A BOND LIKE NO OTHER – The Chemical Engineering Chronicles
Prof to Freshie: “So, What do Chemical Engineers do?”
Freshie: “…”
Prof to Final Year: “So, What do Chemical Engineers do?”
Final Year: “…”
Even though it appears like we still don’t know what it is that chemical engineers really do, the fresher and the final year are blank for different reasons. The fresher because he doesn’t know and the final year because he cannot decide whether we are a) universal engineers or b) glorified plumbers or c) are you mad? Don’t answer questions asked by Professors in the Department!
Helping the blank fresher make the transition into the blank final year were eight long semesters, in the time-span of which the thermodynamically stable system that was a Chemical Engineering student’s head was subjected to several dynamic disturbances, as a result of which the flow of mass, heat and momentum into the stable system was reversed and there was significant loss to the atmosphere (the professors really intended for it to be the other way).
First year in the ATB with our Materialistic Friends turned out to be just the very beginning of a long journey where we all realized that chemical engineering is not a state function but very much a path function. The Chemistry cycle brought with it the banes of Engineering Graphics, Workshop and Chemistry Lab, not to mention the courses themselves. This semester was marked largely by the eccentricities of the Workshop foreman, who found our Bro to be a suitable object of affection. The Graphics Instructor(s), who came in various shapes, sizes and colours (pink!?) tried to force a few fundamentals of drawing into our highly-resistant brains. Chem Lab was always an engaging experience, with the smallest mistakes somehow being caught, and parents’ numbers being taken down before you could bat an eyelid. Also noticeable about this semester was the speed with which we ran through our Math faculty; there one moment, gone the next! Also worthy of mention is the Electronics faculty, who had a mysterious blind-spot to one particular section of the class, and hypnotized the rest with his keychain. The Chemistry faculty, who scheduled tests that truly surprised one and all, refused entry to any who entered nanoseconds after the bell. Professional Communication saw groups trying, and failing, to have meaningful discussions, and trying to pronounce “Ms” appropriately; something most of us are still struggling to do. (Muss? Miss? Muzz?)
While we barely managed to survive the first semester, second semester proved to be a cake-walk. Or so we thought! The Physics cycle brought with it the unpleasant prospects of Programming as well as Electrical Engineering, a subject that saw us achieve our lowest scores yet. C Programming classes, as well as labs, had most of us in a loop with seemingly no way out, and yet, due to the eventual kindness of our faculty, all ended well. The Introduction to Program classes, aimed at exposing us to the many opportunities that awaited successful Chemical Engineering graduates, did little to appease us, but the wonderful placements of the then Final Year batch, as well as the numerous admits to prestigious Universities, did assure us that we had a future after all.
The end of this semester saw the exit of Pramod and The SneezeMaster to Tronics, Hitesh to IITB (after being caught in class preparing for the same), Misha to Scotland, and our Meta brethren to their own Department. We would be welcoming two new members to our fold, Darshan from Meta, and the one and only Chaatu, generous enough to leave the Civil Dept and join us. While most of us spent the first year still coming to terms with the hostels, the mess, the mess in the mess, the novel use of buckets, glass plates and lamps for Graphics, what all “GB” stood for and the other nitty-gritties of NITK life, two of us found their true calling, and figured out how they would be spending a greater part of their life in college.
Preet decided that he would top.
Kaiya decided that he would sleep.
Year 2:
Third Semester:
Enter the Department. After all that we had heard about the Dept from various sources, we still maintain that nothing had prepared us for what awaited us here. The very first class led to absolutely no momentum being transferred, whereas the Process Calculations course introduced us to the art of getting lesser marks than the number of questions in the paper. Most of the class was left deciding between Bhat & Vhora and the notes, and giving up on both the day before the exam. It was also jarring to realize that our drawing days hadn’t come to an end after all, or even that we would ever have to bother finding out what a lathe does. So while metal we hammered, and valves we drew, what purpose they served, no one knew. Row, however, escaped by sticking her little finger into the lathe, obtaining a minuscule, but strategically placed cut, and letting the foreman finish her model for her, while standing behind him and wincing convincingly from time to time.
This semester was not without its merits though – We spent several entertaining hours in our OC and BC courses where our instructor convinced us that we had to synthesize Mandelic acid and not Mandodhari acid, and that auto-catalysis was not catalysis performed in an autorickshaw. This subject once witnessed an attendance of 1/34, and on another memorable occasion, the instructor had to slide the Surprise Test question papers under the prone forms of Kaiya, our champion snoozer, and Prabha, who had decided that two was company.
These diaries would be incomplete without a tribute to our Most Senior Professor. He was the one that gifted us with a very rewarding equation - Unit Test Paper + Mid Sem Paper = End Sem Paper, which helped us all obtain very commendable grades in the subject concerned, as well as a slew of quotable quotes like – “Deviyon aur unke paas baithnewale sajjanon”… “kabhi kabhi aisa bhi hota hai...shayad..aisa hi hota hai!”.. to mention a few.
This semester also saw the emergence of one of the greatest singers of our age. After a brief display of public grief that still remains a mystery to some of us, he cleared the vocal chords, and began to belt out the latest hits of the day, in a voice that left all of us looking for the source, but rarely finding it. Bansal was christened Saccha Hero while Dhole and Arati took on the titles of Bhaiyya and Bhabhiji respectively. One of the prominent locos became the Class Representative. One more pasted himself to the first bench, and decided that he would give Preet a run for his money. The loco with questionable origins and questionable orientation dedicated “Woh Lamhe” to his deep muse in a very fun Freshers, and has not dedicated songs to girls ever since.
Semester 4:
Fourth Semester brought with it the first two installments of the Transfer Operations courses, as well as 2 labs; in one of which was always present the danger of getting electrocuted, whereas the other one turned into a watery grave for all our ambitions of performing accurate engineering experiments. We were also told not to prepare for tests in a very hot subject, as it was supposed to be of no use whatsoever (And imagine our consternation when we found out that this was true!). While Treybal, an innocent-looking and small book (as compared to other heavyweights like Perry’s) turned out to be utterly unhelpful when we turned to it to understand things like Baker’s Method, Levenspiel, Fogler and Preet would begin to be our constant guides for the next one year. Of tragic note is that even after CET-I most of us still think of a smart Atlas or a Hero whenever anyone mentions a thermodynamic cycle. The lone Chemistry course was the only one with the surprise test element still being retained in it, much to the dismay of all those who would happily return five minutes late from a dash to the erstwhile SNP. It was also becoming habit for us by now to refer to Preet’s notes more than all the other reference books combined, as these usually came with timely help from the great author himself. This semester ended with the aforementioned singer switching from songs of tragedy to nostalgia (?) and Sandy suffering from a very well-timed attack of -------- to explain his (lack of) attendance in the Reaction Engg course. Mote began to look to the Middle East this sem while Chaatu tried unsuccessfully to take Bhabhiji out to dinner.
Year 3:
Semester 5:
This semester will largely be remembered as the one in which we had our Heat Transfer Lab. HT Lab was literally hell - where boiling oil, steam and fumes enveloped one and all. Dehydration, burns and trouser-ripping became commonplace, boiler and heat exchanger efficiencies crossed 300%, and data manipulation became the order of the day. The climax of this harrowing experience was a Viva Voce that would put all others to shame. Confronted by the God Panel, each member of the class returned weak-kneed, wearing expressions that would have made Mishra proud, mumbling under their breath and staring glassily into space. It was later heard that the shock and dismay felt during the viva was entirely a mutual experience. Having been stunned into silence by such gems such as Gogo’s reply to “What is Radiation?” – “Er…. Something that’s neither convection nor conduction?” it is assumed that this was when the Department definitely gave up on our class. Moosa became CR as Alok went on to become GenSec. The thoroughly mismanaged Humanities course as well as Process Instrumentation saw hilarious presentations with Arun Chandra stealing the thunder in both of them with his outstanding examples of closed and open systems as fluid flowing inside and outside the human body(!??), and the example for Hair Hygrometer (“Yes, any hair is ok”). Mass Transfer - II saw us all stitching together graph sheets that stretched across blocks, trying to draw tie-lines and measure reflux ratios, while McCabe-Thiele and Ponchon-Savorit were unanimously voted the most unpopular duos in chemical engineering history. The most memorable incidents of the semester were definitely the trip to Malpe, where Indu appreciated the local waters, ably aided by Gogo and DD, as well as the Chemical Class Sadanand Treat.
Semester 6:
Undoubtedly the most challenging of them all, this semester was an endurance test, what with 4+ hour TA lab sessions, as well as 8-10 hours a week of the emotionally and aurally crippling PDC + PMS courses. There was some relief provided, however, by the much-loved Most Senior Professor, who returned with his formula - Unit Test Paper + Mid Sem Paper = End Sem Paper, and MT lab, which coincided magnificiently with the many power cuts common to the summer term, and consequently saw attendances as high as 2/8 labs. Arati ably demonstrated the art of sympathetic bunking, by not turning up for the lab whenever her partner Kaiya “fell ill”. The class appreciated the many curves and figures that were part of the Engineering Economics course, but failed to grasp anything beyond that. Biochemical Engineering saw us prepare from unarguably the best set of 45 slides ever compiled (crickets are crunchy, dog and cat meat is special and microbial fermentation led to the formation of Israel in the First World War). Several people were naturals at BCE due to their familiarity with the products being discussed – wine, beer, cheese and bread.
The person who handled this sem the best was probably Row, who took it upon herself to show the class time and again how to finish writing exams before the invigilator had even finished distributing the question papers.
People started to think of what they would like to do with their lives – and several interned at IITK (a sudden Surge was experienced), IISc, MRPL, Coromandel Fertilizers etc (although it is reported that Mishra would have liked to intern at MRPL instead). Several discoveries were made that were thus far unknown – Shiva’s multiple girlfriends, Arun Chandra’s philosophy that two are better than one and Tripathi’s switching from songs of nostalgia to romance. The semester ended with a bang especially for Kaiya, who, at Inci ’08, certainly joined the beat, but failed to land on his feet.
Final Year:
Semester 7:
It had finally arrived! Some of us had arrived before the others (in 3rd semester itself) but when the highly awaited Final Year came upon us, we were all so ecstatic that we refused to show up at the Department. Rejected by Kollywood and Sandalwood, the Dark Knights descended upon us, along with the much-feared God. We are largely at a loss as to what really happened in class as none of us were present. During the exams however, PDCE had us frantically rifling through Perry’s Handbook for half an hour and finally finding an equation or a correlation totally irrelevant to the problem at hand. CPI had us drawing many boxes and many more lines to connect them, and filling the boxes with text that we imagined was appropriate. Chemical Process Optimization was the elective from hell, with the grades also being severely optimized. PE, which was taken with the third years, saw unexplainably higher attendance from some people. Macha proved to be smarter than the rest when he harassed everyone during their CPI presentations but answered all harassing questions directed at him during his.
Placements:
Kiran Kumar kick-started Placements 2009 with a brilliant job at Oracle. Indu was placed in TCS while Row became the new Reddy Aunty. Darshan got the highly coveted IOCL job, and Bro, DD and Deba were placed in BOC. Chaatu is off to HSBC (“I will make it GSBC in some time. Just keep watching!”), and Sachin and Varun got into BPCL. Kaiya and Dhole got into Futures First, while our CR landed a job at Mu-Sigma. Moosa and Mishra both got two jobs, and are likely to take up Coca-Cola and L&T respectively. Bansal and Gogo were placed in Tech Mahindra. Swapna & Raj got placed in Accenture while Christi got a PPO from her intern company in Dubai.
Attendance:
This semester saw an unbelievable slump in attendance, with GRE, CAT and Placement preparations being some of the more plausible excuses, and latest episodes of House MD and “no one was there in the block to wake me up” the less plausible ones. Having attended more placement treats than classes this semester, our attendance percentages had an average of 45% in most courses, ranging from 9% (Kaiya and Dhole) to 65% (no prizes for guessing who). For reasons that even he cannot explain, DD ended up with the highest attendance in PCSPI. With the introduction of the new FA grade, the two weeks prior to exams were spent wondering if we would be allowed to write them at all. However, the Department saved our behinds yet another time and we escaped mostly unscathed.
Kaiya: “Sir, I am placement coordinator…”
God: “How did you always have placement work at 8AM?”
Kaiya: “……”
Kodachadri:
Eighth Semester:
With minimal course-load, most of the class was involved in Engi and Inci. Kiran’s mind-blowing Inci website was the talk of the town. While DD, as LSD Con of both, was frequently seen making trips to and from GB (which one?) on Inci and Engi duty, Dhole, as the Publicity Coordinator for Engi, came to classes with the sole purpose of telling people about the Engi events. Dhole’s and Alok’s stellar dance performance during DJ Nite at Inci was captured by Deepti.
For the first time in 3 years, we had a course handled by a visiting professor. This novel concept became clear to us, when the Mysore Brother finally arrived 2 weeks before the mid-sem exams, and began to teach, stopping only a week later, well after most of the class had sidled out through the back door, never to returm. This course led to much friction between the class as to who would exit after the first hour and who would have to sit through it. Amicable settlements were reached with turns being taken to exit in the morning and evening session. The mandatory Technical Seminars proceeded ever so slowly with various excuses being offered from bringing in shortcuts to incompatibility of versions to laptops crashing, etc.
App Scene:
At the time of going to print, Prabha proposes to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering at Rice U and Suhas intends to head off to RPI to major in Control Systems. Panicker and Deepti have received admits from Clemson U and U Florida. Preet and Rajesh look all set to head off to either IISc or an IIT. Several more admits are anticipated.
Highly awaited are the final class trip, App Treats, Farewell and Ring Ceremony and more fights between Tripathi and Chaatu on the Google Group.
Miscellany:
Unanswered Questions:
1) Why did Tripathi cry?
2) How did Prabha convince Acharya to pass her despite lack of attendance?
3) How was Kaiya busy in 7th Semester?
4) Kaun Chota Chaatu aur kaun Bada Chaatu?
5) Did any guy learn Economics in 6th sem?
6) Why was Varun Shenoy researching Barbies at IISc?
7) How does Row leave the exam hall so early?
8) What happened to that Class T Shirt that DD has been designing since 2nd sem?
Quotable Quotes
1) Mishra: (In response to Dhole’s concern) Abey main darra hua nahin,bhagwan ne
aisa mooh hi diya hai toh kya karoon?
2) Prof. Adhikari: Listen Mister, Hurry brings worry not Shri Hari ok? So take your time with experiments…
3) Singhai: The name is Gaurav Singhai
4) Tripathi : She is a dumb
Multiple Choice Questions
Lab Partners made in heaven
1) Christina and Deba
2) Arati and Yuvraj
3) Sandeep and Nikhil
Better late than never to class
1) Prabha
2) Indu
3) Dhole
Epilogue:
Our Department is fond of calling us a family. At the end of four years, we have come together across several barriers to truly become one. Being sandwiched between two very nerdy batches, we were happy to be the slackers, taking things easy and making having a good time the most important thing. Chemical Engineers at NITK are a unique and slightly crazy bunch, and we’ve definitely kept up the tradition. Wherever we all head off to pursue our lives and careers, the four years we’ve spent here at the Chem Engg. Department were surely among the most amazing years ever.
Salutations, Chemical Engineers of the Batch of 2009!
Dramatis Personae:
CR, Saccha Hero, Christi, Deba, Dee, DD, Hardik, Gogo, Indu, Kiran, Manoj, Shivakumar, Panicker, Prabha, Preet, Ragayjesh, Moosa, Bro, Sachin, Mishra, Dhole, Row, Su, Swap, Varun, Macha, Arati, Arun Chandra, Tripathi, Kaiya, Sandy, Sanjay, Darshan, Chaatu.
