Word-o-phobia

A few hours ago, I came across the ‘FlasgCard’ making app at one of my favourite and oft-used dictionary.com. Eager to play around with more words, I made a few decks:
eerieness
kenjoy
wordophobia
xyzee

Why don’t you guys also go through them? It’s beneficial to listen to the deck as the pronunciation makes a way inside the convulsions of the tiny brain 🙂

100 best novels!

This is a list of best 100 novels of the century:
1. 1922 Ulysses James Joyce
2. 1925 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
4. 1955 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
5. 1932 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
6. 1929 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
7. 1961 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
8. 1940 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
9. 1913 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence
10. 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
11. 1947 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
12. 1903 The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
13. 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
14. 1934 I, Claudius Robert Graves
15. 1927 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
16. 1925 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
17. 1940 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
18. 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
19. 1952 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
20. 1940 Native Son Richard Wright
21. 1959 Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow
22. 1934 Appointment in Samarra John O’Hara
23. 1938 U.S.A. (trilogy) John Dos Passos
24. 1919 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson
25. 1924 A Passage to India E. M. Forster
26. 1902 The Wings of the Dove Henry James
27. 1903 The Ambassadors Henry James
28. 1934 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. 1935 Studs Lonigan (trilogy) James T. Farrell
30. 1915 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
31. 1945 Animal Farm George Orwell
32. 1904 The Golden Bowl Henry James
33. 1900 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
34. 1934 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh
35. 1930 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
36. 1946 All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren
37. 1927 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
38. 1910 Howards End E. M. Forster
39. 1953 Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
40. 1948 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
41. 1954 Lord of the Flies William Golding
42. 1970 Deliverance James Dickey
43. 1951-
1975 A Dance to the Music of Time (series) Anthony Powell
44. 1928 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley
45. 1926 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
46. 1907 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
47. 1904 Nostromo Joseph Conrad
48. 1915 The Rainbow D. H. Lawrence
49. 1920 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence
50. 1934 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
51. 1948 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
52. 1969 Portnoy’s Complaint Philip Roth
53. 1962 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
54. 1932 Light in August William Faulkner
55. 1957 On the Road Jack Kerouac
56. 1930 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
57. 1924-
1928 Parade’s End Ford Madox Ford
58. 1920 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
59. 1911 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm
60. 1961 The Moviegoer Walker Percy
61. 1927 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
62. 1951 From Here to Eternity James Jones
63. 1957 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever
64. 1951 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
65. 1962 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
66. 1915 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
67. 1902 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
68. 1920 Main Street Sinclair Lewis
69. 1905 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
70. 1957-
1960 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
71. 1929 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
72. 1961 A House for Mr Biswas V. S. Naipaul
73. 1939 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
74. 1929 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
75. 1938 Scoop Evelyn Waugh
76. 1962 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
77. 1939 Finnegans Wake James Joyce
78. 1901 Kim Rudyard Kipling
79. 1908 A Room with a View E. M. Forster
80. 1945 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
81. 1953 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow
82. 1971 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner
83. 1979 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul
84. 1938 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen
85. 1900 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
86. 1975 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow
87. 1908 The Old Wives’ Tale Arnold Bennett
88. 1903 The Call of the Wild Jack London
89. 1945 Loving Henry Green
90. 1980 Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
91. 1932 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell
92. 1983 Ironweed William Kennedy
93. 1965 The Magus John Fowles
94. 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
95. 1954 Under the Net Iris Murdoch
96. 1979 Sophie’s Choice William Styron
97. 1949 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
98. 1934 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain
99. 1955 The Ginger Man J. P. Donleavy
100. 1918 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington

I have read a few of them, all thanks to Kumar sir. Now,we guys plan to read more novels from here!!! Why dont u guys suggest me ur favourite among them all????
Cheers,
Shruti.
PS. I tried reading midnight’s children around 3 yrs back, I cudnt get anything…lolzz!

Sagittarius Girl..I seek, therefore I am!

Hey..
Obsessed about myself,I was reading what my zodiac hadta say! Found it pretty interesting n true to a decent extent!
Am pasting a few lines here…
All the sagis can enjoy this 🙂

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The Sagittarius woman is an enterprising and resourceful individual who is constantly searching in order to fulfil her dreams.

Sagittarius is the real adventurer of the zodiac and this girl is forever highly charged with creative fire, ever keen for excitement and the opportunities in order to widen her horizons.

This girl loves travel and will have a difficult time standing still. She can be characterized as one who seeks a goal, reaches that goal and then, is off to seek another goal in life.

Perhaps the biggest problem in her life is the need to balance what is real with the ideal, and to endeavour to accept the current state of her life’s responsibilities in order that she may build a solid future.

Sagittarius is referred to the “philosopher of the heavens” and, in keeping, the Sagittarius is always very keen to expand her knowledge and can often be a perpetual student.

The Sagittarius woman’s basic interest is to learn and, in turn to teach what she knows to others. Problems can arise however because the Sagittarius girl can at times believe that she has mastered a skill before she has really done so. This can result in adverse situations through trying to teach on a subject of which she has insufficient knowledge.

The Sagittarius woman can be quite the visionary and is farsighted in her own way, however, she often tends to lack the patience to perfect herself in the practical world.

Irrespective, Sagittarius is the luckiest sign in the zodiac, and the Sagittarius girl will not only manage to survive but will more than likely prosper.

MONEY & FINANCES

Ruled by the fun-loving and expansive Jupiter, Sagittarius is not known for her ability to stay within the confines of a budget.
Not one to care about such details as a price tag or a credit limit, Sagittarius will often spend beyond her means.
This can lead to frequent financial difficulties, as her optimistic nature tells her that tomorrow will take care of today.
Sometimes she is quite correct, but not always!
Sagittarius likes to play games and is attracted to speculation and gambling, sometimes doing quite well at it.
But she is a mutable sign, and her financial highs can just as easily become economic lows.
She needs to learn from Libra and use balance and temperance in her financial dealings.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

This Sagittarius girl is as much an adventurer in love and romance as she is in everything else. With the sign of Sagittarius often referred to as the
“The bachelor sign,” the Sagittarius woman can often experience some very difficult times when, in committed relationships.
She is a girl who enjoys a great sense of personal freedom and, it is necessary therefore, that she needs to couple with a partner who can allow the Centaur plenty of room in which to move and roam.
The Sagittarius woman is one who is often attracted to the “those in distress” syndrome and she can feel gratified when she is in a position to provide help to another to recover from their emotional problems through the act of loving them.
A Sagittarius woman will commit to and remain with a partner who, is independent by nature, passionately romantic, and one who also possesses the urge to travel and to explore life.
The most compatible signs for our Sagittarius the “Centaur” are those of Aries and Leo and, Libra and Aquarius can also make excellent partnerships with Sagittarius.

Taurus and Cancer relationship are also not the easiest and may require some work and, Pisces, Gemini, and Virgo present the greatest relationship challenges for our Sagittarius girl.

—sagittariuswoman.net

What interests me most is..
“The bachelor sign”..Yeah!! I like it 🙂 🙂 🙂
Cheers,
Shruti.

Do you too want flowers????????

(I find trivial writing any thing, I mean anything, about the lines that will follow. Read them for yourself.)

I got flowers today. It wasn’t my birthday or any other special day.
We had our first argument last night and he said a lot of cruel things
that really hurt me. I know that he is sorry and didn’t mean to say the
things he said – because he sent me flowers today.

I got flowers today. It wasn’t our anniversary or any other special day.
Last night he threw me into a wall and then started to choke me.
It seemed like a nightmare but you wake up from nightmares to find
that they aren’t real. I woke up this morning sore and bruised all over.
I know he must be sorry – because he sent me flowers today.

I got flowers today. And it wasn’t Valentines Day or any other special
day. Last night he beat me and threatened to kill me.
Makeup and long sleeves didn’t hide the cuts and bruises this time.
I couldn’t go to work because I didn’t want anyone to know
But I know he is sorry – because he sent me flowers today.

I got flowers today and it wasn’t Mother’s Day or any other special day.
Last night he beat me again and it was much worse than all the other
times. If I leave him what will I do? How will I take care of the kids?
What about money? I’m afraid of him and too scared to leave him!
But he must be sorry – because he sent me flowers today.

I got flowers today. Today was a very special day.
It was the day of my funeral.
Last night he finally killed me. I was beaten to death.
If only I would have gathered enough courage and strength to leave him.

So I got flowers today – for the very last time.

—Google

Do U still want flowers??? Those flowers aren’t looking that beautiful know!! Everything is defined so relatively!!
🙂
Cheers,
Shruti.

I adore it..It’s cute!!

I joined Welham in class 6, a time when I could hardly talk in English. Forget about reading a novel, I hadnt even heard of Enid Blytons that all my peers had read. Hadnt heard of Agatha Christie or Nancy Drew or Roald Dahl! English was so elusive to me, be it pronunciation,talking fluently or writing essays. All girls there could talk very well, write amazingly and I used to envy them. I used to love reading though, but only Nandans and Champaks! I just could never pen down my imagination on paper, it just would not happen however hard I tried. My mind would create such adventurous, silly, stupid,funny images and events, but I just could not express my feelings in English! And on the same side, I would win essay writing competitions in Hindi. It troubled me a lot cuz I missed getting a Rank 1 only cuz of this ‘silly’ English twice in a row!  I always scored lowest in English, would just get a 4 on 10 in essays. Grammar though I could study, so there I would cover up! Thankfully, in class 8, I got amazing English teachers, Mrs. Devgan and Mrs. Khambatta and Mrs. Chhabi Hari. Somehow, they all really inspired me to do well. Once, I landed up getting the highest in article writing, a 7.5. I remember exactly what I wrote even till date. That was it! I decided then that no more would English make me miss my Rank 1. I had missed getting MTSE scholarship twice, I just had to get it now! And then, I got it continously for 3 years! Swati daftuar, a voracious reader and my bed neighbour would guide me and we would read under our quilts with torch light.  I soon forgot that I was doing it to improve my English or rather learn it. She used to read weird novels and somehow somewhere I fell in love with her collection of books. Her dad is a writer, writes in Bengali. With every letter her dad sent her, there would be a carton full of novels, and all of us would enjoy the books!!

As a part of our curriculum of class 6, I came across this poem below. I could connect with it really well! Now, I  find it very cute. Please, when u reading this poem, read it in a singsong way as a kid would!

The English Language

Some words have different meanings,and yet they’re spelt the same,

A cricket is an insect, to play it is a game.

On every hand, in every land, its thoroughly agreed,

The English language to explain, is very hard indeed.

Some people say that you’re a dear, yet a dear is far from cheap,

A jumper is a thing you wear, yet a jumper has to leap.

It’s very dear, it’s very queer, and pray who is to blame,

for different meanings to some words pronounced and spelt the same?

A little journey is a trip, a trip is when you fall;

doesn’t mean you have to dance, whenever you hold a ball,

Now, here’s a thing that puzzles me: musicians of good taste,

will very often form a band – I’ve one round my waist.

A door may often be ajar, but give the door a slam,

then your nerves receive a jar – and then there’re jars of jam.

You’ve heard, of course of traffic jams, and jams you give your thumbs,

and adders, too, one is a snake and others add up sums.

You spin a top, go for a spin, or spin a yarn maybe –

Yet every spin’s a different spin as you can plainly see.

On every hand, in every land, it’s thoroughly agreed,

The English language to explain, is very hard indeed

Harry Hamsley

Bored..

Hieeeeeeeee….

I am getting so bored. I’hv been behaving very lazily the entire day! Attended just one lecture,it was a PPT given by one of my profs. The PPT was very redundant, she went on elaborating the same point again and again. I managed to read 3 Ed articles during her jabbering without missing her jabber either! Why can’t PPTs be a lil more interesting and funny??? She tried to make it interesting, but guess how? Asusual geeky methodology…comparing nature with the various embedded platforms available in the market. Yikes! And on top of that, the “students” of my class were making notes and also writing down her stupid nature-platform jokes!! Do u then think I would have the capacity to handle more lectures….??? It must b crazy of u expect so much from me…LOLzz

Since then, the day has been beautiful in a very special way. I have just been reading, sleeping, listening to awesome music, writing down a lil, remembering childhood days,dreaming, making  a card, sketching…just loved the day!! Noone disturbed me, no phone calls to attend for a change.. it was lovely!! Oh wow! bhai calling…This day seems to be getting better! Finally, bhai ko meri yaad aayi.. Its time to hear class 9 school gossip, his Pjs which somehow Akshit finds very funny! Oh I remember now, its Teacher’s Day tomorro. He’d want to tell me which of his silly and dumb classmates (girls) are dancing and on which silly songs! Heeh!!

Gotta go,

Cheers,

Shruti.

Adobe campus recruitment..

Hi,

Many people have been asking me the questions that I was asked during the entire recruitment procedure, so finally I stepped out of my laziness cocoon and here it comes!!

ADOBE campus recruitment

We had a written exam first, which had 3 sections as usual.

WRITTEN:
Section1: Quant + Simple reasoning 45 questions in 45 minutes
Extremely easy, no preparation needed! Only rocket speed.
Section 2: Engineering test 10 questions in 45 minutes
Section 3: C test 10 questions in 45 minutes
A very typical “adobe” written paper covering questions from C, DS (algos),  Finite Automata, Microp.
Only C and DS need to be done properly for this. The questions from rest of the topics are simple to crack!
Out of 200 people, 16 were shortlisted.

IINTERVIEWS:

Round 1:
•    Memmove function
I used the same concept given in crack the interview, but he seemed unsatisfied. He asked me to optimize it further. On being able to do it, he asked me to generalize it for void*. Did that too!
•    Read last 10 lines of a file
Since I dint know the length of the line, I told him the linked list funda about reading the last n lines. He refused to take that for a soln on the grounds that my soln was order N. He was looking for something entirely different which I dint know.
•    Delete the given node of a linked list and then write an algo to insert a new node in a linked list, which is being operated upon by multiple threads, most efficiently using multithreaded programming, synchronization tools.
•    Implement realloc, generalize for void *, include all possible test cases
•    Draw a line between 2 given points using putpixel function

Round 2:
•    Store each word of a given sentence in a retrievable data structure. (pseudocode wudn’t do)
•    Generalize the method of dynamically allocating 2D array i.e. implement a function called 2Dmalloc(should work for all data types..Playing with void** becomes messy)
•    Write a function to print Fibonacci numbers till n recursively (try coding this!)

Round 3:
•    Delete the complete Binary tree. (kept asking for optimizations)
•    2n+1 elements, 1 number unique, find it. (Told the interviewer that I already knew it, he confirmed the soln n moved on)
•    How will u figure out whether 2 2D rectangles overlap. (Gave him 3 different soln only to receive his unsatisfaction! )
•    Some question on DS.. I forgot. Must hv been solvable that’s why I can’t recall it!
•    Discussion of error handling, OS, memory stuff…blah blah

Round 4:
•    Solve Sudoku in 10 minutes, the Director checked your approach in detail.
•    A variation of rat and maze problem: Starting and ending points could be given anywhere. You had to find the shortest path from the Starting point till the ending point.
•    HR stuff.. Hobbies/dislikes/philosophy/Success/Failure/college/school..blah blah

Many of the above questions were accompanied with other basic questions related to that Data structure/question. And be it any question, the interviewer loved to go in depths of each and every line I wrote, almost always seemed unsatisfied with the optimizations I did, and kept asking further and further details of the concept till I would say ‘I don’t know this, Sir. ‘ !! Basically, they loved troubling u! But all the interviews were very interesting and the trouble indeed was lots of fun!

Round 5:
This was an HR round, more of a formality! It went like any other HR round would go except the interviewer kept noting down all the details on a piece of paper!! I think we were already selected by this point of time. The questions typically included:
1.    Why adobe?
2.    Where do u see urself 5 yrs down the line?
3.    Weakness/strength
4.    Leadership quality
5.    College life
6.    Cultural activities/Sports
7.    Any plans to do further studies?
8.    Hobby
9.    Resume centric questions
10.  Family background
Basically, it was simply jabber n jabber. You can’t prepare for this one, I was blatantly honest n did lots of talking !!

Hope this helps all those who’l sit for S/W Tech companies !

Cheers,

Shruti.

Overthinking is poisonous!

Heyyaaa…

I came across this question “Merge two BSTs”. It sounds simple,know? First solution that comes to ur mind is O(n^2) in time complexity and then when u decide to tweak ur solution, u suddenly start visualizing arrays cuz using knuthers method, its easy to convert an array into a BST(via recursion). Now, this uses O(n+m+(n+m) ) space, creating 3 arrays! Then, as “IT” students, this seems to be too much space for our cache. Now, while we were on this mission to save this linear space, we decided to flatten the 2 BSTs into 2 linked lists. Wow, finally saved half the space. Merging also became simple! Only step 4 remained: convert the linked list (sorted) into a BST. I had not done the concept of rotation until then, so as a ‘child’, started thinking of various options. My classmate gave a very complex method to do that…involving counters, recursion,pre-deciding the structure of the tree n blah blah. After a lot of hassles, I understood that method! Finally! Algo samajh aaaya tha but CODE???….Implementation seemed out of reach! Finally, I planned to convert the LL into arrays so that BST could b created.  God!! reached arrays again!!!!

Imagine,how much time gone? 3 hours! They r precious dude!! I cud hv finished DBMS in 3 hours. But u know what? Surprisingly, I am not frustrated! It was fun doin it and one very important lesson learnt, stick to basics and try breaking the problem into similar concpet done before with a ‘smaller’ Data Structure!

Ahh..

Nice break! Gotta return to some more DS. Till then adiosss!!

Just recalled…

In the evening, I got a call from a junior of mine. She wanted to join an institute to prepare for CAT 2010 and as always, the confusion prevailed in her mind. I told her that the obvious choice is Tathagat. I obviously had to back up my opinion with REASONS to asnwer her ‘WHY’. While talking to her, I asked myself why had I joined Tathagat? U wanna know why??

Okay.. As U wish. There were 2 things I had heard from our seniors.

1. Kumar sir asks u to read a novel every week.

As a kid, I was never allowed to read at home. I was expected to solve only Math questions and study science. I used to get myself a copy of champak and a nandan in class 2 and 3. But I did not do well in class 3 exams, n ever since my champaks n nandans were taken away 4m me. Used to get them only during vacations. Once I was in Welham, there was no such restriction but during holidays, I cud not read. I remember, Goblet of Fire was released during my vacations. I got a copy of it from my friend n used to hide it in my lap n read. On the table, RD sharma used to b kept just in case sumone peeped to keep a check on me.  When I joint TG, reading novels in one freedom I hv got. My dad seriously believes that reading is such a waste of time n nonsense, but now Im always like ” Kumar sir will kill me if I dont read! ”

2. This is a ridiculous reason, but dont laugh at me. I heard that Kumar sir chuks u out of the class if u r not on time. I am kind of crazy abt punctuality and I thought that since Tathagat wilb a such a discipline-oriented place, I will enjoy it. I think somewhere I missed discipline in NSIT, where U can enter the clas 5 minutes bfr it finishes just to get yourself ‘1 attendance’. LOlzz

Oh Lord! Its 5:31 A. M. I should be sleeping, I can hear the peacocks screeching n my roomiez alarm is ringing. God! Goodnight. No more talking…

Check out the Confucius temple !

Hi..

Read ‘The Great Learning’!

Confucius, a Chinese thinker and social philosopher.  His teachings had an impact in China,Korea,Japan,Taiwan and Vietnam.
I am paraphrasing the main points of ‘THE GREAT LEARNING’:
1.    Knowing the end: One must know what to achieve,only then can the path be achieved. Once the path is known, things should be investigated ,knowledge gained and then virtue can be attained. He’s asking people to reflect and investigate their hearts,purify their own thoughts,be sincere to their own conscience.
2.    Self-Renovation : One must continuously indulge in moral refinement and know himself or herself. The attainment of knowledge will lead to sincerity of one’s own thoughts and ultimatlely lead to a virtuous person.
3.    Root to branches: Perfecting knowledge is like knowing the root. Once a person is virtuous,he or she moves on to regulating families (brotherly love,kindness) and then to governing the state (with good faith) and ultimately to making the entire kingdom happy and peaceful. One can not preach what one does not practice. (Anti-Hypocrisy… Do u know of anyone who is not a hypocrite?? I do not!! )
4.    Virtue is the root, wealth the result:  Running behind wealth will lead to disaster and it is an end which need not be worried about. Once virtue is there, everything falls in place. In a state, pecuniary gain is not to be considered its prosperity, but prosperity is to be found in righteousness. If wealth is acquired in the morally incorrect fashion, one always will be scared of losing it in the same manner.
5.    Easy to fail: It takes time and effort to become virtuous but one mistake can lead to its fall.
6.    Learn to respect people with knowledge instead of being jealous and hindering their progress.
Check out this Confucius temple

Confucius :