Ditya Rants

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...

All 14 of us (AP,Dinakar,Anvesh,Raj,Charan,Chaithu,Kali,VAM,Harish,Ashraf, Mafia,Neerad,Alludu and I) are lined up in the corridor of 5th wing as the police inspector is eyeing each of us suspiciously. The dead body of Gowtham alias Rajugaru hasn't been removed from room no. 311 yet. As the photographer is taking the pictures of the corpse our ever enthusiastic AP stepped up and said "Sir, I have this camera which has 50000px resolution. It is imported from U.S. and is still in beta stage. If you click the button like this you'll get 3-D image and it is directly stored in your email......" The inspector eyed AP contemptuously(I wouldn't be surprised even if he eyed our AP with lust). I guess this did the trick and AP closed his mouth for good. The inspector said "My profession requires that I have to see each of you as a possible murderer. I understand that your friend has been murdered and each of you is under considerable stress, but we have to continue...

Yash Chopra (1932-2012) : The man who taught Indians to dream extravagantly. He has given numerous blockbusters to us. He practically defined Bollywood romance. I have see only three of his films Darr, Dil to Pagal Hain and Veer-Zaara and I absolutely loved all three of them. The music in his films takes one to some fantasy world. It is sad that he is no more with us. May his sole RIP.   I decided to catalogue some of his best works as a tribute to him: 1) Waqt (1965): The legend gets Best director award for the first time. 2) Daag (1973): "This emotional roller-coaster never gives the audience a chance to take eyes off the screen. ‘Daag’ will always remain a complex story told in the easiest possible way." - ibntimes. 3) Deewar (1975) : I might have seen this movie as a kid even before I understood Hindi (Doordharshan Friday night movies if anybody remembers). I guess the famous dialogue ' Mere pass maa hain ' is from this movie. ...

Recently Pawan Kalyan's movie ' Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu ' created some controversy in Telangana, apparently it showed Telangana people and Telangana movement in bad light. As usual it stirred the never ending debate of separate statehood. I went through lots of online discussions on this topic and felt like penning my opinion on it (not that my opinion is important or bears any bearing on the movement). Five reasons why I feel Andhra Pradesh should not be divided: If a separate state is given for every region whose people feel they are neglected,we will have thousands of states. Apparently there are 67+ separate state movements in India. If Telangana becomes separate state it'll give impetus for all these movements and it'll result in pandemonium in our parliament. There is an allegation that Andhra people are coming to Telangana and taking their rightful jobs . People are forgetting that in this cut-throat corporate world if you have talent you'l...

Recently Dhoni has been taking a lot of heat for his poor performance in Tests abroad (both as batsman and as captain), his differences with Sehwag, his handling of seniors in general etc. I am sure everybody will start kissing his feet if he wins the T-20 world cup again. But somehow I find it hard to appreciate Dhoni or rejoice in his success . Maybe I hate him because he has an unorthodox method to cricket. His helicopter shot is one of the most unpicturesque shot ever. His batting doesn't have that touch of magic that Dravid or Sachin have. But this cannot be the reason as I loved his batting before he became captain. Well maybe I don't like the fact that he defies all logic and plays like a buffoon converting easy winners into nail biting finishes . But he can be forgiven for that because in-spite of giving tense moments to the fans he manages to steer the team to victory most of the time. I should rather say that I enjoy those close matches (only if India win...

I wanted to write a post condemning the arrest of Aseem Trivedi and the stance of government towards cartoons depicting them in poor light, but after seeing the cartoons by Aseem I decided otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I don't support the arrest of Aseem in anyway. While the cartoonists have freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right , they should also remember that there are some fundamental duties and one of them is to respect the national symbols of India . On seeing the cartoons of Aseem Trivedi, though I understood his noble intentions, I find some of his cartoons disturbing and disgusting. While his cartoons in no way can amount to national sedition, he managed to disrespect all the national symbols (some of them are really clever). I request all cartoonists to show some restraint on what you are depicting. Depicting Mother India getting raped is quite nauseating. Cartoons by Asleem which I felt are clever:   Cartoons by Asl...

Recently, government announced it's plans to amend the Constitution to enable reservations in promotions in government jobs . As usual those who are against it say promotion should be based on merit and that SC and ST candidates are having more than enough privileges, while those who are for it cite some isolated incidents of harijans being mistreated  and argue that there is still a lot to be done for their upliftment. My personal opinion is that reservation at any level is not good . Effort should be made to give the same quality of education to backward junta as the city bred students have access to. But I know that it is impractical in India considering the motivation level of most government employed teachers. We have to remember that the purpose of reservation is to mould our society into an ideal society where reservation is not required . But with the present reservation system one can never be sure about when to stop it(the reservation system). So I have this id...

After learning about another suicide in the campus I felt the need to vent my anger at the present deplorable situation by writing this post.  I am seriously sick of hearing about students committing suicide in our campus regularly. I don't understand why students who are as young as 20 years want to end their life in such haste. Whatever the problem may be, however daunting and hopeless the situation may seem like, how much ever despondency may set in  suicide is not the solution. The problem may appear colossal to you, but if you talk to your well-wishers about your problem they'll help you understand a facile solution for your problem. There is no shame in admitting our vulnerabilities to our friends and take their help. I don't know the reasons why people commit suicide. But I am guessing two common rationales for people attempting suicide as failing in courses and love failure. Both are silly and childish. There are abounding examples of successful men who failed ...