Festember,our college cutural fest, was eagerly awaited by most of us with, well.. with mixed emotions I should say. Will it click or not? Even if it clicks ,is it gonna be that interesting to last 3 days? Well there be enuf events to keep us entertained?
"One thing to watch out is the informals," I thought.Dedication proxies blaring out of the "jukeboxes" are always the order of the day whatever be the event,at least in our college.
Then there was this sleepy faced,short guy who with mike in hand,time n again was exhorting the crowds to " chill up", then realized that no one was taking notice. He was quick to change it to "chill out guys". That was not the end of it.
Close to the informals stage, on its left were a few stalls set up.No Not food stalls;they didnt look like either. One stall had empty soft drink bottles. So, they are game stalls, I drew a conclusion.
Not a single soul ventured even close to that area.
Mr short couldnt stand this plight.Again with mike in hand,he started of with " Guys y dont you have a look at the games stalls? They are all for you" (Jhoot boley kauva kaatey).
Then there was a spectaled guy (S-trek)who wanted 5 girls to come on stage to eat the (humble) pie,infact he was begging and pleading " Please I want 5 of you!", "just 5 of you". No response.Then he whittled his demand, " Ok 4 of you please,only 4 yaar". No one budged."just 5 minutes yaar,5 minutes". To no avail. Then he started calling them by their names. Success at last! "Thanks for saving my face" he must have told them at the end of it.
Come festember and everyone's keeping his I-card close to his chest. One small mistake and its taa-taa to your precious,well earned mess bill savings. Personally, I think the crowds werent disappointed by the food stalls. Each of us relishing the food(breakfast,lunch,dinner)as if we do not have to pay for it.Sounds good ,actually, the I-card serves us better than the credit card.You dont need to swipe anywhere. But its less secure though. You dont have a password, just your roll no.
Whatever,basically, it was "Feast"ember for most of us. Anyways, as I was digging into my plate, I got news. Raavan was back in town (from Chennai). So wats the big deal?wasnt he goin to come today morning? I asked. Even then I thought of just meeting him , u know, just formality, when did you come? What the hell were you doing over there?(Too bad you missed 3 days;day 0,day 1,day2 of festember! lol).
Raavan might not know too much about cricket,but he sure knows how to bowl over the 'maidens' big time! He has carved a special place for himself as the pin-up boy of the meta dept.And he goes about his job in a businessman-like manner. Be it his beloved red bag that he carries everywhere or be it his dressing sense,he has propelled himself to the tremendous heights of modern trend-setting. The post of the vice-presi of R-club is just the perfect icing on the cake for him.Well, Raavan was back to form, rejuvenated after his trip to Chennai. Fresh, alive and kickin, he had another guy,a junior from Chennai by his side.They were sittin under a fancy umbrella near the maggi stall. He was workin his magic on a dame. Now for the best epoch-making part It continued for a record 3-4 hours on the trot, mate! With all food stalls around him, he didnt even feel like taking a break, nor did she! The were in their own element, hello can we forget festember for a while? By the way, she too belongs to R-club and she belongs to "scorpion" dept. All I can say is that I n v in the dept are really happy for you Raavan! This really proves that you have come a long way since your Mumbai love debacle,you have got over that unpleasant experience .Thats now firmly behind you and you have moved forward in life thanks to your determination.
Regards
Vishwesh
Monday, February 27, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Champ"IAN"
Giant is always in the news(rather, in my mails),somewhere and somehow. His topsy-turvy ways are always the talk of the town. True to his nature he will be seen poking his big,fat,hawkishly pointed nose into everything.Completely Undaunted by wat the ordinary junta says about him he always wears the "I-dont-care-a-damn" attitude and the true spirit of a Mumbaikar on his sleeve.Well, if you havent been able to catch up with the man lately, here's a brief account of his latest ventures. Read on..
1. The "Giant" Leap: Giant always makes his presence felt! The grand opening of the swimming pool was just another arena for him to prove that he was the best. Since then it has been an all-giant show, the whole week in the pool.Dressed in a comfortable blue lux undy for a swim suit. Take that! He targeted the pool in which the water was 4 feet high. Wat followed was a simply mind blowin, full fledged dive Olympic style. Just then his eyes fell upon the unsuspecting prey whom he has tormented for ages, the prod thambis!He licked his lips in gusto at their mere sight. The feeling of " Tera kya hoga kaaliyaa?" very much written all over his face. Even water couldn't dampen his bossing qualities. Determined to force himself upon each one of them ,he planted himself in front of them. They were shell- shocked as if they had seen the worst nightmare of their life.They were now shivering top to bottom , no not b'coz the water was cold,but b'coz they froze cold on seeing their doom. Soon there was a sudden wrestle of hands and legs, water flying in all directions,Reason: Giant was trying to keep himself afloat in 4 feet water. Anyone coming in his path would face absolute rout. Giant propelled (rather,tried to) his way and suddenely burst into the ranks of the unassuming learners.No one even dared to go within 1 metre radius of Giant's self created whirlpool.In short, he was playing havoc in the pool and in the process knocked the stuffing outta every person . Me swimming in the other pool just happened to come to the "giant" side.He proudly proclaimed something like this " Yaar, Mujhe swimming aa gayaa thoda". I heartily congratulated him and wished him luck. I had a strange feelin (a glimmer of hope clouded in a barrage of questions). Was this "the thing" Giant was really looking forward to? Was this his final destination? Or would he ditch this new found pastime for something else. Well, for the moment he is my "IAN" Thorpe.(pun very much intended)
Champ"IAN":The entire 3rd year junta is well versed with giant's busy schedule, especially cycle test time. But few know about his gaming abilities. Then comes the ruby CS (Counter Strike)contest,which is just the ideal platform where he can demonstrate his gaming prowess. But Giant doesnt have a system in his room (Not even a Laptop?), Wat does he do? No worry. He always has a way out. He comes to Pearl top floor west wing. Comes knocking at the door of "Anna"(Mr Dependable). Introducing Mr Pras"AnnA". For all who havent heard of "AnnA" much, he is one who has always been recogonized as a potential threat to Giant's growing supremacy in the dept simply b'coz he has withstood the giant deluge with utmost ease and a cool head on his shoulders.This has prevented giant from getting under his skin.With one week to go before the tournament started, giant was back to form shooting men, diffusing bombs, hurling obscenities at his mates if anything went wrong(The F-word being chanted every next second). He ate, drank and slept CS (havent v heard something like this before).Then came the day(I think, even Sandra(???? take a guess) was part of his team). But as bad luck would have it ,he went down fighting gloriously after a fierce battle .But , no he wasnt shattered. He just sees it as another stepping stone to be champ"IAN" .Giant will always be remembered for his immense contribution in the field of CS, in the days to come.
Regards
Vishwesh
1. The "Giant" Leap: Giant always makes his presence felt! The grand opening of the swimming pool was just another arena for him to prove that he was the best. Since then it has been an all-giant show, the whole week in the pool.Dressed in a comfortable blue lux undy for a swim suit. Take that! He targeted the pool in which the water was 4 feet high. Wat followed was a simply mind blowin, full fledged dive Olympic style. Just then his eyes fell upon the unsuspecting prey whom he has tormented for ages, the prod thambis!He licked his lips in gusto at their mere sight. The feeling of " Tera kya hoga kaaliyaa?" very much written all over his face. Even water couldn't dampen his bossing qualities. Determined to force himself upon each one of them ,he planted himself in front of them. They were shell- shocked as if they had seen the worst nightmare of their life.They were now shivering top to bottom , no not b'coz the water was cold,but b'coz they froze cold on seeing their doom. Soon there was a sudden wrestle of hands and legs, water flying in all directions,Reason: Giant was trying to keep himself afloat in 4 feet water. Anyone coming in his path would face absolute rout. Giant propelled (rather,tried to) his way and suddenely burst into the ranks of the unassuming learners.No one even dared to go within 1 metre radius of Giant's self created whirlpool.In short, he was playing havoc in the pool and in the process knocked the stuffing outta every person . Me swimming in the other pool just happened to come to the "giant" side.He proudly proclaimed something like this " Yaar, Mujhe swimming aa gayaa thoda". I heartily congratulated him and wished him luck. I had a strange feelin (a glimmer of hope clouded in a barrage of questions). Was this "the thing" Giant was really looking forward to? Was this his final destination? Or would he ditch this new found pastime for something else. Well, for the moment he is my "IAN" Thorpe.(pun very much intended)
Champ"IAN":The entire 3rd year junta is well versed with giant's busy schedule, especially cycle test time. But few know about his gaming abilities. Then comes the ruby CS (Counter Strike)contest,which is just the ideal platform where he can demonstrate his gaming prowess. But Giant doesnt have a system in his room (Not even a Laptop?), Wat does he do? No worry. He always has a way out. He comes to Pearl top floor west wing. Comes knocking at the door of "Anna"(Mr Dependable). Introducing Mr Pras"AnnA". For all who havent heard of "AnnA" much, he is one who has always been recogonized as a potential threat to Giant's growing supremacy in the dept simply b'coz he has withstood the giant deluge with utmost ease and a cool head on his shoulders.This has prevented giant from getting under his skin.With one week to go before the tournament started, giant was back to form shooting men, diffusing bombs, hurling obscenities at his mates if anything went wrong(The F-word being chanted every next second). He ate, drank and slept CS (havent v heard something like this before).Then came the day(I think, even Sandra(???? take a guess) was part of his team). But as bad luck would have it ,he went down fighting gloriously after a fierce battle .But , no he wasnt shattered. He just sees it as another stepping stone to be champ"IAN" .Giant will always be remembered for his immense contribution in the field of CS, in the days to come.
Regards
Vishwesh
Air- adventure!
While all u guys had to rush along with things,I should say that among all , I was a tad lucky since my train to Chennai (erode express)was at 22.30 on the 7th of Nov.and the exam ended at 17.00, which meant that I had all the time in the world to do the necessary packing.I think ,about half the college was in my train and it ensured that I was never short of company.But I was too tired even to sit and no sooner did the train start I dozed off.Next , when my eyes opened, the train was just about to reach the destination,at 6.00.On time!My flight to mumbai was at 13.15,hence I had to find avenues to pass time.Since i was all alone and no one to talk to, I bought myself a magazine.Somehow,3 hours passed by.I took a local train and reached the airport 2 hours prior to the departure time.The chap at the departure entry, checked my ticket and cross checked it with the flight no.He pointed out that the air india flight nos were not matching .I told him that it was a staff ticket.He din't seem convinced, but he did not want to disappoint me.He advised me to sit inside and consult the air india office as soon as the air india counter opened."Sheesh! not ominuous signs , even as I enter the airport" I thought to myself.Soon ,at somewhere around 11.30, I had my bags tagged up, went to the counter ,got my boarding pass, passed thru customs check and numerous security checks and was just about 50 minutes away from boarding my flight.I Little did I know that the ticket (It was a staff ticket given to me by my father) that i heldhad 23 Aug 2003 written in it which meant that the staff ticket was valid only upto 23 Aug 2004 and it was 7th nov 2004 today.suddenly, a bearded man(the man who issued me the boarding pass at the counter)appeared from nowhere, called out my name.He asked me for my ticket and tore it apart along with the boarding pass.I was shocked for a moment. I looked at him as if to ask "Sir, please tell me wats goin on?"He told me " Young man,I m so sorry, ur ticket isn't valid any more?You see it is past its validity date."He then went on to take off all the tags of my bags and did everything necessary to "deboard" a passesnger, alerting all the checks using his walkie-talkie ."Call up ur father and ask him to issue u a new ticket" said Mr Beard(as if that was possible with precious little time on hand)I stayed cool and calm and tried to arouse s ome pity in his mind by telling him that I had few relatives in Chennai and not enough cash for issuing a new ticket(I took out out my wallet and showed him the only 100 rupee note I had.)All this happened as he was taking me back in the reverse sequence (thru all the security checks that i had passed)At last I landed up at the counter , where I had started from.I told him that father knew some ppl here and a certain Mr ramesh was one of them.Luckily , he was sitting at the counter.Mr beard took me to him.Ramesh had seen the date(23 aug 2003) on my staff ticket while checking the manifestation status in the sysyem, which no one else hadseen. But by that time I was almost thru all the checks.Interseting thing was that , no one ever saw the date at any point of time.Hence no one stopped me till the end.Funny isn't it!I guess, half the airport was shaken up! Somehow, I felt like a VIPAnyways, Ramesh had received a call from my father(mumbai airport) half a hour back,becoz my name did not appear in the list of boarding ppl(father was monitoring my status from mumbai airport).He was explained the problem and on request I was issued a new ticket (There was a series of 4 to 5 phone calls from mumbai in this process). All this happened in a space of minutes and finally I got into the aircraft at 13.00.I thanked God, becoz after all the drama, I was ultimately in!Flight reached on time.Parents received me at the airport.Adventure or Misadventure, whatever u may call it, sure was a nice experience(becoz it ended on a good note! otherwise I would hav ended up in Chennai cursing Mr beard who was the main "villan" of the whole story!)
Regards
Vishwesh
Regards
Vishwesh
The Vizag trip
Till 15th of September everyday was the sameday.
Same story; Same bench position (in a class of 30 odd that's very strange).
The positions: The typewriters are the "front"ers inthe second row followed by the "anonymous 3" behind whom the 3 heavyweights maintain their positions. They are followed by the irrepressible Pappu, Kudumi(Lakshmi) and GV. R.S(Rubbu) is unshakeable at first position in the 3rd row and maintains hisplace because he comes to class 10 minutes early.The sleepy-faced Raavan is contented sitting behind him along with kaly(you cant leave him out of action)and balabandar.The 4th row is made for the dayskees (and RaaRaa whenever he comes to class).The only notable change may be Pallavan;occasionally perched on thefirst bench(in front of Rubbu) or at the fag end of the row. Otherwise,everything's so perfectly set!
Meanwhile, I come to the 8.30 class 5 minutes lateor if on time I get a dose of BS chaat(he always smells somethin fishy behind my smile).Most times, RaaRaa is his prime target.Vociferous greets of "Hai daa" fill the air.Then its back to the "pracesses";Rubbu and the typewriters are at work, the loudspeaker squeals a few doubts,there are fervent appeals to the class to refer to the handbooks since the "going-on's" in class are only an "overview".In the midst of all these,Pakoda figures out that its time he asked his so-called logical questions which would serve his purpose of killing some lecture time. "Sir, you said that plasma arc welding operates at xxxx deg celsius, sir wont the metal melt and evaporate?(good question) All eyes turn towards him. There are quiet whispers all around(mostly curses, in the girls section). The class goes into extra time. Attendance is taken.
Gentleman strides in.In chaste language,he makes one of his formal statements which is not some damn P.J which you would normally associate wid a prof butneither a rib-tickling joke. "Once upon a time,I was handling the ceramic class for you." There is a loud giggle around the class as he breaks into a smile."Due to time constraints I had to occupy those classes with iron and steelmaking, but we'll arrange for some extra slots some time later." As if to reassure us that we wont be deprieved of the ceramic classes.He then proceeds to ask a few questions.Recently he has singled out a guy in our class and tagged him "20percent"(sounds like 50 cent) .The guy had once said,much to everyone's amazement and amusement, that the molten iron metal in a blast furnace consists of 20% sulphur. What follows next is an avalanche of indicative values,scribbled figures on the board etc. The typewriters once n for all look as if they cant go on any longer. But Rubbu is ever-consistent. He goes on his "page-filling" spree like a man possessed. These notes make their way to different hostels,rooms and to the Xerox centre where his customers have to spend a fortune to get his books photocopied.
But what followed a few weeks back is totally unparalleled in the histroy ofthe 3 sems we hav enjoyed in the dept. Suri was on his dictation-cum-mugging-cumlullaby marathon, repeating each word at least 4 times. The class was flattenedin less than half n hour. Then he came to the application of a certain polymericmaterial. It read "sprocket". He asked meekily " Anybody knows wat is sprocket?"(I was gonna ask him the spelling). There were blank faces all aroundthe class. Then he said " Even I dont know!" and he smiled. We burst out laughing. "You refer some engg dictionary and tell me ok" he said.That wasntall. A little later he encountered a sentence "Nylon fibres are notoriouslystrong". He asked "do you know the meaning of notorious?". Some of ushesistantly said "bad". He remarked " notorious means brute, tough. Men areall tough ,they are strong. Women are very soft. But in some special cases,women become brute." Laughter all over. Then he quoted a phrase in Tamil whichsaid " The wife can turn murderer."(literal translation). A laugh riot followed.
Mech metallurgy is a sea of stammer(aa...aa...aa aaaaah!),slides(dieter),30's on 30,cracks,stress,fatigue,failure and all the forgettable things of life . The subject is totally dry and if at all you are willing to fall in love with it, you u've got to treat cracks like human beings. A chapter is devoted to the birth of a crack,another on how crack grows from boyhood to manhood.Yet another on what is needed to nourish the crack. The fourth one on good ones and bad ones, different sizes ,shapes... Then an umpteenth one on the last-death stage of crack and you thank god that ultimately the material has undergone failure. Whoa! its like studyingevolution and different life cycles once again. For once we broke away from this monotony!
Anyways, the whole Vizag thing was infact born outta nowhere. We just had noother place in our mind.Rather we couldnt think of any other place. Even 3 weeksbefore the actual iv, no one was willing to budge an inch , each expressingdoubts about the place, most importantly the cost incurred on the trip... blahblah. There were more names on the "I-am-not-sure" list (Every guy was actingdiplomatic lest BS would hit back at them.). Sure enough BS had to meet us alland tell us everything would go off well,it would be a good learning experienceand the cost wouldnt be a worry.A major chunk of us were convinced but therewere a few who still wanted to be part of the "list" and they were ultimatelychucked out as per their wishes. Yep, I wouldnt forgive myself if I dont mention the special volunteering job done by Sincere and Raavan in taking pains and booking the tickets for thejourney. As per plan we had to take Pallavan exp from Trichy to Chennai. Thenhave a 10-hour long stop-over there and refresh ourselves before taking theAllepey-Dhanbad exp to Vishakapatnam, the very night. Now, the first hurdle was to wake up at 4-4.30 in the morning.Waking up before the break of dawnwas something special. There was further joy for many of us since there was nowater in our wing; water-lovers like me trodded all the way to the next wing.BS came all the way to Pearl thinking he could hurry us outta of the hostel like well-groomed cattle. But to his surprise each one of us was ready and kickin by 5.20. The NITT bus was waiting at the Pearl gate and we were ferried to the junction before time. At the station some of us had a small fill before the journey and Igot my hands on the latest "India Today" edition featuring "Akkaa"¨ on its coverpage and her US open exploits. Had a good time in the train with BS doing all the papparazzi worksnapping pics of people who had dozed of as soon as the train had pulled out ofthe station.The pics are just amazing.Again , there was a "Hai daa" every second moment.(From now on his he will be referred to as Haidaa in this mail).Hai daa wielded his DigiCam throughout the whole trip with the dexterity of a skilled warrior. To add to all these mini photo sessions was endless chatter from all quarters. Ok, speaking of chatter,there is one person who instantly comes to mind. Yep, loudspeaker. Decibels levels were always on the higher side throughout the journey, whether in train or in the bus,during the iv or sight-seeing. Her voice stood clearly above the rest.We reached Egmore before schedule (Interesting),noon time.
We broke up into batches wid the word that we would assemble at Central,8.30 pm sharp for our10.30 train. Me got down along with RaaRaa, Rubbu, Padips and a few other guys before Egmore arrived.We then parted ways.This long stop-over was somethin Ilooked forward too.
I spent the day at Rubbu's house. Rubbu's home was a cacophony of electrostatics,differential calculus and organic chemistry strewn all over the table.No its not Rubbu studying for entrance exams once again, its his kid bro.Well,not exactly kid bro, he is as tall as Rubbu, same build maybe a bit slimmer, same glases,same face.Infact, both hav same "study" styles(But he has short hair, so he doesnt adorn the scientist look of Rubbu during the exams.). A fellow of few words,he comes along as an Eminem freak I suppose. Rubbu chipped in wid some advice for his bro on wat to mug for the exam and the "sure-shot" questions.Anyways,I had lunch with Rubbu n dozed off immediately ,to be up at 3.Then we charted out a plan to make the most of our short sojourn. We had a series of phone talks with kaly's"batch" n fixed Spencer's as the place of meet.We reached there in half n hour time did a great deal of window shopping, had ice-cream and a few snaps. The northies were off to another theatre to catch up wid the latest hindirelease while we watched a action-packed English movie.Time flew by and at 10.30something we were inside the train.
Gentleman,the girls and half of the boys were there in the other coach while ten of us along with Hai daa were in the S9 coach.Nothin much that night except for some football talk between RaaRaa and BS(RaaRaa revealed his plans of gettin into Liverpool University, shocking me big time), some placement talk,all of us were dead tired . Next day passed of well ; the andhra heat wasnt a bother and so werent those eunuchs as the train crossed the Krishna and godavari.More snaps taken. We reached our destination at somewhere around 3 in the afternoon,that same day.Vishakapatnam we were in! After long it was a trip to "Gulti"stan.
The bus was waiting for us. Gulti songs blared out off the speaker.The roads were clean , wide and long and we reached The residential colonies of the employees ,the place where we would stay for the next 3 days. It was some 3 km away from the steel plant. We were given to big rooms; one each for the girls and the boys. The remaining part of the day was spent in going around the place and we were invited by the man who was instrumental in organizing the whole steel plant visit, to his house. From now on, the bus was our mode of transport, till our departure from Vizag. It didnt take us long to realise that water was a scarce resource and the tankstorage was limited.But we manged well(Freaks! they used to follow the roll number system to stand in the queue for bathing; I was the sufferer.)
The next day was all iron n steel.We started of early and picked up an officialfrom the training centre of the steel plant to guide us and take us around . Thetotal production capacity of the plant is 4.2 million tons of molten iron perannum out of which 3.65 is employed in the steel making process, read a board.That explained to us how massive it was was even before we entered the security laden gates of the plant. Another board read " customer satisfaction, cost effective, consistency, considerate to environment"something of that sort.The official gave us some serious facts.The plant was established in the early 70's. It has a blast furnace of 3000 cubic m working volume.About 36 batteries of coke ovens are used to convert the coking coal to metallurgical coke which is used as fuel for the plant.Each battery cosists of 67 ovens. The coking coal is Australian but the iron-ore is very much Indian.We saw how the conversion to coke was done by the firing process, a feeding machine ran on rails. Then we saw on our way, sintering plants to shape the ore lump, the large mixing bins for the limestone added as flux,the cooling chambers to cool the coke, the flue gas outlets which were overhead, the raw materials handling plants.Also seen were the slag(by product of iron making) processing plants which converted it into grainy form so that they would be supplied to the cement or fertilizer industries.Then we made our way to the actual blast furnace which washigh and huge, bellowing out smoke not heavily though. As we entered its hightemperature interior, we were amazed to see that it was a complex, crisscrossing of meshes of high voltage electrical and instrumentation systems,thousands and lakhs of them ,top to bottom.Within this closed region bounded bythe systems, the reactions that we study in our books are going on in full flow,at a 1000 deg temp. As we climbed up the stairs inside, we could see from ashort distance,molten iron flowing like water but obviously much thicker andred-hot and burning golden in color.Very much like volcano eruptions that v seeon national geographic , the liquid was jumping out of the furnace violently andflowing, giving out smoke and burning everything on its way. It was continuouslygetting collected in the speical containers(ladles).That is why it is acontinuous process and once a furnace is started it goes on for years ,24*7non-stop. It was hard to keep our eyes on it for more than a few seconds, waslike watching 10 solar eclipses at the same time. We were sweating all the time.Then we went along watching the desulphurisation plant, the gas cleaning plants,the cooling water chambers for the furnaces.It was almost noon by then. We hadlunch in the canteen for employees, a good ,hot n hearty one.Off we were again to the Steel making shop or the SMS as they call it, where the iron produced from its iron ore is further converted into steel. It is much more dangerous than the iron making process hence we had to take special permission from the authorities before entering the SMS. An enthusiastic engineer was kind enough to explain us the entire steel making process as we saw from a glass window how the big ton ladle carrying the molten iron (all mechanised) poured it and oygen supply was given through a lance. There was a violent reaction accompanied by a noise very much like a tremor which had all of us gasping ,hot liquid spilling from it. Then it calmed down. We could see the rinsing operation using an inert gas.This was followed by the cutting and casting of the finished steel intodifferent shapes od finished product: rings, billets,plain etc. the scrap steelbeing recycled.Cooling water used in every step.We also paid a visit to the labwhere they take samples of the molten metal analyse it using techniques likeX-ray analysis to check the chemical composition of various elements.All throughout the plant visit from stone to iron to steel, we witnessed hightemperatures and peculiar metal smell.By the time we were out it was almost 4. We returned and refreshed ourselveswere really upbeat when we were told that the beach was next on plans. It waswonderful, Many of us had a great time , though my mob suffered due to the waterfrom the holy dip.Barring a few like goyal saab,bhandari,rubbu,pallavan theothers found frolicking in water to much to resist.There were photo sessions allaround. Me didnt care much for them.
The next day was all high altitude first to a olace called simhachalam, then tothe city(again a bout of window shopping in a mall named CRM). Then we visitedthe areas affected by the tsunami , also visited the port area and enjoyed theferry ride. It was time for another place called place called kailasagiri on thehill, but near the seashore, with only the highway seperating it from the shore.The sky looked threating and it had already started to come down heavily on us.Nevertheless, it was a lovely place and most of the pics were taken there.Thecable car ride was one great experience. The rain just kept increasing. From theday we came to Vizag the climatic cinditions were very Bombayish. It rained thewhole day and night as well.The very next day our train was delayed by 3 hours. There were cyclone warnings.I guess we narrowly escaped the calamity which engulfed the andhra coast.A trip to remember!
Regards
Vishwesh
Same story; Same bench position (in a class of 30 odd that's very strange).
The positions: The typewriters are the "front"ers inthe second row followed by the "anonymous 3" behind whom the 3 heavyweights maintain their positions. They are followed by the irrepressible Pappu, Kudumi(Lakshmi) and GV. R.S(Rubbu) is unshakeable at first position in the 3rd row and maintains hisplace because he comes to class 10 minutes early.The sleepy-faced Raavan is contented sitting behind him along with kaly(you cant leave him out of action)and balabandar.The 4th row is made for the dayskees (and RaaRaa whenever he comes to class).The only notable change may be Pallavan;occasionally perched on thefirst bench(in front of Rubbu) or at the fag end of the row. Otherwise,everything's so perfectly set!
Meanwhile, I come to the 8.30 class 5 minutes lateor if on time I get a dose of BS chaat(he always smells somethin fishy behind my smile).Most times, RaaRaa is his prime target.Vociferous greets of "Hai daa" fill the air.Then its back to the "pracesses";Rubbu and the typewriters are at work, the loudspeaker squeals a few doubts,there are fervent appeals to the class to refer to the handbooks since the "going-on's" in class are only an "overview".In the midst of all these,Pakoda figures out that its time he asked his so-called logical questions which would serve his purpose of killing some lecture time. "Sir, you said that plasma arc welding operates at xxxx deg celsius, sir wont the metal melt and evaporate?(good question) All eyes turn towards him. There are quiet whispers all around(mostly curses, in the girls section). The class goes into extra time. Attendance is taken.
Gentleman strides in.In chaste language,he makes one of his formal statements which is not some damn P.J which you would normally associate wid a prof butneither a rib-tickling joke. "Once upon a time,I was handling the ceramic class for you." There is a loud giggle around the class as he breaks into a smile."Due to time constraints I had to occupy those classes with iron and steelmaking, but we'll arrange for some extra slots some time later." As if to reassure us that we wont be deprieved of the ceramic classes.He then proceeds to ask a few questions.Recently he has singled out a guy in our class and tagged him "20percent"(sounds like 50 cent) .The guy had once said,much to everyone's amazement and amusement, that the molten iron metal in a blast furnace consists of 20% sulphur. What follows next is an avalanche of indicative values,scribbled figures on the board etc. The typewriters once n for all look as if they cant go on any longer. But Rubbu is ever-consistent. He goes on his "page-filling" spree like a man possessed. These notes make their way to different hostels,rooms and to the Xerox centre where his customers have to spend a fortune to get his books photocopied.
But what followed a few weeks back is totally unparalleled in the histroy ofthe 3 sems we hav enjoyed in the dept. Suri was on his dictation-cum-mugging-cumlullaby marathon, repeating each word at least 4 times. The class was flattenedin less than half n hour. Then he came to the application of a certain polymericmaterial. It read "sprocket". He asked meekily " Anybody knows wat is sprocket?"(I was gonna ask him the spelling). There were blank faces all aroundthe class. Then he said " Even I dont know!" and he smiled. We burst out laughing. "You refer some engg dictionary and tell me ok" he said.That wasntall. A little later he encountered a sentence "Nylon fibres are notoriouslystrong". He asked "do you know the meaning of notorious?". Some of ushesistantly said "bad". He remarked " notorious means brute, tough. Men areall tough ,they are strong. Women are very soft. But in some special cases,women become brute." Laughter all over. Then he quoted a phrase in Tamil whichsaid " The wife can turn murderer."(literal translation). A laugh riot followed.
Mech metallurgy is a sea of stammer(aa...aa...aa aaaaah!),slides(dieter),30's on 30,cracks,stress,fatigue,failure and all the forgettable things of life . The subject is totally dry and if at all you are willing to fall in love with it, you u've got to treat cracks like human beings. A chapter is devoted to the birth of a crack,another on how crack grows from boyhood to manhood.Yet another on what is needed to nourish the crack. The fourth one on good ones and bad ones, different sizes ,shapes... Then an umpteenth one on the last-death stage of crack and you thank god that ultimately the material has undergone failure. Whoa! its like studyingevolution and different life cycles once again. For once we broke away from this monotony!
Anyways, the whole Vizag thing was infact born outta nowhere. We just had noother place in our mind.Rather we couldnt think of any other place. Even 3 weeksbefore the actual iv, no one was willing to budge an inch , each expressingdoubts about the place, most importantly the cost incurred on the trip... blahblah. There were more names on the "I-am-not-sure" list (Every guy was actingdiplomatic lest BS would hit back at them.). Sure enough BS had to meet us alland tell us everything would go off well,it would be a good learning experienceand the cost wouldnt be a worry.A major chunk of us were convinced but therewere a few who still wanted to be part of the "list" and they were ultimatelychucked out as per their wishes. Yep, I wouldnt forgive myself if I dont mention the special volunteering job done by Sincere and Raavan in taking pains and booking the tickets for thejourney. As per plan we had to take Pallavan exp from Trichy to Chennai. Thenhave a 10-hour long stop-over there and refresh ourselves before taking theAllepey-Dhanbad exp to Vishakapatnam, the very night. Now, the first hurdle was to wake up at 4-4.30 in the morning.Waking up before the break of dawnwas something special. There was further joy for many of us since there was nowater in our wing; water-lovers like me trodded all the way to the next wing.BS came all the way to Pearl thinking he could hurry us outta of the hostel like well-groomed cattle. But to his surprise each one of us was ready and kickin by 5.20. The NITT bus was waiting at the Pearl gate and we were ferried to the junction before time. At the station some of us had a small fill before the journey and Igot my hands on the latest "India Today" edition featuring "Akkaa"¨ on its coverpage and her US open exploits. Had a good time in the train with BS doing all the papparazzi worksnapping pics of people who had dozed of as soon as the train had pulled out ofthe station.The pics are just amazing.Again , there was a "Hai daa" every second moment.(From now on his he will be referred to as Haidaa in this mail).Hai daa wielded his DigiCam throughout the whole trip with the dexterity of a skilled warrior. To add to all these mini photo sessions was endless chatter from all quarters. Ok, speaking of chatter,there is one person who instantly comes to mind. Yep, loudspeaker. Decibels levels were always on the higher side throughout the journey, whether in train or in the bus,during the iv or sight-seeing. Her voice stood clearly above the rest.We reached Egmore before schedule (Interesting),noon time.
We broke up into batches wid the word that we would assemble at Central,8.30 pm sharp for our10.30 train. Me got down along with RaaRaa, Rubbu, Padips and a few other guys before Egmore arrived.We then parted ways.This long stop-over was somethin Ilooked forward too.
I spent the day at Rubbu's house. Rubbu's home was a cacophony of electrostatics,differential calculus and organic chemistry strewn all over the table.No its not Rubbu studying for entrance exams once again, its his kid bro.Well,not exactly kid bro, he is as tall as Rubbu, same build maybe a bit slimmer, same glases,same face.Infact, both hav same "study" styles(But he has short hair, so he doesnt adorn the scientist look of Rubbu during the exams.). A fellow of few words,he comes along as an Eminem freak I suppose. Rubbu chipped in wid some advice for his bro on wat to mug for the exam and the "sure-shot" questions.Anyways,I had lunch with Rubbu n dozed off immediately ,to be up at 3.Then we charted out a plan to make the most of our short sojourn. We had a series of phone talks with kaly's"batch" n fixed Spencer's as the place of meet.We reached there in half n hour time did a great deal of window shopping, had ice-cream and a few snaps. The northies were off to another theatre to catch up wid the latest hindirelease while we watched a action-packed English movie.Time flew by and at 10.30something we were inside the train.
Gentleman,the girls and half of the boys were there in the other coach while ten of us along with Hai daa were in the S9 coach.Nothin much that night except for some football talk between RaaRaa and BS(RaaRaa revealed his plans of gettin into Liverpool University, shocking me big time), some placement talk,all of us were dead tired . Next day passed of well ; the andhra heat wasnt a bother and so werent those eunuchs as the train crossed the Krishna and godavari.More snaps taken. We reached our destination at somewhere around 3 in the afternoon,that same day.Vishakapatnam we were in! After long it was a trip to "Gulti"stan.
The bus was waiting for us. Gulti songs blared out off the speaker.The roads were clean , wide and long and we reached The residential colonies of the employees ,the place where we would stay for the next 3 days. It was some 3 km away from the steel plant. We were given to big rooms; one each for the girls and the boys. The remaining part of the day was spent in going around the place and we were invited by the man who was instrumental in organizing the whole steel plant visit, to his house. From now on, the bus was our mode of transport, till our departure from Vizag. It didnt take us long to realise that water was a scarce resource and the tankstorage was limited.But we manged well(Freaks! they used to follow the roll number system to stand in the queue for bathing; I was the sufferer.)
The next day was all iron n steel.We started of early and picked up an officialfrom the training centre of the steel plant to guide us and take us around . Thetotal production capacity of the plant is 4.2 million tons of molten iron perannum out of which 3.65 is employed in the steel making process, read a board.That explained to us how massive it was was even before we entered the security laden gates of the plant. Another board read " customer satisfaction, cost effective, consistency, considerate to environment"something of that sort.The official gave us some serious facts.The plant was established in the early 70's. It has a blast furnace of 3000 cubic m working volume.About 36 batteries of coke ovens are used to convert the coking coal to metallurgical coke which is used as fuel for the plant.Each battery cosists of 67 ovens. The coking coal is Australian but the iron-ore is very much Indian.We saw how the conversion to coke was done by the firing process, a feeding machine ran on rails. Then we saw on our way, sintering plants to shape the ore lump, the large mixing bins for the limestone added as flux,the cooling chambers to cool the coke, the flue gas outlets which were overhead, the raw materials handling plants.Also seen were the slag(by product of iron making) processing plants which converted it into grainy form so that they would be supplied to the cement or fertilizer industries.Then we made our way to the actual blast furnace which washigh and huge, bellowing out smoke not heavily though. As we entered its hightemperature interior, we were amazed to see that it was a complex, crisscrossing of meshes of high voltage electrical and instrumentation systems,thousands and lakhs of them ,top to bottom.Within this closed region bounded bythe systems, the reactions that we study in our books are going on in full flow,at a 1000 deg temp. As we climbed up the stairs inside, we could see from ashort distance,molten iron flowing like water but obviously much thicker andred-hot and burning golden in color.Very much like volcano eruptions that v seeon national geographic , the liquid was jumping out of the furnace violently andflowing, giving out smoke and burning everything on its way. It was continuouslygetting collected in the speical containers(ladles).That is why it is acontinuous process and once a furnace is started it goes on for years ,24*7non-stop. It was hard to keep our eyes on it for more than a few seconds, waslike watching 10 solar eclipses at the same time. We were sweating all the time.Then we went along watching the desulphurisation plant, the gas cleaning plants,the cooling water chambers for the furnaces.It was almost noon by then. We hadlunch in the canteen for employees, a good ,hot n hearty one.Off we were again to the Steel making shop or the SMS as they call it, where the iron produced from its iron ore is further converted into steel. It is much more dangerous than the iron making process hence we had to take special permission from the authorities before entering the SMS. An enthusiastic engineer was kind enough to explain us the entire steel making process as we saw from a glass window how the big ton ladle carrying the molten iron (all mechanised) poured it and oygen supply was given through a lance. There was a violent reaction accompanied by a noise very much like a tremor which had all of us gasping ,hot liquid spilling from it. Then it calmed down. We could see the rinsing operation using an inert gas.This was followed by the cutting and casting of the finished steel intodifferent shapes od finished product: rings, billets,plain etc. the scrap steelbeing recycled.Cooling water used in every step.We also paid a visit to the labwhere they take samples of the molten metal analyse it using techniques likeX-ray analysis to check the chemical composition of various elements.All throughout the plant visit from stone to iron to steel, we witnessed hightemperatures and peculiar metal smell.By the time we were out it was almost 4. We returned and refreshed ourselveswere really upbeat when we were told that the beach was next on plans. It waswonderful, Many of us had a great time , though my mob suffered due to the waterfrom the holy dip.Barring a few like goyal saab,bhandari,rubbu,pallavan theothers found frolicking in water to much to resist.There were photo sessions allaround. Me didnt care much for them.
The next day was all high altitude first to a olace called simhachalam, then tothe city(again a bout of window shopping in a mall named CRM). Then we visitedthe areas affected by the tsunami , also visited the port area and enjoyed theferry ride. It was time for another place called place called kailasagiri on thehill, but near the seashore, with only the highway seperating it from the shore.The sky looked threating and it had already started to come down heavily on us.Nevertheless, it was a lovely place and most of the pics were taken there.Thecable car ride was one great experience. The rain just kept increasing. From theday we came to Vizag the climatic cinditions were very Bombayish. It rained thewhole day and night as well.The very next day our train was delayed by 3 hours. There were cyclone warnings.I guess we narrowly escaped the calamity which engulfed the andhra coast.A trip to remember!
Regards
Vishwesh
kaly!
It was mid-June, almost 2 months since the start of the 5th sem. The campus as always was at its teeming best ,geared up for yet another academic year. But things seemed very bleak for the G-mess, which was still in its fledgling status. Unlike all its big brother messes, the gloom of anarchy had descended upon the mess. It was frequently invaded and inhabited by outsiders giving it an impression of a free, roadside motel. They dug into the scrumptious best(lol) offered by the mess leaving the locals (G-messers) fuming. Thus Defaulters almost always "ate into" their pride. Regular warnings just fell on deaf years.The locals thought that the day was not far off when the mess would become common to all other mess people and walk on the road to disaster. Something had to be done. They needed someone with the power to knock the stuffin out of everyone else by his mere presence. Someone who could weild this power like a whip or a weapon(???). Somone who could teach them a befitting lesson(The GURU??).Maybe, A revoultionary of some sort!
Venue: The meta dept
Exact location: Middle row of the boys.
Precise point: Sittin on the 3rd bench in between two blokes Kaly had almost dozed off.Suddenely he was awoken by a sound, "Dey, 14?". It was 9.25 in the morning and our sir Mr "Hai Daa" had performed his customary ritual of chaating(boring) the boys for the first 10 minutes at the start of the lec,(he asked RaaRaa wat was for breakfast) and then went on teaching and "projecting" alternately. In that process he had eaten 5 minutes into gentleman's schedule,which was he thought was pretty ok .Then he had gone up straight to fox who had given him a micro-sized paper for the attendance call."Dey, 14?" he thundered and kaly woke up with a start as if he had been given a shock. He then gave bs a timid smile and continued wat he was good at.
The situation was no good or bad in the lecs to continue.That is kaly for you!His attire consisted of a well ironed full sleeve and Tirupur jeans. An air of innocence about him, he believed that one should be his own wherever he went,but should follow the rules. He sincerely felt that one should eat in only one mess.He was pained to see people try out different mess. People made fun of him, but he took everything in his stride.He couldnt understand why everyone made mockery of him and his anti "corrupt" ways;it gave him a very uneasy feeling.There was everything normal,mild and sober about this chap.
Time: 2200
The octagon (our comp centre) was packed choc-o-block with not a single "system" in view. There were guys who were whiling their time in the net lab, logging on to dating sites, watching unmentionables, playing CS n watching NITTfest videos in the user labs. But sitting in the graphics lab was someone who was just gobbling up php with the efficiency of a programming pro. He finished it,closed the php window shut and moved on to sql and other databases with impeccable speed, nothwithstanding the people around him. No wonder he is called DBKS(database kalyanasundaram).
DBKS has the uncanny knack of spotting opportunities(projects) and finishing them off in a jiffy. He his energetic and punches the keys with the same enthu as a boxer;he loves to learn and knows the each n very "system" inside out.Always loves a fight when it comes to comp-savy stuff. There is no one who could prove a match for DBKS in the field of either s/w or h/w.
Days passed by and kaly and his schedule remained the same.Got up early,attended classes,slept,ate, followed rules, got teased and same old things. Then the day came, while searching for something on the internet he came across something in the name of kranti-kaly.mess.edu . The name sounded different.Soon he figured out that the site signalled doom for all mess-defaulters, who broke rules and went to other mess to eat.
Once it happened that 2 "other mess" mallus made their way into the mess on a Sunday afternoon.On contacting the G-mess sources it was found out that they were regular "sunday lunchers" at their mess and something had to be done to stop them. As they had their fill and came out, they were stunned to death on seeing a notice of kranti-kaly on the notice board.It was a warning to all who had bent n broken all the rules in the book.It had the trademark sign of krantikaly, the aruvaall(the sharp knife used for cutting Coconuts) which was soaked and dripped with blood. They froze in their knees and never came near G-mess again.
In the coming days many heads rolled,the good got wat they wanted,rules followers became a happy lot,the G-mess prospered and was back to its prestigious best.krantikaly was worshipped by the mess committee members and locals alike. He became an instant idol.Every junior wanted to become a krantikaly now.But no one knew wat he looked like.
On one fine day, kranti organized a meet. It was attended by the mess committee members.The he made a grand appearance.He had worn a "GAP" T-shirt and 3-4ths. Everyone stood up on seeing him.He came with a projector in hand and started on in his very aggressive and ruthless fashion. He "projected" on the screen the different items which other mess had,the cost and how rich they were. He sounded a clear cut deadline for all outsiders who had even the guts to dream of eating in the G-mess. The future would be even worse for them now. Within 1 week, they better get the hell out of G-mess and change themsleves or change their mess and come to the refuge of G-mess and krantikaly. If neither of the above options was selected, they would meet with the deadliest fate!
Regards
Vishwesh
Venue: The meta dept
Exact location: Middle row of the boys.
Precise point: Sittin on the 3rd bench in between two blokes Kaly had almost dozed off.Suddenely he was awoken by a sound, "Dey, 14?". It was 9.25 in the morning and our sir Mr "Hai Daa" had performed his customary ritual of chaating(boring) the boys for the first 10 minutes at the start of the lec,(he asked RaaRaa wat was for breakfast) and then went on teaching and "projecting" alternately. In that process he had eaten 5 minutes into gentleman's schedule,which was he thought was pretty ok .Then he had gone up straight to fox who had given him a micro-sized paper for the attendance call."Dey, 14?" he thundered and kaly woke up with a start as if he had been given a shock. He then gave bs a timid smile and continued wat he was good at.
The situation was no good or bad in the lecs to continue.That is kaly for you!His attire consisted of a well ironed full sleeve and Tirupur jeans. An air of innocence about him, he believed that one should be his own wherever he went,but should follow the rules. He sincerely felt that one should eat in only one mess.He was pained to see people try out different mess. People made fun of him, but he took everything in his stride.He couldnt understand why everyone made mockery of him and his anti "corrupt" ways;it gave him a very uneasy feeling.There was everything normal,mild and sober about this chap.
Time: 2200
The octagon (our comp centre) was packed choc-o-block with not a single "system" in view. There were guys who were whiling their time in the net lab, logging on to dating sites, watching unmentionables, playing CS n watching NITTfest videos in the user labs. But sitting in the graphics lab was someone who was just gobbling up php with the efficiency of a programming pro. He finished it,closed the php window shut and moved on to sql and other databases with impeccable speed, nothwithstanding the people around him. No wonder he is called DBKS(database kalyanasundaram).
DBKS has the uncanny knack of spotting opportunities(projects) and finishing them off in a jiffy. He his energetic and punches the keys with the same enthu as a boxer;he loves to learn and knows the each n very "system" inside out.Always loves a fight when it comes to comp-savy stuff. There is no one who could prove a match for DBKS in the field of either s/w or h/w.
Days passed by and kaly and his schedule remained the same.Got up early,attended classes,slept,ate, followed rules, got teased and same old things. Then the day came, while searching for something on the internet he came across something in the name of kranti-kaly.mess.edu . The name sounded different.Soon he figured out that the site signalled doom for all mess-defaulters, who broke rules and went to other mess to eat.
Once it happened that 2 "other mess" mallus made their way into the mess on a Sunday afternoon.On contacting the G-mess sources it was found out that they were regular "sunday lunchers" at their mess and something had to be done to stop them. As they had their fill and came out, they were stunned to death on seeing a notice of kranti-kaly on the notice board.It was a warning to all who had bent n broken all the rules in the book.It had the trademark sign of krantikaly, the aruvaall(the sharp knife used for cutting Coconuts) which was soaked and dripped with blood. They froze in their knees and never came near G-mess again.
In the coming days many heads rolled,the good got wat they wanted,rules followers became a happy lot,the G-mess prospered and was back to its prestigious best.krantikaly was worshipped by the mess committee members and locals alike. He became an instant idol.Every junior wanted to become a krantikaly now.But no one knew wat he looked like.
On one fine day, kranti organized a meet. It was attended by the mess committee members.The he made a grand appearance.He had worn a "GAP" T-shirt and 3-4ths. Everyone stood up on seeing him.He came with a projector in hand and started on in his very aggressive and ruthless fashion. He "projected" on the screen the different items which other mess had,the cost and how rich they were. He sounded a clear cut deadline for all outsiders who had even the guts to dream of eating in the G-mess. The future would be even worse for them now. Within 1 week, they better get the hell out of G-mess and change themsleves or change their mess and come to the refuge of G-mess and krantikaly. If neither of the above options was selected, they would meet with the deadliest fate!
Regards
Vishwesh
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Amalgam (The Chennai Trip)!
Pragyan, our college technical fest, ended on the 31st of Jan amidst utmost fanfare.Thanks to the 5k prize money from my techQuiz win, there were frequent calls of "treats" mostly from less-known people. Classes went on as regular.
Barely 2 days later, Ravan asked me whether I was interested in going for Amalgam. Amalgam??? "What is that?" I asked him just to confirm whether what I just heard was correct or not. Well, it turned out to be IIT-M's metallurgy symposium and a handful of the final years along with Subbu were gung-ho about going there and Ravan had known about it from them only the previous evening.
The following day myself and Ravan made our way to the Octa, bunking a lecture in the process. We logged on to the IIT-M site,with an element of uncertainity since it was the 3rd of feb that day and Amalgam was scheduled for the 4th and5th. We followed the various links right till we reached the symp site. A mammoth list of events, their description and their corresponding registration dates were given neatly and to our chagrin we found out that the last date of registration was given as 28th of Jan.
" Big deal" we thought, " As if we'll smash the event by registering ourselves." But something prompted us to send a"request" mail (laced with pleases' and thank you's) to the amalgam desk . And as expected we forgot all about it. A casual visit to the netlab a few hours later late in the evening saw a surprise spring up. They had accepted the request and said we were welcome. On contacting them by phone, we discovered that no bonafide was necessary, the college I-card was enough and all registrations were on the spot.
Travelling to chennai by private buses can be a real bargaining game, the money always seems to be double your budget, though the ride is fast and comfortable.Our sole source of refugee now were the famed Govt buses. " Get set for abumpy ride" I thought ,since ,out of the 3 of us,I m the one who boasts of a rich experience of travelling in Govt buses(the previous trip toTirupati via chennai was also a shocker of a ride).
I could make out from the expressions on the faces of Subbu and Ravan that they were feeling rather awkward and out of place (lol, It was funny, anyway). Subbu was shuffling uncomfortably in his seat (he was alone), while ravan treated himself to a long,fiesta nap, mouth open, regularly falling over me and waking me up with a start.Sleep proves to be the lone remedy for such journeys. The night passed off in a jiffy (at least for me). Subbu and ravan got off before the bus reached the central bus stand, at stops which were closer to their house. I got down at central and called up aththai(aunt). She has shifted to a brand new apartment and I just had the address and phone no. I called her up and a plethora of bus numbers, landmarks,bus stops came up with, of course, the exact name of the place ;Theynampet (Mount Road)! She then realized that she had given a little to much info for my comfort.( thank god that there was a pen and a small notepad in my wallet.)
And to make a mockery of it all, the series of bus numbers didnt help since none of them started from the central bus stand. After further enquiry, I got into a bus , slept of and got off atleast 5 stops away from my destination. The landmarks helped me while going by auto and I was there.The house sounded much bigger than their previous one.
There is one thing common to both mummy and aththai .Even after 10 years, they may look as they are. Since it was a saturday, it was supposed to be off-day for her but she said she considered it a half day's work (man, this is the height of devotion towards work I thought).The bespectacled arjun(ajuni) was busy with his work ,occasionally having something to ask about,sometimes picking the ball and blasting it against the wall with his tennis racquet, paying no heed to chithi's warnings.
The preliminary rounds were scheduled at 11.30. So after bathing,a brunch and some talk I was on my way to IIT (Guindy). It boasts of a giant-sized campus,bigger than IIT-Powai too. Shuttle buses were regualrly available and I reached the seminar hall of the Meta dept just in time.IIT'ians ,like us, have their own lingo and in contrast to our symposiums where we have to wear formals , they come in casuals. Also there is even less faculty participation than our symp.That way it stays even more cool.The quiz had just started and it was in the form of a cross-word with meta clues.Shravan was partenerless. We sat down together and teamed up to crack 25 out of 35 in the 1 hour time limit.We had no idea whther this effort was enough to get us through to the next round.Alongside us were 2 more teams from our college, teams from other NIT's,teams from IIT-M. The IIT guys said that the results would be announced at around 2.30 .
The meta dept of our college is nothing in comparison to wat they have. Their dept consists of 3 building supplemented by 5 labs.There is aAC-seminar hall for each dept. Subbu, Ravan and me had a light lunch at a restaurant at the gate and got back to the hall where the second event "math modelling" was goin on.It was a written paper. Our seniors were in it and I could see from their faces ,they regretted participating in it. A glance at the questionaire told me why.
The results were out, rather projected on the big screen. We were one of the 6 teams through and stood at the 3rd position. Not bad for a start, we thought! We were pitted against 3 IIT-M teams, the final years' team from our college and another NIT team. The final was to be held on the following day, the 5th.
In the evening there was an event called X-factor(treasure hunt with meta clues with a map of the meta dept given to us) and a guest lecture on nano-materials. Nano quiz was scheduled to start at 7 in the evening but both of us very really exhausted and made our way home. Subbu teamed up with a final year and they got through to the finals.
It takes hardly 30 minutes from home to IIT and there is a direct bus. I was just in time for dinner. Treated to good food I was (everything else sounds good if you are a mess-goer in our college). Later I was treated to some photos from Singapore on the comp and lots of talk about my dept, studies, hostel, food( thats wat most ladies love talkin about, dont they?) and stuff. Was fun talking to aththai. She found it surprising that we sleep after 12 in our hostels.There was an instance when I was explaining all about metallurgy and its difference from chemistry to her and felt it better to talk about it just as to a layman, trying my best not to tread on hi-fi technical terms.
"Is it related to inorganic chemistry?" she asked
" Oh yes it is. I didnt talk about it since I dont know whether you understand what is inorganic chemistry?" I told.
"Hello, I am a major in chemistry" she told.
Crash! I should have asked her that before talking metallurgy.
The following day I reported to the campus on the right time , infact just in time. The paper presentations had just got over.
"We are screwed." Ravan told me "there are 3 IIT teams against us. They will smash it."
"Yep,doesnt matter, ,at least we will get a participation certificate to show to our college ." I assured him
.So there we were at the All india material quiz!All teams were seated and the first round questions(mostly fundaa type,connecting type) were projected and alternately said and explained by the quiz guy who was a final year meta from their college. Both of us cracked most questions from the first round, even thought they were of the high quality andwe raced to a massive lead.
The second round was the buzzer round,which was a test of our knowledge andspeed. What helped us was most teams were buzzing and losing points in negatives, while we got 1 wrong and 4 correct. We were upto 105. The next nearest teamwas 40 points behind.
We did not score in the final round but still maintained a healthy lead of 35,winning comfortably and bagging the prize.Unbelievable it was! The teachers there, congratulated us ,so did the organising students.
The valediction ceremony was scheduled at 5.30 pm that day.Both of us went home. Had lunch and some rest.
Aththai comes along as a voracious reader.Ihad brought a novel to read during my boring bus journeys. She was at it thewhole day on Sunday and finished it off. And then talked about "those days" when they had no distractions like a TV or a computer and reading books extensively was a hobby when she was like us(senti) .But as time went by "priorities have changed in life" and there are a lot more things to do now. By late afternoon, I was on my way to IIT again. Again in the nick of time(would youbelieve it)!
Our names were called and we received our handsome loot of 1.5k ,certificates and a nice, big plate in a glass case. Cameras clicked.Since this was the first time that IIT-M was opening its symp to non-IITstudents, they asked for someone to come up and talk about it . I was asked to go up. Thanked one and all saying it was a good event. And informed them casually that our symposium "mettle"is on the 3rd and 4th of march. laughs all around. "No, I m not inviting anyone now." I said. More laughs mainly in surprise. "You will be getting a forma linvitation from our dept." I thanked the guy called richie who had replied to the "request" mail that I had sent , because of whom we were here and ultimately won the quiz. Ravan's younger brother had come too! We had a few more snaps on the DigiCam.
The nano-quiz finals were going on and subbu and his partner were staring down the barrell. They could muster just 5 points.It was tough to say the least.I came home and decided to stay the night there. Bunking one day wouldnt make a difference. The next day morning I woke up early at 7. Ajuni had left early for his tennis classes. I left home at around 10 for the bus stand. The return journey was much more comfortable though. My wing mates and friends were happy to see me ,wondering where I had been (My room is locked for 1/3rd the time even when I m there in college) .
Just yesterday I "treated" my friends in the snacky.
My work as co-editor is just about to begin and the second cycle is on its way.
As always , its a balancing act!
Regards
Vishwesh
Barely 2 days later, Ravan asked me whether I was interested in going for Amalgam. Amalgam??? "What is that?" I asked him just to confirm whether what I just heard was correct or not. Well, it turned out to be IIT-M's metallurgy symposium and a handful of the final years along with Subbu were gung-ho about going there and Ravan had known about it from them only the previous evening.
The following day myself and Ravan made our way to the Octa, bunking a lecture in the process. We logged on to the IIT-M site,with an element of uncertainity since it was the 3rd of feb that day and Amalgam was scheduled for the 4th and5th. We followed the various links right till we reached the symp site. A mammoth list of events, their description and their corresponding registration dates were given neatly and to our chagrin we found out that the last date of registration was given as 28th of Jan.
" Big deal" we thought, " As if we'll smash the event by registering ourselves." But something prompted us to send a"request" mail (laced with pleases' and thank you's) to the amalgam desk . And as expected we forgot all about it. A casual visit to the netlab a few hours later late in the evening saw a surprise spring up. They had accepted the request and said we were welcome. On contacting them by phone, we discovered that no bonafide was necessary, the college I-card was enough and all registrations were on the spot.
Travelling to chennai by private buses can be a real bargaining game, the money always seems to be double your budget, though the ride is fast and comfortable.Our sole source of refugee now were the famed Govt buses. " Get set for abumpy ride" I thought ,since ,out of the 3 of us,I m the one who boasts of a rich experience of travelling in Govt buses(the previous trip toTirupati via chennai was also a shocker of a ride).
I could make out from the expressions on the faces of Subbu and Ravan that they were feeling rather awkward and out of place (lol, It was funny, anyway). Subbu was shuffling uncomfortably in his seat (he was alone), while ravan treated himself to a long,fiesta nap, mouth open, regularly falling over me and waking me up with a start.Sleep proves to be the lone remedy for such journeys. The night passed off in a jiffy (at least for me). Subbu and ravan got off before the bus reached the central bus stand, at stops which were closer to their house. I got down at central and called up aththai(aunt). She has shifted to a brand new apartment and I just had the address and phone no. I called her up and a plethora of bus numbers, landmarks,bus stops came up with, of course, the exact name of the place ;Theynampet (Mount Road)! She then realized that she had given a little to much info for my comfort.( thank god that there was a pen and a small notepad in my wallet.)
And to make a mockery of it all, the series of bus numbers didnt help since none of them started from the central bus stand. After further enquiry, I got into a bus , slept of and got off atleast 5 stops away from my destination. The landmarks helped me while going by auto and I was there.The house sounded much bigger than their previous one.
There is one thing common to both mummy and aththai .Even after 10 years, they may look as they are. Since it was a saturday, it was supposed to be off-day for her but she said she considered it a half day's work (man, this is the height of devotion towards work I thought).The bespectacled arjun(ajuni) was busy with his work ,occasionally having something to ask about,sometimes picking the ball and blasting it against the wall with his tennis racquet, paying no heed to chithi's warnings.
The preliminary rounds were scheduled at 11.30. So after bathing,a brunch and some talk I was on my way to IIT (Guindy). It boasts of a giant-sized campus,bigger than IIT-Powai too. Shuttle buses were regualrly available and I reached the seminar hall of the Meta dept just in time.IIT'ians ,like us, have their own lingo and in contrast to our symposiums where we have to wear formals , they come in casuals. Also there is even less faculty participation than our symp.That way it stays even more cool.The quiz had just started and it was in the form of a cross-word with meta clues.Shravan was partenerless. We sat down together and teamed up to crack 25 out of 35 in the 1 hour time limit.We had no idea whther this effort was enough to get us through to the next round.Alongside us were 2 more teams from our college, teams from other NIT's,teams from IIT-M. The IIT guys said that the results would be announced at around 2.30 .
The meta dept of our college is nothing in comparison to wat they have. Their dept consists of 3 building supplemented by 5 labs.There is aAC-seminar hall for each dept. Subbu, Ravan and me had a light lunch at a restaurant at the gate and got back to the hall where the second event "math modelling" was goin on.It was a written paper. Our seniors were in it and I could see from their faces ,they regretted participating in it. A glance at the questionaire told me why.
The results were out, rather projected on the big screen. We were one of the 6 teams through and stood at the 3rd position. Not bad for a start, we thought! We were pitted against 3 IIT-M teams, the final years' team from our college and another NIT team. The final was to be held on the following day, the 5th.
In the evening there was an event called X-factor(treasure hunt with meta clues with a map of the meta dept given to us) and a guest lecture on nano-materials. Nano quiz was scheduled to start at 7 in the evening but both of us very really exhausted and made our way home. Subbu teamed up with a final year and they got through to the finals.
It takes hardly 30 minutes from home to IIT and there is a direct bus. I was just in time for dinner. Treated to good food I was (everything else sounds good if you are a mess-goer in our college). Later I was treated to some photos from Singapore on the comp and lots of talk about my dept, studies, hostel, food( thats wat most ladies love talkin about, dont they?) and stuff. Was fun talking to aththai. She found it surprising that we sleep after 12 in our hostels.There was an instance when I was explaining all about metallurgy and its difference from chemistry to her and felt it better to talk about it just as to a layman, trying my best not to tread on hi-fi technical terms.
"Is it related to inorganic chemistry?" she asked
" Oh yes it is. I didnt talk about it since I dont know whether you understand what is inorganic chemistry?" I told.
"Hello, I am a major in chemistry" she told.
Crash! I should have asked her that before talking metallurgy.
The following day I reported to the campus on the right time , infact just in time. The paper presentations had just got over.
"We are screwed." Ravan told me "there are 3 IIT teams against us. They will smash it."
"Yep,doesnt matter, ,at least we will get a participation certificate to show to our college ." I assured him
.So there we were at the All india material quiz!All teams were seated and the first round questions(mostly fundaa type,connecting type) were projected and alternately said and explained by the quiz guy who was a final year meta from their college. Both of us cracked most questions from the first round, even thought they were of the high quality andwe raced to a massive lead.
The second round was the buzzer round,which was a test of our knowledge andspeed. What helped us was most teams were buzzing and losing points in negatives, while we got 1 wrong and 4 correct. We were upto 105. The next nearest teamwas 40 points behind.
We did not score in the final round but still maintained a healthy lead of 35,winning comfortably and bagging the prize.Unbelievable it was! The teachers there, congratulated us ,so did the organising students.
The valediction ceremony was scheduled at 5.30 pm that day.Both of us went home. Had lunch and some rest.
Aththai comes along as a voracious reader.Ihad brought a novel to read during my boring bus journeys. She was at it thewhole day on Sunday and finished it off. And then talked about "those days" when they had no distractions like a TV or a computer and reading books extensively was a hobby when she was like us(senti) .But as time went by "priorities have changed in life" and there are a lot more things to do now. By late afternoon, I was on my way to IIT again. Again in the nick of time(would youbelieve it)!
Our names were called and we received our handsome loot of 1.5k ,certificates and a nice, big plate in a glass case. Cameras clicked.Since this was the first time that IIT-M was opening its symp to non-IITstudents, they asked for someone to come up and talk about it . I was asked to go up. Thanked one and all saying it was a good event. And informed them casually that our symposium "mettle"is on the 3rd and 4th of march. laughs all around. "No, I m not inviting anyone now." I said. More laughs mainly in surprise. "You will be getting a forma linvitation from our dept." I thanked the guy called richie who had replied to the "request" mail that I had sent , because of whom we were here and ultimately won the quiz. Ravan's younger brother had come too! We had a few more snaps on the DigiCam.
The nano-quiz finals were going on and subbu and his partner were staring down the barrell. They could muster just 5 points.It was tough to say the least.I came home and decided to stay the night there. Bunking one day wouldnt make a difference. The next day morning I woke up early at 7. Ajuni had left early for his tennis classes. I left home at around 10 for the bus stand. The return journey was much more comfortable though. My wing mates and friends were happy to see me ,wondering where I had been (My room is locked for 1/3rd the time even when I m there in college) .
Just yesterday I "treated" my friends in the snacky.
My work as co-editor is just about to begin and the second cycle is on its way.
As always , its a balancing act!
Regards
Vishwesh
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
"flip-flop"
He is one of THE most dynamic personalities of Diamond hostel.
He is seemingly the best thing that has ever happened to "Balls"(What say you?)
People call him a fundoo.But there is more to him than the "fundoo" image.
Sometimes you feel he is an intellectual (when he talks sense that is),sometimes you feel he is a cricket expert sitting with the elite panel of ESPN-Star sports(if you have obsereved him in the tv room),sometimes a brat (I'll come to that later) or a just a "pain".I call him the Godfather of ece dept.You will find this guy everywhere .Whether its a quiz,"Diamond" cricket, a football match in the tv room, u just name it and he is there!
His ability to piss of people so easily never ceases to amaze me.Nevertheless, he is completely unapologetic about anything he does,may it end upin success or failure.
He will treat you with utter disdain if your english does not match his shakespearan stuff.And to make matters worse his beta(a big fat nut and a complete mismatch) doesnt know much of the language.Poor fellow, had to face the music when he did not know what the hell was a "bouncer", what is the meaning of "pre-cursor",what is meant by "breaking into a cold sweat".The gruelling session continued on and on for about an hour with flip flop asking "trivia" on ...believe-it-or-not "Cold War", Its causes and blah , blah...Thats what the juniors coming to D-43 are subjected to.No, these are not quizzing or WTGW sessions but they are flip-flop ragging sessions.After the end of the session FF thundered,"What the shit? you cant even speak proper english.What are going to do for placement? I m not paying for your freshie.I havent met any of you.Is that ok with you?"
FF may bullshit 24-7.But one quality of his that really stands out is his "no-nonsense(??)" attitude. He will measure and question you on each and every word you speak("What the shit,man?", "No way, It cant be","How do you know?") .But he expects you to believe his bull without you speaking a word.If you do try to question him, be prepared to face a wild backlash.
He is a a champ at "Diamond" cricket played in the corridors,he being one of its propreitors.Since its inception a few months ago, the popularity of the sport has grown by leaps and bounds.The fact that even boxy,krama and giant have come out of the room and played the sport speaks volumes about the interest it has generated in the hostel.All becoz of the enthu shown by one man.FF!Diamond cricket runs in his blood.The shouts and incessant cries of appeal are much more pronounced when this guy is part of the game.But,if at all he is given out ,there is that loud exclamation"What the shit?", he behaves like a spoilt brat in school,throws the bat with a thud and walks out furiously.Packed with aggression and ferocity,he is an intimidating sight for any batsman.
Whenever he is around ,activity is always assured.No one can miss his outbursts in the tv room while he is watching a football match or a Grand Prix(Hello, is he really interested?).He will gun for Schumi's debacle or Fisichella's triumph even as most people read next day's newspapers for the final winner of the GP.He will bet on each n everything thing that goes on during the match("Arsenal are going to lose, SURE SHOT,I bet!").When he says such words,they remain said!Most of these bets involve his NRI roomie who is also a football-freak. A goal scored or a superb save and he is a step away from removing his shirt and "dancing in the isles".
If by chance you are watching a cricket match in the tv room, you would be better off putting it in "mute" mode and listening to Flip flop's commentary instead.You will get more than what you need on why "The pitch is not playing true to its nature" or "Why the hell is he having a deep-square leg?"
Things that really turn of this chap: Aamir Sohail-Sanjay Manjarekar commentary("What the shit,man? Who made him a commentator?"),
The tv commercials that come in between(especially the one in which the the child in the womb becomes a boy and the boy transforms into a man the next second.He calls it the "Senti" ad.)
Some of FF's very common exclamations:
"Oh, flip!"
The mother of all exclamations! As you have very rightly guessed, the name flip flop finds its origins here.Please note that the word flip is used by him in place of f**k(But now-a-days he uses the F-word very frequently thanks to the influence of his NRI roomie/s.)I first heard him say that, when he was playing Table tennis in Agate and me found it quite amusing,'coz I had not heard of anything of that sort before.Me did not know him that well then.But the way he was going Hammer-n-tongs at his opponent,led me to believe that he was a pro at it until he hit the ball wide of the board and let out a blood-curdling cry "Oh, flip?",which shook the whole of Agate.He cursed himself for the next few minutes("How can you do it man?"), tore his hair in frustration.Very very amusing, I thought.Later I had the privilege of meeting him in a "ghaati" meeting,(Thats where I came to know he was from mumbai.)Whatever the result of the match was,the TT board had to bear the brunt of his fury every time he played a wrong shot.
"What the shit?"This exclamation will be heard every alternate second if you live in his wing of Diamond hostel.Mostly an expression or dislay of disbelief.It is occasionally followed by a "Disgusting", sometimes a "Pathetic" or a "How can it be possible?"(Depending upon his mood).
For a change why not try telling him (with a very serious face) that ecedept has sundays as working days.Note his reaction!.
"We are scrrrrewwed?"(Note the stress in "screwed".)Often used when talking to the bigwigs of his dept like our very own krama.
On the whole, a very colorful and happening person to have in your midst.
Trivia:How many times have I used "What the shit?" in this mail?
Regards
Vishwesh
He is seemingly the best thing that has ever happened to "Balls"(What say you?)
People call him a fundoo.But there is more to him than the "fundoo" image.
Sometimes you feel he is an intellectual (when he talks sense that is),sometimes you feel he is a cricket expert sitting with the elite panel of ESPN-Star sports(if you have obsereved him in the tv room),sometimes a brat (I'll come to that later) or a just a "pain".I call him the Godfather of ece dept.You will find this guy everywhere .Whether its a quiz,"Diamond" cricket, a football match in the tv room, u just name it and he is there!
His ability to piss of people so easily never ceases to amaze me.Nevertheless, he is completely unapologetic about anything he does,may it end upin success or failure.
He will treat you with utter disdain if your english does not match his shakespearan stuff.And to make matters worse his beta(a big fat nut and a complete mismatch) doesnt know much of the language.Poor fellow, had to face the music when he did not know what the hell was a "bouncer", what is the meaning of "pre-cursor",what is meant by "breaking into a cold sweat".The gruelling session continued on and on for about an hour with flip flop asking "trivia" on ...believe-it-or-not "Cold War", Its causes and blah , blah...Thats what the juniors coming to D-43 are subjected to.No, these are not quizzing or WTGW sessions but they are flip-flop ragging sessions.After the end of the session FF thundered,"What the shit? you cant even speak proper english.What are going to do for placement? I m not paying for your freshie.I havent met any of you.Is that ok with you?"
FF may bullshit 24-7.But one quality of his that really stands out is his "no-nonsense(??)" attitude. He will measure and question you on each and every word you speak("What the shit,man?", "No way, It cant be","How do you know?") .But he expects you to believe his bull without you speaking a word.If you do try to question him, be prepared to face a wild backlash.
He is a a champ at "Diamond" cricket played in the corridors,he being one of its propreitors.Since its inception a few months ago, the popularity of the sport has grown by leaps and bounds.The fact that even boxy,krama and giant have come out of the room and played the sport speaks volumes about the interest it has generated in the hostel.All becoz of the enthu shown by one man.FF!Diamond cricket runs in his blood.The shouts and incessant cries of appeal are much more pronounced when this guy is part of the game.But,if at all he is given out ,there is that loud exclamation"What the shit?", he behaves like a spoilt brat in school,throws the bat with a thud and walks out furiously.Packed with aggression and ferocity,he is an intimidating sight for any batsman.
Whenever he is around ,activity is always assured.No one can miss his outbursts in the tv room while he is watching a football match or a Grand Prix(Hello, is he really interested?).He will gun for Schumi's debacle or Fisichella's triumph even as most people read next day's newspapers for the final winner of the GP.He will bet on each n everything thing that goes on during the match("Arsenal are going to lose, SURE SHOT,I bet!").When he says such words,they remain said!Most of these bets involve his NRI roomie who is also a football-freak. A goal scored or a superb save and he is a step away from removing his shirt and "dancing in the isles".
If by chance you are watching a cricket match in the tv room, you would be better off putting it in "mute" mode and listening to Flip flop's commentary instead.You will get more than what you need on why "The pitch is not playing true to its nature" or "Why the hell is he having a deep-square leg?"
Things that really turn of this chap: Aamir Sohail-Sanjay Manjarekar commentary("What the shit,man? Who made him a commentator?"),
The tv commercials that come in between(especially the one in which the the child in the womb becomes a boy and the boy transforms into a man the next second.He calls it the "Senti" ad.)
Some of FF's very common exclamations:
"Oh, flip!"
The mother of all exclamations! As you have very rightly guessed, the name flip flop finds its origins here.Please note that the word flip is used by him in place of f**k(But now-a-days he uses the F-word very frequently thanks to the influence of his NRI roomie/s.)I first heard him say that, when he was playing Table tennis in Agate and me found it quite amusing,'coz I had not heard of anything of that sort before.Me did not know him that well then.But the way he was going Hammer-n-tongs at his opponent,led me to believe that he was a pro at it until he hit the ball wide of the board and let out a blood-curdling cry "Oh, flip?",which shook the whole of Agate.He cursed himself for the next few minutes("How can you do it man?"), tore his hair in frustration.Very very amusing, I thought.Later I had the privilege of meeting him in a "ghaati" meeting,(Thats where I came to know he was from mumbai.)Whatever the result of the match was,the TT board had to bear the brunt of his fury every time he played a wrong shot.
"What the shit?"This exclamation will be heard every alternate second if you live in his wing of Diamond hostel.Mostly an expression or dislay of disbelief.It is occasionally followed by a "Disgusting", sometimes a "Pathetic" or a "How can it be possible?"(Depending upon his mood).
For a change why not try telling him (with a very serious face) that ecedept has sundays as working days.Note his reaction!.
"We are scrrrrewwed?"(Note the stress in "screwed".)Often used when talking to the bigwigs of his dept like our very own krama.
On the whole, a very colorful and happening person to have in your midst.
Trivia:How many times have I used "What the shit?" in this mail?
Regards
Vishwesh
"krama"
"He came,He talked, He studied."
Doesnt the above phrase sound familiar (to Diamond guys).Presenting to you , the most incredible thing that can ever happen to the ece dept, he is none other than the great kramaa.One mention of the name kramaa is enough to bring into your head a host of things like Pallakad,chaaat,studies,9.5,quiz,dance(?), and blah blah.....
This is the most punctual species on planet earth which goes into sleep mode as the clock strikes 11pm and gets up with a bang at 6am (even before the alarm clock starts to ring).Nightout is something which does not appear in his dictionary. He makes irritating noises while taking out the bucket from underneath his bed and awakens everyone else in his room.Its not long before he finishes his prayers and makes a trip to the mess and his back for his 30-minute study hour.This is one krama's specialities,the time between 7.30am to 8am, during which he oscillates inside the room,book in hand,trying hard to mug and force maximum stuff into his head.
1)He says" I am only reading not studying"(chaaaat)This means " I am studying now. But I dont study always"
He starts of at 8.15 sharp for 8.30 lectures,he is in charge of the first bench in class.
One unsolvable quiz or crossward or Dumb-C(His new 4-day old hobby), and the frequency of oscillations starts to increase.He bangs the table, tears his hair in frustration,curses himself,disturbes his poor roommates who have just come from class and trying to figure out why this guy is making so much noise.
The third sem performance was bad ,I heard him say many a time, my gpa is 8.88.Life ruined.Boo--hooo,what will i do. My cg is no longer above 9.5.Thats where boxy steps into the picture and they have innumerable fights on gpa's and cg's.
Come cycle test time; 2 hours prior to the exam when people are asking each other the portion for the cycle,this chap has already solved all possible papers from 2003 to 1998.If he does not get a answer to a particular question, poor guy gets absolutely tensed up and the whole ece group is at his doorstep!
2)Sometimes you will find him reading a novel 2 hours before the exam.You ask him whether he has finished everything and this is what he says
"No,I mean I have just read everything many times.This prof will screws us very badly no matter how well we have studied."
This should be read as " I have studied everything countless number of times.No matter however tough the paper is,I am prepared for it.
3)After coming from the exam ,if you ask him how did he do,this is what he says.
"I havent disscussed the answers yet. So I donno how much i got wrong or correct." ( Stupid fundaa).
It simply means" Good paper for me! Not so good for other guys!
Once in every 2 weeks he is off to the ultimate holiday destination-Pallakad!I opened his bag once when he was about to leave.It was packed with a cartload of bucks stuffed inside like sardines.
4)If you ask him why does he go so often, he is quick to reply."I go there to have fun and freak out. Life here is boring during weekends.Basically nothing new to do. (boring up your ass).
He really means this"If I stay here and study, you guys will wont let me live in peace."
krama is a bundle of endless energy.Almost everyone who comes to Diamond mess,will have seen this very fast and furious , hunchbacked figure barging into the mess with the speed which could put even a bullet train to shame.Very few people in the hostel know of one weakness krama has.It is his affinity towards buttermilk.He gulps down gallons of buttermilk and in the process empties half the huge container.He comes to the mess as regularly as anyone to a ritual.He loves mess food and will NEVER miss the b'fast,lunch and dinner.He is second only to boxy to set foot into the mess, for dinner.
5)Goes to the snacky once a month!
When asked the reason why ,this is what he said"I don't find anything wrong with the mess food.I think it is improving."
This means " Are you crazy!Spending money ,me? no chance!I am a miser. If satish anna gives food for free I will surely eat there.
Possibly one of the most weirdest creations, krama and his actions are unparalleled.He has lots of of hidden talents inside him.It was the 28th of Feb,somewhere around 8.30pm, venue was the barn!A master hypnotist had called 50-odd people onto stage and put them into trance and made them do things which they wouldnt have thought of doing if they were in their right senses.But Eureka! What do we see here?? A person in the audience section doing the bharatnatyam ,then switching over to western the next moment! It dint take me long to realise that he was krama.My heart was filled with uncontrollable emotions. After all it was my roommate!He made us really proud!It took a big event like Pragyan to showcase his hidden talents and he did that in style and in a very nonchalant way.
Regards
Vishwesh
Doesnt the above phrase sound familiar (to Diamond guys).Presenting to you , the most incredible thing that can ever happen to the ece dept, he is none other than the great kramaa.One mention of the name kramaa is enough to bring into your head a host of things like Pallakad,chaaat,studies,9.5,quiz,dance(?), and blah blah.....
This is the most punctual species on planet earth which goes into sleep mode as the clock strikes 11pm and gets up with a bang at 6am (even before the alarm clock starts to ring).Nightout is something which does not appear in his dictionary. He makes irritating noises while taking out the bucket from underneath his bed and awakens everyone else in his room.Its not long before he finishes his prayers and makes a trip to the mess and his back for his 30-minute study hour.This is one krama's specialities,the time between 7.30am to 8am, during which he oscillates inside the room,book in hand,trying hard to mug and force maximum stuff into his head.
1)He says" I am only reading not studying"(chaaaat)This means " I am studying now. But I dont study always"
He starts of at 8.15 sharp for 8.30 lectures,he is in charge of the first bench in class.
One unsolvable quiz or crossward or Dumb-C(His new 4-day old hobby), and the frequency of oscillations starts to increase.He bangs the table, tears his hair in frustration,curses himself,disturbes his poor roommates who have just come from class and trying to figure out why this guy is making so much noise.
The third sem performance was bad ,I heard him say many a time, my gpa is 8.88.Life ruined.Boo--hooo,what will i do. My cg is no longer above 9.5.Thats where boxy steps into the picture and they have innumerable fights on gpa's and cg's.
Come cycle test time; 2 hours prior to the exam when people are asking each other the portion for the cycle,this chap has already solved all possible papers from 2003 to 1998.If he does not get a answer to a particular question, poor guy gets absolutely tensed up and the whole ece group is at his doorstep!
2)Sometimes you will find him reading a novel 2 hours before the exam.You ask him whether he has finished everything and this is what he says
"No,I mean I have just read everything many times.This prof will screws us very badly no matter how well we have studied."
This should be read as " I have studied everything countless number of times.No matter however tough the paper is,I am prepared for it.
3)After coming from the exam ,if you ask him how did he do,this is what he says.
"I havent disscussed the answers yet. So I donno how much i got wrong or correct." ( Stupid fundaa).
It simply means" Good paper for me! Not so good for other guys!
Once in every 2 weeks he is off to the ultimate holiday destination-Pallakad!I opened his bag once when he was about to leave.It was packed with a cartload of bucks stuffed inside like sardines.
4)If you ask him why does he go so often, he is quick to reply."I go there to have fun and freak out. Life here is boring during weekends.Basically nothing new to do. (boring up your ass).
He really means this"If I stay here and study, you guys will wont let me live in peace."
krama is a bundle of endless energy.Almost everyone who comes to Diamond mess,will have seen this very fast and furious , hunchbacked figure barging into the mess with the speed which could put even a bullet train to shame.Very few people in the hostel know of one weakness krama has.It is his affinity towards buttermilk.He gulps down gallons of buttermilk and in the process empties half the huge container.He comes to the mess as regularly as anyone to a ritual.He loves mess food and will NEVER miss the b'fast,lunch and dinner.He is second only to boxy to set foot into the mess, for dinner.
5)Goes to the snacky once a month!
When asked the reason why ,this is what he said"I don't find anything wrong with the mess food.I think it is improving."
This means " Are you crazy!Spending money ,me? no chance!I am a miser. If satish anna gives food for free I will surely eat there.
Possibly one of the most weirdest creations, krama and his actions are unparalleled.He has lots of of hidden talents inside him.It was the 28th of Feb,somewhere around 8.30pm, venue was the barn!A master hypnotist had called 50-odd people onto stage and put them into trance and made them do things which they wouldnt have thought of doing if they were in their right senses.But Eureka! What do we see here?? A person in the audience section doing the bharatnatyam ,then switching over to western the next moment! It dint take me long to realise that he was krama.My heart was filled with uncontrollable emotions. After all it was my roommate!He made us really proud!It took a big event like Pragyan to showcase his hidden talents and he did that in style and in a very nonchalant way.
Regards
Vishwesh
"Giant"
He is one real carnivore of sorts!Normally seen prowling in diamond hostel atnighttime.Nothing can escape his wide-opened eyes.He watches and hearsattentively to the different noises.Suddenely,he has spotted his prey.It is alone,unsuspecting creature loitering in the corridors of diamond.Within no timethe predator pounces upon and grabs hold of his juicy prey and in a few minutes the helpless prey is nowhere to be found.
No, this is no "leapord-catching-deer" scene of NGC .But just a small description of the most dangerous creation on earth!That is "giant" for you!He is the big bully,gunda but the king of prod dept!He is the predator.His prey are the prod thambis.He doesnt have cannines orclaws to tear his prey to pieces(His chaat makes up for it.Believe me it is themost effective weapon.).
Unpredictable!That is one word to describe him!Unlike the others,he has no fixed time to wake up.If you try to wake him upearly,he responds with a shove or push (when he is in a half-asleep-half-awakestate).If you wake him up late,you face the music from him.So the best thing todo ,is to maintain a safe distance away from him.
The vicks bottle is to giant,what buttermilk is to krama.Every second momentyou'll see this guy poking his sharp, pinacchio type nose into the vicksbottle,he gets more depth than anyone else.That nose of his,such a prominentpart! Theysay Cleopatra wouldn't have been beautiful if it wasn't for hernose.Giant sounds very much like a bird of prey,with a pointed beak!
When it comes to mugging and cramming notes,he is a class apart.The week beforethe exam is when its worth watching this guy.Slogs it out for 14 hours with justa lunch break in between.Almost, always ends up with a headache,smears hisforehand and long nose with "amrutanjan balm", ties a towel "osama style" andand and ... starts studying again ,of course!!
He loves trying his hand at different things.Things which you wouldnt associatewith giant any day!It was australian open time.No, it was Sania mirza time!I had just come from my lab class ,dead tired,lying on my bed. Suddenely thisguy drops a bombshell
"Hey da,I am seriously thinking of playing tennis again." (oh! stop kidding ok.)
Just couldn't ,couldn't believe my ears. Especially that "again"(He said that asif hey were a "pro" for years.)!A guy, with fat bulging out from each and every part of his body, who has neverspoken about a sport called tennis for one whole sem (or his lifetime)wants tobe a champ at it.
Krama made full use of this god-given opportunity to settle scores with giant.He rebuked him by saying "So, how long will this hobby last ?"
But giant wasnt going to give up easily.He shot at krama " What do you knowabout me? I have a club near my house,where I play tennis very often."(1 doubt:where did the ponch come from?)
I was just about to burst out laughing,but controlled myself inthe nick of the time.I thought "Why not give him a chance? He sounds determined.Miracles do happen!"
For 4 full days, he ate ,drank and slept tennis.He was a regular visitor to thetennis court for the 4 days.He used to give me the description; match by match ,player by player ,their styles and blah blah...Terms liketopspin,forehand,ace(which i thought were very alien to him) were now being usedvery frequently!Then disaster struck!Sania went down fighting to Serena.She became an instanthit.But giant landed himself in deep shit. He renounced the sport(for his owngood).If you ask him why doesnt he play tennis nowadays,he'll say " why tennis?I enjoy playing cricket in diamond hostel.Its fun ,you know."
A classic example of the "grapes are sour" story!isn't it?
His latest obsession is quizzing and crossie solving(nittfest fever after tennisfever).The only difference is that now he is mugging dictionaries also!How many days will it last before it bitesthe dust, god alone knows.
Basically,another addition to the weirdo list.A guy who wants you to be happyand jolly when he is so and expectsyou to wear a sad face when things are bad for him.
Regards
Vishwesh
No, this is no "leapord-catching-deer" scene of NGC .But just a small description of the most dangerous creation on earth!That is "giant" for you!He is the big bully,gunda but the king of prod dept!He is the predator.His prey are the prod thambis.He doesnt have cannines orclaws to tear his prey to pieces(His chaat makes up for it.Believe me it is themost effective weapon.).
Unpredictable!That is one word to describe him!Unlike the others,he has no fixed time to wake up.If you try to wake him upearly,he responds with a shove or push (when he is in a half-asleep-half-awakestate).If you wake him up late,you face the music from him.So the best thing todo ,is to maintain a safe distance away from him.
The vicks bottle is to giant,what buttermilk is to krama.Every second momentyou'll see this guy poking his sharp, pinacchio type nose into the vicksbottle,he gets more depth than anyone else.That nose of his,such a prominentpart! Theysay Cleopatra wouldn't have been beautiful if it wasn't for hernose.Giant sounds very much like a bird of prey,with a pointed beak!
When it comes to mugging and cramming notes,he is a class apart.The week beforethe exam is when its worth watching this guy.Slogs it out for 14 hours with justa lunch break in between.Almost, always ends up with a headache,smears hisforehand and long nose with "amrutanjan balm", ties a towel "osama style" andand and ... starts studying again ,of course!!
He loves trying his hand at different things.Things which you wouldnt associatewith giant any day!It was australian open time.No, it was Sania mirza time!I had just come from my lab class ,dead tired,lying on my bed. Suddenely thisguy drops a bombshell
"Hey da,I am seriously thinking of playing tennis again." (oh! stop kidding ok.)
Just couldn't ,couldn't believe my ears. Especially that "again"(He said that asif hey were a "pro" for years.)!A guy, with fat bulging out from each and every part of his body, who has neverspoken about a sport called tennis for one whole sem (or his lifetime)wants tobe a champ at it.
Krama made full use of this god-given opportunity to settle scores with giant.He rebuked him by saying "So, how long will this hobby last ?"
But giant wasnt going to give up easily.He shot at krama " What do you knowabout me? I have a club near my house,where I play tennis very often."(1 doubt:where did the ponch come from?)
I was just about to burst out laughing,but controlled myself inthe nick of the time.I thought "Why not give him a chance? He sounds determined.Miracles do happen!"
For 4 full days, he ate ,drank and slept tennis.He was a regular visitor to thetennis court for the 4 days.He used to give me the description; match by match ,player by player ,their styles and blah blah...Terms liketopspin,forehand,ace(which i thought were very alien to him) were now being usedvery frequently!Then disaster struck!Sania went down fighting to Serena.She became an instanthit.But giant landed himself in deep shit. He renounced the sport(for his owngood).If you ask him why doesnt he play tennis nowadays,he'll say " why tennis?I enjoy playing cricket in diamond hostel.Its fun ,you know."
A classic example of the "grapes are sour" story!isn't it?
His latest obsession is quizzing and crossie solving(nittfest fever after tennisfever).The only difference is that now he is mugging dictionaries also!How many days will it last before it bitesthe dust, god alone knows.
Basically,another addition to the weirdo list.A guy who wants you to be happyand jolly when he is so and expectsyou to wear a sad face when things are bad for him.
Regards
Vishwesh
"Raavan"
Sometimes you feel uour roomies arn't the only gifted people on earth.As you move outta your room,you come across many people who are unique in theirown ways.
Here is one such person(Though he is not as famous or happening as my roomies).
Many of you might not know him that well.To some of you he may just be a "Hi,Hello," friend.He is sleepy faced and carries a light ponch,that along with a prominent,teddy-bear butt.Grey hair on his head is an indiaction of his wisdom.Some think he is a northie(ghati),some think he is a thambi.He himself isnt surewhich category he belongs to.Basically,a confused guy in life!
One-third of his life is spent cuddled up in his bed in Diamond-6 in totalhibernation, one third indoing R & D on Fredrick Forsyth and LOTR ;and the next one third in slogginghis ass out for his beloved club!Yes,no marks for guessing who it is. Thats Raavan for you!
Raavan's past is as glorious and eventful as the history of modern India.His highness changed 13 schools between 1st and 10th class (that includes 5schools in 5th class).Now,isnt that some achievement!He proved himself as a true prodigy,when he completed 2 C++ projects in class 10.This untill he came to Mumbai,where he did his 11th and 12th.His high flying exploits continued to impress one and all.But he was broughtdown crashing thanks to a failed love affair which reduced him to the plight ofa Devdas.(I wouldnt dare tell you the name of lady love,lest I'll get my asskicked). Anyways, But everything's changed now! Raavan gets the babes(of NIT Trichy)!
Raavan is an epitome of sincerity and regular irregularnesss.When it comes to machine design lectures ,he is a "visiting" student.But,he has cent percent attendance in Physical metallurgy and transferphenomena clases.He floods the prof with queries and doubts until the sir isexhausted.As for C++ classes,he is there in every class just for the sake of correctingthe sir whenever he has gone wrong.He almost always bunks the first (Jayaram's)lecture or comes to the class anddozes of immediately.But ,inevitably,he tops the class in ICE.A fundoo to the core, he is "the" man when it comes to OP-Amps,thermocouples,LVDT's and hi fi instrumentation devices.You name the circuit and its readybefore your eyes within minutes.He "plays" around with IC741's,transistors andpotentiometers, when ICE students struggle to differentiate between them!(earnedspecial acclaim from none other than Jayaram).
And to end it all,he is one guy who has given Subbu (metatopper) nightmares innumerable times.
Regards
Vishwesh
Here is one such person(Though he is not as famous or happening as my roomies).
Many of you might not know him that well.To some of you he may just be a "Hi,Hello," friend.He is sleepy faced and carries a light ponch,that along with a prominent,teddy-bear butt.Grey hair on his head is an indiaction of his wisdom.Some think he is a northie(ghati),some think he is a thambi.He himself isnt surewhich category he belongs to.Basically,a confused guy in life!
One-third of his life is spent cuddled up in his bed in Diamond-6 in totalhibernation, one third indoing R & D on Fredrick Forsyth and LOTR ;and the next one third in slogginghis ass out for his beloved club!Yes,no marks for guessing who it is. Thats Raavan for you!
Raavan's past is as glorious and eventful as the history of modern India.His highness changed 13 schools between 1st and 10th class (that includes 5schools in 5th class).Now,isnt that some achievement!He proved himself as a true prodigy,when he completed 2 C++ projects in class 10.This untill he came to Mumbai,where he did his 11th and 12th.His high flying exploits continued to impress one and all.But he was broughtdown crashing thanks to a failed love affair which reduced him to the plight ofa Devdas.(I wouldnt dare tell you the name of lady love,lest I'll get my asskicked). Anyways, But everything's changed now! Raavan gets the babes(of NIT Trichy)!
Raavan is an epitome of sincerity and regular irregularnesss.When it comes to machine design lectures ,he is a "visiting" student.But,he has cent percent attendance in Physical metallurgy and transferphenomena clases.He floods the prof with queries and doubts until the sir isexhausted.As for C++ classes,he is there in every class just for the sake of correctingthe sir whenever he has gone wrong.He almost always bunks the first (Jayaram's)lecture or comes to the class anddozes of immediately.But ,inevitably,he tops the class in ICE.A fundoo to the core, he is "the" man when it comes to OP-Amps,thermocouples,LVDT's and hi fi instrumentation devices.You name the circuit and its readybefore your eyes within minutes.He "plays" around with IC741's,transistors andpotentiometers, when ICE students struggle to differentiate between them!(earnedspecial acclaim from none other than Jayaram).
And to end it all,he is one guy who has given Subbu (metatopper) nightmares innumerable times.
Regards
Vishwesh
CEESAT treasure
Here are the contents of the "X" papers, before I lose them.
1. You talk, me talk, why middle talk.
2. You go your way, I my way , I will absent you.
3. In the practical class, 1 is doing and the others are "story"ing. (Literal Tamil translation).
4. I staff member inside you are talking. If out member passed away outside what he thought.
5. Dont crowd around me, i m invisible.
6. Middle of you stand.
7. How to define this light? Normally from light wat happen?
8. Due to abstractions light intensity reduced.
9. Do you want absent? Otherwise if you are not listening come to forward.
10. You can only be able to visible between 0.3 to 0.7 .
11. Last one of this is this one.
12. 40W bulb is illuminating 8 hours.
13. Light emits many directions.
14. You come to lab, do only lab.
15. Out of the 50 (students he meant) same noise, out of 20 also same noise.
16. In ordinary places Rs 40 means in cities Rs 500 means.
17. 10 windmills means requires 10 acres. So 1 windmill means requires 1 acre .
18. The land post not unstable during soil erosion.
19. In industries we are using higher machines.
20. Get out the lab if not interesting.
21. Go wash face this is not sleeping class.
22. Coming to college talking, coming to lab taaking, going to hostel talking,talking, talking, 24 hours talking.
23. R you grandfather?
1. You talk, me talk, why middle talk.
2. You go your way, I my way , I will absent you.
3. In the practical class, 1 is doing and the others are "story"ing. (Literal Tamil translation).
4. I staff member inside you are talking. If out member passed away outside what he thought.
5. Dont crowd around me, i m invisible.
6. Middle of you stand.
7. How to define this light? Normally from light wat happen?
8. Due to abstractions light intensity reduced.
9. Do you want absent? Otherwise if you are not listening come to forward.
10. You can only be able to visible between 0.3 to 0.7 .
11. Last one of this is this one.
12. 40W bulb is illuminating 8 hours.
13. Light emits many directions.
14. You come to lab, do only lab.
15. Out of the 50 (students he meant) same noise, out of 20 also same noise.
16. In ordinary places Rs 40 means in cities Rs 500 means.
17. 10 windmills means requires 10 acres. So 1 windmill means requires 1 acre .
18. The land post not unstable during soil erosion.
19. In industries we are using higher machines.
20. Get out the lab if not interesting.
21. Go wash face this is not sleeping class.
22. Coming to college talking, coming to lab taaking, going to hostel talking,talking, talking, 24 hours talking.
23. R you grandfather?
(Confused? A boy was asked a question in class. Took a whole lot of time to stand up . Hence the comment.)
24. The future it will use, now at present useless.
25. We will produce certificates also. (refers to the autoCAD course in CEESAT)
26. How do come this ethanol? Have you known or not? (Again literal Tamil translation does the trick.)
27. 5 men absent today, I have put. If you exceed limit I go my way.
28. If any staff member outside , dont make noise. Then wat be responsibility of staff member inside.
29. I put 5 or 10 absent, you only suffer.
30. Rainy season also come. Another barrier for lab class.
31. What is the input of the cow?
32. In anaerobic digestion, without using without air.
33. Automatically the bacteria growing will be fixed.
34. How to produce biogas means slurry you can keep in open atmosphere ,water is evaporated and becomes solid state.
35. Once the digestion, gas is produced.
36. In the next stage whatever remaining will be produced.
37. Another 1 identity means if the gas produced, come up.
38. 1% of waater means 1% means of cow-dung means this is right proportion.
24. The future it will use, now at present useless.
25. We will produce certificates also. (refers to the autoCAD course in CEESAT)
26. How do come this ethanol? Have you known or not? (Again literal Tamil translation does the trick.)
27. 5 men absent today, I have put. If you exceed limit I go my way.
28. If any staff member outside , dont make noise. Then wat be responsibility of staff member inside.
29. I put 5 or 10 absent, you only suffer.
30. Rainy season also come. Another barrier for lab class.
31. What is the input of the cow?
32. In anaerobic digestion, without using without air.
33. Automatically the bacteria growing will be fixed.
34. How to produce biogas means slurry you can keep in open atmosphere ,water is evaporated and becomes solid state.
35. Once the digestion, gas is produced.
36. In the next stage whatever remaining will be produced.
37. Another 1 identity means if the gas produced, come up.
38. 1% of waater means 1% means of cow-dung means this is right proportion.
39. Wat happen if I put n kg of cow-dung in biogas plant?
Any other doubt for regarding?
Regards
Vish
Any other doubt for regarding?
Regards
Vish
"Boxy"
Boxy(boxer)was my 2ny yr roomie.
He's from B'lore.In recent times times , NIT Trichy(more so Diamond hostel), has been hit by aphenomenon called boxy.It all starts at the break of dawn(it is 7.30 am),justwhen you think that creature is in bed in deep slumber,u will be startled bystrange noises ,coming from the bed.Lo and behold, the beast wakes up with a grunt,a groan and a moan.Then comes the mother of all questions " How cold isthe water da?".Any sensible mortal might just feel that he has got enoughevidence to show to people what is meant by talking in the sleep. But no boxy isn't talking in his sleep.It is his way of asking "So you guys woke up early and finished everything ,while I lie here on my stinky bed "(The use of the word "bed" here is controversial since I havent been able to figure out what that thing actually is).
You may feel that this is the end of it all.But suddenely there is noise.Oh no,its boxy belting out songs.Songs in 3 languages english,hindi and last but not the least kannada.His voice is as pure as silk and the melody is ever-existant.His innovative self comes to the fore when he sings a Hindi song,forgets thewordings halfway and "manufatcures" lyrics.
His commandments:
1)"I never speak without facts?"
This is one of boxy's most treasured and frequently used commandments and hesays it when he finds that he is being cornered by someone who knows more thanhe does and boxy does not want to admit that his knowledge on that particularsubject is "encyclopaedic".It should be interpreted like this " I dont care whether I am right or wrong.Ialways have the last word in every argument.Anything said after that is thestart of an new argument."
2)"So fast aaa?" (punch dialogue)( "fast aaa" as in "hostel aaa" ,"coming aaa" etc as the thambis get theirenglish )One very irritating punchline! Boxy arrives at the mess 5 minutes afteryou,leaves 5 minutes before you (god knows what he manages to eat in so littletime),and when you come to the room, he says his punch dialogue.Incidentally,the doors of the mess are opened by boxy at night at 6.55pm!
3)"I love tasty food". (I hav absoutely no comments on that) This commandment may have been used only a couple of times, but has made a very big impact,in the sense that it has triggered many a stupid argument in the room.
4)"You shouldnt eat too many chocolates.But You should eat chocolates duringexam time.They give more energy"(What cheap Fundaa is that, Dude?) It should be read as" I am too lazy and miserly to go to the snacky to buyeven a chocolate,but if someone offers me one, then no problem".
5)"These mosquitoes are very shameless."( the only thing i can say is "Ek macchar,saalaa ek macchhar, boxy ko _ banaadeta hai". Fill in the blanks .)This is when poor boxy is being absolutely taken apart by theblood thirsty insects ,biting in every part of the body.Once I got up atmidnight and saw boxy armed with a book in his hand ,killing mosquitoes.When I told him that it is useless to do so,he said "Never leave these mosquitoes alive. if you do not kill one , it will produce 1000 more. So kill mosquitoes right now.
Regards
Vishwesh
He's from B'lore.In recent times times , NIT Trichy(more so Diamond hostel), has been hit by aphenomenon called boxy.It all starts at the break of dawn(it is 7.30 am),justwhen you think that creature is in bed in deep slumber,u will be startled bystrange noises ,coming from the bed.Lo and behold, the beast wakes up with a grunt,a groan and a moan.Then comes the mother of all questions " How cold isthe water da?".Any sensible mortal might just feel that he has got enoughevidence to show to people what is meant by talking in the sleep. But no boxy isn't talking in his sleep.It is his way of asking "So you guys woke up early and finished everything ,while I lie here on my stinky bed "(The use of the word "bed" here is controversial since I havent been able to figure out what that thing actually is).
You may feel that this is the end of it all.But suddenely there is noise.Oh no,its boxy belting out songs.Songs in 3 languages english,hindi and last but not the least kannada.His voice is as pure as silk and the melody is ever-existant.His innovative self comes to the fore when he sings a Hindi song,forgets thewordings halfway and "manufatcures" lyrics.
His commandments:
1)"I never speak without facts?"
This is one of boxy's most treasured and frequently used commandments and hesays it when he finds that he is being cornered by someone who knows more thanhe does and boxy does not want to admit that his knowledge on that particularsubject is "encyclopaedic".It should be interpreted like this " I dont care whether I am right or wrong.Ialways have the last word in every argument.Anything said after that is thestart of an new argument."
2)"So fast aaa?" (punch dialogue)( "fast aaa" as in "hostel aaa" ,"coming aaa" etc as the thambis get theirenglish )One very irritating punchline! Boxy arrives at the mess 5 minutes afteryou,leaves 5 minutes before you (god knows what he manages to eat in so littletime),and when you come to the room, he says his punch dialogue.Incidentally,the doors of the mess are opened by boxy at night at 6.55pm!
3)"I love tasty food". (I hav absoutely no comments on that) This commandment may have been used only a couple of times, but has made a very big impact,in the sense that it has triggered many a stupid argument in the room.
4)"You shouldnt eat too many chocolates.But You should eat chocolates duringexam time.They give more energy"(What cheap Fundaa is that, Dude?) It should be read as" I am too lazy and miserly to go to the snacky to buyeven a chocolate,but if someone offers me one, then no problem".
5)"These mosquitoes are very shameless."( the only thing i can say is "Ek macchar,saalaa ek macchhar, boxy ko _ banaadeta hai". Fill in the blanks .)This is when poor boxy is being absolutely taken apart by theblood thirsty insects ,biting in every part of the body.Once I got up atmidnight and saw boxy armed with a book in his hand ,killing mosquitoes.When I told him that it is useless to do so,he said "Never leave these mosquitoes alive. if you do not kill one , it will produce 1000 more. So kill mosquitoes right now.
Regards
Vishwesh
"Meta"stable
It was my fifth sem. 8'o clock ,on a monday morning, I was still in bed. There was a knock at the door. Ireached for the door with great difficulty, still tottering under the after-effects of a marathon 10 n half hour nap (taken to celebrate the end of the 1 stcycle). It was my dept mate. " Arnt u coming for Bala Sir's (BS) llecture?" " Yah,I am." I replied with an element of half-heartedness .But not before an ideal start to the day, which for me is a brand new copy of THE Timesin my hand( I prefer calling it brand new even if it comes a day late). As usual, the total comprehensive news,colorful sports columns,excellent insidestories and international grafitti columns,news on why Cruise is getting married (as if we really cared),news about Mallika doing unmentionables in a doctored MMS clip and herphotos splashed all over the second page which would have made BT proud.
BS handled our welding lectures.Thankfully,there was a water shortage the whole day due to some pipe burstwhich ensured that all our lectures stood cancelled. The first 3 days of every week in the 5th sem were always a bit of a pain,since welding was the inaugural lecture.The wholemonotonocity of the shedule would drive us sick ,though the subject was fine . BS is a jolly man , a bit too jolly i guess. No sooner does he see you, there will be vociferous greets of "Hai daa!" and possibly a dose of BS chaat too even if you r an extra-terrestrial. Almost each day the lecture would be concluded by the now-so-famouspunch dialogue " For more on the pracesses, Please refer thehandbooks( "Handbook? Woh kya hota hai?").I m just giving u an overview". But contrary to that ,mortals like us thrive onclass notes.
The welding lab was ok with different welding processes. But the sameold welding Annas still ruled the welding bastions of the prod dept. Mind you, theywouldnt catch your hand and do the welding for u unless you had properly screwed up theweld on the first attempt and faced a sharp dressing down in Tamil. The fairer sex was always the winner , bagging 10 on 10 and eventually the S grade.
Iron and steel making and ceramics (2 seperate subjects) were taught by the "Gentleman" ( l fondly rechristened him, you wil find out why as you read on.) Gentleman always strode into the class with the air of an intellectual. He would start the class with a formal comment which is not some damn PJ u would associate with a college professor nor a rib-tickling gag but something laced in very chaste language. " Once upon a time I handled the Ceramics classfor you." A wave of giggles spread around the class as he flashed a smile."Due to time constraints,I had to "occupy" the ceramic lectures with iron n steel. But we can arrange for some extra 'slots' later." (as if to assure us that we wont be deprieved of lectures). All basic reactions and processes are "generic" in nature. The "concerned data" may notbe "necessarily memorized", but "some knowledge" of the "indicative numbers"should be provided.You are permitted into the class even if u r a few minuteslate but "extrapolation" of the time is prohibited. The class may be "sparselypopulated" but it doesnt mean that the class will be "adjourned". But In casethere is cause for the class to be adjourned causing "inconvenience" to thestudents, "the extra slots" are arranged for on the following day. The classrep is "intimated accordingly"."Suggestions on an open book test for the cyclesare welcome if a "consensus is reached" otherwise it will be a closed book test(lol, normal test).
Mech metallurgy was taught by HoD .He would bring with him his sea of stammer(aa...aa...aa aaaaah!) and set of on his lullaby- marathon with his beloved OHP projector for company,leaving the entire class flattened even before the class ended. OHP slides,lots of 30's on 30 in the cycles, cracks,stress,fatigue,failure and all theforgettable things of life constituted the subject. The subject was totally dry and if at all you were someonewilling to fall in love with it, you would have had to treat cracks like humanbeings. A chapter devoted to the birth of a crack,another on how crack growsfrom boyhood to manhood.Yet another on what is needed to nourish the crack. Thefourth one on good ones and bad ones, different sizes ,shapes... Then anumpteenth one on the last-death stage of crack and you thank god thatultimately the material has undergone failure. Whoa! its like studyingevolution and different life cycles once again!
Regards
Vishwesh
BS handled our welding lectures.Thankfully,there was a water shortage the whole day due to some pipe burstwhich ensured that all our lectures stood cancelled. The first 3 days of every week in the 5th sem were always a bit of a pain,since welding was the inaugural lecture.The wholemonotonocity of the shedule would drive us sick ,though the subject was fine . BS is a jolly man , a bit too jolly i guess. No sooner does he see you, there will be vociferous greets of "Hai daa!" and possibly a dose of BS chaat too even if you r an extra-terrestrial. Almost each day the lecture would be concluded by the now-so-famouspunch dialogue " For more on the pracesses, Please refer thehandbooks( "Handbook? Woh kya hota hai?").I m just giving u an overview". But contrary to that ,mortals like us thrive onclass notes.
The welding lab was ok with different welding processes. But the sameold welding Annas still ruled the welding bastions of the prod dept. Mind you, theywouldnt catch your hand and do the welding for u unless you had properly screwed up theweld on the first attempt and faced a sharp dressing down in Tamil. The fairer sex was always the winner , bagging 10 on 10 and eventually the S grade.
Iron and steel making and ceramics (2 seperate subjects) were taught by the "Gentleman" ( l fondly rechristened him, you wil find out why as you read on.) Gentleman always strode into the class with the air of an intellectual. He would start the class with a formal comment which is not some damn PJ u would associate with a college professor nor a rib-tickling gag but something laced in very chaste language. " Once upon a time I handled the Ceramics classfor you." A wave of giggles spread around the class as he flashed a smile."Due to time constraints,I had to "occupy" the ceramic lectures with iron n steel. But we can arrange for some extra 'slots' later." (as if to assure us that we wont be deprieved of lectures). All basic reactions and processes are "generic" in nature. The "concerned data" may notbe "necessarily memorized", but "some knowledge" of the "indicative numbers"should be provided.You are permitted into the class even if u r a few minuteslate but "extrapolation" of the time is prohibited. The class may be "sparselypopulated" but it doesnt mean that the class will be "adjourned". But In casethere is cause for the class to be adjourned causing "inconvenience" to thestudents, "the extra slots" are arranged for on the following day. The classrep is "intimated accordingly"."Suggestions on an open book test for the cyclesare welcome if a "consensus is reached" otherwise it will be a closed book test(lol, normal test).
Mech metallurgy was taught by HoD .He would bring with him his sea of stammer(aa...aa...aa aaaaah!) and set of on his lullaby- marathon with his beloved OHP projector for company,leaving the entire class flattened even before the class ended. OHP slides,lots of 30's on 30 in the cycles, cracks,stress,fatigue,failure and all theforgettable things of life constituted the subject. The subject was totally dry and if at all you were someonewilling to fall in love with it, you would have had to treat cracks like humanbeings. A chapter devoted to the birth of a crack,another on how crack growsfrom boyhood to manhood.Yet another on what is needed to nourish the crack. Thefourth one on good ones and bad ones, different sizes ,shapes... Then anumpteenth one on the last-death stage of crack and you thank god thatultimately the material has undergone failure. Whoa! its like studyingevolution and different life cycles once again!
Regards
Vishwesh
Nesting in the algo-rythms of the flutist!
Pearl Hostel is rich in variety to say the least. Not just is it a hostel to all us guys but italso serves as a much loved abode and a favourite defecating ground for wandering cattleherds and the diverse wildlife of NIT Trichy. The belief that you are the lone resident of the room is just an illusion ,'coz it may already be home to someone else .No one knows this better than algo. . Nesting loops is childs play for this celebrated "softy" fundoo and web team guy, But nesting an unknown visitorin his room was something which he wouldnt have expected.
Algo is an enigma in himself. Many a time we are forced to believe that he is a resident ofour wing , rather room 37. We just have to imagine he is there. His room is awell arranged stack room I should say. It stays locked most part of the time,occasionally privileged enough to see him ,maybe just for sleeping ,during thecycles or sem.Most of his time is spent holidaying in Delhi. It was no wonder thatsomeone had observed all this for one whole sem.This creature obviously had wanted to pounceon the slightest of opportunities to make algo's room her home sweet home.
During the fifth sem, algo had become a pied piper of sorts . He wielded the flute with the skill of a pro. His orchestral performance with the flute notonly brought the guys flocking to his room, but there was his secret "admirer" who would occasionally peek in through the window.She loved everything he did. She now made up her mind that if she was to find aroom, algo would be her beloved room mate. Now ,you you must be dead curiousto know who is the "She" I have been referringto all this while. Well, nothing honey, just a goddamn squirrel looking for a nesting location !
Now it so happened that after the sem exams, algo had folded up a bed sheet inhaste and left it in his room.He made sure everything was in place beforelocking the room but committed the cardinal sin of leaving his room windowsopen. His "guest" smelt this as the "now-or-never" god given opportunity to make it her room..It didnt take long for nesting ground to transform to breeding ground. What better than the rolled bed sheet of algo! After a couple of days she had 2 small,cuddly soft, kids, pinkish in colour. Now mummy had the whole room for herself n her children.She had become part n parcel of Pearl.
One fine day, algo realized that its time he came back to college. He quietly unlocked thedoor. Everything was in place. Nice! he thought. The drama was yet to unfold. He found that he had not keptthe bed sheet in place while leaving the room. Just as he picked it up in its crumpled form, the 2babies popped out of it. Algo was mighty terrified to death as if they were hand-grenades . Not knowing whatto do ,he tried to figure out wat the animal was, in the process alerting each n every soul in the wing.
By that time a large crowd had gathered at 37.One of them reasoned out that it was a pup,some more mammal names came up. Awise guy rightly pointed out that it was a baby squirrel. The time was sufficient for mummy whohad realized that the room was no longer safe for her survival to rescue herkids by pouching them in her mouth and depositing them to a safer place. Algo was the talk of the town after the incident.
His room was given the muchcoveted title of "Zoo". That has not prevented algo from being a visitorin his own room.
Regards
Vishwesh
Algo is an enigma in himself. Many a time we are forced to believe that he is a resident ofour wing , rather room 37. We just have to imagine he is there. His room is awell arranged stack room I should say. It stays locked most part of the time,occasionally privileged enough to see him ,maybe just for sleeping ,during thecycles or sem.Most of his time is spent holidaying in Delhi. It was no wonder thatsomeone had observed all this for one whole sem.This creature obviously had wanted to pounceon the slightest of opportunities to make algo's room her home sweet home.
During the fifth sem, algo had become a pied piper of sorts . He wielded the flute with the skill of a pro. His orchestral performance with the flute notonly brought the guys flocking to his room, but there was his secret "admirer" who would occasionally peek in through the window.She loved everything he did. She now made up her mind that if she was to find aroom, algo would be her beloved room mate. Now ,you you must be dead curiousto know who is the "She" I have been referringto all this while. Well, nothing honey, just a goddamn squirrel looking for a nesting location !
Now it so happened that after the sem exams, algo had folded up a bed sheet inhaste and left it in his room.He made sure everything was in place beforelocking the room but committed the cardinal sin of leaving his room windowsopen. His "guest" smelt this as the "now-or-never" god given opportunity to make it her room..It didnt take long for nesting ground to transform to breeding ground. What better than the rolled bed sheet of algo! After a couple of days she had 2 small,cuddly soft, kids, pinkish in colour. Now mummy had the whole room for herself n her children.She had become part n parcel of Pearl.
One fine day, algo realized that its time he came back to college. He quietly unlocked thedoor. Everything was in place. Nice! he thought. The drama was yet to unfold. He found that he had not keptthe bed sheet in place while leaving the room. Just as he picked it up in its crumpled form, the 2babies popped out of it. Algo was mighty terrified to death as if they were hand-grenades . Not knowing whatto do ,he tried to figure out wat the animal was, in the process alerting each n every soul in the wing.
By that time a large crowd had gathered at 37.One of them reasoned out that it was a pup,some more mammal names came up. Awise guy rightly pointed out that it was a baby squirrel. The time was sufficient for mummy whohad realized that the room was no longer safe for her survival to rescue herkids by pouching them in her mouth and depositing them to a safer place. Algo was the talk of the town after the incident.
His room was given the muchcoveted title of "Zoo". That has not prevented algo from being a visitorin his own room.
Regards
Vishwesh
kaly-culation
kaly is the self acknowledged man of the masses. Heads bow down in unison, caps come off and people are off their seats as he ploughs his way through the crowds.The very mention of his name leaves his foes gasping. With each sem his popularity is on the rise; so much so that numerous titles have been conferred upon him by the "Pearl"ites.Here are some of them.
A word of caution though:Please read it at your own risk!
.kaly- meaning the invincible, needs no introduction
.proxy-kaly - The first n foremost title given to him by his G-section mates. At the start of the sem, his prowess wasnt known to many, until he set of on his fearless proxy spree , breaking all records. A class of 30 odd would be made to look like 60, if kaly was part of it.This was the first n foremost step in what would go on to become a glorious chapter.
kraanti-kaly - derived from the word " kraantiKaari" which means revolutionary in Hindi. His transformation of the G-mess from a messy, menu-poor kitchen to the most sought after eating joint in the NITT campus was nothing short of a revolution. He singlehandedly wiped out the entire mess committee, concentrated the rein of power in his hands, enforced his laws, reinforced the menu, threw out the northies dining in his mess, thus making it the most powerful mess on the NITT map. His Nazist attitude won him accolades from all quarters.
Ghaati-kaly- The only ghaati(mumbaikar) whom we know is kaly. His love for the city brought him to mumbai from miles away to do something which he called "a project". Since then he has made it big here. He owes everything to this city whose "salt he has eaten." He knows each n every gully n corner of the city with perfection.
Don Kalyan (D or Nayagan) - As in Don Corleone of "Godfather" fame. Another fiery,feared and brutal avataar of kaly. Also known to many as D. The head-honcho of the Dgang(lol), the most powerful gang in town. His operations spread all over the city. A simple nod of the head or a flip of the finger could spell doom for thousands and strike terror in the hearts of his enemies.He uses his force smartly with great skill n tact. He is a robin hood of sorts who cannot stand poverty or crime against people especially those coming to him for help. No one coming to him goes disappointed .
Bob-kaly- The wackier n party cool version of kaly. He is found in an attire consisting of Tirupur jeans n "No body "(??) T-shirt. Brimming with enthu n energy,he is the role model for the modern youth. Loves living life to the fullest.
Cat-kaly - For fighting a cat out of his room
DBKS- Acronym for DataBase KalyanaSundaram. he is the new buzzword in the "softy" circles. Knows the insides n outsides of everything in comps ,right till the last molecule. Writes a humoungous number of codes such that the computer comes to life n starts talking. He has a hand in every project till now and has published numerous papers. Currently got his hands full ,downloading Visual Basic from the net.
Kalyanasundaram or Kalyan - meaning marriage (also the name of a railway station near mumbai). A laid back character who is married to destiny. Inmate of room 38, Pearl hostel. He is a member of the renowned meta department and the co-treasurer of Mettle. His achievements inclde being a member of the snacks committee in mettle , disciplinary member in festember and treasurer of mettle.
regards
Vishwesh
A word of caution though:Please read it at your own risk!
.kaly- meaning the invincible, needs no introduction
.proxy-kaly - The first n foremost title given to him by his G-section mates. At the start of the sem, his prowess wasnt known to many, until he set of on his fearless proxy spree , breaking all records. A class of 30 odd would be made to look like 60, if kaly was part of it.This was the first n foremost step in what would go on to become a glorious chapter.
kraanti-kaly - derived from the word " kraantiKaari" which means revolutionary in Hindi. His transformation of the G-mess from a messy, menu-poor kitchen to the most sought after eating joint in the NITT campus was nothing short of a revolution. He singlehandedly wiped out the entire mess committee, concentrated the rein of power in his hands, enforced his laws, reinforced the menu, threw out the northies dining in his mess, thus making it the most powerful mess on the NITT map. His Nazist attitude won him accolades from all quarters.
Ghaati-kaly- The only ghaati(mumbaikar) whom we know is kaly. His love for the city brought him to mumbai from miles away to do something which he called "a project". Since then he has made it big here. He owes everything to this city whose "salt he has eaten." He knows each n every gully n corner of the city with perfection.
Don Kalyan (D or Nayagan) - As in Don Corleone of "Godfather" fame. Another fiery,feared and brutal avataar of kaly. Also known to many as D. The head-honcho of the Dgang(lol), the most powerful gang in town. His operations spread all over the city. A simple nod of the head or a flip of the finger could spell doom for thousands and strike terror in the hearts of his enemies.He uses his force smartly with great skill n tact. He is a robin hood of sorts who cannot stand poverty or crime against people especially those coming to him for help. No one coming to him goes disappointed .
Bob-kaly- The wackier n party cool version of kaly. He is found in an attire consisting of Tirupur jeans n "No body "(??) T-shirt. Brimming with enthu n energy,he is the role model for the modern youth. Loves living life to the fullest.
Cat-kaly - For fighting a cat out of his room
DBKS- Acronym for DataBase KalyanaSundaram. he is the new buzzword in the "softy" circles. Knows the insides n outsides of everything in comps ,right till the last molecule. Writes a humoungous number of codes such that the computer comes to life n starts talking. He has a hand in every project till now and has published numerous papers. Currently got his hands full ,downloading Visual Basic from the net.
Kalyanasundaram or Kalyan - meaning marriage (also the name of a railway station near mumbai). A laid back character who is married to destiny. Inmate of room 38, Pearl hostel. He is a member of the renowned meta department and the co-treasurer of Mettle. His achievements inclde being a member of the snacks committee in mettle , disciplinary member in festember and treasurer of mettle.
regards
Vishwesh
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