BE Project!!!

July 2006….The placement season was catching up but the four Ranchi lads were talented (or should I say lucky???) enough to have got jobs early in the season. So they could afford to relax. The group had been together for the last three years and so they had thrown a grand party at the infamous Madhuvan when they got placed.

Their sole aim of getting into BIT was fulfilled. They had jobs in their hands. Now they were in no mood to do more of those studious works which involved attending classes and doing PROJECT work. Unfortunately it was not late when the BE Project was imposed upon them and they were told to choose a guide and topic for the Project. A week’s time was allotted to them to finalize these pre Project deeds. Lazy and carefree brats as they were could hardly manage to find time to sit down and decide on a project and guide. They were busy partying. Finally when they were inquired upon by the Professor In charge they were left speechless. Eventually a topic and guide was assigned to them by the Prof. on his own. The guide allotted to them had a reputation of being one of the sternest Profs of the department. NO!!!! They can’t do a project under him.They had to find a way out. They thought of all sorts of excuses to get exempted from this Guide. Finally the persuasion sustained its importance and they were allotted a Guide who was known for his’ not so good engineering skills ‘ .A less knowledgeable person would not create troubles was the idea behind this shift of guide!!! The project work began. (Did it really???)

A heavy duty topic was found out from the internet (thanks to wikipedia and Google).It went as “Simulation of Exhaust Muffler in an Automobile engine using FLUENT software” Impressed???? So was their guide. Little did he know about what was in store for him. The semester passed by peacefully with their guide not interfering much. Just a formal enquiry at times and a similar formal response” Sir, kaam chal raha hai”.

The weekly reports about the progress the project has undergone were also handled with great ingenuity. Have you ever heard of the adage “BITians bakar ka khate hain”. (BITians earn their livelihood by bakar) They were making the old proverb come true!!! Every time they would fool the Prof In charge they would come out of the classroom with triumphant smiles on their faces.

Now, the semester was about to end and finally they had to make a final presentation before the Head of the Department (HOD). This was not a child’s play. The HOD was known for his depth of knowledge and fooling him was a next to impossible to task. Even then the seriousness of the situation was not comprehended by them and they were busy partying (later on they went on to be called as the PARTY GANG of BIT). The day of presentation had arrived and they were ready with a night’s work. Engineers often say” Raat baaki baat baaki”. Files were downloaded from the internet and the golden funda of “Cut, Copy, and Paste” was followed. They had decided that no attempts would be made to befool the HOD. “If he thinks we are wrong then solemnly accept that”. Shamelessly they went into the chamber. The HOD was going through their report. He halted on a graph and lifted his face to ask which parameter was plotted on the X axis. The Y axis was showing the attenuation of noise in decibels (DB). All four of them looked at the graph as if they hadn’t seen it earlier. “How do I know, ask the one who uploaded it on wikipedia” he thought. The HOD was definitely not impressed and the blank faces were beginning to infuriate him. His voice starting to become stern, when suddenly he said “Length of the chamber” Simultaneously the other one uttered “Frequency”.Now, that’s suicidal. That was a disaster. Ambiguous answers coming from members of the same group was surely not expected from final year engineering students!! Now the HOD had something to offer:

“You people yourself are not sure about the things your project contains. This shows that you have not worked a bit on this project. You have just copied the stuffs from the internet. This is simply not acceptable.”

All through his lecture he could only see a “repeat “on his grade card. "Oh No. My career is finished. My job is gone. I am finished". He was thinking of ways to commit suicide, hanging himself from the fan (no that would be painful). Rat’s poison seemed to be the best option. His gloomy thought process came to an end when he found his group mates getting off the chair. The HOD had given them a week’s time to come up with something concrete. He was relieved.

The next week Madhuvan missed its most regular visitors. When talent is coupled with hard work you get a successful project. Finally they managed a decent grade in the Project. They had once again proved the saying in BIT: “Jab tak hamare peeche top nahi lagaoge, hum kaam nahi karenge”: D