IIT BOMBAY’S STUDENT MEDIA BODY ESTD. 1997
FRESHMEN NEWSLETTER FRESHIE-YEAR LOOKBACK
APRIL 2017 PAGES 14
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ACADEMIC PAINS With the first year almost over, we list the problems we faced navigating the academics at IIT-B, and suggest remedial steps. SLOP
Free from the breathtakingly many array of activities here at the institute for this brief hour? Now this farfetched fear of academic backlog might surface in your mind. You’ll ask yourself where to start and how to complete. While some might tackle this with sheer willpower and concentration struggling by themselves, Psst! we’ll tell you a short cut .The S.L.O.P (Study and Learn at your own pace) . Introduced just last semester, these are sessions where teaching assistants re-explain what is taught in class every week slower and with more illustrations. The subject is taught in a regional language if asked for, which is an additional merit of the program. With subject taught and doubts answered-it does appear to be like a tutorial batch( except it doesn’t bug you with attendance).The two TA’s for the sessions are the regular TA’s who have been appointed by the professor but who haven’t been allotted any batch as such (like a tutorial batch), they are present as buffer or for paper/checking and logistics etc. So, the professor is asked to choose two of them for the purpose. The vision behind the program was to ensure that the students who are not able to cope with present pace of the lectures and for those who face difficulty in understanding english are able to derive maximum benefit from it. ”This SLOP program was started last semester itself - so the initial response was pretty decent, at least 15-20 students used to come for every session sometimes the number dwindled to 5-10 and sometimes it even exceeded 40” But this semester, the turnout has been pretty less compared to our expectations. Nevertheless, students who regularly attended these sessions benefitted from them” Says Anmol Gupta, the academic coordinator and a key participant in organizing these sessions ,when asked about the responses of students. The professors are aware of this program and they indeed liked it because it deals with issues which even they feel about in high regard and haven’t been able to do much about till now.
LABS
The short quizzes in the computer science labs had questions based on topics covered in class. It wasn’t received well initially with a few concerns, but with time students got accustomed to it and after the initial few quizzes, it served as a handy tool helping the stu-
dents grab concepts faster. Apart from these quizzes, the ungraded labs don’t seem to serve much purpose as questions in the graded labs are of significantly greater difficulty. The instructor however stepped in, and the difficulty of the labs were decreased towards the latter part of the course. For those students with no prior coding experience, having someone go over their code and give constructive feedback would probably be a step in the right direction. This may lead to a better performance by these students in the graded labs, where they are known to face difficulties. The teaching assistants in the physics labs quite often pay little heed to any grading issues or cribs put forth by the students. At times, they are unable to reasonably justify the deduction of marks in experiments and this leads to a drop in enthusiasm for the students. The marks awarded for the end semester examination aren’t disclosed and crib sessions for the same aren’t held leading to a lack of transparency in the process. A well-structured marking scheme with timely grading sessions could help add some transparency to it. The lab is longer than the stipulated time. Quite often, the impression is that the experiments are conducted purely for assigning a grade to the students since there is not much understanding. The same holds from the student’s point of view. The TA’s don’t explain the experiments in detail and are at times not in a position to clarify doubts. Some experiments are not relevant to the course work. The TAs are different for different batches and this impacts the grading structure. On the other hand, the chemistry lab is a course with well-defined guidelines and well-structured experiments. However the topics of some experiments aren’t related to what is taught in the introductory chemistry courses in freshman year. This results in the students not associating to the experiments as well as they would like to. Outdated experiments could be replaced with ones based in the course content of the theory courses. The Engineering Drawing course is nightmarish to a majority of freshmen. The course is fast paced and many students are unable to cope up. At times, the professors are apathetic to these issues and hence they don’t attract the required attention. This is one of the main reasons of poor performance by the students in the graded labs. The teaching assistants are at times conceptually unclear and are unable to provide required help to the students expected of them. More
Tanuj Kaza, Madhav Goel, Dhruv Singh, Hritwij Baghel, Arjav Shah, Divya Pattisapu, Mohana madhumita pokkuluri
often than not, the grading is found to be done randomly, there being no set guidelines and parameters upon which these marks are distributed. Similar to the physics lab, here too a well-structured marking scheme would go a long way in resolving these issues. Although the mechanical workshop course lacks transparency in the grading structure, this course is liked by most students as it provides a much required break from the regular course load. Students rarely face any difficulties in these labs. If the marks received are made known to the students, that would probably lead to more interest among the students.
COURSE CONTENT
The course content for the department introductory courses should be well planned given that it is an introductory course in the department and plays a pivotal role in shaping the interests and dislikes in the future courses in the department. In a number of departments, these courses are treated as filler courses that are unable to excite the student and provide any reasonable interest in the subject. The course content for MA105 is quite interesting and useful for students of many departments. Many seniors give a negative impression regarding the same during various orientation programmes held in the beginning of the semester. This leads to preconceived notions resulting in poor academic performance. Some students however feel that the course content could be reduced slightly to accommodate weaker students. However with the advent of SLOP and other academic help programmes, this need not be a major issue. The general sentiment among freshmen is that the courses should be more application based. While some courses like Biology and Chemistry require a certain amount of rote learning, the course structure could be modified to facilitate more application based questions. Being responsible technocrats of the nation, basic knowledge of various subjects are required. Some of these subjects also come in handy in tackling many future courses in some departments(Eg: MA106). Logically these courses should be more application based, probably a certain degree more than what they currently are. These courses are well suited to the academic structure and not much has gone wrong with them in the past year.
IIT
US
Improvement Suggested
Stress on exams
Constant assessment
Decrease weightage on exams, introduce psets and assignments
Solo solving and learning
Collaborative solving + teamwork in classes
Encourage collaboration by forming groups for assignment discussion, make assignment problems harder :P (this sticks)
All engineering-oriented majors
Diversity of majors => diversity in ideas and opinions
At least make humanities courses more interesting and not seem like chores
No previous understanding of major
Full alignment of major with interest and person- Offer a major choice (perhaps with merit factored in ality but not the sole factor; interest can be evaluated during counselling) to freshmen
Standard course styles. (BB101 exception) Disinterest students.
Innovative course presentations and structure with clear future application
Incentivise professors to showcase applications through real life questions on topics.
Department Sneak Peek Deep Tavker, Imaad Ansari, Kireeti Akkunuri, Pranil Joshi, Santanu Rathod, Sucheta Ravikanti, Soumil, Kumar Sounack With the freshie year nearing an end, one would like to know what insti has in the bucket for a freshie-no-more. There are several aspects to the changes one encounters after the Freshmen year, of which we cover the academic and department side of things in this article. Starting off with variation of course load over the semesters, we then take a look at Minors, Honors and Electives, thence moving on to Research and Core exposure which gives the students a flavor of their respective fields. We then take a look at the Semester Exchange program followed by a brief description of the Department Council and DAMP Mentors. We also touch upon the roles of a Fac-Ad and uncover some lesser known programs that the institute offers. Finally, we take a quick peek into the demographics of the departments.
Curriculum Analysis
One might wonder how the course load is going to vary over the coming semesters. Here’s an insight into the statistics. Note that the depicted credit structure is the curriculum recommended by the department, it is possible to take up extra courses in a semester, the total credits change accordingly.
Minors, Honors and Electives FAQs Can a Dual Degree student do a minor? What is a minor and what is an honor?
A minor is an additional recognition awarded when one takes up additional courses amounting up to 30 credits in total, over the course of 4/5 years in another department. Similarly, an Honor is awarded when one takes up additional courses amounting up to 24 credits in total in one’s own department.
Is it compulsory to take a Minor/Honor/ Elective?
While Minors and Honors are only an option for those who wish to pursue it, every program does have a minimum number of electives that are to be completed by the end of 8/10 semesters.
Does the Minor grade count in your overall CPI ?
No, it is calculated independent of the overall CPI. It will be reflected in the marksheet once the minor has been successfully completed.
How flexible is the system to take a minor? Can we take a minor from a totally different department every semester? Or • All the four year programs and all the Dual degree should we stick to minor courses from the programs each have comparable number of total same department? credits.
• The distribution of credits is not the same across Yes, one can take up any minor course in any semester, all programs. While Energy and Chemical have it spread it out quite evenly, Chemistry and Metallurgy DD have a relatively sparse distribution. • The Energy DD program has the least lab credits, by a decent margin. This combined with the fact that it is a Dual Degree program, gives it the lowest ratio of lab to theory credits. • Between the two Electrical Dual Degree programs, the Microelectronics specialisation is more lab intensive than CSP. • The last two semesters, especially in the case of the Dual Degree programs comprise mostly of electives, seminars and projects.
subject to availability in pre-registration and individual course prerequisites. A minor will be awarded in the department where you first complete 30 credits. It is also possible to take up more than one minor course per semester.
Pre registration?
Many minor courses have limited seats and high demand. Therefore there is a pre registration, which usually opens a couple of weeks before the semester starts on the ‘external asc’ website where course preferences are filled. The final allotment is done on the basis of CPI and waitlist.
A DD student is only allowed to take a minor course if they belong to Category I. However, this varies on a case-by-case basis and is done in consultation with the FacAd.
What all departments offer a minor program ?
All the departments that offer a UG program also offer a minor program. In addition, other departments like Humanities and Social Sciences, CSRE, IEOR, etc too have their own minor programs.
Where can I find more information about the minor program? A lot more information can be obtained in the Sophie booklet published by the Academic council and department websites.
Familiarising with the Fac-Ad One might remember them as the prof(s) who were present during the department orientation back in July. Indeed, the Faculty Advisors or FacAds do help and approve with the registration process, but that is only a slice of the bigger picture. Their overall aim is to take on an advisory and mentorship role in a student’s academic life and act as a faculty point of contact between students and the department. Overloading / underloading a semester can be done only after due consultation with the Faculty advisor. While many may not be well acquainted with their FacAd, they will come to play an increasingly important role from sophomore year onwards.
Research and Core exposure Research Projects and URAs
Right from the summers after the freshie year, students are introduced to research through SURP (flip a few pages to the Summer bucket list article to find out more about this.) There are several other programs aimed at exposing students to research and hands-on work related to the subject. These include B.Tech Project (BTP), Supervised Learning Project (SLP) and Dual Degree Project (DDP) which also carry credits. Apart from the aforementioned programs, one can simply approach the professor (from any department) whose research focus matches with his/her interests and take up a project under the professor’s guidance. To further encourage research, the institute gives an Undergraduate Research Award (URA) to those who do significant research work. There are three different types : URA01 (for projects usually completed before the fourth year), URA02 (for B.Tech/B.S Projects) and URA03 (For Dual Degree Projects). URA can either be applied for with approval from the professor, guide and the academic office or the professor under whom the project was done can nominate the student if he/she feels that the work done was of sufficient quality.
Industrial visits, Open Days and Seminars
Apart from the lab courses which are aimed at giving the students a hands-on experience of the technical nitty-gritty, some courses and projects include industrial visits which provide an insight into the real-world applications of the subject. Moreover, throughout the year a number of colloquia are organised by various departments which include workshops, lectures and tutorials. Some departments also have Open Days, where a number of labs are open for all to come and see. Students
are free to ask questions and talk to the Professors or the students working in the lab. This is currently run in the Chemistry, Energy and very recently introduced in the Aerospace department.
Overall Research Output
A good measure of the ongoing research is number of patents filed. Here’s an overview of the patents filed by different departments of our institute compiled by Datagiri, Insight. Evidently, a large chunk of these patents is from only a few departments. The top 4 departments (Elec, Mech, Bio, Chemistry) together contribute 65% of all the patents filed by IITB. To some extent this might be because of the nature of the overall work done in each department - certain departments, on an average, tend to focus more on product-centric output, while others are more inclined towards theoretical research.
Integrated MSc Math??!! Yes, you read that right. This program exists and does not take in applicants through JEE. An application has to be made at the end of the first year, in consultation with the Department of Mathematics and the parent department. The applications are considered on a caseby-case basis after considering the grades in prior math courses (and cpi, to some extent) and a passion for mathematics.
Circle area denotes the number of patents filed in year x by department y
Department council and DAMP Currently, all the departments which offer a UG program have a dedicated council of students which handles all the department related activities like organizing events such as department sports day, department valfi, department trip, etc. It also acts as a point of contact between the students and the faculty members; for instance, the academic proposals (like changes in the curriculum) are pitched to the faculty members by the G.Sec of the council. From last year onwards, due to overcrowding of the convocation hall, convocations are now held separately for each department and are jointly organized by the department council and the department staff. Department council also publishes department newsletters which highlight the activities going on in the department and explore different areas related to the field. It also helps organize informative sessions with the faculty members and alumni of the department. A separate panel is responsible for organizing the annual department festival which is marked by various workshops and lectures. Along similar lines to ISMP mentors, there exist DAMP (Department Academic Mentorship Program) mentors for sophomores. Apart from catering to the academically weak students, DAMP mentors can help students get a better idea of the various programs and courses offered by the institute. During the meetings with DAMP mentor, one can get to know quite a lot about their department, courses, sem-ex, internships and some extremely useful pro-tips.
Sem-ex Semester long student exchanges to premier institutions abroad is one of the unique perks of IITB’s strong and long lasting relations with foreign institutions. A student can take a semester abroad at any of the institutes that have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IITB. Extending the list, IITB recently partnered with IIT Delhi and IIT Roorkee for an inter-IIT exchange program. Feasibility of a sem-ex largely depends on the matching of the courses for the respective semester with the foreign university. Choosing the sem with not more than 2 labs and with maximum number of coinciding courses is preferred. A study conducted by Datagiri, Insight reveals that the number of exchange students from EE and Mech are almost equal to all other departments combined which is accentuated by the fact that the number of exchange students from similar sized departments such as Chemical, Civil and CSE is very small when compared to EE and Mech. Nearly 90% of the outbound exchange population comprises of UGs, out of which Dual Degree students make up more than two-thirds. Data reveals that the fraction of students who opt for a sem-ex is maximum for the 4th and 6th semester for BTech students and 3rd and 6th semester for DD students. Here’s an overview of the department-wise representation of outbound UG students.
Faculty to student (UG) ratio
A Guide to Sophie PORs Abhishek Patil, Darshan Tank, Yamuna, Pratyush Ragini Singh, Tanmay Garg, Kumaresh Ramesh, Bhishma ‘PoR’ is certainly one of the most widely used words of the insti lingo. ‘Convener of X, Co-ordinator of Y, or Secy of Z’ is how we’re introduced to most sophomores known to us. This article tries to burst the PoR bubble about the X,Y,Z. Is it just about a tag? What is the time commitment required? Our survey on many such generic questions about Sophie PoRs got an overwhelming response, based on which we concluded the following. Most of us were involved in a pool of activities this year, a significant number in Academics and Technicals, but Culturals as a whole, witnessed the greatest participation from our batch. However, Mood I and techfest win the game, as almost everyone of us was an Organiser in either of the fests! Many of us are interested in working as co-ordinators for the fests. Fests aside, a lot of us want to work with the Technical, Cultural and Academic councils as well. More than 50% of the respondents are of the opinion that holding a PoR will help them learn skills like time management, public interaction etc. While some think that it would make a good resume point, and others think of it as an opportunity to work for the betterment of the institute. The primary responsibility of conveners is to induct enthusiastic people in clubs and help them explore the different activities being conducted, and ensure a smooth execution of events. Let’s have a look at various Institute bodies, and the role of sophomores in the same.
Institute Technical Council
The institute technical council, (earlier known as STAB) aims to promote technical hands on activities in the institute, by building a community of tech enthusiasts. The Web and Coding Club, Electronics and Robotics club, Aeromodelling club, Astronomy club (Krittika), Biotech club, Maths and Physics club are the pillars of this council. The conveners are responsible for ideating, organizing, and publicising the events of their respective clubs. Being a part of the tech council as a Coordinator may lead to a drop in your personal exploits in tech since one is expected to give equal importance to the managerial work. It isn’t necessary to try for a PoR because of your interest in Tech. One can still be an integral part of the Tech@ IIT-B without holding an official position.
Academic council
The Academic council is responsible for bringing about changes in academic policies as well as addressing related issues for improving the current institute system. The council comprises of 3 sub-parts namely, Student support services, Enpower and Career cell, each having four coordinators.
Student Support Services
As the name suggests, it’s a body that provides various mechanisms for supporting students - like Tutorial Service Centre (TSC) help sessions around the exam time, SLOP sessions, etc. It also runs a blog and organises sessions relevant to freshmen on Course Info, Ask Us Anything, Branch-Change, etc.
Enpower
Aims at improving the research scenario of the institute and promoting research as a career option. It organizes Enthuse sessions, RnD expo, Patent 101 sessions and the much acclaimed SURP during summers.
Career cell
It basically provides career guidance to students all over IIT-B. This includes information dissemination for examinations, internship applications, semester exchange, resume building etc. It also organizes tutorial sessions for various softwares. Also associated with the Academic Council are the Finance Club, Consult Club, and Analytics Club, which organise events for promoting their respective genres.
NSS
The dynamic nature of the work and the inner peace achieved through it, is what motivates one to be a part of NSS. Contrary to the general perception, one needn’t be involved with the NSS from first year itself to become an Activity Associate the next year. There is room for many creative ideas, like youtube channels, or the biodiversity mapping, a very successful initiative. This is a great opportunity for people full of novel and innovative ideas, and those who are interested in social service.
Sports council
IIT-B boasts of a top class sports infrastructure. The sports council puts in a lot of effort, so that all of us are able to enjoy these facilities, both in a competitive and
Which body are you interested in working with irrespective of a PoR
Hostel Council Academic Council Cultural Council Department Council Technical Council ECell Finance/Consult/Analytics Club SARC Insight MoodI/TF TAship NSS PoR sab moh maya hai Others
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20
40
60
80
100
What activities were you involved in your freshie year? tech enthu cult enthu E cell MoodI/TF Sports NSS Acad enthu Dept Activities Others
120 What is your primary motivation behind taking a PoR 3% Other
13% Resume Point 7% <insert field here> 53%
To learn time and people management skills
05 0
500
100100
150 1502200
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enthu/senti (MI, Tech, Cult)
9% To bring about changes in some Student Body/ Council/ Team/ Club
13% To learn or explore more 2% PoR God hota hai!
recreational sense. Sports conveners play a very important role in executing initiatives of the council, like GCs, workshops, or simply leisure events. The work is quite dynamic and the conveners this year said that it was a great experience working together as a team. Groundwork is the key to further details.
nity to interact with a lot of people. Most who took up this task enthusiastically, were very satisfied and understood how professors go on teaching the same subject for years without getting bored. It helped them feel the thrill of teaching.
Cult council
Like every other institute body, hostels have a well defined council structure to uphold the spirit of the hostel culture as a whole; where sophomores, pose as Secys. There is a fierce competition amongst hostels for the coveted GC cup and PAF, which thrusts the secys with a responsibility to enthuse hostelites to participate with full zeal in the GCs. Being under the constant pressure of the fellow hostelites, a hostel PoR makes you strong and confident. It is wonderful opportunity for Personality Development. In the course of solving the various problems you come upon, you certainly learn invaluable lessons of life.
IITB is well renowned for the myriad opportunities that present themselves to the students under the umbrella of culturals to teach one the finer things in life outside books and slides. Clubs like Literati (Literary Arts), Roots (Cultural and Folk Arts), WeSpeak (debate society), Saaz and Staccato (music), Rang and Pixels (fine arts and photography), Silver Screen (cinematography and filming), InSync (dance), Fourth wall (dramatics) and Vaani (Hindi poetry and Speaking arts) comprise of this walk of life at insti. All the clubs organise events over the course of the entire semester, ranging from lukkha sessions to institute level flagship events like AIDS, Kaladarshan and Film Fest, among others. It’s important to understand that, very often, Convenerships do not help in honing the very skills that the club is all about. A convener does quite a lot of managerial work thus one is more involved in the execution of the event, than the event in itself. The nature of work is mostly uniform with subtle differences from club to club. So we would like to advise you to do a thorough groundwork on your own and to not rely on ours.
TAship
TAship is a one of a kind experience, where you find yourself on the other side of the classroom. Other than the stipend, a good academic standing and an interest in the subject is what generally motivates one to go for aTAship. Being a TA helps you improve upon on your communication and presentation skills. It also gives you an exposure of what goes behind the scenes after you submit your answer books. It is a great opportu-
Hostel council
Tech Teams
Tech teams comprise of people passionate for making a mark in technical field. It is an intensive learning experience where one gets to work with like minded people, working on problem statements relevant to very specific areas of engineering, some of them to represent IIT-B at international competitions. Tech teams have induction programs like that of IIT-B racing, or have tasks and interviews as criteria for selection. IITB Racing, IITB-AUV, Innovation Cell, Team Shunya, Mars Society of India, and Pratham are the well known tech teams in the institute.
SARC
IIT-B owes its awesome reputation all over the world to our prestigious Alumni. SARC is responsible for keeping the alumni connected to the institute by hosting alumni reunions on silver jubilee of their graduation, or conducting phonathons and the likes. Other than interactions with noted Alumni and improving your communication and time management skills, It’s
a great opportunity to widen your friend circle, both in and outside institute.
Department Council
Taking up a department PoR enables you to dissolve any inadequacies that may exist in your department. Elections are held for the department council, where the students of that department vote. It is a great way one can contribute in fostering a culture in the department, by conducting department fests and trips.
No PoR
A very important, but greatly underappreciated PoR is taking none. Ironically, not taking a PoR is a great responsibility in itself - to manage time between hobbies and academics. There are people who prefer to be involved in multiple activities from research projects, sports, E-cell, Insight, hostel events, social service etc, who pursue their interests and learn new things, simply because they utilise their time in attending the events that the conveners organise. Not having a PoR is not apocalypse, what matters is to have a clear idea of what PoRs entail and if you really want to go forward with it. Rather than blindly fighting for a PoR, map your interests to what the institute has to offer and make an informed choice. To cap it all, take up a PoR not for the Position, but for the responsibility and motivation. Stress gets the better of everyone sometime during the tenure. Be prepared for times when you might be be too tired, too bored, or struggling with academics. Apart from the over hyped glamour associated with them, PORs entail a lot of responsibility. You’ll learn time management, prioritisation, and most importantly, team-work. All the people that we reached out, talked fondly of their experiences as a convener. Sure, they also spoke of how hectic it might get and how they went through a ‘give up’ phase somewhere down the line, but the skills they learnt, people they met and most of all, the memories they made was worth it.
UG Fee Hike- follow up Apurv Tiwari, Darshan Tank, Ganesh Chelluboyina, Pushkar Saraf, Soham Dibyachintan, Vedarth Choksi An unassuming normal day, the 8th of April turned out to be a big day for IITs as the bombshell of fee hike dropped without any warning. Looks like the date 8th is not good for monetary matters! Insight brings you a follow-up of the previous article regarding fee hike which was published in 19.1. As almost a year has passed, Insight investigates the developments in the past year as a result of the fee hike while also gauging the reaction of the first year students by means of a comprehensive survey conducted in the first week of March.
What students surveyed thought was the cause
In the survey, varying responses were received on being asked what may have triggered the surge in tuition fee. A large chunk of students appeared to hold the belief that it was caused by a shortfall in funds due in part to subsidy cutbacks and tighter budgets. Another section held the view that it was not the case of any insufficiency of funds, it being rather an attempt to bring about financial independence of the IITs, which would be more consistent with the autonomy acceded to them. Yet others believed additional funding was required for upgrading and maintaining existing infrastructure that is widely regarded to be in shambles. A minority felt the move was aimed at promoting and improving research in the institute. Some other responses that we received suggested that the government felt obliged to raise and divert funds
toward new IITs or for other purposes altogether. Some voiced concern that the extra money was required not to improve anything on any front, but instead to foot the subsidy of those who are eligible for fee waivers. All in all, we can thus see that there are a lot of divergent views on what exactly caused the move. This can be attributed to the government not having spelled out any particular reason for its action. While there is a lot of space for speculation, since the government has not cited a reason for the steep increase, we cannot point our finger on what exactly caused the hike.
Statistical part of the Survey
The results have provided us with data regarding the fees paid by the freshers. Almost 80% of the freshers have paid the full fee, whereas a sizeable few have received a partial or a full fee waiver. Very few have received interest free loans from the banks. Almost half of the freshies who responded receive the NTSE scholarship and around 13% receive the MCM scholarship, some of them also receive the Dhirubhai Ambani and other named scholarships, while the rest don’t receive any scholarship. MCM is helpful to its recipients as it covers the entire tuition fees. But as NTSE recipients know the NTSE scholarship is a mere pittance as compared to the fees
of our institute and hence it isn’t of much help. It has also provided us with valuable insight into the reactions of the freshies on the issue of the steep fee hike. Almost three-fourth of the freshie populace is against the fee hike invoked on them. The rest of them are either undecided on their stance or are in favour of it. Well this kind of response is expected since the decision of the fee hike was like a bolt from the blue as the amount of increase in fees is unprecedented. A huge majority of the freshie population believes that the fee hike should have been introduced gradually rather than the current spike of 122%. Still, a few people are unsure if a gradual increase is better in comparison with the huge spike. More than half of the students were aware of the educational loan schemes of banks and alumni funded schemes but only few actually knew of the Vidyalakhsmi scheme.It may be attributed to the fact that it wasn’t available in the first semester and in the second semester it was up and running for very few days with the number of forms being very limited. Well, this survey has received various responses but one thing that is clearly evident from them is that the fee hike has affected students negatively, and they do want a respite from it. The hike has definitely forced some students to think twice before joining an IIT.
Hostel 15/16 Council Review Karan Trichal, Siddharth Brahmbhatt, PVN Mallikarjun Reddy, Aman Sharma, Sanjeet Sahoo, Kriti Kamna, Shreyas Maheshwari, Ishita Das How is the council formed?
The Institute Hostel Affairs Council calls for nominations through mails on GPO. After receiving nominations from students for the post of General Secretary and floor representatives, election for the same takes place around October.
• For the post of General Secretary, only PG students in their first year, who will be staying till the end of the Second Semester are eligible to apply. • For the post of Floor Representative, any student resident on the floor can apply. The responsibilities of the Floor representative is to represent his/her floor in all matters at the level of the hostel council and work dedicatedly towards the betterment of the committee that would be assigned to him. • Any student can apply for the post of Warden Nominee, who is selected by Warden after a interview process. The applicants for the GSec post prepare manifestos and go about campaigning in their respective hostels. The students applying for Floor Representatives are expected to contact the previous year’s hostel council members who are their allocated mentors for groundwork. The Councillors and Secretaries for the various genres are selected from the pool of elected Floor Representatives. The genre preferences are requested by the floor representatives but the final allocation of FRs to respective committees will only be based on the interview by the GSec and the Warden. Since the number of FRs interested in working in the council is usually very small, the interviews sometimes become insignificant, leading to shortage of student representatives in the council. In such cases, the council positions are made open to all.
What Issues Does The Council Face?
When the council members were asked their side of the story, several things popped up. One point was that the council needs more power; they reckon they should be allowed to directly deal with the concerned professionals like plumbers, carpenters and other related people rather than keeping the hall manager as an intermediate link of contact. This would reduce the delay in basic maintenance stuff. On being enquired about the problems the mess council faces, hostel 15 Mess Councillor Mayur said that controlling the mess workers is difficult, it being a government mess. The workers often tend to be rude and adamant. Sports Councilor Rajneesh was quoted as saying that the amalgamation of PG and UG activities proved to be a daunting task because of the vast differences in their academic schedules. Also, rash handling of appliances like washing machines, driers, water coolers and lifts by students, coupled with sluggish responses from the professionals have been a cause of headache for the maintenance council in the past. A major point that came out after conversing with many council members was the absence of hostel culture amongst the inmates of hostel 15 and 16. All the freshers represent their senior hostels in every event taking place in the institute. As a consequence, there isn’t that sense of belonging and responsibility towards the hostel among the freshers. This in turn reduces the participation in various cult, tech and sport activities, and these respective council members are mistaken to be ‘idle’. One thing that came out in all council member interviews, though, was this: that students need to co-operate with the council to ensure a healthy environment
for everyone.
Council Positives
All the problems existing in the hostels cannot be pinned upon a lack of effort from the council, though. Members have been making efforts from their end in spite of all the issues they face. Some initiatives have been taken, for the improvement of hostel infrastructure and the general well-being of the residents. For instance, the mess bill of H-16 has been decreased to ₹92 per day from the previous ₹110. In H-16 a google form was floated to gauge the opinion of the residents and the mess menu was changed accordingly. Coming to the maintenance division, the council have set-up a water purifier for three floors combined for easier maintenance. The H-16 council hopes to setup extra-curricular rooms and a plan to construct a half-basketball court is in the pipeline. The sports council of H-15 has modernized the sports equipment of the hostel. A gaming night was conducted by the tech council in H-15 and some competitions were organised. They are in the midst of setting up a tech-almirah which will contain basic tech stuff. The council of H-15 also organized the hostel fest, ‘A Hillside Carnival’. Festival celebrations were another highlight of the tenure.
Our Suggestions To Improve The
Council The biggest problem that the council faces is the lack of awareness among residents. According to responses given by the residents of the Hostel 15 and 16, 68% did not know the procedure to stand for a position in hostel council. The number of people who voted were also very less(39.2%). Thus, it is clear the that more efforts
General Secretary • Represent their respective hostel in all Gymkhana, Institute and student affairs. • Review decisions of all office bearers. • Ensure proper delegation of duties. • Manage Hostel Funds.
Warden Nominee
Cultural Council • In-charge of all the cultural activities of the Hostel.
• Ensure participation in inter-hos-
Technical Council • Maintain technical inventory. • Ensure hostel participation at GCs.
tel cultural competitions. • Organize hostel festivals and celebrations for various occasions. • Maintain the Cultural Inventory. • Organize intra-hostel competitions and events. • Ensure coverage of hostel functions.
• Ensure proper mentoring is met-
Maintenance Council
Sports Council
• General maintenance of the Hos-
• In charge of all sports activities
ed out for various events at the institute level. • Maintaining the Hostel website and updating it from time to time. • Manage Hostel Google Group and Facebook Page.
• Represent the Warden in the Hostel Council.
• Chair the regular Hostel Coun-
cil meetings and General Body Meetings if both the Warden and the Associate Warden are absent. • Acting GSec in case of their unavailability. • Scrutinize the bills and receipts of purchases made by the Hostel Council and make sure they are in order.
tel and Hostel property. • Address all electricity related issues. • Ensure following of work order from the PHO. • Maintenance of common areas and hostel equipments.
in the Hostel. • Organize intra-hostel sports events. • Ensure hostel participation in inter-hostel sports events. • Purchase and maintain all sports equipments.
Mess Council • Decide on the vendors based on
their quotations at the start of the month in consultation with mess managers. • Decide and review the menu regularly. • Maintain cleanliness and hygiene in the mess area and canteen. • Monitor the quality of food served in the mess and canteen. • Check with and take action on complaint register and feedback book.
Residents’ Opinion need to be taken to publicize the hostel elections as GPO mails are not very popular and are rarely checked by first year students. Basic poster and more active facebook publicity could be adopted. Besides, an orientation of the hostel council, conducted by ex-council members would help the freshers make an informed decision about going for a post in the council. Several students are unaware about whom to approach to rectify any problem. According to our survey, even the Complaint Management System adopted by Hostel 16 is deemed inefficient by most residents. The council members could make an effort to be more visible so that the residents can easily approach the concerned authority with their problem. Further, efforts must be made to hear out residents’ grievances, like conducting GBMs of which the residents are previously informed. An active hostel level google or Facebook group which will act as a transparent platform between the council and the residents can be formed. The smooth working of hostel affairs is hindered during the transient period, i.e., when the tenure of the previous council has ended but the new council is yet to be formed. This leads to several problems and often sets back the progress made by the previous council. A transient council could be formed for the period, so that there are student representatives supervising the functioning of the hostels all year round. The councils of hostel 15 and 16 are generally perceived to be less efficient than the senior hostel councils, probably due to the lack of experience of freshers in handling hostel issues. Hence, the council could really benefit from getting certain mentorship from members of senior hostel councils. Orientations, occasional fundae sessions and regular contact with certain experienced council members could be arranged.
• With only 51.4% of freshies knowing about the
council structure, their responsibilities often go unnoticed. Unlike the extensive and drawn-out campaigns of the Institute elections, the hostel elections are considerably obscure. With the elections being conducted early in our first semester, only 60.8% of the freshies were aware about the procedure. The elections, however, saw only 39.8% participation during voting. • The councils were eventually formed and the representatives merrily started off with their “work”. Justifying one of our responses “Apna hoodie pehenna bannta,Bhaad me jaye juntaa!”, 29.8% of us find the council members unapproachable and unavailable. • The maintenance council members remaining actively dormant, pay next-to-no visits to the hostel wings. This leads to the repair work getting delayed by a month on an average. So, who do we look up to for further help? The CMS facility system of hostel 16 is catering to a meagre 23% of the junta at an effective speed. • Following the same lines as our Maintenance Council , the Sports Council also does not seem to be up to the mark. Lack of enough sports equipment has successfully kept 19.3% of us glued to our books and away from exercise. With a staggering percentage of 56.9% of us complaining about the unkempt sports-rooms and gyms, we are compelled to believe that “Bik gyi hai council”. Also, the propagation of sports GCs falls largely into the hands of senior hostel-council members which weeds out the freshmen hostel culture. • Speaking of culture, 66.8% of us feel that Cultural Council did create quite a vibrant atmosphere during the festivals and hostel-fests. Some of our
responses also claim that there’s always some great cultural events coming up on weekends in Hostel 16. But of course, we need to look at the bigger picture too. • Coming to one of the most crucial organs of the council - the mess council has found itself at the receiving end of some mixed and very wild reviews. With food quality dipping day by day, the council has even witnessed complaints of worms being found in the food. Although 39.8% of us find that the menu is refreshed once a month, most of us grumble that the dinners fail to match the required palatable standards. Hostel 15 mess faced a shortage of mess utensils and council resorted to room checking for retrieving mess utensils taken by students in their rooms. Students have complained against the shoddy way in which the checking was performed which violated their privacy and safety. Council members including male council members checked rooms and even cupboards of girls residing in H15 C wing.There was no written permission from the warden or security neither a security guard. A meeting was held with Warden and GSHA in which it was said there will be a written permission with the council henceforth and action will be taken on male council members who entered female students’ rooms. Students urged for more democratic ways for retrieving mess utensils instead of room checking, no entry of male council members in a girls’ hostel and an apology from the council along with a mail to all residents about this incident. There was no agreement on these points and no action taken till now.
Suditi Laddha, Aparajeya Dash, Harshit Baranwal, Divyanshu Krishnani, Vedant Ladha, Varun Sule, Anuj Sethia
What comes to your mind when we say summers? A month long vacation spent lazing around on a couch, sipping that orange juice, sprawled in front of the TV. Now multiply the time period by 2.5 and replace the TV by a laptop and what do you get? An IIT-B freshie’s summer! Post gruelling endsems, the gloriously long summers are a breath of freshness. While we plan to sleep through the summers like Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, duh!), the initial headiness of the free time at hand wears off. There comes a time when you wish to put the time to better use. Here we lay out a comprehensive list of things you could do this summer. Dive in to uncover the treasure trove of activities that the institute has in store for you!
THROUGH THE INSTI Institute (ITSP)
Technical
Summer
Srivatsan Sridhar, an Electrical Engineering sopho-
Project more participated in last year’s program, is of the view
A huge attraction for freshmen starting Tech, the Institute Technical Summer Project (ITSP) is one of the biggest initiatives of the Institute Technical Council (formerly, STAB). Under this program, students are divided into groups of four where they are free to choose any technical project of their liking. ITSP gives you great flexibility in choosing your project, ranging from a cross continental missile (yes, we’re joking) to a Rubik’s Cube solver (we have video proof of this).
that ITSP is a very good platform for students to get hands on experience in tech for the first time. It i helps students in honing their technical skills, and learn something about engineering outside of academics. He suggests that freshies should be encouraged to take up more challenging projects that are meant for a social cause or requirement and that some work needs to be done on the freshie-mentor interaction which was limited his time. It was a 7 out of 10 experience for him.
Summer Undergraduate Research ProProjects under professors gram (SURP) Conducted by the Academic Council annually to increase the enthusiasm of the undergraduates towards research, it generally lasts for two months. The deadline for applying for this year’s SURP is 18th April. The application can be filled online at SURP’s website. There are some prerequisites for SURP, but they vary from research to research. Prerequisites of all research programs are available at SURP’s website. Room can be retained for SURP.
Mountain Adventure Course (MAC)
The Mountain Adventure Course (BMC) is an approximately 15 day long supervised training model where students go through the (taxing, if we might add) rigours of mountaineering. While climbing steep slopes with bags weighing tonnes is enough to put people off, the exquisite feeling when one reaches the peak is something every person who has been to the MAC program swears by. A must attend, in our opinion.
Non - Technical Summer School (NTSS)
Conducted annually by the Career Cell, NTSS brings a diverse range of courses spanning App Development, Finance, Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, Registrations start a week or so before NTSS commences. Generally, the first class is for demonstration. Most courses are refundable if the attendance if more than 80 per cent. It is advisable to take these courses along with another technical project mentioned in this article as room retention is not allowed solely for NTSS. These courses generally are easy to complete and provide a sneak peek into various non core profiles. Anant Jain, a civil sophomore, took part in the Finance course in the previous summers. Overall he found the Finance NTSS quite interesting and ‘Chill’. He believes he could also have managed another summer activity along with it. Classes took place 2-3 times every week for a span of 3-4 weeks, with each class being about one and half hours long. It was an 8 out of 10 experience for him.
Summer School of Sports (SSoS)
A popular initiative of the Sports Council, the Summer School of Sports (SSoS) is a summer long program wherein people enthusiastic to learn a sport can register for the same under the aegis of the Institute Sports Council. Professionals are hired for SSoS, under whose able guidance, one can learn any sport, while getting time to do other stuff as well. The fees for SSoS vary depending on the sport of your choice. SSoS is thus considered a lucrative option for those wanting to do something worthwhile in the summers.
Summer School of Cult (SSoC)
This program is organised by the Cultural Council. The duration and frequencies of the classes vary. Room cannot be retained for SSoC. Generally, the first class is for demonstration and fees might be refundable if attendance is more than 80 per cent. Last year, Institute Cultural Council had also organized ABC (Any Body Can) programmes in mid-June. The participants were allocated mentors (seniors from the institute) to guide them in their chosen genres, by conducting informal meets. The participants got to perform at LT-PCSA at the end of June. In the summers of 2016, Siddhant Jain, a Civil sophomore attended the editing workshop of SSoC. The application forms were sent on student notices in April. This workshop had 2 sessions per week, each of two hours and went on for six weeks, from the end third week of May to the end of June. Siddhant had a great experience in this workshop, mainly because of its informal nature and got to learn loads a lot loads about editing, and was able to participate in ITSP and SSoS along with it as well. He rates his experience a phenomenal 9 out of 10.
Apart from the SURP program mentioned before, if a particular student feels that it would be better served if he would undertake a project under a professor independent of SURP, then he or she is free to do so, subject to the all encompassing ‘enthu’. Most professors appreciate enthusiasm and will take you under their wing for a project. All you need to do is approach them in advance. Our suggestion: while you’re reading this lovely article, why not drop that appointment mail right away? Shashwat Shukla, a sophomore from the Electrical engineering department, did a project last summer under professor Alok Shukla of the Department of Physics. He contacted the professor two weeks before the endsems ended. Starting in the first week of May, the project went on for eight weeks. It was an intensive but satisfying experience for him, providing great insight into research work. He gave us a 9 out of 10 rating for his experience.
Summer TA ship
Being a Teaching Assistant (TA) is a thing most of the people in the institute have always dreamed of. A TAship is obviously a job which demands dedication and given the fact that summer courses are taken up by people who have active backlogs, it is doubly challenging for the summer TAs. We would recommend going for a summer TAship only if you are ready to put in the considerable amount of effort required, while meeting the CPI criteria. Dhruv Shah, who was the a TA in the CS101 summer course last year, says that it won’t be like a normal TAship as the TA would have just been through the course. Setting the lab questions and checking papers was a great experience! He rates his overall experience a 8 out of 10.
NSS/Abhyasika Volunteer
Many of us have been involved in social work from our schooldays and have continued the same in the form of National Service Scheme (NSS). If you think that the loads of time on your hands is better spent spreading some joy around, you can easily do so with NSS and Abhyasika volunteering programs. While Abhyasika is a body which primarily aims at working towards educating the children of the various workers in the institute, NSS covers issues ranging from educating young tots to old-age care. All you need to do for this, is approach a member associated with these bodies and you’re good to go!
Coordinator work
While this isn’t exactly something that many of us end up doing, one can do much productive work involving oneself in working for bodies like Mood Indigo, Techfest, ECell, etc. Most of us, having worked with these bodies in the freshmen year, have a certain attachment to them and since the work for the same starts right from the summers itself, one could make a contribution. As such, the workload is considerably light and can be easily managed with other stuff. Shubham Goyal, a Mechanical Engineering sophomore had worked as a coordinator for both MI and TF. Working for creatives in MI he got to learn making some very cool posters and flexes. From creatives to contacting people, all kind of jobs are done during summer for these fests, hence one can get great exposure.
Insight Articles
While we generally don’t like being self-referential, this had to be mentioned, you know. In case you would like to kill some time, indulge in a dash of adrenaline-inducing investigative journalism or report the earth-shaking issues plaguing the institute we hold dear, look no further. Insight always has a plethora of articles it intends to pursue in the summers. Just keep an eye out on the
Gmail thread for the preference form, fill it up, and voila, you might land your first journalistic assignment! Summer Insight articles are a great way to get started with Insight with a lot of time on your hands and relatively flexible deadlines.
Internship
Freshmen do not get internship offers through the Practical Training Cell. But interested students can apply for internships on their own.
Conclusion
While we’ve done our best, there’s probably a lot left to be explored and might be added to the above list (if you do find something like this, do mail us. The panel would really love it :P ). We strongly suggest freshmen to make the best use of the time that they have in the summers, to do something that will add to their personality and skill sets. Trust us, you won’t possibly get such a long vacation ever again in your lifetime. Make the best out of it! Have a great summer vacation! PS.: For all the grandstanding, some members of the panel do stand by their decision to, well, do nothing in the summers. The readers are advised NOT to emulate the aforementioned unnamed panel members :) you can cut & paste this to checklist your summer bucketlist
Freshie Year Look-back
This year at IIT? It was definitely the most eventful year for us. The “chill life” referred in “Do saal aur pad lo, phir life chill hai” wasn’t as chill as we had thought. With few ups and downs, it was an amazing year. Making decisions about our priorities knowing that we were solely responsible thereon was a first for many of us. Here, we bring to you, some tidbits about how life went for us in the insti.
People’s perception about us
Initial Adjustment
EXPECTATIONS VS REALITY
Anmol Gupta, Nikhil Kumar, Saloni, Valay, Neharika Jali, Dimple Kochar, Mrunmayi Mungekar, Kushal P Yadav
IIT Bombay is a Dream come True! Truth meter : 3.4/5 IIT? Nah... 8.3% Below Average 12.8%
Average 25.6% Just Pefect 38.3%
Everyone has a lot of expectations from IITB, which is justified, given its perceived image outside. Many of us believed that we were stepping into a world of serious academics. We had expected (and indeed found) great infrastructure in terms of academics, but were pleasantly surprised by the numerous sports and cultural activities. The first few weeks passed swiftly in a rush, with the infinite cultural, technical and sports orientations - and just when we settled in, we had the first quiz on our heads! It soon hit us that you do have to study here in IIT as well. That apart, in this year people were seen breaking their “maggu shells” and discovering their hidden MJs and Beethovens.. The lush green campus, ideal for jogging and cycling, was the cherry on the top. The freshie hostel life was altogether a different experience, and nothing like what is described in some Quora posts (although leopards and snakes were true, did you really believe all that?).
Beyond Expectations 15%
“Try to go to your room before your future roomie, and choose the side having a socket near the bed.” Truth Meter - 5/5
“
Close to 70% of the freshers surveyed were of the opinion that the orientations of various clubs lost relevance after a certain point of time.
“Hamare Saath kya Ghumega ab, IIT mein hai, bade log” Truth Meter - 1.5/5 On asked if they reply to messages from random juniors (aka JEE aspirants) asking for tips: 53.6%
I always do!
22.4%
I haven’t received any as of yet, fortunately
24%
Lol, I’m not so lukkha!
It’s the first time a majority of us are staying away from our homes, but it’s worth every minute of it. Bidding goodbye to our doting parents, MA ke haath ka khana (pun intended), gambling with our siblings - we stepped into our dream institute, with a sense of excitement and uncertainty. We arrived here with thoughts like “abhi to JEE crack kiya, 1st sem enjoy karenge”. But then soon went through a reality check. We had to run to classes, juggle between mess, classes and of course the plethora of activities that the institute offers. The new online academic system had us scratching our heads in the first 2-3 weeks. It took a Herculean effort to start keeping track of GPO mails, and to get acquainted with Moodle. During our initial days, the InstiMap was all we could rely upon (poor iOS and Windows junta ;) ). Even then, we were puzzled time-to-time with the location of classrooms in the LCH. Apart from the roads, another maze to solve was the crazy lingo that the insti threw at us. Words like ‘enthu’, ‘tech’, ‘cult’, ‘polt’, ‘valfi’ would leave anyone (and even us in the beginning) completely puzzled. Here, the number of x’s (not ‘ex’es :P) after words like craxx and machaxxx conveys our enthu. Some words mean something entirely different, even the opposite too - the inedible DoSA, the unbreakable matke, or the infi scope of getting a bandi in the insti - yes, this all seems way too ‘arbit’! A lot of IITBhasha has found way into our vocabulary like “pain nahi hai”, “chamka kya?”, “hagga isme”, “ditch karna” or “fight marna”, “lukkha katna”, “sorry rahega” and the like, And we are not really complaining!
People definitely have a varied opinion about us. Some friends feel that we don’t have time for them, or as they say “bhaav badh gaye tere” and some are like,”how come you are always online?” Apart from that, the people perceive that once you are in IIT, your life is set, you will get a highly paid job, a girlfriend/boyfriend and everything else because of the “thappa” of IIT. Being in IIT shoots us into the public eye overnight. So, pings from random strangers on Facebook become an everyday affair. “Bhaiya, kaise padhte the, please koi ‘special’ tips dedo. Please tell me your daily routine” (you get the gist). Parents of aspirants call you up and ask random questions. People who were not even aware of your existence, suddenly start regarding you as their favorite person in the world! (Courtesy: the advertisements by our coaching institutions).
How much the average freshie skipped his/her sleep this year?
40 %
Sleep Regularly
45%
2 days
12%
3-5 days
3%
One Week
z
z
z
Fundae 101 Academics Mess-e-mess
Finally only CPI matters. Truth Meter - 9.36/5
Academics is the most important thing in the institute. But due to the quality and quantity of appealing events going on, it’s quite difficult for the average IITian to balance his/her interests and academics. Amidst the mid-lecture sleep, RG by wingies, clubs conducting “more” interesting events, and uncertainties in physics papers (pun fully intended), we still manage to score (some delta marks).
“You get Paneer at Home. You’ll also get paneer here, with no resemblance to home food” - Dean. Truth Meter - Can the Dean be wrong?
After being quite pampered during and/or after your JEE days with the tastiest of dishes your mom can serve, a simple mouthful of IITB mess food is enough to jolt you out of your pretty dreams. Missing the breakfast which really is quite edible, is part of our routine now because of the everyday rush for attending early morning lectures. But of course, the snacks in the evening are simply delicious! The unique and mouthwatering menu for lunch and dinner never match the actual stuff we are served, eg. the famed veg biryani simply turning out to be masala rice with vegetables, and Palak Paneer is actually just matar paneer with added palak. Then there’s the disappointment of always looking forward to a dessert only to discover that we get a miniscule portion, whereas we are free to treat ourselves to unlimited amounts of the usual rice and dal.
“
The Food Trouble isn’t just limited to the mess food. A total of 70% of the 313 respondents to the survey felt that there is indeed a lack of good eateries in the campus.
MI+TF
“MI me bandiyan milti hai” Truth Meter -> iota/5
“Tumne NSO Liya, ab NSO tumhari lega” Truth Meter - 4.5/5
NSO
“Acads chill hai. Try everything! MI is feels. First year is infi time! PAF=God. Bas ping kardena! XYZ ditch hota hai. Polt machana! End mein sirf experience matters!” - Fundaewala sophie. “Acads is 1 and others 0. Don’t randomly involve yourself in everything. Save time during first year. CPI matters a lot, and lastly, never take fundaes from a sophie!”- Fundaewala fourthie. Apart from their responsiveness, seniors are always keen to share their unsolicited fundes and the freshie tag makes us more prone to enlightenment. Fundaes come in many types - PoR fundae, MI fundae, Acads fundae and sometimes even fake pink slip fundae! In fact, it happens quite often that a normal conversation with a senior inadvertently turns into a fundae 101 class.
After a gruelling semester, IITB finally showcases Mood Indigo and Techfest . Not called the Asia’s largest college fest for no reason, Mood Indigo boasts one of the most star studded lineup of artists, celebrities, competitions and much more. A fiesta for everyone, especially freshies, who get to see such a ‘diverse crowd’ after so long - both of these fests include loads of fun, skipping all meals a day just to catch your favourite stand-up comedian, getting up at 7 am to pick up artists, pinning posters along the road, looking at the endless lines (till Gullu) for a convo event and smiling because the coordie is a friend which means you are getting backstage entry, sleeping in the common room, or sometimes in mess/senior’s rooms/15C (and getting terrorised by guards), jumping all night long to EDM tunes, anchoring for your favourite singer or a renowned lecturer, pillioning at 80 kmph to a coordie only because an artist wants a sugar free drink, getting a “bandi” (error - 404 not found), and above all, having a feeling that you’ve made an impact on the fest - MI and TF, in the freshie year, are a once in a lifetime, and a hell of an experience.
After those-gruelling-two-years, on getting admission to IITB, we have one compulsory extra-curricular activity twice a week - fondly called (yeah, why not) the NOCS. NSO turned out to be the majority’s first choice (trials, sigh!) but then there were a few who instead chose to opt for NSS and a rarer of them for even NCC, NSO includes all things sports and cult - yoga, cricket, dramatics, fine arts etc. (still unaware why the name NSO despite all this cult). The starting weeks are fun, getting to play after such a long time. But then, after a few weeks, most of the attendance is just for getting PP. NSS junta take up initiatives like ‘Green Campus’, work with NGOs, and also make educational videos in vernacular (OLI). While the exquisite feeling of doing your bit towards the society might be exhilarating, making ‘bird shelters’ out of used Pepsi bottles and preparing for a ‘social’ skit which no one aparts from you care about can be redeeming in its own way (where’s my Peace prize now?). NCC junta actually have it best. They have sessions on Saturday and they have to attend a 10 day camp in December which includes lectures by professors and some cool stuff like shooting 0.9 mm guns.
The Saga of Home Hostel
Honestly, we freshers totally lack on this front; wing culture is virtually non-existent (with some exceptions, obviously). There is some rivalry between Hostels 15 and 16, but that is greatly overwhelmed by the famed rivalries that we have heard among the senior hostels! In fact many people feel immense senti for their future hostel, which sometimes leads to inter floor wars (“Insti ka baap kaun?..H*H*!”). The survey showed that given a chance to go to any hostel, most freshies would choose Hostels 2 and 10!
Sophie Expectations
The best part about home is undoubtedly the food. After experiencing the immense torture of mess food, ‘Maa ke haath ka khana’ has a completely different feel. Most ghatis juggle insti activities with home, facing peer criticism. It feels heavenly not to worry about lectures, practicals and most importantly about your facebook account falling in your friends’ hands. “Beta utho ab, 12 baje!” is infinitely sweeter than the irritating noise of your alarm. Going home hence, has its numerous plus points. But then again, there are certain disadvantages. At IIT, you get used to a certain lifestyle - you are surrounded by your friends 24x7 and your plate is full of things to do. At home, the period of rest which you initially love, starts to bother you with passing time as you try in vain to think of things to do. The unique academic calendar of IIT clashes with that of no other college leaving you without your school friends too. Above all as you turn towards your laptop, you who are used to the superfast IIT internet network end up clutching your hair as you find your videos buffering for hours at home. But in the end, your home is your home, which is probably why a staggering 47.9% of the freshies surveyed confessed to having felt homesick at some point of time during their first year away from home.
Mostly the next day 4.79% At least the same day 23.96% 1-5 Minutes 15.65% Max 2-3 Hours 25.88% Less than an Hour 29.71%
Talking about expectations from sophie year, the ones that topped the list included PoRs and GCs. With hundreds of PoRs in a sea of genres, getting confused is quite common (do read the article on Sophie PoR’s to get a wholesome view of what each PoR entails). Taking a PoR on top of managing acads is quite an uphill struggle (considering the lukkha time spent till now). But surprisingly enough, giving fundae to freshies was the last thing that freshies wanted to do next year (Shouldn’t we return the favour, guys?)
I look most forward to... 26.83%
PoR’s
24.92%
GC’s
16.6%
Bhai, second year mein pukka mugna hai!
8.01%
Giving Fundae to Freshies
23.62%
More Interaction with Seniors
“Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” Truth metre - 9001/5
CONCLUSION
On being asked how quickly seniors reply to the queries
IIT Bombay has everything that you could wish for - a plethora of cultural activities, sporting events, amazing tech teams, cool fests and social service and innovation clubs to keep you on your toes throughout the year. This campus is home to loads of passionate people who would give up anything from baths to meals to work on what they believe in. The best part here is that the cultural and technical fests are ideated, planned, executed and managed entirely by students. Even if you enter the insti not knowing something, you could graduate with a trunkful of awards related to the something about which you didn’t have a clue about a few semesters ago. People who didn’t know the P of Photoshop, could graduate with an amazing job in Design, while someone who hadn’t climbed a rock before college could go on to become a professional mountaineer! At the end of the day people learn to strike a balance between their academic commitments and a happening campus sooner or later. You become independent and are ready to face the world by the time it’s time to say goodbye to the place you called home for the last four or five years.
Why do things in Insti never start on time? Toshi Parmar, Ankit Kumar, Tushar Dhawal, Nikunj Mohota, Vishal Kumar, Mayanka Medhe
Hola amigos! Let’s wind back to the time when freshmen are welcomed in IIT Bombay. Sooner than lightning, freshmen groups are created on Facebook and Whatsapp, where we get pelted with concerned seniors’ calls to attend the most important events of our lives. “The event is starting Junta, come ASAP “ which when translated to insti language means - “No one has come yet. Take 15 minutes more. Begging for attendance, over and out.” While we freshies wonder why on earth events start this late in IIT Bombay, the fact of the matter is that it’s our timepieces that are at fault. Events don’t run late, they run right on IST - “insti standard time”, henceforth referred to in the article as InSTi to detain any remaining sane mind from drifting back to GMT +5:30. There is a dynamic difference between InSTi and IST that is positively correlated with importance of the event. In their initial freshie days, everyone turns up early but then realisation dawns upon us: we the junta are the most important part of the event and we make sure that seniors are continually reminded of the fundamental dynamics of a democracy. As far as anyone can remember, nobody is aware of how and when the punctual IITians picked up this habit of starting events late, but to our chagrin, one gargantuan bad fish has, by popular vote, long since spoiled the whole pond. We dove deeper into the murky and untimely abyss of blames and reasons for the creation of InSTi, by exploring some age old difficulties and listening to rants from the other side of the chasm, the masters behind our shows- the organising teams themselves.
space to breathe, to shout out slogans for no reason and sing along weirdly rhythmed jingles - is it worth any wait? By the time we get over with half the orientations, the idea of always going late to cult events sets in. We become used to our insti’s InSTi and to associate and differentiate events with delays.
Stochastic Calamities - “But I just pushed a button!”
Punctuality is a virtue of the bored, said Evelyn Waugh. Taking it up as a challenge, we as a community have grown insouciant to stochastic delays, the most common of which is the breakdown of essential equipment at the venue. IITB’s ‘state of the art’ sound system and the labyrinth of wires inside it often disappoint. A common sight is the speaker turning up at the venue milliseconds before the designated time to find the mics being obstinately unsupportive and the technician enjoying untimely whims to cosplay a magician and vanishing from sight. Then, there are times when the projector refuses to work properly, or laptops don’t have proper ports; and tech events and GDs, where an audio-visual presentation is of paramount importance, suffer. We spoke to a lecture hall technician, part time magician about this, who said, “We more often than not do the best that is possible from our side. It is the students, and sometimes professors who change the settings sometimes, and that damages the equipment. There is no real monitoring of their usage and hence, breakdowns happen quite frequently.”
Planning and Management - “I’m not from SOM, you know” Even after all the manager posts out there and a SOM, inefficient planning is a root cause for why things start late. Small scale events are the Magikarps in this game, which never get enough importance from the organizers or attendees. Also, there exists a tendency to sort out the venue at the last minute possible, discouraging people from arriving on time as they don’t want to get stranded at the wrong location. Multiple venue bookings or booking errors lead to random changes in venue, very much like cooked up answers for your CH117 viva . For big events, unlike the aforementioned problems, you have the issue of crowd management, which does not just get solved by assigning two people to quiet down hundreds, which is the equivalent of batch processing of unruly, hungry toddlers by two nannies. Such crowds eventually lead to people ditching the event altogether. Another place where poor planning comes to light are the ATMs, much like the planning and managing of their namesakes while demonetisation was underway. However, in All Team Meets, the agenda to be discussed is usually not well thought of and organisers turn up with a “let’s wing it mentality”. With coordinators not turning up on time, and more often than not in a state of chaotic disarray, the fun and enjoyable ATMs don’t turn out to be very actionable, which should be the prime objective of any ATM.
Our dynamic InSTi Buildups and Legacies - Sticking to Our Tum-Tum Timetable - to auto or not to Some genius solutions from organisers abound, like Roots auto, that is the question that of publicising the event with an earlier starting We get introduced to the non punctual behavior of insti folk when we attend orientations for the first, and thankfully the last time, where the initial excitement towards orientations is met with the closed doors of the LT PCSA auditorium. Made to wait outside the doors of PCSA for large parts of an hour, Non-Ghatis experience firsthand how travelling in mumbai local during rush hour feels like. The constant pushing and pulling, the smell of sweat and disgust from people who take it upon themselves to follow another tradition of not showering for days on end. Organizers say that starting such orientations with a little bit of delay leads to increase in excitement as well as contributes to the build up. Sure, wait increases the worth. But one question still persists - going inside the crammed up excuse for an auditorium with hardly any
A common reason why events start late that threads through almost all genres is people turning up late by 10-15 minutes. Hearty coincidence that it is precisely the amount of time it takes to walk from hostels to common venues like lecture halls. It brings to the fore a psychological flaw in many of us. We tend to leave our hostels at the time we are supposed to reach the venue. The fact that IITB’s campus is big (A shout out to Sameer hill and Vihar Lake), and venues are at considerable distances does not help. We don’t have a transport system within the institute with a regulated schedule. Managing to board a tum tum to go where you want to feels like a blessing sent from up above. A proper time coordinated transport system in the institute would help both managers, and attendees of an event.
time.This is similar to Trump’s idea of “wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russia”, it sounds great on the outside but when you take a closer look, in the long term does more harm than good. It discourages the select few who actually come on time and further increases the deviation of InSTi from IST. Since it masquerades as a lucrative short term solution, it is incorporated quite frequently and further fuels the persistent feedback loop of delays. However, all the above rules have a major exception. The scenario of coming late at venue is reversed in case of presence of huge personalities, like say Christopher Nolan. So InSTi, for once, is ahead of time, but the speaker is late; sometimes, like Nolan, too late to ever appear. This is understandable because big events are expected to be crowded and people go early to ensure
they get a place to sit, which shows that if the entire talk is at stake, people do take extra efforts to ensure they are punctual.
Introspection - This side of the looking glass
All through this article we kept pointing fingers and shrugging in the face of feedback loops, but we should not ignore the fact that we, attendees, spawn a sizeable chunk of the problem. We have set our own natural clock to be in sync with InSTi but fail to recognize that its is not absolute and debatably, everything fun in this campus is not meant to start late. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mainly due to our mindset that we never show up on time.
As mentioned earlier, masses teem the entrance for events that are important or exciting, hoping to be seated in the front rows to admire the show or a see a famed personality up close. The matter becomes of utmost importance to us and lethargy takes a back seat. Not a glorified description of humans of IITB, but deplorably accurate. We often force the importance of our presence upon the organizers of the event which leads them with no choice but to start late. Some continual and looped complaints from organisers of our absence causing delays in the starting of events are Sports GCs are constantly met with delays due to the absence of players of both the teams alike. Club meets are delayed as the quorum for them is not usually met.
Events happening in the convocation hall like AIDS and Surbahaar can not start on time because of the lack of attendance of the insti folks at the given starting time. The authors would, at this point, like to mention that despite being satirical to the point of ostentatiously cynical, they all have collectively failed to start any meet for this article on time, or meet any deadline without extended extensions. So continuing the slight hypocrisy and toasting to irony, we would say - dear fellow batch mates, from now on let us just try to never be late for any event, or at a bare minimum, try reaching at least according to InSTi.
THE TEAM
CHIEF EDITORS
Chintan Savla Rishabh Israni
Tanuj Kaza Deep Tavker Abhishek Patil Chinmay Talegaonkar Karan Trichal Suditi Laddha Anmol Gupta Toshi P. Madhav Goel Imaad Ansari Darshan Tank Apurv Tiwari
Siddharth Brahmbhatt Aparajeya Dash Nikhil Kumar Dhruv Singh Pranil Joshi Yamuna Rajarshi Saha PVN Mallikarjun Reddy Harshit Baranwal Saloni Ankit Kumar Hritwij Baghel
Sucheta Pratyush Ragini Singh Soham Dibyachintan Aman Sharma Divyanshu Krishnani Valay Tushar Dhawal Arjav Shah Kireeti Akkunuri Tanmay Garg Pushkar Saraf Sanjeet Sahoo
Vedant Ladha Neharika Jali Nikunj Mohota Santanu Rathod Kumaresh Ramesh Sarthak Mallick Kriti Kamna Varun Sule Dimple Kochar Vishal Kumar Divya Pattisapu Soumil Bhishma
Vedarth Choksi Shreyas Maheshwari Anuj Sethia Mrunmayi Mungekar Mayanka Medhe Kumar Saunack Ishita Das Kushal P Yadav Mohana Madhumita Pokkuluri
ED NOTE Hey there! The last one year must have been a revelation for you- a lot of the good mixing with some of the not- so- good making it a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Hopefully you are a little wiser and excited to face the challenges that lie ahead. This newsletter is an attempt to look back and document some of what you guys experienced, and to help you prepare for the glorious summer vacation and the year that lies ahead. Hope you have as much fun reading it as we had creating it. If there is something you feel should have been covered differently, or if there are issues you think need to be pursued, do reach out to us. We welcome your ideas and would love to discuss them over some coffee. Cheers! Chintan and Rishabh