How to transition to a good graduate student.

An undergraduate students always attached a certain relevance to grades. So as an undergrad I would "need" to talk about what a dilligent engineer I am, a First Class with Distinction, no less. Then you internalise it so much, that the most naural conversation that you would have at, say, an airport waiting lounge -

"Hey! I'm Mathi, and you are?"

"First Class with Distinction"

"Err... Hi. What do you do for a living?"

"First Class with Distinction"

"Oh. What's that?"

"First Class with Distinction"

"Funny. You've got some sense of humor"

"Uh? Yeah. That's because I am a First Class with Distinction"

And so on...

So after a 99.90 percentile in the XAT, with well balanced sectional scores ranging from 98.66 to 98.90 you enter graduate school with the idea of making your mark, making eye popping points, decimating the curve, graduating with the highest honors possible, speaking such gyan... so much that ordinary mortals feel scared to stand within a one kilometer radius else the blinding light of your brilliance would leave them blind, or probably burn them to dust with the white hot intensity of a couple of shining suns, or something like that. After a couple of quizzes and exams you accept there's no point in aiming for the dean's list. Then it gets down to a high pass. And finally "fuck 'em. As long as I pass the fuckin' course".

Congratulations, you're now a complete graduate student.

Goodbye's

The worst part about good bye's is that they hit you rather late, like an amnesic patient, and then you come to your senses. It's kind of weird, in the transition period you never realise something is changing - if I remember my chemistry right (don't groan), when an electron transits to a higer level there is a lot of energy that is released ( That's why LED's emit light, right?) - so probably the energy of the transition kind of takes away from the reality of the good bye.

There's this song by Vitamin C called "Friends Forever" that me and Revy (and the others who were forced to travel with us. Heh.) used to listen during the SomeRat and then the BE project days (yeah, an eternity ago) - kind of sums up the whole feeling real well.

Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

Mathi Boy, Revy Baby, Charlie, Danny, Sai, G, Pearl (yeah, you too) - Missing you guys. :((

P.S: Yes jokers, the reality of me being in Manila has hit me now.

P.P.S: Revati, we're 25 now. It seemed like it will never come, back then, when we were 20/21!

Arbit

A red cycle.
Broken toys.
Old Books.
The rope in the corner.
The shoes near the door.
Ready to run.

"Why do you want her back, she, who was never yours?"
"Only to tell her what I never did - Don't go so far away that I can't see you any more"

Reading too much into secondary data makes people say...

"Because of cheap labor, the population of Malaysia is growing, and therefore the segment (corporate accounts, btw) is growable".

Brilliant! No? (and it wasn't even me who made that statement. Damn.)
1. Because of cheap labor the population is growing?
I think Cheap labor -> Poverty -> lots of time to make babies?
2. Because population is growing, the segment of corporate accounts is growing?
I think it must be my medication. I need to start taking it again...

Another one does "Psycho Graphics" on his slides.
And then tests whether the segment is "Realizable"!

Marketing rocks!