Kudos the the students of S.C.O.E.

The anticipation on their faces was evident by late afternoon, and as the day ended almost every household of the students of S.C.O.E. was in high spirits, for their wards had fared remarkably well in the Pune University examination conducted last year. Minutes before the results were out, you could sense an air of anxiety, but a couple of minutes later, there were people who had festooned S.C.O.E. with pride once again by performing exceptionally well at the University and the departmental level. They undoubtedly deserve a huge applause!

The college had a plethora of reasons to celebrate, for the students of S.E and T.E had gifted them with great scores. They had to juggle extra-curricular activities along with their regular curriculum, as the second semester was full of activities - Excelsior and Sinhgad Karandak to name a few - that had set all departments on the roll.

The students below are the toppers from each of the departments:

Department	S.E.		T.E.
Biotechnology	Aishwarya Pawar	74.40 %	Gargi Gupta	73.46 %
Chemical	Sameer Shingte	82.50 %	Anil Pendse	71.00 %
Civil	Farid Safi	75.46 %	Kunal Ghaisas	73.20 %
Computer Engg.	Sharad Kale	76.53 %	Abhinav Gupta	72.07 %
E & TC	Rahul Jadhav	76.86 %	Prateek Deshmukh	76.20 %
I.T.	Preksha Laddha	78.00 %	Mustafa Hussaini	73.26 %
Mechanical	Shramik Dahale	76.40 %	Sagar Desai	75.20 %
Production	Chetan Dhadiwal	67.66 %	Akshay More	75.53 %

The English Club wishes all the rankers of our college a hearty congratulations! After all, their sincere efforts have been crowned with success!

Anna Hazare, India's crusader against corruption

Kishan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare, was born on 15 June 1934. He was raised in a very poor family, his father being a labourer in an factory and his grandfather having served the country in the army. Anna was raised in a family where he had six younger siblings and his aunt to took care of him. He studied up to seventh standard before he left his studies and started selling flowers due to economic problems in his house. He was then registered in the Indian army, despite being underweight, during the emergency of 1962 Indo-Pak war. His entire troop was wiped out by tank attacks of the Pakistani army, while he was the only survivor. Once during the war, a bullet had brushed past his right side. He then realized the meaning of the life and he decided to make good use of it and returned back to his village, Ralegan Siddhi, which was in a very acute drought prone area in the Ahmednagar district. The village had many problems like drought, plague, alcoholism, fragile eco-system. It was Anna Hazare who made remarkable changes to the village like removing alcoholism, implementing water development programme, making education compulsory for children, making grain banks for the proper storage of the grains in the village and he even helped in the removal of untouchability. He even started a group called India Against Corruption. He was also awarded Padma Shri in 1990 and Padma Bhushan in 1992.

After many good deeds, Anna took up social service as his primary objective and he took an oath to abolish the problems from his country. In 2011, Anna Hazare proposed to the government to produce a stronger Jan Lokpal bill which would put a dead end to the corruption in the India. He asked the government to make a team which would consist some members from the civil society as well as the members from the government. But the government refused to comply to his demands. So he decided to fast unto death from 5th april 2011 at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.This movement attracted the media and many famous people like Kapil Dev, Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal, Jayprakash Narayan, who joined him in his fight against corruption. Thousands of people all across the country also supported him in this crusade. On 8th july Anna Hazare ended his hunger strike as the government finally gave in to the demands of the Gandhian and made a new team for the Jan Lokpal bill. The team comprised of five nominees from the government and five nominees from the civil society which included Anna Hazare, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Santosh Hegde and Arvind Kejriwal. This was a major victory in the battle against the corruption. But the war was yet to be won.

The "Team Anna" faced a lot of opposition from the government over many issues. "Team Anna" decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal bill because Swami Ramdev and his supporters were beaten in the middle of the night when they were on a fast, raising the issue of black money. On July 28 2011, the union cabinet passed a draft of the Lokpal bill which excluded the ministers, lower bureaucracy and the judiciary from the scanner of the investigation of corruption. Anna Hazare highly criticized this bill and asked the government to redraft the bill. He said if the government officials and the bureaucrats are excluded from the scanner, then who are we supposed to investigate? He threatened that if the government did not comply to the needs of the people, he would start a hunger strike on the 16th August 2011.

As expected the CONgress did not pay heed to the needs of the people, and hence Anna Hazare decided to start his hunger strike on the morning of 16th August. However, the Delhi police officials arrested him four hours before the hunger strike was to start and placed him in Tihar jail. This, however, did not impede the crusader from continuing with his hunger strike and he fasted in the jail itself. At first, the police officials allowed him to fast for 7 days with conditions that he would only have the support of 5000 people and would leave Delhi immediately after being released from the jail, but Anna refused to agree. After long talks and tense negotiations between "Team Anna" and Delhi police officials, it was declared that Anna Hazare would be allowed to fast for 15 days without any restrictions at Ramlila Maidan. So did the social service man continue to fight against the biggest problem currently faced by our motherland, corruption.

As you read this blog of mine, he will still be fighting for the betterment of the country. But are you ready to fight for your country? are you supporting "Team Anna"? Are you ready to stop corruption? Are you ready to stop the bribes to the babus of the government? Next time when a traffic policeman asks you for extra money for your automobile, would you refuse to comply to his conditions? Next time when a ticket collector in the train asks you for the ticket, are you ready to pay for the ticket legally? The power is in the hands of the people and the people are the root of the country? Only the people have the power to remove the corruption from its roots; A tree vanishes only when it is uprooted, not when its branches are chopped off.

India at 64

As the country, which was formerly known as 'golden bird', turns 64, we look back at many unsolved issues and find a large hole in the dignity of the countrymen.

With many unsolved problems like population, poverty, inflation, unemployment, corruption and terrorism, politicians of India still continue to make promises which are never fulfilled and don't seem to be fulfilled in the coming future. The country still has to tackle a lot of problems and yet the billionaires and the politicians believe that the country can be the next superpower of the world. This belief of theirs raises just one question in the mind of the "aam aadmi" - 'Is the country going to be the next superpower in the virtual world or the real world?' With all the politicians looking forward to fill their pockets with thousands of crore of rupees, the country is set to crash down. As observed from the ongoing scandals, every politician from the lower level to the higher level just wants to save their future, and they don't give a damn about the country and its people for whom they have been elected. The politicians have now crossed the limit and they are corrupting the country even if it is visible to the people through the media and many reliable sources.


However, these deteriorating conditions of the country have produced some superheroes. Some are real heroes like Anna Hazare, who is a gandhian and has no intention at all to launder money from people and ride imported cars. He just wants his country free from the silly politicians who are in the ministry only for their own personal interest. Anna is ready to forfeit his own food for the sake of the common man. Even the common man seems to support Anna Hazare by taking part in his fasts and sporting gandhi caps saying (in marathi) "Mi Anna Hazare". It seems that finally the common Indians have finally got a true gandhian in the form of Anna Hazare. But there are some people, especially "saints", who are pretending to be truthful leaders and gain sympathy from the common man for the sake of sale of their items and gain vote in the coming elections. Fortunately, the common man is not yet so foolish to believe in these fake leaders and are still on the right track and tend to make right decisions.

With the increasing age of our motherland, terrorism and corruption also increase day by day. The people live with a fear that a blast may occur at any place they go. Many small groups seem to terrorize people with bomb blasts and attacks which claim many innocent lives. And the government's lame take on the issue of terrorism is eye opening. The "respected" government of India is not bothered at all, by the disturbances caused because of the MVPs (most valuable prisoners). They just practice the same old drill of blame-game on the other politicians and the common man suffers due to this. Even if the real "Osama" is dead, India seems to have produced its own Osama, popularly known as "Minister". If any politician reads this blog he will have the same answer ready on his tip of the tongue, "if you think that we are wrong, then the youth should enter politics." But the main problem is that the youth is not allowed to be a part of the politics by the old ministers as they don't want to spoil their game of money. The defence personnel of our country, who keep their lives at stake so that the people can enjoy a calm and peaceful sleep, are betrayed by their own political leaders.

The problems remain in the country, and if these problem continue then the country's doomsday is certainly going to occur earlier than the actual doomsday. But still the power remains in the hands of the common man and he has the potential to tackle these problems and lead the country to a brighter future. And we can change if we believe in the change.

Happy Independence Day!! JAI HIND!!

To my dear friends

Life is a puzzle.
And who would know better than us?
We have survived the past
We are living in the present
And awaiting the magic of the future
And yet every second that ticks by
Holds something immense
3 years have gone by
But every memory is remembered
Every memory is cherished
Every minute has made a difference
To each to his own
And to each, something unique
We have loved
We have lost
Bonds have been broken
And bonds are beginning to mend
Our friendship is a model of trust
Of love, of eternity,
And yet we succumb to trivialities
Yet we bow to criticism
Yet we let our ego do the talking
Come, my friends,
This is not who we are
Not who we were
And not who we must choose to be
A personality expose is no excuse
A loss of a loved one is no remorse
An escape into a corner is no solution
I love you guys
And I would always love you
Change is good, but a bad change is always bad
Our friendship should not be a victim to that
Guys, let it go, whatever has wound you
Every person, has reasons, so very plentiful
Why I hurt you, why you hurt me, will go on
Look back at what we let go
Bring it back, and move on
Every tear lost
Every laughter found
Every movie together
Every bond reformed
We don’t need a reason to stay together
But we all know, we cannot do alone
So friends, my friends, come closer
Lets settle our disputes
And assuage our wounds
Let love be the messiah
Let trust be the soldier
I love you guys
And I wish you to be there forever
These moments may not come back
These years may desert us
It is veritable, that time is like sand
Let us put a thousand moments
In every grain of this sand
And every moment shall be filled with laughter anew
With joy boundless
With an energy so infectious
That, years later, when I see you my friend
In the distance, a light, smiling at me
I can feel euphoria in my soul
For I will know, that nowhere in the world
Will I ever find a friend so true
Friends, my dear friends, I will always love you.