Now is the winter of our discontent. Made glorious summer...

Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the signed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.

 — Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)

Never been truer.

For me. For friends. For some special ones. For acquaintances. For some around me. For so many people. And for, and due to, things too many to count. Large, and small.

Things. Can change. In a day.



Peace...

All the best for Placements

Also, TnPedia - A Placement Guide for IIT-Kgpians: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2067224/pissue%202010%20part%201.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Placement%20issue%20December%202010

Peace...

Oh ye of higher CGP... (Haiku)

Last time too,
you took my breadth away...
Damn it!



Peace...

Farewell

Anwar Khan played host, to a host
of Kgpians,
who cherished his inedibles,
and christened his place
after the hole
in his nose.

Most time now spent, instead
at an eatery with an exotic, accented name,
though lacking that acute subtleness –
Café Coffee Day!
Identical to the ones in Connaught Place
and Whitefield and Richmond Road.
Well, at least similar to them.

And just peek out of the Coffee House
there you have it:
"Heritage AC Restaurant"
stands majestically
as Veggies glares from a distance.

Yes, we have an AC Restaurant now,
trying its best to make us forget
the backwater town embracing it;
though to be fair,
they do serve 'Motor Paneer.'

Deepak Da's taken it to the streets;
JCB Canteen has ceased to be,
as have 3 am meals.
No more paranthas with cheese flowing,
no more cheese curry to match.

And it’s all so alien now
at these places not seen before,
for I see faces new,
faces, not seen before,
or again!
And just too many of 'em.

The utter loneliness
in this swarming mess
makes me sick in my stomach at times.
Now don't get me wrong there;
I love a coffee had in solitude,
just that I prefer being alone
only with familiar people around.

Hundreds and hundreds of freshmen
over a thousand in all
and sophomores and juniors
crawl the halls of residence,
the messes, the wings,
faces unseen, unknown
except a few perhaps:
the quizzers, the math olympians,...
the mental-masturbators basically.

Only a few recognizable clans remain:
batchmates - seniors, super-seniors, some beyond...
who now talk in tongues bizarre,
saying TIME took away most of theirs,
and speak of "apping" and GRE.
(and those speak in REALLY creepy tongues)

And of CATs and Barks (or was it Barc's)
and CFAs and MBAs
and PPTs and T&Ps
and PPOs and P&Gs
and Schlums and Siemens
(Spellings double checked)
and so on and so forth…

So most meals now had
are by myself
most interactions online
most chats, on IMs.

Except the train journeys,
the 2.2 run-ins,
other such inavoidables.
Social media, bringing the far nearer
taking the near, much farther...
Oh! Don’t get me started on that one!

So, as I sip my beverage,
not at Anwar Khan's shack,
or Cheddi's as they call it,
but at the aforementioned CCD,
amidst the aforementioned crowd,

and think of times well spent
over leaky cheese paranthas
at a place which did not know
of coffee bars with accents in their names;
I can't help but ask,
even though graduation is far,
and another semester is in sight:

Is it just me,
or has Farewell,
already arrived?

Peace...

That's what YOU said!

6 months after the Gymkhana Elections, nostalgia drove me to once again go through the stuff I had written back then. However, the comments (some 50 odd ones), actually made a more interesting read.... Here are some of my favourite ones:

-----------------------------------
Shirish Subramanian said...
Nivesh Pandey is probably not your average run-of-the-mill Core Team Guy.... Look at the larger picture, not what a Bihari / Mallu friend is telling you to do.... Nivesh for VP... A better Insti!!

Abhishek Kumar said...
Lets hope Shrey that you approve my comment if you have the guts... ...I hope Ankit gets the support he needs.

bibhash jha said...
shrey-doesnt-know-anything
http://bibhashkjha.blogspot.com/2010/03/dark-knight.html

XYZ said...
A very diplomatic trick.. played well Shrey.... It feels like you are playing dirty here. For a friend. right? [Editorial note: What!?! o_0]

divya bohra said...
Very sad to read your opinion about the exciting new scene in KGP. I am not very sure how much a part have you ever been in anything dedicated to the service of your hall but... i am sure you are a fan. ... Its funny but the racist in you is a fierce one.[Kuchh bhi!?!] As a suggestion, or rather a request, please try to make your own opinions and views removing some of that cynicism... You can joke around about as many people as you want but believe me at the end of it, if it really mattered all that much, a lot of people who inspire me and you alike today would have given up on themselves before we even knew of their existence.

Sumeet said... [:D]
@Divya: I'm just bored,and since yours is the last post on this blog, ill rather enjoy tearing it apart...


I am not very sure how much a part have you ever been in anything dedicated to the service of your hall but... i am sure you are a fan. 
Naa he isnt. But the fact that you give a damn as to who rules Bihar doesnt mean that you dont have a right to opine.


Your views seem highly influenced, and facts, twisted.
Its funny how people just give random opinions without justifying them. For example, you've got to say why someone is highly influenced and which of the facts that he has mentioned are twisted. Substantiate. Enunciate. Damn, Im good at this


Its funny but the racist in you is a fierce one.
Dude, Shrey, if you call Laloo Yadav a mockery of Indian politics, you're being racist. Keep that in mind the next time you write a blog.


As a suggestion, or rather a request, please try to make your own opinions and views removing some of that cynicism...
Yeah, right, you remove cynicism and bias from a political blog and what's left ? I think thats the way a blog's defined in my dictionary: I get to be as cynical as you have been in posting this comment (and i admire that) and get away with it..


You can joke around about as many people as you want but believe me... a lot of people who inspire me and you alike today would have given up on themselves before we even knew of their existence.
Seriously what part of the VP SOP did you find inspirational. You should read the "chicken soup series". Thats inspirational.


Mandar said...
well as a close friend i would say: bravo shrey, true democracy is when you have the freedom to take a shot at someone, the right to express unpopular opinions, and at several times, "anti-feel-good" sentiments, the replies to your blog made an interesting reading... so they say your influenced, SO WHAT?? We all are, i mean if u werent, you would be a vegetable, and you obviously have the guts to put up all the comments, i mean some of the comments are taking a bigger pot-shot at you, than at any of the candidates!!... ...So keep blogging

Abhishek Kumar said...
Why did the Guts came only after much of the voting was already over ? Everyone is entitled to an opinion... But I wish you had not done the negative publicity...
@Sumeet......So considerate of you to tear down a comment just for fun, just because you were getting bored. But it would have been nice if you would have taken care to read all the earlier comments...

Shrey said...
@Abhishek Kumar
...so first get your facts right, then you can distort them as much as you want. Even if you're a fifth year student and all that yada yada...

Sumeet said...
@Abhishek Kumar alias Kakori alias Random fifth year who needs a break in life after 5 horrid years in some dark, dingy corner of one of our hallowed halls of residence:


Dude, you're not fighting apartheid here that if Nelson Mandela doesnt get elected, some black kid doesn't get to eat... Didnt 5 years here teach you how to "Peace maar" and "Load na le". Damn it, i thought all 5th years were hyper-cool people, basking in the glory of booze and "G" and "sutta", oblivious to the fact that life goes on around them.


All I'm asking you is simply, "Why so serious"?
----------------------------

You can go through these and some other such gems at http://tinyurl.com/Poltu2010

The best, of course, was to be seen on Facebook:

19 March at 13:42
XYZ:  Shrey U r playing a very dirty game. Very unexpected from sumone who is supposedly the official blogger of KGP [Some new Gymkhana Post?]... Ankit Singh came off as a better candidate undoubtedly, even without his underdog status. And even you can see that. Stop using his sufferings to your pact's advantage.

19 March at 15:35
Neelakash Das ‎@XYZ..If you have read the article carefully, no one's name is being singled out. It is up to you to decipher.FB is an open forum to discuss and share one's opinions. I don't see any game being played here. Plus I really doubt the validity of your statement as the person in question came off as a better candidate...

19 March at 15:41
Sailesh Krishnan Narayanadas ‎@ XYZ.....his blog....his fb profile.!!!! ....he has the right to his opinions......he has the right to think one candidate is better than the other!!!![although he has not associated any of his points with anyone by name[and the [un]official blogger of kgp tag doesnt take any of those away from him!!!

19 March at 17:36
Shrey Goyal ‎@Everyone. My Pact's advantage? His sufferings? For a friend? I have favoured no single candidate in particular, my ballot remains secret. And just because I have a blog and do not create Haiti-Earthquake-Relief-Fund style video montages for votes doesn't mean I don't get my say. I did not write the article for Scholars' Avenue or Alankaar. It's a personal blog...

19 March at 18:43
Manan Shah hoo haa fb polltu!! :O
...BTW I agree this should be treated as a personal blog and to get involved in hall polltu is not something I expect from Shrey.

19 March at 19:55
Rishabh Poddar You are such a troublemaker, Shrey. It's hilarious!

19 March at 20:04
XYZ i meant "unofficial". Chal tu agar naive act karega toh peace maar I cant talk about it any further. But yeah ask people how they liked your little e-campaigning. Not the people who are forced to support you.[Pardon?] And as far as "your" personal opinions go, well you have every right to express them and everyone has every right to judge you based on the way you do it. Its just that having known you its surprising to see this blog from you

19 March at 22:15
Shrey Goyal ‎@XYZ
Ahem! My "campaign"? Whom did I campaign for?Its just that having known you having known me, its surprising to see you surprised see this blog from me.

29 March at 04:16
Ankit Singh Dude please know the ground... you will really feel bad abt yourself.

29 March at 04:16
Shrey Goyal ...somehow every reader of this article ends up telling me I should be feeling bad about myself...

29 March at 04:35
Ankit Singh Ur blog is not an international Forum.

29 March at 04:36
Shrey Goyal You want East Europeans to comment on Kgp's TSG elections?
----------------------------

While you're on facebook, do take out a minute to click on the 'Follow' button here.

Also, I'd ask you not to refrain from commenting here as well... :D

Peace...

In Rohit's Memory...

On 22nd March 2009, we lost one of us. Not to a terrorist activity, not to an accident. To negligence. In part, our own.

Rohit Kumar, an Undergraduate Student of the Department of Electrical Engineering, would've been in his fourth year of study now. His death due to medical negligence by B.C. Roy "Hospital", the civic IIT-run hospital responsible for providing healthcare facilities to IIT-Kharagpur campus residents (which includes students, faculty members, staff and other employees), lead to protests by the student community within IIT-Kgp. The administration's ignorance towards the issue lead to further unrest, and the following outrage ultimately forced them to address and acknowledge the issue. The students demanded the resignation of the Director, the Dean of Student Affairs and the Chairman of B.C.Roy Technology Hospital, and some of the changes demanded were initiated subsequently.

Let us show to the world that Rohit Kumar shall not be forgotten. You are requested to be there at the Institute Main Building GoleC on 22nd March 2010 at 7 PM, and light a candle in Rohit's memory, which still remains embedded in our hearts. Please spread the word.

May his soul rest in peace...

Peace...

Gymkhana Elections: Of White Knights, Dark Horses, and the occasional Court Fool

Hmm... Never thought I'll be writing this post...

Anyway, so they're here, the Technology Students' Gymkhana Elections for 2010/11. And can it get any more interesting than this time...

For the highest student post, the Vice-President, we have not just two, as has conventionally been the case, but three candidates this time around. And we have not just one, but TWO of them from outside Kshitij (Our Techno-Management fest) and SpringFest (our Cult Fest) organising teams. If it wasn't enough, there are two of them from the same hall of residence as well. And one of them (obviously) isn't supported by his hall, his former colleagues or anyone who has worked with him. And neither does he have any credentials, or any track record that does not make me not vote for him. But there are people who support him as well... and so much that they'd go any lengths for that.

It's been some hours now since the Soapbox was conducted for the said post. There were the usuals, and the unusuals. Candidates who had actual real responses to the questions asked, plans and proposals to execute, experience to actually execute them (given the opportunity), and then there were those who had great one-liners. Well, not great, per-se, but the crowd loved 'em. And that's all that it takes, right?

Just everyone loves an underdog... who "fought it alone", "stood against the tide"... strangely, one of the comments in his support says, he who "refused proper orientation and guidance." Well, why did he?

I don't really care for the Gymkhana, or those who run it, but they are, no doubt, representatives of the Student Community at IIT-Kgp. I've had the opportunity to know quite a few of them, and they have usually left me in awe. There are those that made lasting changes while they were there, added tremendous value, and continue doing so in the outside world. All of us here who witnessed the events following Rohit's death last year would understand the significance of an able representative of the students, a true leader. And now, when one of my batchmates get their turn to be in the cohort... hmm...

But what really got me to writing this entry, was the way the campaigns are going this year. The candidate in question is attracting a lot of attention, and has endless debates spun around him, none of which is unusual. But what IS unusual, is that some videos containing some of his footage from a cultural event at IIT-Kgp, has actually been censored from the institute LAN.

Yes, BANNED FROM DC++. The same LAN which has never banned anything even with extremely creative permutations and combinations of Men, Women, Animals, Plants, Machines... in it, banned any user sharing some footage of stage performance by this candidate. It's been hours, but even his SOP videos have not been uploaded yet. And as I write this, MainChat has been disabled on DC++, where his candidature was apparently being discussed.

hmm... Well, ban this, will ya?

And I don't get the whole underdog thing. There are many underdogs, who, if they were contesting, would've made great candidates. But is just being an underdog enough? Is that all. While the whole situation is very Obama-esque on the surface, he is what he is independent of his minority status.

Everyone wants change. And we've had quite a lot of it. Not only on the VP nominations side, but the Juniors as well. Saw the G.Sec.(Technology) candidates, and the one who seemed like perhaps the most eligible to hold the post, who actually has plans, those that haven't been handed out to him, and the will to actually put them through, is a resident of a majority PostGraduate Hall. I would really like Tarun Rathi from HJB Hall to win, and if he isn't devoured by the prevailing hall politics, that'll be the change I'd want from this year. But when I say he is a deserving candidate, it's because of his abilities and potential, and not because of his being an underdog.

I'd want a VP who has the necessary "funda" to work with the institute. To get his way with the administration. Who knows how the gymkhana functions. Who knows what the students need, and how to get it. Who is an able representative of us to the administration, and sometimes to outsiders too. To be such a one requires more than just "tempo". More than simply being self-obsessed. A hunger for change, not power. Someone who can improve our conditions, and not just his Curriculum Vitae. What is more striking, is that the majority of the student population has no idea what the post of a VP entails; the amount of power it has in pushing for changes that can benefit the student population.

Think about it. Whom do you want heading your Placement Committee?

Do you also say "Yes, We Can"? Of course we can, but should we?

Perhaps you really liked watching Gunda, it was funny, different, and really entertained you for once. Would you give it an Oscar? Or even want to watch it again, over and over, for a year...

Last of all, don't forget to vote. The candidates for the post of VP are:
Nivesh Pandey, Celestine Joseph and Ankit Singh, in the order as mentioned in the post title.

A good video by IIT-K on the occasion:


Peace...

3rd Death in 3 Months, at India's No.1 Institute (?)

This morning, I received two "pings" on G-Talk from my batchmates at IIT-Kharagpur, and both seemed to be in an excited state. The first one pinged a link that most of them had put on as their Status Message, some story from Outlook. It seemed IIT-Kharagpur had yet again emerged as the No.1 Engg.college in the country in a survey that's normally conducted around this time of the year, during the admissions-counselling period. Not only did it beat the closest competitor, IIT-B, by a huge margin of 90 points, it had also topped the Architecture Schools list.

The implication might have been that IIT-Kgp was in fact the best place for an undergraduate student to be in the country. The 2nd ping, however, was quite in contradiction. It was not reconfirmed by anyone else, no news source carried it, and most said that the news wasn't being released "due to ongoing IIT-JEE counselling at IIT-Kgp." Somehow, a lone news source is carrying a report on the incident as of now. Oh, and the incident. Yeah, another student died at IIT-Kgp, nothing new...

Police said they broke into the room at the Madan Mohan Malaviyya hostel in the campus and recovered the body of Manoj Kumar (18) after the hostel cleaning staff complained of a stench emanating from it.

Police said prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide and investigations were on.

-- The Indian Express

A first year student of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture Department, Manoj Kumar, hailing from Rajasthan, was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in Madan Mohan Malviya Hall of Residence, IIT Kgp. It was just a couple of months ago, that another fourth year student had committed suicide in his hostel room. And who can forget the death of Rohit Kumar due to the institute run Hospital's medical negligence.

A 3rd year dies of Medical Negligence, a fourth year commits suicide a month later, and a fresher now. My batch had already lost Anshu to negligence in the first year itself. And we still are the best institute in the country.

Is this how complacent we've become? Is this the best place for a student to be? Is counselling for potential students more important than counselling suicide probables and taking care of existing students?

We have regular student-administration meetings at the campus, which all students are open to attend. I shall be attending them regularly the coming semester onwards, and shall raise and follow up on issues regarding the state of the hospital as well as allocation of doctors, counsellors and psychologists.

Will you be there?

Let's see...

First signs of change after #iitdeath - New Appointments

Two new appointments have been made to fill in the voids in administration left after last week’s events.

Prof. Souvik Bhattacharya of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has taken up the post of Dean of Student Affairs, while Prof. Gautam Sinha has taken the position of Chairman of B C Roy Technology Hospital.

--Quoting Scholar's Avenue, celebrating 4 years of being IIT Kharagpur's Campus Newspaper

For the uninitiated, students had demanded the resignation of the Director, the Dean of Student Affairs and the Chairman of B.C.Roy Technology Hospital after the unfortunate incident last week, now referred to as Black Sunday.

Both of the newly appointed faculty members are highly respected by the student community at IIT-Kgp as being very dedicated and diligent.

All hopes rest on the future now.


Peace...

Another victim

UPDATE:
Gaurav Tomar is fine now and taking rest at home after getting discharged from Apollo Hospital after 19 long days.
(Find comment by Gaurav confirming the same below.)

New Dean of Student Affairs and Chairman of B.C.Roy Technology Hospital appointed.

‘I am taking Mr. Gaurav Tomar out of B.C. Roy Technology Hospital on my own risk and the hospital would not be held responsible if anything unfortunate happens to him.’

We were asked to sign this piece of parchment by the BC Roy Officials before we took him to Meerut, his hometown.

I thank God that we signed and took him to Meerut and then to Apollo Hospital, Delhi where he is right now, in ICU, on dialysis struggling for his life.

Many of you may be familiar with the unfortunate incident of Rohit Kumar, but this incident was not one off. There are many more such incidents one of which I am sharing with you.

Gaurav Tomar is a 5th Year Student of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He is to receive his B. Tech + M.Tech (Dual) Degree in two months time, and has already been placed in the Indian Registrar of Shipping with a lucrative salary. He has been the Governor of Hindi Technology Dramatics Society, IIT Kharagpur and has also been the Hindi Dramatics Captain of Lala Lajpat Rai Hall of Residence for 2 years.

Two days before Holi he was running fever and admitted himself into BC Roy Hospital, IIT Kharagpur. The attending doctor ran a series of tests on him which included a couple of blood tests, a urine test and was scheduled for an ultrasound. He was put on Glucose as he couldn’t eat anything. We used to visit him daily bringing him stuff to eat which he couldn’t eat. He constantly ran a temperature and complained of severe stomach ache. The doctor used to give him 4 injections everyday of indigestion. We used to ask the doctor what was wrong with him and we used to listen to a new disease every day. According to the well trained and experienced doctors of the hospital Gaurav had Typhoid, Jaundice, Urinary Tract Infection and what not. When asked if they had actually detected Typhoid in his blood tests before giving him its medicines, they replied that it was an educated guess according to his fever patterns. Even after staying in the Hospital for 6 days, taking their medicines, Gaurav’s situation deteriorated.

I remember that on Friday they decided to ultrasound his stomach due to the stomach pain he complained of, but they had to wait till Monday for the test since the Ultrasound Specialist came only on Monday. Even the nurses and compounders used to misbehave with him. Once when he had to go to the toilet he rang the bell for the nurse. When he came he replied angrily that “Tumko toilet tabhi jana hota hai jab hum lete hote hain?” Gaurav had no words. Another time the Nurse came with a new bottle of glucose and saw the old one was still half full. To prevent another visit later she increased the speed of the glucose without the consent of either the doctor or the patient. Isn’t this called playing with the patient’s life?

When Gaurav’s situation worsened to the point when he couldn’t even speak, we talked to the doctor about taking him to a better medical facility where at least he could be diagnosed properly. The Doctor was not willing to do so. He asked for 3 more days of time to diagnose him. Thankfully we didn’t listen to him and signed the above mentioned document. Gaurav was then flown to Meerut. On Sunday, that is the day of Rohit’s demise, we received a call from Gaurav’s mother. She was inconsolable and said that he has been in Apollo Hospital, Delhi ICU for 4 days and had been diagnosed with malignant malaria. Moreover the doctor there said that had he been late by a day, the parasite would have affected the brain and may have cost him his life. He is still in ICU, on dialysis, as the malarial parasite has already affected his kidneys. Right now as I write 5 of my friends are on their way to Delhi to see him.


-- As narrated by Friends and Well-wishers of Gaurav Tomar

Let us all pray for Mr. Gaurav Tomar’s speedy recovery and not let the voice that has risen against B.C.Roy Technology Hospital die down.

Death of an IITian

Update: New Dean of Student Affairs and Chairman of B.C.Roy Technology Hospital appointed at IIT-Kgp.

I'm publishing this from a small cyber-cafe outside the IIT-campus, since the internet/LAN has been completely shut down in the campus, which you can further read why?

Rohit Kumar, a 3rd year undergraduate student of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur died this morning due to lack of basic medical facilities at B.C. Roy "Hospital", the civic IIT-run hospital responsible for providing healthcare facilities to IIT-Kharagpur campus residents, which includes students, faculty members, staff and other employees.

Rohit complained of a headache on Saturday evening after a basketball match. He visited B.C.Roy Hospital, no confirmation of the occurrence there is available. During the course of the night his condition worsened and the next morning he again visited the hospital with excruciating pain. He was asked to go back after being prescribed painkillers. While going back to his Hostel, he collapsed and hit his head on the cowtrap. He was rushed back to the hospital, where he was told to wait for the Doctor to arrive in "five minutes". After three hours of "five minutes", the Doctor arrived but refused to touch him. He was referred to Apollo Hospital, Kolkata since he required treatment by a neurologist. He was sent in an ambulance also containing, besides the driver, a pharmacist and two of his friends, but no trained paramedic. Considering the profuse bleeding and worsening condition, they decided to go for Medinipur Hospital instead. He was declared 'brought dead' at Medinipur Hospital.

B.C.Roy has had a history of medical negligence, with several serious medical blunders taking place frequently, and any critical case being needed to rushed as far as Kolkata, despite the administration's claim of developing it into a "Multi-speciality medical research centre", whereas, ironically, not a single paisa has been spent in this regard. No other medical facility is available on the 2100 acre campus, while the strength of students and need for medical care is growing multi-fold every year.

Earlier, the campus newspaper, Scholar's Avenue, had been "banned" for 6 months for publishing an investigative report on the sorry state of the hospital.

Outraged students assembled outside the Director's bungalow aiming for a silent protest. However, the Director refused to attend to the students, not ready to acknowledge the problem with IIT-Kgp's medical facilities. In addition to this he was ignorant of the details of the whole incident. This lead to greater outrage and more than 2000 students gheraoed the residence.

Finally making an appearance on the balcony of the residence he expressed his SYMPATHY and appreciated that we had all gathered for the cause but promised no action. It was demanded that he answer the questions put up by the protesting students. He eventually came out with security where he made blunt promises like suspending the doctor and registering a police case against the "CULPRIT" making it evident that he was trying to laugh off the matter. This caused further unrest after which he slunk away into his house. Exasperated students aggressively demanded the director's resignation since the life of every student is his responsibility and he has not addressed to the much obvious problem even after it has been blatantly pointed out to him many a times in open house discussions with students earlier, as recent as one month ago.

What is even more amusing are the loose comments that the authorities repeatedly made - the Deputy Director said "Whats the big deal..."

Rohit's memory will forever remain embedded in our hearts. May his soul rest in peace...

For further info, please visit IIT Kgp's campus newspaper. Also see updates on the health of another victim, Gaurav Tomar, currently in ICU.

The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 2/2)

(Continued from The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 1/2) )

...this kaand brought us and our LAN to national publicity for the first time ever.

The RaviRaj kaand [More popularly referred to as the DPS MMS case outside Kgp]. Kgp became notoriously famous overnight as a giant Hub of unlimited porn. It was an extremely embarrassing situation for every Kgpian. Most of them were at their homes when this news broke out. Everyone was asked by some parent or a nosy aunt or a distant friend, "Raviraj tera dost tha kya ??"

After this huge turmoil, when KGPians returned to college in January, explicit notices were put up everywhere and for a couple of days, DC++ was off too. Even uttering the word 'porn' was serious sacrilege. There was a rumor that someone somewhere is monitoring your computer. It was during this period that vast amounts of 'resources' were destroyed and people had turned into puritans, temporarily of course.

Then after a few days, no one knows how or from where, a term was coined, a term that would become as popular in the KGP lingo as ‘Bhaat’, 'peace' or even 'makhana'. This was the term 'Bhajan'. Slowly with time, people started sharing more bhajans on DC and soon life was happy as ever for the KGPian. This was the time when SERVER™, mkd, Nukem and MrMast ruled the Kingdom of LAN.

Later in this semester came along another craze. Google started Gmail. Gmail was then on a purely invitational basis and it was a privilege to have a Gmail account. It was the first e-mail service to offer 1GB of storage (to store all the junk fwds in the world).


The Google Age:
(2005-2006)

As soon as people returned from the summers they were introduced to Gtalk which eventually changed the way KGPians chatted with each other. Gtalk was small, fast and people could use it as a phone too. Yahoo messenger was becoming a pain with every passing day. I remember I read a status message on a friend's YM, "Yahoo is History.. My Gtalk ID is ***"

Soon Gtalk became the norm. People started blogging quite often. All the hidden poets and journalists started off with a simple blog.

Soon Orkut and Blogger were integrated with the gmail account and the Kgpian had one password for all.

Nukem, Frosty, Nefilim, nullchar and ReligiousMonk ruled the Kingdom..


The New Age:
(2006-07)

KGP's LAN had evolved at a tremendous pace and had reached saturation. Soon the LAN became bigger and better. DC++ had taught people to share more, so much so, that people had bought more hard disks to share stuff on LAN. There was a race to share more stuff on LAN. For the first time the total size shared stuff on DC++ had became more than 1 TB in Spring 2005.Today it has around 15-20 TB of stuff at any point of time.

Yahoo had INFACT become History.

-- Funda by Anish Thanatil on his blog. I take the baton from here.

The Current Age
(2007 - Present day)

The evolution has continued to the present day, and faster than ever. Very soon, people started bringing over external hard disks to increase their share size, which resulted in some of them sharing over 1 TB individually (Yo garrett !!) A minimum sharesize of 8 GB was fixed, and DC++ saw over 50 TB being shared for the first time in Spring 2008, during the inaugral IPL session. The min.sharesize went from 8 GB to 16 GB, to 24 GB as of now. The average total share is around 60-70 TB nowadays, and over 97 TB has been touched, during the last India/NZ T-20 series. DC++ pundits expect to cross the magic figure of 100 TB during the oncoming IPL season.
 ]-[ELLFRAGGER, Garrett, ak_rulz and THE_DON are emperors of the LAN. DC++ also got its first ever female "VIP" recently.

LAN has started showing new colours, with useful stuff like eBooks, video lectures, good documentaries, funda files etc. So now we have LAN for the froost, LAN for the maggu, LAN for the nerd, LAN for the geek, LAN for the dude, and for pretty much everyone there is... If it exists, it's there on DC++.

Streaming TV from the common room is quite popular nowadays, with everyone enjoying the broadcast in their rooms. Even during key cricket matches, the common rooms can be seen empty except for the occasional fachcha waiting for his lappy to arrive. The number of TV series available and watched has exploded as well, which now include, besides Friends; How I Met Your Mother, Roadies, Prison break, The Big Bang Theory, Boston Legal, Coupling, Heroes, 24, Two-and-half Men, House, 8-Simple-Ways... etc. to name a few. Animés, and other cartoon series (I have surely managed to offend some people by comparing Animes to cartoons) are largely popular as well, with Naruto and Dragonball Z being the favorites, though I wonder why. A HUGE number of movies, from Mackenna's Gold to Mithun's Gunda, are available and watched with fervour.

A very recent development would be the new campus "radio", kNUTS, started by a handful of enthusiasts, which is streamed using an internal proxy, and slowly gaining listnership.

CS still remains the most popular timepass (Again, some people may be offended by me calling it a timepass), while AOE, NFS and FIFA are popular as well. Gaming freaks have come up with their own battle grounds by forming Cyber Leagues to find out the most HuHaa player of all.

Blackberries, iPhones, iPods have begun showing up (and disappearing as well)!!

Orkut looks ready to give way to facebook as the ultimate social networking website. Yahoo is completely out of the picture now, with most fests and societies switching over to Google Groups. Blogging is the rage, with more and more Kgpians joining the Blogosphere every day. Even fests and societies are realizing the importance of Blogs and consequently, of Bloggers, with some of them outsourcing the Chronicler's job to makeshift "Official" bloggers. Some students even maintain 2 or more blogs, and some go in for niche subjects like litt, tech, quizzing, art etc. Microblogging is also catching up, though most people wouldn't know what I'm talking about unless I actually mention twitter.

And how can I close on DC++ without mentioning the part everyone loves to hate, the MainChat. It is used as a platform to express opinions and vent frustaapa, while maintaining anonimity under nicks like toofan and jaanam_samjha_karo. I would have loved mentioning some of the topics discussed, but this is a family blog afterall... :)

The response to my previous entry has been overwhelming, and I've been flooded with "eagerly awaiting the next post..." messages, which goes on to show the kind-of "sento" people have for their beloved LAN. Recent rumours about the insti "taking control" of the LAN have especially heightened the sentiment. One only needs to read the History of Kgp's LAN once, all that it has went through in so few years, yet only growing stronger, to realize that it has become something more than just a network, something bigger than all of us, cause afterall, HiT Hi FiT Hai!! For us, it is as much of a "symbol" of the insti, as the insti tower or its Halls, the difference being that these remain static don't grow with time. We shall come and go, and LAN will continue to evolve and influence the lives of whole generations of Kgpians.

Yo Kgp... Yo LAN!!!

If you liked the posts, please don't forget to leave a comment. Kgpians could, as well, discuss the post on Mainchat... :)

Peace...

The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 1/2)

Dedicated to the spirit of IIT-Kgp, and it's LAN...

Ask any Kgpian you may know, about the significance of LAN in his/her life... maggu or non-maggu, gult or non-gult, dude or non-dude, bong or non-bong, juice or non-juice, fresher or senior (or even super senior for that matter), batti or ghaasi, chhagi or nehli, makhau or studd, Patelian or RKite... no one, absolutely no one can deny that their lives would have been very different if not for LAN.

If you don't believe me, read on...

[Reproduced from a post written two years ago by Anish Thanatil. Some of the stuff is no longer applicable, but has been left unaltered for the sake of nostalgia.]

The STD Age
(2001-2002):

Very few people had computers at this time. The trend was to rent a CD/video from tech market for Rs.10 and watch it in the TV room. Most people used to go to STD booths on a weekly basis to talk to their families or on daily basis if you had more than just family to talk to! ;)

The hostel phone was always a zone of activity. There would be guys making fun of the others talking to their bandis on the phone, or the guy on the phone asking the other fellow to hush-up the swear words because his mom could hear him. I even remember people running to the phone booths when they heard they got a call from an IIM.

It was around the mid-semesters of Spring 2002 that everything in KGP was about to change. HCL had provided the students with the subsidized computers. Obviously, the guys screwed up their mid-sems. Then by end-semesters of Spring 2002, the institute provided them with an amazing gift of LAN. They screwed up their end-sems too.


The Shareaza Age
(2002-2003)

By the time we entered KGP (after summer), LAN was being used to its fullest. Shareaza was the most popular software then. It allowed multiple user download and even then getting 1MBps was considered good. There was no share limit and people didn’t bother to share. Sharescan was another popular choice. But even then, KGP was still wasting most of its time playing cards (LAN was going to kill that soon).

Yahoo Messenger was the favourite IM amongst the masses, while Yahoo/Rediff/Indiatimes/Sify were the most used email services.

SERVER™ hosted the only CounterStrike server in the insti and it was rampantly popular.


A prized few had Cell phones. Only Reliance and BSNL were there to offer service. Reliance was costly and to get BSNL you would either have to wait for long or you needed to have the correct contacts in the BSNL office.


The Yahoo Age:
(2003-2004)

Yahoo messenger was the backbone of communication in Kharagpur (Most SF and Kshitij work is still done using YahooGroups). The LAN did not have any Latest™ Offliner and Friends and Seinfeld were the funniest shows available. TV rooms were reserved for Cricket matches only. There is a Murphy’s Law associated with things on LAN – “All good things on LAN come during the mid-sems or the end-sems.”

During the mid-sems of Spring 2004, a new trend came up - SKYPE. But Skype did not have the mettle to dislodge Yahoo from its top position. Yahoo was so popular that people had two yahoo accounts because you could have only 100 friends on one account. I even know someone from my Hall who got married to his chat friend from abroad. Can You Beat That!! [ Trying my best :)   --Shrey]

This was the last year Kgp has Direct Connection.

For a few days in the Spring Sem, TV was aired on the LAN using the TV-Tuner card. Various channels including the Saas-Bahu mega-thrillers were popular. (I remember watching the Oscars Live on my comp that year.) It was soon stopped when the people realized that it was eating too much bandwidth and moreover, it was illegal. :P

By the end of Spring 2004, something came up that would become an integral part of a KGPians life… ORKUT.

The best part about Orkut was (is) that it gave the guys something they badly needed – Hope. With Orkut spreading fast every KGPian had only one bubble floating over his head, “I never knew there were so many good girls out there.”


The DC++ Age:
(2004-2005)

ORKUT grew to its full potential in the autumn of 2005. [The cynic in me refused to believe that Orkut could be of absolutely any use, and it wasn’t until 2 years later that I joined Orkut]

I remember I was spending my second yr summers at home when Hazro told me about the 'In-Thing' in Kgp. It was called DC++. Even today I don’t know what DC stands for, but the first time I heard about it I didn’t care at all because there was a 5 GB share limit which I wasn’t very happy to comply with and people were using both Shareaza and DC simultaneously. Pretty soon everyone shifted to DC and. Soon after that there was a Latest™ [and the sub-sections in latest were introduced soon after]. Unlike Shareaza, you could get kicked from DC for any reason. DC was controlled by the admin, who would be one of the quietest fellows in the real world but a real cat on DC.

When I was spending my December vacations of the third year at home someone from Kgp told me that Kgp was embroiled in some big-time controversy. It was this kaand that brought us and our LAN to national publicity for the first time ever.

Continued >> The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 2/2)


Peace...

Welcome to Kgp - Where the hell in Kgp?

3 days, One campus, the true spirit of Youth!
Don't forget to comment!

Background music from "Where the Hell is Matt" : "PRAAN" - Lyrics adopted from the poem "Stream of Life" from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. Vocals by Palbasha Siddique.

This video , made by the Eastern Technology Music Society (ETMS) premiered at their annual Spring Fest production at IIT Kharagpur. The video was made over a period of 3 days and was shown for the first time with ETMS performing "Praan" live.

Gave me goosebumps! Couldn't help sharing it... Thanks ETMS, and thanks MATT!!

Next post coming soon!!!

Peace...

E-Summit 09: Day 1: Epilogue (Part XII + I)

We all applaud Mr. Jobs for his innovative work at Apple but even he has made mistakes. He launched the first iPhone with a faulty price plan. He has struggled to get television shows and digital movies to the mainstream. He was probably 10 years late in getting Windows on the Mac. There is no doubt that he is a creative genius who produces top notch products but the scoreboard shows that no Apple product, beside the iPod, can claim even 10% global market share.

What Steve Jobs has done is laid the foundation for Apple to grow, with or without him, for the next generation. Nobody who buys this stock should be buying it because of Steve Jobs. This story is much larger than one man. Apple is protected by rigid barriers to entry. Do you realize how difficult it is to crack into the computer operating system market? I'll use the word impossible.

Microsoft (MSFT) has created such an OS monopolistic ecosystem that it has become impossible for any competitor to get compatible software written for their start-up. Apple was smart/lucky enough to maintain a niche group of loyalists who used the Mac OS through the generation of Microsoft's growth phase. That was so vital to their success because there were always just enough users to warrant software development for the Mac platform. Good luck to any company who wants to try and launch a new OS, there won't be any software to run. We happen to live in a time when computers and phones are more than just gadgets; they have become essential elements of business and social society. These devises are more of a necessity to us than cars, clothes, and according to the latest data, even religion. Not a bad era to have the only OS in town.

Microsoft's folly with the Vista release has allowed Apple to become a mass market share player. In the most recent Net Applications Survey Apple's share of the operating system market grew 5.69% in May to hit a record 7.80%, while Windows in all its flavors dropped half a point to 91.17%. That's a record low for Microsoft, which nonetheless still runs on 9 out of 10 computers on the Internet. This trend has taken years to develop and Apple is about to reap the rewards, with or without, Steve jobs. He has set something very powerful in motion that not even he can stop.

Apple's use of Leopard on the iPhone will cause every $199 iPhone user to become comfortable with the Mac system. If you thought the iPod had a nice halo effect for Mac Computers just wait for the iPhone halo. Apple's OS provides the solution for modern day touch screen technology and mobility.

Apple is the next Microsoft but they will be even bigger because they dominate the hardware as well. Legendary investor Warren Buffett says, "In business I look for economic castles protected by un-breachable moats." Thanks to Steve Jobs' reluctance to outsource the Mac OS, Apple is perched in the protected castle. His company will live on much longer than he. It's time to come to terms with the fact that Steve Jobs won't live forever and that doesn't change the fact that Apple has the best fundamental growth story in the world.

-- Dominique Trempont

With this, E-Cell concluded first day of the E-Summit. The audience stood up in applause, visibly dazed after such an enlightening session. We, here at IIT Kharagpur, remain truly indebted to the respected speakers for giving us their valuable time. The day was far from over though. Sramana Madam and Dominique Sir were surrounded by budding entrepreneurs from the audience, whom they were gracious enough to answer despite their tight schedule. They were also very generous in allowing E-Cell to use/distribute the slides freely. Sramana Ma'am also left us with a copy of the first volume of her series on demystifying Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur Journeys, which I hope to get my hands on.

Till then, lets just call it a day and continue with our present journey, with E-Cell, IIT Kharagpur. The Summit has just begun... see you on Day 2!!

E-Summit 09: Day 1: The audience asks...(Part-XII)

There was a very interesting round of questions from the audience. As expected, and as seen during the rest of E-Summit, one of the first questions asked was on the effects of Global meltdown, on Apple, and on budding entrepreneurs. Dominique replied by saying that the recession was way overdue since long, and thinks it might continue for another year or so. This calls for major reshuffling.

For start-ups, this is actually a good time. In fact, in Dominique’s view, the next 2-3 years should be excellent for new ventures. The down side could be a bit less VC funding, but the start-ups stand to gain quite a lot once the market correction phase enters. If you have an idea, come up with a venture soon. If only some people would listen!

Another interesting question asked was “What next after the iPod?”

Answered with an extremely quick “I’m not gonna tell you!” :D

On a bit more nudging, Dominique just remarked that it will be very interesting, and we’ll see for ourselves in due course of time.

Then there was this question straight from Pirates of the Silicon Valley, asking Dominique to compare Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Dominique replied that the two are simply very different as people, and have different skills. While Jobs is the more creative minded, Gates is gifted with a good ability to market and to do business. Without venturing further, he simply remarked that the two are actually quite good friends outside of the business world.

And there was the biggie: OPEN SOURCE!!!

Dominique said that he personally was not a great fan of the movement. For one, the open source movement has gone to virtually destroy entities like SUN and other enterprises from the Silicon Valley. Besides, there have been concerns over quality as well as sustainability of the idea. So while it may all be very romantic and revolutionary today, the future of open source is quite uncertain. He concluded by saying that open-source movement, free culture etc may all be “good things”, but he’s all for proprietary.

And then for the conclusion...
(Last part to come...)

E-Summit 09: Day 1: Risk it! (Part-XI)

The greatest risk one can take is not to take risks. This can be seen as a direct result of the need to innovate for entrepreneurs. To innovate, one needs to take certain risks. If one chooses not to do so, that’s probably the easiest way to make the enterprise obsolete, which, in fast times like these, is the road to certain death for the startup.

Simply put, it’s necessary to take chances from time to time, to look away from the actions which result in the obvious, and dare to discover the unexplored. At worst, one can fail. And who says that’s bad.

To hear from the horse’s mouth, just tune in to Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement, if you haven’t already. Steve Jobs has made some great mistakes, no doubt. But he learnt from them, and subsequently (and perhaps consequently) rose from them. The important thing here is not to repeat the mistakes over and over again.

This is especially true for start-ups, to take risks earlier, so as to exhaust the mistakes. You would rather make your mistakes when small, than big.

And then, there was this very interesting round of questions from the audience....(contd.../)

E-Summit 09: Day 1: Why two heads are better than one... (Part-X)

DUOOOOOOOO............

As soon as the slide saying “The Power of the Duo” came up on the screen, glances were once again exchanged amongst the students sitting in the audience. But more on that later.

Dominique and Sramana are serial entrepreneurs. In fact, Dominique has partnered in enterprises that are spread out across various sectors. It is quite impossible for him to have an expertise on all those fields. And how does that work? Simple. He has partnered with the right people. It’s all about forming the right duo.

The power of the duo should not be underestimated. There is a long and pretty obvious list of examples -- Bill Gates & Paul Allen (then Steve Ballmer), Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Niklas Zennstrom & Janus Friis, Chad Hurley & Steve Chen & Jaaved Karim, Pierre Omidyar & Jeff Skoll, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ,... In fact, I’ll write a post exclusively on the power of the duo later... The point is, people that complement each other, say, one with the technical skills and other a marketing mogul, or any other coupling that suits the startup, and who share some common traits as well, so that they may be good friends too, make good entrepreneurs when working together. I myself hope to come up with such a partnership, just have to convince the other guy. I hope to convince him to take the risk, since it is all about taking risks anyway...

(contd../)

E-Summit 09: Day 1: What NeXT? (Part-IX)

A major mistake made by NeXT was in understanding the market. You can upload/view the relevant slides  which may need to be referred.

The Computer Industry Circa 1980 was Vertically integrated – Value Proposition: ”The Best Computer”

In this vertically integrated model, the objective was to come up with the “best” computer: best own chips, best own computer, best own operating system, best applications (Visicalc was the killer app that gave its fame to the Mac).

This proprietary model produced tremendous stickiness as it was difficult and costly to switch vendor.

However, things were bound to change with time. The scenario in 1995:

The microprocessor appeared and combined several previously proprietary chips.
Then IBM made the mistake to rely on DOS then Windows from Microsoft.
Then the whole industry switched to mass production of interchangeable parts, hence lowering the cost of each.

In this horizontal model, no one company can afford its own stack. Each company picks one microprocessor from the chip bar, one OS from the OS bar, one manufacturer from the hardware bar, a set of apps from the apps bar.

Tremendous economics of scale and lower price for the customer. A $10,000 PC now costs $2,000 and keeps decreasing in price and increasing in features/functions.
Competition is horizontal as well as vertical.

So maybe NeXT was just too ahead of its time. But it’s still a mistake then. It’s all a matter of correct timing... and luck, or crossing the chasm, as Dominique puts it. This is inspired by “Crossing the chasm” be Jeff Moore, which Dominique recommends as a must-read. The chasm being talked about is the apparent “ditch” between the early adopters and the mainstream adopters (the biggest market-share holders) of technology. Making the leap across this chasm is what the real challenge is.

There is also every chance of the danger of thinking “inside the box”. The markets are dynamic, and like never before. What holds today may not hold true tomorrow. Hence, there is a need to constantly change and grow. There is a need for constant innovation. Any extrapolation made from past success is an illusion. It’s just invalid. This can be also seen as another example of 20/20 hindsight. Thus, the key is to innovate, and “truly remarkable innovation is driven by talent and freedom to think [very] different.”

Speaking of talent and freedom, how can we forget the power of the DUO. (Something I’d been waiting all evening for!)

(continued...)

E-Summit 09: Day 1: Steve Jobs as a Leader (Part-VIII)

Steve Jobs is universally known for being a perfectionist. Dominique, with all his experience, discussed the pros and cons of the same.

He recollected how he used to guide the company’s engineers about how to downplay themselves initially and to come out with the best of innovations at the right time, so as to pleasantly astonish Steve. This reminded me of the way Steve himself introduces the major innovations by Apple in his keynotes at the MacWorld and Apple Expos, famously known as Stevenotes. An archetypal Steve Jobs Keynote starts with Jobs presenting sales figures for Apple products, and a review of Apple products released in the past few months. He then moves on to present one or more new products of moderate importance. After that, he feigns some concluding remarks, turns to leave the stage, then turns back and says "One more thing…", finally revealing products which go on to define the Expo.

Dominique Trempont making a point

Steve is also known to be a great leader in very High-pressure situations. If you haven’t already, then you must go on to watch/read Steve Jobs famous Stanford commencement speech. Jobs left the company he started, his dream venture, Apple, only to start another company that would ultimately bring him back to Apple, as the CEO. Amidst all this, he also started up another big company, Pixar, which is now the leader in animation. An Entrepreneur has to be driven, by something, to be able to handle this. It could be philosophy, it could be motivation to succeed, it could be anything!

Being a perfectionist, however, has its downsides. Being a perfectionist means always demanding everything to be perfect, whatever be the conditions. While it sounds great in theory, it might lead to missed opportunities due to the wait for the perfect moment. Dominique recounted that NeXT had been offered to buy Mosaic, the first popular web browser, and the deal appeared to be good. Mosaic was the final link in the chain of technologies (TCP, IP, ftp | nntp | gopher | http, URL, HTML, etc.) which Tim Berners-Lee had earlier brought together to invent the World Wide Web. After the appearance of Mosaic the concept of the World Wide Web took off globally at an explosive rate. However, Steve felt that Mosaic was lacking in many ways, and was too far from being perfect. Ultimately, he turned it down.

Mosaic was born very mature. Fifteen years later the most popular browsers, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, retain many of the characteristics of the original Mosaic graphical user interface (GUI) and interaction experience.

Mosaic's direct descendant on the coder line, via Marc Andreessen, was Netscape Navigator. There were brief discussions between Netscape and NeXT on investing in each other, which, however, did not materialize.

NeXT had awesome server software and a killer application development environment, called WebObjects, that would have strengthened Netscape's lead on Microsoft. NeXT proceeded to very successfully launch WebObjects on its own, while Netscape became a casualty of the First Browser Wars. While the product was good, Netscape lacked the technology that NeXT had. Though this could be subject to the 20/20 hindsight argument, it can be said that had NeXT not turned down Mosaic, the present would’ve been very-very different. Dominique discussed more of this in his concluding words.

For entrepreneurs, while it’s great to be a perfectionist in terms of quality and customer satisfaction, one does not always need to wait for the perfect moment, the perfect combination of favourable conditions to come up. This is the time to make this realization. If there’s any time you want to start, it’s now... Your call!!

(continued...)