A bus full of Engineers

I told you before that my daily journey to and from office is an adventure. Today I had a new one worth mentioning. The buses get very crowded during my journey back home. So it's a tough job boarding one and then keeping to one's feet for the entire journey. If you are lucky and powerful enough you might get a sit, though. Mostly I'm a lucky guy in this matter :D.

As usual I boarded a CTC (Calcutta Transport Corp) bus today. They are my choice because even they don't look nice and sound even terrible, they are faster and cheaper. But the evening had a surprise in store for me. After a couple miles there is a vast empty space where no vehicle stops. And our bus suddenly got stuck there. When people started shouting at the conductor, it was revealed that the accelerator of the bus was disconnected. So some people started getting down and trying stop something or anything that moves. Some, specially those who had cut the tickets already, were siting/standing with a confused look on their faces.

Meanwhile, there were quite a few IT engineers in the bus (I think almost 50% of the crowd). They started cooperating with the driver to fix the engine. And a very raw fix came up with a piece of rope, a cardboard and a few newspaper scraps. The accelerator pedal was attached to the engine. And to everyone's surprise the bus started moving! Of-course there was a price to pay. The engine was lying open and heating up the already hot environment. We traveled a bit slow but reached the destination safe.

Well, this happens only in India!

A party and a few songs

I had a party few hours back. No doubt it was fun - singing, dancing, food and drink, also some smoke (no joints only tobacco). But that happens in almost all the evening parties, right? So why am I writing about this one?

Yes, the DJ played some beats that everyone enjoyed, the food was good, drinks were unlimited and you could hear a lot of tall tales. But that's not what will make me remember this night. It's only a few songs. Towards the end of the party those were played on request. In fact those songs are not party songs or songs that DJs usually rock the dance floor with. Those were classic rocks of the golden period. You may be guessing by now and needless to say that you are right. There was Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, the Scorpions, Eagles, Bon Jovi and Brian Adams.

Last time I played air guitar (also the real guitar at times) to those songs were in college three years back. Life changed much since then. No more grasses, no more getting drunk (I mean really drunk so that you mostly don't remember what you did). No more crazy head banging and no more the free spirit.

Yes, many things may be lost but the spirit is never lost. That's why I could see people at 40+ dancing like college kids lost in the tune and forgetting where they are. That's blissful. My spirit was revived once again and hope I'll not lose him now for a long long while. Kudos to rock music.

A side note: But surprisingly, I never feel like listening to those songs anymore after leaving college. I think they make me too nostalgic. And of-course they feel far better when in a crowd, that holds the spirit of rock.

NPTEL

The IITs and IISc came together in India to produce a great study material that is available online, even in youtube. The link is http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php

The courses are great. They contain videos of lectures from IITs and pdf or web pages with class notes. The courses are detailed and of the highest quality. They are full of examples and animations. I'm really having fun learning. The teachers are the best in India I guess and the way deliver is impressive that you just don't need to touch a book. The written materials are great, too.

I'm really very thankful to the IITs for coming up with such an online study material. Hope this trend continues in future.