Renovated canteen

Photographs courtesy: Akhilandeswari Ravichandran, III BIOE

Some pictures of Canopy

Photographs courtesy: Akhilandeswari Ravichandran, III BIOE

CANOPY

The MCA block has been renovated. It has now given way to Canopy – a venture carried out by Vaidhi sir’s First Batch of Open Elective Students. As the fourth course in a series of 4 courses offered by Vaidhi sir, the students were asked to open an enterprise at SASTRA. Canopy has a food court with ample covered places to sit. The food court has counters of Chat Corner, Creamy ‘n’ Creamy, Café Coffee Day, Sugarcane Juice and Busy Bajji Café. The chat corner is amazing and is offering a large variety of delicious Paratha’s, apart from the usual chat items. Any kind of chat is available. The sodas priced at Rs.10 are the most sold considering SASTRA’s climate. The softies at Cream ‘n’ Creamy are a must have. Their Ice Cream cake too has turned out to be quite popular during Birthday Parties. The coffee at Café Coffee Day however did not evoke the same kind of response as most of the people felt the quantity, quality and price were mismatched. The Sugarcane Juice stall is something different. The juice is supplied without ice but is served cold and it’s extremely fresh too. A lot of flavours are available the hit one being the Chat Sugarcane juice. Gurunath’s a major name in general supplies and stuff has set shop. We can now proudly call Gurunath’s or Guru as people have started calling it, our University Store. It has anything and everything a student can ask for. Apart from these, Canopy has also started a Fruit Juice stall at the girls’ hostel in the Cemented area between New Hostel and Pentagon. The juice stall sells almost 20 varieties of juices apart from fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, rice, bajjis, noodles, Gobi Manchurian, chips, Murukku and other sweets and savouries. A laundry service was also launched yesterday at both the hostels which claims to return clothes in a really short time. Special care option can be chosen if there are some clothes which require careful washing or ironing. All in all, thanks to Canopy a lot of changes have happened at college. For the good :)

Back to Campus

SASTRA reopened to a new academic year on July 2nd. There were loads of pleasant changes in store for us when we arrived back to college. The canteen has been completely renovated. It’s looking much more spacious than what it was before. A ban on plastics has been enforced in the canteen thanks to EcoBrigade but tea is still available in disposable plastic cups. Vitreous tiles have replaced the old, murky cement flooring. The prices as of now remain the same. There were rumours that the canteen will be centrally air-conditioned but there has been no confirmed news so far though A.C. ducts have been provided. Coming to the girls’ hostel, the old hostel mess is no more:(. It’s been converted to a new Gym with lots of new equipment and the old Gym is now a Common room. Pentagon has been repainted. The place between the new hostel and pentagon (famous for water stagnation) has been cemented and stone benches have been put up. Some snacks stalls, a juice shop and a fruit shop are going to come up in the area. A volleyball court has been constructed opposite to this. The MCA block is being renovated to accommodate several new stores that are coming up thanks to Vaidhi sir’s Open elective students. Placements have begun with Ashok Leyland conducting tests yesterday. Blogs are now blocked and I’m now using ‘Quota’ time and posting.
Will be back with more updates :)

End of the academic year 2009-2010

The academic year 2009-2010 has ‘Successfully’ come to a close according to our college. Blogs have also been blocked to the ire of quite a number of bloggers here( Yes, the number has increased :)). The registration for hostel begins on June 17th. However, for a change this time it’s according to the year, so the final years get to choose rooms of their choice on the first day and then the 3rd years and so on. This is apparently to help the final years prepare for competitive exams :P Course registration for the next semester starts on June 24th for which the instructions will be put up on the website on June 14th. A lot of new changes are supposed to happen next semester but probably will be announced only after the semester begins in true SASTRA fashion.
Anyway people, all the best for the next semester and happy holidays! :)

Latest rumours!

The latest rumours doing round at SASTRA are:
• 65 working days – The working days are going to be reduced to 65 from the existing 90 :)
• Timings- The timings could be altered In three ways :
1) College will function from 8.40 to 4.50 everyday with no free hours to compensate for the reduction in number of working days.
2) College will function in two shifts- 8.00 am to 2.00 pm and 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. The shift will depend either on the department or the year.
3) College will function from 8.30 am to 2.50 pm on all days irrespective of the branch or year.
• Holidays- Owing to the reduction in number of working days the Winter holidays will be for a duration of 1 month and Summer holidays for 2 months :B
• Exams- Apparently, according to UGC rules, all the deemed universities or the Universities need to end their Even semester exams by April 15th. So the last exam will at the maximum be on April 15th.
Great rumours right? Anyway according to another rumour we will get the notice before the end of this month ;)

Prices hiked!

The prices in the canteen have been hiked. Samosa and Puff now cost Rs. 6 each. Gold cup is also costing the same. The latest additions to the menu have been the Birthday cakes (Accepted, they are looking awesome and are yummy too!) and Chocolate Mousse. Except French fries, Gobi 65, Paneer 65 and some more evening snacks, the price of all the others has gone up by atleast Rs. 5. Cheese Pav Bhaji now costs Rs. 35 imagine!

KurukSASTRA X

KSX was rocking fun. It was a relief from the monotonous classes and the sweltering heat here. Crazy Mohan’s ‘Chocolate Krishna’ was enjoyed by everyone, with spontaneous humour from the comedian and his troupe. Shankar Mahadevan’s performance was the highlight of the event with people swaying to his songs, teachers and students alike ;) The food stalls were different from usual with Marrybrown and Javagreen being the new ones. For the first time in KS history, we had Telugu Lits this time which turned out to be a huge success. The overall trophy was won by NIT-T. SASTRA’s host performance was stunning and memorable. All in all it was real fun and enjoyable :)

Daksh 2010

Daksh 2010 was a huge success. The turn-out was huge and there was quality participation. Though initially there was some confusion regarding Mr. Swapan Dasgupta’s lecture, things went on smoothly. The Robot dance, Laser show and Astronomy show attracted huge crowds. The food stalls proved to be a relief to the hostellers, especially the girls. Apart from this, there were also some activities done as part of the Daksh Initiatives programme. EcoBrigade volunteers with green ribbons encouraged and advised people to throw waste materials into dustbins. Also Plasma Compendium was focussed upon. Mozilla had a stall put up and overwhelmed with the response, has agreed to be one of the sponsors of Daksh 2011 :) Daksh 2010 also saw our beloved seniors coming back to college and having fun 
With Daksh 2010 turning out to be such a mega event, it’s going to be challenging for us juniors to make sure we keep increasing the standards and making Daksh 2011 a much greater success.

Plasma Compendium

This again is another DAKSH Initiative. We hear lot of cases of deaths occurring due to blood loss after major surgeries or accidents. To prevent this, Team DAKSH has started Plasma Compendium, based on an idea given by an eminent personality at SASTRA. It is a database comprising of people who are willing to donate their blood. All you have to do for registering yourself is click on the following url:
http://www.sastra.edu/plasma

Eco Rally

As part of DAKSH Initiatives, we had an Eco Rally conducted within the campus on 01-02-2010, Monday. Vaidhi sir lead the Daksh team forward with all of us holding placards. The main aim was to spread awareness among people on how important trees are in our life and why it’s becoming more than necessary to Go Green. It did attract a lot of attention and hopefully, people did notice the message that we tried to spread!

Rumours

SASTRA has changed a lot- but one thing hasn’t and I guess, will never change – the ability of the students to produce make-believe rumours of the highest order. The latest buzz -
• Upadhyay sir is the new DOSA- This is being heard since the beginning of the semester but then no notice has been put up and Narayanan sir is still sitting in the same office.
• Uniforms- Apparently a lot of teachers have told the first years that there will be uniforms from next year and the colours too have been told- brown and white.
• No interaction between boys and girls – Girls and boys should not speak to each other and if at all people need to speak to each other, a fax must be produced by the girl’s father.
• No permissions- This rumour is the worst thing ever to happen, if at all it’s true. There will be no permissions given and students will be permitted to go home only during open holidays.
• Monitoring girls’s attendance- This one was told by our teachers, don’t know if it’s to dissuade us from bunking or if they have really got orders- Girls should not bunk classes and that 90% attendance is mandatory irrespective of whether they are hostelers or day scholars and if a girl bunks three hours continuosly and is found talking to a guy after that, both of them will be suspended immediately!

These gossips have created enough grumbling. All that can be done now, looks like, is to just pray and wish these don’t turn true making our lives miserable.

Security

The security has been tightened on campus like never before. Boys are now expected to be back in their rooms by 8.30 pm and not allowed to go out of campus before 5.00 pm. They too need tp sign at the entrance while going out and need to submit their ID cards at the security desk. Apparently even staff members are no longer permitted to leave the campus before college hours. The intime for girls is now 5.45 pm. The back door to JVC has been closed permanently. Regular ID card checking is going on. As of now people without ID cards are being warned but there is a rumour that an on the spot fine of Rs. 100 may be levied. Apparently any indiscipline observed will lead to seizing of the ID Card and a new ID card can now be procured only after shelling out Rs.500. Hope the rules are revoked and people maintain the required decorum.

Neck-ties

One of our teachers turned up in a weird attire yesterday. He was in a Blue and White bold striped shirt, brown trouser and a yellow tie. By evening, we noticed that he was not alone, but almost all the male staff in the college were having ties around their neck. Upon numerous enquiries, it was found that the latest addition to the long list of rules introduced this semester, is the 'Compulsory Tie Rule'. Yes, you got it right! It's now mandatory for the staff to wear ties. We can only hope that the teachers have the discretion to wear suitable colours!

ID Cards

Starting from this semester, its become mandatory to wear the ID Cards around the neck. The teachers have been given bright green colour tags to wear the ID Card and the students maroon. The tags were distributed in the girls hostels today. Better colours could have been chosen for the tags though!

EcoBrigade @ SASTRA

EcoBrigade is the new Environmental club that is doing commendable work in improving SASTRA. After it's inception we are now able to find trees with tree guards planted near frequented places like near the stone benches near Vidya Vihar, behind the Library, in between Nirman Vihar and the girls hostel. We can now find more dustbins and a campus cleanup drive is conducted once in a month. SASTRA is definitely a lot cleaner now. It's also extremely encouraging to find people taking the initiative to plant trees and watering them everyday. EcoBrigade has also tie-ups with various world renowned organisations. Its recent tie-up with Art of Living for the 'Stand-up-Take action' drive to make sure the students play a major role in fighting serious environmental issues like Global Warming has seen bright response.
Keep the good work on!

Student workshops @ DAKSH

This year's DAKSH has got loads of new ideas incorporated . One example - the student workshops . Videography, Origami, Rubix Cube and Basic Electrical and Electronics workshops are being offered. Completely handled by students, these workshops, whose registrations have begun today have already seen more than 300 registrations.

Back again!

It’s been more than a year since a post appeared on Angular View. Lot of important and not-so-important changes have taken place at SASTRA. The cycles have been distributed and they are no longer charged for. So people have taken to cycling and we can frequently find staff and students cycling, especially the girls. However, it would be better if the height of the cycles was increased. There’s a rumour going around that Oriental is going to build a supermarket on campus somewhere between the girls hostel and Nirman Vihar. Vignan Vihar is undergoing renovation so the Chemical Engineering department has been temporarily moved to Jana Chaitanya, the MCA and MBA department to Vidya Vihar and the first years to Viswakarma Joth. And yeah, I’m sure the Mech. guys do have something to cheer about! Mid semesters are being held on Saturdays and this is supposedly to increase the working days. JVC has implemented exchange correction, which means that though we have the choice of choosing our teachers, we cannot choose them totally based on the marks they give because they will be correcting our paper only once in the semester. A new boys hostel called Vasishta and a new girls hostel called Arundhati have been constructed. Girls are no longer allowed to bunk single hours, if at all we need to we need to bunk full days :( The wi-fi is faster these days with a new wi-fi connection for the girls called Student-G. Arundhati and Vasishta also have a new wi-fi connection called ARUBA and people are able to video and voice chat. The campus has a new store above the canteen which has computer accessories and also a printing store. This store, though small is really good. The time taken to give the printouts is really fast and the service is so far good. The canteen is now offering more choice. French Fries, Sandwich, Mini idly, Gobi-65 and loads of new ice cream flavours have been introduced. The professional courier office has been closed and we can now find the courier guy standing outside the office next to a cycle and a van intended to take the couriers. There is a Post Office that has been constructed somewhere next to the guys hostel. The old doctor at the dispensary has retired and now there is a new doctor. He is also bad but somewhat better than the old one. A new basket ball court has been constructed opposite to the library. The college advanced the reopening date and this time it reopened on a Sunday! 25th December and 1st January were holidays but were compensated by working on the consecutive Saturdays following Friday order. The temple is being renovated and a small makeshift temple has been created next to it. Preparations are going on in full swing for Daksh and KurukSASTRA, with less than 50days for Daksh, the organizers are really busy.
For more details on Daksh, do visit, www.daksh.sastra.edu
That’s it for now. Will get back with more stuff. Keep reading :)