PASS

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Kumaon Times

Then, the two schem-ers stepped into our shoes. By now, BSP trophy had not re-mained just a trophy for the common room shelf. It had become a passion, a proof of our dominance. By that time we had built up with rep-utation in the institute. PP was format-ting more than half the publ ications even before he became a BSP rep. They had a lot on their s h o u l d e r s and a lot was ex-pected out of them. I re-member the e l a b o r a t e s t ra t eg i e s that Shubho and PP used to come up to win the trophy, a new one every other day. Making and break-ing friends, fighting with

WE DID IT! WE FUCKING DID IT!

It has been 5 years and so much has changed ever since. When I came into my first year, we literally had nothing to boast off in BSP, heard of things of something known as a board which publishes magazines and then dis-tributes it, and that the people should contribute to it. I didn’t fall into the trap, at least at that time.It was Abhinav Bhardwaj who tilted the hilt. As far as the story goes, the big man started the so called culture of BSP in Kumaon. Before his time, we had not won a single BSP trophy in its 5 years of existence. So, this man took the initiative of turning the tide. He worked pretty hard, coming from be-hind to the front aided by his partner, Amit Sharma. Together, they scripted history, winning the first ever BSP tro-phy for Kumaon. And then, there was no looking back. My story started when one of my batch mates refused to carry on the responsibility and it was given to me, which I accepted (after a lot of bribe). It was tough job in the beginning, but with Tejeshwi, it never looked dull. We used to work together like broth-ers and we, with the help of the Big Daddy, built the strong pillars of BSP in Kumaon, ingraining the BSP culture in the incoming batch. Honestly, we did this, because we were very ambi-tious, and wanted to get the trophies with the highest margin ever. Nothing was enough for us. But we were just two of us. To realise our dreams we had to tap into the recourses of the incoming batch which turned out to be one of the most talented one. We never knew that this would actually convert itself into a strong culture. As I went on the BHM Night stage to lift the trophy, I had never thought that the seeds that we had sown would reap fruits for many years to come.

We Did It...

- Vivek Gavri

B.S.P. Trophy

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PASSION

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the bosses, end moment jitters, eve-rything was tried & tested and the re-sults were fruitful. We won it for the third time in a row.By then, we thought we had perfect-ed the art of winning. But we still had more to learn. Fresh blood pumped into BSP. Dipu and Prasad, both were like the opposite ends of a rope. Con-stantly fighting it out with each oth-er, which they still do, they made us ponder over our decisions. But they worked hard, together; really hard. Just

when the race was about to get over; things got bitter. The entire SC wing was full of crying people, who were swearing to make people bleed for each drop of their tears. They won the trophy, but lost it too, more so.They, however, took their revenge and that too in style. Two civil engineers, Smit and Aayush joined the party, in the ever so important fifth year. We were one step away from the big bang, the sealing of the trophy. We did not know if this theoretical idea had any

p rac t i ca l mean i ng , but it was enough to drive them both to try their best. We taught them eve-r y t h i n g we knew. I person-ally ended up writing a r t i c l e s for the first time in my life, thanks to the hours of coax-ing and convincing by Smit (He came in on pre-text of s m o k i n g Hukkah). I could not throw him out, how-ever hard I wanted to, because I was sup-posed to help them. But it did not turn out to be as bad as I thought and here I am writing one more. They stole

the show by a margin that we earlier thought insurmountable.This BHM night when they climbed that stage to pick that trophy up, and later while cutting the cake, there were tears in all of our eyes. We had written our part of the history and I am sure we wrote an impressive one. Now we have got new cubs in our den and it’s time for old ones like me to retire. Ankit, Aalekh and Avnish, do make us proud.Truth becomes myth, myth become stories, stories become legends. This is one of those truths which will turn to a legend sooner or later. The sym-bol of this legend will be found in the common room of this legendary hos-tel, forever. Thank you guys for mak-ing me a part of it.

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Kumaon Times

This year has been extremely special for Kumaon and all it residents. We won five out of the six competitive trophies and came a close second in the sixth. The Dean of Students while an-nouncing the Best Hostel Award on the memorable BHM night commented that – Kumaon was practically best at everything so no surprises as to who gets the best hostel. Post the astounding victories – and after hearing comments from a variety of peo-ple from the other hostels – I spent a lot of time introspecting on how the Hostel shapes its residents. A lot of thought have been put in (and communicated fiercely in Mess Meetings for the First Years) about what makes Kumaon work. The team spirit, the unity, the desire to be the best in everything, to excel not just individually but more as a group, the mentoring and nurturing of tal-ent by seniors – are some of the reasons that always does rounds in any discus-sion about Kumaon’s culture. It is well now well documented and absolutely clear that all these reasons are correct and more interestingly the Kumaon phenomena works primarily because we are probably the only hostel that has all these things together. That is – some of these fac-tors are prevalent in other hostels too at various points of time but never together. That makes Kumaon unique. And that probably inspired the T Shirt quote that was popular in my first year – “9 planets, only one with life. Planet Kumaon”. Since so much thought has already been put into these ideas I decided (and was forced to by some events) to delve into something deeper and more fundamen-tal – Does Kumaon work at all? That is, is there a net positive coming out of all the efforts that we put in to win the tro-phies together? There are compelling ar-guments to the contrary – so let us try and analyse them.One argument provided by some very illustrious friends of mine reads the fol-lowing – the Kumaon ideology is paral-lel to the Nazi ideology based on intense chauvinism and – to put it crudely – brain washing. For the uninformed – the brain washing sessions happen on the first years the moment they step in and start interacting with their seniors and get trea-tises on unity and pride from them, every time. All the time. The chauvinism is also easy to perceive – we do consider all

other hostels to be inferior to us. There are the occasional competitors and indi-viduals who are held in high esteem but never a hostel which we admire. Or re-spect. So the charge stands that we are chauvinistic and tend to brain wash every-one who walks in. But is it bad? My belief is a qualified no. As has been proved by the stunning victories (Not just of this year but in the past several years) the diktats on pride and unity actually work. Most of us come to Kumaon having spent the last two or three years of our lives of hav-ing just studied and done nothing else. We tend to put our hobbies and interests on the back burner while preparing for JEE. This tendency is not just unsustain-able beyond the 2-3 year period that we implement it on but is harmful right from the start. Moreover, these 2-3 years of just studying makes us limited in the sense that we do not like to explore other activi-ties and develop interests. The push into activities (both sporting and cultural) is therefore exceedingly necessary. Moreover, for one to achieve any meaningful level of profi-ciency, one needs mentoring and guid-ance. All of this is not possible without the Kumaon system. We have all seen hostels waxing and waning in a particular activity mainly because a talented individual came and left the hostel. As such, very little tal-ent creation happens in the other hostels and there is a lack of continuity while Ku-maon’s hallmark has been in creating tal-ent from scratch and providing continuity. That is probably the single largest contri-bution the hostel makes to the lives of the people who walk into it. And this would not happen unless there is a strong driv-ing force – the force of intense pride and fraternal feeling. My personal angle to it is simply that I never did any public speak-ing/ debating in school. In my first year, my seniors sort of forced me into it and in my four years I have gained some amount of proficiency in it. I got trained, mentored and guided by probably the best debaters and adjudicators of the times in the insti-tute. These people had nothing personal to gain by helping me out apart from their desire to see Kumaon do well in the inter-hostels. And they wanted Kumaon to do well because of that sense of pride and belonging on gets after staying in the hos-tel and working for it.

The second charge that is made (and which I personally witnessed) is that we get too carried away by the desire to pro-ject a sense of unity and pride. These two desires – make no mistake these are ex-tremely strong desires – led to four unfor-tunate incidents this year for me personally. In all these incidents, individuals (including myself) who are rational behaved in a manner which is completely contrary to the belief systems that we personally es-poused and followed in our personal lives. The values that took a beating, because we were so convinced that we did not even to stop to think and logically evalu-ate our decisions, were those of basic de-cency, honesty, integrity and reciprocating trust. Personally, the incidents have left me completely devastated and shocked that I

actually did them. I am sure all the others who were party to the in-cidents feel the same. All Kumaon residents may have taken a de-cision at certain points

of time which are border-line unethical primarily because they feel that they are “Doing it for the Hostel”.I feel Kumaon’s culture takes a beating and we, as a hostel, become less honour-able, and have lesser reasons to be proud about each time we compromise individu-ally. But it becomes worse when we do it because we decide that this has to be done for the hostel. That takes away all the positives that are there in the unique environment the Hostel provides for us, which enriches us individually and which in turn enriches the Hostel. The means have to be as important as the ends for any of the ends to have any meaning. This I believe is a charge that holds the most weight and we must guard against these tendencies consciously. The danger is even more now given the heights we have soared in the past year. To sum up – Kumaon is what we choose to define it to be. We can make it a hostel for which we can feel true pride for – like the pride in the eyes of the alumni (who graduated as early as 1986) who turned up for the BHM night to cheer for the hos-tel. If we compromise then what will be left is a sense of hollowness which will collapse like all regimes propped up by a misplaced sense of pride and wrong ide-ologies – the Nazi regime being the prime example.

Introspectionilluminating the clan...

- Aritra Gupta

“...to achieve any meaningful level of profi-ciency, one needs mentor-ing and guidance...”

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Q.) You have been warden of Ku-maon House for 6 years. Do you feel yourself emotionally attached to the house even after having served your tenure?Ans: Yes, Definitely!

Q.) You were very supportive of the culture which Kumaon has and the results can be seen this year. What are your comments about the culture which Kumaon has that makes it dif-ferent from other hostels?Ans: I have never really visited any other hostel. Each and every hostel works hard but the culture in Kumaon set its students a step ahead from others.

Q.) You were very sentimental about General Championship. It must have been hard to see such a cherished dream get fulfilled right after you left. Ans: GC was certainly one of my dreams. I always wanted the trophy to come to the hostel. Basically, a Warden has no role in making the hostel win any trophy. They are just the facilitators. Whenever students came to me for funds I was always generous. This is because it was not my money, rather it belonged to the students’ themselves. I was also very supportive about giving equipment. I also tried inculcating the feeling of being a sportsperson in every stu-dent. The first-yearites should also be given credit for their enthusiasm towards sports. Also, GC is the clean-est of all trophies. The game is the proof of the results and it is open for all to have a clear look at the point tally, unlike other trophies.

Q.) The paucity of space in Kumaon has always been a problem for prac-tices of various events. How did you manage to tackle this?Ans: Yes, space was always an issue.

This was remedied when I moved out. I have always wanted the war-den’s house and garden to be used for purposes such as practices for extra-curricular activities. Also, a new basketball court has come up in the warden grounds right after I left. You see, there are advantages as well as disadvantages of wardens’ living in their respective hostels. They can always keep an eye on the students’ activities but at the same time the students might feel bogged down by too much interference.

Q.) Your strictness was a major factor which contributed to the success of Kumaonites.Ans: Who says I was strict?

Q.) We mean you always tried to in-culcate discipline in students. Did you find it being reflected in them? Ans: I believe in the policy – “hate the crime, not the criminal” and this theory I applied during my tenure. For example, if a student is caught consuming intoxicants I would rather sit with the student and discuss the matter with him rather than calling a House Committee Meeting. I really don’t know why the epithet of strict-ness was applied to me. I did what-ever I felt was right for the students.

Q.) Were you strict on principle or was it due to certain mavericks in the hostel?Ans: I believe in maintaining uniform-ity for all students. Of course as a warden, I would like to be approach-able, but I have to maintain discipline as well. I had to correct people when I saw them deviating.

Q.) Which are the moments which you will take with you from your years as Warden of Kumaon House?Ans: It is difficult to judge the best

moments because there were many of them. Of course, Kumaon won trophies every year, I feel proud when I recall those moments; however, on a more personal note, I recall those moments when students approached me to discuss something with me more vividly. I felt happy when stu-dents considered me approachable enough to discuss personal matters with me. Students of the graduat-ing year would come and offer me sweets soon after landing a job. One of the aspects of IIT Delhi which dif-ferentiates it from other engineering colleges is the fact that people are well behaved here and have respect for their professors.

Q.) Is there a change which you would like to see in the house?Ans: There is tendency of students nowadays to lapse into armchair activities. I always wanted students of my house to spend at least an hour on the sports field every day. I am happy that the culture of sports is blossoming in Kumaon. If this contin-ues, not only will the students bring the General Championship each year, but they will also remain healthy. ----------------------- I would like to add that during my tenure as warden, I wasn’t disturbed during mealtimes contrary to what my fellow wardens had led me to expect. I used to come to the hos-tel after every meal to sign papers; though after leaving the hostel not once have I visited it again. I don’t want to come across as an interfer-ing person, since the new warden, my esteemed colleague, Dr. P.M. Pandey, has already taken charge.

Thank you sir! It was a pleasure talk-ing to you!

Dr. A. K. Saroha

Interview with Outgoing Warden

Interviewed By :- Aalekh Sharan & Ankit Kumar

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Kumaon Times

Honestly, I had no inten-tions of falling in love deliberate-ly .It was just so natural and all of a sudden. Being a diehard SRK fan, I was so acquainted with the concept of ‘love at first sight’, as is well shown in his movies like DTPH, DDLJ, KKHH..., that I started perceiving myself to be ‘Rahul’ when a similar situation confronted me.Actually it all began during the NRCVEE street play at Himadri lawns when I first saw her. Ooh! That brisk smile on her face and those black bewitching eyes blew me away completely. Still I would say that it was not completely her beauty that mesmerized me; it was some other thing; a thing which lacks description, a thing which can better be felt. Hard to explain what went through my mind, it was certainly love at first sight.Thankfully, acceptance of friend request on FB did not pose any problem and I remember clearly; wishing her “HAPPY DIWALI”, was my first message to her. Just three days later, I sent her an-other one which read,” I like you. No flirting at all.” Oops, that seems too early saying that, isn’t it? But that is how I am. While on my first chat with her one day, after gossiping gener-al issues of whereabouts, mov-ies seen, exams and all, I asked her whether we could be friends. And then, just the reply spoke plenty about her. She said, “Nev-er ever ask a girl that, I mean, do you take any guy’s permis-sion to be his friend?” This was the first time that I realized that it is her mind that carries her beauty; her soul that conveys ul-timate benevolence and; and me, with a typical guy’s mind frame was finding it hard to apprehend

things. Dreadful!!Gradually, after these short chats time and again, I turned to playing pranks with her. Oh God!! marking proxy for her when she sat in the row just be-hind me, sending over rickshaw to her whenever she walked and needed one, calling to her hos-tel reception at time over mid-night and ordering the recep-tionist there to send her outside the hostel quickly; these are just a few things that I did with her, and of course with my identity hidden… Out for a stroll one evening, I saw her heading towards the hostel gate in a rickshaw. Had the thing occurred just once, it would not have sprouted any-thing tricky in my mind but it became a routine af-fair for her. Eventually, I followed her one day. Reaching the place (undefined) where she used to go; I started pretending to be ignorant to her. As I turned back after fooling with one of the persons there, she crossed my way very closely, with her black eyes staring at me in sus-picion. Later my friend warned (or perhaps said it jokingly) me that I could well be behind bars for stalking a girl. “A**hole,’’ I replied, “had this been the case, DDLJ would have been shot be-hind bars only.” In spite of all this, I knew she could feel that I was after her.As Albert Einstein quoted,” Only two things are infinite, one is universe and the other is hu-man’s stupidity and I am not sure about the former”, I did not

lack behind in adding some more stupidity to every next prank I played. Out came the day I had been desperately waiting for- the Val-entine’s Day. Bunking my whole slot of morning classes, I went to SDA with (X).With the best choice we had and the available budget then, I delivered a cake, a rose and a card(with a short love note and my phone number written on it) to her. Also a cake was sent to someone in Kailash on behalf of (X). Back in hostel, as we were enjoying the foolishness of the prank played, I received a call from the delivery guy, re-porting that one of the cakes

had been re-turned and the details would only be told until we visit his shop again. That was indeed d e p r e s s -ing but (X)’s

repeatedly comments like,”yeh kaam to meri wali hi kar sakti hai” were providing me relief at times until it was clarified that my cake was accepted. I heaved a sigh of relief and enjoyed the other cake with (X) that night.Soon I got her number arranged somehow; the details of which should better be left untold, per-haps for her sake. It was just my second forward to her when the thing happened which I feared of. I got a reply asking who I am. I replied honestly. Further inter-rogating me about how I got her number, when she found I was not giving the true reply, she re-plied something. As I was read-ing the first two words of that reply, I got reminded of the WTF expression. But luckily it read,”

Call It My Crush Or CareI don’t really care

“My friend warned (or perhaps said it jokingly) me that I could well be be-hind bars for stalking a girl. “A**hole,’’ I replied, “had this been the case, DDLJ would have been shot behind bars only.” In spite of all this, I knew she could feel that I was after her.”

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First sight

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What the hell! If you wanted my number, you could have taken it from me directly. And please don’t go around asking away my number.” For a moment, I was left dumbstruck. Her utmost genuinity had started developing a strong liking towards her. The incident posed a question to me, “Is every girl like this or is the case different with her only?” … I was studying in my room one day when (X) kicked the door and came inside giggling and said, “Be ready to get slapped any moment, dude.” To which I initially thought that Prof. Yadav had read my mail and my inno-vative idea of changing the cur-rent education system seemed to have pissed him off. It was one of those times when you feel scared and ashamed at the same time,

when he told that he had dis-closed my name (for all the things done) to her on a Facebook chat. I seriously felt like pulling his eye-balls out and could only recall the lines of ‘TANU WEDS MANU’ and replied, “Tu insaan imandaar na hota,uske liye dil me pyar na hota,main aadmi bhala na hota aur din somvaar na hota, to bho-lenath ki kasam, goli maar deta.” It may be the case that at times she thinks, what I am up to fi-nally. But all these pranks that I play, I know for sure, that nei-ther is it going to affect her life much nor am I going to achieve any personal satisfaction or fun out of it. I do not know but some-times, some things in life happen for no reason.

TO HER (THE CURIOUS SOUL)

I know that I should be sorry for all the stuff I have done but perhaps I am not. And yeah, I apologize so often not because I feel ashamed of doing any act but if in any case you have got hurt during the process. Above all, I thank you for the small lessons you teach me now and then. And this is why I can scream and say,

”CALL IT MY CRUSH OR CARE - I DON’T REALLY CARE.”

- STRAIGHT FROM KUMAON TO HIMADRI

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Kumaon Times

It was the last week of July in 2007. The summer temperatures were on a decline and the capital was once again trying to shrug off the left-overs from an uncharacter-istically hot and unforgiving season, perhaps in anticipation of a plenti-ful monsoon that would quench its thirst. A usual sunny morning for scores of people in the city, who were gearing up to catch buses and auto-rickshaws to spend yet an-other day of combat with the com-plexities of life and eke out a liv-ing. Delhi was moving, in the same old random fashion whose sheer turbulence nevertheless has this unique sense of familiarity despite its new avatars each and every day.In a corner of this beautiful and tur-bulent metropolis, inside a lush green campus cleverly shielded from the outside noises, were entering half a thousand new faces – bright with energy and fresh with a unique sense of achievement. IIT Delhi was welcoming its 46th batch of under-graduate students into its 11 hostels, in one of which I found myself en-tering in. The euphoria surrounding an All India Rank in JEE had taken a good two months to finally subside and in each of these one thou-sand eyes were lying vivid dreams of an unknown but bright future. On the flip side, however, it was perhaps a bit un-nerving to see so many ‘rankers’ all at one place. Af-ter all, few of us knew more than 4-5 people who got a seat in IIT and now all of sudden we had a whole flock of nerdy looking gentlemen and ladies queuing up to get their room numbers, i-cards, X, Y, Z and

what not. Plus, there used to be sto-ries of monstrous seniors who could force you to do anything from sing-ing a song to stripping down naked in front of ten other gentlemen. Still, the sense of uncertainty and antici-pation was probably the most potent driving force, and arrived we had in the arena dressed up as gladiators.Friendships started pretty soon I would say. An eccentric long-haired chap was the only one other than me who had come without his par-ents and so he became the natural companion for the day. Then there was this large-eyed Punjabi room-mate of mine who looked as fright-ened as an African meerkat on see-ing this long-haired guy enter our room. A Bengali babu living round the corner was omnipresent with his larger than life smile and an MGR like maddu seemed to be carrying out a survey of who else in this area was from South India. There were other characters too, each unique in his own way – but all with a common touch of aloofness and innocence. As the days passed, we got to know more about our good neighbours,

and the not so good neighbours (the 4th yearites) each of whom gave us some splendid mo-ments to cherish in their own spe-cial way <sigh!>First year was hectic. With so much to learn and explore with respect to aca-

demics, sports, cultural activities, rag-ging etc, none of us realized how fast the semesters passed. By the time that year ended, the melting pot called IIT Delhi (or Kumaon for that matter) had proudly assimilated most of us into a uniform bunch of

enthu-driven individuals. Every new semester brought new resolutions – so that we felt guilty twice a year as opposed to the mere mortals who only believe in new-year resolutions. Every activity, exam, match or event gave us an opportunity to learn and grow. There were celebrations, there were days of gloom. Cheaper phone calls gave us access to the bitch-es in the town. The mess meetings chaired by Aka, Cultu, Mintu and one occasional secretary of a blood-donor’s club (as another eccentric troll of my batch calls him) were im-portant milestones in the journey of first year. This eventful journey finally culminated in the BHM night of 2008 when each one of us was proud to have been a part of this hostel.Seasons change, so do people – they have to. The melting pot had forced us to lose our individual iden-tities but at the same time, it did us a great service by exposing us to the variety of pursuits available at this splendid place. A three-year-senior of mine had once remarked that the ambience of IIT is its most precious treasure, and try to take in as much of it as you can. Today in the twilight of my stay at this place, I simply can-not overemphasize that line of his.Second year marked the coming out of this melting pot as we tried to seek our own individual identities other than probably what had been thrust upon us. One common thread still ran along, the one of familiarity and cooperation. The departmental links became stronger and we got closer to the ones who had to toil for the same courses and save our asses from the wrath of same unas-suming professors. Single rooms and laptops marked the beginning of a new phase of social networking and other “daily chores”. Bitches became girls and girls became friends, there-by coming in direct competition with our dear laptops. A pursuit of excel-

The Journey That Has Been...

“With fourth year came the Bodhi-tree and the re-alizations were complete. Each one of us now had his muse and was working hard to put her on canvas. Girlfriends had matured and so had these chaps.”

- Abhishek Upadhyay

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Reincarnation

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lence and achievement became the primary motivation for most of us and we found solace in our own ec-centricities. Be it CGPA, gaming, tech, RCA stuff or sports – the muse was in the lap of its daddy, and the dad-dys were all marching pretty well!Third year further consolidated the identities we had struggled to carve out earlier. It became clear that tro-phies and competitions represent just one symbolic aspect of this vivid hostel life, bulk of which is guided by friendships and relations. Once we learned to celebrate our joys and sor-rows together, the ecstasy of winning those trophies be-came a sec-ondary mat-ter. Then there was corruption – when greed for the so called PORs forged allianc-es, scraped events, rigged elections and leaked answers. Occupational hazards I guess, but the story went on. The importance of CGPA slowly crept back into the minds of the lost souls who started putting in more ef-forts to decipher the meanings em-bedded in the countless textbooks. Laptops became a companion and thoughts of the future started drop-ping subtle hints every once in a while. Girlfriends for the first time in all these years started saying things that actually made some sense.With fourth year came the Bodhi-tree and the realizations were complete. Each one of us now had his muse and was working hard to put her on canvas. Girlfriends had matured and so had these chaps. One par-ticular muse however cast a shad-ow over the newly found individual identities, and she was popularly

known as Placement. As if a sud-den tempest had forced each one of these gentleman cadets to fall in line and embrace the new melt-ing pot. Resume night-outs, Group discussions and frantic glances at the TnP pages marked the passage of this era, which culminated with a drizzle of job-offers and a washout of parties. The warmth of achieve-ment and the flow of booze made the December cold feel like a Rivi-era holiday, and there we were rid-ing high on the IIT Delhi juggernaut.

Once all this got over, we won-dered what the fuss was all about. When people outside this piece of land were working their asses off each day to land up into a decent job, we amidst

the entire hullabaloo got thrice as much without having to shake a leg, well more or less! Was a job all that we had wanted out of these four years? Perhaps no. Perhaps the search for an identity has started once again. Once again there are ide-as; there are baskets full of thoughts and plans. Perhaps the world is pa-tiently waiting outside to watch the potential unfold and generate an-other one of those peculiar sound-ing lines so characteristic of peo-ple from these campuses that hold the promise of changing the world.The biggest change I notice has been that of attitudes. From an overt em-phasis on assimilation, the focus has

shifted to integration of us all. Four years back there used to be only two labels for what one did – for hos-tel and not for hostel. But today, the recognition of each individual’s own beliefs, interests and motivations has grown manifold. Enduring bonds of friendship have been forged and our best friends have occupied impor-tant places in our lives. This place has given us the platform and the courage to take on our own muses and mould them to perfection. Per-haps this is a natural transition – from first year full of rhetoric to a final year dominated by thoughts and opin-ions. Perhaps this is what happens or will happen to every batch that passes out of Kumaon and IIT Delhi.But there is something which is unique to us, and we are proud of it, aberrations aside. That is the spirit of camaraderie. Perhaps a legacy of our first year influences or may-be something more fundamentally evolved, this spirit is something at least I have found missing in the jun-ior batches. Job-parties, practice ses-sions and Facebook wars have only highlighted this trait of ours. Individual muses are what we all have, but it is the respect for the other person’s identity that has made us come along so far, in unison. Gonna miss this lovely home which nurtured our spirits during the most eventful four-years of our lives. Gonna miss each other, mates!

“Was a job all that we had wanted out of these four years? Perhaps no. Perhaps the search for an identity has started once again. Once again there are ideas; there are baskets full of thoughts and plans.”

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Kumaon Times

I got punched by two girls in the same night. Kind of how I pic-tured life in IIT would end. Now, I see the paradox. Anything I say to an intelligent girl would end up in the same result because I can never be serious. Anything I say to dumb girl will also end up in the same result because she can never not be seri-ous. Damn, I need to find a liberal arts major. Now that four years of IIT are over, it is time to think of bigger ques-tions of life. Sadly, I have read too much Douglas Adams and I always keep thinking of 42 instead of what I should do. Whoaw, that rhymes. Four years is a long time which passes too quickly. Strangely,

what one remembers at the end is little things that are not important like a certain Bengali taking up more than 15 minutes to piss or a long-haired dude claiming David Gilmour has won the Nobel Prize.My memory of my stay in IIT is large-ly fragmented, much like a photo al-bum taken with a permanently out of focus camera. Everything seems so far away and long back yet it seems it were just yesterday I was greeted a black hole outside Kumaon. I later came to know that it was a very pro-fessional black hole and hence I had been welcomed so warmly. So much has changed in four years. Lipton came in place of Nescafe. A flyover just popped up outside the hostel gate. A healthily functioning Sasi is now like an old man battling a heart attack and kid-ney failure at the same time. We had four sardars when we joined IIT. Now, we have only two. A certain curly haired Bong has finally managed to

stop ejaculating from his head and his current roommate finally start-ed ejaculating. We have moved on from Orkut to Facebook which has caused great problems for our very own JNU student but brought forth a new star of social networking. Now, when I sit back, or lie back which I usually do, I just feel it is plain weird that so much has hap-pened around us. Weird because there is no rational explanation for any of it. It just happened. We were like dogs chasing cars. We just did it for the fun of it. People have called us perverts for stripping down peo-ple in public including our very dear home secy. But that is not why we do it. We do it because it just hap-pens. Come to think of it, we are like characters in a trippy sitcom do-ing things that do not make sense to others unless they are high. People say that culture defines Kumaon. Well, I don’t know about the rest of Kumaon, but we have rebelled against culture in our own silent way. Not just Kumaon culture, but any so-cial norm existing here before.We are absurd. We are abstruse. We are insane. We are strange. But we are not who you think we are.

On a Stranger note- Munir Contractor

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The General Championship is not easy to win. So it was impressed upon me just over a year ago, when I was handed the responsibility of Sports Secretary. 16 years is a long time, and not having won for that long tends to breed a sense of hopelessness in most people, or at least lack of belief. Add to that a very definite sense that cultural activities, as opposed to sports, define the ethos of Kumaon, and MI becomes M.Very.I.

Over the last few years, a sports culture has started developing in Kumaon, but it’s been sporadic and fluctuating. We’d do well in a particular sport, mainly due to abnormal talent or enthusiasm in that sport, but it wasn’t well-spread, nor was it due to a culture. In the evenings when I used to go to other hostels, I could see a steady stream of people pouring in and out, in sports clothes, on their own without having to be dragged out by any captain or vice-captain. In my own, the com-mon sight was a solitary harried guy, waiting for the rest to come, making calls, cajoling and begging for his team to come out to practice. This was the best case, of course. Often even the solitary guy was absent and it ensured that we never got anywhere near the giant trophy.

This year, we won, in glorious fashion, which will stay with me all my life. I’m still not sure which was the major factor – purely the excessive talents of the 1st and 2nd year batches, or a sports culture across years and groups. What is true for sure though, that this year we had at least a bunch of people, 10-15 in number, who genuinely cared very much about sports, each functioning as a pseudo sports secretary. That was all it needed, added to the fact that there was talent available, and the first years came up to scratch. Some work still needs to be done though, I think, so that the sports system in Kumaon becomes automatic and ingrained, rather like the cultural system, so that it’s not dependent on a particular individual, that winning the sports trophies becomes an expectation rather than an aber-ration, and that we’re never the underdogs again but rather the favourites. A worry I have is that once this couple of talented batches passes out, things go back to their bad old ways. The challenge has to be to make things sustainable, to win or be in the hunt consistently over the next ten years.

At least, this year we’ve seen the thrill of hard work coming off, a moment never better embodied than in the 100m relay, when an unfancied bunch of freshers and a 2nd year sprinted off the blocks, made the baton exchange seem absurdly simple, and finished well ahead of the competition. Fi-nally we laid to rest our biggest ghost – paying tribute in the process to some legendary Kumaon sportsmen for whom it was left a dream – Arwinder, Rahul Kumar, Addi from my time, and many others before that – and to Dhanda, whose four years of spilling his blood and guts on the fields and the pools was finally rewarded. I hope next year we carry this on, it’d be heartbreaking if everything we worked for this year came to an end and it happened again only 16 years later. The incoming 3rd year and 2nd year batches are both the best batches Kumaon has seen in many years, but they will need to know that winning the GC is not as easy as it would’ve looked this year, and retaining it is something done once in a blue moon. Time to rise to another challenge.

16 Years Later...- Azeez Gupta

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Kumaon Times

Darkness. That was the only thing I knew before I met you. Hiding be-hind the skies is darkness; eyelids showed me darkness when I closed my eyes. Dreams used to be blank. After I met you my sweetheart, I don’t understand where the dark-ness absconded but there came many colours into my life. Even on a new moon day, I find your face shining brighter than the nearest star. Even a closed room shows me a way to reach you. Doesn’t a clear road show my way to you? I know my way to you. I mean I know the way to my happiness. But if that happiness seems as small as a speck of dust to you, then it means a millionth part of the same speck to me. It’s not my ego nor it’s my conceit which stops me from ap-proaching you but it’s your happi-ness sweetheart, it’s nothing other than your happiness that stops me. I know I was the one who sowed the seeds of love in you. I remember that I am the one who forced you to love me. But why don’t you know and understand that am also the one who loved you more than eve-ryone else in this world. Why don’t you come forward to see if I still wait for you? Why don’t you even bother to glance at me? Come to me my sweetheart, come to me once again, and come to me for

an hour, a minute or at least a sec-ond to show me that you smile and bring back the smile on my face.Life should be as it used to be when you were with me. Without you, believe me, I don’t make sense any more. “How non-sensual!” is what people say looking at me. Come back please, come back and make me sensual. Come back to make me complete. Come back to wipe my tears. Come back to share my sorrow. Come back to tease me. Come back to make me alive. Did you forget all the places we have been to? Yeah! Am speaking of the same places which now ask me where my better half is. You re-member the pizzas at 2 and parate at 3 in the night? They don’t want to get past my tonsils without your sweet mouth tasting it. The trees, the grass, the parrots, the food, the wa-ter, everything, everything asks me about you. Come to me once again to let me answer to everyone and more than everything else let me answer my heart. I’ve been think-ing of you and I do. My doors wait for your arrival. I miss your magical touch, the sweetness of your kiss, the innocence in your eyes, and the smile on your stunningly beau-tiful face. I’m completely lost. No please! I can’t bear it. Don’t tell me that I’m a dark horse and hurt. Be

“PIGS DON’T FLY, BUT SWINE FLU!”

-Aniket Bose

Darkness

From the Desk of the Incoming Mess SecretaryMany of us study hard, put our heart and soul into studies during our preparation for the JEE so that we become an integral part of this great institute. After a while we realize that whatever we did and are doing is not just to satisfy our worldly needs, but indeed we strive hard so that we quench our appetite with quality food. At this stage we realize the importance of food. So, with the advent of new academic year, I wish to have a more ‘active & interactive’ mess committee which would carry on with the great ideas from previous year students

and also refrain from our earlier mistakes. As the new mess secretary of the house, I will make sure that I do justice to my responsibility by ensuring healthy and hygienic food to the residents of Ku-maon House. So I appeal to everyone to minimize the wastage of food and thus respect and reward our struggle. I, on my part, will ensure that the quality of food is such that there remains no room for food wastage. I promise to solve the on-going water problem in the coming year. I hope that we bring the coveted BHM trophy again this year.

- Sai Teja Reddy

-Mandeep Singh

“Pigs don’t fly, but swine flu,Plagued away many, and killed a few.

Its conquering nation after nation,The next target could well be you!”

That’s how news channels love to show it,

And I am no journalist, just a mere poet.But I know what’s news and what’s

hype?One of the rare few who actually know

it.

Even a sneeze is now a symptom.Awesome foreign trips have become

gruesome.Even the intelligent behave like retards,And people wearing masks are consid-

ered handsome!

People could be so foolish, I never knew.

When’ll this hogwash end, I’ve no clue.A stupid product of clever propaganda-

“pigs don’t fly, but swine flu.”

away from me, it’s much better that way. The darkness, it’s on me again after a long time. I like the darkness more than you for it never hurt me like you. I cry, I bawl out and people stare at me. Still, you don’t care, you don’t come. It again makes me cry. What else can I expect? What else do I want in life? It’s after all an atro-cious one without the company of my so-called sweetheart.Dedicated to my first love, with love.

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I have had a plethora of mem-orable experiences in my life at IIT so far. Two of them deserve special men-tion while talking of this year’s achieve-ments. The first one is our batch’s first BHM night. It was this night we won most of the trophies and had one of the great-est moments of our IIT life. Another sig-nificant moment which is worth bringing up here is the BHM night of our previous year. It was the day when after an entire year’s hard work, a few unfortunate cir-cumstances took away the same trophies we had won. It was the day when we made a prom-ise to ourselves, to our seniors and this hos-tel of trying everything possible to bring back the same moment, the same occasion we had witnessed in our 1st year. All we wanted was to do before leaving this place was to bring back the same pride, the same culture we had been offered when we first came here. And perhaps this is what made us work hard throughout the year and achieve re-sults which no other hostel could ever achieve. Coming back to the trophies, they are not the results of the efforts of one

batch or even all 4 batches com-bined. We had great seniors who constantly guided us along a path, we tried to put in whatever we learned from them and whatev-er we thought was best for the hostel, and the new batch re-sponded perfectly to this and proved to be a class apart by contributing immensely to everything they could get their hands on. These tro-

phies are a victory for all the batches of this g r e a t h o s t e l , and are a result of the u n i q u e c u l t u r e which is followed religious-ly here.

Here in Kumaon, we don’t compete with any one par-ticular hostel; we don’t aim at one particular trophy, we rather have our own records to break, our own standards to achieve and in this pursuit, we aim at excelling in whatever we set our eyes on, in whatever this institute has in offer for us. And so as for the question of be-ing the best hostel is concerned, we were and we are the best hos-tel and the only one this institute will ever see for the years to come. ‘Kumaon House’, this name itself will stand for perfection and will be seen as an example to be followed in order to achieve anything even close to what this hostel already has.

“A significant moment which is worth bringing up here is the BHM night of our previous year. It was the day when after an entire year’s hard work, a few unfortunate circumstances took away the same trophies we had won. It was the day when we made a promise to ourselves, to our seniors and this hostel of trying everything possible to bring back the same moment, the same occasion we had wit-nessed in our 1st year.”

The Night When We Created

HISTORYOutgoing House Secretary Of Kumaon House, Rajat Dhanda, shares the experiences of his journey in Kumaon so far..

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Kumaon Times

Kum a o n Ha l l O f Fam e “Could we see when and where we are to meet again , we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye”It is indeed a heart-breaking gesture to extend a farewell to the outgoing batch of our house, with whom I have spent my entire life at IIT so far. I still remember when I was in my first year, the rep-resentatives of various clubs used to rush into my room and demand me to participate in various events and hostel ac-tivities. I used to think indif-ferently of them, but then , I found out it was for the best of my interests. On this occa-sion , when it is my duty on behalf of all my batch mates to bid them farewell , the BSP group of Kumaon would like to give out some special awards to them, in accord-ance to the fields they have excelled, based on the poll taken by the new BSP repre-sentatives among them, al-though unknowingly to them.

The first thing we asked to them was to signify their love for each other and to find out its true distribution , we asked them as to with whom would they like to get stranded with on an island. Of course, the answer which everybody wanted to know was the exact opposite of this, and hence the unanimous winner of the ‘Lovely Islander Award’ was Manish Garg(a little bird told

us that the only vote that he received was that of his room-ie, PP). Then we asked them about the self pleasing wall painter of their year and the winner was Vinayak Singh . So, he gets the ‘Abstract Wall Painter Award’. Then , we asked them a couple of un-censored questions, regarding their observations on their friends, especially of their backs. The ones with the most beautiful ones were Dhanda and Rohit and the ones with the largest ones were Shubo-deep Chakrobarty and Munir Contractor, the former one for special reasons and the latter one for literal reasons. They are given the ‘Catwalker Awards’ of their year. The po-lite and soft-spoken ‘Gentle-man of the year ’ turned out to be Nikhilesh . Then , they were asked to pinpoint the ‘Picasso of the Year ’, for his exceptional talent in art. Un-doubtedly, the award went to Akshat Meena, the former FAC representative from Ku-maon and the best Charcoal Painter of the Institute . Mu-dit Jain was given the ‘Doc-tor of the year award’. When the discussion shifted towards their technical activities, Ab-hijeet Rathore emerged as the ‘Scientist of the Year ’ while Ishwadeep Sood turned out to be the ‘Computer Mechanic’ of the year. The ‘Ivy League’ stars of the batch were Akshay Kumar and Bobbo.

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Kum a o n Ha l l O f Fam e We asked them about the pop-ularity of some of their hostel mates in girls’ hostels. So, after a lot of names, most of them for wrong reasons, we could find that Santosh Kumar and Adapa Bharath win com-bined, the award for being the Mascot of Kailash Hostel in Kumaon. On similar lines, PP was chosen as the Mas-cot of Himadri in Kumaon. Then , we came to serious questions. The ‘Chindichor ’ of the year went to Ekagra Tripathi , who roams around asking for money a lot (but of course returns them on time). Similarly, the one who always has money and keeps lending them to people as a friend, in other words the ‘Dilwala’ of the year, was given to Sandeep Saurabh . Also, when asked as to who lays most emphasis on is style and always gears up for going fro anywhere to every-where, the answer that came out was Gorvendra Singh and Jatin Garg, so he is the ‘Style Icon’ of the year. On asking about the best drunken ac-tor of their year, the debat-able but well deserved answer came out to be Anuj Verma, who has had the responsi-bility of Dramatics of Ku-maon House on his shoulders for the past 4 years. He is the ‘SRK of the year ’. When asked as to who was the ‘Psycho of the Year ’, the award was given

to Tripathi . As to who is the ‘Lan ka Baap’, the answer was unanimously Yogi , the man of many trades.

In another round of questions, it emerged that the most ‘To-be-corrupt Babu’ amongst them are Satwat followed by Rahul Bharadwaj, mainly because of their anticipatory studies for IAS. The prestig-ious ‘BCD of the Year ’ award was won by Deepak Srivasta-va. The most ‘Respected guy of the year ’ was bagged by none other than Rahul Bhutani . The ‘Fundebaaz of the year award’ was given to Mudit Goel followed by Suraj Agar-wal .The ‘best laugh award’ was jointly given to Dean and Termi . Finally, the ‘Silicon Valley award of the Year ’ was given to Manoj Kumar Mee-na. The ‘Villain of the batch award’ went to Kuldeep Meena and Narendra Meena while the ‘neta-abhineta award’ went jointly to Aritra Gupta and Manoj Kumar Meena.

These awards mean little and are just small tokens of love. The real love in our love can-not be given to these pillars of Kumaon . It can only be re-incarnated, over and over again .

Compiled by - Dipesh Mittal

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Kumaon Times

When people come in new to a place, they always find it a little weird. And some particular things make an even weird impression on your mind. When I first came to this legendary hostel, even I found it a hell lot of weird. I saw faces, faces of complete strangers. I remembered faces by when I had seen them last. I hesi-tated while speaking to a senior. I stared at the rooms, the common room, the reading room, thinking I didn’t belong here. While I was roam-ing around in the common room, a board full of photos caught my eye. More precisely, its heading caught my

eye. The heading ran – “And they thought they left” and I saw snaps of all those who had passed out. I saw glimpses of smiling faces, of people hugging each other, I saw happiness. I saw a family. And I found that weird at that time.“Auditions for street play” read the notice…street play? “Who will do a street play?” asked my friend standing beside me. Before he had even emitted a word, I had already made up my mind that I was going to go in for the audi-tions, and I was going to take part, and what an experience it was. Night after night, we prac-

tised. The whole team. I saw all those faces, all those faces, which were replaced slowly by names, then by nicknames...the practices sometimes seemed too much, but when I saw the spirit and love for the house that was possessed by my seniors, I was inspired to put in a little more effort, try something beyond my potential, try even harder if I failed…10 nights of exhaustive practice, 10 nights with-out any sleep., 10 nights of drama, acting and energy in the freezing cold, 10 nights of supreme fun, the best time of my life.On the final day, when we had to

perform in 1 hour, our director sat down with the entire team, and said that it is a good play, do it well and we will win it. When he asked us to do well, for the first time in my life, I

felt the commitment inside me, I felt that I couldn’t let him down, I felt I was part of something very big, and I was going to do my level best when I am at it.When we had done the play, and the entire hostel gathered into a big circle and shouted “Jai Kumaon”, I could tell, there is no better place in the world right then where I would long to be. I felt honoured that I was given the chance to contribute to the house, even if what I had done was next to nothing, but that feeling was priceless.Now, after one year has passed, I feel weird that I had originally felt weird.

I laugh at the memory of that lost kid who came here, and who soon became part of the family, who soon mingled amongst the gang, who melted into the photos, who found that those faces, those names, those nicknames, were like brothers to him.All those who are going to leave

the hostel, are never really go-ing to leave. They will always

be there, with us, roaming in the wing, practising with us,

and when they are not actu-ally there, their spirit always will,

their love for the hostel will re-main, for us to carry forward.

Undoubtedly the leaders of the recre-ational activities of IITD, Kumaon has a strongest culture in RCA in IITD and the house is always in bright colours when-ever cultural stream is talked of. Beside nurturing and promoting culture in the hostel, wining RCA trophy for his hostel is a dream of every cultural secretary. I am

inspired by the dedication depicted by our house students in the last 2 years in the interest of our house. I, by all means, shall ensure that their urge for success grows and talent is laced in the freshers so that they remain a part of the legacy of Kumaon.

...and they thought they left- Siddhant Sachdeva

From the Desk of the Incoming Cultural Secretary - Neeraj Patel

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It’s such a beautiful feeling!!! I tell you, try once before calling me names or suggesting anything. I learnt this two years ago. …okay so it goes like this. Find a huge occasion in which EVE-RYONE is involved, all of the people around you and eve-ryone you know, let them just go attend that function or cer-emony or something. (It would be only then that you won’t be remembered). Turn off the lights and listen to your favorite songs LOUD….and just take a look at your self. I find myself filled with so much of things that i did this quite often. The whole idea of looking back serves as a test of

your decisions and their implica-tions. I most often see people, then isee my embarrassing mo-ments my goof ups, my actions, my losses, my anger, my ego and some more people. The whole thought process goes on and on until you see yourself in them, and actually see yourself with your daemons, good ones and bad. At that point i generally can see how different everyone is, how vain is the effort to com-municate and even when eve-ryone has a different protocol of communication we still do!!! The train of thoughts then gush-es into the present and you see the current events, relationships

The Great Escape- Shubhadeep Chakraborty

and friends in a refreshingly new light. I call that my blue light. The blue light actually pleases you and puts you in a more em-bracing position; it tells you why you spend so much energy and time of yours on those close to you, and it also gives a humbling taste. I usually find this as an antidote to the fatigue that comes with the job of being well myself! Af-ter the rendezvous with the blue light, i again fall in love with the excursion called life! ….okay now you can give me your advice, if you have a better solution.

“Woke up tired, sad , heavyhearted,why the dream had ended,

I saw her, the one I hate the most,Standing speechless waiting her to be

the first,This cold stone starting to beat,

melting away the hate feeling sweet,When she said HI .

I could see her in pain,My mind singing a melancholy,We both had in common an ail,

I could heal it said the melting stone,She heard it and burst into tears,

Her face healed me,The time won’t pause,

Kaash it did,for I wanted to make her my eye’s

diamond forever,

A warm embrace of mine freed herfrom her pain.

And my dream ended with her fading away from my hands like the shadow, That I can never catch because it was

my own, A part she had become indeed.”

My love I miss YouSiddharth Mandal

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Kumaon Times

‘Hi’‘Hey’‘How’s life?’‘I’m disgusted with my life and myself, but I’m not unhappy.’‘Wow that’s honest. Why the disgust?’‘That is a long story. Mind if I ask you something?’‘Sure, so long as it’s not mundane’‘Would you prefer uniform constant mediocrity or sporadic brilliance, inter-spersed with lethargy and dullness?’‘Hmmm. Well I strive not to be medio-cre and live life to its fullest. I think that I would rather have sporadic brilliance, because at least then I would have something to look forward to in all the dullness. It would kind of be like the light at the end of the tunnel to strive for. If you are constantly living in a medio-cre way there is nothing to live for and therefore no purpose to life‘‘What if you couldn’t live it to the fullest? If you had to choose between constant happiness, similar to everyone else’s and bursts of clarity and unsurpassed bliss, interspersed very infrequently be-tween periods of hatred, towards you and towards others?’‘I think similarly to the first question you have a choice that is constant there-fore giving you nothing to live for and a choice that at its surface seems horrible because you have times of hatred but when thought about is a better choice. I choose unsurpassable bliss with times of hatred because if you have dark times it makes the happy times seem so much better. It is the unsurpass-able bliss that helps you through the dark times of hatred and makes you a stronger person “our strength is made perfect in weakness, for only when we are weak are we then strong”’‘Have you experienced such a choice? ‘‘Meaning have I had to choose between what was easy and was difficult, know-ing that the difficult way was the right thing to do?’‘No, choosing between 2 poles of thought. I have and the choice usually is at the bottom of the spiral, and then me-diocrity seems the better choice. You have no idea how bad it is the hatred, and how much you wish to escape it,

and never regress to it.’‘You are correct in that I have no idea about the personal hatred you have been through. However you must re-member that everyone feels alone and hated at one point in their life. I know what it is like to have someone to hate. I know what it is like to have someone who is supposed to love you uncondi-tionally totally destroy you. I know what hate feels like and it is from that knowl-edge that has made me who I am to-day. It is that time of hatred that fuel me to be the strong person I strive to be.I am someone who has struggled in her life and has come out stronger then she was before. I am an independent person who doesn’t rely on others to make me feel good about myself. I do have self confidence issues but it is something I work to fix. I am a happy person who doesn’t trust easy because of the times I have been burnt in my life, but I am a forgiving person to those I have faith in.’‘Interesting. I would define myself as someone who is infinitely complex, but simplistically defined, and I have chosen brilliance, in all my spirals. How would you describe yourself as burnt?’‘Well when I was nine years old. I was staying at my grandparent’s house. My mom had gone out for groceries and I was home by myself with my grandpa. He had been drink-ing for hours and was slurring all over the place. He saw me doing my math homework and picked it up and through it on the ground and proceeded to yell “You will be nothing but a useless piece of shit just like your mother and your grandmother. You are a worthless piece of shit that will never be smart enough to make it on your own. You don’t de-serve to be here. You will never be good for anyone” when he saw me crying he slapped me and left me there crying by myself for hours. There are no words that I know to describe how emotionally crippled I became’‘I am sorry, how did you overcome it?’‘I am eighteen years old now and to be honest, have still not fully recovered. For years I lived in the crippling emotional frustration. I haven’t had the courage to

speak, to assert, to dare. I’ve been afraid to look people in the eye, never been involved with a guy, because I always felt that he was right, that I wasn’t good enough for anyone. It was made harder because for a couple of years I had no friends. But every day I try to make myself understand that he was the one that messed up, that I was a child and he had no right to do that to me and that. Another thing I did was try to forgive. I learnt that it’s better to have people in life to support you. The forgiving part was difficult but had to be done. He was drunk. The hardest part for me is that he will never remember he did to me. He gets to live his life in ignorance while that memory always has to haunt me.’‘Blessed are the forgetful for they get the better even of their blunders. Ni-etzsche said that. I too am almost 18, but my problems are interior to me, almost completely, so I can’t do what you did.’‘What do you mean exactly by interior problems? Self hatred?’ ‘I don’t really know how to describe it. Part of it is self-hatred, root-ed in unmet expectations. I have doubts about my own abilities. These are often caused because I compare my actions to a model of “what I think I should be doing” and I felt guilty, about the fact they didn’t match, because I seem to lack the emotional strength to carry my convictions forth. Guilt leads to narcis-sism and acceptance, which lead to the omnipotent devil of life and intellect, lethargy.’‘Well, all you need sometimes is a place to strive for. A little bit of happiness can go a long way. “All the darkness in the world can’t extinguish the light from a single candle.” Saint Francis of Assisi said that.’‘Perhaps, but No. Darkness may not ex-tinguish the light of a candle, but a per-son accustomed to complete darkness will find the light of a candle stinging to his eyes, and will therefore be repulsed by it’‘Not if he has been searching for it or if he needs it. I don’t believe that if some-one was searching for happiness, or in this analogy light, that they would be re-

The Conversation- Harshad Deo

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pulsed by it.’‘Consider this. A dog chases cars but does not know what to do if it catches one. A person looks for light, but does not know what to do with it, for in his world governed by darkness, light is harmful, to be removed; much the same way as in a world governed by light, darkness is undesirable.’‘Lethargy is a virus. It multiplies till it has consumed its host, and then moves to another. So what do you do?’‘That’s a bit hard to describe. What I do is try to use a mental image of myself as both “The entire audience” and “the entire play”, and using that I got to the principle of self-action, i.e. I used it at argue with myself, and to remind myself that if I don’t like what’s going on, well it’s up to me to change it.A lot of the times I feel at the mercy of those inner con-versations, but with those, I have begun to overcome the mis-match between my integrity and my true conscience, and thus overcome the crip-pling guilt.’‘Guilt, narcissism, lethargy, indifference and acceptance are like beasts of the mind. They exist only to torment you, and exist only so long as you feed them.’‘Beautiful. Another thing I realized was while some people are born special or gifted, the rest of us just have to ac-cept that we are intrinsically special, and have to work and struggle, instead of whine and try to escape, to live our lives the best we can. When I was on a high, I often got an unrealistic belief in my own abilities, which made me set un-reachable targets, creating that dreaded feedback loop. Society tries to eradicate the lows, but what I realized was that it was in recognizing that the highs were moments of epiphany, and just that, not a measure of ability, that salvation lay’‘Perhaps you shouldn’t be so hard on

yourself. The world will piss on your dreams enough so that you don’t have to do it yourself’‘Laugh out loud. Another thing that gives me hope is the fractal theory. Do you know what a fractal is?’‘No’‘Math jargon removed, a fractal is a curve generated by simple operations on basic shapes and curves, that is in-finitely complex but simplistically de-fined. I believe that personalities, like the patterns of snowflakes, lightning, blood vessels among others are fractalesque, in that the infinite complexity and tan-gled mess of one’s character is resolv-

able to defined parameters and their combinations;

the direct implication of this being that if I solve my core problems, the

patterns of my behav-iour will sort themselves out. This idea gives me hope in the downward spirals.’

‘Fascinating. ’‘Do you write about our experi-

ences, feelings or moods?’‘I do, but about experiences and moods mostly. Feelings can be tricky to portray with words.’‘Sometimes I use writing as a catharsis. Like, writing about my darkest fears and doubts helped me identify, confront and to an extent overcome them. Do you write about your darkest thoughts?’‘Sometimes, but I am rather vague. One poem I have is “sadness” and it doesn’t really talk about my experience, rather it talks about the darkness I felt during and after the experience, and I use two people as the subjects as opposed to one singular person’‘Interesting. Do you have it on you?’‘No unfortunately not. I can go get it if you really wanted to see it though.’‘I do.’‘Hold On’

From the Desk of the Incoming Maintenance Secretary

The Maintenance Secretary is instrumental in making Kumaon a ‘House’ and not a ‘Hostel’. I will shoulder this huge responsibility and ensure the comfort of all residents of Kumaon House. I will also make it a point that the BHM trophy remains with its real owners. I have many new ideas that I would like to implement during the next year. All the complaints will be attended on a regular basis. I welcome ideas from each and every member of the house.

- Alok Singhal

It is what rips you,From the very inside....

And leaves you gullible to,Your sense of false pride.....

It is what damages the,Very fabric of your soul...

That you feel repugnant to yourself,So unclean, so un-whole.....

And it was this....anger,Which forever changed me,For it held in chains of guilt,A soul that was once free.....

Was it not for its tribunals,My life was glad....

Now i am just a broken vessel,A vessel, which once love had....

This loves escapes me now,The cracked walls can hold it no

more....A man without love i am,A creature that i abhor....

Now in my times of regret,Few moments i wish to redo....

The few which came time and again,The few, which i will always rue....

The Bane of

Life- Aaditya Agarwal

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Kumaon Times

T h e graduat ion of a batch is an inevi-table by-product of the natural p r o g r e s -

sion of time. Four happy years pass here in Kumaon’s den and then our fourth years go out to face the bad, bold world. I’m sure though they never forget nor fail to long for their life here, the friends made, the leg-endary things done and nor do we, those left behind, fail to remember them. Every batch leaves behind a vacuum, a void, which may be filled in terms of activities or events, but their presence is mourned for. Our current fourth year batch more than most. It’s not a surprise that Ku-maon’s most glorious year ever came this year, when our passing out batch had reached the zenith of its capabilities. Hugely talented and motivated, cumulatively a once in a generation talent. What stuck out even more though was the cama-raderie, among people completely different in every respect, but bound together by friendship. So let this be a tribute to the legendary batch of Kumaon tigers which directed its year of glory. Who else to begin with than Rajat Dhanda? The house secretary without peer, who pestered and ca-joled in every conceivable way, to achieve victories unimaginable, the

guy who roamed around the hostel himself to take photos for the BHM report and eventually did get his hands on the BHM trophy as well. But the thing dearest to his heart was undoubtedly the GC which he did get finally, after shedding tears for it after a disappointment while Sports Secretary – he swam, played waterpolo, hockey, cricket, basket-ball and I’m sure would’ve played everything else as well if he’d had his way. And we did manage to per-suade him to take a sip from the trophy as well, which hopefully will not force him in future to pretend to be drunk because he feels left out. Of course, one of the talking points of the year was his extremely close ‘relationship’ with Aritra Gupta, for whom space has been reserved in this same article for next year. Next comes Manoj Kumar Meena, the man who we know as our cultu, synonymous throughout the institute with the Dance and Dramatics Club. An excellent actor, the king of the ‘haggas’ of the street play, Mannu seems the most chill guy possible but he knows how to get work done we saw both in the hostel and during Rendezvous this year. Completing this trio is the bane of the authorities, Mr. Ekagra Tripathi, our controversial figure, but one who’s dedicated to Kumaon has never been in doubt. The best actor of his year and the director of Rendezvous’s Stage Play, he is also very talented at arranging money Next, we come to the Bong,

Shubhadeep Chakraborty, quizzer, lit guy and BSP godfather. Shubho has been seen poking his nose in every-where, even when it seemed that no one really wanted him (:P), but we’re grateful to his contributions. And of course, like every Bong, an extreme-ly enthusiastic footballer, the deputy Fergie of our team with the same impassioned shouting minus the suit. Another distinguished member of the BSP parivaar is Gavri, who start-ed the legacy, and has overseen it benevolently ever since. Along the way he maintained an astronomical CG and got the highest paying job in the insti, though that hasn’t de-terred his traditional stinginess. And as we’ve mentioned BSP, we can’t go on without talking about JP, oops, I meant PP. A design guru and the other Godfather of the BSP, the five year BSP streak would never have been possible without PP. In his last year, he contributed even more of his talents, at the highest echelons of power, always walking deferen-tially a step or two behind. Let’s go on now to PP’s other better half, Manish Garg, who despite having a single room of his own in his 3rd year, chose to share PP’s single one, for reasons best unknown. Well be-loved as ‘Hagga’, he’s always been extremely popular throughout the hostel, both his batch and especially with his juniors. His jokes are so bad they are of another level altogether, but the special ingredient is that they come out sponti, unlike planned ones. As a BSW rep though, he did

A TribuTe- Azeez Gupta

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plan a huge lead in his BSW trophy. Continuing with the streak of bad jokers, Munir Contractor aka Contri is another one who stands out. He both seems and is dumb, but is strangely accomplished, with stel-lar achievements and a huge repu-tation in four clubs in RCA, EDLC, QC, HS and FSC, a versatility rarely ever matched. In the farewell QC event came the best analogy for Contri – Pepe Le Pew, the cartoon skunk, who like him is black, stinky and dirty. The stink is of course due to Contri’s refusal to bathe, the last of a series of highly unhygienic legendary Ku-maon EDLC reps. We’ll move on to Munir’s companion in arms in bad hygiene and general disgustingness, Vinayak Singh. Now this is a guy who is very awe inspiring to his juniors, especially when they see him for the first time and so he should be – hair beyond his shoulders and extremely fashionable boxers which he likes to

show off in the insti. The actual awe comes though from his breadth of knowledge about everything arcane – philosophy, psychology, you name it – and his ability to discuss it, a rea-son why he is so widely respected in the debating circles of EDLC and HS. An excellent actor as well and fundebaaz extraordinaire, if ever there was a brilliant maverick, it has to be Vinayak. Like for all mavericks though there are drawbacks, most noticeably a regrettable tendency to paint his room black. Black brings to mind Bharat Adapa, hamara apna bhand, and the chaheeta of half the student population of IIT it seems. The most artistic dancer of IIT, his 100MW smile is often the only fea-ture of him that you can see. Another permanently smiling figure is Ruchir Prasoon, whose idiosyncrasies are permanent sources of amusement to all Kumaonites. He packs a wick-ed twist with his spin bowling, which

has made him a feared opponent both for the IIT team and the hostel, and is everpresent in the common room, playing carom, his skills having won laurels for the hostel in that field also. Finally for the amiable giant of the hostel, both in figure and in stature, Anshuman Fotedar, known to one and all as Fote, a nickname unfortunately has been misused for rhyme in front of sensitive company a bit too often. He is the Grand Old Man of the Quizzing Club. Though often completely deadpan while saying hilarious things, he does have his revelries and then he rather paints the old town pink. A thing that can be said about the whole batch, probably, they know how to have fun, they know how to be together, and have achieved mighty things in this to-getherness. They will be missed.

Time does not bring me relief;you all have liedwho told time would ease off my pain I picture her in the weeping of rain and as she came in front again, I sighed. There are a plenty of places I fear because with her memories they brim And entering with relief some quiet place where never she tread or shone her face Oh! Her face, whenever i feel sad

and life’s troubles wear me downLooking at her so gladand I no longer wear a frown.As I drown in her beauty’s depthNo matter what people say who pass byThere’s a spring in my stepand a twinkle in the eye. And then a question arises throwing in front life’s sur-prises;Have you ever been silently in lovewith someone on this earthly land;So close you can touch her hand

Yet,so far to fell her heart. And as an year passes byI couldn’t afford to lieI can’t let you know how ex-actly I feelThousands of catchlines, none could I pickEach with its own appealand none of them does tick. My situation here is best worse;I will keep it simple and terse,My knees start to tremble when you are insightAnd I could not speak a word right.

Untitled Feelings- Arpit Gupta

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Kumaon Times

“Why are you going for your ex-change semester to India?” I stopped counting about, how often I had to answer this question to my German friends as well as to fel-low students at IIT. Since you might be interested in my answer to this question, I will tell you why I came to India.First of all, being born and brought up in Germany by Indian parents, I’ve always felt an emotional connec-tion to India and its people. Unfor-tunately, the only chance to get ac-quainted to this country, have been short visits to relatives in India, which didn’t expose the “real” India to me. So this exchange term gave me the opportunity to get to know more of the In-dian culture by travel-ling to cultural places as well as interacting with classmates at IIT. Growing up in the westernized world, a stay in India gave me the chance to experience a very different, diverse and unique culture. Sec-ondly, India’s impres-sive economic growth over the last couple of years has made neces-sary for academics all over the world to deal with this country. Even though USA, Canada and Australia are still popular study locations for outgoing students in Germany, there is a trend that more students spend their exchange terms in Asian countries. Hence the knowledge I gained about the Indian culture could turn out to be useful to me in my future career. A further reason to come here was that a few courses offered here at IIT, which are not given at my university. Especially in the field of renewable energies

the choice of courses is limited at TUM. On 4th of January I landed in New Delhi for a semester as a student in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.After spending Christmas with my relatives in Bangalore, I felt like Delhi was in a different country. People looked different, spoke a different language and the climate was very much different. Initially it took me, like most of the other exchange students, some time to settle and get used to food and climate. The hygienic situation in the hostel was worse than I expected it to be and

having to walk to the third floor to get hot water for bathing

was irritating. But slowly I got used to most of the things and started lik-ing hostel life. Back in Munich, the hostels, in which only a small percentage of the students get rooms, are distributed all over the city. Hence I really liked living in a campus and espe-cially the competitive

inter-hostel rivalry. I also enjoyed getting involved

in sports and this gave me the chance to meet people

from Kumaon with whom I still chat once in a while.Considering academics, it is tough to compare my university in Munich with IITD since there are too many differences. In Germany studies are well structured and there are rarely any (pleasant as well as unpleasant) surprises. At IIT I’ve experienced rep-etition of minor exams (same exam paper, one day notice in advance) as well cancellation of minor exams two days ahead of the scheduled date.

Plus there are loads of exams here. Minor 1 had just finished and just af-ter the mid-semester break people started to talk about Minor 2. In Ger-many we just have a final exam at the end of the semester and peo-ple concentrate on that exam itself. I need not mention that both systems have advantages as well as disad-vantages. I feel that IIT regards itself as premier teaching institution, while TUM puts more importance in research.An important activity of an exchange semester should also be travelling. I have visited Hampi, Nainital, Varanasi, Rishikesh, Auli and am looking for-ward to going to Amritsar, Agra and exploring more of Delhi in the com-ing weeks. India with its great railway system is a perfect place to travel and experience the most different things. While I was having a blast ski-ing in Auli, it was amazing to get to know the spiritual importance of the river Ganga in Varanasi. What makes India a great country to study for an exchange semester is that you con-stantly get surprised in daily life. The most memorable and fun ex-perience in Kumaon, which I will take back with me is Holi. I had just heard of the festival and the mere thought of the rumours filled me with exhila-ration. Early in the morning people came to my room and very gently put colour on my face. I had been advised to wear old clothes, but never did I imagine that it would be the last time I was wearing that t-shirt of mine because it was torn the mo-ment I came out in the crowd.I could go on for pages to write about the experiences I have made here. I will restrict myself to this amount, but offer anybody who is interested in my experiences to chat with me.

Thanks and JAI KUMAON!

I n d i a ’ s i m p r e s s i v e

economic growth over the last couple of years has made necessary for aca-demics all over the world to deal with

this country.

Exchanging Views-Darshan Manoharan

Darshan Manoharan is an exchange student from University of Technology Munich (TUM), Germany and has been living in Ku-maon House since the beginning of II Semester, 2011. He is doing Electrical Engineering which is part of his Bachelor’s Degree.

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3 minutes to go before the serpent would arrive. We were more than 100 people sweating in a subterra-nean area, our whereabouts un-known to our beloved ones. Ten-sion was being mirrored on the new entrants of the cavity. Same train of thought ran through the minds of all the trapped people. Many thinking, why they ever chose to come down here?2 minutes to go. More cherishing faces were pouring in only to be-come worried ones. The density of the hall was increasing exponentially.1 minute. Why were the people so desperately waiting for the serpent? Didn’t they realize the atmosphere inside it would be much more venomous than what was outside? And then the sporadic sound of the awaited monster could be heard. By the face of it, it already seemed so full. Wait! Is it going to puke? No! But it was too late. Its many pores on the side of the body opened up and out came a clump of macro parti-cles in immeasurable volume. And the anticipated sucking effect then took place, pulling us all inside the serpent’s body. The effect of grav-ity seemed to have shifted laterally and I was free falling sideways. My body was being guided by the peo-ple in my vicinity and theirs’ being

guided by the people in their vicinity. Now we were inside ‘it’. The already existing faces inside the giant body looked familiar given the fact that they were also laced with the same amount of tautness as the ones outside. The serpent then swayed and made its way towards the opening of the tunnel which it was now facing.My eyes activated their zoom in + search mode and started scanning the insides of our host, looking for what it was looking for. But the new macro particles (which included me) were blocking the view. If I consider myself as India on the world map then in the direction of Nepal my eyes installed its view, successfully finishing its search. Lucky Me! But USA, Germany, Japan have made such advancement in technolo-gies that they attacked poor Nepal before India could take its first step. Hah! Unlucky Me!As usual the seat in the coach of one of the trains of Delhi Metro won in the encounter to avoid me as one of its occupants and at the end of the journey from Hauz Khas to Chandni Chowk my legs were curs-ing me. I am fed up of the Corporation of Rail and Metro in Delhi, or is it called DMRC!

From the Desk of the Incoming House SecretaryThe past year has been a golden year for Kumaon, where we excelled in practically everything, be it recreational activities, sports or hostel manage-ment. I have seen three house secretaries during my stay here, Arwinder, Bose and Dhanda and it is almost impossible to match to the standards these great names have set. Still, I promise that I will put my heart and soul into it.As the House Secretary of this legendary hostel,

there will be a lot of expectations from me and my team. All I can say is that, I have faith in my team and I assure that I shall not succumb to the burden of expectations, but thrive on it.

Continuing the same zeal and enthusiasm, I hope to take the hostel to new heights.

- -Ashish Kumar Singh

I am FED up of

CRMD-Ankit Kumar

Walking through the alley of charm

The winds bring a pleasurable dream come true

The sun shades a great mood of heaven

Make me feel flying in that joy-ride’

High above the groundThese memories float me away

For I want to last foreverAnd no one to come in my way

A feeling comes and grips meTakes me away free

A deep fragrance spreads into the mind

For eternal happiness I all I find

Fly through those thoughtsSwim across the wind

For I am waiting for those miss-ing days

To come and take me away.

Missing Days

-Nikhilesh Patil

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Kumaon Times

“Brand IIT” – A ubiquitous phrase which evokes longing amongst bright engi-neering aspirants throughout India. A phrase which accords its bearer a certain level of competence and knowledge. A phrase which unites a select group of college students throughout India under an aegis of excellence in both academic and extracurricular activities. Brands are essentially labels which identify a unique entity or idea. The very fact that “Brand IIT” is on everyone’s lips nowadays indi-cates that the IIT’s have carved out nich-es for themselves amongst the murky anonymity that shrouds the vast number of engineering colleges in India. What are the factors which have turned the words “IIT Delhi” into something more than just the name of a college? Is it merely the quality of faculty and students? Does “brand IIT” refer only to the fact that the students here gave a six-hour long exam and performed better than the other en-gineering aspirants in India? It is some-thing more than that. The uniqueness of the IIT system stems not only from what can be perceived physically, but it is something intrinsic to the system itself. Year after year, graduates from IIT Delhi carry something inexplicable with them in addition to their academic excellence which allows them to differentiate them-selves from the hordes of engineering graduates which pass out every year. Whether we like it or not, we live in a world which is, at its basest and most primitive core, governed by individ-ual gratification and demand. Our entire lives can be summed up as endeavours to express our individuality. Subcon-sciously or consciously, all of us try to contribute to the society we are mem-bers of by bringing something different and hence valuable to the table, not because we are lofty altruists but simply because valuable members of society enjoy superior gratification in the form of accolades and recognition. IIT Delhi is a slightly modified microcosm of the above world view. The students here are here simply because they stand out from the rest in the field of academics. When they find that their academic skills are no longer unique inside IIT, they explore themselves and discover talents and at-tributes they never knew they had. This lateral expansion of personalities is part of what makes IIT Delhi and its students

unique. Self-confessed geeks who didn’t do anything for the first 18 years of their lives except study for the upcoming exam suddenly find new dimensions to their characters. They pass out as well rounded individuals, replete with the skills necessary to achieve what they want in virtually any environment. The IIT system fosters inde-pendence, both in thought and action. The first thing that students feel when they bid adieu to their parents is the overwhelming sense of independence. No restrictions or curfews of any kind are imposed. Students are free to leave and enter the campus whenever they like. There are a plethora of courses in other disciplines of engineering and even other fields that one can take up. Certain guidelines are given by the fac-ulty and the senior students, however, as most of these guidelines clash horri-

bly with each other, students essentially have to follow their own path. One has to learn to chart a narrow path between the often heard refrain “grades are all-important” and the quintessential “chill maro yaar” of seniors. However, this is the path which leads to the best out-come. When students are forced to walk this fine line, they end up doing those activities and taking up those subjects which mean the most to them. It is only when we choose to do something that we do it to the best of our ability. Not only does this approach incite interest in courses students would find dull if forced to complete, it is also a platform upon which students find out which activities they are gifted at. In the academic field, this independence allows students to be creative and yet stick to accepted norms

within the framework of their respective disciplines. Standing out and being crea-tive are good things, but only when one knows where to stand out and how to express one’s fresh ideas. It is equally important to be able to empathize with others and appreciate their ideas. In IIT’s residential campus, students meet people from all over India and even the world. Apart from providing a cosmo-politan viewpoint and giving students a larger perspective of national and global events, it also encourages them to ig-nore others’ perceived shortcomings and instead appreciate what they are good at. Part of being a successful engi-neer, indeed, being a successful person, is the ability to listen to others and bear criticism stoically. The intellectually stim-ulating atmosphere within IIT, with differ-ent people abuzz with various ideas, in-culcates within the students the habit of patiently hearing out an idea which may have seemed absurd at first. When a student passes out of IIT Delhi at the end of 4 years, he is an engineer first and foremost, but he is also an athlete, a musician, a debater, a painter amongst a host of other things. He enjoys designing new things, but he also has a working knowledge of other arts and professions. It is easier for him to fit into a variety of roles in any or-ganization or society. A student from IIT Delhi doesn’t improve on an existing design; he designs a radically different product. He listens to others’ ideas and yet knows when to take a stand. He identifies with people of diverse profes-sions all across the world and yet stands apart. He is an engineer in the true sense, a solver of problems both in his field and in life itself, a person who doesn’t just theorize and make airy propositions but has the capability to carry them out. These are the attributes which society at large has come to expect from an II-Tian and hence these are the attributes which lie at the core of “Brand IIT”. In a system where academic excellence is a given, IIT Delhi has long transcended the confines of what an engineering college usually is. It is what an engineering col-lege should be.

Brand IIT- Aalekh Sharan

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Just want to admire youFor ‘admirance’ is no dutyI’ve got self-control but

Can’t resist your adorable beauty

Behold those magnificent eyes

They make me miss a beatNever lose that innocent smile

Sweeter than the sweet

Want to meet you soonAnd hug you tight

Doesn’t really matterIf our future’s dark or bright

I just love this silenceI am enjoying this wait

I see it coming...Love overcoming your hate

You transformed meYou drive me crazy

With you everything’s crystal clear

Solitary it used to be hazy...

Some day you will start tellingThings you never do

That day I’ll knowWhat have you been through?

You never took me seriously

And you never willFor... you like the high skyNever see down the hill

One day you will realiseThis friend’s true worth

I am afraid that dayYou’ll feel my dearth…

WAITING FOR YOU

- Mayank Garg

SHOULD CELEBRITY REALITY SHOWS

BE BANNED?- Robin Singh

Superb mind blowing per-formance, standing ovation by judg-es........ . these words are the sprout-ing leaves of every second channel you tune and has buried the so called “interest “ so deep down the soil of “boredom” and “irritation” that now a days I find myself closing the television just after a good thumb exercise of changing the hundred channels. A question arises in my mind whether the celebrity reality s h o w s are ac-t u a l l y real or w h a t -e v e r is pre-sen ted is a part of well-set dra-ma. As a part of the quest to hold the crowd-ed Indian public to their channel and sometimes even make them send an SMS, these channels can go to any extent. What makes these so busy celebrities pass about months leaving aside their work? On the other hand these are replacing the earlier famous tal-ent hunt programmes which invited someone among us to participate and showcase their talent. The num-ber of such stuffs has fallen into the ditch. These were more than just entertainment as some lucky ones could also feature on them and not to forget the enormous prizes they won and their lives changed on mass recognition. There are num-ber of examples of such people. Singers selected in these shows have done miracles demonstrating the potential of people not belong-

ing to the metropolitan cities. As an eye seen example Rakesh Maini from Agra was selected for Indian Idol on Sony Television; though he belonged to a very poor family and used to sing in Devi Jagrans to earn money for his old parents, was se-lected as the best singer for many consecutive week and ultimately stood third and is enjoying a new kind of life.Thanks to the celebrity reality

shows t h e wealth of the c o n -trover-sies is getting r i c h e r d a y by day and is s t u f f

enough to showcase on some news channel for hours. How does it matter at all whether somebody commented on Shilpa Shetty or whether Salman Khan commented on Aamir Khan’s movie or its Ra-hul Mahajan’s Swayamvar? Looking at the faith and interest of people in their heroes, it is quite obvious for companies to use such strate-gies. This is just a way of emotional blackmailing. But whatever it may be, these shows exist and there inva-sion on screen is ever-increasing. Has our hero worship overtaken everything else? Or whether we are careless enough to prefer watch-ing nonsense in name of reality? Or whether we are gullible enough to get fooled by any idiot? Or de-manding is not our way?

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में रानी का ,रेिगस्थान में पानी का ,निनहाल

में नानी का,बड़ा ही महत्व है !

िदल्ली की सर्दी का , पुिलस की

वर्दी कादफ्तर में अर्जी का ,नेताओं की

खुदगर्जी काबड़ा ही महत्व हैं !

त्योहारों में िदवाली का ,रचनाओं में आम्रपाली का

दोस्तों की गाली का, ससुराल में साली का,

बड़ा ही महत्व हैं !

होस्टल में सोने का , छुप छुप के रोने का

यादों में खोने का ,पलकें िभगोने का

बड़ा ही महत्व है !

अंगद के पाँव का ,सकुनी के दांव का

भारत में गाँव का ,नीम की छाँव का

नदी में नांव का , इंस्टी में कुमांऊ का

बड़ा ही महत्व है !

बड़ा ही महत्व है !!!- ित्रलोक मणी

काश समय स्याही होता रात सामान या कारे बादल बरसता फर मैं सुबह तकऔर जीवन पन्ना धुल जाता खुल जाता काश,समय सयाही होता. िमलते जब बािरश से लम्हें,लगते वो बािरश से कहने,बरसो तुम ऐसे के जैसेपन्ना बने स्याह का सोता काशसमय स्याही होता. पन्ना कर जाता मैं कोरा,धीरे- धीरे थोडा-थोडालम्हें शब्द जब बह जाते तब,स्याह में मैं भी खोता, मैं भी सोता काश,समय स्याही होता.

काश समय स्याही होता..- शान अब्दुर रहमान

संबंधों में सगाई का , शादी में शहनाई का

सर्दी में रजाई का , प्यार में जुदाई का

बड़ा ही महत्व हैं !

ट्रेन में िसगरेट का , कहानी में सीक्रेट का

बाज़ार में रेट का ,फेसबुक पर चेेट का,

बड़ा ही महत्व हैं !

लड़िकयों में रूप का,ठन््ड में धूप का

कलयुग में झूठ का ,धर्म की लूट का

बड़ा ही महत्व है !

व्यापार में घाटे का , रात में सन्नाटे का

मह़िफल में चांटे का ,गुलाब में कांटे का

बड़ा ही महत्व हैं !

चन्दन की लकड़ी का ,सलाद में ककड़ी का

कोलेज में लड़की का , राजस्थान में पगड़ी का

बड़ा ही महत्व है !

बचपन में कहानी का ,राजमहल

Sports has not always been Kumaon’s cup of tea but the previous year proved to be historic and the house not only proved its mettle but saw great talent in the first year student. This can be considered a boon to Kumaon. I will make sure that in the com-ing year the prodigy continues and spreads in the veins of other residents. It is a be-

ginning of a new era. There are always some set of people who just need a lit-tle push to come to the field to find out the talent in them. My aim will be to mo-tivate such students along with nurturing the culture of sports in Kumaon. I can just hope for the best and I expect that the freshers make us prouder this year.

From the Desk of the Incoming Sports Secretary - Faiz Alam

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First sight

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