First one of '08

Well, me hearties, it’s been two weeks into the new year and I’m nowhere near fulfilling those new year resolutions. No. 1 is very clearly taking a beating. No. 2’s going nowhere (well, I actually did ask a girl out, but that was more as a joke. For the record, it fell flat on its face. Quite, quite flat). Finally I don’t really see what I can do about No.3, considering that I got pretty uptight on more than one occasion while I was in Madras. And it would have been most prudent not to, on each of those occasions. I guess that’s just who I am. A serious, stiff stickler who just can’t let go. And, so far, only alcohol seems to help ;-) No, no alcohol since that one time, in case you’re wondering.

I finally got around to watching Anniyan. And this was after I’d seen Sivaji. I gotta say that Vikram’s done a good job. So has Prakashraj, although I think Shankar’s played the vendetta angle a little too strongly. Vivek and Sada were pretty good too, within the limited scope of their roles. On the whole, it’s very typical Shankar fare. He makes only two kinds of movies: sappy romance (Kadhalan, Jeans, Boys) or clichéd crusade (Gentleman, Indian, Mudhalvan) Anniyan and Sivaji are just the latest of the second kind. And every single one of them has a completely unbelievable plot, loads of special effects and CGI. Whatever. It makes for good watching, if you can suspend the rational part of your mind (Which you probably do already, if you watch a lot of Indian movies or soaps)

So, there have been some changes in college. Sorry, research institute. According to one of my profs, this place “..was never meant to be a college in any sense of the word. It’s a research institute where they ALSO teach undergraduate students” And surprisingly, this doesn’t bother any of my classmates. We have no life, barring academics. None of the other colleges in Pune know that we exist. Our course load is worse than that of the IITs (until this semester atleast). And there’s barely any support from the faculty for our extra-curricular activities. Plus, none of the students seem to be taking any initiative. I organised a quiz almost single handedly in November, but that’s about it. Oh, they do come up with grandiose schemes about what can be done, but there’s so much bickering going on that they don’t even come close to any kind of workable concept.

Enough bitching. (BTW, it feels really good to get this stuff off my chest and into cyberspace) The biggest of the changes is the new academic building. It’s not much, three floors of an office block (about 30000 sq.ft. altogether). Plus, the whole place has a very corporate feel to it. Doesn’t feel like a research institute even, come to think of it. The other big change is the reduced coursework. Only 7 compulsory courses, worth 16 credits altogether. So, things aren’t totally hopeless around here.

Here ends my “state of the person” piece. Expect something a little more light hearted next time!