Having recently paid a visit to not so friendly Topaz canteen, I noticed a change. No the change wasn’t in the variety items available or the cold reception accorded to you, but the change was in the way I was paid back… 5 centre fresh instead of currency!
I was literally taken back! Till now it was acceptable to have a candy or two in case of lack of ‘change’ but candies worth Rs.5 /- is bit difficult to digest. Before I could even argue , pat came the reply“Kya Karen saar, change nahi hai!!” Instead of forgoing my money for later reimbursement ( its rare that it will be returned to you without an argument and even more difficult to keep a record) I simply pocketed what was at hand, not before sharing them among juniors and friends.
Trying to figure out the implications of the candy currency, the first thing that struck me was It’s a damn good business strategy. On average there are 500 customers and even if half of them are paid back in candies that an additional sale of over 200 candies that translates into additional sale of over Rs. 6000 per month. (Not a bad venture I guess!!).
Another aspect that this brings forth is the absence of low denomination currency from the market. Initially, I couldn’t figure out the possible reason but soon it became apparent that this can be at best attributed to the ATM’s.Almost all students depend upon ATMS for their cash requirements, which only dispenses Rs. 100 and 500 denomination notes , so absence of ‘change’ can be explained.
I am not very sure of the legal (those interested in law can definitely help!!) implications of these transactions but for one I am sure that there are certain rights in the Consumer Protection Act that deal with these. More over almost all banks as per RBI directives provide for exchanging money to lower denominations by simply filling a form. So these canteen walas can procure change easily from bank. (But considering additional sales, I doubt they will ever think about it).
As of now I am saving most of these candies and planning to pay the canteen wala in candies the next time and waiting eagerly to see the reaction on this!!!
The Delhi tourism official website reads:The Garden of Five Senses (GFS)is not just a park, it is a space with a variety of activities, inviting public interaction and exploration. The project, developed by Delhi Tourism Transportation Development Corporation, was conceptualized to answer to the city's need for leisure space for the public, for people to socialize and unwind. Such spaces add atmosphere and life to a city and cater to all sections of the society.
Looking out for a place to spend our pleasant evening, Sunny came up with this brilliant idea to visit this Garden after his friend told him that you can hours there. (What his friend meant was all together a different thing....). So seven stags went out... First things first, most of the auto drivers didn't know where GFS is ! Finally, a chai-wala provided us with the directions... Unfortunately, our autos dropped us about a kilometer away. Walking down the lane, we asked directions from a 'thaele-wala', he replied with an unusual wry smile on his face (though none of us paid much heed to his smile..). Upon reaching, at the entrance the ticket guard made a strange comment 'Saat ke Saat Bande!'. Still we failed to guess whats in store for us. No sooner did we land inside, we realized why that thaele-wala had that peculiar smile, and why did the guard looked amused.We have landed in a totally out of context place. The place which 'was conceptualized to answer to the city's need for leisure space for the public, for people to socialize and unwind' was couples paradise. Every nook and corner was occupied by love birds. If we were taken aback, equally shocked were the couples. Initially, I thought of killing 'Sunny' there, but decided otherwise, It wasnt so bad after all, we were in a really 'hot' zone (pun unintended). We set out for a stroll in th garden, recieving unpleasnt stares from every couple. But this hardly made any difference to us. We actually posed for well over 15 mins infornt of the couple, for group pics . On our walk back , made sure I did not make even eye contact with that thaele-wala. Still, when we sit together and recall the incident, it amuses us beyond doubt. Just think of the curse that were 'showered' upon us by the love birds for spoiling their evening. Think about the thought going through the thaela wala and guard's mind. Probably thay would have guessed that 'Jamana badal gaya hai' or might have recalled the famous song..'AAdmin hun, AAdmi se pyaar karta hun'..
PS: Though I have tried to skip details, those interested can always mail me. Also I sincere apologize to all those people whose evening we unintentionally spoiled. Hate mails invited!! At the hind sight I do want to thank Sunny's friend and Sunny's intelligence for all the 'scenic beauty' that we witnessed.!!
It has been a considerable time since I penned down an article.... partly because of busy schedule and partly because I was mourning the loss of my invaluable luggage (including laptop, handycam , certis and what not....). But as it is said life has to move on, so I will try to move over these.. sooner or later... Now, this is my first blog on my experiences during summer workshop at IIT-Delhi().
I am almost halfway through the Workshop, so I think I can at least write something about my friends here.... I will begin with (No ladies first this time around...):- Sunny:: Nick for Suryaveer, young fellow from BITS, about to leave for US for a six month Intern @ DreamWorks Animation.Cool, cheerful guy, big movie geek... Sangeet: My roomie, from NIT Hamirpur. Is bande ka sirf ek kaam hai.. ghoomna... Always ready to roam about, koi tension nahi.. Banda Bindaas hai... Pulkit: My project partner, from CJSM Kanpur. Has been wasting his college lifeby living as PG, so easily gets miffed. Banda tension bahut leta hi.... Dumesh: yeh banda thoda unpredictable hai.. kabhi kabhi binaa baat hi naraaz ho jata. Waise ghoomne ka shaukeen hai, but takes work too seriously. Ankit: he is the 'good boy' of our group(according to the girls). Iski jindagi main sirf do cheez hain... padai and his novel. Shubham: Apna pyaara 'Chotu',(got this name because he is in 2nd yr). Always ready to raom about in delhi, but equally good at work. Big supporter of unix.
There are a few more guys, but I dont know them well enough to write.Probably will get to know them better by the end of workshop. As regards the girls, probbaly will write about them in my next blog.
Probably one of the biggest change that I observed in the ISMU is the advent of inter-hostel LAN connectivity, DC++. Now the entire campus is easily accessible to you right on your desktop. No need to roam from wing to wing or hostel to hostel searching for latest movies, songs or other documents, play CS and AOE all the night. DC has definitely placed infinite resources at our disposal.
But there is another side of the picture too. Under this glitter of gold in the form of so called DC we have lost the social connectivity. Can you recall when was the last time when you all came out as a group from your rooms late at the night (birthday bumps not included) just for BC. Isn’t it not true we stayed glued to our desktops and laptops watching more and more movies than spending time with friends?
I just recall my life in the Opal hostel, where every night there used to be a big BC, people used to sit in balcony and evenings were spent in the badminton court chatting and asking about each other. But somehow all this is now lost! At least earlier we used to go to each other’s room asking for movies that provided some form of social contact but now all this is lost and probably lost forever!!!!
Probably DC is one of those necessary evils that has connected us from outside but at the same time deprived us of the social connectivity!!
Foreword: This blog is a purely personal opinion which does not in any way intends to undermine the authority or question any ones capabilities.The blog does not knowingly or unknowingly intend to hurt any ones sentiments.
During the recently concluded mid-sems a very strange question was put up by one of the invigilators as we were about begin writing our exams,
‘While we write our exams, why doesn’t the teacher who made the paper write the exam along with us, under same circumstances?’.
At that time I was not willing to answer it because I had to write exam without letting the horses of my imagination run wild. (any way I couldn’t have answered it as question paper just has knocked me down and I had to channel my resources towards the joint effort examination, to keep me afloat)
Just think over it for a while..... I realized why not?
Now before I say anything further, I want to make it very clear that my intention is not at all to question the knowledge of the teacher nor do I doubt his capabilities, but wouldn’t it be of great help for the students that they would get to know what exactly was expected from them and at the same time provide an answer to their usual grievances that paper was too lengthy or too difficult etc. Moreover the teacher is their through the entire examination duration as an invigilators.
Another thing that came to my mind was, of late quite a few universities displayed the answer sheets of the toppers in public, so that other can understand what was expected and how different was their answer. Such initiatives can be of great help for the students.
Most of the prestigious universities have mechanisms for the assessment of teachers where, they are assessed by the students, with an intent to enhance teacher student co-ordination so both students as well as the teachers understand each other’s aspiration, compatibility expectations.
Last week I wrote a blog ‘Butterfly Effect’ because I was disturbed by the malicious report about a small student clash that had been blown out of proportion. Somehow I digested that foul smelling piece of crap.
I thought that worst was over, but it wasn’t to be. One of my dear friend went missing after he failed to clear exams and sadly enough his name was struck of the academic roles. An FIR was lodged in connection with the incident, and we looked forward for cooperation for ‘Media’ to help us trace him. But instead of looking into our agony and concern, once again the torch bearers of so call ‘freedom of press’, preferred to rub salt on our wounds. I can’t even imagine the extent to which the report in the so called world largest daily was flawed:-
1. The branch of the student concerned given wrong.
2. The year in which he was currently studying incorrect.
3. The so called marks obtained by him in last two exams were totally cooked up. The thing that surprised me the most was that even when the student himself never got to know the precise marks obtained by him, how an outsider can get to know such intricate details. This was even more amazing when one realizes that grading system is followed and precise marks of even the successful students are not known.
These moguls of the blooming media industry have probably been blinded by the glitter of the power and influence they command that they even fail to see that without being factually correct, they can never gain trust of common man, they have become emotionless to feel the pain and agony of the common man.
The most distressing part of the report was that even in this hour, they didn’t fail to dig the dead from graveyards. The most insulting part of the article was the presentation in which they reported saying that ‘recently the students have been involved in a series of violent clashes ‘ referring to the small tussle that had already been resolved and digging a three year old incident that had nothing to do with the current students as the involved people have already graduated.
Its really agonizing to see that just for the sake of increasing their TRP’s these people who have the social responsibility to keep the society informed and aware, are stooping to such low levels. Can’t these heartless people think of the sufferings of the family of the person missing that they further damage the name of the student, and the institute.
It’s now high time that media should be charged of bringing bad name and disrepute if it indulges in such misinformation. Like many of the nations where freedom of press is respected but at same time these media persons are reprimanded for their uncivilized deeds, we need to have a similar mechanism. If such malicious and irresponsible reporting is to continue, it’s not long enough when people will loose their faith in the ‘Fourth-Pillar’ of democracy.
"The flapping of wings of a butterfly in one part of the world can cause a tornado in other!"
Now if you that thought this is impossible thing..... please think again. For this can be made possible by our ever hard working and overzealous media. These torch bearers of the Freedom of Press have simply forgotten the one fundamental fact..'Freedom bestows responsibilities.'
Not long ago, one of the most unfortunate incidents came to light that shook the very foundation of Indian family culture, the Arushi Murder Case, in which even before the judicial system could look into the case, 'free press' carried out a public trial and held an innocent man guilty.
Even more interesting was the recent CERN's Experiment, the sub-atomic particle smasher, where some 24x7 news channels went on the extent to predict the end of the world. For many people this was funny, but for many others it wasn't. After watching this piece of 'crap' news channel, one child committed suicide.
Now one thing that hurt me the most was the way a small quarrel among a group of students from a prestigious institutes was blown out of proportion, even of the leading daily devoting almost 1/8th of the page and with damning headline. These people don't realize that for their small gains they can jeopardize the entire career of students. Apart from bringing a bad name to the institute, their irresponsible, incomplete and spiced up article only added fuel to fire. I fully acknowledge that they wouldn't have known this ever had someone among the students had not passed on the information, but isn't it their responsibility to at least give the administration's stand.
Probably its high time that these people do some intro-inspection and realize freedom alone is doing more harm than good (at least at times). Infringing upon privacy of people can be shoot up their TRP but what about the pain, agony and emotional damage they cause??
The following article is NOT written by me. It has been contributed by my friend DEVDEEP.
For the starters who don't know about MAILER DAEMON (MD), it is the in campus newspaper of the I.S.M.U. Dhanbad, managed fully by the students of the ISM. For further details visitwww.mailerdaemon.inBoth me and Devdeep are a part of the team that worked for MD.
I know friends that that u cannot read long article but please bear with me this time.
A year has passed since I pushed myself into Team MD. And I have managed to stick to it till today. My colleagues in the team are aware of two kinds of Team MD members: one, those who are dedicated to it and work hard till the end. They ‘eat, dream and think MD’ while working on an issue. The second category belongs to those who were not able to cope up with the pressure and left MD for its and their good. Guess I am a third kind- a category still needed to be researched. (Right now, my colleagues are working on our last issue, while I am typing this article.)
But this article is not about ‘how I fared for MD’. So let us forget this part and let me tell you what is going on in MD right now. Right now, we are interviewing candidates for selecting a new team for MD.
How I had waited for this moment since the day I was selected. Back then, I imagined this day as one in which I would scrutinize, analyze and cross-question each candidate so as to bring out the true successors of our team. Now, I amuse myself by watching my colleagues do the same. Just on the second day of the interviews, I found myself hardly uttering a word. (Don’t dream of an HR like me!) ‘My colleagues, try to recall, I was there sitting right beside you.’
I watched, as some anxious, some nervous and some energetic faces took the chair before me while Ishant from one end and Shreya from the other, hovered like vultures, ready to peck at every slip of their tongue. Among the remaining enthusiasts were Sid, Divir, Sukhi, Avinash and Sukanya, ready to chip in their part whenever they got a chance. ‘The dedicated and sincere team MD.’ Meanwhile, ‘the Bad Boy of team MD’ (that’s me) was busy planning this article and was randomly generating numbers to fill up his analysis sheet. I decided to go back in time and put myself in the interviewee’s position to analyze how I would have fared in the same test.
Interviewer (MD): Would you like to introduce yourself?
Me: (Actually no. My name is a bit too long and you would forget it, the moment I leave this room. My branch will sound alien to you and my hobby-reading books- is of no practical use to you. Anything I mention thereafter about myself will generate further cross questions- causing myself to land in trouble. It is most unwise to introduce myself. But will have to say :) Yes.
MD: Introduce yourself.
Me: I would blabber out the usual intro and add nothing extra, lest I provoke further questions. All this, I would say in a loud tone, with an accent so that you get irritated and leave me quickly.
MD: What do you want your role to be in MD?
Me: (Let me think. If I choose editor it means sitting at my comp, reading other’s articles, sometimes writing by myself. OK, I will manage that, others will most probably help. Reporting will mean running here and there, speaking to admin etc etc. That is too much work. Easy decision.) I want to take up an editor’s job.
I now realize that back then my decision to choose editor actually got me selected. I escaped the PI round, something -I now feel, I would never have qualified.
MD: Where is the campus administration building and the maintenance department?
Me: (Campus Administration has to be within the campus. That is one thing I am sure of. But Murphy’s Law states that: ‘the greatest myth about administration is that, it exists.’ That makes CA a mythical place. What the hell!) I don’t know where the CA is.
Of course, I know where the maintenance department is. It is right behind the workshop. I went there once in the first year to get my window’s glass fixed. I had broken it, made it drop right from the first floor. The complaint got registered, nothing happened thereafter.
MD: What are your likes and dislikes about ISMU?
Me: (I must be cautious about this question- a tricky one. These guys love to point out shortcomings about ISMU, be it students or the admin. So to impress them, I must do the same. The part about ‘likes’ is just a pitfall, I must avoid. I am a clever guy.)
I dislike the students of ISMU. They make too much fuss about everything. There is a breed in ISM which wastes a year discussing ‘why shouldn’t we give certificates of merit to our rivals?’And prior to this, they would plan out a strategy for a month to ‘reach to a particular high status so that they can discuss the previously mentioned question.’ There is another species which goes on claiming for ‘more space.’ Then there is another which spends most of their time in challenging this claim. There is a group that has decided that its life’s ambition is to see all the infrastructural developments that ISM is ever capable of within their four or five years of stay in ISMU. Also ISM must have an increased area and the net speed must build up every year-all this they must witness while they are here. Finally there is MD which compiles all of this into six pages and hands it back to them.
What do I like about ISMU? I like the students of ISMU. There is a breed which is hell-bent on making a mark at ISMU. They would go up to any extent to fulfil their ambition, while they are here at ISMU. Be it promoting their departmental identity, helping the poor, or inspiring entrepreneurial skills, they are always out at the forefront. They are warriors. Remember the shout when the trophy of Muqabla was brought home. Remember Mechathlon, remember Sparx. Those were the times when ISM shone like never before. Ask yourself, don’t they deserve a little more than what they are getting? Maybe they asked for coaches, maybe they asked for a little more departmental and admin cooperation. Shouldn’t an effort be made to grant these? Remember: ‘A college is known by its students.’ And finally there is MD, which is composed of heroes selected from this breed. (When shall the groups mentioned previously get merged with this breed? But I guess, they are one and the same. ‘A mere flip changes the face of the coin.’)
MD: Improvements for MD?
Me: MD. When was the last time I read the complete paper? I remember noticing bar graphs in one of the issues. Then once, there was an article about status of girls in ISM - written by girls of course. You generally expect such stuff from them. ‘Good (status) generally leads to the expectation of Better (status).’ Once again, there was a full page of ‘Ruby Survey’. But that article was not for me. I have stopped staring at them since the time they started staring at me as if they were looking at an ‘ascetic kid.’ No wonders there. I hardly speak, while in group. Other than these, I hardly recall any other article. Therefore you must increase the frequency of MD so that people like me at least remember a bunch of articles to speak about.
The final question was usually based on a situation, where one had to interview an admin member usually. I having chosen editorship would have escaped this question. So let me tell you, that my colleagues pretended to be part of the admin and conducted a mock interview. From their act, the following things about the admin were clear:
The admin is ready to come up with excuses at every mistake that is pointed out.
The admin/G.Sec is ready to take up any action if ‘approached through a proper channel.’
Everything is student’s fault. ‘No proper events are conducted because students don’t turn up.’(So no point conducting a better event.)
‘The sports complex need not be improved since the students won’t maintain it.’
The Yahoo HR will never accept the existence of ISMU at least in this life.
G.Sec will simply act as an interface between students and admin. He lacks the brains or guts to gather support and fight for a cause.
There were further inferences, but I don’t remember them right now.
There you go. I have spoken my heart out. I seldom do that. Judge for yourself whether I deserve to be in MD team after giving such an interview. By the way do not mistake this for a BC article. Trivial BC is not my job. I am totally serious regarding all views expressed. Also I am responsible for any hurt feelings upon reading this article. ‘Hate mails invited.’
