Probably Approximately Correct

This post has been long due — but for my lethargy should have been out at least two months earlier.  The delay was also fueled by the fact that in order to understand the MIT admit; I need to at least take all the readers through out my 4 years of B.Tech, oops 5 years !  But, now I feel it cannot be withheld anymore and has to be blogged or stuck up somewhere. I have also decided to write as elaborately as I can. Readers can free to seek more details at any point if I, indeed unknowingly manage to, obfuscate any of these posts.

Before I go ahead, I need to clarify a few things. Though the MIT admit might appear, at the very first glance, to be an individual’s success. Its not true. I am not being humble in suggesting likewise. It actually belongs to the  wonderful group at the CSTAR. It is to every one of them that this success belongs.  Putting it more bluntly — I cashed in on the hard works of my teammates (Anuj, Piyush, Pranav and K. Srinathan). We have worked for nearly 2.5 years and the MIT admit is a certificate for all the time we spent brainstorming over various points along the way. As it turned out, these men turned out to be more than just peers/friends/lab-mates. Now, I cannot imagine my life without the influence of any of these guys. I am proud to say that I was involved with them. Without the slightest of doubts I can even go on to safely say that even if one of the above mentioned were missing, I could not have managed the admit.

I would not deny that it involved some tough decisions to make and also lots of patience (more than anything else). The process in itself was a long one. Self doubts are the toughest ones to answer.  For instance, by the start of the 4th year I firmly decided to only apply for MIT and nothing else will do. Its a risk which I took. But, when the placements started I was tempted to sit for them. Rather, the lure of the challenge was too much to resist and subsequently, sat for Amazon and Google. And then the decisions to take up a Google or not…. so and so forth… I think the these were the points when I doubted myself and looked for a back-up.

The way the interviews went should be attributed to the ToC quizzes and the brainstorming sessions which we had with our group. I would say I am not the brightest/sharpest around. The success at the placements can only be attributed to the mental temperament and various other skills gained by interacting with nearly 300 students. I think it would be fair enough to say that the results were grinded from the interviews rather than results gained from the interviews. To add to that, after looking at all these students, I can safely tell that many of you are better off in many aspects.

For all the criticism that IIIT is receiving these days, it still isn’t all that bad a place if you are really intent on doing something. Rather, if you have the conviction, I believe IIIT still remains a place where you can achieve anything.  I came to IIIT with no real ambition. It is the just that the things unfolded in a (unexpected) way through the last 4-5 years.  For most of my time at IIIT, I was an average student not having any particular target/aim.  There were some striking moments throughout the four years which had a deep impact on me and my plans. There was also a rush of adrenaline  in most things I did. To name a few ToC TAShip, withdrawal from BTP process, the meeting with Prof. PJN on that fateful day etc.

I would like to elaborate on each of my years at IIIT and the circumstances that led me to this point.

To begin with, I came to IIIT on 24 June 2004, as a student who was extremely disinterested in studies and more so in computers. Those were memorable days. I used to be in GHeB room 163. I had great neighbors in Jimmy, Raghuram, Sandeep, Naveen. Then at the class, we had a group (Sudarshan, Siddartha, sana and me) whose purpose is only to stay away from the college for the maximum plausible time.  I should say we have had a blast. We used to bunk afternoon sessions to watch movies at RTC X Roads. Throughout the first semester, we watched at least 16 movies on the big screen and a lot more restaurants on the way and back. One specific incident, I can recall is as follows — Me, Sandeep, Dahaka, Sudha left for a film named Anand when the C Programming end sem scripts were being distributed and most of us lost a grade with a quarter of a mark or less than that. This lifestyle is directly reflected in my GPA. By the end of first semester, I had a GPA of 7.6

The second semester was much better in terms of academic output, courtesy of some newly made bonds with  Bhaskara, Anil, Shashank, Revanth and of course,  Dr. Jawahar (because of whom I was forced to do well in some subjects like DS). Nevertheless, neither a motivation nor an aim or goal was indeed visible for me. The summers at the end of first year were totally unproductive with me staying back at home.  CG reached 8.24. By the end of the first year, I had vaguely decided to take up a job in DRDO/ISRO. Funnily,  it turned out to be the aim because there is a DRDO center beside my house in Visakhapatnam! Nevertheless, it didn’t last long as in the 3 semester, I had run into an infinitude of boredom and an ocean of inactivity !

Second year (3 and 4 sems) to be continued  ….