On the class google group

Never must Alok have thought that when he created the chemical batch of '09 as a google group that he was tampering with the basic law of nature: Morons dont survive, only the fittest do!

The group in itself was created way back in late 2006 but aug 30,2008 was when something bit alok in the a** ( Thats where his mind actually is) and he decided to open the playgrounds for us children to play.. Sending invites to all of us that day, nearly all joined in to participate in the heralding of the most obnoxious google group i know of!

Anyone who has atleast heard of our class knows we have them all: Controversial ppl, huge egoists, blabber mouths, gossip kings n queens etc etc! It was slow to catch up but soon the group was one big chat session, none were spared from the onslaught as their gmail inbox used to beep each time a message was shared. Lots of "bakchodi", discussions on T-shirts, trips, dream dates, classes etc and the unanimous decision was to willingly stop posting or terminate membership.

What goes up must come down: Last few days saw little activity making me wonder whether this is all over or is it just the calm before the actual storm! Time will tell..

I am seriously running out of topics, atleast those i can post in public (Lol).. This blog has been seen and appreciated as an insight of the activities of my class at NITK and the lack of activities makes me wonder if i ought to divest my interests around?

Oh and Alok: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Just because you felt it better not to tell anyone, there will be an extra special GPL for you tomorrow- Guess i got my next topic :)

India Tv!

At 5 am in the morning (Duh) there is only so much one can do online especially if you are a college student. I therefore try my best to explore uncharted areas of the net and blogs are a favourite category.. So it was that 10 mins ago i was browsing through my favourite comic site :
http://www.flyyoufools.com/

and i saw a comment in it about India TV. Check out http://www.indiatvnews.com/ for more info but then its the channel site so u dont get a true picture of whats going on actually. My fellow bloggers helped me here to discover the absurdity of the "News Channel". I cant explain it better than:
http://stupidindiatv.blogspot.com/

OH MY GOD! Pls do read through all the posts, you DONT wanna miss them. I was actually happy about the relatively better broadcasting quality of Indian News channels but this really takes the cookie out of the oven! Thanks a lot Prabhat, u got a new fan here..

Has anyone else seen this channel on tv? If so i would love to hear from you regarding some more "Flash-news" shown on this channel.
I cant believe Rajat Sharma ( of the Janata ki Adalat fame) is so lame as to create news of such low standard :(

On Labs

Chemical engg at NITK has always placed an emphasis on labs to the extent that the non-functioning boiler in the Heat Transfer lab doesnt deter the "determined" students to have the lab sessions none-the-less.. Hey where else do you get a virtual lab in a non-virtual environment?? Hmmm.. We can teach those comps/IT guys a little here..

The chemical lab saga begins in 4th semester and continues all the way till 7th sem which ironically is where the author finds himself in. My my, how fast time passes! The lab is based on Process Dynamics & Control and Chemical Reaction Engineering : Both together responsible for more DD grades than the rest of the subjects combined! So one can estimate how good we are in lab even if he/she has no idea on Chemical engineering.

Oh and the fact that we have the most charming teacher in the dept doesnt help. She dominates us with an iron fist though some of her decisions makes us wonder if the mind also is filled with iron! More often than not we end up manipulating values.. In fact manipulation is an art most of us have learnt to be masters at, thats not a praise on the dept but then in the real world manipulation is not desirable na??

Right now as i am writing this post, i am also calculating the results of an expt.. Lets see: I know from asking others what the final answer is to be, I am not getting it
( -300 instead of +6 to +9) so i resort to my good friend Manipulation.. Excel rocks here, change a few values and voila: I get +ve values.. A few iterations (Manipulation isnt all that different from PDCE) and i get +14. I dont change it further to avoid suspicion and report it.. A few comments and my report is all done. As is my post!

P.S. The above mention of lab-work is but a satyr, it neednt be followed by smart ppl or extremely dumb retards too!

Engineer Jokes..

I have heard of many jokes about engineers in the past but there are a few which really go the whole hog.. Some of these are mine while the others are hearsay.. Enjoy:

Take 1

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist it is half empty. To the engineer: The glass is twice as big as it needs to be!

Take 2

A pastor, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for their golf round due to a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for over 30 mins!" The pastor said " Hey here comes the grounds keeper. Lets have a word with him.. Hi John, what's with that group ahead of us? They seem rather slow.."

The grounds keeper replied "Oh yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year so we let them play for free anytime."

The group was silent was a minute. The pastor said "That's so sad, I think i will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said "Good idea. And I am going to contact my opthalmologist friend and see if anything can be done for them."

The engineer, after much thought, said: "Why cant these guys play at night??"

Take 3

An engineer was crossing the road one day when a frog called out to him and said "If you kiss me, i will turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke again "If you kiss me and change me back into a beautiful princess then i will marry you!" The engineer took out the frog, smiled at it and put it back in his pocket. The frog got angry and shouted " What's the matter? I told you I am a beautiful princess who wants to marry you, why wont you kiss me?"

The engineer replied "Look, I am an engineer. I dont have time for a girlfriend! But a talking frog?? Now THAT's cool!!"

Too good!

I was surfing aimlessly on the www when i saw a friend's gtalk status message. It had a link which sounded funny :

http://www.flyyoufools.com/

LOTR fans will recognise it as Gandalf's message to the Fellowship in the mines of Moria but this has very little to do with it. Its an extremely successful indian comic art site and one comic in particular cracked me up so hard i couldnt stop laughing for 5 mins.. Star Wars/ Master Yoda fans will love this, trust me:

http://www.flyyoufools.com/strange-advertising-slogans

How was that???????? If u know about Yoda and yet didnt find it funny then you deserve to be scalped! But for those who liked it, here is a small bonus:

http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/

Learn to speak like Yoda himself... May the force be with you!

How to Beat Queues!

So bite me, I am in a crazy mood today! Gotta make up for all the lost days spent studying for gre.. Anyway here are a few tips to make sure u never have to wait in a line, ever again:-

1) Deliberately stand outside the mess 15 mins before opening time
2) In the bathroom, put a sign outside your favourite loo saying "Restricted access, Members only.. Trespassers shall be prosecuted"
3) In the queue for paying any fees, talk very loudly to your friends about how you are just recovering from Syphillis
4) Outside CCC, just dash in through the door shouting "Its rebooting! Its rebooting!"
5) Inside CCC, pretend to be the adminstrator and ask first years to vacate their seats for some "technical repair"
6) In the dispensary, have 4 people carry you in a stretcher directly into the doc's room.
7) Outside a phone booth, sing loudly "Babuji zaraa dheere chalo..."
8) At the bank, take a few coins and jingle them loudly near the ears of the person in front of you.. Then when he/she looks back at you, ask them in as rough a voice as possible "Why so serious??"
9) Dont have a bath or brush your teeth for a week: Guaranteed to work!

How NOT to join a Tech Club..

This article is lifted straight from Vitruvian '04.. They really made great mags back then!







Points to be noted:
1) Submit your resume 24 hours after the due time.

2) Go to the interview wearing a T-shirt of another club's fest.

3) In the section titled " Previous Leadership Experience", write: Class monitor, standards 1,2 and 3

4) Try to shake hands with as many people on the interview panel as possible. If they resist then try to hug them. If this too doesnt work then burst into tears and run from the room.

5) Make continuous innuendos and wink at all female panel members: Good if you are a guy, better if you are a gal (You probably will get an automatic membership into all clubs for this though). If they dont respond then blow kisses at them.

6) Count loudly to 5 before answering any of their questions.

7) Tell the panel that you need to consult your lawyer before answering any potentially damaging questions.

8) During the interview, flash your new AND costly mobile phone and pretend to receive important calls/sms

9) When asked to introduce yourself, distribute xerox copies of your ID card/ Driver's license/ Mess card to all the panelists.

10) At the end of the interview when asked if you have any questions, ask if you will get a free club T-shirt.

On GPL..

As promised earlier i present a post on the all-famous GPL. Few people know its origin lies in Hindi: Gaand Pe Laat or Kick to the A**! I have borrowed material from NITK Vitruvian '04 too so dont accuse me of plagiarism later..

Introduction
Initially a GPL was reserved only for birthdays. But in the course of progressive evolution today you can give a GPL to anyone- For buying new shoes, for batting well in a meaningless cricket match, for talking to any girl in college and so on.. What started initially as a purely male-dominated affair is today practised even by the ladies of NITK (Bless them).

If you are the person being GPL'd: NEVER SHOUT during the process as this only serves to invite more people to join in. But if you are part of the mob then holler as loudly as you can. You never know when you might be at the receiving end, especially if you are wandering aimlessly near a GPL- site.. Now for the details:

Sorry suhas (Ya right..)


Points of Interest
1) Footwear of the participants in the "ceremony" must range from bare feet to leather shoes (No, i dont refer to bondage gear). This is to ensure an assortment of the forces applied to the rear of the person for complete satisfaction.
2) A minimum of 2 ppl are required to hold the guy being GPL'd, and atleast 1 person to adminster the GPL. However numbers are not a major constraint for GPL as crowds invariably build up in no time!
3) Look before you kick! Do not attempt fancy bicycle kicks, scissor kicks etc. Keep it simple for maximum effect.
4) You should not kick so hard as to hurt yourself in the bargain. People keep making this mistake.
5) Your selection of the "victim" should be a mathematical function of the number of people at your disposal and the probability of yourself being the actual target. It's bad otherwise!
6) Do not kick anyone who can kick you harder: The bigger the person, the better hitter.. Simple Logic!

College Fundae

I invite all my readers to share in interesting fundae heard when they were in NITK or otherwise.. Lets make this post a worthy one! I shall also be adding more statements as and when i remember them..

Some fundae i heard which i shall share:
* " You have heard about Alexander the great? He is standing in front of you! Got the point??" - Alex D'souza, workshop foreman, NITK

* "There wont be any choices in the exam as if I give choices then most ppl will take the easier questions and the ones who take the tougher question will suffer" - CPO sir to Ravi nigam

* " Sir u pls learn the subject, prepare a thesis on it and then i will be glad to allow you to leave the drawing hall early" - Engineering Graphics teacher to Jayanth modi when the latter wanted to leave early due to a cold

* " Everyone produce their ID cards.. How am i to trust that u arent writing the endsem test for someone else?" - Arbit Engg Mechanics prof to us during endsems 1st sem

* " Auto catalysis doesnt mean catalysis in Auto rickshaw!" - Dr A.V Adhikari (One can write an entire page on his fundae)

* "Bit size of char, int, float etc is analogous to the phases of the moon: Quarter, Half, Full and then no Amavasya.. Mind it!" - Rajeevan, Comp. Programming, 2nd sem

* "Are u hard?? Do u like the flavour of hard?" - Gloriously ignorant PPM teacher in his 2nd (And last) class to us, 7th sem

* " I am the Vitruvian Man!!!!!!!" - Arbit 2nd year guy during Star Gazing Club recruitments

I am Human!

Warning to readers: This is NOT a typical post of mine, so pls dont read it unless u are utterly jobless.. I wont entertain sarcastic comments for this post! Thanks..

Expectations are a typical characteristic of humans.. From the moment you are born, plans are made: Doctor, Engineer .. Sometimes even marriages are decided at that time!

Expectations are what that really drives you. You cant look bad in front of your family or peers so u put in that extra bit of effort. Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails. Thats life..

I fell short of expectations for the 1st time sday with my GRE score.. Mostly short of my own expectations but also of others who were too kind to not tell otherwise. Somehow i have been lucky to have always exceeded expectations till now, maybe as a result of my dumb luck or simple that i haven't ever set idiotically high goals for myself.

So i fell short once! Big deal.. As a good friend said: It only proved u r human! So be it.. Varun Shenoy G is no longer a separate species, I am human! Adieu..

The GRE experience

The Graduate Record Examination or GRE is a part of college life now. Gone are the days where a B.Tech degree and a job sufficed the ambitions of students. The line of thought seems to be: If i am good enough to get into IIT/NIT then i am certainly good enough for more!

So on comes 7th sem and one thing (Err.. two including placements) dominating the minds of final year junta is GRE: Where u writing it? When? How much done? Ba***rd getting 1600 rit??
and so on..

I had the GRE experience yesterday. THE NEXT STATEMENT IS FOR MYSELF FOR WHEN I SEE IT IN THE FUTURE: THE SCORE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF POTENTIAL :)

Ya ya, maybe it indeed is but then "simple" is really relative. For those who came in late, the GRE has 4 (+1 experimental section) and 2 sections reveal the scores at the end of the test. First up were the two writing sections, My essay topic was: Scholars and researchers should pursue their individual interests rather than working for the benefit of the larger society..

Next up was Quantitative section: 28 questions amounting to a total of 800.. Was decent enough except for a question involving probability of a line having a slope equal to -1/slope of another line given by solving a set of linear equations.. It was my last question n was worth the status of being the "toughest".. Upon solving the equations i got the answer but its too boring to mention here..

Saved the biggest piece of the pie for the end: Verbal section. Not gonna write much except that i messed up 3 of the first 4 questions so i knew i was gonna get a poor score here..

So here i was facing the screen, the option Exit section in front.. I knew i was seconds away from getting my score and i was so taut with tension that you could have strung me across a guitar and played a D-major tone with no difficulty! I pressed the mouse button, fingers crossed and the screen changes to:

SECTION 5: EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS WRITING SECTION... I swear i was gonna hit the monitor with all force if it wasnt for the webcam looking at me from above! I exited that section ( I wasnt gonna win $100 for the best entry in my present state anyway) and all of a sudden the screen showed my scores:

Quantative section:- 770
Verbal section :- 500

Wasnt very happy, i was expecting better even if my preparation didnt merit anything more.. But a timely conversation helped and KFC came to the rescue!

Looking at it today, i am not disappointed with my GRE score.. Philosophy is a good defence against stuff :)

All aboard the "HO Train"..

Ok first up let me explain what a "Ho Train" is: Its a joyride, not literally on a railway, involving fun.. Somehow it seems to indicate booze n gals to most users of the phrase but to each their own!

Why the sudden mention of a train? Well i travelled via train from mangalore to bangalore on Thursday night and it was over 8 months since my last train ride.. I really missed it!

The train ride from mangalore-bangalore is best done in the day time, the scenic beauty needs to be experienced to be understood. However i had the journey at night so had to make do!

So what comes to ur mind 1st when the word "Train" is spoken?? More often than not it will be the seating pattern, Konkan railways outdid themselved by managing to put in 9 (not the normal 8) in a compartment in the sleeper class: I had to read the instructions for over 5 mins to understand the mechanism behind the magically appearing 9th berth! It was really smart actually..

10 mins into the journey and in comes: CHAAAAAAYYYYYYAAAAA, PEPSIIIIIIII, CHIPSSSSS... Utter circus acrobats who manage to balance a hot beverage container and a tray of eatables in one hand AND a carton of Pepsi in the other. They deserve payment just for the show!

30 mins in ( Time 8 30 pm, IST) and in come a brother-sister duo of ~10 years age into the bogie and they start singing " Chaiyya, Chaiyya" the famous song involving SRK and Malaika Arora Khan.. They were so enthusisatic that a group of college students in the nearby compartment joined them and the song-performance reminded me of an amateur jazz band instead! All the people, including me, joined in singing and we had great fun. Everyone contributed in giving cash to the 2 children who made this journey worth remembering..

The treat that never was!

In final year it is customary to treat the class upon one's placement, bday, gre result, being an a*****e, or chumma! It is even more customary to adminster a GPL but more on that to come.. Wait for it.

So here we were all done and the midsems behind us, the class eagerly expecting a treat from some of the placed ppl (Including your's truly, Thank you) but as usual everything collapses like a deck of cards b4 suhas lets out a fart! Some gotta go to Manipal (Sure they gotta!), some have no cash (Due to treating others ironically) and some simply werent in the mood for fun (Them eggheads need to be scalped right offa me ship, maties! )..

So Pizza Hut to the rescue: Iftaar festival on account of Ramadan, all u can eat pizza n garlic bread from 6 pm! Oh and Adlabs literally puts out the red carpet for NITKians (And a gold carpet for MITians but no more of that). 5 of us decided "Spontaneously" to go have lunch ,see a movie, do some timepass till 6 and eat our way to gastric indigestion.. Buuuurrpp!

The movie was surprisingly n delightfully different, kinda like a bollywood merger with hollywood. I wont call it a musical par-se but its got more songs than dialogues- U figure it out!

MAMA MIA was the flick, i do indeed recommend it to a group of ppl wanting timepass in the lazy afternoon.. Esp a group of college gals, believe me guys!

A few hours aside and the onslaught of Pizza Hut began: Totally we 5 ppl consumed 7 non-veg slices, 19 veg slices, 13 pieces of garlic bread, lots of water n even a medium glass of Pepsi.. The bill? A very reasonable rs 742 inclusive of all taxes! The reader MUST go there for food, friends n fun..

Overall it was a great day, but now GRE awaits.. I cant promise any more posts till Friday is past me.. Till then, Have a nice day everyone!

Midsem No.5

Phew this was a looooong series: Imagine how it was real time!

Last up PE: Petroleum Engineering

We in final year have no option to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to electives owing to the faculty shortage prevalent everywhere.. So ALL our electives this time are either with our juniors or M.Tech ppl.. The dumbest part is going to Biotech dept for an hour, coming back to chemical dept for an hour and then going back there.. It happens far too many times for our liking!

The subject is decent in itselt, a 350 page textbook has everything n most pages are filled with nonsense which probably looks the result of an accident between The Indian Fodder Industry Handbook and the Right to Information Act :)

Midsem?? Piece of cake: Sir had to supervise 3 different classes simultaneously and we took great pleasure in helping him by leaving the exam hall early.. Most of us were out by 1 hour.. Sachin BROKE sindhu's record by leaving in 30 mins flat but doesnt count as the champ didnt get a chance to defend her title!

Now that all tests are done, the class collectively breathes a huge sigh of relief.. One thought on everyone's mind: What did we do to deserve this in final year???
On second thoughts, maybe i dont wanna hear the answer to that :)

Cya!

Midsem No.4

Fermentation Technology is the name of the game..

The subject was handled by a good teacher who was unfortunately taking a course for us the very first time. Good class notes compensated by an almost overenthusiastic type of extra notes gave the class finally no excuse on no material to study from..

Ya right! I myself was the subject of 85 ( count it, 85) sms and 12 calls from wednesday evening to thursday morn just over this subject.. Cant imagine poor preet in hostel! Lol..

Everything going fine until someone ( I refrain from telling who) had the "great" idea of asking M.Tech ppl about how this particular teacher gives question papers.. It was like opening Pandora's Box! Out came 4 totally arbit topics out of the photocopy of the "extra" notes.. Pandemonium ensured everyone knowing enough to write something if tested on it. Oh and mention must be made of those artists in our class who expressed their creativity on certain diagrams and challenged the likes of Da Vinci and Michaelangelo :)

The paper in itself was a doozy: 15 Multiple choice questions with each having 1,2 or 3 correct answers.. All to be answered to be deemed correct! Now that was really fun.. The rest were pretty sane..

SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST: SINDHU OUT IN 35 MINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a girl, fought back like Federer to reclaim her throne as the fastest to leave a test.. Kudos to her, I bow down to show my respect!

Midsem No. 3

What a contrast to the last test!

PDCE: Process Design of Chemical Equipment saw Preet write for 2 hrs.. We dont call him "Prof" for nothing..

The subject is all mindgames- You think you have figured out the procedure for solving a problem in general when the next problem looks all greek to you! At the risk of sounding like a sadist who revels in writing about the misery in the world (Thanks, Dante) i shall continue..

The procedure is simple when compared to looking at the Bible of chemical engineers: Perry' Handbook. Its the single most comprehensive piece of literature i have seen and for the benefit of my non-chemical friends a Perry outweighs any Harry Potter book and contains more text than LOTR Unabridged!

The test in itself was actually simple. The teacher realised our condition and even helped a lil during the test. He actually allowed Darshan to come to me when he didnt remember a formula, seems this subject is all about application!

However i refrain from making a final comment on this subject, it remains an enigma to me. I shall thus share with you a reply i got from a good friend when asked about how the test was: BLAH..
Thats all, folks!

Midsem No. 2

CPI: Chemical Process Industries
Tuesday saw one of the most boring subjects ever ( No, i dont care if a prof sees this- Its the truth) being tested. Imagine the boredom caused by listening to THE SINGHAI and multiply it a 100 times (If psbl! ) and u shall get a taste of what the poor final years of chemical are getting this year.. We had to dig deep into our brain to remember the flow diagrams- Who cares about the absence of a Heat exchanger if there are a 1000 more to compensate it????

If this wasnt enough, the one teacher we never thought would (or rather, could) actually outsmarted us by giving 5 questions, 4 to be answered. Various scenarios presented:-
1) I knew everything, managed to write it too: 5%
2) I knew something, no time: 10%
3) I knew everything, but no time as the guy behind was talking too much: 10%
4) I knew nothing, lots of time to write s**t: 70%
5) I knew nothing, no time too: 5%
What the last group of ppl were doing during the test remains a mystery of life...

Free antivirus license: Its genuine!

Ok last coupla days have been all about this "great" virus which spams through gtalk and tries to share itself as a link to a (Ahem) private webcam.. The thing about NITK is a good firewall software (It-who-must-not-be-named) and so ppl are devoid of "easier options" when it comes to software like an antivirus program..
Keeping ethics in mind, i refer u to this link: http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/02/05/free-1-year-kaspersky-anti-virus-genuine-license-key-for-everyone/

Raymond is a genius who has been doing such services for a long time, and believe me he is genuine. The stuff really works, u just need to spend a lil time but hey, u get a free 1 year license to Kaspersky which i believe is the best antivirus out there now (Sorry Norton)

Try it out and pls spread the news to ur friends! However the site has reported a few bugs so dont blame me if it doesnt work for u, keep trying..

Big brother is watching..

Hey check out :
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/in.html

I must thank my friend Manu nair (3rd year, EnC) for sharing the link with me. It was sday at around this time that i read through the page and boy was it a rude kick in the b****s?? The CIA has such pages on all countries and one cant help think that if so much info is actually published online, What dirty secrets do they keep disclosed?

The cold war may have been over but with Russia's invasion of Georgia been seen as a counter to USA'a attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, i have my doubts on the "primary purpose" of such "peace keeping defense organisations" like the CIA..

Sry to my readers for deviating from my usual style of blogging, sometimes i tend to shift my focus elsewhere..

Midsem No.1

We here at NITK have mid-semester exams and so generally signal the profit season for xerox n printout centres.. Oh being a final year has its advantage, ppl attribute the sad performance of the class to indifference- Yours truly pleading guilty to being placed in BPCL, Mumbai!

But when push comes to shove, everyone does indeed put in their bit of effort into studying for the exam- Whether it be Sindhu who is more engrossed in leaving the exam hall first or Manish who broadcasts his (ahem) musical talent and lightens our moods during the test itself.. Oh then there are the ppl who believe in "group work" and those who inflict as much pain as possible into the answer script!

Today was no different: First midsem of the 7th semester ( When is it? Asked indu 4 days ago! ) and we begin with PCSPI- Dont even ask the full form, its common in chemical engg- and the reigning deity whom we shall hence forth refer as GOD presented us a bombshell! All those hours of slogging ( Read- Playing NFS with Preet) went to waste as the paper was a shock to one and all.. It didnt help that we had opportunity to (Ahem) group discuss during the test- None of us had a clue whats going on!!!!!!

In the end everyone had one thing to say: Its all upto GOD now.. Really!

War of the Branches..

For those who came in late: I am a Chemical ( Not CHEMISTRY) Engineer at NITK, Suratkal.. Sept 5 is celebrated as Teacher's Day in India.. Thats all u need to know as background..

So we at NITK have never had a student-teacher interaction on Teacher's Day b4 and our Director, Prof Sandeep Sanchethi, decides its time. All the branches are given notice of a student-teacher event on sept 6 (U figure!) and are told to form teams. The event is told to be a General Quiz but hey its NITK, anything's possible!

Let me introduce the Chemical Team:
1) Prof Gopal Mugeraya (Head of Dept): http://chemengg.nitk.ac.in/page.php?p=viewProfile&id=7
2) Mr Prasanna ( Lecturer): http://chemengg.nitk.ac.in/page.php?p=viewProfile&id=18
3) Varun (Myself)
4) Nikhil Rao ( Kaiyya to everyone in coll, quiz club member)
5) Kaustubh ( Another quiz club member)
6) Arbit Chemical Junta ( We couldnt find one person so we had that seat filled by many ppl at various times)

So there were 14 teams in total ( 8 branches- comps never showed up, and applied mech, maths, chemistry, physics, the Dean's Team and, u guessed it, the Director's team)
Fine let the games begin:
GAME 1: GENERAL QUIZ
Supposedly the quiz master wasnt aware of students also participating so had set the quiz level a little low in standard. In the end it was what made us all enjoy it more. A few arbit questions and the answers that followed:
Q- Connect the following: Atlas, Ursa Major, Indian Ferdinand Magellan
Answer given- All are Cycle Companies ( Chemical junta- Won funniest answer prize)
Actual Answer- They all have Oceans named after them ( No team answered this btw)

Q- What was the feat that Eugene Cernan did last?
Answer given- 10 CGPA ( Chemical junta- Won funniest answer prize again)
Actual Answer- Walk on the moon ( No team answered this, again)

Hmmm... i am seeing a pattern here!
The quiz was generally a success apart from the sloppy editing in the AV round (The media files were named after the answers!)

Standings after the quiz (Not in order): EnC, Chemical, Civil, IT, Mech
GAME 2: Tug-of-War
Now this was a fun event! Accusations flew all over the warzone about one side of the ground being more slippery than the other giving the other team an unfair advantage.. Many suggestions came forward including a friction control, sand bathing etc etc. None thought of simply shifting the area to an adjacent location!
Imp results: Chemical beat IT ( Ya baby), EnC lost to Civil, Director's Team beat Dean's team (Lol)

Standings after game 2 (IN ORDER):
1) CHEMICAL ( We rock or what?? )
2) EnC
3)Civil
4)Mech
5)Mining

GAME 3: War of The Branches
Basically a 45 min Group Discussion/Debate/Fish-market haggling to decide the top branch. The top 5 branches were asked to participate with the two faculty members and 1 student. Me n Nikhil had got a similar opportunity earlier so it was upto Kaustubh to do us the honours.

Random comments heard:
* The human body is designed so intricately that if God were an Engineer, He would have to be a Mechanical Engineer
* Consider an F-16 fighter: Mech ppl built it, EnC guys made the controls but Chemical made the bomb!
* Arbit EnC student telling this over 3 times: We arent here to find which is the best branch (WTF????)
*Arbit civil student to that: Fine does that mean u ppl are forfeiting?
*Arbit EnC guy again: U 4 branches are the base of the pyramid, we are the apex
*Chemical junta to that: Lets knock the base off, shall we? Lets see what happens!

Best one was from the Director himself ( he represented EnC now) to counter an incredible war between civil n chemical: Now now, let civil ppl be civilian!
I got to thinking: And chemical ppl be chemicals??? Or Chameleons???

In the end Civil won the last round, EnC came 2nd while chemical won a modest 3rd.. But the whole programme was brightened up by the present of a DD of ~ rs 40k for the family of a recently deceased Chemical staff member: May his soul rest in peace!

In conclusion, it was a great day sday and i was glad to be there.. Oh did i mention the Free lunch later? Hehe.. Cya!

Promotions..

I refer to promoting my blog, and the first thing to be done is put the blog id as ur gtalk status message.. One thing i cant help noticing is how Google has infiltrated our lives. Only 4 years ago google was considered a "baby" in the search-engine industry which had come up in the internet. 4 years later ( and gmail, gtalk,orkut, google docs, google feeds, youtube etc etc) we find it beyond belief that there are people who still use altavista or askjeeves! Not that i am anti-google but there are other options beyong google..

Now if u will excuse me, i gotta try out Google Chrome (their new browser: http://www.google.com/chrome)
I will soon replace it as my default browser, GOOGLE ROCKS!

Oh whats that?? I am a hypocrite??? Well go on- Bite me :)

First Timer..

I must admit to all my readers ( Read: Only me for quite some time! ) that this is my VERY FIRST blog post.. One can not blame the reader for giving up right now on this inexperienced writer but for those who choose to remain loyal- I promise u a thrill ride.. Where to? No one can say :)

This blog has been inspired by the suggestions of many people who tell me i can do better than just read other blogs ( no, i am NOT a pervert).. Well here it is- Let the games begin!