My first Fine Print article

For those who aren't aware, I happen to be a member of the English Press CLub of BITS Pilani. The following is the article I wrote for the Fine Print (that's our magazine), being put up on this blog to solely serve the purpose of being "looking back material" a few years down the line. Also this is my first article in the Fine Print (the previous ones being published in Chairascuro, the Oasis magazine).

And it's on the placement scenario here at BITS this semester.

BITSians can heave a sigh of relief. The on-campus placement scenario this semester has been significantly better and satisfactory than the previous couple of semesters, which may be attributed to the rising economic conditions all around. We (that's me) spoke to Ayush Bansal, Placements volunterr and he helped throw some light on this subject. As it stands now (20th November), close to 230 of the 443 registered students have already been placed in reputed firms and the details have been pretty heartwarming. While Computer Science and EEE continue to rule the roost with a whopping success rate, Electronics and Instrumentation and Mechanical have also surged ahead of their previous records and added to the overall success. The news however is not all that good on the Civil and Chemical fronts which saw a rather dismal placement scenario this year. It is still not over yet, though, and 10 more companies are expected to land up on-campus before the compres commence … lets hope the situation brightens up then.

The big recruiters this year have been HP and Oracle, with each recruiting close to 20. Other big names like Shell, Amazon, and Credit Suisse and have also been around and have recruited 2, 2 and 6 people each. NTPC and Dr. Reddy’s have been pretty active too with each accounting for around 10 people, Dr Reddy's specifically taking students of B Pharm, M Pharm and Chemical Engineering.Other companies included the the BITSian firms, Apex, Map My India and KONY labs, recruiting 5, 13 and 11 students respectively. That is not the end however, because there are other big names that are certain to hit our campus before the semester ends. These include finance giants JP Morgan, Bajaj Alianz, and ADP.

The placement scenario this year has certainly improved and there have been many cases of students who actually went in for a second round of placements, 40 of them from varied streams including the under-performing Civil and Chemical Engineering streams getting a second job offer. Also, there has been not much difference in the recruitment of Dualites and non-Dualites excepting for the fact that the Public Sector firms seem a bit biased towards the non-Dualites.

rantings of a suppressed blogger

Tutorials and lectures wait for no man. Precisely the deduction that one can draw after nearly completing a semester in BITS Pilani. Funny how it works. I mean, you have the time of your life and all, you head-bang for hours into the night, right till th wee minutes in the morning, you live an entire week on the flipside (bemused?), you watch explosive dance shows In Razzmatazz, freak out in the biggest rock n metal competition in the country in Rocktaves, you cheer and jeer and shout yourself hoarse as models walk past in Fash P ... you groove till you drop as DJs battle it out in Sonic Stampede ...

I mean what more can someone actually crave for?

Then suddenly its all over and you are staring blankly at some white paper and black print ... you try and read and understand what it tries to convey, you don't comprehend a word. You freak out again, and start having nightmares. You yowl and squeal in your sleep. You start sleepwalking (believe it or not, one guy in my hostel actually did all that!) Chemistry paper goes to the dogs, only to be followed by an even nightmarish ghoul in the form of thermodynamics. That goes to the gutters, and finally you are left with two weeks of time, a gargantuan amount of course material to cover, and the final end sem comprehensive examinations staring right at you, piercing you with its glare and freaking you out all the more.

That my friends was the reason for abstaining from blogging for more than a month. While blogging remains to be my favourite past time, things get difficult when you do not really have time to pass! So adieu, I end this short post which I hope has satisfied all you wramblingz-starved souls, and thrown light onto the difficulties that prevent me from doing what I love to do. I hope all you wonderful blogger friends understand why I had temporarily disappeared from the blogosphere, and I end with the promise that ... since the show must go on, wramblingz shall never die!

Cheers