Limit Horizon tending to Zenith !!!

(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.”