Sneak Peek And Quickquotes grabs the mike this time to say... December 2009 After a two month long hiatus, we are back to bring you the third (Volume I, Issue III) issue of our magazine. The past two months have been a drab for most of us, many thanks to the semester exams and the two-week Stories long holidays, that felt like the Pongal holidays. And now we have The Serpent’s trust returned to our nest and are comfortably seated in classrooms, only Flash fiction – Racecar to dream about the actual Pongal holidays! We, at the English Literary Society, have become slightly handi- Columns And that’s what it’s all about capped due to a couple of final years (Slither, Ryan, Sanu) having The nth harmonic: gone to more cosmopolitan cities to take up internships there. You Metallica people will be sorely missed (Very evident because you won’t find Burp!: Ryan’s ‘Life in 3 boxes’ in this issue). The Village Going by the book: While I sit in front of this white screen and shoot out black charac- The Lost Symbol ters on it, I scratch my head to wonder if I should call this season, The projector and the popcorn: ‘the festive season’ or something else. As far as Tech goes, the place- Nerukku Ner (1997) ment season is in the air, what with every single student (irrespective of their positions in the engineering student ladder) talking about And many core and peripheral(?) companies, soft skills, ‘apti’, GD and shar- more.. ing interesting anecdotes (the most common one being ‘Dei/Di, this Road Speak The Road to Copenhagen guy/girl I know, went for the CTS interview and said ‘I want to get The world that isn’t into TCS because…’ and avlodhaan, that person was chucked out of The writing on paper the room, da/di’). While there is a bunch of people enrolling them- Crossword 3.0 selves for CAT and GRE classes, there are others slogging it out hard for the upcoming GATE. There are students frantically applying for Contact us at summer internships, this winter and there are also students mailing [email protected] big fat packages to the US for getting admitted into universities. It is a scary season, isn’t it?! Quite contrarily, they say ‘let’s spread the The e-version of cheer, Christmas and New Year are here!’. our magazine can be And yes, this might be the third last December that we get to cel- viewed at ebrate, people, because if things work the way they portray in the www.whatelseels.blogspot. movie 2012, TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World, As We Know com It) is in the pipeline! Umpteen numbers of I lie everywhere, websites on the internet, popular columns in Witness to the life that newspapers and discussion threads in forums Bustles on me- and chew over 21-12-2012, break their heads over Occasionally ends on me. what could be done to save the world, who and what are the potential threats and they A million wheels converse even give tips on how to survive the disas- With me any day; ter ! (Pretty cool, I say!). I came across this The contraptions, they propel- post on a forum, that enlightens people on the Are they dragons? I wonder- ‘100 items that disappear first in a disaster’ Exhaling, not fire, but air- (According to the author, generators are the Air that kills! ones that disappear first in a disaster and goats and chickens are the last to disappear. He is Fluids spring on me- precise enough to ask us to use “Strike Any- Those of betel and of phlegm. where” matches, because according to him My counterparts abroad ‘boxed, wooden matches will go first’). One Are exempted from this, Mayan priest himself has to disagree with his But I don’t envy them, for counterparts, regarding the Mayan calendar They are not as entertained as me. predicting the end of the world in 2012. He has to say that this is just a major calendar Variety in life, I can talk about. change - the equivalent of Y2K with a reset- For I see the millionaire in his car ting of calendar to zero-zero-zero-zero-zero. As well as the pavement-resident pauper. Well, one part of me yelps an ‘Ack!’, while Neither is entirely happy. the other part of me (that dons a pince-nez and The former fears his business rivals utters profound statements) says ‘Live each And relishes his six-digit profits. day like there is no tomorrow. We don’t need The latter fears his kid starving another night a Dec 21 2012 warning to tell us how to cel- And relishes his two-digit daily wage. ebrate each day of our lives, do we?’ And..umm..what else? Tall buildings grow on both my sides, Stacked upto the sky, they appear! Congested homes and work places In these stacks exist. ROAD SPEAK I do hate these stacks, for, They have taken away my companions- My friendly and ever protective trees. A nigger of sorts, Made of tar, An onlooker of Life and Death- I will live on, unfazed, until As a consequence of this, by the end of the The next group of men and machines next decade three quarters of the earth would Dig me up for multifarious needs have submerged. If this situation continues, And restitch my torn being. by the end of 2040 this planet would have to A bump-filled life will then resume. be termed MERCURY-2. Keeping in mind the proverb - ‘Little drops Shilpa Suresh III B.E. ECE of water make up the mighty ocean’, we the engineers of P.S.G tech can follow certain small steps which can have a positive effect on the environment, the small steps being: THE ROAD TO COPENHAGEN • Switch off all the lights and fans wher- ever unnecessary. • Never put the computer in sleep mode. It consumes more power than when it is ‘Ours is not a reasonable stance. It is based on working. our world view that the whole world is a fam- • Never overcharge mobile phones or ily and our principles of inclusive growth and laptops. It is a source of inorganic waste. measurement’. • Avoid littering in public places. -Manmohan Singh • Plant more trees wherever possible. The Copenhagen summit happens to be an ad- • Use public transport. It is always a vent in the adversity. It is an eye- opener for better option. all of us who have been the cause of the ex- • Educate people about the proper use ploitation of mother Earth and seen the New- of resources. ton’s 3rd law actually happen, in front of our • Suggest methods and devices which own eyes. It is not only the responsibility of can reduce excessive consumption of energy. the 194 big shots of the world to introduce and follow reforms; every individual has a part to P.Narendran play. Let us not think of ourselves as an indi- III B.E. ECE (G2) vidual, not think of us, as a country but as a family, the homosapien family. According to a recent survey, if we continue using our coal reserves in the way we have AND THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL always been using, within four years the coal ABOUT and petroleum resources in our natural home would perish. The temperature of the earth is “Let us be the change, we want to see” increasing at the rate of 40C per year. Due to Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been a big this the ice caps are melting at a faster rate. fan of Christmas. Yes, I do know that Santa Claus doesn’t exist; and even though it was very painful for me to accept that, I wouldn’t let it affect my Christmas cheer. The highlight of the holiday season would be the fact that it is the one time of the year that the whole family comes together. My family, the noisy bunch that we are and always will be, celebrates Christmas with great gusto! My favourite Christmas past time would be to turn off all the lights except the ones on the tree and just watch them change colours slowly! Be it putting up the Christmas tree or singing Christmas carols or annoying my parents with my Christmas present wish list – I have done them all! They say that old habits die hard, but this was the one old habit I was willing to take to my grave!! Fast forward to the year 2009 and I find myself in an utterly different scenario. Between run- ning to class ( because you’re late like always) and finishing assignments that are long over- due, I think it’s safe to say that it’s pretty much impossible to get time to find a Christmas tree, let alone to decorate one. This sudden realization of living a Christmas-less December did not appeal to me at all. In fact I found myself wallowing in my misfortune and being consumed by homesickness. Rather than being Santa’s little helper I turned out to be more like Ebenezer Scrooge. I have been asking myself truck loads of questions - Where is the Christmas tree? Why hasn’t anyone hung Christmas stars? Why can’t I hear any carols? And what on earth happened to Christmas holidays??? Well after a lot of self pitying and complaining and cribbing, I have finally decided to not go down without a fight.