The Assassination of Tech GC
This article is Part One in a two part GuestAve series by IIT Kharagpur alumnus, Dr. Aloke Kumar, in conjunction with The Scholars’ Avenue. It can be read as a standalone article but it is advised that the reader read Part Two: The Revival of Tech GC after this to understand in a better context all the ideas presented in this article.
“Yeh batane se pehle tu mar kyun nahi gaaya” said Ranajay disconnecting promptly. We never talked about it again. He was reacting to news I had just delivered to him — KGP’s Tech GC now had events called ‘Biz Quiz’ and ‘Ad Design’.
Why did he react like that? Allow me to step back a little, 17 years to be precise. It was July 2000, when I ran into Ranajay outside the majestic old building on the hallowed grounds of what we lovingly refer to as KGP. Fresh from JEE, we were both first year undergraduate students in the Mechanical Engineering Department*. KGP underwent many changes during this year, perhaps more than in any year since it was established. The campus was preparing for its golden jubilee celebrations and receiving millions of dollars in donations from generous IIT alumni[1]. The campus was abuzz with construction as LAN cables were being laid to accommodate the new subsidized computers that were arriving on campus due to the generosity of our alumni, who wished to see IIT truly transformed into a world-class institution. While Ranajay and I were of the same batch and would later end up in the same hall (RP), our intellectual paths were not to cross for another three years.
A couple of ‘stud’ seniors recruited me, in the very first year, as a junior member in the P-team (Spring Fest -SF). I became a full member of the team the following year. The Spring Fest organization took up quite a bit of my time, though I did not immediately complain since the position bestowed a mild celebrity status (it probably still does), and we had been told that P-team members were guaranteed easy entry into the saboon-tel-beedi bechna type careers later. While this prospect enthused many of my fellow P-team members, I became increasingly repelled. It seemed like a disgusting end to a glorious profession; a profession paved by the likes of Aristotle, Newton, Einstein, Bose and nurtured by technophiles like Jobs, Gates and Musks of today. Understandingly, the deeply unsatisfied techie inside me was unwilling to embrace the life of a salesman of cheap soap and cigarette brands. Searching for any events or people to assist me achieving my techie dreams, I came to the realization that there were none. KGP’s ‘intellectual’ field was dominated by SF and Soc-n-Cult ‘studs’, who were content with indulging in all things that were not tech.
As I entered my 3rd year at KGP, I still clung to my tech dreams. My years of frustrated waiting were finally rewarded in 2003 when my wingie Saket Kumar became VP Gymkhana (03–04). Tech GC had been one of his proposals, and now that he was VP he was determined to implement it and Tech GC, Tau, was born[2]. I was asked to be RP Hall’s coordinator and was put in charge of selecting individual event captains and the intra-hall organization. In that capacity, I approached Ranajay to lead Pi, the Product Design Competition. That year, Pi was planned as a closed-door event since we did not expect Soc-n-Cult seeped KGPians to have much interest in it. However, Saket insisted the event be telecast live on the campus LAN. Viewership for the event surpassed all estimates and expectations to the point of causing a brief system-wide crash! RP took first prize and Ranajay and his team received a hero’s welcome back at our hall.
Other events continued to excite KGP junta and cement the new festival’s place in the hearts of the tech-minded, this first coming together of KGP’s tech consciousness, as it embraced Tech GC, will always shine as a defining moment in my life. RP’s entry to Alpha, the analog circuits event, was captained by Yogesh and RP won the first prize in that event. Yogesh, PGM of our class and now a MIT alum, is today a successful Bay-area entrepreneur.
This essay is not meant to be a historical account of the first Tech GC. The point I am trying to make is that Tech GC was not designed as a resume builder exercise for the socially inept geek. Rather, it was an event for the hardened techie, who at one moment could quote from Rashmirathi without batting an eyelid, and in another discuss the complexities of jet engines. In 2005, as Saket and I kissed KGP bhoomi goodbye, we hoped that in some small way we had been able to repay the debt of our alumni.
Fast forward 17 years to find me staring at a Scholars’ Avenue article which talked about a Tech GC event called ‘Ad Design’. Shocked, I called up Ranajay to share my disappointment. He casually, almost matter of factly, replied that it must have been a misunderstanding — perhaps a typo for ‘App Design’. I cleaned by glasses, peered again, phoned around and, tragically, it was not a mistake. Through the years I had kept in touch with Ranajay since we had a lot in common — we were both proud nerds and neither of us was a gentleman (by choice). With a heavy heart, I dialed Ranajay again to deliver the bad news and shatter his complacence.
After a moment of silence, he retorted “Yeh batane se pehle tu maar kyun nahi gaaya” and the line disconnected.
Tech GC had been assassinated and there are two bullet holes right next to its heart. One reads ‘Biz quiz’ and another reads ‘Ad Design’. Another injury is from an abomination called ‘Case Study’. Currently, Tech GC is in the ICU and is in an immediate need of a good doctor (Doctor Who perhaps).
Frankly, I have not kept track of KGP’s hall culture and Tech GC history over the years. Yet, the very presence of these events is indicative of the deep disconnect of KGP junta with the reality of the tech world and that somewhere, something went horribly wrong. How else can we explain the sharp contrast in the global tech world and the happenings at KGP? We are living in the golden age of technology. Many things, which passed for science fiction a few decades ago, are the realities of today! Smart phones have spurred a global revolution in connectivity, internet use is the norm rather than the exception. Electric cars are a reality and not a science fiction story. In the west, conferences are being organized to discuss the intersection of eastern philosophy with the most challenging question of all — consciousness. Perhaps sometime in the not too distant future, we will be able to switch consciousness from one body to another and experience Pandora’s beauty with the Na’vi. Or we might be headed for a disastrous future, with Skynet opening its eyes somewhere in the murky depths of the internet and trying to make sense of all the digital data. Away from the chaos of daily life, space-age’s second avatar is finally knocking on our doors. Today, thanks in part to Mangalyaan, Mars seems closer than ever even as Voyager 1 & 2 become the first made-made objects to travel outside of the solar system. Is Interstellar really all that far away?
But in sharp contrast to global currents surrounding technology, KGP’s Tech GC’s inclusion of retro 1990s events points to a disconnect. Perhaps this is because even now in KGP, saboon-tel-beedi and bahi-khaata (read banking) jobs are the local reality. Perhaps I am being too harsh since in popular imagination a Techie is still the IT guy, as evidenced from the fact that many (if not all) of India’s top startups are essentially rip-offs. But wasn’t KGP’s first brick laid imagining the inception of a new era?
Will the hardened Techie please stand up?
Disclaimer
The article is based on true events. The essay expresses the author’s personal views and opinions.
About the author
Dr. Aloke Kumar is currently the Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics for Biological Systems and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada. Prior to that, he was the Wigner fellow at Oak Ridge National Labs, Tennessee, USA. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 2005 and his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA in 2010.
Notes:
*Ranajay Ghosh, now an assistant professor at UCF (USA), was in Mech B.Tech (00–04), while I was in Manu Dual (00–05). Saket Kumar was in Maths & Computing (00–05) and Yogesh in Thoka B.Tech (00–04)
References:
1. “IIT Foundation Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2003” at www.iitfoundation.org
2. (As best as I can recall) The first Tech GC (tau) had 6 events. 1. Pi — Product
Design, 2. Alpha — Analog Circuits, 3. Mu — Maths Olympiad, 4. Gamma — Game Design, 5. Chi — Chemical Challenge 6. Phi — Physics Olympiad
