HISTORY OF PROPAGATE CS
Yet another 12th std flunker failing to make it big in IIT-JEE. May be i should ve decided that it was not my piece of cake. May be not, i was very close to making it big, but just missed it because it was destined not to happen. Craving for another chance to make it big, after endless thoughts of dropping a year and studying, with high reluctance, joined Meenakshi Sundararajan Engg. College. The initial days were terrible, only to be realised soon that my college was not all that bad.
Quickly by the end of 1st semester, realised that i was good at programming (atleast as compared to others in my class). Could this be a begining to a new success story?? Not yet.
With a lot of hope to make it big, joined a java class, stood first in the class too. But this could mean one of the two things. One that i am really good. and the other 'may be the others were worse than me'.
EFFECT OF KRANTI'08 on my career (Karth-"Rags" Effect)
KRANTI, for those who do not know what it is , is our annual technical symposium conducted by the 3rd yrs. People good at various fields lead a team consisting of many 2nd yrs to organize an event. There was this event called Code Debugging, lead by Karthik Raghavan, my senior. With not many interested in programming, both from my class as well as his, we could not avoid being in touch with each other.
Discussing long hours of interesting programming questions, we decided to give the participants a tough time. Took the good old theoretical computer science books, designed challenging questions that were probably never asked in the history of any programming contest. Managed to give a list of NP-complete and NP-Hard problems, asking them to solve it. Hence was born the real interest in Computer Science.
One day, Karthik comes up and tells there is this exam called GATE, the expansion of which neither of us knew. He says he had written it with minimal preparation and that the paper was pretty easy. Then came the result and he stood All India 800. Karthik decided to write GATE again and better his performance with a little bit of serious preparation.Karthik, being a serious GRE aspirant, the news of GATE was pretty shocking. He now needed a bunch of serious aspirants with whom he can prepare.
After long hours of convincing pawan and anish, a group was formed. Hence the PROPAGATE-CS was born.
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ur attempts at blogging seem pretty convincing ;) But why not go abt the other parts of ur life???They seem to be interesting as well :)
ReplyDeleteHi da,
ReplyDeleteWelcome, and nice writing :) DELIGHTED that I'm mentioned, and in such style! It was nice thinking back to "those" days.... :)
What is that "rags" effect?? Why quotes? Didn't get that..
You write very well da! Its nice and crisp to read :) Maybe you want to be a little more descriptive?? Sounds too consice at places :) really good, nonetheless :)
Oh, and by the way, I appreciate your first step towards writing "the book". Remember?? ;) A blog is not as big as a book, but I'll take it as a first step ;)
I am just learning how to blog. This is my maiden attempt at blogging. Thanks for the suggestion. Expect one quite soon.
ReplyDelete@karthik
ReplyDeletelol. i have no big plans of writing a book. That too not abt u. May be i ll consider if u pay me some bucks.
Rags wit quotes bcos many ve had a tough time wit ur so called Talking.
Thanks for the compliments. Will try to better it by including things that u mentioned. And yeah i can never forget those days. it is too good to be forgotten !!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!! Very Very nice....So this is the beginning eh?...ya i can see you on the other side of the gate with too many thoughts...eventually we ll open the gate and reach you as you keep inspiring us on cracking the GATE...(u could try perceiving that sentence in different ways)
Surely your blog will inspire a lotta people so keep writing...
Good you mentioned about Karthik."The Genesis ".Apt name na...but then the tradition has to continue...of bringing new hope or restoring the lost hope of many IIT aspirants..n very glad you're doing this great job...
Keep Going!!!
Best Wishes
Pournima
@pournima
ReplyDeleteThank you !!
Why don't you talk more about PROPAGATE CS? Or is it assumed to be, as they say, "and the rest is history".
ReplyDeletehey its interesting .. according to me the topic u chose is very essential to those who hav aspired for GATE and those who din .. and i think u can quote ur efforts and few more experiences to booost up their dreams ..
ReplyDelete@vaibhav
ReplyDeletelol. "and the rest is history" is the bollywood way of describing a story. Sure i will include more details about PROPAGATECS.
@sindhuja
Thank you !! sure i will include those things too
hey pk,
ReplyDeletehow about our prep strategies? the fun parts like night-outs, me and pawan mosquito hunting at anish's place, making coffee at night, pawan crushing you under his leg, his bulbing....... SO MUCH is there! it'll be great to post them. it'll prove to the others that GATE is not all seriousness, and that there's a lot of fun in it too :)
Also the serious stuff like books we used, the scheduling, the reviews we had of gateforum test papers and prev papers, teaching each other, library, the tools we designed and used like TI, topoligical ordering of subjects to study, strategizing and all that..
Magnum opus :) :)
@karthik
ReplyDeleteI am too fast. I already started that bit of it. To be continued soon. check it out. Though i have covered the serious aspects of our preparation.
I badly missed someone like K1 for studying. That said, I don't want that to be an excuse for a total (I mean TOTAL, ask K1 about it) lack of preparation for either GATE.
ReplyDeleteIronically, I qualified in 3rd year with a 90-pointer and failed to even do that in my final year. But yes, both were complete non-preparation. :)
I am sure u missed something interesting.[:)]
ReplyDeleteAs far as your career is concerned, No regrets. U are working in a big company now.
No, I do have regrets, but I choose not to dwell upon them. And fyi, I am not working in a big company. And even if I was, it is Not a big deal, something I realized here.
ReplyDeleteThe experience of working/studying/being with more-or-less like-minded people in pursuit of a single goal, while indulging in knowledge you appreciate/admire/enjoy is unbeatable...and unless I start my own start-up back there with K1 and a few of you guys, I doubt I will ever have such an experience in my life.
:-)
And remember...while doing your Master's...cherish the experience more than the end-result. Yes, you have become an IIT'ian now and you will, in all probability, get a 5-figure salary in a big MNC when you come out, but the experience and the joy of studying during the student days are unparalleled. Even during exams, though marks kind of determined our grade, the joy of studying/preparing is something that is wonderful...especially studying/learning Computer Science. :) (Yes, I am terribly biased)
ReplyDeleteDon't mind...just a sincere suggestion from a senior who has been-there-not-done-that.
nice. totally agreed. I second ur opinion that learning is much more enjoyable than the end result.
ReplyDeleteYes a start-up is a good idea. I am sure K1 and the other guys will enjoy that too !!