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.

Give me a red pen of any colour...

Our college saw a new DG.. Not our usual Maths HoD Sahoo with his legendary "Give me a red pen of any colour".. We were visited today by the Rotary District 3260 DG Mr. Dilip Patnaik.. There was a small presentation about the club identity and our work profile, accompanied by a small and very-well-appreciated skit titled "Sab Chalta Hai" by the first years.. 

A brief overview of our future plans was also given, which was highly encouraged by the DG. He seemed to be very impressed by our work, and confessed that our club had reinstated his faith in the Rotaract movement.. 

And of course, there were refreshments.. So what with all the drinks [soft, and not that cold :( ] and the sandwiches, which most of the first years didnt get, [and didnt miss much either ;)]  all in all, an evening well spent.. :)

And nice work, first years.. But lets just make a new skit the next time around, cos even though the "old" one works, it doesnt change the fact that it still is the "old" one.. :D

Happy Birthday Thomman..

This post commemorates the birthday treat given by Thomman Thomas, President, RotaractNITR, on the 17th of November, 2008 at RENGCOL... 

Thanks for the treat, Thomman..

And of course..

Hippy birthday maite.. :) 

wednesday meeting for the first years

We got the information of a meeting by our president and that too a very firm one sayin that every one us shuold be present there and no excuses will be entertained.....

We all were in a vain for what the meeting was for.... Interestingly it was to scold us a bit... but we didnt got much of the scolding as after sometime we were enjoying the meeting because of one of our group member (abhishek)..... and in the enjoyment the we forgot our scoldings ..........
but in this meeting the president was really angry .... and we got a serios blow from him..... but thank god at the end we were spared by him.....
And the abhishek part was really good ...........

Sector-2 -- Slum Education

The first regular project that ,we, the first years got was the sector-2, slum education...

We were divded in groups of two( which is now three because of newly inducted members ) and we went to sector 2 on weekends afternoon to share a bit of our knowledge with the children living there..
So as a weekly routine we are going to sector 2, which is not very far from our insti to teach the children .... After reaching the place , with the help of our seniors we collect all the children at one palce and divide the children in various groups each headed by one of us and teach the stuff they are being taught in their classes. But some children there are so small that they dont go to schools and making them learn the basic things like the english alphabets and the numbers is really a bit difficult task for us also....but neverthless we are tryin our level best to make them learn the things they require....... And there are some also who go to school but mug up the things taught to them without understanding ........ and a few of them are unfortunate to go to school......
But as we count the list we also find some children who are bright enough and if given a little help and guidence can do really well..
These children not only require our so called knowledge but sumone who could make them understand what they are reading and to make them understand the need of what they are reading..

But things seldomly happen as they are planned ...........


Although we have been informed of our groups and on what day we have to go , but........
as happened last week there was some communication problem between us and we didnt know exactly which group was to go on sunday as on saturday none of the groups were supposed to go ........ as a consequence few of us turned up last time i.e. on sunday.............


But we were not pardoned for our mistake and we got a serious scolding from our president in the weekly meeting on very next day i.e. monday.............
And after last meeting I dont think we will ever be late for our work or will not come.....

Why?

How can we expect to combat hunger? How can we educate the masses, eradicate disease, and protect the environment? How can we spread the message of peace and eliminate communal hatred, spread the message of empathy and wipe out callousness? How do we expect that in the face of such insurmountable odds, that so many before us have tried to overcome, social service can actually make a difference in the world?
We believe in the power of one, the helping hand of one individual today making a difference in millions of lives tomorrow, we believe in a society that recognizes that it needs to change, that needs to take care of its own people, and that only lacks the information and direction to do so. The alternative is too horrifying to fathom. Our premise is simple, if by doing good work we can made a difference even in just one individual's life, we have not failed. The notion of "I am but one person" needs to be dispelled.
Why are we doing this? Why do we keep banging our heads against the wall?
We do it because the satisfaction that we get from seeing just one smile on another person's face, that one solitary smile which breaks the barriers of language, dumbness, deafness, all physical and mental disabilities and ailments, is an indescribable burst of emotion that fills you, and in that moment, you forget about hatred, you forget about greed, you forget about all the bad emotions welled up inside you, and you're only thought is to how lucky you are to have been there to see this smile that has just lit up your world.
When someone asks me why I do it, why I devote my time to social service, I can only describe to him the uphoric sensation of that one smile. My selfishness drives me to benevolence. So why do we do it? Because, we believe in it, and because we love doing it. We want to make a difference, and we're trying our best.