ComFest 2006 - Day 2

Just back from ComFest 2006. Overall result - Dr. Virendra Swarup Education Centre (Kidwai Nagar branch, i.e. our team) were the runners up. And Sheilng House was first.

Now on to the blog.

I reached school a little late today. It had been decided that everyone will reach the school at 8:15 AM so that we may reach Jaipuria on time... at 9 o'clock. I reached the school gates at just the right time. Of course, they did not close... today was a sunday. But when I reached the school, 6 of the participants were already there. I was the seventh. And Varsha came even later than me!!

Once everyone was there, we boarded the bus with Mrs. Vinayak, and we were on our way back to the school where ComFest 2006 was being held... Jaipuria. Almost all of us were tensed. We had events, and we HAD to do something if we wanted a first position. I had two events today, X-plode and the Surprise event. In X-plode, I had to make a remix of one of the songs they provided. So I took a Digit Special (on audio/remixing) for X-plode. While in the bus, I read some of the topic given there. During the whole ride, Akshat told us facts about various things that were happening in the computing world.



On the way to Jaipuria, there is railroad crossing. Yesterday, the crossing was open, but today it was closed. So we had to wait for sometime. But as soon it opened, we were at Jaipuria! (There is a railway track right next to Jaipuria).

When we entered the main hall, I saw that the scores were being written on the score board. I couldn't see what was being written. As I proceeded, I saw CF0 written on the board (in the 1st place box for Cartoon film making). And slowly, she wrote 5 on the board... and all of us rejoiced and shouted out loud!

It was a good sign for us... we had just reached, and we had already started winning!!

Then we were requested to move to the "backyard" for breakfast. Once again, the breakfast was good: Sandwiches, dhokla, paneer "rolls", some rice like thing (I don't know its name) and tea. I don't drink tea, so I took everything except tea and the rice like thing. Vipul had a vrata (fast) and he intended to break it only after the results of Web designing were declared. All of us had breakfast. When we were returning, we saw a sweetdish... rasgullas... how could we miss those :D

After that, we sat at our chairs, and some more results were declared. Vipul came first in the Web Designing event. That was another good thing for us. And immediately the huge Vipul broke his fast!!!

Once the breakfast was over, the participants of the various events were asked to go to the places where the events would be held. I went to the computer lab where X-plode was to be held. We had just one hour to create the remix. The participants were provided with 10 old, melodious songs. We had to remix any one song. The other software we had was Fruityloops and Audacity. I had come prepared with a strategy. I hoped it would not fail... and it didn't! I won't disclose it here... as you might be of other school and you also do the same thing! Anyways, I made a remix of Jiya Jale (by Lata Mangeshkar), complete with beats and scratches. I hoped I would get a rank in atleast the first 3.

After I came out, the programming event started.

The Quiz was going on. We were not in the quiz finals, so we simply watched the quiz. The topic for the Group Discussions finals had been given, so our participants in the GD were practicing that. Akshat and I roamed about the school and took lots of photos. We even took a photo of the main audio system that was on the first floor, hidden from everyone's eyes.

The hall

We even saw the finals of Senior gaming (that I had not been able to qualify). The game looked really good... its graphics were great! I don't know its name, but it was a type of mini football with 3 players on each team. I shot some videos of the game.

After all that, we returned to our seats. There was some problem with my remixed song, so Sarthak Nigam called me. He took me to my computer. Rohit and Utsav were working on the programs. He opened the folders and my file was right where it should have been (most probably). He just said that he had understood what had happened. And I returned.

When I returned, I saw Kapoor ma'am of the Jaipuria school. She is the head of the computer department in Jaipuria. She was apologizing for yesterday's "happenings" (only a few know about it!!) She's really nice! I wanted to get her photograph, but couldn't... she was just too busy.

The GD topic, "I am God for I can manipulate genes" (you
can see it on the screen)... everything else is less important :D

After some time, the Group Discussion started. Our participants went up to the stage, and then came back after sometime. When they returned, we got to know that it was just a "photo session". And Varsha told the reporters that we intended to win ComFest the thrid time in a row!

Varsha and Utkarsh reach the stage the fastest!

After some minutes, they were again called up to the stage. The topic for the GD was "I am God for I can manipuate genes". Varsha spoke really well... with good impact. Utkarsh (no... not me, another Utkarsh) just spoke his part. Once every team had spoken, the rebuttle round started. The rebuttle was a mess. I was informed that yesterday's rebuttle (in the qulification round) was much better... it was much more on the topic. Todays GD rebuttle round was completely off the track... "Is God dead?" or "How did the universe start?" or "What/who is God?" The questions that our participants asked were sensible... the rest just talked about Dolly (the clone of a sheep)... the quality of life of Dolly and the big bang theory. There were so many other things to talk about: computers with brains, cancer treatment, improvement in life of humans, etc.

The questions asked by our participants were such that no one dared to answer them... an eerie silence broke everytime Varsha finished asking her question. And again, no one dared to ask our team a question. And if someone did, Varsha's answers were good enough to silence everyone once again. All this while Utkarsh just sat there... and relaxed!

Microphones were given to one team at a time. So our team got very little chance to speak. They raised their hand for the mic, but got it only a fraction of the time. CF03, CF04 and CF10 were the main teams who constantly got the microphone. Maybe they should have taken some more chordless microphones (there were just 2).

When that was over, we expected to be in the top 3 in GD too. After that was lunch. We had a lavish lunch today too. There were some different dishes too, and a different flavour icecream :D 66.67% of the naans that I got had ash on them. (of course, I ate just 3).

After the lunch, was our Surprise event. The last hope for us. We HAD to do something in that. When we received the instruction sheet, the assignment looked so simple! We had to morph a car using Adobe Photoshop. We remodelled a car: added a ventilator, a BMW logo, new tyres, new headlights, and a new name: Avelon. We had just one hour, so we could do just that much. Again, we hoped to be atleast in the top 4.

When Vipul and I came out (after the Surprise event), we saw that Mr. Rajani had also come. By this time of the day, we were almost waiting around the score board to get the result and calculate our rank. The results were written on the board. Our results were not quite good. Here's the final score board:

(Click it... its very high res! Our team: CF05)

All of us were highly depressed. The results were bad. We were third in programming, even though Utsav and Rohit had 2 programs. But Mr. Rajani asked the incharge at the lab to tell us why we were third. We got to know that the team who came first had submitted all three problems. The second team had submitted 2 programs, but much earlier that our team members did. So we lost on bonus points. And thus we were third.

We were first in just two events (Vipul's web designing and my cartoon). Sheling house was a fierce competitor... and it got good ranks. The victory of CF13 (Sheling house) was almost inevitable. It seemed we were no where even in the top 4 (atleast it did to me). I felt too bad... this was my last year at ComFest, and we did not win a shield.

Even during the prize distribution ceremony, we were depressed. Those speeches depressed me even further. Finally, when the distribution began, I was called to the stage just once... for being first in the Cartoon Film Making event. Milanpreet got 3 prizes.

Various prizes being given

We were still completely depressed... trying to figure out what went wrong. After individual prizes, the shields were to be awarded. We were still pretty much uninterested. But just for the sake of it, I tried to focus on what they were saying. They said:

The runners up are, Dr. Virendra Swarup Education Centre

And I completely assumed that VSEC Awadhpuri was the winner. But then Utsav and Rohit said that we were second... they had said Dr. VSEC Kidwai Nagar. They rushed up to the stage for the photograph! I was the third one to literally run up the stage! Mr. Rajani still thought that we were third. Mrs. Vinayak did not understand what was going on. But finally, everyone was on stage! And our picture was taken!

My depressed and hopeless state immediately converted into an extremely happy state! This was completely unexpected!! We actually came second! The Lucknow branch of Jaipuria was extremely confident that they were second! But once again, they were right below us... they were third! We didn't even look at Sheling House getting the first prize (please don' t mind it if you're from Sheling House... we were so excited)!!

Then we shouted... Three cheers for Dr. VSEC! We shouted as loud as we can! We shouted even louder than Sheling house!! The entire hall echoed with our voices!!

But Vipul was still upset. Our rank in the surprise event had been very low... 7th was way below our expectation. Vipul requested Naman Dalmiya (JCC president) to show the morphs the other teams had made so that we could know why we got a low rank.

But on our way, we met Sarthak Nigam. We asked him to show the morphs the others had made. But he refused. He explained to us that it was against the rules. While we were talking, the National Anthem was played. So we stood in the Attention position. After that our conversation continued. Finally, we understood why we had got a low rank. We had misinterpreted the topic. We had remodelled the car. But we had to MORPH the cars.

It was a good thing that we got to know why we lost that event. Or we would have been tensed all our life that we made the best, yet got a low rank. Now we know that we made the best remodelled car, but it wasn't a morphed car.

After that, we quickly packed up. Everyone had already left, they were waiting for us. We boarded the bus. The bus took a route so that Mrs. Vinayak could reach her house faster. On the way, Milanpreet also got down at Govind Nagar. And as soon as we reached the gali of the school, we all once again cheered for VSEC. And then, when we got down, we again did that. It was fun. We'll do that in the assembly too!

Anyways, that was today's post. Its super long... thats why it took me 4 hours to write it down! I'll upload the hundreds of photos I took in a few days. Till then... keep celebrating our victory!!

Tomorrow is our English Language exam... and I haven't done anything. Let's see what happens.