Categories
humor IIT sports

Short (personal) history of running

If you are a guy, you need to be a sissy to feel good about beating girls in running. I am not being sexist or anything. Girls are as good as boys, even better, in most of the things but the bodies are different and so are the physical capacities. So if you are a guy, you need to be a sissy to feel good about beating girls in running. I beat a girl in running today and I feel so good about it.

Though I talk a lot about running and stuff and I run a lot, the fact is that I am a rather slow runner. In short, when it comes to running, I suck. I can run for like one and a half hour even, but I cannot run that much if you ask me to run like a real runner. I never wanted to be a real (read: fast) runner in the first place. I never wanted to be a runner at all in the zeroeth place. It just happened. Reasons are vague. In my final year in IIT, I started believing that I had strong arms. I thought that I had strong arms so I should participate in weight-lifting and therefore I started running regularly. When friends asked why was I running suddenly all over the campus, I would tilt the head at the right angle and in a Sylvester-Stallonish style, answer them – ‘stamina da. A sportsman needs stamina’. It really didn’t matter then that I was not a sportsman to begin with. I never played anything in hostel except showing up bare-chested a couple of times in the baski-court and I had never tired weight-lifting before that. So I kept running and kept saying everyone that it was for stamina and every sportsman needed good stamina. Obviously I couldn’t ever lift weight or my arms never became stronger because of running. I did gain some stamina but because I was not yet a sportsman and I didn’t have a girl friend to have sex with then, I didn’t know how to use this stamina that I suddenly had. So I ran more, day after day. After few months, I really had no clue why I was still running and then a road race happened in IIT. I participated. Of course I sucked again. I think I got some 300th place or something. 100 guys must have run in that race. I never really stopped running after that.

Today morning I ran 4.47 kilometers in 25 minutes on the treadmill so that I could beat Push who told me she could do 4.4 K in the same time. It was a good feeling. If you are a guy, you need to be a sissy to feel good about beating girls in running.

Categories
humor IIT movies

Salinger, Wild Hogs and Tiwari

I would have been making a Shitoon right now because I have an idea for a new joke, you know. I am writing this post instead. This is one thing that Salinger does to me. He makes me write. I was reading Catcher in the Rye long back – last month may be. It was a small book so I could have finished it then only. But the pirated version had a problem – it had blank pages. After having read about 100 pages, I realized that every once in a while, a pair of pages would go blank! It was so irritating. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to skip pages just for the heck of finishing the book. It was then that I decided to pick an original from somewhere. I couldn’t find it anywhere – I tried only in the Oxford bookstore though. There aren’t more bookshops in Bhubaneswar anyway. It was only few days back, this Sunday actually, when I finally found out this cute book in the shop and oh boy, did I jump with joy! And it was only few minutes back that I finally finished it. And then I felt like writing myself – this is one thing that Salinger does to me. He makes me write.

Wild Hogs – everyone should watch this movie. It’s not too great or mind blowing or insanely funny or anything like that. But everyone who is planning to do a crazy bike-trip and all should watch it – Wild Hogs. The movie is sweet and cute, you know. There are like four friends, all ageing and all that and getting sick of their lives and then one day they generally decide to go for some bike trip without any plans and stuff and without their wives. Since it’s a movie, very funny things happen and of course in the end it’s all goody goody and all that. I mean I laughed a lot as I saw it being shown on Star Movies. I sometimes felt like crying too even when the movie never really tried to be too senti. But I felt like crying anyway. Bike trips and friends and all that – such things make you feel like crying when you are away from such things, put up in a guest house built on a 10 ft by 10 ft island in the middle of the Pacific. I am not saying that Bhubaneswar is so small and that there’s sea water all around, but it feels nice to crib anyway.

The awesome thing is that I am myself going on a crazy bike-trip in less than ten days. It’s not that I got inspired by Wild Hogs or anything. Hell, it wasn’t even my own idea. It came from Tiwari. Such things come from Tiwari, you know. He is normal otherwise but somtimes he comes up crazy plans and you have to love him for that. I would love him anyway but I like him so much more when he proposes a crazy plan like riding a bike for like ten days. Back in my second year in IIT, this guy proposed that he, me and Anshuman should go cycling from Insti to Mahabalipuram – that was like 80 Kms to and fro. Myself and Anshuman acted like bastards you know – we said yes, yes, let’s go, let’s go and then we never really went. And then one night Tiwari came to us and told us he was coming back from Mahabalipuram. He told us he went all alone on his Hero Hawk a friend’s borrowed bicycle in the morning and returned back alive. Suddenly he was like the man and we felt like pussies. I don’t know about Anshuman but I certainly felt like a pussy you know. I also felt bad that he had to go all alone and all that. So in the next few days – the three of us finally went together cycling to Mahabalipuram – and even made a video with some random rock music and all that after coming back. You know what, we started this trend soon – junta in insti started taking this trip. I don’t know if they still take such trips at IIT, but anyway, it was Tiwari who started it. Such things come from Tiwari, you know. He is normal otherwise but somtimes he comes up crazy plans and you have to love him for that.

Categories
humor IIT

Marketing strategies of early 2007

Ran across this document which made me smile – they were the good old days before the advent of Vatsap? when I was crazy for people to read my blogs.

I Anshuman Agrawal, declare that I will display the status message “updated: www.amritvatsa.blogspot.com” as my gtalk status message for 36 hrs during next two days (48 hours) starting from 7:00 pm 09.02.2007 to 7:00 pm 11.02.2007 (1 am to 5 am time out). On both days, for any 2 hrs (except prime slot i.e. 8 pm to 11 pm) I have the right to change the status message to anything else. But if the status message, asked by Amrit Vatsa is changed at any other time, this contract will be regarded invalid.

After the end of the above mentioned period, Amrit Vatsa, resident of 345 Narmada Hostel, roll no CE03B051 shall offer me chocolate fantasy in CCD. The expected cost is Rs. 36. Any increase in cost shall be born by me.

Ah – IIT, where art thou? I am seriously going to a CCD in Bhubaneswar today, si there, close my eyes and travel back in time recollecting all the nice time spent with all the nice people in the IIT CCD.

Categories
IIT senti

Never to return again

I met couple of more juniors in insti day before yesterday when I went there in the evening but one thing was clear – without the old folks, insti just wasn’t the same. Yesterday, I could still connect to a lot of things – CCD, CLT, Tiffanys, dramatics, the insti actors, my ex-Shaastra-coordinators etc. Soon, even that would become difficult to do – connecting that is. The number of juniors, whom I know, would have gone down and after say two years, I wonder if I would know any student in IIT. A fresh breed of blood shall be keeping the spirit of the campus alive. I would have become an old blood by then, and the process already seems to have started. Sigh! I thought I had moved on but the way I felt day before, wasn’tย a great feeling. Finally I felt like an outsider. Finally I felt like a pass-out – passed out to roam around alone in the world. The relationship with insti was a sweet one, one of the most beautiful ones in my life so far. Day before, IIT indeed felt like that ex-girlfriend who looks the same when you run into her after months of break-up, but who you soon realize is not really the same – not from inside, not the way you left her last. You can so clearly see that she is getting used to a new life – a life without you, and you cannot do much about it. If there is something that you can do, then it is to pack your bags and walk out, smiling at the good old days and accepting that they indeed were the old days – fading, dying, gone – never to return again.

Categories
IIT

What, you wanna abolish JEE?

What is this drama about IIT-JEE? Dean students, IIT Madras thinks JEE should be scrapped! This seriously is the limit. kuch bhi? Jo man me aaya bol diya, aisa?

Let me copy-paste IITM’s director quoted words for the news article and then let me rape him.

I am looking for students with raw intelligence and not those with a mind prepared by coaching class. The coaching classes only help students in mastering pattern recognizing skills. With this, you cannot get students with raw intelligence.

I do not get this deal about generally blaming coaching classes for everything. So dear Diro, do you also think that since so many coaching classes exist for Civil Services Examination, the IAS officers of today lack raw intelligence? What is raw intelligence anyway? Politicians with no intelligence run this country. And someone here has a problem with coaching classes.

Coaching classes do what it takes to increase every students chance of qualifying JEE. I didn’t take coaching. I still qualified. Big deal. Does that mean I have raw intelligence? Bull shit.

What do you teach inside IIT anyway? One course after another. How are you so sure that the kind of skills that coaching classes impart those who attend them, are not enough to take what IIT offers?

So many students go for coaching. So few of them who do coaching, finally qualify (5%, 10%, how much?). How is it that some students develop a better pattern recognizing skill than the others, even when they all go for coaching? Could it be, Mr. diro, that the raw intelligence that you talked about, is responsible for this difference?

Pattern recognizing skills! What pattern does JEE have anway? One year you ask subjective questions, another year you make it totally objective. One year, you include xyz in the syllabus, another year you remove that. One year you take a screening first and then a main exam, another year you take just one. Pattern? Kahaan?

In the same article, the following is what the Diro further said:

We must evolve a system where only the top 1% of students from different state boards and CBSE are permitted to appear for the JEE

State board and CBSE? I thought someone was concerned about patterns! You are suggesting use of board exams as a criteria for selection? Is there any other exam in India which follows an extremely predictable pattern than the board exams? Why such contrasting views Mr. Diro, why? Chalo, raped you enough. Ab dean ki baari hai.

Read what the dean student says:

One of the reasons for the poor intake of girls in the flagship B. Tech programme is that parents don’t send daughters for coaching classes. The best way to increase the intake of girls is to have direct admissions.

I don’t know whether to laugh over this or cry. How many professors in IIT Madras are female sir? And how many IAS officers in Tamil Nadu or even the rest of the India female? Hai jawaab?

Girls of today are sensible. Flagship B. Tech programme! Blah! I wonder why these guys don’t give any basis for their statements. Why do these guys who have worked inside the system since long, still talk like those who are outside it. What percentage of girls who sit for JEE qualify? Is it a figure that difficult to obtain?

Educated Indians girls of today have the job security because they are still living in a society where the husband is assumed to take care of his wife by default. So unlike the middle-class boys, they don’t have to fight so badly to get into IITs. Those who really want to do engineering, write the exams. Amongst them, those are good enough, get through. Period.

Go have a look at colleges other than engineering. In fact go have a look at any college where people are not in there because of assurance of a good job, but because it offers the kind of education that they are interested in. Dance colleges, journalism colleges, film-making institutes. You will find enough girls. Many good girls, many smart girls, and at least few intelligent girls.

It isn’t JEE that’s responsible for the lower intake of girls sir, it simply is the lower need to struggle harder than a million ants to study something as crappy as engineering. And believe me they are lucky. They at least have the option to stay out of the stupid rate race. We, the middle-class men, whose fathers don’t run a business, are already tired running it.

Stop frustrating junta by speaking up anything that comes to mind.

I lost my mind after a long time.

Categories
IIT sports

Papa, running and the shoes-story

The good news for the day is that papa got a promotion. He now is a scale three officer. The bad news for the day is that papa got a promotion. Now that he is a scale three officer, he will be sent to a bigger branch, away from home. He works in a public sector bank. The new branch could be anywhere, definitely away from the house that he built few years back. There is quite a possibility that his new posting could even be in a different state altogether. Let me not speculate. Let me just wait. For the next news.

The weather here is so perfect (not just in the morning but during any time of the day). The economist, who was working in Bhopal before she was sent here, keeps telling me it’s humid here in Bhuv. I keep telling her that she should see Chennai. ๐Ÿ˜›

My fourth day in Bhuv. Hmm. I finally ran. Forty minutes. Must have covered a distance of about 8k. Yesterday, when I had some free time, I browsed through the Google map of Bhubaneswar, located my guest house on the map, and traced a route for myself on the National Highway no. 5 (NH5). My guest house is very close to NH5.

When I finally ran today, I ended up exceeding the marked route. Why? Because I had given myself a total running of time of 40 minutes, but ended up crossing my marked boundary in only about 12-15 minutes. I guess I had miscalculated the distance on Google map. So I just kept running away from the guest house after reaching NH5 till I had finally run a good twenty 20 minutes and then returned in almost the same time, completing a total of 40 minutes of running time.

I so want to buy some cool gadget that tells me my speed and all that when I run. These running accessories should come one by one. Thank God, I finally have at least my own pair of running shoes. If you have been a regular reader, and have kept a track of my running escapades, you might be surprised to know that I got myself shoes only after coming back from Andaman, that is in June. Papa gifted them to me after having seen me run 10k in Andaman with his own eyes. ๐Ÿ™‚ Before that, I simply used to put on any available pair lying in the hostel-wing and hit the road in insti. The wing was always full of shoes, some new, some discarded. Man, I have run so much on borrowed pair of shoes that now when I get into my new Reebok, I almost feel like a King. A prince may be.

In this context of borrowed shoes, PD, a branch-cum-hostel junior and a good friend deserves a special mention. They were PD’s shoes that I used for a long long time. I never knew that they were his when I started running long distance back in September last year. I always thought they belonged to Tak, my batchmate cum hostel mate, who had a room next to PD. Every time I would cross Tak in those shoes, I tried my best to walk past him as fast as possible, before he could realize that I was in his shoes. And every time I walked pass PD, I would only smile at him and he would smile back at me. I never knew why I always got such a broad smile in response.

It was only after a few good months, and I guess some time in the beginning of this year, when PD finally told me, smiling, that they were his. I was so shit embarrassed, but smiled back. From next week, I could be seen in another junior’s shoes. ๐Ÿ™‚ ย Thanks PD for triggering my running career. And wherever those shoes are, tell them that I miss them.

Categories
IIT

The five years that flew away

Coffee is costly at CCD here at Bengaluru Airport. Latte comes for 65 bucks and international for 100. I didn’t bother finding out the rate of the books at Odeyssey. I am in the departure lounge now and I don’t see any Odyessey here.

Convocation. It was an assembly of a bunch of excited IITians, all dressed in red gowns. SAC. Student Amenities Centre. SAC is the same huge auditorium inside insti, where all of us underwent orientation on our arrival to the campus in our first years. I still remember those millions of white floor-fans, placed between columns of chairs in SAC during the orientation, and later during several different events held at that place, the last being the Sharav Hostel Nite if I remember correctly. Many a times we had wondered how nice it would be to have AC in SAC. Finally, SAC has it. AC. In fact, the AC was made operational for the first time in my convocation. The 45th convocation of IIT Madras.

Anshuman, Tiwari and myself sat together, laughed together and received our degrees one by one. Tiwari, roll number 50, myself 51, Ansh 52. It was just like the first semester. Here is a picture of the three of us taken during the last few days of the first semester. 2003.

We had made this lovely bridge, that had gained fame in a short while in the entire Sarayu hostel. How can I, or anyone of the three of us forget how Ansh put his entire weight over the bridge to prove to an absent-minded prof that our bridge was capable of taking the load of one full overweight ( ๐Ÿ˜› ) human-being. Do you know what that prof had told us? Since he is standing on one leg, only half of his weight is getting transferred to the bridge. LOL. Did she ever learn physics. She was a Chemical Engineering prof, and over a period of time we forgave her.

The remains of the bridge still exist. I own one pier. Ansh owns the other. The broken deck was handed over to Tiwari, and I am not sure if it still exists somewhere. It was the bridge that we shared then. It is the company that we share now. We are now post graduates. Here is the picture of the post-graduate troika. 2008.

Ansh (closest to the camera in the above pic) called up just now. He is in Chennai. He hasn’t left yet. By evening he should be in Mumbai. He and some more friends had shown up at my place a day before the convocation. Tiwari and myself enjoyed cooking breakfast and lunch for everyone. The house suddenly looked all full and alive. If I feel sad at the fact that I am already away from Chennai, I feel sadder at the fact that Tiwari won’t have anyone in the house from tomorrow. The liveliness and the energy would be gone. Nothing in life is permanent, the more you live, the more you agree.

The five years that flew away, ended officially on the 25th of July 2008 when I received my birthday presents (two degrees). Three cheers to life.

Categories
IIT

And they say getting in is hard?

This is not just a blog post. This is a story. In fact, a bloody long one. Let me begin this story from an Uncyclopedia quote.

โ€œYou think getting into IIT is difficult? Try getting out, bitch!โ€ -disgruntled IITian on IIT

A mail on June 27th from my project guide made my eyes almost pop out. In shock. In utter shock. Let me quote an excerpt from the mail:

…since you have missed the deadline by several days (given that you still have some additions to make you will not be done till early July), you will therefore be ineligible to graduate this year…

He was talking about the thesis submission deadline; the thesis for my B. Tech plus M. Tech project. The extended deadline was 20th of June, a Friday. Almost all my classmates had already ended up submitting their thesis at least by 22nd, a Monday. I, on the other hand, had only been able to send a soft-copy of the third draft of my thesis on 27th, a week after the extended deadline.

Yes, my guide was right. I indeed had delayed things by several days. My pre-thesis project work had been over since quite sometime. In fact more than a month back. But when it came to writing it all, compiling my research in the form of a thesis, it just never took off very well. It dragged and it dragged. The sad part was that just when I had caught the tempo and regained the enthusiasm to jot down all the knowledge gained, just when things had started to go at a good pace (remember my declaration about finishing things off by May end?), the time to join family for an already planned Andaman vacation arrived. The thesis wasn’t yet ready but I had like twenty more days to get the job done. At the pace that I had picked up finally, twenty days time was more than enough.

I guess I took it easy. I could have asked dad to leave me out for the vacation. I didn’t. Thus began the vacation and in ten days it ended too.

If you ask me, I still had enough time to wrap things up after my Andaman trip. I was back to Chennai on the afternoon of 8th June. But do you know what happened? After coming back, I was caught up in the vacation mood, and let me tell you, caught up real bad. I mean, in the morning I was in Port Blair and by afternoon, I was in my room sitting in front of my laptop trying to work! It just didn’t work this way. I could only edit videos and blog about my trip. I just couldn’t make myself do any real work. For one full week.

So yeah, things got delayed. And amidst everything, I was also busy doing plays. There were rehearsals daily. But then all these are excuses. The vacation, the play, everything. Mere excuses. I delayed my thesis and I was the only person to be blamed. That was okay but the deal with the degree, sounded kinda big. It was big, wasn’t it?

The very idea of not getting a degree this year was depressing. Why else had I come to IIT? I did not know how to react. I did not know what to reply to my project guide. I had already disappointed him so much throughout the project phase. He knew I had the potential. I knew I had the potential. What had gone wrong then? Why was I doing plays when I should be devoting all my time in writing my thesis? Why wasn’t the work output showing up? I did not reply.

Two days after sending the mail that gave hints of myself losing out on my degree, he sent back comments on the third draft of the thesis. That was Monday. June 30th. Final printed copies of my thesis were submitted only later on Friday. It was July now. 4th of July. That’s when the endless wait for the project viva began.

By this time I had already vacated my hostel room and moved to my flat. After 4th of July and up till 14th, full ten days, I didn’t have much to do besides play rehearsals in the evenings and cooking all day. Ten days passed. I performed in Bangalore on 13th July, a Sunday. I started working from 14th, a Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday.

Friday. I got a mail. My viva presentation could be held on the coming Tuesday. That’s what my guide’s mail said. I had started working on the presentation long back. By Monday, I had spent more than 20 hours on the presentation. Monday, 21st of July. Convocation was scheduled for 25th of July. I had already stopped thinking about the degree. All I wanted to do was get done from my side; go give the goddamn viva, get any grade and get rid of the insti. After getting a grade for my project, I would at least have gotten a provisional certificate that would have enabled me to prove that I had successfully completed everything. Over a period, I had somehow convinced myself that the timing of the degree didn’t much matter, if not this year then next year. Over a period, I had forced myself to believe that not getting a degree was NOT a big deal. How else could have I stayed calm? How else could have I gathered the courage to tell my dad and mom who were planning to come to the convocation all the way to Chennai, to see their son dressed up in the graduand’s gown and receiving two degrees, that they shouldn’t come. I made it sound all very cool. I had fed my brain with the idea that the provisional certificate was all that I cared for, that convocation was just another day. Everything changed yesterday. Yesterday was a Wednesday. But before that, I should tell you what happened on Tuesday. July 22nd.

At 1 PM, I left for IIT from my office. At 2 PM, my viva presentation began. By 3:15 everything was done. Everyone was impressed. I had finished the work. Everyone was satisfied, or so they acted. After the presentation was over, my guide called me to his office and gave the parting fundays of life. I would summarize his take on me in the following way:

  • I had the potential and he had seen it in the only class of his that I had a year back (I had got 10/10 in that course)
  • I was erratic, lacked consistency.
  • Given that I started real work on my project only in March 2008, the work that I had done was exceptional. Only if I had done the same amount of task, spread over a year, starting from August 2007, he would have given me an A grade or even more.
  • In insti, things work even if you have the ability to do all you work in the last few months for a year long project or last few days in smaller projects. But in the real world, people look for consistency. Since I already was good enough, all I needed was the ability to maintain the goodness. Otherwise, a reputation builds up. In the beginning of the career, people don’t know. But gradually over a period of time, everyone in the industry gets to know about the abilities and weaknesses of various people. A good reputation pushes you up, a bad one, kills you.

I was happy that my guide and myself were friends again. I was happy that my viva was finally over and my work appreciated.

Wednesday. Yesterday. 23rd July 2008.

I got a one-line mail in the afternoon as I opened my inbox from office. It had been sent from my guide and it said:

sent the grades in yesterday – check with insti – there is a chance that you will be able to get your degree this convo

What? WHAT? There was a chance of myself getting a degree this convo? Suddenly all the convincing that I done about not getting a degree being not a big deal sublimed. Suddenly there was hope. Two days before the convocation, I still could do something and get my degree. Degrees. Two of them. A B. Tech in Civil Engineering. An M. Tech in Infrastructural Civil Engineering. Post-lunch, I rushed to insti. There were forms to be filled, no-dues receipts to be collected. All of that took quite some time. From two till six in the evening, I was busy running from this lab to that, department to ad block to Alumni office to CCW to Tapti Hostel. Tapti hostel is a story in itself. By 5:45 I had all the documents needed but one. The other document was with this friend in Tapti who was not picking up his calls. Ad-block, where I was supposed to submit all documents would close by six. I just didn’t have enough time to reach Tapti, wake him up (assuming that the only reason he wasn’t picking up the call was that he was crashing in his room), collect the document, come back and submit everything. I had almost started giving up.

That’s okay. Degree is no big deal. Let it be. The brain had started to switch to that convincing mode once again. But I was lucky. Nita had joined me in the running business at five. It had been long since I had caught up (a month) with her and since she happened to be in insti, we had decided to meet. At 5:45 when I didn’t know what to do, her sarkaari car with laal batti, came to my rescue. The Ambassador took us to Tapti, I banged on his door, he indeed had been crashing, I snatched the document from him, we reached Ad-block. 5:49 pm. At 6 pm, everything was done. From my side. I still didn’t know if I would get a degree. The Ad-block needed time to process. I left. I was back to office at 6:30. At 7:15 PM I got a call. From ad-block.

No. It wasn’t a call telling me I was getting a degree. When has life been so simple? When has life been fair? When have hopes been met? You screw up things, you suffer. That’s the way it works. That’s the way it has always worked.

My revised and final grade card and been printed. But it was 7:15 and the official without whose signature the grade-card wouldn’t be rendered complete had left office. I was supposed to reach ad-block by 7:30. I had fifteen minutes. It was impossible. After the official’s sign, I also needed to get a copy of the grade card signed by my Faculty Adviser (Facad).

I called up few who were there in insti to help me out. Help came my way. MLD rushed to ad-block just before they were about to shut it off. But, he was not given the grade-card.

Today. Thursday. 24th of July.

Distribution of the convocation gown began today. In Narmada Hostel Computer room. Only for students who were cleared for convocation. I wasn’t. At 9:10 in the morning I was there. I was told that my grade card had been left in the official’s table and that I should rush to ad-block and get it signed and then I would be cleared for convo and that I could get my degree the next day. After about two more hours, I finally had the gown in my hands. I finally will be getting my degree tomorrow. Tomorrow is 25th of July. Tomorrow is the convocation. Tomorrow is my birthday.

As I walked down the wing of Narmada, the hostel that had been home for the last four years, I brought the gown close to my lips and planted a soft kiss. I could almost feel a trace of tear somewhere inside the eyes.

Twenty four more hours to go before the insti gives me the best birthday present of my life. Tomorrow, on 25th of July, I shall turn 25 and I shall become a post-graduate. Three cheers to life and welcome toย  the party. ๐Ÿ˜€

Categories
design shaastra

The new Shaastra logo: capturing the spirit of engineering

IIT Madras celebrates Shaastra. It is our technical festival. We celebrate the spirit of engineering. So it was essential for us to figure out what exactly did the ‘spirit of engineering’ stood for. We did figure that out but instead of me stating that for you, let me take you through the process by asking you certain questions.

What does engineering mean to you? I asked this to many and almost everyone gave a similar reply: engineering is about applying science. It is about taking ahead the theories of science and implementing them. This is what engineers do.

Now, what is science all about? It’s about logical creative thinking of explaining nature and various other kinds of phenomena. Years of experiments, hits and trials, and out of the box thinking, led to various theories of science. Which now lay as a resource for all the engineers to use. In engineering, you still have to think out of the box, but unlike science you cannot afford to go for hits and trials. In engineering, you don’t take chances.

Albert Einstein once said: ‘God doesn’t play dice‘. We, the engineers, try to live up to it. We think out of the die. We celebrate the spirit of engineering. Ladies, and gentlemen. Let me present to you all, the Shaastra logo:

God doesn\'t play dice

Do notice how the two dice are mirror images of each other, and yet flawed one on that. Why is there a flaw in spite of so much of symmetry? We try to remove all uncertainty, induce perfect symmetry and strive for perfection. And yet we can only strive for it. Perfection. Like God, we don’t play dice. Unlike Him, we are never perfect.

May the Gods be with us. 99.99% Three cheers to the spirit of engineering! Three cheers to Shaastra!

PS: Copywriters: Misre, Sania, Vatsap | Art: Vatsap | Graphic rendering and enhancements: Mamme

Categories
IIT shaastra

Gulp

Shaastra Logo is finally taking shape and the funny thing is that it is none from the list of logos that I threw in here. Thanks for all the comments anyway.

Once the logo is really really final, I would write the story behind it. By the way yesterday I realized that it indeed was a good thing that the spanner-making-an-S logo was not liked by many. I realized it when Sofie messaged to tell me that she had noticed that the Suzuki Service center had a very similar logo with two spanners making an S. Ouch! What a disaster it would have been, had that one gone ahead as the logo!

Tomorrow I shall write my last exam in IIT. On text, it appears very appealing but frankly my dear, there’s nothing very exciting about it. On an unrelated note, life sure has become exciting recently. A quick toast to life. Gulp!