More promises, more engineers… = more standard?

Quite encouraging a promise it was when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his speech to the nation on 15th August 2007 mentioned about 8 new IITs and 7 new IIMs. It’s a major rollout for higher education sector which caters to the global needs for engineers and managers. This promise if made a reality would bring out even more engineers in India every year, than the number that we see in today’s statistics which is more than 350,000 graduates per year. In a developing nation, which has just entered its 7th decade of democracy, the relevancy of creating more and more technical education centers is quite debatable. When India needs more boost to primary education, to create a stronger foundation, this debate has more points to discuss.

IITs are always known to the world as the de facto of Indian engineering education. It was once a dream for many of us to get there to do our engineering graduation. I’m certainly unaware of how they’re taught in IITs, but as a victim of the JEE I’m pretty sure that those who get in there really needs to have something in their head! So quite naturally all those rare species that pass out from various IITs are looked upon with utmost surprise and reverence by people like me. But lately I realize that this “rare species” are ultimately going to be not-so-rare in the country (if the mentioned proposal of the Planning commission becomes a truth!).

It’s a noble idea to give standard education to the masses when they’re qualified to do their graduation in engineering. But how sure can be this Planning commission about the standard that is expected to be maintained in the future IITs? Not even a week has passed since this proposal was made public; the chief minister of a “very influencing” state in India has written to the PM demanding the allocation of 3 such premier institutions in his state! check out

For any average Indian tracing Indian politics for the past 5 years can be pretty sure that this boon is going to be granted. If politics could influence such areas of higher education, how can we be sure about the standards?

There is another article which many of you would have read by this time. It was published in Education Plus supplement to The Hindu dated 14th August, 2007. check out

It clearly analyses the falls that CUSAT had to bear with, due to the increasing number of engineering colleges under the university. Now, since the final year results of Kerala University (2003-‘07 batch) is expected to be published soon, I don’t know if the newspaper will have to republish the article with proper changes in names!

The government has always played games with higher education sectors with different cards at different times- the reservation cards got lost unexpectedly this year. Since the market is demanding more grads with the engineering feather on their heads, it’s a natural and welcomed move by the government to set up more premier institutions across the country. We can just hope that we have brighter grads coming out to build a better nation…!

OUR COLLEGE WEBSITE .. A DISGRACE!

HOME PAGE :
Lets start off with the Home page... The first thing that hit you as soon as the page loads is how utterly bland the site is. With just two colours (namely blue and black... yea..very colourful and bright!! ), the initial reaction to the site is ... CRAP!!. And what is it with the "Advances In Material Technology" link on the home page right next to the wonderfully obviously fake pic of a non existent college building? And on top of that not only is that link slap bang in the home page where it should never have been, but IT DOESN'T WORK!! IF IT DOESN'T WORK WHY ON EARTH IS IT THERE?????

Now assuming that the visitor hasn't gone to another site as a result of boredom, and is curious to know how badly a site can be made.... lets see the other pages.

CONTACT ADDRESS:
The second page is an ever so important separate page for "Contact Address".The amazing picture of our hypothetical college building sweeps to the right side of the page (As a result of someone not taking enough time to make a good site) and the blandness continues.)

PRINCIPAL:
Next you click on the link that says "Principal" so that you can know who is in charge and can be held accountable for the site... and what do you get ???

Not Found

The requested URL /ec-ravindranath1.html was not found on this server.

Yea ... thats our principal! NOT FOUND!!
Cmon ... he's the head of the institution!! If the college site cant even get a decent pic of profile of him up, then what's the point in having the site?

AFFILIATED UNIVERSITY
Next is the Affiliated University link ...and another page is wasted just givin the address of the Kerala University.

GOVERNANCE
The GOVERNANCE link .. .the first decent page I found on the site. It serves its purpose sufficiently and effectively. And the background keeps with the central theme of amazing blandness.

PROGRAMMES
Ahh .. here comes the important stuff ... a student seeking admissions will be looking into this with great interest.. and this is the chance for the college to project its best and show its strength where it matters...
So you click "Programs" (It should have been programmes but hey ...who cares right?) and there in all its glory is

"List of Programs acredited by AICTE

Nil "

Apparently we are proud of that fact that we need to advertise it all over our web page...
The cut off rank is probably one of the few good ideas that the site designer came up with. Why on earth is there a "fee" link in here if there is a separate page dedicated to that????
And probably one of the most, if not THE most important section PLACEMENTS is pushed into a nice corner within the Programmes section whereas other VERY IMPORTANT (Please note extreme levels of sarcasm) things such as "AFFILIATED UNIVERSITY" and "GOVERNANCE" and CONTACT ADDRESS are given separate pages.

And not leaving the topic of placements, please people!! This is where we need to project our college positively. Say exactly which all companies came, say how many they recruited. Show them a graph of a growin placement record.Not a drab page.

FACULTY:
Ok.So hmmm ... this section is done pretty decently.. again background sucks.And maybe we can avoid having a separate section for "Faculty - student Ratio" for one single statement by just having that statement in the opening page of that section.

FEE:
Now we dont really need this link do we? Because we've already covered this under another section!!!!!!!

APPLICATION FORM, ADMISSION,ADMISSION PROCEDURE,ADMISSION CRITERIA:
Cmon now people ... do we need four separate pages for this? It doesnt really take a rocket scientist to figure out that it would be much more simple and convenient to have it all under one page called "ADMISSIONS" because each of the above mentioned sections consists of only one sentence anyways.

LIST OF CANDIDATES:
No real reason to have such a section but what the hell ... if you're havin it, make it properly. Apparently from the site, only the IT branch has 4 years worth of students studyin in it and EC and MECH were started only this year because only the 1st year students(now in 2nd yr) of these two branches are mentioned.

INFRASTRUCTURE: (well here comes our college's strength!!)
1)library:
An acceptable job.
2)laboratories
Apparently the area is the most important part of a lab and and according to the site, the electrical lab and mechanical workshops have either infinite area or zero area ... if someone could please tell me what "...." under "area" indicates....
And instead of having all the details of the labs under this single link, we have seperate links for computing facilities,EC labs, IT labs, ME labs
3)"other facilities"
Let it speak for itself

Games and Sports Facilities

A Physical Education Department, headed by Dr. Monikantan Nair, HCPEd, BPE, MPEd, M Phil, PGDSM, PhD (permanent staff member), is functioning in this college. The Department has adequate facilities for its smooth functioning. Students can also utilize the facilities of the Department of Physical Education, University of Kerala and their stadium which is only half a kilometer from our Campus. Arrangements have been made to practice athletics, football, volleyball and weight training items there. Students can also practice basket ball and handball have at the Central stadium and ball badminton, shuttle badminton and table tennis at Jimmy George stadium, which are also only half a kilometer away from the campus. Mean time, the construction of 2 badminton courts is progressing on our campus. The department also plans to construct a volley ball court and a basket ball court on our campus shortly.

Yes ...we now play in the badminton courts everyday ... QUOTE" The department also plans to construct a volley ball court and a basket ball court on our campus shortly."

For normal people this is what "Shortly" means in GEC ... Shortly - definition: NEVER!!

Example sentence: When we joined this college in 2003, we were told that we would be getting a second bus "shortly".Its been four years. No bus.

And under "CENTRAL EXAMINATION FACILITY" we have ...

Central Examination Facility

The existing class rooms are utilized.

That sure as hell needed a seperate page ... dont you think so???

and finally

ACADEMIC:

Yes... this page has some useful information i do admit. and apparently from this site, one can come to the conclusion that an engineering student has only odd semesters.Because the site gives the timetables of the odd sems. Oops my mistake ... its just that the people who are in charge of running the site are soooooo busy with their own lives to update the site once in a year atleast!!!!

S7 was over months back!!! WAKE UP!!!

FINAL VERDICT : in one word ... our college website SUCKS!

PS: If anyone is planning on commenting some thing along the lines of "If you have such an issue with the college website, why don't you make one instead of complaining.Its easy to sit and blog about it. Only we who actually made it know how hard it is to do it ... sniff sniff boo hoo waah waah" then don't. Because you have no right to.People who were really interested in making a good site approaced the IT HOD with plans for a revamped site and the reply he got from the "respected" HOD "it's a thng tht's bein managed by the IT dept and that the students needn't bother about it! They are keeping it at it's best."
I apologise in advance for what im about to say next but I have to ...KEEPING IT AT ITS BEST MY @$!!!!
If you don't know how to make a good site, let people who do know how to do it do it.The designers and the people who do not allow for change as a result of their stupid ego should be ashamed of their job. Look at www.cet.ac.in. Check that out and see the difference. We have students who know how to use Flash and software that could help in makin it a better site. But can they help?? NO!!! His Highness cannot let the mere mortals that dwell on earth lay their hands on his glorious and mighty web page!

Personality Contests....

Hello Dear Friends,
Do you think that the personality contests that we had seen at Convergence and the Arts Fest were run the way it was required to be run? And the questions were proper? And do you really think that to be a great personality one should always respond to all the rubbish showered at you by someone who in doing so reflects the flaws in his/her personality?
For a moment I thought 'You were worshipping false gods'.
May be I'm wrong......
But if I were a contestant I'd never have strayed from the principles & values that I hold near to my heart to impress some one on his terms & win the contest.
May be I'm too old fashioned & conservative......
But I think & I think aloud, that this is not the way.

Is Orkut Blocked In GeC ? ? ?

Seems like orkut Is being blocked from the servers in our college.It is not acessible from Library or Cadd LAb (I am not sure abt the position in IT and EC labs).It is not acessible even from Anonymous Proxies(like atunnel)..

Orkut is Being blocked in our college by Internet Protocol filters.Initialy it was easy to bypass the filter with Annonimous proxies (Everyone used kproxy to get into orkut and this led to the blacklisiting of kproxy on server) believe me, it is quite easy to see who is trying to use proxies and whatnot.

I had Created Localproxy servers ( http://orkut.fun.to and http://orkut.sail.to ) it worked in CADD lab but failed in library ( Friends from EC and IT are requested to check these sites from their labs).

Since Google is Still acessible from college, I have made an attempt to use a google service to bypass the filter..just go to http://orkut.up.to [At-times acess may be denied/uncertain as this domain is stil under test]

I would like to put forward some methods for bypassing Orkut access restrictions. I have shortlisted them below:

1. Use IP address - This is the simplest way to bypass domain name based access restrictions. Instead of the domain name such as www.orkut.com use the direct IP address.

IP address of Orkut is 72.14.209.87

2. Use Google cache - To use this method ,Do a Google search for orkut.com and then click on the cached link below the search results.Using Google cache is one of the best methods to bypass filters (but sadly it works only rarely in GeC).

3.. Your own proxy server - This is an advanced technique and is probably the best. This requires your own proxy server hosted either at your home or at a hosting service provider. You can enable SSL encryption and prevent any snooping on the content as well. Also put some access control, otherwise someone can find the service and misuse it (Trust me, there are many who are looking for such an opportunity!).

click to privoxy.org to know more

4.Use Tor- Tor is a free downloadable software which can help in bypassing network surveillance with built-in anonymity options. Tor can be downloaded from http://tor.eff.org/

[plz note: I am not sure about the compatibility of this software with linux]

5.Using Decimal IP address- Filters can be mislead by using decimal IP address. The decimal ip address of orkut is http://1208930647

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still better ideas/methods are allways welcome..

The Documentation on Worldwide Internet Filtering can be read at--> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/

***

Well then.. Njoy Orkutting !!!

luv,

..: n E o :..

The experience that was Ragam 07

Many would know Ragam as the cultural festival of NIT Calicut, some would know about it as the biggest fest in Kerala, others will know it as the place where big names perform in the pro show. But to know what it really is one must go there and feel what it is. It's all about Feeling the excitement rather than getting to know it from people who went for it. Fortunately a small group of students from GECB wanted 1st hand knowledge about all the hype surrounding Ragam. I was fortunate to be the team captain and i found it to be among the best days of my life. Special mention should be made that we went with ZERO preparation for the program and still had a respectable position at the end of 3 hectic days of competitions.

There were just 17 of us. 4 gals, one parent and 12 guys. We started on 14th evening. When we reached the station to board the Kannur express to Calicut, we were shocked to see the large number of students from CET and MBT. When i asked around i got the info that there are more than 200 students from MBT and about 150 from CET. When they asked me all i could say was a handful 17. The trip started off on a good note when we had not many problems in getting our seats close to each other. Since we had booked the tickets just 2 days before the journey the seats weren't close and we had to coax people to shift atleast so that the ladies would be close to each other. We reached Calicut station at 6:10 in the morning and we reached the campus by 7:30 thanks to the fast buses and the taxi that the ladies took.

We registered and the guys were huddled into 1 room in the Men's hostel and from what i heard the ladies had a better stay with just 4 in a room. We guys had a room right next to the bathroom and we thought it will be reeking with bad smell. BUT the best thing about the NITC Campus was the food and the toilets. The food was available round the clock and i mean 24/7 courtesy the mini canteen near the hostel and even though the canteen had not much space the menu was filled with all kinda mouth watering delicacies. We enjoyed eating under the shade of trees around the campus and making friends with people who may never be seen again.

After freshening up we came to the Main Building and the road leading to the main building was bustling with people in all colours, shapes and sizes.

Rajpath-The main road to the campus

Main Building-All lit up for Ragam

After this we went to the prelims of a few events and DAY one ended on a high note for us when we heard that Ananthalakshmy had won the 1st prize in Light music. After this we went and saw the dance in the OAT and stayed there till 2 AM and when we reached the canteen, it was still open and serving hot plates of noodles and omelettes. We had a sumptuous meal and came back to the room by 230 AM and found some sleep.

Sleep-We hardly had any time for it!

The 2nd day started off with the odd events. Items like Vegetable Carving, Clay Modelling and all were slotted for this day. Some of us participated in these and won prizes in this too. Me and Madhuri got into the finals of the senate debate competition. It was a good experience but we didn't win any prize. We had to represent a nation regarding a issue about Arms trade in a UN conference. Due to time constrains they cut short the event and it was pretty bad since we spent all afternoon preparing for this even without having lunch. In addition we had the prelims of some other events too. In short day 2 was pretty hectic.

Prize winners with their creation(Arun Mathew, Aneesh and Razim)

Sadly no prizes for this

At the end of the 2nd day the Shaan Concert was to be held and we didn't think of it as a good way to spend 200 buks. Even otherwise we had lot to SEE and admire in the campus. So we preffered to stay outside the OAT and just loitered around the campus. We found the various departments, the labs, the beautiful PEOPLE roaming around hand in hand. On the 2nd day night we had a conference in the MH and were enlightened on the various actions that a man will undergo after marriage by none other than our Jyothiraj. His beliefs made us laugh like hell and even surprised us at times. By the way he was the one who thought that Ragam had Tech events and had come preparing for that. When he reached here, he found that the only thing closest to a tech event was the rock show and he took a ticket for it and got in on the 3rd day. He was among the LUCKY FEW who saw the rock show by Evergreen AND the fashion show.

Evanvare rock FANaayi

The end of 2nd day we had nothing except the prizes in Light music 1st and the 2nd in vegetable carving. We just were damn tired at the end of day 2 and it was 1 am when we reached the hostel.

He can sleep anytime anywhere........

If day 2 was hectic then day 3 was hell. Many of us had so many events simultaneously that all we managed to do was to rush from one venue to the other. I had 4 event prelims at the same time. Had to call the coords and fix the events 1 after the other and it was a bad time for me to run around from one room to another, especially with my 90 odd kgs. We got into the finals of Adzap, Triple mash and Madhuri got into the finals of Ms Ragam. We got the first prize in Classical music when Anathalakshmy managed to sing a beautiful melody. Thus we had 3 event finals and i thought we stood a good chance in all of them. We also had Rangoli, cartooning and Mono act.

Winner of the Musicals

In the afternoon we got our product for Adzap. It was an energy drink and we had time till 4 pm to make an ad and other features for our drink. We fixed G-Spot as the name. The tagline was TRIGGER THE SPOT IN YOU. We had it like an abbreviation with G-spot standing for Get the spot, where spot was Stimulating Power Oriented Thanni ( i think this was it, not sure). We had a very raunchy ad for the drink and thought we were pretty good with it. Before the Adzap we had the Mr n Ms Ragam finals and Madhuri was the 1st participant on stage. She did well in the 1st round to get the crowd into the arena with a superb dance. Immediately after this we went for the Adzap finals and we had a very good judge who made us all sweat a lot in that small classroom.

G-Spot the drink that we made famous

In Triple Mash we got the 4th position and same was the case with AdZap. At the end of this the ladies in our team left for Trivandrum and we 12 guys were left to loaf around the campus for the last night @ NIT-C. We heard at 6pm that the 2nd in cartooning was for Jinto from our college and at around 7 pm we got the news that Madhuri had won the Ms Ragam title. Even though it didn't have any points or cash prize the title is a big thing and it was pretty good when people were telling that a gal from GECB got the Ms Ragam title.

The 3rd night @ Ragam had Evergreen performing and after this was A La Mode the fashion show. Many of us who were outside were disappointed that we came all the way from Tvm and couldn't witness the mother of all events- Fashion show. But then we had a good time in the campus.

The NOKIA stall was all ours on the last day

Round table conf 2-No xplanations for th awkward look on my face

The time we spent on the benches outside the main lobby proved to be pretty good since the teams going for the fashion show walked right in front of us! So it was PAISA WASOOL for us! We sat there till 2 am or so, then went to the mini canteen, had hot plates of noodles or fried rice and packed our stuff for the next day's trip back home. It was a sad feeling to leave this paradise and get back to the monotonous life of being a GECian. Compared to the fun we guys had there the life as a GECian is nothing! For those who didn't show up, you ppl missed a LOT. Things that i have said till now and many more that you're free to come up and ask anytime you want.

The trip back started on a slow tone. The train was at 840AM and most of the gentlemen had just got up from the beds at 630 and 7AM. The coord's had arranged for 2 buses to drop the crowd of participants back to the railway station. The crowd included the MBTians and CETians who were crowned overall champs. The dejected look on MBTians was a sight to see. They had come with this large contingent to win the title back to back, but the CETians would have none of it and there was also competition from Amrita.

The train ride back was fun and we were all huddled in a general compartment from Calicut till Tvm in the Parasuram Express. It was hard at first when the whole train was filled with students. It was fun to watch people in jeans jostling for space and guys having guitars and cymbals in their hands in the small wooden seats.

Seatillathe DOORil thoongi

Ithinu Oru captionum seriaavilla

Avasana Thullivare njan Nakkum

We had some company on the ride back and the ride was filled with moments of fun and some special moments were:

JK Drinking the last drops off the Maaza bottle
Jyothiraj wearing shoes of 2 different kinds
Karthik in a desp mood clinging onto JK
Dennis and JK not getting to eat anything while all of us had food
Playing DumbC on the ride back and getting amused looks on the face of co-passengers
Jyothiraj ordering everything from Vada's to Sambharam to fill his stomach
Sasi's friend who was silent till Kottayam getting a gal to give her number to him and then they moving out from our seat and finding some PRIVATE moments.

Evane Poovittu Poojikenam

This pic on JKs Demand

We had a jolly good time till Tvm in the jam packed train and met a few INTERESTING people as well. We reached Tvm at 640 in the evening and parted ways with sweet memories about the experience that was Ragam 07.

We came to a respectable 13th Postion(that's what i heard from the reg desk when we checked out). Now one might say what's so good in being 13th. I shall say its damn good for a bunch of people who came to know about the events on the train to Calicut, its good to be 13th when many colleges with 2-3 times more participants managed to get nothing and we had 2 first prizes, 2 second prizes, some 8 finalists and the Ms Ragam title.

So this is what we get when we go with Zero preparation. So if we can manage to prepare decently for Ragam 08, am sure we too can give a good fight for the top teams. Only thing that saddens me is that i won't be there to witness that. It was a great feeling to be the team captain of such a small bunch of students and still get to a respectable position.