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Symposiums in my School Years |
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| My introduction to the world of symosiums was quite by chance. It began when I was in my 11th grade at school. An innocuous computer quiz competition had come up and since I was amongst the brightest students in class (as far as computer science was concerned), my computer faculty, Ms.Rukmini wanted me to go for it. I had not participated in any such competitions before, but as I used to regularly read computer magazines, I felt it was worth a shot. The competition required a team of two. The obvious choice was my close friend, A.Subramanian (Asu for short), who was as crazy about computers as I was. The contest had the prelims in the form of a essay contest, the title having something to do with how technology was of help to India; what a bore. But to the rescue came Shyam Sadasivan, who made up the trio of inseparable friends during and beyond my school days. The three of us pooled our resources and came up with a respectable essay. We sent out entry in and promptly forgot all about it. Suddenly on fine day, we are told that we are through to the finals and that it was to held this weekend. And today was Friday! Well, Asu and I pulled up our socks and set out to face a brave new world. Date: 27-02-1995 Venue: Film Chambers Auditorium Event: South Zone Mindraker '95 Weather: Cloudy with a light drizzle Asu and I, accompanied by Asu's dad were at the meet on time. We were lounging around in the (where else) lounge when we came across a poster of the event. Things had gone by so fast the we had not had a chance to even look at th poster of the event beforehand. And my, oh, my, were we surprised to find the first prize listed as a TVS Champ moped. Then the two of us got into an argument as to whether each of the team mates would be given a moped or were we to share it? The argument ended without a decision but we did agree jokingly that in case only one moped was given, Asu should have it and pay me half the value it, the simple logic being that I already owned a vehicle- As if we were going to win it! The Computer Quiz started and our juniors were the first to go, for there were two categories-junior & senior. Though it was a computer quiz, there were a lot of general questions too thrown in. The quiz master was not as experienced as one would have expected with many a 'questionable' judgement being given. The end result was that our juniors lost. It was now the turn of the seniors to show the way. The quiz went off pretty well and we had few mixups (one being in Dumb Chardes where the phrase was 'The Eye of the Needle' [Ken Follet] and I forgot the letter codes midway and we had to give up, much to the chagrin of Asu). Though I keep insisting it was a quiz, it in effect was a potpourri of events, hence the Dumb-C round. But all is well that ends well and the last roung saw us with a big lead that meant we win whether we answer or not. We did answer it; correctly (I still remember the question being expand UGC). And we had won. We Had WON The very first contest and we had won it in style. I suppose it was a sort of omen for me for I never looked back after that. The six years since then has seen me win so many contests, but nothing is as dear (or as valuble, since a moped cost then Rs.12000/-, and I have never won that much in a single event so far) as the first contest. Well as to whether we were given one or two mopeds, we did not know till the end when two TVS-Champs were rolled out to the stage for the two winning 'champs'. (sadly, I had to sell mine as one cant be too sentimental in money matters; but Asu still has his moped to this date, though I shall not comment on its running conditions). If it is of any interest, the chief-guest for the presentation was Vazhapadi K.Ramamoorthy, then an MP of Congress(I) but currently floating his own party, TRC. So the presentation looked more like a political meet than anything else. Maybe, the whole contest was a political gimmick, but hey, I'm not complaining. Once the ball started rolling, it kept rolling. I went to many more contests like the Verbatim Quiz contest; Rotary Club (Madras Metro) Quiz contest; Rotaract Club of C.E.G's Rota-Quest '95 Quiz contest; Sparks '95 held by Computer Society at Anna University [this started my first association with Anna Univ., which was to continue later at college]; Venkatasubba Rao Marticulation software contest (where my classmate, Rajiv Ram Mohan and I shamelessly presented a software by another student at out faculty's behest) |
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Prizes Won in my School Years |
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Symposiums in my College Years |
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During my first at S.R.M.Engineering, a private college under Madras University, the students were not grouped by their departments. Hence, I was not aware of computer symposiums that were held. Far less, I did not even realize that sysmosiums were held at a large scale and that the students had to take the initiative to participate (not as in schoool where we were picked out to attend competitions). As a result, it was only in the middle of my second year that I got an oppurtunity to participate, that too by chance. Asu was now studying at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering (SVCE), another private college under Madras University and one which I greatly admire. Though he was in the Electrical Engineering department, he used to keep tabs on the happenings in the Computer Science department. He got to know that a symposium, Interrupt '98, was to be held at his college and asked me over for it. I decided to go with Muruga Bhupathy, a classmate of mine, and after much running around, we found out how to get the depatments' permission to attend the event. At SVCE, we were overwhelmed by the plethora of events available and the number of students participating. Inspite of that, I sort of felt at home in the surroundings and started to like it. Muruga and I gave our entry for every event we could think of. But little good it did as we were able to get to the finals of the Quiz alone, where too we lost ignominiously after answering just two questions. What a damp squib! But as they say, fortune favors the brave. So without losing heart, we waited for one more year for the next edition of Interrupt. In the meanwhile, I did get a chance the participate in Anna University's aBaCUS in August '98, but sadly could not make it as I had to attend the National Cadets Corps Annual Camp. But the fact is, I lost out attending symosiums in my entire second year as i did not know when they were to be held. It was much later that I got to know that there was a separate Notice Board where the posters were put up for the competitions. And from then on, there was not a single day that went without my checking the notice board for upcoming events. Interrupt '99 held better prospects as I knew what to expect. It was Muruga and myself this time too and we had entered Muruga's software, Virtual Park (which had limited contribution from self), for one of the events. But being pitted against champions from IIT, Madras is enough to make even the most ardent participant quiver. And so it was that I managed to make it to the finals of every event, save 'Paper Presentation' for which I did not enter any paper; only to loose out in all of them (and missing out one as it's timing overlapped with another). But the fact is that I was out of my league amongst the IITians and Anna University guys. This loss disappointed me and I swore I would not go to any other competition... until aBaCUS '99 came; and my luck changed. Here I was at Anna University, the second best university (after IIT) in Madras, nay the whole state, and I would be competing with the brightest students from the best colleges, IIT and SVCE included. With me was Muruga Bhupathy and also my seniors, Pradeep and Karthik among others. I had teamed up with Muruga again to present his Virtual Park, though we didn't have high hopes about it after losing at SVCE. I did a good job of presenting the software and Muruga fielded the questions well. And we were awarded the second prize. The software that lost at SVCE won at Anna University- pretty neat. Then I got a sweet hatrick by landing the second prize in Rapid Debug and Impromptu Software as well. And I was told that I was the top prize getter at the symposium and was nominated to the Techno Tzar event for selecting the best student at the meet. Newbie as I was, stage fear gripped me when I was told that the event consisted of being grilled on stage by two lawyers. I may come from a family of lawyers but that does not mean that I'm good at the witness box! I barely scraped through the ordeal with my self-respect in tatters. What a way to end a great day! After aBaCUS, my stature grew in the eyes of my seniors, who led our college team to these events. They were good at crossword and quiz themselves but I was the expert on debugging and programming. We went to a number of events and in all of them, I was the one who clinched the most prizes for our college, and more often than not, from among all participants in the symposium. My greatest moment came in my final year, again at Anna University, when I was ajudged Mr.aBaCUS at Techno Tzar and also secured the overall shield for my college. |
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Prizes Won in my College Years |
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