2007, the Year in Review…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under FIITJEE Pinnacle, General, Headshot, School Life
A brief summary of whatever happened in, around and slightly beyond me in an almost chronological order can be read below. But before that, have a look at the most noticeable change for me in this year, a new TFT Monitor which gives a totally new look to my room…
The Bored Exams
Here in India, the exams in the end of class 10th are conducted by the Govt. and a common paper is attempted by the masses. This gives everyone a wide platform to evaluate the relative scores. Its a very crucial exam in terms of career making. CBSE is world-recognised standard of examination. Delhi, has a unique paper for itself though. For this big test, our schools prepare us with a series of exams called the Pre-Boreds, where our teachers keep the difficulty sky-high and check the paper without the use of their spectacles. So we end up scoring embarrassing marks looking at which we burn our butts and dive into our books.
Many in my batch left everything, attained Nirvana and started burning butts since the beginning of the year. I, the laziest, the most carefree didn’t have the bell ringing 5 days before the actual bored exam. When it finally rung, I did a good amount of quality study and my exams went well with me scoring a decent 86.4% as the average of the five subjects. If it wasn’t for my English, which is as bad as Russian is to a South American, I would have scored a comfortable 90%+ of a score… anyway, how does it matter today..?? I have a decent score in the subjects that matter…
@ the Pinnacle…
Here in India, there is an engineering institution which has the capacity of around 5000 freshers. And it turns out that almost each and every dámnëd science student wants to be one of those 5000. So they filter the excess students out with the world’s toughest Engineering Entrance Exam called the IIT-JEE. People drop out from schools, attain Nirvana in their coaching institutes, sacrifice and leave everything behind to prepare and do well in this test of wit, knowledge, intelligence, aptitude and patience.
It seems that I am supposed to be one of these people and I leave my old school Ramjas behind to join a full-time IIT-JEE training camp called the Pinnacle, by the pioneers themselves - FIITJEE. With lots of nostalgia, hesitation and doubt, I was inside FIITJEE. FIITJEE stands for Forget Forum for IIT-JEE. At my new school, I study with some of the brightest minds coming from different corners of the country, the most brilliant of teachers I might have ever come across, and periodically give in some of the most gruelling tests to keep me grinding till I get sharp enough to make fine cuts through the IIT-JEE paper. From here, starts a new section dedicated to my time @ the Pinnacle.
ThinkQuest 07: A flop show!
Not that Jaspal Bhatti won it, but then sincere efforts of a website were failed. Anyway, we aimed at finishing a 7 month long project in 13 days after the boreds. But even then, we had quite a blast making stuff up for the site with me leading the content. We got a Certificate of Achievement by Oracle for this and not for Participation even though we lost it as they were impressed by the work we did in such a short time, et all.
End of DX, begining of GeekeD!
Right from here started a close bond with Varun Mishra, Gaurav Marmat and a few more geeks not widely seen in the symposium arena. They had talent. Varun and Gaurav were master web-spinners and painters. Me, with a little bit of grinding might do something in quizzes/crosswords/GDs. We decided to band up and represent Mouse Caramel in all symposiums of 2007. We called ourselves GeekeD! and although we had ambitious plans that didn’t work out, 2007 was a great start to our clan.
School Quizzing and IIT-Prep…
At my new school, I found a bunch of NTSE Scholars, School Quizzers, BQC national champs, and guys with tons of talent and aptitude. Forming a new quizzing team, we banded together to go in for the school quizzes happening all around Delhi. We gave our shot at SCOQ, ATF-E, and Fundamental. We couldn’t make to quite a few due to several reasons. The results were encouraging though. This was the first time that these guys were exposed to trivia and workoutable quizzes from the conventional fact-based quizzes.
Parellally, we stuck a balance with our IIT Prep. Class 11th and IIT Prep are entirely different from the way people prepare for the boreds. IIT is a mind game, a person has to be observant, analytical, and smart. That means every concept about Physics, Chemistry and Maths should be crystal clear. That takes a different approach altogether, a different way of study. And I just love it… 
LuminaR grows and becomes The LuminaR…
LuminaR becomes a blog owned by two people now. Uma, a close friend, a deep thinker, and a witty writer makes LuminaR her home in cyber-space alongside me. LuminaR then goes forward to become the 3rd blog in the world to review Rowling’s last book.
LuminaR, due to quite a few reasons, shifts from its home in the Wordpress.com servers to a personal home at Dreamhost. Courtesy Roshan, a person who changed my life in more than one way, cooperated to share his host with me and now I no longer had complains with my blog. I purchased a custom domain from GoDaddy and an all new blog, with an all new feel is presented in front of you!
DynamiX 2007, We grew up!
We people, i.e the current students of Ramjas independently organized the DynamiX 2007 Symposium which was unexpectedly a success. Both contributors from The LuminaR were deeply involved in its organization. It was a wonderful experience for both me and Uma.
Achievements/memories in the end…
With not much success with school quizzes, and Uma not there with me in tech quizzes, I didn’t expect much from symposiums. In the first 3 symposiums I attended, I got nothing but disappointment. But later, with a little bit more patience, we won a PC for ourselves at Code Wars, which was a turning point. Later at Access, I came runners up in the quiz single handedly. There I learnt that the field is almost open for me this year; with just a handful of schools to beat next year, I leave my last symposium of the year with hopes of me becoming the king of the ring next year, in both computer symposiums and school quizzes. A total of 6 trophies, and prizes worth nearly 20k in all, 2007 was a nice year for me to remember…
Tons of new friends, hoards of new people, some of the older ones got closer, few drifted. I loved the way things went in the year 2007. I just hope it gets even better this time… Wish the same for everyone.
For my fantastic family, friends, film makers, FOSS, and a few forgotten fellas… may fun, frolic and freedom flow freely as a fish or a flying finch. Phew! Finally Finishes.
PS: I found the New Year’s Google Doodle quite interesting. Nice to see how one picture signifies celebration for the year 2008, and the 25th year of TCP/IP together. Check it up… 
Pinnacle my route, Pinnacle my destiny…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under FIITJEE Pinnacle
Woah, what a neat title I must say. Perhaps its the first title that truly meant what I want to say. So, first let me tell you people that now I AM NO MORE A STUDENT OF RAMJAS. Leaving that, I have joined FIITJEE Pinnacle.
What is FIITJEE Pinnacle..?? (for dummies)
Pinnacle is FIITJEE’s flagship program for training to clear IIT-JEE, AIEEE, and many other competitive examinations. It aims at a time-saving integrated approach to spending the most crucial two years of any Indian kid who has taken Science well. According to this program, a child who has chosen to be a part of this will get IIT Training as well as school (CBSE) studies at the same place, and by the same teachers. There are other approaches where a person studies in the school of his choice and chooses to go to a coaching center after school. Here, its different. Some of FIITJEE’s best teachers train us for entrance examinations during school hours. The center for all this would be a decent school taken on lease by FIITJEE.
What do I feel..??
Before the classes actually started, I went to FIITJEE’s pre-course classes held at Laxman Public School. And at that time itself, I realized that this program is for me! I met my peergroup there and also had demonstration classes to just give me an idea about how, and what to do in class 11th.
So on the 7th of April, I had my first session at Kalka Public School, which is FIITJEE’s leased centre. Before going there, I had feelings that I might land up in some govt. schools. Moreover, friends and aquaintances were scaring me even more about how bad the school actually is. I kept my fingers crossed saying the same thing in mind again and again - “Should I have retaliated a bit more?”.
So then I did land in at KPS, and what do I see? A school better than the previous ones in some aspects? A school with a separate floor for FIITJEEians (A/C-ed) ? A school with swimming pool and a decent sized football pitch? What more? Some of the best FIITJEE faculty guiding us? What else do I need to be happy? - Ah, yes, the computer lab! But whats the point, I took physical education as my fifth subject thus, chucking computers. (Believe it or Not!)
But then, I have my advantages by joining this. I don’t have to come from school all tired and exhausted and run to a coaching center immediately after putting food in the mouth. I don’t even have to come home in an even more energy devoid situation at around 8-9 in the night only to know I have some homework left. I am home and all free by about 2:45 PM. So, I have time for my homework, I have time for my computer time, cricket for pass-time and perhaps even a nap. Life is just like daily schooling to me!
With absolutely fabulous teachers and possibly the most brilliant peer group, I have nothing to complain about. Still, I do feel nostalgic about Ramjas. I did have great time there to be frank. Got introduced to the world of techie computing, symposiums and even made some life-long friends. I still love you Ramjas! I need some more blessings from readers though. I am very much aware of the many things that I might lose by choosing this instead of a conventional school. I hope this big risk (gulp) as well as this tough sacrifice (isn’t that too big of a word?) pays off. 
