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.

Auto fare hike

Bangalore is supposed to be better than other cities like Chennai or Delhi were Meters on the Auto-Rickshaws or Taxis are not implemented. In those cities, one has to bargin just to get around. Here in Bangalore with the meters running, it is an amazing site, but then again there are bad habits of charging Double meter and other kinds of things on the oddest hour or place. With this happening, I dare think, providing hike on the Auto fares will bring down this kind of behaviour of the Auto drivers.

When it rains, the Auto drivers automatically start charging double meters. When as per rule Double meter are to be charged only between 12 midnight and 6 am. One and half meter after 10 pm until 12 midnight. Rest of the time it is supposed to be simply meter charge.

Another worst kind of behaviour that an auto driver can do is not take you if he is not going that way. In one incident, my friend and myself were trying to hire an auto but it took us more than 15 empty autos to get one that agreed to take us to our destination. Every other Auto said that they are not headed that way so they just drove away. It took me more than 25 minutes to get an Auto that day.

The hike given to these auto-meters which now will be Rs 10 for 1.6 kms and Rs 6/km from 15th March 2006. Naturally it is going to make auto travellers feel slightly heavy on the pocket but atleast hopefully the Auto drivers can now behave little better by being polite enough to pick us up rather than us asking them "If you are going this way, can you just drop us there. Ofcourse if its convenient with you" (What to do, the auto drivers are doing such a big favour to us.)

March Rain

With the starting of this month, Bangalore has seen rain with thunder showers. Till now the rain that has been falling has been sudden and for a short period but heavy. Already into a week in March and we have broken the 25 year record of rain in the same month. With the first rain showing the real Bangalore with potholes and stagnant water has really put pressure on the new government of JDS-BJP coalition.

The sudden showers has brought down the temperatures a little bit which can be a relief to many people as the days had started to heat up. Even if the government is planning on the Metro Rail or the Elevated roads or also the many flyovers, it has to pay attention on the quality of the road and also try making less traffic problems for the people and give some relief to the traffic police. The March rain is not in there control so they have to be well planned for everything. Just hope that Bangalore lives through all this.

Time Flies

It's amazing to notice how time flies. I had written my last post just one week back on Friday when the weekend was beginning. During that weekend I had some ex-collegemates drop by and the weekend went by. At the beginning of the new week, I ended up getting sick with stomach trouble and some temperature. So that day goes by. The next day I am nearly recovered and I had to leave town for some work. I show up on Thursday early morning and am so tired that I sleep through out afternoon. Now I am back on the computer just to find that it's been 1 week since anything had been posted on the blog. What can one say when time can fly so fast.

During my school or college days when exams were flying over my head, time stood so still that I thought I could run faster than the second's hand of the clock. But looking at this week and other things like the time I have spent in Bangalore makes me think whether the second's hand would stop if I glued it to the clock. Probably it will but I guess TIME wouldnot stop. The saying 'TIME and Tide wait for no one' holds truth.

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.