1. July 2013 | Issue #4
Price ` 2
The Wordsmith
Because
YOU
Care
Forging Tomorrow
Deepika Padukone's Legs
All of you saw “Ye Jawaani Hain
Deewani”. For those who didn’t, it was
about a 20-something Ranbir who decides to not go to Paris
to host his own show but instead stay in Mumbai and woo
bonnie lass, Deepika Padukone. Stereotypically sexist is one
ofthe adverb-adjective pairs that sums it up properly.
Besides the lack of a good story and any manner of
good sense, the film portrays Padukone at her smartest. She’s
an aspiring doctor in the 1st halfand an accomplished one in
the 2nd. And thus, the topper falls for the bad boy. *Yawn.
In a fit of adventurism, she goes to Manali with her
schoolmates who have
more interesting
escapades than her.
*Aww. To make up for
her dismal and uncool
image, she wears skirts in
her trek up snow-clad
mountains, not mention
the cool white shorts she
has on when they play
Holi at sub-zero
temperatures.
If you have made
it so far without hating
the spoilers, then you
can handle what comes
ahead. As with almost
every Karan Johar film,
the story revolves around
the Boy Wonder and the
women are more like the
internal marks for
writing prac sheets (i.e.
taken for granted).
Padukone gets rid of her
glasses and turns into a
“phataka” and Kalki
Koechlin turns from girl-
gone-rogue to the atypical Indian bride. Both the actresses
have successfully summed up what men want to see in their
women in India 2013.
The uproar over the Nirbhaya rape case has thrown
up issues about the mindset ofIndian men AND women. We
have been clamoring for better policing and lesser moral
policing but, apart from a blame game that stretches across
the police force, judiciary, politicians and mostly the
westernized youth (read women) of India, there seems no
reasonable solution that has been implemented.
It’s not surprising that a woman is allowed to assert
her independence and right as a citizen only if it fits in with
what the men think acceptable. Across every culture, with
scientific or God-given confidence, girls and women are told
how they should feel. Mostly, they should feel comfortable
sexualizing themselves, but not men. Have you ever seen a
man strip down to his Speedos to jump into the sea to save
Jia Khan (bless her soul)? What
you have seen is Jia Khan
swimming out of the sea. The
cinema is not helping society
in any manner, artistic or
otherwise, by portraying
women as objects or property.
Deepika Padukone and the
countless other leggy beauties
do not just create an unhealthy
image that girls yearn to adopt
but also they go another mile
and keep the society as
patriarchal as it was in
Aurangzeb’s time.
Bollywood films are like this
only baba, you will say. They
are full of drama and
melodrama. Women have been
objects since Parveen Babi and
Zeenat Aman got the
Americanized looks on screen
and they will always be objects
as long as we don't unearth
circumspect story writers.
More taxing than changing the
mindset of Indian society
would be searching for better
scriptwriters.
Thus in conclusion, we see that Yeh Jaawani Hai
Deewani has been an eye-opener on many levels whether it
inspired you to trek across mountains or to write about a
strange women's legs on a public platform, this movie has
made its mark with the youth.
Water Woes: The
Land that rain forgot.
With the worst
drought in 40 years to
have hit the state
displaced farmers of
interior Maharashtra
forced to live in Cattle
camps.
Nirbhaya's bhay: At
the time of gong to
print the Justice
Verma panel was one
day away from their
verdict on the ghastly
rape of December
16th, 2012. Remand,
Reprimand, Release?
SC's strong message
to criminals in
politics: To be
disqualified on date of
conviction.
JOB in the US
anyone? Fed
Chairman Ben
Bernanke says U.S.
unemployment rate at
7.6% may be
overstating the job
market s health.
Quantitative easing,
Buying of bonds; how
will policies change
and how will they
impact?
Radiation Rise at
Fukushima: The
Tokyo Electric Power
Co cited the same
based on last week s
tests of underground
water.
National Sport,
International
Embarrassment:
India sacks fourth
foreign coach in
Michael Nobbs.
Kalyani Gadgil
T.E. EnTC
You made it! You're officially a student of Cummins. As an introduction, we are the Wordsmiths.
We print a monthly supplement called The Wordsmith. If you have any questions about college,
studies or The Wordsmith, you may reach us in the hallways or email us at odd hours of the night
at thewordsmith@cumminscollege.in or newsletter.cummins@gmail.com. Also, our caretaker, Mr.
Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third‐floor corridor on the right‐hand side is out of
bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.
Cheerio.
Keep an eye on the noticeboards, drafters can be bought cheaper.
WELCOME TO C.C.O.E.W!

2. 2
A must read for all those who really want to get to the core of fluid mechanics. The book starts with basic
concepts and principles in physics and gradually explores the filed of fluid mechanics. The examples and
illustrations given are easy to understand and connect with. It gives you a feel of a storybook rather than a
regular textbook and communicates with us engineering students in a very simple but efficient manner.
Fluid mechanics | Fundamentals and Applications
Author : Yunus.A.Cengel | John.M.Cimbala
Publication : Tata-McGraw Hill
Q1. They say its easier to push than to pull, why then did
Indian cars make a transition from Rear Wheel Drives, RWDs to
Front Wheel Drives, FWDs?
Ans. For the most part people use cars for driving in the
city and not mountainous terrain so the push-pull advantage is not
compelling for manufacturers to account for. Manufacturers opt for
a FWD, with front-mounted engines because it allows for greater
boot space, which is of little concern in the rear-engined Nano and
Ferrari. A front engine transmitting power to the rear wheels will up
the price and give less mileage. Also, the reduced traction at the
rear wheel increases the tendency of slip. You tend to oversteer in
a RWD but understeer in an FWD which grants more directional
stability. The most accurate steering is by a 4 Wheel Drive (4WD)
but then you would have to be willing dig deeper into your
pockets, but do you really need it?
So the choice of engine mounting and drive selection depends on
the market and a study of the Indian market has led to the
transition to FWDs.
Q2. People flock to diesel cars nowadays; even the Honda
City is all set to launch its Diesel variant. Why then do we not have
diesel bikes? Royal Enfield does have a 350cc Bullet, so it is
feasible?
Ans. It’s feasible but not commercially practical. You can't
have a petite 150cc diesel engine since it is a compression and not
spark ignition engine which requires a much higher compression
ratio. This would lead to a bulkier and heavier engine with greater
vibrations. To combat the vibrations, you would need a stronger
chassis that translates to further weight addition. Now bikes aren't
provided with a reverse gear cause they can be easily turned
around. A more cumbersome bike would demand a reverse gear in
its design. Also, kick starting on cold day would be a bigger
nightmare. Bottom line, bikes with petrol engines will be around for
a while.
Auto's Motives
“OOP is an approach to program organization and developments that attempts to eliminate some of
the pitfalls of conventional programming by incorporating the best of structured programming.”
An introductory excerpt from the OOP with C++ by E.Balaguruswamy; The Bible of
introduction to ALL the concepts of OOP, right from ’objects’ to Files to STL(Standard Template
Library). The beauty of the book lies in the concepts like pointers, virtual functions and polymorphism
which are explained in a smooth and easy language.' This book is
a excellent example of the saying “Beauty lies in simplicity” . I would encourage all the OOP learning
aspirants to read this book for a clear aspect of all the related concepts and easy to understand but
classic examples/illustrations in form of self­explanatory small code snippets .
Authors : E.Balaguruswamy
Publication : Tata-McGraw Hill
Object Orient Programming with C++
Introductory Electronic Devices and Circuits |
Conventional Flow Version
Authors : Robert Paynter
Publication : Pearson Education
As the name suggests, this reference books gives you an overview of the basics of electronic devices
(transistors) and the relevant circuits. Not as comprehensive as the Pune University syllabus
demands, this book gives you the facts that will help you with subjects later on in engineering. As far
as reference books go, this book is like the 7th Harry Potter movie (Deathly Hallows Part 1). It shows
you screenshots of the forests, cliffs and rivers that electronics has been to but doesn't try to go deeper
than that. But, of course, everyone tells you the books are better than the movies.
College Connect

3. 3
The college is a playground for all manner of birds and their litter. Pigeons, the
most nefarious of the lot, seem to think that desks are their personl litterbox
complete with facilities for raising for a family. But a larger evil has beset the
college. Pigeon coops (and poop) is more bearable than the insufferable state
of the toilets in the college and what we need is a coup against our own. At the
age of 20 do you need to be taught how to be hygienic?
Coo, Coo,
Coup
I know for a fact that younger people,
students in particular, absolutely loath advice
from their seniors, “Oh you’ve already passed out, what do you
know of our struggle,” they say. Plus there is also the fact that
everyone gives them advice, about what to study, how to study,
what to do during your education, what to do after you finish your
education, right from parents, to teachers, there are even
professionals who are paid to advise you, (we call them counselors!)
which makes my job of writing two hundred words to give advice to
juniors all the more tricky.
Let’s start with some clichés, let you in easy, these are your
golden years, what you learn during this time stays with you
throughout your life. Umm… let’s see, one more, Success isn’t how
far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.
While these statements may sound hackneyed, and you may roll
your eyes every time you come across one, but clichés are clichés for
a reason, they are a 100% true!
So here’s my first and rare piece of advice, if you always wanted to
do something extraordinary, or become someone successful, well,
why haven’t you started preparing?!
The four years of Engineering has been an absolute
whirlwind of an experience for me, you start out with basics like
orthographic projections in Graphics and before you know it, you’re
designing dangerous gear systems for a multi speed gearbox. It is a
very high speed journey, packed with adventure (the exams every
semester and of course the results), lots to explore (your text books),
ample opportunities to learn (practical and yes, lectures as well), so
absorb everything you can during your voyage, there’s never time
for after.
And lastly, you must have heard the phrase “seize the
opportunity and believe in yourself”, in many different forms,
disseminated by a variety of sources. Right from the literary erudite
Shakespeare when he quotes in Julius Ceaser “'There is a tide, in the
affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads onto fortune” and to
the more contemporary J.K Rowling when she says, “We do not
need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need
inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” To
paraphrase, all they are saying is that if you want to do something
only you can do it.
Now before you get jaded, I just want to say a big thank you
to this college, it has been and will always remain an immense part
of my life, and to all you juniors- keep clicking pictures, you never
have enough of them!
Vibha Manvi
B.E Mechanical 2013
FourYears of Magic
SAP CHARITRA GIVING CUP CONTEST
AT CCOEW,PUNE (13TH SEPT - 28TH OCT 2012)
The women ofCCOEW
had participated in the Sap
Charitra Giving Cup, a
charitable nation-wide
event wherein students
come together and donate
books, pencils and such
basic necessities to those
children who aspire to
learn despite their
economic status. The
event was initiated in
Spetember through
October, 2012 and it’s a
matter ofpride and
honour that CCOEW
awarded the 2nd place all
over Maharashtra.
The event was hosted to
engender a feeling of
charity amongst the youth
oftoday. This event
emphasized that students,
almost 50% ofIndia’s
population, are a potent
resource not only for the
corporates but also for the
country and its moral
health. Cummins College
proved to be a college full
ofsocially aware and
generous intellectuals with
a contribution in books
and pencils ofclose to a
thousand. The team of
volunteers led by Priti
Bharati handed over the
materials collected to Mr.
Ravindra Deshpande,
secretary ofMKSSS to
provide for the girls in the
Sanstha.
The event could not have
taken place without the
help ofthe CCOEW staff
and the students. Charity is
about giving and not
expecting anything in
return and thus, we are
proud to be a part ofthis
community-driven event.
Volunteers : Priti Bharati
(Student Co-ordinator),
Priyanka Patil, Preety
Goswami, Kalyani Darade,
Puja Kumari, Kaushikee
Arpita Aman.
Connecting People

4. 4
An Autobiography
Shreeja Nandy
T.E. Mech
I am 63 years old, with a name exclusively not mine; People, my lifeline. I watch over
them silently, using methods, invented, written and enforced by them.
Funnily I have never travelled anywhere; they send their representatives
to me. When I was young, I appreciated the old wise men but now I’m
tired and painfully the youth find me a bore. They often ask “Why
should I care?” My patrons try to explain to them, yet few understand
that they hold the power to order me and not the other way round.
Work involves few intense weeks every four to five months. In fact I’m
going to be in action this very month from the 26th or early August
maybe. My mind is reeling with bills!
The National Food Security Bill: It entitles people to adequate quantities of foodgrains
at affordable prices with special focus on the needs of the poor, women and children. In case of
non-supply of food grains now people will get food security allowance. The bill provides a
grievance redressal mechanism and penalty for non -compliance by a public servant or authority.
Why should you care?
There are tens oflakhs ofpeople who are malnourished and hungry in our country. Look
around you. You might be able to help them not just now but in the future too, when you become
an employer, manger or perhaps a leader! To empower, you need to know.
(For more info visit :
www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/01404/National_Food_Secu_1404268a.pdf)
Direct Tax Code Bill: It is said to replace the existing Indian Income Tax Act, 1961.
Some categories, earlier exempted from taxation will come under the radar e.g. income
from Equity Mutual funds. Surcharge and education cess will be abolished. Also Tax
burden at highest level will come down. Now you should care because who doesn’t
about money? As the finance minister once said that every Individual has a right to
save his money from taxes within the legal boundary.
(For more info visiten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct _Taxe_ Code.)
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill: Much awaited, most contested. The
scope of LARR 2011 includes land acquisition for public purpose whether done by the central or
any state government of India, except the state of Jammu & Kashmir. While some argue that the
bill is favouring the land owners, others say it will bring relief to rural families whose livelihood
depends on agriculture. While none want a repeat of the ‘Singur incident’ the industry is
concerned about the rise in expenditure due to the compensation and rehabilitation provisions of
the bill. Will it usher in industrialization at the required pace or will it be just another law, will be
decided soon. For those lucky ones with ancestral land, it will be knowledge worth in gold.
(For more info visit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Acquisition_and_Rehabilitation_and_Resettlement_Bill.)
It isn’t always that my work is fruitful. Last year, an entire session was wasted in trying to
satisfy my conscience. For, you see, my conscience is like a two-storeyed house. It is a steep
climb to the terrace. Fame and infamy have fallen equally in my share. I envy you, since you
can avoid the things you don’t like to do. I can’t for I have my duty to fulfill. I am synonymous
with democracy for I am THE PARLIAMENT ofthe Republic ofIndia.
(If you want to keep track of government and its policies visit www.prsindia.org or Press
Information Bureau , government of India)
India Calling

5. 5
Have you ever stared at a
blank page for eons, hoping for an
idea to strike, but alas! Words elude
you?
Writer’s Block is described
as an inability of a writer to think
of new creative ideas .Simply put,
one is unable to write. In her
book,The Midnight Disease: The
Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and
the Creative Brain , neurologist
Alice Flaherty argues that literary
creativity is function of specific
areas of the brain.This problem can
arise due to several reasons such as
lack of inspiration, distraction etc.
and sometimes also due to adverse
conditions such as physical illness
and depression. Often the fear of
failure or intimidation of one’s
previous works freezes the brain.It
has been suggested that under
stress, the control of the brain
switches from the cerebral cortex
to the limbic system (responsible
for our emotions). Since we are
thinking in emotionally, our
creativity is hindered. Throughout
history writer’s block has been a
documented problem, with many
unable to write for years and a few
having given upon their careers
completely. However, opinion on
the authenticity of this ailment
seems to be divided. The famous
English writer Philip
Pullman has an interesting take on
writer’s block-
“……a lot of howling nonsense
would be avoided if, in every
sentence containing the word
WRITER, that word was taken out
and the word PLUMBER
substituted; and the result
examined for the sense it makes.
Do plumbers get plumber’s block?
What would you think of a
plumber who used that as an
excuse not to do any work that
day?The fact is that writing is hard
work, and sometimes you don’t
want to do it, and you can’t think of
what to write next, and you’re fed
up with the whole damn business.
Do you think plumbers don’t feel
like that about their work from
time to time? Of course there will
be days when the stuff is not
flowing freely. What you do then is
MAKE IT UP……”
On the other hand,
hypergraphia is defined as an
overwhelming urge to write
associated with changes in the
temporal lobe in epilepsy and
bipolar disorder. Lewis Caroll and
Fyodor Dostoevsky might have had
hypergraphia.
Disorder or no disorder, we alone
hold the key to our thoughts and
we alone can pen them down,
because the art of writing benefits
not us alone but brings joy to a
million more .So bring out a pen
and paper and open new vistas.
Even if you have to waits eons for
it,at least give it a try!
“The secret of getting
ahead is getting started. The
secret of getting started is
breaking your complex
overwhelming tasks into small
manageable tasks, and then
starting on the first one.” - Mark
Twain
Shreeja Nandy
T.E. Mech
Writers & Plumbers
Scene 1:
Tushar is standing on the roadside
and talking to his friends, but he
seems distracted. He casually looks
over to the other side of the road
and that’s when he sees a car
grazing the fender of the car in
front. The drivers get out of their
cars and inspect the damage. They
start arguing and it turns
aggressive; eventually leading to
pushing and shoving.
This is when Tushar notices a man,
Kabir, standing at a tea stall near
the men who are fighting. Screen
zooms in on Kabir.
Scene 2:
Kabir is drinking tea at the tea stall.
The two cars bump in the
background and the drivers start
arguing. That gets his attention. He
watches them till it starts getting
physical and when it does, he gets
up and walks towards them
intending to stop the fight. He
intervenes and he gets abused by
one of them initially. But that
doesn’t deter him and he continues
trying to break up the fight. Seeing
this, some people who were
standing and watching them till
then, come to help him. Together
they manage to stop the quarrel
and everyone starts to clear the
area.
Screen pauses and rewinds back to
the instant when Tushar sees the
two cars about to bump into each
other.
When the accident happens, his
attention shifts to a beggar, Billu
Bhai, sitting in the vicinity with a
boy.
Scene 3:
Billu Bhai is simply watching as a
crowd slowly gathers around the
two quarreling men. He says
something to the boy, after which
the boy heads off into the crowd.
Billu is waiting for the boy, who
finally returns with a wallet in his
hand. While taking the wallet from
the boy, he hears the sound of a
whistle and turns to see a
policemen walking towards them.
Quickly hiding the wallet, Billu
says, “Kya saab, kidhar bhi shuru
karte hai ye log.” The policeman
ignores him and starts dispersing
the crowd. As he enters the scene,
the two men stop fighting and leave
hastily.
Screen pause; rewind again.
Now he notices another person,
Akash, walking on the road in a
direction away from where the cars
bumped into each other.
Scene 4:
Akash is texting on his phone when
he hears the commotion behind
him. He turns and sees the
argument. He thinks for a second
and decides to interfere, hoping to
vent out some of his frustration.
He takes sides with one of the men
and starts provoking the other.
Much shouting and swearing
follows, leading to pushing and
shoving and finally it gets totally
physical. As the lone man is left
bleeding on the road, the new
“friends in arms” walk away.
Screen pause; rewind again.
Tushar watches the two cars
grazing. The drivers get out oftheir
cars, inspect the damage and
apologize to each other. Tushar
smiles and returns to the
conversation with his friends.
Screen goes blank.
Words appear on screen: All Fights
are fought in the head.
(Scripted by The Bun Omellett
One Play, Many Acts
While walking to music class yesterday, I noticed something
that never caught my eye before. It set me thinking. I saw the vast
sky painted in so many colours after the slight downpour. The
stretches of the sky at the far end had a mix of red, orange and
yellow and the other parts had shades of purple, indigo, blue, grey.
If the same shades of colours were put on a canvas, they would
probably look as ugly as a painting done by me in kindergarten.
Then how did the same colours make the sky look like never
before? How did the same colours, mixed randomly, imperfectly,
look so beautiful up there and not on my canvas? The question
kept coming back to me throughout class that day.
The sky looked so beautiful up there because of the random
imperfect shades ofcolours. Ifthe sky had pockets ofevenly shaded
red, and another pocket of blue and another of yellow, and another
of blue, would it have been half as beautiful as it looked that
evening?
Had there been only perfect people in your lives, wouldn’t you feel
surrounded by a set ofprogrammed animated robots and not living
human beings? Would life have been half as much fun if the
uncertainties in it vanished away? Like the uncertainty of an exam
result, the uncertainty in the seasonal rainfall, the uncertainty in
relationships? Uncertainties make life imperfect, and imperfection
is what makes it beautiful.
What would be the fun in having a perfectly predictable life
without any surprise element? Music too, on similar grounds is so
perfectly imperfect. Each note blends into the other in the most
inexplicable way. Can anybody possibly perfectly measure the
tempo of the sixteen beats of Teen Taal? Is it humanly possible to
measure how the “teevra Ma” gives raag Puriyadhanashree a
completely different feel from raag Yaman? And if that were to be
possible, then music wouldn’t be called divine. Music is inexplicably
blissful because ofthe coalescing ofits notes and beats.
Should perfection be aim ofour lives?
This universe is just beautifully designed by God with all the
imperfections perfectly in place. We all live with an aim to achieve
our goals, which is indeed, a very healthy thought. But in this
process, we should not forget to catch the beauty of imperfections
in our lives. Each time something doesn’t go your way, look for the
beauty in that imperfection and life will smile at you, like never
before.
The Amazing Everyday
Nidhi Srinivas
Osmania University,Hyderabad
Editorial

6. 6
Beautifully
intricate and musically
intimate, An Equal
Music by Vikram Seth is
a novel to be savoured.
This is the novel that
one would enjoy with
the clichéd coffee by the
window, on a rainy day.
The novel
follows violinist Michael
Holme as he travels
through London, Vienna
and Venice, each city
picturesquely described,
reminiscent of
Hemmingway’s style.
The novel is a
quintessential love story
– a love lost, found, and
lost again; the love of a
woman, the love for a
violin, the hatred for a
teacher, the love for
family, for Bach,
Beethoven, Schubert and
Haydn. The book opens up a secretive world
of musicians and their souls with refreshing
frankness. A definite treat for music lovers, it
might even liken one to Western Classical
music. However, Seth’s writing is an acquired
taste, slightly confusing and very simplistic at
first, until you realise the magnificence of the
effort put into it.
Painstakingly researched and
technically flawless, Seth delivers a
passionate tale of Michael and Julia – a
pianist with a heart wrenching secret. As
they move out of their trios and into their
quartets, a romance that was discarded
remerges, only to be lost again. A chance
sighting in London brings Michael back to
his former, and one true love. Julia now
belongs to another, and nurses a secret that
will eventually wear Michael down.
Their former affection is rekindled,
even iffor a little while, in Vienna and Venice,
playing together in concerts, exploring those
beloved cities of those beloved composers,
Schubert and Vivaldi. The spell breaks when
Julia wants to return to her real life, leaving
Michael in the depths of his mind, disability
and despair.
Seth manages
to convince the
reader that
something as
simple and
complex as music
can be the
undercurrent to
life. All in all, you
walk away with a
sense of loss and
heartbreak, but
also with a feeling
of having
witnessed a
carefully crafted
novel, bordering
on the blurred
edges of music
and deafness, of
imagined and
ignored sound.
And how can you
not, with the
ending flourish
being –
“Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why
ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It
is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live
from day to day and hear such music – not
too much, or the soul could not sustain it –
from time to time.”
Crafted
with
Music
“Why did she have to send me?” I walked
as if the roads were mine, strutting. No matter
how much you swagger around being a
princess, when your mother orders you to
work, you turn into, for all intents and
purposes, a maid. I stepped onto the pavement,
not because I felt any civic duty towards the
cars swerving around me but so I could enjoy
the sight of the dairy getting closer. I had a
misbegotten sense of accomplishment when I
saw that there was no queue. While I put the
items into my bag, I saw a shriveled old lady
walking towards me. She looked creepy and she
tottered on, clinging to the sidewalk. But that’s
probably how you look when you’re about to
faint. My mind had wandered on to the unfair
treatment of young women and gender
discrimination especially about grocery
shopping so I wasn’t robustly myself. But I
involuntarily jerked and caught her as she
swooned. I asked for help, the lady at the
counter scampered out with a glass ofwater.
I sensed the crowd humming with
curiosity, buzzing around twittering, “Poor
lady”, “What happened?”, and “Please help her”. I
grimaced with disgust because she didn’t need
sympathy, she needed help. She was the
cynosure of the street. I sat helplessly next to
her chaperoning her heavy bag. I took a leave in
a few minutes, my mind whirring.
“Brenda, what took you so long?” she
squeaked, suspicious of the extra time I had
taken. I recapitulated. “Is she still there?” “I
reckon,” I answered obediently. She took a firm
grip on my arm and started towards the door.
“C’mon we got to fetch her a rickshaw.” We
hired a rickshaw and helped her through the
throng of staring, gimlet-eyed people. In no
time we watched the black-topped rickshaw
drive away with a roar, soon indistinguishable in
the traffic.
Something struck me that day. I don’t
know why we’re so reluctant to help. It’s not
that we can’t help, we don’t want to. We
sympathize unanimously but we cringe from
responsibility. We help, albeit grudgingly. That’s
exactly how we lost a life in Delhi. We failed to
help. We failed to help in time. We failed as a
developing society to provide instant medical
attention. As Pranab Mukherjee, said in his
acceptance speech, “The moral compass of the
nation as to be set right.” I was fortunate
enough to retrace my steps and offer help that
day. Help, the old lady deserved. Cynicism
cannot serve our purpose because the only way
to things can change is ifwe act and act now. As
charity begins at home, so does responsibility as
a citizen ofthe nation.
We made our way home, silent and
contemplative.
THE
DAMSEL
DOSSIERS
- Sophia Mujawar
SE Comp B
SIDDHI PITKAR
T.E. Mech
Nine dots are arranged by 3 rows of 3 in the form of a squareas shown in
sketch below. Can you draw four straight lines, the second beginning where the
first ends, the third where the second ends and the fourth beginning where the
third ends so that no dot is left out.
Puzzling
Eclectia

7. 7
Editors: Priyanka Chandna| Kalyani Gadgil| Shreeja Nandy| Ketaki Joshi| Purva Joshi
1. The monetary policy in India is
formulated by-
a. the Finance Ministry
b. the Reserve Bank of India
c. the Planning Commission
d. the Securities and Exchange
Board of India
2. The highest paid footballer of
the world is -
a. Cristino Ronaldo
b. Rooney
c. Lionel Messi
d. Kaka
3. The current supplier of tyres for
Formula One races -
a.Michelin
b. Bridgestone
c. Pirelli
d. Cooper Avon
4. Who invented the ballpoint pen?
a. Bicc Brothers
b. Waterman Brothers
c. Biro Brothers
d. Write Brothers
5. An American University recently
dis-invited Narendra Modi as one
of their guest speakers at their
student conference. Which
university was it?
a. Harvard
b. Stanford
c. Wharton, University of
Pennsylvania
d. Kellog, North Western University
6. Which of these Chief Minister of
an Indian State is an IIT Graduate
?
a. Manohar Parrikar
b. Okram Ibobi Singh.
c. Kiran Kumar Reddy
d. Omar Abdullah
7. Which of these sportswomen is
a five-time world champion in her
sport ?
a. Deepika Kumari
b. M C Mary Korn
c. Krishna Poonia
d. Saina Nehwal
8. What does 'S' stand for in a
'SIM' card used in mobile phones?
A. Service
B. Smart
C. Science
D. Subscriber
9. Which of these books or scripts
was never written by the
celebrated English author and
humorist, Douglas Adams?
a. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy
b. Doctor Who
c. A Space Odyssey
d. Thanks for All the Fish
Quiz Me Crazy!
Efficiency : In layman’s terms it is the ratio of the output to the input of any
system
Efficacy : capacity or power to produce a desired effect.
Proficiency : skilfulness in the command of fundamentals deriving from
practice and familiarity.
Eg: The efficient doctor worried about the efficacy of the vaccine which he
proficiently injected into the child’s body.
Confusing Camaraderie
SUDOKU
Page 7

8. 8