01.20.09
College Reopens on 21st Jan
IT has lectures starting from 8.30am tomorrow while Comps and EXTC have a little more time to snooze with lectures starting an hour later.
Now that Spandan and the un-named Tech Fest are on this sem’s TO-DO list, more than half of our semester is gonna be spent in preparations for these fests so be prepared for the chaos that will follow after these fests are over.
Meanwhile, my mobile application for bunking is complete and you can download it from here.
Some phones don’t seem to understand my Date-Checker algorithm for the statistics menu, so I’ve added an override option to bypass the algorithm in case it doesn’t work on your phone.
And oh yeah, now that the college has reopened it goes without saying that the Blog is back !
01.12.09
A Better Bunkulator – BunkM
BunkM (previously Bunkulator) now has its dedicated page over here.
It’s got a lot of bugs fixed and has a few neat tricks under the hood plus a major feature which I’m sure all of you will love.
Now you can update to the latest version of BunkM straight from your phone.
So delete your copy of Bunkulator on your phone and install BunkM, as this one is going to stay.
Click here for more information + download links.
The latest version as of this post is 0.61 and there are plenty more updates and new features on their way so keep checking from your phone from now on 
01.11.09
The shocking death of a beloved teacher
When I first heard it right before my math 5 paper, I knew it was totally obnoxious rubbish. I told the guy who told me Dhanashree ma’m had passed away to fuck off and stop spreading nonsense. Then came the math paper which was horrid and after leaving the exam hall, as I walked towards the groundfloor lobby, dissapointed with my performance, I saw something that would make this day even worse. On the notice board lay terrible news. Waves of disbelief passed over me and my jaws dropped as I read what was posted there. Dhanashree Ma’m had indeed passed away on december 14th, 2008. WHAT THE FUCK?? HOW??
Nothing else mattered right now. It didnt matter that the notice was littered with inappropriate mistakes. Here was an offical declaration that one of the most loved professors in XIE was no more. I struggled to recollect the smiling face of my BEE teacher whom I would never see again. Ms. Dhanashree was without doubt one of the most dedicated and hardworking teachers I ever had the good fortune to be taught by. I do not know much about her, but I do know that as a person, she was ever helpful, considerate, approachable and extremely kind hearted…be it lecture, viva or practicals. The fact that she passed away at such a young age while she was studying for her M.E. makes me wonder how fate could be so cruel.
The notice didnt say the cause of death, but rumour has it that she succumbed to malaria. This is even more mind boggling considering how many of us have gone through a bout of malaria atleast once without coming close to anything remotely ‘life threatening!!!’
Anyway, the details about her death are not clear to many of us but then thats trivial, is’nt it?
What I do know is that this professor will be missed by everyone. We’ll miss her bad.
May she rest in peace.
-Robin
01.10.09
WTF?
One of our dearest staff members died a few weeks ago and this is how XIE displays it on the notice board. I have a few things to say about this notice:
1) The notice header is XIE, MAHIM . WTF happened to the official letterhead?
2) The Notice Title is SAD NEWS . WTF happened to showing aptness and respect in notice titles?
3) Grammatical Mistake. (The Institute deeply regret to inform…) Bravo, what a perfect time to skip proof-reading when even the lamest of notices go through a proof-read procedure.
3) Spelling Mistake. Absolutely Briliant, I have to admit.
4) (The News Came Now) Really? After I enquired a little bit I realized that many students knew this only a few days after her death. If students knew, the word would have passed on to the staff or office and they would have certainly known. That statement was included in the notice only to justify why the notice was over 2 weeks late.
5) (May the Departed Soul Rest in Peace.) The Departed Soul? The? really, like nobody effing even knew her as a lecturer. “Her Departed Soul” would have been more appropriate.
6) Date of the Notice. She passed away on 14th December and the notice comes out on the 29th.
7) Principal’s signature missing. Normally in this situation it is understandable if the principal doesn’t sign because in such situations, the notice is issued in haste but they had over 2 weeks to prepare a notice so a missing principal’s notice would only mean that the notice is invalid or fake.
What is more execrable is the fact that the principal refused to allow an intentionally invalid (i.e. without principal’s signature) ‘April Fools’ notice prepared by us (click here for information about the incident) for April 1st but couldn’t sign on such an important notice to deem it official.
Even though people have their technical qualifications, being human and humane is something they can’t study. That goes deeper than books and I sincerely thought they knew that.
I had no idea about her passing away till the 7th of January (not sure how I missed the notice, but being a little bit of a recluse I can imagine why I missed it during conversations with friends). She helped a lot of us with our BEE, saved our asses during practicals and vivas and was very approachable to all students, a rare quality found among lecturers.
I have no idea how she passed away, so if any of you gus have more details, please let me know.
- May Dhanashree Ma’am’s soul rest in Peace. -
