A Chat With "Adi"

Aditya is one of my batch mates. He is one of those all A types and hence I was quite curious to know what his grades were when he came online on Tuesday. This is a result of that conversation:

(The text has been slightly formatted. Changed two names and one email id to protect the innocent. It had happened in gtalk. The nick of Aditya was his cellphone number which is replaced by his real nickname.)

Sai: whats up adi?

Adi: hello

Sai: grades?

Adi: grades means?

Sai: all the grades which you got so far in this sem

Adi: 1st of all who r u?

Sai: wtf? Sai Deep... didn't you get my name?

Adi: i 4got u

Sai: aha.. really..i remember you.. tell me your grades

Adi: really u r frm?

Sai: try DA-IICT

Adi: soory i cant

Sai: can't remember what? me or daiict?

Adi: u & ur name

Sai: but you do remember daiict?

Adi: daiict means?

Sai: you don't remeber even that i see... what are you studying now?

Adi: m.sc

Sai: where?

Adi: 4 wat

Sai: for making you remember me

Adi: hyd

Sai: which college?

(after a long time)
Adi: <xyz college> secundrabad

Sai: why this long to tell your college name?

Adi: <xyz college>
ok

Sai: where are you now?

Adi: secundrabad

Sai: i meant.. at home or at net center or college?

Adi: net centre

Sai: no pc at home? where is your home btw?

Adi: i am asking only one question dnt tell lie

Sai: sure

Adi: u r frm?& wat r u dng?

Sai: i will if i know whom i'm answering to... is this aditya?

Adi: hello i am not aditya. u r frm where

Sai: then who are you? i thought it was aditya's account

Adi: <a girl's name>

Sai: isn't this aditya's account?

Adi: SORRY I DNT NO

Sai: didn't know?

Adi: s

Sai: are you related to him?

Adi: no

Sai: then? how did ya get a hold of this account?

Adi: i dnt no i cant hold any accounts

Sai: i meant how is it that you are chatting from his account?

Adi: i am <name> just

Sai: yeah.. you told me
but your photo is real cute though :P
(The photo I could see was Aditya's. Really funny photo for a lady)

Adi: my photo... where it is

Sai: ya.. the one you and i can see on gtalk

Adi: i cant understand

Sai: what are you using for chatting?

Adi: yahoo messenger

Sai: aah.. you are using yahoo messenger to chat using gmail account?

Adi: ok

Sai: what? it is not possible to do that!

Adi: but i cant do any thing...1st of all i am asking one question

Sai: sure...

Adi: wat r u dng?where r u frm?

Sai: i'm sai deep, studying in daiict, in gandhinagar
ok? from hyd actually

Adi: ok... wat course?

Sai: now tell me about what client you are using to chat?
your one question was over :P

Adi: sorry

Sai: you are really not aditya?

Adi: u r asking so many questions

Sai: and sure are not playing around?

Adi: thats y i dnt tell answer u
u r playing with
i am not aditya

Sai: sure.. promise?

Adi: sure promiseeeeeeeeeeeeeee..............

Sai: then how are chatting under his name?

Adi: no i am chatting my account

Sai: but i see you under aditya's name

Adi: <the girl's name>@yahoo.com this is my mail id

Sai: oh.. i'm seeing you under aditya's name in my friends list

Adi: ok. thanks 4 chatting

Sai: you mean i was talkng to a girl all this time???
OMG

Adi: byeeeee
i dnt no abt u

Sai: i know

Adi: thats y i am not free 2 chat with u
byeeee

Sai: ok... bye

Adi: thanks 4 chating

Sai: sorry for this misunderstanding anyway

Adi: ok

Sai: bye

Sent at 11:43 AM on Tuesday
Adi: byeeee

Sent at 11:43 AM on Tuesday

(End of conversation)

You can imagine my amazement that morning. It turns out Aditya was not at all involved in the conversation (initially I thought he was playing around but after "he" persisted for that long during the chat session, it seemed unlikely anyway). The weird thing is that she claims to be from Secunderabad while Adi lives in Vizag and that was where he lasted check his account (in a net cafe).

Baddu's Big Story

(This belongs to a series of posts that I intend to write about life in DAIICT.)

Saurabh Barjatiya aka baddu: There is a lot one can write about him but one quality of his that has direct relation with this post is his complete disregard of exams. He has had quite a reputation in the college after he left COP (communication physics) final exam on purpose. He just doesn't write the exams which he thinks he is not prepared or which are not worth it for him.

He repeated the same thing this semester, by bunking the DCS (digital communication systems) second in-semester exam. He did very well in the first in-semester exam though (by pure luck - let me assure you).

Now for the tale:

A few days before the end semester exams, it was evening I think, when baddu came to my room, gave me a letter and asked me to read it. He seemed extremely excited about something and I hoped nothing bad had happened. In the letter, he was requesting the professor to let him write the second in-sem exam again as he was sick when the exam was initially conducted. I thought WTF?! (He was quite fine then and bunked it on purpose).

He was hell excited and explained in broken phrases that he got an email from the professor himself. The prof thought that he must not have attended the second in-sem due to medical reasons (he did pretty well in the first in-sem and not many people are like baddu). So, the prof told him that if he could produce a medical certificate, he would let him take the exam again along with the final exam. Wow! What luck! He was so happy, he was dancing in my room explaining the whole thing to my roommate and in the end shouting "I'm gonna get 4 pointer this time!". He did well in all subjects and there was every reason for him to get 4 pointer if he did the finals well.

After about 3 hours. I got this sms from him -

I now have fracture..
Seriously..

My mind reeled in disbelief. So much was happening today. I went to his room fast. On the way I heard Parag talking to someone on his cell phone in English. I immediately understood that he was indeed fractured (it turned out later that he was talking to Prof. Lenin, requesting him for a car). And behold, he was there on his bed clutching his leg and began to narrate his tale. He went to the doctor, got the medical certificate (he was actually sick a few days before the exam and could manage the certificate quite easily), went to the faculty block and submitted it and the letter to the professor. On his way back, he fell from the last step in the stair case and twisted his leg. Miraculously, he seemed to have been in a similar incident when he was in 9th and could tell with certainty that blood had entered into the space between two bones.

Wow, now he really needs a medical certificate.

The final exams themselves seem to be in danger. After a while, a car came to take him to hospital and his diagnosis turned out to be right. But luckily for him the wound could be treated later and the treatment could be postponed till after the exams (if he was treated then, he would have had a permanent plaster and confined to bed).

What happened to his leg now? He went to Indore (his home town) to get it treated and he is fine now (on bed, without any pc).
What happened to DCS? The final exam was difficult and the in-sem exam he took was even more difficult. Still he managed to get a 'B' even after ruining them both
What happened to his 4 pointer? Well, his chance was lost after he got a 'B' in EBM.

How do you pronounce Dijkstra?

The right way to pronounce Dijkstra, according to wikipedia is: dɛɪkˌstra.

We had to do this assignment on the shortest path algorithm and everyone seem to have their own way of pronouncing the great man's name. I've heard so many combinations that I just couldn't take it anymore.

Coming to Edsger Dijkstra, he was one of the real computer scientists, who wanted to formalize programming as a scientific discipline. Though he didn't entirely succeed, he did play a major role in what we have today. He invented the semaphores, posed the diner's problem and of course the shortest path algorithm (this is not at all the complete list). He was very influential in the future multi-tasking operating system development.

Curiously he never used computers much. During his last years, he was introduced to a mac which he used only for email. He is also remembered for his brilliant handwritten notes which were impeccable and with beautiful handwriting.

You can know more about him but checking these out:

Wikipedia
Memorandom of Dijkstra

His beautiful handwritten notes (and their transcripts) can be found here:

EWDs

First Post!

Its 4:30 in the morning and I've decided to start my own blog. Spontaneous decision but most of the good decisions of my life were spontaneous so far. Anyway, my friends are starting to get tired of my daily lectures and I thought it's about time I bug you all too :)

I wish to elaborate on what I actually want to write but frankly I haven't made up my mind on it myself. I do have a general idea but I need to do better. Instead I'd rather write on why I chose this so suddenly in the first place.

The most important advantage is that one has to compose one's thoughts and write a coherent post, not blurt out some random ideas that come to mind. This takes a lot of thinking and effort which I enjoy and want to develop even more. I am also in some sense a language pedantic and would therefore have to be extra careful or I won't appreciate my own writings. Also I generally don't believe I'm right and would love to see what people make of my thoughts.

Lets see what I can write in general:

I definitely don't want to write my day to day events. They are only too easy to fill up space with. What I write should be original, any ideas borrowed should be credited and if the original author does a good job in explaining, it's best to link it rather than take up the effort myself. It might be good idea to publish information that is useful to DAIICT students. The ideas and approaches to various assignments might be a good idea.

I don't assume many will be reading this post - it's only to define a few guidelines for myself.