Thursday, October 9, 2008

DZone - The Evolution of DZone

5th September 08 : It was my classmate’s Devesh’s party, as he had got placed in Sasken Technologies, the world leader in embedded system n microchip designing.
All our classmates (guys only, after all, gals don’t come at night LOL) and many of his friends had gathered at his place for the party. After a heavy dinner, I along with a few others decided to stay back at his place, over night.
25th August ’08 : We came to college and saw the posters bearing Thunderbirds everywhere. What does that mean? No one, atleast I didn’t have any idea what it was. Later, It was revealed that a few students of our class had formed a group called Thunderbirds to conduct events in the college. So, many students, including me (of course me, that’s why I am writing this), felt offended as how can these people do this without telling anyone. After all we all are classmates, they should have had a good discussion over it.
Back to 5th September 08: 12:00 midnight:
Everybody had slept till then except my classmate Rajesh and me. Rajesh and I were talking on this Thunderbirds. Devesh was busy in his some USUAL work.

“What the fuck? How can these lamers do this. They haven't even bothered to have us also with them. After all we all are from the same class. They didn't even inform us being our classmates before all this decision.”

“True, this is simply ridiculous. They can't go alone. Rather, they shouldn't go alone. It had been a lot better if all of us had been working together.”

“Yeah, but one thing that I admire is that atleast they are doing a good job anyhow if they succeed.”

“They haven’t contacted us, because if they had done, they would have gone unnoticed, this is for sure.”

“Very True. Holy Shit. We have to get into a healthy competition with them and let us super pass them.”

“Let us also do some thing. Something different, Let's show them that they had done a wrong job by starting on their own.”

“What exactly?”

“Well it should not be any routine quiz or exam or game. Some what different. What about a tutorial class? ”

“Fantastic. But what will we teach? And 1 important thing, it shall have to be free of cost. No registration fees at all. Beat Thunderbirds here as well.”

“Sure. 100%. But, whom to teach, what to teach, we shall decide this later, after we get the permission to organize such a workshop.”

“Yeah, the teacher might doubt us for the groupings.”

“Definitely, they will. We will have to convince them well enough.”

DZone - ReLoaded


6th September ’08: It was a Saturday, our project lab day. I called Devesh and told him about all the talks of the previous night. Then I called Rajesh and all the three of us went to the CSE Department, to ask for the permission for the workshop. As was doubted, Siddharth Sir immediately said about the grouping creep. But anyhow, we convinced them that it was an independent event.
“But what will you people teach?”, asked the teachers, Anuj Sir & Manish Sir.
And we were blank, as none of us had any idea as what was about to be taught.
“Sir, we’ll survey all the students and ask them what points do they feel like to be taught well. We’ll share our Computer experience with them”, was my master reply.
“Ok, try it.”, replied Manish Sir, the CSE faculty.

Very soon, I was in the 3rd year CSE lecture room and inquired them. I told them that we shall be organizing a practical workshop on computer languages and if they would be interested in that. The response was over whelming. Quickly, I decided that it would be latest website development technologies, different platforms and Operating Systems, and computer languages to be covered in our workshop.
I showed the response sheet to Manish Sir, CSE department. He immediately agreed and in a few hours a notice was on the display about “A Practical Workshop on Computers being conducted by Devesh, Rajesh & Arpit.”
After we came back home, from the college we decided the name of the workshop being OZONE, and I asked Rajesh to design the logo for the same. He did.
But, just before the new notice being printed, I decided to change the name from OZONE to DZONE- The Developer’s Guide.
The reason for the name change won’t be disclosed.
Later, started our sleepless nights and class bunks, preparing the content for our workshop. All the presentations were prepared manually by the three of us.

DZone - Revolutions


Very soon the day arrived.
Devesh and I went to invite to HODs of all the departments. As we entered the room of our CSE HOD she started to shout on us.
She said “You people caused the bunk the previous day and this way I won’t let you conduct any event.”
“Fuck Sake.” I said to myself. Some faculty members had complained to the HOD about the bunk that was done by the students without our knowledge. And teachers took our name(DZone's name)that these guys have caused the bunk. Though I doubt ThunderBirds group for the bunk. But, I am not sure. Yeah, if they did, then I must say:

‘All is fair in love and war, and this definitely wasn’t love by any means. I loved their diplomacy. ’
Both of us, Devesh and I had to listen to a lot of things from our HOD, and we did, as the rivals had played nicely, and we were plump. Any how we convinced her that it was not intentional but accidental.
“Crap Over.”, I said to Devesh, “Now Hurry. Hope nothing bad happens now.”
19th September ’08: Day 1: The first day of our workshop. I was there with the microphone welcoming all the students and teachers.
The first session was mine, with basics of website development. Next, was C by Devesh. All the content was fabulous to make every one present there, amazed. Later was PHP, by Anant and Anurag, our classmates (and also the owner of Thunderbirds. We counted them just to avoid teachers suspecting us for grouping. Damn POLITICS. I hate that but at times you just have to do what you really hate.)
20th September’ 08: Day 2: We started with UNIX n LINUX. Rajesh and I presented it. Again, a fabulous content. We taught the JANTAA to play with Linux of which generally they are scared of. Next was Database (Oracle and MS SQL Server). It was given by two other classmates, Monika and Abhinav.
21st September ’08: Day 3: Devesh and I started with JAVA. No bore content was covered. We demonstrated some fabulous networking stuff in JAVA. Then we taught Multithreading live examples, right from Windows Media Player and Smartmovie Player.
Next was ADVANCED JAVA, by Rajesh and ME again. It was some practical and very technical stuff about Servlets, Beans and JSP.
With that, we finished our 3 day workshop.
Frankly speaking, it was really fun conducting that workshop and also, we miss those nights talking on DZone and preparing the plans and stuff for DZone.
We had started DZone to compete with ThunderBirds, but now, we had forgotten about that rivalry. Instead, it was soothing to see that some thing good is happening and our juniors are learning from this.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Attitude

What attitude is according to you..?? Is it the arrogance..? Or the pride which creeps in some due to success achieved..??
Well, absolutely NO. The attitude is your behavior or the way you respond to the things or rather everything that you face. Many think attitude as being the negative feature of any person, at least most people in my social circle in my vicinity think so.
Infact, attitude is required for every success to be achieved, however big or small. The outlook that one perceives towards any challenge he faces determines his chances to succeed.
There are many people who have a negative attitude towards everything. They are not confident of their abilities or of their caliber. They are pessimists. These people never make it to the high level of success in life.
Attitude is required for achieving anything and everything in life, damn anything. The more optimist, the more self-confident you are, your chances to succeed enhance. Every successful person, who-so-ever you figure has a very promising and self determined attitude in life.
According to me, attitude is the foremost quality that should be present in any person to reach his goals. There is a saying “Confidence is the key to success”. This confidence in you reflects in your attitudes. The positive attitude ensures your success. Only the positive attitude makes your work more than half done.
“Attitude, Confidence, Self-belief and Self-determination ensure every success.”

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

What Congress actually is..??

The whole of our country is a mere spectator to the political games being played at the center. Though, we are adjudged being the largest democracy of the world, but the raw fact is that all the democratic games are fixed. All the voting procedures are not authentic and forge-voting is very common.
Congress currently holds the office at the center.
The consequences are:
1.) There is a steep rise in prices of all goods. The inflation rate has crossed 13%. A record in the 20 odd years.
2.) The land allotted to Amarnath Shrine in J&K has been taken back by the government. This is because, the Congress holds the government in J&K, as well, and they are in accordance with the militant group Hurriat.
The majority of Indian population is Hindu by religion. Now, the land for Amarnath has been taken back by the government on the directions of Hurriat group. The Hindus have lost their land in their nation. All credits to Congress.
The reason stands is that the President of Congress is not a Hindu but a Catholic. Why, would she bother about the Hindus? After all, Congress emerged after The Muslim League. Why the hell will they bother about the Hindus?
The Hindu nation India have arranged for the Haj-Terminals at their international airports, but these non-secular militants and government in the center and J&K have taken back the land allotted to Amarnath Shrine, the Hindus’ sacred place.
Why should then we bear these Haj-Terminals and all the minority rights given to the other religion…? Moreover, we know it well that the militants and government in J&K both work together to help Pakistan capture Kashmir.
We always say Hindu Muslim bhai-bhai..
But the Congress have really hampered the Hindu-Muslim unity by its cheap political tactics.
All the games are being played by Congress. Any Muslim doesn’t want any fights. No Muslim wants tragedies going in the country he resides.
But, the Congress government pays all support to the militants and pretends as if they are working for the country.

Beijing Olympics 2008

Today: 11th, August 2008: So, after a long wait of 28 years India have finally won a gold at the Olympics. The Indian rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra wins the gold in the shooting event. After 1980, it was the first time that India have got a gold in any event at the Olympics and for the first time ever in any Individual Event in the Olympics. India participated in the Olympics in 1900 for the first time. The whole country is over whelmed at Bindra’s performance. All the news channels are flashing that news constantly.
But India, being the second largest country in the world population-wise and seventh largest area-wise, can’t produce people who are capable of winning gold at the Olympic Games. Who should be blamed? The sports persons themselves or the whole system responsible for this dilemma?
Well, USA, far behind India in the population can every time beat all the nations to top the charts at the Olympics. Whereas, we the Indians, always rank somewhere in the bottom. It’s a shame. It’s a shame for every person sitting at the positions holding the authority for governing the sporting activities in India. These people should be put to direct question, by the general public on our immensely bad performance at the international level in sports. Let it be any sport other than cricket these days, India are in a pitiful situation at the international level. The internal infra-structure has been worsened by these corrupt officials who just aim for their personal prosperity. These corrupt people have always shamed the country at the international platforms.
It’s high-time that our government should take some strong steps towards this issue. But, it is a Catch-22 situation. The government too comprises of these same corrupt people.
So, where lies the solution..?? No-body knows…

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Accenture Recruitment

Just after my Infosys recruitment on 25th evening, i stayed back in Lucknow itself at my dearest friend Rohit's place... He is there in KGMC, so had to spent a couple of days there, as i has my Accenture written exam on 28th March' 08.

The center for the Accenture, was again the same college as Infosys, the SRMCEM college., in Lucknow. This was the pool campus for the whole UP having more than 15000 aspirants. I felt like a tiny pebble in that ocean of candidates...

Well, after a long, tiring and simply stupid (because of stupid arrangements done to handle such a mass) registration process, we got to enter the examination hall 2-3 hours after the scheduled time.. The written paper was easy... I wrote the paper quickly and came back to KGMC at my friend's place... and i was back to Kanpur the next day.

The result was to be declared by email and we got the notification on the 3rd April '08. Then, again I was in Lucknow for the GD and interview. Only 695 of the whole pack of aspirants could clear the written test. I was residing at my friend's place again. So, reached the center on the 5th morning and we all were asked to wait for the GD after a 1 hour presentation (pre-placement talk or PPT). My call for GD was at 12 noon.. We had it for around 20 minutes and the result was declared immediately then. It was for the first time in my life that i had ever faced a GD, and the good thing was that i had cleared it... 295 candidates had cleared the GD round...

Then, we were asked to wait for the interview. But unfortunately, after waiting for the whole day till 10pm, I wasn't called for the interview.. After some time, the Acccenture delegates told us that due to the large number of students and it getting late, some students were scheduled the next day, to be interviewed. And i was one of them.

6th April' 08: The next day again, that wait for interview started.. I got the chance for my HR interview quickly.. I was a bit happy as i got a quick chance.. The interviewer was a young man.. and really very-very impressive.. He interviewed me well for about half an hour and i responded well, i think.. After the interview, he asked me to wait for the result. Within a span of 10 minutes, I got the news that I had cleared the HR round and now had to wait for the Technical interview round..

Now, the mammoth wait started... i was waiting all hungry and damn, i was the second last candidate of the day to be called for the Technical Interview...
This Interview was again a fantastic one... The interviewer and I shared the same hobbies..

Photography

He questioned me a lot.. We also shared the same choices for the computer language. i.e.

JAVA

.
The interview was really interesting. The most interactive interview that i had faced up till then.

The interview was over after some 30 minutes again. It was a very nice one that i heartily enjoyed. Both the Accenture interviewers were very friendly.

The results were declared after 2-3 more my hungry hours.... :-)
In all 154 selections were made.. and as the names were being announced, i went numb. I went hopeless thinking that I was out. I hadn't made it. But, the last was ARPIT GAUR... Surprisingly, the last name... I had really experienced breath-taking moments during that announcement. I can't describe my anxiety in words...

I had to wait for some farewell speech from those Accenture delegates and then i was OFF. I immediately called my mom for the news and my friend Rohit. Then i took my bike (rather Rohit's bike that i had borrowed for the day in Lucknow) and went to Hazrat Ganj in high spirits.. I treated myself well , first of all as i was damn hungry..
Then i went back to Rohit's place and our celebrations started..
The next day was my Birthday 7th April, so the celebrations were amazing, confined to the two best friends.. he and me... Then, i don't know when we slept....

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Results Day Out

It was a March day, the sixth semester was going on.

The results of 5th semester were about to be declared anytime, the University site had showed the probable date for the result declaration.

November 07:My respected faculty member Mr. Siddharth Tripathi had challenged me to cross 80%, in the exams. I had promised him that i'll try my best to achive it, rest the fate would have it in itself. We had a very long chat session one night, and he was constantly telling me about doing this. Also, he was using some very harsh and aggresive words in his speech that at times i felt offended, bt i kept my cool. I replied him that i'll try my best, repeatedly. Moreover, I also said that i am not fascinated by marks, i never want to go for marks rather pure knowledge about what we are studying.

But my teacher was stuck. He constantly, said "Dont talk that way. Just show me 80% marks against your name in these exams". It had been too much for my ego now. Please dont think that i am too egoistic, but actually it had been so many times that i finally got fired up. Also, getting above 80% marks in my university UPTU is really a big deal. Though, i had scored 83.2% in my 1st semester, still it seemed a mammoth task to me. I said, "Sir, I will. I will show you 80% marks."

Then, after some time in December 07, the first week we had our final internal exams. I tried my best. I has never studied overnight constantly for so many days as i had done this time. Still in 2 subjects my score wasn't the highest. I was again emabrresed by my teacher, "You said you'll get the highest marks. Where are they..?? You are finished dude. I can't see you beating my challenge." I replied, "Sir, I'll talk to you after 3 months when our results are out."

After a week or so, we had our final university exams. I did well according to me. I was now keeping my fingers crossed for my results over 80%. Meanwhile, never talked to the teacher.

Now, the result was declared in March. It was 11pm. I got the news that the results were out. I checked in. Got 80.1%. The challenge was done. I had topped the college. Till then the clock had ticked 12 midnight. I picked up my phone, rang my teacher Mr. Siddharth Tripathi, immediately then. I told him my result. He congratulated me and was very happy for me.

I was happy, overjoyed NOT on the result, but ONLY because i had won my challenge.

I was thinking that the only reason for this result was My TEACHER. If he hadn't fired me so much. I wouldnt have crossed the mark. I was thanking him for his motivation and his believe in me that i could do that.

Though not a big deal in terms of figures, but success, even smallest of those make me over-whelmed. I am never satisfied with myself. Only, such small happenings in life make me realize worth my life..

By now, as today i am writing this, the results for the 6th semester are also out. I have again topped the college as in 5th semester. This time its even more. A figure of 81.1%.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Infosys Recruitment

This was the best of the three recruitment process that i had faced uptil now.

It was 25th March'08, just 2 days after Holi. 

Again it was a pool-campus procedure, and our center was SRMCEM college in Lucknow this time..

I had arrived the center at 7:30 am coz of excitement though the reporting time was 8:30. After some time other batch-mates also arrived. All the candidates were asked to register firstly, and then we all were supposed to wait...

The written test was conducted after a loooong wait, i must say. The paper was a good one.. Quantitative Aptitude section was damn easy, but English Vocabulary and RC section was really a hard nut to crack.. The written paper was over at 1 pm and then again our long wait for the result started....

This time this WAITING TIME was 3 hours and result was declared at 4 pm... Immediately, we were called for the Interview. Infosys had only one interview round and no GD. It was surprising for me, atleast.. I immediately tied my neck-tie and rushed up into the alloted room for the Interview. 

I was the first candidate to be called for the Interview from my slot. As i entered the room, I saw an OLD MAN, in his mid seventies.. Amazing was the man, as was his appearence.. He looked fragile, i never expected such an interviewer for me... But, he was a learned man, this i realized when he started his part of work...

All the questions she asked me were TRUE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.. He asked for my Curriculum Vitae and questioned from all the points that i had mentioned in my CV.. he asked me to examplify every skill or quality that i had mentioned in it..

I think i was doing well till that point of time...

Finally, after a tough fight for almost half-an-hour, he asked me a puzzle.. and said that i could leave after that puzzle... I was rejoiced on seeing the puzzle.. It was a minimising puzzle, simple i said to myself.. I immediately rubbed my pen against the refined pulp, and prompted the answer.. He confirmed it twice and i was stuck on my answer... 

Bt when he asked me to recheck it, i was numb. I had maximised the minimising problem... I was caught, plump....

All my confidence shattered, I was down and he asked me to wait for the results....

I took a leave from the room after thanking him (a formal act to be done after every interview), though i was down, quite down on my stupidity in the final question. I had done all well throughout the interview but the last nail in the coffin was suppossed to be from my side itself...

I headed for the waiting room, grumbling to myself about myself...

Again after a long wait of some 2-3 hours at around 9 pm the results were declared... i still can recall that i was shivering as i thought that final puzzle had buried me down for sure... But i was over-whelmed when the HR representative called out my name... I was shocked to hear my name, as i wasn't expecting it...

But again, now I was an Infoscion.....

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Satyam Recruitment

After spending some more days of my vacations, I went back to college... coz of Placement bells.. 

Satyam Computers was visiting our college for their recruitment process..

As was a mandatory thing, i too had a dream of getting through the selection procedure....

It was 18th of jan, 08 and i was writing my Satyam written test at 12 noon.

The results were out at 4 pm and i had cleared. I knew i would, coz the paper was easy. Now the tough time was to start..

We were made to wait till 10pm for our pre-placement talk. This wait for all for crap reasons.. Even those guys making us wait, didn't know, why they were doing so...


Had it till 11 pm. and returned home all finished up. hadn't eaten anything the whole day..

So dat was a stupid deed by Satyam...

Anyways, next day i had my HR Interview, and bingo..!! I cleared it also.. Bt unfortunately, we were asked to stay back for the day coz of Technical Interview, though it never happened that day. Again after waiting till midnight, we were asked to come the next day, for the technical interview.

I was really sucked up... the next day, i.e 20th Jan, 08, I got up and thought that i would not go to attend the interview. I had never wanted to go for a job after the B.Tech, instead i was all for a MBA degree.. But, due to some instinctive feeling, i went for the interview...

It was really an INTERVIEW.. All core question and the Assistant Vice President of Satyam Computers interviewing me on C, C++, JAVA, and Oracle... he was quick in his questions and I was replying with the best of my efforts... And finally i MADE IT...

The HR representative informed me soon after my interview that i was through the recruitment activity...

Now, I was a SATYAMITE.. as they call themselves..