New VIT Main gate

Last week I had visited my college and found some new changes or developments. First of all, the main gate had been modified. This picture shows the left side of the gate. The gate is pretty huge to show on one pic. Even my seniors find themselves lost if they show up in college as it has changed a lot. Lots of new staffs and buildings. I guess this is how things work. Hope these new pictures will help.

This picture shows the right side of the gate. Nearly similar to the left side.

College Queries

I am amazed to see a lot of people enquire about colleges over the internet itself. Apart from students checking out websites and registering for the entrance exams, they get in touch with the Alumni or students of the colleges through forums and chat rooms or in my case through blogs. Their interest is ofcourse to know about the college from the students point of view rather than the publicity or newspaper ads put up by the colleges.

The enquiries are pretty general. A few are as mentioned below:

• How many company placements are done when one finishes the college?
• How good are the faculty and departments in the college?
• What are the facilities provided by the college once a student takes admission?
• Infrastructure of the college is worth while or not?
• If attaining any rank in the entrance exam which branch will one get?
• How is the cultural environment in the college?
• What is there to do during the lesiure hours in college?

As for my college, Vellore Institute of Technology has been performing beautifully in the admission front. In the last few years the number of applications forms for college admission was as follows. In 2004 admissions only 8000 application forms were purchased. In 2005, the number jumped to 44,000 where as the amount of application forms this year went upto 87,000. The price of the application form is not cheap either. The current application form for B.Tech degree admissions is Rs 650 will for B.Sc is Rs 350. The college does make a lot of money off these but they even play their part in putting up more examination centers around India. Even in our college case, this time the centers had increased upto 17 locations all around India.

The education sector has reached a whole new level. Everything can be done through the internet and the colleges in USA and UK are one of the best examples. They provide for prospectus and details from the websites. They go into full details to explain what are the procedures. In India, the colleges put up websites just for publicity and in some cases donot give enough details, making people to write emails for more enquiry. Colleges and Universities should make it way more easier for parents and students to enquire as the admission process is really tiring. More development should be done so that future applicants and prospective students find it easier and more comfortable in applying.

Trip to college

Today I made a trip to my college VIT for which I had to leave early from my home to catch a train. Since I had already checked up on the internet that seats were available on the Shatabdi Express leaving Bangalore at 6 am and reaching Katpadi at 9 am, so I left my house early intending on catching a BMTC bus or an auto. Funny as it may sound, I kept waiting from 5 am till 5:30 am in search for a BMTC bus or an auto, neither of which were available. The road on which I was waiting is actually having heavy traffic of buses and autos throughout the day. So it looked like my day wasn't starting of well.

Anyways I did get an auto who was charging me 1.5 times the meter. Since it was way before 6 am I accepted, as if I had a choice due to the scarcity of autos (This is were I keep trying to figure out where are the 1 lakh autos in this city disappearing to). I reached the station around 5:45 am and was happy that I will make it. Now when I stood infornt of the current reservation counter, that was it. A large queue of people waiting for booking ticket or cancelling existing ones. There were 3 trains going to leave in the next 45 minutes. Shatabdi at 6 am, Intercity Exp at 6:15 am and Lalbagh at 6:30 am. Now I was hoping to get my tickets by then. The person sitting at the counter said 'stay in a queue and wait for your turn' which I had to do to get a ticket. The only difference is that I got my ticket at 6:15 am that also for Lalbagh as Shatabdi had left the station as I was waiting for the tickets. I kept guessing that the priority for trains should be given at some point but looks like the person behind the counter just cares about doing his job comfortably without any problems or doesn't care if one misses his train or not. Lucky for me I got one of the last seats on Lalbagh Exp. while Shatabdi had a lot of free seats. The system at some point sucks.

I reached my college at 10 am and finished up my work at the student's records and then met up with some of my juniors. They all were busy with there exams or project reviews. The temperature at the college was soring high. Some things had changed at the college since I had last visited like infrastructure. After all this, I planned to return back to Bangalore by the 4 pm bus. The bus was an A/C Volvo run by a private agency group. The buses are always amazing, well maintained and the roads have improved. The road on which we were travelling is part of the 'Golden Quadrilateral' project so the quality is good, not only that I guess it could be due to the newly built roads. Anyways the journey was comfortable, only thing to find was the amount of vehicles moving on the roads. Large quantities of Trucks were travelling and the process of overtaking keeps occuring frequently.

The bus was able to cover the distance until Hosur town without any interruptions as not much traffic on the roads. This town being just 40 kms from Bangalore is very easy to reach in 45 minutes. When travelling from Hosur to Bangalore usually the trip will be 1 hour due to the major checkpoints for vehicles by the Karnataka Transportation check post. After this when we pass the famous Electronic city which can get the roads to a standstill due to traffic problems can get anyone in 1.5 to 2.5 hours. But today being a saturday was comfortable enough to get through to the town without any jams. I was able to get down at the dropping point and then hired an auto after bargining as all were quoting there own price.

This is how a trip can go by. Sometimes the days are worse than all this. One comes to know about it when you see the person cursing or dead sleeping after arriving. What can one do to improve the system and make it more efficient.

College weather

This post is about the how weather changes around my college, VIT. During my stay for 4 years, the climate had always been pretty hot. But there were times when during the monsoons or winters when one could see amazing things. In the early hours of the day, one can find some awesome scenery which could blow your mind away. I would have not been suprised if I were in a hill station but when I saw the clouds passing through the hills near our college, it was an amazing sight.

During the monsoon months, the showers are sometimes heavy and it is difficult for us to leave the hostels. This sometimes used to be the best reason for not attending classes but the timing is supposed to be correct like raining at the time when we have to leave for class. But that mostly never happened making us attend classes. Worst is when it rained during our classes, we could never get to bunk or get free classes as there was nothing to do. But when it rained during the day time then the nights used to be pleasant so we had good walks around the hostel campus and also enjoyed sleeping comfortable during the nights.

During the summer months, the sun would really make the days tough and drive us into the showers couple of times a day. The temperature could easily go to 40C +. That would really make us tired if we returned to hostel and had to go again to college. During a semester break, who will like to stay in the college and spend there time getting baked, so almost everyone use to go home for vacation.

These pictures which are displayed were taken in the early hours in November. After staying in college during the hot months I never had expected to see this.

Echo: Sounds of Music

In 2002, when i had entered into my second year of college, Echo took place. It was a symposium in which technical papers were presented. Apart from the hectic paper presentations which started in the morning after breakfast at around 10am would go on till lunch at 1 and then resume at 2 which will then finally end by 5pm. Rest of the time would be for fun. We had food stalls set up so that food can be taken which was atleast not the one in the hostel mess. (What can we do, we got too used to the food!!!) Apart from the food stall would be the Music stall, which had a computer with large speakers connected to the amplifier. The music was being handled by me, but ofcourse at that time the computer belonged to my senior who had let me borrow it. For 3 days I would move the computer to the college campus and start off with the music.

Since my college has many students from diverse regions with different languages, this music stall was very tough to handle. I had the usual English songs to play, apart from that the Hindi, Tamil, Telgu, Malyalam and many other kinds of songs were needed. In this particular system, I had varieties of English, Hindi, Arabic, Malyalam, Telgu but by chance I had no Tamil songs. The songs kept playing throughout the day. The worst moments were when I had seniors who were breathing over my neck just to get there songs to be played. That is when I used to get up, give it to them and walk to the food stall to have some food. During that much time they kept themselves quiet busy trying to play some song or the other but could not make up there mind who should take charge of the keyboard and mouse.

During the duration of 3 days in which I was handling the music stall, I had taken assistance of a friend of mine who knew telgu songs as I only knew about English, Hindi and Arabic songs. Those 3 days became really unbearable at points when a few seniors would try using there authority to play there songs. For me, it was important to handle songs in the sequence of requests which were given first come first serve. This sometimes got the situation heated up.

Apart from this was the Last day factor. The last day or 3rd day will always be a weekend so people had a tendency to spend their evenings at the stall for dancing and eating. So we used to keep a playlist which would contain dance numbers. Some of our college authorities never liked the idea as the dance would go on till late night and ofcourse never enjoyed the gender mixing. Those moments remind me the pressure from various people like the management, then the seniors and last but least the crowd which would be in a full groovy mood. After all this, I still remember that I had to take a complete 1-2 days rest just to get all the loud music out of my head. My ears were hurting as i couldnot hear much and then ofcourse I had lost my voice. That experience was really different as I had to try keeping the crowd happy with the different kind of music with different language which is actually a really pain staking work. Now where would one's life be without the fun of handling pain and problems.

IH T-shirts

Today I will talk to you about how the guys in International Hostel (IH), VIT pulled off a T-Shirt for the hostel. I will also be uploading the pics of the T-shirt. When my batch entered final year, we thought of making a souvenir which would remind us the good times we had in college. So the idea was to make a T-shirt with our own customised designs. We expanded this idea of giving the T-shirt to as many of the IH students possible, be it juniors or ex-seniors.

When some of the guys started to work on the designs, we thought that it would get ready in 2-3 weeks time but then everyone got busy with their final year projects. Some of the guys were doing their projects in Bangalore, some in college and other places depending on the company location. Therefore the design kept on getting prolonged and also kept on getting modified from time to time. We eventually came to the conclusion and gave it for manufacturing. The time it took for making the designs was 6 months. Also the final product which we received from the manufactures took 1 month. So the T-shirts came out in July 2005.

We were really thinking of making the base colour of the T-shirt as black but then again in our college many events were organised and everyone had been using the same base colour. So we went for the white base colour and got the T-shirts bleached. The designs were strictly kept as black and blue which really gave a good effect on the white background. The pic on the top is the front of the T-shirt while the one on the side is for the back of the T-shirt.

The T-shirt contains many designs contributed by many of the guys at the hostel. The motto "Cogito Ergo Sum" is Latin which means "I think, therefore I am". This statement has been taken from René Descartes (1596-1650) who was a noted Philosopher, mathematician & scientist. Also the word 'Revellers' was used due to the merry & party nature of the IH guys. In the center we have the alphabets IH printed in Blue. The year when the T-shirt came out is on the left sleeve 'MMV' which is 2005.

The main thing is that this is a great reminder to all of us about the good times we spend in the hostel. The juniors are planning on taking out another new model for the T-shirt, I am sure they will be able to do better. I would like to say thanks to all the people who were able to make this T-shirt come out.

College Fest - RIVIERA

Today I will talk about an event which I had been part of since the time of its starting. In 2001, when I entered college, my seniors were planning on holding an event which would bring the college together. Since every department kept on having their own conferences and symposiums, it was getting difficult to organise as their attention was more towards their departments. But I still respect my seniors as they pulled off this event which has now become a tradition of our college. This event is held every year since January 2002 and has completed its 5th Anniversary in January 2006. Every year it has performed better and flourished over the period of time.

In January 2002, this 3-day event was held between 17th-19th January. Since I was in first year we were not allowed to organise any event, instead we to assist our seniors who were busy organising. The kind of things that needed to be organised were divided into 15 committees. All the committees were overlooked by the main committee known as the organising committee. This contained a few final years which overlooked the working of the entire fest. They were the main mediums between the management, staff and the committees. Since this was the first time, seniors had a hard time but they were able to organise things like sponsors for the event, get the judges for the event, lighting, sounds, bands for the groups etc. For this particular year we invited the group 'Ideas' to perform in our college. The rock concert was not much fun as we were all asked to be seated in chairs which was unbearable for a rock concert. Fireworks was something our seniors had organised and it really lit the night sky and captivated all of us for those 15 minutes.

As for me in Riviera 2002, I was working for the 'guest care and accommodation' committee. I still remember that around 60 first years were part of this group. Our seniors had assured us that there was not much work in this group, but were proven wrong on D-Day as we were suppose to lift pillows and big carpets of sizes 6X2 metres to 1st-2nd floors. All the guys did some of the work and then disappeared for lunch or tea, never to return. By that much time all the things had been kept in their proper rooms. The other things that really made people run away from this group was escorting the guest college teams to their accomodations from the reception area. The distance to cover is usually 1.5 kms and above, this is not much but for a volunteer in first year who has to make couple of trips up & down to escort couple of teams can make anyone runaway. My chance came when everyone was ready for the rock concert and a group of participating guest college team had shown up at that very moment so everyone was reluctant to go towards the hostel side for their accommodations. I donot think it was the tiredness (which by the way was), but mainly the time wasted in going & returning back. I had performed that task and returned in time to sit along with my hostelmates. Another incident was that during the concert we were suppose to sit quietly on our seats and attend it like some lecture. Imagine sitting for a Rock concert. One of my friends sitting next to me was wearing formals due to a prior function he attended. With the music rocking, he just took out his tie and waved it in the air, for this his ID card was seized and was asked to leave the auditorium. I think rest was history with the concert closing down early. Overall the whole fest was successful giving us a good ahead for the next year.

In 2003 (2nd-4th Jan), I was given the same committee, due to prior experience and I think that could have been my downfall. I was never able to lead any other committee due to the experience in guest care & accommodation otherwise also known as 'hospitality' committee. This year I had a senior heading the committee who also was part of it last year. I had another friend of mine tag along with me for the work. We pulled off the event better than the previous year because we had learned our mistakes. We had asked suppliers of the pillows & carpets to dump it in a room on the ground floor of the hostel. Then we decided to dispatch the pillow and carpet to the guest college directly when they are taken to their accomodation. This way we were able to cut down on the work our students had to do. Also each volunteer escorting a team to the hostel was asked to take leave so they could take a breakby going to their rooms. This way only one trip, one way was made by each volunteer. This really cut down on their fatigue level. The interesting part of guest care is that you get to take care of everyone including chief guest, rock groups and other college students. That year for the rock concert the group was David Pascal & group. Unlike the year before this time the concert was held in the Stadium area but the seating arrangements were still valid. The reason for not letting us loose was that we were considered uncontrollable and could not take care of ourselves. The event went on without a hitch.

In 2004 (8th-10thn Jan), I was to head the committee and ofcourse was given the same guest care & accommodation. The only problems I faced during 2003 & 2004 was the lack of first years as our college had given them a semester break exactly at the time of the fest which really made it difficult for us to get hold of them. It was sheer temptation and participation in a major event which made them stay for the fest. Anyways the number of people I used to keep in my committee for assistance used to drop to anywhere between 40-60% during the event as they were busy seeing the other events or had prior engagements. That year for the rock concert we had the group 'Moksha' and also 'Malgudi Suba' for the musical night event. This time during the rock concert the people were able to dance for 10 minutes before the event ended. This was another successful step for the students.

In 2005 (5th-7th Jan), I had taken control of the same committee for the final time as I was in my final year. This time as i was close with the organising committee, I was able to give my experience I had for the past 4 years for the success of the event. I organised the event and as each time had to face some problems but was able to tackle them with time. This year we had to take care of many groups for the event. We had 'Parikrama' for the rock concert with opening bands of 'Yellow' & 'Vinapra' capturing the moment. Also the musical night was amazing with Shankar Mahadevan singing the songs. Ofcourse this time everyone got to dance the entire show without any problems. I guess 4 years of hard work taking each step did pay off. The event was pulled off beautifully.

I did always have a team of few people who really participated by putting there full efforts. I am sure that I could have never pulled off the event without their help. I take this moment to thank them all. Everyone should understand, to pull off any event you have to take help and always you have to respect others who have put their efforts in it.

One lonely vacation

This goes back to 2001 when the college had given 2 weeks vacation in december. I had come back from home after taking 3 weeks holiday from college. Literally the moment I stepped into the hostel, my warden informs me that in another week we were going to have 2 weeks holiday. At first I was taking it as a joke but then again the college had decided to go ahead with the idea due to Chrismas and New Years around the corner. At this point I wanted to strangle someone with a telephone, as somebody could have informed me and I could have postponed my ticket by another 3 weeks.

The week went by in the class with the all time low attendance and then came the 2 week vacation. For the weekend I dropped by in Bangalore to check it out but then again staying 2 days in a lodge in Bangalore was enough so I headed back to the hostel. In the hostel the strength had fallen to less than 10%. All my seniors and my batchmates had left for the holidays, the only ones remaining back was me, myself and a friend. For the next 2 weeks we kept having dinner outside in the town and kept watching TV in the hostel which by the way had a really crap reception. The reception kept coming and going so if we were watching a movie chances of not seeing the climax of the movie was very high.

Christmas came and went then we waited for the New years which was really boring as we didnot do anything interesting except taking complete rest and sleep. In college there was nothing interesting to do as the facilities of internet was not available to students then. Also the library was a no entry zone for me. Unfortunately, at that time I had no computer to spend my time with.

During this time, we had some conference in the college which was being held so the campus didnot feel like a graveyard but pretty good quantity of people were around. Nothing interesting was going on atleast for us to enjoy. By the time the classes had started everyone was back busy preparing for the college fest which was to be held in mid January. That was one time I really enjoyed participating as I was able to help in organising different events.

The only main suggestion I can offer anyone is that they should keep something planned in case you do end up getting holidays, like a getaway plan to Ooty or any kind of hill station or somewhere. Another important thing is to use the internet wisely, keep in touch with people and I still hope the college can update the latest schedule of holidays and classes on the internet which can benefit hundreds of people.

First Tour in college

The tour came as a suprise to everyone, even us who were planning to go. Usually freshers don't venture out much but in this case our seniors were supporting. We had also talked to our parents and had got a green signal for it. It had been just 2 months since we joined the college and were starting to know our hostel friends. 19 of us had decided to go on a tour to a hill station 500 kms away called 'Ooty'. The days were picked accordingly as our college had announced holiday for 2 days on Thursday & Friday. We had planned the tour for 4 days starting immediately after classes on Wednesday itself.

The journey was going to be around 10-12 hours due to the night travelling and we wanted to reach somewhere in the morning so that we could enjoy the sites. So the journey began with the help of the seniors who were keeping an eye on us by asking us to report daily about our whereabouts and condition. We reached the town of Mettupalyam which is at the foot of the hill station. The famous Blue Mountain express also known as Nilgiri Express runs on Steam Engine and travels 47 kms through lots of tunnels uphill to the beautiful town of Ooty from Mettupalyam.

We had checked into the cottages which had been recommended by our seniors and also booked in advance through phone. We refreshed ourselves and went into town to check out the places. The Botanical gardens are one of the most famous of Ooty but then again, it was October so not much of a sight-seeing. It is said that this garden has an amazing presence during the spring months, a sight worth watching. Other places were like the Pykara dam and some waterfalls. The highest peak is Doddabetta peak which can give a beautiful view of the landscape. Ooty is also famous for it tea plantations.

Apart from all this we were coincidentally present when the shooting of a Bollywood movie (Kuch Naa Kaho) was going on. We were able to see Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachan, Jaspal Bhatti, Tanaz Currim and other stars. It was a song sequence and the scenary looked so beautiful. Looking at a location like that can get anyone to dream with a beautiful stream passing by with a small area of forest. This whole area is in a valley which is frequently used for Movies.

The stay was amazing but on Sunday we decided to drop by at a Water theme park which was near Mettupalyam called 'Black Thunder'. We had spend the previous night at a lodge near the water theme park after having dinner at a restuarant nearby. We were allowed to hold a bon-fire which was ofcourse under controlled supervision. On Sunday, in the water theme park we all got exhausted by the time we settled in our transport back to college. Most of the people were in deep sleep and were woken up at 4am as we reached our hostel on Monday. I guess some kept sleeping throughout the day while some made to the classes. This was really a memorable trip as we had spend time together with new friends.

Hostel Life: First Party

Within the first 2 weeks of college, the new batch of freshers had decided to have dinner at the restuarant in town. So when the weekend began, everyone was excited as most of us had not been to the town. My last time was when I was staying at the hotel during my admission period. Some of us had asked our seniors about some good restuarant in town and they had mentioned of one which had a Vegetarian menu. So we all showed up around 8 pm as the college had a policy of open night on Saturdays (That is the gates get locked at 11:30 pm).

So in the end we all were sitting at 5 different tables trying to accomodate 30 people for dinner. By now we all were getting to know each other. Each of us came from different places from India. There were people from Jammu & Kashmir in the north to Kerala in the South, Rajasthan in the West to Assam in the East. Geographically speaking, we all came from thousands of kilometers but at that moment we were sitting next to each other having the same kind of dinner.

We can't describe this as a party but yes we all had an outing at the town which was situated at 9 kms from our college. The other main reasons for the outing was that we wanted a change with the food as we were getting tired of the mess food due to its regularity or taste, that depends on one's thinking. But that day led to the start of the outside college life whose beginning and end was always reminded by Auto-drivers (3-Wheeler Cabs) high pitched fares which would lead to tough bargaining as there were no other modes other than the local buses which show up anytime between 30-45 minutes (Auto fares are fixed by saying as Meters are not used in that small town).

Due to the inefficient Auto fares and untiming buses to the college and also the campus being situated atleast 2kms away from the nearest major bus intersection, some students were motivated in getting 2-wheeler (buying or getting from home). With the increase in the 2-wheeler on campus, concerns regarding safety prompted the college to enforce the Helmet rule. This did save many lives, as at this particular age many think less of safety and end up endangering their life knowingly or unknowingly.

Hostel Life: The Start

My entry to the college was purely based on search over the internet. The procedures to enrollment was all decided over the emails. I was to show up at college and finish the formalitites. Trust me when I say that I had no idea where Vellore was on the map. I had got a rough idea from the map provided at the college website. The journey from north to the south of India was an experience that is still fresh in my mind. Along with me on this journey was my dad. We had checked into a lodge for the night and decided to go to college first thing in the morning. The next day we showed up at the admission office to finish up the formalities. I had come to the college a few days in advance before the classes (orientation week) began just to get the hang of things.

When one is going somewhere, we like to be prepared. I had heard a lot about the interaction between seniors and junior (More roughly used word: Ragging) at colleges from friends and articles from newspapers & magazines. Some incidents can give people goose bumps just hearing it, let alone the thought of remaking it in one's head. On my way to the hostel I came across a senior who had seen me at school. I was kind of shocked to find out that someone from my school was in the same college. I was to check out the hostel and choose a room for myself. Since I was one of the earlier students to check in the hostel, I had an opportunity to look at some of rooms which were vacant. After choosing my room, I had picked up all the necessary stuff required for staying in the room. I checked into the Hostel room around the start of the weekend while my classes were to begin on the first day of the coming week.

My first night was one of the most memorable as I can still remember the sequence of numbers that led me from one room to another making me know about my seniors. That night, the exhaustion and fatigue was pretty high. What was the cause of it is still questionable? Was it those long hours of talking or was it the long hours of standing or worst, was it that huge load of data or information of all the seniors in the hostel. The names of the seniors, their rooms, branches, their hometowns, some of their hobbies and many more. I still remember feeling the softness of my bed at the crack of dawn. I was woken up by the knock on the door, opening it revealed my dad standing with the background of bright sunlight. When I checked the watch it was way after the zenith of the sun (afternoon).This was the weekend and my seniors were enjoying the holiday by also getting up late. The previous night had led me to meet 2 of the other guys in my batch who were also staying at the hostel. The 3 of us were spared on that Saturday night because of the arrival of a newer batch of students. The most puzzling moments were when we tried to find out who were in our batch or otherwise we ended up infront of a senior who was waiting for amusement. But that weekend was the beginning of the glorious memories and friendship that lasts until today. It made the word IH form a new meaning of looking out for each other and ofcourse being one of the most partying people or better known as Revellers. (IH stands for the 'International Hostel")

VIT gaining popularity

VIT- Vellore Institute of Technology (Deemed University) has been gaining popularity in many ways. Recently the article that came in Washington Post about the facilities viewed by Mr. Sebastian Mallaby as one of the most modern at this has sent the colleges popularity soring high. It explained about upto date teaching techniques followed by the college faculty with the help of modern infrastructure. For more information, you can check out the Washington Post article on the following link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010200566.html

About the facilities provided at the college, it can be viewed at the official Website of VIT - http://www.vit.ac.in in the Photo Gallery section. The college has over a period of time made major Infrastructure changes for its 8000+ students. The important facilities needed by the residing students are met by the college like the state of the art drinking water treatment facility which provides germ free water. Many more facilities can be checked out at the wensite. The main point stands out is that even being at a remote location around 130 kms from Chennai and 230 kms from Bangalore, the college has earned a good reputation in Job placements with approximately 70-80% placed over 100+ companies.

The interest shown by the students willing to join this college is huge as in the year 2005 approximately 44,000 application forms were received for the VIT Entrance Exam itself. This has been yet another accomplishment by the college due to the increasing infrastructure and placement record. Many more information about the college will be seen in the upcoming blogs.