Author: iitbian

There was a marketing professor at SIU-Carbondale. He used to arrange foreign tours – mostly to Europe and used to take his students with him. One day he was teaching in the classroom. A stranger entered the room, and in front of all students watching, took out a gun and shot the professor dead. It… Continue reading Marketing professor at Carbondale

We sent to San Francisco, a place near Civic center. I started from Berkeley. People came from all parts of San Francisco bay area. Many residents, many Jews, many Jews from other parts call them self-hating Jews. Most UC, Berkeley professors, students, almost entire Oakland, and so on. I think there were about 1,00,000 people… Continue reading Iraq War

Yosemite park, like many wonders in the States, only makes news when some hiker dies there. Haven’t seen Indians there. If one is single it is cheap to go there. I backpacked. First was the transportation. There is a train and then bus. It is convenient, slow, and slightly expensive. I looked for Ride Sharing… Continue reading Yosemite Park – a cheap visit

Last time was in the USA, was able to get a room in a youth hostel in Downtown San Francisco for a night before I moved back to Oakland. $80 for a night. Morning I got up. Came out, see people moving around like Zombies. No, no Skylag, no Zombies, just normal San Francisco people,… Continue reading Indian engineer’s solution to homeless problem

My company in San Francisco had a off shore office in Bangalore. Sometimes we had morning meetings simultaneously at both the location. It was nice to enjoy our morning coffees leisurely at 9:00 Am in San Francisco, when the Indian staff was getting angry calls from home,” When are you going to be home. That… Continue reading Our Bangalore office

When I worked in L and T many of the senior officials had Harvard Business School among the degrees they had received. I was very impressed with their achievements. It was only later I found that those were of executive programs, offered during Summer terms, admission was virtually open provided they or their companies paid… Continue reading MIT : Monkeys in Trance

Recently talked to two people First person is a PhD from TISS, an institution that was in proximity to IIT Bombay. She said she can lead a comfortable life for about Rs 40,000 a month. She has 2 dependents too. Next I talked to somebody from KFI, Chennai. He has a family too, and he… Continue reading Rs 40,000 a month for comfortable life?

One year I got typhoid. Was put into isolation ward of IIT Hospital. People stopped talking to me, Shyam Maniyar was the only one who visited me and took care of my course tests and home works. The food was so bad – white bread and milk, that I started dreaming of tasty snacks I… Continue reading Typhoid at IIT: 700 page homework

Dr. Oomari at Mitsubishi He was a PhD from University of Tokyo (Todai in short) and sat next to me. He seemed very frustrated and seemed like his professor at Todai had forced this job on him. Heard that was a standard practice. Would guess IITs force their favorite students to choose Microsoft, Google, or… Continue reading Dr. Oomori at Mitsubishi

The IIT professor told the student to get reference from him when applying to foreign universities. The student suspected something fishy. Finally he asked the professor to write a reference letter for him. He promised to write and mail it. The student was smart. He went to the post office and tipped the postman. He… Continue reading Unbelievable story of an IIT Kharagpur professor