You see… As you might already know… InfoXpression, the techno-cultural fest of my college recently concluded on Sunday. I played a very small part in organizing the whole thing by being the head of an event called “Linux Command Ninja”. This too, you might already know.

What you don’t know is that apart from me, the InfoX team comprised of a large number of people… From event heads to coordinators alike. It also consisted of a core team comprising of a Rahul Pathak, a Manish Dwibedy, and THE Krity Sethi (more on her in a later post!). However, there was one person in this crowd who wasn’t happy with his role in this entire extravaganza. That person, lets call him AB, kept insisting that he was in the core team too!

Excerpts from the various conversations with this guy during InfoX’11:

AB: Oye, ye le refreshment coupon. 
Person 1: Tera kahan hai?
AB: Main toe core team mein hoon!

Person 2: Tzinga de bey!!
AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Main nai de sakta.

Person 3: Yar mere event mein problem aa rahi hai.
AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Technical head se baat kar.

(unprovoked) AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Maine bohot Tzinga peeye.

(unprovoked) AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Apni t-shirt mujhse le liyo. Coordinators ko nai milegi dhyaan rakhiyo.

Real Core Team Member: Saale tu core team mein kahan se aa gaya?
AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Terko jo karna hai kar le!!

(unprovoked) AB: Main toe core team mein hoon! Mere paas walky pade hain!

(unprovoked) AB: Prize Distribution mein koi problem ho toe mujhe bataiyo. Main core team mein hoon!

The situation got so bad that most of started avoiding him altogether, lest the core team nonsense started again! One of us poor souls actually had a panic attack when a real core team member told him “Main toe core team mein hoon!” Core Team became the bane of our existence, with no fault of the core team itself. We started wondering why a core team was even there, even though the core team was working tirelessly to make InfoX a success. (One of them got up at four in the morning on the first day and texted all of us to gear up! When asked why, he replied, “I’m passionate about InfoX”. And yes, there is not a hint of sarcasm here!)

Coming back to AB though. Let me tell you what all he was doing all through the fest. He distributed t-shirts. He babysit walkys. People went to him for staplers and A4 sheets. He gave out food coupons and Tzingas. He stalked the real core team members, asking for work to do. He ran around all over the campus trying to find event heads and coordinators who were required at their correct places. In fact, he was “in-charge” of all the menial jobs during InfoX. The peon to the event heads if you please! Apparently, he thought that with this “responsibility” of his, the fake bragging rights of being in the core team came free of cost!

He never realized that all those things that were being said to him during the fest were in fact wrapped in heavy sarcasm!

My heart goes out to you AB. Get well soon!

Disclaimer: Yes yes I’ve made fun of someone here. Live with it! I can be really harsh with humor sometimes. People don’t usually appreciate my jokes but I’m not here to please everyone you see


#!/bin/bash
clear
echo "Welcome to the world of Linux, where geeks manifest and nerds multiply."
echo "And where there's no place for poets who just sit and watch the stars go by."

InfoXpression’11, the annual college fest of USIT, concluded yesterday amongst heavy fanfare. And I’m glad that I could a part of it by being more than just a silent spectator! Those who are wondering about the connection of Linux and that horrendous piece of code (and not to mention, the utter bullshit piece of poetry, if you can call it that) with it, then I must tell you that I headed the organization of one of the technical events in the fest, titled “Linux Command Ninja”.

“You’re a ninja, and you’re on a mission!” That’s what one of the contestants got to hear when he tried to enquire about the event beforehand. He was pissed off, of course. But then again, he managed to emerge as the winner.

Linux Command Ninja was a carefully designed event, that tested a contestant’s detective skills as well as his knowledge of the linux command line. They were given a set of tasks to complete, which resembled an electronic treasure hunt. With clues hidden all over the system, they had to carefully go ahead; keeping their eyes open for the smallest of the leeway, squinting hard to look for the tiniest ray of hope that lingered in the horizon; so that they may collect what was required of them – a password, a private key, and a passphrase.

As soon as I’d taken the responsibility of conducting this event, I’d decided that I won’t be asking any of the run-of-the-mill textbook questions. I wanted something different, something exciting, that could capture the fancy of the intellectual crowd… that could make them want to do this… that could lead them on to a wild goose chase while still keeping them hungry for more! LCN was the result of all that.

What followed was a careful study of The Complete Reference to Linux, the history of Ninjas, and Japanese baby names (yes!) to decide on the tasks that were to be given out. Once a sequence was decided, I spent an entire day implementing the necessary technicals on my own system, and then some more hours installing the necessary files on the college computers. It was boring, and hard work… But I’m glad that on the D-Day, everything worked as expected. A fanboy’s dream, you can say!

Yes! iwannadoitagain!!

One candle for each day of the year… That’s how we celebrate gurpurab around here! We lay siege to the gurudwara… Armed with 365 candles and a couple of matchboxes… And start placing them wherever we can get our hands on..!

The result is magic!

Here are some pictures for you to see. (Please don’t mind my measly phone camera!)

Saying it again… Its pure magic!