The product MPPG...the ultimate...rural splendour !
Days passed there was another notice in the board & this time it was about a model exhibition to be organized in BBSR [Institute of Materials & Minerals Technology, (IMMT), previously and Regional Research Laboratory (RRL)]. All the colleges in the Orissa were invited to participate & we were completely jubilant to hear this, GOD knows ‘y’ we were so happy? but we really wanted to do something flamboyant & I guess this was an opportunity for us & we wanted to tap the floor. We decided that we will ride the wagon! We took up a project, it was pedal power generator, that converts mechanical energy generated via pedaling into electrical energy & thus this energy can be harnessed to lit bulbs, lamps & a lot of other appliances. This was the simplicity of this project, but unfortunately this project which was taken up by our seniors was incomplete, they couldn’t put an end to this & thus this was an infamous stuff.
The Stage all SET for ROOKIES ! @ RRL, Bhubaneshwar
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It was the audacity of we four (one of us is presently no more associated with us but we were happy to have him since). We took up the incomplete project & we were utterly confident that we can finish the project & can deliver a touch of perfection to this imperfect version of the machine. We had only one month left with us & the job was very hectic to complete. No one was confident that we can deliver a master stoke, instead every one believed that all our effort is gonna end in a fiasco & were waiting to ridicule us. But it was our pump that led us to hold the helm even in the toughest of the tuff situation. It was an awesome learning experience & u know what, we learnt a very practical rule of life that “Never expect anything from any1, coz it really hurts!” but the problem with us was, that we did ! from the college management, our friends & others.
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"HONCHO" @ THE DIDACTIC SEMINAR BY director, IIT-KGP
Particularly .......! not friends but some of the persons, were really jealous of us & they started bullying us, they commented as…”Comon! Yaar every body takes up this pedal power,... have something interesting”. These statements were meant to belittle our confidence & our zeal but unfortunately the try was unsuccessful. We were tough guys @ work & were out on a mission & therefore this was the pump which refueled us every time & saved us from the negativity of others. Thank GOD ! I had partners like MRINAL & VIKASH sir…..i can say with 200% confidence that these 2 are the best partners, I could have to rock show this whole world. One thing I would like to admit that nothing was planned in our case nor was that we 3 will form the prestigious “I-group” but we did, it was out attitude & fate that bonded us together & we conquered the epitome which we had set for ourselves. We learnt a lot from this tryst with life & we rookies had nothing to loose but a lot to gain, so we were on. There’s a dictum powered by my real life excursion & Mrinal says that ....> i.e. “Take RISKS, coz if I win I ll’ b happy but if I loose then I ll’b wise, so its definitely a win-win situation, so y pain for gain?”.
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So I was talking about the bullying stuffs, I was complaining about the fellow students like us , who were just loosers & left with only one job to do & that’s back bitting. Now we were shocked to know that even some of our teachers donn believe that we can do this.
I still remember the day when we went out with our idea to Mir. Sadat Ali one of the veteran faculty of the mechanical branch & he’s M.Tech from IIT-kgp, we thought he would definitely spur us & would help us to go along with this paradigm, but we were literally shocked to hear something which was unusual, he dint had enough reasons to believe that we can do this, he gave us a jerk look. But that’s fine he dint denied us at the end & he forwarded our letter to go along with this project if we actually can, then we got it signed from our favourite Paarvati mam, she’s our biggest supporter in our college. Then we went out with the license to rock, but it was not an easy stuff, it cracked us nuts to continue. We went out to Berhampur to get a gear which can be fitted, to generate more rpm then we had a lot of plans but we were falling short of resources & support. We started missing classes & giving our time to the project, we knew no one would help us after initial support. Teachers refused to give us attendance though they knew that we were upto something constructive but they behaved as if were asking attendance to sleep in the hostel or wank in the loo. One of my branch faculty opined as....“ comon ! abhishek ! it’s unfair to give U attendance for free”. They all wanted me to be present in that boring class & be a member of chore stuff & follow the didactic way of teaching.
. The MECHANISM so simple but MODEL so ROBUST.
My control system mam told me, “what is all this drama that ur doing man, stop this shit & attend the classes regularly!”... I was hurt! That day, coz for something which u give ur 200% & ur madly into it, if someone says such killing words it penetrates. I told this to Vikash sir & Mrinal so that it would give me some relaxation & it did. They told me to listen & remember every thing word by word so that we can put a full stop to all those buggers & we can break the jinx that, " it’s impossible to do something being in such a remote place". The day approached closer & closer, our paper work started we colleted the samples of paper-work of the international journals from our idiot principal. Now u would be wandering why I m referring him as an idiot? The very simple answer is bcoz he deserves that notion. Haha! Lemme list you some of his great deeds,
1. We went on to him when only 3 days were left, for the competition & we requested him to please let us give relaxation from the theory classes for last 3 days, so that we can put our every effort to win. We were ready to do all the hectic lab classes but wanted some resumption from the theory classes. Guess! What would have been his reply!
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Ya! Ur absolutely right, that moron told us “NO, NO, I can’t allow you such things. Donn ask me that, we narrated him the problem, that since 8am-3pm the classes are there & then if we give only 2 hrs the work can’t b done, as the college & the workshop is shut by 5. But who would preach him? He’s the smartest of the smart & we really donn believe that he’s an intellectual. If he would have been an intellect, he would have easily granted us the 3 days half attendance, he himself knew Y we wanted that. But he showed & proved that he’s an asinine. There are lots more & so I guess ur not interested to know any more about that boring person, who doesn’t deserve to put his arse on that chair.
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Then we continued with our work without any break & any facilities, we bunked the classes & put in whatever we did had. Our model was ready & thanks to our guide “Mohapatro sir”. He’s such a great person & has so much of the practical experiences. Truly he was the person who told us that, “ya U people can go along with this incomplete stuff & I m with U, just go ON!” His help gave us the hope & without which we could not have gone a step further, so we can’t forget him ever, every laurel that we have brought is bestowed to him & I really doff that man for his simplicity & high thinking.
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So we were out with the wishes of Mohapatro sir & Parvati mam. I still remember that day it was the final of T20 between INDIA & PAKISTAN, we missed that & just we boarded into bus & with that loud cheer we could guess that, INDIA has won the T20 world-cup, this was a sign that we are going to win. We could carve out our destiny out of that, everyone in our group had similar intuition. We reached Bhubaneswar & went to RRL straight. The director of RRL Mr. B.K.Mishra is the brother of our X-principal Mr. D.K.Mishra so we had some advantage & we were boarded in an AC room & just beneath that room rested the director of IIT-kgp Prof.Damodar Acahrya, who was the chief guest of that occasion. The penultimate night was a night never to be forgotton, it was just like a Galileo stuff, I ll naraate U how?
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As Galileo uttered “EUREKA” as he had found something really exciting & truly fascinating for which he was toiling since so many years & something very similar to that happened with us. That night we were rehearsing for the final presentation & we were making the models on the chart paper so that we can make our stage elusive & attractive. So as I was pedaling, we usually connect the cathode & anode terminals & then we lit the lamps. By the time I was pedaling it was Vikash sir, who disconnected the terminals from the battery & to our surprise we could seee the lamp still liting……& then it was the moment of joy & euphoria for us, very similar to the “EUREKA” stuff….
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Now we were damn sure that we are going to win….we had encountered so many signs that our confidence bolstered. The next day we were ready with all our chart papers & the model, it was so heavy that we were exhausted taking it to the tent from the room. We started the preparations & thus all the students from different colleges arrived one by one & we could see one thing common & that’s the robotics model, it was dominating almost every one had a same kinda model but they narrated it as unique & all that bla bla……..but genuinely I dint find any difference & thus started the exhibition the guest started coming & we connected the alternator with the battery the UPS1. The battery too has its own story.
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Mirnal had just completed 5.point someone& was greatly inspired by the one of the character, where the guy used his own scooter to carry out all his experiments, so Mrinal took out his own UPS battery & used it to connect the alternator with. The idea was a success, although it was preety risky to use the fine battery for such purpose but he was bold enough 2 take risks…. & every one else in our grp was. It was hundred times better than the bigger-battery which was initially connected as there’s a linear relationship that bigger the battery greater is the self-drop, so the smaller battery proved to be the better alternative, hatts off to MRINAL!
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There's another reason for the above praise......there's a magic in his hand. The penultimate night we were making posters for our model which represented the various features in short & clearly. What an effort, he drew every picture single handedly & in one attempt & wow ! It was so sexy & attractive.....it was really nice....it couldn't have been better ...as it was, it gave us a sign that may B we are going to win the compeptition, who knows.....haha........but again I would like to re-iterate ...”hatts off to MRINAL!”
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I guess u know about shahrukh’s movie “SWADESH” by Ashutosh Gowariker, where the guy travels to the village taking the other two in a bike, we too had a similar feel & chance to experience that. We needed to cut a piece of wood in a circular fashion which was not possible by the usual machine in our workshop & there was only one elderly person (carpenter) who’s an expert, so we had to take him to the AID office in the vicnity of the college, but before that we needed to take him to his house in the interior of his remote village named “Peticota” to take special blades for the circular cutting. We took Mohapatro sir’s bike & no body knows driving except me. So I was the driver & Mrinal with that carpenter sir named (SAI-BABA) went to his village, got the blades & went to the AID office, Orissa’s chapter.
OK! Sorry for that flash-back in the midst of the exhibition.
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Life’s never easy man & so we were actually put to the real test for which were not prepared @ ll & guess what happened it started raining, which was suicidal for our presentation & particularly the battery & ya for all that robotics model toooo……….haha.!!
So, with no option left we let the rain come down & fill the floor. After some time our shoes were dip into water, it rose up to our ankle & we were giving the presentation without any fail or problem. Thank GOD! The model was robust enough but we had some doubts about the battery but it too helped us & everything was fine, our presentation was also very effective, every one appreciated us for that & ya the product according to a lot of scientists was a mediocre one. Scientists arrived one by one, & I remember one of them who was completely filled with negativity turned to us & said, “whats the innovation in this model? it’s a old one & not been much in use! No doubt ur presentation is preety impressive but the model isn’t that lucrative & people are actually reluctant to buy it.” We were expecting such queries & we were prepared for that…I replied to that like,
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“Sir, tell me what’s the utility of new innovation? to serve the people & the every scientific & engineering product is meant to help the people & make their life a lot easier to live with. Sir tell me in how many villages have U seen this model? How many un-electrified villages employ this technique to help themselves & lit their dark home, he was shut & then I accelerated as, sir…until U make use of already existing products which has the potential to serve the people how can U demand about the new innovation & what’s the use of new innovation…Y should we cry for something which we don’t have…...first we should make use of what we have!” He was impressed & his attitude had a U-trun…..we were completely jubilant seeing that shift & he moved forward to the other models. Then came a young jr. scientist Mr. Manish who was too impressed by our presentation. Exactly in his words , “U can win prizes but its difficult to win hearts....& u have won my heart...” . Guess what! Being a new-bie if u get such a a comment from a veteran its so encouraging & uttterly spurs ur internal acumen & we had every reason tp be jubilant about our efforts.
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But all this joy was terribly shaken by the response of the chief guest of the event Mr. Damodar Acharya, Director, IIT-kgp. For him it was a unimportant model & was not actually impressed by the project & dint even spared even 2 minutes, so that we can complete our presentation. So we were pissed off....the joy was really short lived & we were up with our plan no.2 where we shorted the introduction & directly jumped to the mechanism & the working principle & thus we could sustain the people's interest in the model & we made sure that the efforts doesn't turn out to be a chore stuff.
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We still had our plan no.3 & 4 ready......& thus we were completely prepared for anything & there was a burning in us to win the competition. Then it was the lunch time. We went to have our lunch into the main building....it was so majestic RRL. It really gave us a feel of something like a massive laboratory, where world-class experiments would have been carried out.
The lunch was served it was tasty but some all looked to each other & we were not happy as we could read each other's face & thus dint take the complete meal. In the meanwhile on the organizers turned up to us & said that “ur model may not so impressive but ur presentation is an effective one.” We were in dilemma that we should be happy or it was an indication that we are off bcoz of our model.......but let it be whatever it was.we decided & thus decided to give our best in the same way as we have decided & thus we all reassured ourselves & it was a real painful situation & we guess it was the real test, that was the point where we got the glimpse of the real jitter & the real taste of the top level presentation. After lunch we were again back on to our tents & started the presentation. We put in our plan2 & it proved to be effective .....& this time judges & the fellow people seemed gr8ly satisfied thus we could regain our lost confidence & smile.....haaa....so heres the time for conference & the results were supposed to be declared over there after the conference. Again we were re-assured by the news that director of IIT-kgp was not the real judge. We all went to the conference hall. It was so majestic OH! My GOD. It gave me a real HONCHO kinda feel........
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So the director of IIT-kgp started his presentation, GOD it was so boring.......so lengthy........about an HOUR.........ya I m not kidding........more than an hour.......it was damn killing & was comparable to a 3rd degree torture...
Finally, the results time.....the resuts were declared like........from the last...
The appreciation prize to NIST, berhampur.
3rd--->. KISD, BBSR (women's college)
1st---> IACR, Rayagada.....
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" V " for Victory THE victorious " i " group.
2nd---> JITM, paralakhemundi
wow! It was such a happy moment that I cant forget .....& we all jumped in the hall jus tlike anything.....we ran towards the stage & grabbed the prize money of 2000/- with the most valuable certificate wrapped in the envelope. The reward of all the hard work & toil.......truly it the result of our dedication & I guess.....such effort was obliged by GOD>.. we 4 were the happiest guys.......
Immediately I called home & informed mom.......ooh she was so...happy.....& everybody else was.....dad was also jubilant. I can say both are just bindass characters. Both never stopped me from doing anything......gr8 & always supported me.....they allowed me to do ma best in what-so-ever field I wanted. Truly ! All my achievements are bestowed to them & I m proud of them.......really.......!!!!
