techNITi '09 n stuff

If there is something surely unfortunate about the ongoing student agitation, it has got to be its timing, just after techNITi it completely overshadowed the fest. So just in order to renew the memories, here is a my ( little long) account of what I saw and experienced during the eve of fest as well as during the fest.

During the eve of the fest there were mixed reactions ranging from...' yaar fest ki to koi feel hi nahi aa rhi ' to 'dude, dis time around techNITi is going to be something which we have never seen before!'....both of these reactions were the extremes of reaction spectrum....most people had opinions somewhere in between.

The publicity committee guys were constantly running around, looking extremely busy, pasting posters, collecting banners, attending there endless meetings. Guys around suddenly developed deep passion for robotics...automaxi, robo combat, robo roadies, mud rally, aqua bahn to name few of the events they aspired to participate ( or rather win, most of them cared only for the prize money) .

Then there were the accommodation committee guys whose lives seemed to revolve only around gaddas, takiyas, pedestal fans, entries etc.

The hilarious part is always the rumors...

Days before fest it came to light that first yrs. are not allowed in the fest. Now these were a few explanations doing rounds..

• ' its an MHRD norm, first yrs. are not supposed to interact with seniors during first 3-4 months...'(okay, maybe)
  
  
• ' someone from the first yr. has complained to the admin. about ragging..so they r being cautious..'(err..still okay..)
  
  
• ' someone from the first yr has complained to the MHRD' ( but why??..)
  
  
• ' no, no... he did not complain, just gave a missed call to MHRD...'
  ( next I was expecting somebody to say that the first yr had sent a complaint scrap to MHRD on orkut!!)

considering that the CSH was full to its brim during the performances, nobody was really complaining later.

then of course there are pessimists sort of people...spreading their own brand of rumors...

• ' you know half of the sponsors have backed off...the budget has gone really low...'
  
  
• ' the workshops are getting canceled, without first years whom do you expect to participate??'
  
  
• ' some guest lectures have also been called off...you really believed that Dilip Chhabria and Dabbawala man will be a part of our fest??!!! you are really gullible...'
  

Of course none of these turned out to be true.
( I tried searching for these people during the fest..it turned out that most of them had gone home..)

The D-day arrived..18th Sept. and techNITi commenced ( without any opening ceremony.... nobody I knew had any explanation ).

Few of the events which I attended...

AUTOMAXI : the arena was fabulous, so were the line following robots. It was fun watching the proceedings..the successful participants simply beamed...others had lot to say...


'I will never touch a breadboard in my life.. stupid damned thing!!..cant even hold an I.C. properly...'

' Microcontrollers were allowed!!!..this is cheating!!'


ROBO COMBAT : It looked more of a derby race with participants screaming at there warring robos which were getting cut , severed, scratched n all.
( the Wall-E replica was getting as many admirers as the competition...kudos to the creators!!)

ROBO ROADIES : the arena was yet again perfect... the participants had a hard time going through the obstacles.

ESTHETIQUE : it was the usual fashion show....boys cheering up for the female models...I do not need to add more.

GENERAL QUIZ : the quiz master had brain racking questions to offer which the participants did their best to answer. For the audience it was merely an occasion to gather facts.

GAGSTERS AND MUSIC VIDEOS: the event started late, which lead to only three gags being screened. Some music videos were really good....the Malluworks' video( which eventually won) got much appreciation.

ADGINEERS: just like the above event there were a few entries, out of which some were trash , some were good and few were really good ( my favorite is the insurance one)

One event I must mention is ENGENIUS, of which a very dear friend of mine was an integral part but despite his repetitive invitations, I failed to participate in it. Anyway I heard that it got good response, so maybe he has forgotten that I had promised to be there ( good for me!!).

Then there were the guest lectures.

The teleconference with Dr. Sam Pitroda did gather many people, but I can bet half of them had no idea what he was speaking about in his monotonous voice.
The next day we had Mr. Mahesh Murthy whose lecture I missed but the students' reaction was fabulous.
Then the lecture I was eagerly waiting for.... one by Mr. Dilip Chhabria. Well most guys dozed off....waking up only when the slide show of his creations began. Some questions were asked as well..most of which tended to get repetitive.
I missed the entrepreneurship workshop too... but the kind of brickbats it got....I do not think I missed anything exciting.
Lastly there was the Dabbawala guest lecture where Mr. Manish Tripathi explained the nuances of his organization, distributed gandhi topis ... which people did enjoy.

The nights were lit up by the spectacular performances...Mr. Christopher James on Day 1 and Mr. Amar Sen on Day 2.
While Mr. James played magic with cards, levitated tables holding just it's tablecloth, produced flowers out of ashes, filled an empty Pepsi can out of thin air, changed Rs. 100 note to Rs. 1000 note... leaving people dumbstruck ( quite many people were keen to learn the last trick) , Mr. Sen endeared the crowd with his unique performance using hand shadows a craft few of us had seen before.


Compared to these the closing ceremony was a bit dampener, with none of the performances really firing up the crowd.....but as they say nothing is perfect. Most of the prizes went to outside participants...( some people grumbled about this, some were content as it meant more outside participation in future)

I forgot to mention the food stall where one could get a glass of soft drink for Rs. 15 only, one dinner meal for Rs. 50 only....and so on.The final verdict : overpriced and not so good food.

Vodafone had set up it's counter with speakers blaring out popular numbers and some fun games being played [ one of them involved doing continuous push ups for a certain time limit ( which I'm unable to recollect) ]...much to the amusement of the crowd.
Next day they were joined by the Mountain Dew counter where one was supposed to do the same push ups on ice slabs....these guys lived upto the brand image.

So this was techNITi'09 from my eyes ... interesting competitions, loads of fun, great learning experiences, large participation, few glitches....overall really fantastic and memorable..



Very well written, Sarthi!! Welcome on board ! :)
utkarsh