Undergraduate Course at IISc

GATE to the Heaven

After getting a very good rank in GATE'06, I've got various queries from a lot of GATE aspirants. After giving the same set of answers to all of them for the last 3 years, my brain was looking for an easier way to convey my thoughts to a wide audience. And Eureka !!! Here's the blog post, the epitome of my experiences with GATE.

When I got into an engineering college, it didn't take much time for me to realize that I'd need something in addition to a bachelor's degree. The hot favorite options at that time were MS from abroad and CAT. I opted for the third option which very few of my colleagues opted for: GATE. The major reason behind opting for this not-so-popular option was "Revenge". Yes, you read it right. It was revenge against all the IITs which denied me admission by a very small margin in JEE. I had to get into it or something better. So, I knocked on the GATE to take the revenge.

Planning well ahead of the time really helps, believe me. In the second year of my engineering studies, I had made up my mind to bang the GATE. With the availability of application forms of GATE'05 in the third year of my engg, the revenge resurrected in my mind. I hurriedly went to the bank, bought the application form, filled it up, sent it right away and went to sleep only to get up a week before the actual GATE exam. Since I had invested some money in the application procedure, I thought that it was my moral responsibility to prepare a bit for the exam. I went through the the GATE syllabus and was astonished to see that more than 80% of the GATE syllabus wasn't covered in my engg curriculum so far. That acted as a catalyst to my laziness and I gave up the thought of any preparation. But there was some ray of hope. Mathematics...my THE most favorite topic. The weightage of this topic was around 15% and most of the syllabus in this section was covered so far. So, I revised all the formulae in the span of 3-4 days. On that much preparation, I wrote GATE'05 and got a decent 88 percentile. I wasn't bothered about this result given the amount of preparation. Now, time for some gyaan.

Gyaan Session 1: All the GATE aspirants who are still in college, decide early. Go through the syllabus and mark the topics in textbooks at the start of each semester and give special attention to these topics during your semester studies. This will save a lot of your time while revising these topics for GATE preparation. Also, do attempt the GATE in your 3rd year. This will familiarize you with the exam pattern and will give you the feel of the actual exam day to say the least.

Gyaan Session 2: My way of preparing for a mathematical subject is jotting down in brief the formulae which I am not confident of recalling till the exam day on a sheet of paper. A quick glance at this sheet a few minutes before the exam takes you totally in that subject mode.

Ok, back to my life. All this while, my life was changing a lot. At the end of the third year, placement season started. I got the offers from the very first two companies. In the final year, with a couple of jobs in hand and in the company of jigri hostel friends, I was having a rollicking time. Those were the best days of my life :) Life was interrupted when the availability of application forms of GATE'06 was announced. I did all the formalities of the application procedure and then got busy with the 7th sem exams. Life took a real turn when after the 7th sem exam got over (this was in Dec 05), due to some family reasons and a bit of revenge process running in the background of mind, I decided to stay back in the hostel for the vacation. I had almost two months of time at my hand. I prepared for 4-5 hours daily.

Gyaan Session 3: Preparing from the same textbooks that you used for your semester studies saves a lot of precious time. I didn't join any coaching class or test series. But got to hear from a few people that most of them are junk, especially the study material they provide. Frankly speaking, I didn't solve a single objective question during the preparation. But solving those does help to some extent. Try to get hold of old GATE papers.

I took GATE on the exam day. I don't remember to have a very good feeling at the end of the exam. Following the divine advice 'karm karo, fal ki chinta mat karo', I totally forgot about the GATE and enjoyed the final days of my engg life. In the midst of my confusion on which one of the two companies to join, the most dramatic day of my life dawned. 15th March, 2006. GATE results were to be declared on that day. But more than the results, I was excited about the holi celebrations which happened to be on the same day. Hostel holi is a divine experience in itself. Hardly had I got up in the morning that day and come out of my room, when I was fully drenched with colored water and the gulal all over my body to the extent of not recognizing myself. I joined the gang right away. After playing color and dancing (Ganpati dance, in particular) for a couple of hours, I went to a friend's room (Chandu's den, our adda) and casually opened the gate result site which wouldn't respond to my repetitive requests. After attempting for 10-15 mins, I gave up as Juhu beach was eagerly awaiting us. We went to Juhu beach and had the time of our lives, this being our last holi at the hostel. After returning to the hostel, all of us gathered at the adda. I tried the results site which after a number of unsuccessful attempts, did open with the following message: NOT QUALIFIED. To be very frank, I wasn't very much disappointed. I never had expectations from this result, so I was ready for anything. But my friends, jigri's as they are, were very much disappointed. I tried to cheer their mood up but they kept asking me to search for the admit card and cross-check the registration number. I saw no point in that because I distinctly remembered the number. But to keep their heart, I tried searching that piece of paper in my room, a final year engg student's hostel room. You can imagine what the probability of finding that piece of paper would be. After unearthing all the existing pieces of papers in the room, I finally got hold of the admit card. And guess what, the number I remembered was CORRECT. But the only difference was that I remembered the application no. and one was supposed to enter the registration number in the results site. I again went to our adda, where the mehfil was still lingering on. I entered the NEW number and hit the return key. The browser was fetching the info from an IIT server and a dozen pairs of eyes were eagerly awaiting that info. I was lost in some deep thought and was brought back to the reality by a loud shriek of the whole mehfil. I glanced at the computer monitor and I couldn't believe that HTML page. That Godly browser had fetched the lottery of my destiny...All India Rank 7. The GATE had opened, the revenge was taken. We submerged ourselves in the celebrations. Without much confusion, I took admission in my dream college, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. I've finished my studies at IISc and now I am working with a multinational company. A lot of today's work is pending and I'm totally lost in those sweet memories. Nostalgia at its best!

Gyaan session 4: Always remember that application no. is different from registration no. :)

IISc in News......

Just have a look at this article that appeared on the front page in a recent edition of TOI....

After IIT of excellence, IISc Age to descend on US

In geek circles in India and the west, it's the lesser known, or neglected, elder brother -- a hoary institution that appears to have been on ice for a century while its flashier half-century old sibling scaled dizzying heights of enterprise and fame.

But watch out, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is stirring and flexing its muscle -- and history. This weekend, the Bangalore-based institution founded by Jamshedji Tata in 1908 will celebrate its first global conference in the heart of Silicon Valley, stomping ground for sibling IITians for more than a decade.


Unlike the Pan-IIT meet, which will have Hillary Clinton as a keynote speaker for its July bash, the IISc global convention will not have marquee political names or heavyweight CEOs.

But it will be high-brow alright, with outgoing President Abdul Kalam inaugurating it via video feed on June 22 in what will likely be his last major address to the community to which he once belonged and to which he will return to shortly. The President, incidentally, never visited the US during his term.

Also among the speakers at the three-day meet is James Morgan, chairman of the board of directors of Applied Materials, Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of UC Berkeley, and R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor.

IISc alumni in the US are only about 4000, unlike IITians, who numbers in the tens of thousands. But then, IISc is also more rarefied - producing only 33,000 graduates in a century and earning a ranking as the top school in South Asia in a recent ''Academic ranking of world universities'' study conducted by the SJTU, China. It also boasts of something IIT has yet to achieve - India's first Nobel laureate in science, Sir C.V.Raman, who was also its first Indian Director.

Just how old is the IISc saga? The story goes that Tata was inspired to start IISc after a chance meeting with Swami Vivekananda aboard a ship taking them from Japan to the U.S in 1893. The IISc proposal was first examined by Lord Curzon in 1898 and it was approved by Lord Minto in 1909.

Although JN Tata did not visit California (he was scouting steel mills in Ohio and Pennsylvania), the heirs of his vision in Bangalore have now decided that they need to be heard in fecund Bay Area, where the buzz is all about IIT.

"IISc has not been known for its branding," says Vas Srinivasan, vice-president for marketing at Sonasoft and IISc alumnus tasked with building the institute's brand. ''When people here think of Indian engineering and scientific talent, they think of IIT not IISc.''

Srinivasan says IISc's pedigree is not in doubt. The institute boasts of some of the top scientific minds in India, and cutting edge research and collaborations with some 150 multinationals, including Boeing, IBM and other US giants. More recently, Indian firms such as Infosys and Airtel also tying into IISc.

Life moves on

One thing I'll have to admit is that blogging is not my cup of tea. But still, this is a sincere attempt to keep this blog alive. I'd like to blog regularly in future. Well, i hope this doesn't turn out to b a "political" promise. I'll try my best to keep it. Coming to the point, almost 3 months of time has gone past since my last post on this blog. So, I'd try to briefly sum up the things that happened in my life in this period of time.

The year 2006 came to an end with a nice gift of 1st sem final exams for me. Frankly speaking, i had to work very hard to keep pace with my classmates. It's all relative grading system in IISc. So, even if a single guy studies, the others have no other option left. I don't know why the other people study so much & so make a poor guy like me also study at par. (Khud bhi aaram se jiyo aur doosron ko bhi jeene do :)) Anyways, that's my point of view. So, somehow managed to get past the exams. For the first time in life, wrote two papers(each one of 3hrs) on the same day, 9-12am & 2-5pm. Need i tell anymore? Was an amazing experience. On 14th of Jan, got the divine freedom(obviously temporary) from IISc. I finished up a few formalities & boarded the train to Nagpur on 15th. This was the longest(continuous) period for which i was away from home(4 1/2 months to be specific). Had a wonderful vacation of 15 days in the hometown. But like all other good things, it also came to an end. Wasn't feeling like coming back here. N while i was packing my luggage, struck a terrible news.....Reults of 1st sem were out. Well, this was the last thing i was expecting to happen in this wonderful sojourn. But the news wasn't that bad as much i expected it to b. Managed to get a decent 6.4/8.0 GPA(Grade point Avg). Anything above 6 was going to b a God-gift for me. Hard Work really pays off, to say the least.

With the beginning of new year, came a fresh 2nd sem. N till now, it's been a far better sem than its previous counterpart. Or rather i should say, experience, which is said to b the best teacher, has taught me how to survive here. Till now, it's only been Movies, food n a number of rounds to MG road this sem. But now the bloody assignments have started pouring in. N i can sniff even bloodier mid term tests coming by. So, this was all about the happenings in my life so far...

On the leaving note, i wud like to share my views on a very different topic. The very much awaited Cauvery river dispute(mainly between Karnataka n Tamilnadu) verdict was declared a few days ago, followed by some violence in Karnataka, coz the verdict was not in Karnataka's favor somewhat. The only reason that i mentioned this thing here is because somebody had said " The next World War will b over water". How true !!!!!

Change is the only permanent thing in life

First of all, I'd like to thank blogspot.com for preserving my account which has been inactive since the last 2 1/2 months. There comes a time in one's life when one feels that it is the most difficult time of one's life. I have been experiencing thousands of such moments during the last 2 months. I had heard that life would be busy in IISc, but the actual experience tells u more than just hearing about it. Believe me, there have been some moments when I thought that I've made a wrong choice. But thank God, who gave me sufficient strength to tolerate these hardships.

Over this period of life, one thing I’ve come to know...."Human beings are immune to changes". The life @ IISc has been a lot different than the graduation days. I had been a 'last moment studying' student until now. I (& I bet, most of the engg students) used to while away the time, 'jab tak paani sar ke uper se nahin jaata'. On the contrary, one has to literally start studying from the very first day in IISc. So, being a normal human being, it was quite difficult to adapt to the changes. So, I had a hell of a time getting used to the new environment. But now I've got somewhat used to it.

Here, I'd like to mention an article in TOI which I happened to read. The article goes like this:

Whenever you think you are going through the most difficult time of your life, stop and think. This may be just the experience you need to snap you out of your complacency and breathe life back into your soulless existence, break an ongoing cycle of failure or somehow be the catalyst which pushes you towards a brighter future.
Next time you feel like your life is collapsing around you, ask yourself why and then take a step back and welcome the changes that have been put in place to save your sorry excuse for a life. And you will then understand that only real insight is born out of trauma.

High Tea

At the time of admission, we were given a card inviting us(freshers) to join the Director of IISc for High Tea on 16 aug @ 5 P.M. To the most of us, the word 'High Tea'(HT) was new. So, ppl started taking their own meanings out of that term.

The day started off with two lectures in the morning & one more after the lunch break. The third lecture was, Ohmygawd!!, one of the most horrible lectures i've ever attended in my life. I ( & hopefully most of my classmates) couldnt understand a single wordin the whole lect. After the lect, when i asked one of the PhD students(who also attended the same lect with us), he said that it was one of the best lects in his life. How guilty i was feeling at that time!

Now coming back to the topic, many of my frenz went to attend the HT party after having a good evening snacks in the mess, assuming that they'd b served with tea only at the party. When i went to the Gymkhana Hall to attend the party, i was actually shocked to see a fine arrangement of chairs n tables & waiters roaming around to serve the guests(freshers). It was then most of us came to know that high tea means the snacks & tea/coffee taken in between the lunch & dinner. We enjoyed the foodstuffs as always. But there was more to the party than just the food. The snacks were followed by the speeches of a few honourable ppl of the insti., officially welcoming us to the insti. Being a PJ lover, i can very well recall a PJ cracked by the associate director of IISc during his speech. He said, "Do u know why LeT(Lashkar-e-Taiba) chose our insti as the target frm the whole lot of instis in India(he was referring to the unfortunate shoot out incident that occurred in dec 2005), bcoz we're the best".

I think this was the last party of this term for me. Bcoz, after that horrible lect n a lot of assignments pouring in, I think it's time to check out some books.........

My Experinces @ IISc

After almost two months of vacation (which I wasted(?) in sleeping,watching tv, attending parties n all n hey..no orkutting), I was getting anxious to get back to work. I boarded the train to Bangalore at Nagpur station on 29th July. The journey was nice in the company of an MBBS student (no need to tell it was a gal) who shared a side berth with me.

When I arrived here in Bangalore on the night of the 30th, I started searching for an auto which could get me to IISc from the railway stn. As I came just out of the station, I was surprised to see a counter mentioning "Indian Institute of Science Welcomes freshers". I reported to the counter n some seniors welcomed us (me & other IISc students in my train) & took us to the hostel in a van. This was the first time that I was traveling in a vehicle which had written "On Government duty" on it. The first two days were quite hectic because of the admission process, medical check up n registering the courses for the first term. My legs started paining like anything, thnx to the huge IISc campus. The very next day, I went to a shop n bought a bicycle. The next few days we tried to explore the IISc campus n nearby areas.

To start with, Bangalore climate is beautiful. It's cold out here most of the time. Believe me, it really is the greenest city. IISc campus is huge n well maintained. I think govt is really concerned abt the sporting activities over here. There r separate grounds for cricket, football, hockey, Lawn tennis court, volleyball, basketball, badminton... There's a Gymkhana building which consists of a well equipped gym, chess room, table tennis room, billiards room, carom room n of course a movie hall....n hey gymkhana is not only abt sports n entertainment. There's a spacious library in the gymkhana building which has books in 7-8 languages including marathi, hindi, english...Now coming to the curricular facilities, labs r 24 hrs open for the students. In addition to the department labs, there's one Super computer Education n Research Center where pc's with huge monitors r available for surfing, coursework etc. Each student is allotted an adviser who's a faculty member n who helps the student in each n every matter, may it b a course selection matter or a personal matter. In the 2nd yr, each student is allotted a pc in the lab for doing project work. There's a credit system in which each course has certain credits n one has to complete a certain min no. of credits in each term by selecting the subjects of one's choice frm a long list of subjects. One gets a CGPA out of 8. Hostel blocks r good enough. The new blocks even hav door bells in all the rooms. Regarding food matters...there's a juice center in the campus with subsidized rates. Mess food is as usual. There r 3 messes...both veg n non veg available.There's no word like limited(which we used to hav in spce mess) for any food item...not even for the sweets, ice creams, etc....thnx Govt of India for being so generous.

Everything is available inside the campus including a hair cutting saloon, a general store, a laundry, a tailor n a health center. For the readers, students amongst themselves hav formed a lending library where english novels r available on nominal charges. The seniors out here r very helpful...no ragging....n wait...the most important thing....gals....they're much better than wat i expected...thnx to deptts of biotech, physics, chemistry,ecology...The other day, we had Freshers party which included a Salsa workshop n dj nite.

While we're discussing all these, one thing that is worth mentioning is the expenditure. the annual college fees is Rs. 7515 p.a., hostel fees around 5000 n mess charges around 1100 p.m. One gets a stipend of Rs.5000 per month by GOI. For getting this, in IITs n other colleges, one has to do RA/TA ships. But here in IISc, no RA/TA ships. All the money is urs without any effort. Of course, the workload is too much. As told by the seniors, we'll hav a hell lots of assignments, projects n studies....

So, that's all I felt like sharing with all of u. I hope I get thru these studious hardships successfully...