Showing posts with label BITS-Pilani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BITS-Pilani. Show all posts
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Giving back to alma mater makes you Awesome

26 May 2012 View Comments »


Lessons Learned
My Learnings
Last one year has been the most exciting phase of my life (or a quarter life. It's only 25 years since I am born). I did many things and got some very good recognition. I met few awesome people and made some good friends. My personal clout increased and I learnt some important lessons in life and career during this period. There were some nice opportunities that came along. And, before you ask, yes all these happened in the last one year or so.
The central point of this phase lies around my role as VP at BITS Spark Mentors. For the uninitiated, BITS Spark is an initiative by BITSian alumni that is setup with a very ambitious vision of making my alma mater BITS Pilani a top 3 Institute for entrepreneurship in Asia. Shivaraaj and I serve as VPs to one of the three pillars of the program - BITS Spark Mentors. More about BITS Spark in an another post.
When I came on board, BITS Spark was in a very nascent stage. Abhinav Khushraj and Vijay Sharma (The God Fathers behind the initiative) gave me a brief about the program and trusted me for Spark Mentors. This was the first time I had taken up a leadership role (if you exclude the entrepreneurial experience). I had no expectations on the role. I just love BITS Pilani and Startups :D When I get such an awesome opportunity to work for something that is a great mix of both, I just couldn't resist. I thought I am going to help a few awesome BITSian startups during their growth phases. But moving forward, I could see that not only that I was able to involve in the growth of young BITSian startups, but I was also able to benefit myself in the process.
During this short period, I was able to meet and work with amazing people like Raju Reddy, Chandra Bhople, Satish Gupta etc. My network has grown to a great level. One of the most important lessons I learned was that everyone wants to help. We only need to ask for it. We hear the maxim "Ask and it will be given to you;" very often. I thought that is just a cliche until I experienced it first hand at BITS Spark. When we were looking for building the initial pool of mentors for the Spark Mentors, all we needed to do was ask. We got hold of email Ids of few of the vast BITSian alumni base and sent them a mail asking for help. Most of them immediately came forward for help. Few even helped us in connecting to few more alumni.
I was able to connect with many BITSians through my position. Surprisingly, I observed that senior BITSians are much more easily approachable than young guns. I never expected them to be such a sport. My communication skills were/are very bad. This was a perfect platform for me to hone my skills.
The most important benefit I got out of working with my alumni was my selection into the prestigious IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Calcutta. I used the experience I gained at my leadership position at BITSAA to get through the GD&PI process. More than half of my interview process involved me speaking and relating my experience at BITSAA. I am sure that I wouldn't have got through the process if not for my position at BITSAA and previous entrepreneurial experience.
Why Volunteer
What you Get :)
Since everyone loves lists, here is a list of 10 reasons to contribute to your alma mater :
  • Lots of fun
  • Meet awesome people
  • Make some very good friends
  • Grow your network
  • Enhance your CV
  • Work on stuff that you love. Do things that you love to do but not allowed at work
  • Give back to your alma mater
  • Learn some great lessons in life and career
  • Hone your leadership qualities
  • Be involved
Note to BITSians:
BITSAA is recruiting new batch of BITSAA Leaders.
Apply to be a BITSAA Leader over here – BITSAA Leadership Program 2012
Read the full story

 

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The metamorphosis of a family called BITS-Pilani

06 April 2009 View Comments »


BITS-Pilani Meri jaan...

I joined BITS in the year of 2005 as a kiddo.. and now I am at the last stages of my BITSian life in my fourth year... So what are the changes seen in this family from the first year to the fourth year?

Before 2005, the family was like in Ukraine, where the female race outnumbered male race. Enter 2005, the era of child killings started. Females children were considered too dangerous to the community and the entry of new female children was restricted. Some thought the theory of evolution will make only the best of the females to have their presence in the family. But by 2009 it turned into Vatican city.

Long before 2005, as the legend would say, there used to be flushes of grass grown in the QTs of bhawans , which made the grass growers reach the nirvana for their service. By 2005, the Ganga water and agarbathis have become the only source for the Nirvana. Cometh 2009, the Retro trend emerged back. We again see the grass going here and there with the eco-green slogans flowing around. Though not as in those legendary stories, the patches of grass are showering rays of hope on the Future lighters.

Before 2005, there were those mighty Departments which used to provide job for a lot of the family members. There were also some clubs which gave the berojgar youth some respite.2005, the giant Departments started to feel the heat of the absence of female family members, which was their only source of attracting the male members to takeup jobs with them. The clubs which were based on hobbies and acads started to gain prominence among the individuals. Cometh 2009, the picture is blown out of imagination. The trend now is that of startups. Every individual who plans to start his own club. The number of clubs that offer jobs to family members have increased 4-fold in 4 years.

Before 2005, Chatting over the LAN( lanchat) was the favorite past time. In 2005, the big G(Google) started making people talk and IPs started barter Exchange. Cometh the 2009, the hubs and pubs emerged. +trivia and **** became the regular activity. Brothers(Wingies) now talk to each other through wires and the corridors have been population controlled.

Before 2005, the bus was mostly empty. Cometh 2005, the bus filled full. And now, the bus is over crowded and people are loaded like in the GOAn mini buses. There were rebellions and outcries asking to replace the old bus with a Volvo. Some great thinkers are making suggestions to replace the bus with a train instead. On the other hand, the Placement division has offered the Bus authorities to replace it with their buses which are now remaining mostly unfilled due to the recent accident on Recession Street

There were also many other major changes in the family which I might throw the light later.Meanwhile, make me feel happy (and you know what to do for that :)). Read the full story

 

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How I won an Ideapad Netbook?



For the outsider Masses, a small Legend for start

  • APOGEE - A technical festival organized by the students of BITS-Pilani . APOGEE 2009 was held in the dates between 23rd-27th March 2009.
  • IBM Web 2.0 Quiz - A quiz organized in APOGEE 2009 by IBM.The quiz consisted of an initial round of online test based shortlisting, then a 30 question multiple choice Web 2.0 related quiz followed by a presentation of case study.
So with that small legend , I will come to the point. As many of you( are there many?) might know, I won the IBM Web 2.0 quiz in this APOGEE. The event was held for the first time on campus and I became a lucky winner of it. And the more exciting part of it is that the prize I got was a sexy, ultra-thin Lenovo Ideapad S10. It is a netbook with all the beautiful qualities of a normal Laptop. For people who would like to know more about the Netbook consult this Ideapad S10 review.( I thought of writing a review myself, but again backed to stay on the topic).

So a small story:

I participated in different events in APOGEE 2006 and APOGEE 2008.And both the previous times I won second prize in one each of competitions. APOGEE 2006 it was in MathXtreme, a mathematics a,b,c,d (I mean MCQ) online test (prize money Rs.200) and APOGEE 2008 it was in Byte for Thought, a computers related quiz (prize money 1200) .APOGEE 2007, I did not participate due to other commitments I had.

And before beginning of this APOGEE, I was in a total bankruptcy situation. Every BITSian will be in this situation one or the other time, but ths is the first time I was in so bad need of money. On a lighter note, I was longing to go to redy and have a shikanji(lemonade) of Rs.5 and I did not have money for that . So someone enlightened me saying that everytime you participated in APOGEE you won prize money. Why not this time? Yeah, that sure is very inspiring though the fact is I was actually twice lucky. So I thought- "Yo man, lemme particpate in these events and make a lot of money". So there went I, craving badly for some pocket money.

I actually went to the finals in an event called Science Quiz( a group event) , where we were shown the path to the hell with their "easy" questions. We successfully showed people that luck too makes you reach finals of some quizzes.Then the next event I had some chance was called Who Dunn It?(again a group event) - where we had to solve several rounds logical questional at faster pace. We lost it in a tie breaker and weren't able to reach finals.

Then, some of my friends ( Kaka, Arvi etc) who saw the IBM quiz promo in some event, have felt I stood a strong chance and informed me about it. So there went I and the rest is all the normal saga of "How I won an Ideapad Netbook?"

But what is there in this short story?
Actually, if I would have reached finals of Who Dunn It, I wouldn't have participated in IBM quiz, as they were both scheduled at same time. And the prize of Who Dunn It, even if we would have won would be around maximum of 3000INR shared among we 3 individuals( remember it was a group event). So me failing at Who Dunn It, laid red carpet for my Ideapad. So the usual quote
A failure doesn't mean a loss. It is actually a great gain in the disguise of a loss to make you remain alerted.
A small thing that is bothering me is that I still can't get my shikanji at redy due to the unavailability of Hard Cash :( Is there someone who wants to trade a netbook with a redy shikanji?



Read the full story