Now and Then ... 10 random things that have changed for freshies in last 3 years

   It's mid-July time already and within a fortnight new batch of  freshies will join on campus , albeit only 3 years have passed since we joined here ,  many things are no more same . This short post is random attempt to recollect those good old days.

Once upon a time (as in 3 years ago :P )  ......

1. There were only 7 IIT's in India  ( I think even freshies won't be able to state exact number and locations today)

2. There was no 2nd round in JEE counselling / sliding within institute after joining.

3. There was no online counselling for JEE/AIEEE

4. Theory classes used to get over by 2/3 pm ( no afternoon theory classes /no 9th hour classes) 

5.  There was no OBC reservation quota .. ( it will be 27% for this batch )

6.  Mr. Arjun Singh was HRD minister. 

7.  We used to have internet 20 hours a day in hostels even on weekdays.

8.  Plain Dosa was  `10  in tiffs.

9.  Prof Idichandy was Dean Student.

10. Academic fees were almost 60% of the current fees.

Kashmir Issue - enough of PoK ... let's talk about CoK .

     Recent reports of violence and anti - India protests from Kashmir valley has once again brought mainstream media's attention to Kashmir Issue .. while much has been discussed about standard of living of Kashmiries , various militant camps , effect on Af-Pak region with regard to Pak Occupied Kashmir ( PoK ), it seems presence of third nuclear power in Kashmir region , China , is largely overlooked by public.

    While almost everybody in India seems to have some knowledge/opinion about PoK, most of us almost seems to have forgotten that even China occupies sizable chunk of Kashmir (around 20 %), known as Aksai Chin , while detail analysis of that issue is beyond my ken I will largely depend on my opinions and information easily available around net.

    Even today Aksai Chin is largely inhabited but it is strategically crucial , also China has built logistically important National Highway in the region connecting two of it's sensitive provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang ( which was in the news sometime back for ethnic Uighur riots), also I do not recall Indian leadership showing any will to even claim that this region as Integral part of India , looks like we have completely renounced our hopes of bringing this region into Indian republic and we are gratified if China recognizes Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India.

     Like Tibet issue , where British actually invaded Tibet in 1903 to challenge Chinese suzerainty over Tibet and entered into treaty later , after independence we completely abdicated our claim (which was inherited from British Raj ) on Tibet stating it's china's internal matter , while china has been pushing it's views on Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh blatantly on various forums I really wonder why our government has completely given up on highlighting Aksai Chin issue . It looks like we have made no attempt to even access basic information about Aksai Chin , regarding people living there , culture, current Chinese activities going on in region etc , Frankly speaking very few in India seems to any interest in the Aksai Chin region and government has done almost nothing to create one. I think we should at least make attempt to get some information about the region which India has been claiming to be part of Indian Republic ( at least on maps ) for last 56 years but largely forgotten/ignored by public.

    Attaching map of Kashmir with this post for reader's ready reference.

Board exams marks .. are they really comparable across various boards ??

      This is a question haunting me from a long time , since 2006 JEE cut-off (60% in 12th) decision, we all have been hearing that UP,Bihar state boards are tough to crack while CBSE/ICSE boards are piece of cake .This issue came to limelight after Sibbal's comment for increasing JEE cut-off to 80-85% in 12th standard ( he later took U turn on the issue).

      This issue was also recently  debated in Maharashtra for deciding admission criteria for Junior college admissions of non-Maharastra state board students.(Read ICSE-CBSE students) who generally gets quite better percentage marks and hence occupy top seats in Junior colleges (especially in Mumbai ) .
(Please click on the image to magnify.)



     Recently I came across this advertisement in newspaper , comparing top 1% marks across various boards ; you can observe top 1% in 12th for for ICSE in 2007(year when I passed out of 12th ) was at 92.6 % , for Maharashtra 80.2% , for UP board 73.2% and for Bihar Board it was 63.3 % .So it loosely translates to in year 2007 for 12th standard 92 % in ICSE were equivalent to 80% in Maharashtra , 73% in UP state board and 63 % in Bihar board !!!

     Take this with a pinch of salt as number of student appearing for state boards is usually quite higher then ICSE so these values are likely to have downward bias but even then across state boards the variation is really eye-opening.This statistics clearly underlines the need of having unifying board in India if we wish to continue with absolute comparison , as of now we can surely say that the absolute comparison of percentage marks across various boards is just not fair to all.


PS -- For those who are curious this table was taken from Inspire Scholarship advt.

Fourth Sem

As I have officially finished my intern (only presentation remained for next week ) and completely jobless now for next 10 days , I am taking time to go through 4th sem again ....

Acads : Most peaceful semester so far , with only 20 credits including 1 lab.4 afternoons were free . Courses were also better . Prof . Raghavan continued his fast paced copy paste lectures ( we wrote 8 pages in his first lecture of extractive meta :O ) . Economics was quite interesting subject with sleepy lectures.First time in IITM worked as CR :) . Probability prof (Sunder) shocked us with surprise test and from then onwards our first task after entering the classroom was to check whether TA's have blank A4 sheets with them or not.As grades came out it turned out to be better semester then previous three.

Saarang : Nothing great happened during Saarang ( not that I was expecting something great :P ) , tried Jamming,Paintball etc . Also worked peacefully as QMS vol attending all events I wanted . As mentioned in previous article it was not much different then 1st year saarang.

Drams : Continued with MMM's( Marathi Mitra Mandal ) play 'Vitthal To Ala Ala' this time we performed at 'Maharashtra Mandal , Chennai ' with almost same cast as last semester. It was quite good experience again .

Food : Tried SGR for a month . Dosa and Chapathis are best there. But absence of CSU stall and long queues forced me to go back to Himalaya . Started visiting Basera quite often ... Went Basera more then previous 3 sems combined . Apart from that nothing quite different then previous semesters . My love towards dosa/idly ensured that I keep on visiting Tiff's atlest 3-4 times a week . Also Ascendas visits continued.

Also other notable things in the semester were Hostel Nights , Astro Club Sessions , Hostel Elections , Shaastra Coord app. etc.

Intern : Initially thought of going to Visag steel plant then M & M but then finally interened at Bosch Plant in Nasik ( intern staying at home sweet home :) ) . Which turn out to be quite enriching experience. Plan to blog sometime in detail about intern experience.
It was quite good semester . Also finishes 50% journey for my BTech friends while I still have 6 semesters more. :) :( :-|

And finally I landed up in IITM ...........

Yesterday i got my gradesheet which declares I have successfully (?) finished 65 credits so far here . so that finishes exactly a third of my dual degree program (65/195).. so I think it's time to look back and retrospect how I landed up here in Jungles of IIT some 1000+ odd km from my home .. and believe me it's long story because I tried 'n' options even after getting my JEE result
30th May 2007 ... JEE result was declared at 8 in the morning .. I got a disappointing 2610 AIR which means I was sure of admission for btech but wasn't much hopeful for my dream IIT ( IITB :( ).My next option was IIIT hyd So on that day I was eagerly waiting for AIEEE results .. actually I was waiting for AIEEE results from past one week then . Throughout the day I must have refreshed AIEEE site for 'n' times.... finally gave up in evening and closed comp.At 11 in night one of friend called me and told me that results are out there also it was nt much good .. I was able to get CS/EE in home NIT/southern nit's but nt IIIT so that option was packed.btw before that I have given BITS and was able to get in both campuses but again not to the mark I wanted .. So finally options for me were UDCT ( if you have heard of this institute .. quite famous in Maharashtra),VNIT CS/EE , government college Pune (COEP) etc .. last one because I got good score in our state entrance but didn't cracked it exactly .. so the brainstorming lasted for almost 1 month .. (even when JEE alltment was done .. even after 1 month after results I was still thinking of UDCT then :D )
Even while filling JEE form choosing IITM meta wasn't that straightforward .I have considered right from MSc chem IITB to EP in IITG and upto last minute was hopeful about IITB meta but finally landed in iityam and in the land of idli's and dosa's :) .