Et Cetera Inside this issue:
Let’s Do it again!
1
Wheels Within Wheels
2
The Spring of 2013
3
First Year Blues
5
Think Before You Quote
6
Volume I, Issue IV 28th May, 2013
Thank God, you did not brace yourselves for the April issue because it never came. So here is our April-May issue for you. The month April, as a whole in itself, had a lot of issues – farewell parties, end semesters, more farewell parties, inauguration of Jo’s, etcetera et cetera. With the vacations setting in, we thought we could manage to put our lazy a**es to work and here we are again!! We being a sentimental club and with the backbones of our club leaving the institute, we needed some time to make a comeback, which apparently took a month, but we re-surfaced. Now we people have really big shoes to fill in ( size 9). Okay no more chatofying, lets get to it. Enjoy! 21st century Mantra Deleting history is more important than making it!
LET’S DO IT AGAIN!!!
-KICK
I am done with school, junior college and graduation. I have been a student for the past 18 years. I have made friends and together we have been mischievous. I have also taken exams, excelled some and even failed a few. But, tomorrow, I am taking up a job to be a salaried man with a work routine and an obligation, or responsibility, if that sounds any more positive. A while back, I was very happy to know somebody thought I am good enough to work for them. But now, I am not sure if life‟s getting better. The hard-hitting realization is I am not a student anymore. The idea of working as an employee, where everyone is bound to work anyway, is scary. Dull, poker faces revolve around me. Suddenly, I look back and I see those 18 years. No, they are not coming back. I feel saddened and pity myself in my future. I recall memories of my studentship days. And just as I sigh, wishing how I could relive them, I realize something that makes me jump out of my chair. I can actually add to those 18 years!
just a
should
Most call them by fancy names such as higher studies, postgraduation, master‟s etc. I say, I want to be a student again. When, couple of years later, I know I have burnt out and don‟t have it in me anymore to continue typing hysteri cally or supervise which robot be engaged on the shop floor,
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Volume I, Issue IV
I will once again be a student. I shall not wait until I have just the work-ex required. I will be ready when the craving can‟t be suppressed anymore. I will break free just when the chains tighten beyond bearing. And once that happens, I shall once again walk a campus, greet teachers, hate exams, love parties, and, most importantly, be amongst friends who are students. That day, I shall do this again!
Wheels WithinWheels
-EL
Had someone asked me about how I feel about the days, as the week proceeds..it would go like I hate Mondays, Tuesdays are annoying, Wednesdays bring me a smile, Thursdays are nothing but unwanted, love Fridays, Saturdays are the best and Damn Sundays!! One day before the Friday night, Thursday feels like the second most hideous day, after Monday (Monday is the worst thing that could happen, no competition here). In this college life, when we have got Wednesday as almost-a-holiday, Thursday brings the chills of yet-another-Monday, at least to me. But the hope of the weekend dawning in keeps most of us going. Already tired from the two-most heavily scheduled days of the week, Wednesday being a half day, if it might be said metaphorically (& I know the comparison may be a bit exaggerated ), is like the first few drops of rain on dry earth. But instead of raining heavy and cooling the atmosphere, it stops then and there, leaving the atmosphere even more humid and uncomfortable. Everyone knows how irritating it is. Wednesday nights are so not awaited (exactly like Sunday’s?). Somehow Thursday has become a pseudo-Monday for me and the feeling transforms into Thursdaymorning blues. I can’t wait for this day to get over as soon as it starts. Why only consider the student life? Had I been a working woman, I’d have cringed from Thursdays the same way, only more. After working for two hectic days and a Wednesday, who wants one more of those long, tiring days? Do u? Do u? I don’t! Why do we even need a Thursday? Work on Mondays and Tuesdays, a half day on Wednesday, again work on Friday and here’s the weekend; seems so legit. If I were granted a genie, I’d certainly have asked for the perfect weeks. Without a Thursday of course! As if these were not enough reasons to hate Thursdays already, we students mostly get our results on this day of the week. Ha! Dear Thursday, I wish ignorance was my point of view! You just brought bad luck with you. And trust me, it’s not you; it’s me realizing that you are terrible for me. I would really have preferred not crossing paths with you ever, had it been under my control. But every coin has two sides. Thursday sure must be having its own importance my mind doesn’t want to see. Everything happens for a reason! This might be having its own. Some people might argue and see it from a religious point of view because Thursdays are really important in
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Hindu mythology, termed as “Guru”war; i.e the day dedicated to worshipping the teachers. But not being that big a theist, I strongly believe Worship whenever you want to. We don’t need a specific day for each thing or being, we want to show our respect to! So this hardly matters. We don’t need an extra day for that in our schedule. I might be seeing the darker side but it sure is comforting whenever I fancy Thursdays never existed. And with this, we conclude we can complain almost about anything, if asked to.
#aproudengineer/lazyass/dilbert_ismyhero
The Spring of 2013 The Mayans were wrong. That‟s right, „Screw the Mayans!‟ (We don‟t have exchange programs with them do we?). This was pretty much the gung-ho vibe that permeated the collective college spirit as we reconvened back on its ha(o) llowed grounds in Jan. It was the Spring semester, and the whole student populace, armed with a fresh lease of life, looked forward for a break from the last 6 months of ennui. And it was not disappointed. Picture this; you miss New Year‟s with your family, travel hundreds of kilometers in the butt-numbing chill in and around Rourkela, with the thought that classes are going to kick in the moment you step inside the campus. But hey, you are back in your dear insti right? There are fests coming up, and you have in your head half-baked ideas, and plans. You can hardly wait to get to SAC and “Start getting shit done!” You trot in, the mist clears and suddenly you are like Gandalf inside the Balrog‟s cave. Because while you were cooling your heels over winter (yeah!), SAC had been transfigured into something out of a Govt.-issued primary level Social Sciences book. Now, we don‟t know what the perfect antonym of “tripping out of their heads” is, but if there was a word or phrase for that, well that is exactly how the painters‟ state of mind must have been. We got school kids with their notebooks, or slates, open and film reel wrapped around what must be the face of a test-tube baby if it grew up to be an adult, while still in the test tube. There is a rocket proudly bearing the word “Rkl” as it blasts off or blows up, (we can‟t tell) and a cartoonish depiction of a truck bearing the „Agni III‟ missile, which, in a single stroke, takes away the whole concept of Credible Deterrence from the nation. And all this while silhouettes of what must be a 70‟s Jazz band, judging from their instruments and bell-bottoms, cast a watchful eye on the proceedings. The stairs of our favorite gallery were painted to imitate the sincere efforts of the Municipal Corporations of CTC and BBSR in adorning their footpaths. So they did get something right. The moves for misguided beautification did not stop at SAC. For a brief period of time the walkway to the AV Hall resembled nothing less than a temple in ancient Pataliputra made by artisans steeped in the Gandhara Art School of Sculpting (or GASS), if ancient Pataliputrians liked Plaster of Paris, and had a sick sense of humor. Folding their hands and balancing large pots on their heads, these 8-feet tall amazons seemed to be staring any entrant down rather
Sgt. Pepper than welcoming him. And of course flanking them were 1-foot tall elephants. Because f**k you! That‟s why! With the slow placement season, the good people over at Leo probably decided that the Armed Forces seemed like a lucrative option. We surmise this because for one fateful day, the social club transformed into a boot camp for its members. With the frigid winter at its peak, when a person‟s biggest turmoil is deciding whether to go to the toilet in the morning, or to hold it, these brave lion-hearts suited up at the crack of dawn, and raced to the top of the hill behind the campus. Trekking they called it, although most of them, yours truly included, had to be half-carried, half-dragged to the “summit”. This followed their jaunt to the top of Vaishnodevi in the previous semester and was itself followed by an arduous climb (or so it felt like) to the falls of Khandadhar a few days later. We admire their well thought-out strategy of increasing the difficulty level in steps,
B
and wish them all the best for the cliff-faces of Kargil and the is nothing but a collection of “special spots”, and our college Dras sector. has more Mataharis than they do Casanovas. Also some of the posts had people making it a point to be well-dressed inside We are not an insti where online forums, or memes, or pages their hostels and locking their doors while sleeping in their get too much virality, unless propagated and patronized by our rooms. Not to be outdone, another group of students opened a very own Timon and Pumba (if the Lion King was about stalkpage named NITR Proposals where one could anonymously ing and perversion). So one can imagine the sheer anecdotal “propose” to a certain individual. Now, what purpose this nature of the period during the mid-semester examinations served to the „Proposee‟ is beyond us, but the „Proposed‟ did when the whole campus was gripped by the NITR Confessions have a whale of a time, from getting „tagged‟ to coyly replying fever. Imported, as is everything of worth, from the IIT‟s, who „Thanks‟ on the post. While most people started maintaining a in turn had got it from some university in the US of A, this count, the truly sorry figures proposed to themselves. The at“fad” had everybody logged into their fb pages 24/7 hitting tention-seeking stalking tribe did jump on the bandwagon a „refresh‟ every other minute. People started speaking out; little late, starting new pages in addition to their favored NITR their confessions, some true, mostly lies, many delusional, or Trolls, but the midsems had ended by then and people had borderline schizophrenic. If all the posts were to be believed, moved on. as most of us wanted to, then it would seem the whole campus The sins and embarrassment of NU were washed away with this year‟s edition of the ISM. Although this time there were much fewer „International‟ (or Subcontinental) contingents, it did boast of a massive insti-sanctioned budget, and a huge plethora of events. Truckloads of cash were given away to the judges and as prizes for students coming from outside, while NITR finally had a Celebrity Night with a real „celebrity‟ in it. With KK crooning his most popular songs against a backdrop of flying lanterns and fireworks, there could not have been a better send-off to the passing out batch. Except that maybe they could have given us cash prizes too, instead of suitcases and flasks.
When You See it….
In a calamitous move for a huge part of the NITR junta, it seems the chief herbologist at the backpost has ceased and desisted from supplying any more of his wares. This followed repeated crackdowns on him by the guardians of law and order on both sides of the Wall and rumors abounding of the admin finally making a move on the sealing of the backpost. However if the intention had been to lessen the usage of the greenery, it has not been served, and the population has
been unfazed with trips to the <censored> and <censored> hav- ter having successfully persuaded some (mostly first year) ing dramatically increased. It seems the college is and will re- „Citizens‟ to pursue some „Journalism‟ who in turn dutifully conmain 8 miles high. formed to the overall theme and cribbed about everything from sweatshirts to whatitsname, finally did something truly inspired. Rotaract Club organized a Drug Awareness thingy for It ran an April Fools prank on the entire insti with its absolutely school students. That‟s pretty much as hilarious as it gets. original and epiphanical idea of publishing, on its front page, On the 1st of April the old postulate was finally proven, that the administration had decided to make Odia classes comthat which said, if you kept making one unsuccessful attempt pulsory for every student. Owning up to the „prank‟ the next after another, there will come a time when you‟ll do something day, they smirked and self-fived while trying to ignore the sheer passably cool, and draw a few grins from some faces while you number of eyeballs that rolled upwards simultaneously at the jump around yelling “Get it? Get it?” Our esteemed weekly, af- credibility hara-kiri.
BRAWL ALERT
Undoubtedly the biggest brawl of this semester was the one where <censored> <censored> <censored> <censored> and when <censored><censored><censored> <censored> <censored> and then the matter took different turn when <censored><censored><censored><censored> .Of course, they<censored> <censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored>< censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored>and then despite all that had happened, <censored><censored><censored><censored><censored> <censored> <censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored><censored>< censThings could go really bad, and in fact, they did too, when <censored><censored><censored> <censored> <censored<censored><censored><censored><censored><censored>and that was all.
Cedronix Ragging, once feared due to the physical abuse, has now come down to mere verbal abuses, writing assignments, running their errands etc. So, as it is clearly visible, happy go lucky guys like me, have nothing much to fear about the present day scenario of ragging. (Let it be out of earshot of my seniors, for obvious reasons *smug*). This was my first year at NIT-RKL, and I had the taste of ragging. It's not as bitter as we hear about it, nor is it a cake-walk. Proper attitude, diplomatic talk, and a little creativity or touch of brilliance (as you call it), can get you out of horrible situations, believe me! My first sem, went by smoothly without much of a fuss. Many people knew who I was, so I can daresay, many of my seniors recognized me. There were these ragging sessions (politely, it’s called interaction, but it’s an open secret, right?). But be it any case, we (or most of us) were back in our hostel by 10 in the night. We were called upon, for various reasons, like completing their assignments, doing their errands, or even provide them a little entertainment. (now-now, please don’t let your brains run too much, it’s not what it seems like..;) ). We, juniors had tremendous fun! They say, ragging brings unity within the batch. Absolutely true! Two strangers become friends for life bitching about the same person (be it boys or girls), and we had a whole batch of our seniors, for whom abuses (with all due respect!!), flow out as easily as current flows in a super-conductor. As we all know, the best place to get together and talk all kinds of stuff is ‘the Mess’. You run into an unexpected person and then share your thoughts. (it’s fun!!) It was the same story till November end (1st sem). When we came back in January, we were all in for a surprise, ‘The Common Mess’ joining hall 2 and hall 3. Oh God! I can never forget the looks on our faces. There was a huge sale in the market, where seniors could pick up juniors the liked and take them home for the night. The only light, which we saw in the dark tun-
First Year Blues nel, was that we were accustomed to most of the seniors by then. So it was like going to a friend’s room, where the degree of freedom was restricted. I have a cruel look on my face, when I think about my juniors, who would have to use the common mess from day one. (*devilish laugh!!*) There were times when we were caught by seniors abusing them. The penalty being, a night filled with assignments which did not fetch me (personally) any marks and a whole lot of abuses which definitely takes the credits of improving my dictionary of abuses. (*wink*). Once there was this instance, where I was asked to do an errand by a senior, in the morning. I lied to him, that I was busy working for a club. He ran into me again that evening, when I was having coffee with a friend (whom he mistook for my girlfriend). I told him that both my friend and I were just about to go out to get the work done for the club. During dinner, I was sitting in the common mess, talking to a guy friend, narrating to him what happened to me, and abusing the senior. I just had a strange feeling, and as I turned back, I was face to face with the very same senior. He gave out a cruel laugh, and asked both of us to follow him to his room. I was holding back my laughter all the way. In the room he says, “I’ve never seen any person using a club so much to their advantage, that they escape errands and also make girlfriends”. I just burst out laughing, and then everyone in the room was laughing. (glad, everyone felt it was funny, else I would have been in so much trouble!!). Ofcourse, the fun moment was followed by 3 assignments and 2 practical records (Oh-God !!). He still recollects the look on my face and has a hearty laugh, and I laugh amused at how big an ass he is. There were instances when we got into fights with the seniors during mess hours, and later sat beside the very same people and abused the mess incharge for serving us burnt roti’s. When the food was not good, we used to convince some-or-theother senior to treat us. It was all very fun, memorable moments
to be precise. This is my side of the story, where with my sweet tongue, I made enough friends among my seniors (it’s very important, you see!!). There might be another person who might come up and tell you the idea of common mess was absolute nonsense. (Maybe!). But you can’t really run away from everything you disapprove, can you? At the end of the day, belief in a few great minds is very important, to lighten your mental stress. The idea of common mess, approved by many such great minds including our beloved director, is an idea, with its pros and cons. Take the positive of it, and have fun abusing your seniors (the best part), and take ‘ragging’ light-heartedly, for it is only your seniors who can help you in academics and most importantly it is from them that you learn survival, during your early days in the institute. I conclude by saying, “Live light-heartedly and abuse your seniors whole-heartedly!!”
Think Before you Quote KISHA
If you quote it, then think about this The quotation boards adorning our institute roads have always served more purpose than just reminding us the golden words of the great ones. They are painted every year as a part of the Director’s effort to inculcate good morale in us- the 0.1% creamy layer of the country. They are meant to inspire us, encourage us to lead the right path in our lives. They are meant to be understood and applied to our lifestyles. Well, ironically, I happen to read them in the most traumatic situations and I often get demoralized or they show me a complete different direction which screws up my life even Horoscope for the month - GEMINI more. In the coming few lines, you get to completely underPandit Pinebeard stand my situation, assess it and The months of May and June are ruled by the Twin Sunsign comply with my conclusions. Gemini and it is depicted mathematically by the renowned symbol Pi in greek mythology. It is not a complete co-incidence that majority of the NITRians stay back to give their summer papers in mathe-matics. This vicious constellation governs all those borderline atheists of mathematics to screw up their exam and stay back at Rourkela to face the wrath of the ensuing summer. Gazing deep into the crystal ball, I can see that financially the fate of all these peo-ple is pretty bleak, offcourse it is, who would pay 77 bucks every day to eat something which even the dogs refuse to accept remotely anything close to edible food. On a personal front all the Gemini and affected pour souls would face many problems as it is very diffi-cult to make out in the sultry humidity of this summer which your prospective partner would consider as incompetence or impotence on your part, leading to a strained relationship which will irritate you more than the summer heat. As a remedy, to overcome these perils, pandit pinebeard advices you to run around a tree at a speed of 87mph as suggested by Einstein <IYKWIM> for that might be better than facing all these troubles and don worry at that speed, clothes would automatically be writhed off your body.
Great minds discuss ideas Average minds discuss events, Small minds discuss people.” These were the lines of Eleanor Roosevelt. When my friend read these lines, he was quick to comment, “All this while we’ve been discussing people, let’s discuss ideas!” I was quicker to reply, “Yeah, discussing your idea of discussing ideas in the process of being called a great mind, just because a person said so, is more like discussing the person’s idea of a great mind. By implication, we are discussing that person. On that point sir, it’s a tautology. It comes back to the same point of discussing people .” My dumb struck friend just managed to say, “Tu CLARION mein hai na?” Some other day when I was enjoying the nimbu pani of JAM, my DS result came down on me like a thunderbolt. As expected my mid-sem marks were unbelievably low. With a
heavy heart, I started walking back to hostel. On my way I came across this quote:
“It is during the darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” I focused a lot but not even a single ray of light materialized. It was the darkest moment of my life, the next day would be my tryst with my corrected DS paper. And how could there be any hope left when your paper gets corrected by the most terrorizing professor of the CS department (Hope, you got it by now, else “YOU-STOP!”) . The next day I was all set to argue for the marks I deserve, I came across this quote:
“It’s easy to defeat someone, but it is very difficult to win someone”-Dr. Abdul Kalam. But Kalam sir, you didn’t meet our DS professors, did you? It’s highly impossible to defeat them. And winning over them? Can a criminal ever win over the hearts of the SC judge when all the witnesses are against him? It’s the same case here; all the answers in the answer sheet neither let us defeat them, nor win over them. So my quote:”
It’s equally difficult to defeat or win over someone. It just depends on the situation you are in.” Well, the damage was already done. The mark I secured in my mid-sem has made it quite predictable that I failed. Then I came across the epic quote:
“I have not failed, I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”-Thomas Alva Edison It was like rubbing salt on my wound. Mr.Edison, I failed, failed miserably and I’m not lucky enough to have 10,000 chances to pass my paper like you had! On the bottom line, great people did have a lot of things to say to the coming generations, to inspire them and encourage them. But, they missed out a small point that when they are targeting at our generation, they must keep in mind that our lifestyles are completely different from theirs, and their ideas may or may not be interpreted in the intended way. It’s easy to say things for others, but when you are in a place like NIT-RKL, you have to interpret them in a complete different way.
Whoever said that quote about idle minds being the Devil‟s workshop must have been a sucker. For one, dear Lucifer can probably manage better digs for himself, and two, a free-thinking free-moving society needs minds at rest; to create, to imagine, to ideate. Keep busy with work all the time and you become nothing more than drones or, as we like to call them here, GMAT‟s. Assail your idle unhindered cerebrum with enough mind-expanding substances; that‟s how genius is born. Clarion and now Et Cetera are both testaments to the power of inactivity, of leisurely discussions, of dreams formulated into half-baked ideas, of strong convictions shared by a group of distinct individuals who translated those dreams into realities. I would be reminding you of the obvious if I wrote about how Clarion is now one of the premier and most-sought after clubs in the college, its PD rapidly gaining a place in the national scene, its presence felt everywhere on the campus and its members recognized as such. I will instead take this space to thank you, in no sarcastic terms, for making Et Cetera such a runaway success. We had hoped Et Cetera would be the instrument that would bring Clarion into every hostel-room, involve every student, and the overwhelming response that has been seen shows us that we have been successful in that endeavor. As the founding batch of Clarion passes out this semester, we look back at pride at how far the club has come, about how far we have left to go, and particularly at the very able hands and minds that we entrust this all to. So keep reading Et Cetera for your monthly fix of wit and wry humor and bear witness to our solemn oath that „Everything that should be made fun of, will be made fun of‟. This is Sgt. Pepper, signing off. This is a publication borne out of pure ennui and is uninspired in every sense of the term. Any resemblance to any time of the week or to mathematical impossibilities is unintentional. Nevertheless we would love to hear from you. If you have any article you want to see published, or a bone to pick, mail us at etcetera.clarion@gmail.com (or ping us on fb, whatever!) This content is the exclusive property of CLARION, and its members. Any infringement will lead to extended fb -wars, name-calling, and bathroom pranks.