Being Entrepreneurial, Daily

This is an excerpt from an article that I wrote for The Fifth Estate, the official student news body of IIT Madras, and which will also appear in IIT Madras's Annual Magazine, to be released during Convocation 2012. The full-version of this article will be published by the end of July 2012; stay tuned for that. It has been almost a year at Stanford in this vibrant Silicon Valley, and I have so many stories and experiences to share. This is just the beginning.

People often ask me what this entrepreneurial spirit is all about, something that, we have all heard, is unique to Stanford and the Silicon Valley. "Being entrepreneurial doesn't just mean starting companies”, says Chris McCann, co-founder of StartupDigest, “It’s really a life philosophy and culture. The normal people I know are doing the same thing they were a year ago, complain about their bosses, don’t have anything to do when they are bored, and just lead general less interesting lives. But the incredible entrepreneurs I know have interesting hobbies, are excited by the future, learn about completely random topics, and have exciting things going on all the time in their lives."

That's the spirit of this place - exciting things going on all the time. In the 9 months that I have been here, I have learned tennis and squash, picked up playing the keyboard, taken lessons in social ballroom dancing and hip hop, improved as a swimmer, helped organize talks by public figures, cooked a variety of Indian dishes, made a lot of new friends, and interacted with a bunch of leaders, entrepreneurs and celebrities, in addition to doing the usual research, courses and assignments. Every day I wake up, I try to indulge myself in something new, try to make my day memorable, so that at the end of it, I can go to bed satisfied, with a smile on my face.

And this is something that I would love to see everyone doing - indulging in something new, every day. I realized it only recently, but believe me, life’s too short to get stuck with a boring routine. If you think you’ve got stuck in your lives, get yourself out of the rut. Pick up a new pastime. Or make a new friend. Or visit a new place. Or play a new sport. Or learn a new topic. Or try out a new gadget. So that when people ask you “What’s up?”, you have a different answer to give them, every single time.

Why Study?

This is an article that I recently wrote for my school juniors, to be published in a souvenir that my school (De Paul School, Berhampur, Odisha) is bringing out on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee. You are requested to think from the perspective of a high school student (Class 9-10) while reading this article.

I happened to come across a TEDx talk by Simon Sinek, the author best known for developing The Golden Circle and popularizing the concept of Why, that inspired me to write this article. Simon narrated this interesting story:

All of us know the Wright Brothers - the men credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane. But most of us do not know Samuel Pierpont Langley. In the late 19th/early 20th century, when building a powered flight was a hot topic of research and development, Samuel Pierpont Langley had everything of what we assume is the recipe for success. He had money; he was given $50000 by the War Department to design a powered airplane (that would have been more than 24 lakhs Indian Rupees today; this ofcourse was sometime around 1900). He had a seat at Harvard and the Smithsonian institution, and had access to the best infrastructure and facilities available during those times. He hired the best minds and the best talent that money could find to work for him. The New York Times used to follow him around everywhere, and everyone was looking up to him to make this 'flying machine'. Then how come we have never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?

A few hundred miles away were the Wright Brothers - Orville and Wilbur. They had none of what Langley had. They had no money; they paid for their dreams from the earnings from their bicycle shop. Not a single person in their team had college education, not even Orville or Wilbur. The New York Times followed them nowhere. But they were driven by a cause - a belief that if they could figure out this flying machine, it will change the course of the world. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different; he wanted to be rich, he wanted to be famous. The people in Langley's team worked for the result - the riches. Those with Wright Brothers worked for the cause - the belief. And eventually, on December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers took flight. And for proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong things, here's the most shocking fact - the day the Wright Brothers took flight, Langley quit! He could have said, “That's an amazing discovery, guys! Now let's improve upon this technology.” But he didn't. He wasn't first, he didn't get famous, so he quit! Despite having the money, the infrastructure, the resources, Langley couldn't be successful.

This made me realize that we, as students, are often motivated by the wrong things, just like Langley. We often make the mistake of pursuing the result; we study because we want to score 100%, we want to win the first prize, we want to be the topper wherever we go. And we go mad in our pursuit of the result. We resort to rote learning. We follow the herd to attend all kinds of tuitions. We do whatever it takes to reach the top. And as a result, in this crazy world of competition, we don't find a breathing space to actually enjoy our studies.

The real fun of education lies in appreciating its significance and learning its practical uses (and by practical use, I don't mean scoring marks in exams). Every subject that we learn in the classroom has something useful to teach us, something that aids us in understanding this world and this universe better, something that makes us a more capable person. We need to realize and appreciate this "something", only then can we understand the significance of what we are learning, and only then can we love our subjects and have the right motivation to study them.

How often do we bother to figure out the importance of what we learn in classrooms? We study History - the ancient age, the medieval period, the modern world; but how many of us can answer why we study all of that? Just because it's part of the curriculum? Nah, that can't be the only reason! We study Chemistry - we balance chemical equations, we write oxidation and reduction reactions, we study properties of compounds - but why? Do we know if those things really matter in this world? We study Mathematics - we learn set theory, we solve quadratic equations, we multiply matrices - but do we really know how and where these things can be of any use in life? If not, then why are we studying them in the first place? Just because our parents send us to school and our teachers give us homework? Is that our only motivation?

The trick to enjoying our subjects lies in finding the right motivation. And nothing can be a better motivation than a reason to love our subjects. It might be a tad unfortunate that we get to choose to study the subjects of our choice only after Class 10 or beyond, which means that until Class 10, we are constrained to study the subjects and topics that are prescribed for us by someone else, whether we like them or not. But with the good belief that our curriculum has been designed by wise and experienced people to impart us all-round education, we must find the right motivation to study within these constraints. Whenever we study a topic or a chapter, we must try to figure out its practical significance, or its conceptual elegance, or any other good reason to love the subject, and that will help us in enjoying our studies - and that, my dear friends, will automatically spur us to do well.

So the next time you attend any class, make sure you know why you're studying whatever you're studying. When your teacher asks you to write an official letter in a Language class, know that the exercise is to make you improve your letter-writing skills, as you'll be required to write a lot of important letters (emails) in your professional career. When your teacher explains you the world regions in a Geography class, know that it is to make you appreciate the differences in culture, landscape, social life and other aspects that exist among the different regions, so that you can comfortably interact and collaborate with people of different nationalities later on in your professional life if and when the need arises. When your teacher explains Total Internal Reflection in a Physics class, know that the phenomenon is something that forms the backbone of optical fibers and the internet, and is something without which you couldn't have checked your emails or used Facebook or chatted online with friends. When your teacher makes you study something which you really don't know why you should be studying, dare to ask, because unless you know it, you can't love the chapter, you can't have the right motivation to study. Studying just because you need to score good marks is like pursuing the result, like Samuel Pierpont Langley did; studying for the love of the subjects is like pursuing the cause, like the Wright Brothers did - the choice is yours.

I am reminded of these lines by Robert Frost that I had learnt in the holy premises of De Paul in Class 8 (way back in 2001-02), and which, I must admit, have had an indelible impact on the way I have looked at life and work ever since.
  

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future's sakes.

(Two Tramps in Mud Time, st. 9)

How Not To Be A Bad Teacher

I aspire to become a teacher sometime later in my career. I have already had the privilege of taking several classes* in a formal classroom setting and I must say, it feels good to face the other direction of the class; it feels special!

I have attended more than 2500 hours of classes at IIT Madras alone and in the process, I have realized that certain practices of teachers turn off students easily and therefore be best avoided. And this article is about a few of them.

Note that I have intentionally not titled the article How To Be a Good Teacher, because that is an entirely different topic and something that I don't have the experience yet to write about. But the first step to be a good teacher is to not be a bad teacher. And here's how.

When I become a teacher, I would strongly try to follow these points myself, and therefore, I have listed them out in the form of strict instructions to myself. The readers are requested to view them as mere suggestions and make appropriate use of them.

1. Don't arrive late for your class. Be present at the scheduled start-time. An occasional delay is acceptable, but on a regular basis, any delay more than 2 minutes reflects very badly on your professional ethics.
   
   
2. Don't humiliate students in classroom, especially if they arrive late to your class. The late-comer might have arrived after breaking his alarm clock that didn't ring at the right time or after puncturing his cycle on the way or after not getting a piece of (so-called) dosa in mess despite standing in the queue for 15 minutes - don't make him feel worse by humiliating him as soon as he enters the class.
   
   
3. Don't come unprepared. You may have been teaching the same course for the last 10 years, you might have taught the same topics just a week ago, but do spend some time to prepare every time before coming to a class. You may spend anything between 2 minutes to 2 hours or more, depending on your level of comfort with the topic, structure, content and style of presentation, but never walk into a class hoping for stuff to come out of your mouth all by itself.
   
   
4. Don't dish out petty rules and regulations. Asking students to switch off cellphones in class is okay, but asking them to stop using cellphones in life is definitely not okay! Don't thrust too many regulations and restrictions on the students. Don't make stupid rules on how they should enter the room, how they should sit, how they should wink or how they should breathe in air. Maintain your sanity, give them their space.
   
   
5. Don't make a mess on the board. Be neat with your handwriting, be clear with your notations. Use the board well. Don't make spelling mistakes. And for God's sake, please don't spell the title of your course wrong!
   
   
6. Don't harp on attendance. Your institute may have attendance regulations for students, and as an ethical/law-abiding teacher, you may have no option but to take attendance every class, but never use attendance as a crutch for making students attend your class. If your teaching is not a reason good enough, then your classes don't deserve to be attended anyway.
   
   
7. Don't bluff. You are not God; you are not omniscient. It is never a shame to say, "I'm not sure of this right now" or "I'll think about it and get back to you in the next class". Never bluff to hide your ignorance; the next-gen students don't take long to figure it out!
   
   
8. Don't throw high sounding jargon. You know the subject better than the others in the classroom and that is exactly the reason you are there as a teacher; don’t try to prove it. Think at the level of the class while introducing new terms and concepts. Don't show off; don't be rude.
   
   
9. Don't talk to the walls. Your students sit right in front of you; look at them while you're explaining. Be interactive; don't deliver a monologue. Don't sound monotonous too; modulate your voice well. And please don't talk facing the board.
   
   
10. Don't stretch your class beyond the scheduled end-time. You may take a couple of minutes more to wind up the last topic you were discussing, but every extra minute beyond that will reduce your popularity by half. And never try to take advantage of your students' respect for you by asking questions like "Can I take 5 more minutes?"; they will always nod their heads in approval just to save you from humiliation (Can you imagine how you would feel if all students answer a unanimous "No" and walk out of the classroom?).

*2 as Summer Research Fellow at IISc, Bangalore (Summer 2010) + 5 as Teaching Assistant for EE6110: Digital Modulation and Coding at IIT Madras (Fall 2010) + 3 as Teaching Assistant of EE6170: Introduction to Wireless and Cellular Communications (Spring 2011). Kudos to the concept of Teaching Assistantship for Dual Degree students at IITs!

(This article of mine will appear in The Last Bencher, a book of memories of the Class of 2011 brought out by IITM's Alumni Affairs Office.)

Dasvidaniya*

My list of 10 things to do before passing out of IIT Madras

Somebody commented that my blog articles are like Aamir Khan's movies - they come once in a year! For different reasons though. While the perfectionist Aamir takes a year to get his story right, I take my time to find a right story!

Being in the 5-year Dual Degree program, I always used to think that I have an extra year to do all the things that I ever wanted to do before graduation. Procrastination certainly gave me something to look forward to all the time. But looking forward now, I have just 3 more months and a lot of things to do before I complete my stay at IITM. This article will hopefully serve as a reminder and motivate me to start ticking things off my to-do list slightly faster.

1. Deliver a popular talk. For me, a talk is popular if it is on a topic interesting enough to pull at least a 100 people to the venue. Ok, I'll be happy with 50 too!
   
   
2. Write, compose and sing a song myself. This will be a tribute to all those who hold a broader understanding of music - that music is a way of expressing oneself, in whatever way it comes out, and not just making some words follow some sa re ga ma tune. And ya, by the way, I am not a singer!
   
   On a related note, it is somewhat disappointing to see the kind of Bollywood lyrics that is selling these days. Even some of the better lyricists in business are making shady Aahun Aahun sounds, using Ishq Ka Manjan and selling Tinku's Jiya, Sheila Ki Jawaani and Munni Ki Badnaami. God save bollywood lyrics!
   
   
3. Resume stand-up comedy. Greatly inspired by over three seasons of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, I had started doing stand-up comedy myself, even reaching the finals of Saarang 2007 Multilingual Laughter Challenge and winning the Best Individual Performance award at the NCC Annual Training Camp 2006-07 at IIT Madras for a stand-up comedy act. I never really had the opportunity or the enthusiasm to perform again, but I am seriously considering a comeback.
   
   
4. Write an article on How Not To Be a Bad Teacher. Having attended 187 credits of theory/lab classes at IIT Madras so far, I feel a strong urge to let the current/aspiring teachers know what are some of the things I feel they can do/avoid so as not to be dismissed as a bad teacher straightaway. Keep watching this space for the article; it's coming soon!
   
   
5. Pull off a complete conversation in Tamil. Many people know that I had picked up reading and writing Tamil pretty early in my IIT life (2nd sem), but I have always struggled with understanding it, and more so, speaking it. I have had several conversations that have lasted for multiple lines, like the following:
   
   Me (to shopkeeper): Idhu evalo?
   Shopkeeper: Pathu rupa
   Me: Aaru piece vennum. Irukka?
   Sk: Ippo illai Saar!
   Me: Seri, naan nalaikke same time varuven. Ok aa?
   Sk: Seri ok
   Me: Nanrri Saar
   
   But I have always wanted to pull off longer conversations with more complete sentences, and I hope I will be able to do that atleast a few times before I graduate.
   
   
6. Get my pics clicked at 5 of the popular "restricted-access" sites in insti. Possible options currently include the top of a Gajendra Circle elephant, the highest water tank, Tifanys roof, Diro's chair and Jhun's scooter. More/better suggestions?
   
   
7. Cheer India to a World Cup victory. Come February 19, and you'll find me more often in the common room than in my own room or department. With one of the strongest ODI teams ever, familiar subcontinental conditions and most of the squad in good form, if ever India had a chance to win the World Cup, then this is it! And I will play my part in taking India to the title.
   
   
8. Resume drawing and painting. I used to be good at drawing and painting during my school days, and had won several awards and prizes as well. But the two years of JEE preparations ruined it all. Even after joining IIT, I never found any incentive or motivation to get back to the art. But better late than never; I think I should put my pencils and brushes to action very soon!
   
   
9. Say a personal thank you to everyone who, during my stay here at IITM, has helped me, stood by me, made me feel special. I know it won't be possible to reach out to everyone personally, but I'll try to maximize my reach (Oh ya, I am solving an optimization problem currently for my Master's Thesis too!)
   
   
10. Finish my DDP in time. Last but not the least. In my quest for completing the above 9 tasks before passing out, I should not forget that I need to complete this 10th task too to actually pass out.
    

What do you want to do before bidding do svidaniya to insti?

*The title of this article is a pun on the list of ten things that I want to do before passing out of IIT Madras, and is derived from the Russian phrase do svidaniya, meaning good bye. There also exists a Hindi film of the same name.

Short Circuit: A start well made!

(with inputs from Anoosh - my friend and co-coord for Shaastra 2009)

It has been a really long break from blogging, largely due to lack of time, and perhaps, lack of an interesting subject to write about. The 7th sem has begun and is more-than-half over. Acads are going on nicely, Shaastra is just over and I finally have the time and an interesting topic to write on!

It all starts with an idea, they say. This did start with an idea. An idea to prove that academics (read: electrical engineering) can be fun when seen from the right perspective. An idea to start a unique genre of events in Shaastra - tech-unwind, one that has less of tech and more of fun! An idea that later came to be known as Short Circuit!

The motivation

An analysis of the participants' statistics of Shaastra 2008 revealed that out of the 20000-odd students who registered on the Shaastra website, more than 4000 belonged to Electrical engineering and related branches (ECE, EEE, E&I etc.). And how many competitive events did Shaastra 2008 had to offer to them? Just ONE! Something that made us (me and Anoosh) ponder for a few days.

The conception and planning

We wanted to conceive of an event that would entertain the large number of Elec masses who throng Shaastra, an event that would be a crowd-puller! After a lot of discussions and deliberations, during a casual stroll around the Cubbon Park (Bangalore) on one fine summer evening, the idea of Short Circuit struck us.

The plan was concretized. Have an open-to-all prelims with questions that evoke a "Yes, yes! I can crack it" kind of feeling upon first reading and which involve application of nothing more than common sense and basic electrical engineering fundaes. Select eight teams from the prelims, and pit them one-on-one against each other in short, crisp and exciting matches spanning 4 quarters, 2 semis and 1 grand finale!

"Elec can be fun too, mind it", we proclaimed!

The publicity

The Official Short Circuit Teaser Video became an instant hit, recording more than 200 views on Youtube in less than 3 hours of getting uploaded. The Official Short Circuit Mascot, a plug-and-socket combination representing a short circuit, became a cult figure straightaway and won several admirers, including certain profs whose interests in Shaastra 2009 till then were limited only to the laser/fireworks show and the grub stalls.

We brought out a couple of teaser questions just before Shaastra to get insti junta excited about Short Circuit. The response was amazing. The lucky winners of these teaser questions, on the day of the grand finale, walked away with assorted gift-hampers consisting of Shaastra T-shirts, Shaastra key-chains, Open Solaris CDs, NetBeans IDE CDs and copies of Electronics For You, all neatly packaged in bio-degradable paper bags brought from Gurunath.

We were overwhelmed when a lot of our insti friends accepted our request to put flyers on Short Circuit on their GTalk status messages. Our sincere thanks to all of them!

[Click on the pic to enlarge and appreciate!]

The event

The prelims, held in CRC on October 3 (Saturday), saw more than 150 teams (~450 students) turning up, including ~60 teams from outside IITM. The question-paper, prepared after 4 straight night-outs of research, became quite popular among the participants, with many of them coming to us later to convey their kudos. The feedback from the participants was amazing; none of the ratings in any of the feedback forms were below 4/5 (5 = Best).

The post-prelims, conducted on the next day in ICSR Hall 3, witnessed an all-insti clash. A fourth-year undergrad team comprising of Chinmoy, Harish and Kishore breezed through the quarters and semis before surviving a scare from an MS team (Timir, Ankesh, Kunal) in the finale to eventually emerge champions!

The post-prelims rounds would be more fondly remembered by the audience for the unique Elec-dumb-charades that had the entire hall in splits. Raghunandan, trying to enact 'convolution', rotated himself, spun an electron and went to the extent of revolving the planets and the universe, but the convolution never happened. Sathish's love for Theoretical Physics was clearly evident as he resorted to Planck's constant and photons to enact a term as simple as 'frequency'.

The circuit-makers

We would like to thank a few people - Faheem (for making the awesome Teaser Video), Arvind (for designing the immortal mascot), Pavan (for handling all our production requirements), Sagar (our QMS coord), Vignesh-SK-Akhil (the Events Cores, for providing all possible support to our idea of Short Circuit), Gainda-Subbu (the Finance Cores, for being kind to provide T-Shirts and keychains as audience prizes), Raghav (the Spons Core, for arranging copies of EFY as audience prize), Tarun-Vamsi-Kishor-Sunaina-Nitish (our vols, for their amazing enthusiasm towards organizing and conducting the event), Manekha (a photography vol, who captured the dumb-charades moments) and everyone else who helped us conduct the event successfully!

A multitude of plans to take Short Circuit forward is in the pipeline - to organize it on a much grander scale next year, to continue it as part of E2A this year, to organize an all-profs' Short Circuit during the upcoming Elec Nite.

As we take a break and look back, we feel proud of initiating this unique event; it was a start really well made!

Can you please explain?

Bangalore's weather is AWESOME! My internship is progressing nicely. Weekends have been fun as well!

Last Friday, we (the interns and the research team at Bell Labs India) did a bit of trekking, rowing and river-bathing in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The trekking was adventurous, the destination (peak of Bheemagiri) was a delight, the banks of river Cauvery presented a serene sight! A psychology game on a tree-hammock on the Cauvery banks surprisingly revealed that Shamik sees 'beauty' in 'beasts' and Adhiraj finds 'thoughts' 'dirty'! :P

What I am more interested in describing articulately in this article are incidents that occurred during the next couple of days. Some of us had been to Puttaparthi to have a darshan of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, considered to be the spiritual guru common to all religions. Frankly speaking, I do not have much belief in the saying that he can perform miracles; what I admire about him though are his teachings, which offer so many good things to learn, his simple messages "Love all, serve all" and "Be good, do good" that have won him followers across the globe and the large number of social initiatives that he has undertaken for the betterment of mankind in general and the people of Puttaparthi in particular.

But a couple of incidents there have left me somewhat disturbed!

1. After a satisfying morning darshan and just before the evening darshan, I realized that my phone’s battery was totally discharged. Since I had not called home since quite a long time and also had a train-trip to make to Bangalore later that night, I thought it was better to charge it at the earliest. I struggled to find a plug-point (it's not very easy to find one!) and placed my phone for charging. When it had charged to 63% in about 20 minutes, I removed it, switched it off, placed it back in my bag (phones are not allowed into the darshan hall) and ran for the darshan, only to reach late and miss the initial part of the session. When I came back and switched the phone on, the charge was just 6%!! Such a thing had never happened before...and has never happened again since then!
   
   
2. Later that night, when I tried playing songs on my phone-walkman, I could hear no audio. I thought there might be a problem with the walkman. I tried setting an alarm to hear the alarm-tone; there was none. I asked one of my friends to give me a call, there was no sound of the ring-tone! I tried re-inserting the battery and resetting the phone, nothing worked! I believed my phone-speakers had somehow got screwed. Back in Bangalore, I tried connecting an earphone to see if I could hear any sound; I couldn't! The problem then definitely didn't lie in the speakers but somewhere else. A service centre was the only option to get it repaired at.
   
   Next day, Monday, I went to a nearby service centre but it was closed by the time I reached there. That night, frustrated, I again tried removing the battery to see if I could be lucky. And surprise, the sound was back! Everything worked PERFECTLY!!
   

I could come up with some sort of an explanation for the first incident. When I removed the charger, it was damn hot! I do not clearly know how a charger or the charging process functions, but perhaps some current limiter somewhere had got screwed up, thereby allowing a large current to flow through and causing the charge-level to be shown high when actually it wasn't! Or probably something similar! Or maybe something entirely different!

But I have absolutely no explanation for the second incident. This, even after having studied cell phones, their hardware and software aspects, for nearly two years!

I’ll be the last person to say that these incidents were miracles or occurred due to divine intervention or anything similar! But they certainly can't happen without an explanation! And I have still not been able to find any. Can you please explain?

Because, we care...

It has been a while since I posted an article here. I have been busy with my summer internship since the last month and half and have hardly had the time to update this blog.

Recently, I happened to meet some amazing people and had been longing to write about them ever since. It was Alcatel-Lucent's International Day of Caring (IDoC) and these people belonged to the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), Bangalore.

Believe me, they are some of the most extra-ordinarily wonderful human-beings I have come across in recent times. They belong to a class of their own, beyond our match.

They personify purity. Their smile, their joy, their excitement, their anxiousness - everything is so pure! Their emotions, unlike ours, are very genuine. Beyond that, they are not very different from us. As one of my friends mentioned, it's on seeing these kind of people that one feels like singing, "Tujh mein rab dikhta hai..."



They value achievements as intensely as we do. During the various running races that were conducted for them, I could see, in their efforts, the desire to succeed. Some would win and start yelling in joy. Some others would come last, give a smile and join the victors in their celebrations. Intensity during race and camaraderie then-after - they showed how healthy competition should be; wish everyone on earth could be like them!


Their desire to explore new gadgets is as strong as ours. They had somehow figured out that a snap captured by a digital camera can be immediately viewed on its opposite side. As soon as I would click a snap, they would entreat me to show them the image; not to mention the joy with which they would pose for the photograph in the first place!


We painted together, we played together, we ate together, we sang together, we danced together, we celebrated together! They enjoyed our presence; we enjoyed their company. Those were some of the most memorable moments I have ever spent anywhere!







My sincerest thanks to all the organizers of IDoc 2009, you gave me an opportunity to interact with my more fortunate brethren. Congratulations to all my co-volunteers, we showed that we care...


P.S.: Here is an official report on IDoC 2009 at Bangalore.

Wingmates of Fire

It was a historic event! Atleast for me. For the very first time in three years, my entire wing went out together for a treat!

Yes, all 26 of the 31 of us who were present then in the institute came along, inspite of some of them having some more important commitments elsewhere in the institute. Three Branch Councillors in my wing had a Placements Meeting going on at the same time. Four others had extra classes during the same hours. Another had already fixed a lunch commitment. But nobody could say 'No' to this idea of a full-wing treat. Every single person ensured his presence. Even people like Kunhi, Sufu and Dhawal, who generally do not wake up before noon on holidays, were up and ready in time. Wonderful wing-spirit!

Just the fact that the entire wing was out together had given me such inexplicable satisfaction that I wasn't thinking too much about the food. But the food turned out to be equally satisfaying! The Gujurati-Rajasthani thali at Rangoli was finger-licking good. The Dhoklas and Kachaudis were so delicious that Arjun made a meal just out of them. The Srikhand truly tasted like a piece of divinity. Rotli, Bateta nu Shaak, Ghooghra, Daal Baati, Chana and Ghevar were simply awesome. There were so many other things as well, not to forget the paan at the end. As someone reminisced, "I did not know the names of more than half the things on the thali, but I sure did know that all of them tasted great! "



I would like to make a special mention of my friend, Mukunda, the only non-Gangaster who was specially invited for the treat (that made it 27 treat-goers altogether). He touched everyone's heart when he declared, "I'm a pseudo-Gangaster da! I'm one among you only!" Yes, you're right. Afterall, Ganga is your "hostel-away-from-hostel", isn't it? Welcome!



Some unforgettable moments of the day:









A big note of thanks to all my wingmates for making themselves available for the treat. We have set a trend; now we'll see many other "full-wing treats" (FuWiTs) happening in future.
My heartfelt thanks to my co-sponsors - Hippo, Baba, Parabola, N2O, Sufu, Gunda and Tile. We played a small part in making history happen!
All of us missed the 5 who couldn't make it to the treat - Harish, Vignesh, Rituraj, Achal and Jay. It would have been great had you people been here on that day; nevertheless, be prepared for the future FuWiTs! :)
And Sriram, all of us miss your presence in the wing!

A couple of original video-clips: | Video 1 | Video 2 | The clips have been intentionally left unedited so that the background prompts and comments are heard clearly. Real fun they are, check them out!

Another account of this treat is here, the debut blog-article of my friend, Shankar. Welcome to blogging!

To all my wingmates, I must bow. What wonderful times we have had together so far ! We have been living together, dancing together (Oh no! :) ), 'mugging' together and enjoying life together. I miss those days in the first semester when all of us would be mugging together for the same courses. I still remember the last year's inter-wing tug-of-war when all of us turned out for the sake of our wing. I cannot forget my last birthday when you contributed together and gifted me a birthday present. What a touching moment that was! You all have inspired me, guided me, encouraged me and stayed by me during my low-points in life. You, truly, are my wingmates of fire!

By the way, I'll remember forever the way the entire wing returned back after the treat. As all of us walked together on the pathway connecting the front and rear wings, shouting "Go 5th wing" at the top of our voices, I felt like a king, like being on top of the world! Goose-bump moment that was, seriously!

I'll leave you with a loving recollection of some of our past times!

Weeks in Pics

A break from the usual routine stuff feels so refreshingly divine!

The last couple of weeks have been quite taxing on me. The first round of quizzes, preparations for a couple of projects, brushing up some previously-learnt stuff, the usual academic classes, assignments and reports - lots of things have congested my routine in the recent days. But fortunately, I have had regular opportunities to break free from these mundane routines and rejoice in life. A fond remembrance of some of those moments...

Fete 2009
Fete is IITM's annual inter-hostel gaming competition, where each hostel has to choose a theme and present some games related to the theme amidst suitable ambience in their respective stalls. Our hostel's theme was "Mayan Adventures". We enjoyed the sevices of Vishnu, an expert at art-works, who, assisted by Arjun (aka IDK), another enthusiastic second-yearite, did some superb ambience work for us. I was supposed to be the Ambience-in-charge of our Fete activities, but with people like Vishnu, Arjun and some over-enthusiastic freshies around, I ended up just pushing everyone to work without doing anything myself!

On the day of Fete, we were the last hostel to be judged. Since we weren't allowing the general public to enter our stall until our judging was over, a lot many people didn't get an opportunity to enjoy the wonderful visual treat that our stall had to offer. For all such people and for all others, here is an image-tour of our stall...

A first prize would have been the perfect reward for the amazing performance by Vishnu (who has a scholarship from the San Francisco Art University). Nevertheless, we came second for our ambience...and we celebrated!

The Shaastra '08 WebOps Team Treat
When the average CGPA of the treat-goers is above 9 (validation required), the experience can't get any geekier! It started with Avinash cribbing about a Jhun's assignment on M8C PSoC and Vimal & Slinky offering him several suggestions. It ended with all the CS people (who formed half the team) running to a xerox shop to get photocopies of someone's notes so as to mug for some quiz.



But in between the start and the end, there were some truly memorable moments! Pido's 'head'-on tryst with colours [:)], Vimal's 'match-the-following' test, Bhargav's frequent PJs (sshh...did someone say 'Pinky Jersey'?), Suvinay's imitation of his DSP Prof. and Immanuel-the bikeman ensured smiles for everyone all the time. The Alai brothers affectionately recollected how I used to 'pain' them with tasks in the run-up to Shaastra. Sharan, Hareesh and others acknowledged that all the fight that they had put for Shaastra was worth the treat (afterall, the starters and desserts were so delicious and everything was available in infinite quantity!). In the end, it was 5 hours of colours (ask Pido), fun, smiles and some wonderful memories to cherish!





Dinner at Tangerine
The result of a promise that TMani was trapped into making some months back [;)], this dinner had one of the most diverse set of insti people on board. There were people from diverse branches (Elec, Mech, Chem, Meta, BT, Civil etc.), from diverse years (second yearites to fifth yearite; though mostly second-yearites), with diverse CGPAs (6 pointers to 9 pointers) and with diverse areas of interests (arts, sports, acads etc.)! Spending time with them all, listening to their views on various issues, hearing their perceptions of campus-life - it was a truly unique experience! Some memorable snaps:





FEx sessions
All my first round quizzes went well upto the F slot. With only the 'light' G slot to go, I believed this would be the very first time in 3 years when I would have fared well in all the subjects. But it was not to happen..and I screwed up my G slot! Murphy's law at work, isn't it?

This time, some of us tried out a new concept, FEx (Fundaes Exchange) sessions. All participants were supposed to read up the entire portion of a course before attending the respective FEx session for the course. Each one could then point out the topics that he's not comfortable with and anyone else, who understood those particular topics well, would put fundaes. It helped us reasonably well. In a bid to prevent last-night mugging, we're planning to have such sessions for Quiz 2 atleast half a week before start, so that we have some incentive to go through the entire syllabi well before the quiz begins and not leave anything till the end. Hope it works out successfully!

Lots of other things have happened in the last couple of weeks. I have been auctioned off for a 'respectable' [:P] amount for GPL (Ganga Premier League), a noble football initiative in our hostel. Voting for hostel and institute elections has just got over. Parliamentary elections are coming. Grander than this, three Indians have won Oscars. I had never seen before a more aggressive on-stage performance by AR Rahman than the one at Kodak Theatre during the Oscar Night.

A lot of activities are lined up on my to-do list for the next few weeks as well; some pleasant ones, some strenuous ones. Way to go!

By the way, "Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke!"