Independence Day celebration at the Adhunik Steels Plant

On the occasion of the 63rd Independence Day, 13 of us had been to the Adhunik Steels Plant to celebrate the day. We were invited to the place to perform a skit on drug addiction and awareness. We left our hostels at about 8:45 am and took around 45 minutes to reach our destination plant which is located in the outskirts of Rourkela.

We were warmly greeted by the members of the plant. After a short interval of time, the chief guest arrived and he hoisted the tricolour. And after his speech, we had our 20 minutes play on Drug Addiction and Awareness. The crowd showed a very positive response to the play and appreciated the topic of the play. A short while after our performance were a few dance performances which we enjoyed a lot. And our presence was then acknowledged by gifts.

After this two hour long programme, we had an interactive session with the top brass at Adhunik who are also Rotarians. They told us all the basic things about how the steel bars are made and what all shapes are casted later on. Thereafter, we had a small tour of the place, they showed us the furnace in which the iron was melted, and we even got the chance to see liquid iron. The plant was very big, so we visited only few sections of it. The trip to the place was really good as it was something like fun-cum-study tour. And with all these nice experiences we left the place at about 1:00 pm.

It was really a one of a kind experience. None of us had thought that we would celebrate our Independence Day by visiting a plant and seeing the liquid iron.

Spread the Cheese

There are 2 kinds of happiness we can achieve. Theres happiness to be got from the internal statisfaction from seeing the smile on people's faces when you help them and blah blah.. which we are incessantly showered with at Rotaract, and there's another happiness, the happiness you feel when someone sees your work and appreciates what youre doing, especially when that someone is an important person and ready to fund your work ;), catch my drift (Im not really sure if thats the correct winking smilie).
So when you go back home this vacation, spread the word, tell your friends about what Rotaract is doing to change the community, interact with local Rotaract clubs and see if you can imbibe any new ideas or forge collaborations.
How are we going to do this? We already have the mediums set up for the dissemination of information. The Rotaract website is up and running (thats http://rotaractnitrkl.org for those of you who dont know already), theres the Rotaract Google group and the rotaract blog, which I hope will remain active in the vacations. Don't hesitate to fill it up if you find something that you found interesting and RELEVANT. Hopefully, by the end of this semster we'll have our T-shirts ready to take along with us.
The call is to all years, present and past members, to raise awareness about our work.

In the spirit of competition

Its a innate human tendency, we're always in a state of competition, if not with others, then at least with ourselves. Maybe its the Rourkela weather, or the lacklusture attitude of the natives, who seem to think that afternoon is a good time for a nap rather than to keep their shops open, which I found, after a lot of questioning, was a common habit in Orissa, but competition doesn't seem to hold that much of an importance as it used to. 

In fact, I would go on to say that the spirit of competition has been stategically and systematically excorcised from our souls by this place, this National Institute of Technology. The "are yaar kaun karega" attitude has paralysed our ability to even lift a finger and get out of our rooms and participate in "institute" activities. If you've not been bitten by that bug yet, theres always your roomate or your "helpful" neighbour who suggests that you play that one last game of Counter strike instead of going out and wasting time in what will be a "pakao" event.

The perpetaution of a lazy mentality has resulted in this, the inability to take effort to participate, the capacity to harbour no other competitive thoughts other than an egoistic hatred of the other rival club. There is no competition in debates, or in quizzes; even in the electoral process to the student body there is no competition, as people get voted to power uncontested. The extra-cirricular activites are so less in number that there is no competition of value worth winning to us, other than probably an eating contest. 

Existance of competition does not alone determine whether the spirit of competition is present, for there will always be competition between two entities no matter how disjoint. It is the value associated with victory that is important in this case, the value that manifests itself in fame, pride and recognition and if lucky, cash. In this place, this "institute", there exists no such value. Even in academic pursuits where there should be a competition, no matter how nerdy that may sound, there exists no value in excelling. Even the house system, and now the inter-hall system, set up to nurture that spirit of competition, goes to waste with probably 3/4th of the hall who would not be able to name at least two players on their hall team. No value given to competition means no spoils to the victors, hence no impetus to compete in the first place.

Its a pathetic situation really. The whole reason behind competition, behind setting up these house teams and clubs is to allow us to channel our energy into these other activities. It would work out well for the institute, because it would foster kinship on the basis of these associations rather than zonal friendships, which is why they are encouraging such activities. Competition is thus an important part of the process of our change, into a more dynamic, open minded people. The message is targeted to especially first years. You are full of enthusiasm and eagerness to learn now. Do not let that enthusiasm wane. Participate in extracirricular activities, take in all the experiences that life in an insititute can offer, not only the ones that will get you a better job. 

I see people leaving clubs instead to pursue a one sided development. I observe an unrelenting stubborness in some to look at anything other than what will benefit him in the exam.

Be aware that as seniors we've also participated in a lot of extracirricular activites and we manage to balance both sides. So the message is simple, change the way you think, embrace competition, and teach your juniors to embrace it next year. Do not continue to perpetuate the lazy mentality and prevent those who do from doing so. Take initative and convince others to participate in that initiative as well.

The gateway march

I attended the march at the Gateway of India today, and it was amazing. The number of people that turned out was overwhelming. The lines we huge but the people polite.

As I stood in line inching forward eagerly towards the taj, people shouted slogans like "Bharat maata ki jai" and "Pakistan ki maa ka ***".  While some contreversial banners urging india to attack pakistan we unfurled, some banners  showed  messages of peace and solidarity. Differing opinions of people did culminate into one central idea though, we love mumbai, we love India, and we have had enough.

As I reached the Taj, which stood as majestic as it did the last time I saw it (clearly they had cleaned up) I felt a sense of pride, of belonging, and a little of the feeling I was being pushed and shoved. "Jaana Gana mana" was in the air and I stood in attention, while I just stood there looking, speechless at the beauty of Taj at night.

Its fantastic to see how the will of the people triumphs, that democracy actually fulfills its objective. Remarkably, young India showed its face as a disillusioned group that is in the know, and knows what it wants from government. It turned a lot of heads. News media from around the world covered the story, as a strong political message. Congress calls for Vilasrao deshmukh to resign. The wheels are turning, hopefully we have a leadership now that protects us against these terrorists. Maybe an approach like the USA might not be appropriate in combating terror, but some approach is needed. We cant approach each situation in a "lets touch the fire and learn from getting burnt" way. We need to have a comprehensive internal security policy, a sound financial policy and never forget that soverignity is paramount , we can never lose that.

Long live democracy. Its the lesser of all evils. 

The Rotaract Online Initiative

Holidays.. It's finally that time of the year again, when students are officially not expected to study.. But sadly, no new posts.. Where is the enthu, ppl?? :)

Anyways, we proudly unveil what is now rechristened as The Rotaract Online Initiative (TROI) .. 

The @rotaractnitrkl.org email ids are all set and done, thanks to Guru n Auroshis.. Mail to admin@rotaractnitrkl.org to find out about ur new ids and passwords.. 

Of course, the most visible part of TROI is the new personalised blog template, n I shall unabashedly take all credits for that .. ;)

Thirdly, Subodh has started off our new Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/rotaractnitrkl

We plan to phase out the current forum, cos of too much spam, and move on to this Google group.. So join up..

N yeah.. Start communicating.. :D

Welcome, again..

Ahoy!! New blog template for the exams :)

So people.. 

Welcome to the blog, again.. ;)

Seeing light

im not going to do the tedious job of trying to enlist everything that happened or was said on Thursday by the DG or anything.. but when he was talking, i was following a chain of thoughts of my own.. he kept showing so much enthu and all i kept feeling was that can we do it, can we handle 5 lacs, could we talk in international conventions, do we know what to expect, can we even prepare for it?

we do work and we have started working really well of late, i see people enjoying things done, i guess it is shown by the kind of ideas we come up with, trying to break the monotonicity in any project.. like that painting competition held in the slums last week

my only concern is that we are what we are.. we are a bunch of students, inexperienced and with no guidance(even the rotary guys will frankly admit that they are not very good at working either).. and we have no clue of channelizing the money to help people.. we know the life in basanti colony is waaay below any humane limit, but we are not able to help, we dint or couldn't buy chairs for them.. we help people, but only upto a certain limit, lifting that limit and goin one step further is the big big step and will require much more commitment than a couple of hours a week.. we havta start working, planning, make rotaract a important priority which cant be sidelined.

i liked the DG a lot though, he was willing to help.. n the obvious question on my mind is why?
well the most obvious answer to that is he is a good man.. but that would be too uninteresting, no?
so either the district is doing absolutely nothing and he may havta answer to some higher authority and thus wants to show some work or maybe he gets some money for us doing work.. lol.. i know but im a cynic.

well, what else. lazy bums.