bits herald august issue 2008
TRANSCRIPT
Milestone 1: And the Journey Continues...Milestone 1: And the Journey Continues...Milestone 1: And the Journey Continues...Milestone 1: And the Journey Continues...
Through the opening years of this campus, a relentless series of questions nagged its students and their parents alike.
They dealt with the major issues facing a student: Placements, Admits to universities for MS/PhD and other matters
concerning fresh graduates. These questions were often answered speculatively with phrases like, ‘I think’; the more
wary ‘I hope’ being oft used.
However, with the first batch of students graduating in 2008, at least some of these questions can be answered firmly
on the basis of factual evidence. The answers are more than reassuring.
On the placement front we have seen recruitments from major MNCs like Cisco, Yahoo, Oracle, NI, Nvidia, Vedanta
and John Deere to name a few.
For those seeking admissions in universities abroad to pursue their masters or doctoral degrees, encouraging news is
now combined with the guidance and support of the batch that has now ‘been there and done that’. We know of a total
131 admits from the Goa campus, going to 37 students. There are outstanding examples like that of Roshan Sumbaly
who was offered admits to Berkeley, Purdue with fellowship and Stanford among others, Akash Raman who has taken
up a PhD with fellowship at Harvard University and was also offered an MS Engg. at
Cornell. These and other outstanding achievements highlight the admits list of the 2004
batch BITSians from Goa. Statistics boast of eight admits in Purdue, four in Carnegie,
three in Stanford , one in Harvard, one in Berkeley and many more at other premier
institutes abroad.
These statistics combined with the encouraging experience of a whole batch of stu-
dents, should make us proud and confident BITSians who add the words ‘Goa campus’
not in hushed tones almost as an after thought, but as a point emphasized with a glint
of pride.
Going international!Going international!Going international!Going international! BITS Pilani- Goa Campus in collaboration with The Journal of Environmental Re-
search and Development (JERAD), Bhopal will be organizing the 2nd International
Congress for Environmental Research (ICER ‘08) from 18th to 20th December, 2008
in the campus. The above mentioned journal is an international and interdisciplinary
Research Journal of Natural Sciences, Technology and Social Sciences for Environ-
ment. Its Head Office is in Bhopal where the last year’s Congress- ICER’07 was held.
The theme for this three day long Seminar will be ‘Environmental Research, Planning
and Management’. There are five different sections under this theme, viz.– Physical
Sciences, Life Sciences, Technology, Social Sciences and Law & Management.
The Organising Committee of ICER’08 consists of Prof. L.K. Maheshwari (Vice-
Chancellor, BITS Pilani) as Chief Patron, Prof. K.E. Raman (Acting Director, BITS
Pilani- Goa Campus) as Patron, Prof. Subhash C. Pandey (Editor-in-Chief, JERAD) as Director- ICER ’08, Dr. Vikram
Dasgupta (Goa University) and Dr. Arun Singh (GGGC, Bhopal) as Co-Chairman; Dr. R.P. Pradhan (BPGC) along
with Dr. Rahul Tripathy (Goa University) as Convener. Dr. N. N. Ghosh is the Organising Secretary for the same.
Apart from these, we have a Local Organising Committee and a Scientific Technical Committee consisting of the fac-
ulty members of BPGC, Goa University, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa and TERI, Goa . The last day
for abstract submission is 14th September, 2008. It’s a matter of pride for BPGC to organize another event of great in-
ternational importance. It is noteworthy that, the 8th International Workshop on Bio-Sensors was also organized in the
campus last year in October.
Other members of the Organising Committee comprise environmentalists and dignitaries from eleven countries across
the world namely-U.S.A., New Zealand, Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand, Iran etc. . It has also been planned to hold cul-
tural programs during the course of the three day long Congress, whereby BPGC could showcase its cultural richness
and also to provide entertainment to the visitors. Details about registration for the congress are available on the website
http://www.icer08.org.
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Editorial
The conspicuous yellow streetlights and the hum of running air-conditioners are just a few
of the changes dear ol’ Goa Campus surprised me with in our relatively wet (and how!)
semester. Another sister campus admits students starting this academic year, we’ve a new
director at the helm in Goa, six hundred new faces are unknowingly filling in the gaps left
by the old absentees, we have new faculty, fresh courses are being taught, there’re more
books in the library and the English Press Club is now the Department of Journalism and
Media Affairs (DoJMA). These might be random pieces of information but the buzzword
which ironically, is here to stay, is change.
The new batch of students deserves a little more than a mention here as the “random
pieces of information” have been reported in other pages of the Herald. The 2008 batch
though, seems to have settled in fine from the looks of how The Big Break went off. Of
course, we’ll only truly know how much BITSG got to them once they start head-banging
to anything with a drum track. Or trace out patterns of white fungi onto sheets of paper.
And name the figures after little known revolutionaries. Maybe I AM getting a little car-
ried away, but the juniors will have found at least one of the many ways to deal with the
change that is BITSG by the end of the semester.
For lack of better things to do, I’ve separated and will list down the various reactions to
change there are (or I think there are). (1) The Embracer. You welcome change with open
arms and make the most of the conditions. You always look on the bright-side and in this
case it isn’t the tube light. (2) The Rebel. Strong Opposition. You are either the incumbent
or the blood relation of one and you’ll act to set things right again. A more passive form of
this reaction brings us to (3) The Whiner. Self explanatory, you eventually walk the line.
(4) John Mayer. “It's not that we don't care, we just know that the fight ain't fair, so we
keep on waiting (waiting), waiting on the world to change”. (5) You don’t care enough.
No name for you, really. (6) Pink Floyd. “And then one day you find ten years have got
behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”. What change? I
was trimming the grass. And finally, the proverbial (7) Being the change you want to see.
This one’s my favourite and that’s not just because it’s the most clichéd on the list. We’re
leaving out the category of editors with self-deprecating humour and I won’t elaborate on
(7) lest this turn into an obvious preach-fest.
Write to us if you think of other proverbial nuggets that could have been fitted here or
write to us anyway. Your ideas, suggestions and feedback are greatly appreciated at Do-
JMA. Also, a heads up to budding writers, reporters and interviewers: The Department of
Journalism and Media Affairs is having inductions soon.
Contact us at- [email protected]
The Team
Pratik Mandrekar
Shilpa Garg
Rithika Ardeshir
Shalini Lahiri
Gowri Thampi
Ralino Prazares
Rithvic Rajah
Abhishek Agrawal
Sanjana Devaki
Siraj Moopen
Ankur Kumar
Anish Agarwal
Anurag Sharma
Dinesh Vernekar
Sagar Megharaj
Aditya Sanyal
Arjun V.J
Anurag Gaur
Divesh Kumar
Dushyant Tiwari
Gaurav Singh
Girish Malkarnekar
Karan Kumar
Khushboo
Megha Ghildyal
Mohit Verma
Nilesh Gaurav
Nitesh Jain
P. Raghavendra Datta
Sanjay Kumar
Saumil Srivastava
Shekhar Iyer
Suramya Munshi
Varghese Antony
The BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS Herald
The Department of Journalism and Media Affairs has been established in our campus
with the main aim of handling the print and visual media. The activities of the depart-
ment concern bringing out campus and festival newsletters, handling media relation-
ships, sending out press releases to media all over the country, web content management
and wall magazine updates. Apart from this the Department is in the process of organiz-
ing skill building workshops, building live content management and news documenta-
ries, development of an internal web portal for the campus, interviews of the ‘Who’s
Who’ on and off campus and a segment on social leadership and technical aspects of
Journalism. In June, we released a Summer Issue catering to the needs of the aspiring
BITSians which had an outreach of more than 2000 people across the country.
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Prof. K. E. Raman, who is the new acting director of our campus, after his post graduation from the Madras Univer-
sity pursued a teaching career in BITS-Pilani since 1978, where he also served as the Dean of the Engineering Sci-
ences division. DoJMA spoke with him regarding his views on the Goa campus and where he plans to see it in the
near future. The excerpts from the interview are as follows:
Q. What is your first impression of BPGC and what role do you perceive our campus to play in the interna-
tional scenario?
A.I am well acquainted with the campus since I was involved right from the planning stages, I find little difference
between the students of Pilani and Goa campuses, both being equally enthusiastic. One particular thing that that I
uniquely identify with this campus is the BITS360 website, it has created a big impact. For example, it had inspired
people like Mr. Adil Mistry who is an alumnus of Pilani campus to come to Goa and conduct a course on creative
multimedia.
Q. With the placement season approaching, there is a general concern among students over the number of core
companies visiting the campus, what would you like to say to them?
A. Placement is a dynamic process; you should not expect every company to visit each time. It will take a bit of time;
the first batch had very good placements. The impact that your seniors make in their respective companies will also be
a crucial factor. Our immediate target is to find as many companies as possible. We are also trying to connect to our
alumni in high positions in different companies for this purpose. As time passes, the index of dream jobs and pay
packages will increase. The students should work towards developing their core competencies and do more projects.
Q. There is a scholarship programme named after our late Director Prof. T.C. Goel, what will be the criteria
for it? Also, will students from our college get to appear for prestigious scholarships like the Goldman Sachs
Global Leaders, the GE foundation, the Aditya Birla Scholarship which have traditionally been the domain of
BITS Pilani students?
A. The criteria for the scholarship is yet to be decided. Probably, the money allotted-a sum of Rs.15,000 can be used
for funding projects related to Quark. I would like to discuss it with the student body on how to make best use of it.
As for the other scholarships; they are equally open to the students of both the campuses.
Q. Most of the students are not happy about certain things; we would like your take on each of them:-
A. Food Hygiene-Fortunately in Goa everything is under a contract. Students are the stakeholders and if they are not
happy then they should send in their grievances through a proper representation and appropriate actions will be taken.
I have also directed that all the workers in the campus be given an ID card from the medical centre after checking if
they have any contagious disease.
Q. Do you plan to relax the 11:30 rule and setup an All Night Canteen in the campus?
A. I am nobody to relax or tighten, don’t think that Director is the only person who can take such decisions. I would
like the student body to discuss the matter and act accordingly. You have to raise the issue in the proper forum, if it is
required we can have it, but the only thing that I will not relax is academic standards. Anything which impedes the
academic process should not be encouraged.
Q. Students are not happy about the Internet timings. What is your take on the issue?
A. I feel that students are wasting their time on Internet. Personally I’ll be happy if the facility is used only for aca-
demic purposes. There should be a sharing of the facility for better bandwidth. Again, there should be a user commit-
tee for this purpose. I see no reasons for the final year students requesting continuous net in their hostels when they
can come to the main institute building during day time and use it at any point of time.
Q. What is your policy towards our cultural festival Waves and our technical festival Quark? About the extent
of industrial participation and outreach?
A. People who are elected should have a passion for doing work. I will be the enabler to facilitate whatever is required
to be done. I feel that we have not yet tapped the alumni resources adequately. I would be happy if the person inaugu-
rating the festival is a BITSian. One thing I would like to specifically point out over here is the contribution made by
the Information System pass outs from the Goa campus to their academic association by establishing a scholarship
for the students. If this model clicks it will really be a great thing for the campus and a day will come when no BIT-
Sian pays for his education during his stay here . He would contribute to the fund after graduation.
Q. We have limited choices when it comes to electives. How do plan to improve the range of electives that are
being offered?
A. Ours is a new campus, the number of electives will grow with time. My effort is to implement teaching in an inno-
vative way i.e. experiential learning. For example Mr. Adil Mistry and Mr. Tapan Desai have come to teach courses
related to project management, multimedia computing etc. I feel that this method will be more effective. I am also
calling a few management people like Dr. Bhaskar Bose, from Kolkata and teaching staff from Pilani. I believe that
offering more number of popular electives will attract people rather than simply increasing the range.
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PLACEMENT STATISTICS (2007-08 2ND SEMESTER)
Average Compensation package
Computer Science - 4.9 lakhs per annum
Information Systems - 4.7 lpa
E&I - 4.0 lpa
EEE - 4.0 lpa
Mechanical - 3.6 lpa
Chemical - 3.5 lpa
No. of students who sat for placements = 209
No. of companies = 22
Total No. of Job offers = 335
The companies coming for placements this semester are listed below:
IT COMPANIES: Wipro, Satyam, Infosys, CSC, Aditi, Cummins, Exeter
CHEMICAL: Sesa Goa, Sabre Holding
MECHANICAL: Crompton Greaves, Fiorano, NTPC, John Deere
EEE/ENI: Cisco (Networking), Wipro (VLSI), Cosmic Circuits, Redpine, Samsung, Tejasnet, Nokia Siemens, Motorola,
Freescale, NTPC
CS/IS: Yahoo, Cisco, Oracle
MORGAN STANLEY, an investment banking firm, is coming for placements this semester to recruit IT Analysts. Stu-
dents from all disciplines can sit for this company, which is offering a pay package of about 9-9.8 lpa.
MICROSOFT, NVIDIA, NI, IBM and SCHLUMBERGER are yet to confirm.
FAQ’s: THE BITS CONSTITUTION
1. What is the BITS Constitution all about?
-It defines the functions of the clubs and departments
-It gives an outline for festivals like Waves, Quark, Spree and Zephyr
- It gives guidelines to the CSA and the Departmental Associations
2. What about the Fests?
- Each Festival has its own coordination committee (CoCo) comprising the department heads and festival representa-
tives.
- Schedules of festivals decided: Waves in 1st sem, Quark and Spree in the 2nd sem
- Zephyr to be held in the 1st sem, incorporating Sports and Tech events along with Cultural events
3. And the Departmental Assocs (MESA, ASCII etc.)?
-They are free to select events and event managers in Quark in coordination with the Quark CoCo.
- The hierarchy in Assocs (Coordinator, sub-coordinator and Secretary) decided; sub-coordinator in charge of funds.
- A member from each Assoc will be present in the Academic Council, a body which deals with issues like electives of-
fered, syllabus of courses, clubs under the assocs, development and maintenance of labs etc.
4. Guidelines for the Council of Student Affairs (CSA).
-10% of CSA budget reserved for technical purposes. At least 10% for cultural, atleast 10% for sport and 10% as con-
tingency fund.
-Election commission to take care of matters pertaining to campus elections and elections to the posts of the CSA. The
members are directly selected by the Vice Chairman of the CSA. To contest for any post a candidate must possess a cgpa
>6.00 and have no current standing disciplinary action taken against him/her.
5. What for the clubs?
-Clubs can be formed by anyone by submitting an application to the CSA. Technical clubs come under the purview of
Academic Council, and Cultural Clubs under Cultural Council. The functionality of the club will be under observation for
one full semester before working permission is granted to the clubs to function.
- Certificates to the members of the clubs are to be issued by the office of the VP on a yearly basis.
The BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS Herald 4
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A Tribute A Tribute A Tribute A Tribute ---- Dr. Tara Chand Goel(1941Dr. Tara Chand Goel(1941Dr. Tara Chand Goel(1941Dr. Tara Chand Goel(1941----2008)2008)2008)2008)
Dr. Joy Anuradha (Faculty head, Humanities Dept.):
“My impression about Prof. T. C. Goel is from my interaction with him as the head of the institution.
He was an inherently positive person- someone who inspired others. His personal strength and confidence was a moti-
vating factor that many of us looked forward to on the professional as well as personal front. He encouraged communi-
cation and created an open communicative environment. Any faculty, student or even a member of the support staff
could simply approach him- be it for guidance or just for expressing their grievances. He was indeed a memorable
leader and an exceptional human being.”
Prof. B. J. C. Babu (Faculty member, Mechanical Dept):
“Prof. T. C. Goel was an extraordinary educationist with a vision. He was endeared to the students and faculty equally. During his short tenure of 4 odd years, he made BITS Pilani- Goa Campus prominent in Goa as well as in the
national and international areas of technical education.”
Dr. P.M. Singru (Faculty head, Mechanical Dept):
“My heart is full of emotions when I pay tribute to our beloved Prof. Goel. He has guided and helped me in my per-
sonal and professional endeavours. May his soul rest in peace.”
Dr. Bharat Deshpande (Faculty head CS/IT Dept):
“I have learned many things from Dr T C Goel, but the most important thing he taught me was how to respond to stu-dents rather than reacting. It was under his guidance that I learned how to respond in a balanced and calm manner to
the student affairs. It was with his help that I have been able to strengthen the relations between me and my students.”
Dr. S.K.Ray ( Senior faculty, Biological sciences Dept):
Dr. T.C.Goel was an extremely lively and cheerful person and was very active even socially. He had a cordial relation
with all strata of people in Goa which was very helpful in the growing stages of our institution. He nurtured our cam-
pus with his experience and gave Goa a new face in the field of education.
190 papers, 100 of them international. This achievement is enough to constitute a dazzling introduction to this
man ..but to us, at BPGC, he was a mentor, a guide and a father. With 34 years of experience as professor at IIT
Delhi, Prof. T. C. Goel played a pivotal role in making BPGC what it is today. A brave man, he took on the chal-
lenge of shaping a new campus from the grassroots level and his dedication and efforts lend to our pride in being
students of BITS Pilani Goa Campus. Today, he is no more with us, but his legacy remains. May your soul rest in
peace, sir. Thank you for everything.
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The BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS HeraldThe BITS Herald
Fast Times at PS I After coming back from summer and listening to how my friends PS’s went, I realised that most of them had rather
uneventful PS’s. The same cannot be said for me and my friends who did their PS in Surat and stayed at the NIT
there. Seeing as how I witnessed only isolated parts of the event, what I present here are the facts as recounted by the
main players.
It had been barely 2 weeks into the PS when my friend Onkar, who was having breakfast at the NIT canteen, was
suddenly approached by an individual who claimed to be a student at the NIT. A short conversation later, this indi-
vidual (let’s call him Mr. X) had offered to take Onkar around Surat on his scooter and show him the sights. This
went on for 2 days or so, with Mr. X coming quite frequently to Onkar’s room. Around this time Onkar’s bag which
contained some money, railway tickets etc. got stolen. That Sunday Mr. X came to Onkar with a laptop asking him to
help him format it. The laptop which he came bearing however had a sticker on it announcing that it was the property
of one Mr. Sanathan. On inquiring about that, Mr. X replied that Sanathan was a cousin of his who had also been in
NIT but had just passed out and had thus gifted his laptop to his younger cousin. The story however made no sense
as Mr. X was not South-Indian in any way. Onkar asked for a day or two to format the laptop and sent Mr. X away.
On talking to his roommate, Harsh, he learned that Harsh had talked to Mr. X as well and had been given a com-
pletely different back story. At this point they started talking to some of the NIT seniors who were still on campus to
try and find out if any laptops had been stolen. They soon found out that a senior named Sanathan had lost a laptop a
couple of weeks earlier. At this point, after establishing Mr. X’s guilt, my friends launched their sting operation.
They first contacted the local police station and made a formal complaint. They arranged for two plainclothes cops to
come the next day in the evening at the same time as when Mr. X would come for the laptop. The next day Mr. X
came for his laptop a tad bit earlier than expected. To keep him busy Onkar confounded him with talk on astrophys-
ics while Harsh went to the police station and fetched the cops. Having explained to the cops that the owner of the
scooter parked in the front of the hostel was the culprit, the plan nearly fell apart when another BITS student went
and stood next to it and was almost mistaken for Mr. X. Luckily for him Onkar came down at the same time with Mr.
X who was promptly arrested and taken to the station. There after ‘interrogating’ Mr. X, it was found that the scooter
as well as many other items in Mr. X’s possession were all stolen goods. Moreover, Mr. X it turned out was a college
dropout and had never been a student at NIT.
Mr. Sanathan was soon reunited with his laptop and Mr. X had a court date (which he later dodged, but that’s a dif-
ferent story). It was happy endings all around except for Onkar who never saw his bag again, but such is life.
Dipping Cut-offs
The cut-offs for all integrated first degree courses have dipped as compared to last year for BPPC and BPGC. At
BPPC, the drop in cut-offs has been relatively mild when compared to our campus, with an average drop of 4 marks
in each discipline (Mech. - 328(2007) to 325(2008). In our campus, the figure is 15 (CS - 327 to 310, EEE – 322 to
306, Chem. – 296 to 281). The drop in cut-offs for the courses at BPHC, in spite of its first year, have been just 3-4
marks behind the cut-offs of the respective courses in our campus with the exception of Info. Sys. which has a
higher cut-off at BPHC.
Did you know.. To pay through the nose - Meaning to pay heavily, possibly derives its explanation from the phrase
'nose' tax which was levied upon the Irish by the Danes in the 19th century. Those who did not pay had
their noses slit.
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The BPHC fiasco The BPHC fiasco The BPHC fiasco The BPHC fiasco
It opened, and it closed. The Hyderabad campus postponed the commencement of classes by a month, a move which
has not gone down well with the new admissions. This is evident from the numerous angry posts at BITS 360 forum.
Apparently, the authorities did not inform the students in advance that classes would begin only after 30th August and
till then they were to arrange for their own accommodation. Most of the students had to go back to their homes, some
of which were quite far off. The reasons given by the officials for the slipup are insufficient infrastructure, safety of
the students and delay of construction due to rains. One post even went to the extent of blaming the authorities for
unprofessional and unethical treatment. The post accuses them of trapping the students, who otherwise might not
have joined, by seizing their originals. But amidst the sea of venomous posts, there were some which saw light at the
end of the tunnel (the train?). They highlighted some of the striking features of BPHC like a pharmacy lab in collabo-
ration with Dr. Reddy’s and a nanotechnology lab with IICT. Nano Science will be offered as an elective from 2nd
year. The director of BPHC, Mr. V. S. Rao, formerly Dean of Practice School at Pilani Campus, has developed good
relations with many companies during his tenure as the dean. This should help in placements. The number of senior
faculty who have come from Pilani Campus is 12. Once the ring road is completed, BPHC will be 40 minutes away
from any part of the city and 20 minutes from the airport. The first batch of students will get to start off fresh on a
brand new campus-a great chance to nurture their leadership skills. They will benefit from the favourable location of
BPHC, in the city of IT parks. Most importantly, they can’t be on the receiving end of ragging.
www.india.studentbusinesses.com allows students and recent alumni entrepreneurs to publicize their startups to po-
tential mentors, investors and professional service providers by creating a simple profile for their startups. In addition,
entrepreneurially-minded students who are not currently involved in startups can post
personal profiles and browse through listed startups for potential recruitment and/ or
internship opportunities. The site has partnered with entrepreneurship cells of the
many of the IIM's and IIT's, apart from our very own CEL, as well as top investment
firms like the Indian Angel Network and Ojas Ventures.
DESI and VIDESIDESI and VIDESIDESI and VIDESIDESI and VIDESI
This sem, BITS-Goa has seen some interesting new teachers. First up, we have our
own Mr.Karthikeyan, a 2008 M.Sc Phy+EEE passout from BITS Pilani, who’s
joined as a registered faculty in the EEE/EnI dept in Goa. Given a chance, he says
that people should opt for staying in Goa, rather than work for MS or Ph.D!
Next, we have a Videsi visitor, Julien Thielleux from Limoges, France. Doing his
Masters in Materials Engg. from ENSIL, Limoges, he has come to our campus on an
exchange program. His interests lie in nanotechnology and surface engineering of
materials. He says he’s thoroughly enjoying himself here and adds. “I’m glad to be
at BITS, it’s such a dynamic campus. I’m very happy here, and wish more people
from France will come to BITS.” We hope what you say comes true, and here’s to a
greater international presence for BITS!
Coming Out: The Big BreakComing Out: The Big BreakComing Out: The Big BreakComing Out: The Big Break
The BIG BREAK this year, commenced on a patriotic note with "Vande Mataram" ringing through the auditorium.
This was a occasion where the freshers hogged the limelight and they did not disappoint. The crowd enjoyed a cover
of "Wonderwall" by Oasis but "Bharat hamko jaan se pyara hai" got the bigger roar from the crowd. The dancers en-
thralled the audience, dancing gracefully to the tunes "Aaj kal tere mere" and "Sabse aage honge Hindustani". There
was also a break dance, a musical play and a short mime performance meant to be the curtain raiser for its Janmash-
tami day performance. Teaser Videos shown included one on QUARK’09, TalkofCampus.com (A student venture by
BITSians), Renaissance (A socio-political club), Nirmaan and the Electronics and Robotics Club. A good start, the Big
Break indicates an eventful year ahead.
For young entrepreneursFor young entrepreneursFor young entrepreneursFor young entrepreneurs
Pick of the monthPick of the monthPick of the monthPick of the month Along with the blazing heat,
many great tracks did the
rounds this summer. Here's a
list of the top 5 tracks.
Hindi: 1. Pappu Can't dance –Jaane
Tu, Jaane Na
2. Kabhi Kabhi Aditi
3. Kahin Toh
4. Khuda Jaane- Bachna Ae
Haseeno
5. Socha hai- Rock On
.
English:
1)Viva La Vida- Coldplay
2)Mercy –Duffy
3)Violet Hill- Coldplay
4)Lollipop- Li'l Wayne
5)4 minutes- Madonna
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Weekend Destination
Old Goa
With the monsoons lashing Goa unabatedly with
all its fury, the beaches would not ideally be the
right places to head to this weekend. We sug-
gest paying a visit to Old Goa, one of the most
popular tourist destinations in Goa. Located 9
km east of Panjim, Old Goa has some of the
oldest Renaissance architectural structures of
the state. The Basilica of Bom Jesus and Se
Cathedral churches are among the oldest in
Asia and are a must visit. The Basilica of Bom
Jesus enshrines the mortal remains of St. Fran-
cis Xavier, the patron saint of Goa. One can
also visit the Archaeological Museum and Por-
trait Gallery. There are plenty of restaurants
around and lawns can be used for picnics etc.
If you are a fresher, this may be a best time to check out the capital city Panjim (if you haven’t been
there yet). Catch the latest blockbuster at INOX or savour varied cuisines at the many restaurants and
eateries dotted across the city. Panjim can be reached by Bus (from Vasco) or taxis. So go ahead have
a great weekend!
Movie Review-Persepolis Persepolis– is the ancient capital of the great kingdom of Persia, present day Iran. The name evokes
images of grandeur, of large palaces and of noble kings. However, Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel,
and later animated film of the same name, shows a very different perspective on life in a war-torn
Iran. Satrapi's honest look into the revolutionary changes in Iran of the 70's and 80's, captivates the
audience with it's poignancy and beauty.
This autobiographical story tells of the way Revolution shapes the life of young Marjane and ulti-
mately moulds her into a strong, outspoken adult. Little Marji grows up at the time the tyrannical
reign of the Shah of Iran ends, ushering in an even more brutal reign, with relatives being tortured
and killed. The strict regime imposes many restrictions on the Satrapis. And ultimately, the Iran-Iraq
war of the 1980's, with air raids, food shortages and terror shape this unique person.
Marjane ultimately embarks on a voyage of self-discovery to Europe, where she finds love, lives the
hippie life, and learns to be proud of her origins. She comes back to Iran, only to leave 10 years later,
with a resolve never to come back to such oppression.
The story incorporates many haunting as well as satirical images. One that particularly struck me
was when an uncle of a ten year old Marjane is about to be executed, he asks her to be his last visitor.
What a terrible trauma for a child, to be living in such times! Another scene which appeals to me is
when the young author walks down a road, and shady men in long, dark coats quietly sell the music
of bands like Bee Gees, Pink Floyd, and Iron Maiden in black and running away when the religious
police come. Can you imagine living in such bound, stifling conditions?
The images, and the characters, especially Marjane's tough old grandmother, make a strong impact
on the viewer. This is one movie you will not forget easily.
Try this out! How many words can you make from the letters in the wheel? Each
word must contain the hub letter N. Can you find a 9-letter word and at
least 25 other words of four letters or more avoiding proper nouns?
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