Where do we go from here?

Peace and happiness is what all people on earth desire. (Atleast that is what I believe) It is sorrowful indeed that the world has not been given that which it so deeply desires as can be seen from the latest activities in Mumbai. (26/11) During the past few days the whole world has seen blood and gory violence (which till now existed only in the vague past and PC games) enter the everyday real life. How and why this happened has already been discussed in may places on the internet and in the print media. However there have been precious few people who have suggested some solutions to the problem. What should be done now to rebuild the world all of us desire - one filled with peace and happiness. It now seems evident that unless the common man comes out with some solution nothing will happen especially since even after 3 serial blasts in the country within 1 year, there was yet another attack in the commercial capital itself. So where does the common man go from here? Will he sit moaning about the government(which has truly failed to protect its people) or will he go on a protest march today and forget about it tomorrow or is he going to do something concrete and constructive? If he is willing to do something for his country then what is it?

Technovanza kicks off

Technovanza started off today on 13 Jan 2008 with a big bang (and a pang). The star attraction was the Industry Institute Interaction. The Director of VJTI, UDCT and many other dignitaries were present including the state textile minister. All of them had a lot to say especially on what the industry expects from the institute. Most of this was for the faculty members and for any one who can read between the lines, the following messages were clear:
      The VJTI faculty stinks.
       The syllabus needs to be changed fast, what are you autonomous for?
      Students are lazy, they need to go beyond the mere scope of the syllabus and learn things on their own.
       Students need to learn soft skills, something they are acutely lacking in. (This was not a VJTI specific message)

So all in all the day, even though a bit boring and poorly attended in the final session was special for me for more than one reason (same as Dandiya Night) and the memories will always always be etched on the mind.

Wrapped in an Indigo Mood

             Mood Indigo, the famous IIT festival has come to an end today. It was a festival of music, it was a contest among competitions, a collection of exhibitions, a flurry of workshops. Undoubtedly Mood Indigo was a hub of activity for four days from Boxing Day to 29 Dec. Most unfortunately not being able to attend the first day of Mood I, I missed all the major competitions I would have loved to take part in, especially Dialectics the national level debate. It was only mid way through the second day that I was able to attend the festival. The sand structure and Rangoli on water exhibits were to be marvelled at, but they were after all made by pros from across the country. The footlose competition was worth watching. It came as a revealation that the jungles of Powai held such a variety of wildlife (implied meaning) which is conspicious only by its absence in VJTI. The 3-D photography workshop however turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and after that we decided to call it a day.
               Day 3 was the big day, especially with the Shankar Ehsaan Loy performance scheduled for the evening. Fortunately or unfortunately my presence was doubtful. I learnt later that after waiting for 5 hours for the performance one of my pals was turned away from the performance only because he happened to have a bag with him. Seeing that I am always in the habit of carrying a bag with me whereever I go, I am glad I missed the performance since my fortunes would probably have been the same as my fated friend. Whilst IIT certainly has to be congratulated for attracting such great star performers as Shankar Ehsaan Loy and popular Jazz and Rock bands, the crowd management of IIT can be described as nothing but absolutely PATHETIC. Lines for the performances stretched for more than a mile and the students had to wait for hours on end just to get inside the OAT. The trouble to which they had to go to get passes for the concerts is another issue altogether. Even after waiting in the lines for hours on end the students are lathi charged by the 'security' before they are allowed to enter. The performance starts at 7:30 but most students gain entry only after 8:15. Looks like the huge OAT has only one entrance, similar to the Jalianwalla Bagh.
              On a brighter note I really enjoyed the fourth and last day of mood I. Earlier this year thanks to Pratibimb I realised how much I hate Rock music. I am certain that I will never attend a Rock concert again. On the other hand thanks to Mood I, I realised that I love Jazz, a type of music which I had never heard before till today. It was quite surprising to see that there was a ridiculously long line for the Rock show and very few people sitting for the Jazz performance, but the Jazz was really nice music. Even Loy of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio had come to listen to that performance. The Jazz performance more than made up for the regret of having missed the Shankar Ehsaan Loy performance the day before. All in all it was a good show put up by IIT at MI '07 except that they really seem to have missed an important lesson or two in handling large crowds of people.

Vacation = college festivals

         The vacations started long ago and the VJTI students (unlike their unfortunate MU counterparts) are now busy preparing for the avalanche of college festivals which can be expected in the even sem in 2008. Starting the avalanche will be Technovanza 08 followed by Enthusia and Pratibimb. With such a mammoth no. of activities it will be but natural that the curricular activities may as well be forgotten. Here is a glimpse into the activities going on in the Hub.
Disclaimer: All the comments and people mentioned are purely imaginary and any resemblance to real persons is purely co incidental.
    Technovanza
Mr. B(Name withheld due to obvious reasons): Technovanza publicity must be done in all the leading newspapers across the country. Give Technovanza publicity articles for the classifieds pages also.
Mr. N: Yes the publicity should also be seen in the Matrimonial pages of all leading papers.
Mr. R: If we get a space for Technovanza in the classifieds pages and matrimonial columns then the obituary coulumn cannot be missed.

Pratibimb:
Mr. S: Aarey yeh PC pe se Photoshop ud gaya lagata hai. Oy Mr. A idhar aa. Search for the photoshop install file and install it on this PC again
Mr. A: Sure. (After some time) There is no photoshop install file available on this PC. The only other install file on this PC does not run. Pls ask Mr. R what is to be done.
Mr. S: Aarey Mr. R has gone for lunch and I want this done today.
Mr. A: Gee sir, but the file is just not there and besides I got to visit the Doctor, (u r) pain in the (...)

This concludes the insider's report of an imagined college festival Hub. More details later.

Dandiya Night

Friday, 12 October 2007:
Dandiya Night in VJTI.
There was no reason why anyone should not have enjoyed this day. The Dandiya night which was scheduled to start at 5:30 in the evening started at some time around 6:30, but after it started, the dancing only got more and more intense by the minute until 8:30 when the Dandiya eventually ended.
The students of the IT and Comps division, united as always, formed two concentric circles moving in opposite directions, dancing to the tunes of the songs being played, some of them being traditional Gujarati songs while others were remixed Hindi filmy songs (which would have been completely out of place had this been a traditional Dandiya Ras). Needless to mention some of the group were very good dancers while others like me were so pathetic that they would have made a Hippo look more graceful in comparison. While I enjoyed every moment of the two hours worth of dancing I certainly irritated some of the better dancers of our group (boys and girls) one of whom couldn't stop shouting at me "left - right, both" (as if we were marching) when the two of us happened to face each other.
One of my friends also happened to have her birthday on the same day. I wonder what she thought about the Dandiya as her Big Birthday Bash. Another one of my friends was complaining that he was not well and could not attend the Dandiya. I, and some other friends insisted that he come for at least a few minutes. He came, the "few minutes" came and went but he remained for the whole duration dancing continuously and forgetting that he was supposed to be sick. I just hope he did not run a fever that night after the intense dancing.
So all in all I think everyone had a great time. I would now like to thank the Indian traditions for their foresight in making Dandiya a traditional dance in which girls and boys dance together, else the extremely "traditional" (or orthodox would be a better word) authorities in our college would have dropped a curtain between the Girls and Boys sections and separated the two again. For me that evening was special for more than one reason.

Of lectures and commentry

         Students of VJTI who may read this post (?) don't need me to describe to them how lectures are conducted in the age old institution. The EDC teacher for the IT division is a typical example of the sub standard faculty at VJTI. (In her defense I will state that this is probably her first stint at teaching, and the subject is very dry.) The only good thing about her lectures is that she is hardly bothered about what happens in the class, which means that we get ample scope to complete journals, study some other subject, or persue any other leisure activity of our choice. It was not much different today on 11 October 2007. What was special about the day was that there was an India Australia cricket match on this day and when India elected to bat everyone was keen to listen to the commentry rather than be bored by the EDC lecture. I am afraid that those who chose to listen to the commentry probably repented over their choice especially since India played the most horrid game of cricket imaginable, and those who listened to the commentry may have thought as an after thought that maybe the EDC lecture was not such a bad deal after all. Now even though the EDC teacher is not much perturbed over the lack of attention, I am sure that she would not be impressed if she were to spot any one wearing ear plugs and listening to the commentry while she is teaching. So while I sat in front, my friend Paresh sat behind me and listened to the commentry. I screened him from the teacher's view and he provided a ball by ball update which I in turn relayed to those in front of my. More often than not the update was tragic rather than entertaining and even though the Indian team collapsed for a pathetic total I don't think that the teacher had a clue of how far the students' minds were, reaching from VJTI to Vadodara where the match was being played. But narrating the experience here hardly describes the actual feel of it. You have to be a VJTI IT student to know.

(I do not believe that this experience is unique and probably other students in other divisions of VJTI and other colleges may also have had similar experiences, but it is quite likely that I may be one of the few people to write about it.)

Those damned @#@##! exams again.

"As my friends, so I" - Anand Modi (myself).
Well Hardik says that exams bring out the blogger in him. U have got company Hardik. Halfway through the exams I feel in a mood for blogging as well. 4 papers gone, 2 to go and I can hardly wait for the end of the exams, so much so that I have started 'half-celebrating' already. The first paper was Maths and the Lap-lace transform sums may already have wrapped up my brains in laces, not to mention that the EDC exam came and went leaving me even more clueless about the E to C of EDC than before the exam. That was a disastrous Monday for me. Next came the two exams on Wednesday. Electrical Networks was a complete messy tangle of numbers and any engineering student will agree with me on that one, while the FIT paper reminded me strongly of a subject in school called "English" and I faintly recall writing page long essays for 8 marks in my SSC board paper. It was much the same with FIT. Makes me wonder if I should suggest to our teacher to change the name of the subject from FIT to something like "Engineering English". I am sure she won't mind the Engineering part of it, but English is bound to make teachers cry and students laugh, for the English speaking skills displayed by teachers in VJTI are truly amazing (apalling actually). Still we haven't laughed as much as we can, the only laugh the IT class ever got was when the prof. wrote "conversation" instead of "conversion" and insisted that process of conversion is called "conversation". Makes me wonder if prof. Billapatte would have been more fun. But I will leave the description of his English skills to my other friends who have first hand experience of his teaching.