Campus Transforms

The season of torrential down-pour of changes is upon us once again in spite of the El Nino. We have a new branch, new hostel arrangements, a new mess menu and arrangement, new (or no) mattresses, new WiFi regulations, new Physics, Chemistry, ESS, Maths and Humanities HoDs, new gates and a new hostel warden. It is not surprising that many see the institute in a new light, although to clarify, it is the lights which are new. This list would remain incomplete without the mention of the new faces milling around the campus, and the changes in The Ratio they have brought with them.

We have also played host to a string of SPIC MACAY events in the past few months, and people seem eager to continue to do so in the coming semesters. Kudos to the organisers who have managed to spread a growing interest in arts amongst IISTians. SPIC MACAY’s State Convention, Layam gave us the opportunity to interact with Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, who opened up about his life, his inter-ests and his ongoing projects. For the full interview, read on. Recent-

ly there has been a boost in literary and social activities as well with second years stepping to the helm.

The torrential downpour has also caused much damage to the unpaved roads of IIST. The stretch of road leading from D2 towards D1 and the circle has suffered much erosion leading to formation of ditches which are only growing in size. Under this situation, the admin has stepped in and found that these roads are quite unsafe for use in spite of being well lit up. Accordingly makeshift aluminium gates have been placed at both ends which are to be assumed closed after 6PM till daylight, lest the daredevils treading on this path may injure themselves. The entities who are in an excited enough state to make this forbid-den transition, trying to make use of the low density, beware of col-lisional de-excitation due to khaki-clad vigilantes.

Much like our tiny bubble of IIST life, the world around us has also experienced changes and got important bookmarks in the pag-es of its history. A definitive face (and other body organs) has been put on the tiny dot of Pluto. Eve-

16 Fish Eye View of IIST

A fresh perspective on life at IIST, this year around

07 Story of an IIST Neophyte

A second year looks back at life and times

04 Kalam, IIST and I

In memory of the one man who inspired many

06 404, Fight for The Coupon, Continues

How the Kerala Food counter opened for students

?

featureAn interview with Padma Vibhushan Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia

10th November 2015 . Volume 6 Issue 1 . 16 Pages

Students’ Newspaper, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

For internal circulation only

02 newsrybody, irrespective of their opin-ions on its planetary status, went “Awww” over the HD images of the love note we were sent in the form of Pluto’s heart, transmitted by New Horizons. Closer to home, AstroSat - India’s first dedicated astronomy satellite - was launched aboard PSLV-C30. While people’s effort to romanticise it as India’s Hubble are enough to make any self-respecting space enthusiast cringe, AstroSat is a definitive step towards research based projects in India, which will facilitate the much-needed devel-opments in pure sciences.

The end of July brought with it the sad news of the demise of one of India’s most revered scientists and our beloved chancellor Dr. APJ Ab-dul Kalam. Inside is an article about the life and times of this great man written by a recently graduated editor. The all-India ban on Maggi has led to less intense but equally ubiquitous trauma for the younger

generation, especially the college students who relied on it for suste-nance. In view of an unfortunately not so uncommon feeling of despair and distress that we face inevitably in life, we also have an article on depression written by the former counsellor at IIST. More details in-side.

There still remain a few things as ever unchanging as Kristen Stew-art’s facial expressions, namely the number of functional buildings in IIST. The pace of construction of the Library was hoped to speed up the completion of other under-con-struction structures, but it does not seem likely in the near future. We have a dream, that one day the SAC will rise up and be filled with the joy and chatter of IISTians. Talking of buildings, there is one which turns into a concrete version of the island from Lord of the Flies each night from 10.30pm to 6am, and if the in-sanity part doesn’t convince people

to send rescue, one of our editors has pretty good reasons for why there needs to be some changes around this place.

Dhanak 2k15 was all about War of the Mattresses and Glory of the Finance Team. While very few of us knew what to expect from this, what we did not expect were the re-cycled Gru's Minions. Also surpris-ing, the footfall of around 600 that was managed with dexterity.

Our editorial team has been re-duced to 6 people again in this se-mester. There are visible changes in this issue, mostly as one of us has been forced to play new designer. This issue onwards we endeavour to go greener by printing lesser cop-ies and encouraging our readers to read online. As you see, this issue has been just a wee bit late, and now is probably a good time to say that we always welcome content from everyone. Happy reading!

TSR is in the sixth academic year of its publication. Originally started using funds collected from students in buckets that editors took from door to door in their hostels, the Institute generously agreed to take over the charge of printing after the reprographic facility was set up, from the fourth issue onwards. We thank the Library and Reprographic teams for their invaluable support and all our readers and facebook fans for their kind gesture. Feel free to contact us for obtaining digital copies of our archive issues.

Editorial BoardThe Sounding Rocket

Ankita ShandilyaAtma AnandPriya SarkarRitu AnilShreya MandalSudheendra Raghavendra

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03news

EchoesSpaceUpSpaceUp was held at IIST on 5th Sep-tember, 2015. This was its 3rd time in India, with Bengaluru and Bhopal already having the privilege of host-ing the event. SpaceUp Trivandrum saw accomplished experts and the stalwarts of space industry as key-note speakers and guests. There were an array of private space com-panies visiting this event, which pro-vided IISTians with the unique op-portunity to pitch in their ideas and brush shoulders with the industry veterans. Also, there was free and unlimited food. A special online edi-tion based on SpaceUp Trivandrum is available online.

Astrosat India’s first dedicated as-tronomy satellite was finally launched aboard PSLV-C30. ASTROSAT has co-aligned instruments covering the de-sired spectral bands so that multiwavelength studies by simultaneous observations is possible. The satellite aims to understand high energy processes in binary systems, search for black hole sources in the Galaxy, measure mag-netic fields of neutron stars, study high energy processes in extragalactic systems and detect new transient X-ray sources.

OnamThe college was looking splendid in the traditional attire of white and gold adorning students and staff alike. The athapookalam competi-tion held was in a beautiful melange of colours in the otherwise monoto-nous academic block. The college had come to life with the music and the festivity of Keralites and non-Keralites alike. The food was han-dled by different caterer and a tent was arranged to serve the Onam Sadhya. While most people enjoyed the quality of the food, quantity was criticised as being insufficient.

KonchordsKonchords came and went with a multitude of performances ranging from singing to dancing to the usual much appreciated stand-up comedy. The fresh faces shone and the senpais definitely noticed their performanc-es. There were a bunch of brilliantly choreographed dances and melodies that lifted the moods of everybody irrespective of the rains attempting hard to play spoilsport.

No Mattress Mo' Problems The mattresses of Arundathi and Anuradha were burnt over the sum-mer with instructions to buy indi-vidual mattresses sent to all students in a brief email. This move was sur-prising, especially because no bed-bug complains had been voiced yet.

Monty Python and The Holy RatioThe graph of the ratio vs year ap-pears to be looking something like

with the steady decline followed by the incline and the subsequent de-cline which began again this year. Though math is known to hamper people’s love lives on a daily basis. Our condolences are with the guys. Enough said.

World Mental Health Day:Sameeksha - the Counsel-ling service at IIST organised an awareness program on October 10th, 2015. A brief address by one of the coun-selors summed up the need for observing this day. She put across the fact that men-tal health is nothing differ-ent from physical health and one must not give in to social stigma associated with get-ting treatment for any kind of mental ailment. The posters gave real life examples of ce-lebrities who have gotten over minor to serious mental con-ditions and have become suc-cessful. The highlight of the event was the colorful High 5 the participants of the pro-gram imprinted on the canvas to show their support for peo-ple going through illnesses of the mind and an oath to help them out of it.

Perseids Meteor ShowerThe Perseids meteor shower peaked in the second week of August and the Astronomy club of IIST held a session of night sky viewing from 11pm to 4 am. The long, uncertain wait had the crowd lying down on the roads enduring rain and cold to watch the spectacle. While some fell asleep and missed the sightings com-pletely, there were a few who saw upto 20 shooting stars. There were still others who gazed at the sky with such intensity that they kept mistak-ing fireflies for the shower.

04 tributeKalam, IIST and I by

Prabodh KattiAn ex-editor looks back at the impact the People's President had on his life.

We joined this institute because of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.Sure ISRO seemed like a great op-tion, but that didn’t do it. They were asking for five of the most productive years of our lives. Obviously a greater motivation was needed.It’s free! Yeah, that is tempting, but we have always been taught that there was no such thing as free lunch. And besides, they took 5 years.It’s got blessings of Dr. Kalam. Really, Dr. Kalam? Oh, alright then, where do I sign?Second semester, Summer of 2012. A junior contingent from IIST, armed with 5 Stars and dumb charades chits went to College of Engineering, Trivandrum with the aim of conning students into attending Conscientia 2012. So I grab every other student and tell them about IIST. They draw a blank. I tell them about Conscien-tia, the robot fights, PSLV exhibitions. Still no reaction. And then I use the magic words. “There is a good chance that Dr. Kalam will be the Chief Guest.” And if they prodded further, “Obviously, he is the chancellor of our institute.” They raise their eyebrows in the man-ner of professing an interest now. Aha! I finally got their attention.It was a matter of pride. It didn’t mat-ter that people are clueless about IIST or, in a pre-MoM era, about ISRO. Our chancellor was Dr. Kalam at the end of the day, not theirs. Times were difficult at IIST. We had experienced run-ins with the establishment. Ex-istential crises became the norm. But there was always at the back of the minds a sense of pride that our name was attached with the Missile Man of India.The last I saw him was in 2014, when he visited IIST. He was a celebrity, mobbed by the students for a glimpse

or an autograph. It was difficult to even stand in the D4 building. A desktop with two huge processors were placed in the lobby to show him a few Virtual Reality student projects. One of them was an accelerometer controlled Space Wars-esque game that was controlled by a hand mounted remote. He had on him characteristic childlike glee when he saw it, and wanted to play that game, but was whisked away because of the huge crowd.Every post on the newsfeed was about him when he bid the world farewell. That is because people are sad. And that is a huge deal because this age of 24-hour media and internet has de-sensitised us to a point where we have become incapable of feeling a strong emotion (unless it is contempt at a fellow commenter for expressing a less popular opinion). Rarely does a sad event inspire such a grief in our minds and hearts. He touched our lives in ways aplenty, and now he is gone.But saddest of all of the youth in the country is the young crowd at IIST. That’s because we lost a part of us, and we will never get it back. That pride of being able to say “Oh yeah, he is the chancellor, he will definitely come”,

it’s gone now. It’s almost as if IIST has lost an essential part of its identity, and died a bit with it.Dr. Kalam never lived to see 2020. He would most certainly have been disappointed if he had. India is far from what he had envisioned for her, and won’t get there in another 5 years, as some of our political leaders have made it clear. But it is possible for IIST to reach a level of greatness by that time that would make him proud. Then we will not need to be on his coattails to stamp our identity, and that would definitely gladden him.For almost a week, the three of us, Drishtikon editors had worked hard to print the magazine because we needed to have it inaugurated by him. It was no walk in the park, even in the end when we were refused the chance. Not the ones to give up easily, we begged and pled till the director agreed to give us a few moments for the launch. Dr. Kalam shook our hands, posed for the photos, and asked “Who designed this?” I pointed to the creative editor, whom he praised saying “It’s really good.” We had known that not many people were going to like the design, but I am ready to wager that my fel-

05opinionlow editor needed no other validation for his work. After his lunch, we fol-lowed him from the Subhiksha mess to Dhruva. He was in his Safari, while the Director was on foot. Once again, we begged and pled, and he finally consented. It came to us as a surprise, since everything was so last minute and Dr. Kalam was a busy man. We waited for 45 minutes before we were allowed in. We were given only five minutes, and it was to be chaperoned by the Director and Chairman. It

was a surreal feeling. Then Dr. Kalam emerged from his rest and sat down across the table, and talked about his college days, his aristo slide rules and cutting classes for movies, his endeav-ours towards sustainable living, and his vision for IIST’s future.That wide smile, twinkling eye, re-lentless passion and the “Tere-Naam” style haircut before it was cool*, their absence will be felt for a long time by the students of IIST whose lives he so profoundly impacted. And through

the reposts of convocation pictures, books that continue to kindle the fire and quotes that have been internalised as mantras for success, Dr. Kalam con-tinues to live on.

The author can be contacted at prabodhkatti@gmail.com

"The night is dark and full of terrors...but the fire burns them all away."

Responsibly Free byRitu Anil

There comes this moment of inspi-ration that leads you to think about things real deep (tempted to say deep-er than olivine, but a large part of the non-geologically-intellectual audi-ence may not understand it). Weird-ly enough, this chain of thoughts emerged from watching a Harry Pot-ter movie quite recently. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to be precise. At the scene when Sirius Black says ‘The world is not split into good peo-ple and Death Eaters Harry. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us.’ This statement is a delightful sentiment in the real world isn’t it? Nobody is all bad and nobody is all good. There are imperfections and perfections in every crystal. As usual, the feminist bumble bee buzzing in my brain (alliteration alert anybody?) related this to our context. Hostel curfews. The campus is one under construction. There are labor-ers and unaccounted for people liv-ing within campus. The safety of girls have to be considered. And so, they have decided to impose a curfew be-yond 10:30 pm, after which girls are not allowed to stay out of the hostels. As most well-meaning plans go, there were drawbacks and consequences. Consequences of missed opportuni-ties. There are labs open for use in case

of student initiated or managed pro-jects. Girls weren’t permitted to use the same due to the curfew. All dis-cussions academic or not-so-academic were to be made via video conference after 10pm. While star gazing as a hobby was inculcated in many boys, the same could be said for girls only in the part of the sky viewable from the balcony. Special allowances were to be acquired for girls for club activi-ties which brought in a sort of non-chalance in these respects. IIST is a young institute with much to be ex-plored at a cultural, educational and personal level. The activities which should have been nurtured and guided into brilliance faded away due to the hassle of obtaining permissions. Al-most all club activities became male-dominated. There is a popular theory that im-plies that a lack of resistance put up can lead to being suppressed. It may be possible that the status of women in society has been diminished in the past due to the lack of resistance and acceptance from the side of women. We don’t want to repeat this mistake of our ancestors and permit ourselves and our dreams of a better tomorrow be trampled over by a certain apathy exhibited towards the hand dealt to us by history and society, which seems

to hold a carte blanche over our lives . We are capable to decide whether we are safe. We are tough enough to throw a few punches for our safety. We can stand up for ourselves and do NOT need people deciding what is good for us. As a part of ensuring equality in the campus, recently, there has been a cur-few imposed upon the boys as well. Here comes to mind Honest Abe's words, "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong." The solution to the problem is not ob-tained by eliminating the problem. You do not declare “the surgery is a success, the patient is dead.” Apart from all these reasons, do note, that we do have a rigid academic cal-endar. With classes and labs and the assignments and tests, we do not have much time for other activities. Re-stricting a time window for function-ing makes this even more difficult. In a land where we must teach the youth to strive for equality, justice and free-dom, this attitude of restraining and restricting will do more harm than good. But unfortunately, attempts for removal of the curfew were met with opposition by higher ups, who had the following perspective on the matter: "A boy and a girl might work sincere-ly in the labs after hours. But then it

06 opinion

The author can be contacted at ritu.anilkumar@gmail.com

will become 11 o' clock and then 12 o' clock and then 1 and then 2." How are we supposed to respond when such arguments are placed before us? This strongly suggests that the case is not just about safety but about moral standards. We understand your concerns about the unbecoming incidents and to this end, we can only offer a solution. We know you want to keep us safe. We understand that there are circum-stances unbecoming of an educational institution that you want to avoid. But please do understand that locking ei-ther or both genders is NOT a solu-tion to this. This is negatively affecting the institutes in ways unfathomable. Possible solutions would be to de-marcate safe zones which can be used 24X7 consisting of the labs and hostel

premises. ‘The night is dark and full of terror, but the fire burns is all away.’ Put up streetlights! Set up a regular patrolling system of guards. Specify what is allowed and what is not in these hours of darkness and enforce it. Not allowed to go via the shortcut to D2? Okay. We will accept that. Not allowed to use labs without written consent from the faculty member con-cerned? Alright. We’ll do that. Signa-tures before entering academic blocks after hours. We will cooperate. We are mature enough to understand your concerns. We pray that you are to understand ours. It is understandable that you set curfews to enter campus grounds, but within campus, with the patrolling of guards and regular tirade of people, we are capable of walking safe. You might be worried about un-

toward incidences occurring in the campus or the lack of interest in a number of girls to stay out after 11, but the doers must not be restrained by the not interested. The curfew sig-nificantly affects functionality of both boys and girls and its immediate re-moval is the only way to change the institutes’ student policies. So yes, this is a plea. An outcry for the attention of any power wielding official who can help remove such tyrannical laws that restrict the freedom of movement of fully mature adult citizens of this country.

404: Fight for The Coupon, Continues

What started off as a “what if ” sce-nario discussed in the hostel turned out to be reality when the idea of ex-tending the auxillary food counter to providing Kerala food to the B.Tech. students was approved with the sup-port of the Canteen Manager, Vinod Kaimal. The system currently stands as a successful venture with 75 cou-pons available on a daily basis which are completed within a time span of 45 seconds. Yes, you read that right, the booking begins at 21:30:00 and ends at 21:30:45 on an average. There have been reports of many ninjas, who were previously excercis-ing their right to not have a Facebook account, give up and immediately became a part of the system so as to not lose important updates about the coupons. The manner of book-ing is online through the website www.fciist.net which is managed by two third year students and alumni.

This website functioned from March 3, 2015 onward. A new website was launched for the same on 21 August, 2015.It was noticed that about 40% of those who have registered on the website are not Keralites. It is good to know that students have moved over the radioactive appearance of the pink chutney and have started appreciating the delicacies of this place. Currently, the first years are ex-cluded from the system as they are not permitted laptops or WiFi for the booking, which just goes on show how life without laptops in IIST can deny you basic comforts, although including them soon is in the plans. Work is in progress to include the M.Tech and Ph.D students into the booking mechanism as well. A sys-tem of banning members temporar-ily was introduced to ensure a moral responsibility among the student

community to reduce food wastage.Due to the growing appreciation of the indigenous food, talks are in pro-gress to incorporate it into the week-ly schedules. A similar system may be adopted in order to provide vegetar-ian specialties during dinner time to cater to the non-non-vegetarian population provided an efficient sys-tem can be put up which stops the taste-starved crowd here from gob-bling up both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian speciality dishes. Additionally, 25 breakfast coupons are also being issued on alternate Wednesdays when iddiyappam is served. All in all, everything is run-ning smoothly and hopefully we can look forward to better times, more coupons and good food incorporat-ed into the menu. Meanwhile, do un-derstand that food wastage remains a serious issue and is something each one of us can help change.

Online food coupons are a sure step towards sophistication of food availability and variety in IIST. Welcome to the Hotel Keralafornia...

07opinionby

Swetha S.Story of an IIST Neophyte

I walked out of the counselling hall in ISAC, Bangalore, in my hand the admission letter to Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, the one and only space institute of the continent. Life couldn’t be sweeter. I had got admission to a college that made people raise eyebrows in awe and I was going to finally live alone, free and independent. The fact that I was shifting to Trivan-drum didn’t scare me at all. Trivan-drum, the city where mom was born and brought up, where I was born, where my grandparents live, where I have spent almost every summer. Trivandrum was way too familiar. What I didn’t realize was Trivandrum was familiar, but IIST wasn’t. Almost everything about the col-lege came to me as a surprise. The sophisticated infrastructure gave a very comfy feeling the first day. And our rooms did look big in the begin-ning, without half the furniture. Thus, pretty satisfied our parents left us. Then as the night settled, came the “friendly interaction” (as they called it) with the seniors in our hostel. I can’t speak for others, but for me it changed my perspective of the insti-tute. I half expected the institute to be full of nerds or innocent Malayalis, but when I was asked about my view on IIST's “stock” (that’s me trying to be discreet), I knew I had come to the right place. The first week was all about follow-ing the herd, literally. We were being very securely transported from place to place according to the anti-rag-ging rules, but somehow the library officials were completely unaware. So, this only led to us losing some of the weight gained during the sum-mer, thanks to the very long routes. The security eased after two weeks

and we started exploring the insti-tute. All the hype about MUN and Dhanak almost convinced me life at IIST is not going to suck after all. Then enter “AE111-Introduction to Aerospace Engineering”. Yeah, well, life sucks. After the okay first quiz, home sickness hit hard. Muffled cries after Skype chats were inevitable. We had found pleasure in the amazing WiFi and of course taunting the boys with the “no-WiFi in Ardra”. They man-aged taunt us back with the curfew. Yes, the curfew. We had to get back into the hostel by ten. It was such a pain in the rear. I mean, there we are enjoying the star-lit sky and the clock strikes ten, Cinderella has to get back home. Many have since then tried to get the curfew off. Still trying.Well, life had so much to offer. We were away from home, which meant we could do whatever we wanted irrespective of what anybody felt about it. It was our chance to be the person we wanted to be, to build a completely new image if needed. It was a new kind of freedom. Came with lot of responsibilities, and laun-dry of course, but we liked it. Every day was fun, new. You had so many

different people to talk to and get to know, stories from all over the country. New languages, new ways. And the long night philosophical thoughts and go-crazy moments are such a stress buster. Then we had our very first Dhanak, Onam celebrations, Halloween, Ganesh Chaturti, Daandiya night, Diwali, what not. Fun, fun, fun… at least for all the outgoing people. The balancing act was the endsem. But even then we went completely crazy, thanks to the nutcases I hang out with. The strangest of ideas came to us, we started exploring the sup-posedly haunted places of IIST. And when we did manage to get selfies in there and boast about it to the sen-iors, they bummed us out with “been there, done that”. After doing about a dozen will-get-a-memo activities, the exams went by and the first se-mester of college ended. Very happy about our new life in the institute and yearning for homemade food, we headed back home.The holidays were longer than ex-pected, one week of eating, we were left aimless, wanting to go back to the institute again. Most of us atleast.

With the arrival of fresh faces comes nostalgia amongst the seniors for their days of infancy at IIST. Second year B.Tech student Swetha talks about her experience so far.

08 opinionWith a lot of excitement and hope that this semester will leave us at a better place academically, we came back in January. By then, IIST was home. We knew which restrooms in the hostel stank the most, who is the person with food always, the food schedule in the mess, which door to the library we should open because the other one creaked, which securi-ty chechi is the sweetest, and which security female canine. We knew that Thursday dinners were reserved for paratha shop or fried rice, we had explored the coolest places to watch the sky and the lawn became the official hangout spot, which could be converted into a birthday party place, if the need arises. We knew what cheta shop meant, and how to get to the city on our own.We were so much indulged in go-ing out and hanging around, that we somehow lost the academic view. But who cares? We made tons of memo-ries. Thanks to Conscientia, a major hit! And Khana Khazaana! Once we

found that place there seemed like there was no other restaurant in the city. Second sem went away in a rush. It was one thing tumbling into another. We always had something to do, and with laptops in the picture, at least we had something to watch. Movie mara-thons became an actual thing. En-gineering drawing was always com-pleted with music in the background. Washing machines made our job easy, but waiting in line only led to more catfights. Endsems were a do-or-die situation. We had to save our semester. Last chance. It seemed like everyone was in the library. Instead of studying though, most of the time went by in thinking about what to do after the exams. We came up with lots of plans. But unfor-tunately our last exam was Math. Our minds were left numb and hopeless. All kinds of curses were thrown at the people who set the paper. All our plans went in vain due to the disap-pointment. Well, we did go out. But

Kanyakumari shrank down to Khana Khazaana. We had gone into such depression and What Now thoughts that our parents had to remind us we had finished a year of college. Now as I sit completely “vetti” in the 36-hr train ride back home, I think about all the changes in the past year. One tī pìgu year. Its not like there were no bad times but only the good times come to my memory now. Amazing friends, love, Imagine Dragons, Game of Thrones, how to say “chappal”, how to trade papad and sweet, how to im-age search on Google, the difference between gujjia and gujjariya, anger management, self-respect, identity, freedom, a total make-over. And I know I will somehow get through the three years I have left in this place, and something tells me despite all the mo-ments I’d want to shoot myself, it will be one hell of an experience!

The author can be contacted at sswetha5@yahoo.com

Quotable QuotesQuotes that brought a smile :)

1. “This class isn’t expanding because it is held together by gravity and peer pressure.” - A professor going too theoretical (or philosophical?) 2. “If you don’t consider this, he might be a Malayali...so many people are named here Joseph.”- Maths professor pointing out the redundancies in John Baptiste Joseph Fourier's name.

3. “IIST classrooms were built by people who build airports.”- A professor commenting on the sheer amount of steps needed to be taken to become 'one' with the students.

4. “'Chairman' is now mostly ‘chairperson’, ‘mankind' has become ‘humankind’, but ‘manhole’ hasn’t changed.”- Observations by a professor on language and feminism.

5. "Every time the class ends like Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time”. - A professor after the bell rings. We are all in this together.

6. "Is that how magicians do it?”- Sincere question in response to a professor stating that there is a non-zero probability that he will be found on top of the building at the next moment.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and do not necessarily express the opinions and policies of TSR.

09interviewBackstage with the Bansuri GuruThe man, no less than a legend, who charmed IISTians with his witty comebacks as much as he enthralled them with his music. We bring before you a tete-a-tete with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, master musician and conversationalist, as we try to understand what he makes and what makes him.

TSR: Today we see that most of the Indian classical musicians come from families which already have a classical orientation, but it is not so with you.

HPC: So is that good or bad?

TSR: It’s definitely good. That’s what we wanted to ask about, even after so many obstacles in your family, what inspired you to move towards this field?

HPC: Inspiration? People like you are my inspiration. The listeners, the au-dience is my inspiration. For any art-ist, when their work gets praised, they are inspired to play better, do better with their art. So that more people come to watch them, bringing their friends and family as well.

TSR: Sir, but why the flute?

HPC: Flute, well, because it is the simplest, cheapest instrument. Any-body can afford it. It is the God’s in-strument. It doesn’t require much fuss, no tuning, no string attachment, no leather works.

TSR: While inflating a balloon we get tired. How are you able to manage playing the flute?

HPC: When someone loves some-thing with bhakti, for them every-thing is alright. They start liking these things, enjoying it. It becomes a daily affair for them. They don’t feel tired, they keep on doing it. A criminal, a murderer who kills everyday is not af-fected at all by it. While people like us, if they see some wound, exclaim ‘Oh look, my hand is bleeding!’ But a person, for whom thisis a job, enjoys

it. They enjoying killing, they say ‘Oh look, I murdered a hundred people today!’ You will see this everywhere, some people like writing, who write huge novels, numerous novels, they keep on writing. If someone asks us to write that much, we can’t. We’ll be like, ‘Are you mad?’ So if someone loves something, they will do it any-how. Someone likes to do, say, drugs. If they don’t get it anywhere, they’ll try to somehow obtain it anyhow, and indulge themselves not caring about anybody. They might remain lying on roads and wouldn’t care, such people exist too. That which is liked by some-one, doesn’t give them any problems. They don’t care about tomorrow, about what shall happen next. Whether I’ll have difficulty breathing, whether I’ll suffocate. If I love it, then what’s the matter?

TSR: On the topic of books, what is your favourite?HPC: I used to read books a lot, but somewhere along I felt that while books are great guides, they some-times misguide as well. What one

person writes need not be correct for all. (For example) A person might catch cold going into a cold country, another might catch cold even in a warm country. If you read a book and then depend upon it, maybe feel that the writer is a doctor so must be cor-rect if they ask you to do this or not do that…well everyone has a different nature, different face, different height, different weight. If we tell a tree that the doctor has asked us not to water you because you are becoming too fat, then what will happen to that tree? Tell me. It will die! It will dry up. So you either depend on books, or see what suits your nature, if you like books, or music, or sports, or you like meeting people, right? Or maybe dif-ferent languages, we have numerous different languages in India.

TSR: Sir, you have visited different countries. How do people of different countries feel about Indian music?

HPC: Everybody likes music. Ani-mals like it, even plants like it. I think this question is wrong. Now if you ask

10 interview how people feel about food, everybody likes food, good food. Or a garden, eve-rybody likes a garden. Who wouldn’t like flowers? They who don’t like these are not human, they are stone. Right? Similarly everybody likes music. Be it animals or even plants.

TSR: You have a good grasp of bhajan music as well as Western music. How are you so proficient in different kinds of music? Is there some inherent link that binds these, which you have a grasp of?

HPC: Music, wherever it is from, is good. Whether it's Western, Japanese, Russian, it's good everywhere. San-geet means Brahmanaad. Everybody likes air. It's natural. Everybody likes nature. Those who don't like music in their life, don't have a life. Music is music, wherever it is from. Like lan-guage, different languages exist, but those still remain languages.

TSR: Apart from music, which other subjects interest you?

HPC: Food! I like food, it's good.(laughter all around) I don't have to wear a saree now, do I? Have to wear a simple kurta.. (laughter continues)

TSR: What are your hobbies, we mean?

HPC: Food. What hobbies do I re-quire apart from food? How will I live if there's not good food, you tell me. (more laughter)

HELPFUL ONLOOKER: Have you ever seen Lord Krishna? I think not? See, here he is. Panditji is the very incarnation of Lord Krishna..

TSR: We'd like to know more about your experiences at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory, how do you make the classical music adaptable for students of such varied nationalities?

HPC: Those students are musical

too, the matter that remains is that of language, the language that is spo-ken here. If they like our music, they are also able to learn our language. Take my example, after my marriage I learnt the language my wife spoke. How do I convince her that I love her? So I learnt her language. Similarly, the people who love our music learn our language. And learning the language

increases their knowledge. And wher-ever they go in India, be it the North or the South, they learn. And learn faster too, once they understand the language. People come to the Con-servatory from all over the world, Ja-pan, China, America, Russia, Thailand, they come from all over. Everybody is interested in different departments, it's a government university, has about 5500 students. When other students and faculty come to my class to see students studying, they just stand there and look at us in wonder, there's no paper..like other classes, which have paper, they have books, they read it like newspaper. But we have no pa-per, people play with their eyes closed, others stare at us in wonder. And it makes them want to participate, want to learn this. So that they connect to it the way they connect to God, that is Rotterdam.

TSR: Did you have an idol, when you started learning?

HPC: Definitely, everybody has an idol. My parents, my teacher. When-ever I did something I would take their blessings, close my eyes..take their permission, remember them.

TSR: We've heard about you that you used to be a right-handed player, then you switched over to your left hand..

HPC: Sometimes your teacher, pro-ficient in a particular subject, wishes to test you, to see whether you are really serious and dedicated or not. So if they ask you, can you do this, either you can ignore or you say, yes I have to try. And then try to do it, whatever it takes. Ekalavya cut off his thumb, why? Because guru said so. So they test this too, how obedient you are. So I went to my teacher and they wanted to test me, to see if I could do it. But it's difficult, very difficult. A man walks straight ahead, and if you ask him to walk in reverse..(it is as if ) he sees in some direction and walks in the other..

TSR: Who is your favourite Western musician?

HPC: All of them.

TSR: But if you had to take a name..

HPC: Why you do this? If you ask me my favourite and I say that you are, the others will feel bad.

TSR: It's not like that..

HPC: If I know a musician, I like him, that is why I know him..

TSR: But you've worked with a lot of musicians

HPC: And I liked them all

TSR: You don't have to be so diplo-matic all the time sir.

HPC: No, no it's true. If you go buy a handkerchief, and see a lot of crowd in the shop, you will still go there be-cause it is your shop. If there is one with many decorations and lightings, you'll still go where you always have. There's no diplomacy here. You're at-

11interviewtached personally to it, nothing to it really.

TSR: We wanted to know more about your Vrindavan Gurukul, the guru-shishya parampara model that you have there, what is it exactly?

HPC: When you think about mu-sic, or any kind of subject, to develop it, and if you want to go to gurukuls there are no gurukuls nowadays. And the gurukuls which are there charge fees like colleges. The old system re-quired you to surrender yourself, and then guru used to adopt you, as a fam-ily member, as a child, and then all the time you are there with the guru. Just following him, just watching him, what is he doing, what is he talking, what is he practicing, how he is teach-ing, how he's doing exercise and every-thing. You have to learn many things, not only just music, but also how he talks about music, how he writes about music, how he composes the music, you have to watch everything, that's why you have to be there. But there is no fixed time, you can be there all the

time, or you can be there 10 years, and no charges.

TSR: And gurudakshina....?

HPC: Nothing, just work for the guru, you take care of them like you take care of your mother. Do you pay them money? Mummy one roti, one chapati, I'll give you two rupees? Can you think about it? Or can your mother think about it? And if she does like this, will it be a relation? It's the same way with the guru, you'll become a part of the guru's family, there are no charges in-volved, and the guru will see to it that you are eating properly, and you will take care too, much much better than your parents...so I just wanted to try to start this gurukul activity. I started it in Bombay, 15-16 years back, and now I have a new gurukul in Orissa, from here I am flying tomorrow to Bhu-baneshwar, it's very different actually, you must go and see.

TSR: Sir are visitors allowed?

HPC: Definitely. It is not a 5-star ho-

tel, that security will check what you are carrying. Door is always open.TSR: How successful has the whole system been?

HPC: The best system. You feel at home. You don't become formal, you know, filling up the form, waiting in line, paying fees, finding all timings, like what time we have to go for prayer and this class..like, you know, at home, the way you are at home. Waking up in the morning, taking your parents' blessings, worshipping, same thing. You have to watch, you have to see everybody. You would love that, the way that system is made. And every-body eats at home, they cook together, you should learn how to cook. What we need to live, what we need to be healthy, why should we be dependent on others for it? Should make it our-selves, do it ourselves. Then you know the value of food, the value of every-thing.

TSR: Thank you so much sir.

"Highly Non-Trivial"- Ex-Secretary, QC of IIST

Quiz Club of IISTFriday evenings around

5.15.Bring a pen and a friend.

12 farewell

What is depression?Depression is a word used in everyday language to describe a number of feel-ings, including sadness, frustration, disappointment and sometimes leth-argy. Most of us feel sad, hopeless or fed up at some time in our lives, but these feelings are usually short lived and manageable. Sometimes these feelings can become severe and begin to impact on a person's ability to func-tion, making life feel like a struggle.In clinical practice the term “Depres-sion” or “Major Depression” differs from these everyday “down” periods in three main waysMajor depression is more intenseIt lasts longer (2 weeks or more) It significantly interferes with effective day-to-day functioning.

What are some of the signs and symp-toms of depression?Not everyone who is depressed expe-riences every symptom. Some people experience a few symptoms, some many. Severity of symptoms varies with individuals and also varies over time.

Symptoms include:• Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day.• Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in activities most of the day, nearly every day.• Changes in appetite that result in weight losses or gains unrelated to di-eting.• Changes in sleeping patterns, in-somnia, early-morning awakening or oversleeping.• Loss of energy or increased fatigue.• Restlessness or irritability.• Feelings of anxiety.• Feelings of worthlessness, helpless-ness, or hopelessness.• Inappropriate guilt.

• Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions.• Thoughts of death or attempts at sui-cide.In order for depression to be diag-nosed, the person must experience these symptoms every day, for at least 2 weeks.Understanding Your DepressionNobody knows for sure what causes depression. But we do know that you don't have to have a "reason" to feel depressed. A combination of all sorts of things -- like stress, genetics, hor-monal changes, emotional setbacks or tragedies, and even your gender -- can all work together to trigger depression. A lot of people have a hard time ac-cepting that they may have depression. They feel ashamed. But depression is not something you brought on your-self. It's a disease just like any other disease like heart disease or diabe-tes. With help, you can beat depres-sion The sooner you start treatment, the sooner you'll be able to manage the feelings of sadness or fatigue that seem overwhelming right now.If depression is not addressed, it may also increase the risk of suicide. By seeking help now, you can prevent things from getting worse and instead, obtain treatment that helps you get back to positive and healthy daily liv-ing.How to Help Yourself if You Are De-pressedDepression can have a huge effect on your life. Without treatment, people may struggle for months or years feel-ing down or outright miserable. If you are unsure about whether you may be depressed, it's best to be cautious and seek outside assessment and help. If left untreated, depression can last for years and the more severe it is, the more difficult it can be to successfully treat.

Talk to a mental health professional or visit a doctor for a medical evaluation. They will be able to review the signs and symptoms of depression with you, as well as rule out a possible physi-cal cause for your symptoms. Certain medications, and some medical con-ditions such as thyroid disorder, can cause similar symptoms as depression. A doctor can rule out these possibili-ties by conducting a physical exami-nation, interview and lab tests. If the doctor eliminates a medical condition as a cause, he or she can implement treatment or refer you to a mental health professional.

Depressive disorders make one feel exhausted, worthless, helpless, and hopeless. It is important to realize that these negative views are part of the depression and typically do not ac-curately reflect the situation. Negative thinking fades as treatment begins to take effect.

What is important is to know that de-pression is treatable and carries a good prognosis. You are not alone, as de-pression is a common and very treat-able problem.

Helping Someone Who Is Depressed

The most important thing to remem-ber as you help someone with depres-sion is to remain supportive. Blaming the depression on the person, trying to "make them snap out of it" and other confrontational techniques can back-fire and make the situation worse.

It is important first to let the person know that you are concerned about her or him, want to help and are will-ing to be a resource. The way that you help may range from just listening, to recommending that the person con-

It is common that with the tests, assignments, sheer load of coursework and life we face an inevitable sense of paranoia or unhappiness. This article talks about identifying and overcoming depression.

Beating the Blues byDr. Neelima

13farewelltact a mental health care provider for assistance.

Why is depression more prevalent in women than in men?

Depression is twice as common among women as among men. About 20 per-cent of women will experience at least one episode of depression across their lifetime. Biological, life cycle, hormo-nal and psychosocial factors unique to women may be linked to women’s higher depression rates. Researchers have shown, for example, that hor-mones affect brain chemistry, impact-ing emotions and mood.

Not only are women more prone to depression than men, but also the causes of female depression and even the pattern of symptoms are often dif-ferent. Many factors contribute to the unique picture of depression in wom-en—from reproductive hormones to social pressures to the female response to stress.

Premenstrual problems – hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cy-cle can cause the familiar symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), such as bloating, irritability, fatigue, and emotional reactivity. For many women, PMS is mild. But for some women, symptoms are severe enough to disrupt their lives and a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is made.

PMDD can be effectively tackled by Exercise (regular aerobic exercise) Dietary modifications (cutting back on salt, fatty foods, caffeine, and eat-ing plenty of complex carbohydrates)Nutritional supplements (vitamin B-6, calcium, magnesium, vitamin E).Stress reduction – (relaxation tech-niques, yoga and meditation)

Where can I get support? Although family and friends can be supportive, it is sometimes difficult to discuss personal issues with them. You may be concerned about worry-ing them, or think that they will not

understand. You may want to consider seeking support from someone who is not directly involved in your life. Talk-ing to someone who is not involved in your life can help you recognize patterns of behaviour and find your strengths. It can be helpful to talk to a professional who can be objective about your situation and won't judge or tell you what to do.

How can counseling help?Counseling can help you understand the roots of your depression and make sense of how you are feeling. Your counselor will help you identify what you would like to change, and support you in taking steps to help yourself feel better.

The above article is by Dr. Neelima, the counsellor whose contract at IIST has ended. We have a new counselling service available at IIST currently called Sameeksha. They can be con-tacted at sameeksha@iist.ac.in.

byShreya MandalSudheendra R.

The Pop Culture ColumnThe theme of this issue’s review column is dystopia, as our editors take a look at futuristic civilisations through two different media.

Ergo Proxy (Anime)

Number of Episodes: 23Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller, CyberpunkSynopsis: The year is 7207 where the world has been ravaged by a cata-clysm five thousand years ago, there exists a refuge on this ruined Earth — a Domed City named “Romdeau,” where humans and their android serv-ants, the AutoReivs, live in a state of controlled peace. This constructed par-adise that houses its wealthy citizens and unfortunate immigrants is ruled by a mayor and his governing council.

They demand that complete order and servitude is kept within Romdeau to keep chaos at its gates at bay. However, this utopian landscape is soon shat-tered by a series of horrifying murders by AutoReivs infected by the Cogito virus. Re-L Mayer, a female inspector from the Citizen Information Bureau, along with her AutoReiv partner Iggy, are tasked to solve the murder cases. When Re-L and Iggy investigate the latest crime scene, Re-L is almost at-tacked by a mysterious creature, nei-ther human nor AutoReiv, that is seemingly drawn to her. She begins to learn the truth about the mysteri-

ous creatures that are simply referred to as “Proxies” and what they truly are. (Source: Wikia)Final Score: 8.71 (8.1 on IMdb)Review: "From the perspective of oth-ers I am part of the world, but when I observe the world from my perspective I am nowhere to be found. To observe is to create perspective. I can never cease to be the point of origin from my perspective. I observe that which is not myself. This is the first principle to find."Ergo Proxy is a difficult anime to re-view in the sense that the less you know about it, the more enjoyable (or memorable, at least) it is to watch.

14 reviewKeeping this in mind, I’ll try to be as informatively vague as possible.The first thing that catches one’s eye about Ergo Proxy is the artwork and animation, which is thus the first thing I will address here. It is, as Raul Creed would put it, beautiful for its time. Surprisingly detailed consider-ing the rather bleak atmosphere it is trying to portray, i relies heavily on the scenery and is vividly effective in set-ting up a dystopian, techno-goth feel, with dark hues and artificial lighting.The action scenes, though few, are bril-liant, with the movements seamlessly flowing with fluid grace. The charac-ter designs go well with the storyline as well: Re-L’s distinct hairstyle and makeup, Vincent’s generic slicked-back hair that slowly transforms into something more free as the story goes on, the AutoReivs whose blank faces are at odds with the human emotions they portray once “awakened”, and the otherworldly, Milton-esque Proxies. But we cannot have good things with-out bad, and as ode-worthy as the gen-eral animation may be, the characters spend a horrible amount of time look-ing awkward and wonky over sharp and pretty, especially when they are in the background.Now, coming to the most important thing, the plot. The plot is relatively simple: to uncover the mystery of the Proxies and to recover Vincent’s lost memories. A large part of the story consists of our protagonists, Vincent, an employee of the Romdeau govern-ment in search of his memories, Re-L and Pino, travelling outside the dome (which is equivalent to treason) and the various people and places they meet on the way. The episodes do not really blend into one another to work towards a common resolution (like, say, Shingeki no Kyojin), because above everything else, Ergo Proxy is meant to make you think rather than than hand you solutions, and so this disjointed storytelling actually works for the anime.Which brings us to the themes ex-plored here. It has a very Cartesian

feel to it, with the title most likely be-ing taken from Descartes’ famous say-ing, cogito ergo sum, ie, I think, there-fore I am - though when asked, the chief writer, Dai Sato simply said that the name Ergo Proxy was chosen be-cause it sounded cool. It also explores explores one’s raison d’etre - whether it is your family, your lover, your mas-ter or even your city - and how one is inexplicably bound to it. The characters are not really likeable as such (except for Pino, who is a de-lightful and much-needed nugget of childish enthusiasm and sweet cu-riosity), but they are very varied and I think are a perfect example of how emotionally stunted people can be-come when growing up in an atmos-phere like Romdeau. You can expect quite a bit of character development in the process. I did not like Re-L and her naive rebelliousness paired with her obnoxious upper-class attitude, which was overdone to the extent that it felt shallow and forced. Reviewing the conclusion in detail would lead me to reveal too many spoilers. It is not Death Note or Evan-gelion levels of satisfaction, but it is my personal second favorite part after the animation – mainly because I was expecting to be disappointed.Commenting upon the voice acting is difficult because Ergo Proxy does not have (and neither does it need) the wide range of emotions that anime like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brother-hood requires. It is nothing phenom-enal, but at the same time, I did not find anything sloppy with it.The sound-scape, much like the ani-mation, creates an ambiance of mono-chrome suspense, which works won-ders for the feel of the whole anime - and Ergo Proxy is something that relies very heavily on its ambience. The music of the OP did not particularly appeal to me, but it went well with the animation, which I quite liked. The ED was minimalistic, with sharp, clean credits rolling against a purple background reminiscent of a laptop screen. Oh, and it’s set to Radio-

head’s Paranoid Android, which has always been a personal favourite. Final VerdictWhile Ergo Proxy takes itself a lit-tle too seriously at times with its very heavy symbolism, it is an atmospheric cyberpunk anime which is a pretty good watch and a welcome change from all the fanservice-heavy (read: ecchi) stuff that’s so popular these days. Should you watch it? Yes, if phi-losophy and the aforementioned gen-res are your piece of cake. To enjoy it the most, I suggest you go take a look without any prior expectations, and not to miss a single episode. Even the one that looks like a filler, but is actu-ally important.

Ratings:Art and Animation: 9/10Music: 8.5/10Voice Acting: 8.5/10Story: 8.5/10Characters: 8.5/10Coherence: 8/10Enjoyment: 10/10

The author can be contacted atandhlms@gmail.com

15review1984 (Novel)Setting:WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. These words form the slogan of the party – Ingsoc (Eng-lish Socialism), which rules over the super-state of Oceania. Welcome to 1984, where you see a dystopian world through the eyes of English novelist, journalist and critic Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell. 1984 is a dystopian novel set in the year of 1984, as seen from the year 1949. Or-well’s work seems to have been inspired from the state of the world in his own time, where the world was torn apart in wars,lives were lost to the scientific “progress” of atomic bombs, and ruth-less dictatorial regimes were popping up everywhere. With this background in mind, in the novel in year 1984, the whole world has fallen to totalitarian-ism and tyranny. The world is no long-er divided into petty states. Instead there are three super-states, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, which together control the whole world.Each con-trols roughly one-thirds of the world in area as well as population. They are in a state of perpetual war over dis-puted territories all over the world, necessitating the need for militaristic regimes.Plot:1984 follows the story of a certain Winston Smith, an outer party mem-ber of Ingsoc who lives in London, a city in the province of Airstrip One (erstwhile Britain) in the state of Oceania. Everyone and everything is under surveillance, and the party is in control of everything. Party mem-bers, especially, are subject to close scrutiny. With telescreens (televisions with cameras) installed in all public spaces, as well as inside houses of the party members, no external display of dissent towards the party is possible without consequences. Telescreens keep running all time of the day, mon-itoring the people and feeding them with figures of spectacular growth and prosperity, or war triumphs, often

praising Big Brother for the achieve-ments. Big Brother is the head of the party and leader of the nation, whose watchful eyes are always upon you. In-deed, the caption BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU under Big Brother’s various posters across town is by no means an exaggeration. It is a fact.While others seem to genuinely love Big Brother and the party, and hold them in reverence, Winston suspects there is something going wrong. He, unlike others, sees the miserable world and knows that it is a doing of the party, and slowly comes to realise that he simply hates Big Brother. He knows that once this thought had en-tered his mind, there was no escape. He had committed a thoughtcrime and the Thought Police will eventually get him, and he will be vapourised, unpersoned and erased. Nevertheless, he carries on his little rebellion inside his mind where he thinks he is safe. As the days go by, his rebellion grows inside him. Is there no one else who shares his thoughts? Is he capable, even if in the smallest way possible, to help in overthrowing the regime? Or is he up against an omnipresent ene-my who watches his every step? What lies in Winston’s, and in Oceania's fate? What truly lies beyond the grand scheme of things? What is the party truly after? What is the truth? Finally, what is truth?Verdict:I personally found 1984 to be epic. It is not surprising that, even after more than six decades of being published, one can still relate to it. The detail in the story, the plot, character develop-ment, story setting, tone and pace of the events, all fit in excellently. Orwell has succeeded so well in describing this dystopian world of his that, it al-most qualifies to be classified into hor-ror genre, for the many nightmares it has induced among its readers (yours truly being one of them). 1984 forces its readers to think about the world, the importance of free thinking and free will, and the privileges of being

born with basic rights. It also becomes philosophical at some points, ponder-ing over the spirit of mankind, protec-tion of individuality and the inherent human nature of struggling and sur-viving. To be honest, I found the true nature of Newspeak (official language of Oceania) and the concept of dou-blethink to be pretty deep, which has held me in awe even after weeks of finishing the book.Nineteen Eighty-Four has also lived through pop culture, with slogans like 2 + 2 = 5, and the iconic persona of Big Brother with his omnipresent surveillance, capturing everyone's im-aginations. It is a masterpiece which makes you think for a while.I highly recommend it for everyone mature enough to understand and appreciate its depth. If you enjoyed reading 1984 (or plan to ), I suggest you also (first) read Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945).Ratings:Recommendation: 10/10Book: 9.5/10

The author can be contacted atsudheendra.genius@gmail.com

16 opinion

We, the batch of 2015, having sol-emnly entered the gates of IIST with dreams of reaching the zenith of space research and elevating the status of In-dia in the field of space. Hah! No we’re not. We are just another batch of ex-IIT aspirants, who seem to magically have an interest in Rocket Science. (Yes! Now nobody can tell us that it’s not Rocket Science! Huh!) The closest 99% of us have gotten to any aircraft is crafting paper gliders. Anyways, we entered this institute on August 1st, 2015 to serve a four to five years sentence for all our academ-ic achievements. The march through the campus was more glorious than any Independence day march which attracted giggles and stares from on-lookers. Yet we held our heads high.Two counselling and interactive ses-sions later we found that nothing in IIST worked without forms. Book grant forms. library membership forms, hostel forms, leave forms. Gah! It almost makes you go, "Man! I am not leaving this place till the end of the semester". It was wonderful meeting and making new friends with people from diverse backgrounds. Representation from 22 different states and union territories. Guess we have our own little India here at IIST.Just as we were pondering upon the reason for being escorted everywhere, we found that it wasn't because of them being concerned about us get-ting lost somewhere in this huge 50 acre campus. It was to keep us away from the seniors who we thought would be unfriendly, except they were warmer than expected who gave us hope that we could survive in IIST

longer than we thought we could. A week into the lectures, professors were trying to remember names and get us out from the "school" method of learning. Good luck to them. On the other hand we were just trying to fix our drastically altered circadian rhythm by extending our naps a little in particularly not-so-interesting parts of the lecture (Well, "little" is a subjec-tive term in this context). On a more serious note, no Wi-Fi is no joke. It’s difficult to keep our san-ity intact without laptops and what's worse, no Wi-Fi. Never thought we would spend a fortune on mobile data over food and other things essential for human survival. We have made sacrifices, all right! Calling off Duties, quit Assassinating and racing Aston Martins. Only true gamers can get the feels. The Cafeteria in the campus has to be awarded for its impeccable hygiene and a varied menu. Thanks to the milkshakes and cold coffees that keep us alive and serve as a welcome change from the otherwise delicious and nu-tritious mess food. Weekends were particularly eventful. For one, we felt like caged animals be-ing let out in the wild. Too bad Kerala isn't the wild type (if you know what I mean). KFC. Check. Dominos. Check. Big Bazaar. Check. Disappointed Chaat lovers. Check. Gloomy cof-fee addicts. Check. Despite the blood suckers and the 23 hairpin bends to Ponmudi, one realises that it’s the best place to whisk away every last one of your romantic conquests (My condo-lences to the guys over the high male to female ratio). Just when we were getting used to life

at IIST, came the dreaded Quiz. Till then, those of us who thought "What could possibly go wrong in Aero? It’s just a bunch of Helium filled bal-loons and Newton's laws." were in for a shocker when we saw the quiz pa-per. That <insert age appropriate word here> balloon could ruin people's peace all right. We are thanking our stars that Quizzes II and III still held some hope for us. And these hopes are all we can hang on to. We don't know what this place has in store for us but we do know that like every other batch of IIST we can make something of this place just unique to us. Maybe those paper gliders play a larger part in our life at IIST than we think it does. We just have to wait and watch.

byKiran JayasuryaSanjutha Indrajit

A Fish Eye View of IISTThe catch of the season has arrived. We see the fresh produce out of the JEE Ocean, swarming the campus like fish out of water, gulping the IIST life, assimilating the intricacies of this place they will call home for four years.

The authors can be contacted atbeingkmj@gmail.comsanjuthaindrajit97@gmail.com

Drishtikon is the annual maga-zine of IIST with contributions from both faculty and students.

Send submissions todrishtikon.iist@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and do not neces-sarily express the opinions and policies of TSR.