Discovery of the day :



Learning of the day : Call up Mom before you try any stunts in the kitchen.

Achievements :


Damages :

Edit: First, let me feign some philospohy..
It's not easy to come to terms with 'end' - whether it be as drastic as death or as mild as your favourite show on television wrapping up. But what ever the end may be, one thing for certain, is we've got to accept it and move on.

Edit: And now for the whining..
Now, somewhere in the wide spectrum of 'ends' lies my experience of the last three months. It is not easy to come to terms with not waking in a small cell labeled '416' in Godavari Hostel. Although it has been almost three months since I left campus, I've never felt like I was leaving IITM.

However, IIT does it's bit to drive the point home. The first nail in the coffin came in the form of a forwarded mail (from one of my classmates) which went along the lines of (and I quote) :

Guys,
If you are not of the habit of reading notice boards, here are a couple of important notices.
1) We have to register for summer mess before 18th April. Last year junta who didn't opt for vacation mess were later on forced to pay the money. So, better register and avoid paying double the cost. Last date for registration with fine is 26th april.
2) We are supposed to vacate the hostels by May 15th under normal circumstances. If we get an extension, we have to get letter signed by HOD and warden for extended period of stay. Else, after 15th May, we will be forced to pay rent at Rs.125/- per day.
Is there any other important thing which I have missed out? Junta, please add. There seems to be no online version of such notices. This thread can probably used later on for reference.

Whoa! Paying to stay in my own room! I had never ever considered shelling out a penny to CCW for staying in my room till now, and suddenly it's more than a hundred bucks a day! And, what's with this extension business? The first hint that we must leave, I suppose...

And then one morning, I open my mailbox to find this -

BAM! What? No more smail? How can I not log in to check smail every morning! After all, I had even made a special label for it. And now all of a suddent, we're on alumni mail? ALUMNI MAIL? WTF! I didn't even know something like that existed. The second nail in the coffin had been well and truly driven in, and in style too (a new email address and one more password to remember).

And the final nail in the coffin, is when you get a mail from your friend directing you to something like this -


Well, I suppose it's < /iit > ... < alumnihood > for us now..

My friend Bharath (aka Bhatta) pointed me to this link - it explains the concept so beautifully. Do have a look!

The video explains a paper by Shai Avidan (Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs) and Ariel Shamir (The Interdisciplinary Center & MERL) . The paper can be found at the seam-carving website.

The night after celebrating our wing's (awesome) hostel-night video, we woke up with a buzzing discussion about a competition for making the best 'Adieu Video'. The 'Adieu' is the official farewell function at IITM, held in the middle of April. Although I'm not particularly sure as to who organises the function (institute or alumni association), it is a big day in the year of all final year students at IIT.

Being hung over by the previous night's party, we were quite short of ideas. All of us were certain that we didn't want to go down the conventional route taken for such videos, that depict the life (from first year to last) of a student - the class of videos that are now known as toothpaste videos. At the same time, we didn't want to make the video a collage of images - something we all thought was better fit for a musically synchronised slide show. We wanted to make a video about the places at IIT and the people at those places. We decided to go with a concept similar to our wing video, based on the video by Matt Harding.

What followed in the next few days was pure crazy. None of us had any clue about the efforts and the pains it would take to organise something at an institute level. We had great faith in our ability to enthuse the lethargic people - unfortunately, they didn't share the same opinion. We would set out before sunrise, searching for the best and most memorable spots in the institute. We went trying to convince the people at various places to dance.

After spending nearly seventy-two hours doing nothing but the video, the video was finally ready. And what looked like a Herculean task less than two days ago, was a polished product. If you haven't had a look at the video already, do check it out! And if you have, you could always have another look.

Like the previous video, we deserve no credit for the idea itself! That belongs purely to Matt Harding, for his startlingly simple idea that has caught the imagination of millions worldwide! However, we still hope you'd appreciate our execution of the idea.

Some interesting trivia about the video -

• Although the video shows more than 70 locations at IITM, a total of 92 locations were shot for the video.
• The video has over 500 different people from IITM.
• The video was shot and edited in less than four full days!
• All the videos have been taken using a normal digicam, that almost everyone seems to carry around these days.
• No blue-screen and those sort of funky techniques were used - more because we had no clue how to use them!
• Animesh Agarwal was chased out of the temple by an extremely angry priest, when he saw him dancing at the temple!
• The swimming pool scene is real - and yes, it kick's ass!
• The blackbuck scene happened after spending ninety frustrating minutes, cycling around the institute, trying to find a group of deer that we could dance around!
• No still images were used - even though that meant no Shaastra and Saarang!
• This video has been made by a group of 20 extremely lazy tenth-wingers of Godav.
• A video called 'The Unmaking' can be found on YouTube, which contains some of the scenes that did not make the cut for the final video.
  

Before I end this (extremely delayed) post, I must thank the the following for all their help -
1) All the profs who did not reproach us when we told them our ridiculous plan!
2) Shiwani Gupta and Destiny Decoder, who were always ready to help out.
3) Cavity aka Bhopali for all the enthusiam he put in bringing people to dance.
4) The freshies in our hostel, who got dragged around, but never complained (to us).
5) And last but not the least, the guy from Narmad, who danced with us at OAT, and in the most subtle ways, making us believe that such a video will be possible!

This video is dedicated to the art of dancing, which even in it's crudest form, can give one unfathomable joy, and has become the spirit of the Tenth Wing!

It all started on the day before the eve of the hostel night. When it came to making the hostel video, lethargy and reluctance to work seemed to be a hurdle impossible to pass. And just when everything seemed lost and all the bickering began, we rediscovered the joy of dancing...





This video has been hugely inspired by Where The Hell Is Matt. Do check it out. It rocks!

This is a strange situation for me. I write this post sitting upright on my uncomfortable wooden chair, at an unearthly hour (0500 hrs) on a Monday morning. My computer hums away, showing off its ability to perform a few million clock cycles a second, as I make a frantic attempt to complete an assignment that was due three weeks ago.

Now, why is this situation strange? Not because of the assignment, no way! Late nights completing assignments has become part and parcel of life in IIT. It's the internet connection that has really thrown me of balance!

Computers are strange creatures, I admit. Whenever I sit in front of the screen and stare blankly at the millions of numbers that fly up my screen, my computer works perfectly - not a single result that defies the laws of physics, chemistry and mathematics! But, one glance away, and it spews out some of the most unbelievable results.

I think it's a diabolical genius!

Cell phones, having become such an integral part of our lives, have come with their fair share of myths! Sometimes, I feel that it's demeaning that people come up with these things, but alas, there's not much we can do about it (other than blog!). Here are two of my favorite myths!


1. No using cell phone in a petrol pump..

I was sitting in a share-taxi, on the way to Pune. Somewhere near Vashi, the taxi stopped at a petrol bunk to fill up for the journey. I was sitting at the back, trying to find a prudent use to the plethora of time three-hour journeys force down your throat. I fished out my well-hidden cell phone from my bag and began frantically dialing friends, warning them of my trip to Pune. And suddenly, out of nowhere, comes this man (I think he was driving one of the many cars that had stopped for refueling), and told me in a stern voice, "Don't use your cell phone at a petrol pump, it can cause a fire..."

This rule really baffles me. What exactly in a cell phone can cause any harm to a petrol pump? If it was high-powered EM waves that were being transmitted that caused so much harm, then we should be made to switch off our cell phones (just like airplanes, another myth, but let's leave it for now). Cell phones are communicating with towers anyway, and I still cannot see how my cell phone could have caused so much damage to the surroundings!

One way a cell phone might harm a petrol pump is if the driver is on the phone, and is distracted, and maybe, drives off before the hose has been pulled out of the vehicle. But, I still think this is rather far-fetched!


2. Don't use cell phones outside an ATM..

This one has left me thoroughly baffled! More so, because it took place inside IIT, a campus in which reside the most brilliant technical minds of the country, and involved an IITian (who is supposed to be one of the brilliant residents).

The serpentine line outside the little cubicle made the wait look especially boring. Thankfully, my phone cried out, and with great glee, I answered it. No sooner had I got past the "Hello, what's up?", when the guy inside frantically waves from behind the glass, asking me to hang up. When I paid no heed to his request, the glass door creaked open, and he said, "Please don't talk on the phone, it interferes with the signals of the ATM".

Really? You mean, it's that easy to screw up an ATM machine? Imagine, a machine that can give you access to millions of machines all over the nation, is so weak that it cannot handle a cell phone around it? Is that the most robust set-up people think we engineers (yes, I like to call myself an engineer!) can come up with?


It's disheartening to see so little respect given to the guys who spend day and night building robust systems, so that people like you can use your cell phone in any damn place you want...