I only wish if I...

You know that feeling right...that you wish you had done something in the past which you missed out on because you never paid too much attention to it, or you were too shy, or just didnt have time or may be the stars conspired against you. I am feeling that right now. I know its the finals and I should be studying and deep inside my books and Hector's slides, but somehow I am a bit sad that I missed out on what I did. And that thing is - gaming on the LAN at my Alma mater, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, for short IIITA. I only wish I had gamed and gamed till I dropped. I only wish I had cursed/shouted myself hoarse in that Advanced Programming Lab in CC1. I only wish I knew the moves to ducking and blowing the brains out of my opponent out there on the LAN. I wish I knew that when someone said 'Fire in the hole', there was no fire in no hole.

But I can only wish, for I never did play. And now I regret. Anyways, at least I play Foosball now, big scale down from gaming on the LAN, but oh well...I guess i took the road less traveled.

More about life as a grad student

Hi Guys, thought that instead of acting as a reporter for events on campus, I was act as a reporter for happenings in my life. So been a really hectic journey this quarter. Its almost over with finals looming over my head. This last part of the quarter is really one big roller coaster. Anyways, kinda funny what happened to me last weekend. And dont take this as a revenge post or me trying to get back at someone - but this guy that I know here - he ditched me 3 times in 2 days - I got up at 9:30 on a Saturday to rendezvous with him (we had to go somewhere) and he was fast asleep till 12. Then, we had to order something from the market, and he never even called me to ask me what I wanted, so I was left without milk and bread - no breakfast for next 3 days :( . Then after promising to show up for a thing we needed to go together - he didnt even have the courtesy to call and cancel - no, his mantra - "Just dont show up and people will understand!" Well for people reading this blog, just a simple word of trying to be punctual, trying to be on time, goes a long way, i mean you dont have to hold the door open for me while we both are exiting Starbucks, but at least dont slam it on my face. I felt like such a fool, you know how that saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice and shame on me!

Anyways, and this week an exact opposite thing happens. Imagine this - you scrap someone (random) with a query on orkut and they actually reply back with details in an email! On further questions, they call you for exact and detailed information. My God I was impressed. Thanks R**m! I mean these little acts of doing a little bit more than what people expect really really do you a lot of good. I mean it might not get you a PhD in Computer Science, but it will make the world a better place. I dont know if I am sounding philosophical, but hey - I really believe this.

In other news, I now blog for the Unofficial Stanford Blog . I posted a blog on Holi last week. Probably wont post for a while, finals are really killing me. And also, my research work has been hectic for sometime. I am building this online tool which will help microarray researchers and clinical researchers. And the whole apache permissions and PHP had given me a tough time, but thank God with some help and lot of hair-pulling I have been able to get somewhere. Even under all this work, I took some time off to watch this movie - Road to Guantanamo. You can catch the trailer here:

Its a real powerful movie, showcasing some really sad events which took place post 9/11.

In other news, Suchit finally made it UC Santa Cruz for his PhD in Computer Science. Alok Parlikar is also coming this way, probably going to CMU (might change to Wisc-Mad). Folks from IIITA are waiting to hear about their admits from Stanford and so am I. All the best guys.

Thomas Friedman and the First Law of Petro-Politics

So the last week was the Entrepreneurial Week as promoted by the US Congress and also celebrated with fanfare here on campus. But also, we had the prestigious Stanford Environment Conference - Energy Crossroads, 2007. And though the entrepreneurial week kickoff had some really good speakers (I wanna blog about that later), the one guy who blew me off my feet just by his oratory skills and the way he drove his point home was the NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. I mean the guy is a genius. Fit to be the President of the US, the guy is so sharp and has such a keen intellect. I mean his 1.5 hour long lecture was at no point a boring thing - he kept his audience spell bound at all times. For example he would say - 'please switch off all your cell phones, pages, pace makers, etc'. And the close to 2000 people in the Memorial Auditorium would burst into laughter. But he put forth some fascinating ideas which were like thus (the draft is kinda rough as I am mostly reproducing my notes which i took while listening to his lecture):

1. Projecting America in a green way could be a way to re-unite the nation in a new way.

2. Jobs, Temperature and Terrorism are the big questions facing America at the dawn of the 21st century - but cannot be addressed by an America divided in red, blue and green states.

3. After ww2 Eisenhower used the threat of communism to build the highway system - to move weapons - lead to atrophy of railway system - US became addicted to cars - i(Friedman) am not here to propose radically altering our car culture - but we do need to fuel our future in a clean way - the next president has to unite us on clean energy.

4. We (the US) is funding both sides of the war - buying oil from Saudi Arabia and thus funding the 15 out of the 19 people responsible for 9/11 (who were from Saudi). Suggested reading - "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright.

5. The First Law of Petro-Politics: The price of oil and the freedom operate conversely - as the price goes up pace freedom goes down, if oil is at $30 per barrel people in states like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Angola, Nigeria will demand and get more freedom, but when it is close to $70, less freedom in the countries.

6. The US army was a critical instrument for civil rights in this country - if the army goes green - it could be a hugely important institution for making green the new red, white and blue.

7. If China keeps growing at 8% a year, it will have the same per capita as us in 2021, will have a per day consumption of oil equal to 99 million barrels, while the world today produces only 84 million barrels.

8. You cannot tell China and India that we have gone dirty, you go green. In fact China and India already warned us.

9. This year(2006), what shocked me, daffodils in my drive way in Washington DC in January, first time in living memory, Moscow had a Christmas without snow, UK had the highest temperature since it started recording its weather in 1600s.

10.The good news is that people are alive to the problem - we have to avoid going past the doubling of the CO2 level in atmosphere as compared to the eve of the industrial revolution. Here is our challenge - if we do nothing - we will go past doubling in year 2056 - to avoid going past that doubling - and help India china and Brazil - for us to do that will require the biggest industrial project in the history of mankind.

11. 26 trillion watts of energy are required by then, we generate 13 trillion - if we wanna continue to grow from 13 to 26 in a clean green way - we will basically have to generate the rest of the 13 tri from green means - if we do it from nuclear power - we need to build 13000 nuclear reactors - that is like little over 1 a day for the next 30 years.

12. the only thing that can drive tech innovation at that scale is Wall street - challenge is to get green power down to the china price - if we dont have clearn green power scalable to prices in china, India and Brazil - we would be worse off - the real math problem is how do we get these clean green techs down to the China or India price

13. We want to own the technology - but we want to do it at their price - to scale at the china price - unfortunately we dont have an energy policy in this country but energy politics.

14. How nuts is it to invest in ethanol - God bless California - because of the regulations of this state - per capita use of electricity has been flat for the last 30 years - what CA is doing should be should be federal regulation.

15. Who can name the latest energy innovation in this country - dont bother - nuclear power - 1955 - Germany is buying all the silicon - they dont even have Sun out here in Germany - I was in Texas - we have the Saudi Arabia of wind between here in texas and North Dakota - but he had to go to 10 diff regulatory utility companies.

16. Toshiba makes the nuclear plants in Japan - they hv a 40 yr plan - do u know a company in the US with a 1 yr plan.

17. Where is the million person march for green energy - did i miss that - most social reform movements in history - start as protest movements - build a coalition and show that to the government - so i am where i began - the good news - green is the new red white and blue - but are we fooling ourselves?

Holi at Stanford - Desi Ishtyle

Holi, the very popular annual Hindu Spring festival was celebrated at Manzanita Park this last Saturday with lots of colors, water and some mud as well! Holi marks the onset of spring in India. So why is Holi celebrated?? Well there are various stories in ancient Hindu texts but the three most important reasons can be found here.


But on campus the Hindu Students Council had really done a good job of guaranteeing a good party sans alcohol! People smeared each other with colored powders (gulal) and threw water on each other. Of course as the party progressed, puddles formed on the ground, much to the enjoyment of everyone. In fact the moment I entered the park, a gang of 5 caught hold of me and dragged me into the mud and smeared it all over me! That was my initiation into the Holi celebrations. People then started sliding in the mud which by then had become so slippery - it was difficult to even walk without slipping. The desi music was loud and the DJ was good, people danced to popular Holi numbers like "O Rang Barse" and various others. It was nice to see people from various countries and faiths participate with equal zest. But one thing that was missing was Bhaang (Cannabis sativa)! This is a herb which causes people to laugh a lot! Believe me, drink a litre of it and you wont stop laughing till the evening. In India, Bhaag is mixed with milk and served as something called 'thandai'. Last year on Holi (I was in India then), i just couldnt stop consuming it and I was out for 2 days, in fact I went beyond laughing, I was so high - I couldnt come down for the next two days. And unlike, alcohol, the high of bhaang is sticky, no coffee, no cold shower will ever help you!

Back to the Holi on campus - so after people were done with the Holi on Manzanita Park, it was time to wash themselves - and Stanford with its many fountains provided the perfect second round. A few good men (and women) who remained after the official party, then walked over to the Red Hoop fountain! Everyone jumped in and tried to create a whirlpool inside it. Next on the cards was the Claw Fountain - again - whirlpool. After this we all walked down to the Tanner Fountain in front of the Hoover Tower. On the way, we met a bunch of tourists looking at us semi-clad, almost cavemen like people strutting down white plaza. To one of the bewildered souls I said - "Welcome to Stanford!".

So, colors, water, mud, fountain hopping were what Holi 2007 was all about at Stanford. If you think you missed one helluva party, there is another Holi going to take place on the 25th here on campus. That is going to be a bigger party!

You are not going to believe this!

So its an ordinary February morning in Northern California. I decided that I had had enough of junk food it was time for some Kashmiri food. So I was heading to my maasi's place in San Jose. After only 4.5 hours of sleep I got up to get ready and catch the 10:02 South Bound to San Jose. I reached the California Avenue CalTrain station about 15 minutes before the train time and there was no one on the station except this guy i saw as i was turning the corner into the ticket vending machine area. And as I got near, i realized my dream had suddenly turned into reality - I was marooned on the platform with none other than my main man - the great Donald Knuth

The first thing that struck me was that this guy was tall - man he was really tall! And he was wearing this black overcoat looking more like a CIA agent than a computer scientist! He asked me the time. I was like Oh My God - the Great Don himself is asking me for the time - it was 10 minutes to 10. "There are still 30 minutes for the train", assuming that even i was heading North toward San Francisco where he was going. "Oh my train is gonna be here in 10 minutes, I am going to San Jose". "Oh..!", he said. Anyways, he had a small folder with him and sat down
on a bench at the platform. The sun was bright without a cloud in sky - the typical sunny California weather. Now, I didn't feel like bothering him as he had opened a set of papers and was going about his business of being a computer scientist - even on the bench - but I still had to talk him. I couldn't give up this once in a lifetime opportunity.

So I walked up to the bench, and started - "So Don, can I ask you something? Why did you give up email so early on?". I know it was dumb questions given he has the answer on his website but still i needed a pick-up line! "Oh i have it on my web page, and the thing is that I couldn't even get started with work before 1pm as I was so busy answering people's email - and so i decided to give it up. Plus I had used 15-19 nears of email and that i thought was enough for a life time. Plus sometimes people would send me problems who's solutions they would expect and if i couldn't come up with one they liked, I would have to hear lots of unpleasant words". Me said - "So how much money did you end up giving as part of your books claim of giving money to people who pointed out errors in your book?" - Another dumb question I think - "Oh I think i have given out around 25K dollars as rewards! But people are nice and then don't en cash the checks, I just filed my income tax returns but i saw that none of the people had en cashed the checks - I saw to them - take a xerox of the check and keep that and en cash the original". Another question - "So how did you get started on La TeX? I mean we have a rumor going on in India at least in my school that you had a graduate student who had problems and in order to solve those problems you guys ended up creating LaTeX". "Well", he said, "that is not true about TeX( i felt like a fool calling it LaTeX!), the thing was that i wrote books and the publishers at that time printed them out in such a manner that made me cry! So decided to do something about it - and then I had a graduate student who was very smart - but you know the thing is that PhD is kinda weird a degree - in the sense that its not like BS or MS that you dont have exam to pass to get the degree - so therefore, a good student is not necessarily a good PhD student, and a good PhD student is not necessarily a good BS/MS student. Like my father, a wonderful man God Bless him, could never be a good PhD, but he was an excellent student. So I told this student of mine to try a couple of problems as warm up problems and see where it goes. And so he worked on it a bit. Plus I in a class that I was taking at that time - we were working on how some tools we used could help music researchers in their work - the thing with music is that their notes, when written on paper, cannot be half on one life and half on the other - and someone pointed out in class, we can use a similar structure for text formatting as well!".

In the middle of the conversation, Don asked me where i was from and what my background was. He wrote my name on his paper in his folder!!! That was exciting! He told me he had heard about the trouble in Kashmir. He knew a bit of Bengali - he said. I asked him where he was going in SFO, he said there was an invitation from some Stanford Society and then there was an Opera Premier that he really wanted to go to! And he showed me his tickets for that too. Then I told him what Jeff Ullman had mentioned to us in his Data Mining class - "In Computer Science, these days, you don't need to solve an NP hard problem to make money, all you need to do is make a video uploading site, what us your take on that? - Too bad my train just pulled into the Cal Ave station - and I had to leave - but without a smile - Don said - "He is a pragmatist! Goodbye" in the same breath!

Never in my life have I wished the train to be late as last Saturday. And thank God it was late that day by 7-8 minutes.

Mighty Indians

So lots of things happened in the last few days but before some important announcements, I thought I would address another issue first. Two things happened which sort of increased the priority of this post prior to some other posts just waiting to be published. One took place in the Global Entrepreneurial Marketing (GEM) class that I am taking and the other took place while reading Gaurav's (my ex-boss!) blog which had an article from Forbes bullshitting India.

Tom Kosnik, who by the way i just admire - part of the faculty team for GEM, posed a question in class - "Name a few companies you would want to work for?" - Of course everyone named companies like:

• McKinsey
• Google
• Apple
• Microsoft
• a few startups
• IDEO
• Sequoia Capital
• Benchmark
• IBM Research
• Kleiner Perkins
• Meebo

And then I heard two names - Infosys Consulting and Biocon. Ok - it was me who said Infosys consulting - but man the moment I heard Biocon from someone who was not an Indian and probably never lived in India - i couldnt believe my ears. I mean this is a really really sought after class and that too in Stanford - a class of 86 people - some of them - the smartest people on the planet - and they want to work in Biocon! Man this is just fantastic. Anyways, thought I would tell all you guys out there that we are really building companies which people want to work in - not just people living in India - but people across the globe - has mighty India arrived?

About Gaurav's blog and the Forbes article, well, the thing that someone took time out to bullshit us, well that in itself sorta says something! I think the comment on Gaurav's blog rebutting the arguments was really cool. I somehow agree with the view that complacency is really not requrired, we need ever more Ratan Tatas, Narayan Murthys, Kiran Majumdar Shaws et al - and need to do something about the living standards, the infrastructure, but we are getting there - and the point about solving all those problems first and then going forward with rest of the things is at best an idiotic thought. The article sort of smack of a veritable rebuke if anything, the author had facts to back it - but i did not see any reason to use language which would come off as offensive to people like me and you(perhaps). Khair, take home message I think is that it (the article) was a good reality check - and we need to keep reminding ourselves not to slow down - as the sang in Lagaan - "chale chalo chale chalo!"

ABCDs and Racism

So me and my friend Gaurav were discussing the other day - why ABCD girls will not allow Indian men near them. I mean its as if they have this preconceived notion that we will smell like curry or something. And this is a fact - ABCD girl come off as the most racist of anyone, i meant i guess they are the only racist gang on campus - no one else will behave the way they do. And take my word for it - I am yet to find an ABCD who does not conform to this fact. Anyways, to hell with them and their preconceived notions and idiotic stereotypes about us - call us FOBs if you may - but bottom line - I am not impressed.

Then on the other hand I think - I may well be that frustrated grad student on campus!! Trust me I am not - but something is surely amiss here.

Which brings me to another related topic - why are the American born kids of Indian parents called ACBD - i think i know coz i was something close to that - born in India but grew up outside for a significant portion of the time. The reason is that when they are out of their homes the culture around their American friends is really different from what they are taught in their homes by their parents - parents born and brought up in India. So, its really not their fault. And probably unfair to call them ABCD, its really not their fault.

BTW - for the uninitiated - ABCD = American Born Confused Desi

Ambassador Ronen Sen

Yup, met the man himself today. He is on the west coast for some business, and he paid a visit to the farm. He met President Hennessy prior to his talk at the Encina Hall. I had an interview( about which I am going to blog next) so I could not attend his talk. But since I had to meet the topmost diplomat of the Great Republic of India - the Indian Ambassador to United States - I literally rode my bike like a horse and reached just in time for the last 2 questions - he was done with his talk - was just taking audience questions. I loved the way he answered a question on Hindu extremism in India:

Q: So Ambassador, are you people in India worried about Hindu extremism?

A: Yes! Yes - period! So the I was taking to someone yesterday and i told them what makes us Indian - its not a piece of territory - its not our flag, its not even out national anthem - its our tolerance and respect for diversity, diversity in religion, races, cultures, languages, even culinary diversity! We are not just tolerant, but are respectful of someone else's cultures and beliefs. India was a civilization first, then a nation, then a state.......and he continued......

Anyways, so I went up to him and he was really very approachable - even though he was surrounded by the top ranking government people. So I said to him - sir i am rahul thathoo and i belong to Kashmir. Now a while back there was a talk on campus about how India and its alliance with Israel was a terrible thing. Sir, what do people think that Muslims of the valley are the only sufferers, what doesn't India make it a point to highlight the pain and suffering of the Kashmiri Hindus. I mean we are refugees in our own country - and what is the government doing for us. People think that there are only Kashmiri Muslims who are the sufferers, I mean who will think of us. Just because we are fewer than them doesn't mean that we would be thrown to the dustbin.

His answer was more of a soothing reply - I know what you are taking about and I feel your pain, believe me I have visited those parts of Kashmir. And I know the exodus was so fast and you guys were really made to leave faster than what happened to people in the Balkans. But we are doing ....... someone else interrupted him then.....leaving much to be said (and done!).


We ended on a good note, he shook hands with me and my roommate who was also there, and gave his business card to both of us and left in his luxury (small) limo.


Hopefully he will remember the Kashmiri Pandit plight and will let the international community know about us and our plight.

Catch the movie on the weekend Mr. Grad Student!

Hey!
Well i realized an important thing that happened this last weekend. I decided against logic that I would go watch this movie - "Little Miss Sunshine" at the Memorial Auditorium on campus. And a couple of good things happened - but before that - why was going to the movie against logic? Well big story short - so much work, so little time - and why waste time on movie - catch some sleep instead! But I went anyway - and guess what happened - I met this nice person who works for Oracle...why is that important? Well coz i might be interning at Oracle and I might need to build a network there to get around - and also it helps to know people in the industry - and various other reasons - knowing people in the right place can be a real help. The other thing was that the movie was a good opportunity to provide myself a good distraction from the monotony that usually sets in when the quarter starts.

Another thing that I learnt all thanks to Leor was - how to start to build that network. So at the end of the movie i did not know how to politely ask her for her email so that I would know how to get in touch with her after tonight - so she very generously offered her business card to me and I was like - shit why didnt i ask her for that. So lesson - to build that network - ask politely for that business card - not "what is ur email address?".

Anyways, man that monotony has set in and am dead tired - its only Tuesday...:-)

Letter to Editor

Would you believe it, they published my letter to the editor in the Hindustan Times - that too Delhi Edition! On Sunday, 21st Jan, i read this wonderful arctile written by Neelesh Misra and Soma Wadha that India is really Shining. How the people in the villages now shop at shopping malls. And how the mobile phone has become a status symbol now even in the villages! And I couldnt help replying to both of them. And then they published it in the edit page. I was like...oh my God! Anyways, here is the part of the article by Neelesh:

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=21_01_2007_013_002&typ=1&pub=47

And here is my detailed email:

Hi Neelesh.

Rahul Thathoo here, I am a Masters student in Computer Science at Stanford University. And even though I am the stereotypical Indian techie out here in the Silicon Valley, when, in our friends circles, we talk about the new India, the India in 2050, we see that India riding a wave of rural going global, the rural class breaking clear of the shackles of their "dehati" lifestyle - owing mostly to the agricultural economy doing better. IT and other knowledge based industries of course would help enable all that, but in the end it is the people in India's villages which have to see the benefits and that will come with them being able to have disposal income to do what the urban class has since long done, and for that - better retail channels, better infrastructure are extremely important.

Your article really makes one's heart fill up with joy and delight. I want my India to shine, I want my India to be that where the head is held high and the mind is without fear. And out leaders and business are also doing a good job of that - Azim Premji on campus did a marvelous job of letting people know that India has arrived - people mostly are caught up in the "China is happening" scene...he delivered an excellent lecture on how he went from selling vegetable oil to becoming one of the biggest IT companies of the world. And ditto with P. Chidambaram - when he was on campus.

Everytime one of my friends goes to India for vacation and comes back, he/she are really mesmerized by the fact that things move so fast in India and the difference is so noticeable - changes(all for the better) are really happening and now so many people want to move back to India, at least as compared to previously. I arrived here just 4 months back, ...blah blah (classified stuff)...all working to make products for the India market - why?? Because now every month the internet penetration is increasing so rapidly - we want to be the first on the block. Such a huge market to just go out there and conquer!

Anyways, these were my views, kindled by your article! Once again, good job Neelesh/Soma - would like to read more from you!

Cheers!
Rahul

And they published a smaller version here:

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=24_01_2007_010_016&typ=1&pub=47

Thanks Vir Sanghvi :-)

Welcome to Stanford!

So when a friend of mine wrote a blog on the kind of replies he had received to the emails he sent out applying for Research Assistantship in Stanford, I decided I would follow suit. In fact I decided to go a step further, write a couple of descriptions of the one on one interviews I had with some of the professors at Stanford, before I got my RAship. Here it is:

Thanks for your interest. I am curently on sabbatical in Singapore (until the end of 2007) and right now I am in Nepal on a climbing expedition. I will behappy to meetyou when I return to Stanford if you are still interested.

Thanks for your e-mail; I have already hired an RA for this year, so I don't have any other positions, unfortunately. Sorry. - "He gave me an RA in less than 2 months from this email"


Thank you for sending the information. Unfortunately, my computer is unable to open rar files, but I did look at your resume.

You certainly have had some experience in computational biology, but it wasn't clear whether you've had experience in machine learning or statistical methods. In any case, I have a fairly strict policy not to take students into my group until they have successfully completed at least one directly relevant course here at Stanford. Ideally, this would be my cs228 course (probabilistic graphical models - winter), but I may also accept cs229 (machine learning - fall), or my new cs279 course (biological networks - fall). I know you are not currently enrolled in cs279. Are you taking cs229 by any chance? If not, then I can only suggest that you take cs228 in winter, and then come and talk to me partway through the quarter about possible research opportunities in my group.

The TA-ship in Hindi is an unpaid position. You get school credit for taking Directed Reading in the SLP. It essentially involves doing HW correction, and the Hindi is quite basic. Usually, the terms don't work out for Masters students since they don't get paid, or get units. If you are still interested, you can email me and we can meet. Also, if you know anyone who might be interested in getting upto 12 units for the year towards their degree, you can get them to contact me - of course, they must know how to read and write Hindi.

--------------------------------

One on one interaction with this guy in Dept of Communication:

Me: Sir I am from the MS program in the CS dept...
Prof: So???? (Face like freakin Hitler) This is the Communication Dept - i can see that u idiot - I have eyes!
Me: I know that sir, I was here to talk to you about research opportunities in the Facial Recognition of electorial college...
Prof: I have no money for CS Graduate students...(i thought he was about to take out a gun from under the table and shoot at me...)
Me: Thank you sir, and ran away from the building as if my ass was on fire...(This was, btw, my second day at Stanford - quite a welcome huh!)


With this guy in the Computational Mathematics Dept:

Me: Is Prof Darve (read like Kumble) in?
Office Manager: You mean Prof Darve(read like carve)?
Me: Yes
OM: Yes he is in...
I go in...
Me: No he is not there
OM: He must have gone to the toilet...
Me: (To myself): possibly a good omen!
Darve: we were supposed to meet at 3, you are 10 min early...
Me: I have a class at 3:15 sir
Darve: Anyways, come in - we have a project to build a car simulation, using OpenGL and Matlab to solve 2nd order differential equations - I want the students should in this course be able to make a car simulation game which they can race against each other at the end of the quarter - can you build it - I will pay u $13 an hour for it
Me: (To myself): I bet the slaves from Africa got paid better for their work - wtf - differential quations in matlab - with openGL porting - this will take about 6 months at the least - with 3 courses at hand...
Me: (To Darve): Of course sir, this can be done, so i will keep in touch with you, thank you!

BDay!

Hey! And today in India they are celebrating my birthday! Nice of those guys. And I am missing them. Here still one more day to go. But somehow I feel as if a part of me is missing. I get the feeling that I probably dont like it much here. Although I am getting the best that the US has to offer, I mean life in Northern CA and then life at Stanford and stuff...but seriously...something is missing. I think I miss family back home. But then I used to miss them when I was in Allahabad as well. But this is not that kind of missing, something else! Cant figure it out. This place is good, but its not home period.

How to Get into Stanford For Dummies - Part 2

So this post coming a long time after I had written the first post about the same topic but for students in 1st and 2nd year of college. Most because I was sucked into the academic system here in the duration of the quarter. But now I thought before the second quarter began, I should finish this up.

Now for me, while I was in college, the third year was easily the most demanding(read toughest) year of college. I had a not so easy 5th semester and a very tough 6th semester followed by an even tougher summer at IISc. And in the middle of the 5th and 6th semester, I had to prepare for the GRE which i ended up giving later than I would have thought - in March - but at least it was earlier than most people. That is one issue one must decide and commit to early on, when and where to give the GRE. The centres are booked tight in Aug/Sept/Nov, so one should ideally do away with the GRE while in the third year, which adds to the commotion for being a junior(junior in the US is a student in the 3rd year of engg). One mus also, at the start of the 3rd year try to look for a good internship. Mostly people I knew went abroad for an internship, I too tried my luck out there but I didnt get a favorable call. But instead I went to the best Database Systems Lab at IISc. Anyways, in the 3rd year grades usually show a down trend, dont be too preturbed by that, it is usually common to all but try to work an extra bit to keep them above a certain respectable level. You might have to give up on a bit of socializing. But whatever you do, dont lose your sense of humor!!

In the best case you should try to get a reco from your summer internship after the 3rd year. So you would have to work on that. In my case, I had an absolute disaster of a summer. Didnt do too well. So of course I didnt even ask for the reco as I knew that would play out against me in my application. That is one important point to keep in mind while approaching profs for recos. Get recos from profs who you know would give you a good reco. Moving on, into the 4th year, try to get a job first thing at the start of the placement season. Get this mental block over with, this would keep you and your folks at home in peace that at least there is a back up. Also, start looking at the universities that have are in the top 50 as far as your specialization is concerned. Pick a couple in the top 10, a couple in the middle and a few as a backup. You also need to start working on you statement of purpose. Ideally you should start with this process by August. Slowly and steadily, work toward finalizing your univesities, start working on your SOP, start writing your reco letters in case you are on good terms with your faculty and they ask you to, else in case your reco giver is far away, then you may want to get their reco beforehand(only for a paper application). For a non-paper application, it doesnt matter that much.

For Stanford, there are a couple of essays that they ask you to fill out, and the character limit is really low. So you really have to leave out the bullshit and stick to the core issues that make you a cut above the rest. Prepare one essay on how your undergrad embedded in you an urge to seek higher education in your field, and the prepare another essay on how you would add to the diversity of the class which you would attend at Stanford. All recos at Stanford are online, so you need to remind your reco givers to fill out those recos in time, especially if they are busy or are not in your undergrad college.

Once you are done with all that by Dec 1, just wait for the great email which should reach you in March, depending on your department. Some stats for this years CS Masters class, the CS dept is not really one of the biggest, but its not small either. This year they took in 130 MS students and around 45 PhD students. There are around 10 Masters students from India and 2 PhD students from India. Out of the 10, 1 is from IIT that too with 1 year work ex, and out of the PhDs, one is from IIT, with a Masters from Georgia Tech and the other is a Masters from IISc - incidently she worked with the same prof I interned with and with his reco she is not a Stanford CS Fellow! Man i should have got his reco!

All the best to you guys! In case of any questions or if there is anything you think I can do for you, let me know.

Teacher

So there was this funny saying back when I was in school and even in college, "Take as many pangas as you want - but never, never ever mess with a teacher!". People knew that their teachers could take their career apart if they wanted. But somehow more than that, people also respected the good teachers, the teachers who knew what they were talking about. Teachers who encouraged questions in class - who made learning an enjoyable experience not some gut-wrenching judging game - those teachers were really respected. I personally owe everything I am, everything I know to all the teachers who taught me from my first school in Jagdishpur(DPS) to my current school - Stanford. Each and everyone of us has teachers to thank. But somehow we often forget them - we never attempt to get back in touch or pay a visit to them or may be even send a postcard - no we dont even do that. But I read about this touching story and I was really left feeling a pang of guilt - Gosh I wish I had done something for my teachers too. http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/nov/10ab.htmIt talks about how a dying former teacher of IIM Calcutta was helped by his students to try to import a drug from the US which could save him. Though he did not survive, the gesture really touched me. We should all go back from where we come. I feel that often, in the daily rush of life, we forget who we are and where we come from. And often many of us dont know where we are going. Taking time off for going back to the good old days really comes off as time well spent - you dont want your whole life to be just your life - you want your life to have made a difference in other people's lives - something like the lives of teachers! I miss my teachers :(

Live blogging - BASES Entrepreneurship KickOff at Stanford - 30th Oct, 2006

So a couple of weeks back, the student entrepreneurship club of Stanford(BASES) hosted a panel discussion on the current trends in entrepreneurship here in the valley. The discussion was moderated by Guy Kawasaki and the panel had as it members: Anand of Aerospace Corporation, Seth Godin of Meebo, Ann - big time VC here, Steve - big time VC here Erik And a couple of more people So here is what I could jot down (in a very news-reporter sorta way), I hope you enjoy it and benefit from it. I can also give you the link to the podcast of this - but u need to write comments for this blog first!GUY KAWASAKI A Stanford alum - law school and gsb reject Erik - active in spinning companies out of stan Ann - ... venture partners Steve - Meteor Network Seth on current state of high entrepreneurship people say its easy to get money this day and age...but this is not totally true - and with meeboe - just go do it forget abt business plan competitions dont spend months planning to execute - a lot of stuff is getting started right now meebo launched with a sum total with $6000Guy says: so what wrong with business competitions if u made a plan for meebo there would be a sum total of 50000 people in the world who wold use it if people are super passionate abt it and u think ut would work - as long as it doesnt take millions of dollars its seth's 8th attempt at a startup erik on the same its quite healthy here in the valley understand what ur competitors would be thinking or a project that u would be associated on campsas an entrepreneur - what risks u are takings fantastic time to be in ur seat be thoughtful abt building ur markets Ann - first round of capital - angel/venture is the most difficult round to raise we look for a lot of commitment its rare to see a business plan on 1 page paper the bar is high for that first round Anand hired a sales advisor - look in to the mobile enterprise not the tech behind it - but the fact that what does it do for the user how badly ur customers what ur product comes down to environment when customers are starting to trust the startups again get ur hands dirty with some basic sales, basic marketing techniques, Steve one thing that is different today is that there is a new thought - creating a new focuswe look at a few values - facilitating connection between users - connect to people's passions Seth on Web 2.0 ->next generation of websites - more of connect people less on the site owner and more on the people coming to it Tim O'rielly - Web 2.0� it was 2001 - business was low - worked very well for tim - my business model is open source - u have to be able to describe ur unique competitive model we cant invest in rear view mirrors rather than forward lookin Steve it doesn't mean a lot what ur marketing model whats the market looking like444i - Armando Fox - good course at Stanford Ann - brand advertisers are gonna come - google will need to run a lot of experiments to see how they can get more yahoo doesnt have the advertising dent that Google has� Between MySpace or YouTube - its myspace - which is a no brainer coz the demographics cross section which myspace caters to is huge some luck or some blinding insight - but when u r in the internet - when u r trying to predict the users - doing research is very diff than putting up a consumer internet incremental improvement on what u are already doing - watch videos after download - in youtube - watch in the browser without scrolling the bar - u have to know what is happening on this site from the main page target audience - potential advertisers How many power point slides would u see when u are looking at entrepreneurs doing their pitch - 0 slides 15 slides - if u go higher 20-25 slides u r it eligance and simplicity where u have 30 secs where u have 3 min gonna have to pitch to potential employers that u r gonna hire u r gonna pitch to ...Ann - less than 20 slides Steve - ~ 20

How to Get Into Stanford University For Dummies

Hi. This is Rahul Thathoo. I am a First year Masters student in the Computer Science Department here at Stanford University. I moved here on campus a couple of weeks back after completing my engineering in India and thought that I should pen down my take on how to get into a foreign university of the stature of Stanford. This is going to be a partwise blog, where I deal with certain issues in one part, and issues specific to the application process in another part and so on.Getting into Stanford is not that difficult as many of you may perseive. After all, they took me in! And if I can get into Stanford, then everyone and their grandmother can too! So let me start off by giving you a bit of my background information. Contrary to what many of you may have already pre-conceived, I did NOT go to IIT. I completed my Bachelors of Technology from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad.

I cleared the IITJEE in 2002, and my interest at that time were subjects related to computer science and electronics. Since my rank couldnt get me into the IITs in the branch of my choice - I decided that i would go with my heart and ditched the idea of being an IIT-ian so as to be able to study what i really wanted to. This is another important aspect I want to underline here, always do what your heart says - ever heard of the term - 'put your heart and soul into it and you will succeed' - when you put your heart to something, your soul will follow and what you will have at the end of it is Success with a capital S! So if you want to come to Stanford just to get the big brand-name associated with it or just for the weather or the blond chics, I am afraid your application will not move ahead of the admission committee disposal bin. But if you want to come to Stanford to explore broader horizons of application(and research) in your area of interest, if you want to meet people with similar interests and similar zest as yours, and if you want to be something more than 'just another professional' - then it will reflect on your application material and you will be welcomed with open arms (Of course if you are Dhirubhai Ambani's son or Narayan Murthi's daughter then we need a whole new blog to discuss that!).

So the journey toward Stanford beings rather early. "How early?" - you ask. Well in this part I want to tell you what I did in the four years of college in India - which made the admission committee take a deeper look into my application and later, grant me the admission offer. What happens to people in India when they get into college is,after spending some gruelling year in the pressure of Class X boards, coaching for 1-2 years, Class XII boards and then enterance exams, they start telling themselves that after 4-5 years they will be professionals and as such college is gonna be a walk in the park - an excuse to live the good life! Well, the way I look at it is - this is time that actually goes into moulding yourself into what you want to be doing the rest of your life - this is where the action beings. So the manner in which you choose to spend you college days has a lot of bearing with what you are going to be doing after this. The choice is yours. By no means does this mean that total abstinance is required, and that its all work and no play. Well I'll tell you from my experience, in the second year, I spent more time on the football field that working on my class assignments! But I managed time so that I wouldnt have a late submission ever. Well actually, I lied, I did have a few(very few) late submissions, but I guess they didnt take it against me!

So when you enter college, take the first year to explore as much as possible - what your college has to offer - in terms of facilities, faculty, courses, books, projects, etc. Try to meet as many people as possible(especially seniors), but keep touch with only those with whom you think your frequency matches. Be regular with assignments and always work within deadlines. Try to read ahead about the cutting edge in your area so that it will whet you appetite for learning the basics better. Also, try your hand in the extra-curricular activities. First year is a time when you can afford to spend more time than in subsequent years on extra-curricular things, so get your ass moving - go down to the music room to play the guitar(if you dont have yours) - or go audition for the Drama Society membership - or go for the cricket team trials. Do you see my point here - explore all that your college has to offer. In my first year i got involved in the audio and lights jobs at college - we had some very heavy duty BOSE equipment for audio and equally good lights and camera equipment - I got in touch with the senior handling it then and after a few months of apprenticeship, he handed the entire thing over to me - imagine the fun of playing DOOM on a LCD projector with BOSE surround sound inside a 150 capacity auditorium! And yes, I was in the Football team too. By the time you leave college, it shouldnt be like that there was one thing you really wanted to do but you couldnt(of course this is bound to be but try not to have too many of those!).

Go out there, and like Nike says - Just Do it! You gotta be a really good time manager also - that is the thing to keep in mind. Time management is everything. I mentioned reading ahead on the cutting edge in your area of interest - what this also does is that it gives you ideas of what sort of projects you might want to work on later in your higher years. But the main focus still should be on reading your course material and getting good grades. Another issue here is your communication skills.You are in college now, learning in depth about various things. Later in your professional career, you are going to put that knowledge to use - BUT - if you cannot express your views clearly to others - what use is that knowledge! The idea is to start working on those softer skills that you need to build once you are out of college. You ask - "Hey wait a minute here, i have 4 years in college, I can do that anytime!" Well any-time never really comes in college, and believe me sometimes it takes a lot of doing to get to a certain level in improving your communication skills - both written and verbal. Start early, read books other than your course books, learn the meaning of new words. So by the time you leave college, you are one polished person articulately able to express what your thoughts and ideas - believe me the chics love that - well at least some do! After the end of the first year, try to take sometime off and be with your family. You could also try to do an internship but that probably wouldnt count as much after first year as it would after second or third year. This might be your last big holiday in a long time - so spend time at home, go places - visit tourist destinations - do some whacky stuff!In the second year things start getting more complex with the load of your courses increasing and you having to study some core concepts in your area.

Try to master as much as possible of what you are being taught. Try to take up good projects such that they will augument your understanding of the subject. These projects also come in handy when you apply for an internship/practical training outside of your campus. Try to talk to the faculty taking the course in which you are doing the project and try to get him involved. If you get stuck, seek his/her advice. Second year should be when you are concentrating in your courses, doing projects for extra credit or as part of course requirement and try to see what extra-curricular activities you want to remain involved in and which you want to give up. Your extra-curricular interests actually turn into necessary and good distractions from the daily chores of homeworks/assignments/tests. Although you should not over do anything, too much of anything is bad. So again, getting good grades in imperative! Toward the middle of the 4th semester, you should start applying for a possible summer internship at a research institute in India or in an industry. Internship is an important thing if what you want to do is get into a foreign university. You should try to work under a professor at a reputed research institute in India (or even abroad) - this is mostly in IITs, IISc, and other Centres of Excellence. This is because universities here appreciate someone who has taken initiative to work outside of his college on projects outside of his/her degree requirements. Also, if you end up impressing the professor under whom you are working, you can manage to get a very good recommendation from him and this would really put your application few notches ahead of others. So dont wake up one sunny summer morning and find yourself without an internship, apply before time, the professors also have limited places to fill. You could also work in the industry and get a recommendation from your mentor there - but the benefit of working in academia is that you get a chance to publish your research as a jouarnal/conference paper, and once you have a paper, your application carries a lot of weight than most of the other applications. More to come...

I am listed at Blogstreet!

Train travel and lots more

Hi Guys.
This blog is really different. In that it has been written on a train. I am writing this blog aboard Dehradun Express(9019A UP). I am on my way to Delhi to catch my flight to Stanford. Nice experience this. Of course it would have been much better had Wi-Fi been enabled on this train. Well India is a far cry from that affair as on present date. Was at Kota the last couple of days. It comes as no surprise that Rajasthan has the highest number of cattle heads in India. The streets of Kota are littred with stray cattle. Driving is next to impossible at speeds over 20kmph. I wished I could catch hold of some and sell them off for a handsome amount. But Ramraj told me that the government had banned selling so that they couldnt be killed for beef or something like that. That brings me to Ramraj. He is my dad's driver. Very sweet fellow. He taught me how to drive, initial lessons mostly and some tricks of the trade. I bade him a final goodbye at the station - will miss him. Hope he is still around when I come back.

The train has stopped in the middle of nowhere. Though we are no where near Hindon, the papers said that the Gujjars there has uprooted the tracks as they were protesting their community not being included in the reserved category class. Oh and they had broken all the signals also in that division. Well this is democrazy for you! We are moving again. This is a relatively low priority train, so lotsa stops ahead!! As I leave for the US, I will most definitely miss the 'apna-pan' of India. Its people. Its smell. Its air, water and sky! I will miss u the most. Anyways, am not very good with good byes.

Also in the news was that this year was the 10th time in 125 years that Rajasthan got surplus rain. It rained 125% already and with still around 20 days to go for the monsoon, looks like Gods were gracious in their offerning to the state this time. However, in some regions like Pali, Barmer, etc it was too much causing a lot of loss to both properties and lives.

Today I added my site to blogstreet.com. Lucky for me I am an Indian coz blogstreet only accepts blogs from Indians! It is a site which aims to become a direcory for blogs. People can rate other peoples' blogs. They comment, write reviews etc. which of course other people can read and find out about. It has it own list of the most influential blogs, most read blogs, etc. A good attempt. Another social networking site on the block is siliconindia.com. A real new concept in that it provides mentorship according to people's needs - registered people can write a Statement of Purpose and be mentored by people pertinent to their interests. For example, students, entrepreneurs and engineers, etc can ask to be mentored in their fields. This is new concept that I found. It also has a lot of news on it home page, quite different than other social networking softwares. Besides this it has a lot of other stuff that common social networking sites dont. But the most intreguing thing that I found was that it has got as its members corporate honchos like IBM VP(India) just to name one. There are other like him. Needs more time devotion. In case you havent checked it out, do create a login and find out more. Think will sign off now! See you in Delhi :-) Ciao

P.S. The above pic is of the Umed Bhavan Palace in Kota

Tenacity

Its sometimes amazing how we marvel at our little achievements. Sometimes we tend to pat ourselves too much or too early. But we forget that out there in the world people strive harder, under adversities far out-weighing our environment.
I saw a girl studying English on the footpath, trying to make money weighing people, in Kamla Nagar, New Delhi. This was something really inspirational. The girl seemed very smart and I and my friend accompanying gave her some money after getting ourselves weighed. Needless to say I was underweight yet again, but the girl, who read out my weight aloud in english, reminded me of a lot more than that - that even though we may have gone through a lot - our hardship is not more than (may be equal to) what a poor man on the streets has to go through.

Lutyens' Delhi

Mostly, if you ask me about driving in Delhi/NCR, my answer would be - an absolute misery. But come what may, the drive down Rajpath, or for that matter anywhere in Central Delhi is really refreshing. The roads are international standard and the traffic is smooth(most of the times!). Plus the scenary/landscape is truly breathtaking with the exquisite designs of India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North/South Blocks, etc. I just love this part of Delhi. May be one day when I am rich and famous - will try to get a bunglow somewhere close to this place. Well even Vasant Vihar will do but nothing like having a bunglow overlooking India Gate - you know what I am talking about dont u!! Will miss Delhi. Though I hate it for its absolutely pathetic climate, but the buildings are good. And its one of the few planned cities in India. Wish there were more.