The story of three Bunkers!!!
This story is dedicated to students (‘Warriors’- As I would name it) for whom engineering is not just a degree, but it’s a passion, zeal and something that they yearn for. The atmosphere of engineering passion is ubiquitous, but there are only few students who prevent the conversion of this zeal to furore. And for such students, engineering life is not just restricted to classrooms, but they transcend course work and engage in some extra-ordinary works like research papers, projects and winning tech-fests which deserves laudatory remarks from one and all.
One of the most important aspects of outstanding engineering life is to understand one’s own abilities and skills. This understanding may click suo-motto or by testing it against the best minds of engineering. For me, this awareness came from the latter method though not intentional but one may call it serendipity. It all started with the fun element of life; a young lad looking to bunk some languishing sessions (with due respect to the classes) and do something out-of-the box for immense gratification. This story gave me a platform to understand my skills, knowledge and capabilities; setting the base for what I call my ‘journey of winning tech-fests’. Before we sneak into the story, I advise the readers to take away the crux which is revolving around the engineering passion and hard-work rather than being centric on the fun elements covered in the story. Focusing on latter would lead to frivolous take-away(s) from this story and the effort to convey the former message would be futile.
So, here we go:
Back to the time of Second Year (start of the first semester), I and my friends were planning for a trip to Pondichery. We all wanted a break from the hectic schedule and were passionate about appreciating the beauty of south India. We were looking for a way to bunk some days of classes and go out to explore (do something new). One fine morning, my friend Gaurav Jain came up to me and said “HEY KD (A very divine name: Krishnadas converted to a criminal one)!! WE GOT A JACKPOT!!! LOOK AT THIS POSTER….A TECHFEST IN PONDICHERY UNIVERSITY”. This poster was stuck right in front of HODs cabin.
We jumped in joy as this could be the right platform to officially get out of the campus and explore beautiful Pondicherry along with getting a taste of what tech-fest is all about. However, one roadblock was lying in front of us. The two most passionate candidates about this trip (myself and Gaurav) were not in good terms with HOD because of our heated arguments few days back concerning the design of engineering course at Amrita. We suggested some out-of-the blue ideas and were against some of the practices followed at Amrita (which at this point of time, I feel were the most appropriate practices for any engineering university).
Hence, we had hard time convincing our HOD for signing the On-Duty forms. We had to promise him that we will show the tickets to Pondicherry when we return. The two letters O and D (OD) could bring smiles in the faces of any engineering student, especially with kind of regulations that were prominent in Amrita. So finally the three bunkers (Myself, Gaurav Jain and Abhishek Upadhyay) decided to pack their bags and they were all ready for their Pondicherry escapade.
As soon as we reached the Pondicherry University, they showed us our rooms. Man!!!!!! Now this was the real jackpot. These rooms were like executive deluxe rooms with the balcony having beach view. For once, we had second thoughts of bunking the tech-fest and staying back in the rooms itself !. But Hell No, We had to face the best engineering minds around us. Sp, we finally decided to attend at least the first day of techfest (as we never expected to stay beyond the prelim rounds). So then started the party (No, Not the DJ Party with plethora of dance tracks!: Quiz, C Debugging, Software Engineering Hero, Marketing (All prelims).
C language was our favorite game!. We considered C as our experiment toolbox and by the time we were done with first year, we had experimented with this toolbox to explore all possible aspects of C language. Hence, clearing C-Debugging was a cake-walk for us. However, all other events we were not even cognizant of the basic concepts involved. We were waiting for the results of C-Debugging only, but ALAS! Results were out !, And guess what, we cleared the prelims of all events we attended!.
Now lets sneak into the fate of finals for these events:
1) Quiz: We were really bad at Quizzing (you need to understand your weak points at some point in life). Thanks to the objective nature of prelims, we could clear it, but were properly screwed properly on Stage ( Our score was Negative finally..after all we were just in 2nd year and they were asking all sort of networking…and stuffs)…We came Last (Sincere disclosure)
2) Software Engineering Hero: They gave us a project and told to develop ER Diagram (CSE/IT people could relate it better here). We heard that ER term for the first time (it is usually covered in 3rd Year). As a result we had to back-off! (sincere disclosure again)
3) Marketing: Did a fair job in Marketing a Square tyre…though there were better teams there. Could not get into the top two.
4) C_DEBUGGING: This was our event!!! (Me and Gaurav). We were masters of C and determined to give a tough fight to anyone there. There were 5 solid questions given 4 coding and we did 4 of them (Hats off to Gaurav’s logic involved in two questions) It was tough to get the right logic at nail-biting moments like these. There was only one other team that could do 4.
Now this is what happened during evaluation of program:
Me and Gaurav: “Sir, We have implemented a logic, which takes less time for the code to execute. Its an off-track method but assures efficient results”
Judges: “Interesting!, Please go ahead and Explain”
Me and Gaurav: (Explaining the logic)
Judges: “Very Good!! This is an excellent method and it is working for the set of inputs given by us. Nice work guys. All right, lets move to the next code ”
Me and Gaurav: “No Sir Wait, Our code works 4 complex inputs also….See it works for this input too…..”
….And that was the end of it….code did not work 4 that input….we lost points…and missed 1st place…..got 2nd…but folks ..not bad…the team who came 1st was from M.Tech Anna University…..and we were just second year!!!!!!!
SO WHERE DOES THE STAR OF TECHFEST COMES TO PLAY::???
We all were curious about the event ‘Star of the Tech-fest’. As this was one mega-event all participants were eying on. Finally the call for event was made. Based on overall performance in tech-fest, one guy from each college was told to write a test (all mix,,GK, Tech…). Based on the test, four of us were selected and the organizers informed that we 4 were the Stars of Techfest.
And Guess our prize: A stay in VC Guess house of their college…with AC , TV..Drinks…Ice Creams….It was quite weird for me….I thought the name of the event is “star of techfest” not “stars of techfest”….how come 4 prizes??...
The next moment a guy comes in and says “Who is Krishnadas out here?”, You are wanted in auditorium. And he told me to follow him. The instant I reached auditorium, that guy was nowhere to be seen!. Ok, still I went inside….
As soon as I entered whole auditorium started laughing. I went to the reception and asked whether someone called me. Guess what! The girl sitting over there scolded me, asking me silly questions like “who the hell r u” “who told u to come here”.
I saw the stage --- Few broken chairs…..Few crushed bottles…Some mat on the stage floor---and many other weird things….
Only then I realized- Dude Game is not Over ! It has just begun ! IT WAS STRSS INTERVIEW….
The stage experience was much better…I was fired with all sort of impossible questions. However, I was audacious enough to convert all their questions into intelligent answers added with a hint of humor. The humor element resulted in crowd supporting me for other answers as well. I will not include the exact details here, but: TO CUT IT SHORT!!...I GAVE ALL POSSIBLE FUNNY ANSWERS…WHICH STRESSED THE JUDJES INSTEAD OF ME!!!....
And the same happened with other three guyz…all got stressed! And could not withstand the pressure.
And finally after a long wait, I was titled ‘Star of TechFest’ with a lump some cash amount and a very very huge trophy!. (Every time I see that trophy at home, makes me nostalgic about the entire episode). Amazing trip came to an end………AND GUESS WHAT!...I SHOWED MY HOD!!
BOTH- THE PRIZES AND THE TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And this acted as a license for me for all upcoming techfests!. At the end of four years of engineering, I had many such titles under my belt including “Best Manager’, ‘Innovator of the year’, ‘Best Paper Award’, ‘Technocrat’ and many more.
A story by Krishnadas
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