Volume III october ‘06

Case Study Pg 03

Shoutback Pg 10

Adieu DD Pg 12

G is a publication meant for private circulation only. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or refl ect those of Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Guwahati.

The G TeamTHE EDITORIAL BOARD

EditorsAntriksh Singh

Arpit GargSumeer Gulati

MembersPradeep Ayyagari

Rahul AnuragAashish GoelItyam Vasal

Ella ShalparniRohit MittalChinmaya

K.VenuParas Arora

Joormana BrahmaDesign

Aditya BhandariDivye Bokdia

Vikas VaishnavEmail - psc@iitg.ac.in

NEWSLETTER

THE IIT

a The IITG Newsletter2

Organized by spic-macay, the Sufi Qawwali night by Nizami Bandhu was a wholesome treat for ears. The event took place in the first week of June, so unfortunately not many people were lucky enough to embrace the occasion. The group consisted of eight artistes, who performed on Harmoniums, Tab-las, Dholak, Flute, and a variety of percussion instruments. Their items constituted of Bhajans, Gazals, Sufi songs and Hazrat and Amir Khus-ro’s Bandishein. The items that followed addressed various groups: Hindu-Muslim uni-ty was explained through a semantic conjugation of the two Urdu alpha-bets, `h’ and `m’, each representing Hindu and Muslim and coming to

When they sing, it is not just to eke out a livelihood but to correspond with the Almighty. The Nizami brothers, Gulam Farid and Chand Nizami, do four hours of riyaz every day as they are meticulous about continuing with their musical legacy. Antriksh Singh and Arpit Garg engaged them in a conversation on their visit to IITG.

‘hum’, that is `we’ as against the egoistical `I’. After two hours of exhilarating performance, the evening ended on a deceptively simple but deep-ly true and universal statement: “Kashtee ke muhafiz hee kashtee ko dubote hain” (the leader some-times misleads.) The eldest of the group who spoke in a slow drawl, added that the brethren had performed in more than 20 countries and even a few bollywood flicks, recent one be-ing ‘Yahaan’. They were thankful to spic-macay for providing them an opportunity to perform in IITG, and were also pleased by the warm IITG hospitality.

Striking timeless notes all over again

ON CAMPUS

by “FINESSE”, The Fine arts Club of IITG, was an experience of its own. It was conducted during the third and fourth weekends of this August. Everything, right from making posters to the workshop itself was fun. The workshop was further made memorable by highly experienced and talented guides, Mr. R.K. Rajbangshi and Mr. Avi-nash Shinde. There was an active and enthusiastic participation by the students.

On the first day of the workshop, participants had an onerous task in their hands, ‘make clay into dough!’. By the end of the session all were perfect dough-makers. Af-ter preparation of dough, the next step was to make the masks. Even though everyone was no more than an enthused novice, yet the instruc-tors gave participants the liberty to let loose their creativity. By the end of day one, there were almost twenty completely different masks, ranging from deftly molded beau-tiful ones to the grotesquely real pieces. On the second day of the work-shop the participants made toys out of clay just to get a feel of it. Who-soever thought that playing with toys was fun, realized that making them was far more enthralling. Ev-

eryone right from the students to the instructors re-lived their child-hood fantasies both fulfilled and unfulfilled ones. On the third day, the raw sculp-tures were given a fine finishing touch. Color imparted expression and emotion to the otherwise life-less forms! The workshop was very interac-tive and informal. It also served as a nice get-together with fellow in-sti-mates, providing an exploration trip to one of the ancient forms of art, broadening the spheres of our imagination and aesthetic sense.

Enter Sandman

Deadly Toy

Gayatri Rao writes about the re-cently concluded ‘mask-making’

workshop.

Hell Boy

ASQUE”, the Mask mak-ing workshop conducted “M

a The IITG Newsletter3 CASE STUDY

July, 26th6:30 p.m.: It wasn’t the fi rst time. However Sumit, as always, had a mercurial sense of excitement as soon as he arrived at the Guwahati railway Station. The bumpy and rather clamorous ride to the campus seemed to pass quickly as he was lost in the obliv-ion of his thoughts. Two days back he had received a call from Sha-shank, “You have been shifted to Kameng”, the voice had said. ‘No problems’, he reassured himself, for he had reconciled with his destiny, moreover he was delighted because most of his batch mates would be in Kameng as well. The air inside the bus was heavy and stifl ing, never-theless his mind was spinning sto-ries of its own… He was confi dent to make it to the 8.0 mark this time (with his sure shot plan that wouldn’t fail). His summer intern experience at Ban-glore had been awesome. “I will start apping for the next year soon”, he thought. VLSI and Nanofabrica-tion was his area of interest. He had stopped smoking after the last end-sems and had vowed never to touch a cigarette ever again. Instead he was planning to be regular at gym and was also wondering who would bowl the fi rst over of their team in the forthcoming Kapili open. “Bhaiyya 20 taka do”, his thoughts were interrupted and before he could ask anything the bus conduc-tor added… “saaman jyada hai”. Not being in a bickering mood, he humbled his way out. After alight-ing from the bus, standing in the frantic gust of smoke and sand, he remarked to himself “swimming pool still ain’t ready”.7:30 pm: He cross-checked the time with a security guard. He could see a plenty of new faces with

their panic-stricken parents. That reminded him of his days as a ‘fac-cha’, he couldn’t smother a grin. But that wasn’t for long, newfan-gled refugees like him weren’t al-located a room. He then rang up the warden to seek permission to move to an empty room whilst struggling hard to deal with the baffl ing secu-rity guards. Having received an un-clear response from the befuddled warden, he decided to go ahead and take a room as it seemed to be the best possible solution. Later that night he met Vyom and Pulkit outside the TV room. They talked F1, interns, girls, water sup-ply in the bathrooms, weather etc etc. He felt better.11:30 pm: Trying to sleep that night, he couldn’t even afford to move due to his creaking bed. That was when he made his check-list...1)Get his stuff hauled to Kameng.2)Get the room cleaned.3)Replenish the ablutionary stuff.4)Get the damn cycle repaired.

July, 27th 8:45 p.m.: He was walking to the ATM with Kunal for a quick buck. The two grand that he had in cash when he came here were over too soon. To get his belongings ferried from Kapili to Kameng alone had cost him one-fi fty, another fi fty had to be shelled out as a generous tip for getting his luggage shifted to the third fl oor (security guard as a make-shift porter wasn’t settling for less), which was then followed by room-cleaning and cycle repair, ev-erything at exorbitant rates.

Aug, 5thHe was feeling a bit low since morning. The day before yesterday he had lost his bicycle (or was it sto-len?). Yesterday he was not even al-lowed in the class as he was late by twenty minutes. Probably he should have given a second thought to his decision of waiting for the institute bus. “It’s high time we have special buses only for inter-campus rides”, thought Sumit. Later that day he found out that his Id card wasn’t ready yet. Moreover the address proof and bonafi de cer-tifi cate needed for a new cell-phone connection couldn’t be obtained as all of a sudden he was required to furnish loads of “supporting” docu-ments. When he tried to approach the authorities concerned and sort out the matter, he was meted out with some uncanny remarks and in-different opinions. The best part of the day was the long walk back to the hostel with Kunal. The Sun beaming over their heads, cold frappé in hand, they discussed Ash in Dhoom-2 and as usual cursed the authorities.

Getting admission to an IIT has always been a dream-come-true for numerous stu-dents. They have a lot of hope and expectation from an in-stitute of this stature. Hav-ing come from far-off plcaes, these students often fi nd it diffi cult to adjust. Though the administration claims to pro-vide level-best facilities and a home-like-environment for everyone but this has always been a matter of grave incer-titude. G has taken an initia-tive to investigate this case.

July, 26th

a The IITG Newsletter4

Aug, 7thManas canteen.Rajat: “Yaar, the food here sucks bigtime. the quality is pathetic and we hardly get any variety. More-over the caterer this time is the one who used to serve Kapili last year, we have also started falling short on glasses and spoons!!”.Kunal: “wtf, I thought we had a new caterer this time”Rajat:“Nopes, a mere reshuf-fling, no change at all, s.o.b’s all o’ ‘em”. Vipul: “Also, if you are found eat-ing in the hostel-nearest-to-NAC, the caterer is threatening to impose a five-thousand rupee fine as if they are giving off stuff worth millions. They are even assisted by the care-takers who usually remain dumb over regular complaints about de-grading quality of food. Symbiosis huh.”Jyoti: “The main problem is that they generally prepare food for about 200 out of 300 students living in the hostel, assuming most of them won’t eat. If more than a specified strength is found eating, they dete-riorate the quality of food to toggle the equation in their favor.”

“ So are we in a no-win situation”, thought Sumit, who was standing there, waiting for Kunal to finish his maggi.

Aug, 8thSumit was at his daily business of checking mails when he was star-tled to see this post on one of the newsgroups (posted anonymously).

Date: 6th Aug ’06To: newsgroup.generalFrom: Anonymous senderSubject: Increasing thefts in IITG

“In the morning we find desperate students trying to figure out their bicycles, in the absence of a proper parking space. One major aftermath of parking them in the open is bi-cycle-theft which is widely preva-lent here. The astute miscreants, lack of in-surance for lost commodities, and a failure of the security section to come up with hardheaded steps has lead to widespread insecurity among the students. The recent Kapili theft, in which an expensive laptop was stolen, was an incident that has left the entire com-munity gaping. It was one of those pink-panther type thefts where the thief hadn’t left a single evidence. The thief unscrewed the bolts skill-fully and took with him a Toshiba Satellite. Why shall one take the trouble of breaking the lock when the bolts come out as easily as a hot knife through butter? A quick, dras-tic step was required from the au-thorities but they were busy enough to come to the scene in no less than six hours. Then there were a series of promises ranging from a finger-print matching and checking every damn room in the hostel to even a CBI enquiry! But as expected none of these outrageous promises were kept and nobody cared about the theft after sometime, other than the victim of course who couldn’t have done more than sending supplicat-ing mails. With the hostel guards sitting and swatting flies at the security desk, our precious belongings are left at the mercy of the almighty. What’s the use of having four to five guards in every hostel when all they do is attend phone-calls and watch soaps on TV? Guards must be placed on every floor and should be asked to move around in the hostel corridors rather than sitting idle at the security

desk and announce “Room no. 213, telliphooon call for you from...”. Maybe this could restore a sense of security amongst the students studying here, hundreds of kilome-ters away from their homes.”

:A worried resident

Aug, 21st Sumit was lying on his bed that wouldn’t let him sleep. He was too disturbed with the unfortunate turn of events – over twenty-five in-dicted for disco and newly emerg-ing rifts ‘n’ drifts amongst different batches. “What da hell is happening to this place? It was much better being a first yearite than it is now. Seniors then constituted a family and ev-erything around was in perfect har-mony. We played with our seniors, ate off the same plates (shortage of plates remember!), went together for evening walks and what not! Those were the days…” “Nowadays, the difference is loom-ing large. I hardly know the names of any of my juniors. They are too naïve to know anything about the life at IIT. The senior-fachcha in-teraction has been reduced to an all-time low. Moreover statements of people such as the Girls-hostel Warden’s, that go unreprimanded, makes the matter worse. Eventually the batches will get marginalized and alienated from each other and sooner or later phrases like “stu-dent fraternity” would be deemed as ‘cliché’. “Why aren’t the things just like they used to be: small PDP (Ice Breaker) sessions that saw strangers turning into friends and long last-ing relationships being established. Leave it yaar, if they don’t want it this way, what can we do? But

CASE STUDY

a The IITG Newsletter5

should innocent people like Ganesh and Rahul be drawn into this mess along with the culprits, just because they were found talking to juniors by Mr. XYZ caretaker? And that too even when the authorities knew that none of them was the culprit!’’

With all this swirling inside him, he felt asleep. It was not long when his ‘beautiful’ sleep was cut short by an unwarranted knock at his door, yielding to which he found the anti ragging squad (ARS) checking for possible acts of “ragging”…

Earlier this day Two first yearites came to Sumit’s room lamenting their problems. ‘Fachche’ were baffled by the changing attitude of seniors; they were wondering, why aren’t the seniors talking to them any more? Why are they being subjected to a ‘strange treatment’? ...they had many questions like what-where-when-why and what not. They wondered if (and how) things will smoothen between them and the se-niors, and would they ever be ac-cepted ?

Aug, 25th Kunal, Sumit and Shashank were reminiscing the good ol’ school days (which they unanimously agreed were better) while sipping the canteen coffee (3/4 cup water, 1 spoon sugar and ratio of coffee and milk powder was left to the mercy of the dispenser), when Venkat and Aman broke the ‘News’…

“The famous third-year foreign in-ternships could be cancelled!! The authorities were unhappy about some students reporting late to the institute and thereby bunking class-es. The Director himself seemed in-furiated when it came to discussing foreign internships and said that he was disappointed by certain mis-demeanors caused by the IITians abroad and that the reports flowing in, were hard to believe.”

For a third yearite, dreaming day in and day out of an internship abroad, this news was no less than a 9/11. …the ruckus died down to an inaudible cursing of their deplor-able fate.“Yaar, did we do anything wrong?”,

said someone breaking the silence.The sun was setting behind the dis-tant green hills; the clouds began to cover up the sky, those dark and downy monsoon clouds.“I hate this place. I hate this place, this…”, it was Sumit this time. It rained that day.

Sept, 2nd Today, Sumit woke up at 1:00 pm. He had earlier planned to visit Techniche’06, but he instead head-ed for the grimed khokha market, where he had a pineapple juice and a banana shake. A pack of 555 was bought and he smoked his way back. Right now, he is in his room preparing for exams and counting the days left.

“655 more to go”

“Hope is the last thing ever lost”.

Content in this article, aside from the occasional truth and fact, is mostly fictional. Any likeness or similarity that it may have to per-sons living or dead is purely coin-cidental.

CASE STUDY

Look around-The sky that wraps the earth beneath,Pearls of the morn-the dew on leaves:

That shines to the light of the morning sun,And the birds whose songs glorify the calm.

The breeze that hails across hills and vales,Makes the greenery sway in a merry dance.

The flowers clad in countless colors….Spill their fragrance at the happy hour!

The night that arrives with a thousand starsHow they twinkle like glittering gems!

The moon that sends the light of the sunPromises the birth of a new day at dawn!

Oh aren’t these the most wonderful bliss?That one could even hope in dreams!

What more does the human-soul covet?Do we realize, this divine beauty of nature-Has always been there for every creature?

She holds out her hand with warmth and loveFor every soul seeking life’s glory and worth.She welcomes, she embraces and she offers-

All joy of living and peace at death!anonymous

BLISS

a The IITG Newsletter6

things. and if thy makest the folly of considering the two imposters the same, hell’s fury be upon thee, and worse, the math prof’s. and thou shalt receive the gift India gave to the world a long long time ago: a zero. The maths quiz before the midsems seemed to me, a fore-bringer of the evil that was to fol-low. As D-Day appeared, the fi rst exam was software engg. The paper was quite like the girls that come over for Alcher. Promising, to start of with, elusive along the way and re-jecting you at the end, making you wonder if it was fate or there is ac-tually something wrong with you. (I mean they seem more selective

than Google was!) Systems Programming followed the next day. As I scanned through the paper making use of whatever blurred sensation my sleepy, blood-shot eyes provided me, my brain went on strike, with a force that the CPI(M) strickers would give their right arms to possess. My fi ngers, entwined an unforgiving pen, and hurt, as furious signals volleyed back and forth between my arm and my imploding gray matter. And then somebody snatched away the paper, God bless him. Sleep. I craved sleep. But nobody told the physics department that the CS department had a paper sched-uled in the morning. So after four hours, spent in a rather unproduc-tive screensaver mode staring at my

optoelectronics notes I found my-self sitting in Dante’s infernal hell. The devil himself handed over a page of gibberish and a few stapled blank sheets. With no idea what to do with either, I took out a knife and started scratching biblical symbols on the ex-blank sheets to denounce the devil, or maybe it was a pen I took out. I could not comprehend objects too clearly back then, you see. Two hours later an apprentice of Mr.666 took away all I had and I was shown the way to the door. I cycled maniacally back to my room, my purgatory, and escaped a twisted reality.

based on horrifyingly true eventsAditya Singh

THE LAST MID SEMS

Every face lit with a smile and ev-ery pair of eyes twinkled with joy. The semester exams had ended. Now it was the long awaited oppor-tunity to return home. ‘HOME’-the one word that sounded so sweet, the word that stirred so much love and so much longing… the one word that defi ned another world. By the evening most of her friends had left. She herself had gone to see-off many. It was very tiring helping them out with their packing but she still loved it. Though busy and tired, it made her feel as if she too was traveling out with each of them to their homes… but now the entire hostel was quiet, it seemed sullen, she could not say… perhaps like her! She lay down listless on her bed-thinking. She was the kind

of person who always preferred be-ing with oneself than others; who al-ways loved wandering wild amidst her own world of imagination and thought; who seldom seemed both-ered of the world around. It wasn’t that she was afraid of being with others but was hesitant, it wasn’t that she didn’t like company but perhaps she found a better com-panion in solitude. But today… she knew not why… it was after a long time that she too felt an urge, an inexplicable urge to return, to go home! She scribbled somewhere:

‘How does it feel to be in a crowd and yet clad in a lonesome shroud? How does it feel to be uncared for and unsought?How does it feel to be forgotten by those you love? How does it feel to have a room of your own,But to return - no home…’ As if in a vague attempt to get rid of herself, of her thoughts, of her present and everything else, she closed her eyes… She closed her eyes and saw her parents waiting… waiting for her. And amidst all the turbulence in her heart a faint hope sprang within, a faith- unreasoned perhaps that she too could be with her family, her parents and her home… someday, sometime; in heaven or earth–she could not know.

Joormana Brahma

HOME!

Uniform distribution, Normal dis-tribution. They are two different

Either the air was charged with mirth or it was induced into it!

GRAFFITI

a The IITG Newsletter7

It’s my wish that all through my lifeI seek to fi nd occasions to smile!

There are times when moving in a crowd- It’s just loneliness that walks along.

There will be moments when eyes will well-upAnd words would be lost amidst sighs. It happens that the identity of being-

‘A forgotten friend’ buried in the past; Hurts much more than being called-

‘A familiar stranger’, though unknown! But in spite of this I wish my heart-

Would continue to beat-to see the stars, Twinkling in the dark night sky;

Shining as hope in the sleepless eyes;At the beautiful sight of the calm sunrise, And that of its glory as it bids good-bye!

I wish I could sing whenever I hear- The call of birds and the sound of rain.

I wish I could wander far and wide- Along the clouds drifting above.

I wish I could feel the breeze embrace- Whenever I longed for a friend.

Let me be a part of all sorrows that pass, But let me not cease to rejoice-

All that comes with the celebration!-it’s my wish for all I can;

With all my breaths that remain!

Joormana Brahma

“Hi again, you all, Read me before you crawl,

Something I heard, vague I say, After all war and cry

Mess is still not eat and pay,Let me be straight and clear

I just overheard I swear,

Foreign interns may not be for realCurse the authorities o’ seniors

I just overheard I swear,

The most cursed caterer of most convenient hostel,Has just been shuffl ed and not thrown out of the

campus sphereIs there something in it or am I in the stroke of a

beerI just overheard I swear,

Someone said we dropped to 11th place,About these vague rankings why should we care?

We should continue to walk in an artifi cial airI just overheard I swear,

Inter batch fi ghts at all time highTake a break dude, take a sighElection season is back again,

Gangs formed and divides appearI just overheard I swear

I am feeling sleepy now having drunk a lotBefore saying adieu, let me make it crystal clear

Nothing I see, nothing I speak, nothing do I precisely hear

I just overheard I swear.

Gossip Column

GRAFFITI

AwaIted...

October ‘06 December ‘06

a The IITG Newsletter8 GRAFFITI

the girls’ hostel being the last desti-nation. Moreover, it was the last bus from the city. As I stepped down with my entire luggage, I found the security-ladies drooping in the dim light of the room they were in. Walking up to them, I produced the papers. One was a young lady, a lit-tle older than me and the other was much aged. They scrutinized the pa-pers and declared: ‘313, third floor!’ I tried to wear a friendly smile but their faces were inscrutable. Don’t know what they communicated, for they exchanged no words but silent glances. The look in the eyes of the younger lady seemed to betray an uncanny feeling while the other who stepped forward to lead me, seemed sullen. Climbing the stairs we reached the third floor, the whole wing seemed empty. Most of the rooms were locked. On asking, she told that ‘they’ hadn’t returned. But for how long? The rusty look on the locks suggested they had been on guard for ages. There was an urge of curi-

osity but its expression was forbid-den by her grim look. All this time I had a creepy feel-ing. The feeling you have when you are all alone and keenly observed by a pair of beady eyes belonging to an unknown face (or perhaps no face). The creaking of our footsteps was intruded by the howling of the mongrels, somewhere nearby and that of the foxes. Personally, I find it difficult to relate these cries with the supernatural or the unnatural, but these eerie calls do posses some-thing uncanny that lets a brooding silence to creep into the mind. ‘There’s your room,’ she said pointing to a room numbered 313. It was at the end of the wing, almost secluded from the rest. I thought I saw a dim light in the room but when she lifted the latch and opened the door, it was pitch dark inside. Of course I saw no point asking her. She switched on the light-a small room simply furnished with a set of chair-table, a bedstead and a built-in cupboard with a mirror fixed on one of its doors; it wasn’t bad. She advised me not to leave the window

or the balcony-door open at night and before I could even respond, she left. I started unpacking my luggage and got quite hot in the effort and longed for some fresh air. Sud-denly a gust of wind blew over my face from nowhere. It was chill, al-most icy cold; I could feel the tiny chill droplets landing on my face. I was just wondering where it came from because so far I hadn’t even gone anywhere near the door or window or the fan? But just then I happened to look at the mirror and what I saw? Was that my face? A face, rather the contours of a face with dripping blood, blood all over, deep red blood, oozing profusely! My heart pounded like a galloping horse, I lost my voice, my limbs paralyzed- am I going to die or am I already dead? I thought! Just then I heard a shrill piercing cry, a call sharp enough perhaps to wake up even a dead man.It was my time-piece!

anonymous

NO. 313

Before I could realize, I was the only passenger left in the bus-

30th May: I slept that night,

Hoping everything will be alright.Didn’t know what’s in store,Sadness or happiness galore.

31st May :The Sun rose from heaven.

I logged on to the net at seven.Clicked tirelessly & unsuccessfully

the refresh button,That certainly was not fun.

Minutes were ticking byAnd heart beats hitting an all time

high.Results weren’t out yet.I slowly started to fret.

Tring TringTring Tring, the phone began to

ring.Up rose tension

And fear deserves a special men-tion.

“Shalabh, the results are out “,“Tell me mine, tell me mine “, I

began to shout.One seven four seven ...

Lightning struck from heaven

Oh man! I have qualifiedAnd thats a matter of great pride.

My dream has become reality.Now I will join the elite institute

IIT.

anonymous

THE JEE RESULT

a The IITG Newsletter9

seniors preached. In our first year, they told us that education doesn’t merely mean spending hours in the library or standing by the burette killing time. It starts when we take our own decisions and become self-dependent. They said, “Fear the rushing traffic, obey the red lights, follow your lane, never try and over-take, just cruise along”, and these four years will pass smoothly. But today, I feel they forgot some-thing which has cost us dearly. They never warned us that in this system, even driving a car isn’t that easy. Never did we realize that af-ter an accident, the one behind the wheels is the one charged guilty, whoever’s fault it may be. The one

on the bicycle is always considered the victim. Yes, it’s correct eight out of ten times, but even a twenty percent failure rate is too high and there surely is the need for a new code of law. Such complaints act as mere pegs for those in power, to hang their ideas on. They merely take deci-sions, never give “reasons”, it being considered a waste of time. No one follows the golden rule, One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. There is always a major difference between good sound rea-sons, and those that sound good. But at the same time we should not forget that ragging is surely a crime, and undoubtedly its victims have increased over the years. Still the norm “guilty unless proven

otherwise”, should not have been followed. The mental trauma and verbal assaults undergone by the non-guilty accused were no less than that of genuine victims. The only difference being former have no place to complain. All this brouhaha left nothing but a divide between freshies and rest-of-the-campus, and this ultimately resulted in the freshers’ party get-ting scrapped. Its high time we find a permanent solution to this problem. There is nothing against the freshers or the authorities over here, but we can’t bear any more semester-backs or fines, and see the career of yet an-other IITian getting shattered.

anonymous

These words of Robert Frost sound very similar to what our

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self confidence”

khana Council. Our goal is to at-tend to students’ problems that of-ten hamper their academic progress be it emotional or psychological. Our group comprises interested faculty members and students who promise any kind of help to those in need. If you or your friend is in need of some help, please feel free to meet us. Your privacy will be re-spected. The counseling cell also conducts regular Class activities (Counsel-ing and learning of academic skills and service) for student’s personal-ity development. In these activities,

we organize lectures on various topics related to mental and physi-cal health. We also conduct several workshops like yoga, stress man-agement etc. There are also some famous psy-chiatrists, clinical psychologists and counselors present for students’ help. We expect the entire IITG com-munity to help us in creating a positive and healthy environment for all. We are in search for inter-ested individuals who would like to volunteer and contribute to the cause

Narsingh Kumar, Research Scholar, HSS. Dept.

Contact AddressDr. S. R. Mahadeva PrasannaAssistant Professor,Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Contact InformationOffice Address: Room No. 102, G-Block, Academic Complex, IIT GuwahatiPhone: +91-361-258-2513 (O)/4513(R), 99542 08138Fax: +91-361-2582542, 2690762

Email: prasanna@iitg.ernet.in

Message from the Counseling cell

The Counseling Cell has been functioning under the Gym-

a The IITG Newsletter10

This column is being introduced for junta problems. In every issue we will take up a topic and ask for your views. This time the selected

topic is ‘Kameng Nuances’

Hi G, the water supply is constantly stopped and water is yellowish in color.

No tea in canteen for like 2 weeks now, taps of toilets and bathrooms have been breaking under the pres-sure of water alone, and irregular water supply has not been a one time affair.

Such Problems are faced by all hostels why the hell single out Ka-meng man. In retrospect the hostel is much better. Please don’t give a bad face to the hostel. Such prob-lems are a general problem and are not Kameng specific.

Hi, I am from Kameng B4. The toilet near my room has water scarcity. Almost 3 days a week the tank is empty early in the morning n u’ll have to rush to other toilets. This leads to congestion there n many have to suffer.

The beds in B3 and B4, almost all of them are defective beds. The steel sheets that are used to cover the frame of the bed are not at-tached properly. Ideally they must be attached to the frame by screws, however they are not, they are just kept over the frame. That is why we hear the creaking whenever we sit or lie down on our beds.

I live in B4, Kameng and there is construction going on behind my room. The work starts early at 7:00 and goes till 12:00 in the night, which produces such fumes and noise that I cannot even open my window. Main problem is of haz-ardous fumes they are producing.It is really suffocating. And the beds here creak a lot not allow-ing us to sleep, on top of the noise produced by the construction. The janitor here are not regular, dirt keep’s lying on the lobby... also lot of stray cattle openly roam in the hostel creating nuisance. Plz do something. I am suffocating...

Hi, We kept our luggage in the common room while going for holidays. My and some other students’ belongings were severely damaged. My com-puter is not working because moth-erboard was totally damaged due to fungal infection and of course my bedding became unusable (Kurl-On mattress Rs.1500/-). I have asked DOSA Sir and Warden Sir who re-acted irresponsibly and haven’t of-fered any assistance till now. When I told about my computer damage they asked me to use CC (is this the solution to my problem?). They haven’t even cared to provide me a bed. Also I was told that we have no right to keep our luggage in the common room. As it would be dif-ficult for us, every time to take our luggage home so we have been “al-lowed” keeping our stuff here out of mercy. Do something pls.

I am fed up wid creaking of bed & also the dirty water supply in bath-rooms every alternate day

Hello Sir,There is no carom and tennis table in Kameng

To whosoever it may concern I’m presently residing in Kameng Hostel, facing lot of problem with bed as it is producing a creaking sound so I am unable to sleep. For the past one month I’m facing this problem. So please consider my re-quest and change it asap so that I can have a sound ‘less’ sleep! Sir,I want to bring it to your notice a very serious issue. On the ground floors of all the blocks of Kameng hostel you can find a dog or a goat any time of the day. The dogs are especially a problem as they lie around anywhere on the floor and consider if someone accidentally steps on them, they’ll certainly bite him. And the worst part is that all this is happening in front of the au-thorities and they are doing nothing at all.

JUNTA CORNER

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Mail in to us.We need feedback

Email : psc@iitg.ernet.in

JUNTA CORNERJUNTA CORNER

a The IITG Newsletter11

Hope you are having a wonderful time here in IITG. I can understand that most of you are apprehensive about the campus, its facilities, the weather etc. I hope, by now you are well-settled and have got used to the conditions here. As the sports secy. for this academic year when our institute is hosting one of the biggest events i.e. The 42nd Inter IIT Sports meet, we expect an enor-

mous participation from you all. As you must have noticed, most of the grounds are new and can be fully utilized only after a month’s time. I remember my first Inter IIT in Bombay where I was a member of our volley ball team. Not knowing the standards of the sport then, I was enthusiastic and eager to win over other IITs. After playing my first match against IIT Madras, where we lost miserably by 3-0, my heart was broken and I cried. From then

on I had just one dream, to win gold at an Inter IIT sports meet. I took my revenge last year in Roorkee when we won against the Madras volley ball team, but we lost in the semis. This year our team is gear-ing up for the ultimate prize. I know many of my batch-mates have simi-lar stories to tell you. I know that this year would be difficult. How-ever I know that you will be a part of it and make our institute proud.

Balasubramaniam (sports secy)

FROM THE SPORTS’ DESK

Dear friends, firstly a very warm welcome to all the freshers.

Swimming Pool: Aquatic meet fin-ished recently, the swimming pool was still not in user friendly mode. Efforts were made to boot it in safe mode.

Cricket: Still not fully leveled, No

fencing. Just imagine what would happen when the ball is hit for a four and it lands into the drain along with the fielder. The scene could be matched to the ‘gulli’ cricket.

Squash: Yet under construction. Rumors have it that its condition, is even worse than what we could imagine.

Basket Ball : Requires special men-tion. Have been laid several times, for various reasons. Still being re-laid.

Badminton: Concrete floor. Net supported by weight lifting poles. No sign of synthetic court. Have been assured open air resort for the practice.

IN-TUR(moil) IITLet us give you all an outsider

view of the current situation.

Dot Painting, Giri Prasad Mutta Adventures of Chanda

SPORTS

a The IITG Newsletter12

What was your feeling when you first joined IITG? I knew how an institute starts off initially, so looking at the IITG in The Institute of Engineers was not that surprising. With labs taking place in Cotton college and work-shops in AEC the first batch of six-ty-two was seriously worried about its placement. However overcom-ing all these hurdles, they passed out with flying colors.

Can you tell us some of the char-acteristic qualities that IITG ac-quired during its evolution as compared to other IITs? The one thing that distinguishes IIT Guwahati from other IITs is the level of student-faculty interaction that we get here. I remember cel-ebrating the first Holi with the stu-dents in the institute itself. It was really a great experience and I am proud that this tradition has contin-ued up till now.

I am sure that upbringing the in-stitute would not have been easy. Do you remember any hardships that you had to face? Unlike Assam, IITG was new to the ‘Bandh’ culture. However we decided not to participate in any of the ‘Bandh’, despite pressure. I am also very pleased to state that not a single student of IITG has ever been affected by the insurgent activities prevalent in this region. We should be thankful to the state authorities

for supporting us throughout.

“Dr. Sahasrabudhe is one of the most student-friendly profs. in IITG”. Any comments. What can I comment on this (Laughs). I always try to be a good listener, I listen to students’ prob-lems and try to think from their point of view. I think it’s very im-portant for any faculty member to strike a chord with the students. There must be something that you didn’t like about IITG and have always wanted to change? There are many things actually, but here is one of those things that often pains me. The bus fare is fixed at Rs 5, but many people try to elude even this nominal price. I think this should change. Anoth-er such thing is ragging. I am not against a healthy interaction, but one should not trouble the juniors. The seniors may have a formal in-teraction with the juniors in com-mon rooms and help them get rid of their fear. People come here from different backgrounds. Things that are fun for some may be an embar-rassment for others.

Can you recollect a few challeng-es that you faced at your desk since you took office as the Dep-uty Director, and to what extent do you feel you were successful in tackling them? I have been in the post for three

years. The first major challenge that I faced was buying durable equip-ment without bias. Under my tenure IITG signed 7 MoUs with foreign universities and we were also able to attract companies like IBM India and Philips to offer fellowships for the PG students. However building more hostels and recruiting more faculty is still a tough task ahead.

How do you feel about leaving IITG? Having stayed in the North-East for more than two decades, it’s hard for me to move to a new place, but “life is a change and change is life” so I guess I will have to take up this challenge. I will surely miss my students, they have always sup-ported me and I must thank them for this. IITG has the best campus in the whole country with lakes, hills and birds (He points outside).Even though I’ll be working in the College of Engineering, Pune but my heart, soul and love will still be with this institute.

Whats your last advice to the IITG student community? Keep flying high. Some incidents are taking place that are not good for our culture and tradition. We must refrain from them. Keep up the good IIT name. Set up indus-tries, contribute back to your IIT as alumni and reach great heights.

As told to K. Venu

Parting Ways...Mr. Anil D. SahasrabudheFormer Deputy Director and Professor in the Mechanical Department, IITG.

He joined as an associate professor in ’95 and recently left for Pune. We talked to him the day before he left IITG. He gave us time and showed his true hospitality even while he was busy packing. Here are some excerpts from the interview

INTERVIEW