Modem 2008

Better late than never….sorry for the late post.

This event came after a bit of a break. Guwahati and the half yearlies left me in a bit of a whirlwind. I was still recuperating a bit. Sorry, but I’m slow…:-P

Anyway, I wasn’t even planning on going for this one, originally. It’s the tech fest organised by Modern School, Vasant Vihar. Seemed a bit low-key, and my half-yearly result wasn’t great, and I was feeling a bit low. Arjun and the rest of the guys decided we’ll try out some new talent. I was taking one such dude, Nitin Jerath, to the iLab, when it all went horribly wrong…

Bani ma’am was there, along with Arjun and another dude for the quiz (new talent). She was blasting Arjun for risking the prestige of the school to try out new talent. She wanted to win Modem, and so, she was adamant that pros like Karthick, Arjun and I go.

Now, I had a pact with Mom that I wouldn’t go for too many events, but I had no choice, as I could not afford to get in the bad books of my HOD. Mind you this was Friday, and the event was on Saturday. Anyway, Arjun, me and consequently Karthick decided to turn up.

I spent that afternoon and evening preparing (perhaps a bit half-heartedly). No one was going for GD, originally, but we later decided to call upon Saurabh Chaudhary to do that. More on that later. Anyway, I wanted an early night, and got up early in the morning to continue. However, I horrible miscalculated, and ended up in a mess.

I was preparing till something like 8:15. Arjun had told me to be there by 9:15. Without thinking, I had expected that to be the registration. Thought that it was slightly late, but then I thought that it was a weekend.

Should’ve thought twice.

I was getting ready at my leisurely pace, and Dad decided to go on a nice leisurely Saturday morning walk for a blood test. He could’ve taken the car, but decided to walk. Then, Karthick calls me up and asks where the hell I was. Tells me the event was beginning in 10-15 minutes.

I literally freeze.

Blood runs cold, start sweating, the usual…nothing much. Get dressed in a hurry, grab the car keys, call up Dad, tell him to come as soon as possible. Dad left the car in gear, so it lurched forward when I started the car…almost scrunched the nose. Waited for a few minutes in the car. And when he didn’t turn up, decided to take an auto. Ran around, was lucky to find one willing to take me.

That ride was the most nerve-wracking one ever. I counted the minutes, cursing autos for their microscopic engines, hoping for traffic to be slightly forgiving. Luckily, I did reach there in around 15 minutes. But, as it turned out, I didn’t have change…only 100 bucks. Neither did the auto wallah. Spent a few minutes running around in front of the school, asking for change, which no one was willing to part with/no one had/whateva…

However, I was lucky enough to run into Saurabh Chaudhary. He had change, which I borrowed. Then, it was a limping race to the TRP on the first floor. God knows what TRP is…apart from TV ratings. By the way, I was limping cause I sprained my ankle a few days/weeks ago, yet went to the doctor only a few days ago, cause it wasn’t hurting and he told me to put on a crepe bandage.

Anyway, when I arrived, around 15-20 minutes were left. The prelim for the quiz was a crossword, relatively easy, but I screwed up anyway. I have no one to blame, and accept the universal truth that I suck.

Enlightenment and inner peace at last…

We sat around for some time in the TRP, and then were ushered out. Went out to meet the rest of the team in the auditorium. Arjun, Siddharth, Abhishek and a new guy called Ravi were there. 2 juniors came for digital imaging, which was for classes 6-8. Aditya and Nitin, our new budding talents. I also found that a little arse called Aman was supposed to show up, but, predictably, didn’t. He was to go for music mixing.

Anyway, there was a lot of waiting in the audi…the multimedia presentation eventw as going on, at first. Apparently the topic was something about e-waste or something…and the judge said that several people had picked up the same clip from YouTube and effectively killed the originality. Don’t know who won that one.

Then, the quiz finals. They spent ages readying stuff on the stage, taking stuff from one end to another and then back again, for fun, presumably. The finalists were announced, and presumably, Karthick and I were not on the list.

Stupid enlightenment…got to work harder…

Still, I have no excuse, after the half-yearlies, I had spent no time brushing up, and there’s only so much one can do in a day and a morning…

Anyway, some other results came out, and we got a second in digital imaging. Meanwhile, Saurabh, who’d gone off for the group discussion, came back with a real smug look on his face. Apparently, he’d been given a really generic topic (non-harcore tech) and he could demolish the opponents with ease. When the finalists for the GD were announces, his name was first, and he lit up like a bulb. He went on to win the GD, with ease, as he says.

The refreshments were a big let down. None of the usual Modern School plated lunches…this time a little pack of noodles and Mohun’s Gold Coin (the latest in Mango drinks…yeesh!). Not appetizing. Then there was ice-cream…vanilla. As I took Karthick’s dessert coupon, word got round, and soon everyone was giving them to me. I’ve still got some around.

Then, Siddharth and Arjun had to go for the Flash event. They had to make and code a game in flash. For the record, Arjun hates Flash from the core of his heart. Anyway, he had already thought up a game in about 2 “balls” from their respective bases at opposite ends of a screen, navigating a course with gold coins to capture the opposite base.

We named it Mohun’s Gold Coin.

Dunno if the judges got it, but we came 2nd anyway.

Then there was programming. I think we came 2nd or 3rd in that, dunno. Anyway, then we sat around and watched the quiz. Might I mention that the quizmaster, last year’s prez, had the most outlandish accent ever. Really weird. And he tried to inject non-existent sarcasm into comments like ‘Great music, huh?’, while classical hindi ambient music was playing.

Then, the prize distribution. Fast forward through all the individual events. The overall…now, thanks to my major screw-up, we couldn’t get overall first, but were aiming for runners up, which we did get.

Not a complete loss after all…

Sorry, but the post was typed in a hurry, so I’ve skipped some of the details…