Limit Horizon tending to Zenith !!!

“Where is it? How does it look? What is it? How can I reach there?” - All useless questions. Take my word, The finish line is inexistent. And those who believe in the contrary are decieving yoursleves.

During the period of Primary School, you lead life as a routine dictated by elders. Music class, Dance class, Cricket coaching, Tennis coaching, Arts class, Crafts class, Martial Arts, and the list goes on. Life consists of school + classes. And why all these classes? Simple. You need proper exposure to everything in the world to make a clear and wise choice about what you are passionate about and want to pursue. Result? You are a Jack of all trades, and a master of none. Amidst this too you may be lucky enough to find a passion. “Mom, I want to grow up to be a cricketer”. And mom, “Wah, mera beta Sachin Tendulkar ban ne waala hai!!”. Dreaming of becoming the next big sensation in Indian sport, you enter middle school. You think, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. And, it is middle school. “Dekho beta, ab tu bada ban gaya hai. It is time to leave you playfulness behind and get a little serious.” Class five. It is time to take the entrance tests to enter into the coaching institutes. Institutes that train you to take other entrance exams that are to be taken only 6 yeras down the lane. If you do not do well in them, life is hell. “Abhi isa hai tho bada banke kya karega? Future tho gaya bhaad main. God save him.” If you do well and get an admission into one of the institutes, life is worse than hell. “Sachin bhi ho tho kya, IIT ka degree tho zaroori hai.” School, coaching class, school, coaching class, school, coaching class!! Oh no, I forgot about food, and the famous dialogue, “You both sit in the same class. How come you do so badly, and X does so well? He always tops the class. What does he have that you do not?” You live through all this without realizing your early childhood is almost over. Your teens are nearing and you think, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. Along with the word “teen” comes the word “high school”, and along with that come “Board exams”. Who cares about what you need to learn for the 9^th grade? Start preparing for the boards. An early start gives better results. The adolescence and teen age is proved to bring with it a lot of changes. And it sure does. Cable connection is cut, telephone is wired off if possible, cricket bats are put into the loft, relatives and friends are cut off, books are now your true love. You mug all day and night and ultimately secure 2^nd rank in school. So what? You are still one amoung the (total – 1) number of students who did not secure the first rank. The majority does not always win my son!! Bygones are bygones. You leave the “ghosts” of the past behind and decide to move on, thinking, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. 11^th and 12^th are not the years to enjoy the last moments of school life. They are the moments to freak out about what the future will be like. This is the time you will hear the biggest lie in the world being told over and over again. Parents, Teachers, Everybody. “Two years of hard work, aur phir life settled, Bindaas”. Well that statement is the best advertisement to the two years. Everyone believes it. But there is one positive in this too. Board exams are not the central concern anymore. Thank God. Thank God? Only if you think the competitive exams are a better bet. 2 years of dating the books, coffee on notes, dreams about theorems, inhaling equations, exhaling definitions, and there you are. Ready to compete in the world's biggest contest. The entrance test. 3 hours, and the next 30 years of your life is sealed. At last the exam is over and you think, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. A month can never go by so slowly. Waiting for the results in anticipation is a struggle of life and death. Your schedule is even tighter than that of the preparation holidays. Early morning Ganesh temple 3 rounds; Shiva temple 9 rounds; Vishnu temple 11 rounds; Devi temple 18 rounds. And, a break for lunch. Not because you need it, but because the Gods are not as active as you are. Come evening and Muruga temple 41 rounds; Hanuman temple 108 rounds. In between if time permits, speak to all aunties and uncles possible about how you have done, what you are expecting, what they are expecting, future prospects, blah blah blah. The results arrive. AIR 1001 in the JEE. After a few tears and hard feelings of not being in the top 1000, you are willing to let that go. After all the sweet distribution and pampering that follws, you heave a sigh of relief, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. College. Clothes of your choice, ragging you will get past easily, naach gaana, fun, hanging out, best friends for life, boyfriend, girlfriend, fun lectures of Romeo and Juliet, etc etc. Well there is a lot more to college than you see in “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”. Firstly, good looking girls in mini skirts... nooooooooo. (Sometimes the concept of girls itself is a no, but we will deal with that later!!). Secondly, handsome guys,..... NOOOOOOOO. When you get past that initial shock, assignments, dead lines, mis sems, quizzes, surprise tests, practicals, end sems and all the torture begins. In the first two years, all these matter. They sure do. At least till you learn the art of lying to your parents. “I got good grades (a C in everything is not that bad)”. “Come on mom. I do not drink (28 times is pretty neligible, Oh no 29)”. Once this is mastered, you think the coast is clear. Now you are the senior and it is the turn of the Juniors to face the wrath. “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. Come third year and it is a repeat performance of the 11^th and 12^th again. Prepare for your GATE, CAT, GRE, GMAT, or anything else with more fancy expansions. Papers presentations, conferences, interships, and any other embellishments to your resume are a necessity. Attend placement training. Write the exams. Get the results. Dress formally. Sit for placements. Aptitude tests. Group discussions. Interviews. And at last, score cards or call letters. You have reached it. Now you sit back and say, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin.”

You are wrong. At least, I am sure you are.

As I write this I am all of 21 years of age, good to finish college in a year. I do not know what the future has in store (which is also the reason why i have stopped writing this beyond the stage of college life). But I know one thing for sure. If i ever sit back and think, “The struggle is over. Let the fun begin”, I will be wrong.

There is no end to expectations in life. Things you expect of yourself, and things others expect of you. There is no finish line you can reach and raise your hands high up in exhilaration. You finish every lap only to know there is another lap to finish the race. As you near the finish line, the line moves farther. You have no choice but to move on.

(This post would be understood better if you are a student, faculty, or in an obvious way related to SASTRA University)

Time: 13:00 hrs

Venue: Hostel room(on bed, sleeping on Data Structures book with the end semester exam the following day)

“I’ll be there for you……..”, (my ring tone then), “Dwarakanath calling..”. I picked the phone, and not even in my wildest dreams did I expect that this call was what would start off the “thing” that would define the whole of my next semester in college.

Well, as “history” (Ah! That sounds important!) would have it, this is how it all began for us, three 3^rd year(then 2^nd year) students from the School of Computing. The result is what we see as the Students Toolkit today.

A wonderful new idea, and the thought of creating something that the whole university would use once successfully completed was enough to get the team all enthusiastic and raring to go. What followed of course, was some intense bonding with the laptop, a lot of learning(A LOT LOT LOT!!!), meetings, deadlines, long hours at the lab, erroneous codes, disagreements, approvals, tense demonstrations, a few sleepless nights, and a few sighs of relief, and at last a lot of smiles. In short it was an ineffable experience.

The Student Toolkit (as most of you may know by now) is an application that caters to many different categories of users - students, alumni, faculty and outsiders. It provides different services to each user group, identifying their needs and requirements. The services include applications for new ID cards, bonafide certificates, transcripts, and most importantly (for most) hostel leave permissions. Apart from these, it also includes modules such as curricula (coming up) to check out your syllabus and other details, notifications, to get all alerts, et cetera. With everything now just a few clicks away, with the comforts of your bed, it would not be completely inappropriate to cite that the Toolkit has indeed taken a leap towards making SASTRA a paper free University.

Now that the project is in the post-deployment phase, I have to confess that this project has contributed majorly to an extremely exciting and fun-filled 4^th semester in college. I would be leaving a huge blank unfilled if I, (and am sure my teammates would agree), do not express my gratitude to Prof. VaidhyaSubramanium, Dwarakanath (Open Source Champion’10 at SASTRA), and GLOSS for providing us with this wonderful opportunity and give us a learning experience better than any other.

To conclude technically, the Toolkit has been a GOLSS initiative, built completely on Open Source Softwares, with a base of PHP and MySql. It can be viewed at toolkit.sastra.edu.

PS: For any comments, criticisms (except, “I hate you for making hostel permission count more strict!”), and queries, feel free to contact us at toolkit@sastra.edu.

“We will take it one match at a time from here. Unless we think about the next match, we cannot even go to the next level.”

-Dhoni

With the 2^nd quarter-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 scheduled for the 24^th of March 2011, not only the minds of the 15 member squad, but also those of a billion population are fixed on just one thing “India vs Australia”.

Australia, is certainly not the team it was over the past few years-an epitome of sheer dominance. The Indian team on the other hand is not justifying the strength it displays on paper. With both the teams not looking good enough to win a real “India Australia” encounter, there is one difference that separates the two - SACHIN.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. While Sachin provides the team its strength, most of the rest justify its weakness. The mystery that envelops the period after Sachin’s dismissal remains unsolved. An unedited version of the wickets package follows. Is it just that no other batsman can get over the grief of a Sachin dismissal, or is it that the opposition’s confidence and performance raises by leaps and bounds after the same? Or, is it just destiny? We fail to find answers.

While half the people in India believe that cricket is religion and Sachin is God, the other half strongly believe that India will not emerge victorious when Sachin performs. It is high time the latter look out into the sunlight. While statistics are enough to prove them wrong, I find it baffling that the one who performs is accused rather than praised, and the ones who fail are excused rather than reprimanded. The funny part is, these are the same people who are praying that the 100^th run of the 100^th ton off the willow that has created most of Cricket’s batting records comes on their own home ground. Cricket is a funny game indeed.

Here is a man who has carried the expectations of a billion, and performed better than the expectations. A man who has withstood the tests of time, pressure and injury. A man who has always put the game, country and team first, and him next. And all this for 22 long years now. The respect that he receives from the people, not only in India but all around the world is only a reflection of the respect he gives the game that is Cricket. He has given a lot to Indian cricket. What has he got in return? A string of disappointments, failures, and the fetid breath of defeat. The instances when he had failed the team remain a countable minimum. But the instances when the team has failed him: during his 175 against Australia, 136 against Pakistan while fighting full body cramps, an overall performance in the 2003 World Cup, 111 against South Africa in this World cup, the list goes on. What more he has to do, I fail to understand.

Though his deification is completely justified, one thing eludes him. The World Cup. The team is indebted. Penitance is not the solution, Performance is. They have to win the cup, and win it now. Not for the country, not for the team, but for him, the man who has taken not only Indian cricket, but World cricket to peaks never thought of before. In this situation I will agree with what Mr.Siddhu said, “Winning is not everything, it is the only thing.”