Well, here goes one more experiment. Shouldn't really call it an experiment. There's only gain, and no risk. All this is a part of my step toward perfection in music as a whole and not just my guitar concentration.
The flash object below plays the song, Sooner or Later by Breaking Benjamin. Let me remind you that the entire sample was made only by me, in FL Studio and the guitar work recorded with a mic. (Stupid mic to be precise!!). This is about 20sec in length and plays only the intro riffs with a small lead sample with drums and bass behind. This is not a full time media player, so don't bother looking for play/pause, stop, rewind (and all the other crap), buttons here. There's a simple play button. Click on it and listen to the song. If you didn't like it, click on Stop. If the sample has finished playing and you wanna play it again, click on Stop and then Play again. That's all for the instructions.
P.S. Let the song load first!! It should have loaded by the time you read this post.
Check it out and enjoy!
Hope you liked it. Do comment.
And Hey! That completes my 150th post! How cool is that!!!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
apj@abdulkalam.com
It's an obvious guess whose e-mail ID that is. Just in case, you are not one of those guys who knew India's ex-prez, that's APJ Abdul Kalam's ID.
I was in school, when he came to CCMB (my mom's workplace). I was stupid enough to attend school and miss the chance of seeing him. This time, he was back, and to a school called Medina School, where my aunt is the Principal. 25 Years Celebrations. I stole the chance and a billion thanks to Srikar, my bro for opening up this chance for me and reminding me again today morning.
Because our aunt was an important person in the organisation, we had some luxury which others didn't have. We atleast got to get into the auditorium where he was supposed to be talking. We got a last row seat but didn't complain. Srikar was also called on to give the ex-prez a bouquet. What LUCK! Kalam arrived a little later than expected. Surely it would have been the traffic, I cannot imagine him getting late personally. He stepped in with a certain pace in his walk. It's fast for an old man like him. He comes in with his trademark hairstyle and wrinkled up skin. He sat down, and the show began. It looked as if he were desperate to talk to the students, but was continuously denied the chance because of the number of awards being given away. Finally he was asked to take over, and right from his first word, he held the attention of everyone in the hall. There was force in his voice and humour. His style of speaking and stressing reminded me of the principal of my college, Komaraiah. Kalam was slightly disappointed because there were more elders than students in the hall. The only students were the volunteers and awardees. The rest were all parents, teachers, alumni, special guests, etc. He speaks with ease and again, with force. Listen to him for a few minutes, and you'll automatically listen to him for another hour. He has a weird way of making people repeat what he says. "Knowledge is Creativity plus Righteousness plus Courage!" We are all supposed to repeat those words, that's how makes things sit in your brain. Atleast it's better than Komaraiah's crazy method of doing rude awakeners, super-mind awakeners and writing hundreds of lines.
I cursed myself for not having a camera, but realised that the cell-phone I was holding had a low-end camera in it. "Something is surely better than nothing". I cursed myself again, and started clicking pictures from the tiny 1.2MP camera. The images come out horrible, but atleast they are going to be etched onto this blog's post forever.
Summing it all up, it's natural that you'd listen to him. He never asks you to listen to him, you do it all by yourself, like magic. That's the magic of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Thanks to my Bro again!
I was in school, when he came to CCMB (my mom's workplace). I was stupid enough to attend school and miss the chance of seeing him. This time, he was back, and to a school called Medina School, where my aunt is the Principal. 25 Years Celebrations. I stole the chance and a billion thanks to Srikar, my bro for opening up this chance for me and reminding me again today morning.
Because our aunt was an important person in the organisation, we had some luxury which others didn't have. We atleast got to get into the auditorium where he was supposed to be talking. We got a last row seat but didn't complain. Srikar was also called on to give the ex-prez a bouquet. What LUCK! Kalam arrived a little later than expected. Surely it would have been the traffic, I cannot imagine him getting late personally. He stepped in with a certain pace in his walk. It's fast for an old man like him. He comes in with his trademark hairstyle and wrinkled up skin. He sat down, and the show began. It looked as if he were desperate to talk to the students, but was continuously denied the chance because of the number of awards being given away. Finally he was asked to take over, and right from his first word, he held the attention of everyone in the hall. There was force in his voice and humour. His style of speaking and stressing reminded me of the principal of my college, Komaraiah. Kalam was slightly disappointed because there were more elders than students in the hall. The only students were the volunteers and awardees. The rest were all parents, teachers, alumni, special guests, etc. He speaks with ease and again, with force. Listen to him for a few minutes, and you'll automatically listen to him for another hour. He has a weird way of making people repeat what he says. "Knowledge is Creativity plus Righteousness plus Courage!" We are all supposed to repeat those words, that's how makes things sit in your brain. Atleast it's better than Komaraiah's crazy method of doing rude awakeners, super-mind awakeners and writing hundreds of lines.
I cursed myself for not having a camera, but realised that the cell-phone I was holding had a low-end camera in it. "Something is surely better than nothing". I cursed myself again, and started clicking pictures from the tiny 1.2MP camera. The images come out horrible, but atleast they are going to be etched onto this blog's post forever.
Summing it all up, it's natural that you'd listen to him. He never asks you to listen to him, you do it all by yourself, like magic. That's the magic of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Thanks to my Bro again!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The 6-string Brothers !
I'll remember today as the day when the 6-string brothers got together. Not just the brothers, but their 6-strings as well. It was raining guitars at my home here, and we were almost confused on what to connect and what to play. Srikar, Karthik (Srikar's Bro) and me, all guitar enthusiasts, and all rock freaks, had a great time jamming. Some pics will show how crowded the room was, with guitars. There were more guitars than people and had Srikar and Karthik both brought in their respective acoustics, the room would have been over-populated.
It's time to give out that little surprise I was holding back for a few days. Well, I mentioned my Uncle in a recent post, and that was because, he went to the length of giving me one of his guitars. It is a Givson Python model modified with Fender's Pickups. That must have costed him a hell lotta money, but when it comes to guitars and Golf Accessories, he doesn't mind at all. He put that straight in my hand and asked me to take it home. I was more than happy, because it was a welcome change from the Givson that I was playing all these days. Right now, it's kinda fun playing this guitar because of it's all new sound and switches. I have to keep adjusting them to get that perfect sound I need. I will list out a few comparisons that I could make out from the both guitars I have now.
Guitars we use now: Karthik's Fender Squier (awesome one!! Stratocaster! :2nd from right), Srikar's Givson Panther (+ Zoom G2.1u = Mindblowing Deal!! :Middle Black Guit.), and my modified Givson Python with Fender Pickups (extreme left Grey).
The old one has 2 mono-coil pickups, while the new one has 2 Mono + 1 Humbucking pickups.
The old one has 2 knobs and 2 switches (out of which only 1 switch and 1 knob work). The new one has 3 knobs and a switch (all working).
The old one is a broken-and-re-attached one. The new one didn't break "yet".
The old one has a weird green colour and the new has a metallic grey with white board.
The old one is noisy. The new one is less noisy.
The old one has a fluidy sound, while the new one has either muffled sound or extremely sharp sound (disadvantage for me).
The old one is light and the new one is definitely heavier.(disadvantage)
The old one is good for rhythm and the new one is good for rhythm and lead.
The old one has a smooth fret board, and the new one is sharp at a few places. (disadvantage)
Effects sound ok on the old one and stuff like Auto-wah is over exaggerated on the new one. (neutral)
Easy to play: Old, Fun to play: New
So that's the comparison I had to make. Given a choice, I would definitely go for the Grey one because of it's many advantages.
That's my Great Guitar Story. It was a great feeling today, having so many guitars around me. We are budding guitarists, hoping to create a small world of our own, and spend the best of our times with music and guitars... atleast I never seen anyone hanging up phone calls just to play guitar non-stop... that was Srikar.
It's time to give out that little surprise I was holding back for a few days. Well, I mentioned my Uncle in a recent post, and that was because, he went to the length of giving me one of his guitars. It is a Givson Python model modified with Fender's Pickups. That must have costed him a hell lotta money, but when it comes to guitars and Golf Accessories, he doesn't mind at all. He put that straight in my hand and asked me to take it home. I was more than happy, because it was a welcome change from the Givson that I was playing all these days. Right now, it's kinda fun playing this guitar because of it's all new sound and switches. I have to keep adjusting them to get that perfect sound I need. I will list out a few comparisons that I could make out from the both guitars I have now.
 |  |
Guitars we use now: Karthik's Fender Squier (awesome one!! Stratocaster! :2nd from right), Srikar's Givson Panther (+ Zoom G2.1u = Mindblowing Deal!! :Middle Black Guit.), and my modified Givson Python with Fender Pickups (extreme left Grey).
The old one has 2 mono-coil pickups, while the new one has 2 Mono + 1 Humbucking pickups.
The old one has 2 knobs and 2 switches (out of which only 1 switch and 1 knob work). The new one has 3 knobs and a switch (all working).
The old one is a broken-and-re-attached one. The new one didn't break "yet".
The old one has a weird green colour and the new has a metallic grey with white board.
The old one is noisy. The new one is less noisy.
The old one has a fluidy sound, while the new one has either muffled sound or extremely sharp sound (disadvantage for me).
The old one is light and the new one is definitely heavier.(disadvantage)
The old one is good for rhythm and the new one is good for rhythm and lead.
The old one has a smooth fret board, and the new one is sharp at a few places. (disadvantage)
Effects sound ok on the old one and stuff like Auto-wah is over exaggerated on the new one. (neutral)
Easy to play: Old, Fun to play: New
So that's the comparison I had to make. Given a choice, I would definitely go for the Grey one because of it's many advantages.
That's my Great Guitar Story. It was a great feeling today, having so many guitars around me. We are budding guitarists, hoping to create a small world of our own, and spend the best of our times with music and guitars... atleast I never seen anyone hanging up phone calls just to play guitar non-stop... that was Srikar.
Must be dreaming...
It was 7:00 am and I woke only to feel more drowsy than before. I slopped back onto the pillow and within minutes was fast asleep. Then came a weird dream to my head.
I was sitting in class along with many other students whose faces I never saw before. It wasn't my Engineering College. I was in my Intermediate class (that's what I could recognise after seeing the layout). There was some stupid class going on and I don't know who was teaching and whether I was listening. But soon, I found myself outside the class. Apparently the lecture was over. It was a very long corridor. There were countless students sitting at their favourite places all along the corridor. I kept walking and took a right turn. That would in reality lead to the washrooms, but in this case, took me to some canteen like place (which did not exist in my college at all). I suddenly found many of my school friends there. I wasn't surprised to meet them! I started talking to them, joking, and having fun. We ordered some food. God knows what! We were talking and eating. For a very long time! We kept eating more and more. Somehow the food on my plate didn't seem to get exhausted. I kept eating and eating and talking and talking. This went on for more than an hour (according to the dream), and finally, I gave away the plate which still had some food left in it. I forgot that there was a class to attend and when I looked around, there was one guy standing next to me. All the others left. We panicked and tried moving towards the class without being seen. As i moved on, my friend (Rahul Vasudev from school) disappeared. The corridor was again very long. There were stairs leading downwards, but I wondered why he would go down when our class was on the same floor. I kept walking, and suddenly my 10+2 friend, Nagur turned round a corner and said 'HI' to me. I replied back and started walking along with him. I suddenly realised that all students were roaming outside class, which meant there was nothing going on in class. I cooled down a bit and began speaking to him. We were walking upstairs now, and towards the terrace. The steps were not fully made and we were struggling as we moved and yet, I kept talking to him. I asked him what I was doing in this Inter college and he replied, "Have you gone mad? We are supposed to come back to Intermediate after finishing Engineering". I nearly lost a step and spluttered, "Why??".
Last thing I remember was falling down those uneven steps after he said something that meant I had to preserve all my books right from school and had to study them all over again....
I was sitting in class along with many other students whose faces I never saw before. It wasn't my Engineering College. I was in my Intermediate class (that's what I could recognise after seeing the layout). There was some stupid class going on and I don't know who was teaching and whether I was listening. But soon, I found myself outside the class. Apparently the lecture was over. It was a very long corridor. There were countless students sitting at their favourite places all along the corridor. I kept walking and took a right turn. That would in reality lead to the washrooms, but in this case, took me to some canteen like place (which did not exist in my college at all). I suddenly found many of my school friends there. I wasn't surprised to meet them! I started talking to them, joking, and having fun. We ordered some food. God knows what! We were talking and eating. For a very long time! We kept eating more and more. Somehow the food on my plate didn't seem to get exhausted. I kept eating and eating and talking and talking. This went on for more than an hour (according to the dream), and finally, I gave away the plate which still had some food left in it. I forgot that there was a class to attend and when I looked around, there was one guy standing next to me. All the others left. We panicked and tried moving towards the class without being seen. As i moved on, my friend (Rahul Vasudev from school) disappeared. The corridor was again very long. There were stairs leading downwards, but I wondered why he would go down when our class was on the same floor. I kept walking, and suddenly my 10+2 friend, Nagur turned round a corner and said 'HI' to me. I replied back and started walking along with him. I suddenly realised that all students were roaming outside class, which meant there was nothing going on in class. I cooled down a bit and began speaking to him. We were walking upstairs now, and towards the terrace. The steps were not fully made and we were struggling as we moved and yet, I kept talking to him. I asked him what I was doing in this Inter college and he replied, "Have you gone mad? We are supposed to come back to Intermediate after finishing Engineering". I nearly lost a step and spluttered, "Why??".
Last thing I remember was falling down those uneven steps after he said something that meant I had to preserve all my books right from school and had to study them all over again....
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
My Uncle
It's weird, I don't feel weird calling him my Uncle. He is in no way related to me. He's just a close friend of my dad's, but so close that I call him my uncle. They were friends from a young age, and while my dad played Table Tennis, he excelled in Tennis. Along with all that, they broke the tradition and started a different lifestyle. Listening to Rolling Stones and Beatles, playing guitars, singing along, growing long hair, their fun was a fun of it's own degree. Soon, they moved to different places and different professions. And my uncle's love for music and sport never wavered. Today, he plays Golf and has a collection of about 6 guitars. And one of them is with me. It's the same old green colour Givson with a mega crack in the body and the old mono-coiled pickups. Nonetheless, that was the guitar that brought me up to what I am today. I have still not gone far enough in the guitar-scene, but came this far only becuase of that Givson, and I gotta thank my Uncle for that. He saw me playing his Ovation semi-acoustic the other day and was all-praise with the improvements I make each day. I am sure, everytime he hears me play, he finds an improvement.
You can imagine it if this guitar costs 32,000 in Indian Rupee
That's the logo
The curved back. It has no box-like appearance.
That's the side view with the controls visible. It's a semi-acoustic.
The shiny side up! He has a special polishing liquid for that.
In recent times, I thought I reached a saturation point in my self-trained play and started considering guitar lessons. But who the hell will teach me guitar from where I left off! It's gonna be like what Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge said: "I wanted to learn Master of Puppets (Metallica) and they taught me Mary Had a Little Lamb". My case here is gonna be pretty much the same. This is a stage where learning tabs from the internet is nearly over and it's high time somebody actually told you how to start shredding, harmonizing, etc. Gone are the days when one taught you how to hold a guitar, how to play chords, how to strum, etc. Right now, all I do at home is pickup the guitar, play all the lead i ever learnt, disconnect it, and go to sleep.
Someday I am hoping to wake up and find someone like my uncle coming and telling me, "Son enough of what you learnt by yourself. Let me teach you how to play like Kirk Hammett... "
You can imagine it if this guitar costs 32,000 in Indian Rupee
That's the logo
The curved back. It has no box-like appearance.
That's the side view with the controls visible. It's a semi-acoustic.
The shiny side up! He has a special polishing liquid for that.
In recent times, I thought I reached a saturation point in my self-trained play and started considering guitar lessons. But who the hell will teach me guitar from where I left off! It's gonna be like what Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge said: "I wanted to learn Master of Puppets (Metallica) and they taught me Mary Had a Little Lamb". My case here is gonna be pretty much the same. This is a stage where learning tabs from the internet is nearly over and it's high time somebody actually told you how to start shredding, harmonizing, etc. Gone are the days when one taught you how to hold a guitar, how to play chords, how to strum, etc. Right now, all I do at home is pickup the guitar, play all the lead i ever learnt, disconnect it, and go to sleep.
Someday I am hoping to wake up and find someone like my uncle coming and telling me, "Son enough of what you learnt by yourself. Let me teach you how to play like Kirk Hammett... "
Monday, February 18, 2008
Incredible !!
I am back home for the second time in a week, this time from Chennai. I have a tiny surprise waiting for my band-mates. Not anything special, and nothing to be proud of as well. Just a small change in my guitar life. There might be a bigger change when I upgrade my old Givson with new pickups, colour, and switches, and when I find a way to cover up that big crack on the body. I am hoping all this will be done before my next jam session and hopefully even before my cousin comes back to Hyderabad on 21st.
Now, the Incredible news. My recent post, "GO Ahhhhh" received an astounding 269 hits in 2 days! I am receiving praise after praise, and all that is leaving me flattered!
Now, the Incredible news. My recent post, "GO Ahhhhh" received an astounding 269 hits in 2 days! I am receiving praise after praise, and all that is leaving me flattered!
Feb?
Bloggin' from Chennai:
First of all, I should call this an achievement that my blog is finally stepping into the world outside, instead of the usual 2-3 readers from a close network of friends. A recent post on Goa and BITS showed good response from students from there. The usual iPod keywords, all land up in my blog which is getting rather irritating. This shows how many people across the entire world have problem with the Classic. I still consider it one of my best buys.
Anyway, to the main point here, February is generally a month of hectic college work and full working days. This time, the month has proved to be completely different for me. The supplementary holidays in college meant that I had no work there. But surprisingly, I am traveling a lot. The first trip being the one to Goa from 6th to 14th. And on 15th I started off again to Chennai (oh god! will someone take me to North India?) Today, I am starting my journey back home, and I hope it will be the end of my traveling spree. My sleep has gone from bad to worse, i.e, I either sleep for 2-3 hours a day or for 12-16 hours a day, both of which have 'disastrous effects'(imitating my lecturer, Ramesh Mettu). I will be having a few more days as holidays and I hope i can utilize them to the best possible extent. Of course that won't involve anything related to books other than novels. That would mean, some thought on buying a new guitar (my old Givson is giving up now!), or maybe changing the pickup area of the guitar. And my interest in lead guitar has increased 10fold after witnessing the show in BITS, Goa. Though i might be able to play like them right now, I need to get better on stage performance and presence. I never showed particular interest in playing on stage, but it's the only way your inner stuff gets out. How many days will you spend practicing guitar riffs in your closed room with a small Amp?
That chance of making it large is slim if you are studying in Malla Reddy, but still, someone, someday might show you the way. I am waiting for that chance ....
First of all, I should call this an achievement that my blog is finally stepping into the world outside, instead of the usual 2-3 readers from a close network of friends. A recent post on Goa and BITS showed good response from students from there. The usual iPod keywords, all land up in my blog which is getting rather irritating. This shows how many people across the entire world have problem with the Classic. I still consider it one of my best buys.
Anyway, to the main point here, February is generally a month of hectic college work and full working days. This time, the month has proved to be completely different for me. The supplementary holidays in college meant that I had no work there. But surprisingly, I am traveling a lot. The first trip being the one to Goa from 6th to 14th. And on 15th I started off again to Chennai (oh god! will someone take me to North India?) Today, I am starting my journey back home, and I hope it will be the end of my traveling spree. My sleep has gone from bad to worse, i.e, I either sleep for 2-3 hours a day or for 12-16 hours a day, both of which have 'disastrous effects'(imitating my lecturer, Ramesh Mettu). I will be having a few more days as holidays and I hope i can utilize them to the best possible extent. Of course that won't involve anything related to books other than novels. That would mean, some thought on buying a new guitar (my old Givson is giving up now!), or maybe changing the pickup area of the guitar. And my interest in lead guitar has increased 10fold after witnessing the show in BITS, Goa. Though i might be able to play like them right now, I need to get better on stage performance and presence. I never showed particular interest in playing on stage, but it's the only way your inner stuff gets out. How many days will you spend practicing guitar riffs in your closed room with a small Amp?
That chance of making it large is slim if you are studying in Malla Reddy, but still, someone, someday might show you the way. I am waiting for that chance ....
Friday, February 15, 2008
Hyderabad Again
Being back home is definitely pleasing. But somehow I still miss the greenery and freshness of Goa. It's true that the sand, salt and sun on the beaches is very irritating, which resulted in me turning into the darkest shade of dark tan, and having a rough throat, but i feel other things do override what irritation these 3 S's cause.
Back here, the pollution is still exponentially rising, and the roads are detoriating in a similar fashion. Especially around my place, the so-called road widening process is going dead slow, and it's causing the roads to have much lesser space than before due to those huge bulldozers and earth-movers. I had fun listening to a few discussions between Sanjeev and Kalyan. They were talking the problems faced in India, by Indians, and most of it seems pretty much accurate and true. I don't know when such things get solved. There is still a big question in my head - "Is it the government or the people that must change?"
Anyway, that's the least of my worries. As long as i keep my nose clean, head straight and go on with my regular things, nothing will bother me, and nothing will be bothered by me. It turns out that within 24 hours of arrival from Goa, I am packing my bags again and leaving to Chennai. This time, it's with the family and for a wedding. Maybe i won't have a great time. I was just hoping to visit a guitar shop that my uncle knows well, but they will all be busy with wedding arragements and moreover it will be a Sunday. But atleast he has a good Ovation Acoustic with I can practice and loosen my fingers. After a gap of nearly 10 days, my fingers have gone back to the usual stiffness and a few hours of guitarwork will loosen them. The rock show at BITS, Goa was truly inspiring and I am more desperate than ever to perform before a good audience. (Good Audience!!) ...
It's holiday time, and there's nothing to study unless you count the fact that the onlines will be starting as soon as college resumes. More importantly, I missed 2 GRE classes and will be missing 2 more. I feel i have gone down on my health (i always look like that!), and I need to take good rest and eat well before college starts again. Right now, I can see a very thin and extremely dark person in the mirror. Just a ray of hope that things get better by next week, so that I can enjoy the last remaining holidays.
A special mention - "Congratulations to my friend Natarajan for getting placed in Satyam!" He proved to everyone that it's not only academical achievement that will make your future bright. It's time to learn the lesson.
Back here, the pollution is still exponentially rising, and the roads are detoriating in a similar fashion. Especially around my place, the so-called road widening process is going dead slow, and it's causing the roads to have much lesser space than before due to those huge bulldozers and earth-movers. I had fun listening to a few discussions between Sanjeev and Kalyan. They were talking the problems faced in India, by Indians, and most of it seems pretty much accurate and true. I don't know when such things get solved. There is still a big question in my head - "Is it the government or the people that must change?"
Anyway, that's the least of my worries. As long as i keep my nose clean, head straight and go on with my regular things, nothing will bother me, and nothing will be bothered by me. It turns out that within 24 hours of arrival from Goa, I am packing my bags again and leaving to Chennai. This time, it's with the family and for a wedding. Maybe i won't have a great time. I was just hoping to visit a guitar shop that my uncle knows well, but they will all be busy with wedding arragements and moreover it will be a Sunday. But atleast he has a good Ovation Acoustic with I can practice and loosen my fingers. After a gap of nearly 10 days, my fingers have gone back to the usual stiffness and a few hours of guitarwork will loosen them. The rock show at BITS, Goa was truly inspiring and I am more desperate than ever to perform before a good audience. (Good Audience!!) ...
It's holiday time, and there's nothing to study unless you count the fact that the onlines will be starting as soon as college resumes. More importantly, I missed 2 GRE classes and will be missing 2 more. I feel i have gone down on my health (i always look like that!), and I need to take good rest and eat well before college starts again. Right now, I can see a very thin and extremely dark person in the mirror. Just a ray of hope that things get better by next week, so that I can enjoy the last remaining holidays.
A special mention - "Congratulations to my friend Natarajan for getting placed in Satyam!" He proved to everyone that it's not only academical achievement that will make your future bright. It's time to learn the lesson.
GO Ahhhhh
Phew! Goa. It's a lucky second time that I saw Goa. The first time, I was a kid. The only thing I could remember was the railing of Dona Paula, the NIO Building, and MiraMar of Panaji.
This time, it's been a whole new experience for me. Here's a briefing of what all we did at Goa.
In the first place, I was in Goa for a reason. The paper presentation at BITS, Goa. The same one I was talking about in the previous posts. The date for the presentation was on 10th, and we were in Goa by 8th. So we spent some time at Vasco-da-Gama City, checking out good hotels and beaches. We had a bike for rent, that eased out travel worries. We found out that Vasco is only as big as Habsiguda (smaller actually!!). There are 2 parallel main roads that are connected by a few lanes. That's Vasco. The BITS campus was magnificent. The coming days were to tell me that what I have been seeing around me in Malla Reddy is nothing compared to what BITS has to offer. The facilities are way above Malla Reddy standards. The campus is huge and you might need a vehicle to travel from your hostel to Food King. But all these can be done if there is money. There was something i saw, that money can never do. The broad-mindedness. The students there are different. They are not like what I see regularly around me. They had something in them. Cannot say what that was. They managed to create a world of their own, a world that might look small from outside but that's huge from inside.
We were attending the Quark 08 organised by the students, and the organisation that they had looked too good to be true. That college is only as old as the college i am studying in, but they beat the BITS, Pilani campus itself. They created departments for various things like, Security, Sponsorship, Event Management, Hospitality, etc. Each department did the work to perfection and the result was Quark 08. I consider myself lucky to have been there. So among all this, where are the faculty? They gave up complete responsibility to the students and the students handled things intelligently. I never saw a lecturer till i stepped into the presentation hall. They just came as judges, and left. No other work. If there were nearly 40 events in 3 days which had nearly 4600 registered students, no other data needs to be presented to show how big the event was. All this was only inside the campus, which was already a cool place to hang out. But I was forgetting the fact that I was in Goa.
Step out of the campus, and you can see a highway. Whether it is a highway or a normal road, one thing is for sure. At the end of it, you'll land on a beach. That's the cool part about Goa. Dotted with beaches all around, and infested by tourists from India and abroad, the one place where nothing seems to be enough. You visit 10 beaches today, and you want to visit 10 more tomorrow. 8th was spent in finding hotels and beaches and learning the roads at Vasco. This gave us a good idea about the place. We were forced to spend 9th and 10th in the BITS Campus because of so much work left on the presentation. On 10th, we gave the presentation and it turned out to be much much better that what we thought we could do. We were really happy about that. And immediately, there was an Air Show using small Remote Controlled aircraft. What I saw there, I never saw in my life before. There were propeller driven airplanes that could hover in the air with the nose pointing towards the sky. There was a helicopter that could do loops and fly inverted. There was a dog-fight style of flying with 2 aircraft battling it out. Was really great to watch all that. Then, there was a magic show late in the evening, along with a mind-blowing performance of "Feeding the Fish". aah.. I just can't talk... my blood gushes when I think of it. I feel so so sorry that I didn't take a video of it. I just hope i'll never forget it in my life.
As 10th got over, we felt so elated. We gave our best performance in the presentation and saw awesome performances by Magicians, jugglers, etc. Was the best day of my tour. On 11th, we joined our friends who already saw many places like Calangute, Anjuna, Chapora Fort and stuff. We missed them but went there later. We travelled to Old Goa near Panaji (Capital City) and saw some stuff like the "Immortal Remains of Francis Xavier". We saw Mira Mar and Dona Paula and wrapped up the day. We got really late after an awesome dinner with cocktails at "Salt and Peppers". We rushed back to the BITS Campus just in time to attend one of my memorable Rock Concerts of my life. Memorable because they were only students and had enough talent to beat pros. I look back at myself and wonder where i am when it comes to being able to play guitar like how those 19-20 year old guys did. One more thing that will remain etched in my memory and my camera chip. I didn't sleep that night. Just a half hour of good sleep and the rest was restlessness. We moved silently out of the campus on 12th morning at 6:00am, and it was so silent that I almost felt guilty. I didn't like to leave it. Maybe i'll never see that again. Makes the back of my neck cold, leaving the hair standing upright....
We covered North Goa, and went to Calangute, Baga, some private beach, etc, most of it was fun, especially the boat rides, water scooter rides, etc. Kalyan and me moved to the same hotel that our friends were staying at, and this gave us some freedom to stay out till late night. Goa is such a small place that the maximum distance between any 2 major places is not more than 30KM. Which meant that, 2 litres of petrol and a 1000 rupee note would take us through the day. We saw Goa the way one would like to see. Not all the crappy tours and travels packages, which don't cover anything and also costing money for limited freedom. Isn't it a great feeling to set off on a bike and let your head take you where you want? Freedom at it's fullest at such a low cost. The light traffic, great roads, and superb views made our bike journeys more enjoyable than ever.
After finishing North Goa on 12th, we moved South on 13th (unfortunately Srikar wasn't with us because he had to leave to Bangalore). We went through Margoa to Colva Beach, reputed for it's length and saw another beautiful beach called Majorda. We wrapped up our tour with that and headed back to Vasco. The next day would be the sad part of the entire tour, going back home.
After spending such a wonderful time in Goa and getting tanned to near black, I just couldn't think of leaving the place. But I had to force myself to get ready for the journey that would take me home. I thought I was at home all these days, but my real home is fortunately or unfortunately my Real Home.
The journey back was boring and saddening. The 5 hour long halt at Dhone added to the misery and hunger. Before sleeping on the train, i went through my photo collection to see how I spent my great days. The videos that i took, and the photos, brought back a smile to my face and i slept like a log ....... till today.
You never get tired of beaches
A more formal look for the presentation
The land that I'll never forget
Seeing Goa on bikes is cool! Trust me
As the sun sinks into the sea, it makes way for more dreams to come during sleep...
This time, it's been a whole new experience for me. Here's a briefing of what all we did at Goa.
In the first place, I was in Goa for a reason. The paper presentation at BITS, Goa. The same one I was talking about in the previous posts. The date for the presentation was on 10th, and we were in Goa by 8th. So we spent some time at Vasco-da-Gama City, checking out good hotels and beaches. We had a bike for rent, that eased out travel worries. We found out that Vasco is only as big as Habsiguda (smaller actually!!). There are 2 parallel main roads that are connected by a few lanes. That's Vasco. The BITS campus was magnificent. The coming days were to tell me that what I have been seeing around me in Malla Reddy is nothing compared to what BITS has to offer. The facilities are way above Malla Reddy standards. The campus is huge and you might need a vehicle to travel from your hostel to Food King. But all these can be done if there is money. There was something i saw, that money can never do. The broad-mindedness. The students there are different. They are not like what I see regularly around me. They had something in them. Cannot say what that was. They managed to create a world of their own, a world that might look small from outside but that's huge from inside.
We were attending the Quark 08 organised by the students, and the organisation that they had looked too good to be true. That college is only as old as the college i am studying in, but they beat the BITS, Pilani campus itself. They created departments for various things like, Security, Sponsorship, Event Management, Hospitality, etc. Each department did the work to perfection and the result was Quark 08. I consider myself lucky to have been there. So among all this, where are the faculty? They gave up complete responsibility to the students and the students handled things intelligently. I never saw a lecturer till i stepped into the presentation hall. They just came as judges, and left. No other work. If there were nearly 40 events in 3 days which had nearly 4600 registered students, no other data needs to be presented to show how big the event was. All this was only inside the campus, which was already a cool place to hang out. But I was forgetting the fact that I was in Goa.
Step out of the campus, and you can see a highway. Whether it is a highway or a normal road, one thing is for sure. At the end of it, you'll land on a beach. That's the cool part about Goa. Dotted with beaches all around, and infested by tourists from India and abroad, the one place where nothing seems to be enough. You visit 10 beaches today, and you want to visit 10 more tomorrow. 8th was spent in finding hotels and beaches and learning the roads at Vasco. This gave us a good idea about the place. We were forced to spend 9th and 10th in the BITS Campus because of so much work left on the presentation. On 10th, we gave the presentation and it turned out to be much much better that what we thought we could do. We were really happy about that. And immediately, there was an Air Show using small Remote Controlled aircraft. What I saw there, I never saw in my life before. There were propeller driven airplanes that could hover in the air with the nose pointing towards the sky. There was a helicopter that could do loops and fly inverted. There was a dog-fight style of flying with 2 aircraft battling it out. Was really great to watch all that. Then, there was a magic show late in the evening, along with a mind-blowing performance of "Feeding the Fish". aah.. I just can't talk... my blood gushes when I think of it. I feel so so sorry that I didn't take a video of it. I just hope i'll never forget it in my life.
As 10th got over, we felt so elated. We gave our best performance in the presentation and saw awesome performances by Magicians, jugglers, etc. Was the best day of my tour. On 11th, we joined our friends who already saw many places like Calangute, Anjuna, Chapora Fort and stuff. We missed them but went there later. We travelled to Old Goa near Panaji (Capital City) and saw some stuff like the "Immortal Remains of Francis Xavier". We saw Mira Mar and Dona Paula and wrapped up the day. We got really late after an awesome dinner with cocktails at "Salt and Peppers". We rushed back to the BITS Campus just in time to attend one of my memorable Rock Concerts of my life. Memorable because they were only students and had enough talent to beat pros. I look back at myself and wonder where i am when it comes to being able to play guitar like how those 19-20 year old guys did. One more thing that will remain etched in my memory and my camera chip. I didn't sleep that night. Just a half hour of good sleep and the rest was restlessness. We moved silently out of the campus on 12th morning at 6:00am, and it was so silent that I almost felt guilty. I didn't like to leave it. Maybe i'll never see that again. Makes the back of my neck cold, leaving the hair standing upright....
We covered North Goa, and went to Calangute, Baga, some private beach, etc, most of it was fun, especially the boat rides, water scooter rides, etc. Kalyan and me moved to the same hotel that our friends were staying at, and this gave us some freedom to stay out till late night. Goa is such a small place that the maximum distance between any 2 major places is not more than 30KM. Which meant that, 2 litres of petrol and a 1000 rupee note would take us through the day. We saw Goa the way one would like to see. Not all the crappy tours and travels packages, which don't cover anything and also costing money for limited freedom. Isn't it a great feeling to set off on a bike and let your head take you where you want? Freedom at it's fullest at such a low cost. The light traffic, great roads, and superb views made our bike journeys more enjoyable than ever.
After finishing North Goa on 12th, we moved South on 13th (unfortunately Srikar wasn't with us because he had to leave to Bangalore). We went through Margoa to Colva Beach, reputed for it's length and saw another beautiful beach called Majorda. We wrapped up our tour with that and headed back to Vasco. The next day would be the sad part of the entire tour, going back home.
After spending such a wonderful time in Goa and getting tanned to near black, I just couldn't think of leaving the place. But I had to force myself to get ready for the journey that would take me home. I thought I was at home all these days, but my real home is fortunately or unfortunately my Real Home.
The journey back was boring and saddening. The 5 hour long halt at Dhone added to the misery and hunger. Before sleeping on the train, i went through my photo collection to see how I spent my great days. The videos that i took, and the photos, brought back a smile to my face and i slept like a log ....... till today.
You never get tired of beaches
A more formal look for the presentation
The land that I'll never forget
Seeing Goa on bikes is cool! Trust me
As the sun sinks into the sea, it makes way for more dreams to come during sleep...
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Some control
Finally, i got a wind of the things going on around me. It took nearly 7 days to find out how fast i was spinning. Now that exams have started, i learnt to put a few things aside and look forward. But that didn't stop me from playing music for more than an hour daily and chat for long hours. Infact, i have already written 3 exams and i didn't prepare for any of them. I just went at the exams in some weird mood, "I wanna be anywhere but here.." ... only today's exam, Propulsion went fine. Err.. a bit more than fine. I wrote 5 questions when i had a target of only 2-3. And yesterday's exam went horrible. Err.. a bit more than horrible. I wrote 1 question out of 5, and got out bravely. Earlier, I used to sweat like hell if i wasn't doing the exam fine, but this time, I was kinda cool, laughing around, writing the exams as if they don't make a difference to me.
My BITS-Goa thing is confirmed and we have to take a blind shot at it. Not so blind as well. We are planning to prepare well, and we know we can do it. Only problem here is lack of experience which we will get after going there and presenting our paper. Till then, no one would rent us any 'experience' like how we were planning to rent laptops and bikes for ease... long story...
Anyway, life's making a small deviation here. Having lunch during classes, and listening to and playing music when there is good time to study, i am clearly taking the wrong path. Just hoping it would join back into the right one, without forcing me to take a U-turn.
My BITS-Goa thing is confirmed and we have to take a blind shot at it. Not so blind as well. We are planning to prepare well, and we know we can do it. Only problem here is lack of experience which we will get after going there and presenting our paper. Till then, no one would rent us any 'experience' like how we were planning to rent laptops and bikes for ease... long story...
Anyway, life's making a small deviation here. Having lunch during classes, and listening to and playing music when there is good time to study, i am clearly taking the wrong path. Just hoping it would join back into the right one, without forcing me to take a U-turn.
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