The rule of not wearing T-shirts is happening to be the most unwillingly accepted rule where every other student is just compelled to wear formals everyday. This engineering institute wants students to look professional and slaps a fine on anyone wearing casual wear. “T-shirts are banned both for boys and girls. We understand if they want to bar us from wearing T-shirts with cheeky messages, but I was fined for wearing a plain T-shirt,” states C. Sammat Kumar from IT.

Also the angle of comfort was highlighted by other students.

“Our college is in outskirts and so we need to travel a lot and since most of us don’t feel comfortable in formals, we should be given right to wear anything in which we feel comfortable as  students are quite sensible of not wearing party wear in college,” opines Ritu Verma , a 3rd year student of the same college. “After spending years in school wearing uniforms, It is also a way to express our individuality, and when you are spending hours stuck in a lecture, it is important to be comfortable and T-shirts provide that comfort”,  suggests Apurba Mandal of  Information Technology.

“College is the only place where we can explore new fashion trends and no one should dictate what we wear. T-shirts are the coolest option for college goers”, quips Madabhushi Vennela of 3rd year. She also adds that there are many students, who can’t afford so many clothes. Those, who have only 2-3 shirts are struggling in the mid of semester due to this rule. Nithish Bandari, a 3rd year student adds, “Formal shirts are for executives and students should look like students, not executives.”

T-shirts are extremely comfortable and fit for the long hours of college. Tees can be dressed up by accessorizing or teaming it up with a shirt or scarf, to give it a formal look. The idea of banning tees is simply baseless. Conspicuously, the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, which also seems restricted these days and with such rules springing up, students don’t even have the freedom to dress either. “A college implementing such a bizarre rule must surely have an 18th century mindset,” states Alekhya Goud from IT, 3rd year.

There seems to be a thin line between discipline and moral policing and students across CMEC college profess that their clothes reflect their individuality, which should not be suppressed. When it comes to dress code, a drive against obtrusively suggestive attires or those with cheeky messages or photographs is understandable. But T-shirts? They are innocuous, perhaps the most decent among casuals.

Guys comfi in tees, chilling out under shade in summer. Credits:Rabble Rouser

“Tees cause negative appeal by having their captions in front. Round neck tees are body attraction oriented. Dressing makes an impression so it should be impressive and shouldn’t provoke others. Also in a formal setup of college , informal wear  is highly not  justified,” quips Mrs.Usha Bala, a lecturer from CM engineering College. Authorities say they are insisting on formals to promote professionalism. What professionalism? Yes, colleges are temples of learning just as schools. But they aren’t offices, where dress codes should be enforced. And professionalism — or concentrating on studies and not dresses, if that’s what the authorities mean by the terminology – isn’t about attires, but is synonymous with dedication and hard work.

Dress codes may be justified at certain places and on particular occasions. For instance, it’s commonly perceived that in temples, people are expected to wear simple, traditional clothes so as not to divert attention of others towards glossy attires. At a condolence gathering, people wear white to respect the solemnity of the occasion. In these instances, one appreciates the moral and social gesture. However, a ban on T-shirts in colleges appears too far-fetched, even a wee-bit ludicrous in its purported mission. The thrust should be on stemming obscenity and propagating decency, not in formulating incomprehensible rules under the garb of ‘professionalism’.

Apparently, T-shirts have become strictly No-No in CMEC. The students of CMEC allege this rule is just a way of extracting extra money from them and is highly unfair. However, the students accept that for presentations and in laboratories, a neat formal attire is justified but banning the Tees in college is totally not justified.

Many people were seen dejected and strolling about the campus and when inquired, poured out their woes.  “I had come for the campus drive at Sri Indu College  after seeing the paper ad in the vernacular daily Eenadu. The news was false as it was an On-Campus drive and outsiders were not allowed.  We came to know about it only after coming to the campus”, said Mr Naveen Kumar, an Osmania University PG College student. Many students like him were very angry and approached the management, who then apologized for the  misinterpretation in the newspaper, especially the placement Officer, Mr. Murthy.

Students Preparing for the Rounds. Credit: PEarl RIve

The Vernacular Daily advertised that a Job Mela was to be held and gave a complete list of  companies which did not highlight that a majority of them were only BPOs. Only Bloom Soft Company was IT related and the others were BPOs. Around 500 students were present for the written round for about 30 minutes. The written round started  around 10  A.M  in the morning and ended at 12 noon. There were 25 questions, 10 from Maths and  15 from C language. “The paper was quite easy and I managed to solve all the bits. But I am not sure about qualifying etc. The company expects us to give a bond for 1 year which I am not ready to. The company was established only in 2009 and our future prospects there sound quite bleak. It is better we avoid such companies and go for the better known ones”, says Manoj Sheetal, a fourth year IT student of Sri Indu College of Engineering and Technology.

Display of the selected candidates for technical round. Credit: Pearl Rive

It was rumored that there was malpractice and many students were disqualified. Out of 500 only 59 were shortlisted for the next round namely HR interview. It was basically a test on the language abilities of the student. It was in the afternoon session. The technical round was to be held the next day. Only Bloom Soft Technologies had their rounds on the 25^th and the other companies were expected on 26^th.

The other leading BPO companies selected students through the same consultant namely, Peoples’ Connect.  They conducted the next round for 70 students.  Only 30 were shortlisted but majority did not want to take up the offer.  The Company offered only Rs. 7000/- during training period and promised to pay  Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 15,000/- if they are absorbed into company. The bond was to be written immediately by 27^th . A sum of Rs. 30,000/- had to be paid or original certificates were to be submitted. Many students feared that the original certificates will not be returned till the bond period was over; hence there was no chance of taking up fresh and more lucrative offers elsewhere during that period.

The Final list. Credit: Pearl Rive

On 26^th morning, not many turned up when compared to the previous day.  Top companies like Dell, GENPACT, GE Money and Mahindra Satyam all turned up the next day for recruiting students into their BPOs. Tech Support recruited students for all the BPOs  in the morning. A JAM session was conducted for 6 students at a time. They had their Personal Interview round later in the afternoon.

Those who qualified  the HR interview round held on 25th March, came for the technical round on 26th. They were supposed to sign the bond immediately within two days. Many were skeptical about joining the company as it was a newly established company. The drive ended successfully in the evening and the results were put up immediately.

The campus drive was a moderate success on the whole. Many students decided to strike rich with lucrative offers, later on, with better Multi National Companies. Recession is on the verge of being pulled out and there are surely better opportunities ahead. There are surely good prospects for people aiming for better jobs. Joining well known companies is a must in order to avoid disappointments later on.

This ghastly incident took place at Rampally Cross Roads near Ghatkesar when the bike they were traveling on directly hit a DCM van coming in the opposite direction. It was Phani who was riding the bike and it is very sad to acknowledge the fact that Pavan had asked for a lift and joined Phani just 5 minutes before the accident took place. The mishap occurred when Phani tried to overtake a lorry and was speeding at over 80 KMPH but failed to notice another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. It is really painful to notice that A.Santosh, a 4^th year IT student and  brother of Pavan was just behind the spot on another friend’s bike when this incident took place. The DCM driver absconded the scene immediately after the accident had occurred.

The whole student community of SNIST was shocked when the news that Phani had died on the spot and Pavan took his last breath on way to the hospital was confirmed. Many were in tears and some others where in utter dismay of losing their friends. It was really very painful for the close friends of Phani and Pavan to accept that their friends would never greet them again with smiling faces. The college was let off immediately after this news had reached the management and many students gathered at the accident spot. It was very sad to see many of them weeping over the loss of their dearest friends. Many had also opined that Phani would have been saved if only he had worn a helmet while riding the bike.

Phani was the core committee member of the ISTE student chapter of SNIST and was very active in extra-curricular activities. Indeed, he was the most favourite student of many of the lecturers who had taught him during the 3 years he spent at the college. Many lecturers and also students expressed their heart-felt condolences to his parents. Phani had an elder brother who is now in the USA and had gifted a bike and laptop to Phani just recently on the occasion of his marriage.Pavan was also a very active student and was very serious about his career.

Credits:Maniac Monster

After this ghastly incident, pictures of both Phani and Pavan were put up in the Administration block on Monday morning and candles were lit in their memory both in the morning as well as evening and their classmates had also put up posters on the notice boards all over the college with the slogan “Speed thrills but Kills” asking other students to be very careful while driving. A brief silence of 2 minutes was also maintained by all the students on Monday praying for the peace of their souls.

Classmates and close friends of Phani had also visited old age homes, orphanages and donated money, spent time there on Phani’s birthday as he had a habit of doing the same every year instead of wasting money on parties. Classmates of Pavan were also shaken by the incident and many of them could not really accept that their friend is no more with them.

So friends, let us all learn a lesson from this incident and be very careful every time we start our engines because many people need us in their lives. Let us all remember the age old saying – “Speed thrills but kills” and also pledge to wear a helmet before we start speeding on our vehicles.

May your souls rest in peace, Phani and Pavan!!

The class rooms and staff rooms were vacated and locked before the students were forced to come out of their class rooms before any violence could take place. Some students were forced to join the group to scream their way to glory with ‘JAI TELANGANA’ while others were forced out of the building, not even being allowed to loiter in the corridors. Some students waited anxiously outside the college building for the classrooms to re-open as they had their bags, money and the most important of all the vehicle keys locked in there! Some became human walls against their vehicles to protect them from the ‘possible’ damage. The road to freedom was not even in the scene.

Locked Up Classroom. Credit: Whacked out Brain

The reason for this bandh was being flashed as ‘breaking news’ all over on the news channels- A student had committed suicide for the cause of Telangana state formation. “I personally feel that such agitations must be stopped. I have seen such things happening on T.V. But today I got absolutely terrified seeing all this happen right in front of my eyes. All the students were made to leave the building and wait outside which I felt was utter waste of time,” says Karishma Adhia, a 3rd year Fine Arts student from JNA&FAU

Things returned to normal when the police arrived (after the climax as usual) and the hope for the classes being re-opened revived. The classes did re-open but the lectures weren’t conducted. The students were more than happy to retrieve their belongings and head towards the rescue. What’s more? With policemen playing cricket with students, it was the most pleasing sight to see students relax and chit chat around the campus, enjoying chai-nashta in the canteen. College life was never so much fun! “We come to the college, pretty sure about the fact that it won’t be long when we get another set of holidays,” says Nidhi Inani, a 3rd year student at JNA & FAU.

Right Hand Fast Bowler. Credit: Whacked out Brain

“We are so used to this kind of schedule now, all thanks to the Telangana bandhs,” continues Nidhi. The home environment is nothing compared to the professional working environment of an educational institution. “I have to admit that I’m not doing much work at home. I have become lazy moreover because of the absence of workaholic surroundings that we have in college. There’s absolutely no competitive spirit. It feels like we are working hard for nothing,” says Gunjan Ashtaputre, a 2nd year Applied Arts student. “The quality of our work has deteriorated due to lack of practice because of this,” adds Japheth Paul, a 3rd year student.

While the academic performance goes for a toss, the students are worried as the news of extension of their semesters for 6 more months are making rounds. Clearly, this will be like a waste of one academic year. “My plans to do my Masters have gone down the drain. I’m keeping my hopes high that they’ll conduct the exams on time,” says Priyanka Aelay, a 3rd year Painting   student. After a long gap, the college had just started getting full attendance and there comes another bandh. Students living in different parts of Andhra Pradesh found it difficult to commute from their districts to Hyderabad.

Some might find this vicious “bandh” circle traumatizing, but the free spirit prevails. Now a bandh is nothing but just-another-holiday for the students. With mostly no homework on their hands, the students are now assigned with only one job – HAVING FUN! “There’s no point worrying over something you are totally helpless about. One might as well make the most of it,” concludes Nidhi.

After a very long vacation and lazy mornings stretched to good afternoons, one is forced to wake up to the ‘rooster’s call’!.The excitement of the first day to college and the enthusiasm to look their very best, just to create the ‘first impression’, keeps them on their toes. And look! There they are at their bus stop, in tow with dad and mum to see them off, not liking this part one bit, every student feels all suddenly grown up.

Students of bus no.23. Credit: Krystal Clear

Don’t worry guys, there were others to give company too. Amidst the hustle and bustle, the ‘not to be missed’ yellow bus arrived and all the CVR students jostled each other to enter the bus! What an experience!.

Well, getting into the bus and looking into strange prying eyes, the freshers slowly let their bags down and comfortably seated themselves. In anticipation of  the much expected ragging, the freshers heaved a sigh of relief upon reaching college. ‘Destination arrived smoothly without any ragging’, thought everybody. Phew!!!

On the 2nd day, a mild version of ragging had started… Rather an interactive session one could say. A round of intros followed by a sudden outburst of nursery rhymes, singing , enacting etc. Talents unleashed, which eventually led to antakshari and dumbcharades in the following months…!! “Writing assignments for the seniors was a real pain”, felt Monika, a 3rd year IT student. She further adds, “But, that was just during the initial days”.

Buses at cvr. Credit:Krystal clear

Whenever the seniors in a particular bus start feeling comfortable with their juniors, the instant thought which gets invoked in everybody’s mind is the BUS PARTY. A welcome party to the freshers of CVR was the beginning of a long friendship among all seniors and juniors which still continues.

Each and every 2nd year student felt the need to make their junior feel ‘most welcome’, just the way their own seniors had. Individual resources pooled in. The venue was decided after much thought and deliberation.

It was a totally different and pleasant sight at the restaurant. Seniors mingling with the juniors like long lost friends unlike in college where they were bossy and throwing their weight around.

A round of welcome drinks and yummy starters like corn kernels, chicken drumsticks and spring rolls etc, set the stage for the freshers`bus party. To lighten up the atmosphere, the seniors came up with innovative ideas of playing ’spin the bottle’. Other light hearted fun events like mimicry was evidently a part of this. Of course, the lecturers being the common targets!!! Everybody had a gala time eventually!

At the buffet. Credit:Krystal Clear

The entire gang was in high spirits. To add zeal and zest to that moment, the seniors egged the juniors on to tap their their feet to the soft ‘Sound of music’.

The familiar aroma of biryani tickled the nostrils enough to drag them to the buffet section. The tempting main course of delicious noodles, steaming hot naans and chicken and paneer etc was irresistable. Everybody made a bee line to the colorful spread of mouth watering pastries and lip smacking ice-creams. One scoop of vanilla, sprinkle of praline nuts a neat chunk of cake a squeeze of chocolate made the fudge look so tempting that Sheetal couldn’t stop herself from taking a second helping.

Srujana, an ECE student of CVR recalls and says, “It was indeed great that our seniors gave us a memorable party like this. This had paved the way in creating a very good rapport between the seniors and the juniors rather informally. “Bhargavi, an EIE student of CVR, reminiscences happily, “That comfort level is shared even today”.

A beautiful beginning for a long journey of 4 years thus began….

Many of them didn’t know about Human Chain. But when the agitators spoke to us we could get the hang of it. Due to which all students in Telangana region participated in this moment called Human Chain. As CMR college comes under the Telangana region so the students of Telangana agitation have come  to involve us students in Human chain. After some time there was chaos  among many students not knowing what was actually happening,and students studying  for the supplementary  exams were more tensed hearing rumors about postponement of the exam, others were expecting for a band and were happy, this way the campus was disturbed.

Human Chain. Credit: Hand Sculptured

Then it was our HOD (Head of the Department) who had come and informed us, that some local politicians have come into the campus. And they wanted the students in the campus to participate in (Manavaharam) Human Chain, all the students had to walk out of the college campus and stand all long the road with the politicians and shout slogans along with them, expressing  support for the struggle for a separate state (Telangana). The college management sent students out with them (local politicians) they have given us instructions how to be within our limits (not to over react to the situation with emotion)and also sent lecturers for our safety.

When students  reached the gate, so that they can go out of the campus as they  were instructed to,they could  see bikes and cars of the politicians who blocked the road expressing their emotions for the struggle.As they had blocked the road, no vehicles were allowed into the campus. This happened around 11 am.

Back to college.... Credit: Hand Sculptured

Later all the students walked their way to the main road in a group and most of the students being seniors, along with the lecturers, and people who were supporting  the movement. All of them reached the road within ten minutes. As they reached the road all of  them were clueless on what to do next, then the people from the local politican follower group told that they mainly gathered the students to be a part of their struggle for Telangana state. Students were then made to stand along a straight line all along the road forming a Human Chain. Then all the politicians along with their supporters shouted slogans aloud and asked us to follow them. Students with interest participated along with them. All students shouted the slogans following the initial group. Some people came on vehicles with some flags of Telangana. Police had come to assure us security. After 45 minutes or so we all returned back to the campus exhausted, as we stood in the hot sun for so long . “It was realy a good experience, it gave us a sense of responsibility says Sandhya a 3rd year student.”  “I was fully tired, i was waiting to return back to the collage badly, says Grace a student of CMRCET.”

Students in GD. Credit: Frank Einstein

Apart from the regular curriculum, it is very important for an individual to develop soft skills. It is very important for every person to maintain healthy relationships with clients. After a thorough analysis, Yendamuri Veerendra Nath, Patabhi Ram, Gampa Nageshwar Rao and many more, have come up with a conclusion that group discussions, debates, personal interviews, just a minute(JAM) sessions play a diversified role in improving soft skills of an individual. A touch of personality development, adds the advantage to control emotions. “Now-a-days, industries are looking for a person who has both technical skills and soft skills in adequate proportions. Few companies like Infosys, TCS, WIPRO, BHEL, ECIL, etc, are concentrating on people who have a mixture of both. It is not only important to maintain distinctions in University standards, but, it is equally evident to know how to maintain healthy relations with others”, said PROF J.Krishna Reddy, Head Of The Department, ECE, Malla Reddy Institute Of Engineering And Technology.

Student participating in group discussion organised at MRIET. Credit: Frank Einstein

VidYouth interviewed a Human resource manager of a multinational company, Mr. Srinivas Kumar Vankamadidi of Sita Corporation, USA. This is what he replied in response to the interesting questions put forth.

VY:  What is the role played by GROUP DISCUSSION sessions?

HR: After an aptitude test, this is the major area wherein we filterdown the total number of applicants to 30%. We only concentrate on communication skills, also most of the times, we find people quarrelling and making a discussion to debate session. It becomes easy for us to filter. All that we look for is a person who’s really diplomatic and this criteria of selections, is fetching us with positive results.

VY:  What are your suggestions for students who wouldn’t want to fail in group discussions?

HR:  Stay calm, be positive, be the initiator, never judge the topic and maintain eye-eye contact with everyone. Lean forward and show that you are really interested in the discussion.

VY:  What is the role of JAM sessions?

HR:  Just minute sessions play a very important role in the selection process. One has to talk for a while on a given topic without stopping. This is used to judge ability an individual with fluency in English. We all are Indians and whole world can understand that English is not our mother tongue. How fast you talk is not important, it is always that how convincingly you talk relevant to the topic.

VY:   What is PI for?

HR:  After we scrutinize the list of candidates, we finally arrive to personal interview round. We check technical aspects here. Personal interview directly tells us, how best you are at analyzing things, grasping, your retention and your thirst of working.

VY: What is importance of maintaining distinctions in engineering? Do they really count?

HR: No. Most of the industries have their own analysis. They therefore conduct these sessions so as to judge the real intelligence of applicant. Sometimes, an 80% candidate gets rejected, and a candidate with 62% gets selected. Every company has its own set of rules for selections and they abide by those.

Conclusively, in order to meet the requirements to combat the competition, many multinational companies are switching to this exercise of selections. Technical abilities and soft skills design a person in a well defined manner which market is looking for. Most of the tech fests organized these days, include these sessions. Not only these, in order to touch the technical development, paper presentations, seminars also play a very important role.  It is always good to involve in co-curricular activities to cheer up engineering lives.

Typically the classes commence at 9.00 am and end by 3.30pm. This has been going on ever since, but because of the reduced term of the semester, the timings were extended to 4.30 pm. That makes it seven hours of study with a lunch break of half an hour. There are a total of 8 periods in the day, each lasting for forty five minutes. The last period for the second and third year students is generally the seminar hour or the library period. Students are generally out of their classes by this time because nothing much happens in the last period usually. Mostly the students lose interest in attending the classes after the lunch break and with the new scheme of things in place, they could not tolerate an extra period after getting used to their old schedule of seven classes per day.

“I think its a pain for us to get accustomed to the new timings. They do no good. We will have classes anyway till 3.30pm, why the extra hour? Is it just because the JNTU asked the college management to do so?” questions Arjun, a 2nd year student of JBIET.

The scene at 8.45 am before the action began. Credit: Aura Unleashed

“When we are fine with the old timings i.e, 9.00 am to 3.30 pm, each class lasting for fifty minutes, we do not need this extension in the schedule”, says Naina.

“Just by sitting in the college ground or spending some time in the canteen we can definitely while away time. That is not much of a problem but when the buses start at 4.30, for people who stay away from the city it will take nearly two or two and a half hours to reach home, depending on the traffic. And when our fate is bad and the roads are loaded, by the time we reach home the day already ends!” whines Sai, a fourth year student and a resident of ECIL.

The extended timings definitely created a havoc in the daily chores of the students. The students, who travel all the way from places like Sanghi,which are about 60 kms away from the college, do have a problem to state with the changed regulation.

The ECE students of third year, JBIET reported their problem to the management by writing a letter to the principal about this issue but it proved to be in vain.

Then started the agitation in the minds. The students started receiving messages on their mobiles that no one should attend classes on February 5th . Messages like “We are not going to attend classes until the management agrees to change the timings to the previous ones. Pass the message to every JBIET’ian”, spread like wild fire. It was pretty soon that the message started to reach everyone’s mobiles. Slowly people started forming groups. Few buses picked up the students from the respective stops in the morning and reached college by around 8.45 am. The people, who didn’t know about the boycott knew once they reached the college campus and saw their friends grouping up. By 9.00 many of them teamed up and it did give a hint to the management. No one was entering the gate, which would lead them to classes.

In full action! Credit: Aura Unleashed

They started shouting slogans like “We want justice!” , “we want the old timings”. It continued till 9.30 am. The ground seemed to be almost full by then. In some time some some people turned up and started shouting in union that they want the old timings again. Dominantly there were the first second and third year students participating in the dissent. It went on till 10.30 am. Then few of the faculty members tried to pacify the students.When the principal’s car steered in the mob started to crowd around the car and then they were asked to move away so that they could come to a conclusion about what has to be done. Few people, who were not really participating in the strike (mostly girls) were just watching the scene. After all the mayhem settled down,the management decided on canceling the classes for the day and told that the verdict will soon be out. Then the students left college in their buses by 12.00 pm  and the dust settled down. The next day the students got an announcement in their classes that the timings were changed! All hail JBIET’ians!

The Telangana agitation appears to have gone into the hands of people who seem to have no interest in settlement. “The students have always played a key role in spearheading the agitation for Telangana,” explains G.Susri, 3rd year  student of the same college. Templated  texts now reside in every student’s mobile phones, ready to be sent at the slightest hint of trouble: BANDH TOMORROW giving music to the ears of some and making others sweat. When asked about the trouble faced due to the bandh, A.Jayshri  of CMEC says, “I’m sad that most of the students and even other people are getting emotionally involved and ending  their valuable life.”

At the all-party meeting in New Delhi, all political parties agreed to restore peace and initiate discussions on the Telangana issue.  But what is happening is totally contrary to what was agreed. “I went to my hometown in holidays and was stuck there due to sudden strike of buses because of which i missed my classes,” says a depressed D.Sri Savya, a student of  CMEC.

While college students have become the emblem of the ongoing trouble in the state, they are also the ones  grappling with the biggest problems. With classes being cancelled, there is the bittersweet sensation of unexpected holidays and uneasy fear of consequences. “I’m quite excited as we are getting to be a part of revolution and it’s always nice to get a break from classes as it gives me a chance to catch up on my reading and spend time with friends,” says  Madabhushi Vennela, 3rd year student of CMEC .  To which Atisha Mathur retorts by saying “ when classes resume, we suffer. In the rush to complete portions, teachers leave out huge chunks of matter for self study.  We also have much lab work to catch up on.”

In addition to this, the administration of JNTU, Hyderabad has finally started conducting the supplementary examinations during working days after a series of postponements. Due to this, sometimes the college management is compelled to suspend classes after noon.  This results in disturbance of classes and making the students shiver about their future.

This can be translated by the sincere students of CM engineering college who opines, “The time lost can never come back, and so they prefer going to library or  to lab whenever there is no class”.

Vacant classes. Credit: Sonali Verma

In contrast to this,happiness is apparent on the faces of various students who are enjoying these bandhs.The students merrily leave the campus half day.  The irony is that the days off from college don’t translate to the usual pastimes of catching a movie or two, or killing time at the mall. “Almost every shop in the town is closed and we finally have to settle for a quiet evening at a friend’s place”, says Sourav Das ,an I.T. student.

In the mean while, other students of the same college feel that this is the time to enhance their non-academic skills. “Since we aren’t having any classes in the noon I like to go for table tennis,” quips Vivek Mathur. Also a gaggle was spotted enhancing their musical skills when their classes got suspended mid day. Apurba Mandal enjoying with his network pals says, “We don’t see the place and time to get into our music world.  This is what we always love to do whenever we get a chance.”

Faculty members clearly aren’t having the best days as well. They are forced to do half-baked job of teaching simply because they don’t have the time”. The situation is just growing from bad to worse. Coming to the financial crisis  the IT sector was already down due to recession and these bandhs are making it worse. “15 IT industries have recently shifted from  Hyderabad to Bangalore. This is something which will surely show up an adverse impact at the time of our placements,” says a worried Laxman Prasad, a student of Information technology who is looking forward for placements.

Here we are, enjoying the fruits of their sacrifices and have our ‘nights without sleep’ on the New Year’s Eve… without a care in the world and partying hard! For a nation celebrating its Republic Day on 26^th of January, the day that marked the formal introduction of the Indian constitution, this 61^st Republic Day saw a remarkably changed world within.

With the tide of time, diverse culture and ethics got dynamic and transformation of India at a rapid pace throws no big wonders. Think of transformation, the barren lands enveloping the rocks that were there for ages got transformed into a vastly changed location, the present day BIET, landscaped with the same rocks encompassed by lush green lawns, making it such a scenic spot.

Celebrations going colorful at college! Credit: Champion's Dialect

The bright morning on the 26^th of Jan ’10 witnessed a rather modest gathering at BIET. At about 10:00am, the Tricolor was hoisted high by the Principal of the college in the lush-green lawns adjoining the ECE block in the august presence of the distinguished guests who were invited for the occassion.

The preceding days saw students of the college from all branches partaking in various competitions categorized under ‘Literary, Cultural and Sports’ events that the college held for its students. A heavy involvement of both boys and girls in the events resulted in the lecturers throwing tantrums in the classrooms that witnessed students in small numbers.

The events held were Essay Writing, Elocution, Extempore, Singing, Dancing, T-Shirt Painting, Rangoli, Mehendi, Cricket (for students and faculty), Throw-ball, Badminton, Chess, Caroms and an exhibition Football match. All these events conducted in a couple of days’ time brought to the fore enough amount of fuming by its students as they were either forced to miss their classes or had to miss out on at least one event for the sake of another, counting on their ‘best decision making’.

Also, the college held auditions for budding anchors of the college for the big day and interestingly five of them found themselves on the podium out of the same number that competed!

With the supplementary exams gripping a fraction of the students who have an exam the day after the Republic Day and with a few more disinterested or busy otherwise and not making it to the college, the place wore a pale, deserted look resulting in the clubbing of celebrations of the four group colleges: Bharat Institute of Engineering & Technology (BIET), Bharat Institution’s Pharmacy college, MBA Dept of Bharat and Bharat Institute of Science & Technology for Women (BITSW). It was then that all the seats in the ‘partially furnished and still (ever) under progress’ auditorium of BIET got filled up.

As everyone inside got settled, Dr. P.Padmanabham the Principal of BIET, Mr. Kumaraswamy the Dean, Mr. Srinivas the Head of Mechanical Department, Mr. M.Gopala Krishna the Chief Guest for the day and Mr. Venugopal Reddy the Guest of Honor, all of whom made it to their seats on the dais, and the program started soon with rendering of our National Song ‘Vandemataram’.

Dignitaries on the dais. Credit: Champion's Dialect

Soon after lighting up of the lamp, each dignitary, one after the other delivered his speech to the assemblage. While some were involved in listening to the ongoing speeches, a few others made their way out of the auditorium in a show of disinterest and impatience, quite unworthy of the occasion.

Having heard speeches of their Principal and the Director, students and faculty were rather expectant for the voices of the Chief Guest and the Guest of Honor.

The guest of honor, Mr. Venugopal Reddy, a renowned social worker and a journalist of stature gave his speech in pure Telugu. One interesting quote of his was “Nothing is tough when you have the interest and nothing great can be achieved without the task being tough”. He also narrated anecdotes from his own life to the young crowd to bring home the point.

The Chief Guest for the day, Mr. M.Gopala Krishna, IAS (Retd.), Chairman, IIPA Andhra Pradesh Regional Branch, with ‘each of his sentence can be quoted’ kind of speech hogged the limelight on the day. It was quite evident from his speech that he’s very knowledgeable, well versed and a man of substance. His two page long list of awards and achievements given to a student ‘profile reader’ bears testimony to this. Speaking fluent English, he also made crisp transitions into pure and prolific Telugu and wise quotes in Hindi which he later translated into English to a literally enthralled crowd, who applauded sentence after sentence.

Crowd on the Big day. Credit: Champion's Dialect

Here are a few excerpts from his speech:

“What India lacks mainly to-day is Technical independence. We still seek technology from elsewhere when we have the most precious resource, the ‘Man Power’ in abundance. In order to be successful, one should have the following with each one leading to the next: Drishti (Sight) –AntarDrishti (Insight) –Srishti (Foresight).”

He also defined education as one which is not just ‘informative’, but one that is ‘formative of character’. He says that Education leads to Enablement leading to Empowerment leading to Entrepreneurship leading to Employment leading to Economic Prosperity, the whole of which is cyclic.

He says that Indians have the requisite skills. What they need is only the confidence and a will to achieve the right competence. He envisions India as a much stronger nation by getting competent not just intellectually but physically and economically too.

Cultural programs by students kicked off soon after the speeches. With singers from pharmacy, classical dancers from BIET knitting aerobic skills into dance, and a song and two dances from BITSW students ended the program in an enjoyable fashion for some and boring for the rest.

Once cheers for cultural programs were over, there were cheers for the prize winners by their peers and friends at the presentation ceremony. At the fag end of the program the crowds that filled the auditorium earlier in the day diminished and most seats looked empty by the time of ‘Vote of Thanks’ and the ‘National Anthem’, drawing curtains for the day’s proceedings.

Students queued up for food at canteen. Credit: Champion's Dialect

The hungry crowds left for the canteen only to find them-selves uninvited for a free buffet hosted exclusively to the faculty and the anchors. “Food is but food for anyone and everyone. So why is that food coupons were given only to a few?” fumed one from the crowd, who stood in the queue along with the ones having food coupons but later left in disgust along with others like him, who were ultimately not served any food.

So, if the day ended celebratory for a few in the college, others were left fuming for various reasons… food, uninteresting programs, transport… A few things still need to improve in the college, which incidentally reflect some in the country too.

If only people think of the quotes like “Change begins from within” (Mahatma Gandhi) and “Am I not destroying my enemies if I make friends of them?” (Abraham Lincoln), most problems that are prevailing now could be solved in a way that a Republic Day can be celebrated by the whole nation with the kind of fervor the occasion brings with it. Well, let us take a solemn oath to cherish the values and uphold what is enshrined in the sacred constitution that was drafted so painstakingly and with such great fore-sight!

Hurray! Long live the Indian Republic!