A three day training programme on Renewable Resources was organised by the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering from the 27th on. I managed to sit at some of the sessions in between the classes. There were two speakers who were quite interesting. There was Dr.TamilPorai from Anna University, Chennai and incidentally, an old student of the Mech department of GCE.

His slides were interesting, but not extraordinary, but believe me, the teacher in him was there in the last slide, where he had asked the audience to ruminate on a few facts and come to conclusions themselves. One was that the Kyoto Agreement on Greenhouse gases emission did not apply to India since we were nowhere near the threshold levels and did not need to look at alternatives as immediate needs when there were other developmental activities requiring attention. Secondly, the investment in Unconventional sources of energy was huge, huge and far beyond the money being spent on conventional sources.

Well, was he advocating renewable resources or not, asked the participants. For me, answers were not needed...he was stimulating the minds of the young, by telling them don't accept anything at face value or because it is propogated by the Developed World. Think and decide. I found him a different teacher...one who gives facts and lets the learner decide on the lessons to be learnt therein.

The next talk to interest came from Mr.Sivasubramaniam, a TNEB Executive Engineer who showed with statistics and very simple examples how power consumption has increased manifold. From just 234 mw in the 1900s, Tamil today generates ten times that power generation and how by 2100, the need is going to be in hundreds of thousands. He quoted examples from industries which use bad power conservation techniques and how our habit of using second hand electrical appliances causes dmage. He showed how appliances can be used to the optimum by observing some simple, basic techniques. The best part of his talk was not that there was a lot of information for the participants, but that there was credibility in his simplicity. One came away feeling that there was something that each one could do as an individual to bring about the desired change.

This is what the TEQIP is about...qualitative change in the mindset of even a few can change the quality of life for society.

Another surprise about the training was the compereing done by Kirubanidhi and Alwin Subash as they did it casually and yet with the right tone that did not deter one from the seriosuness of the training. Their responses to the sessions, their agenda presentation and the coherence that they imparted to the programme in their humorous (not silly or fatuous) manner spoke well of them. As an English teacher, I realised that they had not overstepped their roles as presenters and yet had the audience loving their interludes and laughing at their good mannered comments. Well done, boys. GCE boys, you prove it time and again...there is a spark in you all waiting to becoming leaping flames brightening all around.

God bless our boys.

On the 20th there was a training programme on Research Trends and Plagiarism offered by the ECE Department. The Principal of TPGIT was the Chief Guest. I did attend the inaugural function and then went away to the two hour class with the III year CSE, hoping to come back for the afternoon session. Sadly, there was a sudden spurt of work in the department and I had to forgo the training. It was a disappointing thing...However, there were a number of young research scholars who were attending and who would've definitely benefitted from the sessions.

In this connection, I am surprised that most students are not aware that paper presentation requires a little original contribution to work already carried out. They identify a topic from the abstracts downloaded from websites and copy and paste all relevant information on that topic from their web searches. This is really sad... I remember my son telling me that when he did his M.S., their assignments were put through a software that detected plagiarism of even the miniscule kind. Students are capable of good work, if only they know the right way and are guided along it. Teachers have a huge responsibility in this regard.

The unofficial confirmation doing the rounds is 'We have got AUTONOMY'.

Celebrate all ye GCEians.

This is great news.

The Yoga raining imparted to 41 trainees, who included members from the teaching, non-teaching faculty and students from the college on completion of their yoga dheekshai are leaving for the Esha Dhyana Centre at Vellingiri foothills tomorrow. Others are also joining them, yours truly being one of them. I am excited and look forward to the trip.

The terrible Oil Strike seems to be hitting us all real deep. The college bus will not ply on the 12th and 13th, this time the non availability of petrol and diesel being the excuse. There was a lively discussion on how one day we might have to commute by bicycle rather like the Parisians during the II World War and how we might have to pack a little food for the onward journey to the college. Will that come about? All these Star Movies which forecast doomsday scenarios are leaving a 'Deep Impact' on me I think!

I hate technology...it fails you when you most need it. It failed us today when the first years were given their third series test in English.

What with these kids giving even series tests like the actual ESOL papers, we have to hold the tests in seminar halls to facilitate the listening test. Today, the system in my hall had a corrupt audio driver, the sound cord was fitted into another system, the copy of the audio CD had faulty recording for some ten questions. And, in the other halls, the CD wouldnt open...or, it played at a low volume...OMG, did we have a hectic three and a half hours from 2 to 5.30 p.m. And, all this for the simple series test which used to be a breeze in the past. Well, every good thing comes at a cost. We were happy that we were all in the same well....

Went to the canteen to cool ourselves at about 5.45 p.m. Aah...there was soft parotta, a spicy kurma that tasted like it was spiced up with chicken stock...there was small, spongy dosa served with hot garam chutney. A compense for the long, frustrating hours in the halls.... There was even kothhu parotta, with eggs and without eggs. Cool draughts of badam kheer chilled us out...

I guess there might be something more for tomorrow...just as we were leaving at six, we heard a rumour that there was a theft in the hostel....