Parivartan is in the air, heralding with it a fies-

ta of tech savvy changes in education at BITS.

As most would have surmised from the sug-

gestive title the writer wishes to bring to light

the state-of-art facilities introduced through

BITSCONNECT 2.0.

The program currently has fourteen courses,

like parallel computing, network security,

power systems etc. running in tandem in all

three campuses of the institute. Most of the

ICs being from the Pilani campus, the lectures

are conducted from here, however labs are

planned to be held in the respective campus-

es. The examinations are scheduled to be held

centrally with a common question paper, but

the evaluation and grading is to be done local-

ly. As Prof. Rahul Banerjee, one of the par-

ents of BITSConnect 2.0 told us, the program

is too young in its implementation stage as of

now and the course administration will evolve

over due course of time. For the record, it is

worth mentioning that the Instruction Divi-

sion is still chalking out the intricacies of the

courses and the modus operandi of the tests.

Besides academics, the cutting edge technolo-

gy in BITSConnect is set to revamp various

aspects of BITSian life (intellectually speak-

ing). Prof. Banerjee enlightened us about the

various things planned for the facilities at

5103. Besides the recently concluded Alumni

Research talks, 5103 is set to have Embryo

talks, talks from distinguished figures , place-

ment talks and much more. Yes, all this did

happen before, but this time it will happen

from all across the globe with easy access

from our very own LTC (5103).

Further workshops and placement interviews

can happen across the three campuses simul-

taneously. Even faculty recruitment can hence

happen across the three campuses, meaning

prospective faculty members can walk into

any campus and appear for an interview for a

position in any of the three campuses. Fur-

ther, there is an 18 seater-telepresence room

in all the three campuses to facilitate research

discussions and administrative panel discus-

sions across the campuses.

The ART coordinator mentioned that the

facilities offered in the room 5103 made or-

ganising the talks relatively easy. Students

who attended lectures in that room were all of

the same opinion that even the facilities pro-

vided by BITSConnect were state-of-the-art;

the management of these facilities had several

problems. To state a major one, every time

someone pressed the button for asking a

doubt, the camera focused on the student and

stayed there till a separate remote control was

used to bring the focus back on the professor.

Academics and placement aside, BITSCon-

nect is set to help administration in BITS in a

big way. Desktop Telepresence(TP) units

connect the Directors, VCs and advisors to

directors of all the three campuses besides

connecting them to the chancellor‘s office at

Worli, Mumbai .This ensures one touch con-

nectivity among all the bigwigs of the

university and promises to make administra-

tion a lot easier. All communication carried

out in the program would be through secure

encrypted transmission. The recording facility

at the data station in Mumbai has a 120 Mbps

MPLS link hub with a 10 Mbps link dedicated

to communication with the chancellor.

When Prof Banerjee calls the facility the first

of its kind in the country, one feels a huge

surge of BITSian-pride, the professor sharing

the warmth accompanying a sense of achieve-

ment and making the moment more exultant.

This time BITS definitely has scored over all

the IITs in terms of introducing technical

revolution in engineering education and tak-

ing the aid of cutting edge technology in col-

lege administration.

Django Unchained-

A Review:

This latest release from the

Quentin Tarantino stable does

complete justice to the pre-

release hype surrounding it, and

does the celebrated director‘s

reputation no harm. The film

traces the adventures of Django,

a freed slave, across the slavery-

ridden landscape of pre-Civil

War America.

...Continued on page 4

Semi -Column

Jagriti Yatra:

―Ghummakadi ka dharm apnao‖

- James Cook, Marco Polo and

Ibn Batuta never said it but

would undeniably have endorsed

it. Rahul Sankrityayan said it, and

Jagriti Yatra endorsed it.

...continued on page 4

Alumni

Research

Talks - 2013

It‘s not every day that you get distinguished

alumni making the cold trip back to Pilani,

with nothing but the desire to give some-

thing back to their alma mater. And it‘s

even rarer when there are six of them.

The 2nd edition of the Alumni Research

Talks or ART for short, was a colourful

mix of the current trends in the compu-

ting world, with special regard to its ap-

plications in the upcoming future. Or-

ganised by the Computer Science Asso-

ciation along with Embryo, the talks

were held between the 12th and 14th of

January. Boasting of sponsors like

Google, Ebay Paypal and Netapp, this

edition of the ART was bigger and bet-

ter than its predecessor and received lots

of participation from the BITSian junta.

The biggest difference this time was proba-

bly due to the usage of the telepresence ena-

bled LTC room 5103 that had resulted out

of BITS Connect 2.0. The state of the art

facilities allowed the talks to be transmitted

seamlessly to all the three campuses. The

talks themselves presented a chance to see

the system in its full glory, and it didn‘t fail

to deliver. The lectures were truly interactive,

in all senses of the word, with questions

coming in from Hyderabad, Goa and Pilani.

Now coming to the talks themselves, they

were kicked off by a pre –ART talk given by

Chinmay Kulkarni, who spoke on social

computing, which concerned the tackling of

problems which can‘t be solved by algo-

rithms by using humans as an interface.

The inaugural address was given by Laksh-

manan Krishnamoorthy, Director Reporting,

Centre of Excellence, Paypal India, who gave

a talk on the future of internet banking,

showing how it can be integrated into our

lives in the coming future.

Rakesh Komuravelli gave a talk on better

hardware and software integration for safe

parallelism. The importance of multimedia

systems and the development of tele-

immersive systems was the subject of Arpit‘s

talk, who was well-equipped with Toblerones

which he distributed to the audience mem-

bers who answered his questions, much to

their reasonable surprise and de-

light.

Vishwa spoke on the applications

of computing in the field of medi-

cine. The subject of Rizwan‘s talk

was about the theory of algorithm,

which was spread over two talks.

Rajat Tibrewal gave a talk on what

it is to run your DSA lab assign-

ment at Google scale.

It was pretty much a universal feeling of sat-

isfaction from the audience‘s side that was

happy to have attended the lectures, which

were simple enough to be understood by the

layman, yet had enough matter to keep them

interested. And it truly was a resounding suc-

cess, which echoed through the hallowed

halls (or rather high tech lecture theatres) of

the three campuses.

An Interview With The

CAT Topper:

Common Admission Test.

They call it the toughest nut

to crack, with toppers having

to propel themselves to the

very brim of perfection to

secure their coveted seats in

the IIMs. But, Joyneel Achar-

ya, the BITSian who features

in the top 20 in CAT this time

begs to differ. Joyneel has to

conjure four digits and a deci-

mal point to describe his near-

perfect CAT percentile of

99.99.

...Continued on Page 3

Registration Revamp

Registration happens in the IPC

a day prior to the start of classes.

ARCD plans to replace this with

t h e f u l l y o n l i n e E R P

(Entrepreneurial Resource Plan-

ning) system. If all goes well,

students can register while vaca-

tioning in the Bahamas! While

this might be overly ambitious,

the effort is to enable registra-

tion from hostels at the least.

… Continued on Page 2

Rajat Tibrewal: One of the speakers, giving a talk during ART

From the Editor’s desk

“DiCaprio‟s hand was actually cut in that scene in Django Unchained.”

“What? And then he goes on and smears blood on the woman‟s face?”

“Yes, that was his impromptu addition to the script. It wasn‟t actually supposed to be there. Weird.”

Just another example of those inane conversations you usually have, sipping tea at the Redi, which form your time here at BITS. Another semester went past really quickly and a new one seeks to test our endurance.

Having spent two-and-a-half years here, you inevitably come to terms with almost everything that is Pilani. You survive the cold with fewer complaints and you understand its dynamic nature with the maturity of a wizened old soul. As a matter of fact Pilani forms this really comfortable blanket of fa-miliarity around you. Within the confines of this campus, you know the people and people know you. An acknowledging smile and you get your regu-lar “Do samosa, ek chai”, the moment you reach the Redi. There is a certain charm to this niche that you carve for yourself which is rarely paralleled by anything else.

To quote a senior of mine, ―Pilani institutionalizes every bit of you. It spares nothing.‖ Probably this is what passing batches of psenti-semites talk about when they say that there is ―something‖ about Pilani which you will always miss no matter how much you grow weary about it.

Inane they may be, but I would willingly bet my right-hand that at some stage in your life, you will miss these conversations with wingies. You will regale those around you with stories of your time at BITS. Post the horror-run that defines high school, college-time is definitely the phase that defines you for the rest of your life; it leaves something indelible with you. Or at least so it seems after listening to conversations from parents and alumni alike.

In this new semester, I couldn‘t think of a better resolution but to enjoy the time here to the fullest. Yes, all of us need to study, all of us have to work for that fest, all of us have to do a project, but in the middle of this frenzy, do not forget to relish these last few years life has given you to live care-free. After this it throws a lot of responsibilities on you. This time is too short to judge people or to have unnecessary prejudices that stop you from doing anything new.

It‘s a new semester, a new year, a fresh start. Make this one as you always wanted it to be. In the spirit of the New Year wishes:

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right”

P.S: I know I just quoted Oprah Winfrey, but meh, it fits the bill.

THE TEAM

Deepa, Dipto, Iyer,

Neetha, Parikshit, Reu-

ben, Rishi, Satyaam,

Shreyas, Shruti, Sriram,

Shoo, Vishwadeep;

IG, Aloor, Angad,

Kaustav, Manickam,

Mohit, Neo, Pranita,

Spriha, Siddhant, Tanya,

Vishala, Shuja ;

Ajay Ramya, Debolina,

Neel, Nithya, Passey,

Prateek, Ritvik, Sahil D,

Sahil K, Shashank, Shruti,

Steffie, Viraj;

Ananth, Prateek, Soumya,

Tanay, Tanmayee, Vijay.

The average BITSian, caught in the

routine of lectures amidst a hailstorm

of tutorial tests and regularly having to

hear excruciatingly detailed descrip-

tions of delicacies back home from the

annoying younger sibling, gradually

succumbs to the condition called home

-sickness. Your eyes then fall upon the

five days in March which have always

been taken to be holidays and in a mo-

ment a travel plan is ready and the

IRCTC website (or makemytrip for the

rich) is up on the laptop screen. Well

hold on, bub. We present to you why

this APOGEE could very well wash

away your homesickness and leave you

with a story or two for when you do

get back to your soil.

1. Guest Lectures: After last years‘

impressive set of lecturers, the trend

continues. Among the lecturers is Dr.

Devdutt Patnaik, an erstwhile physi-

cian, now a management consult-

ant, mythologist and author. Word of

Jeff Lieberman, host of Discovery

Show Time Warp, being one of the

lecturers has also reached our ears.

This reporter has had the good fortune

of attending one of his lectures. En-

lightening, to say the least. Big names

from ISRO and CERN are also in the

air.

2. Workshops – new and old: The la-

tent engineer in you does a somersault

of joy as it sees the line-up of work-

shops waiting to be tried out. Along

with the usual awe-inspiring Android

and Ethical Hacking workshops, the

excitement this APOGEE surrounds

the newly introduced Raspberry Pi, a

credit card sized computer and

Ornithopter, an aircraft that flies only

on mechanical principles by flapping its

wings

3. Quality Check: Keeping up with

the two fests last semester, this APO-

GEE too is stressing on quality rather

than its flashy cousin, quantity. A cut-

back in the number of events and

stricter scrutiny regarding presentation

of papers and their evaluation is in

place. Emphasis is being laid on the

rule that only projects submitted

through the associations will be evalu-

ated i.e. no independently submitted

projects shall be entertained. In addi-

tion, there would be a new screening

process to weed out and discourage

plagiarism. All these measures, assured-

ly, would improve the overall quality of

the fest.

4. Outreach: As a first, the APOGEE

Outreach Programme shall see the fest

being taken to Delhi. In a tie-up with

Delhi Technological University, prelim-

inary rounds will be held in February

and the finalists shall be part of APO-

GEE in Pilani. In a bid to increase par-

ticipation, this programme is establish-

ing a precedent for future fests, when

we shall definitely be extending to

many other cities with such preliminary

eliminations. With more Outstis com-

ing on campus, it would hardly make

sense if BITSians themselves run back

home.

5. Non-technical events: APOGEE

may be a technical fest but there is no

dearth of events that are refreshment

for the dear old grey matter. Innumera-

ble quizzes (including the prestigious

BOB), language related events and a

whole assortment of innovative new

events around the corner. You could

participate or reap their entertainment

value by becoming part of the audi-

ence. Rumour has supplied us with yet

another snippet – a potential cyber

gaming event. Need I say more?

Frantic discussions over impending tutorial

tests? Still some time to go. CG comparisons?

No one in their right minds would do that.

Campus life? No changes (Duh. Nothing sur-

prising). Academics? The same holds here as

well. So does the new semester leave nothing

to the BITSian to ponder over? Maybe not,

thanks to the Academic Registration and

Counselling Division, or ARCD. We spoke to

the dean about the changes in the system and

the various problems students faced with the

registration process.

The prevailing time table making system,

which has been in use for a while now, is the

legacy system. Registration happens in the

IPC a day prior to the start of classes. ARCD

plans to replace this with the fully online ERP

(Entreprise Resource Planning) system. If all

goes well, students can register while vacation-

ing in the Bahamas! While this might be overly

ambitious, the effort is to enable registration

from hostels at the least.

For the last two years, student volunteers and

teachers have taken part in mock ERP trials.

This time, it was made available to some stu-

dents (PR numbers 1 to 100). However, faults

cropped up quickly. The process is slower,

with only sixty students managing to register

in three hours. Furthermore, it requires stu-

dents to be trained to use it. Nevertheless,

ARCD expects it to function smoothly in the

near future.

The counseling system this year for ACB and

backlog cases also saw some changes. Usually

around 200 ACBs and 200 BLs are counseled

by the dean, which is a tedious process. To

improve efficiency, only around 40-50 under-

went this. The rest were sent to their own De-

partment Heads, who could better inform

them about the courses which suited them

best.

Importantly, we also asked the dean about

some of the common problems students had

this semester; having to deal with inaudible

announcements and crowding around the IPC

entrance, for instance, which is often grum-

bled about. ARCD agreed to provide a micro-

phone to announcers to resolve this issue till

the ERP system is initiated.

Students from the second year faced numer-

ous issues concerning humanities electives.

Several students found that humanities elec-

tives they had registered for in 2-1 were

counted as open electives, causing them to

lose out on an open elective slot. The ARCD

is working on changing these in the records

back to humanities electives as they should

rightfully be. The dean promised it would be

done by registration next semester, but asked

that everyone with this problem submit a let-

ter to the ARCD asking them to make the

change, just to be safe.

HSS F*** and GS F*** courses that were not

counted as humanities electives are also being

changed to correctly reflect their status thusly.

These can be substituted for other electives a

student took during registration, fearing a

backlog. Also of note—one addition and any

number of substitutions (apart from compul-

sory courses, of course) are allowed.

Clashing chemistry CDCs were another big

problem for second years, and one that the

apologetic ARCD is willing to resolve for stu-

dents individually. The dean suggested an ad-

ditional, manual add-on for these students to

resolve issues that cannot be resolved simply

by substitution. Students wanting this are in-

vited to speak to the dean, with him promising

to see what can be done.

The ARCD thus put up an exceptionally ac-

commodating face, every word speaking vol-

umes about their effort to help students. With

any luck, all issues will be taken care of com-

pletely and the registration process will be

smoother that it has been thus far.

APOGEE Vignettes

5 Reasons to not book that train ticket

Registration Revamp

And other updates from the ARCD

Common Admission Test. They call it the

toughest nut to crack, with toppers hav-

ing to propel themselves to the very brim

of perfection to secure their coveted seats

in the IIMs. But, Joyneel Acharya, the

BITSian who features in the top 20 in

CAT this time begs to differ. Having to

conjure four digits and a decimal point to

describe his near-perfect CAT percentile

of 99.99, the BITSian feels CAT is not all

that invincible; it‘s rather hyped over.

Given that you have a knack for it and

you give yourself a decent 2-3 month‘s

training, it‘s definitely going to be in your

reach, proves Joyneel.

Expecting calls from IIMs Calcutta, Indore and Lucknow, on account of a

GPA on the lower side, he advised the aspirants to keep an eye on that part as

well so as to build a ‗good Profile‘. Understandably, it will do a great deal of

good if you keep your GPA high. Furthermore, they'll grill candidates on the

extra-curricular frontier as well; it serves well to be an all-rounder. As for the

preparations that led to his triumph, he recounted that a not-so-hectic PS helped

him tend to his practice for CAT; he kept working and picked up pace a month

prior to the exam, spending 2-3 hours a day, strategically working out mock tests

and analyzing the papers.

―It depends a lot on your confidence level and whether you have a knack for it

or not. If you are confident that you'll do well, one month is actually good

enough. Ideally, though, 2-3 months will fit the bill. If a first or second year stu-

dent wants to go for it in the long run, he should be regular with the newspapers

and read some novels in order to improve grammar and vocabulary. BITSian

engineers are generally good in mathematics and it's not the toughest part in the

CAT. So, essentially, it‘s about speed and accuracy.‖

―The IIMs also take into account some percentage of work experience. It will

definitely help if you possess some work experience. Foreign schools prefer peo-

ple with work experience. But in India, it‘s not that that big a deal for the IIMs.

If you can crack CAT in one go, then its fine. For MBA and Marketing fields,

they prefer a fresher over a repeater and for Finance and Consultancy; work ex-

perience does count.‖

Joyneel did have an A7 job as a back-up plan as he said, ―I got through IIFT as

well; that's my last option. Otherwise, since I'm A7 I'll get a decent enough job.

If I don't get through to somewhere, I'll work for a year and give it another try.‖

His advice for the aspirants: Strengthen your weak areas and improve your

speed. CAT is basically 60 questions in 140 minutes. So you need to improve

your speed in the mathematics part. Even for BITSAT, you made a strategy.

Give some mocks, form your own strategy and remain calm and composed on

the D-day and you give it your best shot. Some of those who don't do well ini-

tially can definitely do well later because CAT can be given at any later point of

time. You never need to get stressed out about it; it‘s not the last option out

there.

All those who knock on the iconic

doors of Google invariably find

what they want. But Rushabh

Agrawal, 2008B4A7PS718, BITS-

Pilani just went a tad further, land-

ing a dream job in the organization

for a pay package of a staggering Rs.

1.22 Crore at the Mount View, Cali-

fornia Office. Google is renowned

for their ambient workspace and top

-notch organization. We at the EPC

spoke to him about his remarkable

feat. Animated and colored as he

expressed his thoughts, Rushabh

was never apprehensive of revealing

the arsenal of skill sets and tech-

niques that fetched him the deal.

We are fairly accustomed to witnessing fellow BITSians bag monumental pack-

ages year after year, modeling our inclination to the A7 tag on the ID. But

Rushabh‘s advice to all the aspirants out there was that no one should be under

the impression that a job at a top company after A7 from BITS is the ultimate

goal and the only way to get there is by coding online irrespective of whether it

interests you or not. Having such a short-sighted and narrow goal would only

restrict you and not allow you to explore the field of Computer Science.

Rushabh also said that, ideally, being good with Data Structures and Algorithms

is a must, along with decent coding skills. Knowledge of Computer Networks

and Object Oriented Programming (OOP) will come in handy as well. Know-

ing anything else is a bonus. However, practice is extremely important. Inter-

viewers generally evaluate a candidate based on his/her response, thinking pro-

cess and approach to unknown problems. So they look for problem solving

skills as well, in addition to knowledge and experience. Any aspirants‘ résumé

plays a significant part, so having some good projects, publications or some big

competitions on it does produce an impact.

For the first and second yearites, Rushabh recommends that APOGEE pro-

jects are a good way of exploring the field of CS (keeping in mind that publica-

tions make much more of an impact during interviews than even prize winning

APOGEE projects, as was his experience). He insists on attending the project

meets by the likes of CSA/ISA/ACM, interacting with seniors during these

meets (who are more than willing to help out any eager juniors) and undertak-

ing projects that help you find your tastes.

―The key is to pursue what interests you - whether it's machine learning, com-

puter networks, operating systems, competition programming or anything else

and things would work out. I worked mainly in the field related to Machine

Learning and even this helped me during the Google process. They look for

intelligence and problem solving skills and there is no one way to get them, is

there? So, try to find out what interests you and pursue that. If online program-

ming interests you, do that. If not, then don't. If you are a BITSian, you are in-

telligent. And if you apply yourself, you will get results, sooner or later.‖

Then again, it‘s the attitude that matters at the end of the day. ―A job at

Google is not the ultimate thing. You shouldn't be aiming for such a specific

long term goal. I didn't. I pursued things I liked and was interested in during

the four years of my BITSian life (with a general inclination towards CS), did

my A7 courses decently well, not in terms of grades but understanding, and

prepared for a couple of weeks before the placement season in the first semes-

ter. And things worked out decently well for me.‖ That, ladies and gentlemen, is

Rushabh Agrawal.

Almost ‘Purr’fect

An interview with CAT Topper, Joyneel Acharya

INR 1,22,00,000!

An interview with one of the „Google guys‟, Rushabh Agarwal

Timeline

Second Semester, 2013

The Official Semester Calendar; bringing to you the details of

all the things to do, and the places to be this semester.

January 20: First Blood - A general quiz. First quiz of the

semester from the first-years in ELAS.

February 1 - 3: Interface- The 36th Annual Management

convention organized by the students of Department of Man-

agement.

February 8-10: Q.E.D. - The annual parliamentary style de-

bating tournament of BITS-Pilani.

February 8-10: BITSMUN – Get a feel of how major poli-

cies are discussed at the international level.

February 9: Music Nite— The regular semester perfor-

mance by our very own Music Club

February 15: Founder’s Day - A day on which we pay our

homage to the late GD Birla.

February 16: The first HDC production of the semester.

February 25 – March 3: Mid Semester Examinations. Be

prepared.

March 15-19: APOGEE – Stay on campus and embrace the

inner nerd within and geek out for four days. (Page 3)

March 31: Sangamam - The cultural extravaganza by Raga-

malika will display a variety of performances by renowned

artistes, apart from inspired renditions by our very own

BITSians.

April 13: Gurukul Nite - A performance by the Department

of Music (Gurukul)

May 1: Comprehensive Examinations begin. May the force

be with you.

Other events you should look out for:

Mid-Feb: Blood donation Camp- Just a prick and you‘re

saving someone‘s life.

Make sure you do contribute towards this noble cause.

SU Sports Fest – Inter Bhawan sports competition. Put on

your shiny new studs and absolutely fail at lasting for more

than 15 minutes on the field.

Early April: In-Bloom - Inter Bhawan cultural competition.

Same as above, just replace the shiny studs with dancing

shoes.

The Cookie Jar EPC brings you the latest from Pilani‟s very own. A section by you, for you. Not necessarily about you however.

Jagriti Yatra 2012 Experiences of a BITSian participant...

―Ghummakadi ka dharm apnao‖ - James Cook, Marco

Polo and Ibn Batuta never said it but would undeniably

have endorsed it. Rahul Sankrityayan said it, and Jagriti

Yatra endorsed it.

This was the sixth journey of its kind, the first one hav-

ing been conducted in 1997, followed by four more rail

yatras every December-January from 2008 onwards. It

was an 8000 km journey, encompassing 12 destinations,

with 450 yatris from both rural and urban households

who ate, bathed and slept on the train for 15 days

straight.

The sheer diversity and vastness of this country, home

to 120-crore people, hits you like never before during

the journey. Nothing in this country is quite expectable,

and the sights and sounds that we witnessed while trav-

elling can only barely scratch the surface of the magnifi-

cence it has to offer. So writing about my ―impressions‖

of this Yatra is slightly overwhelming and anything that

I write would at best become a mellowed down account

of a once in a lifetime experience.

How do you react when a father of four children tells

you that the money allotted to all the Dalit families in

the village for building a basic toilet in their house never

reached them and got siphoned off to the Panchayat?

How do you make a husband understand that it is not

okay for his wife to be imprisoned at their home in the

initial fifteen years of their marriage? Moreover, how do

you convince him to raise his voice against the village

elders who prevent him from acting rationally even if he

wanted to? What is a farmer supposed to do with grid

power that lights up his home from 12:00- 04:00 AM,

are we mocking him? Hunger in a child‘s belly would

turn into anger in a mother‘s heart, but those accounta-

ble for it pay no heed.

However, not all we saw was bad, for there were also

those glorious moments when one could witness the

force of emerging India. Moments like the Commander

of the Chief Supporting Ship (Shakti) of the Eastern

Fleet describing the honour and accountability he felt

every time he floated out to sea on a ship made with Rs

1500 Crore of his fellow countrymen‘s hard-earned

money. Then there were those historically resonating

flashes on our way from Deoria to Delhi, when we

passed Chauri Chaura, the landmarks of the chowki that

was set ablaze still visible; when we made our way

through Gorakhpur, one of the epicentres of the 1857

rebellion. There were also those unruly seconds when

you wanted to scream out ―There are from my college!‖,

when our illustrious alumni, Red Bus founder Phanindra

Sharma and Zivame founder Richa Kar addressed all of

us at the Infosys headquarters in Bangalore.

The train started from Mumbai, took a dip till Chennai,

galloped east to Bhubaneshwar, and then turned north

to the deadly climatic horizons and cold winds of Delhi,

and then back to the cosier hub of Mumbai. The selec-

tion process starts out every year with a written applica-

tion form on their official website. The fee as of 2012

was 42k, but the organizing team also offered scholar-

ship on the basis of relevant IT return documents. The

focus of the yatra was to meet thirteen role models, who

are creating entrepreneurial success ripples throughout

the country. Meeting them and fellow yatris made even

the most cynical one of us believe that not everyone in

the world is Gaddaffi. In fact one of the best moments

were those when you realised that engineers could make

all the difference, if they chose to, and that there are

many of them out there who‘ve quit ‗Entourage‘-level

bizarre corporate jobs and instead of thumping their

chest, are actually building solutions for middle India.

All in all, Jagriti Yatra 2012 was filled with songs, pas-

sion, reflection, exhaustion and dance. Somewhere, you

could feel that there was a spirituality taking the whole

crazy expedition forward and it seemed the experience

everyone was having was rooted in something much,

much deeper.

JAGRITI YATRA 2012 : ROUTE & IMPORTANT STATIONS

Django Unchained: A Review

This latest release from the Quentin Tarantino stable

does complete justice to the pre-release hype surround-

ing it, and does the celebrated director‘s reputation no

harm.

Starring Jamie Foxx in the eponymous role (Django),

the impressive cast includes Christoph Waltz as bounty

hunter Dr. King Schultz, Leonardo Dicaprio as the ec-

centric plantation owner Calvin Candie, Samuel Jackson

as his black helper Stephen and Kerry Washington as

Django‘s wife Broomhilda Von Shaft.

The film traces the adventures of Django, a freed slave,

across the slavery-ridden landscape of pre-Civil War

America. His constant companion and mentor in this

regard is Dr.Schultz, dentist turned bounty hunter, and

the interesting dynamics they share forms a key-point of

the film. The duo, in their own words, ―exchange mon-

ey for dead flesh‖, and amass enough wealth over the

cold winter months to finally go looking for Django‘s

lost companion, Broomhilda, who they discover is

being held as a slave in Calvin Candie‘s plantation -

―Candyland‖. How they seek to outsmart Candie and

his group of red-neck gun-totters, not to mention the

wily Stephen, fuels the remaining part of the story.

In a cast where it‘s nearly impossible to point a weak

link, Christoph Waltz and Samuel Jackson stand out for

their contrastingly remarkable performances. Waltz, in

his second consecutive Tarantino film, has deservedly

earned another Academy Award nomination to go with

the Oscar-winning role he played in the ―Inglorious

Basterds‖. Also, watch Dicaprio‘s riveting performance

keenly (refer to the editorial) if you want to see profes-

sionalism touch a new level. (Tip: It is not a cut-scene)

Overall, you hardly notice the 158 minutes running

time, and rumour has it an epic five-hour Director‘s Cut

is stashed away somewhere safe, due for a later release.

Stuck in your rooms for the coming cold weekend? Get

hold of a good print and let Tarantino work his magic.

WE ARE RECRUITING!

The English Press Club will be looking to recruit interested writers, designers and cartoonists. Watch out for more notices in your Messes and Bhawans.