| |
More on BITS, Pilani, Goa
By Krithika Kalyan ('00)
A while back, when the
threat of my impending quarter life crisis was not looming ever so
closer, and when I was not one more trip shy of becoming a non-resident
Goan, I along with my then-boss (also a BITSian) and his family managed
to purposely got lost on our way back to the holiday resort, where the
rest of the office folks were camped, and quickly found ourselves on
NH-17. We had carefully planned and included a trip to the Goa campus
in the itinerary, even though it meant we would have to endure a grim
morning-after scenario. (In case I had not made myself clear yet, it
was GOA! It was an all expenses paid trip and it was a Sunday
morning!) The last day at Pilani having passed just a few
months back for me, I could still distinctly remember the last nasty
bump on the Pilani-Delhi road which made me and the rest of the bus
exhibit some gravity defying stunts of our own. “I might have
passed out a few years back, but I still know what you are talking
about”, my boss declared and both of us collectively sighed at
the thought of the younglings having it nice and easy these days
– I mean, come on, leave alone the smooth ride and the fact
Pilani is the best darn place on mother earth, but you gotta admit -
Spending four or five of your impressionable years at Goa is a
temptation for anyone!
After passing through a score of industrial plants and regional hubs of multinational electronic giants, we reached campus.
Being a Sunday, there were very few prowling the class rooms. I later
dug up information to discover that the first set of students belonged
to the 2004 batch. It is hence of little surprise now that there seemed
to be so few in the main building and on campus as such, considering we
had visited the campus in November 2004. I got across to a couple of
students through email and they filled me up with some more tidbits
This batch apparently has more than 550 students and what is heartening
is that 40% of this number, are girls. (232 out of 564 to be
exact). The number of girls in the 2005 batch has seen a dip with the
ratio standing at 466:75.
The hostels which face the campus building houses the students based on
the batch. The nomenclature followed for naming the hostels has not
exactly been inspired by pre-historic god-men, The girls hostels are
simply called GH1, GH2 and GH3. In fact, the walls of one of the
hostels are being shared by both the boys and the girls, a thought
which was inconceivable at Pilani, much to the agony of some! While the
2004 batch girls occupy GH1 and GH2, all the girls in the 2005 batch
stay in GH3, which has been partitioned in order to have the boys use
the rest of the building. The curfew hours have now been set at 11 p.m,
after a briefly being as 10 p.m initially. The hostels have their own
separate wardens, hostel superintendents and assistants. One of the
girls from the 2005 batch, Lita Das says that they share a wonderful
rapport with their wardens, thanks to their frequent meetings in their
common rooms. They also manage to have share an amazing bond amidst
themselves, not only by virtue of the combined ghotting routines to
cope with the academic rigor, but also due to enthu sessions such as
the inter hostel events. They have their own cultural and sports
representatives for their hostels who put together such fun events,
which find very active participants! The girls just wanna have fun, I
guess! They have not exactly being outdone by the boys when it comes to
acads either. The girls have also been burning up the mercury on the
CGPA scales too with a couple of them being 10 pointers (gulp!).
Aalap Tripathy, a 2004 batch student claims that not only the girls,
the entire legion of students at the Goa campus has been having a
rollickin’ good time. They recently hosted Waves 2006, the annual
cultural event at the BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus, which attracted the
energetic participation of.several local colleges, in a host of events
such as Dumbcharades, Debate, Antakshari, Quiz, several song and dance
competitions and even Mr. & Miss WAVES 2006. Next year, the
students intend to make it even bigger by inviting colleges from far
and wide. Besides WAVES, the campus also comes together for Zephyr 2006
(the wind before the waves – an Intra College event) and intra
hostel sports events. Occasions such as regional new years, Dussehera,
Ganesh Chaturdhi etc also have a lot of festivities attached to them
Student participation in governance is also intense. There is a
Council for Student Affairs, the elections for which were conducted
online at the beginning of the academic year in August. The polling
software was indigenously developed and implemented by Aalap and the
other students themselves, which is quite a commendable achievement
since the campus currently has only 1st and 2nd yearites! Besides the
President of the Student Body, there are various posts catering to
definite functions such as Vice President, General Secretary, Treasury
etc. There are a host of hostel representative elected to posts like
Mess, Sports, Cultural, maintenance and utilities. It is also
interesting to note that there are students working on drafting and
finalizing the functioning of a constitution called Constitution Making
Body (CMB).
I recently read an article, which elaborated on another acronym doing
the rounds to blatantly bracket people. Close on the heels of Yuppies
(Young Urban Professionals) and Dinkies (Double Income No Kids Yet),
there are the TIREDs (Thirty Something Independent Radical Educated
Dropouts). It appears that there are quite a few who have turned their
backs on a seven figure salary, taken the plunge into doing something
on their own and retreated to Goa to fish or write or sell
flowery shirts etc etc. My plan is much more workable, I think! I
don’t want to reveal all the details yet – but let me give
you a hint – It involves the letters P-h-D and of course the
BITS-Pilani, Goa, Campus!
|
|
