I woke up at six today, it was way too early. I looked outside from my room, the sun was orangish. Why had I never noticed this particular brilliance of the sun before? My head was swimming, last night had been momentous. I was close to a breakthrough. Most people who needed to be placated seemed close to being convinced. Sitting around in that circle late at night, it felt like I could finally belong somewhere. There seemed to be great responsibilities to shoulder and glorious parts to play. If I play my cards right I could be through. I was thinking I could actually turn out to be a gymkhana post-bearer.

The next few hours passed in a blur. I took a quick bath, picked up some breakfast and walked briskly to class. If I’m late again – I’ve had it, I thought. I did manage to catch a few winks in class though; they would prove to be handy as the day progressed. Going to class is important, I get to meet my batch mates – they will remember me and vote for me. I’ve to grow up now, none of this juvenile thought process will do. I need to be on the top of my game. I leafed once again through the all-important diary which was to be my bible for the coming days. I practiced my introduction: confidence is the key. It was almost four thirty and my day had just begun. I looked into the score of the ongoing world cup, another world far away. Today, I had a date with three important people and then another ‘Hall day’, and it seemed to me that these meetings could be the key, I would have to impress them with my malleability and adaptability, because that’s what the job’s all about – being mentally strong and dealing with a hundred things without losing your cool. I had heard strange, wonderful stories about these people. What feats they have achieved already, already I could see success crowning their heads and their names take wing in fame and influence. There’s a path laid out in front of me, I can recognize it and this is the road I must travel on.

I met with two of the three people I had planned to meet today. This time, my companions were not walls and fans; they were the open sky, the crescent moon and the twinkling stars, such perspectives. This took longer than I thought. It was tougher today, I’m not sure I won them over. What strange people you meet serves as good lesson for life, I’m sure. Some of the questions you’re asked really baffle you. I mean, what is the point of these questions; is it essentially a test about your resolve in front of the absolutely ridiculous? How far does one have to travel to actually ask such questions with a straight face and expect answers? As I walked from one bastion to another, several thoughts flew through my mind. What if I lost? What of it then, I would have learnt. No! I must not think of losing, this is where mental strength comes into the picture. All the hard work, everything, is it worth it? Yes of course, I am different, I have drive, and I want to get somewhere. I picked out the doubts from my head and eliminated them. There’s no place for doubts. I was almost there, the final one today. I noticed the strange painting on the foyer, a regular feature here and it gave me goose bumps. This was going to be not very pleasant. I had heard stories, anyway. Giddy glorious waterfall, down I went.

I don’t know how many people I’ve met. Is that really “meeting” though I wonder? How much of each other did we recognize, what did we exchange and by ‘we’, what I mean essentially is me and the other, the vast majority. Then you have these functions that are orchestrated for our benefit – vast gatherings, with music and gyrations, with ‘frolic and fun’. On these days, everyone has their own games, the only difference is – some have rules, some don’t. You walk through the same people, over and over again. They have slightly dissimilar features, their faces morph a bit, their hairstyles transform, their costumes are different and their memories have been altered, but the people, they remain the same.

Today’s been a strange day. I have travelled so far in the span of such a short time; every day’s a revelation, every day the realization of the foolishness, the grand catastrophic foolishness of yesterday.  A man used to science, to parameterize results cannot rest comfortable with the premise of elections. There are way too many things to take into account. Apart from the rough cut of the present, there’s the nasty greenish fermented past. There are spices and herbs and deceit and lies and nobility and truthfulness. There is egotism and apathy and there is me. Trudge on. Trudge on. Tomorrow’s another day. Such is life.

Vice President :

• Celestine Joseph (1956 votes)
• Ankit Singh ( 1775 Votes)
• Nivesh Pandey (944 votes )

G.Secs, Technology:

• Arava Anmol Manohar (2397 Votes)
• Tarun Rathi (2268 Votes)
• Ayush Agarwal (2033 Votes)
• Vivek Sinha (1625 Votes)

G.Secs, Social and Cultural:

• Himanshu Singhal (2253 Votes)
• Raghav Bashambhu (2223 Votes)
• Naveen (2027 Votes)
• Jasmeet Singh (1922 Votes)

G.Secs, Sports and Games:

• Abhishek  Raj (3301 Votes)
• Devesh Kumar Dhruw (2770 Votes)
• Sougata Murmu ( 1843 Votes)

Secretaries:

We wish the elected student representatives all the best for their tenure, and  hope they carry out their duties to the fullest.

The VP Soapbox faced numerous setbacks today as various technical difficulties and foul weather came to a head to give everybody a taste of classic KGP drama.

As the lights went out the first time, the security forces had their hands full holding back scuffles that had broken out all around the basketball court; after a fifteen minute delay, the floodlights were finally switched back on, only for the weather to play spoilsport (with strong winds and drizzles). The President, TSG, Prof. M Bhattacharjee made a fervent appeal to the audience to maintain decorum, and the candidates requested their supporters to maintain the pax. After a question from the panelists whether they wished to continue with the SOP, all three candidates answered in the affirmative. Even as the lights went out (again), the proceedings went on as the audio systems were still functional.

And that was when the rain cued in. The bizarre circumstances proved too much as the crowd made a run for it. The SOP never proceeded beyond the questioning of the first candidate, Celestine Joseph’s SOP.

Updates on the rescheduled timing of the VP Soapbox to follow shortly.

After a recount that had everyone waiting with bated breath, Shubham Matah has won the election by a margin of 19 votes (SM – 1880, DG – 1861). The official notice from the Gymkhana will be out shortly.

GENERAL SECRETARIES (Awaiting official notification)

• Technology: Pranav Patwardhan (RP) and Deepak Singh (LLR)

• Sports: Ankit Joshi (PH) and Angam Parashar (MS)

• Social and Cultural: Kavish Desai (RP) and Mandar Chandorkar (LLR)

Secretary, …. Sub committee

# Football: Saurav Chandra (08GG6104) VS
# Hockey: Sanjay Kumar Kisku (08AE6008) MMM
# Tennis: Rohit Kumar (08EX2017)  MMM
# Indoor games: Amit Suveer (08MM6101)  VS
# Volleyball: Ashok Kumar G. (08MI6004) MMM
# Basketball: Vikas Pandey (08RE6011) VS
# Badminton: Alok Joaddar (08CH6005)  MMM
# Weight lifting and gymnastics: Ravi Gautam (08NA1008) MMM
# Cricket: Irfan Khan (08CE6106) MMM
# Athletics: Rashmi Waghmare (08AR6021) MT
# Aquatics: Gaurav Jain (08AG1003) HJB

# Entertainment: Dharmendra Kumar Dheer (08EE6303) VS
# Dramatics: Kirti Pandey (08MT3004) SN/IG
# Journal: G. Pavan (08EC1014) MMM
# Literary: Saurabh Meena (08BT1019) MS
# Photography: Naveen Kumar (08MT1024) MMM
# Films: Vaibhav Singhal (08MI3025) MMM
# Fine arts and modelling: Sahlin Bhatt (08BT1013) RK

# Web: Anil Pulakanti (08CS1010) MMM

The post will be further updated soon after the Gymkhana notice is released.

GYMKHANA ELECTIONS 2009-2010

Election Date: Friday, April 3, 2009

Counting: Saturday, April 4, 2009

Polling Booths

Each Hall will have an election booth.

4 pm to 6 30 pm : AZ NH PH HJB JCB SDS/MMM HK/MMM DSK/MMM LLR MS RK RP SN-IG RLB VS

5 30 pm to 6 30 pm : BCR ZH MT

5 30 pm to 6 30 pm : Gokhale Hall (Students of SAM, Radar Flats and VSRC to cast their votes in the Gokhale Hall booth)

• Profile
• Achievements
• Proposals

Name : Digvijay Gagneja Department : Department of Electrical Engineering Year and Course : 3rd Year, Dual Degree Hall : Nehru

1. Head incharge of Finances of Kshitij 2009.
2. Conducted Successful Guest Lectures by ‘Mr.Prahlad Kakkar’ and ‘Dr. Philip Emeagwali’ who captivated an audience of jam-packed TOAT.
3. Conducted workshop on Forensic Science by CBI and the workshop on Filmmaking.
4. Initiated and was instrumental in the creation of the online payment gateway for Kshitij.
5. Soc-Cult Participation: Won GOLD in Inter-Hall Western Vocals, Open-IIT Elocution, SILVER in Inter-Hall Western Groups, Western Vocals, English Elocution, BRONZE in Inter-Hall Choreography, Open-IIT English Dramatics.
6. Tech Participation: Won SILVER in Inter-Hall AD-Design, Part of Inter-Hall Case-Study Team of Nehru hall.
7. Sports Participation: Part of Basketball team of Nehru Hall of Residence.
8. Member of the Western Technology Music Society.
9. Offered an Internship in ITC, the first company visiting campus for selections.
10. Anchored Kshitij’s Internal Workshop by iVIZ and External Workshop in Kolkata
11. CGPA of 8.49 in the department of Electrical Engineering.

Clarification from TSA : The Elocution Gold was Open IIT and not Inter Hall

1. Establishment of a body for student’s welfare with 3 major objectives:

   a) To establish a centralised mechanism for providing students an opportunity to work under professors in their projects during summer and winter breaks.

   b) Providing a stipend for such students.

   c) Formalising a training procedure for final placements by means of GDs, Assessment Tests and Interviews.

2. Collaboration with NGOs to educate students and provide internship opportunities
3. Introduction of Department Representatives in the Traninig and Placement Committee to make the placement process more effective and penetrative. (Proposal clarified by candidate)
4. Streaming of news channels on the LAN

• Profile
• Achievements
• Proposals

Name : Shubham Matah Department : Department of Chemical Engineering Year and Course : 3rd Year, Dual Degree Hall : Azad

1. Sponsorship Head of Kshitij 2009; brought Sponsorship worth INR 9.25 Lacs.
2. Brought Incubation worth INR 25 Lacs for BPlan competition.
3. Incharge of Fest’s Audio-Visuals, Photography & Videography.
4. Soc-Cult participation : Won GOLD in Inter-hall Western Groups ’08, SILVER in Inter-hall Choreo ’09.
5. Tech participation : Won GOLD in Inter-hall Ad Design ’08.
6. Sports & Games participation : Won SILVER in Inter-hall Cricket.
7. Anchored National Education Day celebration of IIT Kharagpur & Kshitij’s Kolkata workshop.
8. Interned in Ranbaxy after 2nd yr; going to Bharat Petroleum after 3rd yr.

1. Formation of the “Alternate Careers Group” under the TSG in order to provide students with information about alternate career paths.
2. Introduce changes to improve the placements in IIT Kharagpur
3. Provide additional infrastructure to student groups for conducting meetings.
4. Tie-up with Big Bazaar for home delivery of merchandise at discounted prices via tele-shopping.
5. Get Sponsored Industrial B.Tech and M.Tech projects for students

UPDATE: The poll has been taken down due to people casting multiple votes. We will try to start a more representative poll soon. Please bear with us.

DISCLAIMER : Information regarding the proposals and achievements has been reproduced exactly as given to us by the candidates. The Scholars’ Avenue is not responsible for any misinformation contained therein.

UPDATE: The VP SOP videos are available on DC++. Search “[ScholsAve] SOP 2009″.

The Gymkhana elections shall be held on the 3rd of April 2009 (Friday). The Statement of Purpose schedule is as follows. Students are encouraged to attend the SOP box in large numbers.

Venue : Basket ball Court

31st March:

G Sec Sports : 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
G Sec Tech : 8 p.m. – 10 p.m.

1st April

G Sec Soc-Cult: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
VP: 8 p.m. onwards