Whew! It seems like its been a while since I updated my blog (not since March), and lack of events is the last reason for this! Where do I start? My recruitment at C-DAC Pune? My success with the MGPT (at last!!!)? or the fail grade for my ENCO project? Seems mostly academic huh, for a person whom many of my faculty members swear does nothing but sleep in their classes? I guess I’m the least studious of the serious guys out here amongst my peers. Sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? It certainly is, but then, that is the way things are with me!

The ups and downs Having performed extremely well in the first quarter (both by my own standards as well as practical performance) my grades started slipping southward and it has been so for a while now. Software engineering might be really important and all that, but I found it extremely boring and the teaching faculty were upset with me on account of my not masking my disinterest. People around me were cheating to get attendance, but at least I was attending the classes, albeit physically, but this made me the most obnoxious student, the one with the worst attitude and what not. I’m not taking on a holier than thou stance, make no mistake. I have learned more things in the past seven eight months than what I learned in the three years of my graduation. It’s just that different people have different levels of absorption. While some people can take in anything and everything that is dished out to them, some others perform only in those areas which interest them. Maybe the latter attitude is foolish, maybe selfish, but that is where I am. I was least interested in software engineering and ENCO and my performance (or the lack of it) showed. The quizzes are another matter, as its all about getting the guesses right. A lot like Russian Roulette, with far less severe consequences and far higher chances of coming through. While I’m really indebted to NCST for teaching me various things, I think that the quizzes are a sad joke. Let me stop bashing FPGDST and move on to happier things.

Recruited by C-DAC, Pune I was recruited by C-DAC Pune when they visited our campus, and I look forward to working there, but from what ‘inside sources’ tell me, I better pull up my socks and do a better job of motivating myself to work harder in order to be able to do well. I’ve been selected to work for NPSF (National Param Supercomputing Facility) as a technical associate.

Clearing the MGPT hurdle! I finally tasted success in the MGPT and was it sweet! Having put in a lot of work and ending up so near yet so far on more than one occasion, I had made up my mind to tackle only one problem, giving the other the go-by, even if I knew both. That was exactly what I did. And it paid off. Felt like I had won the Oscar or something.

All set for the grand finale! The final quarter of the course promises to be the most interesting part of the course yet. Many of my fellow students have already left the course, but then, the course hardly mattered to them anyway, so it makes no difference. All the people who care for the course are still around, predictably. I have always wanted to learn Linux internals and learn to write device drivers and I have got an opportunity to translate both dreams into reality. I have opted for Linux kernel internals as my elective and have opted for a project in device drivers in Linux. It feels nice. I look forward to putting in some serious work and I have a feeling that I’m going to do well.