http://insight.iitb.ac.in/ November 24 . 2004*
*Volume VII Issue III Students’ Gymkhana IIT Bombay • Chairperson: Dean of Student Affairs his meetings in slot is equivalent to asking A: The Minimum 70 percent vote criterion he Institute Students Activities Re- T (Faculty Member) a General Secretary or a hostel secy. to do is only for “Team leader Based election”. A forms Committee (ISARC) has handed in • President (Faculty Member) work demanded from him only in the al- detailed description shall be provided soon its final recommendations to the Dean of • General Secretary (Student Rep.) lotted slots, this is obviously not intended under “Electoral Reforms”. As for the spe- Student Affairs. The report is comprehen- • Chief Festival Organizer (Student Rep.) and is not a purpose of the proposed slot cific query: sive and has in most ways preserved the • Club Secretaries, Hostel and Department system. Also only activities proposed be- ‘Team Leader Elections’ are based on pref- essential features of our extra-curricular Representatives (Student Reps.) forehand for the specified slot may utilize erential voting. A candidate has to secure scene. There are, however questions that The day-to-day running of the societies it. Societies may not arbitrarily exchange 70% ‘Primary + Secondary’ votes. In ab- shall arise time and again with regards to shall be looked into by the SEC (Society slots within themselves. Institute venues sence of a clear winner, the candidature of the implementation of the ISARC’s recom- Executive Committee) consisting of stu- will not be made available for activities not all but the candidates with the most ‘Pri- mendations. As we pack our bags and head dent representatives. The faculty members under their time slot. mary Votes’ will be cancelled and re-elec- home, it is essential that we do so with the shall retain their advisory role. With re- tions will be held. knowledge that things are changing fast at gard to the organization of activities a slot InsIghT: Is it realistic for, say a festival to Despite seeming complicated we believe IIT Bombay. The only way that something system has been proposed (See Interview). plan all its activities and meetings for the the scheme can be applied because of fol- concrete can emerge from this initiative is The committee has also put in place a cor- whole semester in 15 days? Are there any lowing reasons: if the student community adopts a more rective mechanism; something that has guidelines governing the vacation period 1. These elections will have very small Elec- proactive role at this juncture. been sought for a long time now. The struc- when most of the work is done? toral College (40-50 ppl) 2. Because of small Electoral College better A Brief Overview interaction between Candidates and elec- All institute activities (non academic) have torate is possible. 0 been categorized under five subgroups. ISARC:Through the Looking Glass 1 • Technological and Entrepreneurial The final recommendations of the ISARC have been submitted. InsIghT: What is the relevance of SAB • Sports and Adventure Harsh Roy and Akshay Saxena raise a few pertinent questions. (Student Advisory Board)? Don’t you • Cultural ture proposed is in the form of a “House of A: Meetings, which do not fall under the think that the discussions at the team lev- • Welfare Commons” and “General Body Meetings”. category of Mass meetings like “House of el, Society level, reviewed by the journal- • Journalism A formal election procedure has been Commons”, will not be and should not be ist board and finally referred to the DoSA These activities have been organized under defined with three separate electoral pro- included in these schedules. As far as ac- suffices a final decision or a firm view- the following four societies cesses: tivities like workshops, lectures, events and point? Kindly enumerate specific even if • Sports and Adventure Society • Institute Elections: The electorate consists competitions are concerned we do not see hypothetical scenarios when SAB will be • Cultural Society of the entire populace of IIT Bombay any problem in planning and developing called upon for its services? • Technological & Entrepreneurial Society • Team Leader Based Elections: A selected a schedule of all activities for the coming A: SAB is as a forum is not meant to be • Welfare Society electorate of outgoing team members and four months in the first fifteen days. After called upon for its services for mundane Journalism shall be treated as an indepen- other elected members of the Society. all, important aspects of the work of any executive issues. The discussions at all the dent activity. Each society shall consist of • Representative Based Elections: The elec- secretary or festival organizer are to plan forums mentioned in the question are per- clubs and festivals. Techfest, Mood I, Av- torate consists of elected representatives and set targets for his people and con- taining to a specific entity and its function- enues and the like will be classified as fes- with similar executive responsibilities. tinuously inspire them to achieve them. ing. SAB on the other hand is envisioned to tivals. The development of activities such ‘General Secretary’s (GS’s)’, ‘Club Secre- However provisions can be made for slight possess a “holistic view” about any matter as dance, music, fine arts and debating will taries’ and ‘Institute Secretaries’ will be changes in schedule. referred to it. Thus SAB’s role is in “philos- occur through clubs. Their work shall be chosen on the basis of Institute elections. ophizing” all the activities, keeping a track presided over by the following: The ‘Chief Festival Organizers’ and the InsIghT: Given that the attendance in In- of the direction of all the activities and il- ‘Chief Editors’ of the student papers will stitute GBMs and election soapboxes is luminating the masses on various issues. SHOUTBACK face ‘Team Leader Based Elections’ and the negligible, how do you propose in practi- Specific examples of questions which can ‘Club Secretary Representatives’ and the cal terms for GBMs and “House of Com- be posed to the SAB are: We NEED Feedback. Help us im- ‘Hostel and Department Representatives’ mons” to be an effective tool? 1. Is the 10:00 pm deadline for opposite sex prove, the way you want us to. to the SECs will be elected through Repre- A: The inertia of the old system will take entry in the hostels justifiable? Email - [email protected] sentative based Elections. its time to go, however the sanctity of these 2. What is the gravity of the drinking and Newsgroup - iitb.insight InsIght interviewed ISARC member Sau- forums will increase if conscious efforts its associated problems? rabh Pagaria with regards to some impor- by various bodies like journalism (bring- 3. Are the extra-curriculars at IIT hamper- Website - htttp://insight.iitb.ac.in tant issues concerning the recommenda- ing out an issue dedicated to forthcoming ing the academic growth of the students? tions. Here is an excerpt. For the complete GBM) and authorities (by ensuring that These may be just a few reflective ques- transcript visit http://insight.iitb.ac.in. GBM(S) are conducted on fixed date and tions… InsIghT team everybody is informed well in advance) are InsIghT: What did you base the underly- made. InsIghT: Why is the CPI criterion for eli- Executive Editor ing philosophies governing student ac- gibility to SAB fixed at 8? Is it based on Aditya Mittal tivities on? InsIghT: What is the incentive for a Chief the inherent assumption that people with A: The philosophy is based on certain Festival Organizer to discuss or debate an lower CPI cannot give valuable contribu- Chief Editor qualities (Integrity, ability to innovate, de- issue in the SEC when the same can be tions? Akshay Saxena sire for quality work, quest for excellence) sorted out within his/her own team? A: There is no inherent assumption what- THE EDITORIAL BOARD when imbibed in an IITian, shall enable A: There are two principal conditions in soever. SAB is envisioned to be a body of Anand Mathur, Ankur Kulkarni, Arvind him to be looked upon as a role model, a which a CFO will discuss issue in SEC: people who have achieved excellence in a Shastry, S Ram, Sneha Srikrishnan and class apart individual in our society. 1. If the Dean has asked for SEC’s opinion field, people who are respected in student William Robinson. on the issue. community and people who can be looked InsIghT: Does the slot system imply that 2. When any member of SEC raises a de- upon as unbiased and wise. However, they THE EXECUTION PANEL a marketing manager cannot schedule his bate on it. should be the people who apart from ex- Amrita Mahale, Anasua Chatterjee, Ankur meetings out of the slot time? We do not foresee SEC of a society discuss- celling in their field of interest do equal Gupta, Anuj Pradhan, Anup Mudbidri, A: The slot system is not meant to govern ing petty organizational issues and debat- justice to the primary motive for which Arunabh Sinha, Dhruv Arora, Gaurav Sultania, activities of an individual(s) but of a so- ing on them, as that is the work of organiz- they are in IIT i.e. academic, and grades Geetesh Gadkari, Koustubh Vachhani, Krishna Ramkumar, Kush Meshram, Md. Abdul Qavi, ciety, the idea is to ensure that the extra- ing team. in form of CPI become a good reflector of Mohit Garg, Mohit Soni, Nishant Patni, P curricular activities are constrained in the their commitment towards it. Prashant Pawan, Prashant P, Prateek Agarwal, specified time domain, giving an average InsIghT: What is the “minimum 70% votes Harsh Roy and Akshay Saxena are fifth year Raghav Goel, Robin Sharma, Sangram Kadam, enthusiastic IITian ample time and op- to win” an election based on? Is it feasible and fourth year dual degree students of the Sarmistha Pal, Shamiroh Tikoo, Shouri K, Shweta Shah, Siddharth Dixit, Sriram Emani, portunity to participate in extra-curricular if there are more than two candidates Dept. of Chem. Engg. They may be contacted Sudhanshu Garg, Udit Parakh, Varun Kanade, activities and yet retain order. However, standing for the same post? What is the at [email protected] and asaxena@iitb. telling a marketing manager to schedule alternative if no one secures 70% vote? ac.in respectively. InsIghT is the students’ newspaper of IIT Bombay. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Bombay. Any reproduction of these contents must include proper attribution and a link back to the InsIghT website. November 24 . 2004* 2 http://insight.iitb.ac.in/ Th e sudden reappearance of inter-hostel usual medleys of rock and indi pop! Th e video camera. We also had a photography For the second slot, the secretaries have to competition (not the GC) has left many of music scene was fi nally wrapped up with workshop with around 50 participants. obtain special permission from the SAC- us a little perplexed. We present to you re- an open air performance organised by the Any feedback or suggestions for next semes- in-charge. All fundae sessions, workshops ports on the Cultural and Sports scene as Western Music Club with great support ter’s events or structure maybe sent to the GS will be held in the SAC itself. it stands at IIT Bombay in an attempt to from H8. Cult at [email protected]. Th e GC is ideally seen as a motivating fac- clarify the “GC or no GC?” question. tor in sports, to increase the competitive- ness and bring out the best performances. Cultural Review However in its new avatar of inter-hostel Back From The Dead? events, the problem of too many activities This semester saw a pretty diff erent scene Many see the resumption of inter-hostel events as the revival of the GC. Krishna for an individual or the so called “drag- in terms of cultural activities on campus. Ramkumar, Sarmistha Pal, Dhruv Arora and Robin Sharma present an overview. ging” of people into many events has been With less importance being given to inter dealt with at the hostel level itself. Accord- hostel activities - reducing them to primar- Fine Arts: Sports Review ing to the changed rules, the SAC will send ily team events, the focus shift ed towards Th e fi ne arts events added fi lled the insti- request letters to the respective wardens to having a greater number of open events tute with colour this semester. Mukhauta Aft er quite a long spell of inactivity, the send in names for the teams; this way, any and club meetings. Th e following is a brief - the face painting competition highlight- sports scene in IITB is changing gears. Th e complaints regarding participation will be overview of the cultural activities carried ed the facial expressions of all the partici- Inter-Hostel GC as was held earlier has nipped at the bud. out by the new cultural council so far: pants. Th e pot painting event - Crazy Pot- been shown the door. Th e two chief reasons ter had around 60 participants, who were cited were that fi rstly, people are forced All in all Debating: given two themes - Modernity and Tra- into more activities than they can handle, Th e Debating scene received a shot in the dition. Participants were allowed to keep and this applies to the seniors too and sec- The cult and sports scene at IIT Bombay arm with the GD workshop conducted by their pieces of art as mementoes. Th e fi ne ondly, the contribution of each event to the has had a very diff erent look to it this se- Mr. Javin Bhide. Th e GDs also found their arts club of the institute - Rang also or- GC tally is the reason why sports coun- mester. Th e emphasis has shift ed from the way into the Speakers Club sessions, and ganised a few workshops. Shades of Black cilors of hostels have to drag participants GCs to open events. Th ere is a school that the response to them has been very good - the sketching workshop was attended by for some events. Complaints that people, believes that if implemented properly, this so far (especially from the freshies). Th e over 50 students. It was conducted by Sahal in particular freshers, are forced to come is a step in the right direction. open debate and elocution witnessed a Merchant . Down to Earth - the clay mod- for cheering was also cited as an important Th e open events have hence been better or- good turnout too. Th e inter-hostel debat- elling workshop had over 40 participants reason for putting things on hold. And this ganized and have seen tremendous partici- ing saw an interesting event in the form of and was conducted by Vipul Patole. Th e is something common to both sports and pation as compared to previous years. news reporting. Inter Hostel events in FA kicked off with cultural activities. Th erefore, inter-hos- Th ere are however some very pertinent Zindagi, an event which aimed at captur- tel events have been restarted, minus the questions to be raised. Inter-Hostel events 0 Literary Arts: ing Life@IITB on canvas. Th e second FA points system. are not even close to the old GC without 2 Th e 2 inter hostel LA events held this sem interhostel event was Best-out-of-waste At present, every sports activity is either an additive points system. Th e competition were Dumb Charades and Wordgames. A which involved making a piece by creative- clubbed as an inter-hostel or as an open will exist but without its old edge. When ‘Scrabble and Snatch Workshop’ was con- ly using waste material like twigs,paper event. Team games rightly get categorized InsIghT reported the ban on the GCs in ducted by Pramit Kamath and Gautam cans, straws etc. as inter-hostel events since, the number of August we voiced concerns that the steps Hazari. Th e inter-college Lit scene has also teams taking part can only be limited (you might kill the General Championships. Th e been pretty good for IITB this year. Aft er Dramatics: can’t have 30 teams in an open for a volley- concerns seem to be well founded. Th ough, winning the LA trophy at Malhar (a trophy Th e Dramatics scene of IIT started “acting ball tournament!), and certain games that the inter hostel events that occurred this we did not win last year), we put up some up” with a good performance at Malhar. many people play at an individual level fall semester were well-contested, there was a good performances at Kaleidoscope and On our campus, the open impromptu wit- into the open events category. Th e 2 inter lack of the passion that has fueled many Umang as well. nessed 22 teams of 5 each. Another open hostel sports events that were held this se- stunning performances over the years. It is event conducted was the open situational mester were Water Polo and Aquatics. Th e not our place to decide whether this is for Music and Dance: acting which had 30 teams participating. next semester is expected to witness many the better. Only time will tell. All that can Th e music and dance department of IITB Th e Inter hostel Drama Competition saw more events. be said with certainty is that there will be jived its way to new heights this semes- a series of great performances put up by Since extra-curricular activities had blown a section of us who will look back on our ter. Th e open Antakshari - Hum Tum saw all the hostels in both Hindi and English. up to alarming proportions, it has been de- years here and fondly remember ‘the good around 130 students singing themselves Th e jewel of the dramatics scene however cided to allot slots for these activities. For old days’. hoarse in the OAT, with the boys beating has to be the Sophies’ Production staged in sports, only SAC and SAC premises can be the girls (in a tie breaker!). Th ere was also the middle of the semester. A set of 4 plays used for the inter-hostel events, and can be Krishna Ramkumar and Dhruv Arora are a dandiya workshop which had around 150 conceived and developed completely by conducted by the respective secretaries in second year M.Sc Chemistry students. students participating. A platform was set- second year students, were staged in front the following time slots: Sarmistha Pal is a third year student- up for the dance enthu punters in the form of a nearly full PC Saxena auditorium. from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. of In Sync - the dance club. Th e inter-hos- Weekdays: Robin Sharma is a fi rst year Engineer- tel event conducted was Western Group Photography: 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm ing Physics student. Th ey can be contacted Vocals. In addition to these events we had Many of the events of the campus like the 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm at [email protected], [email protected], 5 classical music and dance performances, dandiyas, SPIC MACAY events etc. were Weekends: [email protected] and [email protected] through the SPIC MACAY. We also had caught on tape with the help of the institute Friday 5:30 pm to Sunday 10.00 pm respectively. 4 dandiya nights where we witnessed the ment, IIT won the case. Th e Sai Kripa con- For almost the entire latter half of this tractor withdrew from the contract due to semester you may have observed a lot of H12-H13: A Rank Mess! independent economic reasons. Hence the H12-H13 ‘refugees’ dining with you, watch- Soon aft er the mid-semester exams the H12-13 messes were closed down and the mess was left stranded, with no contractor. ing TV with you, and requesting you to let canteen services have only been resumed recently. Ankur Kulkarni presents a report. It was thought necessary to review the very them eat from your canteen accounts. Th e model of a private mess itself. Hence no building. During the midsem exams the on the other messes increased enormous- ‘private mess’ (read as better food, cheaper messing was to resume before the commit- H12-13 wardens and the associate wardens ly. Initially some messes refused ‘H12-13 rates, more accountability) was one of the tee report came. called a council meeting simply informing refugees’ food claiming space and worker reasons that led many to change over to Th e only entity who seems to have gained them that the mess and the canteen will be problems. But with time these too were H12-13 from their previous hostels a year from this fi asco is Chhatradhari Caterers closed for pest control operations. Th ese settled and life got back to normal. What ago. Th is mess also came with a fabulous – who also run the canteen in hostels 2, pest control operations were to be carried didn’t get settled, was the blaring absurdity night canteen facility – which catered to a 3, 9 & 6. With the H12-13 night canteen out by the PHO and were to last for one of the events. When we spoke to the war- lot of hungry-night-outing stomachs re- closed, a lot of inmates fl ooded the H6 can- week. H12-13 together, house almost 1000 dens we uncovered the real story. Sai Kripa lentlessly till 4 am in the morning. But, ear- teen. Fortunately, now things seem to be students. Students were allocated messes workers were agitated for not being given lier this semester, within a span of a week, getting better. Th e night canteen in H12-13 in other hostels and were given the op- the same status as other institute workers. all this disappeared almost without a trace has been restarted. And guess who cracks tion of joining them for a week’s duration. Mess workers of the institute messes get – leaving a lot of stranded inmates and a the deal? Chhatradhari Caterers of course! Th e midsems being just over, many opted permanent worker status, housing on cam- lot more unanswered questions. Aft er the (Applause for the businessman of the se- to fend for themselves, by taking a break pus, and other perks. Sai Kripa workers midsem exams this semester, following an mester!!). And there is more good news. from hostel food. But the real shock came demanded the same privileges and went unprecedented and rather mysterious se- According to the latest information, ten- when by the end of the week posters got on strike. Th e matter then went to court quence of events, the mess and the canteen ders have been drawn afresh for the mess put up saying that the mess will remain with the workers lodging a case against closed down. contract. Th e search once again has begun closed till the end of the semester. An insti- IIT. Incidentally the H12-13 mess was in Let us look back at what ensued that led for the elusive contractor who would be tute committee was formed to look into the need of pest-control operations. Hence the to such a situation. Th e mess and the can- willing to enter this mess. (pun intended!) feasibility of ‘private messes’. Th e mess was wardens thought of getting it done while teen were being run by the Sai Kripa ca- Ankur Kulkarni is a third year student of the deemed to resume only when the commit- the court case carried on. Th e wardens also terers – the same people who run the res- Department of Aerospace Engineering. He tee would come to a conclusion. thought it best that the council’s opinion be taurant on the 3rd fl oor of the Gulmohar may be contacted at [email protected]. As a result of these radical events, the load disregarded. A week aft er the announce- 3 November 24 . 2004* http://insight.iitb.ac.in Money Matters NSO: Miles To Go... With sky-bridges and concrete footpaths in the campus, people oft en won- Over the years numerous questions have been raised with regards to the eff ec- der whether the money could have been used in a better manner. Akshay Saxena tiveness of the NSO program. Aided by a survey towards evaluating the same and Anasua Chatterjee report how IIT Bombay manages its resource allocation. Raghav Goel and Gaurav Sultania attempt to present the complete picture. ted to IIT Bombay only 20 crore is really at quent years. As of now NSOs are open only Each year IIT Bombay’s expenditure runs he National Sports Organisation is a the disposal of the authorities. Almost all T to freshmen. Th ey can still be pursued ‘in- into approximately 100 crores. A phenom- classifi cation in the scheme of education the 75 crores mentioned above are spent formally’ but without the dagger of grades enal amount when compared to other formulated in furtherance of setting a cli- on the day to day running of the institute. (even if they are just PP/NP) hanging over educational institutes across the country. mate of sports consciousness and improve- 50 crores are spent on salaries and the rest one’s head, it becomes exceedingly diffi cult Each year a large faction of the student ment of physique among the youth during on amenities. IIT Bombay pays an annual to perform. NSO coordinator Dr. Reddy community forms (oft en false) notions of their period of education. So much for a electricity bill of close to 9 crores. Close to agrees that this would be a step in the right a large fraction of the funds being spent defi nition, but when looking back, initially the annual budget of most ordinary col- direction. However before this is done a on seemingly superfl uous foot-paths and it was only the NCC/NSS that were avail- leges. Th e fees we pay is only suffi cient to closer look needs to be taken into the qual- construction. In our investigation of issues able as activities and that too as a compul- account for students’ scholarships. ity of teaching being imparted. such as construction and research expen- sory two year program (for once freshies A few things become clear when you look Th e NSOs are a serious aff air. It is evident diture, we’ve oft en felt the need for what we feel lucky!!!). Quite obviously NCC wasn’t from the sheer quality of IIT Bombay’s quite the kind of course for most of us with instructors that NSO is meant to be more its demanding course structure and in- than fun and games. Yet, to expect only 6 tense discipline, and had to be replaced by full time instructors to handle all sporting NSO program with a two year curriculum. activities catering to around 5000 students Th ankfully as many would say, it, in its is perhaps too ambitious. Th e consequence present shape is a one year, least demand- is a growing indiff erence to the NSOs. 54% ing PP/NP course. But here we try to raise of our sample space says that they lost in- concerns on this declining importance of terest in their NSO activity because of the the NSO activities and also on its present instructor’s attitude or the lack of it. Also structure. if we want to open NSO classes for non- Every year students are admitted into NSO freshmen then the load shall further in- by virtue of their aptitude and abilities in crease. It seems to be a high time to induct various games and sports. Th e students some new coaches. undergo training for 3 hours per week and 0 present here. Here in brief is where all the at the numbers. IIT doesn’t really have as Yet another issue of concern is the induc- 3 80% attendance is compulsory. A student is much money to spend as many presume. tion of non-sporting activities in the NSO money goes. awarded PP grade for this activity in each Th e mere day to day running of this in- program. NSO was essentially meant for Th e information presented in this article semester provided minimum requirement stitute is an expensive aff air. Th e 20 crore physical education and the other activities is in accordance with that received from of this activity is met during that semester plan expenditure has to account for ex- were included only in the year 2000. 64% Prof. Dipan K. Ghosh, Dean (RM). with 80% minimum attendance or is it? penditure on departmental equipments of the people feel that various non-sport- Well, accepted that an NP is too much for research equipments on central facilities, ing activities which are presently a part of Where do the funds come from? having low attendance but should not there the Computer Centre, Library books, hos- the NSO program should not be included Contrary to the media’s portrayal, we are be a credit system to provide an incentive tel renovation and new buildings (addition under NSO. Th e SAC needs to take a se- very much government funded and alum- to strive for the better? IITD has this credit and alteration to department buildings). rious look into the present structure and ni aided. Th ere are essentially four ways in system and the grade obviously doesn’t Th is also brings to the fore the importance classify guitar or dramatics as something which IIT Bombay receives funds. contribute to their GPA calculation. Dr. of our alumni contributions. Th e generous other than ‘sports’. (i) Government grants Reddy, the previous NSO coordinator, sites donations we receive need to be looked In all, NSO program urgently needs a re- (ii) Alumni donations the present system of giving PP/NP as the upon in the framework of 20 crores and vamping. Much can be done to make it (iii) Collections by way of Fees main reason for the students as well as the not 100 crores. All at once they become more productive. Also its spheres can be (iv) Funds towards sponsored research coaches not taking the course seriously. signifi cant. Th is is why KreSIT, SOM and broadened to include more number of peo- projects and consultancy. NSO is an institute course. Shouldn’t the H12 and H13 would not have been pos- ple. An honest eff ort from the authorities standards we set for academic instruction sible but for alumni support. and the students is required for the same. Where the money goes… apply to the NSOs as well? Over the years As you read through this issue and further NSO activity has proved helpful in overall Th e Govt. grants are divided into two concerns have been raised with regard to issues of InsIghT, we’d strongly suggest development of an individual, developing categories - Plan and Non-plan. Plan ex- the quality of instruction and training be- keeping these numbers in mind. Each time qualities like time management, leadership penditures are those which create assets. ing provided on fi eld. InsIght conducted an we criticize or analyze how our institute qualities, team spirit, organizational capac- Assets include construction, purchase of informal course evaluation over a sample dispenses its resources its important to re- ities, etc. and hence it should be given the scientifi c equipment and similar expenses. space of 200 students and came up with the member that things oft en aren’t as simple importance it rightly deserves. Non-Plan expenditures are those which following results. as they seem. Raghav Goel is a third year student of the are usually necessary for the running of an 68% of the people agree that NSO activity Akshay Saxena is a fourth year Department of Metallurgical Engineering. organisation. has helped in their all round development student of the Department of Chemical En- Gaurav Sultania is a fourth year dual de- Our Non-Plan grant per year is currently and helps in reducing stress and around gineering. Anasua Chatterjee is a third year gree student of the Department of Mechani- Rs 75 crores. Our typical plan allotment is 80% of the people wish to continue with student of the Department of Civil Engineer- cal Engineering. Th ey can be contacted at about 20 crores per year. Tuition and other some kind of sporting activity on a regu- ing. Th ey can be contacted at asaxena@iitb. [email protected] and [email protected]. Fees contribute around Rs 10 crores. Th is lar basis. A staggering 85% would like to ac.in and [email protected] respectively. ac.in respectively. means that of the 100 crore budget allot- continue with NSO (as a course) in subse-
‘These eyes, tho’ clear to outward view Techfest, the annual science and tech- of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their Drishti - an Eye Opener nology festival of IIT Bombay launched seeing have forgot, Nor to their idle orbs DRISHTI in association with Th e National Techfest 2005 will be organizing “Drishti” to encourage doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, Association for the Blind (NAB). Drishti innovative ideas to help the blind. Here is a brief overview of the event. throughout the year, Or man, or woman. is a competition which aims to encourage Yet I argue not Against Heaven’s hand or and capital we constantly commission to Th is is what the visually impaired have to students to innovate and invent for a noble will, not bate a jot Of heart or hope; but innovate and manufacture. Th is goal once say: cause such as this. Th e participants are ex- still bear up and steer Right onward.’ realized leads to further challenges - to “What is needed is to make a product that is pected to come up with workable solutions Th ese words of John Milton might have make these products and solutions practi- useful and can ensure its widespread avail- and models as aids for the visually im- given some panacea to a blind person in cal and aff ordable to the melee which in- ability to the consumers.” -Shashi Surana. paired. What Techfest is looking for is not the seventeenth century. Today, it remains cludes the lower economic classes and the “One problem relates to turning the pages just a distant mirage on a sheet of paper but merely a limerick, one that will soon be bourgeois crowd. Most aids and products of a book while scanning. If I am scanning a presentation that can be implemented on covered by the sands of time. for the visually impaired available today in a book using a fl at bed scanner, then there a larger segment. It wouldn’t be too ostentatious to state that our country are either obsolete on one side is no automatic way to turn the pages of Students from all over the country are research and technology in India has come or unaff ordable to the motley crowd. Here this book. I could use a document feeder welcome to participate in DRISHTI. Th is of age in many fi elds of development. But are a few comments from a representative but that would involve removing the bind- Techfest hopes that it will initiate a sense at the same time it is appalling to notice group of this community: ing of the book.” - Pranav Lal. of mutual awareness about this sector of that little or no thought has been chan- Day-to-day use gadgets like the music sys- Th e idea is humble, the dream is obtuse but technology which holds a tremendous neled to improve aids and products for the tem, television, washing machine, kitchen- the mission is clear: To develop practical, amount of potential to innovate, create visually impaired in our country. A group ware and the like are sometimes diffi cult to aff ordable and effi cient solutions for the and market. For more information log on that fi nds one member among eighty Indi- use, because of the sets of key commands, visually impaired that would be apprecia- to http://www.techfest.org/competitions/ ans surely deserves to benefi t from the time which might diff er from brand to brand. ble and useful to them. With this thought, drishti.html November 24 . 2004* 4 http://insight.iitb.ac.in/ possibility of people side-stepping or For lesser rules and regulations: overlooking another rule. Th e vehicular Rewriting the Rule Book traffi c on campus caused a threat to the ne expert on higher education has de- O Th e imposition of a new rule has alwaysys caused a furor among the resident population, in the form of an in- scribed colleges and universities as islands students. Sangram Kadam and Zishaan present their contrasting views. creasing number of accidents, in spite of the of oppression, in a sea of freedom. While speed-limits on campus. It became neces- the comment at fi rst sounds frivolous, it hostels. Th e quickly changing policy makes For more rules and regulations sary to impose a carpet ban on possession deserves more thought. Although, this the reasoning behind the rules seem very reedom on college campuses, in my opin- of vehicles. Th e subsequent phasing out of particular observation has more to do with shaky. What seems to be a little harsher is F ion, is a relative term. It is oft en seen that “vehicle-ownership-rights” shows us how, academics, and to freedom of expression; the new phenomenon of time restrictions students in colleges with restrictive poli- authorities are keen on making the rules one must understand the implications on of entry and exit from the campus. One cies, may never bicker, because that is what just, acceptable and fair. the overall bearing this period bears upon gets a feeling that we are heading towards they are used to encountering all their life. Another case that comes to the mind is the lives of students. Although ‘laissez- the idea of a hostel, where everybody wakes On the other hand many a student from that of liquor during the valedictory par- faire’ may look a distant dream, surely a up to a bell at 7:30 am and lights go out at the more liberal ties a couple of years ago. Its almost a leg- greater amount of freedom, with rules and 11 pm. colleges will ve- end now for freshmen and sophomores regulations merely to deal with more ex- It is imperative for hemently protest who haven’t witnessed the ...well, the bar- treme behavior is a more practical option. the authorities to the imposition rels of heavenly spirits. Th is was before But is freedom really endangered? expect some sense Black & White of any new rules, the institute authorities decided they had Th e answers to the above questions are not of maturity and re- however small it may be. So, where does had enough and took concrete steps to ad- “obviously yes”, especially keeping in mind sponsibility from the students. It is a telling one draw the line? What exactly does one dress the issue. Of course, the students try the situation on other campuses. We here tale, if the country’s brightest twenty year imply by “being free” and by “freedom”? and very oft en fi nd their way to beat the at IIT Bombay defi nitely enjoy more free- olds cannot be trusted without a charter of How much “freedom” is the right amount system. But it has surely, to some extent, dom than say, hostels at St. Xaviers College, trivial do’s and don’t’s. of “freedom”? brought things under control. Mumbai or the NITs. At the same time, one Another problem that tends to be ignored While all of us love freedom, one must bear Th e argument that we are old enough to must not blindly conform to the practices is the freedom in exercising one’s academic in mind that rules are in place for a good tell the good from the bad, is alright. But elsewhere. One must appreciate that the choices. Although the situation varies from reason. I remember my cousins asking me then many we-know-whats-good-for-us chemistry of each University environment program to program; our academic poli- if my routine involved waking up at the decisions have known to have led to disas- is unique in its nature and comparisons cies are quite rigid when it comes to cours- stroke of 6 in the morning, eating break- ters. to even similar institutions must be taken es, projects, and the like. Even extra and fast at 8:00 am on a long table, attending It is also relevant, as an aside, to with a pinch of salt. If a system, in place for co-curricular activities which were a great classes at 9:00 am and sleeping at 10:00 pm! consider that the protests from the student many years, has been successful; except for avenue of fun and frolic for students, along For quite a few of us who have never community when it comes to rules about stray mishaps, few and far between; then with being a learning ground for life skills; 0 are now bogged down by restrictions. experienced hostel life before joining the campus and hostel life are vehement and any amendments to the current rules and 4 IITs, I am sure this was the dominant pic- vociferous. But similar enthusiasm is oft en regulations must respect this. Aft er all as While rules like the ban on drinking and ture. It was hard for me to explain and dif- lacking in the areas of extra and Dickens rightly points out “Accidents hap- smoking, strict imposition of speed lim- fi cult for them to digest that there were co-curricular activities and even more in pen in the best regulated families.” its for vehicles (mind you not just student absolutely no restrictions on time and the problems besieging academic work. It is also very important that the rationale vehicles), penaliziation of academic dis- movement in and out of the hostel/cam- It might not be very relevant to an behind a rule must be clear. Rules must to honesty seriously, etc. seem logical; what pus. And they were surprised when I told Institute of the likes of IIT. But college a signifi cant extent improve the quality of seems unjustifi ed is completely phasing them that my hostel warden wouldn’t even authorities in Bombay resorted to rules that activity; safety and convenience. Only then out vehicles, absurd time restrictions on know if I left the city! included dress-code, language restrictions, can one justify the curtailment of freedom, freedom of movement of students, provid- So much, so good. But how does one jus- restrictions on the usage of electronic to which we all have a right. ing little or almost no option in choice of tify one’s “freedom”? Civil society, runs gadgetry, etc. One oft en fi nds that discussions on free- electives (are there any at all?), etc. on the premise, that following the rules is Rules are necessary, when freedom starts dom very oft en end up raising questions Harvard president Derek Bok’s warnings benefi cial to all; and that the cost we pay in to become a menace. Constant moral about the very purpose of educational in- are to be seriously thought about, “What terms of our freedom benefi ts in the form policing may not be good. But sometimes, stitutions. As Malcolm Forbes rightly puts universities can and must resist are delib- of greater security and convenience. One its not a very bad idea to have a set of rules it “Th e purpose of education is to replace erate, overt attempts to impose orthodoxy must learn to look at authorities not as in place and accept them. Aft er all, rules an empty mind with an open one.” Th is is and suppress dissent. In recent years, the demon-fi gures, trading in the freedom and separate man from beast. not easy and a lot of eff ort goes into achiev- threat of orthodoxy has come primarily happiness of the student community for ing this. Rules just help make this process from within rather than outside the uni- their own ends. Th e least that is expected Zishaan is a fi ft h year dual degree student easy. versity.” At the age of about twenty years, is responsible behavior. And in the absence of the Department of Civil Engineering and At the same time, one cannot ignore the when responsibilities are given, maturity of such responsible behavior, is it wrong can be contacted at [email protected] fact that the Institute has come up with will be shown. One cannot be achieved for the authorities to implement and some serious and stringent rules. A much- without the other. enforce newer or modifi ed rules? Disclaimer: Th e views expressed here are talked-about bike ban to time restrictions Sangram Kadam is a fi ft h year dual degree Sometimes the imposition of one purely those of the authors and are not of entry of opposite sex students to the student of the Dept. of Elec. Engg. and can be contacted at [email protected] rule is necessary to prevent the subscribed to by InsIghT. Firstly, I would like to appreciate the eff ort on the 3rd fl oor of Gulmohar building but taken to cover the placement scene and at the idea was shot down. Th e placement the same time thank InsIghT for writing Letter to the Editor offi ce is currently left at the mercy of es- a positive piece. Th ere are however, a few InsIghT presented details of this year’s placement scene in the last edition cover tate offi ce to accommodate the dynamic comments I would like to add. Th e article story. Institute placement nom Anip Sharma expresses his thoughts over the same. schedules of company executives which had voiced concerns about the poor per- best to convey this to the companies. Th ere call whether to join fi rm A or fi rm B which is a must for managing a long term rela- formance of IIT Bombay with regards to are instances at IITR, ITBHU and other have similar job profi les and are very close tionship. Th ese are small things which add bulk-recruitment. I shall try to address the campuses when very good candidates end on all ranking parameters. Sadly at IITB we up in the bigger picture. Scheduling in- issue as follows. up taking low profi le jobs early and then cannot aff ord to have the luxury of doing terviews also becomes diffi cult due to the Talking about the bulk recruitment the ar- wait for second round to begin. Th is hap- so as we have a huge population to place academic commitments of the candidates. ticle should have laid a base for compari- pens due to haphazard nature of schedul- and the above stated idea will result in job As such, I do not agree that the placement son. It should have been clear in pointing ing and at IITB we have tried our best to loss. Imagine a situation wherein McKin- process hinders the academic curriculum out that among those who applied how avoid such cases. sey and BCG with their limited number of but sometimes it becomes diffi cult to ex- many got recruited in other IITs v/s IIT An important issue is that students here off ers make it to the same people and then pect the interviewers to wait for classes Bombay as far as bulk recruiters were con- have a totally diff erent perception of jobs the candidates choose the job. In that case to get over. Th ere was a proposal to allow cerned. I understand that it is diffi cult to and if I can dare say so their aspirations are I am not too sure whether they would be students to take a leave for interview (not get the enormous amount of data, but then clouded purely by compensation packages. willing to consider other candidates. How- PPT) against a slip issued by the placement that is what a makes a good investigative Work Environment, brand value of a com- ever I must confess that I am not exactly offi ce but again it got rejected. Th e only piece. Another point intricately linked to pany and HR practices are factors which aware of how IIMs handle this situation. obvious solution to the rescue has been bulk recruitment is the issue of joining rate. very few students take into account while Perhaps the companies keep this in mind scheduling at night and companies are I have no hesitation in saying that IITB signing a Job Application Form. If you ask and release a buff er list of candidates. happy with it when the hospitality is good; has the best organized process in terms me to venture a guess I would say that this I agree that there are some areas where we but the “class A” treatment is absent here. of dates for companies. So bulk recruiters is because most of the students take a very can further improve the placement pro- Th ey should be given rooms in the guest with typically low compensation get the short term view of their career and see job cess. Logistics is one of them. It is a very house on a preferential basis which does “right” spot i.e. by the time they come the switching a very near activity which of trivial issue which has been made so large not happen currently. people who apply to those companies are course has implications in other ways too. because of the endless amount of paper Conclusively, I would just comment that the ones who have a high probability of One of the ideas in the article was paral- work expected by the authorities and the though few screws need to be tightened, joining. I cannot say with conviction if this lel recruitment procedure. Parallel recruit- absence of dedicated facilities exclusively IITB has a good placement process. Let us fact is recognized by the companies or not. ment happens with the basic premise that for the placement process. hope for a great placement round next se- But the placement cell for sure has tried its at the end of the day a student can take a Th ere was a proposal to have a PPT room mester. 5 November 24. 2004* http://insight.iitb.ac.in
institute course to last only 100 hours. Th e As Sujata puts it, “German is amongst the languages as HSS electives. As Judith says, he prospect of crossing the seven seas T fees are Rs. 1600/- (Rs.1000/- refundable). foremost commercial and fi nancial lan- “Introducing foreign language courses as has always been a dream for the average guages spoken in mainland Europe. It is part of the syllabus is a very good idea. Stu- Indian. Th is seemingly elusive dream how- German Classes: presently the 6th largest trading partner of dents at IITB are generally very competi- ever, is no longer utopian with more and Th e German course has 58 students in 2 India and hence ability to fl uently converse tive in nature and do not have the luxury more students going abroad for summer batches and is conducted by the Goethe- in German would be a good credential for of time, so unless they have a creditable projects, internships or for projects aft er Institut (Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, businessmen and students alike.” course, they will not work so hard on it. A they are placed in MNCs. It’s all smooth http://www.goethe.de/bombay). Th e in- Th e fact remains that ability to converse in basic French course should be at least 60 sailing if the destination is an English structors are Ms. Sujata Rajan and Ms. a foreign language is one feather you would hours long to acquaint students with basic speaking nation like the USA or the UK. Minal Chiplunkar. Th e course is the same defi nitely want in your cap! Doesn’t this vocabulary and day-to-day language. Of Th e going does get tough though if you are as that off ered at the Institute, but time highlight the fact that maybe these courses course, one can’t learn to speak the lan- bound for say, France or Germany where constraints have reduced it to 56 units should be a part of the curriculum? In fact, guage in such a short duration and hence most of us would be as helpless as a Sikh in while the Elementary Level 1 at Max Muel- many universities do off er foreign language there should be an option to continue in a remote village of Tamil Nadu! ler Bhavan has 160 units (Each unit is courses as HSS electives. For instance IIT another semester. ” Her words are echoed Th e consequence – a spurt in the number by Sujata who says, “Teaching this class has of students taking foreign language classes. been an immense amount of fun…an in- In fact, as Shriram Shivaraman, Institute teresting bunch, very eager to learn. And Secretary for Alumni and International Parlez-vous Francais? it is not just about German or about an Relations puts it, “Knowing a foreign lan- Sriram Emani and Pradeep Prabhakaran highlight how some examination…you should learn to com- guage would assist in getting scholarships. among us are making a transition from technologists to linguists. municate, express yourself, say what you It would also help you get posted abroad if equivalent to a 45 minute class). Th e fees Madras off ers German 1 and 2 as HSS think and feel without fear. Communica- you get placed in an MNC.” are Rs. 2250/- for the 56 units. Th ere is also electives in the 3rd and 4th semester of tion is what matters at the end of the day Presently in IIT Bombay, French and Ger- an option to extend the classes next year, undergraduate studies and French in the be it English, German or French.” man classes are conducted under the aegis depending on demand by the students. Af- 8th semester. All these are 3-credit courses It has always been chic to intersperse your of the Dean AIR (Alumni and Internation- ter 100 units, they can appear for an exam (which is equivalent to a 6 credit course speech with phrases such as tête-à-tête, al Relations), Prof. Pradipta Banerji (Dept. “Start Deutsch” for certifi cation, this has at IITB) and the general feedback is that faux pas, crème-de-la-crème and so on. of Civil Engineering). A few details: just been introduced. these moderately tough courses are highly Wouldn’t it be even better if you could interesting and interactive as compared to actually converse fl uently in a foreign lan- French Classes: Why French or German over other op- most other courses in the institute. Apart guage? So let’s hope we get to take our fi rst 68 students are presently enrolled for this tions? from such pure language courses, IIT Ma- step in this direction with foreign languag- two-semester long course conducted by Judith answers, “Many research and job dras also off er electives such as German es as HSS electives soon. Given that the Ms. Judith Escallier (Universite Stendhal, 0 opportunities are springing up in France Translation and Literature. enthusiasm amongst students for learning 5 Grenoble, France) who is currently do- owing to recent commercial and techno- foreign languages is very high, implement- ing her internship under the Dean AIR. logical advancement. It is very essential to So why not at IIT Bombay? ing this should be tres facile, isn’t it? Let’s Divided into 3 batches, the students study acquaint oneself with the French language Th e French and German courses in the in- wait and watch… French for 5 hours a week and the syllabus to live in France because the common man stitute have been a grand success with stu- Sriram Emani is a second year Civil Engg. and text book followed is the same as that there does not understand English. More- dents enrolling in large numbers and also student. Pradeep Prabhakaran is a third at Alliance Francaise. Of course, the ba- over, French culture and literature are very giving positive feedback. Shriram (AIR year Aerospace Engg. student. Th ey can be sic course at the Alliance is for 160 hours rich and many people learn French just for secy) feels that the authorities would not contacted at [email protected] and whereas time constraints have forced the the love of the language and the culture.” have any problem with introducing foreign [email protected] respectively. less Mind’ affi rmed what a wonderful actor largely uneventful semester - activity A Jim Carrey is and can be. Th e plot, from a wise, (for reasons we are unable to write Phillip K. Dick story, is conceptually dis- about) should have ensured that all of Esoterica turbing while the acting and direction give you out there are well prepared for your Udit Parekh and Anuj Pradhan move from books and food to give rise to some of the most poignant scenes of end sems and thus the need of last minute movie buff s a guide to the good, the bad and the ugly of the latest in cinema. the year. Gael Garcia Bernal was probably mugging shall not arise. Assuming that the the thunder humour not the fi nd of the year, with his performances above is true, all of you will have abundant from many a quite pulling in Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Bad Education’ and amounts of free time pre and post end fi lm this year. off the politi- as the young Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in ‘Th e sems. Th us, to help you pass the abundant ‘Super Size cal message Motorcycle Diaries,’ although the movie amounts of free time we spoke of earlier we Me’ is an ir- it tries to de- overly romanticises Che. Th ere was the have decided to sum up the movies of 2004 reverent look liver and no- chilling indie movie, ‘Open Water’ where which stand out from the rest (for reasons at the dan- where close a scuba-diving couple get left behind in both good and bad). gers of fast to the best shark infested water. Th ere was the ballet- Th e year has been an exciting one for movie food. Direc- that Stone esque action of ‘Hero’ directed by Zhang buff s; classics like ‘Torque’ and ‘EuroTrip’ tor Morgan and Parker Yimou and strangely starring Jet Li. As- made us stand up and take notice. Finely Spurlock goes are capable toundingly, for a commercial Hindi movie, nuanced performances from uber talented on a month of. Pixar re- there was the wonderfully adapted ‘Maq- actors like Vin Diesel in ‘Th e Chronicles of long diet of leased the bool.’ We could fi nd almost no fault with Riddick’; Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affl eck in McDonalds’ s u c c e s s f u l the fi lm, the acting of all the lead actors is ‘Jersey Girl’, Ben Affl eck again in ‘Surviv- meals and the ‘Shark Tale’ almost inch-perfect and the direction is ing Christmas’ also caught our attention results tend and just re- slick enough. Naseeruddin Shah and Om albeit for all the wrong reasons. One must not to be very leased ‘Th e Puri must make the best witches ever to not underestimate the intellectually stimu- positive, with Incredibles,’ have been in an adaptation of Macbeth. lating acting of the Alien and the Predator one doctor again prom- Another surprise was Lakshya – a slick ac- in the imaginatively titled ‘Alien v/s Preda- pronouncing ising to do tion movie which is another testament to tor’; there was some wonderful direction him almost indistinguishable from an al- well at the box offi ce. Th e fi rst PG rated director Farhan Akhtar’s skill. Time Mag- and cinematography in fl icks like ‘Ana- coholic. Heavy metal music fans were not fi lm Pixar has brought out, it has received azine summed it up rather nicely when condas: Th e Hunt for the Blood Orchid’; to be left behind with ‘Metallica’ releasing some critical acclaim for its characterisa- they said that it holds the potential to give and of course some fabulous adaptations ‘Some Kind of Monster’ about the making tion and its message of acceptance of those any Hollywood action release a run for its like ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, and we of the ‘St. Anger’ album. While some crit- who stray from the norm. ‘Spiderman 2’ money. don’t even want to talk about ‘Garfi eld’ and ics gushed, we thought Village Voice got released to raves from all over, but it left us Eventually our faith in cinema was re- ‘Troy’! ‘Van Helsing’ was omitted from this it right when they said, that the idea we cold. Th e Village Voice line seemed to ring stored by, movies like Main Hoon Na and elite list for one reason only – Kate Bekin- should treat rock stars as people is ridicu- true here as well. Th e idea that we should Mujhse Shaadi Karoge which shattered us sale in leather (Disclaimer: We don’t sub- lous! treat superheroes as people is ridiculous, with their technical wizardry! scribe to this! –eds). 2004 showed again, how powerful a force unless they’re dark and brooding like Val So get set to check out all those you have Now that we’ve put the year in perspec- animated movies and cartoon adaptations Kilmer’s Batman or Hugh Jackman’s Wol- missed. Good luck with the exams and tive, the year did throw up a few shockers. have become. We had the follow up to verine. happy hols. One of them being that this was the year Shrek, divided between the even-better- Good pop movies seemed a rarity but we of the documentary. ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ (Yes than-the-fi rst and nowhere-close-to-Shrek did have Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill: Vol Anuj Pradhan is a fourth year student of we all loved it because it bashed Bush, but camps, we shall be diplomatic and say that 2’ reminiscent of the ‘Pulp Fiction’ style the Department of Mechanical Engineering. apart from that it was one of the worst ex- it is at least as good as its predecessor. Th ere which had its Tarantino moments but still Udit Parekh is a fi nal year student of the De- cuses for a documentary, taking the term was the puppet animation of ‘Team Amer- wasn’t anywhere close to his best. partment of Physics. Th ey can be contacted personal vendetta to a whole new level) ica: World Police’ with its extreme, scato- Finally to some of the most beautiful fi lms at [email protected] and [email protected]. and the surprise hit ‘Super Size Me’ stole logical, gross, puppets’ heads exploding of the year - ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spot- ac.in November 24, 2004* 6 http://insight.iitb.ac.in
IITians: A colloquial term for a rare spe- asked to help them convince her to allow cies called Nerdis defi nitis. Behavioural them to go. Th e principal saw the list of patterns include heated lunch/dinner time MI-thology competitions and the various artists per- debates over which solution to the problem forming at MI and was so impressed that was better and not merely the ‘correct’ so- Picking up on the theme for this year’s Mood Indigo, Krishna Ramkumar she sent a huge contingent! lution! Weak eyesight being a defect, 75% digs up some real MI-thology. Let’s hope MI-2004 adds to the legend. wear huge spectacles. Situation is wors- MI 92. In the words of Anand Sivakuma- than expected. Many bands were being Identity Crisis ened by engaging in lifelong TV watch- ran, the GS Cult in 1992, “It was supposed especially uncooperative and weren’t play- Last year, a coordi had phoned Suchitra ing and burying themselves neck-deep in to happen in December, but Ayodhya hap- ing at their allotted time slots. So out of the Krishnamurthy several times, with regards books. But, come December, and all that pened - so we postponed it to January. blue, a coordi announced that if “Butchers to her compering Antakshari. On many just fades into oblivion as the world is wit- Th en the Bombay riots happened - even Strike” (a fi ctitious band!) from Madras an occasion, the maid had picked up the ness to the ‘bestest’ fest that one can imag- more people wanted to cancel it - so we didn’t show up in 5 mints, they would be phone. A few weeks later, he called Shekhar ine. “Mood Indigo” - the name inspired by postponed it to March. Finally we had it disqualifi ed. He then promptly made a Kapur in connection with judging a dra- Duke Ellington’s (now who the hell is that!) in March, believe it or not, one week aft er scene, pretending to disqualify them. Fol- matics competition. Th e exasperated maid famous song - a pseud name for an even the Bombay bomb blasts. Th e Deputy Di- lowing this, bands rushed up on stage the said ‘Haven’t you already spoken to Suchi- pseuder fest! rector Dr. Kudchadker was a backbone of very moment their names were called out! traji ?!’. Our friend is in total shock, won- Memories of MI live on years aft er the spec- strength. He arranged for extra security. dering how the maid knew. Th ats when he tacle. Very oft en, you will fi nd insti oldies Never once did he ask Impromptu Judging :P realised that they are husband and wife! sitting around in Shack telling people sto- us to shut the fest down. Picture this – you have ries of past MIs – about how Zakir Hus- LiveWire went on till 5 a western music event We are pro’s wonly sain was so amazing, and how there was no am. I shall never for- happening in 15 mints Last year, when a coordi was painting “the place to stand in OAT! Google for Mood get those 5 days - there and your judge hasn’t wall” in SAC, he was doing it to such per- Indigo and you will stumble upon loads of were ego problems and turned up. What do you fection that a person from Channel V who websites of alumni with stories and photos fi ghts before MI. But do? Simple, all Compe- was observing him walked up to him and from MIs they were part of. One just can- those 5 days we just titions CG KN did in asked him for his business card! not put down everything about MI in an worked and worked. 30 MI 01 was that he drove article. Th e spirit of MI has to be felt fi rst- people did the work of down to SAC, found On the cards hand to be believed. What we’ve done here 300.” MI 98 was the big- a band that was lazing Th is years MI promises to be bigger and bet- is snooped around a bit and put together gest ever MI in terms of around and asked them ter. Th e theme is “MIthology” and there is some genuine MIthology. the budget, which was to judge. Not only did a stunning menu on off er. Th e main course 42 lakhs. Last year’s they gladly agree to, includes Th e Colonial Cousins, Remo Fer- 0 It starts budget was around 40 but they also jammed nandes, Parikrama, Hema Malini and Pt 6Th e fi rst ‘Mood Indigo’ was held in 1973. lakhs and saw the larg- in front of a hysterical Vishwa Mohan Bhat to mention just a few! It was a moderate success. However, MI est attendance at MI, so crowd in LT aft er the Zero are performing as a band for the last really took off in 1976. MI 76 was by far much so that providing event! time at any IIT. Th e Vogue fi nals and Clas- the biggest cultural festival of its kind accommodation to the hundreds who had sical Night are going to be held in the OAT in the country and established MI as the come was a thankless task! Doggy Doo this year. Th e hugely successful play ‘Heads premier cultural event for a long time. As In MI 01, there was a “dog show” which ya tails’ featuring Nandita Das and Sushant always with MI, the musical nights were Kitne Aadmi the? was a one-of-a-kind event for everyone as- Singh is going to be staged. Apart from the the main crowd-pullers. It was a real chal- In MI’s formative years, Amjad Khan took sociated with it. In the words of an organ- wide variety of competitions in music, lit, lenge that year because the country was part and won many competitions here. In iser “Th e CG told me - ‘See those dogs over debating, dramatics and fi ne arts, look out under ‘Emergency’ regulations severely 1975, a friend of the then GS cult was the there? Go pet them, play with them, pull for the car exterior designing and ball room limiting the right to assemble. In the 70s assistant director of a play that won the their cheeks and say so sweet.’ It was great dancing competitions. Also, don’t miss the and early 80s, MI followed essentially the dram competition. He is now one of the fun. Th is one dog ran into a tunnel and workshops on art appreciation, archaeol- same format - 4 days and 5 nights. Th e days biggest names in the entertainment indus- came out the same way. Th e owner had to ogy and Ganesh idol making! saw a host of competitions being held and try - Mani Ratnam. Parikrama (arguably coerce him to go through by going through I am already smacking my lips in anticipa- at night, many high profi le musicians left India’s best rock band) won LiveWire a few it himself! One dog ran aft er the judge in- tion. And as the old joke goes, what did the crowds spellbound. For instance, Asha years back and their careers took off from stead of doing the obstacle course!” the cow do when she drank the ink? She Bhonsle and RD Burman performed at MI there. Hrishitaa Bhatt won the fashion mooooood indigo :) 81 and Zakir Hussain performed continu- competition (Vogue) in MI 98. Coercive Coordis ously from 1976-81. Here are some interesting snippets from While doing publicity in a girls’ college in Krishna Ramkumar is a second year student MIs over the past few years Pune, 2 coordis were told that the princi- of the Departmentpartment ofof Chemistry. He can be It stops ... starts ... stops again Butchers Strike pal hadn’t allowed the girls to take part in contacted at [email protected]. For sheer drama, nothing comes close to LiveWire 2001: Elims taking much longer MI. Our ‘knights in shining armour’ were market. As in previous editions of the fest to visitors. Th e ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ is 5th December 2004. eing the latest addition to IIT Bombay’s B this event generated tremendous enthusi- workshop despite rigorous publicity was Th e teams qualifying the fi rst round would fest scene isn’t easy. Ever since its inception asm. GIAB (Great Indian Advertising Ba- eventually cancelled and left a large num- be given extensive mentoring before the Avenues has had to contend with expecta- zaar) was fl oated as an ad-making competi- ber of people agitated aft er having endured second stage submissions. Th e second tions and the obvious comparisons with tion. Participants for the fi nal rounds were a 2 hour wait. More thought also needs to round involves the submission of the de- Mood Indigo or Techfest. October 2004 chosen aft er a round of elimination. Other be put into the conducting of the panel dis- tailed business plan that covers all details saw the 3rd edition of Avenues. Th e fest from Vision to Mission, Organization to has grown signifi cantly since its inception Ownership, and Marketing to Exit Plan in 2003 and this year’s edition was signifi - Avenues 2004 strategies. cantly more focused in trying to nourish Arunabh Sinha and Siddharth Dixit provide an extensive Th e third and fi nal round involves the pre- and further the entrepreneurial ambitions report of IIT Bombay’s annual business fest that happened this October sentation of your business plan in front of of those who were a part of it. interesting events included ‘Paranoia’- A cussions which tended to drift in patches. a panel of judges comprising of venture A few competitions were noteworthy. time management competition, Nego- Yet, it is evident from the relative success of capitalists, industrialists and successful en- Campeador-Excellence in Human Re- tiation Games, Th e Derivatives Workshop the event this year that ‘Avenues’ will only trepreneurs. source Management, a corporate event and Insomnia that ran all night. get better. Th e cash prizes for Eureka! 2005 (condi- kicked off the fest. Th ere were tete-a-tetes With barons from the industry and politi- Up Next: Eureka! tions apply) are: with luminaries and entrepreneurs such as cal world on show, “Tug of War” drew large Eureka! Th e international business plan First: Rs. 2,00,000 the Chairman and Managing Director of audiences. Mr. K. N. Ramachandran (All competition proceeds in various stages, the Second: Rs. 1,20,000 Piramal Enterprises (read Crossroads), Mr India General Secretary CPIM (Red Flag)) fi rst one being the submission of executive Th ird: Rs. 80,000 Ajay Piramal, Avnish Bajaj and Suvir Su- and Mr.Shettigar, former chief of the BJP’s summaries by the teams. All you have to Th ere are additional incentives like incu- jan, the founders of Baazee.com. In a bid to Economic cell debated the ‘Disinvestment do is to describe (in less than 1600 words) bation opportunities and extensive men- increase hands-on participation competi- of Profi t making PSU’s’. Churning Mills – the functionality, the potential impact and toring for teams qualifying the fi rst round. tions such as ‘Gladiator’- Th e Battle of En- Th e Panel Discussion featured Dr. Gupta, fundability of your business idea. Th is Ex- For further details, visit: www.iitbecell.org trepreneurs and ‘Band Clash’– Th e Adven- IIM Ahmedabad (NIF), Mr. Rajasekhar, ecutive Summary should briefl y describe Email: [email protected] ture Camp were introduced. According to CIO-IBD ITC and Mr. Sharat Dhall from the Company, the Product or Service and Contact: Anubhav Jain, 9819352967 the organizers the events involved thinking HLL. the Unique Opportunity that your team [email protected] and working out of the box while ensuring Feedback gathered from visitors showed would be off ering. It should also provide a that the participants had fun. that this year the content and planning short description of your key management Arunabh Sinha and Siddharth Dixit are sec- For stock market enthusiasts there was the has been much improved and the events team members and an outline of the in- ond year Metallurgical Engg. students. Th ey “King of Bulls” that aimed to give partici- have been more involving. Certain lapses vestment you are making. Th e deadline for can be contacted at [email protected] pants a feel for the nitty-gritties of the stock in scheduling however, proved frustrating the submission of the executive summaries and [email protected] respectively. 7 November 24 . 2004* http://insight.iitb.ac.in
tation at the molecular level at a size that such as a cancer when they are embedded In fact in the It is the Year 2020. Just imagine a sce- .science may never be reached by the semiconduc- in a cell. When the DNA Computer detects not so dis- nario in which your state of the art com- tor industry. Consider the information the toxin it will glow enabling early detec- tant future I puter has a problem and you call for tech concentration of the DNA. Th e bases are tion and will carry out the necessary com- feel we might see a hybrid DNA Computer support. Who turns up at the front door? spaced every 0.35 nanometers along the putations to save lives. Now let us see an at every hospital bedside table where the Your friendly neighbourhood biologist! If DNA molecule giving DNA a remarkable IBM Th inkpad do that!! electronic computation can be done by ICs you think that is not possible - think again, and the DNA Microchips does the molecu- because scientists are hard at work at this lar computation. very moment trying to use DNA to power And in the next step the data and programs the computers of the future. Jeans and Computers that are stored in the electronic part would Th e race to build a supercomputer faster InsIghT presents the winning entry of the Tech GC Journalism Contest. Aditya be incorporated into the DNA molecules than the silicon based supercomputers are G Parmeswaran talks about when Genes and DNA can be used for computation. themselves. Th en we would enter the world already on and the prize for the winner is of nanotechnology using DNA’s. Nano- beyond mere riches. It is a computer so data density of nearly 18Mbits per inch. But then we are faced with two major ques- technology has borrowed a lot from biol- powerful it can simulate the most complex In two dimensions if you assume one tions. Firstly, is it true that the DNA Com- ogy since all building blocks like DNA and and mysterious aspects of the universe, base per square nanometer, the data den- puter can only be used to analyze DNA? RNA are nanostructures. and that too without breaking into a sweat, sity is over one million Gbits per square So, what can be the future of the DNA Already such nano devices are being used it should also leave the best computers of inch. Compare this to the data density of computer? Because DNA Computers are for gene delivery, or drug delivery, or di- today looking like ageing horses. a typical HDD which is about 7G bits per still on the research table it is still bulky like agnostics. Th e race sees three new technologies - the square inch a factor over 100000 smaller. the early electronic computers. A problem Because the DNA computer uses molecu- optical supercomputer - which uses the Th e other important fact is the formation is that electronic computers have already lar reactions, it is best suited for problems tremendous speed of light, the quantum of base pairs which means that every DNA advanced to a large degree and any new that require direct processing of molecules. supercomputer - uses qubits (instead of the sequence has a natural complement. For technology is hardly likely to match it at In the future it will most certainly be used standard binary ones and zeroes) and last example if sequence S is ATTACGTCG, the current juncture. But it is likely that the in the study of logic, encryption, genetic but not the least the DNA Computer – the its complement S’ is TAATGCAGC. Both future may see compact high performance programming, algorithms, language sys- most strangest of all which uses DNA. Now S and S’ come together to form Double DNA Computers such as microchips with tems and maybe even lots of other interest- let us delve into the not so distant past to Stranded DNA. Th is ability makes DNA a chemical reaction circuits (like a lab on a ing things that haven’t been developed yet. glean an idea of how DNA Computing unique data structure for computation. chip). In accordance with Moore’s law the number came about. DNA is modifi ed biochemically by a vari- Another issue which is currently being of electronic devices put on a microproces- In the early 1990’s mathematician and bi- ety of enzymes. Enzymes work to cut DNA addressed is that DNA molecules are not sor has doubled every 18 months and the ologist Leonard Adelman, the father of or paste them, or as copiers. In a test tube, as durable as silicon from which chips are microprocessor complexity has doubled DNA Computing became fascinated by 0 enzymes do not work sequentially on one made. However this lack of durability is every two years. But Moore’s law will soon 7 the parallels between DNA and comput- DNA at a time but rather many copies of not a current problem because in principle reach its end because of the physical speed ing technology. Computers use binary the enzyme can work on many DNA mol- DNA is used once and discarded in the case and miniaturization limitations of the sili- code which manipulates data as zeros and ecules simultaneously thus allowing paral- of gene analysis. One must remember that con microprocessor. DNA computers pick ones while genes consist of information lel computing. the unique characteristic of DNA Comput- up where Moore’s Law leaves off .. DNA has encoded as strings of the four nucleotides DNA computers are today being pro- ers is its ability to process actual molecules a large cheap supply, is a clean resource, that make up DNA: adenine(A),cytosine( grammed to react in the presence of a toxin as input and output data. and is many times smaller.. C),guanine(G) and thymine(T). Adelman Although currently DNA computing can- tested his prototype of the DNA computer not replace the silicon chip in a variety of using the mathematical challenge known How2 Get your home.iitb.ac.in web page up? applications, the very concept of injecting as the Travelling Salesman problem: How In the fi rst edition of this column, which 3. FTP to bighome.iitb.ac.in using your DNA Computers in to the cells is intrigu- can you visit seven cities connected by intends to help you get more out of your FTP Client (WS-FTP, SmartFTP, gFTP, ing and could very well have revolutionary fourteen roads without passing through computer; we explore the idea of putting ncft p). Put the contents of your website/ implications in the future. Th e possibilities the same city twice? Adelman assigned a your homepage up. Th e Institute provides homepage into the “public_html” direc- of this research are limitless-we could stop code for each city and each road. He then you with upto 200MB of space; which you tory that you created and can now see in cancer before it begins by repairing the mixed snippets of DNA and allowed them can use to put up your very own homep- your bighome content. damage, correct defects in DNA, or even to react. Th e four nucleotides combine ac- age. 4. Your homepage can be accessed at: increase cellular metabolism to achieve un- cording to a hard and fast rule called com- Here’s how you can get started: http://home.iitb.ac.in/~
John Locke once said “LOGIC is the will always be a pendant for a necklace of anatomy of thought.” Without logic no size 9. Can you say anything about a gen- thought can be justifi ed. Logic is applied Q u e s t e c h eral necklace made up of n-beads? to everything, big or small, for subtle deci- Shweta Shah and Varun Kanade present another set sions or just for fun fi lled problems. of puzzles. So get your grey cells ticking. Pick your Stick Another round of questech, another round Coff ee shack treats are up for grabs for the early birds. You are given a set of sticks; each of them of LOGICally crackable problems, another has length some natural number. You ran- round of treats at Shack! Some positive integers can be arranged WAYS divide the domly pick up two sticks. If the two sticks So here you go, only one rule to play this along the vertices and sides of a pentagon diff erence? Can have equal length, you throw out one of game, think LOGICally! (all numbers are diff erent) so that the sum you generalize them, and put the other back in the bag. of the three numbers along each side is the your answer to an If they are unequal, from the longer you Magic Pentagon same. Th e diagram on the left shows an ar- arbitrary base? cut off the length same as the smaller and rangement of numbers 1 to 10 with sum throw that away, and put the remaining 16. Find, with proof, the smallest possible No pendant to the Necklace? part and the shorter stick back in the bag. value for a sum and give an example of an A necklace is made out of black and white Now will it always be the case, that you arrangement with that sum. beads, in the shape of a regular polygon. If have only one stick in the bag, aft er a while, there are three beads on the necklace, each and what can you say about that stick? Diff er at the base of the same color and forming an isosceles Take any number in base 7. Rearrange the triangle, then the vertex of the isosceles tri- Please mail your queries, suggestions and digits however you like. Subtract the origi- angle, can be marked as the pendant of the solutions at [email protected] and/or nal number from the rearranged number. necklace. Now a necklace may have several at [email protected] What is the largest integer that will AL- such pendants, or none. Show that there November 24 . 2004* 8 http://insight.iitb.ac.in
age to other machines. Take MS Blaster for choice when it comes to security. So, Linux In hostel area, windows users are con- lthough still small compared to world A example. On machines without network it has had a pretty clean track record in terms trolled by not allowing them to directly class universities, IIT Bombay indeed has is dormant, but if connected to a network, of viruses. Also it is the second most popu- connect to outside network, thereby cur- better networks than many colleges, and it “bombards” enormous amount of traffi c. lar system aft er Windows and it has been tailing any spread of infections. But, not even some corporates. Th e IIT network On an insecure network the size of IIT, it getting better in terms of usability. only are many users connecting directly, has become an indispensable part of the will take less than 30 minutes to complete- Consider Yoper Linux, installs in 20 min- their infected machines are found causing IIT community. So, why do we see it be- ly infect all machines. IIT itself has suff ered utes fl at and the user can get additional problems in the network every now and ing described as “slow and painful” on iitb. a loss of over 1.5 crores due to it’s switches soft wares and updates from the Internet then. For residential area, CC used a Linux general? getting damaged by Blaster’s attack. A automatically. computer as a router for routing the traffi c. We will try to answer some of these ques- network is based on the principle that not Additionally let me also debunk a myth Any bombarding and infected machine is tions here. everyone will use simultaneously. But if all that if Linux becomes popular people will automatically disconnected at the source computers use the network together, the write viruses for it. Consider web servers, itself. But, residential areas have much About the Campus network switch becomes heavily loaded with traffi c Apache (Linux based) is used on 95% of all lesser traffi c than hostels and departments. Th e bulk of our network is on a Giga- and breaks down due to overheating. web servers, with <5% being using Micro- Th e solution is not scalable for the gigabit bit backbone which means it should take backbone, it requires specialized hardware roughly 2 minutes to download a movie. In like switches worth 40-50 Lakhs. For de- order to provide such massive speeds, we partments, CC uses two diff erent subnet- have 5 major routers or traffi c controllers Caught in the Web works and the windows subnet is discon- installed throughout the institute. Th ese Internet and LAN has become a very important part of our lives. nected when it bombards. Th is method are located in H3, H8, CSE Dept., CC and Mohit Soni presents the complete details of IIT Bombay network services requires more hardware and it does not Aerospace. When a problem happens in Windows also has other painful programs soft IIS. Obviously, with millions of users stop the infection. one of them, more than one hostel loses like Real Player, tradeexit etc. which keep using Apache, not everyone is extra cau- Th e dream solution would of course be the it’s network. Th ese are very expensive too, bombarding proxy servers. It has been ob- tious. Despite that there are many devastat- one that corporates and foreign univs have each one costing from 20-50 lakhs of ru- served that even 1 bad machine can ham- ing exploits for Microsoft IIS than there are adopted, namely buy even more expensive pees. per the network severely, 10 machines can for Apache. So even if it becomes popular routers which can stop bombarding sourc- Apart from these big guys, a lot of smaller bring down Netmon and roughly 100 ma- Linux shall remain much more secure. es automatically. Unfortunately, each such routers are installed in each of the build- chines can cripple our whole network like switch costs 50lakhs and is not viable for ings etc. for controlling the traffi c internal- the blaster attack did in 2003. Even the US Advantages of Windows us. So, what can be done? So far, the CC ly. Th e little fellas join together the wings, government issued CERT warnings about Obviously, we have been unable to control has not found a foolproof solution. the hostels, the building and connect them windows insecurity and advised people to worms like blaster and one solution is to CC, MLC and hostel sysads are trying an- to the outside world. Each of the sockets in at least start using Mozilla/Firefox. get rid of the network or getting rid of win- other solution. Most of the problems are 0 our rooms are connected to these through So, the main reason authorities are dis- dows. But these would be a primitive solu- due to irresponsible users (recall not more LAN cables. 8 couraging windows is simply to prevent a tions, indicating backward progress. Aft er than 10 are needed). While windows is not Finally, to connect IIT to the rest of the case of another blaster attack. Th e duties of all, one cannot just abandon cars altogeth- secure, it can be made secure by individual world, we have our proxy servers (one for hostel computer secretaries have increased er just because pollution is too high. In cer- users. Th is is not easy, the US government the departments and the other being Net- tremendously since the last year, which tain aspects, windows is irreplaceable. has issued a 120 page article on their web- mon). Th ey are the gatekeepers, guarding have managed to just keep our network Most of us have been using it for ages and site on how to secure Windows XP. Some all the doors and holding all the keys. What stable. Th ey now have toc reate proxy serv- are used to it’s features, user interface and summaries with some additions are avail- we can see on the Internet is controlled by ers for windows users, and run mainte- functionality. Switching to and getting able on the MLC website http://www.iitb. them. nance checks on them. Additionally, they used to another OS will simply reduce pro- ac.in/~mlc/beforexp.php and http://www. have to run weekly network checks and ductivity in all day to day tasks. iitb.ac.in/~mlc/winsecure.php. MLC and Th e Windows disease and the anatomy of submit status reports to CC. Th ey are also Microsoft may be useless at security but hostel sysads have also chalked out a plan an attack supposed to fi nd and warn windows users have spent millions to ensure that interface to conduct workshops to educate people Th ere are many reasons why the authorities who are bombarding the network. is comfortable and increases productivity. on windows security. Th e workshop will seem to be having an anti-windows stand, To quote Prof. Anurag Mehra (HOD CC) Th e students who use windows for produc- be conducted Early next semester. not the least of which is the excessive virus “Just like America changed aft er 9/11, so did tive reasons do produce better output. Cer- Unless users become more responsible, we problems that have plagued our Institute. the situation in IIT computer scene change tain ‘technical-use’ soft wares are simply may have to face the consequences. Aft er Why does windows have so many viruses? because of Blaster”. not present in Linux. Even non-technical all freedom is not free. Why are the authorities so concerned? Let So if the main building is entirely using soft wares like MS Powerpoint and Yahoo Mohit Soni is a fi ft h year dual degree stu- us see. Linux for their work, why not students Messenger have considerably poor equiva- dent of the Dept. of Elec. Engg. He can be From it’s core windows was designed to be also. Th e solution of abandoning windows lent variants in Linux. Soft wares like GIMP contacted at [email protected] a performance system, allowing all hard- is not being taken by any other university are not even worth considering for graphic ware to be directly accessible. In a time or any other IIT. So are we the trend set- professionals using Adobe Photoshop, the From the Editors’ Desk when computers were not the speed de- ters? Or are we fools? loss in productivity is simply too high. Th e great migration has begun. It’s that mons they are today, performance was the Also, the X-windows system in Linux is time of the year when “Ticket to Jaipur key issue for a personal computer. Advantages of Linux simply not as good in performance than for sale” postings become common on Although Windows has far outgrown itself Unlike windows, Linux is a derivative of the Windows, so desktop in Linux is not iitb.general. Th e month long vacation for from those days, it’s original monolithic UNIX which is an old system. Unix was up to mark. So lets face it, Linux is still not many of us is a time to sit back and en- design and tight integration between the used in military installations on super as user friendly as windows. Switching to joy being force fed home-cooked food. components ensured that any weak spot computers where security was paramount. windows is a devastating alternative for all, For others its a time of running circles cripples the system as a whole. But, the So from ground up, it was designed with but advanced users. around the SAC. Be it for inter-IIT prac- coming Internet also changed the world security both of data and of the system. tice or MI work. of Viruses. Gone were the days when the Every user’s data was segregated and no Th e Solution? As editors, we hope that the issues we’ve damage from virus would be restricted on process was allowed to go beyond cer- CC has tried many diff erent solutions to raised through three editions of InsIghT a single machine. Th e newer worms like tain limit. Over the years, the model was overcome the problems due to windows in linger on in your minds. We’ve oft en Blaster and Lovegate do a lot more dam- improved and UNIX is still the obvious the last one year. been asked what the purpose of InsIghT is. Past experience has taught us that de- spite our best eff orts, it takes a lot more Baloney- Newtons Laws -by VVD than the mere reporting of facts to bring about change. As a news paper, our en- deavor is to present the facts to you, the reader. Th e onus to make a diff erence lies with you. Th ere are obviously issues that might skip our attention. If you believe that there is something that merits space in InsIghT, do let us know. Also, your views and reactions to the articles we publish are of utmost value to us. Like it says on the front page, WE NEED FEEDBACK. Please mail us at [email protected]. When we started as editors, we were warned about the dreaded middle-of- the-endsems November issue. Well, here it is :D ! Happy Holidays! -eds