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We had a cultural evening for independence day.. here at IIMB.. We had talent shows from dance, drama and music troupes.. I got to chance to act in a play - Sure Thing..

Sure Thing is a short play by David Ives. It has 2 characters - Bill and Betty.. Bill is trying to “line maarofy” Betty.. and screwes up a number of times.. (A bell rings whenever things get screwed) Eventually Bill “connects” to Betty, after a lot of fight.. Its a hilarious play and brings out what typically goes wrong when I guy meets a girl and “tries” for her..

Note:The video is shaking a bit initially.. Swalpa Adjust Maadi (Please adjust)

The last time I acted in a play was in School in 10th Standard.. Only thing in between was.. a very minor 10 seconds role in one movie spoof @ NITT.. So I am acting in a play after long time and throughly enjoyed the experience.. I always wondered how it feels like when some one comes out of these stage shows and say “yes! We have done it”.. I have seen many of those from distance.. But being a part of it.. and experiencing it first hand was awesome.. It was a special moment..

This play was directed Saikat Banerjee (My Section Mate @ IIMB)… He is an amazing director.. The other crew members include Aditi (My Betty), Komolika & Ashish. Incase, you havent seen me before, I am they guy in formals.. wearing the tie.. with a “funky” hairstyle for the play.

Have Fun.. leave your comments about the play & my acting

Its time for a special episode on Coffee With Experts!! Today, We have a person, who has made it to Google inspite of all odds against him. Its my pleasure welcome Naga Naresh Karuturi from IIT Madras for a show on Coffee With Sundar!!

You might wonder, what were the odds against him.. Read this article on rediff.com

Naresh is special. His parents are illiterate. He has no legs and moves around in his powered wheel chair.

Isnt Naresh Inspiring? Here is a small chit chat with Naresh!!

Coffee With Naga Naresh Karuturi
Me: Sundar Rajan G S
NN: Naga Naresh

Me: Hi Naresh, welcome to CWS.. How do you feel when got into Google?
NN: Thank you for inviting me on your talk show …. I was very happy .. now enjoying my time working there ….

Me: How was your experience at IIT Madras. Did you face any difficulties in academics or life @ IITM.. How did you handle it.. How was ur social life.. friend circle etc.
NN: Life at IIT Madras was one of the most amazing experiences … I would term it more as a learning experience …. I did not face any difficulties in academics or life @ IITM … all the classes are arranged such that I will not have any accessibilty problems .. even if some classes are arranged at a place where I will have difficulty attending them … the faculty got them shifted as soon as possible .. I have a lot of very good friends … some of them are MTech, PhD ..

I would say the people with whom you can interact in IIT will have a lot of impact on you …whether it is academic or social life .. I learned a lot from them …

Me: At any point in time, did you feel bad about people showering too much concern on him ? Does it hurt you in any way ?
NN: of course .. too much of anything does not taste good … rather they hurt .. I would term it as discomfort … I shouldn’t get hurt (feel bad) when someone shows concern .. I try to just realise how good they are .. if possible convey them that there is no reason for concern ( which I never did … if my parents are there with me .. they take up this job ) ..

Me: What’s your future plans and aspirations?
NN: I prefer to have short term goals. I feel one can be more focussed then. Currently, I feel that the best course of action for me is to focus on the task at hand

Me: What are your passions? What drives you to do what you have done?
NN: I don know how to answer this.. Yet to identify one.. it is the same as for any student i think

Me: Can you talk about some significant moments in your life? Is there anything in his past life that you wish to revert ? or wish that it had not happened ?
NN: Significant moments.. lots of them.. my accident.. 10th class.. JEE exam.. 7th sem and lots more moments… Why I meant JEE, 7th sem are important because .. those are the times when major things happened .. like I cleared JEE ..so got into IIT .. in my 7th sem I decided to take up a job instead going for higher studies … these are times which moulded my future and there is no time in past which I wish to change .. Whatever has happened is happened… I look forward to future..

Me: Naresh, Do you have any thoughts to share with Specially abled children & their parents on how well they can bring them up as a usual person?
NN: May be they could look around to find out what the sharpest of their friends or seniors are doing and ask themselves if the physical challenge they have is really a deterrent for achieving the same. For intellectual pursuits, the answer is mostly ‘no’.

I feel how they come up in life depends a lot on family and friends. The people around should ensure that he is not given any special treatment unless there is a necessity for it. They should make him feel that he is not any less capable. I will give my life in school as an example. I was punished all the same as my friends were. No special sympathy showered. But I was carried to my classroom by my friends - this I needed. This is just an example Even my parents treated me on par with my sister. I am going to places where I can’t go by myself with others help. Apart from this, I feel that I am not getting special treatment in things which I don’t require any special treatment. This kind of behavior helps those children a lot. this is my perception .. it may vary from person to person .. bcoz physical challenges are not same for all

Me: How are you handling the publicity that you have got! I am sure, you would have got a lot of mails and scraps. How do find this situation?
NN: Good question. I am beginning to feel the pinch now. In the first interview, I enjoyed talking as I was free then. I was full of spirit in speaking to the press for the first time. But now there are other important things that are piling up. Also, telling the same story again and again is boring. In particular, it raises some doubts as to whether I have done something significant to speak so much. I feel that the newspapers interview me not because I have done something different but because I was different and have done a normal thing. So I should work now and make sure next time they talk about me is bcoz I have done something different

Me: Wow!! Thats awesome… Doing something different.. What is the msg that would like to convey to CWS readers?
NN: From my stay in IIT, I have learnt that one has to prioritize his/her jobs wisely. If this is done systematically, in course of time one can see the amazingly large quantum of work carried out by him. But I learnt it the hard way May be you people should learn from my mistake..

Hmm…. There was freshness in the air when I came in.. There was an element of anxiety… There were butterflies in my stomach.. How will it be??? Who am I going to meet? What am I going to do? What am I going to study? I mean.. Whats happening in life around me.. There is sooooo much change.. But as always, time is the best answer for all these.. Life has moved on… for the past one and half months.. It is soooo fast here.. Competition in everything.. Right from club induction to surprise quizzes to exams to what not.. It just keeps you on your feet.. I cant just afford to blink.. What a life!! Man.. its fast..

But amidst all these.. I find time for myself.. for listening to music.. for putting up blog posts.. for spending time with people.. introspecting about life.. Ofcourse, studying which is always there!! There is enough time for you to do WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO.. The question is.. do you really want to do something

So.. Whats my daily schedule like? Well.. Wake up in the morning around 7:30ish.. Get ready and rush to class @ 8:30.. (I have missed 2 classes for over sleeping) Classes are 1.5 hours long.. Damn it!! If that is not painful enough, I have to sit in the last bench.. Thanks to alphabetical ordering of seats.. Its extremely difficult to stay focussed for full time.. No laptops in class.. So, you inevitably listen to whatever is told in class.. Then we might have some workshop in the afternoon.. If not.. then I go to sleep in the afternoon.. Then I do some “work”.. Finally dinner.. And then more “work”.. In between.. I get to “discuss” group work etc etc.. Finally go back to bed anywhere between 1 and 3 on a typical day.. The toughtest part here is to co-ordinate with various teams.. You end up in different teams for different subjects.. So… Time management is the most crucial thing out here.. And I am learning to manage my time better.. There is no end to learning..

So.. What else happens here???? Lots.. Emotions everywhere.. Emotions everytime.. As always, there were moments of happiness, sadness, disappointments.. Hope.. Fight and more fight and more fight.. You compete.. you compete like mad.. No with others, you compete with yourself.. To bring out your best.. Amidst these fights.. you get to admire some of the most beautiful brains in the country Trust me!! Ladies (please note my respect. I am not using chicks :-)) here are amazing.. “Beauty and the brains” - Trust me.. I am seeing it.. Btw.. If you start dreaming of coming to IIMB only for this.. Stop it there.. “Almost all of them are Committed”

Back to serious stuff.. I guess the first thing I noticed when I came here was.. A good number had a very high attitude.. “I have made it to IIMB” kind of stuff.. Life is made.. Accomplished all.. types feeling was there in the air.. Ofcourse, one open exam in financial accounting brought people down to earth.. Whoever said exams were only to test your level of knowledge..

Well that also reminds me.. There were a number of things I experienced for the first time in my life.. First was the open book exam.. I had never given an open book exam in my life.. till the first quiz.. Then ofcourse, the surprise quiz.. Man!! Surprise quizzes are damn annoying.. they are not difficult.. But you keep revising the old thing again and again and again.. hoping that someday the test would be given.. Finally, when u give up.. the prof would give the test

I attended a number of great talks.. like the one given by Subroto Bagchi.. Not only that, there are other alumni panel discussions, talks by country heads, professors sharing knowledge.. etc. etc.. It is fun… I also danced for the first time at the party floor.. We have L^2 day dance party once a month.. I am extremely happy that I dance (if u call it dance :-))
Ofcourse, I was also surprised by the amount of “noise” which people make in the name of class participation.. Its desperation at its very best!!!

What happened to Coffee With Sundar in this whole thing?
Slowly but surely, Coffee With Sundar is gaining foot hold here.. Lots of people know me through Coffee With Sundar.. Its fun and exciting..

At the end of the day, I realized one thing.. I can anything in life.. Its only a question of wanting to do it.. Be it the fast paced life or a slow paced (moving) lecutures.. I am just living it.. Well, may be even loving it

Cheers and have fun till I catch u next time..
More on Life @ IIM Bangalore.. as life unfurls..

Last time, when I put up talk - Go Kiss the World!!.. I got a lot of mails.. asking me for details of talks or events which happen @ IIMB.. which junta can take part in..

So… here is the first in the series.. - Eximius - The Entrepreneurship Summit!!

What is EXIMIUS?

It is IIM Bangalore’s inaugural entrepreneurship summit on 22nd and 23rd of August 2008.

It presents a wonderful opportunity for students and aspiring entrepreneurs to validate your ideas, network with like-minded people and gain valuable feedback from venture capitalists before you step into the real world. Are you game enough?

But I am not really into the whole entrepreneurship thing / I have a PPO / there’s too much work, why should I come?

So you missed out on the Google IPO. Not to worry, EXIMIUS is your chance to be part of history. Twenty years from now you will look back and say – I was there when this whole thing started. You’ll get a chance to hear wonderful speakers, meet
inspiring people, broaden your horizons and have loads of fun! What’s more, you also get a chance to win cash prizes worth Rs. 3.5 Lacs.

Cool, you convinced me. So how can I participate?

EXIMIUS caters for everyone – here’s a sampling of our major events:

Ingen - Invites innovative business ideas in the field of education. At stake - huge cash prizes, and an opportunity to get your idea completely funded.

Innovation Challenge – Have an idea that will Transform India but don’t know how to take it to the next level? Test your idea amongst hundreds of others – and, if you get selected, present it to an elite panel of judges in front of a critical audience to earn invaluable feedback and recognition. And cash!

Genesis – Nurturing a business plan and that needs VC funding? What you need is constructive feedback from VCs in a simulated setting, a dress rehearsal to enhance your chances of winning that pot of cash.

Panel Discussion - Social Entrepreneurship is a buzzword today but what does it really mean? Find out from the people who are dedicating their lives to it. Get inspired by eminent personalities such as DR Mehta (founder of Jaipur Foot), Varun Sahni (Acumen Fund India director) and others.

All details about EXIMIUS can be found on http://www.iimb-eximius.com

Feel free to contact the ENI team for more details at eni@iimb.ernet.in

Its exam time @ IIM B. Thats y no posts for a while.. I will get to back blogging in 3 - 4 days..

I will put up about life @ IIMB .. from my past 1.5 months experience.

I dont know if you guys read this article.. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/28sl1.htm

This article talks about a very inspiring guy - Naga Naresh… Must read article I would say..

Mr. Naga Naresh has agreed to give an interview for CWS.. Read the article.. if you feel like asking any questions… Please mail me within next 3 days..

Seeya after 3 days…
Till then enjoy this speech given by Chetan Bhagat.

Keep the Spark

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to  become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so  much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they
will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks.. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find.. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is
lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn’t any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever.. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling
of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don’t take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes.  One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really
temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I’ve told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.

But it’s life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at
something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that’s where you want to be.

Disappointment’s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts , having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions
in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let’s be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s ok.
I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It’s ok. Don’t let unfairness kill your spark..

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may
drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of billion sparks.

Today, we have a very special person on CWS!! The person I am talking about got a 1480 in GRE, which was a record in NIT Trichy for almost 8 months.. This walking dictionary was mechanical engineer @ NIT Trichy.. Its my pleasure to introduce Shriram Srinivasan.. was christened as GREram for heroics in GRE.. To be honest, GREram was one of the best students in mathematics our batch.. If you are considering to apply to TAMU.. you *must* read this interview..

Without further ado, Over to GREram..

Coffee With GREram

*Brief Intro about yourself..
Before I begin, I must say I am not having coffee with Sundar, or anyone for that matter. I never drink coffee since I do not like it…:-) So lets settle for Badam Milk with Sundar. But thats too rustic a name and he will lose all his readers with that one, so perhaps to keep him happy I will just go along and watch him have the coffee With those insightful comments, let me introduce myself :-)’

My name is Shriram Srinivasan. I finished my B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Trichy in 2006. So as you can guess, I was Sundar’s batchmate, and later on “wingmate” too, as we called it. I am here in TAMU since Fall 2006, pursuing my MS and PhD in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. I am working in Mechanics applied to fluids which entails mainly theoretical/modelling work.

* Entry Criteria:
To talk of TAMU, I will choose my words carefully, because this is no longer an intra-college document where I can speak the way I normally do without mincing words, so some tactful statements are in order

To give a brief overview of TAMU in general, its a very big university with a whole lot of departments. The best departments, in my view, are aero, industrial, petroleum, and civil engg. Of course I take the highly ranked nuclear dept with a pinch of salt because there are hardly a handful of colleges in US with nuclear engg!

First a few words abt each of these depts are in order.
Aero - Consistently ranked highly, aero in TAMU is a great department. They only offer selected admits with funding, and dont deluge their department with Indian students the way Mech or Industrial does. All their research divisions are well funded, though some of it is for US citizens only. As a result , their selection criteria is far stricter than others.

Civil engg - It has sub-departments, Structures, Materials, Ocean, Geotechnical, Transportation, and Environmental. Materials group is probably the best in the US after UIUC, and they are extremely well funded along with Transportation. Ocean engg is something very few Indians go for, but it is an excellent place all the same. Structures is not well funded, though highly ranked. Geotech I do not know much about. Environmental gives out many Indian admits, and their selection process is not very stringent I would say.

Industrial - They are poorly funded, so much so that they fund only their PhDs and rest do an M.E rather than M.S to finish early. They offer an admit to practically whoever applies (for MS that is) since they don’t have funding, and last year they gave out some 60 Indian admits.

Petroleum - Probably the richest department on campus. I do not know much about their admits, but they wallow in dollars And with Houston having so many oil companies, the students wallow in money too

With that I will now come to the Mech Dept. The Mech Dept shares its USP with that of TAMU - the best education at the cheapest price :-). They offer a 50% tuition waiver to practically every student for the first two semesters. Take that with the fact that TAMU is one of the cheapest schools, and its no surprise to see so many students trying for TAMU. The downside is of course that the dept has a selection policy which is, to put it mildly - “less stringent” the way I see it. Last year, in fact , every year, we have a lot of admits from Hyderabad, Bombay, Chennai, and interspersed are admits from NITs and IITs. The NIT crowd, am happy to see is growing

- Approx CGPA range
Based on the tone of my writing, it will be very easy to get deluded into thinking that TAMU admits are given out to everyone who applies. I would hasten to add that it is not so. A common trend I find in all admits to engineering departments is that students often seem to be top rankers or atleast high scorers if they are from private colleges in Bombay, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore etc. There are many people from IITs/NITs with GPA close to 9, in fact, most of the NITT students here (excluding me :-D) have CGPA in 8.5 - 9.0 range. So I would think that academic performance in undergrad is given importance. In EEE specially, I find there are lots of people from BITS (Pilani).

Since I had a GPA of just above 8, I would think that is a reasonable requirement for admission Looking at my case I would surmise that students with lesser GPA generally make up with high GRE scores…
The reason TAMU can give so many admits despite having such selection parameters is due to the sheer number of people who apply. It is that large pool of applicants that allows the admissions committee to give out so many admits without significantly lowering student quality.

- Research Experience at undergraduate level.
Almost everybody here seems to have done the usual things and to be at par with the rest, it would be advisable to do some research at the undergraduate level itself.. For many people, it helps in finally clinching the deal with professors - the fact that you have shown interest and worked. However, I would hasten to add that this seems to hold true only for the younger faculty. The very senior professors are never swayed, and they dont really bother about your research experience at undergraduate level.

- Gre & Toefl scores range..
Its a difficult question to answer. I know of scores from 1200-1500. But on an average I would say its 1300+. TOEFL is just a cut off criteria and not important for selection.

- Does the university require subject GRE?
Not that I know of.

* Aid scenario - #number of ppl who come in with aid, chances of aid after coming in, more details on RA/TA/small work around campus.
Generally everybody is offered the out-of-state tuition waiver for 2 semesters, which amounts to almost 50% of the tuition. Many PhD students, and some exceptional MS students come in with a TA. Students coming in with RA is a matter that depends on the prof. Many profs would like to see how you work etc. before putting their money on you.
Since TAMU is a huge university, you have positions called GANTS (graduate assistants non teaching) in some departments which will pay your tuition and give you a stipend too. These could be, for example, doing some web programming/matlab work in the dept of kinesiology, or some data analysis in the dept of entomology, or work in the helpdesk of the computer centre. Such positions are advertised, and interviews held before selecting a candidate. So in general chances of aid brighten after the first semester. Without quoting figures, I would say that most people find some form of aid by the end of 2 semesters. Web programming/ webmaster type of positions are quite common. However it mostly benefits the cse/eee guys rather than mech
The campus jobs have got tougher with the huge influx of Indians every year. As we all write similar things in the CV, and most are quite proficient in English, it really is a lottery applying in the dining services or as an office assistant

* how much money should one shell out for the entire course if it completely unfunded..
Considering you finish in 2 years, i.e., total 4 semesters (summer not included), and assuming you pay full tuition and fees, you pay $6000 per sem….thats $24,000 for the whole course..living expenses extra… to contrast this….scroll down below and take a look at figures my friend Vikhram has quoted for UIUC in an earlier post. And if you get the 50% tuition waiver which most do…that makes it only $12,000 for the whole course. You will now understand why there is a stampede to apply to TAMU. Its certainly not the best university around, but you get good education and great jobs at the cheapest price!

* What are the living expenses?
I am not very sure about this - lets say $600 per month. The point is if you get any on campus job you will always cover your monthly expenses. Its only the tuition and fees that you should worry about.

* Career opportunities after the course?
Personally, I often feel TAMU is somewhat like NITT in the sense that when you do get a job you often wonder if you are actually worth that much :-D.. To clarify, I certainly wondered when Tata Motors gave me a job!
On a more serious note, people are fond of bandying big words like recession etc. I dont know what it means and I dont really care at this point of time. But I do know, that if you are in the non-circuits, i.e, civil mech, chem, IE, chances are you will most likely be working for an oil company or some energy services company, because every second office in Houston is that. Recruitment in the US is zone wise rather than country wide as in India, so sometimes it can be a problem. Most biomed/biotech companies are in California, hence it becomes a little difficult for those departments. CSE/EEE depts rake in the money as usual

* Typical Money made during internships?
I dont know about this. Depends on whether its a circuit or non circuit. But it would certainly help you pay the fees for the next sem.

* How easy it is to switch departments?
Quite easy. I know lots of people who do that. If you have found a guide/advisor who is a prof in another dept, then his approval is enough. In other cases too changing departments is not that big a hassle.

* switch from Phd to MS?
It is done sometimes due to extenuating circumstances, like if a student loses funding, or due to personal problems he/she cant continue for a PhD. But to address what the question is actually getting at, please do not apply for a PhD just for the lure of funding if you are not sincere about it. Its also fine if you have a TA and then you switch. But once you are being funded by a faculty member, its expected that you be upfront about what your aims actually are. If the prof is irked he can do great damage to your career. So to sum it up, please dont try to fool people.

* Any other issues/ inputs which will be helpful.
The Mech dept has many research groups in it. I will just mention the ones which are particularly notable. The turbomachinery group is very well funded and well known. It has profs working in rotordynamics, heat transfer, seals, etc.

The materials research group is also well funded. Mechanics, both theoretical and computational though not as endowed with funding as some other groups, has some of the best professors in the US. This covers material modelling. viz, elasticity, plasticity, viscoelasticity, fluid mechanics, as well as FEM and computational methods. However, the design aspect is almost nonexistent and we hardly have a couple of profs working on that.So students interested in design, TAMU Mechanical engineering is not the right place.

Another thing I feel quite strongly about is choosing advisors. Getting stuck with the wrong person can sour your experience. I know it seems like a great thing coming in with an RA, but you really dont know what kind of person he is till you come here and find out. And sometimes it doesnt turn out well. So in a place like TAMU, where expenses are not that high, I would suggest that students should not be in a hurry to choose advisors. Spend your first sem taking courses, seeing what you like. By the time your first sem ends, you would alteast know whom to avoid
Another reason is that when you finish undergrad and come here, the areas you thought you liked may not be the ones you actually want to work on. Often you take a graduate course and you might be completely bowled over by a different subject, or a prof in a different area. So its a good thing to keep your options open for a semester so that you choose right. I personally came here thinking CFD and fluid mechanics were synonymous,and that CFD was what I wanted to do. But my first course in continuum mechanics changed all that

Before I end, I must quote some words of wisdom I was given by a senior of mine, who told me that its not a great feeling studying in an Ivy League school with zero funding, trying to finish your courses fast, because you lie on your bed before you sleep thinking of that 15lakh loan and the interest that’s accruing even as you sleep. ;-(
Graduate school is a very enriching experience, and I do wish for every student that you are able to feel the wonder of it, get the best out of it, without letting that student loan in India dictate your decisions.

Wish you all the best!!

Coffee With USN MurtyMe: Sundar Rajan G S
UM: USN Murty

Me: Sir, can you give a brief introduction about yourself? When did you start counseling students? Do you do this as a “for profit” activity or more as a service?
UM: I am Dr USN Murty working as a Scientist F/Deputy Director Head Biology, IICT - a national Lab under Ministry of Science and Technology Govt of India since 1984. I am basically a medical entomologist, presently working on application of Information technology for the control of vector borne diseases like Dengue, Filariasis, Malaria etc.

I have started counseling students way back in 1990.. I will do this job as a service.. that is my hobby which I am really passionate about.

Me: Why have you chosen Counseling.. What drives you to do this?
UM: This is only my service and hobby.. It is not my career. I have knowledge in this area and I am passionate about this.. Hence I am continuing in this field. I will give counseling personally.. I also counsel through media like local news papers and ETV2

Me: Sir, in your recent experiences.. how many people go for medicine compared to engineering? What do people give importance to.. Medicine or engineering?
UM: Unless student is interested in MBBS he/she will not go for Bio, physics, chemistry group in plus two… If they do not get MBBS normally.. they go for repetition rather than joining in other courses like BVSC, BDS, BSc Ag etc., Otherwise most of the students will go for engineering due to some peculiar reasons like “fast settlement”, ease of getting seat since more colleges are established in AP (260 colleges under JNTU).. After BE or B.Tech they can go to US for MS program followed by Job. This has become a regular practice in AP.

Me: Sir, You counsel students who have finished engineering.. What are the recent trends?
UM: Normally they look for good universities if their GRE and TOFEL is good. Otherwise they look for any university.. Irrespective of the standard of University to secure admission. This is quite normal in the case of engineering students who wish to go for US for higher education. Very few will go for Higher studies in India in engineering discipline. Now a days some of the students are getting absorbed in IT companies. After acquiring job experience they are keen about MBA in premier institute. This is another new direction of engineering graduates,

Me: Sir, not all students get to do the “happening” branches in top colleges.. They have to take a trade off between going to top colleges or choosing a favourite subject.. What do you recommend? And on what basis do you recommend to the students.. How do you judge if a student will do well in XYZ department instead of ABC department
UM: Good question. Every student will aspire good branch in good college, I suggest them to go for any kind of subject in good college since basic degree is only a general engineering subjects not a specialized subject like M.Tech or MS. For eg in IITs I suggest them to go for his own choice of branch in any IIT though all branches in IITs are equally valued internationally.
The judgment will be based on his rank. In case if he secured a good rank naturally he will go to good college choose good branch. The question of counseling will come into picture where student rank is just average or above average, There my guidance or any counselor guidance will be vital.

Me: In the past, have you done some mistake in judging.. If so.. how do you handle it.. If not, what makes you to get it right every time you counsel a student.
UM: I will tell every student after my counseling to discuss with others and his relatives also. So question of mistake does not arise in such situation.

Me: What are the most common branches which people want to choose? Assuming that a student’s rank doesnt fetch a seat in that branch, how do convince him to take up another branch? And what are the recommendations that you give to that student.
UM: For eg a students gets a rank of 1000 for which he may not get ECE and Computers then I suggest him to go for MEch that is hard core engineering and I will explain the built facilities of Mech Eng with live examples. If his rank is poor then I will explain about civil engineering and its opportunities in India and abroad as well. In the case of civil students can go for jobs related to pollution control that will give lucrative salaries in abroad. Most of the people does not like civil that is wrong concept. Mech eng will have excellent role in CAD/CAM and design of equipment etc.,

Me: In this whole rat race of engineering entrance and seat selection.. branch selection etc.. we forget people who take pure science.. Do you convince people to take pure science? If so.. What advise do you give them.
UM: It is excellent question. Students who secure very poor rank will come to me with an ambition of computer or ECE branch requirement. I will try to convince them to go for B.Sc so that they can enter into IIT MSc through JAAM admission. Normally no one like my advise then I will tell them to go for M.Sc. Physics , Maths or Chemistry in IITs. This also will not be taken by most of the students unless they are interested in research. There are some instances where All India Rank IIT No 1 opted for M.Sc. Physics in IIT kanpur. This is an exceptional case. Such cases will be referred to many of the students who come to me.

Me: What are your other activities that you do related to career?
UM: My research is mainly focused on control of vector borne diseases by using simple information technology tools. Other societal projects also have been successfully completed by me and our technology also transferred to many agencies for its implementation in rural areas.

Readers, hope you enjoyed this edition of coffee with experts. For previous editions of coffee with experts, click here.

Continuing with our series of interview for better understanding of life at various universities, today we have a Venkatakrishnan from Purdue University. Venkat comes from NIT Trichy Electronics and Communication department. He completed his B Tech in 2007 and immediately went to Purdue.

So without further ado, it is Coffee with Venkatakrishnan

Coffee with Venkatakrishnan - Life @ Purdue

* Brief Intro about yourself..

I am Venkatakrishnan doing my Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue specializing in Digital Signal Processing and Communications. I passed out of NITT in 2007 from ECE department. In my free time I like to pursue cricket, table tennis, quizzing.

* Entry Criteria:
- Approx CGPA range : 9+
- Research Experience at undergraduage level: Does not seem to be a must. But some project experience is needed. I did do a project at IISc (cant term it anywhere near “research” level) in Speech Processing. Most students I see in Purdue have some experience either in undergrad or it could be in a tech company.
- Gre & Toefl scores range: I would say GRE 1350+ , TOEFL - may be 110 + in IBT.
- Does the university require subject GRE? No.

* Aid scenario:
Aid scenario I would go ahead and say is one of the best among the top schools in USA! .. 99% of PhDs come in with aid …if ur from IIT u get aid even for MS ….i have seen one BITS guy get aid …by aid i mean from ECE department. Departments like CS give aid to all admits i think.. even MS…..
Purdues ECE department almost certainly does not give aid on admit to MS students.. PhD of course area all funded.. What is cool about Purdue is that there are lots of opportunities for funding in other departments…. especially in the Fall semesters.. example is myself who came in unfunded but was a MAth TA in 1st sem and CS TA in the second and now will be back to math in the coming sem… its a bit of running around at the end of each sem but if you try the probability of success is quite high… For any new unfunded admits the places to try are :

Department of Math (for the website and download online forms, fill out and fax it.. else if u get here go personally and apply).. They have a selection criteria based on ur engineering math performance and TOEFL scores…
Once you are selected to be screened, they simulate a classroom by making you go to the board and explain a calculus problem to a class..
If you get through this then ur a math TA… The only point I want to make is the initial screening is based on ur Engineering Math scores and in mathematical subjects…
So if you have a good performance in math related subjects in undergrad you will atleast qualify for the screening…. In screening they basically look for your speaking ability ..

Department of Engineering Education - TA for MATLAB etc …

Department of Computer Science (now its suddenly become tough to get TA here but still try)
College of Technology - Comp Science - Go to the building 3rd floor office and apply there directly..
The secretary will let you know of any openings ..they do not publicize it so you need to make personal visits ..

Department of Chemistry - there may be profs who want some guys who know programming for their projects / simulations …

Library - They offer occassional Assistantships
Speak directly to professors once you get here telling them you are keen on working. There are RA opportunities available now and then.

What you need as prereq are Programming, mathematics… If you are not fluent do learn C,C++.. The more programming you know the better are your chances for
funding outside math atleast in terms of TAs…
RAs will depend on your luck.. Your project experience in the field of interest of the prof …

* How much money should one shell out for the entire course if it completely unfunded..
If unfunded one should be mentally prepared to spend just under $40000 tuition for the whole course

* What are the living expenses?
If you share your room and live like 4 people in a 2 BHK it works out to around 400 dollars a month ..

* Career opportunities after the course?
Decent….. Have all the usual industry majors coming over. The same names that visit our nitt campus

* Typical Money made during internships?
For our kind of line ..the pay is in the range of 24-32 dollars per hour. For 40 hours per week… for around 12-14 weeks …

* How easy it is to switch departments?
Not sure about this. I have seen a guy switch from Aero to ECE and he did have some minor issues but managed it never the less.

* How easy it is to switch from Phd to MS?
Not too difficult. Just that they will summon you and ask you the reason if u have give a valid one you are done.
I really discourage doing this intentionally though. It ruins the name of the undergrad college.

* Any other issues/ inputs which will be helpful.
Purdue ECE is a bit rank centric. Sometimes I get this gut feeling that they done even care which undergrad college you are from as long as you are top 3 or so in that college.
The 2 strengths of Purdue ECE is 1) Imaging / Video Processing 2) Nano Electronics
Lots of great work in this area is being done at Purdue ECE

Another interesting observation I made is that getting admits in the Spring sem is lot lot easier.
Funding is tough but in the long run it may be worth it if you are willing to take a chance.
Other than that It is a really awesome place with a lot and lot of Indians, Indian groceries etc. So if you are coming here you need not lug all the Indian food stuff.. you get everything in the campus …

Readers, hope you enjoyed this edition of Coffee With Experts.. for previous episodes of Coffee with experts, click here.

Two years back, Mr. Bagchi gave a talk to the class of 2006 (@ IIMB) on defining success.. He concluded the talk with the words “Go Kiss the World!”.. These were the same words which his blind mother told him before her last breath. And this talk @ IIM Bangalore inspired Mr. Bagchi to write his book - “Go Kiss the World!”

I had the previledge to attend his talk.. But CWS readers wont miss out as well.. Here is the podcast of his talk today.. It was a really inspiring talk. Dont miss out on this!

Download audio file (SubrotoBagchi.mp3)

The audio file can be downloaded from here: http://coffeewithsundar.com/SubrotoBagchi.mp3

Hope you enjoyed listening to it.. I am sure, it will make you introspect!

Subroto Speaks

Go Kiss the World

Posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008

I delivered this speech to the Class of 2006 at the IIM, Bangalore on defining success. This was the first time I shared the guiding principles of my life with young professionals.

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.

My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.

He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”.

That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.

In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.

My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.

Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,

“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world.