I did Computer Science & Engineering from CRSCE Murthal, Haryana, INDIA (now DCRUST - A deemed University).

The college is situated on the outskirts of Sonepat city, in the town of Murthal near the G. T. Road. Its foundations were laid in 1987, and since then it is the ultimate destination for the aspiring engineers of the future. It is among the top engineering colleges of Haryana. It has a beautiful campus, which extends up to 273 acres of land. It contains the main building (shown in picture above), teacher quarters, four boys hostels, a girls hostel, a shopping complex.  The famous Dhabas of Murthal are a walk away, making it a heaven!

My College Life

(I have written my story in a candid way. I have not tried to lie about my exact emotions at various situations and have mentioned exactly how I felt. This is not a story of a perfect person, but of an ambitious student who reacted to situations as they came. Anyone who reads it please keep following in mind: I do not intend to harm feelings of anyone, anywhere. Its my story of fighting for bringing changes in me and in my institution. It has its content of various emotions like anger, sadness, happiness etc. If you read carefully, you will understand that all those emotions are directed towards me, and not anyone else. I thank all those who have given me feedbacks on this story and I hope the feedbacks continue to come! Happy Reading!)

I had wonderful time in college! I was a day-scholar, and the college is just 10 minutes drive from my home. So, I never took the hostel. Here is how my college life went. To maintain a sequence I'll talk about it semester-wise.

I was first admitted to the college in 1998, and had Electrical Engineering. Only after a month in college I left it because of IIT-Fever. In my first attempt at entrance exams I was unprepared and unplanned. I got decent ranks in other entrance exams but IIT eluded me. I was undecided though, whether to give it another go or not. Lastly, I hastily decided to do so and left the college, but it was as late as October by then. But, I didn't went silently through the college. In the short span in the college I went to...

BOSM 98, BITS-Pilani ,   representing the college chess team.

It is the finest college trip I have gone SO FAR! Here is what happened that small and interesting period...

     It was my second day in college, and I was caught by some seniors for ragging. They were taking me to the hostel, but while going, in the campus only, I met a senior who asked me about my hobbies. I told him that I am a good chess player and blah blah… To my surprise he told me that the college chess team is to be selected for representing it at the sports meet ‘BOSM’ at BITS Pilani. He invited me for the trails, and told that they will be held in their hostel rooms only. He encouraged me for coming there, without being scared of ragging. Later I found that the person was Loveleen Saroya, the caption of the college chess team. I was surprised to find that my favorite sport is also present in my college. I went for the trials, and was selected. Fear of ragging was just not there, ‘fanatic chess players are scared of nothing’! Soon I was off to BITS as the spearhead of our attack! Though owing to weak overall team and strong oppositions, we didn't win there, but it was a 'Shell Breaker' trip for me! Myself, who used to be quite an introvert, discovered my trueself. I completely changed to become an extrovert! This all was due the wonderful seniors I had! They are all classy people and treated me like a younger brother. That trip is one unforgettable one. When I came back, due to less time left for JEE, I decided to leave the college and prepare afresh, but it was all in haste and without any guidance. The decision was also affected as I didn't like Electrical branch.

JEE turned out to be a misadventure again. Same result again. BUT... I wasn't that sad as I was in my first attempt. I knew I made it all messy. I had no proper planning or coaching for clearing JEE, and gave too less time for preparation by leaving the college late. But this failure was an inspiration for me now. Rather than sitting, crying and feeling helpless, I decided to help myself. I got a good rank in my state entrance examination and I went to counseling with one thing in mind, 'I'll take Murthal again'. I was the first one to take admission in my college and left RECs for it. This was a courageous decision as I knew mockery etc could be awaiting me. But, now I had a PLAN, and fearless determination to execute it.

I was received with pleasure at my college, and that welcome I can't forget. No one, I mean no one was even a bit cunning to me, and all were supportive. This gave me great encouragement and I was ready to rise now. My plan was aimed at proving to none other than myself, that I have some metal in me. I wanted to clear IIT, but in different style now. I decided to become so technically sound, that  be respected everywhere, including IITs. Don't misunderstand it as a revenge mission. I have respect for the IITs and the  people who make it there. This was a personal battle, which had much to do with myself only. Self-Satisfaction was my ultimate desire.

BOSM 99, BITS Pilani
OASIS 99, BITS Pilani

It was a rather silent first semester. Due to my friendship with seniors I had ragged my previous year classmates (though very lightly, in fact I used to save them from some rude seniors). This year though I was bored of it :) and spared my new classmates. I went to BITS again, this time twice, but the trips were not as charming as previous ones. Now I had to start preparing for the target I had. I didn't knew anything about programming, though I had computer at home. I knew that things will be tough, but I had to do it. I joined a futile course on UNIX and C++ at the local computer study centre, largely due to 100% scholarship I got. I did UNIX in this semester. During the examinations of the first semester, I met an accident. It was a Head-on collision with a Jeep. But I survived to write this article :)

Techkriti Millennium, IIT-Kanpur
All India FIDE Rated Chess Tournament, Saharanpur

My first step of the plan was to see what actually happens at Technical festivals at IITs. I went to IIT-Kanpur with my senior 'Praveen Soni'. He was in final year CSE. It was a great learning experience, and a nice look at the engineering culture at IITs. That time too I had no knowledge of programming. When I came back some Chess tournaments were awaiting me. I went to Saharanpur, and it was the second national I played in. This is the specialty of chess tournaments at this level, that you win or lose, you meet such interesting and intelligent people that you always gain from it! I was off from college for 15 days. I won joint 5th prize there but was received with news of short attendance at the college. I managed it though. I also played the Delhi U-20 at Botwinnik Chess Club, Russian Culture Centre. It was hectic up-down to Delhi for five days, but finally paid off as I jointly won it!

After this semester I went to complete the course on C++, but it didn't gave me what I wanted. Then I started my overnight expeditions! I have habit of working in nights, and its normal for me. I started to program interesting things.

BOSM 00, BITS-Pilani 
University chess team selection trials, Jat college Rohtak

In my second year, I had it in my mind to spread ‘Chess Fever’ in college. The college chess championship was the best means for doing it. Though I had everything planned out, that how to conduct the tournament, how to attract students towards it etc. but there was a big problem. It was to get the championship recognized and to get the venue and other facilities. I had recently applied for membership of ISTE, and there I found the solutions to all my problems. The ‘1^st CRSCE Chess championship’ was held under the aegis of ISTE and I was the Tournament Director. It was divided in the ‘Boys’ and the ‘Girls’ championship, due to some venue problem at that time. I won the boys championship and for the girls' championship I was asked to conduct it in girls' hostel (only one to go there officially!). In the special event 'Simul', first real one for me, I won 11-4!

I developed a 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' game in text mode and loaded it on PCs of college's computer lab. It was a smash hit and every time there was someone playing it in the lab! Soon I started to experiment with graphics, read some book, and developed some programs. I made 'snakes & ladders', its was my first game in graphics. Then I developed a fascination for developing games, as I found them toughest to develop and wanted to do exceptional work. No shortcuts.

I was going through my semester exams when I received a phone call from my friend. He told me that M.D.University Chess team selection trials for upcoming All India Inter University Team Chess Championship are scheduled two days later at Jat College, Rohtak. As I was midway through my semester exams with three over and three more to go, it was tough decision for me to go for the trials. Previous year too, due to clash with my exam, I couldn't go for selection trials. Recently having won college, and district Sonepat Championships, I was feeling morally responsible to represent them at higher level.  So, I decided to compromise on my exams and take my chance! It took me two complete days of running from Murthal to Rohtak for getting proper paper work and formalities done. At last it was action time. There were 60 players fighting for top six places to be selected in the team. After two days of trials, I made it in the last six. Now I had just one day to go for my next exam, thanks to God I did okay in it. Also the University Championship was after all my other exams. So I was lucky to make it to the Championship!

All India Inter University Team Chess Championship, Bodh Gaya
InfoXpression, GGSIPU
Horizons Unlimited, CITM Faridabad

After the exams, I rushed to Rohtak for joining training camp of our team. Though I was late to join, it was a good learning experience. The championship was going to be held at Bodh Gaya, Bihar and was being organized by Magadh University. I was thrilled to get a chance to see Bihar. This is the best part of playing chess tournaments, you get to meet some of the finest people and visit different places. Many of my friends and relatives cautioned me about going to Bihar, 'never go out alone' 'don't wear this' and ‘don't carry that’ etc. etc. But I didn’t feel like going with such an impression. For me, I was going to the place where Gautam Buddha received Gyan, and the land of greats like Chanakya. So, I took precautions but not the impressions with me. The trip was great and we were placed 8th out of 90 Universities from all over India. I came back with great memories of the tournament and of course of Bihar, which is just beautiful.

‘1^st All Haryana Inter Engineering College Chess Championship’ was organized by ISTE in this semester. I was behind the idea and was given charge of it. It was held along the cultural festival of the college, on 22-23^rd march. But due to some problems during festival it was completed later. I won it but it was a test of character for me. Due to my over-generosity I went into deep trouble and had to fight for my pride. Well I am not discussing what happened, but I learned a lot from it. I learned that trust should never be blind and not everyone is honest. And most importantly I learned the hard way of dealing with over-smart people.

Meanwhile I developed some good games (Tetris, bricks, car race etc of Devilworks V1). I went to compete in competitions with them. In CITM I got third prize in software and second in Quiz, but I was not happy about it. I wanted more, more and more. In SIT-GGSIPU the competition level was great and I knew my fortune. I didn't stop to see the results there and went back at WORK.

After the semester examination, I started taking Giant Leaps! I made Glutton in three days, Spacewar in twenty days and some more games. In holidays I went to Mathura-Vrindavan-Agra with my family, which was an extremely refreshing trip. We always go somewhere in holidays

Avishkar, MNNIT - Allahabad.

Chess was on halt and programming was on peak now. I started to develop the much desired chess software. I had developed good programming skills and style. Within a week in the start of the semester, I developed a two player chess with invalid move checking. Though it wasn't perfect I was improving it quite fast. Then I got struck in an error : 'too much global data defined in the file'. This stagnated my expedition. Though I got the solution for it after the semester exams and continued to develop Chaturangam!. I started to program the 'TANK' game. It took me the whole semester to complete it, as I completed it to perfection. I considered it to be my IIT-conquerer game, as chess was sadly halted.

Meanwhile me and my three friends Arvind, Charanjeet and Sushant went to MNNIT-Allahabad for their technical festival. It was a great trip. We were late to know about the fest, and couldn't send abstract for software competition there, but were appreciated for our effort. We would have been top contenders but they didn't show any generosity other than seeing my work. Anyway we had nice time there and the day we were coming back (a Sunday) we saw the beautiful city of Allahabad.  I applied to computer magazine DIGIT for publishing my games in the CD of their magazine. They accepted my proposal and my games were out in CD-Mindware of January 01 issue of DIGIT, under name of 'Devilworks'!

InfoXpression, SIT-GGSIPU Delhi.
Elements Culmyca, YMCAIET Faridabad.
TROIKA, DCE Delhi.
CEMIT, NCCE Israna-Panipat.
Horizons Unlimited, CITM Faridabad

Participation through internet:

TRYST, IIT-Delhi.
Mystica 2002, TIT&S Bhiwani.

It was a turning point for me! I got what I wanted in this semester! My games were out in the CD-Mindware of DIGIT's January issue. I got a lot of e-mails, appreciating my work. Most of them were from students like me seeking some guidance or just appreciating. Soon I was on to the chess software again. Finally I was able to overcome all hurdles and developed 'Chaturangam v1' by the end of January!

I was excited about it and hoped to hit my target now! BUT... The abstract of my work wasn't selected at IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kanpur. In DCE's festival TROIKA too I wasn't selected. I was very annoyed by it and went to DCE for seeing who are the people who got selected. I was surprised to find that they had no reason for not selecting my software. I was dejected again. I went to CITM, hoping to win there. I was feeling very down, as IITs seemed so close and so far. In CITM I had trifle fight with their administrators of 'open project competition', as they wanted to keep the source codes with them, which I objected to. It was the worst that could have happened, I was given third prize, which I refused to take and told them to give it to someone else. I never compromise on cheap things. I won another competition of graphics software there next day and that was some relief. Still it was a bad bad and bad trip for me. I came back home hoping to get something out of somewhere. IIT-Delhi's festival was approaching, and there I fulfilled my dream!!!

In another festival at TIT&S Bhiwani I was given second prize in an online event, but it was very dubious result, probably due to money involved. Anyway, the main event of IIT-Delhi's festival, named after the festival itself was the predefined software competition 'N-CODE'. There was no open software competition there and this was the main event. It was an Othello type game 'TRYSTER', named after the festival's name TRYST! I made the game in three days!!! I knew that I have done good work, but now I wasn't sure about what will happen. The festival was on 2-4 March but the results were declared very late. No news till April, and then...

I was conducting '2nd CRSCE Chess championship', taking place along with our annual sports meet. Two days ago I had founded the 'Chaturangam Chess Club' and on 5th the championship had to end, and 'Simul' was to be played! It was 5th April's night.  I checked my e-mail at 00:30 am, and there was an e-mail containing N-CODE's results and mentioning the intense analysis of the submissions, that led to the delay in results. I won the first prize ahead of some NSIT and IIT-Delhi's students! I never shouted that loudly at night as I did that day. It was... ... ...u know what. Now I could forgive myself for being an idiot and not clearing IIT-JEE. That's not it! I went on to win the CRSCE Chess championship for second time that day, and played 'Simul' with a score of 14.5-0.5! That day is like second birthday for me!!

Next day I went to SIT-GGSIPU for their technical festival and ... I knew I will win there! The competition was tough and... you know what... the winners of competitions at DCE, TIT&S and some other colleges were there. A very tough opposition and... when the results were announced, I was given the First prize with the comment... 'there was massive difference between first and second prize'. That comment by that respected judge was more valuable than the prize for me. I beated all those software who won where I wasn't considered to take part in... and that too my MASSIVE DIFFERENCE. Finally I was happy for myself. But its never enough for me :) I also won at YMCAIET. I went to a private college NCCE against the advice of my parents of some partiality. Even my heart knew something wrong will happen, and yes :) I was shown a thumb there! But who cares now!

Now I had a profile to show, and I started to contact various popular chess websites of India for showing my work. Thanks to Mr. K. Visweswaran of www.chathurangam.com, who gave the news about the Chaturangam v1. I uploaded it at a webpage (http://suneet_singh0.tripod.com)  for distributing it as freeware. Soon the counter started to rise! Till today, nearly 2500 downloads have been made. Ah I am a famous man!

But wait a minute. I am not over. How about writing a book?!! The idea wasn't new for me, I had plans to write comics when I was a kid! And now I as going to write a technical book. Again a risky decision as the input is phenomenal and the output can be a mountain or nothing! But 'Who dares win'!.

Innovision, NSIT-Delhi.
BOSM 02, BITS-Pilani.

Busy writing the book, I did very less programming. I saw the whole FIFA World Cup in holidays and... no programming. I wanted to make the second version of Chaturangam. Later I made a few games, specifically for the book, and also started to program the Chaturangam v2. In the meantime I went to two trips.

I was back in BITS after two years now! I had made a lot of friends there and met many of them this time. The trip was good, and it was good to be with juniors. I previously went there as a junior and used to eat the head of my seniors! Now people were eating my head!! Something happened there which was not a big event but a reminder of the truth. I lost my first game of chess there. It was the worst of my losses as I completely outplayed my Bitsian opponent and faltered strangely in the end, when my new Queen was to arrive in three moves :( I don't know what happened till date. It was like someone came inside me and played that game horribly. I was feeling bad to let my college down, but that night I was hooted upon at my back by the people for whom I was playing there. And now I was ok again. But I see a message in this... 'Nothing is in your hands. Try and try hard, but it is someone else who is regulating everything.' I am not discouraging anyone to leave everything on fate. It is always secondary to hard work. But still my experience says 'Keep the Faith'. I went to NSIT for their technical festival 'Innovision'. I remembered DCE and hoped for good here. The trip was a nice one. We stayed there for three enjoyable days and I won the game software competition I took part in. See the game competitions are gaining popularity!

I wanted to conduct a Grand national level technical festival in my college. Now the battle begins! I can't tell you what & what I had to do to start things. Finally I founded a technical society 'Ignited Minds' and started to attract students in it. The response was phenomenal! I took nearly 150 interviews in two days, which is a record there! The whole festival team was created and the blueprint of the festival was decided. I wanted it big, as big as in IITs. I got the kind permission of our Principal for going on with our plans. The festival management committee consisting of seven responsible teachers was made and they are working hard :) I am the Festival Coordinator and lets see what happens in the next semester! The work for festival is underway.

I also conducted '3rd CRSCE Chess Championship' on 1-2 October to save time for technical activities later. It was after my trip to BITS. I won it and in 'Simul' it was a clean sweep this time. But even '15-0' wasn't enough to shut my critics up :)

I started writing the book in June and completed it in November. Now I was off contacting publishers. I knew that it will be as tough a job to get a good publisher, as it was to write the book. I'll say that I was lucky to meet right people at right time, as Wiley-Dreamtech publications showed interest in my work and decided to publish it! (The book is quite good man!' see PUBLICATIONS). I was in contact with a few other publishers, but was more interested in Wiley-Dreamtech. It was 4th December when I met the owner of WILEY-Dreamtech, Mr. Vikas Gupta and his software expert Mr. Ankur Verma. It was a grueling four hours long battle, between me and the WILEY Dreamtech team, who were finally convinced that I did some good publishable work! I was given a list of modifications that I made during my examination days! Finally on 28th December the agreement between me and WILEY-Dreamtech was signed for publishing the book. Another major target achieved! But I WANT MORE, MORE and MORE........................!

                               Troika, DCE Delhi.
                               Tryst, IIT Delhi.
                               Literati, NIT-Kurukshetra
                               Apogee, BITS-Pilani
                               Mystica, TIT&S Bhiwani

Participated in:

                               Sanganak, NIT-Jalandhar.

ORGANIZED:

                               TECHNOVA 2003, CRSCE Murthal!!!!!!!!!

Just when I thought that the relaxing time is here, the busiest and most eventful semester was awaiting me!

I didn't know what to expect in this semester. I had many things to do. I had to give the finishing touches to Chaturangam v2, prepare to participate in competitions again, and most importantly, organize TECHNOVA 2003 - The first ever National Level Technical Festival of CRSCE Murthal! It was very fortunate that I had no tension regarding my book now, which would have been a great problem otherwise.

Organizing the festival wasn't a piece of cake. The festival was to be organized by IGNITED MINDS, Students' Technical Society, which was founded and headed by me. I had to 'found' it in the last semester because all the other doors were closed. It was a hard fight with authorities to even get the permission for executing my plans. So I gave a big commitment. I took a LOAN of 20,000 Rs/- from the college for bearing the initial expenditure of the festival, which was to be returned after the festival. Now the teachers had no choice but to accept my proposal!!!
    Yeah, it seemed stupid, risky and immature decision to many, but I WAS DEAD CONFIDENT that I won't fail. Many suspicious people thought that I am taking it as an EGO thing, and was doing it for some benefit of myself etc. But they could never figure out what I could have derived from this big headache :) ("SATISFACTION"-If any of them is reading it)

I knew that I have good experience and am capable enough to handle the festival well. Now I had the independent charge of the Festival. My biggest challenge was to train the inexperience students of my college for this challenge. I wanted to involve as many student as possible in it. So that they can know what exactly for they are in this professional college. The final TECHNOVA team was around 150 students, and believe me they did a splendid job!

In month of January, I sat down working on Chaturangam v2. I also published this website in the meantime. It was again 24 hr work on the second version. I made great improvements over the first version in it. After January it was time for the music again. I just concentrated on organizing TECHNOVA and in the meantime participated in various competitions.

First competition was in DCE-Delhi. I remembered what happened last year, but this year it was EXAGGERATED!!! I was selected for the competition. The presentation was good, even the organizers were generous to give a special mention to me. A day after the competition, the valediction was to be held and a big surprise was in store here. All the three prizes went to other people, and nothing for me :) I was very annoyed, as I had seen the other software, they were not even close and... cmon I was given special mention. When I was heading back, out of the valediction venue, the organizer of software event came to me and said 'sorry for what happened'. I told him that its OK, it is competition, nothing to say sorry in it. He said, "no, no actually the Judges (they were from TCS, Hughes and lecturers) had recommended SPECIAL PRIZE for you, as you were much better than other entries, BUT, due to some communication gap it turned out in this horrible mess." I didn't know what to say and left without any argument (my conscience didn't allow me to create any scene there). I just lost first prize and '5,000/-' due to their doubtful acts. BUT I WAS HAPPY INSIDE :) I used to imagine that I would be asked for not participating in competitions as I've already won many, and IT CAME TRUE in Bigger way :) Now I couldn't be stopped by normal means! While the way back home, I couldn't stop laughing. Later they apologized for this mistake and offered me the Certificates for first prize but without any prize money. I accepted it, as anyway I had to build the HALL OF FAME of my college, which was all more important than money or ego. But the certificate is still awaited :)

All my time was spend in preparing for TECHNOVA. Due to slowness of college's official machinery we were delayed. The dates for the festival were changed from 7-9 March to 28-30th March 2003. I also published mine and TECHNOVA's website in late February. In the meantime, the next festival was TRYST 03, IIT-DELHI! This time they had open software competition MOZART, with a declared prize money of 70,000/-!!! I went there for two days only, just for that competition. The event was among the top three of that festival (along with PAPER PRESENTATION, and PREDEFINED SOFTWARE that I won last year). The presentation was good, the judges were impressed and also took my contacts. Later that day, they unofficially declared me best one there and were searching or the second prize winner. BUT, another surprise was in store in the very next competition I participated in! There was also a Book-Stall of WILEY Dreamtech there, but sadly my book was still in process and was not available on stall, otherwise it should have been interesting.

But something more interesting happened before the prize declaration. The Vice-Chancellor and three PhD Students of a University from SPAIN were invited for seminar/presentation there. The seminar was held at the same venue of valediction. When I entered the hall, there were hardly any people in there. Only a few IIT lecturers in the front and about 30 odd students listening. The VICE-Chancellor was giving a presentation, focused on studying in their University and persuading students to come there. He was about to finish when I reached, and after him PhD students were to come and give their presentation on their research topics.
First there was a girl student, presenting her work on speech recognition of Spanish dialects. Well, I had great experience of pulling legs of my batchmates during various presentations in college, but this was an ULTIMATE chance for me to satisfy the critic inside me :) She spoke and ... I saw lots n lots of flaws in it. Artificial Intelligence is also my field of play, so I knew that she ain't speaking about HER WORK! After the presentation came QUESTION round which I was waiting for ;) I asked question, very simple, very straightforward, and she was exposed! In all I asked five questions related to each other, and all BOUNCERS! The VICE CHANCELLOR had to intervene to answer my query. The IIT- professors sitting in front gave me a look,'who is this boy!!--- "I aint from your college SIRE" I said in my heart. NEXT STUDENT NOW :) Ah another bonnilaas! Her topic was related to networking... and then it was music time... A BOUNCER that bowled her over! And the girl who previously faced me bursted into laughter!! (She wasn't the lone sufferer now :) Lastly came a boy, with topic related to Physics. After every minute he used to give me a smile and showed thumbs up !!! I spared him ;) It was my style to say to them.... "WELCOME TO INDIA".
After the presentation prizes were to be declared. AND AGAIN A SHOCK... First prize goes to local students... I was nowhere in three prizes, and they gave prizes to just amateurs. Here comes the coordinator... I asked him WHAT IS THIS??? He said calm down please........ and this was the main conversation...

Organizer:
You have already won at IIT-Delhi previously. (I was defending champion)
You also have on many other top-level prizes.
ME: SO?...
Organizer: Leave something for others :)
ME: WHAT?? Why did you call us then, at first place? And where else should we go to compete?
Organizer: Please don’t be angry, we are giving you a special EXCELLENCE Prize!
ME: Same thing happened at DCE’s TROIKA, but they manipulated it…
Organizer: NO, NO, here you are, take these CERTIFICATES, SPECIAL PRIZE, as recommended by the judges. But there is no cash, sorry, as it wasn’t expected to be given!
ME: You mean I lost 70,000/- :(
Organizer: No, its not that much, just a printer.
ME: OKAY. Do you always give it to someone?
Organizer: NO, NO, you are the first one. AND… PLEASE…
Don’t come next year for the competition. Go to MIT or other higher things.

Well, again HUGE PRIZE MONEY was attached to the contest, and I guess this flattery was just to keep me out of there. But still I couldn't fight them now. And REALLY for the first time I WAS SCARED OF MYSELF. WHAT'S HAPPENING MAN ;) Where ARE YOU?

I decided not to scare anyone and not to compete anymore. I didn't go to GGSIPU and YMCA where I won last year. BUT... Again I had the temptation of raising the number of prizes in my personal and my college's HALL OF FAME! Anyway now TECHNOVA was my TOP PRIORITY. I knew that TECHNOVA could be a historical moment in our college's history, who was yet to conduct a National level technical festival. Organizing it turned out to be a far bigger adventure than writing the book!

In the meantime I had to raise the HALL of FAME! Next was NIT-Kurukshetra. This time I was busy like hell, so I send my brother Mayank there to compete. It was 7th March, I was working with my friend Arvind when I received a call from my brother from NIT. He told us to come there quickily as the organizers refused to give certificates to the absent participants and the event was scheduled in two hours time. I was in horrible state, and drove my car to NIT-K. We reached there in 2 hrs. Due to power failure the event was postponed for the evening. So we had to stay there that day. In the evening, the event was over even before it started !!!
There was a Lady-Lecturer who was judging the event. She saw my book and ...."STOP".... she gave me the prize and called everyone standing there and gave a nice lecture about talent of India and Haryana in particular. She said that this is the real benefit of a technical festival, that you get to meet good people and get a chance to learn. She called the organizers to prepare for a guest lecture and asked for my consent. "YES OF COURSE :)" There were notices all over the place for a guest lecture on GAME PROGRAMMING! I was surprised to see the turnout, around 100 students were there including around 20 girls. AND believe me; for ONE HOUR AND 45 Minutes; Nobody left the room. It was a great seminar with greater query round! I have to say that I was very impressed by the 'will to learn' of NIT-K students. I have seen people get jealous, show unconcern and even say bad things about me. But the way they treated me was the best response I got ANYWHERE. They were so humble and down to earth that I was spellbound! It was really special, and came out of nowhere. Wuff man!! I stayed there for the night and left next morning. Then it was TECHNOVA and TECHNOVA again.

I also gave my entry for the prelims of APOGEE 03, BITS Pilani. From there I got confirmation for Paper Presentation and Software competition. I wasn't willing to go there. TECHNOVA was very near and I was running around, calling meetings and trying for sponsorships. I asked my brother and friend Arvind to go there, but they insisted me to go for a day and then come back. So, that was it, I was going there but for Software Competition only.

Though I've been there many a times before, it was first time for a technical festival. I have many BITsian friends, and met many there. I remember that day Crystal clear. It was INDIA v/s New Zealand world cup match, because of which the event was delayed. Fortunately due to short match the delay was just two hours! The venue was the large Auditorium in the centre of the academic building. The Audi is very large in size and and a LCD screen was there on the stage where we had to present our softwares. So, here we are! An organizer came to me asking about the briefing of my team and my software. I told her plain simple words about Chaturangam V2 and my book.

I was carrying my book with me and a student came to me...,

>Is this your book?
yes
>can I see it?
sure
>can you tell me how to implement threading?
...I gave him a brief idea, as we carried on our conversation
>May I know your name?
(ayen ;) I am Suneet.
>Ah, there was Suneet something on that book too.
Well yeah thats me, I am the author.
>;() Dont tell me... (astonished, he snatched the book from me)
well...
>So you are the Bond here :)
no, no, nothing like that.
...He took my contacts, and asked for where I was staying there....

Though I have had quite a few such encounters by now, it was one of the good ones!

Well, back to the competition, there were seven selected entries. Four were from BITS only, and rest three were my team, a team from NIT-Surat and one from Chennai. By now the cricket match was over and the auditorium was JAM-PACKED. I guess there were more than 300 students there. And yes, I confirmed, there was no movies show after it. They were all present for this competetion!
    First up it was the team from NIT-Surat. They presented Linux on a floppy. It was good presentation but... they were leg-pulled like anything in the question round. The judges and a few students in the audience said that ...this thing is available on net in simple steps... it is a small project ... it was in APOGEE three years ago, in a small exhibition... how can you come here with it??....
    I said to myself-> WAIT A MINUTE. What's going on? Even if the entry is not a great one, how can they treat it like this? After all they are INVITED here by BITS. Now I knew what music I will get to listen. Next two entries were from BITS and were cheered like anything. Then came the guy from Chennai. He gave a nice presentation of his software but got lukewarm response. It was like CHEERS for BITS and ah... uh... for others.

ACTION TIME man, its my presentation now. I was all charged up, this is what I like, hostile environment where I can use all my weapons without caring about friendship and generosity. Pure competition.

The presentation started with an INTRODUCTION of the entry by the organizers. So a girl walked up the stage to tell about...
First INDIAN CHESS SOFTWARE
Author of a book
etc etc...

And... It was DEAFENING noise of CLAPPING all around!!!!!

"CHEERS FOR US :)" Arvind was happy! But me and Mayank knew that it is not cheering, it is MOCKERY going on.

( So, they want no peace... I TOTALLY AGREE... NO PEACE )

I shed all my previous plans of presentation and carried on with the introduction. The presentation slides started...

> Chaturangam v2: First Indian Chess Software... CLAP CLAP CLAP.......
> Myself author of the book... CLAP CLAP CLAP....
> Then the list of prizes I won (a long one, 8 first prizes).....
uuuuu.......ooooooo.......IIT....ooooo.....
> Motivation for the project: Myself being a chess player and....
CLAP... CLAP... CLAP...

Though I was being heard, they were trying not to let me speak. And I WAS provoking them!

This was the most HOSTILE crowd I ever came across. 300+ students shouting, trying to mock and joke about me .... :) COOL MAN, I JUST LOVE IT !

I started to present the software, and it was SILENCE now. Chaturangam V2 on a large screen, even I was spellbound! I gave the routine introduction and briefing about the functionality of the software and the algorithms used.
BUT... This is not what I was waiting for. I WAS DYING TO GET INTO THE QUESTION ROUND.
I packed the presentation in 10-12 minutes and told my brother to continue showing various features and games in background, while I face the real music :)

Now come the same people who pulled leg of NIT-Surat's team. (CMON, try n get me now). They tried their level best to grill me for nearly 20 minutes. BUT FAILED! I had far more than an answer for all their queries. They started to shy away from asking questions. I had to wait for long pauses till someone asked next question. AND... It was PIN-DROP-SILENCE among audience. It was like 'Hey, the Auditorium is EMPTY, everyone ran away'. I also said... "I heard there was a WORKSHOP on AI conducted this morning, where Tic-Tac-Toe was discussed. So here you are, AI of Chess, a great extension of that!" ( LOOK.... Who's mocking now. )

A very long pause was there. They wanted to ask questions pull leg, but couldn't understand what to ask and were all dried up :) So I finally concluded with a 'thank you' ( I missed 'thanks for your hospitality'!) A little clap followed it, confirming their attitude, and that, I really was the BOND here.

We were sitting in front row, and I was thirsty now! Just after presentation, I alone walked through the MIDDLE of the Auditorium, towards the exit gate. There were a lot of staring eyes and SILENCE... ( Now try to mock please ) I was walking through a huge crowd. And... I am not an arrogant person at all... But that was a "WALK OF ARROGANCE".

Outside, a charming boy stopped me and asked 'Don't you ever sleep?'... How do u get so much time for this... blah blah blah... 'good work man'. He was also one of the contestant there, and gave the last presentation. He presented a Typing Tutor and started like...
"I haven't written 35,000 lines of code, and I don't have time to write a book in next 30-40 years, and here is what i could make... " ...looking towards me :)
'Time aint the factor boy.'- I said in my heart. And yeah, I attracted GREAT attention man!

It was a GREAT CONFRONTATION, and a PROUD MOMENT for me. As I FINISHED it with MY HEAD HELD HIGH! I knew what they will do now, so I planned to pack my bags and leave early morning. My friend insisted me to see the results, so we waited for a while. Just to see what I knew will happen. BITS, BITS & BITS. And I was HA, HA & HA.

'Get back, we have a job on hand.' TECHNOVA WAS CALLING MAN. Just 12 days to go for the main event, and only five days for the Online festival. We were all done with the preparation of the events. The site was long published now, and we were getting great response. The invitations were sent to around 80 colleges all over India. The online festival was kept as an international event, and people from 14 countries registered for it!

We were given NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT from the COLLEGE. But, there were beneficiaries! Intra college Cultural event and Sports meet got more 60 and 70 thousand respectively from the college. And NOTHING BUT A LOAN for this HISTORICAL EVENT :)

The college was running wild. There were holidays, holidays and holidays. I couldn't call the TEAM I made for getting sponsorships etc. In last 30 days we had only around 5 days with good presence. This was an unexpected but BIG problem.

WILEY-Dreamtech gave us books worth 50,000!!! This solved the problem of prizes. But, the things were getting tough now. We are running less on cash. I made different plans for the festival, for different finances. Minimum we required 30,000 for a simple festival. But I had bigger plans, and wanted it to be at large scale.

I was playing safe, and had a source of 50,000/-, but due to political linkage of that source I didn't want to take it. That could have created unexpected problems from within the college, but if no other way was there I would have taken it.

I finally asked the college authorities again for some financial help, explaining the current scenario and that how much we have achieved and how much it would have benefitted the college. And here is what response I got.

        "PACK IT UP... U won't get a THING... PACK IT UP... AND RETURN THE LOAN... Who is going to come to this **** place anyway?... They will go to bigger colleges... PACK IT UP..."

                    I was SHOCKED and was in REAL ANGER by this insensitive and stupid response. I don't know how many people I scoulded that day. TECHNOVA is cancelled', the rumor spread. BUT NOTHING IN HELL COULD DETER ME... THE FESTIVAL WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AT ALL COST... EVEN IF I HAD TO FINANCE IT.

I was about to exercise my political option but something stopped me. The very next day many juniors came to me, and asked "Sir, I am going there for finding sponsorship.... I am going there... and I am going there... give me the required documents. etc"
    I am not alone :) , who says IGNITED MINDS is not HOT enough! The next few days saw the BATTLE that everyone in my team fought. These were the MOST hectic and MOST proud moment I had in college. Everyone gave their best to get sponsorship. Now I didn't want to diffuse the FIRE that was burning inside the college students. I didn't even tell them that I have a reserve option.
AND U KNOW WHAT :) We managed 80,000 Rs/- in CASH and Books worth 50,000/- !!! And the sponsors were... WILEY-Dreamtech, BAJAJ, LG, RAILTEL, ATLAS, Acterna, PALCO etc etc etc...!

I personally gave invitations to all the College Staff. Believe me, most of them were truly happy that finally Murthal will witness a TECHNICAL FESTIVAL!

The three BIG days were here, and they surprised everyone including me! 120 students for all over India participated, and each one of them left happily! The festival was so ENERGETIC, HAPPENING and SUCCESSFUL that I can't describe in words. We spent all we had to make it a BIG show. If I compare it with the festivals of other college, we lacked only that we had no CASH in prizes. But I think that BOOKS: the source of knowledge with a good certificate and WONDERFUL TIME is good enough prize! Apart from prize money, we were FAR AHEAD OF OTHERS! The festival was a real CHARMER!
We had it all, QUIZZES, PAPER PRESENTATIONS, HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE EXHIBITIONS and Competitions, MOVIE shows etc. EVERYTHING! We conducted two WORKSHOPS... One on Embedded Systems, taken by our college's lecturer. Other was on GAME programming, taken by me. We also had special show of BALLOON PLANETARIUM, Courtesy Kurukshetra National Science Museum and PANORAMA. It was a great hit. All the three days were video recorded.
It was a great success, and a defining moment for our college. Not only students but the teachers too showed great enthusiasm for the festival. We got all the support from teachers and they judged most of the events. They all wanted this to be repeated year after year, and this is what I asked my JUNIORS to promise in the VALEDICTION CEREMONY! And the Answer was a BIG YES! I know deep in my heart, that they MEAN IT!

Finally, TECHNOVA redefined the culture of CRSCE Murthal!

The aftermath carried on... I returned the LOAN very next day, and was glad that IGNITED MINDS stood true to its meaning. It was all praises but no work after TECHNOVA :) I used to feel like a retired person! Just sleep and watch movies, finally I have some time to relax (I say waste) after I don't know how many years.

Competitions were still not over though! NIT-Jalandhar and TIT&S Bhiwani were coming, but I didn't myself go there and send my friends to NIT-J. They told me that when they reached there and were registering themselves, the person on registration desk asked for the college's name. When they said 'CRSCE Murthal' the person immediately replied "Suneet Singh" pointing towards him! Cool, no?! 'First Indian Chess software is here!'- the news spread like jungle fire there! We got the first prize! In TIT&S Bhiwani, my brother was among the organizers (not of same event). I went there for a day to collect the prize. Enough!!

Now it is time for being selfish, and starting JOB SEARCH. I was left with a few days in college and then final exams.
                       I am not over yet! We had some money left in TECHNOVA account. So I decided to go for T-Shirts of TECHNOVA. Finally, it was last exam of my juniors, they were coming out of the examination hall and I was waiting outside to give them a surprise! I opened the PITARA (My car's Dikki) and it was MAD RUSH for the T-Shirts!!! Many boys changed in canteen, and there was a photo session thereafter! It was like TECHNOVA relived! Really... out of all that I achieved, the Love and Respect I got from my juniors is what I cherish the most.

Above sums up my college life. It was full of High voltage Action with passion running high! I must confess that it was FAR better than what I expected but almost what I desired!! After all-

"The difference between Dreams and Accomplishments, is purely Desire"!!!