CDAC PUNE ACTS Week 1 Preparations PG Hostel Food Weather

So I was offered Sunbeam Pune for course PGDAC with rank 576 (A+B) in the first round of seat allocation of 1st counselling. That was, when I wrote my first post in this blog.
In the second counselling, I got The Pune CDAC ACTS which is considered as the best CDAC institute. The registration at the centre was scheduled for 16th August, 2017 and subsequently we booked the flight tickets for Pune for the same day ( as I had to fly Kites at Home on 15th August :) ).

As I was leaving my home with my parents and travelling to Airport in a Cab, nostalgia crept in and all memories of my 21 Years stay in Delhi made an appearance in my mind. All the familiar roads, familiar buildings and the thought of 'How will I manage without my Parents in a stranger town??' made my eyes wet but I held them in my eyes only, with a heavy heart. In hindsight, my mom also was trying her best not to cry but I saw her effort to keep the rolling tears off from her face.

The flight took off at 3:30 in the morning and by 5am, we were at Pune-Lohegaon Airport. This was my first experience with Air Travel. And it went like a breeze except a few moments at Take off and Landing. We were welcomed by a little cold weather in Pune, partly due to monsoon season and the other reason being transition from hot and humid Delhi. My friend from College (and also school), who also was offered CDAC ACTS Pune in the first round of seat allocation itself, had booked space (PG) for 2 of us in a 3-sharing room. We took a cab from Airport to Panchawati Pune. We could see a few flat-on-top hills during the journey. Panchvati or Panchwati or the more acceptable Panchawati felt like a Hill station up north.

This colony is home to many retired Army personnel and Government employees. So cleanliness was obvious. Ours' was a bungalow situated in Madhukunj Society (one of the first societies after CDAC ACTS) with with 4 floors (roof included). Just a 3-4 minutes walk and you are in CDAC. As it turned out, my room was on ground floor which also has a bigger hall and a kitchen in between. The capacity of the bungalow for the students stands at 25. The students here are from all over India. Some being fresh graduates, some who have tried various fields like Bank Jobs etc. and some very elder than you.

Main Panchawati Road

The registration process began with the teacher/staff handing us a registration form to be filled with our details. We also had to attach a set of photocopied certificates and degrees with the form and keep the original ones with us for when the teacher asks for verification purposes. Me, along with some other DU students had to go through extra scrutiny due to the nature of our undergraduate course but in end, all just went fine.

We were also informed of the induction ceremony/Orientation which was going to happen the next day at Pt. Bhimsen Joshi Kalamandir in Aundh (4-5Km form Panchawati). The orientation programme included presentation from the CEO of Amdocs which is a recruitment partner with CDAC and formal speeches from other dignitaries from CDAC and a retired Army Colonel who was also an ex-CDACian. We were also informed that our classes woud start from 21st August -Monday which invited huge applause from the students. That meant that we had a 3 day weekend before the course started. Next was a free lunch😀😀

Now that these 3 days are coming to an end, it felt like it was just yesterday that we had arrived here. In fact, you won't feel the measure of time here. In these 3 days, we have explored the Panchawati region from a student's perspective who is coming from somewhere like Delhi-NCR and below I will share some tips for the same.

Food :

• You won't find the usual Rajma Chawal, Bhindi etc. here most of the times, neither in Cafes, Dhaba's or the tiffin services.
• There are a few (like 5-6) eateries here in Panchawati and mind you, these are not restaurants. Here you can find snacks for evenings, dinner, lunch and breakfast.
• The taste will surely differ from what you are used to and for ones who have never been in a hostel/pg before, it will take some adjustments.
• Domino's, McDonald's etc are present but not in Panchawati, nearest ones are 3-4Km from Panchawati but they do deliver.
• Haldiram's or Bikaner are not present nearby. They are very far, usually on highways or big markets. 
• Prepare yourself to see a watered Dal with actually no dal present and many big onion and tomato pieces in it if you are looking for tiffin service.
• It won't be possible to eat from outside at all times since you will be at CDAC most of the times. CDAC has a canteen/mess for students at ground floor which isn't state of the art either. Our food (for us 25) will be prepared in thr kitchen in this bungalow itself. So it will be easier for us to travel here during breaks and eat.
• Fruits like Bananas and Apples are easily available.

Weather :

• The weather here is cool for someone who hasn't lived anywhere with extreme temperatures like Delhi but Pleasant for anyone from up north.
• At times, one can feel cold irrespective of their past experience with weather. So one or two jackets are recommended.
• I, personally have seen sunlight for only 4-5 hours total in the last 5 days. In fact, it has been raining since last 20 hours here at the time if writing this post.

Scenery :

• You can get a view of hills from anywhere near CDAC ACTS, Panchawati. The hills behind Panchawati, Panchawati Hill walking trail is hugely recommended. The view from the top is mesmerising. You can either walk or climb your way to the top. Attaching some pictures here :

  

  View of CDAC from Panchawati hill

  

• 

  Lake on Panchawati hill

  
  

  

  View from Top

  

  Sunset from top

  On the Panchawati hill, you will find an abandoned mining site with a small lake (called ARAI stone quarry). This is a Hidden gem which is not yet commercialised. So enjoy while it is still there. There is also a Pashan lake not far from here.
• I haven't seen much of Pune so won't suggest some place in Pune as yet. For a 2-3 day weekend, you can travel to lonavla (60km) and Mumbai too.

PG/Hostel/Accommodation near CDAC ACTS Panchawati Pune :

• It will be better to book your Accommodation - rooms or PGs a week or before in advance. You need not be present here to Book it as the brokers or owners can send you the photos of the rooms on WhatsApp. Though you can Travel here and walkthrough the PGs yourself. Protip: Never finalise the first one you see. There will always be a better one.
• If you don't have any problems living in a room with 6-8 other students with negligible space for even standing, then you can book them. But the cost of them won't be like half of what is considered a better one. You can save a 1000-2000 per Month here but is not recommended from my side.
• Most of the PGs provide facilities like Geyser, RO/Aquaguard, Washing Machines, Wifi etc so please confirm from the brokers or owners before booking the accomodation.
• The parents of the students who wish to see off their child can also stay here, there is absolutely no need to book a hotel. Hotels aren't there in Panchawati. Nearest ones are 4-5km.
• There is absolutely no need to book PGs/rooms away from Panchawati like Aundh or Pashan.

Costs :

• Apart from the fixed fees of courses (except the Big Data Course which has 20K higher fees) other costs can vary but not much.
• You can get an all facility PG at 6-8k per month. (FOOD EXCLUDED)
• Food-Tiffin service can cost you 3-4k per month with Breakfast, Lunch and dinner included.
• Most of the brokers will demand 3-15k security deposit which is refundable.
• Transport may not cost much if you are in Panchawati and will be going CDAC only. For occasional travelling outside of Panchawati, you can hire the Cab service Ola and Uber which are aplenty in Pune. Ola share and Ola Auto are cheaper according to me.
• For larger distances, example lonavla, you can travel by bus.

Few doubts solved : 

• What if you haven't got the degree form the college, university till the registration day : No problem, you can get a provisional certificate from the college/university along with the final marksheet. Otherwise you have to sign an undertaking to submit the degree within the next 3 months. In my case, it is 30th November, 2017.

I will keep posting about my experience at CDAC in this blog. Here is the view from my room and terrace :

Gearing up for CDAC - PGDAC at Sunbeam Pune

So, the 4 year B.Tech in Computer Science is complete from DU. Yes, this is the University of Delhi from where I and a thousand strong more did a B.Tech which, I think is pretty much unheard of. But believe me, it did made a lot of noise about 4 years ago when the then HRD Minister decided to port all the 3 year courses at University of Delhi to 4 year courses in a program called the Four Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP). Adding more mockery to this, B.Tech was also started.

I'm not gonna dwell into those 4 years to explain how the FYUP was rolled back after a regime change and how a protest by a thousand strong made our B.Tech stay and get an AICTE approval.

4 years went by and the inevitable happened which was already expected by almost all the students. No Placements arrived. No IT Companies visited. No Mass Recruiters visited leaving this standalone batch hanging in mid-air.

I decided to pursue a 6-month Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing (PGDAC) from CDAC (Center for development of advanced computing). I heard of this from my mother after she came to know of someone who also studied from CDAC. It also provides M.Tech program for 2 years with tie-up with regional universities like IP university in Delhi. But since, a job was the priority, I gave the entrance exam called C-CAT to get admission to the training centers and other private institutes affiliated to CDAC. I gave the exam at CDAC-Noida. The exam was computer based with an option for students to bring their own laptops.

The exam is pretty simple for the CS students who have also given some other entrance exams like CAT or GATE. The C-CAT exam for CDAC is held twice in 12 months for 2 batches a year. One in June (for august admissions), other in December(for February admissions).

The syllabus for the 3 sections A,B,C are given below. Each section is of 1 Hour and section A is compulsory for admission to any course. Depending upon your choice of course, you will have to give exam for either Section A only, Section A+B or Section A+B+C. More detailed information can be found in the Admission Booklet.

Syllabus : 

• Section A English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning 
• Section B Computer Fundamentals, C Programming, Data Structures, Data Communication & Networking, Object Oriented Programming Concepts, Operating Systems  
• Section C Computer Architecture, Digital Electronics, Microprocessors

Note: Each Section has 50 Question

So that makes it 50 Questions for 60 minutes.

Since I was opting for their flagship program PGDAC, I gave Section A+B on 25 June 2017 at their CDAC Noida center. The exam started an hour and a half late due to some server problems. Since the exam is computer based, all you have to is open a browser (preferably Mozilla Firefox) on their system and go to the URL provided at that time. Login with the details on your Admit Card, carefully read instructions and wait for invigilators' go. After each section, a break for 10-15 minutes will be provided. The aptitude part is pretty easy but can take time so brush up your skills. The computer science part is easy, only if you remember everything you studied in those 4 years and remember the concepts to the detail. 

Only a few questions (5-7) out of 50 for Section B will be straightforward. Rest will require some thinking to do. Overall, you can complete this part easily before time and still go through all the questions once before submission.

I attempted around 32 questions in section A, mostly with confidence when the time ran out and around 40 questions in section B. The results came : I got rank 786 for section A and 576 for Section A+B. That means my rank that mattered for the admissions was 576 among all those who gave section A+B exam.

From what I searched on the net about CDAC, the city Pune will be frequently discussed as the CDAC Headquarters are located in Pune itself along with other top institutes for PG Diploma like Sunbeam, while other centers like Noida, Mohali etc don't find a mention anywhere. Bangalore and Mumbai are also above average if I go by the information available on the web and take them at face value.

With rank 576, going through the 480 seat strong top 2 institutes - CDAC Pune and Sunbeam Pune seemed probable as each and every student ranked better than me won't select the same PGDAC course or same center in their preferences. As it turns out, i am allotted sunbeam Pune. That means now I am inside the 480 odd students opting for CDAC from either CDAC pune or Sunbeam. My chances for CDAC pune seem improbable but not impossible as I wait for the 2nd round of seat allocation in a few days. The CDAC Pune chapter seems final now as I prepare myself to live alone for a 6 months (or more....) which I haven't till yet but ultimately, it had to happen at some point. 

CDAC Pune or Sunbeam Pune don't Hostel facilities available but they have tie-ups with independent PGs and accommodations. I found a list with the contacts of the PGs online for Sunbeam Pune here.

But I don't think the choice of room to sleep will matter as most of our time will be spent at the centers only.

I have to report to the center on 16th August while the session starts the next day. Going through the Sunbeam website, I went though a notice for the Sunbeam Karad students (Near Pune) which gave some instructions before the start of the session. Some of them are :

• Formals for Mondays and Thursdays
• An assignment in C language and Data structures to be submitted before the session starts.

This really prepares one of what's to come in the next 6 months. Since I am also admitted to Sunbeam, the instructions will be more or less same. So, I better start brushing up the concepts now itself. 

I will keep updating this blog with more insights in the coming months ( If I find time :) )