I just donated
I just donated $10 to a charity
The “Me, Too” Startup Syndrome
Twas the night before YC deadline, when all through the valley
Creatures were stirring with excitement for the big night in Cali
Thousands of applications were typed with care
In hopes that the golden ticket will soon be there
And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds
While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads
when out of the blues my iPhone lets out a loud ring
It was an old friend I was meeting that night for a drink...
The mystery behind my previous blog
Well, my previous website - mkartik.com had my personal homepage and my blog. If you visit the website now, you see a “Account Suspended” page. It just appeared one fine day and I couldn’t do anything. No backups and I lost all my data :(
Can’t I just login into my hosting account ? No, it says “Authentication failure”
Can’t I send a email to my hosting provider ? No, I don’t have any contact. It sounds weird but there is a story behind it.
I had done a internship at Pictualize around 2 years back and had developed a facebook application. Vineesh Kumar, Founder of Pictualize and Weboword was mentoring me. I had then got this website as a gift. So, I have no idea about the hosting service provider etc. Once the inernship was over, he sent me my letter and just disappeared. No contact whatsoever.
- Domain gets autorenewed
- Bandwidth gets increased when I almost reached the limit. Same thing with the webspace.
- Now, I can’t login to my CPanel
- No contact with Vineesh. Tried email, mobile, facebook, linkedIn, past friends.
I tried tracing the hosting provider but even they refused to help me. Now, I have no way to get my website back and to contact a Vineesh.
His twitter -> https://twitter.com/#!/vineesh1
His LinkedIn -> http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=19781465
Any help is appreciated.
Inspirational !!
Perfect to describe my situation :)
Harry Potter
While coming back to my room, I noticed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on the bookshelf and my day was made. A big smile and I just couldn’t wait to start reading it. Even though I have know each and every page of the book but I still love reading it :)
All Hail J.K. Rowling
PS: Sometimes, small things in life cheer you up. You just need to be open.
Why rejection sucks ?
Rejection always hurts and it hurts even more when you had put in all your effort. But a rejection hurts the most when you don’t know what you did wrong.
History repeats itself. It started with Korea, then Tech Sec and finally CMU. The three things I wanted the most after my first semester in college. In all three cases, I don’t know what I lacked so I don’t even know where to improve.
PS: I’m in kind of a bad mood.
Reject from CMU
Dear Kartik:
I regret to inform you that we are unable to admit you to the Master of Science Program in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. We received over 800 applications this year. Unfortunately, we could only admit a fraction of the applicants, even though many more had strong qualifications. We wish you the best in your future endeavors.
Jeannette M. Wing
President’s Professor of Computer Science and Department Head
Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Testing
Testing 123
First shot at Cooking
I made pasta with egg. I just boiled the pasta and then drained off the water. Then, I mixed egg(whisked) and some salts etc. It came out well. So, my first experience at cooking was great.
Athens - Week 2
I had a perfect Saturday.
I went to Lycabettus Hill with two other students. One of them knows a lot of history, so he told me all about orthodox christians etc. You can see the entire Athens from there. Even the mountains and see are visible. It’s very beautiful. From there, we went to Syntagma ( Greek Parliament) and then to Monstraiki and Victoria. We went all the way walking and it must have been around 5 kms with slant. Though I walked a lot but I didn’t feel much tired. Maybe its the air.
After that, I went to a nearby cafe with my new friend and had coffee. Like India, people sit for hours in cafes and just talk.
Tomorow ( Sunday), I am going for a trip to Nafpaktos. Its organised by the student organisation here.
Athens - Day 5-9
Hello everyone, (Kalemera)
Its been a week since I came to Athens and its been a wonderful experience.
My work is going great and I have made a few friends in the university. I
met a person who is working as a researcher in the department. He earlier
worked with a MIT professor and now is back to complete his degree. Even
though he has not graduated, he is working because he has expertise in the
field of social robotics. He told that his friends who have graduated are
not able to find a job because of the current economic situation.
Surprisingly, he is a great fan of Shahrukh Khan and watches all his
movies. He wants to learn Hindi as he will be visiting India soon. I
already completed the project and showed it to the guide. He suggested some
finishing touches. He told me that I’m promoted and will work on a new
project from Monday. Also, I will shift to a place and get a cubicle with
the IT team in the department who work on very interesting and upcoming
technologies.
On friday, I went to a mall near the university. I travelled by the
suburban railway which goes on the ground level. Surprisingly, Athens has
just two malls which were also opened recently but all major brands have
outlets. Also, I saw the Olympic stadium from outside.
Saturday- I shifted to a new apartment which is around 15 min from the
previous hotel. Its a little bit cheaper and more importantly, I have flat
mates here. In the night, we had a gathering of all the IAESTE volunteers.
Sunday- I had Espresso Freddo in the morning. It had a unique taste of
coffee. I went for paintball. Its a game in which there are two teams of 6
players each. Each person gets a gun which has pellets filled with paint.
So, you need to shoot the opponent. Once you are hit by a pellet, you are
dead. The arena is made of obstacles like tyres, trucks, cars, trenches
etc. So, its more of a strategy game rather than a shooting game. One
version of the game is “Capture the Flag” in which there is a flag at the
center which you need to capture and bring it back to your base(starting
point). So, we played for around 3 hours and we were very tired. The
location is an hour drive from Athens.
After paintball, I went to the Acropolis. Though I didn’t climb up the hill
but I went to the musuem. The musuem is built on the excavation site. So,
you can see the excavations below the floor. The musuem was started only in
2010. The student ticket just costs 3 euros. There was a talk on Asclepius,
God of Medicine. He is the son of Apollo and it is said that he had magical
powers which could cure everything. He was brought to the city of Athens by
a citizen and then he established his center here. Also, its the only time
when science and religion had common ground as the doctors used to make
herbs which were used by Asclepius. Hippocrates regards Asclepius as his
inspiration. The musuem covers the entire Acropolis history and is a treat
for any historian. From the top floor, there is a magnificent view of the
Parthenon on the Acropolis hill. After 6, the lights are switched on and it
looks amazing. The parthenon is like a temple built for Athena, Goddess of
wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare,
mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill and serves as
the protector of Athens. Athena is also known as Athena Parthenos (Virgin
Athena) as she never married. Parthenon comes from this title. Athena
competed with Poseidon and won Athens by offering a olive tree. It has a
very unique structure and I am sure all structural engineers will love it.
I was going back to take the metro and I met a guy who said his close
friend was in India working in Infosys. He works in Thesalloniki, a city
500kms far from Athens. He asked me all about the major software giants and
advice about investing them. I returned back and had a meal nearby the
flat. Now, the restaurant owner recognizes me.
Even in Athens, there are lot of hawkers. Unsurprisingly, many of them are
Asians.
Athens Day 3-4
The past two days have been wonderful.
University - I left my hotel at around 9 and met Nikos, a volunteer met me at the bus stop. Then we purchased a sim card. Its a unique plan known as Taza powered by Vodafone which has cheap calls to India. The sim card costed 5 euros. Then, we took a bus to the university. The buses are much bigger than Delhi and some are powered via electricity through overheard lines. It takes around 30-40min depending on the traffic. Though there are no traffic jams, but the roads are narrow which allow just 2 vehicles to pass at a time. The university is around 5 min uphill walk from the bus stop. It has a huge campus and is located near the mountains. It has only engineering courses and around 10000 people study. Unlike India, the under graduate course is 5 years here. I had lunch in the university canteen. The university provides free meals(breakfast, lunch and dinner) to all students. The lunch was a complete 5 course : salad (lettuce, beans, tomato), bun, soup (big bowl), big slice of Greek cheese, main dish (chicken with potato mash), dessert(pan cake) and then fruits(apple and oranges). Even though the quantity was a lot but it was not heavy because of the salads etc. I could not finish the meal. After lunch, I met my professor who is the head of the department of EPU Unit, Electrical and Computer Science Dept. Then, they assigned me a computer and discussed the project. I had dinner in the university itself as it starts at 6. I took along two fruits for the night. It was around 7 by the time I reached my hotel. It gets dark after 6 and hence its difficult to roam around much. I went to a church nearby but couldn’t figure out the name of the church. There were beggars near the church but they didn’t bother to ask me. I think they guessed that I do not have much money to give away.
Yesterday, I met a person in the canteen who had done his PHd from this university and worked for 20 years. Now he is back to work as a researcher. He told me how the university has changed over the years. The current economic situation has many people return to universities for studies.
Kalemera ( Good Day )
Athens Day 1-2
Flight
The flight journey and seats were comfortable. The food was good too but it was not as good as I thought it would be. I slept for most of the time. I have to say that the Delhi airport is far better from Bahrain and Athens airports. The immigration was just for formaility. No questions asked. The emmigration at Delhi took more time. They asked for documents etc.
Saturday
I got a public transport pass made which can be used for all metros, trams and buses. It’s very cheap for students and costs 23 euros. The connectivity is very good. But Delhi Metro is far better. There are lot of Indians and Pakistanis here. I met a sardarji who is working here since 20 years and he invited me for dinner sometime. Yesterday, in the bus from airport I met a guy from San Fransico who worked in Hyderabad for 3 years. He teaches English and is very interested in learning languages. He knows Telugu well and asked me some doubts. I saw the changing of guards at the Greek Parliament. Its a great attraction and will see it again. The way they march is impressive. In Greece, each male is supposed to do a 9 month long military work. This can be substituted by working as a guard at the parliament for one month but you need to be minimum of 195 cm. They change every month and its a great honour to work as one. Basically, the guards are more of a tourist attraction rather than for security. Unlike India, the parliament is not heavily guarded.
Room
It’s a very nice room with fridge, bathroom, blankets, heating, bathtub, kettle etc. It has a kitchen where you can cook. The hotel is situated on a hill and offers a view of the acropolis. I just can’t digest the fact that we can drink tap water.
Sunday
The manager made coffee for me this morning. They add very little milk. Nevertheless, I bought a litre of milk and can make bournvita from tomorow. My friend Nikos ( IAESTE coordinator) gave me maps and leaflets about Athens. Its very easy to roam around with a map otherwise the streets can be confusing as there are many small streets with weird names. The people here are very friendly and always smile. I went to the Areos Park today and the Exarchia Square. In the park, I met another Pakistani and we had a chat. You can find Indians and Pakistanis everywhere and most of them work as sweepers, drivers etc. The roads are very good and have pedestrian lights too. I had a slice of pizza for lunch which looked small but was very filling. For dinner, I had pasta which was served with bowl of cheese and bread. It was so much that I had to get it packed. As a complimentary dessert, they gave a small chocolate.
Overall it has been a good experience. I am starting to learn the Greek alphabet.
Kalinihta
First Post
Welcome to my blog powered by Tumblr.
This blog is an alternative to my previous website (http://www.mkartik.com). I hope I can recover my previous blog posts and transfer it here. Well, how I lost my blog is another story and deserves a post altogether.
Lets see how Tumblr turns out to be :)
Any suggestions for Themes, plugins are welcome !
Musings of Kartik Mandaville
