Ambition in life

Long time, no blogs. Just a thought which crossed my mind. Jotted it down.

There are three words which form a very simple question, which every child hears in his life and has an answer to since his childhood. That answer varies from child to child. I hope you guys would have understood which question I’m talking about. Yes it’s “What’s your aim in life?”. There are very few people who actually get to be what they want in life. People who actually become what they want to become in life, I salute you guys.

It’s a very simple question, I agree. But when it comes to India, it’s not a question which you get to answer. It’s a question which either your parents or someone among your family members will answer for you and you spend your whole life bringing that answer come to reality. Yes, I agree that when you’re asked this question by anyone, you answer with a doctor or engineer or whatever, but after you become that you realise what you had done with your life. When someone asks you then, it’s like you’re even confused in telling them that you’re an engineer.

When you enter school, you’re told an answer to this question by your parents. You keep saying that everywhere which forms a mindset that I have to become that. I don’t know why but maybe to prove your parents that yes, we can make you proud. But in all this you never realise what you actually wanted. Before 10th boards, everyone is like this is a very crucial year of your life, study hard, everything depends on you. It’s like if I don’t do excellent in my boards, the world is gonna collapse or some shit. You come out with flying colours in your boards. You face reporters for your excellent performance where they ask you this question and you’re like numb for a moment and then you remember the answer which was told to you and you say that and then everyone who reads the paper gets to know that you want to grow up to be a doctor or an engineer.

In India, if you are a guy, you’re destined to be an engineer and if a girl, then a doctor. I’m not saying it’s always that, but that’s the maximum cases. I don’t know where people get this mentality. If you tell your parents that you want be a footballer or an F1 racer or in a girl’s case, a fashion designer or something, you’re gone for good. They’ll tell you that you don’t have the skills to be that. You need a lot of practice to become a footballer. You have to join coaching for that and there’s a lot of competition in sports. My question is “Was I born engineer? Did I come into this world with ohm’s law and mechanics engraved in my mind?” No, right. I learnt all that. Something which I never knew. And on top of that I did excellent in my boards. So why can’t I go for football or racing. Yes, there are risks, I agree. But what worth is life if you play it safe forever. You get your life only once, make it worth living for.

That’s not it. This is just 10^th boards. Then you have to choose your stream for 11^th and 12^th. That’s another herculean task. That’s just a herculean task if it’s given to you to choose. Or else it’s already chosen for you. There are just three streams: Science, Arts and Commerce. That’s all you have in life. For me, Science was fixed considering my 10^th results. Then comes 12^th boards. Again you get to hear from everyone that it’s the most crucial stage of your life which will decide whether you have to go for medical or engineering. I mean how many crucial stages can be there. Here also once you take Science, you have only two options.

My mom always wanted me to be a doctor. I studied Biology for 3 months, I realized that I’m nowhere close to being a doctor. And if by mistake I became a doctor, then people’s lives would be at great risk from me. So I dropped it and took up engineering.

Now another great stage of your life: choosing your engineering branch. That also, someone or the other from your family or maybe your neighbor would choose for you. And you will be like “Maybe they know better, let’s take that”. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone. It’s the case with most of the students. Then when you start studying in that branch, you realise how messed up your situation is, where you stand in front of everyone else in that branch.

I joined engineering coming from a small town where we were never taught any kind of programming, so I took electronics and communication thinking that computer science won’t be my cup of tea. Then I realise that it’s even worse. You’re neither in complete electronics and neither in complete computer science. The best part comes when it’s time for placements. You spend 4 years in engineering trying to maintain a good CGPA learning core electronics so that you can sit for companies during campus placements and then all of a sudden you realise that all your computer science getting placed with amazing packages and you’re left with nothing. The few companies that come for ECE include CSE and IT branches as well. And even if by mistake, an ECE student manages to go the the interview round, they’ll ask him programming questions where he’ll start to think whether he joined CSE or ECE. I mean if you wanted a coder, then why allow ECE students. If I wanted to be a coder, I would’ve joined CSE. What’s the use of taking ECE if I wanted an IT job.

That’s what people here don’t understand. People even after completing engineering, stand clueless as to how to proceed in life. There’s no shortage of engineering colleges now-a-days in India. There was once a time when an engineer was looked up with great respect. Now it’s nothing.

I had a friend who made every decision whatever she wanted with her life, didn’t matter how many branches or fields she had to change. I know that’s hard, but I respect her for that.

I’ve been through many personal experiences in life which have made me take this question so seriously. Students aren’t just students. They can be anything they want to. Even if that gives them very less income, it’s something they’ll enjoy doing in life. When you make your hobby your job, that’s the life you want.

It’s just a normal topic of discussion in the current scenario of Indian students. Hope you guys liked it.

The Competition: Formula Student

It’s been a while but I’m back with more from my small Eurotrip.

The event kick started with engines roaring and motors spinning. Wherever you look, you could see just cars. The statics started off where all the teams presented their car alongwith the various reports which the competition required and simultaneously whichever teams passed scrutineering were allowed to go for the dynamic events which included skid pad, acceleration and endurance. The event was full of crowd with people of countries from all over the world. I went and stood beside the endurance tracks and watched the cars racing by, some roaring and some silently (both combustion and electric).

We weren’t that lucky to compete in the dynamic events due to some technical failures in the car but we got to learn a lot from all the teams over there. We participated in the statics though. The experience was something that I can guarantee that all of us who were there will never forget.

During our stay in Hockenheim, all of us slept in tents in the camp-site which was fun. People talking about other people and then realizing that the guy he was talking about is popping his head out from one of the tents and giving him a “I’ll kill you” look.

Breakfast everyday used to be apples and energy drinks from Mercedes and Porsche stalls. We had our dinner at a place called “City Grill” every night. The first day I tried something called “Yufka”. It was horrible. So from the next day it was just pizza or burger or fries. We also filled our tents with food stocks from “Penny’s”, a mart where you get everything to eat in really cheap prices. We spent 4 days in Hockenheim amidst cars that I could only dream of seeing; BMW i8, Porsche 918 Spyder, Tesla cars, Corvette, etc. There were teams playing games at night in the campsite, games that I saw for the first time in my life. During the third day of the event, another event started in the same ring which was some American muscle car event. All funky cars, modified with everything possible showed up, even many biker gangs were there; everything was like we see it in movies.

The best part about Hockenheim was its weather. The cold breeze hitting your face whenever you are out in the open makes you feel so refreshed. One night I stayed up late till 6 am working with some of my friends in the pit. While I was coming back from the pit to the camp-site which was a 15 minutes’ walk, I couldn’t feel my hands even though my hands were deep inside my jacket pockets.

The day the event was over, MAHLE threw a grand party in celebration of the event. They gave away the prizes to the top 3 teams in bot combustion and electric and then the party started. There were drinks, sandwiches, burgers, etc. People asking out random people as if they knew what was happening but in reality had no clue about it. People even exchanged t-shirts of their teams as a remembrance of the event which was an amazing way to show respect to the competitor. Some people realized that they had exchanged t-shirts the next morning when they woke up.

After the party was over, people returned to their camp-sites where the after-party started. Teams playing games against other teams. The games were related to drinking which is hard to explain in writing, so I’ll skip through it.   

So all in all the event was an excellent time for all the people over there. We got to meet new people from across the globe, make new friends and come back with a hell of a story to tell.

The next morning we shipped the car back and then the main trip started. Our whole team split in 3 groups. My group consisted of 6 people. When we had made our itinerary, we kept a buffer day for the competition but as everything went as planned, the competition got over as it should have and we were left with an extra day. Our bus was supposed to leave from Heidelberg the next morning and it was 12 pm by my watch then. Calculating the expense of visiting Stuttgart, we decided not to go as it would kill our budget. So we decided to leave for Heidelberg and decide what to do there on the way.

 

Wait for the next blog for the rest of my trip.

Enter -> Germany

Okay, so where were we? Yes, VENICE. Probably you guys would be wondering how some of our friends landed in Venice. There was a mishap with the flight seat numbers and so some of them couldn’t be accommodated. Hence, they were given flight tickets to Frankfurt via Venice because that was the earliest flight they could take to Frankfurt. They arrived at Frankfurt around 4 hours later.

So, landing in Frankfurt, everyone was really excited about the 17 days ahead of us in a completely new country. We got our luggage and then decided on how to reach the hostel that we had pre-booked. We went to the train station thinking we’ll get a train. But what do you know….everything over there is in German. You try to ask people, they don’t understand English properly…..once in a blue moon you meet a guy who understands English. Luckily we got an Indian family who helped us out with ticket vending machine and got us tickets. The trains are amazing over there. The first sight of Frankfurt city when the train came out of the subway was really great. There was a huge canal that we crossed. It was beautiful. The cars in Germany---there are no words to express it. You look around yourself and you can see just Audis, Volkswagens, BMWs, Mercs, etc everywhere. I even got to see some familiar Suzuki cars over there life Swift, Wagon R, Zen,etc.  We changed our trains from Frankfurt Central. We were looking around everywhere when suddenly I noticed our hostel’s name written somewhere. So we got down at the next stop which was Galluswarte. This was the place we stayed in for the next 4 days.

Checking in the hostel for the whole team took a long time. Then we went to our rooms and took rest as all of us were really tired. After sometime our friends from Venice also joined us in the hostel.

The next 4 days went on with team meetings and work as we prepared for our car to arrive from India. We also did a lot of surveys for some components which we required during the event and so some of us had to go and buy components. The first day out in Frankfurt was kind of fun. We had no idea where to go for components and also no idea how to reach various places as we had to change a lot of trains to reach various locations. Luckily the locations were narrowed down by a little help from a senior of ours. We roamed around shops hoping to find something but in vain. Most of the shops were closed by noon as it was a Saturday. Finally we took a tram to a mart named “Hornbach”--The biggest mart I have ever been in. From a small screw to a big lawn mower, you will get anything in there. We got what we needed and then came back to the hostel. So eventually we spent the whole day out. The next day went with frequent visits to Hornbach as we required more components. One morning we were in the reception of the hostel and looking out the window I saw a Merceded SLS AMG park right in front of our hostel. Everyone was really excited seeing the car. For me, it was a hell of a sight. This car is among one of my favourite cars. Everyone started clicking pictures. The driver inside realized the craze among the youngsters outside his car and revved the accelerator hard--that sound "My oh my".

Finally our car arrived from India and we worked on it for a day and then we sent it to the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim where half of our team had already reached to receive the car. There were 7 of us left in Frankfurt. It was 4 pm by my watch and we had to reach Hockenheim by 6 pm as there were some registration formalities to be taken care of. We had to rush to the Galluswarte station. We had booked cheap tickets beforehand and so we weren’t worried about the fare. But good things don’t happen always. By the time we reached Frankfurt Central to catch our train to Hockenheim, our train had already left. So we booked 7 tickets to Hockenheim which was a connecting train via Manheim. We reached by 6.30 pm.

As soon as we got out of the station, we saw the cars there and we understood that it was not at all like Frankfurt. There were vintage cars. We were lucky enough to get a lift in a vintage Merc all the way to the racetrack. Being from a right hand sided driving country, it felt pretty weird to see the guy driving sitting in the left seat. We reached the campsite, paid the amount necessary and then keeping our luggage immediately ran to the racetrack. It was around a 2 kms walk from our tents. It was late but the registration for all the teams took a long time and so we weren’t that late. The drivers’ names were registered alongwith the technical head of the team.

All of us were filled with immense motivation seeing other teams. The cars that some of the top teams had- you could just look at the cars and forget everything else. When I looked at one of the cars, I was like “Really, this is built by students!!!”. The European teams have a wonderful way of going to different competitions. They have their own truck, and by truck I mean a huge Mercedes truck where they have their workstation and the car and they roam around Europe going to various events throughout the season.

The next 4 days were spent in the pit or in the campsite, either working or sleeping.

I’ll write more about the event and also about the rest of the trip in my upcoming blogs.

Hope you guys liked it.

Abroad for the first time!!!!

Back with a totally new blog and a wonderful experience. 

It’s a craze among everyone to go abroad atleast once in their lifetime, get to meet new people, know their life styles, etc. But very few people actually get to live it. I was lucky enough to join “Team Ojas” which gave me wonderful experience of making a formula electric car and also give me the opportunity of going to EUROPE. Yes, Europe; the trip of a lifetime and that too with friends. We represented our university in the Hockenheimring in Germany.

The trip started off by taking a “traveller” bus from our university to Chennai International Airport. Everyone was really excited about the trip as it was the first time abroad for many of us. We boarded the Qatar Airways flight at around 5 in the morning. It was such an amazing flight with a hell lot of movies, TV series and songs collection and also a lot of additional features.

 The flight took off at around 6. Excitement rushed through my veins when the flight was picking up speed in the runway. The flight journey was awesome with our next stop being DOHA (UAE). Being tired from the previous night out, I fell asleep in the flight and only woke up when the flight was landing DOHA and what I saw outside my window was simply amazing. The DOHA airstrip is right next to the sea. So you can imagine what the scenery was from my window.

Our connecting flight to Frankfurt was 2 hours later. So we walked from one side of the airport to the other side for the next flight. Words will be less to express how huge the Doha airport is. With horizontal elevators and trams running inside the airport, it’s just something you don’t get to see always. After the security check in we had some time to kill. There I bought a cup of coffee for 4 €, it was no longer rupees anymore. Then it was time for us to board the flight for Frankfurt. We boarded and then got to know that some of our friends didn’t board the flight as there were some seating issues. The flight took off and some of our friends were left at Doha. The flight from Doha to Frankfurt was a 6 hour journey. I saw some movies, listened to the songs, had food, etc. The moment we landed Frankfurt we got to know that our friends who were left in Doha were given a flight to VENICE. I was like “WHAAAAT!!”.

Stay tuned for more about my small Eurotrip J

Teenage Life

Exams going on, still feel like writing something. It’s been a long time since I blogged. This time I’m here with no game review but something on life of a common teenager in India.

It’s really weird how something you loved and cared about dearly suddenly doesn't mean anything to you at all. You don’t feel like talking about it. You don’t even feel like looking back into your past and thinking how it was. You just think that it was the past and your whole future is still ahead of you. How does this feeling come when you were this close to someone? The answer lies inside you. It’s just that you don’t know it. You just keep asking yourself this same question over and over again till you get an answer from yourself. People talk a lot, they like to put their noses in your life, spread rumors which even you don’t know about yourself. It’s really funny to even listen to something which you never ever did from people whom you rarely even know. How come they know so much about your life when even you don’t? That’s today’s world. People are so much busy interfering in other people’s life that they even forget what state they are in.

Yeah I’m an Indian, so what!! People are people…who cares whether they are Indians or Americans. I’m not comparing India’s culture with the USA but still just tell me one thing. You see a boy and a girl together somewhere, the only thing that pops into your head is that they’re a couple. You don’t even think once that they could be brothers and sisters or just good friends. This is typical Indian mentality. This is not it. Some people will even start rumors from just seeing them together …. Rumors that when those two get to know about this, they are so ashamed of themselves that they can’t even be good friends. They feel broken from the inside about their position in the society. They start thinking what others would be thinking about them and many times get depressed. Parents start giving restrictions to both of them. Both of them start losing touch and thus a good friendship comes to an end. If I ask the question, how did this happen? The answer takes us back to that time when someone just saw them “together”.

You might be thinking why I’m talking about all these. These are problems that normal teenagers face in India. Parents are afraid that their children might fall in wrong company and even do things that will harm their life. But even the teens need their space. No one cares about that in India. From our childhood we are taught not to talk to even strangers and when you grow up you are married to someone who is a complete stranger to you. And the best part!! You've no say to this.

You tell your parents that you’re in love with someone. They’ll freak out like anything. You’ll find very few families who will act normally to this statement. Love marriage is considered kind of like a crime in India by elders. Just tell me this, parents send their children to colleges and expect them to only study??? People who do only that have no life according to me. A boy and a girl going to the same college come in touch. They come into talking in general and get to know that both of them like each other’s company. What’s wrong in that!! Indian mentality is to take the Pledge very seriously “All Indians are my brothers and ‘sisters’”. Are you kidding me!! Two people going out is common in the USA but why people look at them with weird eyes when the same thing happens in India.

People need to change their mentality. I know our culture is different from the USA but can’t we just give the teenagers their space. I mean come on, it’s their life not someone else’s. Parents start asking questions as if they are interviewing the poor kid for a job. Hell he thinks even a job interview would be easier than this : P

Teenagers also shouldn't cross their limits and not break their parents’ trusts if they are given such freedom. I’m not saying that do whatever you want. Just make your life something worth living for and not be a bookworm and spend every second thinking about studies. Have fun in life, make friends, don't always go with the crowd, think different. Make your life something that when you look back after many years you'll proudly say that "Yeah, that's me!!".  After all, life is neither a trial run nor a simulation. Enjoy every moment and make your parents proud.

This was just a random thought that crossed my head. Jotted it down. 

Battlefield 4

Back with a completely new review. Hope you guys enjoy…

“Battlefield 4”: A first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by EA. A sequel to Battlefield 3, it was released in late 2013. The battlefield franchise took a wide leap in graphics from Battlefield 3. With much more stunning graphics and an amazing storyline, the game hit the market with a bang.

The HUD is much the same composed of a mini-map at the bottom left of the screen and the ammo level and health at the bottom right. Enemies, squad mates and allies can be easily detected on the map.

Blue: For allies

Red: For enemies

Green: For squad mates 

The game casts the player as Recker. The “engage” feature is really amazing where you can engage your squad mates to execute enemies which are at Recker’s line of sight. Melee attacks are also worth noticing if you are a silent killer. As a gamer, silent killing is not my cup of tea. Still, the feeling after you sneak right into an enemy and execute him with your knife is something you can only realize after you kill someone like that.

In the campaign mode, for the most part, the player must traverse in some cases using vehicles, like tanks and boats, to traverse the environment. The single-player Campaign takes place in 2020, six years after the events of its predecessor. Tensions between Russia and the United States have been running at a record high. On top of this, China is also on the brink of war, as Admiral Chang, the main antagonist, plans to overthrow China's current government. If he succeeds, Chang will have full support from the Russians, bringing China to the brink of war with the United States.

The player controls Recker, a member of a U.S. special operations squad call signed "Tombstone".  His squad mates include squad leader Dunn, second-in-command Irish, and field medic Pac. Early in the Campaign, Tombstone is joined by CIA operative Kovic and Chinese Secret Service Hannah.

From the start of the storyline with rescuing the three VIP’s including Hannah till the end where you get to choose between Hannah and Irish to save( I’ll get to that later), I’m telling you guys, there won’t be a single second where you’ll feel even a little bit bored.

One of the best part of the game that I loved was bombing the dam. You can really feel it when you play. As Recker, you get to plant the bomb and explode the whole dam…..and suddenly when you think you’re enjoying the explosion, the whole dam overflows with water taking you and your squad mates along with it. That was a hell of a scene!!

The final part of the game where Recker, Hannah and Irish volunteer to manually destroy the Chinese ship with explosives. Driving a boat to the warship's blind spot, the trio set the remote charges and use grappling guns to bring them to safety under the Suez Canal Bridge before detonating the explosives. Unfortunately, the remote detonation fails, requiring manual replacement of the charges. Hannah volunteers to set a new charge, but Irish stops her, volunteering to do it himself because China will need Hannah. That was the moment I was shocked to see that I had two options to choose…..either Irish or Hannah. I chose my friend Irish, let Hannah go down to set the explosives and let her die alongwith the ship.

The game gives you a huge adrenaline rush as you struggle your way through different missions and ultimately prove yourself a true American soldier.

So gamers……anyone out there who hasn’t played it till now, go grab your gamepads…. The battle has begun!!!

FIFA 14

The name itself creates an adrenaline rush right through your veins. For all the FIFA fans out there like me, this blog’s for you guys. 

EA Sports’ FIFA 14, as we all know is a sports association football simulation video game. Released in November 2013 in all gaming consoles and PC, it paved its way to an amazing demand in the market. As usual, I got the game form a friend of mine for my PC and am still playing my career mode.

Lionel Messi returns as the main cover star for all regions on the global cover, having been on the cover for FIFA 13 and FIFA Street.

The name FIFA is a craze among boys of our age (though not for some boys). Many even pre-order the game before its release. I didn’t get the original game so downloaded the crack from skidrow and started playing. I faced and am still facing problems in the gameplay due to the crack. Those who have played FIFA 14 using skidrow crack will understand what problems I’m talking about.

Well here are some problems that I faced:

1. .After playing around “two” or “two and a half” games, the whole screen starts shaking as if    the camera is moving to and fro every second.
2.  In career mode, there’s no yellow card. Even if you just try to contain the ball from your opponent, you might get a red card rather than just a foul or a yellow card.
3. The online gaming option isn’t there, but I guess it’s fair because if it was there, then why would someone spend so much money in buying the game when he could have all that just downloading the crack.

 The FIFA graphics took a vast leap from “FIFA 10” to “FIFA 11”, then again a bit improve in ’12 and ’13. Having played all the versions, I can say that ’13 was much better in aspects like:

1.      Graphics (as I played it in an “Alienware” laptop in 3D)

2.      Ball control (quite realistic)

3.      Improved celebrations (as the concept of celebrations started in ’11 only so it took time for improvement)

4.      Practice Arena ( as this was completely new in FIFA)

5.      Career mode (more realistic)

The above mentioned aspects were all continued in ’14. With Neymar Jr. in Barcelona ,Gareth Bale in Real Madrid and Mesut Ozil in Arsenal, the game couldn’t have been any better.

 The game starts with a really inspiring video giveing you goosebumps and a spirit to play football- “The game we love, the game we live for”. (quoting a line from that video)

The most excitement in FIFA among us is the multiplayer option. Playing tournaments with friends in the multiplayer option connecting 4 gamepads, even a one-on-one match against a friend is really hilarious. From the kick-off whistle to the 90 min whistle the excitement in you is simply amazing and this can only be felt by a true FIFA gamer. Am telling you guys, the feeling when you score either a 90 min or a 120 min goal against a friend which gets you the lead is something like you never imagined.

The game contains over sixty stadiums, including thirty-two real-world venues. New additions include La Bombonera in Buenos Aires, Goodison Park, England's first purpose-built football stadium and the Donbass Arena in the Ukraine, home of Shaktar Donetsk. Barcelona's Camp Nou, which was removed from FIFA 13 due to licensing reasons, has been included.  

The music in the background (soundtrack) while you are on the menu is a great feature by the developers. The FIFA commentators:

1.       “Clive Tyldesley” and “Andy Townsend”

2.       “Martin Tyler” and “Alan Smith”

These four add a wonderful excitement in the game by their commentating. I’ve noticed a wonderful thing about this commentating last December which I would like to share. I opened the game on 25^th of December and started playing kick-off when the commentators were like, “Hello and welcome to this exciting match on the day of Christmas”. Not just that, it happened again when I opened the kick-off on 1^st of January when they were like, “A very Happy New Year to all of you”. In both these times I actually paused the game and the word springing in my mind constantly was “How???”. Later I realized that the game is synced with the date on your computer once you save. That’s a really good thing about FIFA 14.

This was for the FIFA fans and I guess even the non-FIFA fans will also start kicking-off once they read this.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this post. Feel free to point out any mistakes and wait for my next post.