Some IT people in my college have made this video promoting their Symposium, ‘Authentikos’. They start out nice but drag a bit in the middle and toward the end too. Anyway, it was funny and I had a laugh or two here and there. It could have been done better with some slick editing though.
And it is that time of the year in colleges where they force you into some Symposium or Technical Conference in the name of ‘Extra Curricular Activity’. They don’t just stop there. They want you to suffer the insufferable, make you attend that two day pathetic event compulsorily, you know, just to fill in the seats in the auditorium and to listen to some inspiring speakers who can put a droning engine to shame. We have a two day national conference on Signal Processing and VLSI. They are amazing topics, but made quite difficult to understand by our dedicated staff. And what happens when you attend that conference? You don’t even want to know. There’s a lot of amusing things that precede such events. People avoiding certain lecturer’s class by requesting OD statuses, people banging their heads off preparing notes for compering sessions or coming up with ridiculously bombastic/flawed/verbose speeches for themselves or prepared for a HOD who pronounces ‘Performance’ as ‘Ferformance’ or ‘Speed’ as ‘Sfeed’. You see, they want to sound sophisticated in front of that gathering. They don’t really admit that they sound pretentious and come off as jackasses.
Apart from boring guest lectures, I can name two things that always irk me. One, singing a Tamil Thai Vazhuthu (a short prayer praising Tamil?) and two, girls asked to look more ridiculous in traditional costumes to wait in the lobby to welcome the dignitaries in. I don’t know why they have to start a technical event with a prayer praising Tamil. It’s all right to be religious but shouldn’t they have a prayer that everyone can understand or one that is less suggestive of linguistic discrimination. Seriously, you’d have to see those non-Tamil students’ faces. Priceless. And is it really necessary for those girls to welcome them dignitaries in the lobby? They just have to stand there and look pretty, waiting impatiently, tugging and smoothing their sarees. And it is a heavily contested job too, I’m told. Isn’t this one of those gender discriminating acts those women groups should consider taking up?
Oops! Ragha did it again. He’s the new Principal of the Patrician college of arts and science. Yes, he has usurped the Principal’s chair in the college. And guess what, he’s become a Father too with all white robes and stuff. High Resolution photo, right Here . Enjoy!
Since a paper newsletter didn’t work, my college is going online. A couple of few weeks ago, two young journalists from Deccan Chronicle came to our college to enroll us in Papyrusclubs.com, a Deccan Chronicle initiative to bring together the newsletters of all schools and colleges. The thing is it’s made for schools. I don’t know why they had to club colleges along with schools. The events to be covered in colleges are very much larger in proportion as compared to schools. They have got 6 sections in the newsletter.
What ticked me off was the ridiculousness to limit the video section to only one 2 minute video. Anyway, there are a couple of good lecturers you like in colleges and you can’t say no to someone who’s really enthusiastic about the whole thing. And I figured I was hopelessly bored in class and I needed some good excuses for ODs. It turned out well until the lecturer asked me to go and interview the additional commissioner of police!! (his son’s studying in our college, by the way). I have to prepare some questions. Uncontroversial ones, you see. That makes it a lot harder. If you have any questions, post them here. I’ll think of a way to present them in such a way that he doesn’t grab me by the scruff and have my kneecaps bruised. They got nasty canes you know and I might end up compromising Ragha’s true identity.
I came across a Times Now exclusive on engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu this morning. They were ripping apart this college for the stupid rules they have in place. I instantly sent text messages to friends. And the college chancellor Mr. Jeppiar, may he live forever torturing unsuspecting engineering students, gave this absurd explanation for not allowing girls and boys to talk to each other.
“This is Tamil culture. This is education and they should concentrate only on that. If we are not strict then at least 40 percent will stray. We allow them to talk during studies, discussions and all that, but not outside the classrooms, at bus stands and other places. We are strict.”
Tamil culture?! What? How? If may I remind Mr. Jeppiar that his late mentor, Mr. M. G. Ramachandran made an acting career out of it, traipsing around trees and orchids with the opposite sex. Why do they even bring Tamil culture in here? It’s in your own warped minds! Leave the culture alone!
Actually, Mr. Jeppiar is an excellent businessman. He obviously cashed in on the fear that grips parents that their daughters are no longer safe in their own houses. This probably should be made the university’s motto. ‘A safe haven for your daughters’ and/or ‘No girl can seduce your son’. Heck, Times Now report just made the institution popular across states, especially across North India. Want to read more on this? Here.
Whenever I log into my Gmail inbox, I always look for the dilbert comic strip that I’ve subscribed to first and then onto other junk mails. Dilbert is more than funny. You can always relate something in the strip to real life like I have.
This reminds me of Ragha meddling with our computers.
Our department HOD in college is such a drone and a PhD holder in the art of quibbling that you can be sure you will never be able to get a straight answer out of her. This one is dedicated to her.
And oh yes, there’s this ridiculous rule in my department, the mother of all stupid rules that you can have in place. You, the student shall never approach the HOD directly if at all you want to have the inconvenience of looking at a woman suffering from severe constipation. You should always approach via a ‘proper channel’ i.e., The Class representative->The Class in-charge->Senior lecturer (HOD sympathizer & messenger)->HOD. She will even ask her attendant to physically shove you out of the room if you barge in on her. This Dilbert comic strip was irresistible.
I’m like that “I said Christmas” kid. A lot of us at college are simply being called to the principal’s office for a ‘hearing’ when we question something. I still can’t believe this happens so many years after school. My freedom of expression is violated. I hate engineering colleges!
If this news of going bankrupt is true, probably they will demand hefty donations like this money grubbing college here. It’s unbelievably ridiculous that IITs have no money to pay their staff monthly salary and they are running institutions with money drawn from their corpus fund. Read here. Now, why wouldn’t HRD ministry release their grants? Is it because no credible research is being carried out in these institutions lately? 
I had been to my college to get a bona fide certificate for passport application. It was nice riding the scooter, wearing the helmet and all without a driver’s license as the day was somewhat cloudy, although it never converted into a downpour. Anyway, I reached my college, had a light-hearted talk with one of the lecturers ( no, I’m perfectly sane) and went to the manager’s office to get the certificate. There, the bona fide was typed out and a print out was handed to me. They then asked me to fill up a requisition form for the bona fide ( how brilliant! after the bona fide is printed!) and get it attested from my new Vice Principal who was temporarily (or permanently?) alloted the Audio-Visual room which we haven’t found any particular use so far. I enter his room, give my bona fide first inadvertently because he has to put his signature in the bona fide too. He signs the bona fide and hands it over to me. I then remember my folly and ask him to sign the requisition form as well. Here’s what happened:
V P: What is this?
Me: Requisition form, sir. The manager wants you to sign that one too.
V P: I want a requisition letter not a form.
(You signed the bona fide anyway, dumbass. Does it matter?)
Me: It’s the one that we have to fill up for a bona fide, sir.
V P: Then ask your HOD to sign this form first or else I won’t give you the bona fide.
(The bona fide is in my hand, mind you)
Me: But, sir, she isn’t there in her office right now and I can’t come again tomorrow, sir.
(Which was quite stupid of me cause I had it anyway)
V P: I tell, you go (sic). Don’t waste my time.
The Manager was kind enough to let me have the bona fide even without his squiggly signature on the stupid form. I don’t know why people are such cretins, especially in my college. Engineering college.
