Newsletter 2009

1

Publication

Sub

com

eteeSeptember’07

The G Team

Chief Editors

Kurella Venu

Chandan Kumar

Editors Siddarth Trivedi

Shiva Prasad

Execution Panel K.V.Nitin

Joormana Brahma

Vikram Chatterjee

Ganesh Iyer

Y.Sricharan

N.J.Ajay

Designer Ashutosh Kr. Upadhyay Email: [email protected] Website: http://202.141.80.5/~psc

G is a publication meant for private circulation only. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Guwahati.

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Volume V

The G Newsletter will carry a comprehensive coverage of Techniche in its next issue

The

Newsletter

Gobsmacked by maths?

Senate resolutions

Case Study

Convocation

Shoutback

Talk

Review

Inside The Pages

2

September’07

Here’re Shiva and Siddharth trying to pose your probing questions to the HOD of the mathematics department…

What are the courses you are teaching this semester?I am teaching Functional Analysis to PhD. Students.

Did you happen to teach the first year students recently? How was the experience teach-ing fresh minds?Everyone likes teaching B.Tech students. They’re generally better at grasping new concepts com-pared to M.Tech/Phd. students. Our department is very meticulous with the courses we teach B.Tech students. Professors are asked to strictly stick to the course struc-ture.

But doesn’t the reaction of the students perturb you? Most of the students think that what they are being taught has no practical use.It is a problem. In our courses, we introduce you to analysis and try to give you logical mathematical foundations. Analysis is different from the mathematics you study till class 12th. You can’t mug up the concepts. A basic understand-ing is a must. In analysis, you do not take anything for granted. For example, the concept of limit : Even the proven mathematicians struggle to understand it com-pletely sometimes, because it is so trivial yet so tricky. Mathematics is the language of science. If you want to do something original, you need to know your mathematics.

Why do these supposedly bright first year students struggle in the transition to analysis?

See, in class 12th, the concepts introduced are just scraped at the surface, and then left.

Here, we go to the very basics. It is maybe because of the dif-ferent approach that students do not cope very well initially. Add to that the fact that they inherit their dislike for mathematics from their seniors. If seniors keep telling them that this subject is tough, then even they’ll start believing it to be tough, which is not the right way to study.

What is the response you get from 1st year students to your teaching methods?In the 1st semester, students are very sincere. 2nd semester at-tendance goes down dramatically. Most students do well though.

IITs are considered to be a great source of intellectual capital, yet we have students scoring as low as 7 or 8 marks in a 60 mark paper. Even the highest lingers around the 50% mark. Any dominant reason that can explain this trend?All are very good students here. None of them are average. That is why we keep the standard of the paper on the higher side. What is also worth remembering is that the grading is relative. Marks do not matter as much as whether you’ve understood.

A lot of students complain that the mathematics courses are very complicated and overload-ed. What would you like to tell them?The only reason our courses are complicated is that they are designed to cater to the needs of a large number of engineering disciplines. The blame for the overloaded courses lies primar-ily with the engineering depart-ments. Whenever we try to reduce the number of courses, the other departments protest because they want their students to know their mathematics. Advanced studies in Electronics, Mechanical and CSE have our mathematics courses as prerequisites. Even Biology

requires Mathematics nowadays. The reason for this wide appli-cation is that mathematics is a language of expressing a problem. If you want to read Shakespeare, you need to know English, simi-larly for mathematics.

How is the general feedback from the students?Generally, pretty good. We always strive to improve ourselves if the feedback is not very good. What we feel more important is the feedback you give to the teacher during the class and not at the end of the semester. Get involved in the class…

Any concluding message that you would like to deliver to the students?The only thing I would request our students is not to believe in hear-say. Come regularly to the class. Do not miss things. And Mathematics is not pointless: Whatever you learn will help you in your future studies. The faculty always work very hard, and feel very proud when our students do well.

The interviewed professor is the HoD of the Mathematics Depart-ment .He can be reached at [email protected]

The G Newsletterhttp://202.141.80.5/~psc

Gobsmacked by maths?

2

Hi,IIT Guwahati is a whole collec-tion of the things I used to wish for before clearing the JEE. Full of natural beauty, comprising of the lakes, hills inside the campus.Here the seniors, the faculty, the Gymkhana and the natural beauty give an opportunity to the learners to learn more and more.

Shashikant First yearite

3

September’073

forget the people who are left behind. We must do our part towards the society. He concluded by wish-ing the very best of luck to both our institute and its students. After this speech, we had an invocation song followed by a dance performance by the tiny tots to the tunes of ‘saare jahan se achcha’. Then we had another performance by the tiny tots about the importance of national unity. The students of IIT were not just spectators. We had a recitation of patriotic poems by our welfare secretary Hridesh fol-lowed by a short skit about the attitude of our youth and how Bhagat Singh would react to this attitude. After this, there was another performance by the pri-mary school children emphasizing the importance of education. Concluding the proceedings, refreshments were given out to the all those present. K.V.Nitin

On its very first meeting of this semester held on August 19, 2007, the following agenda was placed and discussed in the SenateApproved(unanimously):1. If a member of Senate resigns for his/her post, he/she can not contest for other post vacant in the Senate in the same academic year. 2. Student Apparel Committee (sub committee of students’ senate) was formed to scrutinize the usage of the name IITG or any other associated entities on apparels. The committee looks into monetary as-pects, design and ensures approval of the concerned administrative authority.Members :- Rohit Sankar, Monabili Basumatray, Ankit Upadhyay, Sunil Kumar Mahesh

Discussed:1. With the feedback given by alumni the Vice Presi-dent and some of the other members were of the opinion that applications from 2nd year students for foreign internships narrows down such opportunities for seniors, hence they need to be discouraged by blocking their ‘No Objection Certificates’. Most of the secretaries thought such a decision would be un-welcome. It would discourage the flare for research among young students which is far better pursued abroad than in India. Some others argued that there are some juniors who have enough intellect to de-serve such internships and requested the Senate to seek any other means to discourage unworthy appli-cations. The issue has been shelved for discussion till the next summer meet.

2. The Senate made a request to the Dean of Aca-demic Affairs to ensure more transparency in the election of D.U.P.C. members and allow it a greater

Resolutions at Senate Meeting

say during faculty-meetings while making student related decisions.

3. The senate also discussed the means to encourage students to use Newsgroups and share views more effectively on the intranet. General Secretaries of dif-ferent boards accepted to publish their club activities and results of various events in discussion boards.

4. The budget for the current academic year which was granted for Gymkhana was looked into.

5. Action plans that have to be adopted by different clubs to show better results were laid out.

6. In an attempt to better mess conditions, a pro-posal for training of existing cooks by professional cooks was proposed and well discussed. General secretary, Hostel affairs presented a new mess policy which was proposed by the Vice-President.

7. Sponsorship committee for Sports Board: A brief discussion went on over this.

8. Members also drew up plans for using the Senate hall and fixing the venues for different activities dur-ing the year.

9. While appreciating its stand and success in anti-ragging activities and in reducing the number of complaints registered against seniors this year, the members also pondered upon cases in which freshers meet out disrespectful behaviour towards seniors. They were of the opinion that equally strict provi-sions should be made to check such incidents.

Despite the rain, there was an enthusiastic turn-out from both the student as well as the staff com-munity. The programme kicked off with the arrival of our respected director Dr. Gautam Barua. Then after a march-past by our students and the secu-rity personnel, the director hoisted our national flag and delivered a speech about the progress that has been made so far in the field of economy and about the easy availability of jobs at least at higher levels. “This rapid growth is making India stronger”, he said, and also spoke about how in a developed country, people should not have problems for “roti kapdaa aur makaan”. “But every coin has two sides and there-fore this development also has a downside in such that it is creating disparities.” He reminded us that while we are moving ahead, we must not

Independence day


4

September’074

Did you register for35 courses this semester???

We did, all thanks to the awesome registration software, that enabled us to do so, whether we wanted to or not…

Folks, life can’t get any better: what with such awesome climate, obedient and enthusiastic fucchas, mouth watering food ,multi-cuisine dishes and the exceptionally well-managed registration…erm…need I say any more?

I just can’t understand why things went haywire to an irreparable extent the other day when we had our registration scheduled for. This registration reminded us of the long queues at railway stations(or any other govt insti).How can we forget that IIT is a government institute and a certain amount of inefficiency should exist. Perhaps even the officials who were monitoring the process felt our hullabaloo to be reasonable. All they did was to try bring some order into the junta. No reprimands, thank you sir!. People were jostling for places. There was this static queue which was presumed to be the queue for folks paying their fee through cash. Fast forward a couple of hours, and the queue still unmoving. All the long hours of standing, only to be told that the fees could be deposited at any counter.No boards, no info…were we supposed to have some kind of divine premonition?

To instantiate the class of inefficient administration, even our grade sheets weren’t ready. One month was enough for them in the last sem.Yet,three weren’t sufficient this time. And the execuse that the JEE work load was heavy or any other one,creative or lame, will be met by deaf ears.

Then there was this session of rants from the cashiers at the counter.What was the need to rant?? Okay, people get restless in such a humid climate if they are made to stand for long hours. All this (im)patient waiting met with a sermon from the cashier : “Haste doesnt pay!Wait for your chance”. Yeah right!! As if all that we had faced till then wasn’t sufficient. This incident wherein philosophical funde were dished out might remain the Cherrie on top of a fantastic semester.

To be fair, the admin organized a really efficient registration procedure the previous semester. Since there are no free lunches, this semester seems to be payback time. How else can you explain the total chaos in which the entire procedure was conducted this time around. Peace.

registration

sun goes down

Breathing virtues no desire,Memories embody a crimson pyre,The leaves turn dry,The clocks tick by,

We remain, where we belongThe sun goes downThe heart keeps throbbing,The winds refuse our words,And yet we run in the sands of time.

Faithless love, endless treason,Mindless wars, seamless scars,Nothing’s changed, nothing’s remainedShadows of sorrow, the buoy of hope, With them we live,Forlorn and waiting for redemption. Siddhanth Mishra

sleeping here for 12 hours is better thanstanding here for 12 hours

It’s 9 pm, and the Registration

is tomorrow at 9 Am

Sricharan Y


5

September’075

Cadence at AECLast semester a dance group ,Cadence, placed one more memorable inter-college victory on the cata-logue of IITG …….. Vikram Chatterji brings to you the narration of Success story by a Cadence team-member,Deep Gandhi …………. After the cultnite the then cultural secy informed us about a Choreo competition in Assam Engineering College(AEC). All of us were quite excited about participating in this competition. Although we had to prepare for the competition in just 5 days, this fact didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.So it was a ‘National Level Cultural Exchange Pro-gramme’ with the theme - ‘Semi classical Indian Fu-sion’.. So here is how the preparations started:All of us met and were able to decipher the confus-ing theme ,on which we had to perform,after a great deal of struggle. Now searching for some classical music with some kind of fusion of western beats is quite difficult. So a day passed by just finalizing the music .Till date all our performances were western and this posed a challenge. Then on the next day we all started on deciding steps’ sequence from begin-ning to the end.

And started practicing them night and day ... some-times as late as 2’o clock in the morning. Among the other things we also had a shadow play in our se-quence. With just 2 days to go we finalized props and costumes ,mostly made by us and a few bought from the city. We then prepared till the last moment to get a perfect coordination going amongst ourselves.Finally the day of the performance arrived and we left for AEC at 5 pm after lab. After reaching we took a closer look of the stage settings. As the competi-tion began we started feeling all the more confident and felt that we stood a chance to win it. Other participants performed quite well, but our sequence stood out from among the others as we had a shad-ow play. Then the time came for the results... we stood second!!! It was a proper classical dance performance by a group of 5 girls from a dance academy that came firstQuite contented with our performance we all cel-ebrated our first ever inter college performance and decided to take the dance group to new heights. It was quite a memorable experience for all of us!!

Its all in the airI know nothing about it

While drama runs on another’s scriptSome started dancing on their ownIt all turned out sad n badBut its all in the airI know nothing about it

The reign of orkut still continuesn scrapbooks flood in vibrant colors“hi! waanna be frnz”But its all in the airI know nothing about it

They make their entrance in the campusThey fear, they hideThey donno the namesBut they still vote in prideBut its all in the airI know nothing about it

The newcomers here are our guestsWe serve them with pleasureI wanna say something but words I lackTo greet u with looks;Chanda is backbut its all in the airI know nothing about it

I didnt do my homework in schoolMy cheek got red;For grown-ups It won’t work, I read; will it? But its all in the airI know nothing about it

You may think I’ m bluffingYou may think I’m kidding I tell you whatWhatever you feel Its all in the air I know nothing about it


6

September’076

I am a 4th year Kapilite. I reached Ghy on 31st, and was both shocked and surprised to find my room locked. It was only after a few hours of convincing the guards and caretaker was I shown the list of vacant rooms. Though most of the rooms on that list were either already oc-cupied or locked. Fortunately for me, I found an empty room. One of my friends was not so lucky though. He was asked to move into a room with an M.Tech guy. Finally we ended up sharing my room, reminiscent of our first few days at IIT. Thanks to Kapili admin, for giving us a chance to relive the “good old days”. Divya Devesh

I am a third yearite .I returned from vacation on the 1st morning .After a tiresome journey ,I reached hostel and found that my room was occupied by some first yearite.My friends who re-turned 3 days earlier retained their previous rooms (How unfortunate I was ,I thought).But I was later frustrated to know that I had no officially allotted room. The room allotment procedure didn’t make any sense to me. Later, I had to linger around the caretaker for 5-6 hours to get a room.

A third yearite

Yes junta, this would be the outburst of any guy eat-ing in Manas. Given the outstanding efficiency of our mess workers , the inclusion of Barak boarders into Manas mess is anything but a boon. It’s ridiculous to have another 170 odd students served by the same ‘Coterie of Perfectionists’ in the catering department ,when their service leaves a lot to be desired by us. Also the attempt to accomplish this seemingly pre-posterous task with the same amount of utensils, manpower, et al is as slick as it can get. The situation is helpless on days when the flock of fachas pounce on the mess at the same time as the sophomores. A reality check shows that the contract was not forcibly rubbed onto our caterer. A typical lunch session is marked by the stomach churning food and its

‘delicious’ aroma of course;the sauntering of the already less in number, mess workers. A never end-ing, dynamically increasing queue wherein people jostle for place for many minutes is the least that you can expect.The canteen has literally ousted the mess for the students craving for time.On a serious note , a plausible solution is dearly needed to this problem, lest having a sumptuous lunch or supper is pure serendipity. A diversion of a part of the traffic to Kameng might be helpful.Having more counters in our hostel itself is another plausible solution. That’s it guys,its supper time and let me see if something different happens today. Shiva Prasad

What a ‘Mess’ !!

I was allotted a room on the third floor. I was in-terested in getting a room on the second or the first floor. Seeing that there were many empty rooms, I contacted the security guard and after confirming that the room on the second floor was empty I moved into it. Then I found out that the room belonged to a senior student upon whose return I had to move out. Due to non availability of rooms, I was told to move into the dormitory and assured that rooms would soon be vacant. With Kapili warden’s intervention, I was asked to move into a room on the first floor.

A first yearite.

Kapili is back in the headlines for a new reason. During the beginning of the semester Kapilites,esp. the seniors , received an unexpected welcome from the hostel authorities ....

What has the caretaker got to say?

The allotment of the rooms was based on first come first serve strategy, a strategy adopted in no other hostel. Any specific reason? A few seniors had to linger around you for 5-6 hours and a few others stayed in their friend’s rooms for more than a day. Why was the situation so pathetic?Most of the students lock not only their rooms but also a few neighboring rooms, and none among the bunch of the keys is returned. So it becomes dif-ficult for us to estimate the number of rooms that aren’t allotted. We can’t break into any student’s room. In order to teach the boys a lesson we made this rule where in the first comers were given preference. I also gave them the liberty to exchange rooms on mutual agreement. Only those who didn’t follow the rules had to face this problem.

EpilogueIt was the seniors who had locked their rooms that retained their rooms and the ul-timate sufferers were the one who adhered to the rules

case study


7

September’077

9th convocation

cultniteThe cultural aspect of our life in IITG kicked off on Saturday, the 18th of August with one of the most anticipated events of the semester thus far: the cult-nite. It started off at around eight o’ clock and a size-able and an as yet controlled crowd assembled. The cult-nite kicked off with a dance performance from the first yearites. After a stage dance performance, there was a truly out-of-the-ordinary event in the form of a street dance, again, from the girls of the first year. This enthralling event was followed by another dance performance by the first yearites. Following this feast for the eyes was the true gratification of our auditory senses. It was time for the performance by ICHOR, our rock band. ICHOR was radically different with changes not only in the song line-up but also in the composition of the band. We had two new vocalists: Ganesh Iyer and Bhaskar Brahma. The songs played were different as well with numbers such as “Enter sandman”, “What I’ve done”, “Maggie’s farm” along with the band’s original composition. The crowd which had been seated in muted appraisal of the dance per-formances was suddenly seen to grow wild

Ganesh Iyer Friday, the 25th of May, was a day many at IIT Gu-wahati were eagerly looking forward to. The day saw a crowd of students, parents heading towards the Student Activity Centre, near which a giant Pandal was erected. Occasion: the 9th convocation ceremony of IIT Guwahati.

Presiding over as Chief Guest was the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Tarun Gogoi. The seating was done to accommodate the parents in the central area flanked by the faculty and the students on either side. Cameras clicked away near the front of the stage as each student collected his/her degree from the Chair-man of the senate and the Director of the Institute Prof. Gautam Barua. The convocation was chaired by Dr. M. K. Bhan, the Chairman of the Board of Gover-nors of the institute.

Department toppers were awarded Silver medals for their outstanding academic performances, while Mr. Y Praveen Kumar, of Electronics and Communication Engineering department was awarded the President of India Gold Medal for securing the highest Cumulative Performance Index(C.P.I.) among all the graduating B.Tech and B.Des students. Mr. Nakul Singh Shek-hawat ,the Ex-Vice President of the Student’s Gym-khana, was awarded the Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold medal for the best all-round performance in academ-ics, extra-curricular activities, social service .

Mr. Praveen Kumar took the lead and the other stu-dents proclaimed their oaths in unison. In all, 422 students, starting from the postgrads to the un-dergraduates, clad in stunning white robes proudly displayed their degrees and jubilantly threw up their Assamese scarves at the end of the celebration. The day would be a day to remember, for the students, the parents and the institute in an equal measure.

with people hooting, cheering and “head-banging” to the tunes of some of their favourite tracks that were be-ing played. Soon the enthusiasm of the crowd was on the verge of being uncontrollable but I guess no cult-nite is complete without a wild crowd. It was a memorable induction of the first-yearites to the music culture of this institute and I am sure there is no turning back for most of them gathered there. K.V.Nitin


8

September’078

SHOUT BACK

Can’t something be done about the bus timings? But,given the oppressive and unforgiving climate these days, we,esp. kamengites, dearly need buses to NAC. A minor rescheduling of the buses would serve many a purpose. I think this is one issue that almost all are concerned about but none is voicing it because everyone has given upon it and rightly so. Who doesn’t know the stringent conditions that one has to face to get things done here? Please look if something could be done in this regard. Akshay Mishra

I don’t understand why polybags are not provided at the medicine counter in the hospital to carry medi-cines.

Aman Mathur

A thousand pardons if my topic piques any one among the junta,but it is unbearable to see appalling amounts of food being wasted every day.It is my kind appeal to every body:please respect food. Help yourselves with the amount of food that you think would satiate your hunger.Dont waste food just because you can afford it. Anonymous

Mismatched cyclesWhat results when the most populated hostel has its entry gates flooded with cycles arranged in no order whatsoever? Chaos and extreme snafu!! Beyond five in the evening, when all its occupants have parked their cycles, Kameng’s entry doors are almost inaccessible! The reason being the lack of any conceivable order and the absence of proper cycle stands. This is a necessity for the students in Kameng for, it will avoid the early morning ‘heav-ho’ to dig out one’s cycle from under a multitude of cycles fallen over it. Besides, it will also create more space in front of the entry doors of the hostel by doing away with the eye sore that the disorder of the cycles creates. Vikram

No road leads to adminThe latest and the most lucrative of all work out sessions-cycle your way through the route that connects Subhanisri and the CC on a rainy day. A good amount of practice would keep us in good shape. In fact this struggle to cover a few yards becomes necessary courtesy the pipeline work that goes on and on. Note that the other route via the lecture halls is in no good shape either, thus making our workout session inevitable .But for how long will the work continue?

Sricharan. Y

GRASS ATIITG AT IT’sHeIGHTS !!

I’ M TALLER !I’ M NOT!BUT I WASTWO DAYS AGO

We’ re slowlydisappearing !shouldn’t we do something ?


9

September’079

Prof. Beteille began the session emphasizing the fact that education has a number of layers that cannot be understood without understanding the relationship between universities and education. He pointed out that universities are much more diverse than they were before owing to the changing needs of our world. He said that people with more social, cultural and eco-nomic capital benefit more from equal opportunities. Meritocracy leads to a heightening of barriers between various levels in society. Thus one must not assume that education promotes individual mobility.

Universities such as Oxford and Cambridge were seen as places of privilege in the mid 19th cen-tury and were open only to the members of the Church of England. But gradually, times began to change for the better. Changes,then, in the social composition of the universities took place without a major sacrifice of academic quality. The USA uses a system of affirma-tive action. It is based on the autonomous nature of the universities and trusting universities in the matter of admissions.

Doing a similar investigation in India we find that some of our old universities (as old as 150 years!) were open and secular institutes even when they started thus creating possibilities for a new kind of life for people from all backgrounds. However, even until indepen-dence, universities had very limited reach.

But as time passed institutes that were excelling in the field of education did not initiate social change and de-spite all efforts, they were not socially inclusive.

Prof. Andre Beteille is an eminent social thinker. The Hindu recently published an article cel-ebrating his intellectual commitment, calling him the “wisest man in India.” He has a rich experience in aca-demics and has been delivering lectures throughout India and in international forums. Prof. Beteille also has a large number of books and research papers to his credit. He has been very vocal in his comments about contemporary political issues like caste based reservations. On the issue of reservations he agrees that even though the underprivileged have to be freed from the societal stigma they have borne for centuries, their interests cannot overweigh the well being of social institutions. He resigned from his post as the chairman of the knowledge commission to express his protest against the reservation issue.

"Not everything that is lawful is wise or even prudent.” Andre Beteille, in his letter of resignation.

Prof. Beteille enlisted the reasons for the institutes not becoming socially inclusive as the following. Firstly, he blamed the caste bias that is deeply rooted in the Indian society. Though this is a minor factor, it cannot be ignored. He said that equally blamable is political pressure that didn’t let them remain autonomous. Third in the list is our inability to secure the kind of linkages required to abolish inequality through education at el-ementary school level.Some people believe that admis-sion to elementary school must not be made considering caste, creed or even merit. This is a crucial and fatal mistake as it’s not applicable to all levels of education. The universities in South India have been more success-ful in bringing this inclusiveness but had to compromise on academic standards. Radhakrishnan commission stressed that higher educa-tion is meant for academically competent people and criteria for admission must be stringent. We are at cross-roads in our system of higher education. This is why Prof. Beteille objects to numerical quota.

Prof.Andre Beteille gave a lecture to the IITG community in April. A summary by K.V.Nitin

TALK

It’s a beautiful place, our IITG campus. Where else can you be so close to nature along with developing your academic skills and personality.The beauti-ful hilltops crowned by clouds and beautified by a rainbow.I had never in my life seen such a beauti-ful sight! As assured by Nikhil bhaiyya ,the seniors here are proving to be friends. It is a different world out here, aloof from the rest of the world, with so many facilities. One gets to pursue any dormant interest. Hope, it gives me memories for a lifetime. Lastly, I want to thank all my seniors for their co-operation.

A first yearite


10

September’0710

Movie Review: The Bourne Ultimatum by G.Adithya Sagar

“Hope for the best. Plan for the worst” the CIA director Kramer declares somewhere in the begin-ning of the movie. That was exactly what I thought of before I started the movie. An IMDB rating of 8.5 and Dave White @Movies.com giving an ‘A’ didn’t exactly enthuse me to know how Bourne kicks ass again or whether the cam remained as shaky as ever.All I was interested in was to watch some no-brainer stuff like the latest Sallu-Chichi starrer ‘Partner’ rather than put on my thinking cap and decode the multi layered spy thriller. Thankfully my better judgment prevailed. And Lo!! It turned out to be one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent times.

Predictably towards the end he turns the tables on his pursuers, exposes them with the help of Pam Landy (Joan Allen), and gets back his memory and presum-ably the girl. The movie is fast paced as its predeces-sors with intense action sequences. Bourne as usual hops across Europe (also to Morocco) and finally lands in New York. The plot challenges us to think a bit and pulls in some really good twists. I really liked the whole outwitting ‘Noah Vose thing’ and the last scene wherein a supercilious smile presents itself on the face of Julia Stiles followed by some cool music. The back-ground score was one area I felt

So what exactly is the deal? The CIA apparently likes playing the Good Sa-maritan a lot and so they start a project called ‘Blackbriar’ (‘an upgrade to Tread-stone’ which they repeatedly mouth in the movie) which basically involves shooting people including their own that they con-sider ‘bad’. So these ‘bad’ people who are constantly addressed as a threat tonational security are gunned down by specially trained assassins whenever some high ranking official gets bored. This is where ‘hamara’ hero comes in- Bourne is the first specially trained assassin with whom the whole project gets kick started but alas he doesn’t re-member it. In the search for the truth about his iden-tity he comes across a journalist who does a story on him and gets killed for mentioning ‘Blackbriar’. Bourne intensifies his search in the company of Nicky (Julia Stiles) hunted by dozens of agents and his ‘brethren’ (who are as cool as Bourne himself) but obviously the hero always vanquishes his adversaries and emerges victorious.

ultimately scores heav-ily over its predecessors. It really elevates the situ-ation and power etc. Yet it gets outwitted by one man. Ain’t that cool?? The last part maintains that, in fact, does it much better than the previous ones. Bourne seem-ingly human, performs

superhuman deeds in the most realistic and effort-less manner. The psychological aspect is retained and the movie again raises the question of “who we are?” probably in a more philosophical sense. Any off-putters? Hmmm nothing really.. .. the camera work still remains excessively shaky, bearable to an extent but irritating you at times. Franka Potente was hotter (may be Tony Gilroy should have stuck to the book in this aspect). Nothing more I guess…All in all a must for spy film aficionados and a treat for the general viewers. One of the best spy thrillers to have come out. A must watch!!!

In the garden of youth,I wandered without an aim.When by yonder rivulet,I saw the most beautiful dame.She was no less than a vision or dream,With sapphire eyes,cheeks peaches and cream.Her murmur became one with the birds’ song,Her beauty was deep---I couldn’t go wrong.

But loving her was not enough,She wanted to see if I was really tough.This challenge made me long for her more,I went out determined to settle the score.

For days and nights, beneath sun and moon,I rode my steed as the world lay in a swoon.Through rocks,vales,forests and more,Finally I stood on a sandy shore.

I crossed the azure waters to reach an isle,I felt I had swam a thousand mile.The journey had made me ache and bruise,I remembered her eyes and it seemed like a cruise.From the plethora of flowers that bloomed in that place, I plucked a rose as pretty as her face.The rose, though a flower, knew it well,My love was true,my heart did swell.

And all the way back through sea and land,Once again before my beloved did I stand.The eternal silence seemed to last forever,Then the smile came, more beautiful than ever.A glistening pearldrop fell from her face,I kissed her and held in a tight embrace.Like a finishing touch to a picture I drew,The dream of childhood finally came true.

DR

EA

M C

OM

ES T

RU

E

After cracking JEE, Shamik Ray describes his experiences during his JEE preparation.


Newsletter 2009

Documents

Transcript of Newsletter 2009