It's that time now, time for Goodbyes and keep-in-touch messages, hugs and handshakes. A year has rolled by and we the students of FPGDST, batch of 2006 at NCST, Kharghar are through with the course,for better or for worse! I know this is like tempting the tempest and risking the wrath of Sasi Sir (<div class="ljuser">the_little_sasi</div>), but as he himself has observed in his blog, the course was not the same for everybody. While a handful were dedicated right through, displaying superhuman endurance levels, the less special folks including yours truly could only product the odd spark of peak performance of the standards expected of all the participants. What should I say? Is the course only for an elite few who either know everything that is taught out here before hand or for people who as I described earlier, have superhuman endurance levels? The ability to take failure after failure and still not get it to affect one's morale for instance is one such special trait that is required for people who wish to be really successful in this course. I was able to see people polarizing into different factions pretty much immediately after the course took off in right earnest (which was around the day one of the course!)
I describe the factions and the key dramatis personae belonging to these factions below:
 <div class="ljcut">The Super-Performers Faction: These people have from day 1 appeared supremely confident and have managed to produce the results to back their appearances.
 
Sumit Modi: The most conspicuous of them all. Also most vocal, holds the record for the most number of questions raised in the class sessions. Several times, one got the feeling that Modi knew more than the faculty members teaching the subject and this was a feeling that one suspects, was shared by some of the faculty members themselves, though I will refrain from naming them. Also came across as being supremely over-confident and arrogant, but I later discovered that he was really a great guy who didn't mind acknowledging that he was comfortable with certain subjects and topics (sometimes, he even acknowledged knowledge in subjects he was not really comfortable but thought he was anyway, but that is another story! That was what Modi was like!). Another thing about Modi was that he was one of the most helpful guys around. Never said no if anybody wanted help. He was a great at teaching too. Maybe he should at least moonlight as a teacher, someday.
The Million Dollar Question (Doubt):How can his date of birth be 1984 if he is qualified with an MSc and has nearly two years of work experience? I suppose the NASA moon controversy has explanations that are easier to grasp!!!
Placed in: NV Soft

Amarnath Chatterjee: The least conspicuous of the first faction, at least initially. Dada, as he is affectionately referred to by friends, is almost the diametric opposite of Sumit Modi. Though equally prodigiously talented, Dada likes to lie low.
In street racing, people are wont to paint their rides in the most garish styles, showing off the labels of the performance parts that they have used and also many a time, those they haven't used, but some people prefer to have a totally bland looking super-car. It serves two purposes. It doesn't attract the attention of law enforcement and causes rival racers, especially newbies to underestimate the car's prowess, with disastrous consequences for them. Such cars are called 'Sleepers'. Dada is the Sleeper of NCST. He constantly understates and underrates himself, probably to confuse his rivals (if there are any!). His histrionics appear to be as far removed from actual humility as Modi is removed from total silence in class.
While I'm a great fan of his for his levels of endurance and unwavering discipline, his deliberate attempts to underrate himself are a tad irritating. Actually, very irritating.
Critical Opinion: He is as genuine as Raghunandan's new-found hair! More on Raghu later!
Placed in: I2 Technologies

Rajesh Agroya: Another sleeper, but not in the Dada sense. He literally used to sleep his way through most classes, but a first-rate student and incredible hard worker. Sasi Sir had once asked us what he thought would be a rhetorical question: Whether there was anybody in our midst who had read at least one of the books provided to us, cover to cover. Rajesh had and raised his hand in answer. The question was not a rhetorical one, after all! Probably Amarnath had read books cover to cover too, but he would be the last person to admit to it. As if it would would 'paint' him for a laser guided programmable missile to strike!
Rajesh, I feel, falls between Amarnath and Sumit. Unlike Dada, he acknowledges everything he knows, and with confidence, but  he is more levelheaded than Modi and is not overconfident. A Mr Nice Guy. You can read more about him and also see the mock newspaper write-up that I came up with when he topped CST-2007: http://prashanthchengi.livejournal.com/3358.html
Placed in: I2 Technologies

Ankur Kapur: An extremely talented individual. Has oodles of experience in the field of animation and computer generated art. Used to work along with his cousin(s) at their jointly owned animation studio. Very brand conscious, you can see him decked in only branded jeans and T-Shirts. One of the toppers in the batch of 2006, he is confident but not arrogant. Very good pal of Sumit Modi. He attributes his low grades in the second quarter (low by his standards!) to the many hours that he spent playing Age of Mythology on his laptop with pal Modi. A stickler for discipline and methodical yet out-out-the-box thinker (almost an oxymoron, huh? That's Ankur for you)
He was one of the candidates to be selected for C-DAC Pune, but Vistaar stole him away. C-DAC's loss is Vistaar's gain.
Placed in: Vistaar Technologies

Suryaveer Singh Chauhan: One of the most steady performers in the course, he has not allowed anything to distract him from the course. Most unassuming of the super achievers.
Placed in: CapGemini

Satish Kumar Sinha: The man who triumphed against all odds. With a Bachelor's degree in arts and an incomplete MCA, he was the bunny as far as placements were concerned. He knew that very few companies would allow him to participate in their placement visits and he had to make those few chances count. A top-notch programmer, he knew that his chances were great if he got through NV Soft, a company that hardly bothered about a candidate's antecedents, as long as he could deliver the goods. Satishji as he is affectionately known, gave his best shot and it proved to be enough to get him into NV Soft. Here was a man with a thousand to one odds and he came through. One of the toppers in the course too. Unfortunately for him, despite his excellent programming skills, he was only able to clear one of the two MGPTs that he had to and so will have to try again next year to get that coveted FPGDST certificate. My best wishes to him.
Place in: NV Soft

Sameer Mhatre: The localite who begged to get away from C-DAC, Bangalore because he missed home cooked food and friends. Phenomenal performer. Has solved more than 20 MGPT problems from previous years apart from all the self-assessment assignments. The only guy to have solved so many problems. Achieved the unique distinction of clearing two MGPTs in a single session. He also narrowly missed out clearing all ten MGPAs. He managed to get 9.
Phenomenal programming acumen and work ethic. Can single-handedly take on tough projects and still come out winning.
Placed in: Internet Trends

Oscar Dom Victor Castellino: The baby-faced, uber-cool, multi-faceted melting pot of talent. A fabulous singer with avid interest in Physics and Mathematics, he seems to take to programming with the ease with which a fish takes to water. He not only equalled Sameer Mhatre's incredible record of clearing both MGPTs in one session, but also achieved the feat in only about 40 minutes! Two MGPTs cleared with more than three quarters of an hour to spare! Wow! This is one super special guy. Vistaar is lucky to have him.
Placed in: Vistaar Technologies

Udit Sharma: The most unusual of the super achievers. Cool-dude, super sportsman, playboy and a smart-worker, all rolled into one. A complete package. 'Work while you work and play while you play' & 'Work hard, party harder' are his slogans.
Placed in: NV Soft

The 'Students Who Flattered to Deceive' faction: These are students who have performed well, but have lacked consistency right through the year.

Ajay Bhosal: King of Placements. The guy who almost singlehandedly gave direction to the placement activities on behalf of the student placement cell. It came at a heavy cost: his course completion. Though he was a good student, he missed out on too many classes and so couldn't give his best.  He himself was one of the last guys to be placed. Just another testimony to his belief in putting the rest ahead of him. Ajay, we are deeply indebted to you.
Placed in: Hewitt Associates

Deepak Kumar: Hard worker, disciplined student. Has quite a high GATE score to his credit. Though capable of topping, he had lost all interest in the course and would just prepare for aptitude and interview questions. He spent his free time by scaring the members of the ICPAAACCLBSWCJ faction (described in detail further below) about how nobody would get placed if the placement activities didn't get started off. He ate, drank, slept and talked about companies and campus visits. Oh, and he would talk about ISKON too, and in alarmingly fanatical tones. Scary.
Critical Opinion: Religious fanatic. Chronically jealous of people who could perform better.
Placed in: Wipro InfoTech

Vimalendu Shukla: Started very promisingly with successes in the MGPAs. Could come up with sharp solutions to problems. Great programming skills. Had cleared all modules till the second quarter. Third module onwards, he seemed to lose interest. He went home for an extended period of time and was never the same enthusiastic student, again. Was too bothered about placements too.
Critical Opinion: He got what he wanted, a job, but he could have done much more.
Placed in: E-Mphasys

Tapas Gupta: Meticulous student. Hard worker. Great pal of Vimalendu. Quit the course midway to join TCS.
Placed in: TCS

Prashanth Chengi (yours truly!): 8 out of 10 MGPAs, good COOS project. Has solved 16 MGPT problems of the previous years (probably second only to Sameer Mhatre) and 26 out of 30 Self-Assessment Assignments. Had to work almost all alone on his COOS project as one of his teammates, Sunil (placed in Nextstep) was down with malaria and the biggest help the other, Brijesh (placed in Wipro InfoTech),  could do was to leave him alone! Failed to juggle the CNET project alongside COOS and so failed. It came as a big shock to him and caused him to go into a shell and things seemed to go downhill eversince. Also had the bad luck of getting caught every time he dozed off in a boring class, unlike Rajesh Agroya who seldom got caught, despite sleeping through most classes! Cleared the MGPT quota though. It was immensely satisfying, but his chances of getting the FP certificate seem rather slim.
Critical Opinion: Extremely moody. Unpredictable. Academic underachiever.
Placed in: C-DAC, Pune

The 'I-can't-perform-at-anything-and-couldn't-care-less-but-still-want-a-cushy-job' faction (ICPAAACCLBSWCJ): As far as strength in numbers go, they were by far the biggest faction. During the initial class sessions, we got to know this: Not everybody who asks a lot of questions is really smart (with Sumit Modi being the exception)
and not everyone who is silent is dumb. However,  the onset of the MGPAs made matters pretty clear. While many people were genuinely disappointed and unhappy at their failure to clear the MGPAs, members of this faction had already begun to put their hands up to get counted in. They were not even interested to attempt the problems and even went on to bunk the MGPAs.This was at the very beginning of the course when even the most hardened and cynical students would be having some semblance of enthusiasm. Their actions were inexplicable at first. Others even thought that they were just bitterly disappointed, but over time, the truth became obvious: they were plainly disinterested. They became more and more recognizable as the days went by and left nothing to doubt when it was time for the projects.
Their typical activities: Solve aptitude questions for most of the day, watch TV and surf the net.
Critical Opinion: Who cares?
Placed in: Some quit the course, some lucked it into companies, often by using unfair means and some are still yet to get placed.

The Love-Birds faction: This faction is one that has representation from members of almost all factions. While one or two of them made no bones about it and were dignified and discrete, most others were almost eyesores. The badminton court-side, the parked vehicles, the corridor between the lobby and the canteen  and the meeting room were their regular haunts. One couple were unfortunate enough to be spotted by a friend near the Utsav Chowk, indulging in some extremely heavy petting. My friend even went to the extent of shouting out to them, leaving them stunned and at a total loss of words! At least they had had the decency to put a healthy distance from the campus! I chided my friend for having spoiled their cozy moments together!
Critical Opinion: High eyesore value.

Now we come to the final part of this post, the list of winners of  The End of the Term Awards (EOTTA)

The Oddball of the Year Award goes to: Ajay Kumar Mishra, who claimed to be a nuclear scientist. He claimed that he had developed a bio-mechanical system to diffuse a hostile nuclear war-head before it could detonate. Also a self-proclaimed playwright and song-writer.
He once tried to get Anil, the canteen cook to help him sell a song written by him. When I asked him what he could do if the person used the song and failed to give due credit to him, his words were:
Boss, samandar mein se koi ek ya do liter paani nikaaltha hai, samandar ko nukhsaan hoga kya?
(Boss, if a person removes a liter or two of water from the ocean, is the ocean impoverished?)
I was speechless. I still don't know what to say!

The Transformation of the Year Award goes to: Raghunandan, who after donning a hair-piece is practically unrecognizable! Good for him!

The Most Avoided Conversationalist Award goes to: Raghunandan again!!! He is capable of making even the most patient of people want to tear their own hair out by the roots! Even the eminent Professor Keshav Nori figures in the list of Raghu's victims! and if rumors are to be believed, even Sasi Sir is terrified of him!!!

The Atrociously Horrible Attitude of the Year Award goes to: A snooty, arrogant,  and utterly egoistic, not to mention unsuccessful at the course unnamed female. She reportedly asked one of the volunteers to supply her answers to the questions of the aptitude paper of one of the visiting companies. The volunteer rightly gave her a piece of his mind instead!!! Obnoxiousness personified! Yuck! Good riddance to bad, bad, rubbish!!

The Jugad Specialist of the Year Award goes to: Brijesh Kumar, for his uncanny ability to come up with quick-fix solutions.
Placed in: Wipro Infotech

The Encylopedia of NCST Award goes to: Saurabh  Rana aka Captain Rana. Prodigious general knowledge, outstanding memory even for comics read years earlier! A big fan of Phantom and it's creator Lee Falk.

The Internet and Email Good Practices and Habits Award goes to: Ankit Dangi, the talented guy who now wants to enrich the field of research with his efforts. Expect only the very best of messages and mails from him. One doesn't need a spam filter if everyone is as cautious with mail forwarding as this cool dude.
Placed in: Iris India

The Most Successful Serial dater on Orkut Award goes to: Shailesh Pratap Singh. No further details required!

The Sanjay Dutt look-and-walk alike Award goes to: Nitin Arora. Dude, watch out! They might dump you into prison too, if you continue to ape his mannerisms!

Most Loyal Customer of the Year Award (Sponsored by HotPot, a local restaurant) goes to: Nandan Nadkarni. That restaurant will probably fold up without Nandan's patronage! Also one of the most verbose guys around and a phenomenal TT Player.
Placed in: CapGemini

The Best Dhoom 2 Imitator of the Year Award goes to Saswata Choudhary, for his death-defying, gravity-mocking stunts that he has a penchant for performing,on his trusty LML scooter. His eventual placement will be the movie stunt industry's loss and software industry's gain!

The Bejan Drinkswala Award for Dumb Predictions goes to: Pranav Prasad, for his infamous prediction regarding placements : "A dark future is waiting for all of us".

Weirdo of the Year goes to: Yet another unnamed female student, known for only speaking in monosyllabic grunts and using full sentences only when fighting with someone, right through the year. God save us from the likes of these!

The Kid of the Year goes to: Naren Bhatia, the teenaged blue-eyed boy of NCST, FP batch of 2007.

And last, but certainly not the least,

The King of Good Times Award goes to: Vinod Raina, for his awesome attitude and never-say-die-spirit.

God bless us all! We survived NCST and everything that it dished out to us! Congratulations to all of us who achieved whatever we wanted to do and the very best of wishes for those of us who are yet to achieve them. We now look back and cherish the good memories and try to forget the not so good ones,(though remembering not to forget the lessons learned). This is Prashanth Chengi, signing off from the computer lab at NCST.
 

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