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- Sriram, Balaji, Anantha
- Saif, Sarath, Sai Prasant
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- Sriram, Sripradha, Sarath
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- Abinesh, Tania, Sripradha
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- Sai Prasanth, Deeksha
- Gautham Mahadevan, Ashwin Sridhar, Maanasa
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- A Festember Initiative
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- Shruthi, Sandeep, Diptishika, Harshini
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Etymology
T
A Procrustean Bed Def: Tending or designed to produce conformity by violent or ruthless methods. This phrase has its origins in Greek Mythology, from Procrustes, a robber of Attica. He was infamous for torturing his victims by placing them on a bed and stretching them, or lopping off part of their limbs, to exactly fit the length of the bed. It is still used in the same context of an arbitrary standard to which conformity is forced. This phrase has since been used in many literary works as well, the most notable being Edgar Allan Poe’s, ‘The Purloined Letter’, where Detective Dupin compares the Parisian Police’s overly rigid method of looking for clues to a Procrustean bed. In a more modern context, this phrase is used by philosophers, linking it to the present-day man’s fear of conformity to randomness.
Def: A victory gained at too great a cost. In 279 BC, at the Battle of Asculum, King Pyrrhus of Epirus won against the Romans, but the victory cost the lives of most of his commanders and men. After the victory, the king reportedly said, “Another such victory and Pyrrhus is undone.” Since then, the term has been used to describe many such victories. Alan J Levine in his book, ‘The Pacific War: Japan vs the Allies’ wrote “This battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was clearly a Japanese victory; the sole Japanese victory in a carrier battle during the war. But it was a Pyrrhic victory, which the Japanese were in no condition to exploit. The damage to their carriers was serious, and their plane losses very heavy.” Japan’s navy was never the same again.
To Boyco�
Machiavellian
Def: Withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
Def: Cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics.
Charles Boycott was an ex-British soldier who acted as an agent for absentee landlords in Co Mayo, Ireland, during the late nineteenth century. He was notorious for dispossessing the poor tenants who fell back on their rent. Encouraged by one Charles Parnell of the Irish Land League; who said that those who grabbed land from the people should be treated like ‘the leper of old’, his tenants retaliated by refusing to have any dealings with him or his family. Eventually, the tenants brought about Boycott’s downfall by allowing his harvest to rot in the sun. The verb, ‘to boycott’ became symbolic of the treatment meted out to him and would later be used as an effective weapon in the fight against the against the wealthy and powerful.
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A Pyrrhic victory
Machiavellian comes from the Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), the author of the notorious treatise on bare-knuckled politics, The Prince. In it he outlined the characteristics of an ideal leader - a calculating, amoral tyrant for whom the end justified the means. An excerpt from the book reads, “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than to be loved.” His work naturally raised many eyebrows - Pope Clement VII condemned The Prince for its endorsement of rule by deceit and fear. While polite society still frowns upon the use of unjustifiable means to achieve an end, it is generally accepted today that those in positions of power are not always averse to using unsavoury means to achieve a ‘greater good’, making Machiavelli the father of modern political thought. - Srishyam, Tania, Balaji
- Saif, Anupama
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- Anantha, Harshini, Trisha
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TRANSPORTATION AT NITT
Introduction: In this article, we provide a brief outline of the available transport facilities on campus, and how the program could be made more user friendly and effective. Tally of Transportation Assets 4 buses run on campus:1 is reserved for girls, 1 for boys and 2 buses for staff, faculty, wards, and school trips. 2 mini buses : ferry students, faculty, wards etc. 1 tempo van (13 seater): school purposes. 1 Indigo car reserved :official purposes. 1 Bolero, 1 Eicher, 1 Omni and 1 Ambulance 5 battery cars
Battery Car
Battery cars are the latest addition to the transportation infrastructure on campus. They were brought to campus to provide convenient transport facilities for physically challenged people, and at the same time reduce the dependance on the autorickshaws on campus - adopting a cleaner and a fair alternative.The Student Council placed an order for 5 battery cars with specifications to meet the campus road conditions.These battery cars or BEVs, utilise electricity stored in a battery pack to power an electric motor and turn the wheels. When the charge is reduced, the batteries are recharged from a wall socket.There are two Type I (10 seater) battery cars provided with PwD ramps and space to accommodate wheelchairs. There are three Type II battery cars with only front facing seats and the capacity is 14 seats. All battery cars can run for 6 hours for every charge cycle: presently, they are charged and parked at the new SAC.
Interview with the transport in charge - Mr Sri Dharma. Sir, when will bus stops be fixed on campus? Once timings are fixed, it’ll be posted at permanent bus stops, like in IIT. Shades are also tentatively going to be given. Which routes are taken off campus, how many times, and at what times? A bus leaves from NITT at 7.30 AM to Main Guard gate and reaches there by 8:15 AM. The bus then travels through Junction, Toll gate, Palpannai and returns to the campus by 9:15 AM, daily. Apart from this, trips are made to the junction and airport, on request by the Student Council .
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Do we hire the TNSTC buses and why? Yes, we hire the TNSTC buses to ensure that bus services are available in case the institute buses are booked. Hiring the bus costs a minimum of INR 3000 for each day. Renting a bus is flexible because if a bus breaks down it’ll be a TNSTC bus and college will not be handicapped without a bus. How can the transport facilities improve on campus? Roads are bad. So, when new layers are laid, the roads will be widened and can accommodate the new and longer buses. Currently, a big problem we face is that there aren’t enough sheds for the buses. This proves to be inconvenient for the drivers who don’t have a one place to take rest.
Shuttle Stop Opal Route Amber/Zircon Route
How to book a bus? Students have the option of booking college buses on request.Usually, the buses are hired for trips to the city, for farewell and fest treats. Buses are also provided within Tamil Nadu for Industrial Visits. To book a bus: Fill in the booking form available at the Transportation department with the journey details, then get it signed by the HOD or faculty advisor. Once the paperwork is complete, a sum of INR 900 needs to be paid at SBI to ferry a trip from the campus to the city (for a bus) and INR 800 (for a minibus). To understand the students’ requirements and expectations from the transportation services on campus, we ran a survey which yielded the following results. Everyday
11.5%
Alternatively
How often do you avail the shuttle (bus and battery car) services? 31.6%
Absence of cycle Junction trips Exams only Others
45.4% 12.1% 6.9% 10.9%
How consistent are the shuttle services with timings? (1 means the timings are never followed, and 5 means the timings are always followed)
1
9.8%
2
16.1%
3
39.7%
4
31% 3.4%
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A Route Tracking App - A possible reality A route tracking app would be a handy tool.It would give real time updates of the whereabouts of a shuttle on the go, along with its time of arrival to a particular stop with the help of data collected from the shuttle vehicles fitted with GPS equipment. The app itself would contain the map of the campus, with the routes taken by the shuttles and their stops, highlighted. The schedules of the shuttles would also be included. For those with basic mobile handsets, an SMS requesting service could be initiated to provide relevant details according to the user’s location. Within campus, the app could help track the popularity of routes, stops, and timings, and thus, plan a more efficient system of transportation, resulting in reduced cost of running near empty shuttle vehicles.
- Shruthi, Arvindmani, Deeksha
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- Abinesh, Ashwin Sridhar, Yuvan, Anantha,
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- Kalpak Dhake
International sport has always been associated with a plethora of emotions and a general sense of unification and pride. To the naked eye, a set of talented and willing people take centre stage to represent their country and bring glory to their heritage. Behind the scenes and the coloured jerseys there are many stories and decisions which have put a certain individual where he/she is playing for. An individual who is probably not from the country he/she represents. In another lifetime where players represented only their home countries, “Spanish” forward Diego Costa would have donned the radiant yellow colours of his home country Brazil.Also,the mighty French and German teams would have not had more than 4 players from their current squad. The major reasons for side switching is a player citing their birthplace, parentage, or even ancestry - where one grandparent may be from the represented country. For instance, Giovanni Lanaro is a pole vaulter who was born and brought up in Southern California even trained there, but his mother was born in Mexico. He competed in the Rio Olympics under the Mexican banner not only because of his pride in his heritage, but also because he can represent a nation that could make use of his talent. Another reason is due to migration. This is when a player can relate more to his adopted nationality than to his roots, like in the case of Costa. This can also be due to the home countries of such players being former colonies of their current countries like players from Senegal and Algeria playing for France. An intriguing case is that of the Boateng brothers in football. Kevin Prince and Jerome were born to the same father and different mothers in Berlin. Jerome chose to represent Germany, but Kevin Prince, perceiving fewer football opportunities in Germany, decided to represent his father’s nation of Ghana. Additionally, it’s possible that a sportsperson might belong to a dissolved country. Four Olympians competed as independents - they competed under the Olympic banner, and the Olympic Anthem was played when they were on the podium. Of these, three hail from the recently dissolved Netherlands Antilles. The three athletes would have been allowed to compete for the Dutch, but they didn’t identify as Dutch citizens, so they fought for (and won) the chance to wear the Olympic colours. The fourth Olympian was Guor Marial who was from what is now South Sudan - a nation too young to be able to focus on building an Olympic committee. He had the opportunity to represent Sudan, but having lost 28 family members in the Civil War, his feelings of animosity towards it was far from being unfounded.
Sports Personationalities
There may also be some rare and highly specific reasons as in the case of speed skater Ahn Hyun-soo, triple gold medalist for his country South Korea in the 2006 Winter Olympics. He again struck gold, but under his new name of Viktor Ahn, this time racing for his newly adopted country of Russia. Ahn was injured and was not reselected by S. Korea after he recovered. He fell out with his governing body and looked around for a new nation. At times a player is faced with the decision of putting personal achievement over national pride, like the Chelsea player, Deco playing for Portugal after he was overlooked by his home country Brazil. Another interesting instance is that of a South African runner, Zola Budd, in 1984. As a South African, she was ineligible to compete for her home country, and banned from international sport because of its policy of apartheid and she was fast tracked into taking up British citizenship. This laid the foundation for the framing of the derogatory and pejorative phrase, “Plastic Brit”, for those athletes similarly fast tracked into British citizenship, in spite of having personal connections to other countries. In a reverse scenario, certain countries that are too small or new to produce world class talent and opportunities resort to using their money and promised comforts to lure and buy players of other nationalities. Likewise, four Chinese-born weightlifters took Kazakh citizenship and Kazakh-sounding names to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. So, when you see players lining up to recite their National Anthems, ask how many are actually singing their nation’s anthem. - Advait, Tania, Arvindmani
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- Abinesh, Sriram, Trisha