This story begins about six months ago in one of our government engineering colleges, NIT Kurukshetra. A technical fest called Literati - 08 was being organized there. Sure as hell, a team from Mullana was there. Our team consisted of about nine students from Computers branch. On Saturday, there was an event called Junkyard Wars. The participating teams had to build a rocket out of scrap. The concept involved was very simple. A 2-litre PET bottle was to become the projectile. We had to build a launcher out of cardboard and plywood. Lots of duct tape was provided along with saws and hammers. The mode of propulsion was hydraulic pressure. The bottle's cap was replaced by a cork fitted with a valve. Once air was pumped into the bottle, it was only a matter of time before the cork popped out of the bottle and the bottle was on its way. Our team managed a measly 59 feet as horizontal range (The winning team got 106 feet!).
The one doing all the explaining is me. And the person pumping the air is NISHANT.
Anyhow, its quite painful to see big events being conducted in other colleges while MMEC is stuck up with Group Discussions as a mega event. I always wanted to do something that would leave a mark. Something that could give me the satisfaction that I contributed towards the upliftment of my fellow MMECians. And I found my quantum of solace in Tech-Yard.
My stint as President had been marred by arguments and controversies. 'The laziest President ever' was the most polite tag I came across. So, I decided to show the nay-sayers that I was a force not to be underestimated. Three weeks before the semester ended, a bunch of events were organized. The bundle of events was to last for one working week and was imaginatively titled "ISTE Week".
All the executive members were assigned roles as event coordinators for various events. The previous best for maximum number of events (Non-Fest) was five (in Synergy - 2K8). The record went one notch higher with ISTE Week's grand total of six. There was only one event that I was interested in organizing. That was something based on "Junkyard Wars". Now, easy as it may sound, creating a junkyard requires a lot of effort. I had to think of the different things that had to be provided to all students. N. K. Batra, the faculty advisor of ISTE and HOD of Mechanical Department was quite dazed when I told him about my intentions. He is a very nice & cool person and gave his full support. However, he was quite apprehensive about the success of the project. Anyhow, I began collecting the required materials for building the rockets and the launcher. Heck, the fact that most of the stuff we needed was supposed to be junk, we had to shell out a lot of dough (over a thousand bucks!!!).
The work that I did can be summed up in a few bullet points. However, bullet points do not convey the toil and the hard work that we did.
- I had to got to various eating joints (canteen, Indian Kitchen etc.) to collect the PET bottles.
- To get plywood (6 mm thick 2'X 2'), I had to make rounds of Mechanical department, Store (near Hostel No. 3), Diploma block and Accounts branch (about 1 km from rest of the college) on foot.
- For hammers and saws, recursion was applied between ME department, Diploma Block and first year engineering block.
- A trip to Ambala (25 kms away) was imminent, considering the fact that there is a Science street in Sadar Bazaar there. We found duct tapes, corks and most importantly, corks.
- In all, thousands of kilometers on foot (I can exaggerate a little, can't I?) were travelled by me.
On D-Day, (20 November 2008) the event started off right on time, materials were provided in the right amount (except for hammers and saws). Pumps for the final judgment were arranged from God-knows-where by good old Nishant. Heck, Nishant is a great friend and fellow Infoscion. He deserves an entire blog dedicated to him. Anyways, the event was a huge success. Mr. Batra brought teachers from Mechanical Department to show them a whole new perspective.
The students enjoyed to the fullest and learnt something basic to engineering (Newton's Third Law of Motion) practically. Students came and told me how much they enjoyed the event. Seriously, I wept. Not in front of everyone, thankfully. I had achieved what I had set out to do against all odds. For once, I could say that I had given back to this world for all that I had taken. For once, I could afford to be proud of myself. Ahh, the sweet smell of success!
To have and to want more that is life. - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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