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.

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 :) .

Finally it's Over ........

Finally Saarang 2009 comes to an end.Now Opeth performance is going on in OAT but for me Saarang is over and I am back to my room (and jobless :D).Last 4 days campus was lively , energetic etc etc ... From tomorrow life will be back to normal (at least for me ).This saarng was pretty much was last saarnag for me .. dunno why .. but I was getting feeling of saarang 2008 again .Vodaphone was at the same place again , I didn't attend any pro-show this saarang either,Again I mainly attended speaking events and drams(again !! ) . Paint-ball and Theater fest were different experience though . Paintball was not that interesting (even though I led my team to triumph :D ) It was more like CS .However it was .. one thing for sure I enjoyed this saarang more then 2008 and got some useful lessons too ..

Bad summer for IIT's

      This summer was not particularly good for IIT's .. there were many decision putting them in trouble apart from much debated OBC quota implementation..Seems that the government is behaving like Santa Claus( coming before election year ) distributing IIT's for everyone.The new IIT's neither have full fledged campus nor faculty,in fact The current IIT's also faces faculty crunch , also there were rumour about women IIT (:() in Maharshtra,some organisations demanded muslim IIT (what the hell ..) ,and upgrading some private bengal engg college to IIT (the college have CPM leaders on their Board) it's sad that IIT's are suffering from such kind of political intervention,It will not only dilute IIT brand but will also hamper the autonomy of such institutes...
       Then there was a controversy regarding expulsion of 12 SC/ST students from IIT Delhi,Expulsion due to poor performance happens in other IIT's also(and sadly most of them are reserved cat. student) but the IIT D case got media attention as students ran towards SC/ST commission ...,in fact last year 14 student were about to be expelled from IIT-kgp (ALL reserved cat)due to poor performance but they were given another chance under special circumstances by senate (may be to avoid Drama by pro-SC/ST's) .After commission's directions and review committee report IITD finally revokes the order for 3 students..
         Even after nation saw that most of the poor performers(students) in IIT's are from reserved category students government went ahead with it's decision to implement SC/ST reservation in IIT's for faculty positions , It's ob that in this case all students (in IIT )are going to suffer .
Summing up such interferences if not stop it time may prove costly in the longer run..


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