Spoken like a True BITSian...

Identity

2009-07-14T03:04:00.001-07:00

Individuality is no less than a definitive feature of Independence, ensuing growth and prosperity; and identity is the basis of individuality. Without an identity, there can be no Individuality, noIndependence and no progress.

The identity of our beloved campus has been seeded, nurtured and cocooned by our mother campus BITS Pilani, to whom we shall be forever indebted hence grateful. We have been bosomed with bountiful love and patronizing care. The dutiful, condescending restriction, in the name of brand preservation has inevitably taken its toll on our freedom of expression.

More than one of us feels stifled under this throttling protection called the “BITS Pilani brand name.” We feel the need to establish ourselves as an individual, self sufficient and robust institute, a sovereign vital entity, not an ailing, dwarfed sidekick of an antecedently established University.

Bottom-line: We need to be proud of our campus, for what it is. Stunted, slipshod, maligned or vulnerable Goa Campus is still ours. It is our responsible, almost patriotic sense of faithfulness that will always wish the best for our campus, no matter how dissatisfied or disillusioned we may become. We have lived with and through BITS Goa’s problems, its problems are our problems, its glory is our own.

During sleepless nights and boring lectures, over Cold Coffee at Ice ’n’ Spice or abominable mess food, whilst watching football matches together in the common room and cramming formulae in the library, we have discussed and dissected every discernible aspect of our college. From the Quality of the mess food to the quality of Manchester United’s defense, to the quality of girls on campus, we have debated on them all. Our opinions are collectively shaped, our perspectives widened and our knowledge and awareness heightened. For the length of the semester on campus, and inescapably otherwise, our personalities are molded and modeled by our dear campus. Our campus provides us our knowledge, skill-set and values, our own identity, our position in the worldly scheme of things. We, in turn shape the image of our campus, contribute to its reputation and strive to build its prestige. We sell our campus not only to our festival sponsors and Alumni, but also to our friends, family and ourselves. We incessantly strive to make real Ashish Garg’s words, “BITS Goa is just as good, if not better and BITS Pilani”

Why then, must the identity of our campus itself be mistaken as that of its mother campus, which has had little or no bearing on our present persona? Why must we borrow our identity from another campus when we possess one of our own, a vivid, robust one at that? Do we still need to be in the shadows of our parent campus when we can rise and shine of our own accord? Rise and shine is, incidentally, what we have done and are continuing to do, axiomatically, almost subconsciously.

What we must realize is that we are, by no means, an adopted stepchild of our mother campus. In fact, we are just as rich and diverse, whether in terms of sheer student talent, clubs, department, associations as well as national level Cultural, Technical and Sports festivals. In a direct, blatant comparison, Goa Campus is much better planned, more scenic and better connected by road, rail and air. The experience of the chilled-out Goan culture, the numerous beaches, forts and scenic hang-out spots place any Goan college apart from just about anywhere else in India, let alone a state-of-the-art institute of Technological excellence; not to forget the exotic seafood and most importantly, essential indulgences at outrageously cheap prices.

We have adopted a sound and coherent departmental and coordination committee structure atGoa that works synchronously and seamlessly, and is constantly setting benchmarks for other colleges, certainly even our mother campus to emulate. Make no mistake about it, Quark and Waves are fast growing bigger than Apogee and Oasis ever were. They may have the experience and consequent establishment through convention, but we have the exuberance of youth, and the momentum of an unflagging pursuit for improvement, tending to excellence.

We may not (yet) be at par in terms of sheer numbers in faculty, e-journal subscriptions, electives as well as placements and Practice School, but what the hell – you cannot have it all! We must remember our campus is but five years old, things can only, only get better from here.

Finally yet importantly, we have tremendous unity and trust among students, not only intra-hostel but also spanning over all hostels, batches and branches. This fact has evidently been manifested more than once, most notably, in what is deemed the BITS-Goa Independence Day, lovingly christened The Maggi Revolution (having symbolic as well as literal implications). Our associations have strengthened through mutual interests (or lack of it) – the hours spent expelling potent, profane interjections on DC mainchat, through evenings spent playing games at SAC or hanging out at Nescafe, through the nights spent (placebo-lically studying) fervently discussing and analyzing football, girls/guys, the campus and ironies of life in general. We have formed mutually inseparable bonds whilst playing, studying, eating and (sometimes) even sleeping together (no pun intended).

How then, can we even think of condemning our campus, our self-constructed realm, our haven by right? Is it not just brilliantly, precisely the way we have wanted and made it to be? Why then would we want to consider any other institute, let alone a Pilani, as superior to our own? It is time we put our thought and belief into action and live by our motto, which rightfully is “Proud to be a BITSGian.” It is time people know our campus as BITS-Goa, in independent identity, take notice of us for what we are, not our parent institute lying in a desert land some thousand miles away.

Galaxalization

2008-10-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

We might not have come such a long way after all. From the Stone Age to the nano age, from spears to nuclear warheads, from jagged paintings on brown cave walls to catalogued digital imaging, from tracking partly eroded footprints to inventing global position systems, from the barter system to globalization.

Eventually, we would meet a multitude of creatures from other solar systems and galaxies, living in different planets. It has significant probability to happen given the relentless levels of options and possibilities - folks of our planet endure during life. The levels of technology themselves, while changing and giving a direction to the quality of life, shall let us come in virtual contact with other, for lack of a better word, aliens. The aliens would meet, sizing each other up, like an endless ritual of wolves. Soon, deals would be made, boundaries drawn, constitutions written, alliances pledged and invasions waged. The world would no longer be our only world. Hypocrites might, however, continue to exist, the battle of individualists and collectivists could continue.

Trans-galactic corporations might come into existence. Or at least we would come to know that a lot of trans-galactic corporations already exist. Every sphere of knowledge, ranging from science to art, philosophy to literature, mathematics to astral physics would undergo a gargantuan change - monolithic in its existence that entire civilizations of species across the universe would get wiped out, eerily extinct making other species flourish, thereby creating a new circle of survival. Some details would be chronicled in the golden annuls of history. Most of them would be forgotten. 38 new species of monster-like-fish have been discovered in Greenland in 2010. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/photogalleries/100421-new-fish-species-strange-greenland-pictures/

The definition and scope of tourism would change radically. A variety of things, places and people would be discovered, invented and pulverised with ample freedom and gore. Multi-galactic cultures would then lead to various new species, which, in turn would coalesce, inadvertently into mere races. Corporations and firms would span galaxies. Rules would be relaxed, constitutions re-written, laws modified. A zillion genres of music would emerge into colors we haven’t seen till date. Terabytes would be a trifle.

Dreams would be different.

Computers and robots would be capable of interpreting and processing yottabytes of data. Students from Cygnus would be drinking Absinthe with students from Milky Way. A guy from Andromeda hitting on an Indian girl living in the Black Eye galaxy, Sculptors from Reinmuth travelling to Perseus to carve a gold stone into a creature with brown eyes. A drug peddler in Maffei galaxy smoking up a jaded bong might get caught by the unruly cops from Keenan’s.
As a matter of a jagged edge of unruly fact, with the laws of evolution in place (with all its negatives), the clumsy end of a confused world is not nearly seen. However, a 1.2 kilogram cerebrum inside a head sees more. Things we haven’t thought of till date, things we did not know existed.

I do not know what I would be doing. I wouldn't mind owning a private galaxy, moving around on a Billion CC motorcycle in space, living in a well-ventilated, strategically located solar system. Living in a stone house overlooking a purple waterfall in a strange, wild country of a colourful planet, modelling warp speed models and listening to thoguza music with under green skies, blue earth, purple water and soft soil.

It is a world of possibilities.

It is left to us what we decide for ourselves. If you wake up at a different place as a different person, would you still be the same person?

I welcome galaxalization. Any aliens out there deciphering this post... let us not have any unpleasant surprises.

You tubed!

2008-02-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAvugZbbK4k

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

2007-09-15T22:39:00.001-07:00

2007-09-15T22:35:00.001-07:00

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A trip down the memory lane...

2007-06-02T23:17:00.001-07:00

It pays to have a sweet school junior. He handed over his cycle keys to me and I
cruised around on the roads all along the campus. My closeness to profs was
always a double edged sword. I knew every single road and where it led, yet I
could not take the shortcuts to MB through them as next day I would be grilled
mercilessly. :-) I have seen very few sunrises in my life and the one at Gliding
Club remains amongst my favourites. But to be there without a Tam chemicalite, a
bong from shillong and a Mallu mimer would be unfair. The Reunion would be there
for that.

In a series of six brilliant personal posts, Madhurjya (Banjo) takes us on a walk down the memory lane. Oh, how I miss those things... A must read for all!

A Trip Down Memory Lane - I,
II – The Places, III – The People, IV – The BITSians, V – The Food, VI – The Epilogue

On the same note, here's about a small trip I made to Pilani last week: A Quick Trip to Pilani

The goan wave

2007-05-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a long time since somebody blogged here . So i thought why not refresh the blog with some fresh new ideas and what could have been better than a post about the new campus of bits at goa .

started in 2004 this was the second campus of the prestigious BITS-Pilani university Rajasthan . A bustling batch of 600 had joined Bits in the sand of another kind . Soon Oasis became Waves and Apogee became Quark.today the campus has 1800 students and its first batch going for placements soon this year.

A normal bitsian from goa has to adapt to one thing . Those curious glances from family friends and relatives . A normal conversation between a Bitsian from goa and Distant relative (DR) goes on like this

Distant Relative : So where do you study ?
Bitsian ( proudly ) : Bits
DR : huh what you doing in goa , there is a Bits in goa , how strange ... blah blah blah

and soon you join his list not so worthy youngsters . But Probably every person here had made the choice of this life . All the people here left some NIT or an IIT or some foriegn university . All of them came here just on the name of BITS and all of them wanted to be a part of evolution of this body of BITS ...... BITS- pilani, goa.

well once the first hurdle is crossed , campus is actually very good . All the classrooms are a/c and students have single seated rooms right from first year . In place of c'not there is nescafe and monginis here and ofcourse our very own insti and sc cafe .

there is no ANC because actually you have to be back in your hostels by 11 PM . so all the hopes of that goan night life are thrashed . the students have there own student council , the annual cultural fest Waves in which pilani came this year . The annual technical festival Quark , the annual sports festival spree and finally the annual inter hostel cultural competition zephyr .

All the cultural clubs are working in the campus apart from the campus has its own Centre for software development (CSD) and CEl .

the academic system is same as pilani with all its flexibilities .Bits - pilani , goa is probably the only place in india apart from pilani itself where you will hear so much usage of the word pilani . About the campus lingo it is developing slowly because of main chat on the direct connect client where you will find the whole campus discussing on some topic . right now its OB that half of the people in my batch would be thinking about the experience at ps1 which might range from bestest to thuest .

The campus has its own share of technical achievements . whether coming 5 in techfest at IIT Bombay or winning 2nd prize at Microsoft Imagine Cup . it has kept the flag of BITS flying high.

btw if you wanna tour our campus do visit www.bits360.com
signing off now
more about the campus later

BITS ranked sixth in Top 100 engineering colleges -Outlook Version.

2006-07-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

The link to the actual article is here:

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060717&fname=Cover+Story&sid=5

BITS and pieces - reservation comes to Pilani

2006-06-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

(I had posted this on my personal blog a little while ago. But considering the subject, I thought this might be a better forum for this post.)

After years of resisting Government interference. by avoiding UGC grants and federal funding and being supported primarily by the Birla group, BITS Pilani finally got bullied into the reservation mess by Arjun Singh and his goons. Rashmi Bansal summarizes this fiasco in her aptly titled post Another one BITS the dust?

On May 29, the very day the Supreme Court observed that quotas can divide the nation and asked the Government to explain its rationale behind the 27% OBC quotas, HRD Minister Arjun Singh further tightened the quota screws on the higher-education sector, both public and private.

In a note prepared that day for the Cabinet, his Ministry has proposed a legislation with provisions that give the Government unprecedented power not only to impose quotas in over 100 “deemed universities” over and above 32 Central institutions but also to regulate their fees, selection procedure—and even take punitive action.

So not just IITs, IIMs and AIIMS, the institutions which are brought into the 27% OBC quota net include Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani; Manipal Academy of Higher Education; Pune’s Symbiosis International Education Centre and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

We BITSians have always been fiercely proud of ourselves. We knew BITS Pilani could have had better libraries, labs and furniture if only we went begging to UGC for funding. But we realized that this would come with strings attached like reservations, entrance exam mandates and such. And we decided we would rather have the best students than the best facilities. We were secure in the knowledge that only the creme de la creme of India would qualify to be our classmates and competitors at BITS. We were admired when we graduated, and the BITS brand name was second only to the IITs in India.

Well, say goodbye to the perfect world, because politicians like Arjun Singh have decided to dishonor the sanctity of private and elite universities and bring them all under Government control. I have no idea how the Government can suddenly manipulate the constitution so they can exercise control over institutes like BITS. What's next? Can these so-called OBCs have job reservation quotas in Reliance, Infosys and Wipro once they graduate from BITS and IITs through their reservation quotas?

Don't get me wrong. I believe that India has to have some kind of affirmative action in place to accelerate the development of those who have been left woefully behind in our society. But such over-arching and generic reservation schemes will only do more harm than good - they will further divide our society on the basis of class and cause resentment and hostility between them. More thought should go behind such schemes, and reservation should be done more along economic lines rather than just based on class. The push should come at the primary school level, so that these backward classes will have come up to par and ready to compete on equal terms with everyone else when they are ready to enter college.

Much has been said against this reservation scheme by the public, regular media and bloggers alike. But we all know how this is going to end. Even when all this was going on, I did not for a minute stop and think that my BITS Pilani would be subject to this disgrace. For we've always stood away from the rest of the pack and made our own path. We've always prided ourselves for our independence and freedom from Government-imposed quotas and restrictions. All that has been felled in one swoop. And for what?

I'm glad I graduated from BITS Pilani when I did, secure in the knowledge that I rubbed shoulders with the best India had to offer. It pains me to see that this might not be true anymore. Yes, Arjun Singh and company will leave a legacy behind. A legacy that will be India's bane. A legacy that will leave many a broken heart and shattered dream in its wake.

PS: I would love to hear other BITSian opinions on this issue. This post will be updated with your comments.

Being a BITSian in Bangalore

2006-06-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

I went to an office party that a friend invited me to. And looked around. There were a whole host of familiar faces. The place was teeming with Bitsians. The ones who work for the company and a zillion others who had been invited. It was so full of our kind that if anyone were to pick up a stone and throw it at random it would most likely fall on a BITSian.

At work, there are three BITSians in my team. I never had adjustment problems, there were always three people willing to take care of me without even the managers request.Subsequently the VP heading our team also turned out to be a BITSian.

There are also a lot of BITS people working in other teams. At one random foosball game that we were playing in office, there were about 8 people standing around. And one of my bitsian friends seemed to know them all. She introduced me to them "Bitsian 2k, 2k1, etc etc etc...."

My roomie is a BITSian and so are a whole bunch of her colleagues. The folks I hang out with on weekends are BITSians from several batches.

Once my roomie and I (we werent roomies then) decided to sit at a window sill at Brigade Road and talk. We never got to do much talking to each otehr. Every five minutes (Im not exaggerating) a BITSian or a group of BITSians stopped by to talk to us.

Walk into any mall. Take a stroll down MG Road or Brigade Road, its the same story. BITSians are everywhere in Bangalore.

People ask me why I like Bangalore and why I feel at home.

Need I answer that question?

*grin*

PM addresses at BITS-Goa

2006-05-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page.asp?relid=17488

thanks to Mayur Shah from 97 batch for this link

BLOB Awards are back!

2005-11-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

On a rainy sunday evening, I met up with Sharadha Ramanathan, 98C6PS206, enthu pot and a budding entrepreneur ( I am not sure how to even spell this word and look at her being one!) and was discussing my idea of BLOB awards with her.

I was explaining her how off late, I have been more than faithful to my employer and wanted to get this thing started again - but with a promising BANG! One week later, she sends me this (Amidst all her social, personal and professional responsibilities)!

http://www.meghamedia.com/Projects/BITSBlog/Images/Blog_Awards.jpg

This is a template, along with the images (including the trophies, see! see!) and the color combinations. She's also agreed to host the application on her website (Clap! Clap!). So, that's two huge wickets down now!

So what's left to do now? For starters, the Web application that will play the Voting machine.

It would be great if one among the thousand odd brilliant ASP, JSP, PHP stud would SVP (sil vous plait!) take up the task of writing a very simple Web Application. I have a preliminary draft of the tech specs with me. So, if you have a day or two and want to something creative, off beat and exciting - please do get in touch with me and we can work out the details.

Hope to hear from you SOON!

Google Rules !

2005-10-15T01:21:00.000-07:00

A home away from the home

2005-10-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

Past :

It was an usual winter day in Pilani......cold weather....freezing....frightening to think of that ice cold water.... fog was covering every inch of the bhawan corridor......even the ever active ...ever studying ghottu in my wing was asleep.....It was cold even inside the room......... not inside my rug....yeah....that was my heaven.....i would say ...there was nothing so heavenly.....like.... sleeping inside the rug on a cold winter day.....Room no:257,Budh Bhawan......yeah....that was my room......I never felt like coming out of it...when it was winter...... So did i feel even thatday......

BEEP!!BEEP!!.....hmm.....sounded familiar.....a very familiar sound..... oh.. yeah... that was praga's alarm clock.... it must be 7.55 A.M...... I heard some noise outside my room...... footsteps...... hurrying...towards to bogs....then...again in seconds ....hurrying back to the room....then the shouting started...."lets go to tuts..!!" ....." wake up da....idiot!!" ...i heard all sorts of foul words..... Determination.... yeah....i was showing a great deal of determination....."wont come out of my come....whatever....you say!"......then the banging started.....looked like i can't pretend to be asleep anymore.....i opened the door...unwillingly....hmm... as expected...praga was standing there.....he was telling me it was already 8..... time for tuts....I heard a voice in me..... "curse that tuts man!....why do they have these tuts everyday....! .... which idiot's idea is this tut thing!".....I told myself...."i juz cant take it any longer!....I waiting to get outta this shit..."

I went out.... and got ready for the tuts..... searched for my pen..... couldn't find that.....oh there...it is...it was inside my computer cabinet....safest place in my messed up room...... i took that ...examined it....checked if it was working.....nope...wasn't ......i ran to the H Wing .....knocked the first room.....no reply.....started banging...then slowly...a first yearite...came out....asking what was my problem...i asked him for a pen.....before he gave it to me...i snatched it from his hand....was already.....on my heels.....

The whole budh bhawan......road was covered by fog..... couldn't see anything beyond 10 ft........after a good sprint.....entered the class in FD-2..... even on that cold day....i could feel the heat in my Instructor's look.....oops ...did i call that a look....it was a stare...!..... but nothing was new to me......after all...i was a regular customer.....:) .... then took the tuts paper and went to a bench.... and started turning the Mu-E (Micro Electronics)book..in all directions....(it was an OB tut....else i wouldn't have come!!!) ...... "oh..yeah..there it is!...thats the answer....how could they afford to give such a stupid problem straight from the book.....that too.....in an OB...!".... I laughed....told myself..."Its your day...man!!!".... copied that problem....from the book...hurriedly....before i could finish.....i heard the instructor shout "Time up"...Somehow ...i managed to finish it and returned the paper to the instructor..... walked out of the class....

We guys started walking back towards bhawan.... while other studs left for the class (never had the habit of attending any class)..... On the way back ....i heard someone say..." The problem looked easy...but there was a small twist in that....did any of you notice that?"... thats what i was searching for...."Oh Dear!!! you missed it even today!!!one more zuk!! can't even open the account in this god damn course!!" ....well..i was sad..... not for making a zuk..... but for goin' to that tut.....could have slept a little more......

Then we came to the mess .....checked the breakfast....it was the same...uppma........surely that wasn't the best of my days.....went to the mess biah and asked for bread and jam...got that ....... came to the table....ate that bread and jam ... talked about the Marudhara cup.....that was scheduled for the weekend.... then we started walking towards the bhawan.....there it was....back in my clavern....once again...i got inside my rug...my heaven....sleeping.....with all my heart.....

Present:

The same..usual...typical Bangalore morning.....pleasant weather....I wake up at
8.30....dont hear anyone shout...dont hear anyone bang....... take all my time to get out of the bed..... come downstairs....brush my teeth.... take the newspaper....start reading all the crap...... then...when i feel there is nothing more left in that paper.....go to the bathroom.....get ready......

I come downstairs....lock the house.........take my bike..... "oh man....!!! not again....not this traffic...not the signals....not this...BMTC buses..!"....there it is... I'm maneuvering my bike through the dense traffic....i get to my office at around 11.....time for breakfast....call Bala on his phone....we both have our breakfast..in the 8th floor....come back...."oh..cha...forgot my coffee!"....get my coffee...when i settle down in my seat....the time...is 12.........start the coding from where i left the previous day.....i hear some sound in my stomach....probably some kind of acidic reaction.....is that some kind of a signal..."oh..i have to get something for my lunch!".....look at my watch....it is ten past three.....i go to the cafeteria and get bread & omelette.... then come back to my seat in half an hour...then i realise.... I 'm late for my all-hands meeting....rush to the conference room.....Thank God....my manager has not come yet.....i sit down....with a coffee in my hand.... time goes in a flash....it must be around 4.30 or probably 5.....come back....start doing the correction that my manager had said in the meeting......it is 7.30.....i feel..it's the time to leave home....go downstairs....start my bike......

May be, this is the real world. I ,probably, was in wonderland for all these years. But, it, truly, is a home away from the home! and I'm waiting to get back there!(Of course, I have one more sem there after my PS!)

BLOB Awards : The rules

2005-08-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Mic testing.. Mic testing.

Good, now that all of you can hear me and given that we have spent enough time on the Categories, I will summarise the rules, some that we have already discussed and some that I shall propose (and would love your feedback on)

The poll contestants will have to be BITSians only. In other words, any blog that is nominated for an award should be a blog maintained by a BITSian.
ANYONE - bitsian or otherwise - can vote as part of the poll. If you have been following a BITSian blog and want to tell him/her how much you love his/her blog, you can go ahead and vote.
The final list of categories are the eleven categories you see here [link].
You can vote at most three blogs for each category.
The poll consists of two stages.

The first stage will be an open event where people can copy-paste URLs of their favorite blogs for respective categories. At the end of the first stage, the top three blogs in each category will be announced.
These blogs will be the nominations for the specified category and the second stage begins here. People can then vote for the nominated blogs and at the end of the second stage, we announce the winner.
The reason for doing this is even people who don't regularly follow BITSian blogs and wouldn't have voted normally can take time to look at the nominationsand make up their minds.
I have a suggestion here - the nominated bloggers can also make a pitch for their respective blogs during the second stage where they can introduce themselves and "campaign" for their blogs. The idea of doing this is to get to know each other through this process.

The nominations carry over the points they have got in the first stage into the second stage. In other words, it's one contiguous voting process.
There's currently no check done to make sure people vote only once. As mentioned before, if someone is voting for the same blog many times it only goes to show how much he/she likes the blog. So, you can vote any number of times you like [the assumption here is there's a healthy spirit of participation as I am sure we are dealing with mature individuals here].
The results will be completely transparent at the end of the stage. All the blogs that have been nominated will be announced at the end of first stage. We will also provide the different votes that each blog received at the end of the second stage.

So, what are the steps ahead?

We have shortlisted a poll site - Bravenet.com - which allows people to create a poll and the poll can be pasted on any site. So, everyone will be able to vote here in this blog. We also have yahoo groups [which however will require authentication and enrollment etc]. But the problem with both these polls are that they allow only multiple-choice type questions. so, having a free text field where people can enter blog addresses is not possible. We can definitely work around this problem but that will involve a little more work for anyone who's voting. A more tailor-made solution would any day be better [And a simple form that can be posted here and a corresponding back end which accepts GET or POST requests and does as much as even send me a mail would be the best :)]

Many thanks to everyone who's passed the word around. We are beginning to get some attention now and that's definitely good news. However, I still haven't got any volunteers for

Any other poll/survey sites that you might know, have heard about, have come across. Please do let me know if you have any in mind. If you don't, please ask around and let me know :)
If you are, or know someone who is, good with graphics and will be willing to spend LITTLE time in designing the "Award" images for the event, that would be fantastic. You will be duly acknowledged in this site :)

Would really [REALLY] appreciate it if you can take SOME time for this.

If things go as planned, we should be starting the poll on September 15th. I am not sure how long we will have the first stage open - I will leave this as an open point right now and decide based on the response we get. Hope that's ok.

As always, do pass the word around; please let me know what you think and make sure you have fed your dog :)

PS: If you have the time to participate in the pilot poll or want to be kept posted on this poll by mail, do send a mail to rathish_balakrishnan [at] yahoo [dot] com or just leave your email address here.

BLOB Awards : The Categories

2005-08-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Bhaiyon aur unki behnon,

Firstly, danks a million for taking the time and commenting on the post below. And many more thanks for having put up notices in your blogs. I was looking at about 25 votes before moving on with the details. However, 16 comments is not a bad number (especially when three people have contributed to more than half the comments ;)).

I have, as I mentioned before, a couple of ideas for the categories. A blog is not probably the best medium for consensus based decisions or brain storming. But let me know what you think and most importantly, give me the list of categories that you have in mind.

My list is

Daily cup of Coffee Bblog - BBlogs that are usually the first ones you visit everyday (as soon you are done with checking the comments counter in yours ;)).
The Funniest BBlog
The most socially relevant BBlog - Blogs that have a strong social conscience, were of use during times of trouble (tsunami, mumbai rain) or bring to light the actual truths.
Direct Dilse Bblog - Blogs that are very genuine where every post is very heart felt. Makes you feel you know the person by reading his blog.
The Complete Bblog - Guess, this is self explanatory. Bblogs that span a whole range of issues, is funny, witty, touchy, mushy, stupid ... just about everything
The Eng-Lang-Ski Bblog - Blogs that maintain a good standard of language (Dr. Meenakshi raman must be proud that I named an award after her course ;))
The Stunner Bblog - The most visually appealing blog. Bonus points for creativity and expertise in HTML. Nonetheless, doesn't have to have barbies and rockets in the template. Has to be neat and appealing.
The 1000 words Bblog - No, it's not about the length :) It's about the best photo blogs (I am not sure how many are there. Still I shall leave it here)
The Killer Name Bblog - Quote - "... in a blog World full of Randoms, Thoughts, Actions, Stray etc., something must be given to a blog with a killer name" - UnQuote
The Oncampus Spy Bblog - For those who brave the connection speeds and dry winds of the desert and let us know interesting information about what's happening in campus. Bbloggers who compete in this category will have to show their mess bill/ID card/C'not Blue moon bills for proof ;)
The Smart-Spammer Bblogger - The ones that leave their mark in as many blogs with some killer comments!

Three nominees for every award and one winner. There are a couple of ideas that I thought of but discarded. Shall list them to - let me know what you think.

Year-wise awards - Where a blogger from every batch is chosen. We have a good list of bloggers for 97-2000. But for batches before or after, the number is way too small to merit representation.
Awards based on Sex (as in gender ;)) - One blogger (for the complete blog award) from either sexes. Again, do we need bring that factor into the whole selection? I personally don't think so.
The best theme-based blogs - For the simple reason that we don't have many around.
The most often updated blog - There's no point in doing the whole drama of choosing someone. We might as well call Sagnik on stage and give it to him right away. This one's a no-contest!

A few more operational details

Where to host? I have checked out a couple of free online survey boards. But if someone has a server where we can host an application, it will save us a lot of time and will help us come up with something better.
Award designers? I am sure there are a lot of creative guys when it comes to colors, images and photoshop (I personally can think of a lot of bitsians!). Cany anyone volunteer to design and create the award icons? A simple (yet appealing) design should do. If you are interested do let me know. And if you are from bangalore, I assure you a treat once it's done :)
Audience? The more the number of people who vote, the better it is. It would be great if we could let a lot more people know that something like this is happening. At the sametime, I don't want to resort to any cheap attention gathering gimmicks either (Spamming anyone?). Can you think of any e-groups where you can send a mail about such awards. If so, please do :)

That's it for now. Once we have agreed on the categories, we can draft the rules for the whole contest. Now it's your turn :) Let me know what you think.

BLOB Awards?

2005-08-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Give me a moment while I dust off the cobwebs that have settled on this blog. Ah! now, this is what I call a neat, clean and an EMPTY blog :) It's been around an year since this blog has been started and now that I see it, the list of bloggers to my right is quite substantial. Apart from this list, I have a list of close to 70 odd bitsians in my blog and I am sure that x 20 is the number of BITSians who are blogging. I have an idea and I need your opinion on the same.

How about starting something like BLoggers Of Bits (BLOB) awards (the resemblance to BOB is purely coincidental, let me tell you!). We decide on a set of categories and readers (BITSians or anyone else who is been reading blogs maintained by BITSians) can nominate blogs of their choice. And once the voting is done, we declare the winners and all the winners will get a "BLOB award" which probably will be a logo (Or some sort of "graphic" that people will like to have on their blogs :-).

I personally would love to do something like this because,

It reiterates the original purpose behind starting this blog which is to bring about a sense of community among all BITsian bloggers.
It's a nice way to appreciate blogs that make our days and have become "our daily cups of coffee".
Sharing each one's favorites gives us a chance to showcase a list of interesting blogs that one can add to his daily list.
IT IS A LOT OF FUN! :)

Of course, there are a lot of operational details to be worked out. Not everyone will have the sufficient time. But the big question is "Do we want to do it?" It doesn't even matter whether you are a BITSian or not - if you find this idea interesting, or feel you can help out, or at least are sure that you will take time to vote for the blogs of your choice if such a contest is started, please take sometime off to leave a comment on the post (A simple "I Do" will do :-)

Or if you can think of reasons because of which this wouldn't work, or things that we have to take care of while doing something like this, or just find this whole idea stupid, please drop in your comments too.

PS: I am not sure how many people still read this blog. So, if it's not too much of a trouble, can you post this link on your Blog so that people can read this post and voice their opinion. Thanks again!

T shirt

2005-07-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working with a local NGO called CRDS (Chengalpattu Rural Development Society) as a UN volunteer for rehab work. As part of the tsunami rehab and reconstruction program, we had organised a street-play in one of the villages called Meiyur kuppam near the Kalpakkam reactor. While gathering the crowd to come for the play, I noticed this guy's T shirt from a distance. So, I went closer and asked him how he got it "therlai Sir, tsunami vanda bodu yaaro koduthutu ponaanga" (I don't know, Sir. When the tsunami stuck, someone had given it to us).

On another note, Dilip D'Souza had written to me about the good work done by BITSians in the rehab work - "You should go to see how the BITSunami effort is carrying on, south of Nagapattinam, excellent work, some PS students there. They are having a review meeting on Sat in Dharmapuri."

An Apping egroups initiative...

2005-07-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Join The BITSian Apping E-Group

Click to join greenmile

2005-05-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Our favourite restaurant is not "Anna-Purana" any more, but we still get a "Peace" of Gulab Jamun at Nagarji's Redi !! They rule...

BITS Photos

2005-05-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

Found this on one of the many egroups floating around.

Farewell time again?

2005-04-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Graduating in another few days, from TAMU. But nothing beats my farewell on campus. This experience has not affected me as much, wouldn't leave tears like my last one, would leave me yearning for those days to come back..Experiences like these ones just don't repeat

Farewell Time..

2005-04-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

hello people,

I wonder how each one of you would have felt when farewells are around. Right now its farewell time at BITS. I am trying hard not to get emotional. But doesnt seem to help. the days are over....write ups...cnot treats...wing lachcha...gussed tuts..courses u dont even remember u did...loads of juniors who make u feel ur old ...and the feeling of leaving this place that has given every BITSian memories to cherish for a lifetime. I am jus gonna enter that phase and it already feels different...words probably cant express it..

feels like i never wanna leave..

1.00 a.m...time for anc..bye

Photos from BITS - April 2005

2005-04-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Srini here (97A3PS091)

Thanks Rathish for the post and the invite :)

Here is a link with more photos from my recent trip to BITS. Flickr has upload limits. So, I have uploaded most of the photos to Kodakgallery.com.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=18c6qtiq.f8zngtu&x=0&y=hyjns5

Njoi!

Book keeping :)

2005-04-13T03:59:00.000-07:00

Another very non-thought provoking, uninteresting yet inevitable blog - time to do some book keeping. Ladies and gentlemen, below are the e-mail addresses to which invitations to join the BITSian blog had been sent but are still pending.

technodyne at eth dot net
t dot geetha at gmail dot com
sachin_biz at yahoo dot com
fd97091 at yahoo dot com
chocodusk at yahoo dot com
sanketh248 at yahoo dot com
subramanian at gmail dot com
poonam dot agarwal at honeywell dot com
Chandu241 at hotmail dot com
kalyanvk at gmail dot com
milon2000 at hotmail dot com
harismenon at excite dot com
swarna dot subash at gmail dot com
saravanaraj at gmail dot com
f2000356 at yahoo dot com
tp_bits at yahoo dot co dot in
Ravi_Komatireddy at infosys dot com
leelanath at yahoo dot com
f_nazim at yahoo dot com

So, if your email address is in the list and you

received an invite and are a member of the blog (or)
not received the invite at all.

Let me know and I shall do the needful. Also, if any of you want to be a member of this blog, send an e-mail to rathish_balakrishnan at yahoo dot com (with your ID nos. and other details you think are relevant) and me shall take care.

Thank you :)