Here's to the Craziest Others

This post is different from whatever I have done in the past and is about some of the maddest, whackiest people I know. Suits my current situation and has nothing to do with current affairs, politics or any of the numbing administration stuff.

Lets start with Vigilante aka Arjun Variar- you would know he is around from a mile away, not just due to the booming voice, but by a trail of smoke rising and people fleeing the area. Perhaps it is my madness that I became good friends with him during our Chemistry CDCs and as collegues and roomies in Hyderabad. One of the whackiest stories about him is this- P.V.Rao walks into his room on April 1st in our 3rd year as Anti was at his usual 'dota playing, keyboard on the lap, oblivious to even an atom bomb near his ass' mode. P.V.Rao also sees an X-Box360 in the room and goes on a tirade about bad effects of gaming and why it is bad for us. Anti then goes on to say that it is not just a gaming console but can be connected with networks and arranged together to form super-computers to perform highly complex calculations because it has a high processing power. He then goes on from there and leaves P.V.Rao flabbergasted to say the least.

This was Anti's version of events, you may choose to believe the story (I do) and that it did happen on April 1st, but then there is something you cannot deny. He told me this during April 2009, and later this news article appears http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11168150 ... Machu _/\_

Shalini Lahiri- I do not know her well, but I know that she won Oasis single-handedly for BITS-Goa in 2008, was part of Quiz Club, LDC, BITS Herald brought out by DOJMA, DEPP and DOSM and a few others more I have definitely missed out. An extremely talented person, totally whacky and stories are still told about the legendary QotB (Quiz on the beach) she hosted in 2010(I missed it since I was in Bangalore) and she should be rocking in IIM-K now.

Karan Mehta- I really do not know where he is and what he is doing now. But he is the closest I have seen to a hippie. Apart from the punches he threw on Joe Sunny whenever they met or the attempts to hug and call me "Mallu Gunda" or the fact that you could see him walking along the hostel corridors at any time of the night, the designing he did for the Zephyr FashP in 08 was amazing.

Prakash Murali- Genius, bohemian and diogenes of sinope fan- he once said that 'Give me Idly and Sambhar and you shall make my day' or something of that sorts. He could be anything he wants to be- from a high paying software job to a researcher. Oh, wait a minute, he did refuse a job at Oracle and took up research at IIT-KGP after doing his PS at Chennai Mathematical Institute (he could have got PS at one of the high stipend stations too). He also ran the 'Fist of Rice' programme which collected and provided food for orphanages and old age homes in Goa over a year.

Varun M- Well, he is compared to Sheldon Cooper from BBT and that, I would say is a compliment in many ways. He is brilliant in his reasoning and analysis, knows the in and out of things that he is involved with, whether it be football or quizzing and this makes his analysis even more perfect. When I think about fact-value dichotomy in public administration, he pops up into my head! This is because-
Fact- Test-1 the day after crucible
Value- Doesn't really matter. Test-1 is more important
Fortunately, I was able to convince him otherwise or rather, his analysis somehow said that another fact (rivalry) existed and the rest, as they say, is history. But I would like to recount that history- along with my crazyness, it was his composure under the circumstances that saw us through in TCCQ-2011. It allowed me to be extra crazy and take risks and be on my own rather than try to contain myself. The National Finals at Taj Bombay too was fun in a very nerdy sort of way and it was a really good time.

Ajachi Chakraborty- I first knew him as 'the guy who did not qualify for the junior quiz, but kept shouting out the answers!!' He came to Bengaluru from Goa for two college quizzes (he did win another event and recovered costs I think), returned on the same night to Goa via Londa (had a drunk monk puke on him) to attend another quiz. He is also the discoverer of a restaurant in Chicalim that is now growing in popularity among BITSGians. I think he is also the first person from the quiz club to get a DISCO but more importantly, his shares on DC under the folders 'Do not let thy left hand know what thy right hand is doing' are remarkable due to its name alone and his own movie 'Whatsup' directed, edited, scripted, acted and shot by himself is a work of art rivalling Warhole. He is now working with Tehelka.

These are some of the maddest, whackiest, craziest people I know. Yes, it is biased- only mallus and quizzers, Karan Mehta being the only exception. But these are the people I know and I have met and it is not about the most brilliant or the brightest, but just people who are different and who are regularly called crazy or sometimes even mocked. But as Steve Jobs said, here's to the crazy ones and this post is about the craziest ones I have met.

WAVES-09' Summer

It is a blur to me. The last 3 days. The events I saw, I participated and also the event I conducted. It was 3 days of fun, joy and sleepless nights too! But when the dust settles, you are only left with a hangover, not just for the boozers, but I am sure everyone was intoxicated by some of the best days we had in campus.

From a personal point of view, I am very happy. As the Secretary of the Quiz Club in BITS-PILANI, GOA CAMPUS, it is very heartening to see something that you love grow and attain success. We were able to bring in Shamant Rao, a quizmaster from Karnata Quiz Association for our highlight event, Waves Quiz, and this was followed a wide publicity campaign, which involved post in various blogs and posters being put up inside the campus. Another important incident which I must mention is the conversation I had with the quizmaster of the Waves Quiz. He, like everyone else, was simply blown away by our Auditorium, he was impressed by our infrastructure, the settings and surroundings of our campus and the enthu shown by the crowd and also the standards of our quizzing, which although is not the best in the country, is something which will slowly be a force to reckon with. Also, I was able to learn a lot and receive sound advice for my future and career.

It was worth the effort since we were able to attract 89 teams for the Waves Quiz(meaning 287 participants) for the quiz and the lecture theatre was nearly full. My friends tell me that this was the most succesful LT event(do not know whether it is true) and even if it wasn't, I would settle for the fact that we made our presence felt and we too were able to add spice to our fest.

Although the event I did was not a huge hit, it was good enough and I learned a lot from it, not just from the quizzing point of view, but in general. I must also mention the personal succes I had during the fest, by winning and XBOX! Funny thing is, I do not know what to do with it!

It was only yesterday that we were all celebrating, having fun and with no care in the world having some awesome fun. It is all over and tomorrow, I have a mid-sem viva, a 3 hour lab session followed by another 3 hour make-up lab. Life can turn around fast eh? As the Blues song goes,
'Its kind of funny, how life can be,
Can flip 180, in a matter of days'

This post must conclude by congratulating all those who participated in our fest, especially all our outstation teams who covered all that distance to make our fest a success, the audience and spectators who are the soul of such an event, the event managers and all clubs and departments. Hats off to all of you for giving us a Waves that swept us away!