Unlearning

I know myself well enough to realize that I can’t watch a movie. Like many other things, this interest has also faded. I thought this may be because I wanted to watch alone, in my room. Today I tried it with others – a romantic movie. But heck, I couldn’t complete it! I walked out midway and later heard that it was a wonderful movie.

Growth is about learning or unlearning?

“…a rainy Sunday afternoon”

I have some dreams in life. I hadn’t started talking about them until quite recently.

Yesterday, I spent nearly the whole day in a workshop conducted my Mindscreen Film Institute. They demonstrated the making of a short film using a handy cam. It was nice learning the process of direction and the amount of effort that goes even in a simple film of 3 minutes.

It’s raining since morning, actually since last night. I am really happy this is a Sunday and I have no classes or any other work to worry about. Just saw a video of Neta’s performance in Western Music Solo competition. Interestingly, he sang The Lemon Tree and the lines read:

I’m sitting here in the boring room,
It’s just another rainy Sunday afternoon,
I’m wasting my time I got nothing to do,
I’m hanging around I’m waiting for you,
But nothing ever happens, and I wonder!

 

It seems the downpour will continue the whole day. I have found my blanket which remains hidden uselessly for most of my stay in Chennai. But now, it will be great lying on my bed, hearing the drops fall on the ground and the soft rustling of leaves as occasional drops land on my face through the open window beside the bed. I am reading a great adventure novel and hope it never finishes!

Improbable is nothing!

The pre-final step while solving a Rubik’s Cube may end up with 12 different arrangements, one of them being the completely solved cube. For the first time today, I happened to land up at this combination! With a such a mean probability of 8.3%!! Wow!

Busted!

Campus Wars!

Came across the following article in a corner of Economic Times:

Campus wars: The shastra behind Kurukshetra

An entrepreneur entering a new geography or a business usually invests in a market study or launches a pilot project. However, students have more exciting options to spend their pocket money and typically learn by observing their competitor/peer group’s tactics and strategy. A student from Chennai’s Anna University attended IIT Madras’ annual technical fest, Shaastra, on a similar mission. When an old pal of the Anna Univ grad ribbed him about his ‘mission’, the student nonchalantly replied, “I’ve already deputed 20 of my boys to keep a close watch on the events. Since it’s a national fest, we also network with students from other colleges. I just came to see if they are doing their work properly and the number of contact they’ve established.” A valid strategy since Anna University kicked off its own technical fest, Kurukshetra, this January. Since then, students have been frequently debating over which one of the festivals in “hot and happening.” The intense scrutiny means that they will now step up planning, strategising and also depute more “boys” aka James Bond style.

lol!

Design

On Day1, someone asked me: “What good does Design do to me?” I said it’s the face of Shaastra, like all other departments claim! He then asked, “How does it matter to me in particular?” When I said it doesn’t, he said, “Then, Design guys chutiye hote hain!”

Some were visibly impressed, others needed to be reminded of it’s existence. Whatever it be, Design for Shaastra2007 is over now, and so has my responsibility as a Design coordinator for the festival.

It all began with, as Caesar put it long ago, “veteran Amrit Vatsa” being appointed Core member for Design. This was sometime in April. He came up with an idea of a brilliant organization and went ahead building the organization by recruiting Design coordinators. He grouped them as Graphic Artists, Copyrighters, Trend Spotters, Photographers and Artists. Then we started working for Shaastra, to be held in first week of October.

As I said, this division was brilliant on the part of the Core and it really worked wonders. The usual process that was followed was that Copyrighters (and Trend Spotters) had a brainstorming session in which they came up with ideas and concepts behind posters, t-shirts etc. and then the Graphic Artists set to work it out using Photoshop. Here lay my contribution to the team. The inclusion of Photographers and Artist was really impressive. This eliminated our dependence on the Net for pictures or sketches to be used for posters, t-shirts etc. Thus, it made sure that whatever was the product of our team effort was 100% original!

Hats off to the wonderful Copyrighters who came up with beautiful concepts, Photographers who took pains to shoot many pics knowing that most of them will not be used, Artist for really wonderful works with the pencil, Graphic Artists for making sure every idea got implemented digitally and above all, the Core for holding all these together and serving as a part of all of these groups.

There were some errors, of course. Mis-communications, failures to accomplish within deadlines often come to fore in demanding situations. But let’s not talk of them. Because overall, I feel, we did a nice job and met most of the deadlines, if not all.

Brochures, pamphlets, posters, t-shirts, certificates, banners were printed. Yet, Design doesn’t appear to be an independent entity. There’s never a piece which can please everyone and ultimately, the people who are appointed to take care of Design have to work according to the whims of those who have far less design sense. This harsh reality is really disheartening.

Fortunately, the Design team faced little of that this year. In spite of some groans and grunts, some people praised the Design team whole-heartedly, and at the end of the day, that strengthened us.

As Lays put it, “Shaastra Design rocks!”

Back: GBM>>Touchy>>Forehand>>CSLV>>Pam>>Divya>>Surbhi
Middle: Mistake>>Dalal>>Jishnu>>Arpit>>Vishal>>Srilakshmi
Front: Caesar>>Vatsap>>Mamme>>Amrutha>>Neeharika>>Mrudula

(Missing) Ambience: Torpi>>Indoor
Design: Tarun>>Danda>>Rajasekhar>>Vasanth