley and family attendant Calpurnia. Tom Robinson was wrongly accused in charge of rape of a white girl. Mr. Finch was defending Tom in the story. In course of his work he had to struggle a lot as defending a negro person was the worst proceeding in society as depicted in the novel. His daughter Scoutt witnessed some of his struggle and that experience gradually blend her character. However, Tom was shot dead later while he was trying to flee from the jail desperately and the girl’s father who wrongly charged him for the guilt and also harassed Mr. Finch a lot was killed by Bob as he intended to harm the children of Mr. Finch.

Ms. Lee portrayed the characters and the whole story so efficiently that we can relate the happenings with our daily life. There was a quotation from Mr. Atticus to Scout, “Kill as many blue jays as you can but don’t harm any mocking bird.” Blue jays as indicated in the novel are the filthy minded rulers of the society who discriminate people on the basis of race and mocking birds are the harmless people within us who toil hard to live and always tortured by those blue jays in many ways. Truly these blue jays are waste of any culture and should be expatriated. Besides, Mr. Finch’s mental toughness and serenity are also learnable traits for us. He faced many obstacles from various people while defending his client. But he did not give up and also he did not become rude to anyone despite of experiencing severe jeering at him. His utter care for his children is also a remarkable instance for every father. Wittiness of Scout as showcased by Ms. Lee has made the novel more interesting. Her curiosity of surroundings, her receptive capability, and her friendly manner has provided the novel a unique dimension. Surely, To Kill a Mocking Bird is a worth reading novel for every human being.

The Shadow Lines - A marvelous novel

Just finished reading the shadow lines by Amitabha Ghosh. This is a quite good effort by the writer in which he depicted the cultural difference between India and England as well as the sentimental issues arose during the partition of India and Bangladesh. The story has been written around the author himself. The other main characters of the story is Tridib, author’s uncle, author’s grandmother, Robi, May and Ila. The later three are not the main characters of the novel. Tridib who was pursuing PhD in archaeology was author’s childhood friend. Author’s grandmother was almost his guardian in his childhood. She was basically from Bangladesh. She had to come to Calcutta long before partition but in Calcutta she was living with her childhood reminiscences of her native land.  Once her grandmother wished to go to Bangladesh to take back her uncle to Calcutta. Tridib, May and Robi also went with her. When they had gone to Bangladesh, that time in various part of India and Bangladesh, communal riots were going on due to religious issues. When they were coming back from Bangladesh, they were attacked by a violent mob and during that attack Tridib was killed. This is the gist of the novel. Mr. Ghosh has nicely developed the plot and well executed the sentiments of the characters. Also his brilliant choice of words will amuse any reader. Surely, the author has a unique adroit in writing novels.

But, as nothing can be total perfect, to me some part of this novel seemed little out of track. Mr Ghosh has written this novel little tortuously. In first part he pictured the situations when Tridib was there. Next, he showed the happenings after Tridib’s death. And lastly, he told about Tridib’s death. In between he changed the flow of incident numerous times. This style of writing somewhat may disgust the reader. Moreover, if he would written the whole story chronologically, I think the motto or the message he liked to share would not change. And, there are two exotic scenes in the novel. One of those characterized Tridib and other the author himself. Again, inclusion of these seemed irrelevant to me. Because the lusty nature of both of them had no use in the story flow. Except these two, the overall novel was simply awesome to me.

Cast problems in India – is there any solution?

From years cast system is not only itself a burning problem but also creator of many unsolvable problems in India. Many will repudiate the fact that cast system is no longer practiced in India and so the matter should be disclosed by now immediately. But the documentary ‘India untouched’ made by Mr. Stalin K proves that wrong. Whether cast system still prevails in India or not – let’s not get into the debate. Let’s discuss the unhealthy effects of cast system and its probable way out. If someone scrupulously analyzes the current socio-economic situation in India then it will be clearly revealed that the people who are categorized as SC, ST or OBC are worst sufferers of the cast system. The root of the cast system is laid from the ancient Aryan literatures like Vedas, Upanishads or Srimadvaghabat-Gita as well pointed out by Dr. B. R. Ambedker in one of his famous undelivered speech ‘Annihilation of Caste’. There may be many arguments and counter arguments about this fact but none can deny that whatever be the reason, cast system is surely dragging the development of India backward. Today almost seventy percent of Indian population belongs to any of SC, ST or OBC category. Only few percentage of them are leading a respectable life and the rest is economically as well as socially way backward. If this vast population of India is properly uplifted then India will surely be a far better country in terms of economy than it is now.

So what are the possible ways of improvement of this situation? The one way which immediately pops out of the brain is education. Educate the people who belongs to those backward class and they will automatically find their own means to lead a respectable life. But, if this method would so easy then we should not see people suffering here and there. Moreover Indian Government is already providing reservation in education as well as in government jobs for those backward classes. So where is the fault? Basically the thing is that the advantage of reservation system is enjoyed by a few percentage of those SC, ST or OBC. Those who live in remote villages, toil hard day and night for two-times-a-day-meal are merely benefitted by this reservation system. People who have no food to eat can hardly think about proper education. They are economically so downtrodden that they will not be willing to send their children to school rather their children will be engaged in some labor-work to make little money. There is another question. Why only these backward class people are economically feeble? If someone tracks history then he will understand that these people have suffered immense case of social stigmatism. Varan-Byabastha in the ancient Aryan civilization made them slave and did not let them come out stronger in socio-economic perspective. This tradition went on and till now they are deprived of education, good culture or whatever needed to uplift a society.

But there are other problems too. Even if some of the backward class people are becoming educated and trying to join the mainstream of the society, they are being continuously oppressed by the forward class people. They are not getting their due respect from society. This happens because these upper class people want those backward community people to be remained ever backward. They do not understand that the so called dalits (lower class people) are also a part of the society and so they have equal right to be educated, admired or to have whatever privileges are enjoyed by them. These days, forward class people have a gross misconception that dalits have little intelligence within themselves and if they let dalits to come up then work efficiency in various fields will decrease. But this type of argument is totally flawed as recent researches have proved this thing otherwise (‘Quotas do not hurt efficiency, says study’ – The Hindu, February 5, 2015). So, the privileged class people should be made aware of this fact so that they can participate in the upliftment process of the backward class people. These forward class people have now most of the money and power of India. So, without their help, people in dark can never experience the light.

Another solution of this problem may be practice of inter-marriage. Now-a-days, inter-marriage is very rare incident to happen. Both upper and lower class people mostly do not want to get married with someone belonged to other class. But inter-marriage is definitely necessary for the improvement of backward class. If it happens then there will be mixing in cultures between higher and lower class. Also, the notion of separation between these two will be reduced and vanished gradually. But inter-marriage in India will happen frequently only when the mindset of people will change. People should be free of all prejudices or superstitions if inter-marriage has to happen. Today, many parents do not let their children to marry someone from other caste even if there is no strong reason to prohibit so. It happens because they have fear of society too – what society will whisper if they let their wards to do the same. So, again awareness comes into play for this issue. People have to realize that there is no real threat posed by inter-marriage, rather there are possibilities of good outcomes due to this.

In many Indian villages, besides cast there are practices of sub-cast as well. The lower economic group between shudras (scheduled cast) are called ati-shudras and shudras hate those ati-shudras. Moreover they treat those ati-shudras as untouchables. This type of division between backward class people also hindering their way to improvement. In stead of living together and finding paths of illumination, they are immersing themselves into more darkness.  If these lower class people do not unite together, then how their society will improve? Now-a-days some of the backward class people are coming in the lights of social upliftment as they are getting cast based reservation. But after they are placed in high position they do not tend to improve their deprived society. They forget that they have got the advantage because many people of their community are still in darkness. This situation also has to be changed. The lower class people who are in somewhat good position in comparison to others in the same community should come forward to develop their community. They ought to be the torch-bearers of their society in-stead-of being self-centered. Who knows that their little effort combined, may eventually emerge as an excellent result.

So, to sum up, yes, cast-ism is creating many problems in India. But they have solutions too. These solutions are never easy to be implemented. But, if, people come forward with their logical mind, willing heart, then the problem can be annihilated from root.

A trip to Digha

While we were spending some jobless days in the starting of the semester a short trip to Digha was planned all of a sudden. We five – Debdoot, Abhay, Priyabrata and Siddhartha including me was part of the plan. We decided to start our journey on 16th of January at around 10 PM by a scorpio and come back by next morning. We would have our dinner in some dhaba midway. We were excited from the thought of an exhilarating night journey on the way to digha. We were all set to start our trip and were waiting for the hired cab to come. We rang the driver and he assured that it will take some time as he was repairing the car. Now gradually the clock ticked 10:30 but there was no sign of the driver. Our tempo began to flag. Then we dropped our plan to go by scorpio and hired a mere Omni thinking that going slightly uncomfortably is far better than the cancellation of plan. So we started the journey at around 11:15 PM in an ebullient mood. But we forgot that there was a rule in the campus that prohibits students to go outside the campus after 11. As the main gate approached we decided that we would tell the security that we were going to railway station. But in reality that was of no use as the they were strict enough to let us slip through the gate. Again we became morally down. We then decided that let us drop the plan of experiencing a night journey rather we might change the scenario to a go-in-day-back-in-night type. Anyway in that case also we could make a night journey but that might not be as much enjoyable as the previous plan. We told the driver that we would set out early morning. But he was also not sure whether he could able to take us that much early. But anyway he took my phone number and told that he would reveal his decision in a moment. Being dejected we started to have our dinner in VS. now suddenly there was twist in the tale.
Someone called me and told that a car was ready to pick us up to go Digha and we should come outside VS in no time. We were in such hurry that we forgot to pay the bill in VS. We could not understand the situation and went there hurriedly. Then we realised  that there was a private car to sneak us out of the main gate and from there the Omni would take us and begin the journey. But still we were not sure that this time how we could get out under the nose of the security. The driver of the car assured that they would exempt us from checking as that was a private car. But the logic did not satisfy us completely. Anyway we got into the car and rushed towards the outside of the shell. While approaching the main gate we crossed our finger and to our utter dismay the car passed swiftly through the gate. We were ecstatic then and found resemblance of the situation with that of a scene in the movie Argo. The driver of the car got us down in front of the sub-divisional hospital and told to wait for the Omni. We thanked him and praised his skill though that was not his skill but the nebulous rule of the security which brought was outside in a tricky manner.
Within a while the Omni came and we finally began our journey at around 12. Now we were in full mood of enjoy. Debdoot brought out his newly bought sound box and started to play some song. That made our journey more rejoicing. Meanwhile we stopped by a roadside dhaba and had some eatables as per or plan. In the whole journey we did not sleep even for a while. We spent our time by chit-chatting, throwing pranks to each other and making plans after we reach Digha. Truly speaking a long distance night journey could not be better than this and thanks to my friends whose company made it a worth to remember.
We reached Digha around 5 in the morning. The weather was chilling outside. Outside was as dark as night. When we got down the car we just trembled in the cold. The sea breeze seemed to touch our bones. It was that much cold. We had tea in a shop there. The tea was so awful that we thought the tea-maker mixed some soil with tea. Then we moved to the sea. There was not much crowd then. The moon was up in the sky and the sun was all set to rise. So, the surrounding was like half bright. Some fishing boats were seen from distance. We made our feet wet in the sea water. The water was not as much cold as the surrounding. I then folded my jeans up and went to ankle deep water. But I refrained from going deeper as that would make my jeans wet. After that we took a stroll along the beach. As the sun rose I took some photos of the rising star. We enjoyed the fish-hunting of seagull. We sat down for a while in front of the beach. We gelt hungry and decided to have some breakfast. After the breakfast we headed towards our car and we felt a little tired then. The clock was ticking 7 at that time. So we decided to have a short nap of about an hour and then take the sea-bath. But our nap duration become much longer and we headed to beach again at 9. We bought a ball with which we would play in the sea.
Now this was going to be Siddhartha’s first sea-bath experience. So he was little frightened initially. But as time went on all of us started to enjoy the sea heavily. I was vey excited and shouting at top of my voice. The gorgeous waves roared towards us and when it was breaking on us then we became elated like none else. We created different postures out of joy. We started to play with the ball we bought. But after some time the strong breeze took the ball away from us and it disappeared in the mid sea. As time went by, much people gathered in the sea and took the bath. The sea wave formed higher as I and Debdoot went much further into the sea. As the waves broke on me, salt water was entering through my nose, ear, mouth as well. But I did not pay heed of the trouble and continue my excitement in the sea. We splashed water to each other. After all, we were enjoying in all possible ways. Now it was time to leave and return to the car.
After returning, we changed our clothes. Then we felt immense hunger. We had our lunch in a nearby hotel. The lunch was awesome to me. We took prawn and pomfret with rice. Both fishes were too delicious. Having finished our lunch, we got back to the car and we were all set to go back to our den –Kharagpur. But the driver told us there was a little problem that the LPG gas by which the car was running was almost emptied and it had to be refilled. So, he began to search for gas. Now, this was not an easily available in the street. So, after a tiresome search he was able to find an LPG provider and the driver refilled his cylinder. Now, finally we were heading towards Kharagpur. We told the driver that he would go little quicker as Priyabrata had to catch the train to go home. Now, the driver took this utmost seriously and started to drive recklessly. He ignored the bumps, sometimes broke the speed-checkers, spread dust all over the street, took sharp turns and lot more. Debdoot had his spectacles broken due to his rough driving. But finally we reached to campus safely.
Now, this was my third outing with these sets of friends after Shushunia and Shantiniketan. But I have to admit that this was the most successful trip out of these three. We enjoyed a lot in this night-day trip. Hope, I will able to manage to experience such awesome outing with such awesome friends.

Placement: a 3 day experience

I don't know what will I write is whether a worth reading for others, but this is truly an incident worth to remember, at least for quite a few periods.

So, from where should I start? Truly speaking, I'm little bemused about the beginning of my experience about placement. Should I include my (or our) placement preparation in the scorching heat of May, June and July at RK hall or should I talk about my confusion between taking up a job and higher studies. Amidst all confusions I think it is better to keep things short to only my experience beginning from the period just before our campus placement procedure. The preparation phase and the other one is not worth mentioning here to me.

Truly speaking, I was not at all ready for the placement. I was planning to pursue higher study (PhD in foreign universities) as I had no hope to get into a job in some core company (companies related to electronics profile). Because those companies seek students repleted with core knowledge which I totally had forgotten and didn't able to manage to rewind previous courses. There was a thing that I wanted to stick to core because I somehow realized that I would not be quite dexterous to outstay the jobs in non-core like finance or management. That is why I had two options in my hand - get through a core company or fight for a PhD position in foreign universities.

Now, as neither of two were sure for me, I decided to apply for all companies' all profiles coming to campus. Because once I get into any kind of job, then at least I will not sit jobless in next semester for sure. The written tests for the companies started in mid-October - after the Durgapuja vacation.

Throughout the whole placement procedure I had three of my friends - Abhay, Debdoot and Priyabrata accompanied with me. Whatever we have done beginning from the placement exam time, we have done together with a slight distortion in case of Debdoot. I had another two close friends in my group - Siddhartha and Susnata. But these two were quite passionate about higher studies and sat only for core ones. There was Soumyajit too, who was nowhere in the placement scenario but was there for constant support.

Anyhow, as far as I remember the first test was there for ServiceNow. Before the test, we had no clue what was going to be there in the test. To our utter dismay there was questions from topics like C++, database, networking etc. in which we were like a layman. There was aptitude questions too, but those CS questions befuddled us in the very first strike. After that we faced a serial strike from companies like Citrix and E-Bay. In Oracle test I managed to deliver a better performance because most of the test were based on quantitative aptitude ability.
Meanwhile I and Debdoot faced a major problem. I missed the test of Codenation as I had my TOEFL exam previous day and went home after that. Debdoot missed Oracle test for some other reasons. I expected no consequences of that. But our CDC posed a punishment by restricting us to be shortlisted at maximum 20 companies. We took the punishment very seriously and by any means we intended to revert that punishment. But after some time we realized that it was a trick from CDC to inject some seriousness (??) within students. The punishment was not imposed in reality and we continued to write tests after that.
The tests went on like a daily routine. Some of them went bad, some of them were medium but in none of them I was fully satisfied. Looking at the huge amount (around 700) of students appearing for all the tests I had little hope to appear in the shortlists of interview for those companies. Before 1st December we had written tests of Credit Suisse, Citrix, Amazon Express, City Bank, Cisco, Walmart, Xerox, Analog Device, Axis Bank, Qualcomm, and Capital One etc. Priyabrata cracked the test of Oracle and already wrote the second round of the same.
Now as November was coming to an end all of us was waiting for the interview shortlists to be published. For December 1, I was shortlisted for EXL Services. Frankly speaking it was much unexpected to me. Priyabrata was shortlisted for American Express and Abhay was there for massive four companies - EXL, Credit Suisse, Visa and Cisco. We were all sure that he will crack any one of them. As per all of our expectation Abhay was through Credit Suisse. This was a huge day for him. Priyabrata could not do much in American Express interview as he had to face some random questions there.
EXL services was first proper interview I faced in my life. During internship the interviews were telephonic. I was bit tensed before my EXL interview. I practiced some questions like, 'tell about yourself', 'why this company' etc. I also came to know that EXL will ask for some guess estimation and puzzles in their first round. That is why I also had a look on them. Moreover I had to put on formals kike suit, pant and tie. At first it looked somehow awkward. The interview was in TP-206 at Nalanda Complex. My name was 60th in the shortlist of 102 candidates. That means I had ample time to gather the questions they were asking previous candidates. I was preparing my mind for that. I heard that EXL was going to hire around 35 students this year. Therefore I was little hopeful that I may crack this one. The interview process started at around 2:30 PM. As there was a single interviewer, the whole process was moving very slowly. My turn came up at around 7 PM. The initial scary feeling within me had gone that time and I was prepared to face the interview confidently.
As I entered the room, the interviewer greeted me warmly and told me to have a seat. Then he asked a few questions from my CV. Next he asked three questions and I answered almost all of them efficiently with little fumbling in last question. Though the questions were not hard at all, still I was very glad that I performed well in that interview. I was very confident that I would get a call for the second round. I waited in the venue only for that call. After some time I asked the placement committee who was conducting the whole procedure about my second round of interview and to my utter surprise he told that I was not selected for the same. I felt little sad that time as the reason of the rejection was not realized by me. I came to hostel after that and had my dinner. I told myself that there might be something within me which the interviewer did not like at all and that is the reason for the rejection. I treated that as a bad luck and prepared for the next exams. Meanwhile I had to complete the MTP report and send to my guide. I somehow managed to complete writing the report, but it was not that good.
Anyway that day we had tests of Flipkart and Snapdeal starting from 11 PM. I was preparing my mind mentally to give cent percent at those tests. The test were in Nalanda. That evening I and Priyabrata kept our cycles in the stand and the stand was closed after 8 PM. So, we had to call a rickshaw to go to Nalanda. Flipkart test contained normal aptitude and verbal ability based questions. I was much satisfied writing the test. In Snapdeal test there was 50 questions and the time limit was only 12 minutes. Basically it was a speed test and you have to be really quick on your feet. That test also I managed well.
Next day, I got my name shortlisted in Flipkart. It gave me an immense satisfaction as I had performed well in the test and also got the result for the same. In the waiting list of Axis Bank too, there was my name. Priyabrata was also there in the same waiting list. On the same day Siddhartha was also got shortlisted in qualcomm.
So, again I started to prepare mentally for Flipkart interview. The venue of Flipkart was TP-401 at Nalanda Complex. When I reached the venue I came to know that Flipkart will conduct a GD round for elimination. Now I fainted. I had no experience of GD before. Whatever I heard about GD before that, my realization was that, GD is the toughest hurdle to me in a selection process to cross. Anyway, I thought that I would get some time to prepare mentally before appearing in Flipkart GD session. The first thing I did, I went to TP-103 where Axis Bank selection process was going on to check whether my name entered into the main list. There I found that I as well as Priyabrata were through to the main list of Axis Bank. I again went upstairs to Flipkart venue.
But there, I felt an immense shock - my name for GD was being called out. So, at once I rushed to the GD room and to my utter surprise as soon as I took my seat the moderator of GD announced the topic - "Make in India" and allowed us two minutes to think. I was not even fully settled in the room. I was totally confused for around 30 secs. After that I wrote some points on a scratch paper and was waiting to the signal of the moderator. But, suddenly one student started to speak out and the GD began full fledgedly. That left me dumb founded. I was not getting any scope to speak as whenever I tried to do the same I was getting obstructed by others. As far as I remember I could speak and made others listen only two times. Finally, when the moderator told us to summarize the whole session individually then I talked about few points and after some time the session ended. I was little dejected as I could not perform well in that GD due to lack of experience. The placecom members told us to wait for some time till all the sessions got finished.
After that, I went to Qualcomm venue and came to know that Siddhartha's interview was going on. I was very confident that he will convert that interview into a successful one. Then I went to Axis Bank venue and there also the placecom told that my turn will be there after a while. Meanwhile I called Priyabrata to tell him that he was promoted to the main list of Axis Bank from the waitlist. But when I called him, Siddhartha picked up the call and told that Priyabrata was selected for the interview of Qualcomm in digital profile. It was another good news for us as we were all confident about his knowledge in digital electronics. By the way Abhay was also there to bolster all of us and he was also coordinating me as I had two interviews - one in ground floor and another in third floor.
Meanwhile I got the news of my rejection at Flipkart GD. I was expecting that kind of result. And after a while my turn in Axis Bank came. Like previous day, here also the interviewer greeted me warmly. He asked me a guess estimation question (no. of people in Kolkata using specs) and I confidently explained that. The interviewer looked impressed at my answer. After that interview as the placecom told me to wait for the next round I again rushed upstairs to Qualcomm venue and got the good news that Priyabrata and Siddhartha cracked Qualcomm. They looked very joyful there. They were just waiting there for the final confirmation. I also cheered them. After a while the HR of Qualcomm asked all the selected candidates inside and they went into the room.  I also moved downstairs to check the status of Axis Bank interview.

I got to know that I was selected for the final round of the interview of Axis Bank. They gave Job Application Forms to be filled up by all the final shortlisted candidates. The form was about candidate’s personal bio-data and all. While filling up the form I thought that as they were asking to fill that kind of form means the final selection is almost guaranteed. I was much ebullient at this thought. Meanwhile Priyabrata, Siddhartha and Abhay came to me and wished me best of luck for the interview. Qualcomm gave them a good-looking sweat shirt each. By the way my turn for the interview in Axis Bank came and I entered into the room with a confident attitude.

The interview went on for 45 minutes. One may conclude from this prolonged interview that it went absolutely well. But, truly speaking it went horrible. It went so disastrous that I can tell that I have not felt so embarrassed in front of someone for this much of time span. They asked me a guess estimate question and what I started to guess was childish. They laughed at me, they pranked me and finally they were fed up with me. I was so psyched that time that I forgot the full form of RBI in the middle of interview. I was feeling like running away from them.

After the interview I remained very frustrated with me. I at once came back to my room. The time was around 5:30 PM. At 6 PM the schedule for that day’s test came and there were a lot of written test of Flipkart IT, Snapdeal IT, Synopsys and Texas Instruments. I was not in a mood to appear in any of the tests. Moreover I had my MTP presentation next day and for that I had to prepare my presentation and I did not get my report signed. I called my guide and he assured that it was ok to get it signed next day.

Anyway I made up my mind to appear in those test and perform at my level best. The tests were scheduled to start at 7 PM. I at once went to Nalanda and started to prepare my PPT. I called Debdoot there also to give me company. While making our PPT we were also keeping a look on notice board to know the tests’ venue. But time went on, no such notices appeared on the notice board. We thought that as usual the tests were getting delayed. We also called some of our batch-mates and they were not picking up the call. They seemed to have a sleep after a hectic day. We took first few of those tests got cancelled. So we remained seated in the same room at ground floor. Susnata was appearing for Texas Instruments test which was scheduled last that day. I called Susnata about the situation and to my utter surprise he told that the test of Synopsys was about to start at some room at 1^st floor. We at once rushed to the venue and saw that all of our batch-mates were there. We also came to know that all of the tests scheduled previously has already been finished. Now my frustration level grew twice. What were we doing there? Just seating like morons and passing the time. I had no intention to write the Synopsys test. Before that I thought that I would do well in that test as it is one of the best companies for ECE folks.

Anyway the Synopsys test started within a while. It was a paper based test. There was three sections – Aptitude, Coding and Digital electronics. The duration of the test was one hour. There was negative marking for each question. But I was so nonplussed at the beginning of the test that I wasted at least 10 minutes of time solving the very first question. Then I realized that I had to leave the tough one and should only go for the relatively easy one as there was negative marking. None of the questions were straightforward and it was taking time for all the questions. Somehow I managed to solve a fair amount of questions in all three sections within the stipulated time. But, I was not confident to crack into the interview because many of the students would perform like that. Next, there was the test of Texas Instruments (TI). This time TI came to hire in Analog profile only in which my knowledge was almost null. TI test had two sections – analog and aptitude ability. In analog section there was 20 questions and all of them were germane to my knowledge. I guessed 10 of them. The aptitude section was regular to me as I had appeared for so many aptitude test by then. Susnata did really well in both of the sections and was confident to get into the second phase.

I returned my room at around 3:30 AM.  Then I finished preparing my PPT within 30 minutes and slept. I could not sleep for more than an hour. I opened the notice board and saw that I was shortlisted for Synopsys. I was little ecstatic at this. From that moment I decided that anyhow I have to perform very well in the interview. In that morning there was test of ZS Associates. I intentionally missed that test as I was not feeling well too. From 9:30 I had my MTP presentation also. I decided to keep myself calm. I went to Priyabrata’s room to get my copy of MTP report which he already got printed. He told me to perform well in the interview. In course of time I finished my MTP presentation.  Even now I don’t know what I told that day in the presentation but it just went on.

As soon as I finished the presentation I rushed to my room to suit myself up and then hurried to Nalanda having the digital notes with me. I was feeling a sheer bit of tension within me. But after the previous 3 rejections I was just thinking that I have to accept whatever would happen. I have to just keep going.

The interview was scheduled to start at 11 AM at TP-304 to TP-307. As I reached the venue, one of the interviewer told each of us the respective rooms of the interview. By the way Susnata was shortlisted for Texas Instruments. While I was waiting for my turn to come up I saw Abhay and Priyabrata coming there. They came at their own risk as there was a rule that the placed students should not show their face in Nalanda. Anyway it was good for me that they came because I was feeling much tensed and I could ease myself a little bit by talking to them. They discussed some digital and data structure stuffs with me which could be helpful in interview.

At around 12 PM my turn came up. I had to look confident before entering the room. So, I pumped myself up and went to the interviewer. There was three interviewers and all of them asked questions separately. Surprisingly, the first interviewer was a Bengali one had our conversation fully in Bengali. Actually, I reckoned later that all of the three interviewer were Bengali, though next two interview were in English. First the interviewer asked me about my current project. Then they asked about some basic data structure and algorithm related questions. Some of them I couldn’t answer at my first attempt but could able to tell when they hinted me. They also asked me about the questions which I couldn’t solve in the written test and also about the procedure by which I solved some of them. All was going well. At the end of the interview I asked the interviewer about my interview. He told me, “If you want to join Synopsys or if we want to hire you, you should do coding frequently.” Now I could not decipher the tone of the interview, whether it was an acceptance or rejection. Anyway, I came outside and saw Abhay and Priyabrata waiting for me. They asked me about the interview and I told them that it went well.

I got the news from them that Susnata was almost selected in TI. There was no surprise in it anyway. After myself there was at least 20 candidates whose interview was yet to be completed. So, I had to wait there for some time to know the result. Now, waiting is the thing which grows tension within you. I was so tensed that for next few hour I didn’t have a seat - I was just moving here and there in the corridor. From time to time I was analyzing my interview and deciding whether I could satisfy the interviewers or not. Sometimes I was thinking that I could not solve some questions in my first attempt and that could have a negative impact on the interviewers. Sometimes I was also have this thought that I solved those problems quickly after having a hint and that might speak in favor of me. Off and on the interviewers were coming outside and having a chat with the placecom. I was trying to hear them by reading their lips from distance. From time to time I was asking placecom what they were saying about the result. I was very much desperate to know the result. Meanwhile I felt hungry and told my mates. They took me to the canteen downstairs and ordered puri-sabji for me. Though it was a favorite food to me, I could not pass that down my throat as I was very much tensed by that time.

Priyabrata told me not to worry much. Again I went upstairs and saw that the interview was almost over. They were waiting for only one person. Eventually that student came and after a while his interview was over. Now it was just a matter of time for the result to be published.

Usually I do not believe in finger crossing or praying to god or something like that. But this time I was searching for something which can bring me some luck. Though I knew that it was not the end of placement season and many companies were yet to come, but I wished to get it done as another rejection would lead to more waiting and uncertainty.

I saw the interviewers were out of the room and discussing something with the placecom. One of the interviewers was telling to a placecom boy pointing to me, if I was not wrong that time. Next moment that boy took me some distance apart. I thought there would be another round of HR interview. But to my deadliest surprise he asked me, “If Synopsys gives you an offer, will you accept it?” I was like telling him, “What! Is this a question to ask?” I told him, “Yes, obviously!” and thus I got placed in Synopsys.

I saw Priyabrata and Abhay standing in a distance apart. I ran towards them and gave them the news. They congratulated me warmly. My eyelids began to wet by then and what I had to do was to control my flowing emotion in front of them. I heard the phrase “someone’s joy knew no bound” but could not really appreciate it before that day. My joy really was not able to know any bound and I was very much ecstatic that time. Except feeling joyous what I was feeling a sigh of relief – no more late-night-early-morning combination, no more waiting in Nalanda to begin a test, no more spending some tensed moments after an interview and lot more. The interviewers also congratulated me and I asked them about the job location which they told Bangalore. Then we left Nalanda and headed towards Tikka. We had Debdoot with us too. Now he was the only one left within us for placement. Susnata, who went department for his presentation after being selected in TI and Siddhartha who was in department for presentation joined us later in Tikka.

Now this is the whole story of three days about how I got placed in Synopsys and the ups and downs involved in it. I would be extremely thankful to my closed mates – Abhay, Priyabrata, Debdoot, Siddhartha and Susnata as they were always beside me for these days even after they got placed themselves. I may not ever forget that after my interview of Synopsys – Abhay and Priyabrata was also with me at my tensed moments waiting for the result to be disclosed. Had Susnata not called me at the night of Synopsys test, whether I would get placed in Synopsys ever, is still a question. I will remember that Priyabrata helped me a lot to cope up with MTP presentation stuffs and placement interview simultaneously. I will also remember the funny discussion with Debdoot about my terrible interview in Axis Bank which helped me to be easy in that situation. Actually I will ever remember a whole lot of things happened so quickly in those three days.

One thing I learned from my three day long toil (though many people toiled a lot harder than me) – not to expect anything from any incident. Because expectation leads to unhappiness if failed. Just perform at best and success will come for sure some day or other. Obviously there should be some luck involved in it. I will recognize this incident of getting placed as my biggest success till date. Whether it will remain as the biggest success, time will tell eventually.

Enjoying life - younger or older

Yes I agree with the statement that "Young people enjoy life more than older people do." There are various reasons behind my agreement. Those are summarized below.

Firstly, to enjoy life one has to be full of energy, enthusiasm and fearlessness. Young people have that level energy and courage for which they can do whatever they want to do. But, older people are generally lack of energy. May be, the older people wish to do a lot of activities. But their level of energy does not permit them to perform those desired activities. For an example: Skydiving is a thrilling activity which a major portion of young people perform. They are able to do so because they have necessary amount of energy and enthusiasm within them. But, an older person is generally incapable to skydive because lack of courage as well as energy. So, due to their energetic and courageous feature young people enjoy life more than older people do.

Secondly, older people are generally full of tension. They have been exposed to various incidents throughout their life. They have gathered much verisimilar experiences. This incidents and experiences left them tensed all over the day. They critically judge every incident and foresee the worst outcome from them. So, they can not enjoy their life. On the other hand, young people possess a careless like attitude. They do not think much of future rather they believe in present. They are confident enough to handle any situation. So, they are brave enough to explore various stature of life. From that they get immense enjoyment which older people generally unable to achieve. For an example: if there is a plan to travel in a hilly area then the older people will always think about the accidents there may happen, the landslide there may occur. So, they may refrained to go there. But young ones will tell that they will manage themselves whenever such situation will arise. This difference between old and young matters to enjoyment.

Thirdly, young people have not their family burden. Mostly they are student. They are dependent on their parents for their fooding and living. So, they can spend a great amount of time towards enjoyment. In contrast to that, the older people have family. They are bound to feed their family. So, they always have to think how the family will survive. For that, they spend most of the time of the day in earning money and get exhausted in the later half of the day. Therefore, they are not getting any time for enjoyment. For an example: if someone visits a cinema hall in an evening show they can realize that there are more number of young people than the old people. Because, older ones are tired then after whole day of hectic schedule. But, young people are not. So, they are enjoying the movie.

Finally, in their old age people are worn out of various chronic disease which is a huge hindrance in the way of enjoying life. But, the younger people are generally disease free. So, their health permits enjoyment. Therefore they can hang out with their friends, party with their closed ones which older diseased people can not do. For an example: many old people become down with spondylitis which prevent them to go and enjoy in some party. Which is not in the case of younger ones.

Therefore, the energetic, restless, fearless, tension-free young people enjoy their life more compared to the worried, burdenful, diseased old people due to the reasons discussed above clearly.