The dawn of a new day

A SIGHT TO BEHOLD: The morning sun lights up the sagging spirit.

GITAM: The myriad golden rays emanating from the rising sun, which seems reluctant to leave the horizon, serves a mute siren to the paddling silhouettes, set off for yet another venture into the sea. The medley of the grayish black clouds against the backdrop of the sky holding the crescent moon and sparsely scattered stars appear waiting for their metamorphosis. The chirping birds seem to give an ovation to this aesthetic harmony of the nature or perhaps due to their bafflement at the paradoxical panorama of the sun and moon's coexistence. The veteran mountains stand gravely with an air of nonchalance, presiding over the proceedings. Peering through the window of our vehicle at the Marina beach in the wee hours, I stole a glimpse of this breathtaking landscape, which seemed to bear a significance. I visualized myself sailing towards the dawn of a new day leaving behind the waning darkness of the previous night. The abating darkness implied the receding days of college life - the golden days of one's life. The juvenile life spent with mirth and enjoyment. But emerging through the fading darkness comes a new phase of life with challenges to face and responsibilities to fulfil. On the threshold of a new facet of life I stand ready to confront the world with its multifariousness. The environment around me would metamorphose from college to office, books to files in accordance with the transfiguring clouds.

The joyous birds signified my friends and well-wishers, elated at my eventful voyage and the grave mountains represented my teaching personnel bidding me an adieu. The sudden screeching of our car brought me back from my thoughts and I felt nostalgic for being far off from my alma mater.

*****Please find below the link to the e-version of this article published in THE HINDU*****
http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/10/23/stories/2006102300850400.htm

All for the dream job

CLIMBING THE LADDER OF SUCCESS: Students are busy with campus recruitments.

GITAM: The academic year 2006 has witnessed a revolutionary breakthrough in the campus recruitments by the IT industries. Never had one expected so many recruitments in the first two months itself.

Companies, which were not even heard of in our brief sojourn in the campus, are approaching with a voracious appetite for students.

What could be the reason for this sudden improvement? Perhaps an unforeseen downpour of projects!! My seniors (mechanical) recruited in the software companies account for only 1/5th of our present number.

But at the end of the day, what effect does this IT boom have on us?

While it could be a dream-come-true for the software streams; for other branches it is a debate to be argued upon. It is a choice between lucre and job satisfaction.

Handsome salaries and attractive incentives are the focal point of software companies.

The ladder of growth is very steep and a person working there for quite a time is destined to be rich.

Notwithstanding all the allurement of the IT industry, a person cannot be sure enough if he could sustain the turmoil and competition.

The breakneck work schedule keeps the employees preoccupied and could lead to debility in the long run."Stress" is another cause of concern which most of the employees are reluctant to admit being affected of.

On the other hand stand core companies (as the terminology goes to indicate a company of one's own branch)-

The ultimate destination of an engineer and being placed anywhere else would make him feel incongruous. A place where a person would feel he is applying what he has learnt and could seek job satisfaction.

But the major criterion for a job nowadays seems to be "growth factor" and "monetay benefits" and the software jobs have an edge over the core jobs in both these respects.

Further aggravating the adversity, the "only one job" policy empolyed by the college managements has left the students with no choice.

Though desperately aspiring for a core job, a person cannot be sure if he could make it when the company comes which is usually towards the second semester.

One cannot wait and brood over his dream of landing into a job of his choice while his peer group settles down.

In this mad man's race for jobs everyone seems to have landed up on the common platform of software industry, where it is the survival of the fittest.

*****Please find below the link to the e-version of this article published in THE HINDU***** 
http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/09/25/stories/2006092501260400.htm

My first Mobile

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of acquiring the most effective tool of communication. Finally, I am the proud owner of Nokai-1110 a sleek phone in black and silver. Now, I needn't hire my sister's mobile or request friends to lend their's for the occasional sms'ing :)

Though I had the desire to possess one from the past one year, I could only express it after getting placed. Am very grateful to loving mom for being resolute in granting my wish though I had not got a green signal from dad and chacha. They said, it would affect my studies (They had a point though). Thank you Lord for your grace and help me in preserving it.

A visit to GMR

'One day batting' at its best. Third year second semester rolled past with little recess to recollect. Our exams were conducted quite early this time. With just two days between the announcement and the actual commencement we were warriors on battle field with hardly any preparation.

I luckily wrote my exams well. Excepting Automobile Engineering, all other subjects were alien to me. The pace at which concepts are learnt and subjects dealt, I wonder if the tempo was maintained throughout the semester, we could work miracles.

A week before the exams, we had done a paper presentation at GMRIT. Suresh was the co author. We had worked on 'hydroforming'. It came out quite good and people were impressed with our simulations (Special efforts from Mr Balaraju). The queries session was where we took a beating though.(Reson : We were naive enough not to do an indepth research into the topic)

GMRIT was an impressive college. The infrastructure and the faculty was outstanding. Students could actually boast of having good lecturers. I know am stressing by mentioning twice but that's intended. It was Deepika's insistence and persistence that we finally ended up doing at least one good thing which would could add value to our resume. At campus, she was as usual full of energy and cynosure at the event. She made sure our stay was comfortable. We were treated like "Hey look... Deepika's friends". lol

We went around all the departments while having a curious look into the presentations. Deepika herself had built two models : a Bridge and a Dam. We made good friends with - Chandu, Krishna, Karthik and Netaji (not to forget his unique humorous accent)

Deepika accompanied us on our way back home. Childhood and schooling, two important and synonymous phases in one's life flashed as we talked thourgh our journey back home. We fancied our school life and inevitably compared with our present college life. A Philanthropist and an extremely caring person, she is sure keep her environment at high spirits.

Suresh was joyous that I had such a good friend !!

College Christmas

Today we celebrated our college Christmas. This was the 4th Christmas being celebrated in Gitam. Dr Edward Williams was our speaker and Elizabeth Rani mam (HOD for EIE) was our Chief Guest. All the arrangements were done bang on time and the stage was set by afternoon itself.

I was an active participant and had co-ordinated in getting in the volunteers and contributions for the event. Though it was the college Christmas, we had little participation from non-engineering sister conerns of GITAM. The final year students of EIE formed the core organizing committee. As every year, the Principal had not granted permission to conduct the event within the college premises. Not even a banner was permitted.

So thus started the day - arrived from home at around 1:30 PM and made arrangements for the Santa's costume at Allipuram and a couple of bouquets for the guests en-route college. I had taken my dad's bike as I expected the event to finish late. Highway drive was a charm. Sorted traffic with minimum blockades was enjoyable. Our entire class was ready and waiting for the event, but to our dejection it started raining heavily at around 5:00 PM. People who had set off for the event turned around towards home. It rained for about an hour leaving us doubtful if our efforts would go futile.

We started off with the event before it was dark enough.Our very own chubby bumpy Santosh was the Santa. He was a perfect fit and was swaying graciously with pockets full of goodies for the guests. I shared the stage with Sudarshan from CSE as anchor for the event. I had invited Sowjanya, our NCC mate to the event and she was an instant hit in our batch - Raj, Shravan, Pradeep, Shanti, Suhasini, Sri Vani, Aroon to name a few.

The main speech of Edward Williams garu was very impressive and intended specially for the students. His voice was catchy and everyone enjoyed his message. The choir and musicians had done their job to perfection. Not to forget the skit which had everyone roll out of laughter. Towards the end of the event, I received many compliments for my anchoring but for Sowjanya who was of the opinion that I wasn't confident enough. The company of seniors from EIE - Sowmya, Sushma, Riya and Rani was great fun. I returned with Raj as my pillion and Sowjanya and Suhasini in a scooty.

ODYSSEY-2K5

Ah!!! Here comes the tour with memories of the jubilant days we spent together. Perhaps the most memorable tenure of our college life. We set out on 4th of November 2005, ready to embrace the varied experiences that the journey would throw up……

It all started on an ominous note with the major part of south India engulfed in torrential rains. We had our Kerala express cancelled which made us board the unreserved Sabari express. It brought us all together into one accord.

Ooty was our first destination. The imprint of the city as we watched from the Coimbatore station was awesome. A hill with a dwelling at a height of 2570 meters was graciously covered with clouds, inviting us to explore!!

The journey was exciting with steep curves and gleaming waterfalls. There was a magical serenity in the place. Fresh atmosphere and tall trees against the backdrop of lush green grass was a treat to the eyes.

We visited the geetanjali spot and enjoyed the chill freshness of the waterfalls. Boating was the event of the day. Come evening and we lit a camp fire with our feet tapping to the beats of disco.

The Shanti gears at Coimbatore was a heaven for mechanical engineers. We had a chance of coming across complex manufacturing techniques which could only be visualized when we studied MT-II.

The next destination was The Garden City - Bangalore. Our stay over there was busy with lots of shopping and outings mainly to MG road and The BRIGADIER road. We visited the prominent ISKCON Temple and the Visweswarayya museum, which dealt exclusively with science.

Then we marched towards our next industrial visit, NTTF ( Nettur Technical Training Foundation). It dealt mainly with planing operations and sheet metal works like bending, piercing, blanking apart from grinding and reaming operations.

The journey to Goa reminds us of the troubles with the Big–Bellied TTE at LONDA. The bumpy journey along the ghat roads with scorching sun and a very humid climate was well punctuated with the songs of antakshri.

Beaches, Wine and night long parties are synonymous with GOA. Our stay was no different either.

We visited Dauna-Paula and played in the beach. Cruising was an exhilarating experience with breathtaking dance by a gracious foreign dancer and disco on the ‘move’. St. Xavier’s church, of monumental importance which contained the relics of Saint Xavier was a majestic construction.

We had a chance of visiting Dil chahta hai fort. In our desperation of re-enacting the trio from the movie, we captured many Kodak moments there.

We drove past Goa heading towards Mumbai in a seven geared monstrous Volvo which gulped in a whopping 500 litres of diesel before our arrival.

After a desperate night we reached Mumbai. On making ourselves comfortable we zipped across the heart of the city, past high raise buildings and stopping at the historic Gate way of India. Having spent some time there we went along Marine drive and the rest of our venture comprised mainly of shopping. The journey back to the hotel was colourful passing through the infamous Dadar and the surrounding Lal Batti Jagah .

We organized a special get-together to mark the successful finish of events. Had a summary of the proceedings and opinions were put forward. We cheered those who put up special efforts for the tour.

The Konark express brought us back home on 16th Nov with our heads full of the past, which now suddenly seems more palpable than the present.

Done with the semester

Bidding farewell to the first semester of my third year, I start to pen down my experiences and feelings with the 'Industrial Tour' at hand.

With the grace of Almighty, I had finished my exams. Except for Machine Design, I had done all other exams well thanks to the early preparations along with Chandu.

I have a sort of satisfaction which comes out of not doing injustice to your subjects. I hope, I start here and pick up the tempo as it is already half the way down.

Once done with the last exam, it was time to prepare for out IT tour which starts tomorrow. We went for shopping and I cannot fail to mention that it was courtesy Pradeep that I could buy myself a travel bag for an economical 250/- when the shopkeeper was actually demanding 650.

Having done with my packing, I am now all set to explore a greater part of South India. I owe a lot to my sweet sis who has been very helpful during my exams and now in packing (infact helped me iron all my clothes)

The next fortnight, I would be off to 'THE ODDESEY' and I hope it would be as much fun and a memorable span of my life.

I am not being instructed by my caring mom to be off for bed as it's too late.