Official Students’ Newspaper Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

30 August 2011 . Volume 2 Issue 1 . 14 Pages

moremoreFresher Guide03 A few truths about how your life will

be in the years to come. Suggestions are also included.

featurefeature

Fresher Cooker!The infalliable recipe to organise a Fresher’s Day in IIST

An exclusive interview with the former Director of IIST, Padmashri Dr. B.N.Suresh

04

Intern XP08 Our editors relive their internship expe-

rience through a collection of anecdotes.

n & m's food guide11 Our in house culinary enthusiasts re-

view the handful of eateries in this city.

Valiamala: Unleashed. 4thcom-ing. Hi-5. I hope the next one is not called ‘The Sixers’.

Admittedly, there was some ten-sion between the first and the second year students, due to the certain number of memos that were ‘distributed’ not long after the ice-breaking ceremony. So, some of the third year students with the thinking, ‘yaar 2 din toh mann laayak khaana milta hai college mein, aur main diwali tak wait nahi kar sakta’, decided to take initiative. Gatecrashing into a poll, which was being held to decide whether the function should be held or not, they un-dertook the task of giving the juniors an explanation that was probably necessary. It was now that half of the voters came to know what they were voting against. Result of the new poll was seen on the 23rd by every-one.

Ingredients:

To organise a programme in such a short time is always a hideous task. And as the second years proudly claim, it was done in half the budget. So, what are the ingredients required to or-ganise a fesher’s day?1. Just like every other function in IIST, permission for girls to stay out of their hostels till mid-

night.2. A stage.3. Lots of preferably original ideas for programmes that keep the audiences inside the sandy pandal.4. Good food.5. DJ.6. A chief guest, preferably someone from outside the col-lege.

Method for preparation:

Due to shortage of time, point 6 could not be arranged. And as we came to know later, 3 was also absent. The 20th century fox-universal studios-batman act was apparently a direct copy of an IIM-B play, which in turn, was an offshoot of an NIT-C play. Made in Kerala, stayed in Kerala, we don’t have a prob-lem. Given the short prepara-tion time and the audiences who were laughing so hard at all the jokes, not minding is the best thing to do. However, many acts needed a certain amount of censoring and it is highly recommended that some students (read seniors) with a neutral stand are allowed to define the limits next time on-wards. The ritual boys’ dance on Telugu songs, often referred to as ‘Yentraa’ dance by racists, was also as good as last year’s.

Continued on page 02

.For internal circulation only.

Chetta po14 IIST crossword

No Argumentaaa, V for Venkata!

news02 FYI 03news

Editorial BoardThe Sounding Rocket

Shashank STanveer AliAnkesh MishraNavjot SinghSiddharth Srivastava

Special Thanks to Abhinav Goel for the design

02

Nakkadwaale Discoand the dance by second year girls deserve a special men-tion. The advertisement com-pilation dance (Philips, Bajaj, Shaktimaan, Nirma...) was as phenomenal as the one it was copied from.

While Mr. Ace and Ms. Grace were two names no one could embrace, the event in it-self was fun to watch. Betha Sirisha was Ms. Grace while Nana Patekar won Mr. Ace. This was the formal end of ‘good evening, sir’.

Continued from page 1

Still Cooking... echoesCampus bookshop functional

Campus bookshop is now functional with a 20% discount on MRP of all books except novels and magazines. Custom-made IIST notebooks are available albeit for two spelling mis-takes due to which the sale has been suspended temporarily pending cor-rection of “Institue” and “595547”. For fans of Flipkart.com, you can still procure books on your own using your book grant, provided you get a letter from the campus bookshop claiming that the book cannot be procured in time. Make sure you get 20% off on MRP from your vendor.

Flying SR to be launched soonThe flying Sounding Rocket's two Static Tests were successful, which was displayed as a proud achievement on our notice board. It is expected to be launched in October.

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IIST day in Sept.; Convocation in Oct.

The IIST day is expected to be cel-ebrated on 14th September 2011 to mark the first day of IIST, which was on 14th September 2007. The con-vocation which was supposed to be held on the same day, has now been postponed to October and so also is the farewell to the seniors. Rumor has it that the Prime Minister will be the chief guest for IIST’s first convoca-tion.

Dhanak 2k11 comes to townDhanak “2k11” is happening from 30th September to 3rd October 2011. A birdie in the team tells us that the chief guests in consideration for the festival are Chetan Bhagat, Shashi Tharoor, MohanLal and Mammotty. Looking at the pace of work and the huge financial help from the college, it is bound to be an ‘animated’ festi-val.

UPS for routersFrom now on, you don’t have to fret about network disruptions due to the intermittent power supply.

TSR ImpacT!TSR in its first issue had printed a photo of IIST pa-per cups being sold in a shop in Nedumangadu. Following this, the Canteen services, IIST swung into action and they have reached the bottom of the matter.But, this had nothing to do with the introduction of steel glasses, as it is being per-ceived. It was implemented to avoid the paper cups being strewn all over the campus.

1)Your first semester will be your most cherished one. Laptops will hog your time in other semesters.

2)You will change your music taste. You will have to. Yeah,I say that with a draconian stance.

3)You will try and get in touch with girls from high school, going by the boy-girl ratio(and hotness-avalibil-ity ratio) in your batch you will be stupid not to.

4)You will slowly realise that ‘Dhanak’ is a joke of the bygone era. ‘Conscientia’ is still THE thing.

5)You will always hate IIST mess. If you don’t, please request your roo-mate to slap you.

6)Authority?Administration?Rules?You can’t do nuts about it/them.Follow them(Ya,right.)

7)You will always remember your first trip with your friends, it will become a benchmark of sorts.

8)Table-Tennis in first semester, Counter-Strike in the next, DotA in the third. Avoid AoE.

9)There is a colossal difference be-tween school percentage and col-lege grades. Remember getting 90 odd % just like that?It won’t hap-pen here, I promise.

10)Always wanted to do something with your hair or beard? This is your chance, your dad won’t know, unless you use Skype/FB video chat.

11)Nope, this place has no McD or KFC. Kerala Barotta-Beef fry chalega?

12)You will learn a few malay-

alam words like chetta, etra and a few numbers. When you talk with auto-drivers, do start off with ‘Chetta,ISRO junction etra?’ and sulk regardless of the price he quotes, you will end up saving Rs 20 to 30.

13)You will have mixed feelings about Konchords. Performances will be good in general but the des-perate attempt to impress you with wisecracks will leave you with a bad taste. But still refer to point 2.

14)Got tired of your labs and re-cord writing already? It is just the beginning. May the force be with you.

15)You will always remember your first birthday in college,your friends will make sure of that. If your birthday lies in the holidays, you, my friend are blessed. y

Foolproof guide to a fresher's futureThings to do.Things you will do.The title is self-explanatory.Here are the points you will follow(Unless,somebody messes up ‘The Matrix’)

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions expressed in the above article belong to the original author and do not neces-sarily reflect the opinions or policies of The Sounding Rocket and its editors.

bySiddharth KriShna

Shown above is a paragraph from a VSSC Employees Union leaflet found by an IISTian. Pardoning the obvious grammatical errors and lack of punctuation, the people behind the leaflet are blind to the fact that there are hardly any retired scientists here. The few scientists, that we are lucky to be having as our professors, do an excellent job .

Old age home?

news04 news 05interview 05interview04

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The founding father of IIST unwindsFor this issue’s interview, we chose the one person, whom we never tire of hearing from. Squeezing time from his busy schedule, TSR interviews Dr. B.N Suresh, former Director, IIST . Excerpts from the interview where he speaks about the indigenous cryo engine, the IIST-CALTECH agree-ment, placements for the next batch and a host of other things.

proper tasks to all of them, would give them necessary care and counseling to utilize their expertise for our challenging programmes. Also I would like to add here that it is not necessary for each one of us to work in the area we think we have specialized. Basically I feel strongly that we train all our students to become scientists and engineers and they are well prepared to undertake any task assigned to them in the area of science and engineering. Many of us, at ISRO have progressed our career precisely like this; i.e. we did not start our work in the area we thought we have specialized. But, we are all quite satisfied with our contributions and happy

where we are today. So, it should be your capability to learn and your confidence to take up the challenges.

TSR: The current 4th year students would really like to know if the placement distribution/vacancies in the various centers will be the same for the next year.

BNS: I would imagine that it would be almost similar to what has happened this year. Maybe they would apply a little correction here and there, depending on the experience they gain and feedback from centres. The number of posts can vary depending upon the number of posts available at various centres. It need not be the same every year. It is a dynamically changing situation.

TSR: Is there any chance of IIST students being posted in ANTRIX, the commercial arm of ISRO?

BNS: Yes, certainly, why not? But, it depends on the post availability. If there are posts and students are interested, then, they would be allotted. ANTRIX is a part of ISRO after all.

TSR: Is there any updates on the MoU signed with CalTech?

BNS: No, MoU has not been signed yet with CalTech. We were in the process of signing an MoU, but it could not be completed as there were many actions to be completed before getting the approval for M.S scholarship, to be instituted jointly by IIST and CalTech. Now, I understand that Department has got the necessary Government approval. I am sure that it will be signed soon and the students of final year batch would certainly benefit.

TSR: Can you tell us something about doing M.Tech or M.S while working in ISRO?

BNS: Well, I have always told you that ISRO encourages post-graduate studies, be it M.Tech, M.S or Ph.D. But, as of now, ISRO has certain restrictions, in terms of a minimum dwell period of 2-3 years, for fresh entrants. On these matters there is no hard and fast rule, the change may be possible depending on the management’s decision, but you can be rest assured that students who are genuinely interested will get an opportunity. Not only that, ISRO has a tie-up with premier institutes like IIT, IISc, etc. for higher studies. So, one can certainly continue the studies.

TSR: Are these higher studies allowed only in India or can they go abroad?

BNS: Yes, outside (India) is also

possible. But, you need to get the admission first , and then seek the leave. For example, I did my doctorate under Commonwealth scholarship after 6 years of joining ISRO. There are so many scientists who have gone abroad for higher studies.

TSR: Is there any preference for IIST students concerning higher studies when they join ISRO?

BNS: As of now, no. But, later on, they may think differently.

TSR: Could you give a final message to IISTians in general?

BNS: Well, my message for all of you is that we started IIST to mature as a world-class aerospace institution and it can happen only when all of you join hands- the faculty, the administration and all students. You need to develop facilities, centres of excellence commensurating with the stature of the institution. IIST has the big advantage of shaking hands with a giant scientific organization like Indian Space Research Organisation. You need to utilize this opportunity. I think we all have to work together to ensure that we make a difference. Otherwise, what is the use? It is like we also ran the race and we are no different from any other institution. Institutions are not built by just pumping money. Great Institutions are built by the entire team, by synergizing all efforts by faculty, administration and students. We need to encourage Innovation, kindle innovative thinking in students. Students certainly would come out with bubbling ideas if they are encouraged. I feel that even if a few miniscule in IIST succeed in generating such ideas, which are really path breaking, you have reached the top. So, my message is that build an IIST which is world-class, even better that MIT, Stanford etc. and be proud of being part of such an Institution.y

We should be able to launch (the GSLV with the indigenous cryogenic engine) by middle of next year.

TSR: How has your journey been so far after leaving IIST?

Dr. B.N.Suresh (BNS): Well, I would say that it has been pretty good. I am presently involved in several aerospace activities like LCA, National Civil aircraft, promotion of system engineering in major defense projects etc. in addition to ISRO tasks. In fact, that was the whole purpose of my shifting to Bangalore so that I get an opportunity to work in different projects of national importance. Apart from that, I am also pursuing hard to progress my Sringeri Project (where I am trying to establish a science centre). Although I have not progressed the way I wanted to in this project, I am happy that things are moving in the right direction. On the whole, I am quite happy with these various tasks I am presently involved and hope to contribute in my own way to the national programmes and also to society.

TSR: How has the work at Sringeri progressed?

BNS: We have been having frequent meetings time to time with all concerned and have firmed up several things like identification of the place, land, finalization of overall scheme, building plan and the details of various exhibits, science park etc. needed for the science centre. But, we need to get the finance; the basic grant from the Government of Karnataka. On that front, the progress is not very satisfactory but I am confident that it will happen very soon. May be in the next one or two months.

TSR: What current projects are you involved in the national aerospace agencies?

BNS: Yes, now I am deeply involved in several reviews of major aerospace projects of the country. For example, now I am chairing the National Civil Aircraft Technical Review Committee. This project is about building a 90-seater civil aircraft. Then, I am also involved in promoting the systems engineering aspects in various defense projects. There is the Light Combat Aircraft-version 2 and I am involved in looking at the control aspects. Of course, I spend considerable time in reviewing the ISRO launch activities as Chairman, Mission Readiness Review for PSLV and GSLV. For the past two days, I have been deeply involved in the review of GSLV-Mk III vehicle and mission, as the chairman of the committee. Then, I am moving to

SHAR in a day to review the launch of the next PSLV which would launch Megha-Tropiques, an Indo-French spacecraft.

TSR: Any updates on the cryogenic engine?

BNS: Yes, we have understood why that failure happened in the earlier flight. The failure committee has identified the problems and all corrective measures are being implemented. Hopefully, we should be able to launch by middle of next year. That is the target for GSLV.

TSR: The first batch of IIST has already been absorbed into various ISRO centers. Did you get any feedback from the centers regarding them?

BNS: I did not really have time to get any feedback, but I am certain that all ISRO centres would assign

news06 news 07opinion06 opinion 07Sense and simplicity

The opinion of an IISTian who preferred to keep his identity anonymous Welcome to IIST. To freshers and everyone else alike. This is not a how-to-survive-the-first-few-months course, so you can contin-ue reading. Thank you. Encountering nonsense in life is common. Encountering non-sense in the only space technology institute of the world’s sixth larg-est satellite fleet owning country is also common. What matters is how one deals with it. A lot has happened since the last issue. And a lot of it did not make any sense. Construction came to a halt, and as usual, promises were not deliv-ered. We don’t complain. We are partly used to it, partly tired of it and partly ashamed of it. But one must agree that changing rooms every semester is a problem. Especially when you have strict orders to put all your belongings in a sealed cardboard box. It became an issue when third year students exchanged rooms on their own and settled into the rooms peacefully all by themselves. Well, the rooms were shuffled just to promote national integration, which probably was lacking in the students who had been living here for two years. Also, interaction with other students would be low if one stays with only one room-mate all the time. Two is a much bigger number, isn’t it? This is the best promotion national integra-tion ever got, second only to ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’. Since most of us do not pay for our education here because we have signed a bond, some peo-ple like to think that our parents

have sold us to IIST. Well, why else would anyone make the students sign an affidavit which practically makes the students their slaves? A rule book had been provided to every student upon admission into the institute. We abide by it’s rules, written clearly in simple English, and not any particular person’s or designation’s verbal directives. Dear sir, saying “I am the warden, what I say is ( a) rule” does not make sense. Neither does giving threatening statements to students “main tum log ko chhodega nahi”.

How much authority is good au-thority? PMO does not mind show-ering money on us and the institute administration has no problems in providing students with amenities, e.g. Washing machines. Despite a system going on smoothly for the past four years, a contract is given to a laundry company. Students are expected to pay an average of a thousand rupees per month for laundry. Instead of going Anna Hazare about it, which would have been the case if this was any other institute, the students devised a plan which makes them pay only two hundred rupees per annum, if the machine is changed every year. Not bad for managers, are we? And yes, we have not yet started shirk-ing away from work. We would not let all of the other hostels stay locked, dirty and unattended while each tile shines and no belongings of previous occupants are visible in Ashwini hostel (wait, isn’t that where the first year students and

their parents landed?). With all the recent protests and movements going on, we tend to think. Even in the direction we don’t like to.

So, how to deal with the non-sense?1. Simplicity: Just avoid making things complicated. All of us know that “touching” a washing machine or a printer-copier would not break it. So, instead of going ballistic when you are using the machines properly and still being yelled at, keep your cool, get your work done, and get out. Taking offence is useless. Anything you do or say will be countered with the “everything is free” cliché, as if social service is being done.The catch is, many people do take things for granted. And all of us have to suffer. For those who fum-ble with the machines or are in a fix, kindly ask for help, it does not hurt. Do not let your arrogance and foolhardiness cost us our prized fa-cilities.

2. Stand up: Stand up for your-self, no one else will. Your hostel is not the place for any disciplinary action. The academic building is. Therefore, think before kneeling when your warden asks you to, even if the consequence is a disci-plinary committee meeting where his case will be presented as “dis-obedience of authorities”. If you can not present your case against a grown up man who threatens to commit suicide by biting his wrist, life will be tough.

3. Know: Know your rights and duties. Last semester, some lap-tops were taken from the then sec-ond year students by the con-cerned authorities for security checking. The word “concerned” is

important. The System Administra-tor had himself gone to every room and asked the students to cooperate, which they did. That however, does not authorise everyone who comes under the vast umbrella of adminis-

tration to walk into your room, pick your laptop up and “seize” it, when you know they’d hardly know what to do with it after opening the lid. The second year students complied because it was known that the lap-

tops were be-ing given to qualified and reliable peo-ple. Asking for the proper au-thority to ad-dress the con-cern is your right, and of-fering your help and coop-erating when the authority asks for it, is your duty.‘System’ is s o m e t h i n g we all like to blame. Becom-ing a part of it and making the required ‘changes’ is not a big deal. It is sensible and simple. Again, isn’t it easi-er said than done? Well then, isn’t eve-rything? y

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions expressed in the above article belong to the original author and do not neces-sarily reflect the opinions or policies of The Sounding Rocket and its editors.

Come to our side

We are hiringJoin the force

(This is what we look like usually)

<<team tSr is scouting for new talent. Writers and graphic design-ers, especially from the 1st

year, are welcome. Call/text tanveer at 09946050196 or mail us at thesoundingrocket@gmail.com.

intern08 opinion 09Getting over HA(u)L!A collection of anecdotes from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), where two

of our editors did their internFact 1: It's like going back to school, with the uniform and timings of 7am to 3pm.Fact 2: After lunch, all employees gather in the garden for a chitchat, which often ends by the guard blowing his whistle and weilding his baton signalling the end of the lunch break.Fact 3: Every alternate day, an at-tendant brings hundreds of pack-ets of milk. The purpose of the milk, we speculated, was as cool-ant in the machines, but it turned out that the actual purpose was to make the workers stronger.Fact 4: There is a tragic canteen for the employees and while our ISAC counterparts enjoyed lunch at Rs.5, we had to shell out 10 times the amount at HAL.

Fact 5: For entertainment value, all the people in our division were assigned nicknames by us. Our boss was John Cena (due to his loud voice, which proved to be the music announcing his arrival), the jovial guy who did no work other than imitate John Cena was Ba-tista, the attender was Rey Myste-rio, the young guy was Jamie Noble and the lady who always refused to help us was Laila.Fact 6: Helicopters belonging to HAL do a fly-by every hour to de-moralize the nearby BEML, who retaliate by parking their mon-strous 8-wheeler, left hand drive TATRA trucks near the HAL gate.Fact 7: After the advent of CAD, the drawing tables have been trans-formed into sleeping tables for that

quick nap after lunch.Fact 8: The response of the HR de-partment on the food complaint by a young north Indian HAL em-ployee - “Get Married”Fact 9: The favourite passtime at HAL is chatting with the Boss’ P.A provided she is hot.Fact 10: If you are completely job-less like Batista, you should call up your colleague from the office phone, scream at him in your boss’ voice, record it and show it off.Fact 11: If you are really famous, you will die of a dog bite.Fact 12: At 8.30am every Friday, you will get a Banana if you are a Hindu.Fact 13: An HAL engineer will take 15 minutes to google for Youngs Modulus of Elasticity for steel. y

We are all aware of the nu-merous attempts by the manage-ment to form student councils. Be-ing a fourth year student, I have seen many such councils/commit-tees come and go, and in some cas-es “never go”. If you search our in-stitute website today, you will get a list of Peer Group Members in Core Committees, consisting solely of students who have passed out of the institute. The latest attempts of reviv-ing these councils came when

Kournikova (name changed to pro-tect identity) went to the Director and asked for a cricket ball, which apparently is like going to the prime minister and asking for an anti cor-ruption bill. Quite understandably, the director was furious and asked for the sports council which, ac-cording to the IIST website, con-sists of Apoorv Mehta, CVSS Sow-mitra and four other IIST alumni. These people, being in different parts of India could not make it and an emergency meeting between the Dean of Student Affairs and the third and fourth years was con-

vened in the seminar hall to form the new councils. This meeting was so sudden that the author of this ar-ticle could make it only because he got a SMS from a certain GOV. Half of the junta did not even know about this meeting so, as expected, half the seminar hall was empty. Now, let us try to understand the seriousness of this situation. So, the meeting started and the usual stuff about the different councils and their responsibilities was told. What was again refused was any

real power in the hands of the stu-dent members of the council. As spiderman said “With great power comes great responsibility”, I would say “With no power comes no re-sponsibility” Ramiz Ahmad, a member of the Library Council says “I am a member of the Library Council but when it comes to recommending books for the library, I have to fol-low the same procedure as anybody else.” If one is a member of the li-brary council, then he/she should have the express rights to recom-mend books and the recommenda-

tions should also be accepted. One probable reason why the admin is not interested in giving powers to the students is because till now there was no basis for selection of the council members. You were in if you expressed interest. Instead, things would be better if there was a voting/selection process that gives the members some right to hold their post. In the aforesaid meeting, the Dean of student af-fairs gave some idea of a vague se-lection process consisting of inter-

views and stuff but I doubt if it would happen, given the fact that people are so bored with the same thing happening again and again that many did not even give their names for the posts. The junta will be interested only if a notice is is-sued with the list of all the councils that are hiring along with the pow-ers that will be bestowed upon the members of the respective coun-cils. M e a n w h i l e , C o u n c i l members do get free samosa and chai in the meetings so I guess no-body's complaining. y

Counselling the Student Councils in IISTA satirical take on why student councils fail by

tanveer ali

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions expressed in the above article belong to the original author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of The Sounding Rocket and its editors.

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extracurriculars food & fun 11

Navjot & Mohsin’s Restaurant Reviews

Episode-2

ICLIndian Cricket League(who watches it??) No!! IIST Cricket League.

Valiamala: Cricket is definitely a religion here, atleast considered by a few. ICL has four teams with totally weird names(no offence!!). The list includes Amigo United, The A-team, Dream Destroyers and Legend Killers. Thanks , to the huge delay in construction work of playground, students of IIST get an opportunity to visit VSSC to play their matches. The best part of this league is that it matches with almost every sec-tion of the IPL, including the bid-ding part except the cheerleaders. Virtual money was used which went on to a huge value of 6 crores.

Overall, 6 matches have been played till date with Legend Killers leading the chart. The admin must be thanked for al-lowing the students to start such things in college and also the en-thusiastic students who are ready to go all the way down to VSSC for such cricket matches. This is not the end of it, the institute also boasts of hosting IFL(football) and IVBL(volleyball). Though National football league and 'unknown' vol-leyball leagues in our country are not as grand as IPL, lets hope that IFL and IVBL go on a roll. y

Making A DifferenceOr as we prefer to call them, MAD!

Valiamala: Six IISTians have become a part of Make A Difference (MAD), an Organization of young people work-ing amongst orphans and other underprivileged kids to provide them with quality education. MAD is India’s fastest-growing youth volunteer network, empowering the under-privileged through edu-cation. MAD volunteers spend 2 hours a week teaching the kids. The re-cruitment for new MAD-dies was conducted on 7th and 8th of August. About 150 in all and 15 from IIST partici-pated in the recruitment program. The final list included 6 “mad” peo-ple of IIST namely Archana Ravin-dran, Arvind Vairavan, Bishwajit

Gogoi, Geethu Neelor, Rachana Reddy and Tanveer Ali. The re-cruitment session was a fun-filled one which tested the capabilities,

talents and of course madness of the partici-pants. MAD is not just about volunteering work and social ser-vice, it’s much more. An All Volunteer Meet was conducted on the 14th of August as an ice-breaker followed by Independence day celebrations on the 15th of August which again were totally mad and mind-blowing. The six of them are headed towards an ex-citing journey. Want to Make. A. Dif-

ference?? Become M.A.D!! Reg-ister yourself at www.makeadiff.in and you will get a call when the next volunteer drive is happening at Trivandrum. y

Hot CHix

1 km from Kowdiar junction in the

direction of Ambrosia

M:N

Value for money 5:4

Quality of food 3:3

Ambience 6:4

Service 5:7

Must try- Abstaining

My dear enemies, please try the hot dog at hot chix. Because“The enema of my enemy is my friend”

My dear friends, there are no hot chicks. Our experience was what can best be described as gooey mc-flooey, and after that thooey thooey

ratings

recommendations

duetto

Beside All Spice Restaurant

M:N

Value for money 7:7

Quality of food 8:7

Ambience 9:8

Service 8:9

Must try:

Lemon ice– Nothing beats the heat

of Trivandrum like a glass of lemon

ice.

Tiramisu–An Italian dessert which

is an absolute treat.

Its good to see a sizeable ice cream

joint in our beloved city-that-is-

20-fudging-kms-away. Worth a visit

after a food session.

ratings

recommendations

In our endeavour to provide you with information about food choices in and around Trivandrum city, we will present you with what we feel is the best way to spend your money and gastric juices. All numerical ratings are on a scale of 10(10 being impossibly impres-sive, seeing as we are difficult to please).

byarvind vairavan

byarvind vairavan

The four team jerseys

The Trivandrum Chapter of M.A.D

Location

Location

StatuSsimble

1First PrizeKerala is the only place where it rains heavily...for a minute.

(After the unusually heavy rains on a Sunday afternoon)

2Second PrizeLaugh till you have teeth, You can smile later ;D

(Experience dictates the person who posted this status)

Quotable QuotesQuotes that brought a

smile :)

1. "If one person dies, it is death, if everyone dies, it is marriage"-A prof on learning that no one had a calculator in class

2. "IIST is under threat"-DOSA(Dean of Student Ac-tivities) on being asked as to why there are so many security guards on campus

3. "You can call that Rahman guy"-Registrar voicing his opinion for the pronite at a Dhanak meeting

3Third Prize

Third prize illa.

(After sifting through 3 months of up-dates, we couldn't find one)

10

intern12 random 13

IIST:The Good: Super high speed inter-net, masala papad in mess, free ac-commodation, day starts at noon.The Bad: Your report never finish-es in time due to your tendency to procrastinate.The Ugly: Valiamala and closed canteen.The inside dope: Nothing much.

HAL-ASD, Bangalore:The Good: Located inside Banga-lore. Likeable Guides.The Bad: Starts at 7am in the morning, HAL food is tragic un-less you like Ragi Balls and heavy frisking by security (even beats air-port frisking).The Ugly: Accommodation is not provided by HAL. You need to find a Paying Guest facility which is hard unless you know people in Bangalore.The Inside Dope: Don’t expect to see anything related helicopter or fighter plane in the Aerospace divi-sion. You’ll only get to see good old GSLV and PSLV parts being manu-

factured.

ARIES (Aryabhatta Research In-stitute of Observational Scienc-es), NainitalThe Good: The best view ever. Also, the dark nights are great, that is, if you are an astronomy fan.The Bad: Nainital is not as “fair” as you thought.The Ugly: Difficult to get a chance to see their 104 cm telescope thanks to incessant rain.The inside dope: IIST students doing their intern there knew more general astronomy than some of the ARIES Ph.D. students.

VSSCThe Good: You get hands-on ex-perience of cutting edge projects. The guides are very knowledgea-ble, especially the ones in Avionics departments.The bad: Travelling daily to Veli with 12 hour workdays. Lots of redtapism.The ugly: Few people tend to talk bad about IIST infront of IISTians.

Inside dope: Nothing special.

LPSC, Valiamala:The Good: The instructors are al-most always busy. So, most of the time, you are free.The Bad: The CISF guards are the most unfriendly and have no re-gard for IISTians.The Ugly: Nothing.Anecdote: One of the interns was waiting for his instructor in the lobby the day after the launch of PSLV, when a person walks up to him and shakes his hand and con-gratulates him on the successful launch. The intern is shocked, and it turns out that person was Direc-tor, LPSC.

ISAC, Bangalore:The Good: Decent guides. All the pretty girls in ISRO work at ISAC.The Bad: The accommodation was at the ISRO staff quarters, which was in a poorly maintained state.The Ugly: Nothing.

Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar, Gujarat:The Good: Awesome staff. Good, cheap food and friendly security.The Bad: Atomic Physics. Good for geeks only.The Ugly: Accommodation is not provided by IPR. You need to find a Paying Guest facility which is impossible unless you have a local with you.The inside dope: You get two big Gulab Jamuns for Rs. 8 for dessert.

Thanks to all the people who gener-ously contributed to this article. y

Everything you wanted to know about the IIST approved summer internship centres across India

A bird's eye view of ARIES, Nainital

This photograph was taken during Attukal Pongala, Trivandrum

Mail in your photographs to thesoundingrocket@gmail.com. The best of the lot will be printed in the next issue.

The Blame GameWhy the delay in bringing out this issue of TSR? Let the blames begin!

Camera: Canon EOS 1000DF-stop: f/5.6

Exposure time: 1/500 sec.ISO: 100

Blames on Shashank

Was busy commenting on people's fb statuses. Don't mistake him for a vehla com-menting fb troll though. It's not the commenting which entices him, but the pleas-ure of sending people boogie notifications by deleting his comments immediately. His new found love for rage com-ics also deserves a mention. Check out his facebook wall for some of his virginal work.

He was getting headaches; the reason for which cannot be disclosed here. He is also busy packing for his US trip, which is scheduled in January.

He is busy reading girl's blogs.

Blames on TanveerHe loves meetings. Now that he is in the fourth year, his conscientia meeting days are pretty much over and he misses them. So, he calls meetings for TSR. A lot of them. Although, it has been seen that most of the meet-ings have the same result: all four of us ad libbing "haan, koi nahi, woh toh main likh dunga".Just before lunch, he makes it clear that TSR will come out that weekend no matter what. Calls a meeting for that night and almost always it ends up in my room (wonder why?) But, as usual the meet-ings always turn into gossip sessions.He needs to learn how to chill.

Blames on Ankesh

The most hard working editor, who never tires. If it wasn’t for the trivia he enter-tains us with, in the middle of work, TSR would have prob-ably been out. He is seen in action at quiz club’s quizzes every Friday, his namaaz.

He did attend all the meet-ings. And in every meeting he told us to search the meaning of the word 'c***iya' on urban dictionary. If you are jobless, you can go and do the same.

He needs a new bluetooth headset.

Blames on NavjotRage Comics. Y U No guy. Courage Wolf. Philosiraptor. LOL Jesus. Dating site mur-derer. Socially awkward pen-guin.Pedobear. High Expecta-tions Asian dad. And his own, TTT series. Though TTT's true target was pretty much traumatised by the memes, the rest of us started enjoying the show when he too replied with memes. The complete battle can be seen at www.facebook.com/tambenavjot.He was busy flying high. And when he wasn't, he spent the time making cartoons or gos-siping.And yeah, we almost forgot, Navjot Singh is a procrastinat-ing hypocrite.

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Across2. into the unknown...(11)7. College challan (4)8. Notforthefirst3batchesofIIST(4)9. Professoremeritus(5)10. The soul reason for most of the students to go to

classes(10)13. UsuallyreleasedonIISTday(10)17. Chairman,IPCC(9)19. TallestbuildinginIIST(7)21. Greenhouse(8)

Down1. ProposedobservatoryforIIST(7)3. Wednesdaymatinee(7)4. anexamonewouldneverwanttoappearfor(13)5. MiniDhanak(9)6. Sabkapyarawarden(5)11. CradleofIIST(4)12. Happenstwiceeverysem(4)14. Middlenameoftheformerdirector(7)15. Nonetin_____(7)16. YouhavetoBRIDGEintoit(6)18. amrikipariyojana(4)20. Jeans=Rs7/-Handkerchief=Rs2.5/-(3)

The cartoons displayed are a work of fiction. Resemblance to any person(s), living, dead or IISTian is purely coincidental