It is with sadness that I write this to tell all the readers about a young man Gopi, a student of the ECE department who passed away after a long and cruel battle with leukemia. About a fortnight ago, this student had visited Dr.Wahida Banu, his HOD, to tell her that he was getting admitted in the hospital and would be hospitalised for sometime. He also met Mr.SenthilMurugan, his Advisor and broke out into heart-wrenching sobs because he was scared. Mr. Senthil Murugan had offered him encouraging words and sent him home. Just two days later, the boy passed away.

My prayers for the young man and his family.

I am really sad that many times I do not know if someone needs comfort and if I can brighten up the child's day in some way or the other.

I am sleeping, dreaming, eating and drinking 'quotations', 'proposals' ,'comparative statements', 'assignments', 'record note books', attendance statements, 'Lab based exams', 'online tests', 'patch cords' etc for the past three weeks. Work is proceeding at a feversih pitch for the Language Resource Centre. For all this, maybe, I may not roast in Hell after all.

To top it all, I have been asked to prepare a 'Diagonostic Test' to test the proficiency level of our students in English. Am trying my best to first of all understand the dynamics of the test and the methodology to be followed in the design of such a test. However, with all the background study of it, I see a ray of light and hopefully, the task should be over by mid October.

Once again, students of the third year surprise us with their hard work for the Communication Skills Lab. The long hours of classes, the entire afternoon sometimes, seem to have paid off, as we hear of more students participating in paper presentations and winning prizes. And, their presentations on general topics are amazing...all very interesting and visually enriched. How well they present their ideas! Well, there may be one or two who may not be entirely good, but then, I feel teachers should be tolerant of students and not always expect the best. Sometimes, it is just not their day and everything goes wrong, including at the presentation in the English class. That's O.K. There should not be only X Men in a class... there may be a few slow takers.

Department of ECE celebrated "World Web Day" by inviting school students and teachers to an introduction to the world of Web. I was asked to give a short talk on Blogs (to my delight) and did so willingly. This was followed by talks by students and faculty. I believe that this was a good introduction, but due to internet failure there could be no live demo. That would have made it so interesting.
Exams are drawing close and I am on tenterhooks. How can life be so cruel...I mean, the semester started just now, seems like yesterday, and it is already time for exams! Instructions and more instructions from us must be making students' lives more and more misreable...I am sure we teachers will roast in the flames of Hell for such unkind acts!

Days are flying by in a flurry...the third year students are being groomed for their placement cum communication skills lab by the seniors who are holding mock interviews..believe me when I say they put the fear of God into the hearts of the juniors. The department is glad that the students have taken a lot of effort to give the students their first taste of interviews. They also wanted to give them some input on G.Ds. However, our biggest worry right now is holding the English lab component of the examination which requires LAN connections. Every year this poses a problem, because only now we find that systems have to be loaded with suitable software for the conduct of the exams. I, for one, will really be grateful to the merciful God when the Language Resource Centre (Language Lab) is completed. That might solve some of our misery...

Did I hear somebody say that interviews can be a breezy experience if you are well prepared and are calm? Ha...what an understatement, as I found out yesterday. As part of the Career Advancement scheme, as one moves to another scale or whatever, one faces a panel which decides if the employee is worthy of the upward movement. So, the TRB recruits of 2001 faced the experts' panel and the Commissioner on the 11th and the 12th. Mine was slotted for the 12th morning at GCT, Coimbatore.

The shock of seeing other colleagues emerge from the room is by itself unnerving. I thought I was handling it quite well by indulging in small talk and shop talk with friends. However, Vijay Anbalagan refused to talk or sing as is his wont and preferred to wander about. I was the second last to be called in. The shock hit me hard. There was the Commissioner himself and the ten other panel members to make the room smaller. No walls or windows are visible. The eyes play tricks and only these people fill one's vision. It looks like they are all waiting to ask questions and as one turns around ( the turnable computer chair made it seem like one was on a merry-go-round), the mouth turns dry and the lips seem to stick to one another. The heart is heard thudding...you wonder if the others can hear it...for the first few questions you only hear yourself as if from an echoing room. Then slowly sanity prevails and you begin to notice that everyone is trying their best to put you at ease. It seems easier to answer questions, if one is courteous, open and smiling.

After one has finished the interview, one savours every moment and tries very hard to recall every single moment...hard though it is. To admit, I shall never tell my students that interviews only require good preparation. Having expereinced it all first hand, I now empathise with my students who face these hard nosed campus interviewers in order to nail that job. Hats off to my students. They are brave, soldierly and can be called the courageous knights of the present day. And, if you dont agree with me, face an interview board and you will certainly know that I speak nothing but the truth. It is always easier to be the interviewer than the interviewed.

ECE had a gala valediction of the year long Embedded Design Contest conducted with Frontline, an Indo-Japanese Microcontroller company. There were students from far flung colleges and Mr.Kirowasaki, the Japanese CEO of the company was very happy with the enthusiastic participation from the colleges. Mr.Elwin Chandra Moni, AD, DOTE was also there. The department of ECE keeps involving students in several such projects.

By the way, Shri.Vijay Sharma, CEO, JSW, Salem distributed the JSW-GCE Scholarships to 6 meritorious students at SFAME at the annual inaugural function. As usual, it was a pleasure to listen to Shri Vijay Sharma...he narrated how he had started very humbly in life with the help of a scholarship at one point during his studies. He exhorted students to realise that when they earn in lakhs, they must remember that somewhere students might need financial support and at that time, they must extend a helping hand. It was leading by example...

And ah, the high point of this week for me has been the visit by one of our alumnae. The tall, lanky, stubble cheeked, unkempt and hollow-cheeked youngster who had seemed anxious, worried and undecided had gone. There he was - confident, cheerful and truly humbled by the experiences he had had at college.

"I am glad college taught me a few precious lessons...some very bitter ones. I loved a friend and lost her friendship, because I couldn't accept the fact that I had insulted friendship by imagining that I loved the girl. I was not a very sociable person then...I wanted friends to accept me as I was... and I learnt that one has to also accept the others as they are. I learnt that by judging my friends, I had lost them. The job has given me confidence that I can do something in life, as I was selected at a training session to become a Management trainee...I have decided to learn one good thing from someone around me everyday..." and this outpouring of emotions and pent-up thoughts came like a torrent. I could only gape in open-mouthed awe at this immense transformation...what is life at college not possible of?