BOSM 2K10 Revisited..

A month well past BOSM 2K10, posting about it is indeed weird. But an unfulfilled promise and the sumptuous treat today brought memories flooding back and forced me to finish the draft. Just to practice some figurative writing, I must say the food never was this tastier...after all the dividend of a hard earned silver 

Truly speaking, more than the joy of winning a silve, It is the satisfaction of seeing people coming to practice daily which would have been a dream in ‘our’ times. It is the content that our juniors would not be ridiculed by their roomies, wingies, friends and girl friends :P … It is the joy of just not bringing about but institutionalizing a change in your alma mater. The joy of instilling a hope in BITSian audience that we can win THE FINALs this time(till half time every one had their fingers crossed).It is the ecstasy of reading the praise showered by EPC/HPC. Its also the concern of passing a carefully nurtured sapling to its next care taker. The concern that about 8 of us would not be there when the whistle shall blow the next time.

Sport, like politics, is an art of the impossible. You have to believe that you can !!! that you can transcend your physical limits for they all exist in your mind, believe that your determination and grit can stand the test…Could n’t have realized this better than through hockey as running 5 km a day would have been passed as a joke a couple of years ago.

For me the beginning of the fest was rather dull. The excitement had rather faded away in the anxiety of being unplaced and its being my fourth iteration of the games. The best part for me was sharing some wisdom with the enthusiastic chaps of BITS-Hyd and their putting up of a good show thereafter.

Mahendra Bhaiya deserves all the credit for his dedicated training. As it was his first time with us, he made us realize an altogether different level of fitness. Decades later, I am sure I would say BOSM 2k10 was the time when I was at the peak of my physical prowess. A heartening thing this time was efficient conversions of penalty corners which we had practiced well.

We were lucky to have with us Dr. Roger(Professor, University of Dublin ) who is on a sabbatical. He helped us a lot with useful tit bits specifically his post match inputs were very useful. I hope he doesn’t get a stomach upset after today’s treat  Gaurav Sir, was as friendly and resourceful as ever and I always envy him for making a career out of his passion.

This time I was asked to play defensive right half and it was a first time for me. Every time the attacker came with the ball I envied him for it felt as If I were his attendant. The job felt like that of a chowkidaar. However, I soon realized that my perception that defense is the easiest job one can get was a complete myth. And for the first time it seemed that you are not controlling the ball but the ball ( and of course the GK and Kunal ) is controlling you.

The last match was truly a match of a lifetime. The team did play its soul out but at the end of the day, SRCC was no doubt a better team. The early lead and amazing defense on our side clearly got SRCC guys frustrated. Watching those guys shouting at each other was really heartening. We held out on our lead till seconds before the breather but their penalty corner did us in. In the second half, as usually happens after a break , they scored a couple of goals in quick succession through penalty corners .The last one was a impeccable hit by arguably the most talented chap in the tournament. Perhaps we lagged that conviction of holding on to the lead. Anyways, what followed was a deluge of emotions. Tears, I tell you, can start trickling in a chain reaction.

And then it was the time of the traditional post BOSM team session where emotions were sure to dole out this time. Yogesh was visibly relieved as he kept on saying ”Maine toh apni zimmedari nibha dii” as if he married off his daughter and is done with all the obligations of his life. Then followed the crowning of the next captain and the ceremonial bumps ahh!!

But still few deep desires remain unfulfilled
a)A long scoop during a match (I had planned it for BITS Hyd match but forgot while on field)

b)A score on a reverse hit (this was partly fulfilled in a penalty corner deflected by Mayank)

c)Playing on Astro Turf( I will make sure this gets done before I pass out)

d)Winning gold  (of course. But actually never imagined that we would come this far )

Now that I have watched the match videos in slow/normal/fast forward motion a million times, I feel that our team should permanently entail the services of a professional sports videographer.

There is so much to write about that I can write a book on this .Hockey & BOSMs have truly been a part of a wonderful life changing experience for me!!!

So, finally, my career stats stand as
No of Tournaments: 5
No of Matches: 15
Goals Scored : 0.5 :P(Its true!!)

LOL Fact: Videos of our match against ‘TITS’ Bhiwani are in great demand on DC, complains Rungta.

PS: Not even think of helping someone these days!!!

An Idiot’s Guide to Crack Chemical Core Disciplinary Courses (CDCs) Part 1

Hi Guys,

It has been exactly one year since I first thought of writing this post. Frankly speaking, I used to motivate myself by thinking that If I get a CDC GPA of 10, I would type out something like this. I managed to keep my dreams alive till the second semester but the moment I came to know that there is a CDC called Process Control in the 2nd semester , I knew I would never make it because I had made a ‘D’ in control systems. In the end, I ended up making a GPA of 9.59 in my core courses that include Fluid Flow Operations, Process Calculations, Petroleum Refining and Petrochemicals and Computational Transport Phenomena. But still, as a tribute to the long cherished dream and my unflinching dedication I jot this post down for my juniors.

I have called this an Idiot’s guide because I myself made an ‘A’ in a technical subject as late as in 2-2.Also there is no need of so called “Interest in chemical” in achieving this feat. I admit I did this quite mechanically.

To perform well in BITSian Chemical courses, you need to believe in history more than Chemical Engg. because history (read last year’s questions)repeats itself in the chemical courses’ tuts, tests, quizzes and comprees. The quizzes are essentially repetitive in nature. Overall the courses are nothing to worry much about. The grueling tuts ensure that you do not have to cover much syllabus on the eve of any exam. The key to success is cracking the Test1s.This eases out a lot of pressure and also creates interest in the course. It is also important to go to the classes from time to time to keep track of the syllabus. Also, the topics covered in last 5/6 lectures of the semester would carry disproportionately high marks in the comprees. Now, I present the course wise description.

Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics(CET): This course should actually be called calculation engg. thermodynamics/ techniques .The course is taught using primitive techniques which leaves the student overwhelmed with the calculations involved rather than being able to understand the concepts. The more you score in tuts the better it is as the tuts are really very easy .They are mostly based on derivations of relations covered in the previous class.

Skill set required: mastery over your calci, solved examples, Last year’s question papers.

Important Topics: Generalized Correlations of state for gases, fugacity and fugacity coefficient, Residual Properties.

Grading: depends upon Batch performance. About 15 /85 ‘A’s would be awarded.

Caution!!! : Do solve a few questions COMPLETELY before appearing in the test.

Mass Transfer Operations (MTO): This is one course where you can expect the unexpected(i.e little repetition of historic questions)This course is on the tougher side . The course is designed based and does give a peep into applied chemical Engineering. The textbook won’t serve much purpose from exam point of view and you need a microscope to decipher the text. Class Notes will go a long way even after the course get over. VERY IMPORTANT from placement point of view. Do attend the classes regularly for this course.

Skill set required: Patience (attending classes is a must).Graph plotting.

Important Topics: Maccabe Smith and Ponchon-Savrit method of designing Distillation columns, Leaching, Absorption. HTU-NTU concept

Grading: shall be on the tougher side.

Caution!!! : Continuously 4 tuts will be held back to back and then there would be a long lull. The rest would be in the last four tut classes.

HEAT TRANSFER OPERATIONS: The course is basically pure Physics. It stands out as one of the more interesting and insightful course of the chemical engg. syllabus at BITS. It deals with the phenomena of conduction, convection and radiation. It is important to note that the test 2 would be very tough(our time av. was 6!).Its important from placement point of view as well.

Skill set required: Clear understanding of the physical phenomena, ability to skim through large information and identify the correct formula to be used.

Important Topics: Fins, Condensation and boiling, Radiation (the electrical analog method),Design of heat exchangers

Grading: depends upon performance. About 15/83 ‘A’s in our time.

Caution!!! : Do practice some derivations for the comprees. Although it’s humanly impossible to derive such stuff, at least give them a try.

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations: oh! who can forget the obnoxious noise of the Ball Mill in the SCEO lab. This course primarily deals with mechanical operations involved in the chemical industry. The course is 50% theory so it becomes important to attend classes. Also, the number of solved examples is the text are very few so you need to make sure you have practiced all the relevant material.

Important Topics: Filtration, Drying, Adsorption

Grading: shall be on the easier side. About 20/83 ‘A’ s in our time.

Caution!!! : The questions in the Tests/Quizzes might often be wrong. So, don’t waste your time on any particular question and move on. In the case of question being wrong, the solutions of your batch’s topper would be deemed correct, howsoever illogical, impractical and impossible they might seem.

The second semester CDCs and some popular electives shall follow in the next post.

That’s all from my side guys, it’s up to you to accept the challenge and put in your efforts or just let things go. You can always contact me on joshi.prabhav@gmail.com.Also, these are just suggestions and personal experiences and hence not under legal jurisdiction of any court.

All the best.

SPORTS AND SPIRITUALITY

Whenever I come out of the weight training hall of our gym, my attention invariably gets caught by this plaque that reads: “You will be nearer to God through football than through the study of the Geetha”.

Coming from Swami Vivekananda, this seems a rather sweeping statement. Looking at the IPL cheerleaders, the money and the stakes involved, modern day sports seem to be anything but spiritual .Being a part of the BITS hockey squad and having studied Srimad Bhagwad Geetha to some extent as an elective, I thought it would be an interesting comparison to make …

One of the first connections between spirituality and sports that comes to my mind is the fact that the refreshing feeling which the players experience at the end of limbering down* after a heavy work out and that which one experiences after meditation are very similar. I feel it is probably because meditation is aimed at getting rid of the so called negative energy .So, the rejuvenating feeling one experiences after meditation is because of coming to a lower energy state and that exactly is the outcome of a physical workout too.

Srimad Bhagwad Geetha (and many other spiritual books) lays down the path to attain the supreme. They expect certain virtues from the person who is desirous of attaining the supreme. Here, I discuss a few of the more important virtues which are an essential ingredient of a good sports person too.

In the spiritualistic path suggested by Srimad Bhagwad Geetha, utmost importance has been given to the process of gaining control over one’s mind. Geetha says that controlling the mind is more challenging than controlling the flow of air. To keep yourself focused amidst an intense game of hockey or football provides one with the similar (rather more difficult) challenges. To keep oneself focused with intense cheering and jeering all around, and a thousand men gesticulating at you is definitely more difficult than compared to the case when you meditate in a calm and serene environment.


It goes without saying that self restraint is one of the essential prerequisite for any spiritual experience. Again, the playground provides an ideal and a challenging place to put to practice and develop this necessity of spiritual path. Keeping your cool when your body is getting exhausted with every passing second is by no means a matter of joke. It comes only after ardent attempts to discipline yourself. Self discipline is essence of any spiritual practice.


Another very important quality expected in path of spirituality is selflessness .Its because until and unless you stop craving for self gratification, any progress in breaking the shackles of this materialistic world is impossible. Only I know how many times during a hockey match I wish to just take the ball and put it into the goal, all by myself (although now I have realized that its beyond my capacity).In a team game,it is pretty obvious that until and unless each and every player plays for the greater good of the team, the team can’t even hope to win .This aspect is given utmost importance during training in all team sports. Here again we see that selflessness can be best nurtured through sports.

For athletes, sports have provided a platform for tempering the rawness of the ego by plugging the often testosterone-driven identity into a higher-order structure of self-sacrifice, discipline, and teamwork, before opening them up to the principles of accomplishment and excellence.

These days, Coaches across the globe are including yogic postures and pranayam etc in their recipes for fitness. This is a heartening fact because the connection between the body and the mind is being explored and more importantly put to use. I hope it shall considerably reduce the stress of strenuous exercises on athletes.

It’s true that by just playing a sport without the spiritual training of mind, one can’t hope to achieve the supreme. But, It is equally true, that merely reading Geetha (or any other spiritual text) shall not take one an iota closer to the supreme. Sports provide an ideal simulator to inculcate and practice the qualities expected out of a Sadhak. An approach that incorporates both of these is bound to enhance the joy and expedite the journey towards the supreme .This is what perhaps Swami Vivekanada had mind when he said “You will understand Geetha better with your biceps a little stronger-Swami Vivekananda ’ which is what the plaque adjacent to the aforementioned one reads.


*Given one does it properly i.e slow stretching exercises followed by shavasana


References:
1)A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ‘Bhagavad Gita : As It Is’,1986,pp 243-272
2) http://www.ru.org/sports/spirituality-the-hidden-side-of-sports.html last accessed on 13/04/2010

The Delhi Debacle

Hello!!! This post is based on my experiences of IIT-D sports fest where we lost 1-0 to the hosts in hockey.

After struggling with the ‘what if…’ kind of thoughts for almost an hour while trying to study Operations research, I finally decided to pen this post down. This post is different from my previous posts in the sense that it is my first expression of not-so-pleasant feelings on 'www.itsprabhavspeaking.blogspot.com'.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of our skipper Yogesh, we found ourselves marvelling at the lush green hockey field of IIT-D on the pleasant morning of 18/02/2010.My goodness…who would not want to slip and skid, drag and dribble on such a manicured field .That was the moment I realized IIT JEE 2008 was worth a try.

The competition (named Sportech) started off in the evening with a girls hockey match. Interestingly IIT-D does not have a girls’ hockey team. Soon after the match got over, we were left dumbfounded by the practise drills of one the other team. Looking at their skills, it was not difficult to predict who the winner of the tournament would be.

Back in the common room (where we were staying), a comparison between BITS Pilani and IIT-D remained a constant topic of discussion, especially amongst the first and the second yearites. It was n’t until water ran out in the toilets the next morning, that BITS Pilani was able to regain some of its lost glory.
Meanwhile, we were able to persuade the organizers to reschedule our match on the next day.

Our match with the hosts started with a rally of their attacks. Their repeated attacks got all of us in the panic mode. Despite rehearsing roles in a penalty corner for a number of times, the referee had to signal us to stop discussing the strategy to be adopted and set the ball rolling. Amidst such commotion in our minds, we succumbed to one of their onslaught. In the latter half, we missed at least 3 close chances. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between lack of luck and lack of practise.Albeit, almost all of them were a result of the overconfidence of their defence rather than of our coordinated attack. The performance of our debutants was however promising. Personally, I faired rather badly in the do or die game.

The evening was at our leisure, which I spent in meeting a friend and a cousin. The pizza at ’Niurla’s’ and the ice-cream cake at ‘CCD’ were not an iota worth of their cost. Strangely, I always land up at such expensive eateries in my bathroom slippers. This time it was because my feet were too sore to wear shoes after the match.

Overall, BOSM (Bits Open Sports Meet) proved to be a much better managed and engrossing fest than Sportech. The cheering and jeering by the enthusiastic crowd at BOSM was conspicuous by its absence at Sportech where the junta hardly seemed to be interested.

The humiliation began to sink in only after returning to Pilani, with consolations of dear ones aggravating the feeling. The captain’s ‘treat’ on return seemed to be out of context .and if I am allowed to use a hyperbole here, the food too seemed tasteless… :P….

I hope that the Delhi debacle shall increase manifold our determination to win BOSM 2010.

PS: This post is dedicated to Chahat(our ex captain) and Aditya(our ex(xL)captain !) who were so sentimental that they virtually on their way to pilani from Bangalore when they learnt that we had made it to the finals of BOSM 2009, and who represented BITS for the last time in this tournament.

THE HOAX

Never before, had I noticed the annoying sound that my tube light made. Neither had I turned back after hearing the sound of a chocolate wrapper being pushed over the floor by the flowing breeze.Never before I had given a thought to the sound of water drops leaking from the water cooler and never in the past had I run to save my life.....

Well, all this happened when I stayed back in BITS during the winter vacation for about a week.I intentionally delayed writing of this post because of two reasons
a)Its always refreshing to cherish pleasant memories later
b)I did not want anyone to think that I was having loads of free time during my stay here :)

It so happened that just after leaving for his hometown, my superside Ali Bhai had called me back to check whether he had switched off his heater or not.After preliminary examination,I had informed him that everything was fine.Couple of days later, I was watching "FRIENDS"(that was the only solace without real friends like you) with rapt attention.Suddenly,I smelt that something was burning.It struck my mind that it must be Ali Bhai's wretched heater.With lightening speed I put the laptop inside its bag and ran at a pace I had never known before.I hurried downstairs, only to find that even Chowki Ji was not there.I opened the locked channel gate of the bhawan.After waiting for sometime outside the bhawan, I gathered all my courage and went into the bhawan again to get the contact number of warden from the noticeboard.Few minutes later Warden sir, Superintend sir came to my rescue with some other workers.When I told them about Ali bhai's heater,they decided to break his lock open.But Ali bhai's Aligarhi lock did not give in to the blows of the mighty hammer

The smoke however did not appear to be coming from his room and certainly the smell was persistent and omnipresent.later it struck to one of the workers that the smell might be from burning of some trash outside the BITS campus.It indeed was...It seems you dont have to be a chemical engineer to comprehend the effects of molecular Diffusion.

I had downloaded quite a few horror movies to watch during the nights.Being alone in a hostel of some 300 students would have provided the perfect ambiance.But after this chilling event there was no scope left for any more nightmares..

Besides all this, eating every meal at c'not was proving to be very costly(both financially and stomach wise).I was missing the mess food badly..this was one thing I had never comprehended.

My frustration grew every day as it became clear that I had taken the decision to stay without essential planning.When on 23/12/2009 my experiment failed to yield any meaningful results, my guide asked "so how do you plan to troubleshoot it?" and I replied "Sir, the plan is to go to Chittor"(my home town).

The feeling while boarding the bus after staying back for 9 days is of course beyond description.