I had heard about AIESEC about 3-4 months back when they first conducted a recruitment drive for first years.. But i couldn't attend it due to my Appendicitis Operation :(... I guess God wants me to be part of this sort-after organization! It seems AIESEC IITKGP is on an expansion mode and wants more members! Hence, there was a Internship cum Recruitment Seminar on Feb 3. The way they presented themselves immediately moved me.. It was obvious that they were proud to represent one of the best T-schools in the world and be a part of its growth here..! What i found most striking was that even though they were all students who conducted it, they were professional too!!
In the seminar, there were foreigners who had come to Kharagpur to do their internship. There were Philippe and Sandra(from Mexico) doing their project on the "Go Green" project (ya, they're basically saving the planet with their work!) and then there were Vanessa(from Brazil) and Lucia working in Barnmale(a NGO based in Kharagpur and working towards awareness of HIV/AIDS). It was inspiring to hear them talk about how different their culture is from ours and how they are enjoying!
Then there were videos of guys n gals who had already attended internships offered by AIESEC. Later on, Shubhanshu Mishra and Sachin (Local Committee President, btw) started talking about the various benefits of joining AIESEC. In short, I was mesmerized by the plethora of experience opportunities that they were providing. The internships they offered were also varied. It wasn't limited to technical matters either! Even though I had told a lot of my relatives that I would be coming to my hometown this summer, I was literally brainwashed into trying for a development traineeship and being an AIESECer! I, of course, applied for the interview and group discussion that was to be held the next day.
The next day, at about 2030, they registered our names and I waited for my chance at the group discussion. They were calling us three-by-three. It was only because there were a lot of familiar faces at the waiting room that I didn't go mad with excitement! At the group discussion, we were asked questions I wouldn't have expected at all! I mean how am I supposed to know, why they made their logo so?! But the concept was nice... Normal people become individuals and emerge from the crowd when they are through AIESEC. (check out the logo here!!)
Overall, I had a great experience. And yes, I did get selected! YAHOOOOO!!!!!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
I LOVE 2010! - (part 1)
Yup, work at deco team, SF was grueling. BUT, who cares??! The amt. of fun we had drawing, painting and cutting thermocol(that IS the spelling, right?) was unparalleled!! The best part was using the fevicol to stick up whatever that came into our hands... There wasn't a single day that I didn't go back without a load of fevicol in my hands! At the end of everything, we had to carry our stuff all the way from the gymkhana to the arena (near Comp. Sc. Dept. - that's almost half a km ppl!). Couldn't be helped.. After all, we stuck most of the stuff onto thermocol! The kshitij deco team had it easier, their arena was near vikramshila and they did the work there!
Anyway, on the eve of the SF, we were poised for night-out. We hadn’t finished arranging the arena. There were a hell lot of stuff lying around and we were wondering where to put them… Then comes ….. …. Abhirajika! Our one and only, Jika to save the day and boss us around!! We were 3 first years (initial strength = 30 odd.. they just disappeared one-by-one citing one reason or the other) and a load of 2nd years (who by the way were in-charge) left to stick up the caricatures onto the charts (again, we had to make them). Jika, her antics and her fights with others, were our only form of entertainment (if u r reading this, please don’t kill me and ‘thank you!’).
By morning, most of the stuff was done. We just had to put up some boards. We came after our morning classes (ya, we still had classes… I lost count as to how many times we cursed the Profs that day!) and labs (I bunked one.. attendance will be a big criteria for grades.. I heard later... Bugger).
My volunteer work was in Netaji Auditorium. For those who were not in Jnan Ghosh or Netaji OR the photography team > LOSERS! The inauguration itself started in Netaji. The main attractions were Centrifuge (the dance competition), Two for a Tango (yes, as the name suggests any two ppl could dance to glory) and Sargam (the eastern band competition). I made a lot of friends… the type I can keep for life! The work was minimal too. I was, for the most part, the waiter boy (got drinks and stuff for the judges). Before you scoff at me (I know you already have), I got to have a hell lot of stuff free! That is, because the judges didn’t feel like eating them (for the authorities ;) ).
SF, in a word, simply rocked. We did have minor setbacks with Skid Row backing out due to an accident and Jal quitting at the last mo’. Instead we (doesn’t include me of course.. all accolades to the organizing team) called Preetam, who was kind enough to accept.. Turns out it would have been a better idea if he was coming in the first place!! The crowd enjoyed him and his group. Some other good stuff that happened were the Hasya Kavi Sammelan (HKS!), Dance floor (Perpz) and Drama (Thespianage – we had some great plays).
Anyway, on the eve of the SF, we were poised for night-out. We hadn’t finished arranging the arena. There were a hell lot of stuff lying around and we were wondering where to put them… Then comes …..
By morning, most of the stuff was done. We just had to put up some boards. We came after our morning classes (ya, we still had classes… I lost count as to how many times we cursed the Profs that day!) and labs (I bunked one.. attendance will be a big criteria for grades.. I heard later... Bugger).
My volunteer work was in Netaji Auditorium. For those who were not in Jnan Ghosh or Netaji OR the photography team > LOSERS! The inauguration itself started in Netaji. The main attractions were Centrifuge (the dance competition), Two for a Tango (yes, as the name suggests any two ppl could dance to glory) and Sargam (the eastern band competition). I made a lot of friends… the type I can keep for life! The work was minimal too. I was, for the most part, the waiter boy (got drinks and stuff for the judges). Before you scoff at me (I know you already have), I got to have a hell lot of stuff free! That is, because the judges didn’t feel like eating them (for the authorities ;) ).
SF, in a word, simply rocked. We did have minor setbacks with Skid Row backing out due to an accident and Jal quitting at the last mo’. Instead we (doesn’t include me of course.. all accolades to the organizing team) called Preetam, who was kind enough to accept.. Turns out it would have been a better idea if he was coming in the first place!! The crowd enjoyed him and his group. Some other good stuff that happened were the Hasya Kavi Sammelan (HKS!), Dance floor (Perpz) and Drama (Thespianage – we had some great plays).
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
heyy! (ya, hi is not my usual way of greeting ppl)
Sorry for keeping you waiting for the next entry in my blog (I hope enough of you WERE actually waiting). I have been quite a busy chap with the end-sems and the holz thereafter.. Of course the holz can’t be wasted for trivial stuff like blogging. I have to sit around and do nothing which is much more important 'cause I almost never get to do it. ;)
So ya, I have been putting off. Here's what happened in the last month or so.
Well, NCC was almost exactly as I expected. The instructors gave us physical training with breaks from 0600 – 1800. Of course, there were a thousand and one complaints from the 400 odd guys who camped there but I would say the camp went quite smoothly. One big disappointment was that they didn’t give us shooting training after all the promises. It was one of the only things I was looking forward to… Even so, it was good that I got selected to be the leader of my flight (a group of 30 odd air cadets) and later on, into the Guard of Honor (supposedly the best marchers – YO!). The Guard of Honor guy made us train real hard because we were the ones, the chief guest (some military guy, ‘course) and it soon got nicknames like “g**nd of honor” and the “guard of honor without the honor”. The second name was because we never got the guns that we were supposed to hold when the guy came… So it was a big bummer when he announced it after all the training… I swear I would seriously have kicked his ass if he was our age!!! Anyway, it made us realize the importance of all the facilities we are getting! Most of the guys in the camp were complaining about why they had to go through the camp! There actually was a session on the need for NCC camp in IIT Kharagpur! I mean, why debate it when you are already in the camp!!! If you are about to embark on it and if something IS going to be done about it, THEN its fine. ;)
I liked the food there though. It was prepared by a cook in the camp itself… bathing was in open air which made us realize why gals weren’t there. Toilet was actually half a kilometer away. So if you wanted to use it and not wait for it, you had to go at 0530 in the freezing cold with cold water. The best part was washing our hands in the cold water. It went numb every time I tried. Without fail!
But it was all worth it 'cause the feeling we got after the camp was over was just priceless!! I remembered the saying our yes+ course teacher told us... "Without experiencing sadness, no one can experience the joy of happiness!" We wouldn't know what hit us!!!
Then came the much awaited holidays!!! YEEEAAAHOOO!!! Some guys booked their tickets for an hour after they were released!! Was fun to watch them running and packing stuff up!! I went two days later to Kolkata and then to Abu Dhabi via Dubai using Emirates Airlines. The flight was great. When i first came across individual screens for each passenger, I was shocked that they provide them!! It was on the first flight to Bangalore that I first saw it. I wanted to make my brother jealous and went and told him the first thing I got there. (CRAP!) That's when I learnt that it was getting quite common.
The holidays were good. I got to see my parents and bro (of course) and a few friends. Raunaq (an 80-kg giant and a friend) suddenly about 10 - 15 kg after spending just a few months at hostel!! Then as in all holidays, I got to spend all the time playing and watching movies. I didn't spend as much time e-socializing as I normally would if I was in college. The worst habit I got out of the vacation was a game called ... wait for it... Pokemon. Ya, the child game. Anyone remember it being a hit about a decade back? I donno why. I just couldn't stop playing the dumb game!!! Then of course, mom and dad wouldn’t leave me without new clothes. Got a new mob (nokia 6700 - ya guys, be jealous) and an exchange for my old lappy.
But the holz were soon over... Back to the best t-school in the country (yo kgp - it was voted for the third consecutive time). Back to staying up till 3 in the night watching movies. Back to goofing around! At least that's what I thought. Turns out kgp had different plans for me. I will be staying awake till 3 but only because I got selected in an interview at last!! (Volunteer and Decoration team member of the socio-cultural fest of IIT Kharagpur) YEEESSS!!! So now, no time to goof around with half an hr of studies everyday, 10 - 3 of deco team work, yes+ work and eating and sleeping! Actually I am just coming back from the initial briefing for deco team. Starting tomorrow, I am really busy guys!! So chow for now! Take Care!
So ya, I have been putting off. Here's what happened in the last month or so.
Well, NCC was almost exactly as I expected. The instructors gave us physical training with breaks from 0600 – 1800. Of course, there were a thousand and one complaints from the 400 odd guys who camped there but I would say the camp went quite smoothly. One big disappointment was that they didn’t give us shooting training after all the promises. It was one of the only things I was looking forward to… Even so, it was good that I got selected to be the leader of my flight (a group of 30 odd air cadets) and later on, into the Guard of Honor (supposedly the best marchers – YO!). The Guard of Honor guy made us train real hard because we were the ones, the chief guest (some military guy, ‘course) and it soon got nicknames like “g**nd of honor” and the “guard of honor without the honor”. The second name was because we never got the guns that we were supposed to hold when the guy came… So it was a big bummer when he announced it after all the training… I swear I would seriously have kicked his ass if he was our age!!! Anyway, it made us realize the importance of all the facilities we are getting! Most of the guys in the camp were complaining about why they had to go through the camp! There actually was a session on the need for NCC camp in IIT Kharagpur! I mean, why debate it when you are already in the camp!!! If you are about to embark on it and if something IS going to be done about it, THEN its fine. ;)
I liked the food there though. It was prepared by a cook in the camp itself… bathing was in open air which made us realize why gals weren’t there. Toilet was actually half a kilometer away. So if you wanted to use it and not wait for it, you had to go at 0530 in the freezing cold with cold water. The best part was washing our hands in the cold water. It went numb every time I tried. Without fail!
But it was all worth it 'cause the feeling we got after the camp was over was just priceless!! I remembered the saying our yes+ course teacher told us... "Without experiencing sadness, no one can experience the joy of happiness!" We wouldn't know what hit us!!!
Then came the much awaited holidays!!! YEEEAAAHOOO!!! Some guys booked their tickets for an hour after they were released!! Was fun to watch them running and packing stuff up!! I went two days later to Kolkata and then to Abu Dhabi via Dubai using Emirates Airlines. The flight was great. When i first came across individual screens for each passenger, I was shocked that they provide them!! It was on the first flight to Bangalore that I first saw it. I wanted to make my brother jealous and went and told him the first thing I got there. (CRAP!) That's when I learnt that it was getting quite common.
The holidays were good. I got to see my parents and bro (of course) and a few friends. Raunaq (an 80-kg giant and a friend) suddenly about 10 - 15 kg after spending just a few months at hostel!! Then as in all holidays, I got to spend all the time playing and watching movies. I didn't spend as much time e-socializing as I normally would if I was in college. The worst habit I got out of the vacation was a game called ... wait for it... Pokemon. Ya, the child game. Anyone remember it being a hit about a decade back? I donno why. I just couldn't stop playing the dumb game!!! Then of course, mom and dad wouldn’t leave me without new clothes. Got a new mob (nokia 6700 - ya guys, be jealous) and an exchange for my old lappy.
But the holz were soon over... Back to the best t-school in the country (yo kgp - it was voted for the third consecutive time). Back to staying up till 3 in the night watching movies. Back to goofing around! At least that's what I thought. Turns out kgp had different plans for me. I will be staying awake till 3 but only because I got selected in an interview at last!! (Volunteer and Decoration team member of the socio-cultural fest of IIT Kharagpur) YEEESSS!!! So now, no time to goof around with half an hr of studies everyday, 10 - 3 of deco team work, yes+ work and eating and sleeping! Actually I am just coming back from the initial briefing for deco team. Starting tomorrow, I am really busy guys!! So chow for now! Take Care!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Exams Galore
At last I got a reprieve to write something in my blog! The last 3 days were directly from hell. I had a PDS lab test (ok.. not exactly hell there) followed by Engg Drawing and Math, the next day and Phy lab test (purely hell) today. I still got phy test day after... but then again its day after. (I'm sure its pretty much this attitude of mine that made hell - ya i DO know it but it takes a lot to implement it)
Anyhow, the world wide web doesn't need to know the procrastination of a teen - its just too common! Ok where was I?? Well, I don't seem to remember much of what I have not told about earlier but if I do remember I'll tell along the way! Now, almost everyone's in exam fever.. I said almost cuz i know i am not! We were playing badminton just a few minutes back. Its weird really... Exams are one thing that brings all IITians together. Boys love it greatly cuz they get a genuine reason to talk to gals and gals love it cuz they don't have to show off anymore to get boys attention! ;) Ok jokes apart, it really makes more than half the students more social partly cuz they like telling each other who has studied the least and appear cool, partly cuz they really haven't studied anything and feel it would be good to have the company of those who are like him/herself, and also partly cuz they know that socialising is wasting time and time ain't precious... (ya i know.. i am going lame - must be the subconscious tension of exams - if you meet me now you wouldn't find a livelier person!!)
Speaking of gals, did i tell you that this place is a heaven for them?? The ratio's like 1:20... Really frustrating for me. I was thinking of having some fun after coming here.. I guess I'll just have to wait till the despos try their luck. ;) But anyway its good to have them as friends. They are usually very helpful. USUALLY - mind you. There's this gal in my section who only thinks of her.. She haven't got any friends either. I mean its just the first 3-4 months and basically everyone's your friend at the moment - how DID she manage to alienate herself so fast?? If she was a maggu, I would have understood but she ain't getting the top marks either! phew.. An exact opposite to her and one of her only 'friends' is this hyperactive (in a good way) and friendly gal! But she ain't so good in pds.. I would have been happy to help but she isn't asking much after the first time. Ya I DID try to teach two gals, programming. Was fun in a way. But this other gal wasn't really interested in learning! ;) Ok that's too much already.. If you wanna know more, contact me. I got elders listening on to this blog!
The internet is soooooo helpful to keep in touch. The best thing i like about it is the social websites. FB, twitter and orkut are everyday activities already. Having internet and lan connection directly to the room had to lead to this. But i don't regret this. I don't think i would have got in touch with my old pal Ashutosh any way else. He's in Toronto now and we just got in touch after SIX YEARS!! We were best friends for six years before that!! I do blame myself for not continuing contact then but i was also an idiot then and a gr8 maggu. The biggest lesson I have learnt in life is that without friends, life is hell. You have to shut your mouth and that is something i have learnt to live without. I give the credit of that to my two years in Bangalore. My friends Saketh, Suhail and Mohsin taught me that studying isn't everything. If it wasn't for Saketh's constant bickering about the system (i miss what he did best - shout at the principal), and Suhail's and Mohsin's indifference, I wouldn't be the super - active guy i am now. But i am digressing off the main topic.. Oh by the way my efforts to publicise my blog are slowly paying off.. Thank you twitter, fb, gtalk, linkedin and wherever else i have mentioned my blog!! (i have already started forgetting!)
Well back to classes.. So the first sem is about to reach its close by next week... The highlights have been PDS and Mechanics. I would really miss PDS.. I am thinking of using the video library available over the lan to continue studying programming and web designing. I am guessing we will continue with mechanics in the second yr - so not so sad abt that.. it IS really interesting. Math could have been interesting in the hands of a gud prof but i guess i just havta mug it up along with physics.. Physics is even worse actually.. I mite even have a backlog in it if i dont study. The tv shows and movies over dc are just too overpowering in attractiveness!! :D Don't worry i am not about to fail! (that's what everyone says around here but many do fail the first exams)
That's all for now. I'll probably give you good news after the exams which get over on 26th. I got NCC camp after that.. Did i tell you about ncc?? oh well.. later! a bientot!
Anyhow, the world wide web doesn't need to know the procrastination of a teen - its just too common! Ok where was I?? Well, I don't seem to remember much of what I have not told about earlier but if I do remember I'll tell along the way! Now, almost everyone's in exam fever.. I said almost cuz i know i am not! We were playing badminton just a few minutes back. Its weird really... Exams are one thing that brings all IITians together. Boys love it greatly cuz they get a genuine reason to talk to gals and gals love it cuz they don't have to show off anymore to get boys attention! ;) Ok jokes apart, it really makes more than half the students more social partly cuz they like telling each other who has studied the least and appear cool, partly cuz they really haven't studied anything and feel it would be good to have the company of those who are like him/herself, and also partly cuz they know that socialising is wasting time and time ain't precious... (ya i know.. i am going lame - must be the subconscious tension of exams - if you meet me now you wouldn't find a livelier person!!)
Speaking of gals, did i tell you that this place is a heaven for them?? The ratio's like 1:20... Really frustrating for me. I was thinking of having some fun after coming here.. I guess I'll just have to wait till the despos try their luck. ;) But anyway its good to have them as friends. They are usually very helpful. USUALLY - mind you. There's this gal in my section who only thinks of her.. She haven't got any friends either. I mean its just the first 3-4 months and basically everyone's your friend at the moment - how DID she manage to alienate herself so fast?? If she was a maggu, I would have understood but she ain't getting the top marks either! phew.. An exact opposite to her and one of her only 'friends' is this hyperactive (in a good way) and friendly gal! But she ain't so good in pds.. I would have been happy to help but she isn't asking much after the first time. Ya I DID try to teach two gals, programming. Was fun in a way. But this other gal wasn't really interested in learning! ;) Ok that's too much already.. If you wanna know more, contact me. I got elders listening on to this blog!
The internet is soooooo helpful to keep in touch. The best thing i like about it is the social websites. FB, twitter and orkut are everyday activities already. Having internet and lan connection directly to the room had to lead to this. But i don't regret this. I don't think i would have got in touch with my old pal Ashutosh any way else. He's in Toronto now and we just got in touch after SIX YEARS!! We were best friends for six years before that!! I do blame myself for not continuing contact then but i was also an idiot then and a gr8 maggu. The biggest lesson I have learnt in life is that without friends, life is hell. You have to shut your mouth and that is something i have learnt to live without. I give the credit of that to my two years in Bangalore. My friends Saketh, Suhail and Mohsin taught me that studying isn't everything. If it wasn't for Saketh's constant bickering about the system (i miss what he did best - shout at the principal), and Suhail's and Mohsin's indifference, I wouldn't be the super - active guy i am now. But i am digressing off the main topic.. Oh by the way my efforts to publicise my blog are slowly paying off.. Thank you twitter, fb, gtalk, linkedin and wherever else i have mentioned my blog!! (i have already started forgetting!)
Well back to classes.. So the first sem is about to reach its close by next week... The highlights have been PDS and Mechanics. I would really miss PDS.. I am thinking of using the video library available over the lan to continue studying programming and web designing. I am guessing we will continue with mechanics in the second yr - so not so sad abt that.. it IS really interesting. Math could have been interesting in the hands of a gud prof but i guess i just havta mug it up along with physics.. Physics is even worse actually.. I mite even have a backlog in it if i dont study. The tv shows and movies over dc are just too overpowering in attractiveness!! :D Don't worry i am not about to fail! (that's what everyone says around here but many do fail the first exams)
That's all for now. I'll probably give you good news after the exams which get over on 26th. I got NCC camp after that.. Did i tell you about ncc?? oh well.. later! a bientot!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
<-life goes on->
The saying 'time flies' is just too true when you are enjoying yourselves. And that is exactly what I have been doing these 3 months!! Enjoy, enjoy and when i have sometime - enjoy! It is already the best 3 months of my lifetime!
Well, where to start... I left you just after the admission procedures, right? Thereafter, I learnt that there were quite a few guys from kerala whose rooms were near me. These guy - Jerin and Joseph (who incidentally are almost always together) - knew a second year from before. And another - Saneesh - got a room near some keralite M.Techs. Hence we got in touch with the group - Tech Keralites. But all that was in the social scenario.
The dean (or dosa as we so 'lovingly' call him) made us a week full of orientation programmes to get us acquainted with the system. It was quite interesting to learn all the facilities available to us. But I learnt soon that it was almost a waste of time 'cause we could have learnt all that they said ourselves better. The only good thing out of that was the contacts we got which we could have got from a brochure!
Then came the classes. I had high expectations for the professors and their methods of teaching. I don't remember what my first class was but I soon learnt that the fame the teachers got outside IIT was only because of a few professors like my mechanics sir : Prof. B. Maiti and pds sir : Prof. Rajib Mall. My physics and math professors couldn't have made the two most interesting subjects in the world more boring than they have done now. Staying awake in class was a dream that even hard core maggus find it difficult to make real.
In between all the classes, we had selection procedures, workshops, interviews, etc. from all the societies in iitkgp. There was dance, drama, singing, literature, robotics, entrepreneurship, sports, interviews for representing iitkgp in certain fests and for volunteering... I went for the dance workshop. I was quite a beginner in dancing. I hadn't really danced since 2nd grade!! But i liked the concept.. So the seniors were impressed.. but they settled for selecting those who already knew a bit of dance... Since drama workshops were going on along with the dance, i couldn't try them out too! Of course, i didn't go for the singing. I don't even know one full song!
The most popular society was without doubt the Robotics Society and mainly KRAIG (which was its technical division). After all, we came here to become engineers. Its but natural that we are attracted to robotics. But I didn't get selected into either the Robotics team or the KRAIG team.. For KRAIG, there actually was a written test and it had to be conducted in 4 classes with a strength of 200 each!! I didn't listen to many of the robotics lectures anyway. So it wasn't much of a shock...
Then the next best thing was the selections for Kshitij and Springfest, the two big fests - the former technical and the latter social and cultural.. We heard a lot about it from our seniors as to how much fun they are.. They were both in January and the promotions and preparations were starting soon.
But before that there were the midsems... They were, in short, a nightmare.. With all the happenings going on, I never did do much studying except for the beginning of the sem. I would put a lot of blame on dc++ though. DC++ was THE best thing to happen in iitkgp. In iitkgp, we have the largest lan network in asia connecting all the laptops and computers of the students from every room. I have not yet found something that cannot be found in dc. Movies, tv shows, stand up comedies, e-books, softwares, music, bhajan (u know what i mean and if u don't, i ain't gonna explain), video lectures, comics... the list goes on forever..! So who in the right mind would not check it out and thus waste hours on it?? I must have watched atleast 30 movies after reaching kharagpur apart from the ones the show every saturday at the Netaji Auditorium (which anyway has poor sound quality)!
Well anyway, I did do some mugging towards the end. My habit of understanding the subject while in class itself paid off in the end and i just passed in physics. Got a respectable grade in math and did well in comp. Our mech prof still hasnt told us how bad we did in his subj. I presume it would have to be VERY bad for him not to reveal it to us. or VERY good. Who cares??
Then came the Durga Puja Holidays. We got abt 10 days of holz. And so i decided to go to kerala. I don't remember well but i think mom did call me to go meet her instead.. Oh by the way, i call my parents everyday. Most guys think that's not necessary or its childish.. but i love them so and mom would freak out if i didn't anyway! ;)
So i had a good time in kerala being nice to my relatives and vice-versa.. But i was craving to spend more time in kgp..
Ok, after that came the selections to become advertise SpringFest in various colleges.. I think I did well to the point that they heard that i wasn't going to kerala for my winter holz. They weren't very interested to publicise in colleges of UAE!! The same thing happened in an interview to publicise GES - 2009 (Global Entrepreneurship Summit) except that this one was almost a sure selection till that point. Oh then there was this interview for selection into Space Society which was in collaboration with ISRO.. I really wanted this one to work out.. I donno why i didn't get selected.. I think i lacked self-confidence then. Anyway my friend Kelin got selected by bragging about himself (or so he told me). He told he had skills he didn't have and is in quite a fix now!!
Backing to the social scenario again, I still have keralites to be one of my best friends yet. Saneesh, the gr8 sleeper, Govinda, the lazy, and Jerin, the super lazy were in my section and we often go to class together... Oh, except for Jerin who starts bathing when the class is supposed to start..! Then there's the bookworm Joseph, the funny-n-witty Abhinav, the pj-cracker Kelin, the hot(he's muscular - just to clarify that i ain't gay - yet) Atul, the serious Jerrin Joy (ya we have two jerins - one with a double r though), the super-duper serious Jijin and rival-to-Kelin-in-pj-cracking Anirudh. That's basically the ones i am usually around with when it comes to keralites. Then there's Rishabh (got to meet him cuz he was Joseph's roomie but he's a member of HTDS - one of the cool societies), Abhishek (the pervert roomie of Abhinav), Saurabh (the less pervert football freak living opposite to Joseph) and Vishnu (who knows malayalam, telugu, marathi, hindi and english - jack of everything, king of none - so he's the butt of a lot of jokes). That's a small list of those who i know but these are the ones i see most often..
One of the greatest traditions in iitkgp is GPL -> Gaand Pe Laath. If you have had the unfortunate luck of revealing your b'day to anyone in kgp, u r in for a series of nightmares in the nights preceding your b'day. But one of the funniest incidents happened during my b'day... The group came to gimme my share and Joseph was talking abt him being a black belt which incidentally i am too and so is Govinda, and on his first kick, i clenched and he goes "OOOWWWWWW!!!!" :D I mean, what the hell???? He kicks ME and HE goes "OW"??!! He's still the butt of certain jokes regarding that... Anyway, the most recent one we gave was to Joseph itself. He had not told us that his b'day was on 7th Oct and we decided to celebrate it on 7th Nov with more macho. We roused him from his sleep, gave him a gud GPL, got some water (in the meantime he started running), i chased him, splashed him on his butt (after all it needed cooling!) and ya it was all my idea! ;)
Our hostel is a 10 minute cycling from the class. We have classes mainly in Vikramshila (V4)(with A/c) and some tutorial classes (taken by PhDs or MTechs) in the main building(without A/c - damn). So if you woke up late some day, it is quite difficult to summon your butt from your bed, to the showers and then take a cycle till class. So we do proxying. Easy and simple. Though some have found it to their chagrin that it isn't SOO easy that you can put a completely different sign! Akshay (a friend of a friend from abudhabi) was a victim to mech sir once.. When i think of punishment in iitkgp, it is inevitable to think of disco (Disciplinary Committee before you spit out your coffee). Abhishek got caught for writing 'If you are the Abhinav i know, you are pissing me off!' in the IIT site meant for "study purposes only!" His parents got called and he had to do some work in the library.. but I gotta appreciate his nerve.
Well, where to start... I left you just after the admission procedures, right? Thereafter, I learnt that there were quite a few guys from kerala whose rooms were near me. These guy - Jerin and Joseph (who incidentally are almost always together) - knew a second year from before. And another - Saneesh - got a room near some keralite M.Techs. Hence we got in touch with the group - Tech Keralites. But all that was in the social scenario.
The dean (or dosa as we so 'lovingly' call him) made us a week full of orientation programmes to get us acquainted with the system. It was quite interesting to learn all the facilities available to us. But I learnt soon that it was almost a waste of time 'cause we could have learnt all that they said ourselves better. The only good thing out of that was the contacts we got which we could have got from a brochure!
Then came the classes. I had high expectations for the professors and their methods of teaching. I don't remember what my first class was but I soon learnt that the fame the teachers got outside IIT was only because of a few professors like my mechanics sir : Prof. B. Maiti and pds sir : Prof. Rajib Mall. My physics and math professors couldn't have made the two most interesting subjects in the world more boring than they have done now. Staying awake in class was a dream that even hard core maggus find it difficult to make real.
In between all the classes, we had selection procedures, workshops, interviews, etc. from all the societies in iitkgp. There was dance, drama, singing, literature, robotics, entrepreneurship, sports, interviews for representing iitkgp in certain fests and for volunteering... I went for the dance workshop. I was quite a beginner in dancing. I hadn't really danced since 2nd grade!! But i liked the concept.. So the seniors were impressed.. but they settled for selecting those who already knew a bit of dance... Since drama workshops were going on along with the dance, i couldn't try them out too! Of course, i didn't go for the singing. I don't even know one full song!
The most popular society was without doubt the Robotics Society and mainly KRAIG (which was its technical division). After all, we came here to become engineers. Its but natural that we are attracted to robotics. But I didn't get selected into either the Robotics team or the KRAIG team.. For KRAIG, there actually was a written test and it had to be conducted in 4 classes with a strength of 200 each!! I didn't listen to many of the robotics lectures anyway. So it wasn't much of a shock...
Then the next best thing was the selections for Kshitij and Springfest, the two big fests - the former technical and the latter social and cultural.. We heard a lot about it from our seniors as to how much fun they are.. They were both in January and the promotions and preparations were starting soon.
But before that there were the midsems... They were, in short, a nightmare.. With all the happenings going on, I never did do much studying except for the beginning of the sem. I would put a lot of blame on dc++ though. DC++ was THE best thing to happen in iitkgp. In iitkgp, we have the largest lan network in asia connecting all the laptops and computers of the students from every room. I have not yet found something that cannot be found in dc. Movies, tv shows, stand up comedies, e-books, softwares, music, bhajan (u know what i mean and if u don't, i ain't gonna explain), video lectures, comics... the list goes on forever..! So who in the right mind would not check it out and thus waste hours on it?? I must have watched atleast 30 movies after reaching kharagpur apart from the ones the show every saturday at the Netaji Auditorium (which anyway has poor sound quality)!
Well anyway, I did do some mugging towards the end. My habit of understanding the subject while in class itself paid off in the end and i just passed in physics. Got a respectable grade in math and did well in comp. Our mech prof still hasnt told us how bad we did in his subj. I presume it would have to be VERY bad for him not to reveal it to us. or VERY good. Who cares??
Then came the Durga Puja Holidays. We got abt 10 days of holz. And so i decided to go to kerala. I don't remember well but i think mom did call me to go meet her instead.. Oh by the way, i call my parents everyday. Most guys think that's not necessary or its childish.. but i love them so and mom would freak out if i didn't anyway! ;)
So i had a good time in kerala being nice to my relatives and vice-versa.. But i was craving to spend more time in kgp..
Ok, after that came the selections to become advertise SpringFest in various colleges.. I think I did well to the point that they heard that i wasn't going to kerala for my winter holz. They weren't very interested to publicise in colleges of UAE!! The same thing happened in an interview to publicise GES - 2009 (Global Entrepreneurship Summit) except that this one was almost a sure selection till that point. Oh then there was this interview for selection into Space Society which was in collaboration with ISRO.. I really wanted this one to work out.. I donno why i didn't get selected.. I think i lacked self-confidence then. Anyway my friend Kelin got selected by bragging about himself (or so he told me). He told he had skills he didn't have and is in quite a fix now!!
Backing to the social scenario again, I still have keralites to be one of my best friends yet. Saneesh, the gr8 sleeper, Govinda, the lazy, and Jerin, the super lazy were in my section and we often go to class together... Oh, except for Jerin who starts bathing when the class is supposed to start..! Then there's the bookworm Joseph, the funny-n-witty Abhinav, the pj-cracker Kelin, the hot(he's muscular - just to clarify that i ain't gay - yet) Atul, the serious Jerrin Joy (ya we have two jerins - one with a double r though), the super-duper serious Jijin and rival-to-Kelin-in-pj-cracking Anirudh. That's basically the ones i am usually around with when it comes to keralites. Then there's Rishabh (got to meet him cuz he was Joseph's roomie but he's a member of HTDS - one of the cool societies), Abhishek (the pervert roomie of Abhinav), Saurabh (the less pervert football freak living opposite to Joseph) and Vishnu (who knows malayalam, telugu, marathi, hindi and english - jack of everything, king of none - so he's the butt of a lot of jokes). That's a small list of those who i know but these are the ones i see most often..
One of the greatest traditions in iitkgp is GPL -> Gaand Pe Laath. If you have had the unfortunate luck of revealing your b'day to anyone in kgp, u r in for a series of nightmares in the nights preceding your b'day. But one of the funniest incidents happened during my b'day... The group came to gimme my share and Joseph was talking abt him being a black belt which incidentally i am too and so is Govinda, and on his first kick, i clenched and he goes "OOOWWWWWW!!!!" :D I mean, what the hell???? He kicks ME and HE goes "OW"??!! He's still the butt of certain jokes regarding that... Anyway, the most recent one we gave was to Joseph itself. He had not told us that his b'day was on 7th Oct and we decided to celebrate it on 7th Nov with more macho. We roused him from his sleep, gave him a gud GPL, got some water (in the meantime he started running), i chased him, splashed him on his butt (after all it needed cooling!) and ya it was all my idea! ;)
Our hostel is a 10 minute cycling from the class. We have classes mainly in Vikramshila (V4)(with A/c) and some tutorial classes (taken by PhDs or MTechs) in the main building(without A/c - damn). So if you woke up late some day, it is quite difficult to summon your butt from your bed, to the showers and then take a cycle till class. So we do proxying. Easy and simple. Though some have found it to their chagrin that it isn't SOO easy that you can put a completely different sign! Akshay (a friend of a friend from abudhabi) was a victim to mech sir once.. When i think of punishment in iitkgp, it is inevitable to think of disco (Disciplinary Committee before you spit out your coffee). Abhishek got caught for writing 'If you are the Abhinav i know, you are pissing me off!' in the IIT site meant for "study purposes only!" His parents got called and he had to do some work in the library.. but I gotta appreciate his nerve.
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