Vol. XXIV No.1, Aug- Sept 2008 Students’ News Magazine, IIT Roorkee Cover The Team CornerEd Chairman Regular Features N Sundaresh Mech III Purple Cow 2 Editor-in-Chief Verbatim 2 Abhishek Sundar Elec III Editorial Board Sci-Tech 3 Executive Editors Editorial 3 Kanishka Mohan Civ III Y. Atulya E&C III News Notes 4 Editors Special Economic Zone 8 Amey Mandhan E&C III Ipseeta Aruni Elec III Face-Off 8 Aniruddha Arun Meta II WORC 13 Chandini Soni Arch II Cartoon Strip 16 Piyush Tariyal Meta II Pranav Singh Elec II Almost Famous 18 Anunaya Jha Meta I Rank 18 Apurv Arora Meta I K. Nirupama Arch I Agony Aunt 19 M.K. Arun Kumar Meta I Mostly Harmless 20 Cover Story Mrigank Gutgutia Mech I Prachi Ghatwai Arch I MISSION IMPLAUSIBLE 10 News Bureau Issue Special Chief Co-ordinator Thomso Page 9 Super insti, superannuated rule-book? Puneet S. Jaggi Chem III Co-ordinators Deepika Tulsyan Civ III Debutante RUDE-KEE 14 Richa Gupta Chem III Shubham Bansal P&I III COTOC 19 Where are our manners? Varun Chaudhary Elec III Amogh Kabe Phy II Mohit Chitlangia Arch II Prachi Agrawal Elec II Vishwa Krishnakumar Civ II PHANTASMAGORIA Akanksha Agarwal Bio I Deeksha Sood CSE I Haaris Matein Chem I One of the few perquisites of an Electrical Engg. student here is an unusually lax third year time-table. ad Kanishk Tyagi Arch I Finance Section With few over a score contact hours, a post-lunch siesta is no longer a luxury restricted to the more Chief Co-ordinator Prateek Agrawal P&I III fortunate denizens of departments on the other side of the dreaded slope. It was during one such free Co-ordinators Abhishek Chaturvedi Bio III afti that I shrugged myself away from the ever-welcoming embrace of Lady Slumber and sat down to Anupriya Jain Meta III watch A Wednesday. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I was convinced that the sacrifice was worth it. It's Saurabh Bansal Bio III Shalini Gosai Bio III hard to imagine that it's barely been a decade since the days of the Raja Hindustanis and the ubiquitous Aayush Rai E&C II Amit Kumar Maths II ‘poor guy, rich girl, bad dad’ routine. Even the sarson-ke-khet loving Yash Chopra has retired his Ankit Mahajan Meta II gaggle of giggly sahelis and replaced them with hotties on the beaches of Sydney and Rio. Bollywood Shruti Nagani CSE II Amandeep Singh Meta I has come of age, and it's about time too. Later the same evening, I happened to chance upon a decade- Mohit Sanwal Meta I Razak Gupta Math I old copy of the Economic Times. 'Incoming calls on mobiles now free', ran one headline. 'DD1 and 2 to Shivani Chaudhary Elec I become 24 hour channels' read another. A decade, in historic terms, is generally considered an Vasudha Khurana Bio I Design Cell inconsequential span of time. Yet, the same time-frame has changed the world around us beyond any Chief Designer Pratap Singh Civ III semblance of recognition. Designers The wave of change hasn't spared Roorkee either. In my own two years here, I've seen a new library Digvijay Singh P&I III Millo Chada Mech III spring out of nothingness. The once-magnificent Cautley Bhawan is now a mere dwarf flanked by a Vaibhav Sethia Arch III Vikash Kumar P&I III skyscraper twice its size. Nescafe's monopoly over the madly-in-love and the wannabe-madly-in-love Aditya Devnath Civ II crowd is fast becoming a thing of the past, with the arrival of fresh competition in the form of Café Kushal Vora Arch II Shefali Atri Bio II Coffee Day (albeit two miles away). Rumours are rife that a McDonald's outlet is on its way further Vikram Pratap Singh Elec II Vishant Goel Elec II down the highway. Khyati Rathore Arch I Gibron Makhdoomi Arch I While the changes in concrete have been vast, the intangibles seem bent on following Newton's first Mayank Bhaskar Elec I law (or was it the second?) tooth and nail. Eight years into the IIT system, one would have expected a Rajdeep Barua Chy I Yasin Chaudhary Elec I good many of the long redundant rules and regulations in the insti to have been done away with. Yet, Web Cell Chief Co-ordinator they have stood the tests of time and criticism and continue to annoy and torment us. This issue, we Divye Kapoor CSE II take a look at a few such norms and question their persistence despite defying all forms of reason. Co-ordinators Akanksha Katare CSE III Elsewhere, we take a dig at our own lack of manners and wonder how this wonderful village we call Sneha Rao Civ III C.Karthik Chem II home saps us of whatever little civility we happen to possess. The usual suspects are all back with tales Gursheen Kaur Civ I of their own, spiced by our unusual (and often lame) sense of humour. Shreyas S Mech I Somya Sheshank Meta I In the meantime, Thomso returns in a little over a week, reassuringly titled, 'It's Happening(?)'. In the wise words of Billie Joe Armstrong, 'Hope you have the time of your life….' -Ed The Team CornerEd Chairman Regular Features N Sundaresh Mech III Purple Cow 2 Editor-in-Chief Verbatim 2 Abhishek Sundar Elec III Editorial Board Sci-Tech 3 Executive Editors Editorial 3 Kanishka Mohan Civ III Y. Atulya E&C III News Notes 4 Editors Special Economic Zone 8 Amey Mandhan E&C III Ipseeta Aruni Elec III Face-Off 8 Aniruddha Arun Meta II WORC 13 Chandini Soni Arch II Cartoon Strip 16 Piyush Tariyal Meta II Pranav Singh Elec II Almost Famous 18 Anunaya Jha Meta I Rank 18 Apurv Arora Meta I K. Nirupama Arch I Agony Aunt 19 M.K. Arun Kumar Meta I Mostly Harmless 20 Cover Story Mrigank Gutgutia Mech I Prachi Ghatwai Arch I MISSION IMPLAUSIBLE 10 News Bureau Issue Special Chief Co-ordinator Thomso Page 9 Super insti, superannuated rule-book? Puneet S. Jaggi Chem III Co-ordinators Deepika Tulsyan Civ III Debutante RUDE-KEE 14 Richa Gupta Chem III Shubham Bansal P&I III COTOC 19 Where are our manners? Varun Chaudhary Elec III Amogh Kabe Phy II Mohit Chitlangia Arch II Prachi Agrawal Elec II Vishwa Krishnakumar Civ II PHANTASMAGORIA Akanksha Agarwal Bio I Deeksha Sood CSE I Haaris Matein Chem I One of the few perquisites of an Electrical Engg. student here is an unusually lax third year time-table. ad Kanishk Tyagi Arch I Finance Section With few over a score contact hours, a post-lunch siesta is no longer a luxury restricted to the more Chief Co-ordinator Prateek Agrawal P&I III fortunate denizens of departments on the other side of the dreaded slope. It was during one such free Co-ordinators Abhishek Chaturvedi Bio III afti that I shrugged myself away from the ever-welcoming embrace of Lady Slumber and sat down to Anupriya Jain Meta III watch A Wednesday. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I was convinced that the sacrifice was worth it. It's Saurabh Bansal Bio III Shalini Gosai Bio III hard to imagine that it's barely been a decade since the days of the Raja Hindustanis and the ubiquitous Aayush Rai E&C II Amit Kumar Maths II ‘poor guy, rich girl, bad dad’ routine. Even the sarson-ke-khet loving Yash Chopra has retired his Ankit Mahajan Meta II gaggle of giggly sahelis and replaced them with hotties on the beaches of Sydney and Rio. Bollywood Shruti Nagani CSE II Amandeep Singh Meta I has come of age, and it's about time too. Later the same evening, I happened to chance upon a decade- Mohit Sanwal Meta I Razak Gupta Math I old copy of the Economic Times. 'Incoming calls on mobiles now free', ran one headline. 'DD1 and 2 to Shivani Chaudhary Elec I become 24 hour channels' read another. A decade, in historic terms, is generally considered an Vasudha Khurana Bio I Design Cell inconsequential span of time. Yet, the same time-frame has changed the world around us beyond any Chief Designer Pratap Singh Civ III semblance of recognition. Designers The wave of change hasn't spared Roorkee either. In my own two years here, I've seen a new library Digvijay Singh P&I III Millo Chada Mech III spring out of nothingness. The once-magnificent Cautley Bhawan is now a mere dwarf flanked by a Vaibhav Sethia Arch III Vikash Kumar P&I III skyscraper twice its size. Nescafe's monopoly over the madly-in-love and the wannabe-madly-in-love Aditya Devnath Civ II crowd is fast becoming a thing of the past, with the arrival of fresh competition in the form of Café Kushal Vora Arch II Shefali Atri Bio II Coffee Day (albeit two miles away). Rumours are rife that a McDonald's outlet is on its way further Vikram Pratap Singh Elec II Vishant Goel Elec II down the highway. Khyati Rathore Arch I Gibron Makhdoomi Arch I While the changes in concrete have been vast, the intangibles seem bent on following Newton's first Mayank Bhaskar Elec I law (or was it the second?) tooth and nail. Eight years into the IIT system, one would have expected a Rajdeep Barua Chy I Yasin Chaudhary Elec I good many of the long redundant rules and regulations in the insti to have been done away with.