MARCH 2012

2ND SEM , ISSUE 2

2 & 3 February at a glance...

4 Updates from the SU

5 A look at APOGEE

6 THINK AGAIN Conclave

7 Inbloom

8 Raagamalika

ED Speak

When I got a message a few years ago - Tomorrow is my Batch Snap. It would really mean a lot to me if you were

there. 5pm. Sky. I was rather bewildered.

I was familiar with this quirky tradition thanks to some stray DoPy photos lying around in a seniors room but the mag-

nitude and outreach of this practice was far beyond the boundaries that my brain could ever foresee. I was taken aback

by the unending enthusiasm of all the seniors present. Everyone seemed least bothered about the single most im-

portant part of the entire ceremony, the reason they had all dressed up for the batch snap. Even those usually re-

pelled by the shutter smiled willingly for the camera.

Back at my hostel that day, I pondered momentarily about the origin and need for this tradition before letting the shock

subside, with the hope that a couple of years in this place would make me come to terms with this ritual.

Cut to two years later. Before my time to don a suit came, I traced back the roots of this shutterbug behaviour in a bid

to find some answers unfortunately, it led to no concrete conclusion. My preliminary research, for what its worth,

pointed towards a smartly planned SU venture to raise money for the fests, introduced at a time when DoPy cameras

dominated the field. As we all know, with advancements in technology in the past decade, the tradition has since blown

out of proportion. Dirt cheap SLRs and the craving desire for a good profile picture on Facebook are powerful motiva-

tors towards this cause.

Beneath the superficial worries, however, lies the underlying reason for this venture being a runaway success. Despite

it being an obvious nostalgic occasion, it is quite surprising to note how everything that happened in this small town

suddenly becomes significant on that one day. Even to those lazy few, the need to be a part of it all comes in a rush, in

those few hours when everyones smiling, when every little thing seems magnified, when every snap has a story to tell

be it with an MT lab-mate or that junior in the T-wing.

Suit Donned. Pictures taken. Memories documented. Mission accomplished. What next?

The Beginning of the End one of the more dramatic album names I came across online. Apt, in my opinion. Food for

thought.

2222 The BITSMUN 2012 Conference was organised from the 18th-20th of February. The event was organised for a span of roughly 3 days with about 95 (suited) delegates debating and discussing world issues in our LTC halls. Last year, it was amongst the largest MUNs in the country, this time however due to resource constraints the BITSMUN Society decided to establish new standards in terms of quality of service. With knick knacks like Red Bull and Bisleri being given to each and every delegate; they were indeed successful at it. Mr. Peter Vrooman, Information Officer and Spokesperson for the US Embassy in India was the Chief Guest for the inauguration cere-mony. His keynote lecture, largely based on his own experiences as a diplomat in the strife-torn regions of North Africa and West Asia, gave all those present a pretty good insight about present day inter-national relations.

Though BITSMUN is just four years old as such, it has very much established itself as a reputed brand amongst the Indian MUN cir-cuit, which was evident seeing the quality of participation this time around. All five councils had some very polished MUN-ers either as delegates or on the exec board. Interestingly, the event witnessed an escalated BITSian participation this time around, so much so, that an entire council, IMPACT, was majorly occupied by first timer BITSian delegates. A testimony to the increasing MUN-ing culture on campus should we say?

Adding to the learning experience of the MUN were two keynote lectures as a part of the speakers conclave. The first talk was given

by Mr. Raghav Narsalay on Scope for Innovation in Indian Econo-my and the second by Mr. Anshu Gupta on social entrepreneurship

and the initiatives taken by his foundation Goonj.

Apart from the entertainment that is unintentionally offered during the course of the event, debates and MUNs usually organise more intentional forms of entertainment under the head of Break-Night party/Delegate Dinner. BITSMUN/QED didnt sacrifice on that

element and under a joint collaboration organised a Rock-Nite and a dinner thereafter. Music Club consented to perform for the Rock-Nite and the dinner was organised by Moti-Mahal. This was the first time that such collaboration between the two societies was tried and well, the success of the same could be better inferred seeing the

number of people scuttling to ANC on empty stomachs after the dinner was organised.

The MUN ended with a fitting valedictory ceremony with the best delegates in each council being awarded. BITSian winners were visi-bly pleased with themselves, we guess, as opportunities for winning similar cash prizes are hard to come by.

All in all, BITSMUN 2012 was not a bad attempt and here is wish-ing all the luck to the MUN society for its future endeavours.

One amongst the myriad of activities on campus was Entrepreneur-ship Week or E-Week. Organised solely by the first years of CEL in association with the National Entrepreneurial Network, the event showed its face on campus with a sea of lime green posters and equally glaring stickers. The aim of this festival was to instil the spir-it of entrepreneurship amongst student much along the lines of all that CEL stands for - through innovative events with the incentive of huge prize money for each of the events.

E-Week kick started with a small formal Inauguration ceremony, followed by an E-Quiz. The quiz, as the name suggested was largely a decently well-structured business quiz. Financial enthusiasts and market analysts had the perfect platform to show off their skills and put it to practical use during E-Merge, a virtual game of mer-gers and acquisitions. The participation for these two events were manifolds higher than the expected, but the organisers were soon brought down to earth when the participation for Freestyle Pari-

vartan, a competition of sketching, writing and random doodling

threatened to not hit the double digit mark. But jobless psenti-semites (ironically, the ones with the highest paying jobs) helped salvage the situation, as did they for two other events, the Turncoat Debate which saw amusing hypocrisy and Shipwreck,

where contestants donned roles of (in)famous celebrities to con-vince the judge why they deserved to be saved from the sinking ship.

Cnot saw a peak of entrepreneurial spirit during Bedrock where

teams got to manage the restaurants thereat for a few hours in the evening. A staple event of E-Week that generally defies the frustrat-ingly low participation rule that governs the reminder of the week, it

required a questionnaire based elimination round to decide the final five teams. However the arrival of Dominos and CCD stalls as well as a promising long weekend dented the general sales as well as the crowd. Despite this, the winning team posted admirably high sales of about Rs.40,000.

Though the events in general were run-of-the-mill, the execution, especially by first timers gave the event an above average score.

The BITS Debating Society recently organized QED, a parliamen-tary debating festival, had participants from all over the country turn up and debate vociferously over a range of issues. If youre wondering what QED means, its an abbreviation of the Latin

phrase quad erat demonstrandum which translates into what was to be demonstrated. In the build up to the event, the debating society organized a pre-QED debate to arouse interest among the BITSian audience. It was a fair success with over 15 teams turning up to try their hand at parliamentary debating.

Moving on to the actual event, the overall participation was a bit of a letdown. There were 24 teams participating. However, the high quality of debate on show made up for the lack of numbers. QED had arguably two of the best debating teams in the country - R V College of Engineering, Bangalore and Ramjas College, Delhi, fighting it out for the top prize. It also had teams from renowned law colleges along with a BITSian team. The debate had a very experienced and highly regarded panel of judges.

The debate saw four preliminary rounds followed by the semis and finals, during the course of which a plethora of topics were debat-ed with themes ranging from education, politics and hypothetical situations. After a series of staggering debates, Ramjas College, Delhi defeated RVCE, Bangalore in an intensely fought final and pocketed the sizeable prize money on offer.

Apart from the debate, the debating society also organized a JAM on the 20thFebruary, conducted by well-known JAM Master, Sudhir Kamat. It was a source of much entertainment with partici-pants catching on to the odd oohs, aahs and urms as well as

someone deliberately speaking in slow motion or making grammat-ical errors. The JAM saw loads of goodies being given away by the

sponsor, Happily Unmarried, as well as quite a bit of cash. The eventual winner was Nikhil Murthy.

This year, QED was held in the same weekend as BITSMUN, the reason being the cognate audience they attract as well as to reduce the logistics burden on the two societies. They co-operated with each other on various fronts, be it the handling of sponsorship is-sues or the food stalls. One hopes that this becomes a permanent feature. QED 12 turned out to be quite a reasonable success, if not

a resounding one. Heres hoping for a bigger and better QED next time around.

Interface 2012, themed Aarambhthe Creative Beginning, prom-ised to provide a platform to bring new ideas alive. After witnessing a mindboggling weekend of lectures, workshops and events, few people would dispute the claim.

It was inaugurated on 10th February by Mr. Valmeeka Nathan, Vice President of Infosys Limited. AdWise and a B Plan contest began pre-fest and had their finals during the Interface weekend. AdWise saw brilliant ideas for brands that had died out, in order to revive them and make them successful. BarterKing, a fun event following the old barter system, looked for spontaneity and common sense to come up with the most meaningful set of objects for a real time environment.

The next major event was the Biz Quiz. Six teams fought it out over three rounds to be the best as people watched with bated breath. York and Slog 2.0, Fund U Managerzz, and The Phoenix complete the list of events that took place. In between, Sameer Hanchates film-making workshop provided a refreshing change from the com-petitive fervour that prevailed over the weekend. On the closing eve, there was a guest lecture by the well-known founder of Food King, our proud alumnus and IIMA graduate, Mr Sarath Babu. Interface also brought Dominos, Yo!China etc. to our isolated little village.

Interface 2012 had a budget of INR five lakhs, and was sponsored by MTS (title sponsor), Ferns N Petals, rechargeitnow.com, OnSite, Twenty19.com, etc. On the whole participation was better this time with colleges such as IIT Roorkee, SP Jain, NMIMS, SITM Pune making their presence felt.

The improved response for Interface 2012 can be attributed to a more innovative publicity and promotion. There is a lot of scope for it to expand. With every fest something new is learnt, and this accu-mulation of experience will definitely show in the fests to come.

With APOGEE 2012 looming ahead, the Student Union Presi-dent is, as expected, a busy man. However, in a candid inter-view, Sanjay Aathreyasa gladly answered all queries put to him regarding BITS Pilanis Annual Technical Festival, its financial condition and a recent Student Union meeting where more than a handful of important issues were tackled.

He cheerfully informed us that Cactus Flower, the colleges annual literary magazine, is to be distributed to every stu-dent on campus. Compulsory is the word being used. He pro-vided sound reasoning behind the move. He feels that a maga-zine having an established readership base will find it easier to attract sponsors in the coming years. Also, it is meet that an institute like BITS, Pilani has an annual magazine which docu-ments all that happens on campus over the year and gives the readers some literary stimulation as well.

Other matters that were discussed included the status of Wall Street Club and Jhankaar. The Wall Street Club is now eligible for an annual budget from the union, which will assist them in conducting workshops and events for the students. However, Jhankaars problems continue as they remain under proba-tion after their representatives failed to turn up for the SU meeting. The President expressed concern over their behav-iour and hinted that if the situation worsens, the department might find themselves fighting possible dissolution next se-mester. The news for the Film Making club was similar.

He buzzed with excitement while explaining the two upcoming Student Union ventures, e-Governance and WeMentor. e-Governance, one of his manifesto points, is a grievance re-dressal online portal, where the complaints regarding anything from billing issues to dysfunctional flushes can be registered. It is an open, transparent portal where students can monitor the progress of their complaint and can thus ensure a swift solu-tion to their daily problems. WeMentor is a mentorship pro-gramme where students on campus are mentors to students giving the BITSAT exam. These mentors will be allotted on a regional basis to ensure efficient communication and assis-tance. The second stage of this programme consists of alumni as mentors to students on campus, this assignment being done on the basis of discipline and field of work.

With all these updates in hand, the next topic of discussion is APOGEE. The President is delighted by the response to the Think Again conclave, APOGEE 2012s flagship event, details of which you will find in another section of this newsletter. But all is not well in terms of money, were told. Monetary issues have forced the SU to take drastic measures this time round, the President declaring this editions budget allotment to be as stringent as possible. There has been an exponential decline in the number of events being organised, with even excellent ones like the Pilani Idea Conference being culled due to a lack of funds. Think Again has also been deemed feasible only due to BITSAAs intervention with INR 5.5 lakhs. With a nonexistent speakers budget, half of them are doing it for free and the other half, online.

Acknowledging the hard work being put in by the Depart-ment of Sponsorship and Marketing and blaming certain un-favourable conditions for their plight, Sanjay expressed disap-pointment at the projected value of sponsorship for the fest being 9-10 lakhs. The numerous Pre APOGEE workshops have proved to be a saving grace in terms of capital, bringing in much needed revenue and also ensuring increased aware-ness and hence participation from the students. The Comput-er Science Association has also successfully roped in Mi-crosoft as main sponsors of its event, Hackathon.

Summing up, this APOGEE has a pretty low budget when compared to previous editions. One of the major reasons, according to the President, were the numerous individual events like QED, BITSMUN and Interface that seriously dent-ed many sponsorship avenues. These events, being conduct-ed on a relatively less grand scale should ideally be held in collaboration with APOGEE, thus resulting in maximum spon-sorship and participation for all. However, all these are matters to be discussed at a later stage, with the smooth execution of APOGEE the primary concern at present. Re-sponding to concerns regarding lukewarm response from students, he believes that there is an excellent mix of diverse events catering to every student, ranging from quizzes to core technical ones, and hence every student should play a part in making the fest a success.

Food. Sleep. Computer.

Plan all you want, but the better part of your two-and-a-half month summer vacation will probably end up revolving around these three words. Insanely comforting though it sounds it at first, inactivity soon reaches a mind-numbing cre-scendo. So why not try something new, give that over-relaxed spine of yours some work, and make some money while youre at it?

Standing for a mighty Association for International Exchange of Students in Economics and Commerce, AIESEC BITS-Pilani is an official extension of AIESEC Jaipur that will get an interna-tional status in six months. The AIESEC network has over 60,000 members in over 110 countries and is one of the larg-est student-run organizations in the world.

AIESEC provides you with opportunities for international in-ternships across the globe. It bears all expenses apart from the travel fare, and offers internships in tune with your profile and requirements. Durations range from six weeks to six months,

and as we are informed, you get to build an international network. Here are the types of internships offered:

Management Internships related to administration, fi-nance, accounting, marketing, project management and HR. Usually with NGOs; internships usually relate to wide variety of issues in community development. Technical Internships related to management and develop-ment in web, software, networks, and databases, plus some engineering. Education Internships related to promotion, curriculum development, teaching, and counselling in the education sector. (Note: Talks about integration of AIESEC internships with PS I and II are also in process. Source: President, SU.)

track. Although it seems simple, the competition is cut-throat, and finally it is the quality of the car and drivers

ability which decides the winner.

Other than the big guns, there are a lot of smaller events

that are assured to keep you entertained throughout the

four days of APOGEE. There are events for everyone be it the mechanical junkie - Junkyard Wars (Discovery watch-

ers dont need an explanation), Up in the Air (a plane

making competition), Chem-e-Car (designing a car that utilizes chemical energy) or the coding geniuses, for

whom there are events like Smash the Bug (finding errors

in the code of a program), Codestorm and CyberFiesta.

In Silico and Ethical Quotient are events which correlate

biology with technology. For the financially oriented, there are events like Puts & Punter and Age of Economics

(AOE with countries replaced by companies).

To all those who did not find this appealing, fret not.

Treasure Hunt is the event for you. For all the wannabe Holmes-es, Snoop Dogs gives you a chance to show how

quickly you can solve a murder mystery. Media Mania

and Poetic Warfare add some more colour to the pro-ceedings. A Date with MS Paint requires you to bring

your creative side to the fore, and embrace your inner toddler.

There are quizzes spread out left, right and center, deal-

ing with various fields like Media Quiz, Poetry Quiz, My-thology Quiz, Lab Quiz, Jeopardy and many more. A

Spelling Bee will also be organized to put peoples vocab-ulary to the test. If you like brainteasers, events like Cryp-

to Challenge (a cryptography-based event), Wordstock, Checkmate, Fast & Curious, Internet Whirlwind and Puz-

zled are the ones for you.

For the Facebook addicts and general internet lovers, there are many online events too. A blend of Physics and

Tic-Tac-Toe has led to Phy-Tac-Toe. Everyone must have heard of survival of the fittest, and Cellect lets you choose

organisms and give them traits to your liking; the last

man standing wins.

If, somehow, you still havent found what interests you,

there are events related to film making like Cut-Copy-

Paste and Camera Speaks.

With the behemoth Think Again Conclave also turning

many eyes, its almost a certainty that one will find some-thing or the other to occupy his time during APOGEE. Our

message to the readers is plain and simple.

Stay. Enjoy.

16-20 March + BITS Pilani + Tech-enthusiasts from all over

the country = APOGEE.

For anyone willing to expand the horizon of ones intellect

and have lots of fun at the same time, APOGEE is the best

place to be. The spirit of professional competitiveness is

epitomized by the five flag bearing Kernel Events - Dhiti,

SMS, Hackathon, iStrike, and FTGP.

Organized by NSS and Nirmaan, Dhiti is a platform for stu-

dents and budding individuals alike to take technology to

the grassroots. Dhiti, literally meaning An Idea in San-skrit, requires participants to design effective, efficient and

feasible modules to solve the nations potential problems.

Their solutions or models should be targeted at solving the

problems faced in those areas. The competition has

reached its second phase with 20 projects, such as See Saw Pump and Solar Water Heater from Waste being

shortlisted.

SMS, or Stock Market Simulation, is an event for those

interested in the financial side of things. Organised in asso-

ciation with Stock Market Institute, the event requires par-ticipants to experiment with different investment patterns

and understand which one fits the bill in the simulated stock market. The objective is to maximize this amount by

intelligently investing in the stock market. There are three

rounds, starting from pre-APOGEE elimination, moving to the on - campus round and culminating in the finals, to be

held on the 19th of March.

APOGEE 2012 is also hosting BITS Pilanis first ever Hacka-

thon, the Windows Phone Hackathon. Participants for this

event are required to ideate for Windows Phone applica-tions and along with their team, implement the idea. The

event is sponsored by Microsoft, hence you will be sure to come across interesting tech talks, hacking tips and lessons,

coding workshops and weekly problem statements. The top

four apps will fetch a Windows Phone along with a chance of the app being featured on the Windows market place.

If the topic of robotics and machinery excites your senses,

then iStrike is just the event for you. Participants have to

build a computer controlled robot which can move on a

demarcated path with the help of an overhead camera. The

aim of the game is to navigate your robot from one end of

the arena to the other, avoiding obstacles and following

traffic signals on the way to its destination. The winner is decided using three criteria - the time taken, rules followed

and the penalties.

For some people, high octane is the only high. If you are

one of them, then look no further than FTGP for your dose

of entertainment this APOGEE. The Full Throttle Grand

Prix is a remote controlled racing event. The event in-volves a race between the participants RC cars on a race

INBLOOM Living up to its unique reputation, INBLOOM 12 showcased a variety

of performances from tap dances to impressive vocal performances.

The event attracted a healthy participation, with Vishwakarma Bha-

wan winning the award for Best Music, Vyas winning Best Dance and

Mal C bagging the Best Overall Performance Award.

Vyas- Heartless

Vyas Bhawans Chura Ke Dil Mera did not succeed in stealing peoples hearts. Countless faux pas notwithstanding, the crowd was captivated by the antics of a certain PD.

Shankar Wardrobe Malfunction

Songs like Socha Hai and Hum Kis Gali Ja Rahe hai were most-ly huge hits except the unfortunate liberal wardrobe of the bassist during Shankar Bhawans performance and a keyboard mishap.

Vishwa Karma- Dangerous

VK Bhawan was undoubtedly a more Dangerous contender with one of the better Michael Jackson performances of the night. A ren-dition of Teri Diwani, followed by Rushil, Hari and Dushyanths routine featuring a wig-sporting Akhil Chaturvedi topped off their winning performance as did the frightening appearance of a cross-dresser in what was a slightly misguided dance.

Mal A and Mal B Coders by profession and sweepers by choice

Malaviya Bhawan planned their run-up to a would-be victory with an astonishing (a little too perfect perhaps?) vocal performance, fol-lowed by a Step-Up 3 dance attempt that gave a new meaning to the word synchronization and then an actual ramp walk. They ended on a high bare-chested note with the crowd cheering to Im sexy and I know it.

Bhagirath Towelling Tall

The undisputed crowd favorite was Bhagirath Bhawan. With more than 50 people on stage at a time, this performance deserved the extra round of cheers that they brought upon themselves. The audi-ence was treated to a mentally scarring show of towels which they proceeded to dance with for the rest of the routine. On a more leg-endary note, Bhagirath Bhawan danced to Bhaag D K with no co-ordination. As if this wasnt enough, there had to be a moonwalk at the back! (It was a moonwalk , as a signboard proudly proclaimed).

Krishna Fives a Charm?

Looking into the lives of people at Krishna Bhawan falls a bit short of looking at Sparta. The stalwarts unleashed their first performance - a piece on Friends that had an impressive four false-starts. Inno-vative dance performances to Akons Smack that followed.

Ram Bhangra Night!!!

Ram Bhawan stood out with a Raghu Dixit song sung by Rituraj Roy, as well as an enthusiastic Bhangra complete with the traditional sticks.

Gandhi Kabhi Alvida

Gandhi Bhawans performance was mediocre on the whole with Mere Mann Ye Bata De Tu being the only outstanding perfor-mance.

Buddh Poker Face

Stairway to heaven played by Ayush Khaitan received a muted re-sponse from the crowd. The performance itself was nothing remark-able. A blend of pop and confusion followed with doubtful original choreography by which time it was quite clear that they had lost the crowds interest.

Mal C Mix n Match

Mal C performed three dances out of which a brilliantly choreo-graphed ethnic dance stood out. They went on to sing Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si. This was followed by an innovative rendition of Bheegi Bheegi Si Hai Raatein which changed languages to end with the Bengali original Bhebe Dekhecho Ki.

Meera Mamma Mia

Nearly 4 hours into the event, Meera Bhawan came on stage to a lackluster crowd. Some sleepy dances later, a subdued yet catchy version of Mamma Mia featuring a would-be mesmerizing key-boardist and an able group of singers wrapped up the event.