No. 72. Rakesh Gupta
No. 73. ….. and so on.
Hurray ! I was floating on cloud nine . I had made in to the company . The on campus drive at my college hyped as arduous process had been a cake walk for me. The faculty member read loud the list of the students who had made in. Celebrations were inevitable . 24th September 2006 :
Hey, did you collect the offer letter ? No, have they come? Cool. Having an offer letter in your hands of a big shot MNC, with a year more still left to complete your engineering degree, sounds fantastic. I had made my mind, I will join it. Become a fundoo coder shoder !! All things seemed to be so perfect. My future path was decided. But, I failed to realise that heavenly signal. As they say in literature, when you desire something, universe conspires to let you have the best. But, I was blinded by the charm and glamor and was not able to see that I had something better to achieve. 10th May 2007 – 25th June 2007:
Desperate wait for the receiving the joining letter at the company. As the history says, it should be something in the middle of June. Perhaps, this was one of the firsts of heavenly signal which I failed to realise. The signal that I am destined for something better and I should seek or continue with some other opportunity. 1st July 2007:
For the first time on the college’s history, a database giant had arrived interviewing our batch. The coll was over and everyone was relaxing at home. But the offering and name of the database giant tempted everyone to rush back to the campus from even their remotest abodes and try their knowledge and luck. The selection process was strenuous and I was pleased to make into top 18 out of the 500 people appeared. But unfortunately, they needed only 12 folks. Hence, had a narrow setback. I was disappointed, but this was another heavenly indicator that destiny has something else in store for me and I should realize my potential. 10th July 2007:
The joining date of the company came(23rd July). As expected, it was in their huge training campus. I had mixed feelings. But, I had made my mind and was careless to hunt for any other opportunities. 17th July 2007:
The company had altered the joining date and location to 6th August, to a place where I had never been too. Perhaps, this was the biggest heavenly indicator. Again, I could not sense it. What could I do ? I was not seeing things beyond joining this company, which eventually turned out to be a big mistake of my life. I have been avid passionate about Java and Open Source technologies since my college days. With an expectation of getting similar kind of work/training, I joined the company at the new location 6th August 2007:
Lush green campus and huge glassy buildings, good enough to dupe anyone. I was joyous. The training process started and things went on smoothly. Till one fine day, we had the catastrophic event …. MAINFRAMES, yes your batch has been identified for the mainframes stream. Happy hunting folks, Its gonna be a wonderful time. Man, I was shattered, I never desired to study those outdated legacy systems. The company was not willing to cater to your personal interests. 10th October 2007:
I started pumping my resume like anything. I wanted to get out and do anything but not mainframes. Ill-fated, nothing much happened. Only ray of hope was to complete training and expect to get a different technology project. Chances are meager, but you never now. 1st Feb 2008:
After successful completion of training, off to production. Seems, a whole new world is going to start. Fortunately, I managed to sneak into a non mainframe project after persuading one of the managers at the company. New energy and enthusiasm started to reverberate again in me. 10th April 2008:
All that glitters is not gold. I could perfectly understand that. This one was the biggest and best heavenly indicators, you need to work hard, you are destined for something else. Now I started feeling it hard. The project, they call it support and maintenance barely requires you to be smart, logically and technically sound. There was nothing much crucial I was playing. It started striking me that I am losing, losing rapidly; everything, my knowledge, my analytical and logical skills. What would my future be ? A dumb box. Oh no ! I won’t let that happen. Job hunt began with more fierce efforts. I needed to move out. No kidding this time. It’s a high priority to give justice to my career life. 15th July 2008:
Filed the resignation, a sense of relief or moksha. 20th August 2008:
I walkout like a free bird. With lesser apprehensions about my next venture.
I told her about our Research company, and welcomed her to join us. As it was an easy game, pay and get the certificate. She decided to explore all options, keeping this one open. My pal convinced her about the advantages and ease of doing there. Fortune rocked and she popped up in the gang.
Jackpot was hit when I realized that her residence in the city was at a walk away distance from where we stayed . It came to my delight. Opportunities to hang out and spend more time with her, know each other enhanced. Had wonderful excursions an outings with her and the gang in the city of gardens, Bangalore. I started developing a love for the city, probably because of this reason.
Three years have passed. We have moved our own ways.And as I blog, the rain drops splash the window of the bus, crawling and struggling hard across the water logged Hosur road. After a hectic day of mundane work this rain and melodious song of James Blunt (1973), brought a nostalgic feeling.
Those were the geeky days , powered by intense passion for technology , and a profound quest to make into the best , thats IIT and make history . Perhaps , but you dont get what you really wish … or may be there is something called as predefined destiny being bundled with you during the time of your creation . ]]>
And ultimately where do you land up …. ” Jack of all trades and master of none”. It may seem really fascinating field as it claims to ” decipher the code of life ” . But finally what you do is some garbage in and garbage out …. CONCLUSION – TOTAL NON SENSE.
Of late many universities and collges have started offering courses ranging from BSc. to MTech . But beware as this chimera branch can lead you nowhere . There are lot of myths and hoax associated with bioinformatics being the next hot spot of education but the real face of reality is exactly reverse. What actually is kind of work expected is more like a DATABASE ENTRY OPERATOR. And if you contradict with other aspects of Bioinformatics like moleular modelling etc , then you need to have solid foundations in Chemistry which a HYBRID bioinformatician fails to acquire .
The worst part of it is the extreme mix nature of accomodating people from two diiferent backgrounds of BIOLOGY and MATHS are mingled and taught . Hence , the maths guy gets frustrated as well as the BIOLOGY one. It can be called as BPO of life sciences where you are expected to input the data in already build software and generate the output without actaully analysing the data and knowing the ultimate essence of it.
However a deeper aspect of the subject would require you to have an exhaustive knowledge in one of the fields like Maths , Algorithm or Molecular Biology .
The blog is written with contributions from Mr Bhaskar Mangal . ]]>
The description
The city is loaded with plenty of coaching institutions for IIT JEE and even for medical entrance exam preparation . The best part about them is if you are associated with them , then you can dedicate your full attention towards IIT JEE . As there is no need to go to school. The timing of classes are highly variable and depend solely on your batch number . It can be something like 6AM in the morning to even 11PM in the night.
Fooding and Lodging
The city has commercialised to a great extent and hence you dont find much problem in adapting yourself to its flow. People have modified their houses to rent it to the students. A small room sufficient enough to accomodate a bed to sleep , a table to study satisfies the needs of these aspirants . These Kota people make huge amount in renting room , if its near the coaching institute it can cost you around Rs 1.5K for a small room.
Lifestyle of a Kota freak
The time distribution of days is like
Studies – 10-12 hours
Sleep 7 – 8 hours
Rest ( includes food , bath , shit shampoo , chat , games etc ).
Television and leisure – Negligible
Movies – Once in 6 Months that too if Rank is coming good in the last Subjective test .
You can find students deeply immersed in those hefty books throughout the day. This shows the fervor desire to get into the IITs.
Areas of the city like Vigyan Nagar , Talwandi are flooded with intellectual minds talking about Rotational Dynamics …. Benzene and huckel’s rule …. L hospital’s rule…..while moving on their bicycle … having food … or just on a walk. The study environment is highly conducive for dedicated and hardworking students.
When the city sleeps they are awake
During nights , by that i mean 2 AM 4 AM or even 6 AM … you can see lights of their room still with a sheet in the hand and cracking problems … calculus .. vectors .. waves …. gas laws etc …. Time is nothing for these geeky students . But the only job is to study and only study , develop your concepts and get make yourself fully prepared for the BIG DAY .. exam IIT JEE.
Shops and availability of other study materials
The bookstores are jam packed with copies Chemistry by Morrison Boyd …. Calculus – Shanti Narayan , Physics – Resnick Halliday and Walker ……. Inorganic JD LEE … dont get scared but these hefty books are being recommended here , which u wont even think of lifting in your graduation school . The education standards prevalent in these coaching institutes are simply superb , I would say far more than your four years of engineering .
My first experience
As i stepped on the railway station of Kota for the first time , an auto wala moves in asks “bhaiya kahan chalna hai bansal career ya allen ….. ” these are the three reputed coaching institutes there .Surprising isnt it ?
Conclusion
These coaching institutes have become the economy generator for the people of Kota . Although it brings an uneven distribution . As people from poor background like villages cant pay huge amount to make into these institutes and hence are out of competition.
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