An 'Out of the world' experience at SPACE 09

In school and junior college, college festivals were known to me as something abstract and unknown activity done by some lazy fools fed up of studies wanting to show off some cool and insignificant talent for the heck of it.

After joining college, I realized that its true! :D

Two weeks down the fest, college was already buzzing with activity with seniors come down to our class every lunch break trying their best to coerce unsuspecting foolish FEs into volunteering for their event. The unsuspecting foolish FEs that we were, all bought in by the glamorous description of the 'best rated event' Virtual Stock Market, more coolly referred to as VSM we dedicated ourselves to the event. After a little explaining of the software to operate on as brokers in the game, we were all given the herculean task of preparing charts and sticking fliers all over the college at every prime advertising spot.



Day 1

Just the previous night I got an SMS to come early at 7:45 to make charts for VSM. GHANTA! was my first reaction. Nevertheless I managed to go to gym a fifteen minutes earlier than usual and come in at a respectable 8:30!

The rest of the morning for VSM volunteering was quite torturous after learning new vocab from angry customers. It also felt proud cracking a big-time scam of massive short selling of 1 crore shares! It was 'quite' an experience to have. The sounds of "Number 30. Teen sau infosys bech. Bechte reh. Koi aaye tab tak bechte reh. Main idhar hi khada hoon. Balance bol. Sab companies ke holdings bol. Abey jaldi kar. Sau Wipro short sell kar. Paanch Sau infosys khareed. Teri *** ** .... bola na bech mat khareed!! Balance bol. Sab calculate kar ke Satyam mein laga de." kept ringing through my mind that night, even in my dreams.
Having a good reason of participating in the LAN gaming elims, I gave a deadline to my organisers of me leaving at four thirty. A tiny power failure on my PCs power supply which took 20 minutes to boot ensured a cool second session.
The LAN gaming elims didnt quite happen as expected but defeating some guys of a rival branch by 22000 feet/ 50 sec. in Need For Speed Most Wanted gave me some satisfaction!

Lying flat on the amphitheater with two good buddies looking upwards into the ever expanding skies and innumerous stars was the experience of a life time. So was roaming around in an empty and 'haunted' SP with aadish and aashish on the first and second floor trying to get a good view of the dance competition after the Quad was all full. Our prize spot of two supposed ghosts a locked drawing room on the second floor was quite a story to tell too!




Day 2


Came in the morning early for NFS and CS elims.... me and my clan improved our losing margin of 10-1 in the FACE lan gaming competition to only 6-2 this time. However the NFS elims through which I breezed past with the other guys silently cribbing to their friends "Saala first round mein kaunse pro ke saath bhid gaya be ?!?" gave my mood some upliftment!

Tried Google whacking and Typing ke khiladi for the heck of it (recall the first para)... Beat our computer geeky topper dude priyank in both which is quite a record in itself . Got selected for the second round of typing where some jobless dude took the pain of shuffling all keys on the keyboard to random positions . Luckily managed a non-embarassing score despite not getting through. Actually it didnt matter because the third round was supposed to be with a shuffled keyboard plus a blank screen, which a hopeless keyboard looking index finger typer like me would have so badly failed! Whew! .

After getting the bad news of Neelam and Preeti not getting selected for their duet singing, nor Aadish and Srinath, heard and bowed down to Aadish and Srinath's amzing performances at their western and hindi singing solos.... and congo Srinath for getting second prize... though you deserve nothing less than an indian idol!

Tried Lock Stock & Trade and finished a respectable 5th despite not having much of an experience! . My throat was down after shouting ''Food at o.1! Oil at 0.05! Raw materials at 0.5! Ok at 0.4!'', which made me actually quite pity the work of street vendors.
Also sailed to the second elim round with my only opponent being good old priyank whom I've beaten an infinite times already with my left hand!

The evening events were probably the highlight of the entire fest. An unknown yet excellent rock band Ehsaas rocked the quad! BE Civil crowd at the fashion show rocked too providing more entertainment than the ramp itself! Also had a stupidly funny encounter with world famous don like figure from BE Civil... man he has some intimidating personality I tell you! . Finally went home all sleepy and enchanted but ready for the show tomorrow.



Day 3

LAN gaming finals the only thing in my mind, I reached college at 10:45 when I was supposed to do so at 11 for something that had no hope of starting before 12 noon. As expected, I had to report in for rampage at 1:30. Sensationally defeating two opponents in a best of four elimination by winning the first two, while also earning some un-pleasantries for pushing one of them into a tollbooth and hence gaining a lead during the race spurred up my appetite for more. I was all geared up for the finals. After being a dull fool for 6 months while being hooked onto the wonderful game, I realised this would be my moment of glory!

All charged up but tensed, my heart reaching RPMs of 18000+, I reached the lab, met my final opponents and studied their game from their practice runs. Unfortunately after leading a lap of the first race, one stupid error lost me the lead and hence the race. In the second race, call it pressure or desperation, my game went groundward, and with desperate maneuvers and dumb tactics, threw the game away to the well deserving winner. It was sickening. But I had to face defeat. Success was a 0.54 seconds too late. Glory was just around the chicane (thats a tight corner in racing terminology). Fame stopped 32 feet ahead. My heart bled out more painfully than the splattering of rain on my windscreen. It felt like losing something big, but I had to fall to learn sometime in life. Probably this was it. I tried to console myself that atleast I was second, and the best in SP!

Anyways after it was all done and dusted, rushed down to the algo lab for a virtual treasure hunt event, the elims for which I had made a mockery of, finishing it way too early before time, even as Priyank, my teammate looked on with awe! . Me and priyank cruised on easily to the final level, but with over confidence, lackadaisiness, and improper reading of the rules, threw it all away! It was probably a day filled with failures, or lessons, depending on how you choose to look at it.

Evening at the amphitheatre was fun learning new vocab with 'challenge'. I also learnt the art of putting 'able' after unexpected four-letter words to create some mindblowing vocabulary ... thanks to srinath! Lol! Escaped the boring Sufi Rock show and me and (aad+aash)ish proudly showed to everyone the room we discovered in the second floor. Sharing stories of ghosts and robbers who knock on the door at the amphitheathre again was fun.... and so was the wonderful fire-work display. The DJ night with Harsh finally showing his Naagin in public was a fun and spectacular end to a three-day flight away from earth... to SPACE!

And now, typing this all out mid-night, the CP journal and the Physics assignment all come back to haunt me! :-/

How to kill an FE.... yeah!

Inspired by the 'How to kill a lion' series (I'm sure you have heard of it) featuring the Rajnikant, Karan Johar, Einstien etc methods, I hereby proudly present the how to kill an FE series.

(PS:

No anti-teacher sentiments here... I'm sure none of our teachers are such that can be considered 'evil-minded' . I sincerely hope this is taken in good humour by everyone - including any teacher if they chance upon to see this :P)

The 'HBV' way :

Tuesday:

I am going to take surprise test - Fooll porshan on the 17th of this friday. Only the first three chapters. Padho warna fail hoge!

Friday:

(Demented sadistic smile :)

Loon kya?!?

I will take test coming Wednesday!

Wednesday:

I hope tum sab padh rahe ho. Main test lene waala hoon agle hafte. I am going to take a test next week. 

Next Wednesday:

Ye sum solve nahin kar paaye then assume you are going to fail the test. FBD banaaya to do mark milenge. Jaw-mein-tree galat hui then you will get this : (write '0 0' on the board that looks like infinity). (It is surprising to note the humour region of the FEs actually responding at this crucial time!)

Sunday:

FE commits suicide :|

The 'ARP' way :(This method deserves an 'OK Tested' stamp :P)

Oukay... first you take a peeijhoelektrik ouscillatour. Ouukay. Then you take an AC supply. Oukay. Put the FE between the plates. Am I rauight here? . Oukay. Then. You sweetch on the pouwer souply......Do you understand? Ok. Soon, doueue toueue thae compulsive exsssessive vibrations of the student at an ultrasuouunic frequency , the student gives oup on its life. Okay.....!

The 'MN' way :

Successively differentiate off the FE 'n' times. If the student gives back answers saying he/she/it is e^x , then differentiate it w.r.t. 't' :P

The 'PG' way :

#include "no_lectures_this_week.h"

#include "three_double_lectures_next_week.h"

#define student FE

int main()

{

struct student;

while(student.hitpoints>0)

{

student.make_debug_creeeeptic_program();

}

return to_office;

}

The 'RD' way :

Poot the FE in a creestal staaaaaaakkkkktktktktktture and bombard him/her/it with a charechteriseec X-ray spectrum from all sides.

The 'NB' way :

Ok class.... look here class. I have actually tried this. You just put the FE, and multiply it with i.

The 'AK' way:

Tooooh? Kaise karte hai bataao? FE ko water mein dooba do. So simple it is. Computer ke saamne water kya hota hai?!?

The 'ST' way:

Lolz.... even I dont know :P

The SE way:

First day: Rag them.

Second day: Conduct daylight robbery selling them workshop tools, lab coats, and textbooks of old syllabus at abnormal prices.

Third day: Drag them all into a seminar of 'How to successfully crack GRE/CAT etc' or other stuff the FE is still amused by.

Next month: Make them volunteer into fests, dance day and night for a freshers party, make em pay up to join organisations with hi-fi names and even hi-fier abbreviations.

Next month: FE is now FYBA student :P

TE way:

Keep dropping by occasionally into the FE class, keep scaring the poor creatures about KTs, examinations, make em jealous that you have no work and can bunk so much. FE will commit suicide out of feelings of a worthless life.

BE way:

Do not be seen regularly to the FEs. Appear only once a month in a suit and tie to give a presentation or to teach html. Ultimately the FE will die out of curiosity about your identity. (Also post scary stuff about college in SPIT-Uncensored community :P)

Some interesting facts:

The amount of journal+assignment paper used up in 1 sem by 1 student is an average of 350 pages. Assuming 30000 students in MU in colleges that GIVE assignments, this works out to 1.05 X 10^7 pages of paper! The effect of this global warming is felt somehow affects only the FEs, especially the nights before the D-days.

An average of 439 FEs in MU each year get carpal tunnel syndrome after writing assignments and journals after being accustomed to only colouring cute little tiny circles for four whole months.

Well its a wonder that we have survived a whole semester in FE..... that too with good memories filling up orkut albums more rapidly than ever....

cheers!

Getting in....

"CAP kya logon ko topi pehnata hai?", pat came a wisecrack reply from a friend, when we were discussing our next course of action in what was supposed to be the most important transition of our life.

Yep... we had just completed our HSC (CET to be more precise) and stood with our results in our hands. One and a half years of toil followed by one and a half hours of brain boil was supposed to measure the capabilities of a student and put it in its place. Nopes.. Im not complaining. We've lived with it. And we'd also given back crap to the system .... considering we made a complete mockery of the 75% (really dreaded figure I tell you :P) attendance rule the education ministry (thats what they like to call it) had supposedly set a few years ago. We'd learnt to give Junior College no more respect than an office that gives you your CET hall ticket, or an institution that you need fill in a valid JEE form. Anyways it was all over in time short enough not to blow your head off, and long enough to make a few good friends. (People suffering from the same misfortune always make good friends in life: Ive noticed).

Anyways, coming back, the admission procedure sure was pretty well managed, I must say (though highly scary when you first brief yourself about it). Neat forms to be filled online, with minimal amount of data to be filled in (considering they were the authority in possession of most of it). The procedure of printing them out and re-submitting them really beat the meaning of being called an 'online procedure', but was nevertheless not 'much' of a pain. CAP centres were spread all over the city, and journeys to them were quite adventurous, filled with deep trecherous thoughts and sometimes wild daydreams. I was quite unsure of getting into my dream college+dream course combo, but nevertheless I kept all hopes. Not minding the fussy clerks (may they be dammed) and the constant site crashes at the CAP centres (may DTE be dammed), and the tedious calculated risks I took to be allotted only the course I wanted, and not any else, with some limited backups (may the procedure be dammed too), I finally sailed through. It felt like being redeemed. I had made it through... YES... those late night tussles with the books and the expensive sleep I had sacrificed finally paid off. I was on my way to being a proud student of Sardar Patel Institute of Technology : Computer Engineering branch, also fondly called as SP Comps..!