Is the OP really over?

[OP corresponds to Orientation Programme. It may loosely be equated to what is commonly known as ragging. However, the two aren't the same and subtle differences exist. For a more detailed account, the reader is directed to the blog The Kgp Files by Deep Throat.]

I woke up from sleep today morning feeling really fresh. I had woken up from a marathon 10 hour sleep after staying awake for 40 hours - which included a night out.

The lethargy & tiredness of sleeplessness has been drowned by the excitement of a single news - OP is over.

Yes, it is over. OP is finally over. And with a bang.

Lights, Camera Action.

It is 4 o' clock in the morning. I have been practising for the Bengali Dramatics since 10 o' clock in the night. Suddenly, we are summoned to D-Ground.

Artificial lighting is on. All second year students are sitting in neat queues with their legs crossed on the wet early morning grass (The sun hasn't risen yet). Seniors are standing at strategically selected vantage points.

Q: How many 5th year wings have you covered?
A: None

Thwack! A slap lands plum on the left cheek very close to the ears. The spectacles fly and land a few feet away on the ground. Everything is now hazy.

More arbit questions can be heard.

More arbit answers.

More slaps.

No one is spared.

In the mayhem, the Hall President announces - you OP ends.

Everybody is confused.

Buckets full of water come splashing from the wing above. Reality dawns. Yes, the OP is truly over.

The regular traditional ceremonies take place. The Oath, the Anthem & then the treat.

The spectacles are now back on the nose. But the question still remains.

Is the OP really over?

Ambigram: Azad

This ambigram completes the set of ambigrams for the PAN loop.

For those not in the know, the PAN loop is a group of hostels in IITKgp - both infamous and famous. P stands for Patel Hall of Residence. A for Azad Hall of Residence and N for Nehru Hall of Residence.

How is it? Have any modifications to suggest? Do let me know.

P.S: I got bored with the regular ambigram. So I inverted the colours - nothing special. Just an attempt to do away with boredom.

Other Ambigrams I designed

Jazzonomics, Patel, DPS RKP, Nehru, Mainak

10 Strategies to Survive a Somnolent lecture

STATUTORY WARNING: The ideas being presented below have not been tested in any laboratory. Try them at your own risk.

10. Eat Well

This is somewhat an equivocal statement. How you interpret it depends on the situation.

For instance, it is always advisable to have breakfast in the morning. Here "eat well" translates into "have food".

On the other hand, one of the best known methods to stay awake in the class is - "Avoid heavy food."

9. Sleep Well

Again depends. (Am I being too diplomatic?)

Try doing a "night out" and attend classes. It feels like hell.

Converse is also true.

Try attending a lecture after you had a wonderful dream and you'll know what is heaven and what is hell.

8. Bathe well

Again depends. (What is all this crap? Sounds like a tape recorder on an infinite loop?!)

There are days when I have taken a nice shower and gone to the class all charged up only to find my friend waking me up at the end of the lecture.

7. Exercise Well

I have tried almost everything. But nothing seems to work.

Some time back, I started exercising before going to the class.

I would run one round of the 2.2 km stretch or go to the gymnasium.

Aerobic exercise supposedly gets your blood circulating and keeps you awake.

But that is theory. It didn't 'work out'.

6. Take a deep breath

This is some advice I got from some well wishers.

Deep breathing is supposed to increase the oxygen supply to the brain and keep you alert during an important lecture.

Works! But only for a few days! :(

5. Back Counting

Start from 100 and back count to 1. The best I have gone is to 64.

There are variations you may try out - prime numbers, Fibonacci sequence.

But (as the cliche goes) it simply doesn't work.

4. Talk well

Works! But unfortunately, some professors get really annoyed if you gossip in class.

Moreover, talking is a little counter-productive and the whole point of attending the lecture is lost.

3. Bunk Classes

Counter-intuitive. Why bunk a few good lectures just to stay awake in the somnolent lecture?

Nevertheless, Bunking serves as a welcome break and one can come back to the next class without any reason to feel exhausted.

2. Sketch/Scribble/Anagram/Ambigram/Whatever

The professors can serve as ideal subjects for caricature/sketch/whatever. This has proved to be one of my best strategies to stay awake in class. Just scribble away and stay awake!

1. This is going to be Reader's Choice. You can leave your ideas as comments to this post. The best one gets nominated as the 1. Strategy to Survive a Somnolent Lecture.

Ambigram: Jazzonomics

It has been a while since my last post (A week?!). I have been shifting my hostel room in the last few days. Now, I am a proud Nehruite! :D

And if you haven't had a look at the ambigram of Nehru that I designed, you can check it out here. That reminds me: I haven't posted an ambigram for a long time!

So here is an ambigram that I made - of Jazzonomics - in Roman script. Yeah! I have been trying to design ambigrams in other scripts - without much success though :(

If you observe - ONO is a natural ambigram. That made my task easier! :D

The rest though was tough - I had to wrestle a lot with the letters.

Nevertheless, I am posting the ambigram - since a considerable amount of effort went into it.

How is it? Do let me know.

Other Ambigrams I Designed

Patel, DPS RKP, Mainak

Metro Mishap: Avoidable?

Not an isolated incident

This is what one of my friends at LSR had to say about the mishap at Metro Station

yep rt in front of college!we'v been walkin under that darned thing fer a yr now... the level idioticness in this place never ceases to amaze me!!
no one could care a sweet damn!
its all about dead lines!

I said to myself - Well, this isn't new. Keeps happening at construction sites. Delhi metro has an excellent track record. One shouldn't be blaming Delhi metro for one odd incident.

She goes on to say

dude this happened during the asian games run up as well!!2 flyover collapses!!:P

Again I think - nothing new. 96 people had died during the construction of the Hoover dam at Las Vegas. 5609 people died during the construction of the Panama canal.

DMRC head Sreedharan had resigned from his post and the Delhi government had rejected his resignation.

Looked like the DMRC had played its cards right and all will be well.

Then comes the second blow.

In what appeared to have been a case of negligence, the news channels flash the video of three cranes toppling over unable to take the weight of a beam at the same time.

I reconcile myself again - happens.

The first suicide at Kgp didn't stop the second suicide. One incident of racial abuse in Australia didn't stop more incidents. One tends to repeat things.

Uncertainty Principle

Moreover, scientifically speaking events cannot be predicted with complete accuracy: there is always a degree of uncertainty. If you may like, you may ascribe the randomness to God.

But science has redefined its goals: the aim being to formulate laws that enables them to predict events only up to the limit set by the uncertainty principle.

[This is how Stephen Hawking describes the aims of science in his highly acclaimed book A Briefer History of Time]

Then I wake up next morning.

A third incident has happened at Mumbai - again concerning the Metro. A steel scaffolding had collapsed.

This sets me to thinking - could this be randomness?

Can we ascribe it to the uncertainty principle?

Certainly not.

Moreover, all the three incidents involved Gammon India. Was it merely chance?

Certainly not.

Is Gammon India culpable?

I won't pass a verdict - because I haven't investigated the incidents. Nevertheless, the sequence of events do raise suspicions.

There is enough reason to believe that the circumstances that led to such an incidents demands that the engineers didn't stick to the right procedures.

Can engineering excellence be sacrificed at the cost of meeting deadlines?

Certainly not.

The Delhi Metro which has an excellent track record needs to keep in mind that what they call %errors in experiments can become a question of life and death for some.

Avoidable?

The first mishap may not have been avoidable. The second may not have been avoidable. But three is one too many.

It makes one believe that all three incidents were avoidable.

Traffic Congestion: What is the solution?

Everyday, I am faced with the problem of traffic congestion. We all face the problem 365 days of the year.

It cannot be escaped. It has become a part of us. We have started accepting it.

Believe it or not, it takes me 45 minutes to go to Pattom from my home in Trivandrum - a mere 5 km.

Nevertheless, I am an incorrigible optimist who believes that things will change and for the better. So what is the solution to traffic congestion?

Mass Rapid Transport?

Call it the metro, maglevs or the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit Systems) - they have a huge potential notwithstanding the failure of the first BRT corridor in Delhi.

Mega Cities?

Will we stop travelling? Will our needs be fulfilled in a single mega city. A city which houses not just our homes but also our offices. As the cliche goes, no dream too big. Who knows?!

Flying Cars?

When most people think of flying cars, they think of the Jetsons. Nevertheless, flying cars are in the process of getting perfected and it won't be long before we see commercial flying cars.

With the introduction of flying cars, we will be transporting our domain from the two dimensional to the 3 dimensional - a many fold increase in the traffic space.

I have my reservations though. Will the flying cars aggravate the already existing air traffic problems? Will there be more collisions in the air than on the earth? These are questions that can answered only after the first commercial flying car is available.

Going back to cycles?

Many have argued that cycles are the best means of transportation. The environment is spared, so also are deadly accidents. Not only that, bicycles occupy a fraction of space occupied by cars and buses. This ways they can navigate even the most crowded streets easily.

I doubt whether bicycles will be adopted for long distance travel. But surely when it comes to intra-city travel, bicycles sure have a future.

Bicycle Transit Systems are being developed in which air will be moved through the system in the same direction in which the bicyclist is riding.

If you wish to find out more about the pioneering ideas in the field of Bicycle Transit Systems that have been coming up, you may visit the official site of the Bicycle Transportation Systems, Inc here

What do you think is the solution?

5 Innovative Ways to Celebrate Your Victory

Wimbledon finals are around the corner & the winning party has been coming up with innovative ways to celebrate their victory.

A victory has always been celebrated with firecrackers & sweets. But the new mantra to celebrating a victory is ingenuity. So here are 5 ways to spice up your victory celebration.

Chest Thump

Unfortunately, the Bryan Brothers known lost in the Wimbledon finals to the Nestor/Zimonjic pair this year. Nevertheless, the pair has been known for its signature chest thump.

There you are. This is what I was talking of. This is a subtle variation of the chest thump we do with our fists when we are proud of ourselves. The Bryan Brothers are proud of each other.

Take off your Shirt

This was popularised by Sourav Ganguly aka Dada/Prince of Kolkata when he took off his shirt after India won in the Natwest Series final in 2002.

Tempo Shout

This must be new to non-Kgpians. Below is the video of the Tempo Shout of Nehru Hall. Nehru may be suitably replaced by one's own organisation.

Dance

Jiggle dance, booty dance - call it what you want to. Shanthakumaran Sreesanth is the thrilling face of bold new India. And he has shown all Indians how to celebrate - aggressively. The Huddle

This was a familiar sight during the 2003 edition of the world cup when the Indian Cricket team were runners up. After every wicket, the team would gather in a huddle and (discuss team strategy?) cow down the opposition.

The idea was supposedly touted by the veteran spin bowler of the Indian Cricket team Anil Kumble Sandy Gordon, a psychologist who was working with the Indian Cricket team. All the team members had supported the idea unequivocally.

Another innovative way to celebrate your victory.No matter how you big or how small your victory. A victory is always sweet.

So why not celebrate it with pomp and show?

How do you celebrate?

P.S. I have updated the post. The huddle it seems wasn't Anil Kumble's idea but Sandy Gordon's. Nevertheless, huddles have existed for some time. The reader who is more interested about it may read the wikipedia article on huddles.