Unforgettable Valentine day of 2009…

March 16, 2009 at 3:50 am (Experiences) (Amirtha, ASB, Pragati'09, Rams & Ujwal, Technocratz)

hi friends,

I want to make this post, way before, but, couldn’t do it bcos, Synapse ’09, then followed by semester exams,…. now, i am all set free… so thought of coming back into the blogging world…. and here i am….

Why this year’s  valentine day is unforgettable for me…?

– got any proposal…?

– proposed some one….?

then what…? (those good things didnt happen at all…)

 i was in Amirtha School of Business for a Manmeet, and myself teamed up with first year Ujjwal Bagaria have won Two first prizes  in the Systems Panel (Technocratz)… Cool…. Now lets get, how the things went in Amirtha and journey of winning two first prizes for the first time….

A Lucky Break:

I was in the mindset, i am not going to go for any Manmeets this semester, (went for 2 r 3 but cudnt make any merry in it)… so decided its better to step out and pave way for some new legs to walk thru… so just kept quiet, When KrishnaKumar (Manmeet co ordinator of our class) asked who r all interested for Amirtha, just let it go and didnt care abt it a lot…. But i guess, its 11th evening, Krishna was finalizing the Manmeet list for Amirtha in the Synapse room with Jayanthan (one more wizard in our class), me just sitting for some other mailing work for Synapse, tat time they were lacking/confused in choosing a person for systems panel, just a click (something stuck me, in tamil patchi solluchu), i said i ll join if they r really lacking a person…. and yes, the team is formed and i am in with ujjwal bagaria for systems panel.

 

Next day, after a hectic work schedules (for synapse), finally made myself available in the bus stand by 8.50 i guess… in the middle i must thank Krishna Kumar for a gr8 job in getting the amount for registration… (really he had struggle for a whole day, guys who got amount from govt institution’s will know the pain), k coming back to story, finally reached cbt by 6.30 and went to the ASB hostel by 7.30 and got ready for the first day (13.2.2009)… 

DAY 1: (13.02.2009)

As always, Krishnakumar opened the winning account for DMS – Pondicherry University, by winning first prize in Operations panel, and the other panels were going on till the days end, and came my turn, (my heart pounded, this is ur last turn to prove, if u miss, u miss all), i went on with the same feeling and my clock was tickling around 2.30pm….

First day’s Systems panel was titled Carnet de Voyage – which was named after the adventurous journey took by Che guvera, we registered ourselves and sat infront the system tat we were allocated, and its told, its a game based one, where we will have 15 levels to clear one by one, who clears 15 level in least time wins…. cool….  

we got started and its almost a mind busting one, got to work out our grey cells a bit, plus previous knowledge in puzzle solving and treasure hunting experiences helped me a lot…. hurrah v finally won the game comfortable just in 2 hours and 7 mins…. tats a gr8 show for the day to start… and then we were asked to come back by 5.30 for a view about the next day game in systems panel… we went on, there they hinted it may be a treasure hunt based systems game. Lets c….

later in the day, went for a cultural event arranged by ASB, its a fine show nicely done… Njoyed and came back and slept peacefully….

Day 1 was ok for DMS, got two first prizes and overall scoreboard read 200 points (100 points for 1st, 50 for 2nd and 25 for 3rd) standing second after SDM-IMD with 225 points.

DAY 2: (14.02.2009)

Myself and ujjwal started bit early from the hostel and had a glimpse around the campus and know the places, so that it would be easy for us if the game for us is based on treasure hunting, had to walk thru the campus fully and noted down all the places in mind and in mobile photos to help us out…. we were very sure, we need to win this game too…..

i guess by 10.30, Day 1 left out results came, and v lost in marketing panel (but i must really mention Jayanthan who put a gr8 show in this game, he was very much disappointed)… ya it happens, never mind he went for quiz prelims, and unfortunately we were not able to see it , bcos we too had prelims for our systems game (actually i was surprised a bit and taken back, when they said only  four will be selected for the finals round), pressure was back and took the prelims, bit easy i shud say, as per our knowledge we did well and confident of making in the top four, but how well u know, how others have performed…. so still the suspense was on….

we went back to see the quiz, we were sure both krishna and jayanthan would have made to finals, and as expected they were in the stage with other five more teams… one question which answered by jayanthan seriously stunned the crowd and even the quiz master i guess, he thought it was a toughie, here the question goes, What is the item given by japanese before the exam to their children,which they felt was a lucky charm? and answered it cool, its Kit Kat chocolate, bcos, kit kat literally translated as “you will suerly win” in japanese… seriously not only me the whole crowd was stunned…. and i am proud of my friend…. They were leading till last round, last question, either u blame it on buzzer which was not working r on fate, they lost the last question and went on to become third in the end….

then we went back to check our prelims results, yes, we made it in the top four along with SDM-IMD, Rajagiri and Jansons school of business…. the gr8 hope came, while we were checking the results, the ppl from SDM-IMD, dont know that we were standing and told to themselves, cha these pondicherry university guys also made it and moments after heard exactly de same  words from jansons guys too…. now we know that we can be real threat and we were sure in winning the game…. got ourselves ready after having a very light meal (thought v may need to run arund) and went in by 2.00 pm…

AGENTS OF REDEMPTION:

Four other teams were already there, we were the last one to join them… we were given the laptop and set of instructions as Day 1… Game has four stages, wil last for 3 hours, who ever finishes first wins the game….

Stage 1:

To start off we were given the name as SEAL COMMANDOS, and they gave us a package, which consist of a jig jaw puzzle and  four x ray copy of some place puzzled in it….  u have to solve the cut down paper and find the code, yes we did that, the hidden word was CODE M 6240 and the combination of four x ray copies showed its a library… we went on to library and asked the person by telling the code, he told its a XML coding book, we were searching for that book for more than a hour i guess… couldnt find it…. later after an hour they gave us a clue, the same which we founded very earlier just de code no., they gave as clue, very much disappointed and went on to search again, this time v searched every rack in the library, ya v finally found the book , it had a card reading the code “THREE EYES”, we rushed back to the place were we had laptop and found that we have found only one half of the code and the other half was hidden in the journals section… what to do , ran again to library and searched for the other half of the code , find this one bit easier, but v also revealed the place for other two teams who were searching the code along with us…. the second half of the code read “HAVE I” …. entering that finally cleared the stage 1, i think v took abt 1.20 mins….

Stage 2:

Stage 2 started off wit a picture given in the systems particular location , cracked that and found its IT hub in the third floor and ran towards it by carrying whatever we had….  we were second team to reach ter…. they gave us a circular format puzzle ter, v need to crack it to find the password to enter the system, Ujjwal did tat job and v got in comfortable, v have to crack two puzzles more to get the code for stage 2, puzzle one was pretty simple, just u have to arrange 1-9 so tat in which ever u read the total sums up to 15, pretty simple and did it… then came the toughie, Read the following question and u ll fine how tough we had to break our minds, Paris starts with Pa and Ends with…. this is the question had no clue and thinking all the permutation and combination and thinking many things nearly 20 mins i guess…. later ujjwal was fed up, so i thought i wud try out all the possible words in the sentence and finally found the and its “EN” must say got it luckily… anyways cool…. then we were said to look below the keyboard for the next clue, it had a paper sticked to it and which said us to go to another system and switch on the monitor, oh my god one more puzzle to solve, i dont remember well, some how ujjwal solved it, seriously no clue how he did that…..  fine got the stage 2 code and its  “ALL IN A ROW”. Came back rushing to ground floor and entered the code and cleared the Stage 2, i guess it took us around 40 mins, so time was almost 2 hours over… and still v were second, SDM-IMD were leading…

Stage 3:

Real pressure was on us, for the next stage to start v were given a path to find in de system , i did that comfortable and i guess, v have to solve one more puzzle ther, then v had the blurred picture of second floor notice board, i guess right and its de notice board and v had the package waiting for us pinned in it…. Hurrah v were first to take this, so took the lead…. it had a big story written in wrong spellings here and there, and v got it, the words misspelled the code for stage 3,  we sat separately in the first floor and started solving it slowly, and found a wrong code first and went down rushing, later we know its wrong, so v started tracing back again, just a small mistake and we were able to rectify it soon and the code is “WHEN THE RED ONE OPENS” and successfully completed the stage 3, i guess v done it in 15 mins….

Stage 4:

Stage 4 started we were again given a package and it had a currency note and a full ET Newspaper and then in de system we had ten question for which ans was hidden inside the  full 16 page ET…. guess guys, how difficult to get the ans for 10 question which taken in de nook and corner of a paper, somehow cracked that too within ten mins and got the code “ALL FREEZE”

But v lost the lead here, again SDM-IMD took lead over us while searching…. after finding ans, we were given a scrambled puzzle again, this time its ujjwal again, he solved 3 words and i solved two i guess, it read “Get the package from canteen” and i ran to canteen, there thay asked for currency…. wat to do, ran again to take the currency note and came back to get the package (in the middle many ppl standing outside were cheering me for running fast…lol) and got the package, it had a cinthol bar soap and a cello pen in it, and the question in the screen says, Which is not important to human is more important…? i was very much sure, they were talking about bar code encrypted the soap, i tried it, but failed, later ujjwal tried something else, i guess v wasted another 15 mins, then they gave the clue, as expected its the bar code but its the one in pen is de ans, but i was trying only with soap….. wat ever cracked it and v thought its over, it went last ten mins in 3 hours time schedule, and v were second till then…. after cracking the previous, v had to solve a crossword puzzle and the answer is the first letter of ten question v solve…. its a system based quiz….   i guess v solved faster than SDM guys and gained the lead over them…. and got into the final stage, we were given 30 mins extra to complete the game, now,  all v needed is to enter the codes from the stage 1 to 4 together, v had all the codes except the one which we got in the library, it was missing…. 

Oh my god, how to tell that feeling, it actually really tough to express, you think you won but u lose bcos of a no reason …. searching the card v got in library here an there, everywhere went back to library, IT lab in third floor and even to canteen, couldnt find anywhere got vexed completely and SDM guys got the code and they were cracking next stage…. then i asked ujjwal u go and search the IT lab again in third floor , i guess v shud hav left it there only…..  so he went and searched and a person there was having it with him, when ujjwal asked, he gave him….  (i dont know, y i didnt ask him)…. Anyways the whole code combined together read as follows:

THREE EYES HAVE I,

ALL IN A ROW

WHEN RED ONE OPENS

ALL FREEZE

and by this time, SDM guys were disqualified since they were not able to crack the final question in time…..the final screen appeared it had Heath ledger (joker in Dark knights) photo, and it said, if u can solve this puzzle u ll win the game and the timer was running for 600 seconds…. yes the combination of code itself a puzzle…. We thought its lord siva, since bcos, when the third i opens, he ll kill the people, but, it wasnt the ans…. i am sure, it needed a out of box thinking, and while i was drawing that picture in the paper to visualize the scenes, Ujjawal came up with the ans, Yes its “Traffic Signal” and we won it i guess more than 450 seconds were remaining….  Yes its de second first prize and v have swept the Technocratz forum fully….  Cant express the feeling that i had at that time….

to add up to that , we both have grossed 12,000 bucks too….  gr8 news and a gr8 treat on the valentine’s day…..

 

Later in the day came one more unexpected happy news and results came out, Ajay, Chimay and durga have also won first prize in operations panel, which makes four first prize and dilip and somnath won third in finance game and Arun prakash, priyanka and Joy agarwal won third in HR game… and on total v have grossed 475 points… (4 first prizes and 3 third prizes), but v couldn’t make it to the top to become the overall winners, SDM-IMD won with just 50 points margin, any one game first would have made the difference…. anyways all r happy that , everyone (all 12) came walked out with atleast one prize to their name…  

We thought of waiting for valedictory ceremony later in the day, but, return bus tickets pushed us to skip the function and move to bus stand, actaully v made it neck to neck, bus has started and we exactly made it in time to catch it and came back to pondicherry with beautiful ASB memories…

and i should say we guys r lucky, exactly on the day of synapse, just before valedictory function would start, we got out certificates and prize money checks, and thanks to mam, who asked the hod to present the certificates on the stage…. we missed a valaedictory stage but we got another… really lucky… 

Finally written the experience in ASB in blog, actually planning it for many days and finally made it today, it took three hours i guess, nevertheless, its a beautiful feeling, thinking back those moments…. 

check out my partner’s blog too abt the same 

http://ekmusafir-insearchofdestiny.blogspot.com/2009/02/date-with-technocratz.html

~rams~

“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Mahatma Gandhi…

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