Result and Decisions!

87.5%For someone who didnt expect to cross the 70% benchmark set by my parents...87.5% is pretty darn good!

The day has been spent in a lot of celebrations...calls, sms's, facebook wall posts, orkut scraps all congratulating. A mysterious bunch of flowers too landed up...i wonder who theyre from! ;)

Of course this opened up pandoras box on finalizing a decision on the college I'm looking at. Amity was it for me as all of you know. After all those debated with bro and uji, there really wasn't any doubt about the fact that my life would start a new chapter in Noida.

things have changed. yes yes yes i lost the bet. have spent the past few days pouring over literature provided by all kinds of places. Amity, NIIT, SGIIT even Lovely Professional University!!! And after all that copius research the answer to my embarrasment would alway be NIIT.

despite it being a pioneer batch course, the advantages are enormous. the radical course design, the campus itself, the industry linkages, the people behing the univ, the proximity to delhi, the fee structure etc etc all are way to advantegous to overlook.

so i gave in. did my round of the counseller from NIIT and now am officially an admission seeker at the univ.

another few days and ill be officially an enrolled student! so uji, i give in to your greater judgement and wait for you to collect on your spoils. :)

Revelation

I feel the walls tumbling down. yesterday was quite an eye-opener. A few friends had organized a get-together in noida and some of the people invited were pass-outs from Amity. They've been out for a few years now and are very much a part of the working class.

i may have appeared too much a curious types as i took them away from their conversation about what they thought of 'the watchmen' and brought them back to their alma mater.
most of them had good things to say about their time while IN college. good times, great crowd, lots of hook-ups and heartbreaks....all temporal things. the permanancy of life after college is what was shrouded in darkness.

Rituraj, a BTech working in Pune said something which struck the core of my heart. I quote "whatever you do, whatever course, doesnt matter if you passout with a gold medal or whatever...you will never be seen as an equal with an IIT types in a corporate."

i was scared, the music had become muffled, the little bubble i had wrapped myself in seemed to be developing a puncture. the bet with ujji didnt matter anymore and i discussed the NIIT Univ and their seminar with the guys. almost immediately we logged on to the site, ujji's blog et al
despite the usual doubts, almost all of them conceded that it seemed a lot better than what is offered at private univs. Tripti, another passout from Amity has offered to go along with me to their centre tomorrow and figure out the entire deal.

I may just end up losing the bet. ujji's tease would be infinitely better than regret later in life.

The Con!

Phew! It's over...Di got married and she left..leaving a void which will never get filled. I cant remember the last time I howled so much as I did when she was finally off. It was a little strange waking up the next day, the sudden dip in the hustle & bustle of the marriage was disconcerting. Most of the day went in dropping relatives to the airport or the railway station. A few friends came to cheer me up in the evening, ended up going to bennigans!

Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Around 8:30 am the bell rang. And who else but Ujwal at the door. All dressed up and beaming. Wanted me to come with him. Insisted it was a surprise. Despite my obvious skepticisim, I got ready in a jiffy and hopped on his bike. We made our way towards south delhi, and only then did I realise that we were making our way to the IIT campus. As we reached the Dogra hall, I saw the signages. "NIIT University presents" I couldnt believe I fell for that. And here I was thinking Ujwal's taking me out for a fancy breakfast to cheer me up!!

Anyways since we were there I decided to attend the event. No No No, I didnt lose the best. I didnt get converted. But I did change my opinion just a tad bit. The seminar was about
Engineering and how to build a great career in times of the economic downturn. The speakers were of the highest stature and knew what they were talking about. They werent there to plug the NIIT Univ, but more to talk about the field of Engineering.

For instance, the phenomenan of doing an MBA after ENgg was discussed. It amazed and impressed me when the speaker said that if anyone attending the seminar had ENgg + MBA as a plan, then he was in the wrong place. Boy, these people are serious about making good engineers.
The seminar was followed by a quick Q&A session. The turnout was impressive, so it was not surprise that the Q&A session was very active. Uji even asked a few questions (no suprise that!).
Post the event, Uji grabbed my arm and made his way towards the front of the hall. Before I realised what was happening, Uji was speaking to Som Mittal, bombarding him with questions.
I could see Mr Mittal a little amused, but to his credit he indulged Uji and gave a patient hearing to him. Uji was almost glowing as we made our way back to the bike.

We did have lunch together, and I have to admit, I can see some of the merits to his argument. Maybe...just maybe i'll do some more homework on NIIT University before I make a final final decision!

Mahabharata

sorry for being off the radar! i know i promised to do this regularly but i have the very legitimate excuse of di's shaadi happening. just two days away now.

its funny, even though she's a cousin i've always been a lot more closer to her than i have been with my closest of friends. we've always been so tight, makes me sad that she's moving so far. at the same time i'm so glad she's got someone as nice as Pradeep 'jiju'  to share her life with. he's a total sweetheart :)

my debates with neetu bhaiya have quickly escalated to a battle of epic magnitude. uji's landing up and siding with bhaiya didnt really help the cause. somehow uji has managed to bring the debate to focus more on the demerits of joining an organization like Amity over his current obsession- the NIIT University.

i mean, we all know of NIIT. almost everyone around has had some friend or relative who has done a course at NIIT at some point of time. but does that make them qualified to suddenly set sail for courses as complex as b.tech and m.tech?

newspapers these days are filled with ads which claim to provide the same, and have affiliations to some university somewhere. how many of those scores of students passing out make it in the outside world? Amity has, over the years a proven track record of how well their students are doing. you can't take away that but just sweeping it with the same paintbrush.

yes it's a private institution, and of course there objective is to make money...whats wrong in that? as long as they provide me with quality education which acts as a foundation for my career, im absolutely ok with spending that kind of money (ah well...my dad is :P)

uji posed a challenge to me that he's going to convert me and in the end we'll end up going to the same university...i took him up on it based solely on the confidence of being right (and modest ;) )

neetu bhaiya remained on his IIT trip but leaned more towards uji's point of view after hearing his sermon on the merits of the place!!! neither of them had an answer to my simple question- after passing out of amity, a great advantage which i will have is the amity alumni network already out there, like bhaiyas IITians....what would uji have?

write in and join the debate!!!

dhim ta dhim ta...or something like that
thats the background music in the Amity ad aint it? Have always loved the color tone and the seriousness of the ad. cant wait to get there!!

among other things happening in my not so exciting life these days is the onslaught of relatives for my di's shaadi. its nice to have my cousins around, their parents...ah well..not so much ;) but i could see how excited mum was to be reunited with all her sisters so i guess i could put up a brave face for a few days. which reminds me....im off to city walk today to get the shaadi shopping done. :D

neetu bhaiya is also here. he's an IIT passout. i swear he just doesnt fit into that cliched mould of a techie types. Well built, very funky and he plays the guitar like a dream. Have been discussing my career options with him. He's so dead against the private institutions, it aint funny. i think the next few days are gonna be full of these debates.

ok so mums callin me...gotta rush
will update again soon

Fe Fi Fo Fum and all that jazz

hmm...so i guess i'm supposed to welcome ya'all to my blog.

Well welcome!

I guess I should first thank Uji for finally pushing me over the edge to get the blog started. Without a doubt, his pressure has more to do with happening than anything else.

I have been wanting to chronicle my life after school, but excuses more than anything else have been to blame for it not happening till now.

All thats about to change :)

Being more of a scientific bend of mind types, the decision to pursue my B.Tech was pretty much made in the first sem of class XII, the institute of course was the big question mark. I mean, its not as if I'm not brainy enough to get into an IIT or something, but I still needed a Plan B.

Over the course of the last year, Plan B got promoted to Plan A, mostly due to some personal problems. So as of now the hunt is on, though it is not state secret that I'm all prepared to be a proud Amity'ite or is it Amity'ian??

The proximity to home, the infrastructure, the course content and the people are top notch. The fee is a lil steep but I believe the placements are good so its worth it.

Of course the added advantage of the social life not taking a hit is huge plus point :P

Am just a lil confused about the subjects I wanna take. My folks have been taking me for the usual rounds of counseling,  but as of now the road ahead is as dark as it could be.