Ditya Rants

It has been an interesting journey for me after I got my B.Tech degree. I have been living in Hyderabad and preparing for civil services ever since. I believe I developed as a person and my perspectives have grown broader during these 4-5 months. My views on leaders: I used to have a heavily skewed perception of our leaders. In primary school we are taught  that great leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak etc. are awesome. In secondary school and teenage years we learn about the flaws of these great men. Believe me when I learned as a kid that Chacha Nehru smokes cigarettes and most probably had an illicit affair with Lady Mountbatten, my heart was broken and I started positively hating him. Finally when I reconciled with the truth that all these leaders are just humans with flaws and started reading about these leaders again I realized their contributions to the society. I understood that their greatness does not lie in their virtuosity but on the great impact they had on the socie

The most exciting,anxiety filled,energy sapping phase of student life, the placement interviews are going to kick-start from tomorrow in our campus. Most of my friends are tense and can be seen preparing with never-seen-before intensity and zeal for the interviews.Some are desperate to take whatever job they get,some are particular about where they want to get placed,some are sitting for placements as back-up option (in case they don't get into their desired universities) and some are applying for all companies just for kicks (Believe me,there is a CS guy with 9+ GPA sitting for 10th day company exams). One thing that everybody is bothered about is what is the dress code for the interviews. Make no mistake of thinking that this post is about dress code in interviews from a guy who is not even sitting for placements. I am kind of amused with how much hustle-bustle goes on about what to wear for an interview. One of my Aero friend has gone shopping to buy formals for the interview

I just read that the Indian parliament's winter session got off to an expectedly chaotic and noisy start on Thursday, with opposition lawmakers shouting slogans against the government's recent decision to ease foreign direct investment rules in the retail sector.Even the monsoon session has been a waste of time as 13 out of 19 sittings have been washed out due to BJP storming into the well of the both houses demanding resignation P.M. Dr. Manmohan Singh alleging loss of `1.86 lakh crores as revealed by C.A.G relating to Coal block allocation. After reading about such incidents and learning that more than 160 of our elected MPs have criminal charges against them I felt like compiling five most embarrassing Parliamentary moments. 5. Abu Azmi attacked by MNS legislators I always assumed that in India we have the liberty to speak in whatever language we are comfortable in. Apparently,it is not so when it comes to taking oath at the office(even when the language is Hindi

I was little surprised to see some letters condemning the execution of Kasab in today's Hindu editorial. I came across an article labelling us as 'blood thirsty' for rejoicing his death. It is just a typical case of going against the grain without merit for more attention. We are definitely not blood thirst y because death sentence is imposed only in ' rarest of rare' cases in India. Massacre of 150 innocent people definitely qualifies as a 'rarest of rare' case. Hanging of Kasab is not act of revenge as claimed by some. He is given a fair trail including the right to appeal against the sentence. Despite pressure from various political parties and the growing restlessness of people over the delay in sentence, it took four years to convict this terrorist. This is the testimony to the fact that this is not an act of revenge . Some people claim that nothing has been achieved by hanging Kasab. This has not eradicated the threat of terrorists etc. I

Most chess enthusiasts might have heard of Bobby Fischer. He is considered by many as the GOAT of chess. 13-year old Bobby has played one of the greatest game against Donald Byrne in 1956. The game was hailed as the "Game of the Century" and has been discussed in countless chess books and collections. This is the position which is the turning point of the game. If any of you,who hasn't seen this game before, can come up with the right move, you are a genius.   This game is analyzed beautifully in this video: For those who are impatient to sit through 25 mins hearing the commentary click here .

Don't know if anybody else noticed but I feel that sometimes we form an opinion and collect data(read articles,watch videos,discuss with others) that solidify our opinions. It's an old trick employed in lab experiments by students in general, discarding data that is contradicting the theory and logging only the data that supports the theory given. This is what we do in most cases. Did Man Land on Moon: This is what got me thinking about how people tend to read articles conforming to their opinions. Ever since I read that man landing on moon is a hoax , I got interested in it and read a lot of info, saw various videos and googled a lot of sites that proved that it is hoax. I believed that man never landed on moon  and NASA is fooling all of us(reading 'Deception Point' by Dan Brown didn't help much). But once I accidentally reached a site which refutes the arguments made by hoax theorists and I found that there is lot more evidence that shows that man did land o