on 28th October ,2014 Graffiti con-ducted a creative writing workshop at the Mechanical Department Seminar Hall from 4pm to 6.30pm . The work-shop was headed by an alumnus of our institute Mr. Appu Menon .

Appu Sir, or rather Appu chettan as he insisted we call him was quite an exu-berant personality . Instead of directly delving into the topic , he demanded that he be fired with the questions nestling in the writer aspirant’s minds . The questions posed before him var-ied from trends in writing to dealing with tabooed subjects and further on a more personal level to his transfor-mation from a GEC-ian or rather from a chemical engineer to a writer . The workshop turned into a very interac-tive session when Appu chettan set out to answer these questions and settle our inquiries. He discussed ex-tensively about the spontaneity and the spunk that a writer should essen-tially have to succeed in expressing his or her views . Appu chettan strongly advocated that writing should not be a business . A writer shouldn’t focus on the readers’ needs. A writer should

not be the one to give the mass what it wants because that is exactly what a businessman does. Appu chettan reso-lutely declared that a writer should have the audacity to wander alone as the proverbial cloud into the unknown, to travel the road less travelled and to

pen down on paper whatever gibber-ish that may come to his or her mind. He talked about the romance that a writer should necessarily have in his or her mind to light the spark of creativ-ity. It then turned into session in which everyone talked about their favourite

books and authors. Finally Appu chet-tan wound up the workshop by calling forward a few writers ( as insisted we be called ) and by making us devise an impromptu story . It was a very effec-tive exercise and a perfect way to con-clude the creative writing workshop. It was a profoundly thought provoking workshop and had every potential of creating a revolutionary idea in the minds of everyone who attended it .

Firstly, let me clarify. I am not a writer, neither would I be conceited enough to call myself one. From time to time, I pen down my thoughts in the hope that someone somewhere someday is able to resonate with what I think. Also, I like using fancy words, makes me feel superior.

Secondly, what you are about to read is what I fully comprehended on the day of my class farewell party. So I have taken the liberty to borrow heav-ily from the speeches of some of those close and dear to me.

The culmination of 4 years of Engineer-ing gave me a few valuable lessons but as always, they happened to be as un-related to Engineering as Architecture (sorry batch mates, always wanted to take a dig at you). So here follows the wisdom accumulated over four rather eventful and laid-back years in Gov-ernment Engineering College, Thrissur (heavy with emotions and background music) in a nutshell:

1)Identity is not fixed, it is a variable: This was the first challenge I struggled with in college – more so than my fellow students. Twelve years of schooling puts you in a cer-tain comfort zone with a certain set of people. You know exactly who you are and where you stand in the social pyramid. Your friends are well defined parameters and you function smoothly as a unit within the set boundaries of family, school and the general environ-ment. And then you get thrust into College where you get a clean slate. And that is a disconcerting change to deal with. It is like starting school all over again, the difference being you are now old enough to understand those around you – their taunts hurt more and their walls are stronger. You seek out birds of the same feather, people with similar interests or just simply that “cute” girl everyone is try-ing for. A good part of your first year goes away in what my friends liked to call “Class bonding”. More on that lat-er, but getting to what I learnt – don’t join college with any preconceived no-

tion of how life is going to be. When I say clean slate, I actually mean carry an open mind. This goes to for any new environment you are pushed into. When you assume, all you do is make an “a**” of “u” and “me”. Be open to the idea that you may like/dislike someone that you may not have liked/disliked in school. Do not try to recre-ate what you had in the past here. A new setting also brings with it the op-portunity to try out something new. You do not have to be who you were if you don’t want to. I made the mis-take of realizing this much later and it was only when I stopped blurring out the outside noise and started colour-ing outside the lines I realized that Col-lege (and the people in it) had more to offer than I thought. At least try to let people into your life and see how they bring more colours to it.

2)Learning is not limited to classrooms : In fact, learning never took place in classrooms. It took place

in those long afternoons spent in the gallery discussing the theme for a dra-ma. Or those late nights spent discuss-ing college politics over a glass of tea and a packet of cigarettes. It took place during those long walks with a special someone. It took place during the week before a Tech Fest or the hours spent in front of the Office waiting for the hall tickets. In fact, learning even took place on the night before series or the morning of University. I even learnt a few things during exams that I hadn’t known earlier. For example, us-ing Gel pen wasn’t allowed for Univer-sity Exams – it is mentioned in the In-structions page on our answer Sheet if anyone cared to read it. I do not want to get into the various innovations our generation has come up with violat-ing copyrights during those 3 hours in the exam hall as that would mean put-ting a good majority of my friends into trouble. What I understood was that it was necessary to step out from time to time from the mendacity of routine life and see things from a different per-spective. Some of the best ideas have been born in the minds of those who sat staring blankly at the question pa-per and an even more blank answer sheet. (contd.in page 6 )

Crunchy vadas, hot pazhampori and a glass of sweet lime in a perfect ambience filled with laughter and gossips with your friends. And what if you can man-age all this without draining your wallet? Perfect, right? As I wrap my hands on a glass of hot coffee, I take a look at GEC’s most sought after place, our own Milma. Be it the spicy cutlet or the beloved drink of the drained-out, the ever so humble lime, everything seems to be tastier over here. What they serve here is something that can be found in any eatery round the corner. Then what is it that sets this place apart?I have often heard my mother say, “Uppilla pandam kuppayile” which roughly means food served without salt is worthy of a dustbin. But I would say, food served without love, however tasty it might be, might never satisfy you. At Milma, you will not find any unique form of food but there is heartwarm-ing food. Every bite of vada brings

nothing but pure pleasure. Located near our civ-il workshop, Milma is a perfect hangout for most of our friends from civil department after their day long survey under the hot sun. Each sip of pineapple juice or the grape or the lime promises to refresh you and cool your in-sides as you gulp it down. A hum-ble homelike atmosphere with warm smiles and friendly nature of the ‘chettans’ of Milma only increases the attractiveness of this place. It’s one place liked by both teachers and students alike. For hostelers like me, the chapa-thy and kurma served during the lunch time satisfy our hunger at the most affordable price. For us, it’s like homely food away from home. All of these reasons draw GEC-ians to this place every time they get a five minute break from long, boring lectures. The ambi-ence and warmth of this place is something that can’t be substi-tuted. And that’s the reason why Milma is an inevitable entry to the food map of the GEC-ian.

FOOD TRAIL :

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EDITORIAL

As the New Year celebra-tions are getting wrapped up, the brand new resolutions are inevitably fading away into oblivion. Pandering to the clichéd verses, this is the sea-son for renewed hopes, rejuvenated spirit and reinforced effort. But for most of us, things have gone awry and life is back to the mundane and mechanical routine. It’s the same cycle of events over and over again.Back here in our college, as the gru-elling sessions of exams finally came to a frantic finish, we have comfort-ably erased the hoards of informa-tion which we desperately mugged up before each one. Nevertheless,

every experience in this remarkable journey has infused an immeasur-able amount of resilience into us and my dear first years, don’t be mis-led by the whiff of haughtiness that my words seem to be emanating. It won’t be long before the realization catches up with you. Let us take a glance at what GEC has in store for us this season. There’s a lot of meticulous plan-ning and preparation going on at this moment for the various activi-ties our college is set to host. Every GECian is ardently looking forward to the techno-cultural extravagan-za, Dyuthi with the rich tapestry of events it has to offer. With the excitement so palpable what should

be that one resolution every Gecian should abide by? There might be po-litical discord and petty rivalries, often blown out of proportion. But this is not the time to let them over-shadow our priorities. This is the clarion call for action, to put the spirit of GEC above all and to do our college proud. With this issue, we bring you gen-erous dollops of entertainment and enlightenment, there’s the disillu-sionment of the final year students, lessons which no syllabus can of-fer you and a lot more of riveting thoughts. So I take leave offering you a wonderful palette of innumer-able shades and hues in all its glory.

Ash

na B

ashe

er |

S8 E

EE

Unleashing “ Malayali Thanima” in Cyber Space.

Govind Menon | S4 Mech

4

1. Be flawless with your word: Speak with integri-ty. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t take things personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. So, when you are im-mune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t make assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Com-municate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misun-derstanding and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely change your life.

4. Always try to do your best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply try to do your best, and you will avoid any self-judg-ment, self-abuse or regret.

Most of us reach college with the idea of showcas-ing our talents. At times,many of us fail to capture the atten-tion of our fellow GEC-ians and we feel disheartened. And at such times, pulling ourselves back and extracting the true meaning of integrity should be our personal theme.

Let me,through this article remind you some ways to keep yourself happy.

Keeping It Simple

Abhishikth R Varma | S1S2 EEEAbhishek R Varma | S1S2 CHE Sarcasm is an integral part of the Malay-

ali DNA. Celebrities, be it the politicians or the heroes or those out of the lime-light, be it your friend or your teacher, no one is exempted from this “art form”, an art form in which we outshine the rest. Another reason why we stand out from our countrymen is because we keenly follow news around the world. In-terestingly, Dalai Lama on his first visit to Kerala was startled to see even “bare-footed people reading newspaper” .This won’t bring much of a surprise as we are a bunch of folks who fight over Poland , observe hartal for Saddam Hussein’s death and whose wardrobe is incom-plete without a Che Guvera T-shirt. These two traits are undoubt-edly the recipe for a really spicy cock-tail, a cocktail which has been tasted by Sharapova, a few unlucky Kanadigas and the latest in the list - Prithviraj. Even the mighty New York Times couldn’t bear the brunt. Maria Sharapova was left clueless when her Facebook page was flooded with comments mostly in Ma-layalam, some of which were really of-fensive just because she didn’t know Sa-chin. Troll Kannada was the next prey. The admin of the group must be really regretting mocking the big Ms of Molly-wood because what followed was indeed a nightmare for the page. The page wit-nessed a rare unity between the Mohan-lal and Mamooty fans as they spared no Kannadiga actors. The online turf ended in a resounding victory for the Malayali cyber community as the admin came up with an apology. The next apology came from

the Andrew Rosenthal of New York Times for the racist cartoon mocking India’s successful story in space explora-tion. Though this time there was criti-cism from all around the country, it was Malayalam comments that created more buzz. If Pakistan had thought In-dia was a soft target, they surely have changed that notion, thanks to a group of Mohanlal fans who hacked Pakistani Defence page among other pages. The fiasco began when a separatist hacked Mohanlal’s official website mistaking it as an Indian Army website. Lalettan fans wasted no time and hacked into the Lahore university page posting the epic dialogue “Nee Po Mone Dinesha”. The Pakistani Defence team had a tough time taking back their page and responding to the satirical and at times, rude comments from the Malayali cyber community. Prithviraj who had already felt the heat of Facebook satire was cor-nered again , this time for adding ‘Me-non’ to his daughter’s name. The cyber community was furious at his alleged “double standards” as on a previous oc-casion he had condemned people using caste identities. An explanation from the actor turned futile as the community was in no mood for conciliation. These episodes have elicited a mixed response. “Busybodies” is what some like to describe the Malayali cyber community. But this doesn’t seem to deter their spirits as they are anxiously waiting for another prey. After all, good or bad, why should they shed their innate Malayaliness, because it’s this “Malayali Thanima” that connects one Malayali to another.

Editorial board : Ashwini,Harikrishnan,Shyam,Sreelakshmi,Sukanya, Meera, Gobika,Pratheek,Sruthy,Abhijeet,Akhil,NitheeshPhotography: Narasimhan,Sujith

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“A cuckoo bird lays her eggs in a crows’ nest. And when her babies come into theworld, the first thing they do is to kick out the other eggs from the nest. Competitionover. Their life begins with murder.”

Welcome to the philosophy of the 21st century, “compete or die.” Turn around andeverywhere you will find cyberpunks com-peting to hack the modern technologies,the paparazzi competing to get the latest cleavage series of a celebrity, engineeringstudents competing to crack the GATE and bachelors competing to find a mate.

Hundreds and thousands of sperms race tirelessly to reach the finish line and only the fastest amongst them succeeds in the cre-ation of a foetus. After 10 months of heavenly stay in the mother’s womb, when this child comes into the actual world, what awaits him is rivalry, opposition, comparisons and struggles. From the moment it starts to cry, the comparison series begins. “Baby, why don’t yoube like Menon Uncle’s kid next door, he’s your age and so quiet.” The next stage is when the kid fails to walk on his legs before the expected period, “Baby, try standing up on your feet, Menon uncle’s son is pacing up and down the stairs independently.” Andunfortunately if Menon Uncle’s son starts talking, then the child is expected to saynothing less than the word Czechoslovakia. At the age when children only understandcry, eat and poop, it appears that they are expected to solve trigonometric identitiesand analyse Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which is utter insanity!

School is the magic gate to the next

phase of competition and comparison. Most of the time, even if a kid scores a 98 percentile, the first reply by the parent paradoxically would be a question “ How much did Nair Uncle’s son score?” If Nair Uncle’s son scored less than 98, then “Yeah, you are my son” and if junior Nair scored a 98.1, then “You disgraced the family name” . Come on parents! Grow up! Kids are bounded to you through a stuff called Deoxy-ribonucleic Acid (DNA) and emotions and not through marks. Some “modern competing guardians” consider their kids a material like an iPhone or a BMW to re-concrete their status in the society. They are so much in the quest to reach the summit of the society that they ne-glect the peculiar boons of their offsprings.Children adept in arts might not be given the opportunity to polish their talents justbecause the neighbour’s kid is good at Sci-ence. To add to the plight of the formergroup, they are forced to attend umpteen hours of Science coaching classes whichultimately curb all their talents and leave them behind into the category of “goodfor nothing freaks.” The above mentioned psychopaths fail to realise a simple basicfact - “Different people have distinct talents.” It’s stupid to expect Rahul Ishwar to stoparguing or Santhosh Pandit to start direct-ing a good movie. It’s never going to happen.

Once trained to compete, there’s no bouncing back from it. It moves on to the next generation and so on and so forth. “A crow sat on a tree doing nothing. When a rabbit thought to do the same and sat on the ground, a fox came and ate it.” The moral is that to sit and do nothing you should be on the top. Winning

the Competition is an inevitable element required to reach the top but it is you who should decide whether to make it a healthy or an unhealthy one.

Today when I stand in this profit-oriented universe, minute components like efficient parenting, effective teachings and essential assistances are helping me find the mileage to pace with the compe-tition. If one lacks the above mentioned, don’t worry, as somebody once said in some movie, just perform a simple man-tra, Place your hand on your heart and say....

“ALL IS WELL! ALL IS WELL !“

LiFe’S a RaCe - RuN or Be A bRoKen EgG ..! -Thejus Hari| S6 chem

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Gec Born Confused Final Years - Arya TN | S8 EEE It’sthattimeoftheyearwhenthefinalyearsareconfrontedwiththemon-strousquestionof“whatnext?”,thesec-ondseasonaftertenthandtwelfthstand-ards.SeasonOnestartedwiththissamenaggingquestionthatsawusbeingcatego-rised into science stream and commercestream, with more refining into biologystudentsandcomputersciencegeeks.

Mostofusreallydidn’tknowwhatwewantedbackthenandblindlyfollowedthethenelitecategoryofsciencestreamhopingtoendupasprestigiousdoctorsorengineers,because(let’sfaceit)thatwastheonlythingourparentswouldallowustodo.Andafterthegruellingcoachingdaysandentranceexams,weallconjoinedintothis beautiful college as wide-eyed firstyears.

Tosummarisethepastthreeyearsofengineeringlife-Ajumbleofboringandawesome classes, days of mass-cuts andstrikes lounging inthegalleryandMilma,frantic last minute cramming for seriestest,desperateprayerstoavoiddifficultexperimentsandallthemoretoughervivaquestions during lab exams; but at thesametimeacingallthevivaquestionslikeaboss(byconfusingtheteacherswithour

theories), the frenzied running here andtheretomeetthebenchmarkforattend-ance,thelongvacationsweenjoyedwhichwere supposed to be study holidays, theholytriptoOxygentotakephotocopiesofnotesandtextsjustdaysbeforetheex-ams,theuniversityexamsandfinallytheresults,whicharesombreenoughwithoutmeneedingtosugarcoatitanyfurther. Andhereweareatthebrinkofitall,backtosquareone-whatistobedone,nowthatwearenearlygoingtograduatefromthiscollege.Formany,jobwouldbetheanswerbutanequalhalfwanttopur-sue higher studies, with GATE aspirantsoutnumberingthoseofCAT.Weareyetagainrunningamokwithapplicationformsand resumes. But have we stopped andthoughtaboutwhatwereallywanttodointhefuture?Orareweagaingoingtobeblindly shepherded intodoingthings justbecauseothersaredoingit?Isitbecausethat’swhatothersexpectustodoorarewetooscaredtotaketheroadnottaken?

Thereareabunchofus,whointhespan of these three years have realizedthat engineering is not their cup of tea.And trust me, now’s the time to escape.Ourparentswantedustobeanengineer

and we have dutifully done that and inmostcasestheywon’tpressuriseusany-more.Sonow’sthechancetograbitandmakearunforit.Don’tbeanotherbrickinthewall.Getoutthereanddothethingyou are passionate about. Want to be amusician?StartabandandendupasthenextThaikudamBridge;wanttobeanart-ist?Gopaintyourcanvasoflifewithyourdreams of future and make them comealive.Wanttobesomethinginsanelyoutoftheworld?Like,maybeaspy?Doit!Now’stherighttime.Ifyouletgoofthischancewe’dbecaughtupinthewhirlwindofthelife we solemnly settled for rather thantheoneswecouldhavepassionatelychasedafter.Yes,wewillbescaredtotakethatfirststep,thatfirstleapoffaith.Yes,wemightfacefailuresandmany “I toldyouso’”,butlikethesaying-theclimb’sgoingtobetough,buttheendviewwillbegreat.So, for all the sore thumbs sticking outthere,gofollowyourdreambecausethisworld not only needs engineers and doc-tors, it alsoneedsPicassosandA.RRah-mans andDanBrowns and awhole lot ofotherprofessionalswhoaddcolourtothisotherwisemundaneworld.

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4

The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru is a beautifully engineered structure with its perfect juxtaposition of western and Indian expressions. Seat-ed inside, I was all set to soak in and cherish what I will see the following days at Beijing. It took us three long flights to reach our destination, which would have been a banausic task without the glossy magazines, Chinese traditional music, documentaries, movies and various vi-sual soups for mind that the aircrafts had provided. Stepping outside the Beijing Airport, we were welcomed by a temperature range of 10 to 15 degree Celsius along with a blazing sun and moisture less air. Men and women with round faces, pale skin and slanted eyes were walking through the streets in their fashionable sweat-ers. I was gratified when I observed that these common people looked at us with a smiling face and curiosity that reflected my own disposition. Beijing; the political, economic, cultural and ed-ucational capital of the People’s Republic of China is teemed with colossal rectan-gular shaped buildings with rectangular sections and rectangular windows. A few modern skyscrapers influenced by the western architecture were also seen. There is a prominent appearance of drag-on paintings and red colour throughout the city. The latter reminded me that I’m inside the prodigious communist nation of the world. In contrary to the venerat-ed communist principle called ‘freedom’, the government gave the citizens a little

of that and the people weren’t contend-ed about this. Our enterprising Chinese guide Eason mentioned the high prices for commodities in China due to high taxation imposed by the government. The surroundings were however, much cleaner than ours. On the road tour that advanced to our hotel Shangri La, I felt this city can be a radical vision for the development of Indian cities.The suits of Shangri La offered floor to ceiling windows which gave a mesmer-ising view of the city. Even at 2am, the city was full of life with vehicles busily streaming in and out and the majestic buildings glowing with neon lights. I dwelled upon the Chaoyang theatre ac-robatic show, (which was quite common to our circus) we saw that evening, be-fore I pulled back the covers and crawled in to my cosy bed.Our morning destination was the Great Wall of China. The sheer size, height and span of the phenomenal structure was far beyond my visual perception. I climbed up the steep steps, gasping, panting and sailing through the frig-id wind that could have knocked me

down if not for my tight grasp on the railings. The experience was concurrent-ly exhausting and exhilarating. Climb up and look down all the way you have come. Then look around to its bound-less spread. You realise once that this is the moment for which you’ve been wait-ing for. Descending down the declivitous steps also required good care, for you may slip down otherwise. Contented by the Great Wall, we visited the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City, the political and historical heart of Beijing. Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum is largest ancient palatial structure in the world and was the Imperial palace for several dynasties. We spent our evening at Happy Valley, a happy theme park. In the fairy tale world, I became a kid who got lost in the fantasies of the Halloween

celebrations. It was truly a magical place which made me forget all my pretentious display of maturity. I simply bounced in delight and that was the end of my re-markable day.In the following days, I felt that the In-dians and the Chinese shared similar

conduct and moral ideas. This made us get along quite comfortably and relate with each other. Both cultures value traditions and family values. Majority of them were loving, pleasant and had a cheerful air. All this was taken with greatest affection and amusement, for I had a different picture for them in my mind. We visited the pearl market for the freshwater pearls of China and the Jade Facto purity. The next day, we had the fortuity to feast upon the Chinese cuisine. They said they eat everything

except human beings. But judiciously, we avoided such extremities. After some shopping which involved considerable bargaining and a glimpse at the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium, our expedition to Beijing reached the culmination.I pulled back the curtains of my Shangri La room and marvelled the wondrous city for a long moment, before I bid adieu to the city.

The book deals with an unnamed pro-tagonist who suffers from insomnia. He finds relief in various support groups of-ten impersonating himself as a seriously ill person. The story moves around him meeting Tyler Durden with whom he be-gins an underground fight club.The book, as you read completely changes your conviction of the soci-ety in which you live in. The statements peppered throughout Fight Club, as you read, pile up in your mind, slowly push-ing on the barriers society and you have

built up. The crisp portrayal on what is wrong with the society is something you can hardly find in any other book of this genre. In fact, Fight Club is the only one of its kind and it would be a demanding task to fit this book into any genre.Fight Club travels through the mind-less consumerism and at each point makes you think at the fact that we have all evolved over time to be mere clones of our forefathers, emulating the general public and never ques-tioning the practices and dogmas that we have been following all along. Fight Club is all about how much we have complicated our lives in the run for being something that we are not. The author can be seen quoting sen-tences like ‘We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like’ which is a perfect irony on all our lives.If you need a break from the usual ‘what is wrong with the world’ kind of books and if you have got some time to spend on crazy self-realisation thoughts, this is the book you should go for! It’s dark, it’s honest and it’s iron-ic. With that said let me end with an apology for breaking the first rule of Fight Club which is, not to talk about Fight Club!

Sreelakshmi Menon|S6 CSE

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