I Am Asif

This post is not a very good idea. How can it be? I've decided to mention just a few of my 'friends' here, out of so many. Section A of our batch is like a freak show. Each and every character is unique and has his/her own set of ideas, morals, attitude, pros and cons. So it would be better if I could talk about them all. But instead I'm just going with my short list. For a couple of friends, staying together in the same school, college and university and always in the same section is rarity probably in the whole world. Yet, starting from class four at Udayan School, going through the time at Dhaka City College together and now here at AUST, me and Shuvro have spent 13 friggin years together. Amazed? Even I can't believe it's been that long. But the irony in it is that despite spending such a long time together, me and Shuvro never got to be close friends. Our conversations mostly comprised of me hitting on Shuvro, giving him a healthy dose of pochani , or oth...

Since we've come to our senses, one particular thing has been part and parcel of our lives, classes. So now that our classes are all over, it's been a little hard for us all to accept the situation we're being thrust into. It's hard to imagine that I'm not gonna wake in a hurry anymore, putting on the clothes as fast as I can, grabbing my bag and dashing out of home without taking breakfast, to catch the first class. There will be no more staring at the white (or black) board and struggling to keep up with the pace of the lecturer, no more staring blankly into the eyes of the teacher, not understanding a word yet pretending to know it all. No more attending the quizzes with zero preparation and not regretting about it at all. Not gonna have to submit anymore lab reports, although most I did was change the font of someone else's hard work. But above everything else, the most striking fact is that there will be no more of friends. Sound too harsh I guess, cuz you...

I’ve been in trips before, and Inshallah I’ll be in a lot more in the future, but last week’s trip to The Sundarbans was one that I’ll remember most when I look back at my life. This trip was a lot of things together. Other than being a tour of absolute visual pleasure at the sight of the rivers, the sea and the forest, this trip will probably be more remembered as the trip that brought every one of us together, the students of EEE, AUST, final semester. Our caravan consisted of 61 students from all four seasons…… I mean sections, hehe, and also two of our respected teachers. Doesn’t sound like a big crowd, but I am still amazed that our group has gone through the tour with such a degree of order and unity. There’s a reason why I typed in ‘four seasons’ a little earlier. Every section of our semester and every student in each is so strikingly different and have such diverse ideas that I can’t help thanking The Almighty Allah that our tour was such a pleasant one. I don’t know how the ...

Squeezer, grinder, hydraulic press, call it whatever you like, the month of November has been all that, and may be more. Having to attend non stop classes 6 days a week is a pain by itself. Moreover I've taken part in a training course on PLC at the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh. The course was for 15 days, 4 days a week and a total of 50 hours. I always knew doing the course in parallel with the classes at the varsity will not be easy. But I went for it anyway cuz I have no intention to do anymore studies after my graduation is complete next March, Inshallah. So, many of the days in the last month or so started at Fajr (that's before dawn), and ended after midnight. Only yesterday my course was complete and the certificates were handed out. Yesterday was also the last day before Eid at the varsity. This gives me a much much much awaited break of about two weeks.We, the students of the last semester have a prettttyyy big plan on how to make great use of this break, I...

The classes of the 4th year 2nd semester are under way. This is it. The very last semester. The home run. 3 and a half years don't seem like much, but looking back at all the courses I've gone through in the last 7 semesters, it indeed feels like I've come a long way. 4 courses, 4 labs, that's all there's left now. Thanks to Allah, all four course teachers this time are the best we could ask for, so that should make things easier. The chief annoying thing this time is the routine. There are plenty of gaps between classes throughout the week that guarantee a huge waste of time. But hey, it's just a matter of three months, right?

It's over in a flash. Seems like it started yesterday, and yet I'm just 3 days away from the finals of the 4th year 1st semester. This has probably been the most dull semester we've ever had. The only spark of fun came from the T-10 cricket tournament that we had. Other than that, this semester's been totally boring. But I gotta say something about a couple of courses in this semester. First up, Microwave Engineering. For those of us who took up this one instead of VLSI, it has been a decision we've regretted throughout the whole semester. Up until the very last week of the classes, I really didn't know how I would as much as get rid of this subject in the finals. But you know, even the most difficult problems can seem easy if Allah wants. And so within the 1st 3 days of the PL, I went through it like a bullet. And guess what, it doesn't seem that hard anymore, thanks to Allah. And nice to see that most of my friends who were also scared shitless about this...

The 3rd year 2nd semester has brought out both the best and worst in me, based on results. As I've mentioned earlier, the telecommunication exam was the worst exam I've ever had to attend, for multiple reasons, and the result was an equal match. I got a poor 43 out of 100, which is the worst score I've ever got as far as I remember. I didn't expect any better, all I wanted was to get rid of it. Thankfully I did. In striking contrast, I got my best ever score in the Power Transmission and Distribution exam, getting a 90. I don't remember hitting the 90 mark ever, so that's my highest mark as far as I can remember. Despite the poor marks in telecomm and semiconductor, thanks to Allah I've still managed to get a respectable GPA, due to the A+ scores in all the three other subjects. And Alhamdulillah I can finally say, 3-2 is behind me, which leaves just one more year to deal with.

March 24 was the day before my brother's wedding, the day of his 'Gaye Holud' ceremony at our place. Should've been a great day for me, but it was also the day before my Semiconductor Devices semester final exam. So up till the evening I was switching between studies and arrangements. But after evening I had no chance to study. The program went pretty good thankfully. I was free to study at almost 1 o'clock at the night. I did my best to prepare for the exams, studying for a little more than an hour that night, and after the Fafr prayer the next day. So the preparations weren't so good, and the exam was nothing better. The exam didn't go any better than I was prepared for, but at least I wasn't scared of failing. That very day after the evening, our whole family left for my Bhaiya's wedding together. But things took a turn again, at least for me. My sister was feeling sick from the morning, she was constantly vomiting for some reason. When me and o...

It's time. Two events of greatest importance of our family, my bro's wedding ceremony and Walima, sandwiched between two of the most difficult exams in this semester, Semiconductor Devices and Telecommunication Engineering. Despite our attempt to fix the dates of my bro's events to avoid the exams, it has all come down to this awkward pickle. I know the sandwich won't taste good, I just hope it doesn't leave a taste too bad in my mouth. Recently our home is buzzing with reletives doing all sorts of pre-wedding stuff. So the environment has become quite uncomfortable for studies. Even if I'm locked up in my room, the sound of all those hihi-haha s is impossible to keep out of my mind. So from today I've started to implement an old idea of mine, which I haven't had a chance to put to the test so far. I've got myself a headphone some weeks back, with a microphone connected to it. I've plugged in the headphone, plugged in the mic, turned up the vol...

By today 2 of our semester final exams should've been over, but actually we don't even know when our exams are gonna even start. The semester finals have been postponed for indefinite period following the recent clashes that took place in our varsity campus. Last Thursday, students of the civil department hosted a strike protesting the suspension of three of their students. The students put the whole campus under siege including all the teachers and staff for more than ten hours! Then the police took action and used brute force to get them cleared. Exams of some of the semesters were scheduled to start Saturday, but the students of all the departments (actually it's the 'senior elite' who take these decisions all the time) decided not to sit in the exams to protest the way they had been treated. The authority had nothing to do but to postpone the exams. So instead of being fixed in my table, plunged into the books and notes, I'm sitting on my PC, playing games ...

I remember back in the very first semester, our Basic Mechanical Engineering course was taken by Ashiqur Rahman sir from BUET. He explained an analogy between the 4 years of our course, with the 4 strokes of an engine. The first year is the ‘Intake Stroke’, where the new students are taken in into the varsity for processing. The second year is the ‘Compression Stroke’, as the second year is said to be the most difficult, where the student really feel the pressure of studying engineering. The third year is the ‘Power Stroke’, as this is said to be the year when the students start to feel like engineers, they take over the most active roles in all sorts of campus activities. And the fourth year is the ‘Exhaust Stroke’, when it’s almost done, the soon to be engineers are already planning what to do when they get out. Today at the last day of my third year, I really find this analogy perfect in every sense. The third year, particularly the second semester, was simply unforgettable. It’s b...

The AUST EEE Society 's Electrical Day '08, held on November 27 on AUST campus, will always be unforgettable. It marked several milestones for AUST, our EEE department and also for me personally. For the last month or so, the students of our department have been working relentlessly to stage this event. For me, this event brought many 'firsts' . As I've written earlier, I've never participated in a project fair. This time, me along with four other pals (naming ourselves "gEEEks", i.e, EEE geeks), have tried really hard to put forward a solid project. But the project we took turned out to be a little too complicated for us, and unfortunately we couldn't take part in the competition. I felt really sorry for Pulak and Fahad in particular, as those two really worked hard for the project. But on the positive side, we have indeed gained a great deal of experience while working for the project. I'll never forget the trip to Patuatuli , (the IC Heaven...

The newly formed AUST EEE Society is arranging the first ever 'Electrical Day' on the last week of November. There's gonna be technical project presentation, cultural event, photography exhibition, magazine publication from the EEE department. I'm really excited about the event, and I've got some plans for it as well. Me and 4 other guys from our section have plans to submit a project about which we have been planning for the last couple of weeks or so. I've never actually participated in the science fairs that were held every year back in Udayan, but I was always a spectator, hehe. But this time I'm hoping to make a debut. I'm also gonna submit some of the photos taken by my to take a chance at the photography exhibition. Well, I know my photos are not probably good enough to be selected for the exhibition, but I'll still give it a try, nothing-to-lose style. Well, if somehow one of my photos get selected, that would be yet another first for me. Bu...

After a long break of one and a half month, the classes of the 3rd year 2nd semester have started from today. I have spent this break totally like a lazy boy, except for the 3 days I've spent on Allah's path. But yes, if you consider gaming to be work, then I was pretty damn busy! Last month after upgrading my PC, I've spent a hell lot of time in front of my monitor, and my fingers had started to give my pain because of excessive gaming. I've just played three games though, but thoroughly. Recently I've been playing Pure , which is probably the most exciting and fun racing game I've ever played. What does it lack? Here you get to build and ride cool ATVs (quad bikes), ride them in blinding speed through jaw dropping beautiful natural tracks, make unbelievably high jumps, and get to pull off dozens of utterly insane and spectacular tricks while you're in the air! I've just finished the game today, but I'm still gonna play this for a long time I guess,...

Last Friday I had Iftar with varsity pals Shourav and Kanto and three of their school friends. We went to Captain's World , a recently popular place in Dhaka. Actually Shourav wanted to gather many more friends from AUST, but unfortunately only me and Kanto replied to his sms. Anyways, the Iftar was good, we didn't take any of the usual Iftar items like piaju, beguni (it always makes me wonder, why do these food items always make an entry in Ramadaan, and disappear for the rest of the year), instead we took tanduri chicken, nun, chicken broast, kabab and drinks. The food I admit, was pretty good, and we all enjoyed the time. The three guys from Kanto and Shourav's school I met for the first time there, and they were pretty friendly people. One thing really hurt me in that place. They have made arrangements for Iftar, so that people can break their fast after having their stomachs empty for the whole day for the sake of Islam, while we were sitting there, recitation from t...

Painful. The 3rd year 1st semester was simply painful. It was annoying during the classes, it was disturbing during the PL, it was horrifying during the exams, and it still hurts after them. Particularly Linear Systems and Electromagnetic Fields and Waves were utter nightmares. Imagine two thorns stuck under your toe, whenever you walk they send gnawing pain throughout your body, and you've been living with this pain for the last 4 months or so. How relieved would you feel to get rid of those thorns, and to have the pain removed? That's exactly how I feel to get rid of Linear and EFW. At first I thought Linear would be the toughest one, and indeed it was tough. But as soon as I started to prepare for EFW, I felt Linear was like heaven. EFW was indeed the most horrifying exam ever, and I'm still not free from concern about getting rid of it. I'm gonna have to keep my eyes open for the results to make sure of that. That's why the "Hopefully" part of the post...

I first met Adnan sir back in the last days of 1-2. It was in our viva of Electrical Circuits II lab, and Adnan sir was quizzing us. Probably he joined our department just a few days ago. He was asking all the questions regarding the very basics of the lab course, and my fellow examinees was putting them mostly wrong, and I was giving the right answers !! Anyways, back in that day I never thought that Adnan sir would one day become my favorite teacher. He took our C++ classes in 2-1, which was a nightmare for most of my classmates, but programming (at least the basic part of it) seemed fascinating to me, and I followed Adnan sir's lectures with wide eyes and an open mind. His approach was a bit different from the other lecturers. From that time we found out how friendly and cooperating Adnan sir can be. Whenever we went to him to get something cleared out, he would find some time for us always. He used to put up the class lecture sheets in his website, this particular approach was...

The semester finals start in less than 48 hours. Saturday's exam is Electrical Machines III which is a lot easier compared to the other courses in this semester. DLD II can be tricky, Linear Systems will need a lot of hard work in the six days of break before the exam to get a respectable mark, Electromagnetic Fields and Waves can be a terrible pain as it depends A LOT on memorizing , which of course, I'm horrible at, same problem goes for Sociology, but hopefully Accounting won't be much of a problem. So now I'm taking a deep breath before the plunge, don't know if I can hold my breath long enough. I just hope that August 26 comes as soon as possible, when the exams of 3rd year 1st semester will be all over, as this is definitely the most disturbing and uninteresting semester so far. Remember me in your prayers .

Finally the classes of the 3rd year 1st semester are over. Classes ended with an expected cargo-load of exams in the last week. Thanks to Allah, the finishing was better than expected. This semester has been the most un-interesting one so far. The subjects were pretty much unattractive. Most of the students are particularly concerned about Linear Systems, which is a tricky course and consists of a lot of concepts from mathematics, at which I'm always horrible. I'll be very happy to get over this semester with the upcoming finals starting from August 9.

Let's start with the good news. The merit list for the second year second semester (last semester) was out a couple of days ago, and Alhamdulillah I found my name in the seventh spot. That means I've been included in the merit list for the third time so far. Being among the top eight also means that I would soon receive 18000 bucks as weaver Inshallah. All thanks to Allah. Now let's get back to the present, which is in striking contrast with the past. The current semester seems to me to be the most disturbing so far, none of the subjects seem interesting to me. Particularly the subject Linear Systems, which is considered to be one of the toughest courses of the whole curriculum, is causing much disturbance. Digital Electronics-II is probably the only subject which seems a bit fun, although not as much as it predecessor, as this one is mostly theoretical and brings back the gloomy memories of Electronics from 1-2 and 2-1. Electrical Machines-III was supposed to be interestin...