A Hike to Gunung Panti

I was introduced to Couchsurfing.org quite sometime back by one of my friends. It sounded interesting, but I was not too keen to try it out then. However, recently I have been really interested in going out and exploring the possibilities. I decided to join in a group of people to hike Gunung Panti mountain in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The hike was organised by Philip from couchsurfing. Philip is a Filipino and is a regular hiker and had hiked Gunung panti 8 times before. The group seemed large, with 25 people in it. I made a choice based on my gut instinct and joined them on the hike last Sunday.

At Woodlands MRT

I prepared myself for the hike, packed a sling bag with essential items from a list made by Philip. Everything was being communicated to everyone in the group through a Whatsapp group created out of convenience. The estimated expense was 30-40 MYR or Ringgits. As I was staying up for long hours for quite a few days, i was finding it difficult to sleep early so that I can get up at 5 AM on the day of hike and get ready. Eventually, I went to bed at 2 AM and the excitement did not let me sleep properly.

Things that I packed

The amazing spectacle of Angkor Wat

Hi everyone, so I am back on the blog after quite a long time. This time, I will share my first ever experience as a tourist in a foreign land (Cambodia). It’s been over a year for me in Singapore, but I came here as a student. All this while, I had some very nice experiences, but could never find time to write about them. But this one is special and I must document it. This should also help other prospective travelers to Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Angkor Wat

So, I planned this trip at very short notice. I had no group at first, but wanted some company as I lack experience as a lone ranger. I managed to get 3 of my friends on board at first, but 2 of them could not manage to stick around. Finally, I and Sumedh (my senior at NTU) went on with the trip. We flew Tiger Airways from Singapore on 27th October (Sunday) and reached Phnom Penh at 12:30 PM local time. The flight was short and easy. Since the trip was only 2 days long (we had to return on Tuesday morning), our main purpose was to visit the great Angkor Wat temple. To be honest, I had no clue about anything else in Cambodia. This is not a good practice and I recommend that you know quite a bit about a place before you pack your bags.

There was a time...

There was a time when everybody who smiled at you was a "friend".
When the boy who owned the cricket bat was the "boss".
When loosing a "rubber" was reason enough to cry.
When "searching" for a one rupee coin on the TV stand used to give you goosebumps.
When the prettiest girl in the class was just another friend.
When Jimmy Bhaiya's Samosa were the ultimate concept of a "grand treat".
When the Principal was more scary than a zombie.
When vacations were filled with fun, surrounded by cousins and we never thought of them as irritating.
When you used to beg to mom to skip tuition for "Alladin" on Fridays.
When shining the cycle rim was the toughest job of all.

There was a time when our eyes used to brim with playful innocence,
and the job of worrying was left to mom and dad.
I can't explain enough how I miss those times!

The need to talk about Educational Loans

I am extremely grateful to Aamir and the entire team of Satyamev Jayate for spreading awareness on various topics concerning us, the common Janata of India.

As a student from a middle-class family, my immediate concerns are very disconnected from the many issues that have been raised in Satyamev Jayate till now. After four years of engineering studies, now a huge task is glaring on my face- repaying the education loan that my parents took from a National bank for my education.

In a nation where car and home loans are cheaper than an educational loan, I would request the SMJ team to take up this issue. I can assure you that you would be spell-bound by the magnitude of support that you would get for this as this a problem that directly affects the youth of India irrespective of the gender, caste or color.

We should learn from a nation like Singapore which bases its development on the grounds of sound education. I am not very proud when I mention that I have received a full scholarship and S$ 2000 monthly stipend in a Singaporean National University for my PhD studies while I am yet to repay the huge interests that have piled up back here in my own country for an educational loan. Though I understand that India can't afford that much, but at least the Govt. should ensure an interest free moratorium period to encourage the students and their parents.

This is despite the fact that the Govt. of India has directed the National banks to waive the interests during the moratorium period. But every time I have gone to my bank to inquire on this, the send me back with a bland answer: " We don't know, we have not been directed anything yet!" (It should be noted that this announcement filled the newspapers as early as in 2009). Check this PIB link: Press Information Bureau .

 Lets hope for a better tomorrow, where we Indians work for our own India in an environment that is conducive for burden less education, so that we don't have to go abroad to get us a better future.

Checklist for International Travel- Done by a group of NTU students, who wrote, re-wrote and finally have this up here!

    Its a highly comprehensive list of items that you would like to pack your bags with. Although many things are optional, you can be sure that at least you won't miss out on anything if you follow this.

Clothes

• Three to Five pairs of jeans/Cargoes/Capris/pants
• Five t-shirts
• Three formal shirts ( for guys).
• One or two formal skirts or pants ( for girls)
• Ten sets of inner wear
• Four sets of casual wear - for sports, night wear. Carry tracks, pyjamas etc. If you live on campus, you will practically live on these.
• Hand kerchiefs
• A light weight travel jacket (optional, need not be too thick nor heavy, it is not for cold climate)

Girls - Salwars are fine to wear to college. Kurtas, Jeans, Leggings are mostly preferred. It is really hot here, so carry cottons. A saree can be bought, if you have space. Nice to have. Purely optional.
Guys - Most of them lived on jeans, and t-shirts. Cargoes are great too. Formals only for interviews, in the end of course. If you plan to go to India in between - you can skip it.

sCTF 2012 : National Level “Capture the Flag” style ethical hacking contest

Not a day passes when several machines are compromised and infections spread rampantly in the world today. The cyber world has witnessed several dangerous attacks including the Stuxnet virus and it’s successor Duqu.

The most recent such attack is the Flame infection, in which the malware managed to disguise itself as a legitimate Windows software. It exploited a bug in Windows to obtain a fake certificate which allowed itself to

authenticate that is was from Windows.

Indian websites too offer little or no resistance to such security intrusions. The Computer Emergency Response Team, India(Cert-In) has been tracking de-facements of Indian websites and more. Their report can be viewed here . It’s really sad that with so much talent and skill, Indian websites are compromised frequently and nothing can be done to stand this wave of attacks on them.

Smart Traffic Controller in Deccan Chronicles

Hi friends,

Here's the snippet of the press release in Deccan Chronicles of my team's achievement in Accenture Innovation Jockeys contest :)

Btw, I am the guy in Black shirt who is dumbstruck watching the awesome trophy :)

MANCHESTER UNITED – WHAT I FEAR

What first comes to your mind when you read or hear Man Utd..??.......the awesome Old Trafford stadium, the legends it has produced, the classic red jersey,…….or simply the legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson……..

Well  I am not going to write about him. Simply because I don’t have to. People with great track records, cranky critics, and even opposition players and managers have said and written about him and what he has done for Man Utd. We all know that for the past 25 years he really has been the father of the United club, achieving almost everything within his grasp and more. The club is still doing great under him, performing well on the field and behaving well off the pitch and am sure that they will clinch their 20^th Premier league (Can’t resist myself from saying at least a sentence of praise).

But the real worry is that how long can he carry on??... He is now 70 years old & is not getting any younger. He expressed his desire to coach United for the next three seasons also. Okay, well and good. But we all fear what’s gonna happen to this club next??... No ‘any other’ coach will do!!

Sadhu

Silence is within you

IBM’s LEADAfrica Graduate Leadership Program

Are you ready to hone your skills in Africa with one of the most reputed multinational in the world? If your answer is a resounding YES, then you should definitely not miss this opportunity that is offered by IBM. In a bid to contribute to the IBM’s global theme of smarter planet, IBM is offering a Graduate Leadership program in Africa under the LEADAfrica project. 

The program would be highly beneficial for budding executives who plan to make it big. Those who would get selected would have a great chance to work with expert Project Managers at IBM and would be rotated among the various functional nodes in IBM. This would help in garnering a lot of industry exposure and invaluable experience.

SHERLOCK: A series that defines Sherlock Holmes of 21st century

    I recently got my hands on the DVD title of Sherlock, the TV series on BBC One from one of my friends. And I must say that there has never been any TV series that has impressed me to the extent Sherlock has, whether it is Spartacus, Prison Break or Supernatural. This modern take on the world’s most famous fictional character, the genius Sherlock Holmes and his adventures with compatriot Dr. John Watson is a compelling set of 3 episodes each spanning around 90 minutes. The series is two seasons old now and fans are already waiting eagerly for the third season including me. This is pretty much reminiscent to the good old days when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had to bring Sherlock Holmes back from heavens bowing to the requests of his fans.

 

Why Indian students are hated abroad?

It was the first day of a school in USA and a new Indian student named Chandrasekhar Subramanian entered the fourth grade.


The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American History. Who said 'Give me Liberty , or give me Death'?"

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrasekhar, who had his hand up:?'Patrick Henry, 1775'he said.

'Very good! Who said 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?''

Again, no response except from Chandrasekhar. 'Abraham Lincoln, 1863' said Chandrasekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, 'Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrasekhar, who is new to our country, knows more about our history than you do.'

She heard a loud whisper: 'F___ the Indians,'

Act Of God

He was not able to tell why but that night seemed to be distinctly dark and the fog was so dense that it almost felt like the clouds have come down to earth.The wind was whistling through his ears which were left uncovered in that winter night.Dhruv was feeling uncomfortable walking through the Chat street which would usually be heavily crowded but was completely empty that day as the curfew was still on.

Dhruv amazed everyone when he took the slip from the nurse’s hand and left the hospital room silently where his father was resting after a major heart surgery; but now he needed another small makeup surgery and his bloodgroup was a rare one.The blood bank was only a street away but no one dared to step out as the riot was on its full rage and the curfew was on.But Dhruv had no other options.