Bye Bye Shaastra...

I never thought I would say this but it has indeed happened. I, who have shunned Shaastra and everything associated with the supposed grand techfest, am coming to miss this blessed event for as of today I shall never get to savour another Shaastra as a IITian student. ( *Fingers crossed * :P)

In my mind, Shaastra was always associated with some things. The first thing that I think about when someone says Shaastra is a group of 20 year olds wearing old dirty tshirts and even dirtier jeans having a heated discussion about the use of transisters and op-amps while constructing a robot which can self-manouerve itself through some obstacle course. And since we're dealing with IITians maybe even a humanoid robot capable of ummm...things. I'm not refuting the validity of the statement as of yet, but initially that was all I could think of. Another thing I correlate with Shaastra is RKK. Don't ask, won't tell. (Don't know!?!)

Slowly as the years progressed, (umm there were but 4 but then there has to be some studness to this rather elaborate narration, so gen stretching time :P), I started to respect the hard work and dedication of the millions of teeming coordinators and their superior cores who occupy rather near-sinecure positions of responsibility... (you learn a new word everyday :D) Truth be told, I always considered Saarang, the ostensible Mother of all culfests (read evil) humunglously and better organised than Shaastra. Wait... I still consider that. But now, somewhat in a way that is more respectable to the latter. Just sleisha more. ;)

This year was different. Until now perhaps from the inherent disrespect for it all or from just lethargy or a combination of both, I have but attended one event at Shaastra. But this year, I sought to end this tradition with a fierceness in comparison of which King Arthur would be but a hypochondriac green frog which is afraid of flies. (!?!) In fact, I started well ahead of the actual Shaastra days. Starting with the popular Simulation Championship, I participated in like a trillion events of which I entered the finals in SimChamp, Math Modelling (Umm, second round...fundaes follows) , Programming contest, Swat the Bug and of course, Game Drome Quake. In the first two, unavoidable circumstances (read boredom of the problem, enthulessness, Google PPT and quake) made it unable for me to attend the actual events.

Fortunately I did attend the remaining others of which I was lucky to come third in the Prog Contest (yeah yeah yeah, finally :D) as well as come second in Swat the Bug (how did this happen :-/) . ~2K bucks :$. (Though Raj won ~4K) And Ow Ow Ow, unnecessary kicks to the posterior for the same ensued. As far as Quake finals go, I can't really say when they are going to take place. In any case second place atleast (actually first wonly, but then some nefarious characters are on the loose, so \etc\ won't go around making arbit statements...!..) .

Shaastra was quite enjoyable actually. For one, the events seemed to be stimulating and entertaining, the surroundings significantly more pleasing for the eye than under normal circumstances (heard: hey there are babes here da! someone tell them they are 3 months too early :P ), the prizes lo wonly and finally the airconditioning almost utopic.

I suppose the best part of Shaastra was indeed gamedrome. Whatever some people may say about the cuppax comps/mouse(s)/sound/etc (lo, another one) , the whole atmosphere was awesome. When you play 4 on 4 ctf with all the 8 players sitting at shoulder's length from each other, shouting expletives (and in the case of some, the word "expletive" ;nothing more :P), the game is truly electric. Even though the not-so-optimal systems meant reduced performance by most of the players, it was indeed really good. Awesome.

The above para is dedicated to all quake players, past and present. Basically sentiputs. :O


And thus, Shaastra ended. A fun time. A rewarding time. Both monetarialy and for memories.

Ya baby.