Transient Reflections-Part 2

In Mathematics, every set contains multiple subsets each of which reserves the right to claim exclusivity in its own way. Similarly, certain places don’t just remain places, they become landmarks, capturing the deepest essence of various elements within them.

Enter Jadavpur University through gate number three and on the immediate left you have a stretch of greenery the natural beauty of which contrasts nicely with the oversized red and white building just beside. Only a sweet little pond separates the two.

Prima facie, there is nothing conspicuous about this innocent stretch of green right beside our classroom hall. Forlorn benches are surrounded by dense bushes that dot the sides. As the day progresses, the ‘Green Zone’ as we lovingly call it, takes on a special role. Legend has that this is one of those places where people, who are struck by Cupid’s fabled arrow, flock. The tall trees, the dense bushes and the ever-so-sweet pond combine to provide a paradise where budding young men and women embark on their romantic ventures, both adventures and misadventures. Mother Nature serves to extract their worries onto herself so that her children may graduate in the field of romance. Add some chirping of birds to the idyllic setting, the spectre of soft sunlight pouring down on the cover of green, the clasping of hands and the utterance of the three magic words, and you will have successfully scripted the beginning of yet another Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. While the building on one side of the pond establishes the professional lives of the students of Jadavpur University, the beauty on the other side of it takes care of their personal lives.

The Green Zone is not alone in its mission to unite human souls and in fact has a significant number of colleagues. Many a Raj-Simran love story has commenced within campus and went on to last a lifetime. Many others may not have lasted the setting of the Sun. Cupid has had a symbiotic relation with us. Romance is an inherent part of Jadavpur University. It always has been.

Perhaps, the only place which can throw down the gauntlet to Green Zone, in terms of appeal to couples and would-be couples is the famous ‘jheel paar’.

Stories abound about this place. During working hours, the place is utilized by lovers and friends alike for a quick chat. It is also the place where the Dunhills and the Camels absolve themselves of gender bias. Frequented though it might be during day, the dying light and subsequent nightfall allows it to come out of its cocoon. Silhouetted figures roam here even after dusk. Curious voyeurs peek in while passing by. We have seen boys and girls sitting with hands clasped intimately. We have witnessed women sleeping on the laps of their partners. We have seen love. The hybridisation of romance with the element of unknown lends an eerie romanticism to the jheel paar of night. The stale waters of a still jheel, overgrown with thick weeds which might have entangled many unmindful swimmers in the past, have borne silent witness to countless fresh blossoms of love across ages . The place is in many ways a pointer to the representative lakes of South Kolkata all of which are breeding grounds for love.

What about those who are looking for love, but are yet to be struck by the arrow of Cupid? Do they not deserve a separate space? Or those, who perhaps, never mustered the courage to propose their ‘yours truly’? Jadavpur University, with years of experience, has reserved two special places for them. Milon da’s canteen is to Arts as the staff canteen is to Engineering. The staff canteen, overlooking the union room, is always buzzing with activity, which peaks in the afternoon, during our recess. The place is thronged by various kinds of people, from wannabe Romeos on the hunt for their perfect match, to genuinely hungry people gobbling an egg roll or dipping delicious momos into the mouth-watering and tongue-wavering chutni accompanying them. Many, holding a steel plate on one hand and a half eaten kachuri, folded with aloor-dam on another, ogle to and fro, with flirtatious eyeballs seeking, often in vain, to spot their senorita. Those who are recovering from a recent separation also come, perhaps to bury their memories and drown their sorrow in the fumes of hot coffee or cola, and embark on yet another romantic adventure.

There is another category, the mechanical engineers, who roam aimlessly in the places mentioned, often with a bleeding heart, especially upon seeing couples apparently smitten in love, the reason being an overtly skewed gender ratio in most of the mechanical batches.  To put it simply, they don’t have any girls in their batch. Though it is true that there is an acute shortage of the other gender within the ‘testosterone-charged, oestrogen starved’ campus, nowhere is the situation as dire as the Mechanical Engineering department. Staff canteen, a common meeting ground for all faculties, often gives them a shot at redemption. But, with too many courters and too few girls to court, I don’t think they, apart from the odd guy who almost always manages to sweep girls off their feet, stand much of a chance.

The Curious Case of Gate Number 4

In many ways, Gate Number 4 and Milan Da’s Canteen situated a few blocks away, is the Mount Abu of Jadavpur University. Just as one feels completely cut-off from the murderous desert temperatures of Rajasthan while visiting Mt. Abu in the summer months, similarly a steady walk from Gate Number 1 to Gate Number 4 brings about a distinct transformation in multiple ways. From round-necked tees you come to pyjama-panjabi, from well-combed hair you reach a live beauty parlour. The Arts faculty canteen would be better renamed ‘Smoke Canteen’ such is the rate of cigarette consumption here. You can barely resist the urge to cough incessantly. It is in this area of the campus that you get to witness all the visuals that you do not expect to witness. But it is probably this very place which has resulted in the innumerable Engineering Boy weds Arts Girl for which our dear University is famous. In many ways, the mystery surrounding Gate Number 4 remains unsolved. It will, perhaps, continue to remain so.

In early October, barely after a month I had joined Jadavpur University as a first year ETCE student, one of my new classmates sent me an app request on Facebook. It was of Crushbits, an online app where they entice you with readymade love percentages and you just have to enter names of three people you are fond of. If you fall into the trap, the requester gains knowledge about your ‘crushes’. So this friend of mine requested me to use this app, his chat box shouting out innocence but I politely turned down his offer explaining to him that someone else had sent me the same request four years back and attempts to trick me would definitely meet failure. This small piece of conversation holds significance. Most who come here are almost invariably, geeky nerds, having spent the last two (or three) years solving ‘intricate’ PCM problems (like those which used to have two Albino monkeys climbing four massless, frictionless pulleys without falling down even once) instead of harbouring romantic endeavours. But the brisk transformation of many upon entry into college is something quite outstanding. Now we know that love, and especially unrequited love, can do wonders to nerds.

A story springs to mind. Theirs was a simple love story. Neither was it a Chetan Bhagat flopmaster  blockbuster nor was it as intense as a Vikram Sarabhai-Kamla Chowdhry affair that would give rise to a new institute. An aspiring Mathematician and a future Professor in English joined the University in the same academic year. But their common link was not JU. They had played a common sport for a decade before their entrance into the University. The girl had possessed a liking towards the boy since 2005. Their relationship officially commenced in 2013. Their relationship officially ended in 2014. In this one year, they had even planned how to name their kids. Even as we thought that they were destined to undertake the seven-circle ritual together, everything came to an abrupt halt on New Year eve when the girl’s mother came to know about the relationship and forced her daughter to break all forms of contact with her Prince Charming. The girl played the obedient daughter, swearing on the boy that she had never loved him. We know for a fact that the love is still alive and hope it resurfaces some day, somewhere even if in a completely different context. 

Love can do wonders.

(Jointly written by Soumik Ghosh and Chandrashis Mazumdar, 1^st year ETCE students of Jadavpur University)

Transient Reflections--Part 1

I walk my way past the gates everyday amid the cacophony of the pavement, past a road streaked with mud. Everything here has a tale of its own. Trees dot the landscape, the view interspersed with graffiti having a range of limericks, blending everything from Fyataru to Kabi Sukanto.

There are occasional passages to dimly-lit large hallways, leading to departments of the arts faculty, a mythical place where Chaucer and Chandidas live in harmony. A crowd of students, bubbling over with discussions, many sporting trendy wears while some dressed in the traditional ‘bhodrolok’ dress of punjabi and pajama, presumably belonging to the arts section, make their way past me.

A little way ahead of the famous gate number four, and the air is heavy with the smell of soggy grass of Green Zone. The forlorn benches, bearing witness to countless tales of lifetime romances, would-be romances and failed romances, many as intense as a Shakespearean love story, blur out in the morning mist. Gandhi Bhavan stands like a sphinx, an ever alert sentinel.

Cover some more distance, and bordered on one side by the clanks of machines in Blue Earth, a vast expanse of pristine green greets, soon to be deflowered by the spirit of exuberant youth who will either hit a leather ball with a willow or kick a football with enthusiasm and passion.

Jadavpur University has just woken up. It is stretching its limbs.

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Event Name: Open Counselling for Admission to Vacant Seats in Engineering Discipline

Date: 01 September 2014

Current Status: CSE in IIEST Shibpur

Wanted Status: ETCE in JU (as a safety measure -àwill be elaborated in a later post)

Status of Wanted Status: Unknown

Time:  12 Noon

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Time: 1:25 pm

Status of Wanted Status: Successful

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Date: 02 September 2014

Time: 11 am

Location: TEQIP building Room 101

Sample Conversation with a classmate I have never met before

Soumik Ghosh (my co-author): Take the notes. You have missed quite a few classes. People here are friendly. You will feel at home. Welcome to JU J

Me: Thank you, thanks a lot. J

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Net result: JU ETCE student, 1^st year, 1^st Semester, Batch of 2014-18

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The best thing about this place is that there is never a dearth of stories to tell. The classroom is luridly well-lit and modern for a place generally marked starkly by damp corridors and sooty, darkened rooms taken straight out of the 80s. The blackboard, more often than not, assumes the behaviour of a static variable. Meaning, as I walk past the door early in the morning, the board fixates a cold gaze, residues of the previous day, from quantum mechanical equations to multi variable calculus, staring from the interstices of an otherwise hastily cleaned surface.

Punctuality is not the norm here and probably never has been. Yes, occasionally there are full day classes which turn us into tired sleepyheads by the time we reach home, but more often than not, timings are malleable and class schedules fluid. Jadavpur University is somewhat like the old heritage buildings of Old Goa. New, yet Old. Old, yet New. Corridors in the department building retain the potential to act as shooting spots for horror movies, and as such, walking through the unusually inclined passage instills a sense of fear, a coldness which is there to stay. It has been like this all along.

Time rolls, and in comes a figure, clad in a mundane, crumpled saree in most days, with an oblivious, detached gaze fixed at eternity, perhaps as ideal a person as can be to be teaching us the microcosm of all things quantum and its broader implications for semiconductors. In the beginning, Physical Electronics classes caused more pain than those Physical Education classes in primary school. But, as time passed, we accepted the subject and we are sure that after a prolonged love-hate relationship and countless unhappy hours spent with the notes open and an unforgiving Fermi Level sentencing us to dangerous black holes filled with deadly beasts by the name of electrons, many fell in love with the subject. We did anyway, to a great extent.

Mathematics, as always, had some interesting characters, as quirky as the subject itself. One, who spent two hours every week explaining to us the intricacies surrounding calculus but being the Professor Calculus we are, we interpreted those as case studies in adoxography. The other was mercurial and restless, with illegibly fast writing skills that made for many a good laugh. He, apparently, did research on black holes and time travel, could finish teaching gigantic chapters within minutes (time dilation?), and pumped a nauseatingly contagious energy into the class. Two characters, representing two different shades of mathematical thought.

Computer programming classes were hated by many, and they had their reasons. We loved them though. None of the other subjects were taught with such magnitude of sincerity. The degree of sophistication and planning which accompanied each lecture was breathtakingly refreshing, though, ultimately, with an acute paucity of time, not everything worked according to the plan. But, despite the lectures often turning out to be mass snore-fests, the Professor was a wonderful person. In many ways, he resembled a resurgent Jadavpur, one which is planning for a future free of the past shackles. It is only fitting that the last class, before the maelstrom, on the 16^th of September was taken by him.

Many other characters come to mind, from the Physics professor whose ‘dengue’ got cured in a day to a grumpy, pot-bellied sociology teacher with whom we had a bittersweet relation. Each tale is unique in its own way, a single tile in one infinite mosaic which was the first semester. A time of new journeys, friendships and discoveries. A time of a clean slate and a new beginning for all.

(Jointly written by Soumik Ghosh and Chandrashis Mazumdar, 1^st year ETCE students of Jadavpur University)

ETCE and CSE: A Binary Comparison

This is our first post on this blog and we start with a very interesting topic, in that, it deals with a common problem which is increasingly causing a dilemma in the minds of top WBJEE rankers every year. Which stream to choose? Computer Science and Engineering (popularly known as CSE) or Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering (lovingly termed ETCE)? It would be noteworthy to mention here that there are always those few students who have a set stream in mind, but for most, it is a difficult decision to take. These two streams have dominated the cream of WBJEE talent for a long time now.

One is the shining beacon of a new age. The other, to many, is a fading twilight of another, long bygone. We like binary comparisons. To us, there always needs to be a demarcation, however subtle, between Satyajit Ray and Ritwick Ghatak, between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, Pele and Maradona, Sachin and Sourav. We crave expediency. And in pursuit of that, we often lose sight of the fact that there cannot always be binary comparisons. What if the world is big enough for all to coexist? What if A is good doesn't necessarily indicate B is not good? If you're not from Computer Science and Engineering, you're not an engineer. Or are you?

But then, this is a growing problem and future WBJEE aspirants will have to face it. If we look at the closing rank trends of these two streams over the last few years, it gives us an interesting viewpoint as to what really causes a student to choose a particular branch out of these two. And even so, which branch should he choose if he has the option? If he does not get CSE, should (s)he take ETCE or should (s)he take CSE in another college? In this article, we try to answer these questions.

Closing ranks of ETCE and CSE in Jadavpur University (past 5 years)

Year	ETCE	CSE
2010	133	366
2011	140	414
2012	288	397
2013	268	321
2014	488	276

The closing rank data shows a very interesting trend. Even a year back from now, ETCE was the dominant of the two, despite the closing ranks deteriorating every year. CSE, on the other hand, has seen a brisk rise, culminating in a great show in 2014. So, what has contributed to the apparent decline of one, and the rapid ascent of another?

Both internal and external factors are at play here but Market is probably the elemental reason for this shift. In an industry dominated by coders and major technology concerns like Google and Facebook, perhaps, the electronics engineer doesn’t enjoy the same demand he used to enjoy, at least in India. Also, the paradigm shift which we are talking about here coincided with the booming rise of the E-Commerce industry in India. But, how big an influence are the internal factors of the university in this trend? That is a question which is worth addressing. Here we take up various factors which have all combined to change the mindset of the average Indian Engineering Aspirant.

• Market and rising start-up culture

 As we mentioned before, software giants have provided the basis for Computer Science and Information Technology in India. Also, a rising number of start-ups, all of which require programmers with a significant knowledge of programming, have led people to believe that studying Computer Science and Engineering is the only pathway to bucket loads of cash. People know that if they can become good programmers, it will help them build up a good fortune. And recent trends support their bias. Multi National Corporations like Amazon, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Adobe and many others are visiting Jadavpur University every year to recruit the best programming minds. Needless to say, the pay package offered by them is high, which is supported by the huge jump in average salaries between Computer Science and Engineering and the other departments.

• Increasing Success in Other Engineering Examinations and the new-found importance of Board Examinations

 Increasingly, more and more students are looking beyond the boundaries of their home state and moving to other states for pursuing their Engineering. Increased success rate in IITJEE (now JEE Advanced) is one of the reasons. Also, more students from Bengal are doing well in AIEEE (now JEE Main) now that Board Examinations are playing a significant role in determining the allotment of NIT s and IIIT s.

• Preference of Stream over College

It happens so very often that a student manages to get an Engineering seat in a good college but not in his preferred stream. During our parents’ time, almost no one had such a luxury. You got Stream A meant you had to study Stream A. Now, there is no dearth of opportunities. Entrance into the Indian Engineering Market by Private players has allowed young people to pursue their loved stream.

• Lack of Knowledge about Computer Science and Engineering

This is probably one of the better points which are under discussion here. (CSE==Programming&&Programming==High_paying_job) returns true for most people but (un)fortunately, it is not so. Computer Science is a lot more than just Programming and Programming is only a subset of CSE.

• Good placements of Jadavpur University Computer Science and Engineering department

CSE placements in Jadavpur University are good and they are improving every year. So a student, who loves programming and wants to be rich, (s)he is perfectly justified in leaving ETCE for CSE.

• ETCE means higher studies which never guarantees a high-paying job

This is another of those biased notions. A good ETCE Engineer is supposed to know programming besides having extensive knowledge regarding his core field. (S)he can always move to Software related fields if (s)he wishes to. Also, there is no dearth of well-paying jobs after completing higher studies. Numerous students from ETCE excel in CAT, GRE and GATE, and are spread over a large list of top US universities, from Maryland to MIT. We have a 100 percentile achiever in CAT this year from the ETCE department.

However, many of the preconceived notions people have regarding these two streams are based on a lot of bias, an inherent tendency to follow the herd, and misinformation. The root of these problems lies in a heavily flawed education system, which has, since time immemorial, valued conformation over vision and leadership. Let’s start from the basics:

• The problem arising out of preconceived notions

One of the moot points here is that the Indian Education system never allows anyone to pursue something they are really good at. There’s always a herd mentality at play, and often, the person taking up engineering doesn’t take up engineering because he wants to. He takes it up because the other person is doing it as well. Maybe, this is due to the fact that Engineering opens the door to a well-paying job, which, true as it might seem, also results in a mad rush of students, thus churning out very poor quality Engineers in numerous cases. Hence, parameters like closing ranks, words like “decline” and “rise”- they become rather relative, and do not, always, portray the real picture. ETCE still has good students, very bright, intelligent, innovative minds pursuing a stream wonderful in many ways. Is a binary comparison necessary or isn’t this enough?

• CSE is the only stream which guarantees you richness on Campus

The dogma that CSE guarantees a high-paying job and ETCE does not is a half-truth. While it is very true that CSE has seen some excellent placement in recent years, it is also true, that, leaving out the cream of the batch, which do receive posh offers from top tech giants, the middle and the tail of both the batches are broadly similar in terms of placement statistics, CSE perhaps, having the upper hand, although by a wafer-thin margin. While Amazon and Microsoft did pick up 13 students this year between them with an enviable package, about 51 students of the same batch (about three fourths of the strength), on the other hand, did not have such an eye-dazzling package, with a middling average salary of about 5.4 lpa. And this again brings us back to a very pertinent question. Does getting into CSE, by default, mean a great job is guaranteed, with a strikingly handsome salary?

That, quite clearly, is not the case, and there exists an immense gulf of difference, as is evident from the stats, between the cream of the batch, and the students who have not been able to perform as brilliantly as their topper friends. Is it because of the reasons mentioned in the first point? This, regrettably, has become a herd mentality, and we are letting the herd dictate our career choices, which, in result, is translating to a dip in quality and inequitable distribution of opportunities.

• Studying ETCE in Jadavpur University is not fruitful

The notion that ETCE doesn’t provide jobs, and is only good for studies is, to a good extent, unfounded. And, a quick glance at facts reveal that JU’s ETCE department, despite a slump in the 2013-14 session, hasn’t exactly been performing too badly over the years, if compared to the same department of other equivalent colleges. Let us take the combined salary statistics of National Institutes of Technology.

Combined Placement Statistics of National Institutes of Technology:

( http://techbits.co.in/forum/placements/nit-placements/?PHPSESSID=b2guveagprdbuasr1rp37086t2)

 A quick glance at facts reveal that, in 2012-13, ETCE recorded a highest package of 15 lpa here, which is just a little less than the highest recorded by NIT Warangal, better than that of NIT Surathkal and NIT Trichy, and much better than that of NIT Durgapur. The average salary (4.7 lpa), even in the year of slump (2013-14), wasn’t too far from the average of the top NITs, which normally all hover around 6 lpa, as a dedicated market for the electronics industry is still in its chrysalis in this country, and especially, in this state. We should be hopeful though, as such a market is developing gradually, and the placement statistics in 2014-15 has been, comparatively, a lot better. The placement season is yet to conclude and the highest recorded this year is better than that of premier institutions like IIIT-H.

  There is always room for improvement

Admittedly, there are internal problems, plenty of them. Many laboratory equipments are outdated, the quality of faculty has room for improvement, both in terms of quality and motivation, the placement cell still needs a complete revamp, and so does the general education culture which promotes mediocrity to a good extent and not creative prowess. But, there is no reason to think that such problems can’t be solved if we work together for a better JU. Ultimately, it boils down to one’s individual choice. If one has a passion for ETCE, which many studying in this department do to a great extent, (s)he should go for it all guns blazing without giving much importance to pre conceived dogmas. Most of it is baseless panic, which needs to be quelled. On the other hand, if one wants to go for CSE and really has a passion for the same, again, there should be no stopping him.  It is a great department, with some excellent minds already studying and fantastic placements. But then, if you want to take up CSE only because you are comfortable with 4 years of Java programming learnt in school, think again. You never know what the future beholds for you!

Binary comparisons between the two are completely unsubstantiated and unfounded. JU is room enough for both to exist, and that’s how things should be. There’s no reason to believe that one’s ascent is at the cost of another’s decline.

(Jointly Written by Soumik Ghosh and Chandrashis Mazumdar, 1st year students of Jadavpur University ETCE department)

By the way, we do not believe in the principle of sour grapes.